OOTD - Glam Rockesqe

Hey Guys! Just a quick OOTD for you, I tried to find a grungy background but alas down the back of my garden shed is the best I could do. This is just a slightly goth rocker outfit with a little glamor coming in from the heels. Enjoy!

• Top - Kill Star (On ASOS)
• Leggings - Oasis
• Studded Wedges - New Look
• Lipstick - Revlon Black Cherry

 Love & TubTubs

Fitness Friday's!

Hey guys! So today I'm going to finally talk about something that people have been asking me to do ever since I entered the wonderful world of blogging, that being my weight loss! So if you follow me on twitter you'll know that at the start of this year I made a new years resolution to start losing weight. Over the years I've been on so many diets but inevitably I've always ended up back at square one, this time i was adamant I wasn't going to let that happen.

So today will be the first of my new "Fitness Friday" series, now this doesn't mean that every single Friday I'm going to upload a fitness blog post as that just wouldn't work out with my schedule and I don't want to make promises I can't keep, not to mention that coming up with something new and different every week on a single subject could prove to be pretty tricky! So i'll be uploading posts for this series as the ideas come and i'll keep a log of them in the sidebar so they'll all be in one place for you!

Quick background on my weight loss so far, I started the process on January first 2013 and it's been a slow steady process with me taking months out here and there due to personal reasons etc, however making sure that I maintained my current weight during those months out. I hit my first weightloss goal back in July of losing 20lbs and this is when the after picture shown below was taken.

After & Before

My ultimate goal is to of lost 42lbs by the end of this process, now unlike most dieters I haven't put a strict time on this goal and another key thing about this is that my emphasis is now on becoming a healthier person rather then about my weight (This wasn't the case at the start but that's probably a whole blog post in itself). So over this series I want to share with you the things I've picked up that actually work and the habits that I've found that can actually be reasons as to why the weight isn't shifting.

So let me know in the comments any particular posts you want to see in this series and I hope this is useful to some of you out there.

Love & TubTubs

Sweet Gift Idea

Hey m'lovelies! Okay I promise to never try to use a punny post title ever again, it just isn't working out for me! So recently it was a friend of mines birthday and not only is she very hard to shop for I'm also skint so I came up with this cute gift idea for under £20!

The first thing I did was hunt down a cute mug or travel cup, my friend is a photographer so I picked up this adorable little travel cup that looks like a camera lens. However, if the person you're buying for doesn't have

a particular hobby just keep your eye out for patterns or designs they might like, for example if your friend's a Disney fan pick them up a Tigger mug. 

Okay so once you've picked up the main bulk of the present all you have to do is fill it! The possibilities are endless here, my friend has a magic star addiction so I brought jumbo packs of them and filled the cup completely with them, obviously just substitute in the sweets that the person you're giving this too likes, don't forget you can fill it with more then one thing like a pick & mix. Another idea is to fill up the cup with things such as hot chocolate sachets, marshmallows etc for a cute hot drinks set, this will work equally as well for the coffee lovers out there.

Once you've filled your cup wrap it stick it in a gift bag and write out a card and you're good to go! This is a perfect idea for those hard to shop for people and it's so versatile you can use it for just about anyone regardless of how well you know them. You can also tailor it to fit any budget, all of the supplies cost me £20 however you could probably do this for under ten if you really hunt around or you could spend even more if it's a very close friend.

Short post I know but there isn't really much to say as the concept is very self explanatory I just wanted to share these little ideas with you. Until next time!

Love & TubTubs

OOTD - Tartan & Fuzzy Jumpers

Hey m'lovies! So recently the lovely Becca started a new series on her blog and was looking for people to take part in it and seeing as the first week was styling a tartan piece I thought I'd give it a go! I'm so happy that tartan is making a comeback it's probably one of my favorite patterns to style because it gives any outfit this slightly punk rock edge and with me being really into more edgy rocker styles it always a plus in my books!

 

Bowler Hat - Camden Market

Fluffy Oversized Jumper - New Look

Tartan Skirt - New Look

Tights - Dorothy Perkins

Boots - Ebay

Sorry this post was a day late, I'm actually typing this on the tenth but I'm waiting for the day the blog feature goes up over on Becca's blog to upload the pictures over on this site. Don't worry though I've got some really awesome stuff planned for October, it's going to be a busy month and I can't wait to share it all with you!

Love & TubTubs

Covent Garden Adventures

 Hey m'lovlies! So if you follow me on twitter you'll know that I recently took a mini adventure up to London to catch up with an old friend who's studying there (that's that Lexy fellow in the pictures below). It feels so nice to be able to start doing things again and making memories with the people dear to me as two years ago my health deteriorated and stopped me doing things like taking trains. Boo! However, now that I'm recovering I'm making up for lost time and getting out to see the world! Well South England, we all have to start somewhere right?

So after the long ass train ride and a quick catch up coffee (not to mention the chaos that is trying to find a single person in Waterloo station) we decided to take a trip down to Covent Gardens. Now you may or may not know that I am a huge (obsessive maybe?) fan of the Moomins, for those of you who have no idea what these fabulous little creatures are go and look them up right now, seriously you're missing out big time! Quite coincidentally there is also a Moomin shop in London, even more coincidentally Covent Garden! So straight off the tube we decided (well I can't really say Lex had to much of a say in the matter) to go hunt down this shop, we soon gave up on Apple Maps after it telling us we were in Hertfordshire but my expert navigation skills got us there in under ten minutes. Expert Moomin radar right here I think!

Now I could go into expert detail describing my experience in that one particular shop and the pure joy that overcame me but firstly I think that's only interesting to me and secondly we wouldn't want you all thinking I'm a little odd now would we? So after an hour of gawping at everything I eventually went to pay and got talking to the lovely guy behind the till who signed me up to the newsletter and then casually told me that there would be a giant Moomin making an appearance at 12:30 later on that day. So obviously I set my alarm to prepare to rush back for such a monumental event and we eventually left the shop.

So whilst preparing myself for a key moment in my life (I did warn you it was a mild obsession) we wandered around and Lex introduced me to the wonder that is Forbidden Planet, now being a fan of Lord of the Rings & Big Bang Theory amongst other nerdy things this was probably one of the most awesome shops ever! After that delightful experience I realised it was 12:25 and ran back to the Moomin shop in my heals (this proved to be a huge mistake when I was later hobbling about London), I will save you another Moomin obsessed paragraph and narrow it down to I met a giant Moomin and brought more stuff...It was the best thing ever!

The plan after this was to travel down to Camden to look around the market, grab some food go and watch Insidious 2. However, once we got to the cinima it turns out that the viewing that we were planning to see didn't actually exist & three cinemas later we gave up and just decided to head back to Waterloo and generally act like tourists before I had to dash off and get the train home due to having a 8am class the next morning.

So enough of my ramblings I shall leave you with a few pictures from the day, I apologize for my tragic face/hair/existence in the picture of me and the giant Moomin I was very excitable and had just ran from the other side of Covent Garden haha!

Love & TubTubs (& Moomins!)

Ombré Hair Care

Hello m'lovelies! So as most of you are aware about two months ago I gave in and got on the ombré hair bandwagon. That in itself was an experience and a half as sticking bleach on the ends of jet black hair is never too advisable, but surprisingly it kinda worked and my hair didn't snap off (always a good sign in the land of hairdressing I assume)! So other then a couple of slightly ginger low lights my hair is actually still holding up well due to a few extra haircare steps I've put in place that I thought I'd share with you lovely lot.

So the main bulk of this blog post will be the products I've been using on my hair, as much as I'd love to tell

you all that having healthy bleached hair can be achieved through no heat styling and silk pillowcases alone we all know that's just not happening (science can do wonderful things now though so maybe it'll get cracking on that soon!). However, I'm also a student so alas I don't have £200 to spend on the finest of hair masks so here's my little combination that I've got going that isn't going to completely obliterate the bank

• Tresemmé thermal creations shampoo and conditioner
• John Freda frizz ease serum
• SP Luxe oil
• Tangle teaser
• Batiste dry shampoo

 Now I'm going to answer the obvious two questions. Firstly, why use shampoos designed for heat damaged hair when you're not actually using heat on your hair? The simple answer to this is that products formulated for heat damaged hair are almost identical as ones for dry hair, in short, they put much needed moisture back into your hair. Secondly, Luxe oil is expensive you said this wouldn't break the bank? Okay now I know to some people SP products aren't expensive but to me they cost a little more then I'd like to be spending on my hair. My oil was actually gifted to me by my mum but it works so well I will go out and repurchase it once I've used up the bottle. If this product is out of your price range however don't panic as this step of the routine can be replaced with a hot oil treatment every now and then (I highly recommend the VO5 ones).

Right, I'm not going to go on describing how to use these products or this will become a never ending post, besides it's shampoo and oil...pretty self explanatory. Saying that though would you guys be interested in a full review of the Luxe Oil  as I have plenty to say about it, let me know in the comments! As for other general things I do to reduce breakage is by brushing my hair with hairbrushes designed for thin and tangled hair and also minimizing the amount I wash my hair. I will warn you guys though, we're not in the festival season anymore & batiste will only get you so far so there will come a point where you need to actually wash your hair!

The bottom line is that ombré will damage your hair and contrary to popular belief you can't repair your hair once it's split. However, you can minimize the damage by taking good care of your hair with products suited to it and generally being more careful when it comes to your hair. So please stop yanking your hairbrushes through wet hair...please?

Love & TubTubs