Category: Confidence


Apr
2015

The Liebster Award – time to learn a little more about me!

Categories: Confidence, lifestyle

Thank you to ashleighthebeautyaddict for nominating me for nominating me for the Liebster award.  Great fun and I  get to look at so many blogs.  Honestly since I have been blogging I have learnt so much and ‘met’ such amazing people – I feel really honoured.

Liebster

Here are the rules:

1) Thank and link back to the person(s) who nominated you and display the award

2) Answer their 11 questions the nominee asked

3) Give 11 random facts about yourself

4) Nominate 11 bloggers with less than 200 followers

5) Notify the bloggers you chose for the award

6) Make a list of 11 different questions for your nominees to answer

My questions from Ashleighthebeautyaddict

One:  What is the one makeup product you always ‘need’ to buy, yet you have a thousand different ones in the drawer?

Foundation – I seem to have developed a bit of an addiction for it.  I must be my quest for a flawless skin.  I promise I will use them all.  I tend to swop and change depending on the occasion.

Two:  Are you allergic to anything?

I must be, just can’t think of anything right now.  Oh! I know I am allergic to unkind people – they bring me out in hives!!!

Three:  If I was to quickly look at your profile pic, what would be the one thing I would never ever guess about you?

That I was blond most of my life.  The red hair is part of me striving to be fabulous and be strong.

Four:  Name the first lipstick shade name that comes to mind!

Blushing ballroom

Five:  Okay now join that name with the name of the first street you lived on, that’s your Superhero name! What power do you have and why?

Blushing Ballroom Rosemary – Well obviously this superhero can dance like a dream and forget the cares of her life while dancing.  The real superpower I would like to have is to make people feel good about themselves despite what they are dealing with.

Six:  What is the one thing you cannot stand to be around? (a certain smell/place/animal/insect?)

I don’t really like the smell of raw meat – a butcher shop makes me feel sick!  I was a vegetarian most of my life.

Seven:  What beauty product did you cave and buy that totally didn’t work out for you?

Nothing comes to mind, but I know I do know that I have too many handcreams.  I seem to buy lots of them, and then never get to use them up.

Eight:  Is there a certain product/brand/place you rave about to everyone? It could even be a game or a book!

That’s easy Elizabeth Arden 8-hour cream.  It is my go to solution for everything skin.  I think friends and family are tired of hearing about it.  It is a miracle cream.

Nine:  Would you rather throw out your eyeshadow’s, pigments and palettes or your foundations, mascara’s and lipsticks?

It would be my lipsticks.  I love them, but forget to apply them throughout the day, so am often bare lipped.

Ten:  Is there a word/brand you were told you have been saying wrong the entire time? (I thought Morphe was pronounced Morphe not Morph-ee)

Took me a long time to learn to say lingerie as a child.  I think I was in my twenties before I learnt how to pronounce it!

Eleven:  Name one person on Instagram or Youtube that you admire.

I haven’t explored Youtube enough yet.  My summer project! – so watch this space.

I do love Tedtalks – so inspiring.

11 Random facts about me

  1. I have 2 different colour eyes – one blue and one green
  2. I am a middle child
  3. I tell everyone (and honestly secretly believe) that I can talk dog! I am sure I understand them and that they understand me
  4. I have a really boy/techie side to me
  5. Through my son – I have developed a huge interest into the psychology of video games.
  6. I have a number of tiaras/crowns (perhaps that isn’t a big secret)
  7. I am very untidy
  8. Friends are my real wealth
  9. I had serious imaginary friends as a child
  10. I pretended to be my brother’s twin for a good few years (and he is 6 years younger than me!)
  11. I love to paint

I am nominating 11 bloggers – I hope you haven’t done this before …

(May I just say I have loved this research – could read blogs all day!)

Style Gamblers

EA Loves

Enhance what is yours

Beechmount Art Studio

Helpless while Drying

Sometimes Write

Squidgy Moments

But you have such a pretty face

Lilliwhiterose

Glittermamawishes

Red Lips Red Hair

My Questions:

  1. Did you have a nickname as a child – and what was it?
  2. Did you have an imaginary friend? Tell us please?
  3. Where do you come in your family? Is it a good or bad thing
  4. TV guilty pleasure
  5. Your best bathtime routine – favourite products, scented candles ….
  6. Quote that defines your life
  7. Your favourite exercise
  8. Have you ever considered online dating?
  9. What triggered your first blog post
  10. What beauty product in your make-up bag makes you feel really special
  11. The book that changed your life?

Apr
2015

If we didn’t have bad days we wouldn’t appreciate good ones

Categories: Confidence, Health, lifestyle, Uncategorized

If we didn't have bad days we wouldn't (2)We all have those kind of days . The days that put everything into perspective.

I have promised myself that this will be  a positive blog, but this post is about turning a negative into a positive.  Let me explain.

I have rheumatoid arthritis in my hands.  I am self injecting Methotrexate (which is one of the drugs from the chemotherapy cocktail).  It has been helping and his given me some relief from pain.  There are days however when things are not good.  Pain is severe and quite frankly it must makes me crabby.

I am definitely a glass half full kind of person, but when the pain gets really bad it is hard to concentrate, never mind think of the glass and whether it is full or empty.

Today was one of those days.  I felt myself becoming snappy, and if someone gave me a tiny bit of sympathy, I could feel tears welling up.  Not a good way to be, especially if you are trying to keep up your ‘fabulous’ and professional persona, and of course keep your invisible crown on your head!

At 4pm I gave in and reached for a painkiller.  I try very hard to steer away from them, but there comes a time, and this is my first piece of advice for dealing with those kind of days.

If you are in pain – take a painkiller.

The next piece of advice is to distract yourself.  After work I went silly shopping.  I wandered around the supermarket and bought easter eggs, and crazy dessert pizza.

The final piece of advice is not to wallow.  I was invited out by a friend and although my head was telling me to stay home and rest, my spirit said get out and live.  I had a lovely evening with good company and yummy food, and to an extent forgot about the pain.  (The pills I had taken helped a bit too).

My lovely sister called to find out how I was, and I think was a bit surprised to find me out and about.  I guess this post goes towards explaining why.

My philosophy is to embrace life, no matter what.   I embrace life, and try to be fabulous, regardless of the circumstances.

When I wake up tomorrow, the RA will still be there, and the pain might wake me up in the night.  No matter what in the morning, I will put my make-up on, position my invisible crown and find my fabuliciousness.

And when I have a good day, I will appreciate it even more!


Mar
2015

What better way to celebrate than with a Make-over!

Categories: Beauty, Confidence, lifestyle

 

Celebrate (2)A couple of weeks ago I reached a milestone in my life.  It was two years since my move to Westport.  It was really a significant shift in my life for all sorts of reasons.  I moved to the beautiful County of Mayo to start a new job, back in the corporate world, after a 10 year stint as an arty hippy shopkeeper.  A new town, new county and new me.

It hasn’t been easy, but change never is.  It has however, been challenging and rewarding, both in ways I had never expected.  I have found myself using brain cells that I didn’t know I had, and simply learning (or should that be re-learning) how to simply have fun.  To kick back and celebrate life.

Part of this journey has been accepting myself and embracing fabulousness.  Understanding that we are all beautiful and that is ok to be a girly girl.  As my inner confidence has grown I have begun to feel more confident in myself and have learnt to love make-up again.

So no better way to celebrate that a night at home with my girl friends Ruth and Taylor.  We set the scene with lots of little snacky food (my favourite way to eat) and tall glasses of sparkling prosecco. We had a proper natter, with lots of giggles talking over our journeys over the past two years.

As a special treat Taylor, who has trained as a make-up artist did a little make-over for me.  She used loads of the yummy products from my Into The West Blogger Network (ITWBN) goody bag from the last event.

Just saying I feel very brave putting my bare face out on the internet.  There was a time when I wouldn’t let anyone take a picture of my face at all.

I think the concealer pallette from Isadora Cosmetics did a fantanstic job of evening out my skin. I use it every day and love how the green stuff evens out the red around my nose.  The highlighter is fab for adding shape to my cheekbones and highlighting my brows.  This was of course the end of the day, so the dark circle stuff was more than necessary. The gorgeous mascara was the final flourish for sexy eyes.

Thanks for reading and most importantly thank you to my girlies for making my night special.

Kerry xx


Mar
2015

Always wear your invisible crown, and pink lipstick!

Categories: Beauty, Confidence, lifestyle

 

crownThe first time I came across the saying, Always Wear your Invisible Crown, I just knew it was meant for me and would, from that day forward be my motto (or one of them).

I have suffered from depression and a poor body image since my teens.  It has taken huge strides (and a bit of therapy) to get me to where I am today.  Most days I can see myself as a fabulous fifty year old, with a curvy body and a pretty face, but there are still days when it is hard.  Tough days when thing don’t always go right or when someone makes a throw-away comment about size. Those are the days I really need my invisible crown.

We are all sensitive and being woman are victims of hormones and mood swings. There are also days when we simply have a down day.  These are the days where we have to dust off those invisible crowns, place them firmly on our heads and know that we are special and to many people. These people love and care about us and know we are worthy of a sparkly head piece. Most importantly we need to believe it ourselves.

If I am being really honest, many of my crowns are not invisible.  I have built up a small collection of crowns, from tiny hairpins that I can tuck into my french pleat when I am smartly dressed for work, to sparkly jewellery and even a few tiaras.

I honestly find that housework is much easier when wearing a crown.  Spinning around the house with a dusting cloth and a crown dancing to music is much more fun that it would be if I was simply polishing surfaces.

The truth is we are all valuable and precious and sometimes we just need to remind ourselves of it.

Another one of my ways of reminding myself that I am a special and confident woman is with a good lipstick.  I had the great fortune to get to try out the Wet n Wild Megalast lip colour at the recent ITWBN event in Galway.  Now here was a ‘crown’ that lasted the whole day!  Through many cups of tea and a few meetings, my lips remained pink.  I had a little touch-up at lunch time and can honestly say that I felt good all day! It really does last and last.

One of my most memorable days was sharing my 50th birthday celebrations with my sister who had travelled all the way from Dubai with this special crown in her luggage.  We spent 5 days in a swanky hotel and I wore my crown everytime we were in the hotel room, even in the bath!

A real princess treat.

Thanks for reading xx

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