Photo Diary #14 Do you remember what I said, that first time we met?

Sundays face | Cocktails in Clapham | Queuing | The Breakfast Club | Shiny new Vespa | Cat-face cuddles | Naughty Nars purchase

I haven't done a photo diary post in a little while now, not since I got engaged, so I thought it was about time I did a weekend post :) They're my favourite kinds of posts to read and write, I must be the nosiest blogger!

So this weekend was a pretty relaxed one, but really really good fun. I felt like it was over far too quickly! Sometimes it's nice to have nothing planned and just see what happens, don't you think?
On Friday night my friend Nicola and I had a catch up in Clapham. We had planned on quite a tame night, but accidently happened to stumble upon on happy hour, oopsy. Cucumber sour cocktails, chicken burgers and a good friend to laugh with makes for a fabulous evening.

On Saturday morning, Stef and I braved the queue outside The breakfast Club in Soho
, we knew it was the only thing that would possibly cure our hangovers. Queuing was made a little less painful though, when they brought little shots of hot chocolate and marshmallows to everyone outside, what a cute little touch! Going anywhere else for breakfast just never measures up, it was well worth the wait when my All American pancakes showed up. I'm pretty sure I could live off pancakes ya' know.

After breakfast and a mooch around a couple of shops, (which basically involved me drooling over the beautiful underwear I can't afford in Agent Provocateur), we jumped on Stefs shiny new Vespa and headed to the movies. The perfect afternoon for nursing a hangover :) Les Miserable was pretty darn good, if you haven’t seen it already I'd recommend it. I'm not going to lie, for the first five minutes I did think about leaving, but you get used to them singing every line pretty quickly. So if musicals aren't really your thing, i'd still say it's worth sticking this one out.

Sunday we scooted over to do a spot of shopping in Chelsea. I was naughty and finally purchased the beautiful Laguna by Nars, it had to be done it was on my wish list for so long!We headed back to Clapham and Stef treated me to dinner in the ever so fancy Trinity (I might do a whole post on this for any foodys out there).
Later on the lovely Sarah from Modern Damsel swung by for a glass of wine and some blogger chat.

What did you get up to this weekend? Have you ever eaten in The Breakfast Club or Trinity?

Hannah x

Pink Swoon

I'll admit I'm normally a cream blusher kind of lady. I've always preffered the finish of them and just found them a little more flattering on my skin and easy to blend.

Pink Swoon by Mac, was one of the powder blushers given to me on my make-up course, not a product I would normally pick up for myself.
So I was pleasantly surprised when I actually ended up really liking it. Since I've been using it every day for the last couple of weeks now, I thought it was time I stopped being so selfish and shared my new fav with you all :)

I know it looks bright and slightly terrifying in the pan, but don't be fooled, it's actually a really soft pale pink shade. It's so pretty and I find it really lifts my face.

I think the reason why I actually like this blush is because it's a 'sheertone' blush, so it's a lot lighter and doesn't seem to sit onto of my skin like I've found other powder brushes do. I think it still really suits the natural make-up look too.

As you can see from the swatch, Pink Swoon is very pigmented, so you only need to lightly dab your brush in to get a lot of colour pay off. I've just been applying it to the apples of my cheeks with an angled brush.

Have you got busy weekends planned?
Stef got his new Vespa last night so we're going for a little drive down to Old Street today.
Tonight I'm heading for dinner with my friends Laura and Richie in Muswell Hill, and a lovely early morning Yoga class on Sunday. Busy busy! Just the way I like it :)
Oh, and I know it's only day 4, but I'm doing really well with my resolutions so far, go me! (oh, except the sausage and mash and copious amounts of chocolate Covered Pretzels I seem to have devoured over the last couple of nights...oopsy). 

10 resolutions...

Buddies on NYE | The view from my front door on new years day | Toaster waffles with maple syrup

A very happy new year to all my lovely readers :)
I hope you all had a smashing one and saw out 2012 in style?
I had a nice chilled out one, at our local pub with Stef and my buddy Laura, we drank prossecco, had a little jig and watched the fireworks.

So, another generic blogger post today, I've been enjoying reading everyone’s goals and resolutions for 2013. It's great to see everyone being so positive. So I thought I’d share mine with you too.
I didn't think I actually had any resolutions, but yesterday when I sat down and actually thought about it, I came up with a pretty long list.
I think most of them are realistic, so here we go...

#1. Write a journal for the year.
This is something I have been doing every year since I was 5. As you can imagine I have a massive stash of diaries now! Last year was so manic that I was really naughty and didn't keep a journal, I'm so mad at myself for this because it was the best year ever. So theres no way I’m not keeping a log this year!

#2. Get back into the routine of doing yoga and running once a week.
Yoga and running are the only 2 forms of exercise that I actually get any enjoyment from, and before I moved to London I was doing yoga and going to a running club once a week. It doesn’t sound like a lot I know, but my body was so much nicer back then...

#3. Read more
I started off last year reading a few amazing books (The curious incident of the dog in the night, Life of Pi and The Graveyard to name a few). I'm not sure what happened but I kind of lost my passion for reading a little bit, or was it that I just couldn't find anything I wanted to read? Anyway, this year I want to read some really great novels (suggestions very welcome).


#4. Learn to cook...
or at least try! I'm the first to admit pretty hopeless in the kitchen (unless it involves baking a carrot cake). Stef tends to do all the cooking in our house, so this year I've decided it's about time I learn to cobble together a half decent meal.

#5. Be better at staying on contact with my friends
You know what it's like, before you know it a couple of months have gone by... so, yeah, I just want to make sure I'm more involved in my friends lives this year and make more of an effort, ‘cos I love you guys.

#6. Work on my confidence.
Pretty self explanatory really. Sometimes I think I just need to believe in myself a little bit more and not be so hard on myself.

#7. Be more motivated & use my time better
Especially where my career as a make-up artist is concerned! I feel like I do waste a lot of my free time, so I want to be better at planning constructive things to do.

#8. Eat better and keep drinking water
Well, you only get one body, you might as well look after it right? Being lucky enough to have a super fast metabolism, my diet is preeeetty bad. It's not that I don't enjoy healthy food or anything (hell, I eat anything), I just love carbs and have a ridiculously huge sweet tooth.

#9. Take better care of myself
I suppose this one ties in with eating better too. But just little things like improving my posture, getting regular haircuts (which possibly means getting over my fear of the hairdressers) trying to keep on top of my nails, and getting a proper skincare routine.

#10. Oh, and to make 2013 every bit as fun as 2012 was :)

I was going to put in drink less, but I decided against it, I thought I'd atleast be realistic, paha!
Have you got any new years resolutions? How did you spend new years?

p.s apologies if you follow me on instagram (magsy24) and have already seen these snaps!

The proposal...

Hey beautifuls, a very merry Christmas eve to you :)

A few of you have been asking me to do a post about my engagement, there's so much more to say than this but I'll try and keep it as short as I can...

On Wednesday night 12/12/12 Stef asked me to marry him. It was such an amazing surprise, I won’t ever forget it, it was beautiful, romantic and perfect, and I can't possibly even put into words how happy we both are.

Stef told me we were going to pick up his sister from the airport, and I'd booked half a day off work so we could all go for dinner together.
Luckily for him, I have no sense of direction whatsoever, so I didn’t notice until the last minute that he had actually driven me to the beautiful Stoke Park in Buckinghamshire, the first place we ever stayed together.
He'd booked out the same suite we'd stayed in when we were first falling in love, and arranged for me to take the next day off work so we could really relax, what an absolute sweety.

We started off our evening drinking champagne and ordering room service next to the roaring fire in our suite, it was soooo cosey and we were having such a giggle. Later on, and full of bubbles, we headed down to dinner.
When the restaurant was empty apart from us, and the time rolled round for us to order dessert, the waiter came over and put a big silver tray with a dome lid in front of me. Ooooooh, I thought, surprise desert, 'Stef what's this?' I said, 'I don't know, have a look'. I lifted the lid and there was a ring box there, and then he asked me to marry him :)
The waiters must have been watching, as soon as my eyes started to well up with tears they brought over tissues and a plaque of congratulations chocolates with a sparkler on. And that’s how it happened J I swear I’ve cried about a billion times since then hehe

The next day, after a lovely long lie in, in possibly the most comfortable bed ever and a delicious breakfast of fruit and waffles, we took a chilly stroll around the grounds. After all that snow and cold weather, the lake had frozen and frost covered everything, it was stunning, like how I imagine the gardens from Alice in Wonderland or Narnia.

It really was the perfect little pre-Christmas get away to the countryside, I'm a very lucky lady indeed. Stoke Park is beautiful and has so much history, it was honestly like something out of a movie or a dream. It was the perfect proposal.

Photo Diary#12 It's part of me, apart from me

Chilly Sunday stroll around the common | Ice-skating in Hyde Park | Icy pond | Chicken wraps for lunch | The Ferris wheel at Winter wonderland | Yet another Cheeseburger

You might have guessed that I've become slightly snap happy ever since I got my Iphone. I'm the most annoying person to go out with now because I just want to photograph everything. I won’t let you eat your food until I've photographed it.

It was so hard for me to pick a small selection of photos for this post, I've taken so many... I hope you like these little snapshots of my week.

So anyway, what have I been up to?

Last week the work ladies and I headed over to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park, I've never been before and it has to be done really doesn't it?!

It really gave me that little Christmas tingle, the smells of mulled wine and hot-dogs, ice-skating and fair rides. I'll admit I was a little apprehensive about ice-skating, I haven’t been for a good few years, but I'm very proud of myself for not falling over! 

The highlight of my evening has got to be going on the "Power Tower". It lifts you up to the same height as a high rise building (it's not for the faint-hearted), we could see the whole London skyline at night time. It was completely breath-taking and I kicked myself for not taking my camera on the ride with me!

Stef and I spent Saturday afternoon watching the rugby by a log fire in a cute little pub in Primrose Hill. I'm not normally one for rugby, but when you team it with a few glasses of mulled wine, home-made sausage and mash, a log fire and a cuddly boyfriend, it sounds much more appealing, right? I love Primrose Hill, it's got to be one of my favourite places in London.

We walked to the top of actual Primrose Hill after dark, to see London all lit up and pretty (for those of you who don't know, it's another spot where you can see the whole of London). It was tooo cold to stay out forl long so we headed home with a bag of dark chocolate covered pretzels. Good way to spend an evening? I think so.

On Sunday we had a little stroll around Clapham Common, it was so chilly that the pond had frozen over and by the time we got home for a scrummy lunch of chicken wraps, my face was pretty numb!

Since I've recovered from my ill spell, pretty much all I wany to consume is cheeseburgers. This one was burger number 4 of the week, I'm such a pig. I think because I couldn't eat anything for so long I'm making up for that now! So sorry for the constant food porn photos, you know by now that I'm such a foody and I'm just really enjoying eating at the moment!

Now, I seem to have rambled on sufficiently....

How were your weekends?

Do you like taking photographs of the things you're getting up to?

Photo Diary#11 A weekend in Bath

Hey kids,you all seemed to like the video I popped up from the weekend, so I thought I'd show you some snaps from Bath tonight.

Last weekend, Stef and I decided to escape the hectic London life, and head to the beautiful city of Bath.
Friday night ended up being a bit of an impromptu bar crawl, starting with chocolate martinis (yes, they do actually taste of chocolate) and a bottle of wine on the train, before we had even arrived, hiccup!
We dumped our things at the hotel and headed to a few of the bars I used to go to as a student in Bath.
Needless to say, after a bottle of prossecco and a few more cocktails, we woke up a little worse for ware on Saturday morning, we're such a bad influence on each other...

We had a lovely big lie in and headed to one of my favourite pubs, 'The Raven' for one of their famous home-made pies, just what you need with a beast of a hangover. We walked around by the weir, I showed Stef a couple of my old flats, The Cresant, The Circus, and The Abbey. As we sat down in the Abbey, there was an orchestra and choir rehearsing, it was so relaxing when we were feeling a little fragile from the night before. Perfect timing!

Oh, we also paid a trip to the famous Sally Lunns tea-rooms, for a famous Sally Lunn bun, a toasted brioche type bread with melted cinnamon butter on top, UH-MA-ZING! Seriously, the best thing you will ever taste. I am currently obsessed with all things cinnamon as a result.
On Saturday night, we dined in a gorgeous candle-lit, intimate little French bistro, the food was incredible.

We did the typical tourist thing today, and visited the Roman Baths, it's got to be done hasn't it? We headed up town for a warm winter veg soup in 'Same-Same but Different' before catching the train back to Paddington.

We were so lucky with the beautiful sunny crisp winter weather, it made for some gorgeous shots! I'll admit, I did feel rather nostalgic revisiting the city that I studied and lived in for 4 years, it's always going to be nice to go back. 

Have you ever been to Bath?

Beautiful Images#3 people should fall in love with their eyes closed

All imaged from Pinterest and Tumblr

Hey guys,

I haven't done one of these posts for a while, so I thought I'd share with you my favourite images from this week.

I'm heading over the ever so beautiful Bath tonight for a little weekend get away with my boyfriend. I'm super excited, I lived there for 4 years whilst I was at University, and I can't wait to show him around. No doubt we will be doing a bar crawl, trying out some new cocktails and taking in all the sights. I can't wait to show you guys this weekends photos :)

What are you up to this weekend? Did you like my favourite pictures this week? Oh don't forget to enter my Chanel giveaway too!



Photo Diary #10 Because, we own the sky

Hi there chaps, did you miss me?!

Don't worry, I haven't abandoned you, I've just had the craziest week on my make-up artist course, it completely zonked me out. I loved every second though.
I have to say I really did miss blogging, I think if I'd had coffee I would have been able to, but caffine shakes and applying eyeliner to models do NOT mix well. I know I said I would vlog each night, but I don't think I realised how intense the make-up artist course was going to be, especially the shoot on Friday. You'll be happy to know I have filmed a vlog about my week for you though, it'll be up ASAP.

Tonight, I just thought I'd share a few snaps from today with you. We spent our Sunday in Chelsea, to pick up a gorgeous jumper I was desperate for (more on that later), and get some frames for the prints we got last time we were in Chelsea. We swung by a noodle bar called 'Phat Phuc' (tehe, I couldn't help but laugh at this, I'm so immature) and sat on Kings Road for a quick latte to warm up. I do love Chelsea dates :)

I've got a few posts planned already for the week, I feel like I have so much to say to you guys after my week off!

What have you been up to over the weekend?