My favourite books

I thought I'd take a little moment to show my appreciation for M.C.Beaton. Beaton is the author of the Agatha Raisin books, I have been in love with Agatha Raisin as a character for a while now. I have followed in my mothers footsteps who also has a love of all things Agatha Raisin. I have been lucky enough to have been given my mothers collection of Agatha Raisin books (she has quite the collection). The books themselves are murder mysteries circling around one woman (Agatha) who just makes the books for me, she's a high flying city woman who has come from London and has moved to the country. As a character she's very likeable, I imagine her to be a high flying Bridget Jones type character who finds herself in these new towns and communities, with her cats and mysterious scenarios. They're such a lovely read, not just drawing you into the mystery of that book, but also into the characters that are running through all of the books. 

I would recommend grabbing a cup of tea, a comfy chair and having a read of some of these books. 

I was so thrilled when I learnt that Agatha Raisin was being turned into a series on sky after a one off show last Christmas. Agatha is played by Ashley Jenson, and it's a perfect fit. Reading books really is something I enjoy to do more at this time of year, with the dark and cold nights. 

An autumn day out

Autumn has got to be my favourite season, from the fashion to the weather. I love layered clothing, bobble hats and scarves. I adore the cosy nights in with blankets cups of tea and good murder mystery in book or telly form. The colours of the trees that are reflected in the colours of the fashion, maroons, Browns and reds. I'm a sucker for a red lip, and now I'm digging out my berry lipsticks I'm a very happy bunny. 

So the first day of cold weather with the sun shining, I was in my element. I put on my scarf and hat, and berry lip, and went for my first autumn day out of the year ....

Elizabeth Taylor makeup look.

Hello all, 

It's been a while, I've had a few changes going on so have been neglecting the blwbell blog, but I'm baaaaaack. I really fancied doing a classic makeup look, and who better than the classic beauty Elizabeth Taylor. In case you couldn't tell already I'm a brunette now, I fancied a change. But anyway less of the chit chat on to the look. 

So I started off with foundation. I wanted a heavy coverage and then a slight contour but nothing too drastic and then highlighted under the eyes. 

I used... 

1. Vichy dermablend in opal 15

2. Macs select moisture cover in NC15

3. Max factor pan stick in 14

Then came the power brow...

What's key for this is go thick go dark, don't go too harsh with the lines and don't worry they WILL look ridiculous on there own with no eye makeup to compliment them, just wait until the whole face is done before you decide to wipe them off. 

I used ...

1. Maybellines brow drama in dark brown

2. Sleeks brow kit in dark 818

3. Any dark brown -black eyeshadow to fill in

Next was the eyes...

So I noticed little Liz had a thick liner on but it was coppery closer to the inner eye. There wasn't much else on the lid in terms of eyeshadow so I just used the naked palettes to slightly darken the sockets and then used a fluffy brush to ensure there were no harsh lines and sort of soften it out a bit. 

 

I used ...

1. Urban decay naked palettes 2 and 3

2. L'oréal volume million lashes

3. L'oréal super liner

The eye shadows I went for were limit from the 3 palette as a wash all over the lid up to the brow, then a mixture of half baked and snake bite from the second palette for the lash line. 

Next was my favourite bit LIPS ...

I used my trusty Chanel lipstick, it took a while for me to appreciate the power of this lipstick but now I want to buy them ALL and hug them and kiss them and whisper sweet nothings to them. 

1. Chanel rouge allure 104

2. Mac lip glass in viva glam 1

3. Mac 318 lip brush to apply

And then walah ...

Girly day out and Dylan's

Hello, 

It seems a long time since I blogged. I feel like delving more into the lifestyle blog world for the minute, with maybe the odd make up blog here and there. 

I seemed to be pausing my life at the moment, waiting for things to happen, or not, so I find it hard to start anything new. But I'm currently home with the family, and wanted to share my lovely girly day out that me and my sister planned for our mother for Mother's Day. It basically turned out to be a brief shopping trip, and then a lovely lunch out. The lunch out was honestly just so nice, we had booked a table at Dylan's in Menai bridge. We treated our mother to lunch and some bellini's. We ended up bumping into my best friend who was treating her mother there that day too. It was just all so girly and special and I feel all girly and fuzzy when recalls it. Excuse my whimpy words.

I think the pictures speak for themselves ...

The decor and layout was just right, no over doing it, just fresh and beachy, very sympathetic to it's surroundings. It was nice to see the menu was full of local produce, but also keeping the menu extensive. 

The pizzas all sounded amazing, this one was fig goats cheese, rocket and Parma ham. 

We had honestly the tastiest drinks too, I tried the elderflower lemonade, it had a gingery zest to it. I didn't stop raving about it. Zingy zingy scrumptiousness. We also had the bellini's, just yum. 

And what is any girly day out without puddings?

Dunky donuts and some spiced chocolate sauce gosh I could eat this all over again. 

I hear there's one opening in Criccieth too. 

Anyway, this is pretty much a review, but it was the nicest part of our day. I want to go back for summer, so we could sit outside. They had blankets that I'm guessing were for when you're sat outside in the evenings.

I'll be blogging again soon.

Goodbye

💙🔔

Jennifer Lawrence look

Heeeeeello.

This blog is a little late, but I finally caught the sunlight to take the photos. I've been obsessed with this Jlaw make up look since I saw it, it's very heavy on the eyes, and all about the bronzed skin and bronzed eyes. Here's my take on it ...

So I started with a pretty heavy base, only because I needed to fake a tanned face for this look. 

So I used a max factor pan stick to do some contouring. The face was pretty much bronzer on top of bronzer and using it in those places the sun would naturally hit, so the top of the lip, perimeters of the face. I used the bourjious chocolate bronzer on top of the cream bronzer. I then went over the cheeks with a peachy blusher, and mixed it in with some more bronzer. 

The eyes

This look was different to what I usually would do on myself and that's mostly down to the brows, Jlaw isn't sporting a heavy brow nor is it that dark, it's kind of bronzed so I used light brown powders and put it on sparingly. The eyes was all about the metallicy colours. For the base I used maybellines colour tattoos, they are insane, if you haven't tried them, please do, get every colour. I went on top of this with golds and bronzes, I darkened the outer edge later on. I worked from the urban decay 2 palette on top of the colour tattoo. The eye liner seemed pretty heavy on the lower lash line too. 

The lips

Jlaw is rocking the baby pink lip, with gloss, I used macs creme sheen but it wasn't quite right so I mixed a bit of macs morange to add a touch of coral, the used bare minerals gloss in a nudey pink. 

Aaaand whala

Hope you liked it, it's a pretty intense look so I wouldn't wear it to pop to the shop to get milk or anything. But for a pn evening out I love it! Let me know what you think.

Goodbye

Blwbell xx

💙🔔

A little drama never hurt nobody

Recently I attended a workshop held by Pluen a new theatre company in wales. It was a really nice day, luckily the people that attended that same day as me, were all really nice. Gethin and Elgan (Pluen) created a nice comfortable atmosphere, that really encouraged people to properly give it a good go. Who would have thought that a little 3 hour workshop could be so inspiring creatively. 

The company ...

A new company, Pluen, making waves through wales. In my opinion giving us exactly what's been missing from the welsh theatre world. A very young company that are open to new ideas and ways of thinking. Gethin and Elgan the co founders of Pluen are refreshing in themselves, before even their work, they are passionate and eager, and seem to be standing up for what they want in the theatre world, and not pandering to the 'norm'. Cocky isn't the right word, especially for them as people as they couldn't be further from that, but as a company I can't help but feel like I want them to be cocky and stand up for what they are doing. "Doing it for the underdogs" type thing. Pluen are showing how theatre can be developed as an entire process, all together, from beginning to end, including all parts of the final product in the development. That being ideas, research, actors, music, tech. Get everyone involved and on their feet trying stuff. It's a refreshing take on the old sit down and dissect a scripts meaning, approach. 

After seeing the companies first production 'llais', I had an overwhelming sense of pride and inspiration. I wanted to cry, create, discover. Something quite rare from watching a piece of theatre alone. But the piece really gave you something more than acting, it gave you raw feeling, honesty. The workshop delved into how they approached there development process, and how to tap into that as an actor and then be able to use that in a final piece. 

The workshop...

The workshop itself seemed to really let you discover something about yourself, each exercise opened your eyes to something new, and pushed you to somewhere you may not have pushed yourself to before. My general feel was that they really got across acting as more than acting pretty and saying your lines, it's feeling something and placing that feeling into your 'act', something that is integral to a good piece of work. 

It's actually really nice to be in a room with a bunch of people who are there to be inspired and seemed really interested, on the most part anyway. You can just see the people attending the workshop really going for it, letting go and for me personally it was sort of a nice reminder that you can push yourself. Pluen have really stuck to what they believe to be good, and after the workshop it's clear to see that what's inspiring them is inspiring others. The general feel of the people there was that people just wanted this new theatre wave, and want to be apart of it.

What was also nice was how Gethin and Elgan said they were learning so much from the workshops themselves, and you could really see that they weren't there to solely cast for a new production or to show off what they've learnt or done, but that they were still just learning and testing and trying things out and just as much apart of the workshop as the rest of us. Genuinely wanting to see who's out there who's interested. 

The exercises could be classed as cringe when written on paper, because it involves doing awkward things to strangers, like eye contact, and touching hands, exposing yourself (emotionally, not your rude bits!). But being there you really got it, and got something from them, everyone just dived right into it. Elgan who was hosting our day, had a way of really getting you to try them out, and also made it funny when we all needed a bit of a break. 

 One of the exercises after working through it and feeling a bit like 'can we go onto the next one now please?' Had a pretty powerful result, that being, going from nothing to blistering anger with a clap of a hand, and having it be a little bit genuine, so not just acting which could easily come across as cringe worthy, but genuine anger from a personal place, a dangerous but interesting game. Some of the exercises were like mini psychology tests, seeing what our little minds are capable of was right interesting.  I came away feeling relieved that this kind of theatre and development process is accessible. New writers, actors, tech, musicians techies, I feel can breathe a sigh of relief. 

Just thought I'd post a little summary of the day because as cringe as it sounds, I came away feeling all inspired and proud (again). 

Now to get those creative juices of mine flowing ... Or maybe just play some more candy crush 🙈

 

Where is home?

Hello peeps. 

Thought I'd do a little blog about what home is. What makes home, home? 

Home isn't always where you grew up, it may sometimes be spread over a bit. I've been thinking about it a bit recently, whilst I figure out those 'big life decisions'. But home, to me, is a few things ...

number 1 where you are happy. 

Not the only place you're happy, just somewhere that you feel happy, never underestimate the power of being happy, you may not realise you have it until it's gone. My mother once said to me, "there's a lot to be said about being happy even though you're not in your ideal situation" it was in relation to a conversation where I wanted more and didn't know what or how to change my situation. I was considering moving and didn't realise why I couldn't make that decision fully, without feeling like it wasn't the right decision. And that statement reminded me that even though I was feeling all these things were coming up short, I was still happy, and maybe that was a good enough reason to stay put. 

Number 2 who you are surrounded by

 

To me there's nothing more homely than my family members, close friends and of course pets. I feel that no matter where you are, if you had these people surrounding you or the odd one then you'll be ok. Those people that you can relax around, have fun with and wouldn't be without, sometimes just one is enough to make you feel right at home, even if you still miss the others. 

Number 3 location

This doesn't necessarily mean where on the globe you are, which is what I've come to realise. I've always considered "home, home" (where I grew up) to be my true home. But I get that same homely feeling wherever I am. Something as simple as the pride you take in your belongings, or your house, or the way you relax. My morning routine makes me feel homely, a bit of radio 2, a cup of tea and warmth. And then of course evenings, having a nice bath, meal, good company, and a good book or tv show, can just make you feel right at home. Buying nice plates or washing the dishes at the end of the day. All such small day to day things, but just having a bit of pride in where you are seems to make it more of a home. 

Just some soppy ponderings, but thought I'd share. I feel like home can be found anywhere, and ensuring that you don't forget those things or people or places that aren't around you, then what is around you can be all you'll need to call home. 

Blwbell xx

💙🔔