Beauty Tuesday | Avobath

First of all, I’m sorry about my grumpy post the other day. It was negative, I was tired and stressed out.

I FINALLY have my day off, I have spent it all day in my pjs, catching up on Once Upon A Time and True Blood on Sky Go. And this evening consists of Snow White and Despicable Me 2. Jolly Good.

Anyway, so I’ve just come out the bath, and I thought I’d share with you the amazing bath bomb I purchased from Lush the other day. (also just realising that Mia posted about Lush last week too)

Despite having run my bath waaaay too hot (as per) and getting an odd tingly sensation up and down my body because of it. A bit like a thousand needles being prodded in? Anyone else get that? It’s either heat or me having an allergic reaction to Lush. I really hope it’s not the latter.

Sorry, getting distracted.

I bought the Avobath bath bomb as a little treat to myself. All my other bath bombs I’d been using were so out of date that the fizz had actually stopped working! They were about two years old….. I know, disgraceful!! So, back to the Avobath. It was based on Avocados, and it promised a relaxing experience and soothing properties and such.

I popped it into the tub of what was practically molten lava, and watched it bob around the bath fizzing away. The water turned green, which I know isn’t the best colour for a bathtub, but it was a nice green.

I lit my Sicilian Lemon Yankee Candle, pressed play on the “Toasty Fireside” playlist on Spotify, and got in. (After running the cold tap for a while, that is.) Looking at the water, I noticed that it had a little shimmer in it. And it most definitely did soothe. My legs were aching so bad after leg day at the gym yesterday, now they feel a lot more relaxed.

If it wasn’t for the strange sensation I mentioned above, and the water being too hot, it would have been the perfect bath.

Now, I need to get out of my towel and put on my favourite pyjamas before ending my chill day with a film fest.

Love ya,
Harri xxx

Weekend Chatter | BORING

I know it’s summer, and I therefore should have lots to think about and lots to write about. But the truth is, I don’t.

Sorry.

I’ve been away on orchestra, which was amazing. I’m back now, and all I’ve been doing is working.

I’m a waitress, and I think I might write about something that I’ve been planning for a while at another time, but right this moment, I’m so tired I can’t even think straight.

All I do is gym and work. I need a day off.

Working an eight day week is difficult.

So yeah, sorry for being boring, I have lots and lots planned for my posts, but I don’t have much time due to work and when I do have time, I’m exhausted.

Harri xxx

Hobby Wednesday | Gymmin’

Ok, today is going to be a little rant.

Just so we’re all clear on that.

As I mentioned before, I’ve just come back from a two-week orchestra course. The food was horrendous. (There aren’t enough bold settings for me to make that absolutely clear). Full of gluten, processed food, fatty, bland, uninteresting, unhealthy. As someone who tries their utmost best to be health-conscious, this was a nightmare. 

So one way I tried to maybe possibly burn off some of the mountainous volumes of fat that was being consumed was to join the on-campus gym. Nothing wrong with that, right? I mean, I go to the gym practically every day at home and while I’m in university. So why not here?

It wasn’t until the moment when I said “Nah don’t wanna go to the pub, I’m up early to go to the gym before rehearsal” did I realise how unsupportive and how little my friends on the course knew about me wanting to go. There were some people saying “you’re mental, I couldn’t do that” but then they left it at that. But a few people kept going on and on and on about why I shouldn’t go to the gym, and why they don’t go to the gym.

“I can’t think of anything worse.”

“Life’s too short than to spend hours in a gym.”

“What? You weightlift? You weirdo. Only boys do that.”

“You’re going to end up looking like a bulky man.”

“There’s so much more I would rather do with my time than to spend it sweating away in a smelly gym.”

Ok, fair enough, those are your opinions. But at least let me have a say and give my reasons.

1. I enjoy it. I don’t see it as time-wasting. I enjoy pushing my body to new levels.
2. Yes, I lift weights. It makes me stronger. And as a tiny 5ft 3 girl, I like to surprise people with my strength.
3. I am not going to look like a man. The female body is not built the same as males. I will (eventually) be toned.
4. There’s always other things to be doing, but going to the gym is a place for me to escape daily life. It’s a little bit of me time.

I mean, if I said that I went running every day, or if I did yoga, or if I swim, no-one would bat an eyelid. As soon as you mention the word “gym”, people suddenly have all of these negative impressions.

Sorry this post is a little different, it’s been getting me down a bit recently when people say these things to me.

Let me know if you’ve had any similar issues!!

Harri xxx

 

 

Beauty Tuesday | Catastrophe Cosmetic

I recently visited Lush in Cardiff to pick up a shower gel for my mum, and I was, as ever, greeted with friendly ‘hello’s and one girl caught me browsing the bath bombs, and we ended up bonding really well over Cinnamon and Christmas products, and I had a really lovely experience, it was just like catching up with an old friend, but with a total stranger – I wish I knew here name! She had really long wavy strawberry blonde hair. It made me want to work there so badly. They have some Christmas temp jobs, so hopefully I’ll get one of those.

Anyhoo, another reason I went to Lush was to trade in 5 empty pots for a free Fresh Face Mask. I’ve tried a fair few of the Lush face masks, and some I loved, some I didn’t get on with. I have quite seasonal skin, if that makes any sense; in Winter, it’s very dry and dehydrated, and this Summer it’s been fairly oily, probably because of the humid British Summer weather, and I have had the most horrific breakout recently, but we shan’t dwell on the mountain range that appeared on my chin.

So the two face masks that she picked out for me were Brazened Honey and Catastrophe Cosmetic. Brazened Honey has honey to moisturise, fennel to cleanse, lime juice to rejuvinate and ginger to tighten, among other lovely fresh ingredients (including eggs, so watch out for that one if you have an allergy), and has more of a gritty texture to exfoliate, which I’m personally not a huge fan of. Catastrophe Cosmetic, the one I opted for, has blueberries, which are full of vitamins and antioxidants, along with rose and almond oils to soften and calm the skin. It has the texture of a clay mask, but is definitely not as drying as a clay mask, and my skin is suuuuuper soft, and has calmed the redness of my spotty mountain range. The face masks need to be kept in the fridge and will last for three weeks to a month, and they say it has three uses, but a third of a pot seems way too much, so I’d say there’s about 6 uses, so twice a week for three weeks.

See you Thursday!

Mia 🙂

Music Monday | Strauss and Berlioz

Hello dear readers! I’m back!

Sorry, I took a twelve day break. Well, I say break, it was nothing of the sort. I went on an orchestra course. Yes, I went to band camp. It was so much fun. Full of late nights, banter, laughs, alcohol and music. It was also very hard work. Rehearsing for 8 hours a day is exhausting. Followed by 4 concerts in various places in Wales and the UK, it’s no wonder I slept for 11 hours last night.

Anyway, we played 3 pieces. 1 is a commission written for us by the Welsh composer Christopher Painter. And we then played Also Sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss and Symphonie Fantastique by Hector Berlioz.

It was such a demanding programme, but we pulled it off. We played superbly.

You might recognise the beginning of this piece, but the rest of the music is wonderful. I’m not the biggest Strauss fan, and to be honest, I think that if I hadn’t of played it, I don’t think I would enjoy listening to it. It’s very complicated and intense. The the emotion that Strauss poured into this work is phenomenal. (This isn’t us playing it btw…..)

Berlioz’ Symphonie Fantastique is an amazing piece of work. It was about 50 years ahead of it’s time. Berlioz tells of a story of an artist who’s drugged up on opium, due to hopeless love, and each of the movements represents a dream that the artist has. However, it is believed that the story behind the symphony is loosely autobiographical on Berlioz’ life . The one I’ve posted here is the fifth and final movement and is my favourite. It’s called the Dream of the Witches Sabbath, and is dark and grotesque with monsters and wtiches dancing. The main theme is joined by a famous Dies Irae theme and the movement is simply fantastic and mental and amazing and great fun to play.

I hope you enjoy!

Harri xxx

 

Throwback Thursday | Italia

Having been away from University since May, and I don’t go back until September 22nd, I have been aching to go on holiday, I particularly want to go back to Italy. I went on holiday to Lake Garda with my school wind band, mentioned in Monday’s post, and it was one of the best weeks of my life. Every morning I woke to a gorgeous pale blue sky, hazy with the morning mist of the lake. It was breathtaking. Every morning for breakfast I had a brown sort of croissant / bread roll hybrid with a cool glass of Ace; I wish I knew what it was, but it was heavenly. I had my hair in dutch plaits everyday because it was too hot for having my hair down, I wore pretty dresses every day, and I got sunburnt so badly. And it was glorious. Except the first night we were there; we decided to go for a little walking tour of Garda, and we got caught in a thunderstorm. FOR FORTY-FIVE MINUTES. It was amazing. Thick, heavy rain with thunder and lightning? HEAVEN.

We had a boat-tour of all the towns around Garda, including Limone and Sirmione, and we took a tour of a beautiful castle, and someone was getting married there! It must have been so magical to get married in Italy. We also spent a day in Verona, which was absolutely beautiful, we had a walking tour which included Juliette’s Balcony, and the Colloseum, where we saw the opera Carmen. A fantastic opportunity, that I slept through. I’m sorry! I find opera really boring. And the seats were literally stone, and incredibly uncomfortable. We also spent a day in Venice, which was beautiful..but stank. It stank of sewers so badly, I had to put my clothes in a bag in my suitcase for the rest of the trip because they smelled of piss. I did get a beautiful Venetian mask though, I’ll take a snap when I go back home.

But the best part was definitely the food. THE GLORIOUS FOOD. Pasta is my favourite food, but I didn’t have pasta at all. I had pizza every single day. Lunch and Dinner. And it was glorious. AND OMG THE GELATO WAS THE BEST. BEST BEST BEST. PLEASE TAKE ME BACK TO ITALY SO I CAN GET FAT ON PASTA PIZZA AND GELATO. I have to go back next summer. Time to start saving my pennies.

Unfortunately I lost all of my photographs through multiple hard-drive losses, and I am SO GUTTED. I have some photos on my Facebook, but I don’t want to put someone elses pictures on the blog without their permission, so I’m afraid this post will have to be photoless! Sorry folks 😦

See you tomorrow, and maybe I’ll show you a snap of my new hair!

Mia 🙂

Hobby Wednesday | Things That Make Me Happy

Today I thought I’d try and boost my positivity by doing something I saw Carrie Fletcher of All I Know Now and on the youtubes, and she filled a page with things that make her happy, so I thought I would as well, so here is my very long list! The challenge is to fill the page with things that make you happy.

 

I hope you enjoyed my list, and I challenge you to make one yourself!

Mia 🙂

Beauty Tuesday | July Favourites

Hello! (Yet Another) Belated post here, I really need to get my self-motivation back, because I’ve been on my summer holiday since the middle of May, and I feel like I’m falling into a black hole of Netflix, Assassin’s Creed and Harry Potter. Bad, I know, but I am working on it.

So July is almost over! Where is this year going, I can’t believe it’s only five months until Christmas (I CAN’T WAIT) and I’m TWENTY-ONE in November.

Like. Whut?

I’m still nineteen in my head. I don’t want to be a grown up!

Anyway. Faves.

Skin

I am currently in love with my skin routine. I start out with the Camomile Silky Cleansing Oil from The Body Shop and a hot flannel from Primark to take it off with, which adds some really gentle exfoliating action, but won’t rip your skin apart like a scrub will. I then use the Pixi Glow Tonic on a cotton pad, wiping all over my face (careful around the eyes) and attacking those pesky spots and blemishes before they sprout and take over my face. I then finish with a moisturiser, The Body Shop’s Vitamin E Moisture Cream, which I got as a free gift with a purchase at Christmas-time, and I’ve been using it since and I’m not even half way through. I would like to get a facial spray, such as the Caudalie Beauty Elixir, but it’s a little pricey for my liking. I try not to splurge on ‘high-end’ products unless there’s some kind of offer, because my little student budget will only stretch so far.

Make-up

I’ve really been loving my YSL Babydoll mascara. It is definitely not cheap, but I had a Debenhams gift card for £15 so I got this for £9.50 or something crazy, and the really lovely sales assistant gave me a free sample of the mascara, for being ‘such a lovely customer’. This is the person who will not talk to sales assistants because I either feel intimidated or feel like I’m bothering them. I digress. The product is really lovely, it doesn’t clump at all, it doesn’t make your lashes crispy, it keeps them fluttery and soft, and smells absolutely delicious, it’s really fruity and fresh. It also comes in a few different colours; brown, black, purple and navy. Available from Debenhams for £24.50

Hair

I am so lazy with my hair, because it’s so long and ugly and half of it is just split ends, and I’m actually chopping it off next week hopefully! But the one thing that I always use is my Tangle Teezer. My hair is very long and always tangles, and the Tangle Teezer is the only thing that will get through those knots with zero pain. Literally, zero pain. I used to absolutely hate other people brushing my hair because it always hurt really badly, BUT NO MORE! Available from Boots for £10.99 (also comes in different colours, so shop around)

Art

As you may or may not know, I am an animation student, and as such I really like to draw in my spare time. Today I stole some of my boyfriends Copic markers, much coveted by many poor student artists, like myself, and I accidentally fell in love with them. They are markers, that blend easily. SAY WHAT. I will show you.

 

THAT WAS ALL DONE IN A FELT TIP PEN. Too bad they are ridiculously expensive. I will have to wait for Christmas and Birthdays. *depressed emoji*

Game

I’ve recently been replaying Assassin’s Creed, and I’m currently on the second one, and It’s making me want to go back to Italy so badly. I finally finished the first Assassin’s Creed a few days ago, and the ending was just like ‘……what? That’s it?’ But it does tie-in really well with the second one, which makes soooooo much more sense to me now. But the gameplay was really refined in the second one, although Ezio still likes to jump off walls in completely the wrong direction, landing on several people. Ho hum. But my real obsession has been my second playthrough of The Last of Us. I recently found out that they’re making a movie of it, and that they want Maisie Williams (Arya Stark in Game of Thrones) to play Ellie. YES. YES. ALL OF THE YES.

So those are a few of the things I’ve been loving throughout July!

See you tomorrow!

Mia 🙂

 

Music Monday | Symphonic Winds

Hello blog friends!

Apologies for the absence this week, Harri is off oboe-ing with the National Youth Orchestra of Wales (I think), and it was so disgustingly hot last week, I couldn’t go in my room because it was so muggy; I live in an attic room, so it gets suuuuper hot and sticky and disgusting and I melt, which is never good. Anyhoo, I’ll be taking over the blog this week so you’ll be getting posts from me every single day. poor buggers aren’t you lucky!

Fairly often I fall victim to nostalgia. There is nothing more comforting than just letting your mind wander back to the happier, simpler days of childhood and school, and recently I’ve been wanting to pick up my flute again, because it technically is my first instrument, although I sing way more than I play my flute now, which is a shame. I would love to go back and finish my Grade 8 at some point, so I can finally finish what I started at eight-years-old. I really miss playing my flute, and I loved being a member of Symphonic Winds, a joint wind ensemble between the girls’ and boys’ school I used to go to. And in the five years I was a member, we played some absolutely fantastic music.

I’ve mention An American Elegy in a previous blog post, and it will always be my favourite piece we played. I remember the last time I ever played this in Prague, it was raining, and I looked over to Harri and we both just started crying. It was so emosh. All the boys were just looking really awkward like ohmigod there are two crying girls what the hell do we do maybe we should just ignore them ABORTABORT. But I couldn’t even do my solo because I was just weeping, trying to hold it together. It was beautiful and emotional and wet.

Another great piece we did was called The Witch and the Saint by Steven Reineke, which is really beautiful and exhilarating to play. It has sweeping melodies, a gregorian chant motif and a tubular bell. What more do you need in life.

An absolutely brilliant piece we did was called Oregon by Jacob de Haan, and it sounds like it’s been lifted from a Western, the snare drum just adds that feel of galloping across the plains of America on a horse (which me and Harri would mimic while playing, much to the annoyance of Mrs D). I also couldn’t play this at all, which was hilarious for the guy who sat next to me, because I was just miming it with much gusto.

On a whim, I literally just googled Symphonic Winds and I FOUND THIS HILARIOUS PICTURE. It’s really bad quality, I apologise, but the school website appears to have been made at some time during the Middle Ages…

 

Back when I could never be arsed to put make-up on. Happy Days!

See you tomorrow for July Faves!

Mia 🙂

Music Monday | The Last of Us

I recently finished playing The Last of Us, a post-apocolyptic survival thriller video game, for the second time, and I enjoyed it TEN TIMES MORE than the first time I played through it. The relationship between the two protagonists, Joel and Ellie, is fascinating to watch unfold, and absolutely heart-wrenching at times. But the soundtrack to this game is what I want to chat about today, because it completely makes the game.

This is one of my favourite pieces from the soundtrack, because it resonates so wonderfully with what’s going on in the game, which I won’t say because of spoilers, but it really enhances an already beautiful sequence rife in emotional tension. What I really love is that the composer, Gustavo Santaolalla used really ordinary everyday objects, such as PVC piping and made a really haunting and creepy sound with it, and it goes so organically with the game’s ‘survival’ nature, having to scavenge and improvise in your surroundings in order to survive. It is such a different kind of videogame, and one that I could play again and again and again because it is such a moving, beautiful experience.

It’s a really dissonant and unique sound, but filled with such high emotion and incredible beauty. I really recommend playing it, or watching it, or just listening to it.

You can listen to the whole soundtrack here, and it’s also on Spotify

See you tomorrow 🙂

Mia