Friday, July 31, 2009

Purple Power

I'm not usually a fan of Katy Perry but i love the whole ensemble she's got going. I'm not too keen on the material of her dress though as it looks to me like it's satin or silk and it isn't my idea of a nice material for a day dress that i'd wear during summer. I'd rather it was cotton or even jersey as that's more comfortable to wear during the hotter months. Nonetheless, i love the colour co-ordinated effort with her choice of footwear and the fact that she went for a black shoulder bag to stop us from going blind with colour clash.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

What a Shocker!

The blackberry tour smartphone just got launched in New York and Chloe Sevigny and Gwyneth Paltrow were one of the celebrities in attendance. There's something about Chloe that never really seems to work for me, whenever i see her i get scared and after watching Twilight i actually imagine her being a real life Victoria. Her style is usually a hit or miss for me and on this occasion i have to say it's a miss. I'm definately not in love with her dress.
If you've read my blog you'd know that i love Gwyneth Paltrow's style but on this occasion i have to say i'm extremely disappointed. Everything from her hair colour to that ridiculus tan she's sporting and her dress all fail in my book. You see, when i look at the picture above it reminds me of two people: Heidi Montag and Pamela Anderson. Seriously, since when did Gwyneth decide that an oompa loompa look was for her? And that shade of blonde against her skin just makes it worse: it's either the colour is too brassy or it just looks terrible in the pictures because of her tan. And then her dress reminds me of some terrible clothes that ASOS designed about a year or so ago, it looks so cheap and tacky on Gwyneth. Is the recession or the freaking fast she just went on clouding her good sense of tasteful ensembles? Let's just hope this is a one-timer.

Chanelling Lauren Conrad

The former Hills star is one of my favourites when it comes to the simple but chic look alongside Gwyneth Paltrow and i must admit that she doesn't disappoint with this look at all. The dress is very reminiscent of what Dita Von Teese would wear as the print looks slightly vintagey to me. I love the fact that she's paired it down with tan accessories to allow the dress to speak for itself. I can absolutely see myself rocking this dress with a pair of tan gladiator flats and a bag. You might have noticed that comfort always comes first on my list but i'm beginning to notice that i can't actually wear heels anymore because i havent worn them in years. So now i can actually feel the pain shoot straight to my head the minute i slip my feet into something high. I have to get back into the groove of wearing them again, any ideas on how i can make this process easy?
Apart from Lauren's dress, i'm also loving her hair and sunglasses. I'm currently on the hunt for a pair of sunnies in that shade of red.

Photo

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Loving Her Look

I'm currently going through a phase of all things chic: dresses, simplistic outfits and anything that remotely reminds me of Dita Von Teese in a toned down version. Since i'm still in the process of getting a makeover and adding new clothes to my wardrobe, i'm collecting as many celeb pictures as possible to inspire my future purchases. So the first look of today is this one of Vanessa Hudgens. On a normal day, i hate white dresses as they remind me of weddings and i also get very nervous about getting any stains whatsoever on them. I love how she's accessorised with a gold necklace, bangles and flats. From the picture, it's not very obvious but she's also carrying a dark brown shoulder bag. What do you guys think? I'm loving the stack of bracelets she's got going on her left hand. It actually reminds me of Halle Berry.

Photo

DVB Jeans On Sale At Coggles

For those of you who have always been interested in owning a pair of jeans from Victoria Beckham's dvb brand, here's your chance to snag one at a slightly more affordable price. But be quick because the popular sizes seem to be flocking out the door. Coggles currently has a sale going on and some of the dvb jeans are on sale. There are also other brands on sale for those who might be interested.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Currently Going Through A Phase

I'm currently going through a phase of all things indecisive, addictive and just plain bloody annoying. I'm upset but can't show it, stressed but finding it difficult to acknowledge it. I'm just slowly losing my marbles but i cant seem to conjugate the right words and sentences to express how i feel or what is even leading me to this state of mental retardation. I'm pretty sure that some of the words that i've typed up to this point are either grammatically incorrect or non-existent but it doesn't matter because it is MY blog and i can write whatever the hell i want to. So i'm currently addicted to black tea but lets not even manage to talk about that shall we? Let's focus on the issues surrounding my hair as that's the reason i have all these pictures up in this post. I got a hair cut on friday last week but i think it would be actually easier to say that i had my hair butchered because it looks like something that someone did with their eyes closed and i'm pretty sure that i could have done a better job on my own. Anyways, the main reason for me cutting my hair in the first place was that it was breaking at a dramatic rate so i had to get rid of all the bad ends which i actually did. The annoying thing with african-american hair is that it always involves some serious investment in your time and effort for it to actually look decent. I had to get my hair braided because i couldn't bear the thought of walking around with butchered hair cut but after sitting down for 5 hours to get the braids in, i'm beginning to consider if getting braids done on my hair is actually worth the time. I've been considering for a while shaving the whole thing off like Amber Rose in the picture above and i have to say i'm not the only one feeling stressed by my hair because Solange Knowles was sported with shaved hair a couple of days ago.
The truth of the matter is that i would love to grow my hair out long so that i can style my hair like Dita's because i love love love how her hair always looks with all those curls in it. But for me to achieve a hairstyle like this without any extensions in would take me about 3 years to actually grow it out that long and i've got several options in which i can pursue it. The first option would be to shave it all off like Solange and Amber Rose and start again either by letting it grow into an afro of about 2 inches and getting braids in, just letting the fro go out and walking around with my ahir looking just like that or getting it chemically straightened as it grows out but not adding any extensions to it. The last option sounds the most enticing to me as that's a method i'm already used to as i currently get my hair chemically straightened every ten weeks. I'm not one to walk around with an afro because i feel like it draws too much attention to me and being a shy person, i don't like attracting too much attention to myself.

This is one of the rare occasions when we actually get to see Beyonce's real hair and although this picture is quite old, this is what my hair would look like if i let it grow out pretty long without getting it chemically straightened. Rumour has it that she decided to stop chemically straightening her hair so that she could have it bleached to a very light shade. She grew hers out by having braids and extensions put in for a while so that she could transition from chemically straightened hair to her natural texture.

But before i can get to Beyonce's length, i would have to go through this length above which i think looks pretty cute no? This is after the Amber Rose and Solange stage.

The beauty of having my hair without chemically straightening it is the fact that i have more styling options because i could either wear it in its natural curls like Jordin Sparks, or more curls like Dita or even have it bone straight just by running GHD's through it although that is quite a lengthy process. The main reason i'm trying to make decisions now is because summer would soon be here and it is the ideal time to transition my hair to its natural state before chopping everything off. For those who are unaware, the Australian summer starts in December eventhough it is actually quite hot a few months before that. So what do you guys think?


Progress

Just to show you how smart and cool i am, i forgot to mention yesterday that i already weighed myself for this week. You can remember that last week i posted my starting weight of 87.3kg. So after all my drama as to whether alcohol was going to influence my weightloss and all, i went on a exercise binge of 2 hours which led to me being massively exhausted for a while. I actually haven't worked out since Saturday so i'm going to try and squeeze one in today. My starting weight for this week is 87.3kg meaning i didn't gain or lose anything so i'm happy. I must admit though that i'm slowly beginning to lose all motivation to actually workout or even try any harder to lose weight. So if you have any super ideas on how i can keep the motivation going, please feel free to comment.

Don't you just love the idea of the celebrity scale? I'm going to try and find one to purchase, absolutely hilarious.

MAC Colour Craft

MAC Australia has come out with a new collection aptly named Colour Craft. With the whole economy living a life of its own and days becoming more emotionally gloomy for people around the world, there's enough colour in this collection to brighten the day for those cosmetic users. And if you're looking for an excuse to splurge on this collection, i have one for you: spending helps the economy because the only way we're going to get out of a recession is if there's a flow of income from households into the economy and back again. I'm pretty sure my economics teachers would be proud of me because this is the second time today i'm relating economics to a consumer good.
Anyway, this collection consists of 6 mineralize eye shadows (quad), 6 marbelized lipglasses, 6 lipsticks, 3 mineralize skinfinish (trio) which can be used either as a highlighter or a cheek blush and 6 mineralize blushes. From the colour swatches that i can see online, i feel like much thought hasn't been given to this collection and maybe it was a bit hurried? I'm not excited about it and i don't for one minute feel like there was anything new on their part. The blushes seem like colours from one of their previous collections while the mineralize skinfinish and the eye shadows feel like deja vu to me. But the most uninspiring one for me are the marbelized lipglasses; my interpretation of the descriptions they've given on their site means that there's 3 different shades of the same colour in each lipglass. To me, this feels like they're trying to remix what Estee Lauder already did for their Chocolate Decadence collection where they have 2 different lipglosses with 3 complementary shades in them. I have to say i expected better from MAC and they've been slowly disappointing me. If this was a Bobbi Brown collection, then i'd be impressed but MAC used to go all out and blow my imagination but they're going through a phase right now i think. I can't see myself shelling out any amount for this collection.

Source

Monday, July 27, 2009

Chanelling Chanel On A Budget

If you've always loved Chanel's iconic tweed bags and boucle jackets, here's your chance to own something similar on a very friendly budget. These pictures are from ASOS and they've recreated these two ensembles that are very similar to Chanel at an affordable price so now you can get the look without breaking the bank. The Boucle Double Chain handbag from ASOS is £25 while the Helen Berman Boxy Contrast Tweed Jacket is £95.


Saturday, July 25, 2009

Astrology

Once in a while i love to read all things related to astrology as they tend to amuse and intruige me at the same time. Today happens to be one of those days and i spent some time browsing the web for articles that relate to Taurus as that's my astrological sign. I found these two articles online that are 99% accurate about me that it's so scary. So for those who feel like they might not understand me sometimes or would just like a brief explanation of moi, here are the links to both articles, it doesn't get any better than this. Enjoy!
Source: Photo

Friday, July 24, 2009

Plus Size Beauty

I've been feeling a bit shit lately and i've been looking for various ways to motivate and distract myself. One of the things i did was to mess up my room so i'd have an excuse to clean it up, stupid i know but it tends to work. I also called my mum so i could hear a familiar voice and get some cheering up. Living in a student residence does come with its fair share of positives and negatives. The positive being that you get to meet lots of people and make new friends. Since i've been here, there's been 3 negatives for me: noise, booze and image issues.
I think i'm slowly getting used to the noise and i'm currently shopping around for some good ear plugs that can block out the noise without irritating my ears and preventing me from hearing my alarm clock ring if i put my phone right underneath my pillow. I've noticed that majority of the students here have a problem socialising with others if alcohol is not involved. I've been invited to go out several times now and i've noticed that the conversation always ends with 'we're going to drink and get wasted'. Is that the only way people seem to want to have fun and get to know others? As i type this, i had to turn down an invitation to go pre-drinking before everyone went down to the pub. Although i'm from a religious family, i'm not strictly religious as you might have noticed from some of the things i discuss but i have a problem with people abusing liquor as a way to socialise.
I've noticed that in the 3 weeks that i've been here, i'm slowly beginning to have body complex issues eventhough i know i'm working my butt off to lose weight and stay healthy. All i need to do is to walk out of my deck/block to start having these feelings streaming through my head. Is it just me or are guys programmed to only flock to thin girls? I've been trying to avoid this thought for a while but it always comes back popping to my head. I had a chance conversation with a guy yesterday whom is probably the most shallow bloke i'm come across in a long time. He told me that the whole guy/girl hanging out thing in this residence boils down to three or four things: alcohol, skinny, loud and easy. I was completely lost for words as to what to say in reply to that. I'm going to assume that he's one of the minority that falls into this retarded category. But from looking around today in the courtyard and the dining room, what he said was somewhat true. The majority of the guys seemed to flock to the skinny girls and they all happen to be in the 'drinking buddy group' that go out every evening. There were about 5 girls in the entire possy that weren't skinny and that's because they tend to go out drinking often. In the 3 weeks that i've lived here, i've noticed that the ones that don't fall into this category are the geeks, strictly religious ones and those that are struggling with their english language skills.
So i find myself looking for ways to stop me having a complex because i've realised that most of the guys who live in this accommodation are pretty imature and still have a bit of growing up to do. Certainly not relationship material as i don't see why i want to be in a relationship with someone who finds it okay to talk about how his puke was green this morning over the dinner table. Here are two articles i came across that might help.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

How Bad Is Wine For Weightloss?

As i type this post, i've already had two glasses of white wine over dinner and i've just snuck out of the dining hall because everyone is trying to convince me to go partying tonight. You see, tonight is actually Gala night at the residence and everyone is dressed to impress. I even managed to hold a conversation with a geeky guy that i think is charming without losing my cool. I'm pretty good at holding my alcohol and i always know when to stop drinking hence i've never actually been tipsy as far as i'm aware; and i definately have never been drunk as it's not my style. I personally don't believe in abusing alcohol and 99.9% of the time, the only thing i drink is wine as other things just taste like acid to me.
But the issue on my mind today is how consuming alcohol affects your weightloss regime. I know that when weightloss is a long term goal and you're taking things slowly, the idea is everything in moderation. I personally rarely consume any sort of alcohol; the few occasions you'd find me drinking is if i'm really really upset about something or if it is accompanying a meal. The second point is the issue of today's discussion. Usually alcohol isn't served accompanying a meal in our residence but since tonight is a special night, we were given the option of red wine, white wine, beer and light beer. So folks, do you think my alcohol consumption is going to sabotage my weightloss programme for this week? I'm definately going to do a 2 hour workout so i can counteract the effects of the alcohol tomorrow.
On another note, the managers of the residence came to speak to me during the gala today for two special reasons. For one, i happen to be the only african amongst 200 students currently in the residence and i happen not to have an african accent so they wanted to confirm if i'm actually african or american. So i guess you could say i was a celebrity for 5 minutes huh? Cause the minute i mention where i'm from, they're all like really? You really don't sound african. Then i have to go on a lovely history of my life explaining how i have the accent i do which makes me a bonafide international student.
At the moment, there's a local jazz band playing in the dining hall so i've got my window open so i can enjoy the melodies of their instrument without being hassled by people trying to convince me to go partying tonight.
Photo

Monday, July 20, 2009

The New Idea

So, the internet has started working again at full speed after what seemed like decades. I wasn't able to do much exercise last week because i somehow managed to sprain my right shoulder and neck making any movement filled with tremendous pain. I'm sure i would have healed faster if i'd gone and gotten a massage or done some yoga or something. Instead i stuck with using a hot water bottle to cater for my neck and try to do some pilates. By try i mean doing 2 sessions of Winsor Pilates' beginner workout. Whilst doing it, i must admit that time flew by but i also realised that a good neck and back make a whole lot of difference to pilates moves.
So this week i'm going to try and take things nice and slow as i'm still healing and i'm beginning to feel the left side of my neck start to tighten. I'm going to assume that these unnecessary sprains could be related to my pillow, mattress or both. My aim for this week is to workout on 5 days but i have no plans on pre-selecting what days i'm going to workout.

My starting weight for this week is 87.3kg

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Celeb Look For Less: Heidi Klum

Now's your chance to snap a replica of Heidi Klum's dress pictured above for £45. ASOS has added to their burgeoning collection of celebrity inspired clothes a PU Bustier Dress that looks exactly like the one Heidi's wearing. If you're not a fan of dresses but still interested in sporting a similar look, there's also a Leather Look Bustier that can easily be worn with jeans, blazer and strappy stilettos for a night out in town. The bustier would set you back a mere £32. ASOS does international shipping but be sure to take into consideration the difference in dress sizes. Happy shopping!

Source: ASOS, Just Jared

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Weigh-in Day!!!

First off let me start by apologising for not posting anything in a while. Somebody has run up the internet quota so now it works at the speed of a turtle and a millipede combined together. Yesterday was the 30th of June, and if you remember that was my landmark for the first stage of my weightloss goal and 'The Hall of Shame' game. I actually treated myself to a bottle of Pepsi Max yesterday; i haven't had soda in so long i was worried that my brain was going to explode from all the zing but i was alrightie. I'm also not suffering any withrawal symptoms from my usual daily dose of coffee.
Right now, i feel like the girl in the picture above. She was a size 14 contestant for one of the ANTM series. I'm sure you're wondering why i feel like her; well that's because I AM OFFICIALLY A SIZE 14!!!!! Yeeeeeeeha!!!! I wish Bruce Willis was here to congratulate me and give me a gigantic hug and say 'Yippie ya yay mo-fo'. But oh well, i'll result to watching Die Hard 3 and 4 to get the feelings. You'd remember that i weighed myself at the start almost 6 weeks ago.
Well, i weighed myself again this morning and i weigh 87.1kg. That means i've lost exactly 2.1kg which is equivalent to 4.6 pounds. It's not as much as i expected to lose but i'm happy that i lost something and that i'm actually down one dress size. I'm going to take a break for the rest of this week because i have to start packing as i need to move out on Sunday. But from Monday next week, i'm going to start weighing myself weekly and i'll put it up here for you guys.