bee mama | beauty, parenting & lifestyle blog: March 2012

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Small haul

I feel like I'm always dong little hauls, but I can't help it... I'm a shopaholic, hahaha! I picked up a few little bits yesterday, and some of the little bits are for my mum. I'm going to see my family next week!

Here's what I picked up...

I'm not sure why I'm showing these, but I love this kind of underwear!

Left: Navy & white 'skinless'
Right: Black with red lace/red & white hearts
€2.00 each - Primark/Penneys

Long basic vest top - €2.50 - Primark/Penneys

Baby pink & white cosmetic bag - €4 (was €7.95!) - Claire's [this is for my mum]

Necklace (bow, flower, heart, swallow, crystal ball) - €3 (was €5.95) - Claire's (buy one sale item, get one free)!

Crystal heart with wings - €2 - Primark/Penneys [for my mum]

Grey suede booties - €3 (was €10) - Primark/Penneys

White summer top - €7 - Primark/Penneys

Pink glitter nails

I took the blue polish off my nails yesterday (took ages!) so I decided to go with something a little more girly...

Excuse the mess around my nails!

For the pink, I used (48) Candy Floss by Collection 2000. It's my favourite baby pink polish! I wanted a bit of extra sparkle so I used a glitter one from Claire's (it has no name). It has big and small flecks of light pink, dark pink and silver glitter that looks different colours in the light, and I love it!

Hope you like it!

Friday, March 30, 2012

Essence nail polish - Cool And The Gang

This is one of my favourite polishes, and as far as I can remember, I haven't done a review/picture post yet. I love Essence nail polishes as they're cheap, long lasting and they come in a good range of colours. This one is called Cool And The Gang (76).

It's a beautiful royal blue colour, and for some reason, it reminds me of France, hahaha! It's a gorgeous spring/summer colour, and I find that it looks more vibrant in the sun.

This picture was taken 4 days after I applied the polish, and you can just see it was starting to chip. It's lasted pretty long for a cheap brand. One thing I don't like is that you have to apply loads of coats to get it properly opaque. The picture above has 3 coats, and no topcoat. However, even after 3 coats, you can still see the lines of my nails. Maybe a few more coats would cover it, but I was in a rush, so 3 would have to do.

I'm sad to say that the Multi Dimension XXXL Shine nail polishes are now discontinued, but you may be able to find them on eBay... I hope they bring out a new polish of a similar colour, as I really do love it.

If you change your nail polish every day or every other day, Essence is the perfect brand for you; cheap, great colours, and pretty long lasting. If you like bright colours, this would be great for you. It adds a pop of colour to any outfit, which I love!

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Diet Cheat Days - Good or bad?

I've been dieting since Monday (it's now Thursday) and I've lost 1lb. Although... I'm not sure if I can call it dieting or not; I've been only eating chicken salad, fruit and yogurt (with oats) every day, as well as drinking loads of water. I've had nothing sweet; no chocolate, no fizzy drinks, no sweets.

I've read that one 'cheat day' a week (or every 7-10 days) is good. A day where you can eat what you like. It can be viewed as a reward for 'being good' with your dieting, something to look forward to. I've also read that it can boost your metabolism, therefore, burning calories faster.

On the other hand, I've read that it's dangerous for your health, claiming that it can increase your risk of an eating disorder.

As I have only just started my diet, I can't tell if cheat days are good or bad. I've been looking forward to my treat say since Tuesday (early, I know!) so I picked up a little bag of Pick 'n Mix today...

I picked up a small handful of jellies, a tiny scoop of chocolate peanuts and a few jelly babies.

I've got most of it left, as I've stopped eating for the night. Since I started my dieting, I'm able to stop myself eating sweet things. I've been to the local shop numerous times and been able to walk past the chocolates and cakes. Normally, I wouldn't be able to help myself, so I'd have a peek and usually end up buying something sweet. My Pick 'n Mix is the only 'cheat' food I've had today. I have had a WeightWatchers curry, which I don't really count as a 'cheat' food, because it's WeightWatchers, and pretty low in calories for a dinner (344).

The sweets haven't made me feel any worse, maybe just a little bit better as it's cured the sweet craving I had. My fiancé can have the rest of the jellies if he wants, it doesn't bother me as I've satisfied my craving. I'm still on the fence with this one, but maybe next time, I'll just make myself up a fruit salad...

What are your opinions on 'cheat' days? Do you agree with them or not?

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

What's In My Bag?

I've seen these tag videos on YouTube and I really love seeing what kind of stuff other people carry around in their bags/purses - I'm so nosey, hahaha! I thought I'd do one, so I took everything straight out of my bag!

First of all, here's my bag...

I get asked about it all the time, and it's from eBay.

Now, let's get into the contents of my bag...

I have my Hello Kitty makeup bag, passport, Me To You tissues, old bus tickets, an eyeshadow palette, Hello Kitty mirror, lipgloss, lip pencil, refillable perfume atomizer, lipbalm, iPod (earphones are currenly in my laptop!), roll-on deodorant, chewing gum, change, keys, BlackBerry, Fat Face sunglasses (lol!), Charmmy Kitty purse, shopping bag (with its own little bag)

(...and the usual girly things that nobody needs to see. I should also have my glasses in there, or maybe a spare pair of contact lenses...)

I tag you, and if you do it, link below so I can have a wee snoop!

Monday, March 26, 2012

Healthy Eating: Breakfast & Dinner

I've been bad lately despite my New Year's resolution to eat healthy and lose a few pounds. I promised myself I'd start today and I did! (I always think Monday is the best time to start, not sure why). I usually eat when I'm bored, but I'm trying to stop that. My boredom food is usually just full of empty calories, which I hate.

So to start off my healthy eating this morning, I sprinkled a small handful of whole oats into a strawberry yogurt, and stirred. Yum! It filled me up for quite a few hours, which I was surprised about.

At dinner time, I grilled a chicken breast. Whilst that was cooking, I chopped up lettuce, tomato and spring onion, and made a bed of salad on a plate and got a pitta bread ready. When my chicken was cooked, I chopped it up and placed it over the salad bed. I didn't need a dressing as the chicken was very moist, which is surprising, as when I've grilled it in the past, it's been pretty dry. I put a small spoonful of potato salad on the side of the salad. I had a small glass of apple juice too. I'll have water from now on though.

Mmmmmm!

I would gladly eat this 5 days a week, it was so filling and yummy! But I think I'll experiment with different meals for a bit of variation. If I get hungry again later, I'll have a couple of Crackerbread with a small spread of peanut butter.

I'll try to update on my blog with pictures of my meals, hopefully it will keep me motivated!

Wish me luck!

Sunny days & bamboo parks!

Today was the first proper sunny day here in Ireland (and as far as I can remember, last summer was pretty crap!) Myself and my fiancé, Elijah, packed up the car and made our way to a beautiful bamboo park, in West Cork. We've been there before so we knew what to expect... loads of different types of trees/plants/bamboo. It's a really nice walk all the way around. We met up with Elijah's mum, 2 of his sisters, their boyfriends and kids.

We walked around for ages and just took so many pictures. (I got some gorgeous pictures with my new Canon Powershot SX130IS camera). It was so nice to get some exercise and fresh air, and it's great to make the most of such a nice day when we barely see sunshine! I wore some wedges, which were fine... but after a long time, and after walking up numerous rocks and some hills, my feet started to hurt - nightmare! When we got back to the car, I changed into my Uggs, which was such a relief. We had sandwiches and crisps, and chatted a bit more before some of the gang went home.

The rest of us went on another walk (I didn't mind, my feet were so comfy then!) We stopped by a little river and chilled for a while, listened to the birds whistling. It was so relaxing and peaceful, I could have fallen asleep! Afterwards, we headed to a hotel for some tea, which was lovely. Then some of us decided we wanted dessert, so I had chocolate gateau and cream...delicious! Elijah's younger sister decided she wanted chips, so she asked me to share. I think the waitress thought we were a bit mad, having dessert first, hahaha! THEN, Elijah and his mum decided they wanted dinner. I was stuffed at this stage, but thinking about food now is making me hungry, damnit!

Fiiiiinally, the time came for us to leave, so we went to my sis-in-law's house for a cup of tea, then home. It's been a long and tiring, but fun, day! I even have a small bit of sunburn (any Irish person will know how big of a deal this is, as we usually just have crap weather, ahaha!)

Here's some pictures from my day...