Feeling Fabulous: Hayley Gets a Hair Cut

It's amazing the difference that the smallest changes can make to your life.

Yesterday my lovely Mum treated me to a hair cut as an early birthday present.

As you know, I suffer from a sever anxiety and panic disorder which makes it very hard to do certain things. Dispute making huge progress this year, one of the things that I still find very difficult is getting my hair cut. I think it's the thought of a stranger being so close and up in my personal space that I don't like, but also because hairdressers tend to feel a little like fish bowls these days and everyone can see in and watch you. I hate the whole process and tend to avoid it whenever possible.

I have successfully avoided getting my hair cut since last September, and it's gotten really long, the ends are dry and i basically look like a tramp, so my Mum decided to treat me and have her hairdresser, Tina, come to her house and cut my hair there.

I hadn't really decided on a style that I wanted until a few minutes before she arrived, and originally I was confused about which style to get as I still wanted to be able to do some vintage hairstyles. I think I was finding it quite hard to make a decision because I was nervous, and my brain tends to go very foggy and I find it hard to think clearly and decisively when this happens.

However about 5 minutes before Tina arrived I completely changed my mind and impulsively decided to have my hair cut in a similar style to the picture below.

Tina gave me a quick consultation and explained to me how this particular style would look on me, and what I would have to do to style it like this myself. She said thought the style would suit my face shape as it would frame my face so we decided to go ahead.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out on me and have already received lots of nice compliments which has made me feel really good. I even managed to walk the 2.7 miles home by myself, which I would never have been confident enough to do before.

Crazy how a little thing like a haircut can change something so much isn't it? This was me 2/3 weeks ago at a family party. As you can see my hair was down past my shoulders, and I had my side-fringe plaited as it had outgrown it's shape and I was sick of it hanging lifelessly against my face. The ends of my hair were very dry and split and generally just yucky. They were also uneven as I had been growing out all of the layers of my previous asymmetrical cut.

This is me now. I love having a full fringe! I haven't had one since I was about 18 or so, but a lot of people have said that it suits me so I would definitely keep it. What do you think?

Thanks so much Tina for doing such a great job and making me feel so calm and relaxed throughout the whole process. You're a star! X

What's you're go to hairstyle that always makes you feel confident and fabulous? Have you had any hair disasters? Let me know in the comments below. X

Just A Minute! - August 2013

Just a Minute! is a monthly blog post that I used to do on my previous blog. It's a quick and easy to read post that updates everyone briefly on what you've been doing that month and it's a great way of catching up with everyone, whilst also keeping a record of what you've been doing. The idea is you take a minute to think about what you've been doing in each category, and reflect on the last month of your life.

I've decided I'd like to start it up again, so here goes...

Reading… The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. I've read this book before but I needed a little extra positive inspiration so I dug it out and got stuck right in.

Watching… I've just finished watching True Blood which is my all time favourite show. Can't believe I have to wait a whole year for the next season. How depressing.

Loving… The sunny days and spending some quality time away from work recharging my batteries. I had a drastic change of hair style today so I'm also loving having a bit of a revamp in my life in general (not just the hair!)

Craving… Gluten free goodies! I've just discovered that I am gluten intollerant and have been on a gluten free diet for about 2 weeks now. I'm still getting my way around what I can and can't eat, but at the moment I'm craving some yummy chocolate.

Learning… To drive! I had my third driving lesson today and I'm really starting to enjoy it. I first learnt to drive when I was 18/19 but I failed my test and didn't bother to try again. I haven't driven a car in 5 years so it's taking some getting used to, but I can't wait until I've passed and I have my independence back!

Planning… my birthday. I turn 25 on 14 Septemeber so I'm planning something fun for me and my partner to do for that as we don't really socialise or have date nights anymore. I'm also taking some time away from the business to recharge my batteries and will be doing a week's work experience in a grooming salon for the first week of September so I'm planning lots of business things to be doing for when I get back. It's nice to have a break every now and again to get your creative juices flowing.

And that's it! I'm looking forward to what September has to bring. It seems as though it's going to be a very exciting month.

If you're doing a Just A Minute! blog, leave a link in the comments so I can have a peek! I love being nosey.

Hayley xo

Positive Mental Attitude

I've written before about positive thinking and how important I think it is in your every day life but I wanted to expand on it a little more here today.

Positive Mental Attitude

Like most young women in their early twenties, many years of my life have been plagued with self-doubt and negative thinking. What with having to worry about body image, education, relationships and career choices, it's no wonder that the stress of life can get to us all sometimes, and this reflects in the way our minds work, and the everyday thoughts we have when we wake up in the morning.

I'm trying to overcome the negativity that I've grown up with for so long. I'm trying to be more positive with my life. Every single aspect of it, starting with the way I think. It's not easy completely changing the way you view yourself, and the world around you but after reading The Secret, and watching the DVD, I'm finally starting to see what I'm supposed to be doing differently in order to achieve happiness. I have days when I fall of the wagon and completely forget about it, but I'm hoping that writing this post, informing you of what I'm doing will inspire me to keep it up.

I've written a positive mantra that I'm going to say to myself 3 times every morning before I get out of bed. If you are like me and have trouble with negative thoughts and feelings about yourself, or your current situation, I invite you to join me.

"I am a confident, beautiful, successful woman. Today I am going to achieve my goals. I am not a prisoner of my circumstances"

"I am a confident, beautiful, successful woman. Today I am going to achieve my goals. I am not a prisoner of my circumstances"

"I am a confident, beautiful, successful woman. Today I am going to achieve my goals. I am not a prisoner of my circumstances"

Say it with me girls!....

 

The Irish Surprise, The Party and The Farmers Market.

Now that I've finally recovered from the exhaustion of "The Surprise Weekend" or "Operation Fluffy Eagle" as we called it, I can finally tell you all about it.

The weekend of August 9 - 11 was probably the busiest and most stressful weekend of the year for me, or maybe even my life.

We had planned two surprises for one of my close relatives 65th birthday. The first was to surprise him on the Friday, as we had flown some of his family over from Ireland without him knowing, and the second was a surprise party on Saturday with his family and close friends.

Let me just say this before I start: I WILL NEVER PLAN A SURPRISE PARTY EVER AGAIN!

It is the most stressful event I have ever organised, and I absolutely love organising events. However, it was totally worth it as everyone really enjoyed themselves but I definitely won't be doing it again. Someone else can plan the surprises from now on.

We had a lovely lunch on Friday after the family arrived from the airport, and then on Saturday morning everyone else went out to Windsor for coffee and breakfast whilst myself and K set up the garden for the party.

I did all of the catering for about 25 people, and I was up at 5am baking bread!

I was absolutely exhausted by the time the party started a 2pm, but it was all totally worth it to see everyone having a good time, and I got lots of compliments on the food which always makes me happy. I love to cook, it's one of the few things that truly relaxes me and I love to hear people's reactions when they try my food (as long as they are nice ones!)

I wore a George black maxi dress with a cardigan as I wasn't sure what the weather was going to be like and I needed to be comfortable all day, but luckily it was nice and sunny and it didn't rain at all. It was also nice and lose fitting so as to disguise my food baby after I tucked in to all the party food.

It was NOT a good week for weight loss. I put on 3.5lbs! Oops!

I did attempt to do pretty make up, and got a few compliments on my Rockalily Vintage Vixen lipstick, but after a few hours in a boiling hot kitchen, most if my foundation had melted off me. It was not a pretty sight!

I had a custom cake made by my best friend Lucy at Juicy Occaiaions and everyone at the party would not shut up about how delicious it was. I think she did at great job at decorating it too. I sent her a sketch of what I wanted and the final cake came out better than I could have imagined. Don't you just love the vinyl record on the top!?

Thanks Lucy & Carla for such a scrummy cake!

After all the food had been eaten and the guests had gone, we all sat round the fire pit until late at night talking. It was really lovely, but unfortunately I was first to go to bed as I just couldn't keep my eyes open!

On Sunday, I popped down to Maidenhead Farmers Market in the morning, as I had won a £5 voucher to spend there through a competition on their Facebook page.

I chose to get some gorgeous venison and recurrent sausages, and the lady on the sausage stall even gave me a pack of duck, apricot and orange sausages for free which was really nice of her! They were delicious! If you're in the area I would recommend popping down for a look. I think they are there every Sunday.

It was a lovely weekend, although very tiring. I can't wait to see everyone again at the next family party, as long as I'm not organising it!

Until next time,

Hayley xo

 

Maidenhead at The Movies

Another great local event!

Maidenhead is really on a roll this summer and it's great to see.

16 - 18th August 2013 will see Kidwells Park turn into a FREE outdoor cinema for the return of Maidenhead at the Movies.

I'll be there at 6pm on Friday as Grease is my most favourite film EVER! So excited!

Perfect for summer holidays - there will also be a selection of fairground rides and free popcorn sponsored by The Berkshire College of Agriculture with a coupon from the Maidenhead Advertiser.

FRIDAY 16 AUGUST:

10am: Yogi Bear

2pm: Rise of the Guardians

6pm: Grease - Sponsored by Traylen's Funfair

 

SATURDAY 17 AUGUST:

10am: Wreck It Ralph

2pm: Jack The Giant Slayer

6pm: Dirty Dancing sponsored by Smokey Joes Roadhouse

 

SUNDAY 18 AUGUST:

10am: Brave

2pm: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

6pm: Les Miserables - Sponsored by RBWM

 

www.enjoymaidenhead.com

 

Will you be going?

Hayley xo

 

 

Winning Streak

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

So, it seems that I'm on a winning streak. I don't remember finding the end of a rainbow, a four leaf clover or being pooped on by a bird, but for some reason, I've been winning an awful lot lately, and not in the Charlie Sheen sense of the word.

Yesterday, I entered a fabulous competition on the Retro Birds blog to win this amazing pinup girl tea towel from Dupenny. I love Dupenny and have coveted their wares for ages so I jumped at the chance to enter this competition and I WON!!

Woohoo!

This comes just one week after winning a £5 voucher for my local farmers market on Facebook, and of course you remember my blog last week about winning Ralph the Puglicorn from Kitty's Kitschenette.

And not to mention in April when we won our "Pawsome" Pet Busineas Award.

So what do you reckon? Am I having some sort of fluke lucky streak? Is there even such a thing as being lucky?

Anyone want to rub my belly for good luck? No? Don't blame you.

Although I do have a feeling that my recent winning streak may be coming to a bitter end.

The news of my Dupenny win yesterday has really cheered me up, as I spent most of the evening nursing poor Sandy. She really doesn't seem very well and is not eating or drinking. The poor little thing looks so unhappy, and it really breaks my heart to see her like this. I don't know of she can hold on much longer but she's really trying. She's such a little fighter. She seemed to be feeling a little better after a nice long nap and even managed to drink some water, but I'm very worried as she has diahorea and this can be potentially fatal to small animals as they are so easily dehydrated. I made her a little nest in a shoe box, and kept her on my lap for most of the evening as I didn't want her to be alone. Hopefully she will be a lot better today and will return to her usual active self in no time at all.

If you could please send her some good vibes and positive wishes, I would really appreciate it.

If I am having some sort of lucky spell kindly gifted to me by the universe, I'd love a little of my luck to rub off onto Sandy so that she makes a full and speedy recovery.

Hang in there little one, I'm not ready to say goodbye just yet.

xxx

 

 

 

My New Pink Obsession: Rockalily Lipsticks

A few weeks ago my lovely new Rockalily lipsticks arrived in the post. I really wanted to blog about them straight away but in all honesty, I've had nowhere to wear them.

 

I've finally left the house and got a chance to test drive them for the first time so now I can tell you all about them. (Lucky you!)

 

I'm a long time Rockalily convert. I already own the Rockette and Roulette Red shades, and decided to invest in some new pinks when they went on pre-order at the beginning of June.

 

I had a really hard time choosing which shades I wanted, but as I am absolutely broke at the moment and any spare money I have is going towardsmy driving lessons, I was only going to get one.

My good intentions went out of the window as soon as I saw that Vintage Vixen was back in stock. I've wanted this shade for ages but it's a limited edition shade and I missed out on it last time it went on sale.

 

I also really wanted a bright pink. I'm usually a red lipstick girl but I wanted a bright pink to mix it up a bit and try something new. I think as I'm losing more weight I'm getting a bit braver with my makeup and wardrobe choices.

 

Here's me wearing Rockette Red during my recent trip to Disneyland in April.

I had a hard time choosing between two of the bright pinks - Poodle Pink and Pompadour Pink. I was so tempted to buy both due to their incredibly awesome names, but unfortunately my bank balance wouldn't allow it.

 

I went with the Pompadour and I'm really happy with my decision.

 

I really love both shades and have received lots of compliments when I wear them which is lovely. Pompadour Pink usually gets the most attention as its the brightest, but Vintage Vixen is probably the one I am going to wear the most as its a great versatile daytime shade and goes well with anything.

 

My new pink lipsticks go well with my neon pink skull bracelet from Little Peaches. I'm obsessed with pink at the moment!

These lipsticks are really creamy and do not feel as though they are drying your lips out at all, which is usually the case with red lipsticks or bright colours. Maybe it's something to do with the pigments but I haven't really got a clue.

 

I usually wear the red shades with a lipliner to stop any bleeding, but I haven't done this with any of the pink shades yet as I don't have a pink lipliner. Having said that, I'm really impressed with how long lasting they are, even without a liner.

 

I love my new lipsticks and I can't wait until I'm earning lots of money so that I can buy 3 of every shade. :)

 

Here's a bit of a grumpy looking picture of me wearing Pompadour Pink to my slimming group's 1st birthday party.

Thanks Rockalily for providing me with even more fabulous lipsticks. Please don't stop selling them again, because I'll probably cry in my room for at least a week.

 

Do you own any Rockalily lipsticks? Which shade is your favourite?

www.rockalily.com

 

Hayley xo

Inspired Tattoos

Hello!

So a few weeks ago I got a lovely email from a lady called Mari from Australia. She very sweetly wrote to me to tell me that she loved my work and that we had a lot in common. Mari runs a grooming salon in Australia with her husband and seems like a really lovely lady and I hope we can become friends, even though we love on opposite sides of the world!

She's just got back from a fantastic holiday in the USA and I saw on Facebook that she got this awesome tattoo inspired by my logo whilst she was in Las Vegas.

How cool is that!?

I have to admit I was a bit worried when I first found out about Mari getting this done as I am getting my logo tattooed on me pretty soon, and didn't want to have the same tattoo as someone else - especially as I have such a personal attachment to it and all that it represents. But after explaining that to Mari she kindly agreed to use the logo as inspiration for her own design and not have a replica of it, which she was probably planning on doing anyway but I just wanted to make doubly sure so that we didn't end up being tattoo twins! LOL! Communication is key! I think that the final piece came out great and I love Mari's new tattoo.

As you can see, they are both very similar, but also different enough that I can still go ahead with my own tattoo plans and not feel that someone has the same tattoo as me.

Big thanks to Mari for reaching out and getting in touch with me from all the way around the world - I hope one day that we will be lucky to communicate face to face rather than just though emails.

I feel very privileged to have inspired her with my logo to get such an awesome tattoo.

Also special thanks to Nick at Betty Bee Design for putting up with my demanding requests and designing Betty and Lola to look exactly how I wanted them too. I love them so much, and clearly other people do too!

Hayley xxx

 

Music Monday: Dodo Bones

So I told you all about Maidenhead Festival in my blog post last week, but one thing I forgot to include in my post was my favourite band from the weekend, Dodo Bones.

I had never heard these guys before, but I was hooked after the first song. Have a listen...

Check them out at the following links:

https://twitter.com/DodoBones

https://www.facebook.com/DodoBones

https://soundcloud.com/dodobones

 

 

Meet Ralph the Pugicorn

Oh hi.

This is Ralph. Isn't he cute?

Ralph is a magical and mystical creature. He's half unicorn, half pug.

Not really, he's just a pug dressed up as a unicorn, but he doesn't like people to know that. It's damaging to his street cred.

So, Ralph came to live with me in handmade cushion form as I won a competition on Twitter hosted by the lovely Kitty from Kitty's Kitschenette (@thekitschenette). She asked for suggestions on what we would like to see on a cushion, and the best design would be made up and sent to the person who suggested it. Pretty cool, huh!?

She also sent me this amazing little badge.

How cool is that!? I'm going not wear it to all of my events etc.

If you would like to see more Kitty's Kitchenette goodness, including some truly AMAZING Game of Thrones house badges you can check out her website at http://www.kittyskitschenette.co.uk/

or her Facebook page here https://www.facebook.com/thekitschenette

Hayley x