Mexico #2?

Hey guys!

I know I said I was going to do some indepth blogging whilst out here in Mexico, and this is the first post I've done, but honestly, its just so hot, I've done absolutely nothing.

I just can't believe the constant heat and humidity! It's almost as hot as Vegas, but that was dry heat, and this humidity makes it so much worse that I've just taken to collapsing on a sunbed in the morning, and then staying there until it's time for dinner!

I managed to lay in the sun for a total of one day. and the rest of the time I've been in the shade with my hat firmly on! I swear I could get sunstroke just looking at the sun without a hat on!

I've also forgotten to take my camera out even once (i'm the worst blogger, it's ok, i'm aware of it) so most photos will be from my phone and the occasional night one from my dads camera until I remember to use mine! These two were just taken by my mum on her phone!

I'm planning on doing a couple of posts whilst i'm here rather than ambitiously trying to blog too much! I want to do one on the hotel itself, and then a focus on my favourite Mexican restaurant here and then one with just a few OOTDs :)

The family have booked a table in an Asian restaurant called Momo tonight where you sit around a hotplate and a chef does lots of fancy knife tricks and cooks your meal infront of you, it looks pretty cool to watch but i'm not a huge Chinese food fan so i've opted to stay in my lovely air-conditioned room, order some room service and catch up on all my favourite blogs and youtube videos that I've missed over the past few days! The tables are a hot ticket though as my dad had to queue for half an hour to book a slot and there were over a hundred people behind him! We went a couple of days ago and just sat on a normal table and if you like Chinese and sushi, you'd love it.

I may just sound anti-social but i'm actually glowing i'm so red today, and I haven't been in the sun for days! So I think I just need a night sitting in my cool room, might even fire up the hot-tub with only cold water and try to draw the heat out!

Hope you've been having a good few days! :)

Love, Amylou x

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Mexico Day 1: What's in my bag + OOTD

Hey Guys!

I don't know if this is cheating to call my post day one of Mexico when I haven't actually left the UK yet, but i'm at the airport, so i'm saying it counts!

We are flying tomorrow morning but didn't fancy the 4 hour drive at 5am so we decided to drive down to Gatwick today and stay at the Hilton in the airport instead so we could get up at a normal time!

I thought i'd just make a little airport/travel version of a what's in my bag post! I'm using my Black Harrods Tote as it fits everything in and I just like it really!

I got it last Christmas as I didn't have a black bag that was big enough for uni and this one fits everything in!

I've packed quite a bit into it!

I've packed my neck pillow, Mulberry date planner, 1st generation iPad, Microsoft Surface, Guess sunglasses, Michael Kors purse and some earphones and tissues! All I need to put in is my phone, tickets and passport! And my camera obviously, but I had to use that! My suitcase is full of all sorts of cables and wires now! I have different things on each one though! (or that's what I tell myself to convince me that I need them all!)

I'm not good at packing light, and I doubt I need a phone and two tablets for a 10 hour flight, especially as the seats all have screens in anyway! But oh well! :)

I thought i'd share what i'm wearing for the drive too, i'm terrible at OOTD posts but i'm trying to get better! :)

I'm wearing skorts from Miss Selfridge, black camisole from Next, black ballet pumps from Topshop, my harrods bag, guess sunglasses (old) and I can't remember where my necklace is from! Everything you can still buy should be linked if you want to take a look! :)

I painted my nails with OPI nail polishes and cocktail sticks to do the green and black parts! Looks ok from a distance though! haha :)

I'm currently sat in bed watching corrie whilst typing this! I can't wait to set off tomorrow morning, too excited to sleep!

Hope you're having a good Monday!

Love Amylou x

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Last Minute Shoe Shopping!

Hey Guys!

So as you know, I lost my black heels a few days ago, and i'm off to Mexico tomorrow (well the airport tomorrow) so I had to make a mad dash to Meadowhall today to get some new ones!

I tried many different shops but i'm a UK size 8/EU42 so it can be quite difficult for me to find shoes when I need to! (When I don't suddenly everywhere has my size) but after searching around I finally found some in the new collection at Aldo!

I wasn't going to post today, but these shoes are so pretty, I just couldn't resist a quick post to show them off!

Cute right?! They are quite high, and considering i'm already at least 5"10 my mum wasn't too sure but I love wearing heels, so I just went for it! 

I think they are gorgeous, and i'm so glad I found some! These are just what I wanted so i'm glad I didn't find any anywhere else!

In other news, I didn't find a sun hat :( so looks like i'll need to get one from duty free, and maybe some sunglasses, what a shame haha :)

The sun has come out now, so i'm going to make the most of it and procrastinate for another hour or two, then I really must get on with my packing!

If you want to look at these shoes online i'll leave a link here :) i'm not the best with my photos, but they are nice!

Hope you're all having the best weekend!

Love Amylou x

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Packing Weekend!

Hey Guys!

So if you're anything like me, packing for a holiday is actually quite stressful. It starts out fine, then you forget something or it doesn't all fit, and then it all just makes you stressed haha.

I thought i'd get on top of it this year and so I tried to do it yesterday (Friday) as I had the day off. I got everything out of the wardrobes and put into piles on my bed ready to go in, and then I packed everything except my dresses so they crease up the least amount possible!

However...

I lost my black heels. How anyone can lose a pair of shoes in their own house is beyond me, but I managed it. So now I have to do a mad rush to Meadowhall to get some! I also realised that I don't have a hat. I love massive straw hats, and they always have to be packed in a certain way. But I lost that too so I don't have one. So another reason to go to Meadowhall now! And an entire suitcase to repack! I hope it's not just me that does stuff like this!

I would usually be happy to go shopping, however the roads are shut on sunday as the Tour de France is going past the shopping centre so we have to get a train and everywhere is going to be so busy! Talk about stressful!

So today I decided to just take a few hours to chill and just do what I want so I got my mum to teach me how to french plait my hair (so far i'm still terrible) and I made some pizza dough so we could make our own pizzas and dough balls for dinner :)

I tried for ages but failed so my mum stepped in to show me how haha

This one was red pepper, red onion, mushroom, sweetcorn and spinach :) much more exciting than mine which was simply chicken and mozzarella! I didn't get a photo of mine before it was cut up, but I can assure you, it was delicious. 

I love making pizzas, it takes minutes and they are healthier and taste way better than ones you buy! You just need '00' grade plain flour (a personal preference but I much prefer it to other flours), yeast, salt and sugar and olive oil! With a bit of water to make it into a dough :)

Yummy!

Now it's time to sort everything out before our manic last minute trip to the shopping centre and re-packing! I'll try to post on Monday when we get to the hotel down in London!

Hope you've all had a good weekend! :)

With Love, Amylou x

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My Summer Reading List

Hey!

So I mentioned in a blog post a few days back that I had a haul of my holiday things that i'd over the past week. But a few problems arose

1. I bought WAY too much and really, no one needs to see my VS obsession

2. I am TERRIBLE at taking photos of clothes, and bags, and shoes for that matter

3. Hauls just look better in videos.

So! Instead I thought i'd share with you my summer reading list! and if you want to share, you could comment and let me know the books you've loved/are looking forward to reading and I can stick them on my kindle before I get on the plane!

First of all, I want to read the Pretty Little Liars books, all 18 or so of them. I didn't want to commit too much incase they were hard to get into, or not written in a style that I can relate to so I just bought the first four. That might sound like a lot if you don't read much, but if you're into it as much as I have been recently, those will take me less than a week to get through if I get into them!

If you're anything like me, and have a little OCD about matching book covers, then i'm really sorry about the next few photos.

I searched for what must have been a couple of hours, but I could not for the life of me find covers that all matched, these were the closest I could get, but not quite. But I won't dwell on that! I love the tv series and I really want to read the books, the stories are always a bit different and the characters are sometimes different in books but I love reading them. I used to read the gossip girl books when that was on (still one of my favourite shows) so hoping these will be as good if not better!

So I'm really looking forward to those!

Other books I have on my list are:

1. The One-Week Girlfriend series by Monica Murphy.

I've actually read these before, but they are really good, I'm always a sucker for a love story where people have to overcome their problems to understand that someone really loves them. It can be hard to find books like this that don't have sad parts. I really really hate books that make me cry. I know they are often true stories and people say it's so uplifting and good for the spirit, but there is enough bad out there, I don't feel the need to read sad things and make myself upset unnecessarily! There are 4 books in the series (and an additional novella I believe!) and the first 2 follow the same couple, then the third and fourth are about new people that were always in the story, but you didn't know much about them. I'm not explaining it very well, but I love them.

2. Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding.

I love the films but i've never read the books so I decided to download them onto my kindle :) I love bridget jones, whilst I love watching films about glamourous women, it's also nice to watch films and read books about women who aren't stick thin and obscenely beautiful and are actually quite awkward at times! I don't really know what to say other than i'm really looking forward to reading this!

3. About a Girl by Lindsey Kelk.

I love Lindsey Kelk. I'm saying love a lot in this post aren't I, but I do really like books! I've read all the I Heart... books and I just really like her style of writing, it's always really easy to get into, and she makes you want to know all about the characters. I can't wait to read this.

I've also downloaded the Hunger Games books, but I still can't decide if I actually want to read them. I know they are meant to be amazing, and I haven't read of them or seen the films, but i've heard they are sad. Amazing, but sad. and I don't like sad books! We'll just have to see how it goes!

What books are you reading at the moment/what do you want to read? Have you read of these books? What did you think?

So many questions!

Love Amylou x

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Starting a diary, and actually keeping it.

Hey Guys! :)

So today I wanted to talk to you about something a bit different! Starting a diary, and actually keeping it up to date! Writing a diary is something i've started every year since I was about 8 years old, and i've failed with it every single year. Every christmas my grandad buys me a new diary and I must last a month if that, then I completely forget about it until about this time!

So I thought that I might actually just start one now. And make a conscious effort to keep it up. I don't have the best memory, so I think it would be good to keep up, and it's always something to look back on. 

The first problem is what kind?!

Do I get one with specific pages like an organiser diary? e.g. this one from Paperchase

Or do I get a notebook style journal? e.g. this one from Paperchase

(This isn't sponsored or anything I just really like paperchase haha)

I don't know which would be better! I'm swayed towards the second, as the first is convenient with the assigned pages but the second means no empty pages and if I want to write 3 pages on an exceptionally interesting day then I can!

Do any of you keep diaries? I was wondering what bloggers thought of them in general with regards to lifestyle blogging? Do you find it easier as you always have written down what you've been doing and where you've been going? Or does it make it harder as you've already written it down once?

I just don't know!

I'd love to know what you thought though! I think i'm going to have a look into it, especially with my trip to Mexico next week, I need to remember what i've been doing for when I want to look back on it! I'm going to try and upload posts whilst i'm away, depending on the internet, and how much my tablet likes the heat. I put screen size over practicality and so I just have a big desktop to write these posts on at home, not so good for travelling though so i'll be taking my Microsoft Surface with me.

If any of you have been reading my blog for a while you'll know if not good at spacing my posts out and not leaving big gaps, and when I do post more often than not they are just long rambles like this!

(sorry)

I will try to get better at blogging I swear!

But yeah, after that long tangent, let me know what you think!

Love you, Amylou x

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Birthday make-up review!

Hey guys!

As I mentioned before I got some new make up for my birthday! I wanted to make sure i'd used it all a few times before I reviewed any of it so I could give a good honest opinion!

The first two products I got from my mama as she had just been to Florida for business and picked me up a couple of bits on the way back! :)

It's the MAC Mineralise Skin Finish Natural powder in Light, and I just love it. It's my favourite powder but I always seem to run out when I won't have chance to go to MAC so I always end up just buying a cheaper one from Boots but I was so happy to be using this again! 

It's not too heavy and actually gives a bit of coverage on top of tinted moisturiser or foundation and gives a matte finish which I love because the shiny/dewy look does absolutely nothing for me and I look far better with a nice matte finish to my make up! :)

I'd tried this concealer before but only as a sample and I loved it. It's the MAC Pro Longwear Concealer in NC20 and goes perfectly with my Chanel foundation. It's quite heavy and thick, so you only need a tiny bit or you can look quite cakey quite easily (if you get what I mean) a bit like someone just spooned it on your face, not a good look. I tend to save this for days when I have big bags under my eyes (most days actually) or if my skin isn't looking great after too much sugar and not enough water! As you only need a tiny bit they last for ages, and I would definitely recommend it. Personally for me it's a bit heavy for every day use but it's perfect when you just want a little bit more coverage!

The rest of my new make up is from my best friends Lauren and Jo :)

This is the Kiss Me It's My Birthday set from bareMinerals. I love absolutely everything in this box. Everything. 

The mascara is the Lash Domination volumizing mascara in Intense Black and it's one of the best if not the best mascara i've ever had. The brush is twisted which helps separate lashes as you put it on and it doesn't make your lashes clump or stick together at all. I've been using it every day, and I think I might have to go and get another when it runs out! 

This is the Lasting Line long-wearing eyeliner in  Absolute Black. It isn't as pigmented as the YSL pencil liner that i've reviewed before, and so you need to put a bit more on if you want the intense black colour, but true to it's name, it is long lasting. I only every really use pencil liners in my waterline so it usually wears off after an hour or two, but this stayed on a few hours and if I wear it for a meal or a day out I don't have to touch it up which I think is pretty perfect, just what you want from an eyeliner!

I love this lip gloss. It's the Marvelous Moxie in Show Off. It's a pale pink when you put it on and it's quite thick. I'm not usually one for a thick lip gloss as I always get my hair caught in it with the wind! Luckily that hasn't happened yet! It also has a plumping effect, leaving your lips all tingly and making the perfect pout! I love when lip glosses make my lips all tingly and I love pink glosses/lipsticks, so this is a perfect addition to my make-up bag!

The last new addition to my make up bag is this set of 4 eyeshadows from MAC called Devilishly Dark. My favourite eyeshadows are neutrals and goldy browns (as seen by my love of the original Naked palette) and these eyeshadows are gorgeous. They are quite heavily pigmented, but not so much that you can't easily blend them, and the colours are lovely together. From left to right, top to bottom they are Manila Paper, Goldmine, Honey Lust and Devilishly Dark. The honey lust is my favourite, and i'm not ashamed to say i've worn it every single day since I got it!

Thank you for all your birthday well wishes, it means a lot! :)

Let me know if you have any of these products and what you think of them! I love them all!

With Love, Amylou x

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