Date Night Outfit

First things first, the title is misleading. By 'date night' I mean Mystery Man and I sat in my room, watched Top Gear, ate chocolates and took the piss out of the fact that I'm a hobbit and he's younger than me. But I rather liked my outfit so I put some shoes on and made Mav take some photos for me...

Loving turtleneck jumpers and high necked tops at the moment! I've been pairing them with everything - mini skirts, midi skirts, jeans and trousers. Very Kim K esque. This dark grey turtleneck was a Christmas present from my mum, the sleeves are full length but I decided to roll them up as I didn't have to brace the freezing cold outdoors. On the bottom half I went for a black midi skirt with a centred slit and zip detailing. The shoes I wore for about five minutes are black with a cut out heel and buckled ankle straps.

Outfit:

Jumper - New Look

Skirt - G21 at Asda

Shoes - New Look

Accessories:

Necklace - Unknown. (Mum's helpful explanation was 'a shop in Derby').

Watch - Rotary

Rings - Pandora

Makeup:

Skin -
Rimmel Match Perfection Foundation in 103 True Ivory
Rimmel Wake Me Up Concealer in Classic Beige
MUA Bronzed Perfection Bronzer
Natural Collection Blusher in Sweet Cheeks
Rimmel Stay Matte Pressed Powder in 005 Silky Beige

Eyes -
MUA Smokin Palette (also used on brows - black)
MAC Mineralize Duo Eyeshadow in Love Connection
Seventeen Make Your Mark Eyeliner Pen in Blackest Black
No7 Fanomenal Lashes Mascara in Black

Lips -
No7 Precision Lips Pencil in Plum (Yes, I did a Kylie Jenner and overdrew my lips to try it out, but took it off before said male arrived)
Rimmel Lasting Finish Colour Rush Lip Balm in 200 Keep Mauving

I'll keep you posted; I'll let you know if I allow him to stick around or show him the door. You listening Haz?

Biya

x

Christmas 2014

Happy Holidays!

Obviously leading up to Christmas we're more than likely to have a few too many alcoholic beverages. I found my mum's boyfriend, Matt, walking back from a night out when I was driving home from work. He didn't recognise the car or me until I shouted at him.

The Monday before Christmas I decided to join my Auntie and my three little cousins to do some last minute shopping. Here's the youngest witch annoying me with a scarf.

The sibling also made an appearance for Christmas. Don't mind the Dog's rolls - her diet starts in January.

Christmas Eve - Pub crawl with my Dad, his girlfriend Lorraine and Jack. But bumped into a few of my school friends. 

Christmas day:

Routine stairs photo - my Mum and Dad used to make us sit at the top of the stairs before we were allowed to go down to see what Santa had got for us. We still do this every Christmas, and as you can see we look happier as the years go by.

Routine reaction photo - once again my Mum always took a photo of our reactions when first seeing our presents. So obviously we annoy her now by pulling faces.

The pig doesn't miss out on presents.

Yes this is my mum with her foot on my knee - she's well impressed that she bought us matching slippers. 

Fat pig.

Always wanted to swap Zoe for a bulldog. Dream came true.

Usually Jack and I don't buy presents for each other. My mum thinks it's funny to buy our presents and wrap them so we don't know what we've got each other. But she decided to have a year off being Santa.

Yep. Me just opening a Macbook. Love ya brah.

I bought him cufflinks... 

Went to my Dad's gaff after dinner. We watched The Emperor's New Groove and Uncle Buck whilst he fell asleep. 

Christmas tea. Nothing beats cheese and biscuits.

We had friends and family over in the evening to drink and play games - like Keith Lemon's 'Don't show your teeth' which was a laugh.

Boxing day snow. The tree being outside was originally weird, but at least it looks pretty in the snow. For the record, I hate snow. The noise it makes when you step on it makes me cringe, I hate being cold and I have a massive fear of falling over; we don't get on well. I was driving when it started snowing and left the car at the local leisure centre because I was scared of driving in it. Somebody else had to drive me home and Mother had to walk to get the car in the morning. Soz about that Mav.

Then I got drunk and took selfies with my bitch.

Hope you all had a fab Christmas!

x

Growing Old

Hiya

You're probably expecting an upbeat festive piece at this time of year, but I'm afraid it's a bit of a sombre one. For me, Christmas is a time to spend alongside your loved ones so I've been reflecting quite a bit.

This Sunday I visited my Nanna, as I usually do when I'm back from uni, but this time was harder than usual. She's a typical Greek grandmother - makes English words up, tries to force feed you and isn't happy unless she's running round after you. However, she now struggles to walk, forgets an awful lot and is sad pretty much all the time. Coping with Parkinson's, dementia and depression isn't something that anyone should have to do. It isn't fair.

I really can't imagine going from once being an independent woman to feeling trapped in a house, and in a body that is about 50 years older than your mind.

You can imagine how hard it is watching this all happen and get worse as time passes by, I'm sure many of you have been through a similar experience. Yet it's just as hard watching my Dad having to cope with seeing this change in his Mum. Nobody likes seeing their dad cry, so it's extremely difficult having to be the strong one in these situations. If only we could turn the clock back a few years so I could have my Nanna back, the one I knew before illness.

It's one thing watching one member of your family deteriorate but I can't help thinking about something like this happening to others too. My parents, my brother, my friends? I can't even begin to imagine that. 

Old age is scary. 

Getting older is scary.

Things like this make me think: Are bad things happening more often? Or am I just getting less ignorant each year?

Hope you're all okay.

Charlotte

x

Zzzz

Psssst.

This is one for the few that stay up until 05.30am like myself. Oh, it's just me? Awks.

A few months ago I actually tried to sleep at a normal time, I really did. But there are only so many days you can lie in bed with thoughts racing around your head, and next thing you know it's 6am and you're still not asleep.

This is such a drastic change for me; every single person that knows me will tell you that I'm the laziest fucker in the world. Sleeping has always been my talent. After school I had naps as soon as I got home, right up until my mum woke me up for dinner. Then at sixth form I would pull a few chairs together and sleep in my free periods, I literally needed about 16 hours of sleep a day to function.

You might be surprised by this but if you knew my dad then you wouldn't be. It's his fault. There's been times where he's fallen asleep in restaurants only to wake up and find that he's been left on his one with a bill on the table. Thank god I never did that.

The difference is that I suffer from generalised anxiety/panic disorder with depression (I will probably write a blog about this at some point), which I am on medication for and I'm also having therapy once a week. So no it isn't because I've messed my sleeping pattern up - even if I don't sleep for over 24 hours I still can't sleep at night. I've tried listening to music, sleep hypnosis, muscle relaxation techniques but nothing seems to work. The weird thing is that I spend hours thinking about situations that haven't even happened; I'm not stressed out, my brain just likes to make things up. But at least I can use myself as a case study for my psychology degree!

Also on the plus side, from 10pm onwards this has been one of the most productive days I've had in a while! Revision done, part-wrote an essay, then Christmas shopping... I'm on a role. Pity it's now 06:09am. Some people are actually waking up now, wow. 

I guess I should try and get my head down now so I don't completely miss daylight... again.

Let me know if anyone has had any similar experiences, or if any of y'all have any tips or techniques for drifting off! Believe me I'd love to try them.

Night! (Well, morning...)

x