A new friend - We need your help!

Today I got a new friend. We fell in love, and he moved in.

I tend to buy quite a lot of smoothies at a place next to work. I think it's a perfect energy boost on long days, before work if I start around lunch time and won't get to eat until late afternoon, or instead of lunch if I work to short shifts to have a break long enough to sit down with a proper meal. It's not hard to figure out that I spend quite a lot of money on that.

Today me and my sister decided to make our own smoothies at home, which is quite a project since our blender is big and clumsy, a part of the lid is missing and it's almost impossible to dish after use. My friend and my boss has told me about their awesome smoothie maker, where you just blend everything in a bottle and you're good to go. I told my mother about this amazing thing that I had heard off and said I wanted to buy one of those. She said it seemed to be a good thing, but didn't seem to show too much interest.

A few hours later my dad got home from work. And guess what he brought?! My sneaky mother had told him about my wish and asked him to pick one up on the way home, and so he did! Aren't they just lovely?

So now, my precious readers, I want your help! What is your favorite ingredients i a smoothie? Some special combination? Just hit me with all your best tips, so I don't just get stuck with my regular ones. There are so much more to experience now that it's easy to do it all by myself.

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When the job becomes more than a job

Today I got off work early. I only worked for three hours, 9-12. We were starting a sale today, so I just went in to set up some sale signs, rearrange a bit and put some new price tags on. A whole lot of people were showing up at opening, so it was a good thing we were some extra staff. The week will be a lot busier, with long days but that's great. Want to work as much as possible and save up money. I do like my job, so most of the time I don't mind working at all.

Speaking of my job, I must tell you an absolutely wonderful story from last week. A woman came in, looking a bit lost, so I asked if there was anything I could do to help her. She seemed a bit nervous and told me she really needed new bras, but didn't like trying them out. I took her measurements and picked out a few nice pieces and told her I would help her find something that fitted her. While I had her in the fitting rooms I found out that she had been sick in breast cancer and had gone through several surgeries. She didn't recognize her body, and hadn't been wearing proper underwear for a long time. We tried a whole lot and she was starting to relax more and more as we talked and. Suddenly she turned to me, all teared up, and said "I'm so glad I met you today. I was so anxious about this, but you made me feel beautiful. I don't know when I last looked myself in the mirror and felt like that". Still gives me goose bumps to think about it. Who knew selling underwear could make such an impact on peoples life?

After work today I took my sister out for a walk, in the beautiful spring weather. I even had to take my jacket of because it was too warm! I've been waiting for so long for this. We went to the little duck pond not to far from us and said hi to the ducks. Next time I'll make sure to bring them something to eat. It still looks quite cold and wintery there since the trees hasn't start to bloom yet. I was so happy when I found some lovely blue Scillas, as they are truly spring to me! 

Unreal

Today I woke up early. I woke up with the sun shining in my face. I looked out the window and saw a blue sky. I smiled. I knew this day would be fantastic. Like a child on Christmas, when a long time's wait is over. So full of expectations.

I got dressed, did my hair and makeup, made sure to have something to eat. Ran around the house not knowing what to do or how to channel my energy. I was watching my phone every minute, hoping to see time pass by quickly. As soon as I could I jumped on the bus in to town to meet my best friend. I almost ran to her apartment as soon as I got off the bus. When she opened the door we didn't say anything. We just met each other's smiles, that would go around our heads if we didn't have ears to stop them. Beer was severed at the balcony, where we could sit in the sun (in just t-shirts) for the first time this spring. Soon, very soon, we would meet one of the most important days in our life.

We went downstairs, picked up the bikes and put the sunglasses on. Oh, how I've missed that ride through town to our second home. The arena of our beloved football team. For the first league game this season.

We went into the pub at the arena to meet some more friends before the game. We had a beer. We laughed. We talked. We sang. Keeping an eye on one of the other games in the league that was played right before ours.

This day had every potential to be perfect, but what happened next changed everything. It made our 3-0 victory seem unimportant in the end. It changed everything for every football supporter in Sweden that were celebrating the start of the season. I was planning to keep football away from this blog, but what happened today is impossible to just ignore.

The game we were watching before our's was suddenly cancelled after supporters from the away team entered the field. They had just found out that a man of theirs died from injuries after an attack from supporters for the other team, and wanted to stop the game.

I don't know the details. I guess no one really does at this time. But a man, father of four kids, was today so beaten up that he eventually died from the injuries. Why? Because he was wearing clothes in the "wrong" colours.

It's crazy when something like this happens in a world you're so involved in. I've visited places all over Sweden, and many places in Europe, doing just the same as he did. Wearing my team's colours with pride. I hate to say it, but I'll probably be more careful with that in the future. I don't understand how something like this can happen! How it can get this far... It makes me so sad that something that is so uniting and festive like football usually is, gets hit by a tragedy like this.

Today I send all my love and support to the man's family and friends. To all the supporters, players, leaders and everyone else involved with a team that today went across the country to celebrate the start of the season, and had to go all the way home with one man less.

Girls' night in

Hey there! 

My parents are in our cabin this weekend and my brother moved down to the basement. Me and my sister took the opportunity to have a nice girls' night in together and just spend the evening in the couch, watching TV and movies. (Right now we're watching Smarter than a 5th grader, and I'm actually doing quite good) When I got home from work she had prepared dinner and desert, and I bought some snacks on the way. She made her own sushi, and holy smokes, it was good! For desert I was served raspberry and white chocolate pie with vanilla sauce. To. Die. For! Since we were having desert we decided just to have some vegetables and sour cream and onion dip as a night snack.

Love to just relax like this sometimes, and not be on the go all the time. 

How are you spending this Saturday night? 

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New to my fragrance collection

Hey guys!

The sun is shining brightly, and I'm soon about to go to work again. For not being supposed to work full time it feels like I do nothing but work at the moment. But tomorrow, finally, I have a day off and as that wasn't enough the football season starts as well! Feels like I've been waiting forever for that!

Yesterday I got the opportunity to buy some perfumes for half price of the store price. That's something I love, but tend to not buy since they are quite expensive. I fell for three smells that I brought home. (Unfortunately one of them wasn't the same as the one I was smelling in the store, but when I got over the disappointment I grew to like the one I got as well. Lesson learned; Look at the bottle and not just at the box the bottle's in when you smell a test.)

Downtown from Calvin Klein -  I actually tried this one in store a couple of weeks ago. I liked it, but decided to walk around in it for a couple of hours to see if I would feel comfortable in it (which I always do if I'm about to pay full price for a perfume). I did love it, but the shopping spree took another turn and we never got back to the store again. I've been looking for it since! (It must be faith that brought it to me to a much lower price)

The perfume is described sophisticated and feminine, with a confident edge. I could buy that perfume from just that description.

Notes: Neroli Tunisia, Fresh Green Pear, Watery Plum, Gardenia Petals, Pink Peppercorn, Violet Leaf, Texan Cedarwood, Vetiver, Benzoin Laos Orpur, Musks. 

Si from Gioirgio Armani - My all time favorite perfume (so far) is Diamonds from Armani. I still do have some of that left, but want to buy a new one. They didn't have that one where I got these perfumes, but my attention was instantly drawn to others from the same brand. I fell for this one and asked my mother to smell it. The reaction was instant: "Take it! It smells like you" Said and done, the perfume went into the basket.

When I was googeling this perfume to find out how it's described I noticed that the opinions on this one seems to bee really different! Some really hates it, some loves it. I guess it's one of those fragrances that actually comes off really different depending on the person wearing it.

The descriptions I found tends to relate it as an irresistible combination of grace, strength and independent spirit.

Notes: Blackcurrant nectar, modern chypre and blond wood musk with freesia and May rose.

Pure DKNY - This was the smell I think I got wrong. When I came home it smelled a lot like rose, and that is not a smell I'm usually really comfortable wearing. Too flowery scents just doesn't feel like me. Since I wasn't going anywhere I decided to try it on and see what it was like. Maybe I could figure out who to give it to... But I grew to like it and think it will be a nice fragrance for summer.

This one is described as straight forward but soft, sober and easy. A wonderful garden rose, without the heaviness of the garden rose. This is sounds like a pretty good explanation of why I like it even though it's not what I normally falls for.

Notes: Turkish rose, blackcurrant, magnolia, cedar, verbena and vanilla

Have you ever used any of these fragrances? Do you like them?

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Outfit of the night

So, I've changed from my lovely dress that I wore at work (which I forgot to take photos of this morning, but don't worry, I'll wear it again) to pajamas! If you read my Liebster award post you might remember that I especially have a huge love for pajama pants. I'm now sitting here in my amazingly comfortable outfit waiting for the #bloggerschat to start on Twitter. I really enjoyed the chats last night, so when I found out there is another one tonight I really wanted to join. I really should be going to bed, but as long as I'm prepared and just can crawl down under the covers afterwards it's okay.

Since I love my pj's so much and my outfits posts are among my most read,  I thought, why not show you what I'm wearing tonight?

Robe and pants are from Ralph Lauren. The robe has been in my possession for a year now, and the pants were a Christmas gift to me from my dog. (He's amazing at buying me gifts. I always get EXACTLY what I want!) The shirt is from Calvin Klein and made in modal, which is an amazing fabric for sleepwear. It's so incredible soft! Last of all I'm wearing my fluffy slippers. It has become quite cold again, and not very spring like, so I need to warm my feet up.

Hope to see you in the chat soon, or maybe hear a word from you if you found my blog through the chat?

Take care!

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Diorshow

As you may, or may not, know I work next to a cosmetics store. It do happen that I get some samples when I shop there, so when I bought my mother a Christmas gift I got the Diorshow mascare, from Dior obviously. I put it away and forgot about it until I bought some new furniture this weekend and started to rearrange my make up. I decided to try it. I fell in love.

I like to collect things, and have loads of everything. Therefor I tend to buy cheaper things, so I can buy many of them. I think I might rethink that when it comes to mascaras. This was so easy to apply! The brush is quite big, but separates really nicely and I don't find it hard to handle at all. The lashes didn't get stuck in each other, not even when I put on an extra layer for more volume. There were no lumps, not even a hint of one. I'm not saying I've only used horrible mascaras, even if it sure sounds like it. I'm just so in love with this one I have to make everyone seem a little bit worse, to make this sound amazing.

I'm trying to save up money for the trip to London, so I really shouldn't buy this anytime soon. I'm not so sure I'll be able to keep that though. Hopefully this little sample will last for at least a little while.

Giveaway winners

Hi everyone!

It's time to revile the winners of my giveaway. They have been picked in an old fashion draw, where I put small pieces of paper, with all the contestants names, in a bowl and drew two lots.

Congratulations to... *drum roll* Tasha and Emily!

Please e-mail your addresses to lifeofannas@gmail.com so I can send you the bracelets. Colours will be sent randomly. If I haven't received your address before Monday  31:th of March, I will draw another winner.

Bling for spring

Hey there!

I was planning to buy an iPhone case in Thailand, but everyone I found that I liked was for 5/5s and I have a 4, so that didn't happen. Good thing we have eBay, because you can pretty much find everything there. I found one quite similar to some of my favorites in Thailand, so I just had to get it. Yesterday it came with the mail, and I was more than happy with what it looks like.

It's very springy and very blingy. You should see how it sparkles in life. It's the perfect case for a five year old (or someone that just loves sparkles, like me) And it rattles when you shake it, so you can use it as an instrument if you shake it in pace with music. Yep, I'm easily entertained. Isn't it lovely?

Don't forget to join my giveaway. Winners will be announced tomorrow so you need to hurry up a bit!

Click here to read more

London Baby!

Yesterday I found out that my tax refund this year will be quite good, therefor I could revile a plan that I've been having for a while. I'm taking my sister to London for the first part of my vacation. She's been having a few rough days so the timing was perfect. The look on her face when I told her was priceless! Now I just need to get my vacation confirmed from my boss so we can book the trip. If everything goes my way we will be away for four days near the end of June. London is one of my favorite towns ever, and this will be the fourth time there. So excited already!

Patterns and colours

Soon time to go to work. I only work three hours, which is quite nice. Almost the whole day to do something else, and get double payed since it's Sunday so it does some difference on the pay check. Think I might drag my mother to a furniture shop after work. I want to buy another shoe shelf and maybe a drawer to organize my makeup a bit better. We'll see about that.

Today I go for a simple black outfit, matching it with patterned tights and bright orange nails. The tights are from Twilfit (not from this season, but we do have quite similar now as well so they will work). the Nail polish is from Xantier, one of the brands I found in Thailand. The ring was a Christmas gift (maybe 2012) from my sister, so I don't know where it's from.

Enjoy the day and I might be back tonight!

New in - Rituals

Hey!

As I mentioned in the previous  post I didn't just buy shoes the other day. I found a few more things than that, most of them in one of my favorite stores at the moment - Rituals. They opened up at our shopping center i November last year, so they are quite new to the team. First thing I love about Rituals is that you always feel so special when you're in there. The employees are really helpful and you get offered a cup of tea when you get in. If you let them help you with what products to buy they always offer to show and demonstrate them. This time they demonstrated a salt scrub and followed up with a nice body cream. Them gently scrubbing my hand while I was drinking a cup of tea felt like a tiny spa treatment before work. 

I ended up with quite a big bag when I left the store, and products worth a lot more than I payed. This month our shopping center has collected offers from almost every store into an app. At Rituals you could get three items and pay for two.

I have used their fragrance sticks since the beginning of December, and I really love the fresh and clean smell. I bought the mini version, and it was starting to run low now. Since I had the great offer I decided to buy the big refill bottle. I'll probably last all year with this one! I use the Lotus Secret with scent of white lotus and Yi Yi Ren

I have one of their salt scrubs already, but I really like it and thought that this was a great opportunity to stock up with one more. This time I went for Himalaya Wisdome with Holy Basil and Organic Fresh Mint. With that one I went for the Honey Touch Body Cream with Indian Rose and Himalaya Honey. This was the products she used on my hand and it smelled amazing all day and the hand got so soft. (The body cream was the product I got for free in the 3 for 2 offer)

Since I was buying other stuff I was offered to buy the Hammam Olive Secret Shower Paste with Refreshing Eucalyptus and Organic Olive to a reduced price. I already have the salt scrub in that series so I thought they would be good to use together. 

If you bought other things for over 400 SEK ($62 or £38) you got the Happy Mist for free. I did buy that much, so I did get the mist for free. It's a fragrance mist is a light bed and body mist, so you can use it for pretty much everything since it doesn't leave stains. So far I've only used to spray on the bed, and it smells heavenly on the pillows. 

Have you ever tried any of Rituals products? What are your thoughts! 

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New in - Shoes

I had a short day at work the other day, so my mother and sister came to the shopping center where I work for a little shopping spree, with the main goal to find birthday presents to my dad. I ended up buying nothing to him and few things for myself. (Don't worry, I gave him a homemade gift card for a concert so it wasn't an empty handed birthday.)

Since I've been working quite a lot this week, and will run of to work again soon, I haven't had time to take pictures of everything yet, so I'll just split it up into more than one post.

Today I want to show you a pair of shoes I found. I mostly just wear black shoes (if it's not converse), but I've been walking past this for a few days now and haven't been able to get them of my mind. Not only that I think they look gorgeous by themselves, just look how great they look with the bag I got in Thailand!

I found the shoes in the Swedish shoe store Din Sko (which means Your Shoe). They were on sale for 199 SEK (about $31 or £19). Very good price if you ask me!

Musician for a sister

Hey guys!

Today I want you to meet the very talented sister of mine. She is one of my closest friends, and even though we do piss each other off every now and then, there's nothing we can't talk about. She is working really hard with her music to be able to live her dream one day. 

Enjoy the video I'm sharing with you today, and feel free to spread the love to her to. I know she'll appreciate it!

Liebster award

I was nominated to the Liebster award by dearest Randa. I think it's such a good way to get to know a new blogger, so I was really happy when I found the comment with the nomination. I hope the bloggers I pass this award on to will be as happy as I was.

Here are the rules:
1. Provide a link back to the blogger who nominated you
2. Post 11 random facts about you
3. Answer 11 random questions set by the blogger who nominated you
4. Nominate 11 bloggers with under 200 followers for the award (excluding who nominated you)
5. Let the nominees know that you have nominated them

My 11 facts

1. I have arachnophobia. I usually have to leave the room if there’s a spider on TV. I’ve also locked myself in to my room for a whole day, without anything to eat, because there was a spider in the kitchen. From the moment I woke up in the morning, till my brother came home in the afternoon.

2.  I live for football (soccer) and try to arrange my schedule at work to be able to see as many games of my favorite team as possible.

3. I consider myself a Bra-expert after 1,5 year in the business

4. I’m very competitive, and people who thinks I’m  calm are always in for a chock when a competition comes along

5. When I was a teenager I had really bad anxiety and can still feel small panic attacks sneak up on me when I get too stressed out. Now days I’m much better at handling them though, and it’s now where near as bad as it was then.

6.  I’m obsessed with pajama pants and have pairs that are worth more than my most expensive dresses. (Important note, I rather buy a few cheaper than one expensive dress)

7.  I’m the daughter daughter son daughter daughter daughter daughter son son daughter of the Swedish scientist Carl von Linné that has his portrait on the 100 SEK note. (Swedish krona)

8.  I buy a teddy bear every time I visit a new country. Hope to see the collection grow this year.

9. I love collecting things. When I find something I like I always try to find more of the same. Like IsaDora’s Sugar Nails or Calvin Klein’s Bottoms up hipsters. Spice girls photos was a big thing when I was younger! Then when I get tired of it or find something else I like I start collecting that instead. 

10.   I love raspberries, and everything with raspberries. I’m the only one in the family that doesn’t get asked what kind of cake I want for my birthday. Everyone knows what to do and what they will be served.

11.  I have a dog named Max. He’s the most adorable thing I know. Sometimes I miss him, even though we’re crawled up in bed together. 

My answers to Randa's questions

1.)Why did you start your blog?

This winter our situation at work chanced, and we were told we might not be able to work as much as we have done the last year. I felt really bad about this and realized that I spend way too much time and energy at work or thinking about work. I needed something to distract me that I could focus on when it suited me. When the Thailand trip approached I thought it would be nice to have somewhere to write about the trip, since I really enjoy writing. Along with a growing interest in fashion and beauty a blog seemed like the perfect thing for me. Now that I’m getting more readers, and followers, the joy of the blog is bigger than I thought it would be!

2.)What beauty product can you not live without?

Nail polishes in general. I love having my nails done, and I love to change color often. For me the nail polish is a small, but very important, part of the finished look. I also think it’s a good way to relax, since I have to sit down and wait for the polish to dry. That way I can let myself do nothing for a few minutes and just breathe.

My favorite shade at the moment

3.)What is your favorite Disney Movie?

I’ll have to pick two. One from my younger days, and one a little newer.

Aladdin was my first crush ever. When I was little I always wanted to be Jasmine, both because she was beautiful (all though I wanted to be a blonde version of her since I’ve always liked my own blonde hair) and I thought Aladdin was very cute and cool.

When I was about 14 I met a girl that turned out to be a lifelong bestie. In our early days together we used to watch Finding Nemo, and really made it to our movie. My family has a big basement with a large TV room. One summer me and my friend moved down to the convertible couch and watched the movie countless times. We could even start it over, right after it ended.

4.)What is something you hope to achieve in the next five to ten years?
First of all, I want to start taking driving lessons and get my driver’s license! (Hopefully that will be done a lot sooner than in five years)

I also want to find out what I want to do with my life. My ambition is to study, but I don’t know what I want to do so I don’t know what education to apply to. I hope that within the next five years I have plan for what I want to do in the long run, and not just for now.

5.)Which song are you addicted to at the moment?
Soldier with Gavin DeGraw. I can listen to it over and over and over again!

6.)Who inspires you?

I get inspired by people that I meet in my everyday life. Friends, family, colleagues, costumers… When I see someone that spreads a lot of positive energy to people around them, with just their happy and bubbly personality. Or when I someone I know really decides to do something and I get to follow their journey close up and see the results in the end. It can be anything from losing weight to get a new job, it’s the determination and achievement that inspires me.

7.)What is your most prized possession?

My dog! Love that little fella! If I should pick something that is not a living being, I think it would be the jewelry I’ve inherited from my Grandmothers. One of them is still alive, but the other one is not, and wearing something that belonged to her reminds me that she’s still with me all the time.

8.)What is your favorite post that you've written?

“Time for reflections”. Mostly because of the way I was feeling when I wrote it. I had been sad, angry and chocked for a few days, and that day the emotions started to get mixed with inspiration to live life to the fullest. The post is short, but the feelings behind it were overwhelming.

9.)What's your biggest fear?

My biggest fear is to lose someone I love in an unnatural way. If you’ve read my blog before you might know that a guy I know recently was a victim for attempted murder (but miraculously survived after a week in artificial coma). Losing someone at all has always been my biggest fear, but after this I realized that there are different ways of doing so, and that a case like this would be the worst thing possible.

10.)What's your lifetime ambition?

This is a hard one since I’m not really sure about what I want to with my life. I think I would say my lifetime ambition is to find something I really love doing for a living and to make a good difference in people’s life.

11.)What is the best/ worst aspect of blogging?

The best is most defiantly all the nice people you meet from all over the world. I had fun writing posts in the beginning, but no way near how awesome it is now that I see people reading and commenting on my posts. That people actually takes their time to read what I have to say, and care enough to come back over and over again and/or leave a little comment at the end. It fantastic!

The worst must be that it’s so addicting! If I’m not writing on my own blog I read others. It makes me stay up late at nights and things I should do might get postponed for a while. Totally worth it though!

My 11 questions to the chosen ones

1.  Do you have any interests or hobbies that you don’t write about in the blog? 

2. If you had to choose one store to buy all your clothes for the rest of your life, which store would it be and why?

3. Do you have any sisters or brothers? How is your relationship with them?

4. How would you describe yourself to someone that doesn't know you?

5. How do you think others would describe you?

6. Do you have any bad habits? 

7. What are your ambitions with your blog? 

8. Which is your favorite place on earth? 

9. How did you meet your best friend? 

10. What is your best buy ever, any category? 

11. If you could meet a younger version of you (at any age you want), what advice would you give yourself?

My 11 nominees

Little Green Sofie

Dear You, Love Em

Bright Lights

The perks of being Elise

Vodka and a rose

Birds of Beauty

Lulu Linden

Beauty Blur

Lavishingg

BerryBloomXO

Fashion Musings Diary

Hope you all will accept the award with joy, and enjoy doing this as much as I did. I look forward to read your posts. Good luck!
 

Outfit of the day - Black and White

About to run of to work in a few minutes, but I thought I'd have time for an Outfit of the day post. Tonight (or maybe tomorrow, since I might be too tired after working closing hours) I'll be doing the Liebster award that I was nominated to. It made my day to wake up to that!

Dress was a Supermarket find in Thailand. One of my
absolute favorites. Cardigan from Primark. 40 den leggings

Shoes from Thailand. Really love the fact that I found a pair of ballerinas
that works for my thin, but long, feet!

Ring from Topshop. Favorite accessory at the moment.

As always, my beloved bracelets. If you like them you have the chance
to get your own in my giveaway here.

#BloggersDoItBetter

I've joined the #BloggersDoItBetter challenge. The challenge is to write a blog post every fortnight about different topics.

If you sign up you will get an e-mail with the topic for every post. The topics will give you ideas and inspired to write about things you normally wouldn't write about.

I think this is a great idea, since I sometimes get stuck in my own head and can use some help to think outside my box. Really excited to get started!

If you want to read more visit Touch of Belle or e-mail touchofbelle@gmail.com

Hope to meet you there!

Outfit of the day

New week, new possibilities. I'm pretty sure this week will be better than the last. Our friend woke up this Saturday, an even if there's lot of rehab left at least he's alive and awake. For me, this week will bring a lot of work (only one day free) and my father's birthday is coming up. Still trying to figure out what to give him.

Making another outfit of the day post today. Not wearing a skirt to work today. That's not happening very often!

At work they are trying to sell more casual clothing (before we just sold nightwear and underwear) so we got some really nice pants. They are perfect to just walk around at home, but with a nice blouse they look great for work as well. I used them this weekend, and I sold a few of them by wearing them a bit more dressed up. 

Today I'm wearing them with a top from Primark. I bought it a few years ago, and that year I traveled quite a lot, so I've been trying to figure out where I got it. After a while of thinking I decided it must have been in Dublin. 

For a bit more luxurious touch I'm wearing a necklace from Topshop. Really love this one!

Don't forget to join my giveaway!

  

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Testing: Avéne

I have a friend that works on a pharmacy, which is quite a good thing. Last time she was here to visit she gave me some products she had been given to test. They were both for dry and very sensitive skin. Since she have neither of that she said that the best way for her to evaluate them was to give them to someone that they could do some difference on. (In this case, ME!) So, I was asked to try them at let her know what I think. Of course I was happy to say yes to that. 

I've been trying XeraCalm a.d Body Lotion and Tolérance extême Cleansing Lotion

0% Preservative, 0% Paraben, 0% Fragrance, 0% Alcohol

Sounds quite good, doesn't it? The cap is specially designed, so it's impossible for bacteria to get into the tubes. Therefor they can exclude some ingredients that is good for the cream, but maybe best for your skin to skip if possible. 

I was given these creams last week, and immediately gave it a try. The body lotion is okay for both body and face, and since I've been having some really dry spots in my face lately I thought it would be perfect to start there. Hands and face are also where my skin is most sensitive and I most easily get rashes. 

I thought I would have to use at least the whole tubes before I could notice any big difference, but that wasn't necessary (obviously, since I'm already writing this post). The cleanser is really effective and I haven't had any trouble with rashes or irritation this time, which I easily get from cleansers. The dry spots is as good as gone already. The only thing that I find a bit boring is that they doesn't smell anything, but on the other hand, they are hypoallergenic and you can't always have it all! I will keep using the products, and it's possible that I buy new ones once these are empty.

Don't miss out on my Giveaway

Follow me on Bloglovin and Twitter

Giveaway - International

Hey guys!

Today I want to show you my appreciation for you all stepping by and to encourage you to do so more often. Therefor I'm throwing a little giveaway for anyone to join! I don't want anyone to feel excluded, so of course I send worldwide.

I've been thinking about doing a giveaway with Swedish beauty products, since I love trying new things myself. This time it will be something different though, so make sure to step by not to miss that in the future.

If you have been reading my blog before you might have noticed that I love to wear Shamballa style bracelets. So much that I decided to start making my own to get all colors I can imagine! That is what I'm going to give away this time. Two readers will get one home made bracelet each.

This is what I need you to do to be in the draw:

• Follow me on Bloglovin (or by e-mail if you don't use the site) Mandatory! 
• Follow me on Twitter and/or Instagram  (Optional, but increases your chance to win)
• Leave a comment on this post telling you're in the draw, and which sites you've chosen to follow.

Enter at latest March 25th. Winners will be announced at March 26th.

One of these can be yours! Enter the giveaway now.

Almost a room tour

Another day of from work. Kind of nice not to work too much this week. I've had enough to think about anyway. Today I've taken care of everything I planed to do last weekend, but never did. Love having everything clean and tidied up around me. I hate cleaning though, which is not the best combo.

I was planning to take pictures to give you a little room tour. I had forgotten to charge the battery in my camera, so it kind of died before I got all the way around. At least I can give you what we managed to catch before he needed a rest.

Almost wish I could go to bed right away

Found a nice place for the invitation to my friend's
wedding

Some of the make up brushes needed some cleaning as well.

Recommendation: Figleaves

Last week I placed an order on Figleaves, a website selling underwear, nightwear and swimwear. They sell some of the same brands as we do at work, and I just couldn't help myself from buying products I love in colors we don't have.

When I placed the order there was some technical issues, because somehow my order was placed twice. I only received one order confirmation and only entered the password to my credit card once, so I didn't know about this until I got two e-mails telling me the order was shipped. I checked my bank and I had been debited twice as well.

I e-mailed the costumer service, and I had a reply within minutes. Not much to do at that time. Both orders had been sent, and there was nothing to do before they arrive. I totally buy that, since no one can help technical issues. Although I wasn't very happy about the thought of paying the return, because I had no chance to correct a mistake I didn't know about. I e-mailed, and again, very fast reply.

The parcels arrived within a week, and I found out how much shipping back would be. Once again, reply right away! Shipping abroad from here is quite expensive, so Figleaves were kind enough to let me keep the second order as well, and still pays me back for it. BIG thumbs up for that! Can't get too many panties.

There are several things that impressed me with Figleaves.

• Order was shipped within only an hour from placing it.
• Fast replies every time I e-mailed
• Great products. They sell brands I know are good quality and have only had good experiences with.
• They let me keep the products that I didn't order (Can't pretend that wasn't just awesome.)

I would totally recommend my friends buying from them, and I know for sure I will return as a costumer myself.

 

Details of the day

I didn't have time to clean the mirror this morning, and the sun really shows the lack of cleaning, and I didn't have anyone to help me take pictures of today's outfit. Blogging is one of those small things in life  that I really enjoy, so I couldn't not make a post for today. The details of an outfit is also quite important to me, so for today that's what the post will be about today.

For my friend at the hospital things are looking even better today, and they are slowly preparing to wake him up. Keep your fingers crossed for him  for a few more  days until we know for sure everything is all right!

Let's get back to those details. 

• New season leo tights from work (Twilfit) 
• Nail polish from Calvin Klein (71302 Sheer sparkle)
• Ring inherited from my Grandmother
• Shamballa style bracelets (Home made)
• Bling stud earrings from Primark

Spring time

Thank you for all the kind comments in the last few posts. Things have been quite hard for a few days, but today we got some good news from the hospital and because of that I feel like I can write it down. I don't want to get deep into what happened, but a guy I know (we are not close, but we run into each other every now and then and have mutual friends) was a victim of attempted murder this weekend. He is put into artificial coma, but the doctors says the condition is now stable and no longer life threatening. They are also impressed with the progress so far, which can only be a good sign. I still keep all my fingers crossed and send all my prayers to him and his family.

As I mentioned yesterday this has made the head spin like crazy, and made me determined to appreciate things more while I have the chance to do so. The only thing we know about life is that sooner or later it has to end, and it's up to ourselves to make the best of the time we're lucky to get. Therefore, the rest of this post will be about what made me happy today!

• The good news from the hospital (of course). Gives a bit more hope at this time!
• Nice gifts from our suppliers to show they appreciate our hard work.
• That I had the possibility to take some time to talk to an old lady that visited our store today. She really appreciated it and told me that I was an "adornment to the store"
• That spring is here, it's quite warm outside and I could dig my beloved sneakers out of the closet.
• First ice cream of the year, outside by the little duck pond in the neighborhood.

Even when life is hard there are things to brighten our days. Imagine how great a good day can be if you see those small things then!

Finally they are back! 

Time for reflections

The past few days has been an emotional rollercoaster. Sometimes thing happens in life that makes you stop for a while. When things that seemed like a distant story suddenly becomes a close reality.

I took a long walk today, with loud music in my ears. That's the best way for me to sort things out. I've been obsessed with the thought of what I should do now. What I can do. Today I realized I can't do anything. I can't do anything about what happened. I can't do anything to change what will happen, but to hope for the best. But even if I can't do anything, I can learn something. I can learn that life is fragile. That anything can happen, when you least expect it. And not only to you, but to people around you.

What I want to learn is to appreciate the small things in life more. To show people around me that I appreciate them, and care about them. To learn to chose my fights, and don't put to much negative energy on things that doesn't really matter in the end. And I want to affect people. I don't know how yet, but I want to make a good difference in peoples life. I know I'll find my way.

When reality becomes real

Today I woke up early. I noticed the sun and it felt like the perfect day for a long walk, some spring cleaning and opening up the windows to fill the house with fresh air. I was just going to sit down with some breakfast and write the last February favorites here. I opened up Facebook, not expecting anything interesting a Sunday morning, and was hit by horrifying news for me and my friends. I don't want to get into what happened, but let's just say things that only happens on TV or in newspapers gets real when it happens to someone you know. The energy I woke up with was suddenly gone. Instead of doing everything I had planned I've just stared in to the wall, trying to grab the reality.

I was planning a long post about the best thing about February. The trip to Thailand, where I had the most wonderful time with my sister, mother and Grandmother. Where I got to know relatives I didn't know I had but grew to like a lot. I was going to write about all the awesome shopping and the delicious food. The fact that I got to meet real monkeys and enjoyed fantastic oil massages. I wanted to tell you about the trip of my life (so far). But today is not the right day to do that. I'm not emotionally there. If you want to read about the trip you can go back and find posts I wrote there and when I got home.

For now I leave you with lots of love. Take care of each other.

Gina Tricot Nail Polish

I've finally tried the nail polish I got the other day. I really like how it looks, but I must say it wasn't easy to get it there. The brush tends to swipe of the dots so it was quite a challenge to make them stay. Since the dots are swiped away when you try to even the polish the layers get kind of thick. This means it takes forever to dry!

Basically, this is not an everyday polish. But with some time an patience it's not to bad!

What do you think? Good enough to accept the challenge every now and then?

I would say YES!

February favorites

We're almost through the week and only two favorites of the month remains. As yesterday neither of these two will be material things you can buy. So here we go;

Today's favorite is this blog. It started in January and March is the best month so far regarding views and comments. But for me February was a big month for this blog. That's when it and I got to know each other and started to meet on a, more or less, daily basis. It gives me more joy than I expected. It makes me appreciate small things even more. Like getting a new nail polish can be a whole post. Or the thrilling feeling of finding the year's first ladybug. Or why not just a coffee outside the house. Having this blog makes me see, and want to share, the small beautiful things in life that I normally could have just walked by as if it was nothing.

So thank you all for reading, commenting and sharing this blog with me!

Outfit of the day

The sun is shining, I have the weekend of and today my favorite football team in the whole world is playing today. I woke up before the alarm clock and felt more alert and happier than I can remember doing in a really long time. And I've been feeling great lately, so I can't even believe the joy and the happy feelings running around in my body right now.

I'm soon to leave the house to go see the game and tonight two of my best friends are coming for some dinner and movies. This day has all the opportunities to be awesome!

The other outfits I've shown you in this blog has been for work, so I thought I should take a picture of what I'm wearing today, when I don't have to dress up. Just a simple and comfortable outfit for everyday life.

Jeans from Gina Tricot. The sweater was a Christmas gift from my brother, but I think it is from JC.

February favorites

Today's favorite is free for all to enjoy! This time it's a song that I just happened to listen a lot to in Thailand, that now makes me happy whenever I hear it. It makes me feel like the sun is warming me, even though it's freezing here. Instead of a cold bus I see myself on a sun lounger on the beach.

Ladies and gents, I give you James Blunt and Bonfire Heart!

February favorites

It's time again! Another February favorite is coming up.

I really struggled when I was picking a bag in Thailand, but now I couldn't be happier than with the one I ended up with. It has room for everything I need for work and everyday life, without being too big. Not to mention that I think it looks absolutely gorgeous.

February favorites

Time for the February favorite of the day. It might seem boring and dull, but I can't do my favorites without this one. It's my beloved H&M skirt. I've worn it almost every day this month (Do not worry, I have more than one of this so I do have time to wash it).

Since I usually want to show off tights that we sell at work it's great with a plain skirt that works with everything. I also like that it's very comfortable and that I can move around in it without any trouble. Let's just say some skirts are not made for climbing ladders. With this one that's not an issue.

So here we go, my boring but very much loved, skirt;

Kicks Sugar Lacquer

One of Sweden's biggest cosmetic companies has a store right next to where I work. Not surprising that I end up paying them a visit if I have some spare time on a break.

As you may have noticed I'm a big fan of Isadora's Sugar Nails collections. At least my boss has. The other day she asked me if it was the Kicks Sugar Lacquer I used. Guess you know the rest. I had to run in there.

Somehow I had missed that they made these kind of polishes in their own brand. Quite hard to see though since you can't really see the texture from the bottle. Guess I hadn't read the text carefully enough.

Of course I had to try one of them, and my pick fell on a beige one. Even tough I love colors, that's not always the most wearable ones to my clothes. Therefor I was really happy to find a neutral polish with texture. Also like the fact that is a local brand.

Isn't it lovely?

Kicks Sugar Lacquer in color Desert Storm