Hair colour or is it color?...

So, do blondes have more fun, are brunettes boring or is there something to be said for 'the power of red' ?   Questions, questions, questions...well, I think Rihanna looks beautiful whatever her hair colour ;-)

I've been colouring my hair for as long as I can remember...actually even longer than that!  I find that colouring hair (in whichever country) is such an expensive pass time...and I hate the whole hair salon experience - you know...chit chat, tea, coffee, old 'n' v.worn magazines and 3 hours spent surrounded by buzzing hair dryers and smelly chemicals. 

Recently though I've been saving myself a heck of a lot of money, saving tons of time and smiling, smiling by doing the whole DIY hair dye thing ;-) I get my colours from Mr Moustaffa...I'm a tiny bit addicted to shopping at the Moustaffa Centre ;-)  The colour costs me around S$8 and takes a maximum of 1 hour (this includes putting on, leaving to develop, washing off and a conditioning treatment ;-) bargain with regard to money 'n' time !

Do we spell 'colour' or 'color'?

I guess it depends where you are from...

Just last week, little boy was writing a story and wrote the word 'color' I corrected him and said it has a 'u'...since though I've been wondering if he learns it in school as 'color'?  I'm going to have to go with accepting that either way is correct ;-) you say 'tomAATo' I say 'tomaRRto'...

BTW...I've recently started using Instagram and, although not fully aware of what I'm doing, I do seem to be succeeding and it's making me smile :-) I'm clare_victoria ...come to follow me.  I'm currently on with #photoadaymay and having fun with uploading pics using different effects ;-)

Me a bit Pop Arty ;-)

#photoadaymay

clare_victoria

Something has got me smiling and a tiny bit excited this week...as soon as I can I shall be facebook-ing, blogging and Instagram-ing about it ;-) until then...

kisses 'n' smiles from me xx ;-)

Adelaide pics 'n' Singapore humidity...

I'm back in my beautiful Singapore having returned from Australia.

Here's a few picks from my last few days in Adelaide...

Of course, we did the mandatory tourist stuff....

feeding the kangaroos and waking up the sleepy koalas ;-)

We did manage a visit to a vineyard...Napenthe

and I will post about the tasting experience in a later post ;-)

I've got a couple of moans about being in Oz and leaving Singapore.... Firstly, the dry-ness of it's climate played havoc with my skin :-( I'm pretty sure my skin prefers the Singapore humidity....I had to make a few moisture product purchases ;-)

Secondly, I ate way to much! I'm a little bit weight obsessed...and getting back from hols I really did have to be brave before setting foot on the weight scales :-(

If anyone thought it impossible to put 3.5kg (7.7lb) on in just 9 days then I have totally proved them wrong :-( now weighing almost 57kg I feel extremely enormous :-(

Easter break with all those chocolate eggs is over...time to give up on the chocolate (again) and get fit 'n' looking positively fab for summer ;-) yes, yes I agree, easier said than done, but, I'm going to give it a go...

"Let's get ******* skinny!"



So, I've decided no more cheating and using the car for little trips... I'm walking and/or taking the MRT...I promise to keep it up ;-)

My inspiration is coming from these pics from Rihanna's Facebook page...

 

 

isn't she stunningly beautiful and her body is sooooo fabulous ;-)

I'll be buying a white bikini as soon as I get such a toned bod

(yeah, yeah we all can dream! ;-))

So, after the dry skin incident in Oz, I thought I should get regular facials but, these facials are way too pricey.  I decided to treat my skin to some wonderful potions...

Next post to include my trip to the Astalift store and a cheeky buy with gift from Clinique ;-)) AND reviews on some Garnier goodies inspired by Mel's recent purchase SEE HERE AND...my April BellaBox has just arrived :-)) yeah!

kisses 'n' smiles from me xx ;-)

sit-ups 'n' no alcohol...

Did you eat pancakes on Tuesday? I did, one perfect pancake, absolutely covered in Nutella 'n' golden syrup :-) yummy :-P

So, now we are in the period of Lent....how many people will be giving up 'something' for these 40 days and 40 nights?  What will it be...?

In past years I've gone without a variety of things (mainly food) chocolate, cheese, coffee and wine (I did excellent with them all...except coffee and wine :-( This year I'm going for the BIG one... ALCOHOL in every form! yikes! Will I succeed, I don't know, I hope so!

As well as a heck of a lot of encouragement and will power, I decided I may be in need of a little incentive for completing this task.  My Mr Man asked what I might want...?  Well, I've had my ears focused on some beats by Dr Dre for a month now....

 

Aren't these just a perfect incentive :-)

So, whilst doing this crazy 'no alcohol' thing, I've also decided to up my exercise routine and hit the gym a bit more often...



I started on Tuesday with a run with 'my girl' Rhiaaaaaannnaaa (the iPod version;-)), the weather got too hot so I headed into the gym. I managed 3.5k in just over 20 mins, next 2k rowing. On Wednesday, just for extra pain, I did yoga class for 1 1/2 hours! The stretching yoga did do me a lot of good but 'damn that downward dog pose'! 'cos my arms 'n' shoulders are proper aching. Got to think positive...no pain no gain 'n' all that :-)

I'm off now to 'over-indulge' in exercise, facebook 'n' water...but I promise - no alcohol :-)

kisses 'n' smiles from me xx :-)

geocaching 'n' nail art

Geocaching...OK, so this really will not be every ones "cup of char", but my 3 men enjoy it and when they are happy 'n' entertained...I'm smiling :-)

I'll not go into the 'ins 'n' outs' of what Geocaching is (check out the wikipedia link here and the official geocaching site here). My men discovered this during our summer hols in the UK, kind of treasure hunting for big kids! We had fun (in the British rain) following trails through North Yorkshire fields full of sheep, great exercise up 'n' down the hills and my boys were kept smiling by the promise of pirate loot or booty at the end :-)

The trackable made me smile :-)

My men were lucky enough to locate a trackable geo tag in Lancashire...these are extra goodies with unique id numbers which are tracked on the official Geocaching website. Of course, we brought Signal and his friend the lion back to Singapore and have recently checked him into the Trackable Hotel located in the National Museum of Singapore - sure he'll keep me smiling as we follow him on the website to see where he travels to next.

Even as I'm writing this post, Mr Man and my boys are out on their bikes and visiting the site of another great Singapore Cache. They'll be searching to answer clues to the cache coordinates and I'm sure they'll have fun at Marina Barrage and the new Gardens by the Bay.  I highly recommend Geocacaching to get the men in your family smiling as they do some treasure hunting :-)

Now to something different and much more 'girly'!  'Nail Art' is very much making me smile ;-)

I really did not think I would get into this, my nails are always cut pretty short I'm often caught chewing and biting them...very ladylike in deed! Krikey, not so long ago I got a Gelish manicure done (not even going to tell how much I paid for that!)  Gelish were obviously not thinking of me when they said it would last for 3 weeks...within 3 days I had flicked, chipped and pealed at this thick Gelish substance. Of course, this stuff does not come off with regular nail varnish remover...I had to sit in the salon with foil wrapped nails for 30 minutes, $30 for the trouble.  This certainly did not make me smile!  I will not be recommending Gelish to anyone who cannot avoid fidgeting with their nails.

There are so many fab nail art designs :-) I'm thinking a design with candy cane stripes or snowflakes for the festive season. Sure, they'll not last much past Boxing Day but neither will the imported Christmas tree :-)

If anyone has found iTunes Singapore to do anything other than boring podcasts and university related books , you are better at locating these than me!  I'm now going to log into iTunes UK, hopefully get a preview of the new Rihanna album and I might well buy the odd music video and download a bit of Pitbull too ;-)

I leave you with the beautiful Rihaaaaaaaaanna singing one of my faves (the song never came out as a single so the link is a bit of a 'tacky You Tube - lyrics on screen special' but the music is there) Fire Bomb enjoy :-)

Kisses 'n' smiles from me xx ;-)