Hello routine!

Sunday Book Review - Simon Fitzmaurice, 'It's not yet dark'

Good morning,

A couple of weeks ago, I was watching Ireland am and was introduced to Simon Fitzmaurice, his wife Ruth and the story of Simon's battle with motor neurone disease. I was immediately drawn in, not by the story of his life but how, as a family, they dealt with such a debilitating disease.

During the interview, Simon spoke about his new book 'It's not yet dark' and I knew I had to get my hands on a a copy. Lucky for me it was around the time of my birthday and my friend bought me a copy of it. I say, lucky because the book is priced at almost nineteen euro which I think is a little pricey.

With a new baby at home it took me a couple of weeks before I got the chance to pick it up. After seeing and hearing Simon being interviewed already, I think I had built up an idea in my mind of what the book was going to be like so I wanted to make sure I gave it the time and concentration it deserved.

The story . . . 

The author Simon Fitzmaurice was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease in 2008. At the time he was given only 4 years to live. With a wife and young children at home, Simon fought the death sentence handed down to him and has defied medical opinion. In 2010, following a lung collapse, Simon chose 'life'. He chose to ventilate in order to stay alive. According to reports, home ventilation had only been successful twice before but that wasn't a statistic that would stop him from proceeding with his decision.

The book, written by Simon using an eye gaze computer looks back at the start of the disease, the early symptoms Simon experienced and in turn, how the disease progressed. In short, this is a book, based on love, human strength and the innate drive to stay alive.


Review . . .  3.5/5

Did I enjoy reading this book? ... No.
I didn't enjoy reading the book, not because it wasn't well written or have interesting content but because it scared me. It frighted me to the core. It's death and dying laid bare. I read this book while nursing my newborn and developed the most uncomfortable feeling in the pit of my stomach.
Of course, I live in the real world and know that we all die someday but on the day I picked up this book, I just didn't want to think about it. Sorry, Simon, no disrespect intended. In fact, I have the upmost respect for this family man that is fighting the fight of his life to stay with his family. How lucky they are that their husband and dad is not willing to give up on himself.

On a different day,
in a different frame of mind, this book but have had the opposite effect on me, An effect, I think it will have on you. It is the motivation we all need to wake up and grab life by the balls each and every day.

This is a quick read and will be done and dusted in under 2 hours.

Have you read this book? Let me know what you thought.

Kel x

Dream Dots Review

Morning,

It has been so long since I've been on the blog. I'm struggling to find the time to open the computer these days, never mind write blog posts. I take my hat off to those that blog full time and run a household or bring up kids. Thats seriously impressive!

So with that said, this morning while the petit monster feeds, I wanted to do a quick review of Dream Dots. I don't think I need to go into great detail explaining this product because if you are alive and breathing, then you have heard of Dream dots. The all singing, all dancing defender of flawless skin.

Put simply, Dream dots are an overnight spot treatment which help to calm, clear and heal spots. 
You can find loads of information on the product by visiting, www.dreamdotsforspots.com
I mainly wanted to blog my experience of using them.

Ok, so normally spots are not something I need to worry about. Lucky me! What happens though is that whenever I do get a spot, it resembles a big massive volcano. From what I've read in other reviews of this product, that type of breakout is exactly what Dream dots are designed to deal with.

I would now like to call exhibit A to the stand. 


Warning: Icky spot picture.

This is the culprit. Before you get any ideas that I have started growing a beard, this is the back of my neck. I know, I know, even ickier!!

Last night I applied one of my Dream dot patches directly to the spot. For me this is the selling point right here. I would much prefer to walk around with this little patch on then have that ugly spot on display. The patch reminds me of  Compeed coldsore patches. It's the same concept. Like spots, coldsores are ugly and in your face. The patches, take that raw, sore and stomach churning view away.




Fast forward to this morning and voila! Okay, so I still have an ugly spot BUT....it does look much better. The redness has certainly been reduced. There is no pain at all, whereas yesterday it was sore to the touch. you can see that whatever is in the patch, it has drawn the bacteria in the spot to a head. Instead of waiting until tonight to apply another, Im going to apply one today and feel confident that with 2 dot applications this little blither will be history. 




Hope you enjoyed the review and manage to get your hands on these little beauties soon. I know my friends are gonna love me when I start handing out these gems. 

Kel x

NOTD - Think Pink

Happy Monday everyone, 

Here's a snap of today's nails. Have a great week ya'll !!





The colours I used were:

Catrice - 28, You better think pink

Catrice - 04 Oyster and champagne

LD 2000 - 34 White

Essence color and go - 144 black is back

Essence gel look top coat

Kel x

Beautiful Belly Bar

Morning All,

I have the pleasure of bringing you an amazing little product today. When you hear people say that great things come in small packages, they were obviously referring to Lisa Heeney's 'Beautiful Belly Bar'. Lisa kindly sent this to me to try on my growing bump and I genuinely love it. 

First impressions are definitely lasting . . . 

When I mentioned to some of my pregnant friends, that this little gem was on its way to me, they were uber jealous. They had all heard about Lisa's products and have been wanting to try them for a while. This added to the build up and hype, so when the product arrived, I was afraid that I might have been left a little disappointed. That certainly wasn't the case. When I opened up the cute little storage tin, WOW, the scent of sweet orange and organic aromas that were released, made my mouth water. I was immediately transported to a holistic, calming environment. For any mom's or bumps to be, I would suggest, setting some time out from the daily grind to really enjoy this product. I had done exactly that, so after a relaxing bath, I had time to indulge this little beauty.

The bar itself is shaped like a pretty flower. 

The instructions Lisa had sent, said to remove from the tin and hold in your hand until it softens slightly and then begin spreading over your bump. I have used products like this before and they really annoyed me because unlike goldilocks, I could never get it "just right'. The products would either take way to long to soften and do the opposite and almost turn to oil. I usually end up using products like that, twice or three times max and then I just leave them there. Like most working man's, time is of the essence and beautifying yourself is awarded the least amount of time in the day. Fortunately,  the belly bar only takes about 20-30 seconds to soften in your hand, and no matter how long you spend using it, it never gets too soft. I found the best technique with this product is to soften slightly in your hand and then start to rub on your bump.Although it won't spread as easily to begin with, flip it over after 10 seconds and voila. 

Now, this product is specially designed for pregnancy bumps, but why stop there, I couldn't! My tummy was so soft, that before I knew it, I was on to legs arms and bum. I don't know if it's down to my ever increasing pregnancy size or just ageing skin but the area between my bum and the top of my legs has been really dry lately. When my other half mentioned it to me, I started putting lashings of creams and lotions on the area but nothing seemed have a lasting moisturising effect. I used the belly bar in the same way and thought "well, we'll see". The change was immediate. I'm not talking about 10 minutes later, because of course, it was going to appear soft and moisturised straight after using the product but the next morning and even the following day I really noticed a change. That change is here to stay it would seem too. I've continued to use the bar on those stubborn dry areas and the skin is so much smoother. The dry bumps have all but gone.

Something I really admired about the belly bar was the lasting effect, I jus touched on.  The specially designed ingredients, work. Lisa has done a great job pulling these products together, creating a nourishing and skin rejuvenating blend. If you were to use this product on a Monday evening and have a shower on Tuesday evening, you will still feel its softness by Wednesday. 

Ingredients:
Organic Thistle Oil, organic Shea butter, Beeswax, Organic rose hip oil, Calendula infusion, Vitamin E oil, Organic Avocado butter, Sweet orange, Lavender, Frankincense, Neroli and Benzoin.

Some reviews are really hard to write because your always trying to strike a balance between good and bad and giving an honest review. The only difficulty in writing this review was knowing when to stop. I think you will agree, it's obvious I am a big fan. 

For more information, on this product or any of Lisa's other products you can visit her website: www.lisaheeney.com

Let me know if you have tried this or other products created by Lisa. Are you a fan?

Warning: May leave you irresistible !

Kel x

NOTD - St. Patricks Day

Morning all,


Here are 4 really really simple nail ideas for today. They literally take 2 minutes but will look like you have made some effort at least to be patriotic.

Have a look through your nail collection, I was surprised by how many, green, white and orange nail varnishes I had. 

Colours used:
Catrice - I'm not a Greenager
Angelica - Emerald Isle
Sally Hanson - White


Lá fhéile Pádraig

Kel x

Rowenta Activ Volume and Shine Review

Good Morning,

This blog post is a review of the Rowenta Active Volume and Shine Styling brush. I purchased the brush back in January when I was in Munich. I was going to do a review on it back then but looking back now, I'm glad that I didn't. I'll tell you why... If I had of reviewed this product back in January when i first got it, I would have told you that it was a piece of crap and not to go near it.
Fast forward 2 months, to when I found and English speaking tutorial on it and "voila", I learned how to use it properly.
After watching the tutorial, I got the brush back out and tried it again. It was like using a new styler altogether. The first time I used it, it got totally knotted up in my hair and how I didn't end up with a bald patch is beyond me. (pregnancy is creating enough bald patches!). Anyway, as I say, when I finally figured out how to use it correctly, I realised what my problem had been. Having not used a rotating brush like this before, I assumed the brush did all the work. It doesn't! (A lesson painfully learned). You need to keep it moving constantly so that it doesn't get tangled up. Don't be afraid of it, you need to keep an element of control, especially as you are controlling the rotation of the head at the same time.

The credentials:

• This is a hairdryer and Styler in one.
• It has 2 heat settings
• It also comes with 2 separate rotation(30mm and 50mm-removable) heads, to create the style/curl you are looking for.
• 1 speed setting (left and right)
• Right/left rotation of the attachment-styling the hair in both directions on both sides of the head
• Integrated anti-static IONIC BOOSTER - Produces up to 40 times more ions, compared to the previous version (CF9220)
• Ceramic coated brushes. 

Now that i have figured out how to use it properly, I am starting to get the best out of this tool and really see its advantages. While, I will never put my Parlux hairdryer into retirement, I find myself using this brush more often. If you are travelling, this would be great to have, as it saves you bringing a big bulky hairdryer and a set of brushes for styling. 

I find the brush really great for 'second day' hair. My hair length is medium to long so can look dead and lifeless the day after my shower. This brush gives my hair a real boost and even on a  second or third day, my hair looks freshly washed. You can create great volume at the roots too.

A little word of warming though! What ever you do....be careful when using this. Just like a hairdryer, your hair, if you are not careful can get sucked into the bottom of the brush. Unlike the hairdryer which usually releases the hair if you catch it quick enough...the Rowenta is not so forgiving. Ouch..get the scissors out!

There are a number of different versions of this brush. The one reviewed today is the Rowenta Rotating Brush CF9320 Hot Air Ionic Booster White-Purple 1000W

Have you used this styler or have you got a similar one that you would recommend?

Kel x