Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Heart Nail Art

 
   One of my favourite ways to treat myself after a stressful day is to grab a bottle of nailpolish, whip up a hand soak and begin an at home manicure session. I do enjoy going to nail salons on occasion but going out too often to get your nails done at a salon can be pricey. And lets be honest, sometimes you'd much rather stay in your pyjamas or a comfy sweater and stay at home!

   The first step in any at home manicure session should be a hand soak. Not only is taking the time to enjoy a hand soak relaxing but, I've found that it actually improves the condition of my nails; especially after removing nail polish. You can purchase premade handsoaks at most stores but if you're in the mode for an entirely DIY manicure why not try the recipe I used for my handsoak?

Recipe for a Simple Homemade Hand Soak

1. 2 tbsps of cream
2. 1 tbsp of honey
3. Your favourite liquid soap (I used softsoap mango infusions)
4. Medium size bowl of hot water

    Mix all of the ingredients together until there are lots of bubbles, place your hands in and relax while the soak refreshes and soothes your hands.


Once your done soaking your hands and filing your nails its nail polish time! If your looking for a design that has a bit of sparkle and love to add some glitter to your nails check out my Heart Nail Art Design below!



Paint your nails a base colour (two coats should do it)
My base colour is, 'Viva Pink' Avon Nailwear Pro


Make two white dots using a dotting tool on the corner of your nails
Make a third dot beneath the two dots
Fill in the space around the dot carefully using a toothpick


Using the dotting too,l make a series of small dots across the tip of the nail


Paint red sparkly polish over the heart and dots to give them extra sparkle
When this has dried, paint a single coat of the red sparkly polish over the entire nail
The red sparkly coat I used was, 'Gettin' Miss Piggy With It' OPI


Use a Q-Tip dipped in nailpolish remover to clean up any nailpolish around your nail and Voila!
You have Heart Nail Art that will have all your friends believing you went to the nail salon!


Sunday, April 22, 2012

Reading a Small Piece of Paradise

    There is nothing quite like a good book. Without books I doubt I'd be able to fall asleep seeing as I've recently incorporated a minimum of 10 minutes (usually more like 20 or 30 minutes) of reading before bed. Reading is something I have enjoyed forever and, I'm really excited about sharing my reading experiences on this blog.

    So without further ado, the book I am currently reading is called, Paradise House by Erica James. The plot (so far as I can tell) follows the tale of a young woman Genevieve Baxter who is trying to cope with her capricious mother's recent decision to "go find herself", which in lieu of her mother's absence, has made her the temporary manager of an old-fashioned seaside inn in picturesque Angel Sands. On top of all of this there seems to be hints that Genevieve's past was not always filled with sunshine. The whimsical and carefree attitudes of her other two sisters and the introverted nature of her father add the feeling that not all is well at Paradise House.


Genevieve and her sisters
Image retrieved from: Paradise Lost on James' website

       So far, I'm finding that Paradise House is an easy read; which offers a nice breath of fresh air in between reading classics which tend to have more challenging prose. If you're looking for an easy read, with a hint of mystery, wry family relationships and a dreamy landscape then check out Paradise House!


Saturday, April 21, 2012

Moving Day and A Look at "Lady Chatterley's Lover"

    I originally started blogging nearly a fortnight ago but filled with aristic whimsy, I decided to pack up and move homes to this, my latest location where I can assure you that for the forseeable future I will be curled up snug as a bug in a rug! So, grab a blanket and a hot cup of tea because I just finished reading a story that I can't wait to tell you about!

My Beagle all Curled up and Cosy; Ready for his Bedtime Story!

   For the past two weeks I have been completely enwrapped by D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover. It was originally published in 1928 but was immediatley banned because it was deemed too provocative, and wasn't publicly released in full until the 1960's. But, living in a day and age where the many televised shows, go above and beyond obscene, I can honestly say that this novel is modest by today's standards. If you're not familiar with the plot, (don't worry there won't be any spoilers, I can't think of anything worse than spoiling the ending of a story) the story follows the life of young Constance (Lady Chatterley) who gets married to Clifford Chatterley. Clifford goes off to war and returns diabled form the waist down. Due to his disability, and cold nature Clifford retreats into his mind, which causes Connie great distress as Clifford becomes emotionally vampiric, sucking a figurative life force from Connie's body. Seeking the need to feel alive again, Connie begins an affair with Mellors, Lord Chatterley's game keeper, beginning the main romance of the novel.

The First Full Copies of Lady Chatterley's Lover published in 1960 by Penguin books
 Photographed by: J. Wilds/Getty Images
Image Retrieved from: The Guardian

   Essentially Lady Chatterley's Lover is a romance but to classify it solely as a romance would not do the work justice because, as the plot follows the 'love story' of Mellors and Connie, it provides a powerful commentary about human nature: about the conxsequences of negelecting each other's basic need to feel wanted and understood in favour of achieveing successs, about the consequences of the great focus society puts on achieveing success and acting successful, about the bitterness that arises from living in a relationship or marriage where there is no love and about how above all we need to feel loved as human beings to find purpose in our lives.

The Copy of the Book which I read

   In my opinion D.H. Lawrence did an exquisite job of translating the very nature of what it means to be human in Lady Chatterley's Lover while still weaving the best sort of romance into the story. This is definetly a must read novel! I'd be really interested to hear some of your thoughts about "Lady Chatterley's Lover" and if you'd like to share them, or have any questions before/while reading comment below :)