Resolutions

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I didn't have any resolutions for this year, but then one popped into my head, and then another and another. I know some people believe that if you want to change something in your life, you shouldn't wait until the new year. I agree, but the new year gets you thinking about your life and what you would like to do differently. 

My resolutions for this year are:

• Tone up my stomach
• Strengthen my arms (seriously, I'm so weak!)
• Drink more water
• Moisturise my body and face every day
• Use/get rid of a product before buying another
• 
  

Now, I'm not concentrating on every one straight away. At the moment, I'm going to concentrate on toning up my stomach and moisturising every day. I'll then add in the strengthening of my arms and drinking more water. I won't need to put much effort into the last resolution because that will happen automatically, as long as I remember the 'one in, one out' rule.

I think I'll be able to achieve these resolutions if I introduce them gradually. A lot of people try to change so many aspects of their lives at once, and it becomes too much. I think I've intentionally done exercise about... 3 times in my life, and they were only 10-20 minute sessions, so that's why I'm not doing both of the exercise resolutions right now - my body would go into shock!

To make these resolutions successful, I'm also going to make time in my routine for them. For example, I've decided to do sit-ups before I shower, and moisture after I've showered. Personally, I need this organisation. I can't just say 'oh, I'll do it at some point today'.

I'm thinking this is why my drinking more water resolution fails every year. You can't have one allocated time slot to drink an entire day's worth of water. You need to drink it throughout the day. I've tried drinking a certain amount up until midday, and then another amount up until tea time, but I always forget. I'm used to being dehydrated, so for this resolution, I'm going to have to really, really put the effort in and be concious about drinking all the time. Maybe I could set alarms on my phone to remind me? They wouldn't be very practical for uni though. I'll work it out!

Do you have any resolutions for 2013?

The Body Shop Vineyard Peach Shower Gel

The scent of a product is an important factor for me, especially with shower gels. With that in mind, let me introduce you to my new favourite shower gel! It smells delicious. Think of fresh, juicy peaches and you're there. It smells even better once it's lathered up too. It serves its purpose of cleaning my body, but that's not why I would repurchase it, if I'm honest! It's all about the heavenly scent. I don't know if I'll be able to keep my hands off of the bottle I bought my mum for Mother's Day...

It's normally £4, but I bought it for £2 in the sale (which is still going on). I don't think I would pay full price for it, but that's the same for all of The Body Shop products because there's usually a generous discount code floating around the internet.

The Vineyard Peach products were/are in the sale with the Christmas scents and I heard that they're limited edition. I really hope this isn't true! I would buy the body butter, but I have so many tubs already. I can justify buying shower gel because I use it every day, but I rarely moisturise (naughty, I know), and I've been using body oils if I do.

Have you tried any of the Vineyard Peach products? If so, do you love the scent just as much as I do?

dotcomgiftshop purchases

 

Toadstool Night Light £3.95, Rabbit Night Light £4.95

 

Metal Rabbit Hanging Decoration £1

 

Metal Ivory Heart Hanging Decoration 39p

Set of 3 Wooden Heart Decorations £1.50

"MORE buys?!" I hear you say. Yes. I have no justifications haha

I came across dotcomgiftshop last week and just had to place an order. Delivery is £3.95, so I had to make it worthwhile. I ordered the items above and a few other bits for birthday presents. The night lights are so cute! Only some of the spots on the toadstool were painted though (from what I've seen, they're all like that, apart from the image they use on the website!), so I used a white nail polish to fill in the remaining ones earlier. The metal rabbit hanging decoration... I love it. It's what pushed me over the edge to place the order! And I was surprised it was only £1. The rest of the decorations were also a bargain. I mean, 39p for the ivory heart?! It has gone straight on my beauty chest of drawers with the rest of my ivory/white decorations. I don't know what I'm going to do with the wooden hearts yet because I have things hanging from every available space at the moment, but I'm sure I'll find a place for them. I would have ordered more decorations, but like I said, I have no where for them to go :( I need more hooks!

So, yes, I very much like dotcomgiftshop. It has a variety of little bits and bobs (I have my eye on some glass bottles, but don't know what I would use them for!) which are perfect for presents or yourself. 

Barry M's Gelly Blood Orange and Essie's Beyond Cosy

 

Barry M's Gelly Blood Orange

Essie's Beyond Cosy

Once I've painted my nails, I take a couple of photos on my phone and then plan to take 'proper' photos the following day. Well, sometimes a nail chips or my actual camera doesn't pick up the colour well, so I don't bother blogging about it. I was going through my phone earlier though and thought these photos were okay to use. Even though they were taken on my phone with a flash, they're still a good representation of how the polishes look.

I rarely wear red nail polish. In fact, Barry M's Gelly Blood Orange is my first bright red. The only other red shade I have is Barry M's Raspberry, which is definitely not a true red. I like it! I just hope it doesn't stain the hell out of my nails. It was opaque in one coat, but I added another just to be sure.

I wore Essie's Beyond Cosy the week of Christmas. It's so pretty! It's a pale gold which is gold in some lights and silver in others. The glitter is finely milled and opaque in two coats - Win!

I hope you're enjoying January so far. My birthday's on the 20th, so I always like this month. I'm going to be 20 this year! No longer a teenager. Scary stuff.

I also just have one more assignment and a couple of exams to do (I've already completed 2 assignments, an article and a presentation).

Oh, and I bought a new camera today! The Nikon D3100. I'm just waiting for some accessories, including memory cards, to arrive so I can use it.

Have a good evening!

Boots Sale Purchases

In my Christmas Sale Purchases and More post, I said I'm always underwhelmed by the Boots sale. Well, this post completely contradicts that statement! I love Boots Extracts and Botanics, so thought I'd buy some sets for birthdays throughout the year, as well as Christmas.

The Boots Extracts Collection was £11 down from £22. It contains a variety of mango and coconut scented products (all large 200ml sizes). I worked out that the products separately come to around £35, so I'm very pleased. I'm going to split the products up, put them into organza bags, and give as presents.

The Boots Extracts Cranberry set was £8 down from £16. It contains a 200ml tube of body wash, 200ml of body lotion, a 50ml tub of body scrub and a 50ml tub of body butter. I love this set. The bag is beautiful and the products smell delicious. I think it will be perfect for a Christmas present!

The Boots Extracts Cocoa Butter Mini Mix set was £2.50 down from £5. It contains a 75ml tube of body wash and a 50ml tub of body butter. I think this set is a perfect little stocking filler (or birthday gift bag filler!). I wish there were more scents available.

The Botanics Men's Face Care Regime was £6 down from £12. I didn't take a photo of this separately because the products are on the front of the box. It contains a 150ml tube of face wash, 150ml of shave gel and a 75ml tube of moisturiser. This will either be for my dad or grandad, I think! I love how it's presented - the box is lime green inside, too :)

The Boots Extracts Mango Selection is in the Christmas Sale Purchases post, linked at the top, so you can see it in more detail there. It was £5 down from £10 and contains 200ml of body wash, 200ml of body scrub and 200ml of body butter. The body butter alone is £7.95, so this is a great little bargain!

So, the Boots Christmas sale isn't that underwhelming after all! Only because of the Extracts and Botanics sets though. I wasn't interested in anything else.

Book Haul

Booooks! Can you imagine how excited I was when these arrived? I love opening the Amazon packaging and smelling a good book or two (or eight, in this case). Half of them are new, half of them are used. I prefer new books, but they can be expensive, so I settled with used Sophie Kinsella ones. They were all around £2, including P&P. I don't normally read books like the Sophie Kinsella ones (I normally read dystopian, action types), but I read Twenties Girl and really enjoyed it, so thought I'd buy some more. They're also loved by many, so it's highly likely that I'm going to enjoy them too. As you can see, I bought Twenties Girl even though I've already read it. The version I read was from the library and I wanted my own copy. That's another reason why I bought it used - I'd already read it.

The top four books are new. The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes was £3.99, The Time of My Life by Cecelia Ahern was £1.99 (Bargain! This was on offer. I think it's back to £3-4 now), The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern was £3.86 and A Street Cat Named Bob by James Bowen was £3.86. A Street Cat Named Bob is a real life story about a cat. You may be thinking 'whaaat?', and I agree, it's very different to anything I've read before, but that's why I bought it. I don't like to stick to one gender of book. I was sceptical about The Help by Kathryn Stockett because it was so different to anything I had read previously, but I ended up loving it. Also, A Street Cat Named Bob has loads of positive ratings and reviews, so it can't be all bad!

If you're a book worm like myself, stay tuned for my 'Favourite Books of 2012' post. The Help is included, as well as another 20 books! It's going to be a long one.

I'm currently reading The Fury, which is really good. I probably won't finish it in time for the post, but I'm sure I'll mention it in another post at some point. 

If you would like to stay up to date with the books I'm reading and lusting over, you can visit my profile and become friends with me on Goodreads. I seriously love that site. I think it's the best site I joined in 2012!

Buddy Update

We've had Buddy for over three months now, and there's been a lot of development since I published this post, so wanted to tell you about it! He was a good dog when we got him, but he's an even better dog now. 

When we first got him, he was okay on the lead, but would pull now and again. You do not want a dog Buddy's size pulling! We bought him a Halti lead and now he's an amazing walker. What a Halti lead does is guide the dog's head in the other direction if he pulls or is focused on something (another dog, cat, scent etc). Having your head turned away from what you're doing can be annoying, so to make sure that doesn't happen, he walks nicely. The Halti lead goes around the dog's nose, so a lot of people think he's wearing a muzzle, and therefore assume he's aggressive. A Halti lead is definitely not a muzzle! He can open his mouth all he wants. Also, Buddy is the furthest from aggressive. That's one thing we didn't have to correct. Since we've had him, he's never growled or gone for another dog.

The next thing we needed to correct was him chasing the cats. He previously didn't live with cats, so wasn't used to them. In the first couple weeks of having him, he just wanted to play, so chased them. We gradually introduced him to them and now he's fine. He even sleeps with them.

The other thing I mentioned in my 'Meet Buddy' post was that he was chasing Jessie, and Jessie kept growling at him. He then thought Jessie was playing, so would go to play with her, which made Jessie growl even more. It was one big circle! After a while, Jessie stopped growling and would spend a lot of time under the table to keep away from him. Now, they are the best of friends. They don't stop playing! It can be quite annoying actually because they're so noisy. Because of Buddy's size and strength, he could easily hurt Jessie, but he's so gentle with her. The other day, he let Jessie have his bone, which was the cutest thing.

For a while, we put him in his cage at night because we couldn't trust him (due to not knowing his personality and habits). We've been leaving him out of his cage recently though and he's been good as gold. He usually sleeps in the chair in the dining room or next to my dad. You would think he would take up most of the bed, but he doesn't. I think our cats take up just as much room because they stretch out!

I'm so glad he's living with us. Because of how he looks, he could have easily ended up with a scumbag who only has a dog to 'look hard' and train to be aggressive.

This is what Buddy is currently doing:

Hanging out with Jacks!