Slowly losing my mind

Good morning,

This blog post is the ramblings of a mad woman, it would seem. Honestly, I think I am losing my mind (a.k.a. baby brain). I have been up to all sorts of weird and wonderful things lately. I thought it would be a good idea to document them, incase of course I am losing my mind for real and also to give you a little laugh this weekend.

So there are your average everyday crazy occurrences going on around here but these 3, from this week, take the biscuit!!

1. Dropped my little one to school during the week and as I'm trying to lose this post pregnancy weight, I decided to 'jog' home. What a sight for sore eyes that was! Anyway, as I'm getting to my house there was a woman with a dog standing in off the path to make room so I was conscious of getting past her as fast as I could so as not to inconvenience her. Run past lady and dog and up the driveway I go. Stuck the key in the door...or tried to at least. Shit! There is something wrong with the lock. The key is not going in. So, as you do, I mashed my face up against the window to see if my husband was in the kitchen. No sign of him, so I knocked a few times and no answer. I turned to look for my mobile. In doing that I spot some random items in the garden that were not there earlier. Instead of this maybe setting off a few alarm bells, I proceeded to F  and blind about someone dumping rubbish in the garden. As I am about to start forensic analysis on garden items, I also spot a for sale sign in the garden....hmmmm......Who the * put that there....pause ........And slowly back away from the neighbours front door MORTO!!!

2. Pandemonium here yesterday when we discovered the dog had taken herself for a walkies. We have the cutest little maltese called Indie and she's babied by everyone in the house so you can imagine the absolute panic that set in when I realised she was missing. I was sitting on the bed feeding the baby and asked my other little girl to check on the dog. I hadn't seen her in about 20 minutes and maternal instinct must have kicked in lol. About 3 minutes later I hear a high pitched cry, so I shout down to ask whats wrong (Afraid of the answer). "Mam I can't find the dog". Faster then you can say 'jayzus', baby is off the boob and I'm tearing down the stairs two steps at a time. 
Before I fill you in on what happened next, I have to tell you that my wardrobe has consisted of tank tops with easy boob access and blouses for the last 12 weeks. Yesterday, was 'sheer' blouse day.

Queue crazy Mam... Out on to the street I went, back into the house, back out of the house. Put 7 year old on baby watch while I ran up and down asking passer-by's if they have seen her. By the way they are looking at me I'm sure they think I'm crazy. I stop for a minute to take stock of the situation and think to myself, there is a bit of a chill in the air today.....Yep...you're cringing for me now, I know...You've guessed right. In all the panic and haste, I forgot to 'pop' the boob back in. 
World please swallow me whole!!!

p.s. Doggy was found safe and sound.


3. I blame number 2, for number 3. Needless to say after the missing dog saga, I was out of sorts for the rest of the day. At about 6, I took kids for a walk. Do do do...off we head down the road. Pass a few people, as you do. Hello Hello! Something doesn't feel right...no wait, something felt very right. I was so comfortable! .... Eh yeah, that would be because I still have my SLIPPERS on!!!!!



I'm not leaving the house today..... Happy Sunday Everyone!!

Kel x

Catrice Nude Illusion Foundation - Review

Bonjour September,

Hey everyone, where did the summer go? I feel like I wished it away a bit because I wanted the difficult few weeks of having a newborn over with. Things have certainly settled down and with the school run on the daily schedule again I am trying to establish some kind of routine. I'm hoping that if I can get a bit of routine going then I will also have time to start blogging again. I really enjoy blogging and have so much content that I want to blog about but I've just been brutal at putting some time aside. Seeing the pride and work that goes into other peoples blogs inspires me. Blogging for me is the chance to chat about the things that I love, be introduced through other blogs..to the things I love and to be part of a community. The blogging community has some real characters, whose posts and twitter comments I get a great laugh out of on a daily basis.
Being on maternity leave, it's nice to feel like there are still adults in your world, especially during those night feeds!!

Anyway, back to the beautiful world of foundation!

Lately, and by lately, I mean about a year, I can not get a foundation that matches my skin. I don't know if it's my bad judgement or if I'm colourblind but I can't get the shade right anymore. Because of this I have just been using BB creams. I knew I needed a new foundation though, as I don't feel 'dressed up' on a night out if I'm just wearing BB cream as a base.

I've heard the Catrice Nude Illusion foundation mentioned by beauty bloggers a couple of times over the last two weeks, so when I seen it in the local pharmacy, I picked it up. With a wedding last week, it was the perfect opportunity to road test it.





I literally did 'road' test it. We were running late and I had to apply my makeup in the car or risk missing the I do's.

Risky business trying a new foundation on the way to a wedding with no back up plan but in lovelygirliebits I trust! I LOVED this foundation. Wow, well done Catrice.




The foundation: 

• Quite thick but spreads easily using either fingers or brush. I use the real techniques face brush. 2 pumps is plenty (for me)
• Comes with pump dispense
• Medium to full coverage 
• Smooths out skin
• Leaves skin luminous but not to the point where you forehead looks like it was shined. 
• Matte finish
• Budget friendly (Approx 8 euro-Total bargain)
• Available in 5 shades ( I picked up 020 - Rose Vanilla)

This foundation certainly won't break the bank, so if you try it and don't like it, at least you won't have to keep repaying the loan you took out of the credit union to buy it, while it sits on your makeup shelf getting dusty! I'm thinking your gonna like it . . . 

Let me know if you've used it and what you though? I'd love to hear about other magical little beauties like this one too.... So be sure to share a find or two. 

Kel x

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