The Ultimate relationship!

Don’t be surprised, this is not about a man but about..my phone. I have seen a few YouTube videos about this and I wanted to put my own spin on my ultimate and only recurring relationship…

 

THE STAGES:

1) The first date – this is when you have chosen to commit every aspect of your life for 18 or 24 months. This is the time you get to know each other, you realise and are surprised by your phones new functions, camera, speed and quality. You are timid, shy and awkward.

2) The honeymoon period – you are with each other 24/7. You laugh, you cry, you share your deepest and most personal thoughts with each other. You listen to each other and get on like a house on fire. Your phone is dependable, surprises you with new functions, keeps you on your toes.

3) Those hump days – you clearly love each other but sometimes your phone just does not listen, ignores your requests, forgets to do something you needed or embarrasses you.

4) The hump days turn into daily habits – you still have a deep love for your phone. It still has it looks, performs most of the time but every day it does something you do not like or irritates you! Why does it need to freeze, switch off, drop your calls? You start to question your compatibility…Maybe another model will satisfy your needs?

5) The break up – now this can be for two reasons: 1) you find something else; better looking, better specifications, smaller, cheaper, snazzier, basically you have found something else or 2) your phone dumps you! It breaks down and leaves you stranded with no warning. No apps, no contacts, pictures, no reason or warning. (The latter happened me to!)

6) Anger, Frustration and Confusion – Why did they do this? Why now? What did I do wrong? Was it not charged enough, not updated enough? How can one cope without it? No ability to contact people you want to! Why did it not tell me to back it up? No whatsap, no twitter, no email on hand, no instagram perving! Why!!!

7) Withdrawal symptoms – You hear its voice everywhere you go, you feel its silent call in your bag. You remember you need to check something but remember it is not there anymore! You miss it’s elegant, bright and good looking screen and forget all the bad times.

8) Rebound – this has two outcomes; 1) bigger and better choice than your phone. You have been waiting to try this new phone and cannot wait to start the new relationship or 2) a temporary, old, ugly phone that was unwillingly given to you while you wait to see if your old phone will ever come back to you. It does not compare to your phone, it doesn’t even have a volume button or the ability to be a on a vibrate setting. The Shame!…. (I am currently waiting…)

I am currently dying without my lovely smart phone, fingers crossed it gets fixed soon because the old Nokia I was given is…bad! 😦 Argh!!!!!

Has anyone else had a similar experience?

Much love Khannablog xxx

‘It’s been a long time…I shouldn’t have left you’

I know I have been away for a long time – so apologies for that! It was a combination of work, life, writers block and losing my blog mojo but I am back now (hopefully).

So why not start with my highs and lows of the past months…

High – Low

1) Laura Mercier – oh goodness have I found my soul make up mate. So I started off with buying the pressed foundation powder…then it was lovely wallet pinching down-hill spiral…the illuminating tinted moisturiser, the concealer and recently the oil free foundation have become residents of my make up box! And I am eyeing up the oil free tinted moisturiser….thank you Laura!

2) WhatsApp – so incredibly addictive and who wants to communicate through anything else. I actually hate ‘regular’ texting now – so boring, so last season ;). Anyone else feel the same?

3) http://www.shopdixi.com – the jewellery…oh my god!! I want…so much! So many things I could buy, it was as if this jewellery was made for me! I really need self control for this website. Check it out, the items on here are amaazing! http://www.shopdixi.com/

4) Low back tops – my new thing! I am obsessed with this style, I need more…in any colour, any style! Eeek!

5) True Blood – is back and for the last season! Noooo…love love love this show! Oh Eric and Alseed….ouch too hot!

6) The Kardashians – So, I am a little obsessed. They are all sooo fit! New girl crush is Kylie Jenner!

7) Exercise – before my boot camp days I could go months, years even without working out but…now I cannot stand even a week. Recently have finished a month of fasting, where I could not go and it killed me….and I cannot wait (actually excited) to go back and become sweaty and feel the burn! (What is wrong with me?!)

8) Make up – I have never really been a huge make up junkie until recently where it seemed I would buy anything under the sun and then started to wear concealer, powder, blush to work…which 1) takes time, 2) boring, 3) isn’t necessary so now I am reverting to the other extreme of not wearing much/anything! I prefer my no make up days in fact and will brave work and my horrible  life sucking meetings without make up! – Lets see how long this lasts!

9) Instagram – finally decided I will join. I agree it is very addictive but…a bit over rated and frankly self obsessive…which I think is the point but hey..I will still glance at the fashion pictures, food porn and prev over hot celebrities! 😉

10) Men – I dont want to men bash but seriously….some, well most I have come across are absolute pricks! And I am tired of being messed up about. So F U men!!

That’s all folks

Anyone else agree with my list?

Check out my twitter for random bits and bobs

Khannablog xxx

(All pictures taken from google images)

Blogs I read most often – take 2

So I thought I would update my list of blogs and now YouTube videos I read and watch most often. Again an eclectic bunch of beauty, food, fashion etc and some I have already mentioned before but hey, I love them so…why not write about them again! 🙂

• Top spots go to (literally read every day!):

1) Vivannadoesmakeup: I am addicted to this lady, her blogs and videos. She is so engaging, charming and personable.

2)   Lily Pebbles: great tips – make up, fashion, food etc.

3) Fashion Squad: such a great style inspiration – I wish I was this woman!!

• Sliver and Bronze Awards go to:

4) Green Kitchen Stories: great, great place to get healthy veggy recipes, videos and blog!

5) Chapter Friday: great one stop shop for fashion, interior style etc. Brilliant blog.

6) Lisa Eldrige: amazing make up artist with great videos and blog posts. She is the initiator for buying Bioderma – thank you! 🙂 I want to look like her!

7) Rouge Rose Petale: great read and make up tips.

8) Miss Maven: great videos and blog posts. Teni is amazingly pretty – no guessing I would also like to be her too 😉

9) IISuperwomanII: funny videos 🙂

10) I know this great little place..: Amazing place to find new, exciting places in London to visit, eat, see etc. Love, Love, love this blog!

Which blogs/videos do you all like to visit often?

Much love

Khannablog xxx (Follow me on twitter @khannablog)

 

The final confessions of a shopaholic

Apologies for the lack of posts recently, I have been so busy with work and life, mostly work! 😦

So my last post was my ‘no (unnecessary) shopping’ challenge and let me tell you, it has been hard! I just looked back at how many days it has been and humiliatingly it has only been 11 days (bloody hell) it feels like a month or more since I publicly announced my challenge for the month!

But…I must confess… yesterday night…I cracked and I did some online shopping! – I have no will power! Argh – so really I only lasted 10 days not buying anything unnecessary…Oh dear, I am so ashamed! And as the picture says..Epic failure!

But I thought I would share my ‘resisting shopping’ journey:

1) Everything, I mean everything (now that I have stopped myself buying things) is enticing. Even random magazines that I would never buy anyway! – Bloody hell!

2) I want everything I watch, for example watching a beauty  video, TV show, food show – I want it all…the food, the new lip product, a similar top! – Seriously?!

3) You find everything you want and have been looking for, for what you believe is most of your life, when your wallet is on lock down. For example the top and jeans of your dreams on sale! – Are you kidding!!!!!!! (this was very hard to refuse!)

4) You have booked a beach holiday and realise you do not own any beach attire and let alone the essential swimsuit! I am not a swimsuit wearer and I have not worn or owned one in probably 7 years! – Bloody fantastic!

5) You want to buy a takeaway, even though you never do this and actually love to cook just so you can buy something – Pete’s sake!

6) You are now feeling overly generous and want to buy the whole world for your family and friends and pay for everything for no particular reason . This is where the challenge has paid off – score and at the same time WTF!

7) You realise you need a new wardrobe immediately. Everything is wrong or old, work, going out, t-shirts, jeans, shoes…everything! – Bleep, Bleep, mother Bleep…

I resisted until last night when I decided I need to buy a swimsuit for my upcoming holiday because I have a funny feeling this is probably not the easiest purchase one can make a couple of days before you leave!

To me it seemed like as soon as I stopped myself buying things, I wanted to spend my money more and more on useless junk I would never usually think about let alone buy.

The moral of the story (for me at least) – do not put a big a fat NO against anything because it makes you want it more, instead make a conscious decision to be more careful!

So off I go to browse the Zara website…hopefully I won’t binge shop! 🙂

Has anyone else tried this and failed, or succeeded.

Much love khannablog

Find me on twitter @khannablog

Confessions of a shopaholic…

This is another short life post to declare my addiction to shopping and you will be pleased to know I do not discriminate, I have my favourites but…I have no prejudices when shopping.

Ok so I am not as bad as Isla Fisher in the ‘Confessions of a shopaholic movie’ but..if let loose, I could get very close! 😦 I am a very spontaneous shopper and buy things there and then if I like them – not a very logical or money efficient way believe me!

My shopping habits span from: clothes (favourite), jewellery (favourite), candles, toiletries, random unnecessary food  bits, flowers (recent addition), home decorations or home items, make up. I also like to pay for things for my family (which includes the above plus family shopping, spontaneous gifts etc), eating out (lunch, dinner, breakfast, snacks etc). Goodness too many things!

So in order to get my life in order I am challenging myself to not buy anything unnecessary for a month – I know to some this will sound like a small amount of time but for me…it’s ashamedly not.

So starting from today I am challenging myself to not purchase anything (despite knowing I desperately need new work clothes (killing me!) spontaneously or anything unnecessary for a whole month. Obviously this does not include the weekly shop or any toiletry refills (shampoo etc). Hopefully I can see how much I can save in a month and fingers crossed I keep this up and increase my savings long term! 🙂

So this means no more browsing the Zara, warehouse websites etc and unfortunately this means that I will also be cutting my restaurant dinners – basically eating out (groan) which will lead to even less restaurant reviews but the upside is 1) home made food, 2) healthy and 3) more experimenting (which I love to do). I will need to stop myself from buying a coffee from Pret – eek this is going to be very, very hard!

Wish me luck!

Let me know if anyone also feels like this about shopping?

Khannablog xxx

Follow me @khannablog to see how I get on. 🙂

(all pictures used from Google images)

 

Life, oh life…

 

 

Thank you Des’ree for those sound words (anyone remember her?). Hope everyone is having a nice Easter weekend – I am loving the 4 day bank weekend, I think this should be made compulsory!

Anyway here are a few, or more than a few points I thought I would share with you all 🙂

 

1. Cutting your hair actually gets rid of stress and worries. I was honestly having a really hard time with work and life recently so I made the last-minute decision to cut my hair and cut it shorter than it has been for a very long time. I know this is going to sound very cliche and cheesy but cutting my hair actually made me feel like I was cutting away my worries – I was happier, more relaxed and most definitely lighter 🙂

2. Cauliflower rice – made it, tasted it but didn’t like it. You win some, you lose some.

3. So beauty serums, eye creams, anti-ageing creams etc – ok as you may have guessed by now they hold the calling cards for me to buy them but..what do they do exactly? When do I see the effects, what am I actually looking for? So actually yes I do buy them but…not sure what I am expecting these items to do and when I should or would be reaping the benefits. Oh dear…it sounds like a long, risky, pocket pinching waiting game! 😦

4. Obsessed with watching, actually confession time…I am a huge TV addict. So my current shows are: Game of Thrones (oh my goodness!!!!), The Following (eekkk!), The Mindy Project (love, love, love her and this show), The Great British Menu (great foodie programme – I want to be a judge, how does one apply?), Da Ali G show and Goodness Gracious Me on YouTube (soo funny!). Right so this actually proves how much time I spend in front of my laptop – lovely! But hey, watching TV shows is my escape 🙂

5. New go to dinner – roast chicken salad.

 

6. Coconut is the new smell – loving anything coconut scented since I received the Sleek MakeUp pout polish! Can’t get enough of this.

 

7. SO SO SO excited about the new X-Men movie. I am a huge and very geeky X-Men fan and I could literally pee in my pants because I am so excited!!

8. Garlic infused olive oil – Where have you been all my life?

9. Since joining the boot camp I have found my attitude for trying new things and getting things done has changed dramatically. I now never think, I cannot do something or I am not able – I CAN and I WILL! This has crossed work, life and exercise boundaries! (Still not hot on the nutrition though – no one can take fresh bread and potatoes away from me).

10. I now drink coffee with no sugar – hooray. I know I made a huge deal about this in a previous post, but actually it doesn’t taste too bad at all..in fact I quite enjoy it.

11. Apologies to Laura Mercier and the tinted moisturiser review.., I now like it, a lot (a little too greasy/shiny still) but I use it whenever I go out now along with my Laura Mercier powder and (sometimes) newly purchased Laura Mercier concealer…you may see a pattern here..Love you Laura Mercier.

12. Decided to quickly curl my hair before work last week (I have not curled my hair in over 3/4 months) and consequently burnt my face as a result – Brilliant! Long burn line across my left cheek 🙂

and last but not least…

13. Need to add a parent control or some kind of barrier or lock to the Zara website!  I have no self-control when it comes to this shop! Any tips on how to save my account from drying up?!

That’s all folks, hope you liked my little snippet of life related points!

Don’t forget to subscribe to this blog and follow me on twitter: @khannablog for more all round life, beauty, fashion and food related snippets. 🙂

Much love

Khannablog xxx

(all pictures taken from Google images)

 

 

 

The Grandma special #2 – Spud you Stud!

Before I start blabbering, I wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who visits, reads and follows my blog. I now have over 100 followers, which to me is amazing so thank you very much :). I love all your comments and messages so keep them coming.

Welcome to the second edition of my ‘Home therapies’ series inspired by my (late) amazing grandma.

2) Home made tricks to reduce dark circles.

I remember my grandma always saying that the best remedy for anything  is always using something nature has provided.

Dark circles has always been an issue for me and my sister, I think this is unfortunately a hereditary defect that has been with both me and my sister since our late teens (late late nights at uni for pretty much 3 years didn’t help ;)). To be honest, I have only recently started to dabble in the concealer and eye brightening make up bits and bobs but before this there was…the humble spud trick.

She would always say the best way to get rid/reduce dark circles was to: 1) of course get enough sleep, 2) not spend too much time gazing at a monitor and… 3) by using thin slices of potato.

What you need:

Any raw potato type

What now?

(This is usually best done before bed)

Thinly slice the potato, about 4 slices (the thinner the better), 2 slices per eye. Rub the 1/2 slice around the eye so all the potato juice is on the areas that you do not like/darker shade, this needs to be done on both eyes. Place the last two slices on top of your eyes before falling asleep or for half an hour before you go to bed, then remove and sleep soundly :).

The potato juice helps reduce the darkness (sorry -I do not know the exact science behind this) and the slices on top of the eyes cool the eyes and in fact reduce any puffiness. This does not work immediately but after daily use for about 2 weeks the effects are hugely noticeable!! – Thank you very much Grandma! This tip is very inexpensive and time efficient, it does not involve a multitude of night time rituals; really it is: Slice, Wipe and Leave 🙂 simples

Move aside make up, the humble SPUD STUD is where it is at! It actually produces much better and of course natural results than any make up I have used. 🙂 I must confess I do not use this dark circle trick as much as I should, mainly because I am super lazy but I do try to do a couple of weeks before I have a holiday or event coming up 🙂 All I know is, that this trick most definitely works, it does not get rid of them altogether because nothing can actually truly do that but it does make the darker areas fade and give a more even and brighter tone.

FYI: If you fall asleep with the slices on just be aware you will find shriveled up potato slices saying hello when you wake up :).

(A small new potato can last up to a week in the fridge if solely used for this purpose, otherwise 1/4 or 1/2 a large potato can last up to 2 weeks. The left over potatoes can always be thrown in to your cooking 🙂

Let me know if you try this.

Much love khannablog xxx

P.S – Don’t forget to follow me on twitter for random tweets about food, beauty and life 🙂

(All pictures used are taken from Google images)

Bye bye bye..

 

I decided to let you all know my empty products before I throw them in the bin. 🙂

 The contestants:

1) Emma Hardie Morninga Cleanser

2) Guerlain Meteorites Perles Base Collector

3) Bioderma Sensibio H20 – Michelle Solution

4) Maybelline Big Eyes Mascara

5) Maybelline Volum’ Express Megaplush

 

 

The verdict:

1) Love, love, love this cleanser! I have repurchased a big tub in addition to a travel sized cleanser (which was well used in Barcelona). I have a few comments about my complexion recently and the only thing that has changed is the use of this cleanser, so I owe everything to this amazing, amazing cleanser! This makes me feel so clean, moisturised and nourished – ahhh love this product. I am sure I have written about this before and no guessing, I would MOST DEFINITELY recommend this! Buy this! 10/10

2) This was my first primer purchase after watching Millie Makintosh on the feelunique.com (this was the first video that inspired my beauty obsession). I think I was drawn to the ‘dewy and glowy’ skin properties it claims sooo…had to buy it. It was rather on the expensive side for a first primer purchase but it lasted for about 6 months so a little goes a long way. I am not sure if I would repurchase, only because I do not have anything to compare it to and it was a quite expensive but I definitely enjoyed the benefits of a primer – it really does keep your make up on for longer! Brilliant for long, lengthy, tedious, draining work meetings. The only gripe I have for this product is that the liquid seems to solidify quite quickly especially at the tip of the pump, which is a little annoying. It did not really make my skin dewy and glowy so not worth the money if it is purchased only for that reason (which is what I did!).  6/10

3) Purchased after watching a string of beauty videos about how to take off eye make up properly – noticeably the Lisa Eldridge make up removal video. Loved this product and didn’t realise how much this product removes until I had finished this bottle! I ordered this smaller bottle first because I wanted to try it out and I am very thankful Escentual.com for housing the smaller bottle to choose from. I have repurchased a bigger bottle (250ml) and at the time of the online buy, they were offering a 2 for 1 – score! However it does take a few goes/tugs to remove waterproof and normal mascara, which is a bit of a bummer but I can live with that 🙂

(I am waiting for the bottles to arrive and I am dying without it :() 8.5/10

4) Thankfully money did not have to leave my account for this product (phew) as I received this from my February Glossybox. I had high hopes for this as I have been using Maybelline mascaras for a while but…unfortunately it did not do anything for me. I did make my eyelashes look longer but it did not add any thickness and I did not really find the lower lashes wand having any benefit, in fact it highlighted the mascara element to them (made them look clumpy) – which I did not particularly like as I prefer the ‘eau natural’ look. I actually started to use the upper lashes wand on the lower lashes near the end of this mascara’s life ironically because this gave me more of a natural look. I was really surprised with how quickly this mascara dried up and started to flake during the day (Argh!!) – it only really lasted a month!

All in all thumbs down for me, no repurchasing going on here! 3/10

5) This gel mouse mascara I initially liked, it gave my lashes a very natural feel (soft and not clumpy) and gave a little length however it did not give much or any volume (which I thought was the point of this mascara!). This was my first purchase of a non-waterproof mascara because 1) life is too short to stick to one thing and 2) I couldn’t find my go to (love) Volum’ Express the Colossal mascara. It was easy to take off but it did not last throughout the whole day and started to flake nearer the end of its life. I liked using the fat wand and perhaps a waterproof version may make a difference but I am in no hurry to go out and repurchase. In all honesty I probably will not repurchase at all! 5/10

That’s all folks – let me know if you have used any of these products and hope this has been helpful. 🙂

Don’t forget to follow me on @khannablog for random tweets about everything and anything!

Much love Khannablog xxx

‘Eggs’actly what I need!

Apologies about the cheesy title but I just couldn’t resist!

So I know I should make lunch for work because a) it saves me money, b) saves me money and c) saves me money. Plus side obviously because I cooked the food, I know what is in there but I am soo lazy I can’t be bothered! Oops!

 

Someone mentioned that they bake a vegetable omelette on sunday night and they eat it for breakfast and lunch for about 2 days after. So this got me thinking (which is not a good idea), ..something I could cook that would save me time in the morning and money overall…HELLOOO got to try this!

I knew the basic recipe but true ‘khannablog’ style I like to improvise. This recipe is actually a really good way of getting rid of vegetables or anything that needs to be used up, so that’s exactly what I did. 🙂

Ingredients:

• Box of mushrooms
• 2 red peppers
• A bunch of spring onions
• Half a broccoli
• A bunch of coriander
• 5 eggs

Now what:

1) Chop all the vegetables (slice or chop – it doesn’t matter really).

2) Add oil (approx 1/2 tsp) into a frying pan and once it is hot add all the vegetables.

3) Put the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

3) Season to taste – I tend to add a bit more seasoning then I would normally to a vegetable stir fry. For this dish I added half a vegetable stock cube, salt, pepper, mixed spice, dash of lemon juice and dried chilli flakes.

4) Let the vegetables cook until they are soft-ish (probably about 10/15 mins) this depends on the types of vegetables you use. Season to taste again

5) While this is cooking, whisk 5 eggs and add a dash of milk. Add a pinch of salt and I like to add a few more chilli flakes here (love my chilli!)

6) Tip all the cooked vegetables into a small/medium oven dish and spread them around. Now add the egg mixture making sure it covers the bottom of the pan.

7) Sprinkle coriander (spinach leaves are a nice substitute here) onto the mixture.

8) Pop the mixture in the oven and let it cook for about 25 mins (or until the mixture turns a golden brown).

 

This recipe is so flexible and can be substituted with a number of different things such as kidney beans, chicken, cheese etc.

Hey presto! Done – either eat it then or wait till it cools, cut and put in a box for lunch! Even the weird boot camp nutrition rules could say yes to this! Healthy, easy and time efficient and of course yummy! YAY

Let me know what you think.

Much love

Khannablog xxx

P.S- don’t forget to check my twitter account: @khannablog

The Grandma special #1 – softly, softly…

So this is my first post in my ‘Home therapies’ series which will include food and beauty bits and bobs. This series is inspired by my amazingly beautiful grandmother who passed away recently; she was an advocate for organic, home-made beauty and food! Great for me, not so much for my belly! 😦

 

 

1) Home-made face mask – soft and calm skin.

I think this is one of the first beauty advice my grandmother gave me when I was about 15 (when I had absolutely no interest in doing anything for myself except for eating pizza, snickers and refreshers (anyone remember those?) and watching the matrix)! But thank you grandma, it bloody works!

This very simple, home-made mask can be made with few house hold ingredients, little/no elbow grease and makes the skin lovely and smooth and calms the skin if you are having a bad skin day or feel you need to give it a break from every day life, make up etc.

What you need:

• Yoghurt (any type)
• Lemon juice (fresh or bottled; fresh better)
• Honey

What now?

• 1/2 tsps of yoghurt into a bowl
• 1 tsp of lemon juice
• 1 tsp of honey

Mix all together and on a cleansed and freshly washed face apply the mask with either fingers or brush (whatever you prefer). If you have some left over in the bowl this usually keeps for a week or so 🙂

It usually takes a couple of minutes to dry – it is a transparent colour which is always good. I don’t have a recommended time to keep it on but I usually take it off after about 20 mins or so.

Wash off as you do normally and I kid you not, your skin will feel a lot smoother than it was before and what I have found is if you keep this up every week – it gets better and better. You will find yourself stroking your own face (yes I have done this – epic fail on the train!) so beware! 🙂

Let me know if you try it 🙂

Much love Khannablog xxx