How could I do such a thing?!

I was trying to get a picture of me and my two best mates together for the last post. How could I have overlooked these ones???!!:

I lived with the 2 girlies in Korea for a year. Even aside from that time, there are loadsa of cool pictures floatin round. This one has to be one of the best of the 3 of us togther. I was hanging out in my room one night after work in my trackies and decided to layer some more sports clothes on top. I arranged some excellent camel-toeage and went out to the girls. Soon all three of us were in 80s dodgy workout video mode with underwear as outerwear and bad hair and makeup, lifting weights. Then we decided to go on a beer run and play in the kiddy playground outside. Good times!xx

A LONG ONE!

{1. Post who gave you this award
2. State 10 things you like
3. Give this award to 10 other bloggers and notify them with a comment}

I was tagged by the fabuloso Miss Frangipani to do this post. I adore reading her blog and nosing into her life! haha! I love these kinds of things but I suck at making up the numbers so will be here FOREVER!*

1:Independance: I am from a big family, I was very sensitive as a kid and allowed myself to be bullied growing up, I'm a stubborn little biatch, I've lived (relatively)like a grown up since a couple of weeks after my 17th birthday when I moved out ... there are a lot of reasons for my pig-headed, do-my-own-thing streak. Whatever the reasons, it is something where you have to try and meet in the middle to be happy and I will probably value independance a little less or at least differently as I settle down into my boring 'adult' life whenever that may be! Not because I feel I'll have to, but because I want to. (No rush though!! At the moment I am just loving it as is! No man, no car, no mortgage, no kids= no problems may be exaggerating but only a tad! :P)


(Enjoyin' a beer in Madrid- because I can! :P)


2:
Makeup: I AM SHALLOW! I could easily live without makeup I'm sure, but I'd rather not. Red lipstick, liquid liner and as many different eyeshadows as I can find account for a lot of my time and money! It's dress-up for grownups!


3:
Music: I have very varied musical tastes and have gone through a lot of phases. I love guitars, men with deeeep voices, women with husky, raw, emotive vocals, innovation, lyrics that you can read like poetry or prose and vapid, insanely catchy, brainless fun music too! My all-time favourite band is TOOL but girl-fronted groups like Hole, The Distillers and Yeah Yeah Yeahs also rate highly. Oh and ya gotta break out the Britney/Gaga occassionally too!!

(Brody of The Distillers. Husky and hot!)

4:
Foooood:
Cheese- not so much alone but it's on all the best things (except knobs- ha sorry)!!...like...
Pizza- yum, just yum!
Chinese food- oh salt/chilli shredded chicken!one day i will marry you and then we will have little salty, chilli-ish babies with black hair and they will be glorious!

5:
Home/ family:

I have 5 amazing sisters. They really rock for their brains and strength of character. We all have such a sense of self, I think, because of the big family thing. We all clash a lot but share a lot of similar traits and values which we have our fab parents to thank for! It's always fun to come home. (This is from Sept '09 when my sister got married in Rome.x)

6:

Summer: Being Irish, Summer is more about an attitude than the weather. It's about milking it, going a little nutso, making the most out of any somewhat mild day, having longer weekends than weeks, freezing yer nips off having a bbq but refusing to admit defeat, weird tan lines, meeting up with family and friends, outdoor boozing... basically any excuse to party!

7:
Dimples: I never thought I liked dimples; it's a recent discovery. It can be such an endearing feature though! However, that's not to say I'm a total sucker for them! For example I love Cheryl Cole's but hate Jennifer Garner's. Don't ask me to explain. It's something like they have to enhance a person's looks rather than BE the person's looks. Somehow, men's dimples especially can bring their hotness to a new level! So actually I should say men with dimples for this! Ah well, great excuse for a hot boy pic!!

(Avenged Sevenfold's M Shadows and his adorable dimple. Not lookin' such a rocker!)
8:

Tattoos and piercings: I have 3 tattoos at the moment but plans for more. Before I add to the collection I want to perfect the ones I have- recolouring in parts, adding parts etc. I have (1) a shooting star- 1st tat which, I spose, symbolises youth, (2) 5 stars on my wrist for my sisters, and (3) big oleander garland around my hip, symbolism being in the double-ness of the flower-beautiful and poisonous, which you can take to represent the hidden power in femininty.... but also cos they're pretty!! I tend not to wear piercings too often these days- teaching will do that but I've had lots of earlobe piercings and my rook, my tongue, my lip and my nose pierced. I would love to get more but for work purposes and the fact that I have to hide them all from my Dad, I'm slow to add more just yet.

9:
Contradictions:

(Me and my 5 sisters with my aunt and cousins going off to do a bit of farming in a trailer! This picture has seen better days but it's so hilarious how grubby and 90s we all look! I'm in the centre in pink by the way. Lookin' gooood!ha!)

I grew up a strangely contradictory kid. A home full of girls and my mum's now hilarious early 90s clothes, makeup and accessories as well as fabulously full on perfumes influenced me no end. I LOVED Barbies and the like. At the same time, though, much of my time was spent running after cows on a farm and playing with my boy cousins making (very hierachichal) huts and having 'adventures' (Enid Blyton had a lot to answer for)! Hence my girlie-tomboy status as an adult. I adore glamour but could never be a 'lady'. I swear like a sailor, tell my mates when I'm going for a dump and talk about penis' almost daily! And yet I love 50's glamour and girly heart-to-hearts and crying while watching documentaries! I am loud yet often shy. I am opinionated yet indecisive. I love to help people but I'm also very impatient with others. And so on..... hahaha! Oh yep, I do ramble! :P

10:

(Korea, Halloween '08)
My life: Eurgh how cheesy! I hate being so trite but it's somehow deeply buried within my nature and at odds with most other aspects of my personality! Gotta embrace it, I spose! I often focus too much on the negative aspects of my situations. But I have been educated well, I have travelled ( much more pencilled somewhere in my future), I have amazing friends...( Me, Edel, Char in Korea, August '08)
.... and I have an amazing, unique, crazy-as-me family! Oh yeah and I'm me! Even with all the imperfections that I love to focus on, I'm still pretty cool! Always have been:

ha!

Sorry but I won't be tagging ten people to do this as I can't choose so I think EVERYONE should do it!xxx And thanks again to Miss Frangipani for the shout-out!x

*Yep, took me forever!

Boohoo Yay Jejeje Hi

• Boohoo- camera charger is missing! So no picture updates!
• Yay- have bought new stuff from asos, new look and penneys (primark)! Still loving my new hair and the sunny weather. My new love of salmon, fruit, nuts, rice cakes and water has made a big difference to my skin (green tea is prob helping too but i still hate it even though i drink it daily)! I've lost 8lbs in 5 weeks of up-down and up-down again!
  
• Jejeje is a bit of Spanish laughing as I'm looking forward to Spain in 2 and a half weeks!
• Hi to the newbies on my page! Welcome!! :D
• Will try and get some pictures up next week when camera's back in action (think charger is in my sister's apartment and she's away til Sunday).
• Till then, adios amigas! <3>

Birthday Belly Blowout

• I'm so badass! I've not calorie counted today and neither have I finished eating! It's my birthday! Screw it!
• I had strawberries and green tea for breakfast as my stomach felt a bit wonky so didn't want to eat much.
• Then I went and got my hair done. It took 3 to go from blacky-brown to blacky brown with golden(yellow) highlights. (I got a base colour but I can't see a difference really except for the extra shine.) Ha ha! That sounds utterly vile but it's actually nice! In the daylight it's quite bright and the golden-ness kinda clashes with the green of my eyes in a good way. I also got a trim and she thinned it out loads to make it more manageable and give me my waves back as my hair was so heavy that it was drying a lot flatter than usual. It feels sleek and glossy and looks brighter and makes a nice change!

Before and feeling nervous (I'm such a ham):
After (this is indoors with flash- outside in daylight it's brighter and lighter):

• By the time I was finished at the salon I was starving and ate a packet of onion rings, a mini cottage pie and a Milky Bar desert! Haha! Three course meal! Fuck it though, I've been very good and it's my birthday.
• I've just eaten some extra garlicky home-made garlic bread, heavy on the garlic and I will shortly be chowing down on some pizza!
• Tomorrow I'm having lunch at the Chinese with the girlies! As long as I avoid the fried rice, the foods I like there aren't too bad, calorie-wise. That's good as I'm pretty sure I'll be having some beverages after! Not too many tough as we'll be celebrating on Saturday!
  
• It's my birthday and I'm a p.i.g.!!! :P
• Come Monday it's back to the diet!
  

Ne-Yo - Closer

I love this song! So many memories of Korea coming flooding back! It reminds me of my gorgeous friend Elise but also of many chilled Sundays with our friends drinking beer and eating pizza while shooting the shit! I turned 25 today so I'm feeling nostalgic! Oh and Ne-yo is damn hot in this video too!

Boobed people: totally bomb invention

Such a simple and affordable thing can make such a difference! For €6.50 I got 2 bra extenders. I'm a 38DD at the minute and it's a shitty size variety-wise if you want pretty bras. This baby meant I could buy the 36 bra i was eyeing up! Yay!
I'd imagine you can buy these at most decent undie shops and they're cheeeeeap! If ya can't find em, try the website www.bywishes.co.uk.

Inspiration

At 18, I had smallish boobs and biggish hips with muscular thighs. My stomach was flat and my waist was small. I hated that I had abs and a soft stomach and the fact that where my waist met my hips it just went straight out. It wasnt a soft curve, it was like a big jump. (I have a short waist?) I thought I looked fat, even though I weighed 10stone at almost 5ft 6 and wore a size 10. I wanted bigger boobs, longer legs and smaller hips
....
Oh Lord if I'd only known!!!!!!!!!
..
.So now, weighing close to 4 stone more than I did, I remember the body I had and think 'what was my problem?'!! Let's face it though, it was a long time ago and, even with years of dieting, I won't look like that again.

So I look to curvy but toned women as my source of inspiration. I can't change my body-type so I have to work with it, while still fighting against my fat-ass lazy streak. I don't think these ladies achieved their beautiful curves through eating Chinese takeaways and drinking pints of Heineken through straws (I know!!)!

Marilyn Monroe. The original:

Beyoncé. Look at her stomach! (A bigger bikini top wouldn't hurt though!):

Kelly Brook. Such a stupid picture but wouldn't we all ham it up if we looked like this!?:

Christina Hendricks. Hips for days! Love it:

Kelly Rowland. Not the curviest girl but I love her healthy-looking body. She's thin and toned in such a healthy way. I'd kill for her legs and tummy!!

Yay!! Hello!

I have new followers! Haha, followers sounds like I'm leading a cult!I have new people who read my blog!! That's better!! Hello!!! Welcome! Stick around. Comment. Tell me what you want me to blog about. Ask me questions. I'm not working until next month so I am currently a lady of leisure (bum) who has more than enough time on her hands!

I'm actually a little annoyed. My knee/hip are still stiff and creaky. I don't care though, I'll work around it. I need to get my (actually not so fat, actually getting kinda toned) ass to the gym!

My normal workouts usually consist of cardio, weights and swimming. An ideal day is 20 minutes on the skier/wave machine, 10 on bike (really pushing myself, eurgh, so sweaty), 20 on the treadmill and then 10 minutes of working legs or arms, some crunches and then stretching before I go into the pool for 30 minutes with a 15 minute stint in the jacuzzi breaking it up a bit. That's a very time-consuming workout, though so it isn't every day. Some days I skip the weights or the crunches, maybe I'll shorten the swimming time down, or do 10 instead of 20 on treadmill (I hate the treadmill, it is soooo boring and it makes my boobs bounce, even with a €40 sports bra.).

So, yeah, will defo be going today but I will be careful of my old-lady style injuries!

On an unrelated note, can anyone recommend somewhere to buy clothes online- dresses, skirts, cute blouses? I've ordered stuff from ASOS but I wish they had more selection of me-type clothes! Too many dresses have round/ straight accross necklines for a start!! Anyway, yeah, where do you shop when you shop online?

New week!

So after a weekend with a little too many treats, the week begins again! I've just finished a yummy salmon fillet and baby potato dinner- will have veg as a snack in a bit! I'm not eating healthily all the time but it's nice to eat something that you really enjoy that isn't going to go straight to your beer-belly!

Pissed off today though because I couldn't go to the gym and may not be able tomorrow either. I think I've been overdoing it though. I hurt my left ankle 2 months ago and it's still not right and I think that I've been working my legs too hard because now my left hip and knee are giving me hassle. I was actually in pain after my workout last night. Thank God for the jacuzzi!! If I go tomorrow I'll just do crunches, arm weights and swimming. In the meantime, I will ice my knee and ankle and take some anti-inflammatories and hope for the best. If I'm not exercising I'll have to cut RIGHT back on food and I will NOT be happy!! It's my birthday next week though so I wanna be looking as well as I can.


One thing I need to work on is 'treat' mentality. I have a tendancy to overly reward myself. For example, my sisters and I were meant to go out last night but we changed our minds. I'd already considered that I was going to have a blowout calorie-wise because of all the booze so, when plans changed, instead of going 'oh fab, i stayed on track', I went 'oh fab, now I can have a Chinese'!! That's ok, I guess, but only occassionally. Also, if I am eating Chinese again, I have to put a ban on fried rice because it really doesn't make that much difference to the meal if you're eating really spicy chilli chicken and it is just LADEN with calories. So, yeah, stop with the treats, Claire! Thing is, I know I can still have treats as long as I keep count of the calories. So, starting from tomorrow, I'll be trying to keep track of all my food and exercise. I've started well but if I want results I have to take it up a notch!!

Getting my confidence back

Letting my weight creep up the way I have over the last 5 years or so really knocked my confidence. I used to love shopping and clothes and having my own style. As I got bigger that melted away a bit. I didn't want to draw any attention to myself. If people were looking I assumed the worst- that they were thinking 'the state of her in those clothes' or whatever. It's shitty but when you aren't confident you don't want attention. So I let my style become more safe and 'normal'. I began a rotation of 2 or 3 outfits at a time. I hated shopping. I hated getting ready for nights out. I just felt crap!

This Summer I started afresh- going to the gym, eating better, drinking less. Even though i haven't lost much weight I feel soooo much better. I feel healthier and more toned and it's giving me so much confidence. It's still difficult to find clothes I like that suit me but I'm interested in looking now! I've been holding myself back when it comes to online shopping but it's fun to look at things and feel like I could wear them and feel confident.

I'm really enjoying 50's style clothing and accessories and a more ladylike approach at least some of the time! I'm loving back-seamed tights, flowers in my hair, full skirts, fitted waists and pencil skirts as well as my usual love of false lashes and red lips.

It feels good to have some confidence back. It makes getting ready so much easier and more fun.

Cute hair flowers:

My new Primark coat:


I'm going to get it in navy and white too. So cute!

I've ordered two pencil skirts from ASOS. I'm hoping one will be nice and I can wear it out for my birthday in a couple of weeks!
:)