New Blog...

Hi all...
I have moved over to a new blog, still on blogger. Please go on over to hopefulaspirations.blogspot.com
Thanks, Kimberley xx

Bits & Pieces

This week I have been...

- trying my hardest to avoid chocolate, with terrible results.

- laughing at The Man Repeller.

Just because you won't be at shows doesn't mean you shouldn't wear the furry wedge-booties, labial sweater and virtually anything Opening Ceremony that you've been coveting but seem to have nowhere to wear. To quote the ever eloquent and highly respected Hilary Duff, "Why not? Take a crazy chance. Why not? Do a crazy dance." 
...This way, when your man friend says "What the fuck," you can refute: "It's fashion week, jackass."

- wearing Becca Beach Tint (I now have three copies of March Madison).

- watching Keeping Up With The Kardashians - I know, I know.

- on the hunt for work clothes (so frustrating) and the perfect cape (inspired by Rachel Bilson).

- trying to teach Luca how to sit

- listening to Paramore

 - wearing black eyeliner, as I 'fixed' my Stila Smudge Pot - it now looks like this:

and reading Steig Larsson's Millennium trilogy - so good!

Working towards my goals

I want to make a (short) checklist of things to do each day. I usually make a massive list of things to do which usually sits there for weeks and nothing ever gets done.

This is an example of some lists I wrote 2-3 weeks ago:

See?

This week, I want to focus on having a list of just a few items, that are actually achieveable each day.

Todays list is:

This list has more small items on it but as it's already 1:30 and I have work at 4, it will challenge me to complete these items. Now that I can cross off the first item, I am now off to the gym!

February

February will be the last of my holidays, and I fear that sooner than expected I will be overrun with uni work. So this month I want to try to get into a simple, fulfilling routine that I can (hopefully) adjust and continue with into semester. There are a few key things that I want to include:

Reading. I love reading, however I frequently overlooked it for lazing in front of the telly or going online until I am too tired to absorb any words. I want to try to read for AT LEAST 30mins a day (hopefully stretch this to an hour), probably in the evenings. I also want to read as many books as possible in the month of February (I'm aiming for 10). My bookshelf is full of books to read so I am going to make a big effort to get through these.

Exercising. My gym routine has been going well the past month, but I fear that when I start uni this will fall to the wayside. It looks like I won't have many contact hours this semester, excluding my thesis so I want to try and get into the routine of going to the gym first thing in the morning. I find that if I plan to go in the afternoon I usually can't be bothered by the time it gets to 4pm. Hopefully if I can do this for the month of February I can maintain this into semester. I also wish to take the dogs for a walk every evening, in addition to my gym plan.

Eating 5 meals a day. I am currently on a low GI diet, which requires 5 meals a day (including two snacks, and breakfast is essential). I am going to plan my meals out at the beginning of the week, and make sure that there are always healthy options available for me to have instead of going off my plan. This will be challenging when I am at university (as the food choices there are less than satisfactory) but hopefully I can get into the habit of bringing my lunch, and also snacks so I am not tempted to raid the vending machines for Red Bull and chocolate bars.

Finally, I want to focus on de-cluttering and general organisation. For about the past two weeks, by bedroom floor has been overrun with clothes (mostly clean) and anything else I can't be bothered to put away. I find that I avoid my bedroom for this reason, and it never gets tidied. I want to focus on maintaining a tidy bedroom for this month, and with that, a clean bathroom and study.

P.S. As ashamed as I am to admit this, writing this post made me realise that I cannot spell February. Thank god for spell check...

Beauty Inspiration: Winged Eyeliner

One of the many, many things I love about Nicole Richie is that she always rocks a great winged eyeliner. I just saw this picture of Nicole on the cover of New Zeland's Remix magazine and I will definitely be emulating this look the next time I'm going out (minus the added eyeliner on top, of course). 

No-buy

It has recently come to my attention that a serious no-buy is in order. I really want to start to take better control of my money, it always seems to disappear so fast. It is also apparent to me that I am accumulating so much stuff, there is just no room for it, nor do I have much use for it.
So, I am going to try and go the entire month of February spending no money on the following items:

Clothes. This is one place where I really need to curb my spending. I hope that going a month without buying any clothes (this also includes shoes, accessories and jewellery) will inspire me to use what I have more. I also wish to avoid impulse purchases and to really think about what I need instead of my usual "oh that's so cute, I NEED to have that," (when in reality, the last thing I need is MORE clothes).

Makeup. Again, I have much too much makeup that I don't use or even like. I cleaned out my bathroom cupboard and now have a box of things that I will probably get rid of. I also have many doubles of products that I need to use up.

Magazines. At the moment I have subscriptions to STYD, Madison and Harper's. I used to have subscriptions to Cosmo and Cleo as well. When I used to go to the gym (more than a year ago) I used to save my magazines, only to read at the gym. When I stopped going to the gym, I stopped reading my magazines. My pile of unread magazines is completely shameful. I will continue my subscriptions, but I am not to buy any more magazines.

I can't think of any other major categories where I spend a lot of money, but I am really trying to spend as little as I can all month. Hopefully doing this for a month (at least) will help me to bulk up my savings and quit living pay to pay.

Beauty Inspiration: Chanel Black Pearl

Having forgotten how amazing Chanel's Black Pearl nail polish is, I was reminded when I saw these photos on because i'm addicted. I immediately painted mine and fell in love all over again.