Thursday 30 January 2014

Painting nails

As part of my day zero project, I am going to try and keep my nails painted for a month.
I don't know why, but when I have my nails nicely painted, it always makes me feel cheerful!

When I was younger, I was obsessed with painting my nails and wearing rings ( I kind of skipped makeup and hair, but I figure I still have time to crack those later, heehee!)
Well, being a 'semi-goth' (my clothes were always black, occasionally navy, but I skipped the pale face and dark makeup bit!) I only picked colours to paint my nails that were matching in tone! The obvious black and navy, but my all time favourite colour was a beautiful dark purple called 'Morticia' - very fitting I thought!

For years, I left my love of painting nails behind. I was always too busy with other things, plus I have an amazing ability to chip the colour off in record time, so it seemed a bit of a waste of time and money.

A few years ago, I was given a bottle of nail varnish in a hen-party goody bag and my love was rekindled! Now, really scary for me was the fact that this colour was bright pink - a colour never before associated with me! One day, I just decided 'what the hell' and went for it! I absolutely adored having bright pink nails! Again, I had the chipping problem, but from time to time, I would wear bright pink nails and feel brilliant!

Well, I got some new nail varnish for Christmas, so I decided that I would make the effort to have nice nails for a while.
This will therefore be a log of the colours and my thoughts on them, for the next month (fingers crossed!)

Day 1 - 25th Jan

 

This is the kit of nail varnished I got given for Christmas. It was called 'leather effect' and I thought I would give it a go. I absolutely hated it! It looked like the times when I got loads of air bubbles in the varnish - all bobbly and rough in texture. It also chipped off the very same day - def not for me!

Day 4 - 28th Jan










I decided that I wold have to invest in some new nail varnish if I was ever going to complete this challenge!
I bought some multi-care base+top coat, plus two new colours to try. (all Revlon,)
This is number 240 called 'impulsive' and I love, love, LOVE it!!
I am still wearing it today (30th Jan) and I only just got the first teeny tiny chip this evening! It is lovely! All smooth and shiny, plus the purple colour is gorgeous!
All I can add is that I wish I had invested in a good base+top coat before, as it is def worth using!
Can't wait to see how long this lasts!

Tuesday 14 January 2014

2014, my year for new beginnings

I have decided to delete my final thoughts for 2013, as it was very negative and I'm trying to focus more on my positives and plans for moving forward.

Very long story short, I am now headed for divorce. My husband left at the end of November and 10 days later started a new relationship.
After a few very stressful months where plans kept changing (don't ask!) we have finally settled on when he will have the kids and how much maintenance he will pay me a month.
I saw my solicitor today and hopefully, we should be able to have a reasonably straight forward divorce. The only problem is going to be finding the money to pay for it! (£1200!)

Anyway, putting this aside, a lot of good things have come out of this really sad change.
I have finally been diagnosed with aspects of bipolar disorder (I do the major depression, but never the manic 'happy happies') and have been given mood stabilisers on top of my normal anti-depressants, which have been working amazingly well! I have managed to bounce back from each little 'bump' over the past couple of months extremely fast - so fast that my health professionals can't quite believe it! I was released really quickly from the crisis team, then by my psych person at the mental health unit and now have a mental health social worker who is setting me up for psychological therapy. All  in less than 2 months - yay me!

With the help of my amazing friend Charlotte and her hubby, we have finally started to sort the chaos in out house! We have moved furniture around downstairs, and boxed everything not essential up (my mum is and major hoarder, so things have to be checked before they can go!) but already such an improvement!
Next job is to finally sort Little Miss's bedroom, so that she can move out of mine ;-)

I have managed to lose 2 stone in weight! (I think stress can work wonders, heehee!)
I am finally out of my maternity jeans, which I am so so proud of! My appetite has shrunk to a much better, healthier one - no more stuffing chocolates (except 'time of the month' when I just need!)
I walk Little Man to school and try to power-walk home - though I nearly slipped on my bum today, due to icy paths! heehee!
I'm trying to go for more walks, with the help of Charlotte again - one booked for tomorrow ;-)

We're having more 'family' meals round the kitchen table. This is something that we (mum and I) have really wanted to do for such a long time and finally, now the table is clearer, we can :-)
I think it's really nice to sit all together, with only music in the background (no TV during meals) and share our thoughts of the day. It also helps teach Little Man more table manners ;-)

I've decided to try the Day Zero Project (thanks to Jennifer's Little World!) as a way of sorting and organising my life, and focusing my plans for the next few years - you get 1001 days to complete 101 challenges!

Well, here's to a bright future for me and my kids!