Staying Positive

Hello again, and welcome to another installment of Off Topic Tuesday! Can I just start by saying IT'S ONLY 50 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS! WAHOO. You know, the first thing I just thought of when typing that was 'I can only imagine all the chocolate I am going to be eating'... Oh dear Lily...

Anway, this week Ryon has set the challenge to BE POSITIVE. Christmas is something that is keeping my spirits high and my negativity low. I know that Christmas isn't particularly a good time for everyone, or maybe some people just don't really see it as a big deal. However, I love Christmas as, for me, it is all about family and spending quality time with loved ones. 

This year I have got enough money to actually buy people presents! How excited, eh? Aha. I know Christmas isn't about presents or money but it is nice to be able to spoil those that you care about every so often. I want to show my appreciation to my family and friends. I also think that its the giving that counts. It doesn't matter what you give to someone, its about the time you spend picking it out; asking pretty obvious questions such as 'what size shoe are you?' and 'what's your favourite colour?'... and 'how do you spell Converse?' aha. 

Enough jibber jabber about Christmas. Lets talk about staying positive. I just finished watching a video on YouTube of the Pixiwoo sisters (Sam and Nic) talking to Jordan Bone. The basis of the video is about staying positive in whatever situation you are in (watch it here). Jordan talks a little about her condition and how she came to be Tetraplegic. I was really inspired by this video because sat on the other side of my computer screen was a beautiful woman that was happy, bubbly, full of life and happiness even though she has been through so much in her life. She kept saying that we each only have one life (unless you believe in reincarnation) and we can't dwell on things that have happened in the past otherwise we'll waste the time we have left being miserable. It really opened my eyes to the fact that I have spend a good portion of my life so far moaning about things I'm unhappy about or things I dislike about myself... and for what? What good has come out of my moaning? I'll tell you; no good! Nothing I have ever grumbled has benefited me in any way what so ever. Therefore I am going to try my hardest to see the positives from now on and whenever I feel myself getting even just a little tetchy I am going to take some deep breaths and (fingers crossed) calm down. I mean, how hard can it be... right?

I am going to another video that Jordan talked about her story in and also her YouTube channel. I hope you find her as inspirational as I do. 

Amazing Not Invisible 

Jordan's Channel

Until next time;

Over and out, 

Lily.

I can't believe it's almost Halloween!?

Hi everyone, Lily here once again to fill you in on all the nonsense that's floating about in my brain box. As I mentioned last week, I feel as though makeup is not the right route to take with the segment of the blog. Makeup is a huge passion of mine and I still love it dearly, I just don't think it went very well with the overall tone of the blog. So, with some help from Ryon, I have decided to rename this slice of the blog 'Off-Topic Tuesday'. I often find myself veering completely off of the point and having to bring myself back from the whirlwind of ideas and thoughts threatening to spill out all over the internet. 

This weeks theme is Halloween! I have to be honest when I say that this year I haven't been as excited about it all as I usually get. It may have a little something to do with the fact that I am going all out on Christmas gifts (as this year is the first year I've had a decent amount to spend... I know, I know, its not all about money and gifts - but I've never had the money to buy presents before so now that I do this year, I've gone a little crazy). I do, however, love this time of year. It's my absolute favourite! I love pulling the thick coat out of the cupboard, dusting it off and layering up with jumpers upon jumpers upon jumpers! Lets not forget the hats, scarves and gloves. Anyhow, even though I'm not terrible excited about Halloween, I do still love the occasion! My favourite part about it is probably dressing up. I love to really go for it on the makeup front and really try hard to be as scary as possible. Last year I went to a Halloween party as dead Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz. I had bloody hand prints all over my apron and in my hair, and on my face... fake blood was pretty much everywhere! 

This weeks challenge was to give a spooky Halloween quote. I feel as though I failed on that front as my quote is neither spooky nor is it particularly Halloween related. You could very loosely link it I suppose... haha.

"I will not ask you for forgiveness. What I have done is unforgivable. I was so lost in hatred and revenge. I never dreamed that I could love you so much. You stole what was left of my heart. And now I've lost you forever." - Maleficent. My sister bought this film yesterday and oh my! It has absolutely blown me away. I paints such a different picture of Maleficent compared to what we all grew up thinking. We were convinced that she was evil through and through, we never stopped to wonder how she came to be so wicked. The film really did amaze me and open my eyes to just how easy it is to be fooled. I don't want to give anything away so I'll leave it there for now. But seriously, I would highly recommend you checking this movie out if you haven't already. Disney, as always; you did good.

Until next time;

Over and out, 

Lily.

Compassion!

Hello again and welcome to another Top Tip Tuesday. If you read last weeks post you will know that I've found myself in a bit of a rut with the theme of my specified day... I absolutely love makeup, but trying to make it fit into a certain bracket or theme of the week is proving quite difficult. I am finding myself talking about pretty much the same thing week in week out and its getting rather monotonous. Therefore, I've decided that until I figure out what direction Tuesdays on this blog are going in, I am just going to talk about what the weeks quote means to me and do the weekly challenge... I might throw a little makeup talk in there somewhere as well aha. Thank you all for being patient :) 

So, this weeks quote as you may already know is 'If you walk the footsteps of a stranger, you'll learn things you never knew you never knew.' I did just type that whilst humming the song... also, its from memory so I may have gotten 99% of the words wrong... Sorry about that. Just checked on Ryon's Music Monday post and I got it right! Stagecoach (the theatre school, not the bus service... I wouldn't trust myself to drive a bike let alone a bus aha) training has proven useful! WAHOO. 

To me, this quote is all about showing compassion towards one another and being understanding. Doing things like; holding the door for someone, or lending someone your spare pen, or saying thank you, or even just smiling at a stranger in passing. I think it's those moments that people really appreciate. After all, you never know how the other person is feeling. It isn't until you put yourself in someone else's position that you begin to somewhat understand their struggle. I remember when I had my first job, a man in a wheelchair was desperately grabbing at a jacket that was too high for him too reach. I immediately stopped what I was doing and offered to help him. He looked a little embarrassed at first but accepted my offer. I spent a good 10 minutes with the customer making sure that he had everything that he needed and said that if he needed anymore help I was close by. It wasn't pity that made me want to help that man; it was compassion. I knew for certain that if I was in his situation I would want help but would be too shy to ask someone. I definitely think that even if I wasn't working in the shop and was just a customer myself, I still would have offered assistance to that man. Whether he'd have taken it from a random person is a whole other story :) aha. 

This weeks challenge is to talk a little about your favourite movie. I have a few favourites such as: The Boat That Rocked, Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist, Mulan, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, Easy A, X-Men First Class, The Amazing Spiderman, Rock Of Ages, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Calamity Jane, Overboard, How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days, The Heat etc. I know some of these are musicals, but I enjoy watching the movie versions of them :). My favourite movie EVER definitely has to be 10 Things I Hate About You starring Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles. What I love about this movie is that its not your typical, run of the mill - two people meet and fall in love - rom-com. It's edgy, its different, It's hilarious and all the music in it is cool :). The movie shows two perspectives of high school and the high school dating scene - the popular point of view and the rebel point of view. Gah, I just love it so much! I definitely think its a film for everyone. 10/10!

I hope you enjoyed reading this absolute ramble of a post... And as there is only 17 minutes left of Tuesday I'd better wrap it up; sharpish. Thank you for reading, I hope you've all had a lovely day!

What's your favourite movie? 

Until next time; 

Over and out, 

Lily.

Statement Lips

Hello! This weeks quote is a goodun' by Dr. Seuss; 'why fit in when you were born to stand out.' I think this quote is vital to leading a happy life. Afterall, if we were all the same how boring would the world be? 

I used to spend my time trying to fit in and stay under the radar because I was terrified of standing out. I definitely think that when I was at school standing out was perceived to be a negative thing and that if you were different you were deemed to be uncool and weird. What's wrong with being weird, eh? The important thing to remember is that you don't want to be sitting in a rocking chair as an old granny musing over things you wished you'd have done. It's better to have some embarrassing (and equally hilarious) photos of you when you went through that 'mohawk phase' or when you thought that you could pull off double denim, than to have no funny stories to show for the last 80 or so years of your life because you did everything 'right' and acted 'normal'. What even is normal? Seriously. 

Tuesdays on this blog are based around makeup and my love for the stuff. So I've decided to this week talk about one of my favourite makeup items; lipstick. 

I love a good ol' bit'o lippy. I think its perfect to just shove on when you're feeling drab to really lift your face and put some colour into it. On days when I'm not quite feeling the ticket, I'll fill in my brows and pop some lipstick on and it'll really make me feel a lot more together than I feel... However, I may still look like a red nosed, dribbling mess... just with some lipstick smeared on my face... paha. 

As the nights are drawing in and the cold weather approaches, time for dark, vampy lips is yet again upon us! WAHOO. I love a good dark lip, me. Having said this - just because its Autumn/Winter time doesn't mean you have to restrict yourself to wearing dark colours. I think Dr. Seuss hit the nail on the head to be honest. Just because something is a trend doesn't mean that you can only wear it when its fashionable. I personally wear dark lipstick all year round, come rain or shine. I think it all comes back to having the confidence to really express yourself. 

My favourite lipstick at the minute has got to be:

Topshop Fast Lane, which is quite an in your your face, almost raspberry pink - but not as dark. I love that when the shine wears off the product leaves a sort of stain on the lips. Unfortunately, I left this lipstick in a salon toilet... Because I'm a fool. But I love it so much I definitely plan on repurchasing it. Ah, I do try not to give anyone toothy grins too often whilst wearing this though as it does make my teeth look a little yellow... yikes.

It is quite important to put on a lip liner before applying lipstick as the lip liner acts as a barrier to protect the lipstick from bleeding onto your skin. Topshop also have really good lip liners - they are so creamy and apply so easily. I find that some lip liners are too dry and you really have to drag them across your lips to get them to go on. 

Anway, ramble over... for this week anyway. I'm not entirely sure if I'm happy with the concept of Tuesday's blog posts. I feel as though they never really go anywhere and that I don't have any tips for you guys. Hmm. I'll have to do a little bit of mind mapping and come up with something. 

Until next time;

Over and out, 

Lily.

P.S. Has anyone started buying Christmas presents yet? I have! I'm so excited for Christmas already and it's not even Halloween.... oops. Aha.

Daring to be bare... faced...

Hello! I hope you're all well. The weather this week has truly thrust us right in the midst of a good ol' fashioned British Autumn, or Winter, or Spring... I mean it's rainy and cold pretty much all the time here. We've had such lovely weather in England over the past couple of months that I've sort of forgotten what it feels like to be cold. And let me tell you, England has been quick and cruel to remind us all, aha. I'm pretty sure that I'm not alone with this when I say that I refuse and will refuse to put on my heating until I see icicles forming on my furniture. I guess I should just prepare to be called 'Rudolph' for the foreseeable, eh? Also, as tempting as central heating sounds right now (as I struggle to type with frozen fingers), its not the best thing for the skin and dries it out really badly. 

...Anyway, this weeks quote is 'to not have some battle scars is to never have lived'. To me, personally, this quote symbolizes that in life we make mistakes, we make wrong turns and regret certain things that we've done, or decisions we've made. But those bad decisions, those wrong turns; they've led us to where we are now. They've shaped today as we know it and molded who we are. We owe every moment of happiness we have today to all the choices that we made yesterday and we shouldn't regret them - we should accept them and realise that they are part of our journey. So even though you may have ugly scars physically or mentally, they are part of you and you shouldn't hide them away or conceal them.

What does this have to do with makeup up, you ask? Well, steering back to the actual point here, I wanted to talk about confidence without makeup. 

I used to be the kind of person that couldn't leave the house without wearing a bit of shadow to fill in my eyebrows (due to the horrible eyebrow incident of 2009. This story may crop up in the future). But that eyebrow shadow would turn into concealer, blush, highlighter, bronzer, eyeshadow, eyeliner, mascara, powder, lipstick... before I knew it I'd have a full face of makeup on because I didn't feel like I could leave the house without it. Maybe it was because I thought that I'd sort of fooled people into thinking that I didn't have spots, or bags under my eyes and that I had naturally glowing cheeks with long fluttery lashes. Maybe it was because I didn't feel as pretty as my friends. All I know is that sitting in front of the mirror for ridiculously long periods of time, scrutinizing my appearance became ritual.

Then one day it hit me like an empty tube of mascara. I wasn't born with all this cosmetic crap on my face. Sure, I might look half dead when I don't have concealer under my eyes... but that's what I look like. That's me. That's when I started to go out with absolutely no makeup on. And, as cheesy as this sounds, I felt free. I actually felt the breeze on my bare face and got a natural rosiness on my cheeks.

There is absolutely no shame in going out in public with not a smidgen of makeup on, in fact, don't you think it's more normal to go out with your bare face rather than swiping and brushing and rubbing all sorts of lotions and potions all over your face to be deemed ok to be seen by others? It's crazy how much people rely on the 'magic' of makeup to blur away all their imperfections. But it's our imperfections that define us. Now having said that, I'm definitely not adverse to the idea of makeup to enhance features that we like and I love playing with makeup and trying out new things - but makeup should not be used to cover up every little tiny thing that we don't like about our faces. After all, everyone gets spots and has dull skin days, that's completely normal.

My tip for today is this: Let your skin breathe sometimes. Be confident about the face you've got because I reckon its beautiful! Of course, It wouldn't be a proper post about confidence without makeup if I didn't show you my bare faced mug, would it?

Me (Lily)

Ryon - Writer of Music Monday

Carly - Writer of Wind Down Wednesday

Hazel - writer of Food Friday

Ryon, Hazel and Carly also kindly volunteered to put their bare faces on this post :)

#barefacedbeauty

And there you have it. My collosol ramble about having the confidence to bare it all. Well... not quite 'all'... remember, public nudity is illegal :D.

Until next time;
Over and out,

Lily
www.lilynotlilly.com

Introducing 'Top Tip Tuesday'

Hello! My name is Lily and I'm going to be posting every Tuesday on this blog. I'm super excited about starting this little project with friends and can't wait to watch this blog grow and blossom into (fingers crossed) something wonderful. I often find that blogging by myself can get a little lonely and can sometimes feel like a lot of pressure, so it's really lovely to have a little community blog where I have one day a week to write about a subject that I love.

'Top Tip Tuesday' is going to be Beauty, Fashion & Makeup related with the possibility of some little, crafty DIY posts here and there. I have a very strong passion for all things beauty and one day hope to work in the industry. When I was younger, there was a whole host of things that I wanted to be from teacher, to receptionist, to singer and actor, to author... I was a very ambitious child, haha. I even, at one point, wanted to be a magician! However, these were always part time fantasies that would usually disperse in a day or two but something that always stuck around was Beauty Therapy. I mean, don't get me wrong, to this day I'd love to be a singer... but we can't all have pipes like Mariah, eh? Aha.

Anyway, Beauty Therapy, to me, always seemed like it could only ever be a dream. It wasn't until last year that I seriously considered actually doing it. I had told myself from a young age that having a sit down office job was the way forward and that jobs were for working; not for fun. Boy, was I wrong! I never fully understood how incredibly exciting a career could be until now. 

So, my very first tip on Top Tip Tuesday is this; a job doesn't have to be forever. If you find yourself stuck in a dead end job that you don't find enjoyable; leave. The paycheck isn't worth your wasted time and unhappiness. There are so many opportunities out there just waiting for you. If you find a career path that you'd love to follow; chase the dream! Work towards getting your dream job - one that you genuinely want to wake up and do everyday.

I know that this weeks tip had very little to do with beauty but I feel that its so important to live a happy, healthy and fulfilled life. Happiness should be a priority! 

I hope you'll enjoy reading my little posts and maybe even take something away from the tips and tricks that I share :) If you enjoy reading these 'Top Tip Tuesday' posts, be sure to pop on over to my other blog for more beauty related ramblings: www.lilynotlilly.com.

Until next time;

Over and out, 

Lily.