My first ever blog package swap!

I've been wanting to do a package swap since before I had this blog, I had found a few sites but only ever signed up for one international one and they never got back to me, then I never really tried again. I've found some swaps on blogs over the past few months, but only after they had finished so it was by luck I saw a blog package swap on Island Girl Insights blog. So I signed up, with a day or two to spare, cutting it very close. It was meant to be an International one but there wasn't enough well, international bloggers taking part so I was paired up with Catherine from Simple Country Girl, and above is what she sent me. 

Needless to say I was super excited! The end date for the swap actually ended on my birthday and the package from Catherine arrived a few days earlier so I opted to wait till my birthday to open it. She had wrapped everything individually which I didn't take a picture of because I was too busy tearing them open! But I thought it was a sweet touch, as well as the card explaining some of the products and the birthday card  she included :) 

She sent me some sweets and a Hello Kitty Pez dispenser thing! I love Hello Kitty but had never used a pez dispenser or actually eaten any of the sweets, so that was a first. I've been popping in one pack of those fizzers sweets into my bag when I've been going to work, and they also remind me of those party bags you used to get as a kid, I swear I haven't had them in years. 

When I signed up, it was mainly meant to be a beauty swap, but I also said I like cute things and so Catherine got me these three adorable things from Paperchase. I used to go there all the time when there was a shop by me but it closed down a few years ago, which was probably good for my bank balance though :P I've been trying to grow out my nails and actually needed a nail kit to file them and push the cuticals down and etc so this was perfect timing really. (On the the nail front they were wonderfully long but then I bit them down to stubs when watching a film :( ). Those paperclips are amazing! I've been using them as book markers, and just to stare at them generally lol. The notebook has pictures of cupcakes on them! What's better than that? But I've been using that to make lists, mainly blogging lists so it might stay like that, as my blogging notebook. 

The star tin above was a candle which smells so sweet, it says it smells like 'candy' and it really does, mmmm, I want to eat it up which isn't a good idea! I love how small the incense kit is, small things are always cute and lavender smells nice, I've used it a few times in the past week. It reminds me of when I was a teenager and I was obsessed with incense, and also these face masks. I used to get them all the time until I had an allergic reaction to one (which I couldn't remember) but I tried this out and my skin stayed the normal colour! Yay! Catherine also sent some nail rock wraps which were black and white stripes as you can see above, which I wore out for my birthday since they matched my dress perfectly! 

Now onto the makeup part. I had said that I've got pale skin so Catherine picked a lipstick from Barry M which changes colour depending on your skin tone! I didn't realise at first, as its actually a neon green which I should take a picture of to show, but its really cool. When I put it on it was a purply pink shade, and I made my mum try it and it was more pink less purply on her. And I need more lipsticks in my life as I had about two! She also sent me some MUA products, which I had heard of the brand but never tried any of the make up. Catherine said these were her favourite products and I can see why, the lipstick is a shimmery pink  which I wore on my birthday, and the lipgloss smells lovely and is also a very pretty colour. I'm definitely going to be trying more make up from this brand, so thanks Catherine for sending them to me!

And for the last photo here's a quick snapshot I took of the package I sent to Catherine. I reused an old Glossy box and included some nail varnish, lip balm, eye shadow and a mirror. I also made a bracelet, painted the dream sign (since she'd moved its a sort of housewarming gift) and included a button and some mini eggs, being near Easter and all. She said she liked it so I'm happy, and very happy with what I go too! Everything smelt nice, was cute or looked pretty and I loved my first package swap. The only danger is I'm scared I'll become addicted and I don't have the monies for it, but its going to be something I'll keep a lookout for and I found a new blog to read along the way too. Go check out Catherine's blog!

UPDATE: You can find her review here :D Thanks Catherine!

Necklace Wishlist

// Aztec Mini Chevrons // Brass Moustache // Aztec Triangle //  Deathly Hallows //
// Stone Arrowhead //  Dark is the night //  Treasure Trove //

I meant to post this last week but I'd already written a Birthday Wishlist and wanted to do a few more different posts in between for a bit more variety. I want all of these necklaces as they are so pretty! And  girl can never have too many necklaces! Here are my reasons, if you need any, for why I picked these ones.

I'm getting into Aztec styled items for Summer so the mini chevrons and turquoise triangle ones would fit in perfectly without changing my whole style. Moustaches are always fun to wear. In fact earlier I took a picture of me with a moustache on my break in work, since there was randomly a card with different types of mustaches (btw follow me under the username lisamello on Instagram). I also like having geeky jewellery so the Deathly Hallows symbol would be an awesome addition! I already own two golden snitch necklaces from Harry Potter and want Hermiones Time Turner too, and I have Katnis's Mockingjay pin from The Hunger Games, do you think I have a problem?

I have the stone arrowhead necklace already, as I asked for it for my birthday, both that and the Deathly Hallows are actually different from my normal style. While I usually go for long necklaces, they're usually gold or brassy and its nice to have something silver coloured for a change to wear with my outfits. My stone's actually lighter too than in the picture but I prefer that. The last two necklaces are from Bonbi Forest, it was SO hard to pick my favourites from that shop, they are so pretty and magical. The starry sky one is a locket and I would feel like a magical witch wearing that and the treasure trove necklace is absolutely stunning! I used to have loads of stone necklaces from New Age shops when I was younger, but have lost them all, and they were all on black cords or something, so to me this is the grown up version of those, and I would also feel magical wearing it!

So basically I need these pretties in my life!

What I wore: My 22nd Birthday

The quality's pretty bad and the drawings all wonky but I've not had time so I hope it doesn't look too terrible. I didn't actually get a photo of just me on my birthday, I usually do for it (and usually in fancy dress) but I'm only in a few photos with other people so it's an illustrated outfit post once again! I've had no time to do a better one nor will as it was my birthday, then I was hungover and it was my friends birthday, and today it was my mums birthday then I had work, and then I'm working tomorrow and Friday and Saturday and yeah so I didn't have that much time and I have a few blog ideas in mind to do before May. May! Why is it so close? It feels like it's still January to me, both time and weather wise! (Upcoming blog posts are a necklace wishlist, a blog parcel swap, shopping haul, 23 before 23, cupcake recipe and week in Instagram, lets see if I actually do them all!).

I wore a stripey dress I got from (I can't remember where will update) on sale for £7, bargain! It's strapless and looks a lot better in real life, and the skirt goes out more, very pretty and girly. It came with a yellow belt I didn't fancy wearing, but probably will wear it with other dresses. I also wore a black cardigan, tights and velvet shoes from Primark. They have now fallen apart and have been chucked away since the floors were so sticky where I went, they actually ripped the shoes apart! That's cheap shoes for you though! And I did wear them nearly every day when it wasn't raining. I also wore a necklace I got for my birthday which is actually part of a necklace wishlist I've been putting together that I haven't posted yet, ooops! That will be up soon, so many necklaces, so little time...

Oh yeah what do you think of the whole no nose and mouth thing? Does it look cute or too creepy with the demon doll eyes? And I'm trying to colour my hair how it actually is, my roots are quite light and the rest of my hair is dyed darker and is just a little bit shorter than I've drawn it. My friend curled it for me as my attempts didn't work and our boyfriends were making jokes about us taking forever to get ready but as I said before, I was the birthday girl so could afford to be late :P 

Birthday Snapshots

So I turned 22 yesterday and while I still can't wrap my head around the fact that I'm a whole year older, I have decided that I need to sort my life out, since I'm now heading into my 'mid twenties' (how scary!). I'm going to write 23 things to do before I'm 23 soon hopefully, and another list of things I should sort out and it's almost like a New Years Resolution list.

 Anyway, above are a few snapshots I took with Instagram throughout the day. I loved the owl wrapping paper, the roller skates my mum got me, the lush birthday kit my boyfriend got me and the cakes of course! I had loads of things and I'm a very lucky girl but I'm not going to list them all or take photos as that would be a bit boring and take forever!

I spent the day watching criminal minds and CSI lol, waited for my family to come home so I could open my presents, roller skated inside the house, then was told I wasn't allowed outside in them by my mother. The mother who bought me them, but she said she didn't want me to end up in hopsital on my birthday again so I can't blame her lol. (Quick note - Last year a mini bus taxi door slammed shut on my hand and they couldn't open it for a few minutes, it was utter agony, and I spent three hours in hospital on my birthday, but didn't need stitches or anything). 

I was late to my own birthday party but I was the birthday girl so that's okay. I had desert then proceeded to drink a lot of jagerbombs that people bought me and got very drunk and danced lots. It was fun! But now I'm paying the price, urgggh, and I'm off out for my friends 21st birthday now, but I can't face any more alcohol! I'm getting old :P

P.S This is my 100th post!!!! 

Hey do you want to enter a super awesome giveaway?

Well look no further! Since Lyzi from Being Little is holding a 2000 follower giveaway! 2000 followers! Crazy, I only have 10 lol (Thanks for following me!!! :D). I've been following her blog for awhile now, and it  is one of the cutest blogs I read, ranging from outfit posts, reviews and all the crafty things she creates. I know I'll probably sound like a dweeb for saying this but I'm surprised she doesn't have even more followers, but happy that she she's reached a huge milestone!

I seriously love everything that is in the giveaway and need them all in my life plzkthnxbi! I've wanted a few things from the contributors for awhile now or now want things from the new shops I've found. I don't even know what's my favourite from the photo above, since they're all my favourites which kinda defeats the point of something being the 'favourite' am I right? Anways I'm rambling, you want to know about the awesome giveaway right?

Crown and Glory are offering a sparkly bow and £10 voucher for their shop. 

Little Nell is offering two necklaces, a feather and a key, and two friendship bracelets.

Me & Zena are offering two necklaces, a robot and heart necklace.

Seventy Tree is offering a mirror and some cute masking tape.

Oh my clumsy heart is offering a squirrel brooch.

Annarack is offering a homemade triangle necklace and some buttons.

Motel Rocks is offering a tote bag and a £30 voucher.

Alphabet bags is offering a tote bag.

And Lyzi the giveaway host herself is offering a handmade creature of your choice (I already own a cute kitten).

See how awesome everything is? I've linked to everyones shops above so you can check out more of their items but you can follow their twitters, blogs or facebook pages too if you click though to the giveaway post here. Good luck everyone! Even though I really hope I win, I never win anything! *fingers crossed* Oh and speaking of giveaways, I really want to host one, maybe if I ever get to 50 followers eh? Oh well!

What I wore, Illustrated

Well since it's been a looong time since I last did one of these, I thought I'd do one tonight. And also Catherine from Simple Country Girl  (whom I'm doing a swap with but more on that later), said the drawings were nice so I gathered my things and started painting. I actually drew these in January but I only painted them tonight. For the first outfit post I think I'd gone for hot chocolate with my friends in Starbucks for a catch up. I was wearing a rust coloured cardigan from Primark, as well as the brown brogues and leggings, whilst the coral dress and headband are from H&M and the necklace was a little camera I got for Christmas off my friend. I tried my best to capture the colours, but I have a very basic watercolour set, but anyways I love peach and rust together, I think that colour combo is gorgeous. Or even peach/pink with rust as I'm wearing lots of now. The first pen I used was very thick to outline, and I hunted around the house for my favourite type of pens for the next, and only found one, which has almost run out. I need to buy more.

For the second outfit, I wore this a lot during Jan/Feb as I was in love with the top and I felt a bit French wearing it too. I got the stripy top from Matalan and the stripes are meant to be white, and have a lacy collar. I also wore brooches from Matalan too (I think) which were a deer and a bird for £1, bargain! I want to wear brooches more. I also wore black jeggings from Primark, and pale brown buckley brogues from New Look. I've drawn my legs or rather crotch area really short, wasn't my intention and in real life the top is longer, that's why I wore it with jeggings, otherwise I would have worn it with proper jeans! 

Anyway just a quick post with two drawings, I took the photos using Instagram (Oh the love I have for the app is crazy!) and I need to work on a few things to make them better, and sorry for the scary demon eyes in the top one! Oh and p.s one week till my birthday! Yay! :D

Mini week in Instagram

Okay so I have no idea how to do the bigger grid mosaic things, help? The only ones I can find are the 9 image ones, oh well, at least I have Instagram now :D Btw these photos aren't in order.

1 - My Easter Haul, nom, nom chocolate!

2 - I bruised my thumb on my steering wheel of all things, the drive home was fun! And now my thumb is mostly useless.

3 - Ben & Jerry's Milkshake, mmm. I went to see Wrath of the Titans and Pirates in an Adventure with Scientists. (Not on the same day but I have once watched 5 films in a row! Never again!)

4 - Well my car's bumper only went and FELL OFF! Why does my car hate me? *sob* Well it was my fault but it shouldn't have fallen off, yaknow?

5 - A mini outfit post, pink, polka dot and the golden snitch. 

6 - Me trying on a heart dress from H&M which I bought along with a few other things.

7 - I went to Pets at Home just like to look at all the cute animals and wish I had one.

8 - My Mockingjay pin! I've worn it  a few times and its one of my first Instagram pictures and my favourite.

9 - Another mini outfit post, with a bird print dress from H&M and purple tights. I also wore it with my Mockingjay pin and my hair in a braid so I was channeling Katnis from The Hunger Games a bit, with the birds, the pin and the hair. But not really the tights or dress lol.

So that's a little mini week in Instagram and I need to work on it and maybe take more photos to have a better collage really. Overall my week sucked, my car keeps breaking on me, and my bumper is now gaffataped up! It is actually falling to pieces. I keep injuring myself and have random bruises everywhere. Also we had a powercut in work on one of our busiest nights, at the busiest time and it lasted for ages. I work in a cinema so that was fun! *eye twitch* Actually it was okay, since I work with nice people, but I don't like dealing with mad customers as I am a delicate flower, or rather a wimp! Anyways hope everyone else has had a better week than me! Oddly enough, I had better luck today on Friday the 13th than I've had all week!

Birthday Wishlist

// China Glaze Prism // Mouse Ring // Mr. Fox Satchel // 

// Roller Skates // The Mortal Instruments // Pokemon Soul Silver // 

So seeing as its my birthday in 11 whole days! (eeek! I'm going to be 22!) I thought I'd do a Birthday Wishlist. It's a very odd mixture I know, but I've lusted after these things for awhile. I've wanted a china glaze polish for ages since I find most of the shades super pretty, it looks like you're looking into space and I want to try galaxy nails at some point when my nails are longer. The mouse ring is super cute, and I don't wear rings  but I can see myself making an exception for this cute little guy. The Mr. Fox satchel? What's not to love! I've seen it around for awhile, but since I've been on a spending ban/only buying cheap things I have held off buying it and I have far too many bags as it it but I need him in my life!

The only thing I've actually asked for were the roller skates. I used to love rollerskating/blading when I was younger till my brother chucked them all away a few years ago :( So this summer I plan on roller skating by the beach with my friend like we used to. With the books I've already got the second one in The Mortal Instruments series, but want to read the first book first. It's quite ridiculous how many books I've read out of order not knowing they were a series, and therefor I get very confused! (Most notably when I read The Subtle Knife before The Golden Compass in His Dark Materials trilogy). And lastly, a geeky choice of a Pokemon game. I had a few of the original games when I was younger, and I could still technically just play silver on my old game boy rather than buy a new updated version of the same game, but, I don't want to restart it and I want to use the pokewalker and new features, but I'm not made of money so that's why I haven't got it yet! And I realise it's a bit to late to hint at my family members, boyfriend and friends for all these, but that's why its called a wishlist right? And I might just buy that mouse ring seeing as he's just under £4 on ebay!

Happy Easter

Hope everyone had a lovely Easter. I spent it in work, which I seem to do every year now :( It started off horribly as I almost crashed on the way to work since a woman pulled out in front of me when I was on the main road! It was my right of way and she called me every name under the sun, which was fun. Work wasn't so bad, and then I came home to a lovely chocolate haul and I made nest cakes copying Lyzi from Being Little. I left it last minute to buy eggs for my mum and boyfriend and there were none left in Asda and I had to go to Tesco where they had tiny little ones since all the others were gone or broken >.< need to be more on the ball next year methinks!

Mumbles Adventure

I really love where I live when its sunny, who doesn't? It just makes everything so much nicer. When we had Summer like weather last week me and the boy went off for a trip to Mumbles in Swansea. We got some Joe's Ice cream (it is so delicious!) I always get a chocolate sunday :), went to the arcade, traded in our tickets for sherbert, collected rocks (well I did) and climbed hills taking in the view. It was a really nice way to spend the day.

We went to Braclet Bay in Mumbles which is more of a rocky beach, which suited me just fine. It was windy so I didn't want sand everywhere and I'd walked along the main sandy beach with my friend a few days before. I really like collecting rocks, and most of the ones above are now in a glass bowl in my living room. I also like stacking shells but I didn't bring them home with me. My boyfriend thought I was a bit weird taking so many photographs and collecting rocks, but I always have done. We climbed up that giant hill, which was a bit difficult for me since I wasn't wearing proper shoes and it hurt, ooops. The views were amazing though as you can see and now I'm sad the weather sucks and is Wintery again, bah humbug. Next time its sunny I'll try going to different parts of Swansea, or rather Gower, there are so many different beaches and I need to take advantage of them all!

I love getting things in the post!

This arrived yesterday. Yes I am a geek and I bought a Mockingjay Pin on ebay. Yes I love it! I've read the books twice and seen the film twice after putting off reading it for almost a year, so you could say I'm a bit obsessed. 

I also ordered some washi tape because I have been lusting at them forever, and found a website with affordable prices and I picked the turquoise pack, and the custard, peach and stripes separately. I know they can be a bit pricey for some tape, but they are sooo pretty and I want to do so many things with them, but I'm a bit scared too at the moment. However I picked these colours with my friends baby shower in mind, maybe, she doesn't know if she's having a boy or a girl yet so these can work for either!

And in case you haven't noticed, the above pictures were taken with Instagram using the Hefe filter! I am so happy that we android users can now use Instagram! Eeeek! I'm on there under lisamello, like usual and I don't know how, but does anyone know how to do those 'week in instagram' mosaics? I only have 5 photos at the moment but I'll be taking loads in the future.

A car that won't be cleaned

I washed my car the other day, not that you can tell since it's still so dirty!! I scrubbed it with just water, then with soapy car water, and then 'rinsed' it for lack of a better word and it just looks worse, not fair. There are dirty streaks which are more visible now and also someone bashed their car door open against mine and I now have lovely scratches on the door you see in the picture above, but I don't have a picture of that. *sigh*. I also refuse to spend any money getting it cleaned by other people, but will attempt to do it again another sunny day with some more elbow grease!

Oh well, anyway um this was obviously last week when it was sunny and now its back to boring grey clouds and there was even a tiny rain shower earlier today. I've been meaning to do a photo an hour post, or it was mainly just down the beach post, but I can't find my phone cable and then I'm leaving longer gaps between posting. I've also been doing things and forgetting and its getting silly now so here's a little mini post, and I need to catch up on my blog reading but I have to get up early tomorrow for work, joy! (But I am not so secretly happy because yay easter holidays = more shifts!).