Fashion Fridays... Happy Valentines!

Erm so this isn't really about Fashion. It's about Valentines. Kinda.

I've always believed that boyfriends / girlfriends come and go, but that are friends are our true soulmates. I have a few friends in my life that I love endlessly. They give me love and hope, don't cause me pain. They make me laugh until I cry and wipe away my tears. I do hope I'm not single forever but, should I be, at least I know I will always have love in my life.

 

 

 

In vaguely fashion related news, my nephew LOVES dressing up. When I see him, 80% of the time, he's dressed as SpiderMan and refuses to answer to his actual name, will only respond when you call him SpiderMan. So cute!

 

Today, his mum sent me this picture. He decided to be my knight today and send me this valentines pic because "I luvs Aunty Oyee". I nearly died of cuteness. 

 

Who needs a boyfriend in their life? This little man gives me all the love I ever need!

Workout Wednesday... So far, so good!

This week I started following my new bible - the LDN Muscle bikini guide. Honestly, I thought it was going to be expensive, boring and a struggle. Eating prescribed foods at pre-determined times, 7 times a day? Yawn.

I'd eat my hat if I had one. I don't feel like I'm being dictated to and I'm not bored. I'm eating more than usual but I don't feel gross and full and stodgy. I feel satisfied, have very rare cravings and have a continuous flow of energy. My workouts have more pump and I'm sleeping better.

Technically, I'm not supposed to eat gluten (IBS etc) but often give in and eat it and feel awful. Eating this healthy, natural diet leaves my digestive system feeling happy. Too much info? Sorry.

Having the guide and living by it religiously is a little boring, yes. But it's also making me be creative and research ways to spice up the food, healthy recipes, perfect techniques for the workouts, all sorts!

At first, the food preparation and organising is a little time consuming but as I get into a routine and get more knowledgeable, it'll become easier and more natural, just another part of every day life.

On the 1st December, I took photos of my body as it is now, in my underwear. I'd strongly suggest anyone looking to transform to do this.  Seeing yourself in your least favourable light is inspiration to work hard. Also, it'll be great motivation to continue with the dedication when you start to see results. Or so I hope.

I also recorded my measurements (arms, legs, hips, waist, chest) and will do so again on the 1st of each month and, hopefully, track my progress.

I will weigh myself fortnightly, on the same machine and also track this. I'm not so fussed about pounds or kilos, more about dropping my body fat percentage and how I look.

My aim isn't to be "skinny" or look like a certain celebrity. My aim is to become the healthiest version of me. Whatever body shape is hiding under here, I'll embrace. I'm excited to see my development and become stronger, both physically and emotionally.

Wish me luck!

Manic Monday... Life update.

I massively failed at creating my Geography Sunday post to share yesterday! I've had a manic weekend and literally couldn't find the time!

Friday I decided to indule in some "me time" and totally chill out on the sofa and relax for a change! Saturday I went on a mad cleaning frenzy and spruced up my house a bit.

I then went to an awful yoga class. Apaprently I don't love Ivengar yoga. Mean teacher, no flow, not fun at all. The swim / sauna / jacuzzi after was heavenly though!

Saturday night I worked at McClusky's nightclub to help out a friend who was short staffed! I had such a laugh on the bar and the place was rammed with lots of young girls hoping to glimpse the beautiful Danny Mac (aka Dodger in Hollyoaks)!

I went to bed in the early hours of Sunday morning and, before I knew it, my family (mum, brother and nephew) had arrived to visit me for the day!

My nephew is the light of my life. I never envisaged being able to love someone so wholly and completely as I do my little piglet. I could go on all day about why he is the cutest, sweetest, funniest, most adorable boy on the planet but I won't...

In the morning, we headed into Kingston to do a spot of shopping & show Riley the Christmas bears singing show thing in the Bentall's centre. Apparently he quite enjoyed it. This was his reaction...

We went back to my flat for some lunch and then decided to brave the cold and get some and exercise in Richmond Park. Both my brother and nephew were totally dumbfounded by the deer in the park (or reindeer as Riley insisted they were called).

Seeing the world through a child's eyes is just so refreshingly beautiful. Everything is so new and fun and it makes you remember the little things and forget all the big worries for a while.

My family are RUBBISH at having photos. I'm the only one who can pose. My mum always looks crazed and my brother usually looks bored or murderous. Or we actually produce a nice photo but the useless cameraman (aka my brother) fails and makes it blurry, like this one...

Rubbish photos aside, I had the most beautiful day with my family. My family are friends to me too and that's a beautiful thing. When the baby tells me he loves me or even just talks to me, my heart melts and my world is whole again. I'm filled with love still that I hope will last until Christmas when I can be with them all again!

Geography Sundays... Arkansas

Continuing with my "places I'm confused about" theme, this week I bring to you... Arkansas.

I recently discovered that Arkansas and the place I thought was spelled Arkinsaw are the same place and that whoever created the place had a very strange way of saying what they spelt. Cue raucous laughter from my colleagues.

I genuinely, my whole life, thought they were two different places. I told my twitter followers this and the response was quite evenly divided. Half thought the same as me, half thought I was a moron. Oh well. My mum tells me I'm clever so I don't care. I don't need validation from the Internet. (I do really, hence why I blog. Please love me.)

Anyway, with my new found knowledge of the truth I thought I'd investigate some more and found some lovely little nuggets of knowledge for your noggins.

Residents of the State's capital - Little Rock - are called Little Rockers. I love the mental image this creates - lots of babies dressed as Elvis having a party. Fittingly, Little Rock is the home of Connie Hamzy - perhaps the most prolific groupie of all time, allegedly bedding several rockstars and was propositioned by Bill Clinton in the '90s!

 

 

Probably the most prominent Arkansawyer of all time is the late great Johnny Cash. Born and raised in Kingsland, Cash went on to become one of the most famous American musicians of all time and his legacy definitely lives on ten years after his death.

 

I'm sure that Arkansas has a lot more cultural offerings for us but we don't want to overload on facts.

I think this is definitely a place that I'll visit in my dream tour of the USA!

Fashion Fridays... Forget festive

Firstly - this is me loving life and celebrating my birthday at McClusky's last week! A terribly cliched picture but it made me laugh when I saw it the morning after (which was a truly terribly morning. I'm too old for hangovers now). To my right is Not my sister, before you ask; it's my Partner In Crime, Daniella, who happens to look a lot like me but, as far as we know, we're not related.

Anyway, onto my fashion Friday...

Last week, I posted about the epic necklace that my housemate got me for my birthday. Sadly, when I went to put it on with the birthday outfit, it fell apart! I was really gutted as I'd actually planned my outfit around it (a green silk cami and a highwaisted black skirt and my Louboutins of course).

Yesterday I went to exchange it for a new one in River Island. Disaster struck again; they didn't have any in stock. So I had to spend a long time deliberating and browsing the various ridiculous shiny things they have there before I settled on this awesome alternative!

The picture doesn't do it justice - it's huge and shiny and wonderful and I also Love it.

On my wish list this week is this beautiful faux fur coat. I definitely cannot afford it and there's also no point in having a coat like this in a country of rain but a girl can dream. In my dream, I'm running between fabulous parties in New York and being Carrie Bradshaw.

Workout Wednesdays... Woe is me

My poorliness from last week is still lingering, now in the form of a chest infection. Thus, I'm giving myself a break from my regime and not exerting my body in the hopes of getting better.

I did, however, manage a lovely revitalising yoga session on Saturday which left me feeling quite uplifted. Note - coughing in Downward Dog causes you to fall on your face.

Seeing as I have no update on my new workout plan whatsoever, I think I'd quite like to waffle on about how much I love yoga.

I never thought I would get into yoga as much as I have. I'm not a particularly spiritual person, nor am I very good at letting go of my mind and being 'in the moment'. I've tried yoga classes on and off over the years and never really got into it.

I don't know at what point I realised I love yoga. I started going again earlier in the year after joining my new gym (Virgin Active Kingston, thoroughly recommend it) and something magical clicked. I go for an hour on Tuesday evenings and again on Saturday afternoons and find myself really looking forward to it.

The classes are mixed up every time so I'm constantly challenging myself but definitely noticing improvements. My strength in my arms is improving slowly which means I've got a better foundation for some of the poses and I can really feel a difference in my tight hips which is pleasant.

I'm also finding that the two one-hour sessions are the only part of my week where my brain isn't running at a billion miles an hour. I constantly have a hundred thousand different thoughts in my head, even when I'm running or lifting weights. For some reason, when I'm doing yoga, I'm so centred on that moment and focused on my breathing and the feelings in my body, that it's all that I think about.

I'd love to join an actual yoga school but I really can't afford it unfortunately so for now the two sessions at my gym will have to suffice but I'm so glad I found a love of yoga.

Oh Carrie...

I recently decided (for no logical reason) to watch every single episode of Sex & The City, in chronological order. I'm not sure what prompted me to embark on this fabulous journey. Maybe my 'eternally single' status or a shift in some of my friendships recently? Who knows!
 
Whatever my inspiration was for this, I'm so glad it happened! I've just finished the first series and discovered I've never seen any of those episodes before, strangely. I'm not overly keen on Carrie narrating to the camera every few minutes but everything has its flaws in the beginning.
 
Having watched the later series' and the two films, it's so much fun to see how they started out, know where they end up, and watch them evolve during their journey.
 
Although I can't exactly apply the stories to my life (oh, how I long to live in New York!), it's amazing how relevant the storylines are! Even over a decade later, men are still behaving the same, women are still having the same issues, the world just goes round. The only things that have changed are the fashion and the technology!
 
Anyone who wants some escapism, some laughs, some emotions, some inspiration in fabulousness, some sex tips and to waste half an hour should definitely indulge in the shenanigans of these four beautiful ladies!

Welcome to my world...

Welcome to Holly's little corner of the internet.

I've been blogging over on tumblr for a while now but I've been quite inconsistent with my posting and it's mostly my instagram pictures. I've decided I want to get more dedicated to blogging and tumblr doesn't really offer me much. It's also mostly full of emotional teenagers and pro anorexia pictures, neither of which I particularly enjoy.

So here I am, a brand new Blogger. Or is it Bloggerer?

So a little about me... if I were in XFactor, I'd be in the "Overs" category yet I'm still under 30. I work in the PR / Marketing world and dream of being a Beauty PR Exec. My humble abode is in SW London and I live with a German who is awesome. I have the best nephew ever (who I'm sure I will blog about a lot, not sorry) and a hanful of lovely family and friends to keep me entertained.

I know that the most succesful blogs have a specific topic / purpose but I've yet to find my niche so this will be a scramble of the things in the world that entertain me: music; food; the gym / exercise; things I think are beautiful; things who annoy me (of which there are many, I'm afraid); whatever else comes across my life.

If anyone has any blogs they can't live without (beauty / fitness / entertainment preferably), please share! I'd love feedback and comments on my posts. The social media world is amazing and I love the interaction!

You can also find me here on Twitter and my instagram is 23HRH too.

This is my face...