Cardiff Fashion Week

During the week I was luckily enough to talk to Georgina from Makeup-Pixi3 and she told me about the event on Saturday night for Cardiff Fashion Week.

I was SO excited as we'd both tried to get tickets to attend the Thursday event but unfortunately were too slow and completely missed the tickets as they sold out so fast.

This was the first time ever that Cardiff has held it's own Fashion Week and we were really excited.

You can find some more information here.

Unfortunately by the point M had already booked tickets to go home for the weekend so I would be going on my own....but I told myself to man up and go and meet some other bloggers and enjoy myself!

I met Georgina and a few other bloggers before the event for a quick drink in Starbucks to get to know each other. I will link everyone at the bottom of the page so it's easier!

After this we made our way to Jamie's Italian for some food and drinks.

As you can imagine the food was OUTSTANDING.

I spent most of the time just staring at the food and sipping on some Prosecco, yummmmm!

After this we went outside to watch the final catwalk of the show, the finale if you like!

Here are some of the photos I took!

We were lucky enough to be at the end of the cat walk so we had the models walking straight at us, there were some other camera men there too so please ignore them!

They opened up with a dance routine, and I am absolutely in love with these shoes and the leopard print jacket at the front!

I really need to find out where those are from!

After this the evening gowns from Coast came out....and I want every single one!

These two are my personal favourites. The girls look stunning in them and are so simple but look great.

Love floaty maxi dresses!

I know M is personally after the dress on the right in the above picture, it's gorgeous and flowy!

Office wear was next and they performed another dance routine.

I was just impressed they managed to move in pencil skirts and sky high heels so well!!

Mmmm, male models in suits!

These kinds of dresses are my FAVOURITE!

I love sparkle and the heels here are from Quiz, NEED!

I especially need the heels if they make my legs look this good??!

This model looks amazing in them!

It was a lovely surprise to find out that Calvin Klein also had a part to play, especially when the male model strutted his way out.

Hello! 

I also really like the underwear on the model below, so will have to go in there and check them out as the print was gorgeous.

Cannot remember the brand here but thought the male models looked pretty good!

They finished off the cat walk show with another routine/song with the sparkliest glittery black dresses known to earth and they looked amazing under the lights.

I especially like the one at the front of the photo above!

She can move in it (below) and its so well fitting and comfortable looking as well as looking stunning.

After this a group of us went to Nandos for some chicken and a gossip!

I had the lushest time meeting everyone and can't wait for the next meet up.

The cat walk show was great to watch and as you can imagine I will have to stay away from Jamie's because I will surely put on a stone every time I go otherwise!

Hope you enjoyed the post!

Do you enjoy watching fashion shows and cat walks?

What do you like from the pictures I took?

L xxx

Here are the bloggers I met and their blogs!

Georgina: http://www.makeup-pixi3.com/

Laura: http://www.whatlauradid.com/

Kelsey: http://cutepandaa.blogspot.co.uk/

Charli: http://charli-dot-dot-dot.blogspot.com/

Amy: http://bonjourcupcakes.blogspot.co.uk/

Cariad: http://www.cariadity.co.uk/

Sara: http://uninterruptedmusings.blogspot.co.uk/

Liz: http://www.tantibacix.blogspot.co.uk/

Michaela: http://cardifforniagurl.blogspot.co.uk/

Stacey: http://bitchwithbite.blogspot.co.uk/

OOTD: George Coat

I've never done an outfit of the day post before, mainly as I rarely wear anything exciting on a day to day basis (have been sat at home on my laptop for the past few months writing my dissertation!).

If I do leave my house it's for the gym...not such an exciting OOTD? Maybe I'll do one if I'm feeling I look good haha.

Anyway, I've had plenty of compliments on my new coat so I thought it was a good place to start.

This is my newbie to my wardrobe:

Halloween Make Up Ideas

Last Sunday me and M decided to give some Halloween make up a go.

You might have seen us talk about our actual Halloween plans on twitter, if not, then we're saving our costumes for another post as we've been looking forward to this for months!

We got together and spent a few hours playing around with make up.

As we didn't have any halloween make up and only normal stuff we were limited but it was definitely a lot of fun!

Here's M's look:

I was looking at YouTube videos for inspiration and went with one for the Black Dahlia. This is a great look for Halloween if you want to look good. It can be easily recreated with make up you own and most likely clothes you have. Black lace top/dress and black tights. It would look great finished with a black piece of lace for a veil. For this I used a pale foundation and dusted white powder over my face. I still contoured my cheeks as usual so that the face has shape.

For the eyes, darken the eyebrows. I used black eyeshadow for the brows. It looked very scouse brow and was so strange looking at myself with dark brows! I then piled on dark purples around the eyes, using a set from Boots Xmas range and one of L's Mac eyeshadows. I then used black eyeshadow in the crease of the eye and blended.

I lined the eyes in black and extended the purple under my lashes a little. I loaded on mascara but false lashes would be best for a night out. The tears. This was tricky. On the video it said to use glycerine (available from supermarkets in the baking aisle) As L and I were just testing out looks I tried loading my bottom lashes and making myself cry watching sad YouTube videos. Much to L's amusement. Surprisingly it didn't work. Soldiers coming home usually has me in floods much to my other halfs amusement. After trying a few other things L dropped some lense solution in my eyes to create tear stains. 

For the lips I used a bright red and then lined the edges with shadow to darken it. The New Matte Kate Moss for Rimmel Lipstick in 107 would be amazing for this look. I also accentuated my cupids bow for a more defined lip.

Here's L's look:

I decided to go for a scary dead person.

It went against everything I know about make up to make my face look like this but it was a lot of fun and I look so scary!

First of all I applied the white shimmery Barry M dazzle dust all over my face.

This came out a weird and deathly grey colour on my skin which was perfect.

I then used a matt grey eyeshadow from an unknown brand to hollow my cheeks and eyes and temples, pretty much the same way that you would if you were to contour in the style of Kim Kardashian.

I also applied concealer to my lips to whiten them out a bit, and applied the white dazzle dust on top to blend them in a bit better.

I then did the same with my eyebrows as they're so dark that they stood out and didn't look right.

You can see the hollow of my eyes has been made darker with the grey matte shadow, and then I applied black very heavily around my whole eye, even thickly underneath which is normally a no no!

I definitely think the contouring helps to make your face look more defined.

Here are our final looks!

What do you think? We both love playing around with make up. Are you dressing up for Halloween? We can't wait!

Love L and M

xxx

Gym Training Program

I mentioned in last week's post that I had a new training program created for me by a trainer at my gym.

This is (luckily!) a free service as part of my membership which was a relief as I really don't have any more money to spend!

Anyway, I thought I'd share with you the exercises she has given me to do.

This routine isn't 'easy' but the exercises aren't complicated and can be done using weights that you have at home etc.

It's always hard having the discipline to actually get up and do the exercises but I always feel so much better once I've done them and after a week of doing this program I can already see a difference.

Image from 123RF.com

It's based on using your core muscles (as mine are pretty rubbish!) and just generally losing fat and toning up.

A lot of the exercises engage multiple muscle groups, and I'm all for multi-tasking!

For this you will need:

2 x 4kg kettle bell (or light weights)

8kg kettle bell (or heavier weight)

Optional:

Swiss ball

2kg weight

1) Warm up - I usually go on the X-trainer for 5 minutes to get my heart rate up and my body warm. You could cycle, run around the block, up and down the stairs etc to get your body ready for exercise.

2) Press ups - For my exercise I use a swiss ball, place my hands on either side and do 2 sets of 15 press ups. This is why the swiss ball is optional as it's the only exercise that you use it for.

You could do 2 sets of 15 normal press ups instead if you don't have the ball.

Image from Fitness Magazine

At the moment I lean the ball against the wall to help steady it, as the whole movement requires a lot of effort to complete the press up and keep the ball steady but you can move this away from the wall to make it harder, and also choose a smaller swiss ball to up the difficulty.

3) Kettle bell swing - This uses a 4kg kettle bell to engage the core muscles, particularly lower stomach and swing the kettle bell from between your legs so that it ends around 90 degrees in front of you.

You hold onto the top of the kettle bell with both hands and swing using your hips. You don't need to bend your knees much for this (as I started doing!) as this is not a squat movement.

Image from About.com

(Ignore the last image, you do not need to go that high! As long as the kettle bell swings out in front of you this is fine)

If you can feel this in your lower stomach muscles when your swinging then you know for sure that it's working! Do this constantly for 1 minute in between each exercise and it will help to strengthen and tone your core muscles and midriff, and at the end of the day who doesn't want that!

You could use a normal 4kg weight to do this and hold it at one end, just make sure you're holding it evenly.

4) Goblin squat - This is where the 8kg weight comes in! I use a kettle bell so that I can use the handle on it.

This exercise is pretty simple, all you need to do is hold the weight at your chest level with both hands, squat down making sure your heels are pressing into the ground and then after you've risen from the squat raise the weight above your head level to stretch your arms up.

Basically this is just a squat and press with a weight, it engages your legs, core and arms/shoulders so definitely a multi tasker!

Image from FitnessMad.com

Repeat 3)

5) Bike - Using a bike for this would be easiest as this is cardio number one of two in this program. The program set for me has you cycling at a low level for 2 minutes, then a high level for 2 minutes and repeating for a 12 minute exercise (normally levels 3 and 5).

The rpm's must also be kept above 80.

Instead at home you could do interval training as running for 2 minutes (high level) and then walking for 2 minutes for the low level.

Repeat 3)

6) Lat Pulldown - In my program I use the Lat Machine at 20kg and do 2 sets of 15 reps.

I have absolutely no idea how you're supposed to do this outside of the gym though so I'm going to suggest you leave it out if you're not at the gym!

Repeat 3)

7) Lunge and Curl - This is pretty straight forward and common exercise. Using a 4kg kettle bell/weight in each hand I lunge, raise back up and then curl up both arms.

This is repeated at 2 sets of 15 for each leg (so 60 altogether....killer on the arms!)

It helps when doing this if you breathe in on the lunge and out on the curl.

My arms BURN after doing this 60 times so that can only mean its working right?!

Repeat 3)

8) Side Plank - My biggest hate is my stomach, and so consequently it has no muscle tone and every exercise hurts! When I tried to do this initially it was a disaster and I was laughed at!

After doing it for a week however I can already complete the 2 sets on both sides without collapsing woo!

Basically for this one you need to lie on your side with your arm propping you up.

Then you need to raise your hips into the air so your body is in a straight line being held up by your elbow and feet.

Your other arm is then pointing at the ceiling and so your body is in a cross type shape.

If only this was the end!

You then need to move your arm that's in the air in a swinging motion (slowly! or you'll unbalance) towards your other armpit so that it sort of scoops underneath your body twisting as you go.

Image from 6packatSixty.blogspot

This is hard to get the hang of and needs practice to stop you wobbling all over the place.

I find watching my moving arm makes it easier and make sure that your fixed arm lines up directly below your shoulder, if it moves further away you could injure yourself.

Repeat this 10 times on each side, twice.

The first time you'll die, but the third time I did this today and I managed it, it just takes a little time.
Once you've got the hang of it you can also add in the 2kg optional weight and hold this in your moving hand....maybe one day!

Repeat 3)

9) Pilates 100 - This is a dream compare to the side plank!

Lie down on the floor with your legs bent like you would to do crunches etc.

Curl up and raise your shoulder blades off the floor by a good inch, and pulse your hands at your sides in groups of ten, counting to 100.

Image from VideoJug

I don't ever feel this but my stomach muscles shake! So I know I'm doing it right...

You could start off doing 2 sets of 10, 5 times to get to the hundred, aiming to do a full 100 in 1 go at the end.

Repeat 3)

10) X-trainer - This is my favourite exercise.

Using the interval training preset profile (i.e. the one that looks like a castle top, up down up down etc) you will need to put this on level 4 for 10 minutes, keeping you speed up to 120+ rpm's. 

You can again do whatever interval training you like, at home walking/running is the easiest.

Hope you enjoyed looking at my program!

I would love to know if any of you will be testing some of them out, they really are doable at home aside from the lat pull down.

As I've said, having done this 3 times I can already see a difference in my stomach which is great for me as I really want to get it toned up for my graduation.

I'm down to 7 weeks now, I'm hoping to lose 1lb per week but I'm not sure how possible this will be with eating so much protein!

As long as I'm burning fat I'm happy :)


I always use Pinterest for some exercise inspiration:

 

Would you try any of these exercises? Do you have your own fitness program?

I would honestly love to know so leave a comment!

L xxx