NOTD Update

So instead of Konading on top of my purple nails yesterday I decided to simply put some flower stickers on alternate nails. I don't really like these stickers as you can see the edge of the sticker on your nail, even after using a top coat. However, I thought the stickers' sides would be less obvious with a glittery nail varnish.

Not brilliant but it will do for today!

Bye for now,
Laura

Currently listening to: Change by Sugababes
Song: Never Gonna Dance Again

Lately I've been seeing a lot of bloggers writing about and showing pictures of their make-up and jewellery collections, as well as how they store them. I quite like this idea and felt I'd like to do a similar post however it's not really possible at the moment as I have neither my full make-up nor jewellery collection with me and what I do have is certainly not stored properly (most of my make-up is just scattered randomly across the top of the washing machine). What I decided I could do instead is reveal to you that my favourite colour is purple and show you all my purple items. Wow, what a fabulous idea for a post, I hear you say. Yep.

So here is most of my purple jewellery. You can see I have an assortment of bracelets, earrings, necklaces and pendants.

And here we have the rest of my collection comprising of four bottles of nail polish (you'll see the one third from the left in more detail in a minute), eye shadows and eye liner, an umbrella, my Hanna Montana diary, pens, hairclip, phone, and a trusty bar of Milka chocolate.

I got my phone (a Samsung C300) about a year and a half ago I think and bought it on the basis that it was cheap (£14.99) and purple. I love it. I'm not interested in phone technology at all; all I want is a phone that allows me to make and receive calls and send and receive texts. My 86-year-old grandmother has the same model of phone in the same colour but I knew that when I bought it for myself and it obviously didn't put me off. It's nice to have a phone that appeals to all ages.

And now for the NOTD, using the polish mentioned above. It is purple but, depending on the light, varies between pink and purple tones. It also has specks of coloured glitter in it but they're not very obvious.

I'm a bit fed up of my nail polish (to be honest today's been a rubbish day so I'm a bit fed up of everything right now) but there's no point stocking up on new polish here as I have a big collection of colours to go back to at the end of June. This current manicure is fine but there's nothing remarkable about it. I suspect I'll end up Konading over it tomorrow although I don't have any suitable colours. Oh well, clashing is fun, right?

Bye for now,
Laura

NOTD

Currently watching: 500 Days of Summer

My polka dot manicure lasted quite well, especially considering I didn't wear a topcoat and the purple nail varnish cost 65p. However, this morning I noticed a few chips so I decided it was time to have some fun Konading.

I'm not allowed to paint my nails in the flat when David's at home as the smell of nail varnish gives him an instant headache. The problem is that for the next two weeks he's revising for his exams so he's pretty much home whenever I am. The solution was for me to set up a nail painting area on our balcony. I had a bottle of water and some chocolate to keep me going (lol), a book to read while waiting for each coat of nail varnish to dry, and my collection of varnish and nail art tools.

What I used for today's manicure was a clear base coat, two coats of the Crystal Strength pink shade followed by one coat of the pink in the French manicure double-bottle (all Polish brands), and the middle flower image on m36 with Konad Special polish in pink. I regretted using the two light pink shades as the background colour as they didn't give me the end colour I wanted but I don't have any other light pinks here and I'm reluctant to buy more polish as I have a big collection to return home to at the end of June.

And here are the results:

I like the design and I managed the placing of the stamp quite well but like I said, I'm not too happy with the background colour so overall I'm not thrilled with this manicure.

Free Standard UK Delivery at Avon

Enter the code CUPCAKE at the checkout to receive free standard UK delivery on Avon purchases today.

NOTD

As usual, the purple colour hasn't shown up well on the camera but you get the idea. My first time using a dotting tool.

Catching Up

Currently listening to: Simple Times by Joshua Radin
Song: I'd Rather Be With You

Greetings ladies! It's been a while since I was last here so there's plenty to catch up on, starting with the two pairs of shoes I bought on Saturday.

These were not very expensive, around £13 each, which is a good thing as I'm not sure how often they'll be worn. I wanted open-toed sandals that I could wear without tights and walk in easily but since I'm 5ft9 I didn't want anything with an excessively high heel. These are both fairly high for me but the style of the heel means they should be okay for walking in, I just have to remember to only wear them when I'm with tall people...

On Sunday, David and I went to see the film Brothers. I think this came out in the UK towards the end of January and although I was still in the UK at that time, I didn't manage to see it so I'd been waiting eagerly for its Polish release.

The film was very good with well-acted, powerful performances from all the cast. I don't think it's the kind of film I'd want to buy and watch over again but I'd definitely recommend it.

One of the things I like about going to the cinema here is that you can pick up leaflets advertising all the films that are out. I said before that I'll be making a scrapbook of our time in Poland and these little cards will certainly be going in there as a reminder of the films we saw here (Dear John, It's Complicated, Valentine's Day, Up In The Air, The Lovely Bones, Desert Flower, New York I Love You, Brothers).

Yesterday was my birthday (24 on the 24th) and I was lucky enough to be sent cards, messages and presents from my friends and family back home.

(pens, Cath Kidston address book and sticky notes, Priceless and 500 Days of Summer dvds, Joshua Radin cd, heart bracelet, amethyst and topaz necklaces, black leggings with blue stars)

I had a very nice day and in the evening David took me out for a lovely birthday dinner. I very much enjoyed being the birthday girl :-)

Bye for now,
Laura

Friday Fun

Currently listening to: Awake by Josh Groban
Song: Now or Never

Good morning. Yesterday was a lovely warm and sunny day here in Warsaw and since neither David nor I had to go to uni or work we decided to spend the morning in the Botanic Gardens. I love walking through places like this and admiring all the brightly coloured flowers so this place was perfect for me.

My best pictures of flowers are from Frankfurt but I think the picture above isn't too bad. I really like the shade of the petals. Now if only I could find this shade of nail polish...

Before returning home from the gardens we took a detour through a park full of peacocks parading around with their feathers out on display.

What did I wear for our little excursion? A recent addition to my wardrobe from H&M.

I used to have a pink top from H&M which was very similar to the one above although it had a slightly fuller sleeve and the chiffon ruffle detail at the neckline was different. I absolutely loved that top but after wearing and washing it regularly for two or three years it stopped looking so good and had to be binned. I suppose this is an updated version of that top. I'm really glad I found this as I think it can be dressed up or down and can be suitable for all sorts of occasions.
The skirt is probably not something I would have bought if I'd been at home and had access to my usual shops. However, here in Poland my choice of shops is more limited and I'd been looking for a skirt that would be appropriate to wear for work as well as during my free time for ages. This wasn't too expensive (I don't know the UK price but I'd guess around £12) and the best thing is that it has a zip and button on the side which prevent it from swivelling around my waist/hips when I'm out and about. I always have that problem when wearing skirts; I'll be walking along the street when suddenly I look down and discover the back of my skirt is now at the front. Making readjustments every two minutes is not elegant. But, like I say, this skirt stays in place. It also matches the top perfectly.

In the afternoon I removed the beautiful purple and black butterfly design from my nails (it lasted really well, especially considering the polish was 65p and I didn't wear a top coat) and tried out my new neon pink shade. It's very nice but didn't photograph well at all.

It is neon, I promise.

It looks as if it's going to be another great day weather wise so I'm off to get ready to go to the post office (have to send those postcards I told you about) and then do some shopping before setting out for another park later on.

Bye for now,

Laura

Postcards

Currently listening to: Good Girl Gone Bad by Rihanna
Song: Good Girl Gone Bad

Good evening folks. Today I only had to work for an hour so it's been a relaxing day although I did manage to prepare the end-of-semester tests my students will be taking next week (I'm an English teacher) which is a weight off my mind. Now I can enjoy the weekend, especially since that means trying out my new neon pink nail polish, yay.

In my previous post I mentioned that I'd been looking for postcards. On Monday I met up with a Polish friend who told me about a website she uses called postcrossing.com. The aim of this site is to allow users to send and receive postcards to/from people all over the world. I found this idea quite appealing so as soon as I got home I registered. My task now is to send five postcards to five randomly selected users (in Canada, China, Estonia, Germany and the US) and once my cards have been received, five other users will then send me postcards. I suppose I like the idea of building up a collection of postcards from places I've never been to (and perhaps some I have) and I definitely like the idea of finding postcards in my letterbox. Here are the cards I'll be sending:

I quite like them actually so I think I might get some for myself before I leave Warsaw. I know I'll be making a scrapbook of our time in Poland so postcards will be a welcome addition to that although they'll have to fight with my own photographs for space.

The idea of belonging to this postcard network also appeals to me as I love writing to people. I left home over five years ago so nowadays I write to family and friends although even before that my friends and I would exchange letters, despite the fact that we saw each other at school everyday. Stationary is a big part of letter-writing to me and I'm always on the look out for cheap and cheerful writing sets. Most of my collection is purchased abroad and I've been able to find quite a few nice sets here in Poland. My most recent additions are these three sets which I spotted on a recent trip to the city of Gdansk. They cost around £1.20 each and I absolutely love them.


Are you a fan of the written word or do you prefer to stay in touch by email?

Bye for now,

Laura

Adding to the Collection

Currently watching: The Apprentice (UK) Series 3

Earlier today I was out and about looking for postcards (more about that another day) and while I didn't manage to find any, I did manage to pick up four new bottles of nail polish on my travels. They cost 3 zloty (about 65p) each so they certainly didn't break the bank and I can't wait to try them all although the bright neon pink one will have to be saved for the weekend as I don't think it's really appropriate for work.

I tried the silvery purple shade then used Konad m3 with black polish and I absolutely love the results. The butterflies are stamped in different positions on each nail and I would maybe do the positioning differently next time but I think this look is great.

What do you think? A successful Konad session?

Bye for now,
Laura

Bundle Monster

Currently listening to: Awake by Josh Groban
Song: In Her Eyes

Good morning ladies.

By yesterday morning my nail polish had started to chip but I didn't have time to redo it before going to work so I decided to try and cover it up with some more Konad images. As you can see from the previous post, I originally had pink nails with one white flower image (from m36) on one side of each nail. My new *cover-up* idea involved using this image two, three or four times on each nail, depending on the width of the nail.

It wasn't perfect (although it looks better in reality than it does in these pictures) but it was good enough and gave me inspiration for future designs.

Now I have the Bundle Monster Fauxnads on my mind. I've read a few reviews of these and although some of the images don't transfer well and the images designed to cover the whole nail aren't wide enough, overall people seem to say that these are worth trying. In the Bundle Monster pack you get 21 plates for $17.99 whereas one Konad plate costs $6.99. I'm certainly tempted. The only thing holding me back right now is that they aren't available in the UK and I don't know how much shipping from the US costs. Additionally, I'm a bit wary of customs charges. Any advice?

Bye for now,

Laura

Butterflies

Currently listening to: SOS by Diam's
Song: Melanie

Today was billed as a stay-at-home day but when I saw the heavy rain this morning I couldn't resist going out for a walk. Why? Because it gave me the perfect excuse to use my beautiful butterfly umbrella

I bought this is Bratislava, Slovakia when David and I were there last month. We only spent 10 hours there but it rained during the whole 10 hours and we were poorly dressed and equipped for such weather so it was a bit of an emergency purchase. I was happy to buy it though as I love butterflies. I have a big assortment of butterfly-themed items at home, including bags, jewellery, mugs, plates, scarves, stencils and stickers, but there was only so much I could bring to Poland so here's the collection I have with me at the moment:



kirby grips, Claire's Accessories
purse, Accessorize

necklaces from left to right: QVC, gift from Italy, gift from France, gift from London, Asda

earrings, Palenque

photo album, gift from France

pyjama trousers, Primark

Are you ever so slightly obsessed by any motifs?

Bye for now,
Laura

Konad 2

Before I start today's post, I just want to have a quick word about comments. I'm so thrilled that people are reading this blog and I'm delighted when you leave comments but I don't know if everybody who leaves a comment looks at the comment box again later on for a reply to what they've written. My method is to use my comment box to reply to comments left for me but in case you haven't read my latest comments, let me take the chance to say here how much I appreciate you following my blog and leaving comments. I've really been enjoying reading all of your blogs too and getting to know such fabulous people :-)

And now for today's update. This morning started with me accompanying my boyfriend to the hairdresser. Neither of us speak Polish so finding a reasonably-priced hairdresser who speaks English is always an adventure. I haven't had my hair cut here but this was David's second haircut and once again he found himself having to get his instructions translated to the hairdresser through someone else. It turned out okay though. While he was waiting to have his hair cut, I went to the chemist Rossman (similar to Boots) and picked up a new nail polish. I was tempted by Rimmel's Pop Rose but ended up with a similar shade of pink by Milo (which I think is a Polish brand) as it was around £2 cheaper. This colour is fantastic; I absolutely love it and I think it's a great match with white Konad images. So, without further ado, I present to you my first full Konad manicure:








What do you think? On some nails I messed up the placing of the stamp but overall I'm quite happy with it and I admired it a lot this afternoon, sneaking sly little looks at my nails when I was having coffee with a friend. I don't think it's too bad for a first attempt but I'm looking forward to practising and experimenting.

And finally, a picture of the delicious pain au chocolat David made this evening. The photo doesn't really do them justice but they were delicious.


Now we're going to watch De Battre Mon Coeur S'est Arrete. A perfect end to a lovely day.

Bye for now,
Laura