Monthly Review - April

Make Up

I recently blogged about how much I'm loving pastel blue nails right now and it hasn't changed!

Read

Paper Aeroplanes by Dawn O'Porter. As someone that went to an all girls school I could really relate to the school environment and saw aspects of my own personal life in the friendships that main characters Renee and Flo had. Well written, funny and emotional this is one you need to add to your reading list ASAP.

Listened to

Back at the gym and nothing keeps me going like Avicii - as loud as possible - obviously!

Watched

My love of American box sets continues this time with Suits via Netflix. Let's be honest every girl needs a Harvey Specter moment occasionally. 

Blog post

Instagram continues to be my favourite social media app and so I loved this post from Emily at Cupcakes & Cashmere detailing how she uses the app and other photo editing apps to make the most of her mobile phone pictures.

YouTube

It didn't take long for me to stumble across Estee aka Essie Button in the beauty blogger / YouTube world and I friggin love her videos. She is so friendly and natural on camera whether delivering her monthly beauty favourites on her beauty channel or letting us in on all aspects of her life via her vlogs with Partner Aslan and dog Reggie on her vlog channel.

Instagram

Tweet

LIFE | 100 things every 90s kid will remember. http://t.co/yBARYkpjuH via @bloglovin
— Nicki Kinickie© (@NickiKinickie) April 21, 2014

Some serious reminiscing here.

Success

Back at the gym and re-starting is always much harder than keeping going. Loving being back at Spin class and a new Twenty4 class on Thursday mornings that make walking difficult on Friday.

Looking forward to...

Bank holidays...hell yes to 2 bank holidays in May!

Holiday Reads

I was a very lucky girl over the New Year and headed to Sharm El Sheikh for a spot of sun, sea and snorkeling whilst we brought in 2014. We had such an amazing time.

Now I am not going to lie there was only 2 things I was interested in on this holiday:

1. Getting some much needed vitamin D 
2. Catching up on some good reads

If you are looking for something new to read or just add to your Amazon Wish List (am I the only one that has a specific 'To Read' wish list) you might be interested in what I downloaded for my holiday.

Life After Life  - By Kate Atkinson

This book follows Ursula, a girl born into a relatively wealthy family during a snow storm in February 1910. Ursula immediately dies. In the next chapter her birth is played out again but this time a few facts are changed and baby Ursula survives. 

The book follows in this vein, with Ursula as a child and adult often being in the wrong place at the wrong time but when she re-joins life and we re-join her she has the opportunity to make certain changes that will influence her path through life. Throughout Ursula doesn't realise that she is being re-born and instead views it as a series of deja vu and an instinct to travel in a certain direction. 

As a result the book is very jumpy and goes back and forward in time which can be a little taxing. I have to say that at the beginning I found this really difficult, never before have I had to pay such particular attention to dates in a  fiction book. But around a quarter of the way in it started to pick up pace and I had got my head around the large swathe of characters that come in and out of the story depending on which period in time is being written about. 

The story is interspersed with some philosophy and other literary references which I think are supposed to reflect Ursula's intelligence and wisdom from having lived a 'number of lives'. 

As Ursula grows we follow her life in the context of great historical events given that she 'lives' through 2 world wars. We see her married, single in London and in Berlin following various life paths including being a housewife, mother and civil servant. During this time she is also able to influence the fate of other key characters. This is not necessarily something that I like, but is always tied into the storyline. 

The story was spoilt slightly with a rather far fetched and honestly random sub-story featuring Eva Braun and Adolf Hitler but excluding those few chapters it is a great read. Whilst other reviews have commented on the repetitiveness I really enjoyed seeing the same scenes with the eyes of a 'different' Ursula, who is viewing them for the first time after following a different series of choices to get her to that point. 

Perfect for any reader who often wishes "If I had just..."

Jemima J - By Jane Green

Jane Green is one of the queens of chick lit, writing about glossy women leading glossy lives in glossy cities. Perfect sun lounger reading if you ask me 

The story of Jemima J starts with an unhappy overweight 27 year old working as a journalist at The Kilburn Herald with dreams of being skinny, beautiful and writing features for a  women's glossy. We learn early on that Jemima J has the talent and ambition to hit her career goals but unfortunately not the confidence after years of rejection from editors, "friends" and her mother. Her lack of self-confidence has led her into the life of an isolated recluse.

Like all women who have something they don't like about themselves, Jemima believes that everything in her life will be perfect - a great job, great friends, great parties and of course a great boyfriend preferably in the shape of Ben, Deputy News Editor, at The Kilburn Herald - if she could just loose her weight. 

First published in 2006 it was interesting to hear Jemimas thoughts as she dials up the modem upon discovering the internet and its opening up of the world to her, where no one knows what she looks like. The catalyst for change in Jemima is meeting the very hunky Brad, a Californian, on an internet chat room. 

One of the things I really like about this book is that Jemima only changes through her own hard work and dedication - a lesson to us all during the January resolutions. But unfortunately that is where my love for this tale ends. Perhaps it would have been a little twee but there is no 'beauty is on the inside' message here. A little detour through LA and Brad but of course like any good rom come Jemima gets her happy ending!

Predictable, yes and frustrating moral undertone at times but certainly a pleasant and quick read whilst soaking up the winter sun. 

Room - By Emma Donoghue

Jack is 5. Jack lives in Room. Room is 11 foot by 11 foot with a sky light and a locked door. Ma was captured 8 years before by Old Nick and held in this fortress in his garden unbeknown to everyone around them. Jack is the result of the relationship between Old Nick and Ma. 

We are given a detailed description of Room through the eyes of Jack. Each key reference point uses capital letters to depict its 'Name'. It is part of Jacks life rather than merely an object. We realise that every aspect of his life is in this room with his mother protecting his view of the 'outside'. This naive viewpoint is endearing in a strange way. 

You realise relatively soon in the book that Ma and Jack do get out of Room. This part of the book is written so well. My heart was actually pounding and ensuring their safe recovery meant that I stayed up well past my bed time. 

Jack is the hero of the story and watching him learn about the outside world and meeting his new family and surroundings is fascinating. As if a baby could articulate how they feel. 

The story then focuses on how Ma and Jack try to assimilate in the first month or so. They realise its not going to be an easy process and I love the optimism shown by both of them through a list shared with us towards the end that details all the things they want to do together in the future. 

I was genuinely upset when the book finished with unanswered questions. Does Ma recover? Does Jack integrate back into his new world? What happens to Old Nick? Do Ma and Jack get the justice they deserve? I suppose its nice to think of these things yourself because then you can create the happy ending you want for them. 


Have you read any of these books ? What did you think? Do you have an recommendations for my virtual reading list?

Silver & Sparkle Birthday Wishlist

My birthday is in one week and I have been mentally compiling my wish list for a little while...well 364 days to be exact. Here are just some of the things I am wishing for this year.

Stationery Love - Moleskine Passion Journal

I love stationery. There isn't much that I don't love about it to be honest, but its mainly the promise those empty pages give, the organisational possibilities and sometimes just how god damn pretty it all is! I totally geeked out when I saw the passions collection from moleskine and so may have gone a little crazy with an Amazon order.

My first choice was the Wellness Journal. I actually first saw this on Rachel's blog, Notes From My Closet and knew that I might have to get a sneakly purchase in.

Like all moleskines this is covered in a (faux??) leather black casing, but this series are embossed with images that match their purpose. So the wellness journal has people in various athletic poses. It has an elastic strap around it, to hold everything in place, and 3 different coloured ribbons (grey, charcoal and black) so that you can mark 3 different pages (very handy).

The journal starts with some basic info, such as conversion charts for sizes, seasonal foods and a list of basic foods along with their nutritional information, which are a useful reference. The smooth off-white pages are then pre-tabbed into different sections, such as Personal Goals, Diet and Exercise Log. These sections have pages printed, to help you record the information in the best possible way.

I have used the diet pages (blank pictured below) to create daily meal plans. There are not enough pages for you to really use it as a food diary long term, but I thought creating 'perfect' days and meal ideas would be a useful reference for those days when I'm getting a total food blank.

The exercise log would be fantastic to use if you had a particular goal in mind e.g. a certain length of run or the ability to lift a certain amount of weight. Marking down every run or little work out, would over time allow you to reflect on just how far you have come.

After the 6 tabs, there are a further 6 blank tabs with relatively standard pages; some blank and some in empty tables. The back wallet (a standard feature of all moleskine notebooks) contains some stickers that give you some ideas about what you might want to record in these sections, such as inspirations, challenges and meals. I have actually created a section called meals, as I think this will be a good place to actually write out whole meals with ingredients, instructions and nutritional information. I have then cross referenced my food plan days with the meals in these sections.

The notebook also comes with a set of grey and green stickers, that you can use to highlight your notes. Who doesn't love a sticker!

My second notebook from the passions collection is the book journal. You may recall that I have set myself a challenge of reading more in 2013 (not going too well), and I thought this would be a great way of recording all those great stories.

This would be a great gift for any book-worm, and once again has those lovely smooth moleskine pages, ribbons, and handy wallet at the back (which I have photographed below). It also has the colourful stickers to help you take notice of certain pages or notes.

The notebook contains a tabbed A-Z index, and it is up to you whether you record your reads by title or author. Each page contains a dedicated space for you to write your favourite quotes and your opinion on the book as well as how you rate it out of 5.

After the Z, there are again 6 tabs with blank pages for you fill with whatever musings take your fancy. Once again, there are some stickers with suggestions, and I have created a section to record the names of my favourite books, the books that we have read and are going to read at book club and my 'To Read' list. I'm sure that I will think of a use for the other 3 sections as time goes on. I really do love this little book and can't wait to get it filled in.

I brought these journals from Amazon for about £12 each, and there is a huge variety including a fashion and style journal and recipe journal that might also interest other bloggers. Have you got a passions journal and do you use it? Are there any other companies out there that have things like this?