Paper Cutting

Good morning! How lovely and sunny is it today?!

I was even up earlier than usual (mostly due to dog sitting this weekend and having to let the dog out early!) but seeing the sunshine just makes you that bit happier doesn't it!

With my recent house purchase going through I've been trying to keep myself busy without spending a lot of cash, those bills are flying out of my account so finding cheap things to do is essential at the moment.
Having already bought the starter kit from Paper Panda a few months ago I've been making things for friends and family, and wanted to branch out to a few other templates, and so I picked up her '20 to make' book from Amazon for £3.99.

The book actually should cost £4.99 according to the back, and with Amazon you can get free postage too so what's not to love!
What I was most interested in was the content of the book itself, having seen a few snaps on the Paper Panda Facebook page I was intrigued. Not all of them will be suitable for me but for less than £4 I was sold.

In the original starter kit there were a few gorgeous templates that I practiced on to get my skills up to scratch. It's not a difficult hobby but practice definitely helps and you get used to how much pressure you need to apply and how often to change your blade.

Here are a few I did for practice:

I love the one above, I am hoping to find somewhere to put it in my new house!

Next I started making my way through the book. A colleague has a young daughter and I agreed to try out the Unicorn template, it looked a bit small and fiddly but definitely a new challenge and the finished design looked so pretty. Here are a few progress shots:





I love how quickly you can start and finish a design when you have a template for it!
This looks so pretty and I managed to finish it in 2 evenings after work, it really doesn't take that long.
She will be putting a purple colour in the background for her bedroom.

For my mum I made the owl design - we have a bit of an owl obsession within our family and this design is really cute, I really like the heart on the owls chest and the little snail on the branch too! The little details make the designs so much better. I'd love to be able to make my own templates!

Speaking of which, I have recently drawn out my own template for my kitchen. I am obsessed with tea and Alice in Wonderland and wanted to combine the two in my own design, making it quite simple but pretty with lots of details, what do you think??

I still need lots of practice with cutting straight lines and working out how to create objects without cutting them out entirely. The hardest part is keeping all of the design in one piece!

As a first go I'm pretty pleased but I think you can always see more errors in your own designs than other people can, hopefully when it's on the wall I won't be able to notice them so much!

My next project will be to create something similar to the image below, I want to buy a map and cut out the following quote in a similar style of swirly writing. It will be a challenge to get the writing onto one piece but once that is sorted hopefully it will be easier.

I've been really getting into papercutting recently as its a really therapeutic hobby. Cutting things with a sharp scalpel does wonders for your sanity!
I'd love to do more but creating templates is quite difficult, finding them online and paying for them to be emailed to you is much simpler.....but sometimes you need a challenge don't you?

And its also great to have something completely personal to you. Have you tried papercutting? Do you like making your own designs or objects for your home?

Do you have any ideas or templates that you've seen?

I'd love to try out some different ones, especially for weddings or new babies!


L xxx

Fitness Friday: Food Cheats

Hello there! Apologies for the super late post today - I didn't get home from work until 10.30 last night. Writing posts in the week is getting harder and harder!

I don't know about you but regardless of how hard i work at the gym I need to keep my diet in check with good food and staying strict.

Any kind of cheat is helpful, and a food cheat is even better right?? Here's a few things to add to your diet to help your body throughout your fitness journey:

1) Coconut oil. Probably listed in every 'must have' list of foods for the fit and healthy, coconut oil really is a wonder food. You can use it to cook with, on toast, in cakes and generally you can smother yourself in it too! 

Adding this to a protein shake will boost your metabolism and elevates growth hormones,so this stuff simultaneously burns fat and builds muscle. Sounds pretty super to me!

2) Cottage cheese. I love this stuff, its really versatile. You can use it in salads (it then doubles up as dressing too), and as a replacement for cheese on top of pasta bakes for some melted stringy goodness. It's high in protein, low in fat and high in calcium so it packs a good punch into your body as it is, helping you to boost muscle mass. I also find it easy to snack on too, straight from the fridge with a spoon....the one with pineapple is the best!

3) Cinnamon, cayenne pepper and ginger. They all have a thermogenic effect, i.e. they increase your bodies temperature and therefore its metabolism and fat burning level. Adding cayenne pepper to savoury food and cinnamon to sweet food you can boost your fat burning rate, who doesn't love cinnamon on things?? I'll be adding this to my protein pancakes for sure!

4) Quinoa. Long have I been eating this amazing grain, higher in protein than others it can double its magic by being your carb portion and adding more protein to your meal.Not only can it be used in salads but also to replace rice and pasta and even oats. I regularly cook a bag and store it in the fridge and use it in whatever I want throughout the week - replacing my oats with greek yogurt and fruit, in salads and also to make my own version of egg fried rice.

Try swapping some of these foods into your diet and see what happens! I will be trying to add cinnamon to my diet as I can't stand cayenne pepper....!

Do you have any other suggestions to add to this list?


L xxx

Barry M Gelly Hi Shine Polish in Chai

With my recent splurge in Barry M this is my latest nail polish. I've written about many different polishes from the Gelly Hi Shine range including Lychee and Coconut.

Chai is a beautiful mid grey colour and perfect alternative to a classic nude.

It's one of those colours that can look a bit boring but I think it's a really good alternative to black or nude and I've been wearing it a lot. It's good for work and the weekend and the Hi Shine finish makes it super glossy.

So on the nails what does it look like - super shiny polish that resists chips for a whole 5 days minimum. I swapped out the colour at this point as I'm a fickle individual but the colour was really good and a great change from my usual blush nudes.

These photos were taken with two coats of polish so the opacity and finish is pretty good.

What do you think of the Gelly Hi Shine range? Have you got a favourite colour?

Do you rate the shiny finish?

L xxx

Vivienne Westwood SS15 Exclusive Party

Hey all!

Two weeks ago we were invited to an exclusive party in the Vivienne Westwood store in Cardiff for a preview of their SS15 products - of COURSE we said yes! We've been in store a few times but not for an event so we were very excited.

We arrived at the store to these beautiful cupcakes - they even have the iconic orbs on them! How amazing!

For a while we spent our time doing a few laps of the store and taking everything in. There's so much to look at and everything is beautifully made.

L absolutely love the loves the umbrellas above, they're so chic and the different patterns and colours are so appealing.
Lots of VW's prints are so bright and colourful, the totes below are a perfect example:

M loves the t-shirts and wants to get her hands on the black Chaos t-shirt above, and we both couldn't take our eyes off the wall of beautifully designed bags and purses. The colours were stunning and ranged from blush to bright turquoises and pinks and back to classic black.

The one above is my absolute favourite! I would LOVE to own this bag!
Classic black and kept simple with the iconic orb at the front - it's me all over and it also had zipped pockets to keep your valuables safe.

We loved having a browse around the store getting to know what products were new and generally having a good rifle through the clothes!

What caught both our eyes was the stunning purses, the bows are a really cute details and this turquoise one was something that you would never lose inside the depths of your handbag again! What a beautiful colour - I think we'd both fight over who bought this one first....

The array of colours for clutch bags and tablet cases were also pretty impressive, they looked stunning lined up on the shelves at the back of the store and I can tell you that I wanted at least 5 of them by the end of the evening, The turquoise is again a beautiful shade but the nude, pink and navy all caught my eye too!

Isn't the dress above just stunning?
Such a beautifully bright colour and a simple rose pattern - but iconically a Vivienne Westwood dress courtesy of the beautiful neckline and nipped in waist. Gorgeous!

Next up we found the jewellery counter and it's safe to say that this is the area that will be doing the most damage to our purses.
We wanted everything! In every colour and with all the pieces from each range - you'll see what we mean by looking at the images below. Feast your eyes on these:

Rose gold skeletons?! Is there anything more perfect for scientist/bloggers??

We loved these - not only are they really clever with all of the bones being able to move around but they also have orbs attached to them. I'd love to wear one to work with a white shirt and black trousers, such a simple statement to make.

The orbs pretty much featured everywhere which was a really nice tough to every piece of jewellery, whether they were the focus of the piece or attached to the clasp so you know its a Vivienne Westwood item of jewellery. See below the keys which have the orb at the end of the key:

The rings above were also gorgeous - maybe not for work but as a statement piece for the weekend we both loved the pewter coloured one.  They are armour design and actually move with your fingers. This section was definitely where they will be making their money from us!
L's particular favourite was the rose gold set with blush inlaid - the necklace with the smaller orb is only £75 and its still pretty enough for every day wear. She's going to add this to her wishlist/Christmas list/whenever she wins the lottery list as it is just too perfect!!

It was amazing to be able to browse the store in the evening and see all of the beautiful pieces that Vivienne Westwood Cardiff have to offer. The bags and purses are simply beautiful, the jewellery is stunning with a real edge to it (exactly how we like it) and the clothes are all special but wearable. What else could you want from a designer with a reputation like VW??

Thanks to the Cardiff store for inviting us to this exclusive party, we can't wait to come back and see future pieces!

Do you love Vivienne Westwood clothes? Have you lusted after a bag or item of jewellery from her?

L and M xxx