My exercise regime

I've always had abit of a funny relationship with food and exercise. I've always been on the 'larger' side and never really had a problem with it, I think that as long as your happy then what's the problem? But when I was 15/16 I lost loads of weight and was literally a stick, well a size 10, but with one thing and another I put it all back on. And more. I was the heaviest I had ever been.

When I was at school, admittedly it was almost at leaving age, I got into running so thought that a treadmill would be the issue to my problems. So 3 years ago I took the plunge and bought one and I got a free cross trainer. But it turns out in the 4 years since leaving school you can get that unfit running for more than a minute is no longer possible. I did use to power walk but that was mind numbingly boring. The BF used it quite abit though and as for the cross trainer, they are the devil in disguise. It did make a great clothes stand though!

Then 18 months ago I had an appointment with the nurse at my doctors and she told me about this weight loss clinic that had just started up and she was trying to persuade me to join. My BMI was 1.5 over the minimum you had to be to join but there was no way I was joining up. It was nice to think I'd probably be the thinnest person there!

When I moved house last February I had no where to put my exercise equipment so it got shoved in the garage and in the end I sold my treadmill and bought an exercise bike (I should have got one instead of the cross trainer!) I bought this Davina one from Argos:

I LOVE it! It's so easy to use and I put it together all by myself! I'd definitely recommend it.

I'm also going to be a bridesmaid in April and when I went to get measured for my dress with the other bridesmaid it was quite depressing as she is a dancer teacher and is literally a waif! Since then I had some personal problems and lost weight through not eating (DON'T DO THIS IT'S UNHEALTHY AND DANGEROUS). Then 4 months ago I went for my first fitting of my dress and it was mahoosive! Literally it was huge! Everyone kept saying "Oh my god, you've lot so much weight!" This felt really good so I'm now determined to keep it up, but to do it in a healthy way. I have my proper fitting in March so I'm on a countdown for then.

Also in March is the hen weekend which is at Centre Parcs and swim wear will have to be worn. I haven't worn this since I was 16 but have bought a tankini top and a pair of shorts which has a skirt over the top to try to cover my huge legs.

In preparation I have started cycling again (I stopped over christmas as I didn't have time) and even started using my exercise DVD which I bought 5 years ago! So far I have done 3 sections of this, not all at the same time as I don't wish to give myself a coronary! The fact I have to shift my very heavy coffee table out of the way to do it put's me off! I suppose that burns calories too....hmmm....I also have downloaded a few video podcasts for yoga for beginners. As of yet I haven't tried these.

I'll keep you all updated on how I'm doing on my sunday weekly week that was posts starting tomorrow!

Have you kick started the new year with an exercise regime? Do you have any tips or any types of exercise which you'd recommend?

Haul - Sale shopping: Boots and ASOS

I know I'm late posting this but this is just a quick one to show what I picked up in the post-christmas sales. 

ASOS

Apologies for the useless photo, I tried and tried to get a decent photo but it just wasn't happening. These are mini crimpers anyway. I had been umming and ahhing about whether to buy the Babyliss Root Boost but at £30 I didn't think I could justify buying it when I probably would only use it once in a blue moon. Then just before christmas I looked on ASOS and came across these mini crimpers which were only £7! Bargain or what?!

I've only had a quick play with these but I'm really impressed. They do get really hot and crimp really well, they definitely gave me more volume. I can't wait to try these out properly.

Boots

Baxter the dog. This was £15, I think, reduced from £30. I got this for Chris's niece for her birthday which is in March. I kind of don't want to give him away because he's too cute!

Next are presents for his other nieces who's birthday is in February. I think these were half price at £12.

I also got some things for my grandma for her birthday in April, with the exception of the Hello Kitty perfume, I forgot to include it in the previous photo but this was £7.50. So for my grandma I got some things from the Garden Collection. I bought her a couple of things from this collection in 2009 and she loved them so I know she'll like these. I got magnolia drawer liners, handwash and hand lotion and floral room sprays and votive candles. These were £11 all together.

And for me....I got a Korres mini sampler set. I got vanilla plum scent and you get a body wash, body lotion and a lip butter. This was around £6.50.


Did you find some bargains in the sales?

Haul - Boots and Savers

Ok, ok, I know that I said I wasn't going to buy anymore toiletries until I'd used up my stash but these ones are ok as the majority of them were free! 

Boots

These were free because I got them with my points! All Organic Surge products at Boots are currently on 2 for £8 and considering most of them are over £8 now the VAT increase has been effected this is a real bargain. These were £8.16 each so I saved £8.32!

And last week I had to return something but I didn't have my receipt so had to have an exchange. I got Vaseline aloe vera gel and cocoa butter gel which were 2 for £5 (or £4.89 each). I like the idea that they are a gel so they will be lighter to apply in the summer when lotions and butters are sometimes too rich.

I also got Naked rose body wash (£3.99) and Naked starflower body wash (£4.07), Tresemme naturals mini shampoo and conditioner (£1.32 each) and a Bourjois little round pot eyeshadow in shade 13 (£5.99).

Savers

Fee at Makeup Savvy tweeted about finding these Naked products in Savers so the next day when I was in town I popped in to check them out. They were £1 each instead of around £3.99 and I got a bottle of white ginger body wash, a tube of cocoa butter body cream and a tube of rice shower scrub.


Have you tried any of these products? What did you think?

Clinique mascara swap at Debenhams

Until the 30th January (or until stocks last) at Clinique counters in Debenhams stores you can trade-in your current mascara for one of their deluxe mascaras absolutely free!

 (Image borrowed from Debenhams)

There's a choice of either a mini High Impact or a mini High Lengths mascara.

Have you already took advantage of this offer or are you planning on doing a trade-in?

Save vs Splurge - Concealer pens

Concealer pens. I think almost every brand of cosmetics have one and perhaps the most famous is YSL Touche Eclat but at £24.51 this is a little out of my price range. I haven't tried many of these as I prefer to use a cream concealer but a few months ago I thought I'd give two different ones a go.

I first bought Benefit's Lyin' Eyes concealer pen (on the right in the photo above) which is £16.85 for 1ml. Yes that's right you get a whole 1ml of product! This is probably why this lasted me about 2 weeks! So for a 100ml (which is what products are generally rounded up to for a ml for ml comparison) it would cost you a staggering £1685.00!

Most recently I bought Avon's Magix illuminator, on the left on the photo. This is cheaper at £10 for 1.7g. Can't do a ml for ml comparison as the maths to convert grams to millilitres is past me!

Top: Avon. Bottom: Benefit

I have to say that I loved the Benefit concealer. It had a thick consistency which covered well and it lasted all day but like mentioned above it didn't last long at all. In fact when no more came out I thought it had broke because it only felt like I'd been using it 2 minutes.

Avon's Magix illuminator has a thinner consistency, and more notably I chose 'light' which is way too light to use under my eyes. It didn't cover as well and needed reapplying during the day. Because I chose a shade which is too light I haven't used this much so I can't comment on how long it lasts in comparison.

Whilst researching this and being astonished at how little you get for your money of Benefit's concealer I was curious to see how YSL's would compare. Yes it's more expensive but you get 2.5ml! This is one and a half times more than Lyin' Eyes, so for 100ml this works out at £980.00! The only thing I can't compare is the quality as like I said at the beginning of this post I haven't used it.

This all got me thinking about price comparisons for other concealer pens so here is the price, size and 100ml comparison:

• No7 Instant Radiance - £13.50 - 2.5ml - £540.00 100ml
• Clinique Airbrush - £15.32 - 1.5ml - £1021.30 100ml
• Nip + Fab Eye Fix - £10.16 - 2ml - £500.80 100ml 
• Collection 2000 - £4.99 - 1ml - £499.00 100ml 
• Revlon Colorstay - £7.49 - 1ml - £749.00 100ml
• 17 Hide & Chic - £4.99 - 1.8ml - £277.20 100ml

• Benefit Lyin' Eyes - £16.85 - 1ml - £1688.50 100ml
• YSL Touche Eclat - £24.51 - 2.5ml - £980.00 100ml

So overall Benefit works out the most expensive and 17's Hide and Chic works out the cheapest and they are both 1ml products. I might buy the 17 product and do a comparison for a future post.

But back to my original products: Avon and Benefit. 

I've come to the conclusion that with concealer pens it doesn't really matter how much a product costs but more about how much you get for your money and then the quality of the product. Even though I prefer Benefit's Lyin' Eyes I wouldn't buy it again due to how expensive it works out but I also wouldn't buy Avon's Magix Illuminator again because of the thin consistency. 

Has anyone else used any of these? Which concealer pen do you recommend?

Product stockists:

No7 & 17 - Boots

Clinique - Debenhams, House of Fraser, Boots

Nip + Fab - Boots, ASOS, Harvey Nichols

Revlon & Collection 2000 - Boots, Superdrug

Benefit - Boots, Debenhams, House of Fraser, Benefit

YSL - Boots, Debenhams, House of Fraser

PTD - Challenges 31 and 32

I previously used my other blog for my design team (DT) posts but I'm going to change to using this blog as it has more followers. So my monthly crafting post is now scrapped and instead I'll be posting a new challenge every monday (hopefully!)

Challenge 31 - Make a card using circles.

First up is last weeks challenge. I never got round to adding this to my blog so I'm going to add it on here first.

Challenge 32 - Free for all.

Do anything you want!

To take part in this challenge design and make a card and submit it on the Pear Tree Designs blog challenge page before 4pm on sunday.


Good Luck!

100 followers!

Last night when I went to bed I had managed to get up to 99 followers on my blog and then when I woke this morning I had

100!!!

This is amazing! And I want to say thank you to everyone who is following me!

To celebrate I'm currently getting some lovely goodies together for my 100 follower giveaway so hopefully this will be up at the weekend....so keep reading.....!

(Image borrowed from weheartit)