thailand

thailand

cocktails

raving in the rain

beaches

coconut monkey ornaments

strange food. 'too local?'

ladyboys

vietnam & cambodia

cambodia

feeding elephants

killing fields

$2 manicure & pedicure

happy pizza & beachfront dining

flashpacking

beaches

vietnam

mental roads

water puppetry

revolving restaurant & boyfriends visit

singapore & KL

KL was definitely my favourite city on the trip; lush food, amazing watermelon shakes and endless shopping!

petronas towers

view from the skybridge.

living the highlife!

going for a singapore sling...

having a singapore sling ( i opted for something a little fruitier).

limes on fire in a temple. really want to try this at home.

australia

so, as if the stress of getting home from france wasn't enough, my flight to australia also got cancelled which resulted in me having to leave on earlier flight a few days earlier than expected so off I went feeling rushed, unprepared and with that sickly feeling in my stomach that I had left something important behind.

i managed to get the whole way to my hotel in sydney unscathed without any hiccups and predictably I didn't leave anything behind.

anyway, i haven't written a single blog since then because i basically only used the internet via my iphone in free wifi hotspots - truly amazingggg as the actual internet cost a fortune!

here is a roundup of my australian adventure:

1. darling harbour, my favourite place in sydney. looks fab at night & had a great atmosphere:

2. wildlife sanctuary @ the gold coast. koalas are literally the cutest animals ever:

3. bondi beach. complete with hardcore 'tanatics' sunbathing in winter:

4. opera house. got to be done.

5. moreton island. deserted island near brisbane with a lovely shipwreck:

france

arrived home on monday from a total stress of a journey to france after flights got cancelled and delayed for hours and ended up stranded in london stansted airport on the way home. not good.

the holiday itself was brilliant though, stayed with friends who are working in lyon and ventured to a dance music festival called nuit sonores.

while i was there i downloaded some lomo 'esque' apps for my iphone which i thought would be worth a review. photography is not usually one of my strong points but these apps make it really fun:

1. LOMO £1.19

used in black & white mode.

extremely simple to use - take a picture then select the mode. ready made lomography without all the hassle of waiting for films to be developed. brilliant!

2. RETRO CAMERA £free

this is my personal fave. unlike the LOMO app it's free which makes it a complete winner from the start. one reason i've never really got into the whole lomography trend is that processing and blank pictures make it a really expensive hobby but with this you can create so many guaranteed photos and it doesn't cost a penny!

there's loads of different film effects and colour scales to choose from, the only downside is that it puts that really annoying advert at the bottom of every picture which has to be removed on the computer.

3. HIPSTAMATIC £1.19

this one is brilliant for creating that really vintage looking photo, it also has loads of different film settings which is good for the more advanced lomo-ers but a bit too complicated for me as i found it hard to remember which films create which look.

4. IRON CAM LITE £free

a brilliant app for vignetting (hope i have used the correct spelling) you can adjust the blurryness of corners and is the only app where you can actually zoom in and out a little bit!

i personally would prefer the option to not frame the photos but it does add a nice touch and can easily be cropped on the computer.

all in all i LOVE these apps! they take the complication out of lomography and save us all a fortune! go and download them!

cupcakes

Heard on the radio this morning that it's really important to take regular breaks from work. So I did just that and decided to attempt the Vanilla cupcake recipe from the Hummingbird cupcake book:

The recipe tells you to use plain flour with baking powder but I always just go with self raising flour because I'm too scared they won't rise!

Had a disaster with the icing because I ended up splitting the piping bag and getting food colouring everywhere! nevertheless I decided to decorate with candy coloured vanilla frosting and chocolate hundreds and thousands and I think they have turned out a treat don't you?

(and check out the home made cake stand!)

bargain love & FOTD

Yesterday I had to visit the university library, and lo and behold I ventured into Primarni on Northumberland street as it is the closest shop. sooo glad I did though as I picked up some amazing bargains:

All this make-up for a whopping £2.75! (yes you heard that right, two pounds and seventy five pence).

I absolutely love nothing more than a good bargain. I'm one of those people who just can't resist buying something just because it is massively reduced even when it is completely useless and/or pointless.

So to prove to myself that these weren't pointless purchases i've decided to do my make-up today using only these products (plus a thin line of black estee lauder kohl and no7 mascara):

Eyes - eye souffle in lemon.

LOVE this product, so soft and creamy felt like a dream to apply. Has a very subtle shimmer to it which accentuates the eyes perfectly for a natural daytime look. I actually bought the same product in a lilac shade which i'm extremely pleased about now because I'll definitely be using these loads.

Cheeks - blusher stick.

extremely pink and garish when first applied. seemed to blend ok but practically disappeared by the time I took the photo so constant re-applications would be necessary to maintain the look throughout the day.

Lips - tinted love.

This tint is actually for the cheeks but it works really well on my lips and the brush applicator is more suited to use on the lips. This is much like any other lip tint I've used but has worn off completely since eating.

I also used the highlighter from the double ended tinted love product on my cheek and brow bone which gives my skin a gorgeous sheen as it catches the light.

I originally used the gold eye gloss on my eyelids but it was extremely shiny and very sticky. it felt like I was putting PVA glue on my eyelids but being starved of the joy of peeling it off once dry: