My 2014

Hi there,

It's getting closer till the end of 2014. At the moment the toughest part of it for me. I've been signed off sick from work because there has been so much going on lately, that my head said stop and caused a panic attack. A feeling I know well enough from my youth to know that it was time to listen and take a break. Unfortunately there are a lot of us that feels the same way, and it's pretty much impossible to get help at the moment. I told the doctor I need someone to talk to to sort my mind out a bit and help me back on track. 12:th of February is the best so far, and I'm supposed to start working again next week. That being said, when I look back on the year as a whole it has been the most amazing year ever.

I started the year with a new friend, that gained so many more friends all over the world. Life of Anna S was born. I didn't really know where I wanted to go with it, but it I've always loved writing, I love makeup and fashion, and I needed something to keep my mind off from work, because 2014 started the way it's ending, with chaos at work and in my head. (In between it has had lovely moments though.)

In February my Grandmother turned 70, and so did her cousin that lives in HuaHin, Thailand. What was a better way to celebrate their birthdays than to go visit him in the sun? Me, Grandma, Mum and Sis packed the bags and went for an adventure. It was my first time outside Europe, and it was an amazing experience. Not only did I get to see a whole new culture, but I also got to know family that I haven't met before, because of the long distance.

March was a pretty calm month. It just came and left, without leaving too many memories behind. I spent a lot of time on the blog, and loved every minute of it. But let's be honest; if you have all that time of blogging (I posted more than once a day), even though you work pretty much full time, maybe you don't have that much else to do. I know I didn't.

Then April came, and turned my life upside down. Our store won a sales competition and was treated with dinner from one of our suppliers. After dinner the rest of the group wanted to go out for drinks, and I followed, a bit reluctant to be honest. My colleague got into a talk with one of the guys at a table nearby, and really wanted to set us up. I was so embarrassed and just wanted to get out of there. But in this gang there was another guy, starting of in the background. As the night went on he moved closer to me and we started talking. The conversation went really well, you could even say great, and by the end of the night he had my phone number and left with the words:

"They say you're supposed to wait three days, but I think that is too long. You'll hear from me in two."

Two days went, and by the end of the day I had gotten a text, replied and a long conversation was started. A few days after the first text, the first phone calls came. We talked for hours in the nights. I think the record is over 7 hours. But finding a time to meet seemed impossible. I worked in the days, he worked a lot of nights. When I had a day off, he hadn't and when he had, I was working.

In May, the 1:st to be exact, we finally got to see each other again. It started of with a walk to the restaurant Martin had picked (I could really recommend doing that on a first date, because it really broke the ice). During the dinner I got cards with clues of where he was going to take me next, and we ended up playing boules. It was so much fun! The night continued with a long walk, and ended of with a kiss. By then I really knew  this guy was something special.

We kept dating for about a month, taking every chance we got to see each other. Still it was hard to find the time, but an hour here or there just to take a coffee, worked as well. He got to meet my family, I got to meet his. Then the night between 5th and 6th of June he asked if we we're a couple, and we decided that we were.

June also offered a trip to London with my beloved sister, and the rest of the time I just spent with Martin. Every second I could!

In July it was time for our first trip abroad together. It had turned out that we both loves to travel, and since we both had been working a lot Martin wanted to take me away so that we got some time to ourselves. The trip went to Prague, which was a very romantic city. I think we both fell in love with the city and even more with each other.

August also offered a trip. Me and my sister took a chartered bus to Salzburg to watch a football game. It was a 19 hour ride, and we got time to eat some lunch, walk around the city for a few hours, see the game and then it was time for the 19 hours ride home. It was a great game, and an even better experience. Totally worth all the traveling time!

In September I turned 25. I had taken the weekend before, and the actual day, off because I was planning to have a birthday party. When I got the schedule it turned out I had gotten even more days of than I asked for, which lead to Martin asking:

"Do you want to have a birthday party or do you want to go to San Fransisco?"

I've always been dreaming about getting to the states, so the answer was easy. Really easy! Since we travel on standby tickets through Martin's job we're not guaranteed our seats and this time all the flights got full the night before the trip. We had to think fast, and ended up in Chicago instead. Something that neither of us regrets for a second! Such an amazing city. The post I wrote as we got home is still one of the most read on my blog. (You can read it here)

In October we took a trip to Madrid, for another football game. This time my sister didn't come, but I brought Martin as company instead. This was the time of the Lufthansa strike, and we had to re-book our tickets in panic, because we had to get there! This was also an amazing experience.

October was also the month where we started to look for an apartment together, found two perfect ones, was fooled by the estate agent and lost both. It was the month when we spent a night in Copenhagen, because neither of us was feeling good at work and with everything that happened with the apartments, and just had to get away. And it was the month when we celebrated an early Christmas with my sister. (Christmas in October)

In November another life long dream came true, when I finally got to New York City. There is a post  about my feelings about the city here. It's fair to say I LOVED it, and that I need to go back soon. It was all I could imagine and more than that.

December was when things were getting harder. My close friend at work got a better job offer and decided to leave. I know I will keep seeing her, but it made me start thinking. I realized I want to do more with my life to and with everything else around me (boyfriend, friends and family that hasn't been feeling really well, the issues with the apartment, changes at work... The list can grow long). Anyway, I decided it was time for me to do something for me. Just me, and no one else. That's when I signed up for the makeup specialist class, which I know will give me a great start of 2015.

These pictures have all been shown on the blog during the year, and gets to represent some of the most
important happenings in my 2014. The blog, Thailand, Meeting Martin, London, Prague, Salzburg
Chicago and New York

That was my 2014 folks. Even though it seemed bad before I started writing this post, it's quite obvious now that the year has been awesome. With this post I wish you a Happy New Year, and when I see you again I will let you know more about my plans and hopes for 2015.

Lots of love,

 

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Dolce & Gabbana - The One

Hi everyone!

I hope you all have had the loveliest Christmas. I know I did. Christmas Eve was spent with my grandparents, cousins and uncle and we had such a great time playing the Christmas gift game, eating a lot of food and goodies and just enjoying each other's company. Christmas Day was spent with my sister, brother, mother, father and boyfriend. Again lots of foods and goodies and loads of amazing Christmas gifts. I must have been really nice this year! I am not going to do a post with all my gifts, but some of my gifts might show up in posts where they are used for a review or maybe in makeup look posts. It's no secret that there was quite a lot of nice makeup because of my education starting soon and everyone wants to encourage that with what they can.

Enough of the rambling. This post is going to be about one of the gifts that I got in my stocking on Christmas Eve. The stocking is a tradition in Martin's family that he wanted to share with me, and I wasn't hard to convince. I must say that was a JACKPOT! Got a lovely gift set with a perfume from Dolce and Gabbana.

I got a tiny bottle of Dolce and Gabbana - The One to try out a while ago. I sprayed it out and Martin guessed the perfume immediately. His aunt used to work with perfumes, so he has learned quite much about them. It turned out that this is one of his all time favorites, but he has never had anyone around him to like it. He has tried with his sister and his mother, but they turned it down. I, how ever liked it a lot from moment the first drops touched my wrist joint.

It has top notes are from citrus, bergamot and mandarin, a heart of litchi and peach and a base of plum, vanilla and musk. The scent is described as oriental and modern with a strong personality, and I think that is a perfect way to describe it. It's a quite strong and grown up scent that is great for fall and winter. For me it would be to heavy for spring and summer, when I prefer a much lighter and sweeter perfume. Over all I'm crazy about the perfume and I know for sure I will be using this a lot in the future. Also, the packaging of the box is lovely. Just look at the pictures below!

A lovely box in a nice golden colour, with a silver bow.

Opening up the box you find a black tissue paper with golden print
for a very luxurious touch.

The bottle is very simple, but elegant and this gift box included
a matching body lotion

Have you tried The One from Dolce and Gabbanna? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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Little Christmas Eve

Good evening,

The day before Christmas Eve, is something we Swedes like to call Little Christmas Eve. When I was younger this was the day we got our Christmas gifts from our parents, before we changed that to Christmas Day.

Anyhow, we still always do something together on Little Christmas Eve. Today we ate some of the favorites from the Christmas table, and played Bingolotto. This is a bingo game on tv, that is shown every week, but we only watch the Christmas special. We never win, but it's taking part that counts, right? And the best part is that I can crawl up in the couch in my lovely PJ Salvage pj, with Christmas dogs on it, that Martin gave to me when we were in New York.

I also got two little gifts. The first one was a Lush gift box that was given to me from the company I work for. Martin was kind enough to drive by my job to pick it up from my boss. The second gift, from Martin himself, was a big bag of my favorite candy.

My last project of the day was to make knäck for tomorrow. Knäck is a sort of candy that needs to be eaten on a Swedish Christmas. Toffee with almonds, and it has become my job to make it every year. It tastes yummy!

Do you have any traditions for this day of the year?

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Christmas Inspiration | Gift Wrapping

Hi,

We're getting closer and closer to Christmas, and the past few days I've been spending quite a lot of time on the gift wrapping. This is something I love to do and put quite some effort to every year. Some more advanced than others. I tend to buy quite a lot of gifts, and this year I have my boyfriend and his family to gift to, so there is a few gifts under my tiny tree.

If you're not done with all your wrapping yet, and needs some inspiration to get going, this post is for you. I haven't taken pictures of all my gifts, but I have collected some to show. I am not the person that uses one or two different kinds of papers to make it all match under the Christmas tree (it never would anyway with six people putting their presents there). I like to mix match and give every gift their own identity. Enjoy the pictures, and if you're interested, read my thoughts bellow.

1. I love using miniature ornaments on my gifts. It's an easy way to show extra effort. If you look carefully at the picture you will also see a golden net under the red ribbon. One of my favorite wrappings this year.

2. I like to save small pieces of paper from other presents to use as a mat under the ribbon. An easy, and cheap way, to give the gift an extra touch.

3. Sometimes less is more. Just a little bit of ribbon, to show the beautiful paper with the reindeer.

4. Again, less is more. Just a simple bow to go with the old fashion Santa paper. 

5. No Christmas without glitter! Sometimes I like to go out of the box and not only use the traditional colours. This year I had no choice when I found that beautiful bling ribbon, and blue and pink where the only colours left.

6. Old fashion is beautiful. Here the traditional brown paper with God Jul (Merry Christmas) printed on it. 

7. Another way to wrap the ribbon around the gift. Still with focus on the really cute paper.

8. I always have to make one very special gift for my sister to open up. It's tradition! This year with double mats under the ribbon, laces and ornaments. I'm sure she'll like it.

9. The last gift was actually wrapped about three years ago. It was my contribution to the Christmas gift game. My Grandmother decided this was her gift and worked really hard to win it. She did, saved the box, put a present in it and gave it back to me for my birthday in September the following year. For Christmas I filled it up again and gave it back to her. We've been doing this ever since. It's getting a bit nagged, but that's part of the charm.

What do you think? Do you have a favorite from the ones above? Or a nice idea to share? 

Let me know in the comments! 

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GlossyBox December

Hi there,

I was starting to think they had forgotten about me this month, since I've seen people reviewing their boxes the whole week. When I got home yesterday and my sister's box had arrived, but not mine, I nearly flipped! But as I went thorough the rest of the mail I found a note that they had been trying to deliver the box, but there was no room left in the post box. The rain was pouring down, so my mother was nice enough to drive me to the delivery point so I could pick it up.

I wouldn't say this is the best box I've ever gotten, but I wasn't disappointed either. For sure worth the money I would say. For me a different shade of the nail polish could have made it a jackpot! 

Burt's Bees Lip Balm - I've actually never tried Burt's Bees before. I did buy one of their lip balms to my sister when I was in Chicago, but I never got one for myself. (Don't ask me why). Got this one with acai berries, that tastes lovely and feel very nice and smooth to the lips. I look forward to evaluate this lip balm with 100% natural ingredients further.

Bella Pierre Cosmetics Cosmetic Glitter - A glitter for body and face. I got mine in silver. I've gotten products from Bella Pierre before and been really happy with them, so I have high hope for this as well. Might be nice for a New Year's makeup look!

BaByliss Hair donut - A hair donat with a push button for various hairstyles. I don't know if I, or Martin, was the happiest about this one. He loves it when I wear my hair up, especially in a bun. I like that it was small to fit my thin hair and that it came with a string and some hair pins.

Make Up Store  Nail polish - I love Make Up Store. I love nail polish. The only downside is that it's blue and that is a color I don't use a lot on my nails, But it is a very beautiful shade, so I will for certain give it a go.

Sasco Aloe Vera Gel - They say Aloe Vera is supposed to be magic. I'm yet to discover that. I've been trying it once or twice, but never noticed that magic that they talk about. Will Sasco be able to change this?

Anthon Berg Dark chocolate stick with Chili, Honey and Almonds - This was a bonus, which is always a nice surprise. I haven't tasted it yet, but is sounds delicious!

  

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Christmas tag

Good evening!

I've been catching up a bit on my favorite blogs these past days and was inspired to do a Christmas tag. I've seen a few different tags out and about and have picked my favorite questions and mixed them as some answers might explain an answer further down in the tag. Hope you enjoy it!

Do you have any Christmas Eve traditions?

In Sweden Christmas Eve is actually the big day. For my family it means that we gather with grandparents, aunts, uncles an cousins in either my family's house or at my grandparents, just before 3 p.m. That is the magical time of the year when Donald Duck's Christmas starts. It has been a tradition for generations, and a change in that is a very sensitive subject for all Swedes. During the show we eat all sorts of cookies and mulled wine or a sort of Swedish Christmas root beer. (Or coffee for Grandpa).

When the show is over we talk for a bit during the last preparations for the dinner is being made. Our Swedish Christmas smorgasbord contains pickled herring, salmon, eggs, ham, meatballs, chipolata sausage, potatoes, red cabbage, Jansson's temptation (a gratin of potatoes and anchovy), mackerel in tomato sauce, brussels sprout... The list goes on forever.

After the dinner, Santa usually comes to visit for a few minutes before it's time for the Christmas gift game. (Read about it in this post if you haven't heard about it before) During the game we of course eat all the candy we've made.

When the game is over and all presents are opened, it's time for the rice pudding, hoping to find the almond! I tend to find the almond every year and always win the glory and a box of chocolate. (Last year my grandmother put a second almond in the pudding to give everyone else a chance too. Guess who got both the almonds? Yup, that was me!) Then we just sit for a few hours and talk until everyone is ready to roll home.

Christmas seems to be all about the food, but we do have a lot of fun with all the loved ones as well. I'm sure you all know the drill!

Do you open your presents Christmas Eve or Christmas morning?

As I just wrote about, Swedish Christmas is on Christmas Eve and that is the time when I get, and give, my Christmas gifts from Grandma and Grandpa. I don't get all of the gifts then though.
On Christmas day it's just me, my parents and my sister and brother. This year my boyfriend will join us too, since he has become a part of the family now. In the morning everyone is laying their last hands on the gift wrapping, maybe writing a last gift poem and such. For lunch/early dinner we eat the left overs from the Christmas Eve dinner and as soon as it gets dark outside we gather around the Christmas tree to give each other our gifts.

Do you like to stay in your PJ’s, or dress up for Christmas?

For Christmas Eve I always dress up, but Christmas day is usually PJ's all day.

Which do you like better, Christmas Eve or Christmas Day?

This one is impossible to answer! I love Christmas eve with everyone around me, and I love the quality time I get with my closest ones at Christmas day. But ever since I was a child there has been something special with Christmas Eve, and I do get to meet family that I don't see every day so maybe a little advantage for Christmas Eve.

Have you ever built a Gingerbread house?

I did sometime when I was younger. My mother built it and we helped with the decoration. Me and my sister have been talking about building one for years, but we never seem to find the time with everything else that we want to do.

What do you like to do on your Christmas break?

It has been years since I had a Christmas break. Working in a store, Christmas is the most busy time of the year. But since I'm not working this Christmas I look forward to just relaxing, watching movies and I really hope for some snow to play in!

What’s your favorite Christmas meal or treat?

This is a really tough one, but I do love the Christmas ham so I think I'll have to pick that. Or my Father's toffee.

What’s your favorite holiday movie?

This one was easier! The Grinch! No Christmas is complete without watching it at least once.

Have you ever made a snowman?

Yes, of course! I love building snowmen. One year I built about 20 tiny ones. I wanted to build the whole soccer team that I support.

Do you have a favourite Christmas memory?
I think my childhood Christmases over all. When my parental Grandmother and Grandfather was still alive, my cousins' parents were still married and everyone was gathered at our house. At that time when Christmas was only magic, because you weren't aware of all the stress that it can bring as well. I LOVE the preparations and Christmas as it is now, but there's still something special about Christmas as a child.

Favourite Christmas gift?
I've gotten so many lovely Christmas gifts through out the years, but an all time favorite is the season tickets to my football games. It's a gift that lasts for a whole year and bring loads of memories for a lifetime. Also, it's one of my father's favorite gifts to give, for the same reasons, and as happy I am to receive the gift, I am to see the joy in his face as he hands it over.

What tops your tree?

Well... I guess this is where most people answer a star, or an angel, or a spire. It used to be a star. But this year my dad helped decorating the tree.

What's the best part about Christmas for you?

I think that the best part of Christmas for me is everything Christmas is supposed to be. With all the tittle-tattle of Christmas gift, the preparations, the food, all family close and the natural joy in everyone's eyes.

Hope you found this post interesting. If you have any special Christmas traditions you'd like to share, I'd love to hear about them in the comments below.

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Christmas Inspiration | Nail art

Hi there!

Just about one more week, then it's time for my favorite season of the year! I've always loved Christmas, but the past few years I've been working crazy the weeks before and after, so the Christmas spirit hasn't really been there as I wish it to be.

As you may know I used to suffer from panic attacks as I was younger, and with everything that has been going on in my life lately I haven't been feeling very well. When I woke up in panic this Monday, and felt my heart beating in a rushing pace I decided to call the doctor. I know I've been stressed out for a while now, and I know my head and body well enough to know that this meant it was time for a break. The doctor put me on the sick list, and I won't be going back to work until the 4:th of January. It wasn't an easy decision to make, because in one way it feels like giving up, but I also know that it was the right thing to do and it will help me come back sooner.

Anyway, as I got a bit more time on my hands I've decided to go all in on Christmas. I will get my time to relax, and I have all the time I need to make nice wrappings, make candy and decorate for a lovely Christmas.

Today I'm going to show you my Christmas nail art. I found these lovely stickers from Allura in London this summer, and even though it wasn't the right season I just couldn't walk past them. Aren't they lovely?

For this look I've used Chip Skip from OPI. This was something that I found in New York that is supposed to make the nail polish last longer. Really look forward to see if it works. As a base I've used Second Nail from Isadora, and as a topChina Glaze First and Last. Both colours are from China Glaze as well, and are defiantly my Christmas favorites, 182 Ruby Pumps and 1261 This is tree-mendous. Love all the sparkles in them!

So what do you think of my Rudolph nails? Let me know in the comments bellow! 

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Exciting news

Greetings people!

Today I've got some really exciting news to share. For a while now I've been feeling I need to do something else than just work work work. Something that will be a step forward good for my personal development. I found that close to where I live there was an education that I would love to take part in. Last week I got an okay from my boss to have one day extra off every week, and yesterday a confirmation of my acceptance showed up in my mail box.

The 20th of January I will be attending my first lesson on a six weeks education to be a diplomaed Makeup-specialist. Overly excited about this, and really wished it would start tomorrow! I really look forward to do something that I love doing, and see what this education will bring for my future career.

Now that I've shared these lovely news I will get back do my happy dance that has been going on for a while now!

Ciao!

Bekräftelse is Swedish for confirmation

1920's look

Good evening!

This weekend me and Martin was invited to a party with a 1920's theme. A theme I liked since it meant all in on make up. I spent quite a lot of Unfortunately we were working under real time pressure since both of us were working all night, so pictures of the whole outfit and a pictured walk through on the make up fell out of the schedule. You will be able to follow my thoughts in text though.

The 1920's were much about a light colored skin tone, so I went through my make up collection to find the lightest of my foundations. The choice fell on my Matte/FX foundation from Beauty UK in color 01 Ivory. A light coverage was all I needed to my pale winter skin for this look. A bit of Collection's Lasting Perfection concealer in 01 Fair was used to brighten up under the eyes. I'm a big fan of bronzer but that was left out this time and I only used a little bit of blush on the apples of my cheek. I picked 2true No.1, which is probably my most used shade.

The eyes got a lot of attention. Starting with the brow, I used my Kohl Pencil from Kicks (Single Espresso) and More Brows from Model Co (Medium/Dark) to shape and draw the eyebrows downwards. With eyeshadows from MUA - Undressed I created a really smokey eye. I used Rose Ash as a base, and Cool Grey and Fuel for the smokiness. Fuel is the darker color of the two, and that's the one I used for the inner corners and faded out to Cool Grey in the outer corners. The other way around from how most people wear their make up now. To frame the eyes I used a black inliner from Färg and a felt liner from P.S.Love (Primark). With the felt liner I created a wing as well. For the upper lashes I used Diorshow mascara and for the lower lashes I chose False Lash Architect from L'oréal Paris. I find the L'oreal mascara perfect for the lower lashes since the brush is thin and the color is quite dry, which makes it easy to catch the small lashes without painting everything else around the eye black.

The lipstick was deep red applied with a fair Cupids's bow on the upper lip. I used my YSL lipstick in 204 and a small lip pencil for application.

I was very happy with the look, and I got so much nice response from people at the party. Will definitely go for this look again if I get an opportunity to, or just for fun! It's really not something I would go for for every day use.

What do you think of the look?

I made the picture black and white to catch the 1920's feeling, but if you click it you'll see it in the original colors.

Wyndham Garden

Hi everyone!

Time is running by so fast I barely manage to follow. Can't believe it's December already! I do still have a few New York posts I'd like to write and share, so hopefully I'll manage to get that done during this week.

At first we were looking at hotels on Manhattan, but found it was quite expensive if you wanted a private bathroom and wifi in the room. Since it's crazily expensive for us to use 3G or 4G abroad, wifi is essential for us, as we might want to look up things for the trip or re-book our flight as we travel on standby. We found a hotel that seemed okay and almost booked it, but through a deal on Secret Escapes we got to think of the possibility to live on Long Island instead, getting a lovely view over Manhattan. We looked at other hotels in the area and found Wyndham Garden. The reviews were great, and it was said to be really easy to get to Manhattan with the metro. For the same price we were about to spend on quite shabby hotel, we got a four star hotel, close to the pier with one of the most amazing views I've ever seen. (See pictures in my last post about New York here)

To not live on Manhattan was a great decision. It was so nice to get out of the city, to a calm area, after a whole day with loads of impressions. The area was great. People were out walking their tiny dogs, and not once, as we were out in the late evenings, did we feel unsafe in any way. The hotel offered a free shuttle bus to the Metro station every 30 minutes (it was just a four minutes walk though, so we went by foot) and it was just one station away from the first stop at Manhattan. It was also just one line to the AirTrain to JFK airport.

The hotel was very nice and clean and the staff was really friendly. The room included two double beds, which was perfect! One for sleeping and one for packing and showing off all the nice shopping. The bathroom had a small bathtub, just perfect for a foot bath after a long day of walking. No way near big or deep enough for two persons to take a full body bath. Not even for one person to be honest. But, since the first hotel we were looking at barely had a private shower in the room, this was perfect!

We would defiantly recommend this hotel, and we will for sure look at this hotel again, the next time we're going to New York.