Feelings

So this time of year is a funny time of year for me this year.  And I don't know why.  I managed to get the lurgy....the one that makes you feel like your throat is the throat off the strepsils add with the rotating razor blades....yes, ouchie!!  Anyway everything that I had organised was cancelled Christmas week.  This involved a surprise trip to the Ritz Carlton in Wicklow and my birthday night out which for once was gonna be epic as all the people I loved were free and home from far away lands.  I had an epic depression filled day that was completely not like me.  I couldn't shake the feelings I had that day.  I was so upset.  Feeling sorry for myself then feeling guilty about feeling sorry for myself when there was so much tragedy in the world.  It kinda scared me if I'm honest.  Was it the beginning of depression?  It only lasted a day so I put it down to hormonal crappiness.

It got me thinking though about how I felt when I had my first daughter almost 10 years ago.  This was back in the days when I was married and living in Navan.  I loved her from the start but 6 months down the line all was defo not good in the hood!  I began to feel like everything was closing in around me.  Like there was no future, no past, no nothing.  Just going through the motions daily to keep us both alive.  It was the oddest feeling.  I'd never had feelings like it.  I put it down to being isolated from my family and not having many friends having moved 2 years prior to her birth.  My then husband didn't get it but then he wouldn't.  He had plenty of friends and worked 6 days a week.  He was rarely there.  It was me and my baby.  Some people love this.  I didn't.  I felt completely cut off and completely overwhelmed at the thought of being so responsibile for her.  I also felt somewhat resentful that I had been left holding the baby when it was a joint venture so to speak.  Then I'd always feel guilty that I felt that she wasn't enough for me to be happy.  It was a neverending cycle of feelings, feelings, feelings!!  I told nobody about how I was feeling.  Not even my then husband.  I did eventually go to the doctor who said I had post natal depression.  He prescribed me anti depressants and to my shame I didn't take them.  I figured I'd "snap out of it".  I did eventually but after having suffered unecessarily for a further 5 months.  Silly bleedin sausauge eh :)


So I've been feeling fine until today and bam....it hit me again although not as strongly as last week. And to be honest I feel like such a zzzzzdope to even be feeling this way....as my dad would say "pull yourself together girl" but then my dad is one of those dads that unless you're bleeding out your eyes doesn't believe you're sick ha ha!! I'm trying to figure out what it is that has me feeling so helpless and resigned.  Is it just the boredom of the silly season?  Is it worrying about the health problems in my family?  Is it worrying about my almost 10 year old and her phobia and how she's suffering daily?  Is it feeling sad for my brothers girlfriend on the passing of her mother last week?   Is it my cousings suicide and the effect it has had on the whole family? Is it the ending of a 30+ year friendship this year? Or is it just everything?  I'm usually a bubbly person.  I tend to be the one that make other people feel better.  But when I'm not feeling good, I shut up shop.  I don't let anybody in.  So by writing this, I'm taking a gamble and letting you all in.  Course it helps that i've never met most of you :) I'm nervous posting this to be honest cos I think my twitter peeps see me as a positive person but I know that feelings like this are normal and happen to most people now and then and the trick is not to let it bottle up so here I am unbottling and practising what I preach to others on twitter when they are feeling down.  I wish you all a healthy New Year x

Professional Beauty Show 2011

Righteo so this weekend sees the return of the Professional Beauty Show.  It keeps changing it's blinkin name.  Wasn't it B.I.T.E. last year or is this a completely different production.  Fecked if I know but the premise is the same.  For anybody remotely interested in beauty, this show is like Christmas and Hugh Jackman all rolled into one....uh-maz-balls!  I've worked at a few of these shows plugging various beauty wares but the past year I've gone as a customer and it's a totally different experience.  For a start, the amount of freebies in the form of testers I got was unreal. Everything from Dermalogica and Acadamie skincare to mini bottles of spray tan formula.  This show is for trade only or it's supposed to be but nobody checks so in theory, anybody can go.  The usual heavy hitters will be in attendance i.e. Dermalogica, Crown Brushes, Flair, Novalash etc but for me it's a great place to see what's new in the beauty industry.  This year, one of the newbies on the block is MYscara.  I've blogged about this before and I'm actually getting it done tomorrow....squeeeeeaalll!!:-)  It's basically a 4 week mascara application that lifts and curls your lashes and is completely waterproof.  For a gym bunny like me, this is all kinds of deadly as I like to have a bit of make up on me while I sweat but even the best of waterproof mascara's comes off in the sauna.  What I like about this product is that fact that there is no extension applied to your lashes.  I have tried lash extensions in the past and while they look amazing for a while, they start to clump as the weeks go on and also, over time your own lashes get damaged if like me, you tend to pick at the lashes to get them off.  I will take before and after pics of the MYscara tomorrow and blog about it.
I'm also really looking forward to seeing the Jessica nail stand and Creative Nails too.  They always have the most amazing colours.  There will be any amount of tanning stands there as always but this year I'm looking forward to visiting the Rockstar Tan stand to see what all the fuss is about.  It's getting really good reviews so I'm gonna try it for myself before using it on my clients.  Fusion make up is another stand I'll be making a bee-line for.  An Irish mineral brand.  Yes please!!  Anyway, I'll blog about that too next week.  Ta raaaaahhhh x

Garnier Anti Wrinkle Davina Challengy Thingy

I'm currently doing the Davina challengy thingy.  Y'know the ad where she holds up a little test card that shows what stage of wrinkledom you are at?!  Well I decided to take her up on it.  I'm 3 weeks in and so far, nada!  Niente!  Naturally I don't have one of those test cards to hand but I do have eyes and they don't see anything difference.  I will persist in using this product for one reason only and that's because I can't afford to buy anything else.  Perhaps after a few months of use there will be a difference but the ad did state in 14 days you'd see the difference.  Big fat liars!

Realistically, the Aldi Sianna anti wrinkle cream does the same job imo.  I wrote about this on Rollercoaster.ie and the thread got over 200 responses such was the adoration for this product.  It's since been renamed to Lacura but it's the same cream and I think for 3.99e it's uh-maz-ing! 

Myscara v Yumi Lashes

The MYscara product is a safe and eye friendly lash coating applied professionally in a salon. It has a similar effect to traditional mascara but lasts for up to 3 weeks. It won't smudge or budge no matter how much you get them wet. It is aimed at natural lashes but can also be used with semi permanent lashes if applied during the procedure.  Glamlash Ireland have the distribution rights for MYscara and can be contacted on 01-5035351

YUMI™ Lashes

YUMI™ Lashes is an advanced technique designed to boost and lift the lash without having to resort to false lashes. In other words, it is a powerful alternative to false lashes that enhances your own natural beauty and colouring. Yumi Lashes uses an acrylic to lift and curl your own lashes in a 5 step procedure.  Your lashes are then tinted for maximum effect.  Instead of doing a traditional perm that simply curves your lashes, YUMI™ LASHES turns the eyelashes upwards, gives them Length, Height and Volume, and an appearance of having longer and thicker lashes.  French Cosmetics in Trim, Co Meath have the sole distribution rights for YUMI™ Lashes.  Contact them on 046-9481091. 

Just to note that I haven't tried either of these products yet.  I plan to take at least one of them on once I trial them.  Check back soon for my opinion chics!

Suicide

In March 2010, my 37 year old cousin died by suicide.  He was one of the good guys.  You know the type of guy that adores his mam and his sisters, has a great group of friends that's he's had forever, actually likes hanging around with his Dad and Uncles.  The type of guy that stepped up to parent a child that biologically wasn't his.  Just a really good guy.  I was the same age as him.  My mam and his mam were pregnant at the same time.  His mam married my mams youngest and favourite brother.  My favourite uncle. 

I dunno if all families are the same but when I was growing up, every weekend all four of us kids would be bundled into the Hillman Hunter and we'd go to one of our aunties houses.  I grew up in Glasnevin.  My mams sisters and brothers scattered to the four corners of the northside so we had our pick of where to visit most weekends.  A lot of those weekends were spent in Dublin 5 with my uncle and aunt and their 7 kids.  My memories of my cousin are vivid.  We literally used to beat the crap out of each other falling up and down the stairs.  He had a shy demeanor but was well up for a laugh. As we got older I remember seeing him out and about (usually Blooms or Tomangos and my friends would also say "jaysus he's a fine thing" and I'd be like "ye I know, pity he's me cousin"!:-)  He was so handsome, the real looker of all the family. 

Nobody knew he was struggling.  He had gotten married only 9 months prior to his passing.  This scares the shit out of me.  How can we help people if we don't know they aren't coping?  Hearing the news that he was gone shook me to my core.  I actually don't know where the feelings came from. I didn't know him so much as an adult as well as I did as a child so it's not like we were besties or anything but when my dad broke the news to me, I sobbed like a child.  When I went down to his home that evening to try to comfort his family, I was appalled at the sobs that escaped my body.  I frightened my other half.  I frightened myself!

Suffice to say the next few days were shite! Just desperate sadness at every corner.  I could barely look his mam and dad in the face.  Since that day, many reasons have been thrown about as to why he did what he did.  The truth is, only he knows.  Nobody believes he suffered from depression beforehand.  Most believe he just snapped over something and couldn't see a way out.  I dunno, is it possible that one minute you can be thinking and acting normally and the next you snap and you end your life? I don't know what to believe.  How do we help people when they feel like this if they don't share their feelings? 

I've tweeted about this before but I believe we are in the middle of suicide epidemic.  More young people in Ireland die by suicide than die in road traffic accidents yet we have a huge Road Safety campaign on the TV and on the Radio and nothing on the same scale for Suicide Prevention.  It's time we tackle the subject of suicide in the same way.  Set up a Suicide Prevention Campaign.  A national campaign that swamps the media in this country.  We need to make it that you can't turn on a TV, or radio or read a paper without the type of in your face coverage required to take the stigma away from suicide.  We need to have quarterly updates as to how our rate of suicide is falling, the same way we hear how the amount of deaths on our roads is falling.  We need to show people in distress how to live through their distress.  That there are many others who feel as isolated and helpless as they feel and if they just hold on, maybe they will see a way out of their situation. The ads that tell us to look after our mental health are a start and getting high profile people to talk about their own issues also helps but I'm talking about getting a long running campaign going like the campaign that the Road Safety Authority runs all the time.  Pieta House is an amazing organisation but again, this is not a big enough organisation to tackle the mounting issue of suicide in this country. 

I just feel so strongly about this subject, even before the death of my own cousin.  I just wish I knew how I could play my part in getting this campaign up and running.  Any ideas?

Catrice Budget In Price Not Quality

I've been keepimg me beadys open looking for a full range of the up and coming budget make up range Catrice for the past while and thanks to the lovelies at twitter @deefur to be precice (thanks doll) I found a stockist close enough to me.  I lashed the kids into the car at 5 on Friday last afraid that it would all be sold out before I got there (yes, it is that popular).  God, well she must have been looking out for me cos when we got there the sales assistant had just fiinished stocking the whole range completely.  Sweet Jesus I near keeled over with the excitement.  There was nobody else in the shop but us so I dispatched the kids to the NYC testers and away I went. 

First on my wantsies list was a load of their nail polishes.  They are good!!  They are actually very good.  At 2.49 it's amazing how good they are.  Massive amount of pigment means one coat is enough.  It's thick enough too without being gloopy.  I got shade 30 Meet me at Coral Island which is, surprise, surprise, coral.  A deep coral virging on shocking pink which looks amazeballs on your tootsies with a nice bitta tan.



Meet me at Coral Island


My favourite item from Catrice is without a doubt the eyebrow set.  It comes in a compact little box with two shades, a brown and a grey.  At first glass the brown looks too light as does the grey but when you apply them they are definitely dark enough.  I was happy enough with just the colours but upon giving the box a little shake I heard a rattle and discovered a hidden compartment. The excitement of me when I discovered a mini tweezers and a comb and angled brush for application.  Unfuppinreal!!  This set me back a ridic 4.49.  I mean serio, you wouldn't get a sambo for that these days.  Delireh!

I then got a Lashes to Kill mascara.  It promises an eye opening effect.  Charming!  The jury's out on this one.  I'm loathe to change if I find a mascara I like and I've been loving NYC's Showtime Volumizing Mascara (another bargain at a fiver btw).  The brush is a little on the fat side (so not been sizest) and I don't believe you get the same wiggle from a fat brush as you do from it's slimmer sister.  I also don't think it's as black a formula as you can get. Charcoaly would be my description.  Still, I'll perservere and see if 3 coats is enough!


The lipsticks are all kinds of awesome! Again, a massive amount of pigment is involved and it's such a creamy consistency.  One scoop on the brush and I was covered.   I have been on a quest for the perfect nude since birth and I think I may just have found it.  Coupled with the lipliner from their Lip Designer range 050 Caramel Brown (which has a lipbrush at the end of the pencil, genius), the Ultimate Colour lipstick in shade 010 Be Natural gives a perfect nude lip.  A tad on the beige side but only just.  A hint of a barely there pink gloss fixes that.  I used Sexy Motherpucker from the Soap and Glory range. 

I took a chance on the foundation.  I did so only because I splashed on the Armani Luminous Silk foundation a while back and suffice to say have not been blow away at all at all.   I thought it would be a carbon copy of the Armani Hydra Glow which I hearted madly.  But it's not.  It's more sheer, not as much covereage and a bit too dewy for my taste.  So I was in the market for a total coverage foundation for the days when I don't want to build up the colour with the Armani.  Enter Catrice Photo Finish 18 hours, oil free and with light reflecting pigments for only 6.99.....why yes please!  I was so impressed with it that I wore it on my big night out last night.  I would NEVER normally do this. I save the best of my best for nights like last night but it gave me the coverage and the lasting finish I wanted and needed especially in the sweatbox that is Harry's On The" Bleeding" Green.  Honest to God girls it's super! 

This is just a sample of the stuff I bought and I haven't bought half of what I wanted to.  Their range is unreal.
Check it out on their website http://www.catrice.eu/products.html.  I believe that Catrice is better quality than NYC, Gosh and at the same level as, if not better than Rimmel.  I love it!

My Colonic

I've always wondered what it must feel like to get warm and cold water hooshed into your bowel in an effort to take the 20 year old poo outta your body.  Really?!  Eh ok so it's not something I EVER thought about but when a Dealrush offer came into my email box I snapped it up.  It usually costs a gajillion euro but for 40 blips it was mine.  So today was the day I had booked.  They tell you to incorporate flaxseed and Linseed into your diet in the days leading up to it but feck that for a game of soldiers.  It tasted like I emptied the contents of my daughters pencil parer into my cornflakes!  Gickna! 

So on arrival to the clinic....I say clinic but it was a two up to down house with a gold placque on the wall bearing it's name....I was greeted by a super friendly girl.  Y'know the type, earth mothery, healthy looking, kept calling me after animals, i.e. chicken and lamb.   She was so welcoming and matter of fact I couldn't help but feel more relaxed.  After a short survey she had a look at a sample diet sheet that I gave her and was able to tell me what my symptoms where before I told her a thing.  Impressive! 

So then it was down to business.  It's all done very matter of factly and without a hint of the scarlification that's about to come (in my mind anyway).  She firstly had to ahem, insert a finger into the back passage to make sure you're not cut or have grapes (piles) that need to be treated before she can start the treatment.  SCARLET!!!!  I was hoping she'd find something that meant I couldn't get it done to be honest cos I was starting to get a bit scared of the whole procedure but no such luck. We were good to go and before you knew it, the pipe was up.  This bit didn't hurt.  It was a bit uncomfortable until you got used to it but after that it was fine.  How colonics work is that they fill your bowel will warm water until you feel like you need to go and then they flush it out and that's when all the waste flows out.  She then flushes you out with cold water which was a tad bit more uncomfortable as you could feel it more.  You can physically see your tummy swelling when she is flushing the water in.  It's mental!  She also needed to massage my tummy to help the "more clingy feckers" find their way!  She encourages you to watch what is coming out of your body as it's "psychologically pleasing".  I actually agree.  I swear to God though the amount of gack was astonishing.  She assured me it was normal though.  MORTO!!  When she's finished you then give a little cough and out comes the pipe.  Easy peasy!  She encouraged me to visit the bathroom in case I might feel the need but I was quite sure I was done.  Again, SCARLET!!

The treatment finishes with the obligatory after care and a questions and answers session with regard to foods to avoid to help your particular complaint.  She kept stressing that it was a mahoosive detox I just had and to respect my body afterwards.  Hmmmmmmm right!

This treatment is no Yonka Facial lemme tell ya.  It's definitely uncomfortable at the beginning.  At one stage I had hot flushes and was feeling very queasy but once I got into the rythm of the treatment it was tolerable.  Contrary to what I thought, I don't feel in any way different.  My tummy is making the weirdest of noises and I have a few crampy spasms more than I normally would have.  She did tell me that a course of 4 is recommended (of course it bloody is) for optimum results but at 110 blips a go, not a chance!  Whereas I'm glad I tried it I wouldn't be in a rush to do it again if I'm honest.  Of course I expected having "evactuated"  as much as I did, I'd hop on the scales and be down stones.  Haaaaardly!!
I would say defo do it once to see if it's for you but make sure you go to a registered and experienced practitioner.  I'm off to wreck my detox buzz now.....chin chin! :-)

Kardashian Twitter Overload

Sweet baby Jesus I'm sooooooo over the Kardashian's!  Eh, well not really.  I still Sky + everything pertaining to the stunning beeyatches.  But truly, on Twitter, anybody who follows them must feel like I do right?  Khloe is probably my favourite cos I think she's the one that shows her true colours but she's also the one that tweets the most and usually about her Lam Lam (her basketball superstar hubbster to you and me).  Kim only tweets about the size of her hoop, QuickTrim or gushes about how much she loves her girls and her sisters (mahoosive eyeroll)  The lil one Kourtney bores me so I don't follow her but the Ma, Kris, well she's a canny one she is.  She either tweets about the show and who's gonna watch it at 10 Eastern or whatever other time it's on in the States or she gets paid to tweet and that really fecks up my Chi.  Not liking the fact that she words her tweets in such a way that we're supposed to believe those are her thoughts on a particular product.  Baldyknickers they are!  I still like the Kardashian brand cos I believe they do have a lovely family and are a real family and I love the drama they make up for every series.  Plus it makes me feel better that Kim has a bigger hoop than me, although she gets paid to wiggle hers :-)

Losing the poundage is making me lose my mind

Back in January I embarked on yet another "diet".  I'd a pain in me hoop with feeling like a sack of dirty knick knacks.  Initially I was loathe to try another UniWeightCurves type place but I realised I need the disgusted look of the woman weighing me in to keep me in check.  I'd heard about Slimming World on Twitter (yet another reason to adore it).  So with dread filling my heart (not an overreaction I swear) off I went out to the Crowne Plaza in Blanchardstown.  You'd swear I was off to the gallows I felt so nervous.  I've never been one for weighing myself.  I tend to use my clothes as a guage to see if I've gained or lost weight.  My younger mans Mam bless her every year she'd get me a top or cardi and every year the sizes would go up ha ha!  She always said "ah it's for comfort hon sure they're all wearing them big these days"!  But I knew what she was saying really :-)  So anyhoo I got weighed.  Mehhhhh!!  I blogged about my first few weeks earlier on and I had fairly consistent losses then I forgot to blog about my progress.  HUNGER!!!!  I'm thinking hunger made me forget :-))  So I'm over 2 stone down now.  Wahahahayyyyy!! 
I'm thrilled of course but it's still soul destroying.  Some weeks, you stick to the plan so well, you walk your dog, you clean your windows with vigour and batter the floors with the hoover and mop and at the weigh in you've either stayed the same or gained.  What the actual fook!!  And then there's the times when you're been on a mahoosive bender and drank litres of wine and eaten everything that wasn't nailed down and at the weigh in youre down 3lbs (I fecking love those weeks!):-)  So it's hard to know what's gonna happen at the weighin and if you're anything like me, it'll determine your mood for the evening.  A loss and it's oh life is wonderful and I'm so pretty and if you're up, well it's back to feeling like a sack of dirty knick knacks :-)  I hate that it has this power over me but I think of it as a project, one that has a deadline that I haven't reached yet so I need to keep ticking away at it until the deadline is met.  I had a bit of a fall off the oul wagon tonight though and succumbed to the Kinder Bueno that waved at me everytime I opened the fridge but feck it.  Twas mahoosive and I enjoyed it.  I'm focused but not when there's a Bueno in the house girls....jeez!;-P

Hotloxs Hair Extensions

I have long hair, I've always had long hair but I wanted longer hair.  If you're anything like me your hair will grow until it's past your shoulders but settle just above your bra strap a couple of inches though with the weight of my baps these days my bra strap is creeping up my back monthly ha ha! 
Anyhoo, I went to an NYC make up event in A-Wear recently and Louise Johnston of Fade Street notoriety was the model.  I was struck by how fab her hair was so of course I asked her and she said they were Hotloxs extensions.  Well, if they're good enough for Louise, they're good enough for me so I made an appointment with Anna. 

Anna worked with another girl and covers all of Ireland doing mobile hair extensions.  She's incredibly busy and often does 7 sets of extensions per day and that includes travelling from her home in Kilkenny to various parts of the country.  I've had extensions before let me tell ya but never like this.  She is super speedy.  She was in and out within the hour and with no fuss.  She blended the hair with my own and cut it to length and I honestly couldn't tell where my own hair started.  Amazeballs! 

That night, was a pain in the hoopaloop!  I couldn't sleep cos the bonds were so uncomfortable but over the course of the week I didn't notice them so much.  Anna tells you to lash the leave in conditioner into your hair at night and put it in a plait to minimise the knotting while you sleep so I've been doing that however, knotting is a mahoosive problem in my hair.  Just this evening I had to cut a huge knot out.  God knows if it was my real hair or not.  Ah sure it'll grow...or not as the case may be ha ha!  They are by far the best extensions I've ever tried.  The hair quality is amazing and 6 weeks in I've not lost a single bond.  Unheard of with me.

However, I'm getting to the stage now where they are more of a bother than not so I'm thinking POB!  Bring on pay day :-)

Stay at home mammies don't work right?!

So now it's Rantday! I'm stay at home mammy or when asked what I do, I say nothing.  I don't work.  I "just" mind the kids and I "just" look after the running of the house.  Now my house isn't so big that it has an east and west wing etc but it does have a games room (the boxroom for most of us).  So one would imagine it's easy enough to keep clean.  Arse it is!  I must have about 6 laundry baskets at the moment in an attempt to streamline (ahhhh a word from my corporate working days) the project and make no bones about it....it is a project....a mahoosive, never bleedin ending one!  It's soul crushing when you think you've gotten to the end of a basket only for the chislers to lash in yogurt encrusted tops and poo marked knick knacks or worse still for himself to unload the contents of his swimming/football bags and your journey starts again.  And that's only the laundry.

The amount of dishes we use in this house is unreal.  My kids can't just take an apple out of the fruit bowl and sink their gums into it.  No, my kids need the apple peeled and then chopped and then put into a bowl. They don't like their beans on their plate with the rest of their food, they want it on the side in a bowl.  Ditto ketchup and gravy...on the side, in a bowl!  It's like living with a pair of Sally Allbrights (Sally from When Harry met Sally).
One likes her stew mushed till it's like baby food and you can't see the carrots anymore and the other likes her carrots to be peeping up at her from beneath the sea of murkiness.  One likes parmesan from a tin all over her pasta and the other one insists on fresh parmasen grated thinly over her pasta....but heaven forbid you give her penne....too soggy!  And you guessed it, the other one loves penne cos she can play eye spy through it.  It's a never ending day of demands.  And is usually the case with kids I've to stop this blog mid post as my youngest has done a belly flop onto my bed and bounced off onto the floor FFS!!!  This is the norm but she obviously wants attention so till next time dolls x

Doh!

So today my mam was in town and was talking to a woman we both know and the woman, without realising it, was telling my mam a story and I was the leading lady in this story of how I "devastated my ex by leaving him" and that I was "a beautiful looking girl but looks can be deceiving" and that I was a "total bitch".  Sweet baby Jesus my mam nearly keeled over with the shock.  She was so flumoxed she just turned on her heels and walked off.  Of course as she was walking away from the woman, she was already regretting not telling her who she was and sticking up for me.  I'm thrilled she didn't.  At the end of the day, who is this woman?  She's someone I know but don't care about so her feelings don't concern me.  My sisters and boyfriend were all so annoyed but not me.  Y'see I know I'm not a bitch.  I know what happened between myself and my ex as does he. This woman, doesn't!  She makes an assumption about what happened and formed an opinion.  She's entitled to do this.  She can share her opinion with everybody and there is nothing I can do about it. In my twenties, this would have bothered me but now, in my thirties all I can say is.....meh!!   Oh, and thanks for the compliment!

Dublin GAA

How do I put this without making me sound like a maniac!  I fupping LOVE it!  I've ALWAYS loved it.  However, I must be honest and admit to following the Royals (Meath) when I was younger as my Dad is a Royal and I used to go to Croke Park with him and I just shouted for whoever he shouted for. 

As I got older and got sense however, my allegiance switched to the county of my birth and that is where the obsession started.  I get so worked up over every single match be it league or championship, challenge or shield match.  If we lose, especially to Meath or Tyrone, a dark cloud descends on me for at least a couple of hours.  Last year when we lost to Cork, I was inconsolable because we had it.  It was there for the taking and we blew it by fouling needlessly.  One of the best atmospheres to be had it climbing the steps to Hill 16 and joining the rest of the blue army singing Come on You Boys in Blue.  The adrenalin flows and the heart races in anticipation of "could this be the year we do it"!?  Of course, every year we think this could be our year but sure how bad is that.  Hope....it's a wonderful feeling. So on the night before the beginning of another NFL......Up the Dubs!!!

Weigh In No.3

So last week was my third week.  I wasn't a bit optimistic at all cos I've had a weird sickness and I was picking at whatever took my fancy instead of stuff I knew I had to eat.  In my case it was Rich Tea biccies, not the worst of foods to be fair but still, not exactly diet friendly.  Also, I had my friend Nic Nac's birthday on the Saturday night where more than 5 (my self imposed allocation) martini's were consumed!  I resisted the urge to eat everything that wasn't nailed down the following day as the FEAR enveloped me but did have some chocolate that evening. 

The day of the weigh in came and I swear I felt like I was off to the gallows I was dreading it that much.  The class had 16 new members on top of 50 members already and each of them looked up when I screamed with delight when I realised I was 2.5lbs down.  I couldn't believe it.  You'd swear I lost half a stone in one go the way I was carrying on.  But it was my own personal little goal.  In 3 weeks, I've lost 7.5lbs and I couldn't be happier about it.  My original goal was to lose 2 stone in time for Dublin's first game of the GAA championship in June.  I've now revised that so that I lose a stone by 1st April as I have a wedding.  So that gives me 8 weeks to lose 14lbs.   Can I do it?  YES I CAN!

NYX Eyeshadow Base

I picked up this little pot of wonderfulness (what, that's a word!) at my local beauty wholesaler last week.  I'd just finished the last of my Lemon Aid from Benefit and hadn't gotten around to getting another one.  It's cheap as chips at 6.50 and comes in three colours.  A white base which is to make your light colours sparkle and pop, a pearl base which makes your frosty, pearl shadows pop and a skin coloured base which deepends your dark colours and pigments.  I got the white one...ESB01.  I really, really like it.  It's as good as Lemon Aid and  a fraction of the price.  Dupe perhaps?

No 7 Exquisite Curl Mascara

I picked up this mascara at the weekend purely because Boots were selling it for a fiver with one of those vouchers they give you for Ruby & Milly or No 7 products.  Who uses these?!  I never have but I did on Saturday and I'm glad I did.  This mascara wand comes in a half moon shape so without even having any product on the wand it lifts and separates your lashes instantly.  Getting right in at the root and wiggling while pulling upwards gives great curl using this mascara.  However, it took me two coats over a coat I'd left on from the night before to achieve the desired effect.  I find mascara always goes on and looks better if you leave it on from the night before.  Not great for your pillowcase but a great smouldering look :-)  At a fiver, you really can't go wrong!

Nude Lips

I've never been one for wearing a strong colour on my lips and I think it all stems back to an old boyfriend telling me I looked "messy" when I attempted to wear a slightly too orangey red one evening.  Scarred for life I was!  I have a juicy pair of lips truth be told...not in the Angie Jolie camp mind you, but hardly in the Dot Cotton camp either so I could carry off a bold lip if I wanted.  However, I favour the less is more look when it comes to lips.  Think Kim Kardashian and that's what I'm after.  You would think it's easy enough to get this look but it's not.  There are so many good nude lipsticks and glosses on the market but they vary in colour, pigment and texture.  Then you have to consider your own natural lip colour.  I would be more pinky than reddy so I need a peachy toned nude to achieve the look I want.  At the moment I'm using Faces lipstick in Joanna.  At first glance it looks super salmony peach but when you put it on especially with a brown toned lipliner such as Oak by Mac you get a muted, nude lip.  I'm also using Soap and Glory's Sexy Motherpucker lipgloss over this as it's super shiny and lasts ages.  It's a plumper lipgloss and your lips will tingle like a bad thing for about 5 minutes after application.  I've a list as long as my arm of nudes I've tried but so far, I'm liking this combo. 

Revlon Photo Ready Foundation

Right, so lets blog about make up since that's primarily why I started this blog.  I spend my life looking for two things make up wise....the perfect foundation and the perfect nude lipstick.  I'll blog about the nude lipstick on it's ownio at a later date though (don't get me started!).  I read on another blog that the Revlon Photo Ready foundation was the new "it" foundation.  So I got it yesterday and used it on my night out last night and d'ye know what, it's only bloody brilliant!  It comes in liquid format and the texture is really creamy, a little bit thicker than Chanel Lumiere but not as thick as Estee Lauder Double Wear.  The coverage is just fantastic.  I didn't actually end up using a primer last night as I was so busy trying to de-grease my hair that I barely had time to slap on foundation let alone primer :-)  Even without the primer, this foundation settled onto my skin so well. What I was most impressed about was the dewy finish it gave without a hint of shine.  So much so that I didn't use any of my Bobbi Brown shimmer brick at all....a first for me!  It's staying power is as good as that of Double Wear and one pump did my whole face.  There are only 8 colours to choose from though.  I paid only €14.50 for it, special offer in Boots so I think it's well worth that price compared to the Estee Lauder and Chanel products I compare it to.

Hairy Fairy

As I type this, I feel my anger being vented on the keyboard.  Y'see, I'm going out tonight for my good friend Nic Nac's birthday.  And since money is tight, I was gonna do my hair myself, even though I adore getting blow dries (careful!).  But at the last minute I decided I didn't have the energy to do it myself and off I popped to the local hairdresser.  Now I've been once before and I HATED what she did to my hair.  All pouffey and big done with rollers from one of those wheely black tray thingies they use for pensioners.  So why did I go back there when every pore in my body was screaming not to.  My internal alarm is sooooooo spot on most of the time and it was ringing off the hook.  Still, I went in and I figured she had to do a better job than me.  HARDLY!  She blow dried it with what looked like a comb and pouffed it out again.  Still, I thought I'd lash the GHD over it when I got home.  But NO, she ruined it for me, by putting an industrial size glob of serum on the roots of my hair...not on the ends where it was made to go but on my freshly washed roots and then proceeded to run her greasy hands through the rest of my gorgeously clean hair.  AGHHHHHHHHHHH!!  I was sitting in my chair and I had that expression on my face, y'know the one where you're not happy but trying to look happy.  Why do us Irish do that?  Why can't we be like the French and stand up and vent our unhappiness and throw a wobbler, refuse to pay and walk out in an arrogant huff?  Nope, not us Irish.  Not only did I say I liked it, I gushed about how much I liked it.  WTF??!
Anyway, I've an hour to get ready now.  Nothing I can do about the hair.  I'll just have to wear extra sparkly eyeshadow to draw attention away from it.  Moral of the story girls.....NEVER go to a hairdressers above a butchers, newsagents, off licence etc! 

Dollydaydreams n Gummygumdrops

So I got my blog name from childhood.  Anybody who knows me in the real world, not on Twitter or Facebook etc but actually spent any time with me will know that I'm in my own little world.  My Mam used to call me Dollydaydreams and that I live in an Airy Fairy world.  I'm a dreamer.  I think anything can happen.  I think, why not?  I'm a bit innocent and very gullible.  When I was about 14, my 10 year old sister told me that she'd found a secret doorway to Narnia, in Mam and Dad's wardrobe behind the stack of towels.  Well, I was soooooooooooooo excited.  She told me we couldn't go till after dinner and not to tell my other brother or sister.  So after dinner, I crawled into the wardrobe and started secret knocking on every part of the back of the wardrobe. When no door sprung open (surprise, surprise) I crawled out of the wardrobe to see her giggling from behind her pillow and I said to her "I'll try again later" ha ha ha ha ha!  To this day we laugh about it. 

Gummygumdrops is exactly as you'd expect.  My dad called me that because just before my communion when I was 7 I believe, my teeth all fell out at the front.  I was warned not to smile with my mouth open by my mam cos she didn't want the photo's ruined.  Now this would have been understandable (ish) if it wasn't for the fact that she made me wear my brown health service glasses with a patch over one of the lenses!!  I mean WTF?????  My lack of teeth didn't ruin the photo's.  The Jack Duckworth specs totally did ha ha.  I can empathize somewhat with my Mam though.  When my own daughther made her communion last year, I was hoping that her wobbly front teeth wouldn't fall out beforehand, and they didn't. (I'm resisting the urge to put Thank God at the end of that sentence like my Mam does)

Sparkly, lovely, things....

So I'm mad about make up.  Always have been.  Years ago when I was living at home and had the attic room all on my ownio I used to sit cross legged on the floor in front of my teeny radiator peering through a pink pound shop mirror and happily trial and error the contents of my make up.  Back then, my make up bag consisted of Constance Carroll Candyfloss lipstick (everyone's first lippie, right?) and a Constance Carroll deep orange and dark brown eye shadow pallet. No foundation but sure I was 15 and had mahoosive skin :-) Looking back, I'm SCARLET!  I never even heard of tweezing so it didn't matter if my eye make up was blended to high heaven, the stragglers underneath my brows had a life of their own ha ha. 

Fast forward to today and my make up routine has changed little.  I now sit at the kitchen table with my No 7 large make up mirror balanced on the biscuit tin.  Not a frosted pink lippie in sight although I must confess to several deep orange pigments (a la Mac).  For me, getting ready for a night out, starts the week before.  Skin is readied in preparation for the false tan (I'll blog about this later), nails are either filled (acrylic....thanks Eve) or painted depending on the occassin and the outfit (yes, it's THAT serious).  I've started to skip getting a blow dry because I'm never happy with the outcome.  It's sooooooo hard to find somebody to do your hair the way you want it.  Now maybe that's because I want Penelope Cruz hair and it's just never gonna happen but I'd rather spend my money on a new pigment than on my hair.  I know some girls hate doing their make up and spend 10 minutes on themselves before a night out and all I can say is....HOW and WHY?  This is the best part of going out (besides the actual being out part of course).  It's like deciding what to wear, deciding what make up to go with.  Smokey eye and pale lips, pale eye and strong lips, strong eyes and strong lips sure why not?  Primer or highlighting primer? Matt or dewy foundation, gloss or lippie or both, falsh lashes or lashings of mascara, powder or pencil in brows, shading or highlighting or both.  See, to me, it's an art form.  Make up can transform a person visually but more importantly it can transform how they feel about themselves and that can only be a good thing!

Single Socks

Why do they go into the washing machine happily in pairs and come out singletons.  Always, without fail.  Even when I ball them up together, they still separate mid cycle.  My younger man reminded me today that all 8 pairs of new socks that Auntie Trish had token gifted him for Christmas had been worn.  He gazed wistfully to the ceiling saying "back to wearing socks for days (weeks) at a time so".  Twas like a dagger to me heart, cos I, being a stay at home mammy, feel it's my duty to make sure he has clean socks to wear to his big fancy job every day.  That sounds so olf fashioned I know but that's what my life is now.  My day consists of schools runs, dishes, hoovering, laundry, cooking, cleaning, feeding the pup, walking the pup, more laundry, dancing (see my The Biggest Loser previous blog) and trying to avoid chocolate for the day.  It bugs the bejaysus out of me when socks get lost cos I feel like it's my fault then when really it's Mr Hotpoints fault for making his filter pipe too big (thanks Google)!
So as I type, himself is gone out with odd black socks but that's a bonus cos usually, it's one brown and one black ha ha!  Anyway, the mystery will continue and as I said to him, there's always next Christmas when no doubt you'll get another 8 pairs from Auntie Trish :-)

The biggest loser...

Every year I promise myself something and every year I let myself down.  I don't ever let anybody else down mind you, just myself.  So once again, come January 4th this year (no one ever starts on the 1st Jan right?), I promised myself that I would shed the weight that has stuck to my body since having the babbas.  Well, that's the excuse I'm giving but considering the eldest will be 9 in June, and the youngest 5 in May, I can't use that as much of an excuse.  The fact is, as is always the case, I got lazy!  I stopped moving around as much as I used to.  The women who say "Oh well running around after these little monsters, keeps me fit" while running a perfectly manicured, well moisturised, sparkling hand through their salon blow dryed hair are lying!! Yes, I defy anybody with kids to tell me that solely looking after your kids keeps you fit.  I mean, how much running around after them do you have to do?  My kids never run fast enough for me to have to chase after them mores the pity. I used to walk everywhere.  I used to play basketball even though I'm only 5.3 give or take a pair of Jimmy Choo's.  I used to do Yoga, Salsa, Running Club (until the boobies grew to big).  Then before you know it, you fall in love, get married, have a child, get separated, fall in love again, have another child and live happily ever after.  Except you would do if only you could shift that bit of weight that taunts you everytime you go shopping for a new dress!  Don't get me wrong.  I'm not massively mahoosive but I have enough junk in my trunk to want to clear that bad boy out for once and for all.  Because when I do shift it, life will be perfect, right?! 

So I joined Slimming World.  Never heard of it till this year but their plan appealed to me. So that's the eating part sorted.  My eldest girl got Just Dance at Christmas for the Wii and I've rediscovered my love of dance. Oh I dance when I'm out etc but not like this.  This is dancing when there is nobody watching and it's brilliant!  So 45 mins every morning when the kids are at school and I lash on my Madonna leggings and my off the shoulder 80's Fame t-shirt, I feel like one of those girls in the Call Me Video.  Y'know, the video with all the gorgeous girls in their spandex and lycra bending over all suggestively etc.  That's me!  So what if you can't balance an egg on my ass....yet!!  So what if they are camera perfect while I'm purple and shiny (eueuewwww).  Perception is everything and I perceive that I'm like them so I give it socks and really go for it when I'm dancing.  Fab!

In my first two weeks I've lost 5lbs.  I'm happy.  It's a slow process but I'm willing to give myself the time to do it this year.  By sharing this with you all, I feel like I can't let you down and I'm hoping that some of you are on this journey with me???  I hope so anyway.

So in the meantime, wish me willpower as Cadbury Creme Egg season approaches and bendy lycra :-)