For the sake of Auld Lang Syne

Well here we are on the cusp of a brand new year, mistakes made, lessons learned and hopefully a little wiser.

I have a few resolutions for the coming year but they all have a theme.....

~ To live more simply ~

To waste less - Time, money and things.

We as a household waste a lot of food, and this is costing us a lot of money.

I want to shop more at second hand stores and get back to finding something unique before buying new things.

I also waste a lot of time online, either Facebook or games on my phone. I plan to delete all the apps from my phone so that if I want to use them, I'll have to get my laptop out which will put me off! I also find Facebook in particular a very negative place and I don't really want to find myself feeling that way all the time. So out they go!

Plan more - Organising my time, planning nice things to do and organising the house so I spend less time looking for things and getting stressed.

I think this is something Aaron would benefit from too, never too young to start good habits. We have already planned a movie list which we will work our way through but also I want to plan a monthly trip to London to visit a museum or garden or similar.

Read more - As a child I would spend hours reading, and somewhere along the way I now hardly read at all, I think it would be good for my soul. I have a library card so I'll try to get books free there and free on my kindle before buying.

Craft more - Not only do I enjoy it, but it falls in the live simply category as well. Up cycling things I already own to make them new and fresh, seeing if I can make something before buying. Craft more with Aaron as he loves art.

Health and Exercise - Accept my body for what it is and concentrate my efforts on being healthy and strong, if I lose weight as a part of that then so be it, but weight loss won't be my only goal. Get rid of clothes I've been hanging onto " when I lose weight" it's just a reminder of failure.

To stress less - I'm hoping that by living a simpler life, there will be a little less stress but I'd love to find a way to relax be it meditation, yoga or tai chi or something similar.

To work - I've been on the brink of getting my business running fully for about three months now and it's finally time for me to set the wheels in motion. It will be a challenge but also enjoyable. Now that Aaron is settled at school, Marcus is settled and my mum is on the road to recovery I finally feel I can make it a priority.

I hope that having this all written here will keep me going as I try to break old habits and forge new ones.

I am truly thankful for 2012, there has been ups and downs, tears, laughter and love. May your New Years eve be wonderful and your 2013 be everything you want and more xx

Crazy Cat Lady

I've been fighting off this latest cold , can't believe it's the third time I've been sick this month , roll on spring!

Well there's nothing better to do when ill than snuggle up on the sofa in comfy clothes, watching t.v and surfing the internetz.

My furry babies have been keeping me company all day as my proper baby is staying with his dad for the weekend. I absolutely love my cats Otto and Clive, they seem more like dogs to me, they ask for attention, they seek out our company and they greet us when we get home.

I've had them from kittens , and I can't imagine my home without them.

New years eve tomorrow, I shall be back with a resolutions post tomorrow but for now I leave you with some pictures of the Stripey ones xx

And so this is Christmas

Well I hope you had a great Christmas or holiday however you celebrated it! It was a reasonably quiet one here, on Christmas eve I cooked a Swedish style Christmas dinner for my parents, Marcus, Aaron and Aaron's dad. My mum and Dad loved the Swedish food I made, meatballs, beet root salad , salmon, knäckerbröd , cheese.....was very yummy!

Then Christmas day I did a traditional English dinner of roast turkey, roast potatoes, pigs in blankets and veg all with tasty gravy! It was the first time I'd had Christmas dinner with my brother for about 10 years as well so it was nice to all be together.

On boxing day, Aaron went to spend time with his dad, and marcus and I did nothing but eat, sleep and watch movies! We played trivial pursuit as well, I'd gotten this in a charity shop before Christmas, they're £30 new but I paid just £1.50 :) we watched the film Van Helsing, it was ok, I give it 6/10 but it was easy viewing for a relaxing day!

I got some nice presents too, some money which I will put towards a pair of boots I have my eye on, I also got some lush shower gel in twilight, nail polish( Barry M) sweets and a new pair of jeans. I also got some very cute lip balms (cruelty free from Superdrug), an ice cream maker and Star Wars on Blu Ray.

All in all a great time. Unfortunately I now have a cold but it's ok, I'm sure it'll pass!

Happy Christmas to you all and here's to New Year! xx

Animal testing and China

If you're someone who is making an effort to go cruelty free with your products, you will be well aware that if a product is sold in China, it is subject to animal testing by law. From what I can make out through my own research, although not every product will be tested , particularly if the ingredient has been on sale in China for some time, companies must animal test their products if the law requires it.

This unfortunately provides a few milestones to get over in terms of finding out which products are cruelty free.

I recently discovered that Peta's no test list isn't always accurate and it is best to do your own research.

Nubar is a nail company that promotes itself to be vegan and cruelty free, but yet they have a distributor in China. Korres is owned by themselves in Europe but licensed through Johnson and Johnson in the U.S, Sleek makeup and MUA make up say they're cruelty free but their websites ship worldwide, does this mean they are subject to the animal testing laws enforced in the countries they ship too?

It's incredibly frustrating as a consumer, having to go on Internet heresay and forums, who is correct? And where do you draw the line?

So I've decided to make my own list of points that I will want companies to comply to before I buy:

• Must say cruelty free/BUAV approved/ on Petas list

• Must not be owned by a testing parent company (L'oreal and body shop for example)

• If they are on one of those lists above, research where their products are available and if they are sold in China or other countries where testing is required

• Try to move away from mass produced products and seek out alternatives from Etsy etc

It's annoying but I won't give up. I will post reviews and research as I find it xx

Happy Christmas

Hope you all have a lovely Christmas , I'm taking a little break over the next few days to spend time with my family :)

I'll be back soon! xx

MUA mega volume mascara

Just a quick review post today, I've decided to do the skin care posts after silly season as I'd like the time to do them properly and not just give you half arsed information!

Anyway I bought some new make up today from Sleek and MUA or Make Up Academy. More on the Sleek later , but I purchased an MUA mascara called Mega Volume.

It comes in a fat tube with a large plastic brush. I made the mistake of buying it in black/brown instead of my usual black boooo. Ok the good points.... Price, it was only £3. I love the brush and it separated beautifully. No fragrance and didn't irritate my eyes. Wasn't sticky or clumpy. Love the tube colour , and it's cruelty free.

Bad points......for a mascara called mega volume, it gave my lashes no volume at all :( I guess it would be good for those who like a more natural look but I love big, full , long lashes.

Le Sigh....I'll be sticking to my more expensive Gosh catchy eyes for the moment but I will try the other mascaras in the MUA range as they are so cheap.

You can find MUA make up at Superdrug or online at www.muastore.co.uk

Sorry for the rubbish quality pictures, it's very dark and gloomy here today, and raining a LOT!!! Hopefully you can get the idea xx

Skincare

Well, I was wondering what to post about today other than the usual holiday stuff and I'm going to do a series of posts on skincare.

Some will be about my favourites and reviews, and some will be answering questions about skin problems. I get asked quite a bit about various things as a beauty therapist and I think it'd be great revision for me to write about them!

So is there anything you'd like to know? I'm going to write about ageing, dry skin, acne , open pores so far as that's what I get asked about the most.

If you've any skincare issues you'd like me to cover then please leave a comment below and I'll do my best to answer them!

St Lucia Day

Hope all my friends and family are enjoying themselves today celebrating Saint Lucia! I'm going to be baking the traditional saffron buns later , my first attempt so fingers crossed!

OPI James Bond Collection

Today I finally got my hands on some of the OPI shades from the James Bond Collection.

Now I couldn't decide whether to purchase these initially as although OPI is cruelty free and on Petas don't test list, they are owned by Coty who do test.

With regards to my own personal products, I won't buy any product that isn't cruelty free or is made by a company that is owned by a company that tests, for example The Body Shop is leaping bunny approved but is owned by L'oreal.

With my work products, I have had to relax this slightly and aim for brands that are as cruelty free as possible. I email suppliers and try to get as cruelty free as I can. It's hard but I have to supply my business :(

Anyway, back to the goodies! So I got two colours , On Her Majesty's Secret Service which is a blue toned glitter and Live and Let Die which is a dark green with shimmer in. I also found the coveted The Man With The Golden Gun topcoat! It has pieces of 18 carat gold leaf suspended in it. It's divine and as I am a trade customer I got it for £14 instead of the £29.99 retail price.

Here I've put the top coat over Live and Let Die, but I think it would look great over a red or purple xx

Snow!

So this morning I woke up to a very excited little boy and this! Snow!

Hej, Bonjour and Hello

Well I've made a few little changes here on vintage hopes and retro dreams, some new pictures, labels so you can find posts easier and a share it button so you can share to Facebook and Twitter :)

When I was looking at the stats of my blog I was surprised to see where a lot of my readers come from, England and Sweden I expected but there was a lot of traffic from America , France and even China!

Don't be shy, come and say hello and leave me a comment, you can also follow my blog to keep up to date with my ramblings!!! I was thinking of putting a translate button here too to make it easier for my non English speaking readers, I'll investigate that tonight

Hope you're having a good start to the week! xx