Sunday 18 January 2015

The wedding series, Episode 1 | Ayesha

Hi all!

I thought it might interest some of you on the story of my marriage. I am thinking of doing a series of posts on people I have met before meeting the person I am married to now. Some of the people I met, at the time, really hurt my feelings and made me feel quite bitter about the thought of marriage. I would have quite happily lived my entire life as a spinster had I not met Mr K. When I look back on them now I can see the funny side, though, and I wanted to share them with you. All of these people are friends or contacts of people we know well, and we met like suitors. I was so against meeting people this way, but when I think about it, it doesn't really matter how you meet a person because however you meet the person you click with, everything just falls into place. 

I hope you find them entertaining to read. Everything is as it happened, and for anonymity reasons I will give them nicknames. I hope they read this and learn from their mistakes. Especially their mothers. :0 

So, I will start off episode 1 right here.

The one who was an Athletic Doctor (AD)

AD was, and still probably is, a doctor of Cambridge graduation. He made it very clear that he was from Cambridge, and that all his patients loved him. Did I mention he studied from Cambridge and his patients loved him? No, I don't think I did, so I will repeat it for you many times in the 2 hours that we are together.

What are his interests? Well he loves to work out, and play sports. His wife should be equally as active and fit. Fair enough. I didn't make the cut, obviously. His mother said I wasn't athletic enough for him. He also bakes his own bread and doesn't drink tea and coffee as the chemicals in all those 3 things are detrimental to the body and boy did he make it clear when I said I loved to drink tea. 

Fast forward a few months and we receive a phone call from AD's mother saying she had heard about me and would like to meet me. My mother recognised her voice and carried on talking, but AD's mum was completely oblivious. Her requirements for her son? Or rather, her son's requirements: the girl should be athletic. When she recognised my mother's voice, she promptly said her goodbyes and hung up the phone.

Stay tuned for the next episode!

Beauty Blogger Tag | Zahra

We are on a ROLL

We were tagged by the ever so wonderful Beauty with Hajrah to do the beauty blogger tag

Sooo... instead of both of us, I'll just do it then :)

1. Is your hair naturally curly or straight?
Curly

2.What is your natural hair colour?
Black/very dark brown, although I do get medium brown streaky things in the summer

3. Do you dye it yourself or go to a salon?
I dye it myself

4. How often do you wash your hair?
About twice a week; dry shampoo is my saviour

5. Do you wear the same style every day or change it?
Change it

6. Do you do your own mani/pedi or go to a salon?
It's a DIY from me

7. How often to you change your nail polish?
Not very often considering I don't wear it a lot

8. Do you polish your toes in the winter, too or just in the summer?
Never done my toes- doesn't look right

9. How long does it take to put on your makeup?
10-15 minutes

10. What do you do first? Face or eyes?
Face

11. Do you "collect" makeup or just buy what you need when you need it?
I'm a collector

12. How often do you wear false eyelashes?
Never worn them but I'd like to wear them to the many weddings I'm going to this year

13. Do you do a full face of makeup every day?
Pretty much

14. Do you wear makeup when you are home alone (or with family)?
No

15. Will you leave the house without makeup?
Not really

16. How many high end products do you have?
35....

17. How often do you wash your makeup brushes?
Umm.....Well...I don't think this is REALLY important for me to answer..

18. Do you plan your OOTD every night or decide when you are getting dressed?
Decide when I'm getting dressed

19. How often do you change your handbag?
I've been using the same bag for like 7 months so...

20. What time do you get up & go to sleep?
School: 12am
           7am
Weekend/holiday: 2am
                               11am

21. How often & when do you workout?
Every night pretty much (apart from weekends), at about 8/8:30

22. Left-handed or Right-handed?
Righty

23. How tall are you?
5ft5 (I think)

24. Do you speak a foreign language?
French, German, Spanish, Urdu (I'm not actually fluent in any of them though)

25. How many pets do you have?
Zero, wish I ad a cat though :'(

26. How often are you on Blogger?
Fairly often

27. Do you read the comments posted on blogs?
Yes, yes I do

28. Do you keep a list of products to try as you see other posts?
I try to, then I fail miserably and buy something completely different

29. How did you come up with your blog name?
My name begins with a 'Z' and my sister's nickname used to be 'Ariel' so 'Zariel' was formed

30. What kind of camera do you use for photographs?
An iPhone 5s (previously used a 4s)

31. How often do you clean your house? (Daily, weekly, other)
I kind of help my mum out on the few occasions  I guess

32. What is your favourite colour?
Black, orange and gold

33. What is your favorite beauty/fashion magazine?
Any really- especially Vogue+Instyle

34. Do you swear?
Sometimes

35. What are you doing with the rest of your day?
Probably watching YouTube videos

There's a lot of people that I'd like to tag, so instead I'm going to be lazy and say that if you're reading this and you want to do it, feel free

Farewell people

Thursday 15 January 2015

The Liebster Awards | Zahra

Hey
This is pretty exciting...

We (being my sister and I...I'm not Gollum...yet) were nominated by the lovely Perks Of Being Nazia for the Liebster Awards, so thank you! (no sarcasm...promise)

I nominate:
^^^
(who also tagged us both -my sister and I- to do the beauty blogger tag, so thank you!)

Onto the questions!

1. Why did you start blogging?
-I really liked reading and I've always kind of wanted to write....plus I just wanted to show my amazing haul in my first post.

2. If you had to only use one makeup product for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?
-Collection Lasting Perfection concealer- it covers pretty much EVERYTHING.

3.Who are your favourite youtubers?
-This could take a while...The British crew (Zoella, Tanya Burr, ThatcerJoe, Niomi Smart, Marcus Butler etc etc) umm.. Michelle Phan, Tyler Oakley, Connor Franta, Troye Sivan.

4. What was the last song you listened to?
-Drake-'Pound Cake'

5. Is your hair naturally curly or straight?
-Curly

6. Favourite makeup brand?
-Narrowed down to 3:
MAC
Topshop (does that even count?)
Soap and Glory

7. What are you wearing now?
-A green t-shirt and leopard print pajama bottoms

8. When was the last time you went shopping?
-About a week ago *don't sing it* *do not sing it* *sings it*

9. What was the last present you received?
-Christmas presents from my friends (I can't remember what it was-it was mid-December)

10. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
-Graduated from uni with a degree I like and either getting a job in London or New York or LA in a flat with a couple of cats or travelling around the world with a few friends.

11. Who is your fashioned inspired by?
-Anyone, literally anyone; people on the streets, people on TV, people on YouTube...anyone


My questions:
1. Who are your favourte youtubers?
2. Waffles or pancakes?
3. What is your holy grail makeup item?
4. If you could move to anywhere in the world, where would it be?
5. What was your life ambition as a kid?
6. Favourite Disney film?
7. Trainers or boots?
8. Do you have any pets, if so, what are they?
9. What nail colour are you wearing right now?
10. Top 3 makeup brands?
11. Dream house would be..?


The Rules:
1. Link the person you were nominated by 
2. Answer the questions the nominator asked
3. Nominate 11 other bloggers with less than 200 followers
4. Create 11 questions the nominees can answer
5. Notify nominees-social media/blogs

Thank you :)

Wednesday 14 January 2015

'FITTING' Into the New Year | Zahra

New Year, New Me
*looks up to first line*
*sighs*
I'm not going to lie, I HATE that phrase-'new year, new me'- I don't think it really means anything; you should be a 'new you' at any time of the year, regardless of what everyone else says, just do it sooner rather than later which is something I wished I did.

Ok, rant over.

This year (so far anyway) I've decided to start on one of my NY's resolutions-losing weight.
For me, my weight's been a big issue, I never really thought anything of it for years but over the past year or so, being a teenager and all, I naturally became very self-conscious and not very confident. Also, health problems relating to weight in my family is pretty common so I figured it would be better to get it down now and be happy or be 30 and crying into a tub of Ben & Jerry's 'Cookie Dough'  ice-cream with 3 screaming kids around me.

So to start off I used my bed cover thing (that you put over your duvet to make it look prettier) as an exercise mat, an old t-shirt and some floral leggings. I then ventured into Primark and picked up a mat (£2 I'll have you know!), some running shorts and a running shirt/ top thing.

I've been watching Blogilates (aka, youtube's most amazing fitness person ever!)
But seriously, if she was in the Ancient Greek period, she'd probably be a Goddess! (here's my GCSE Classics coming through)


This has got to be my favourite video of her's, it's an all body workout, and let me tell you that it is PAINFUL.

I've already noticed a bit of a weight drop considering I haven't really changed my diet either, just drinking a bit more water and we're only 2 weeks into the year.

I'm hoping that I'll actually be able to maintain my everyday workout for the rest of the year, as it's already become a bit of a habit!

Sunday 11 January 2015

Girl Online and fitness update | Ayesha

Hi all!

My potatoes are taking too long to cook, so I thought I would jump on here to use up some of the time. It's been a while again!

First of all, happy new year. Hope everybody had a great break and are raring to go. 

I downloaded Girl Online, a story by Zoe Sugg (Zoella) as an audiobook and I have been listening to it on my way to work. It's all a bit too cupcakes and sugar for me (says the girl who loved the Shopaholic series), but I still find it a guilty pleasure to listen to. There is a section on new years resolutions and how the main character achieves them all. Now, I am not one for NYR as 1. I find them hard to stick at, and 2. I believe that if you want to do something, you should do it there and then without delay. I started motivating myself to lose weight before the Christmas holidays, much to the amusement of my parents (well, mainly my dad) who would make comments about how I'm "not allowed to have another teaspoon of the cream pudding", ha ha very funny. In all honesty it has been incredibly difficult. I did, however, exercise every other day on the treadmill and I feel better for doing so. When I measured my waist yesterday, I saw that I had lost a whole inch since November!! That has really boosted my confidence and I only have 2 inches to go until I'm happy. My risk of getting diabetes will always be there as it runs in my family, but I'm doing everything I can to prevent it.

This weekend, I've been feeling quite cranky much to the bemusement of my husband. I did apologise to him. We woke up relatively early for a Sunday (8am!) and I suggested we went out for a walk as it was looking sunny outside. There is a park opposite where we live which includes a woodland area, children's play park, a local nature reserve and a canal. It was beautiful and I felt so much better for it. We walked for about an hour and a half. However, I should have known this, but I didn't eat any food before we left or bring a snack to eat while we were walking so that did not automatically fix the crankiness. Coffee and some cereal when I came back did the trick. 

Here are some pictures of the park:






What do you like to do to let off steam?

Wednesday 7 January 2015

My 2014 Favouties | Zahra



Wearing
Cardigan- Urban Outfitters (old)
T-shirt- ASOS
Scarf- I have no idea-sorry
Lips- Sleek 'Birthday Suit' lip cream (really drying)

Things mentioned...
-Collection 'Lasting Perfection' (shade cool medium 2) 
-Soap and Glory 'Peach Party' blush
-Max Factor 'Masterpiece Max' mascara
-Mac eyeshadows- 'Woodwinked'+'Satin Taupe'
-Topshop lippes (all of them)
-Real Techniques 'Expert Face Brush'
-L'Oreal Superliner
-Mac 'Shanghai Spice' lipstick
-Rimmel 'Wake Me Up' foundation (shade 200-soft beige)
-Mac 'Studio Finish' concealer (shade NW25)
-Soap and Glory 
-Tony and Guy sea salt spray
-Sophie Kinsella
-Topshop boots



Sunday 4 January 2015

Am I Just Shy or is it....Social Anxiety? | Zahra

Some links:

Being shy is a natural thing, I mean there's shy to be polite or just out of nerves, but then there's the shy that takes over you.

Naturally I'm a very shy person. 
At school, I'm the person with the report (that you get after every term) that always has something on the lines of 'Zahra's a very good student but is very shy and doesn't participate a lot during lessons.' I guess I could actually take that as criticism because they are sort of criticising my personality- I can't help that I've just grown up to be shy. 

For me (school wise) English and the lessons where the teacher just picks on anyone to answer a question are the worst. The question picking because I think I'm scared of people judging me for how I phrase it or if I get the answer wrong. English is probably worse- I like the subject itself, but the bits where you actually have to participate, yeah I don't like those.
Recently, I had to do a presentation on hobbies/interests etc... and I was so, so nervous to the pint that I was tempted to take a couple of days off school just so I didn't have to do it. It's kind of the same concept when it comes to reading out loud; when I know it's my turn soon I'm crapping myself (not literally!) and I'm constantly thinking about stuttering (which I often do) and speaking SUPER quietly (again, oftenly done-'oftenly' isn't a word is it?)


Sometimes it gets to the point if, I'm in public, where I have to tell myself that I'm probably never going to see these people again and just walk if someone is just near me. Ordering things at a restaurant of cafe (basically just Starbucks or Costa tbh) is kind of a big deal too- I have to mentally prepare answers for things that are basically a yes/no answer eg. 
staff: 'do you want cream on that?' 
me: *OMG umm, what if I seem rude, what if they don't have any left and they ask me for something else* 
'uhh, yeah.. please'
*no that was too forced, just smile and pretend nothing happened*

I don't think I do suffer from social anxiety, or maybe just very mildly, but I do know that I am a very shy person around a lot of people and you know, I can't help that that's just how I've grown up, but I do hope that it doesn't affect my life anymore than it already does.
I do wish that I could do things confidently and talk openly with people, and have conversations with random people.
If you suffer from social anxiety, or like me, you're very shy, what do you do to try and combat it (if you can)?
And if you can't, maybe try making one of your resolutions to not give a *'fish'* what people think and to talk without feeling like you're about to die.

To be honest I only like the sky of this picture :') - From Google


On a happier note, I will leave you with this picture of a cat

Siberian Forest Cat- Creds to Google
When I move into my own house, I'm getting this cat, end of.







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