2011 Round-Up

January 
Hogmanay Pugh-style. I donned my turquoise wig, fake Gareth Pugh wedges, Zana Bayne wings and a whole lotta leather to bring in the New Year. This here wee blog also celebrated her first birthday.

February
Celebrating the end of my 20s at our Labyrinth inspired ball and my first ever MAC make-over. Got spoiled rotten on Valentine's Day!

March
Experimented with long extensions before going from black to ginger.

April
Experimented with curls, blue and black lipstick. Still obsessed with Gareth Pugh. Won a beautiful Sak Label necklace from Wobblin Betty and met a whole host of wonderful gals at the Scottish Ballet Blogger Meet-Up.

May
Discovered Loreal Majicontrast and finally achieved ORANGE (and my most popular post ever...). Endured hours 6 and 7 under the needle to complete my peacock backpiece. Got a kiss from the world's number one rock star - Mr Robin Guy *squeal*

June
Mental month at work - resulting in quiet month for blogging. Went for hot chocolate delights with my brother and his fiance to celebrate their respective birthdays and wore one of my favourite summer outfits.

July
July started out badly. We lost our wee cat, Lydia. She was the happiest, wonkiest wee creature and we still miss her wet nose kisses and her pneumatic purr.

The rest of the month was all about the HAIR... I flirted with the Fauxhawk, crushed on other bloggers, rocked out to some 'quality' hair metal and began dabbling with the top knot. July ended on a happier note -  by getting tattooed with my 2 besties x

August
Back to a slower pace of life in August... Was treated to a wonderful hot stone massage courtesy of the lovely ladies at Zen Lifestyle in Edinburgh and jetted off to sunny Tenerife for a week's holibags. Got prickly heat which sucked, but also got to pet a monkey - pet a freakin' monkey!!!

September
Discovered the naughty but terribly nice, Age of Reason scarves (Mr G blew me away on Christmas morning by sneaking in an extra wee pressie - the Bondage Doll scarf!! Outfit post will follow in 2012). Chopped my fringe after a nail biting blog comp selected "long hair, short fringe". Went to visit my wee mammy for the Largs Viking Festival fireworks display.

October
FINALLY got my eyes tested and snapped up 2 bargain pairs of specs from Glasses Direct - highly recommended! Won a fantastic ring from Bad Passion. Rocked some trademark leopard print and vintage Jaeger to Glasgow's best fashion event, In The Company of Wolves. Made a life-changing decision to retrain as a florist...

November
Another month of highs and lows. November started out with an early birthday surprise from the gorgeous Miss Spinal Lou - the little minx only booked me in to have my ears pierced! Just in time for party of the year - our pals' 'This is NOT a wedding party', party!

Things turned sour shortly afterwards when my Grandad passed away. But all lows must surely be followed by a high  - a lovely, long-overdue family reunion.

December
Made the decision to call it a day with the orange hair and revert back to my trusty old black bob. Dabbled in cosmetic surgery, took part in my very first official Floristry class and generally had a good time this month. For those hardcore fashionistas out there, check out Mr G's wonderful 'Spinning Bird Kick's Editorials of the Year.' 

Plans for 2012?
Out with the old and in with the new: New hair, new career, new flat and new skills - driving and saving! Can't wait to read all about everyone's plans for 2012. Also looking forward to discovering new blogs, so, if you follow me and I haven't checked out your blog yet, leave me a wee comment below....

...and that about wraps things up nicely for 2011.

I wish you all the best for the New Year!
Love Lisa x

Merry Christmas

Ho ho ho!! Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas. I hope Santa is good to you.
We're off to the 'shire this afternoon for Christmas with my folks and then, weather permitting, we'll be crossing the Clyde to the good ole isle of Bute to catch up with the in-laws.

Eat, drink and be merry xxx

Bernice Bobs Her Hair

So, I'm finally back at work (boo) after my nasty throat/cough/sinus mutation virus. Spending two whole days in the flat gave me lots of time to think and plan - one of my most favourite hobbies! Planning and list-making. My love of all things Art Deco has once again reared it's decadent head. I've been creeping all over Tumblr sites such as Maudelynn's Menagerie, FY1920s, So You Think You Can See and my favourite, the Sydney Flapper  searching out inspiration for my new/old hairdo. I adore my orange hair, but it just refuses to hold the colour and after a week it's a piss yellow shade - which I hate. I also hate the cut, or lack thereof. I trawled through old photos from a couple of years ago and I've fallen madly in love with my old Louise Brooks bob...

Las Vegas, October 2009

Vegas, October 2009, eating - again...

My wedding day, 3rd October 2008

I don't want to do anything too spur of the moment (just incase it's the illness making me mental), so I've invested in some Feria hairdye that's a nice copper shade. Will switch to this over the Christmas period and then get it bobbed at the end of January. If I'm still not happy I'll go back to black after that.

What's your favourite style decade? I'm 70% 20s, 10% 30s and 20% 80s.

Christmas Flower Class

I'm off work today with a raging sore throat and chesty cough, which has left me with only a croak of a voice. I'm feeling sorry for myself but I'm sure Mr G is enjoying the peace and quiet. I'm sat at the computer nursing my 3rd cup of tea and swigging from a bottle of glycerin honey and lemon. In an attempt to cheer myself up, I've decided to post some photos of my first foray into floristry...

On Thursday evening I toddled along to Roots and Fruits Flower Shop (a well-known and well-loved Glasgow institution) for florist Di's Christmas Class. I'd been looking forward to it for weeks and Di didn't disappoint. I was welcomed with a glass of Prosecco and mountains of Ferrero Rocher - Christmas is definitely coming! After a lovely chat we got to work on our table displays...

We learned how to bend hosta leaves and willow before adding the finishing touches - beautiful white roses and orchids (I can't remember the variety - bad Lisa!)

After another one (or 2!) glasses of bubbly, we moved on to our door wreaths. Di showed us a few 'tricks of the trade' (no, I'm not telling!) as we nestled red apples, cinnamon sticks, pine cones, dried green chrysanthemums, walnuts and dried apple amongst the fir. It looked and smelled good enough to eat!

The wreath is now proudly displayed on our front door and (after I've freshened up the roses) the table display will travel to Largs with me for Christmas day.
I start my Flower Arranging taster course in just over a month. *excited*

Christmas Tache

The Tall Ship's Christmas Lunch.

What is wrong with this photo?

Benefit's Benefits

Benefit was the brand I 'graduated' to after I moved on from goth favourite Spectacular and good old 'get it down the local Superdrug' Rimmel. I had just turned 18, moved out of home and into my first student flat in Glasgow. I had the choice of Bad Gal eyeliner or eat for the week. Obviously the eyeliner won that contest. From there I flirted with most of their products - Benetint, High Beam, Play Sticks etc on and off for about 6 or 7 years. Then I discovered Nars, MAC, Origins and Aveda. I side-stepped Benefit's 'quirky' packaging and was drawn to the darkside.

I hadn't stopped at the Benefit counter again until about 6 months ago. I was on the hunt for a new blusher to match my new hair colour and was once again pulled in. I ended up walking away with a beautifully packaged little box of Bella Bamba. It sparkles and it smells delicious! Said box of delights was down to its last few pink crumbs last week. Faced with dabbing my brush into the dark depths of the make-up bag to collect any dust that remains was filling me with dread. There was nothing else for it. Although I had promised to save money for Christmas pressies, make-up's a necessity, isn't it?

Imagine the squeals of delight when I popped my Boots card into the reader only to discover that I was entitled to a tester of Benefit's new wonder-product, Porefessional! Having suffered from a ridiculously oily t-zone since puberty, Porefessional was gonna have it's work cut out on this face of grease. I gave it a test run on Sunday, but forgot to rub it right into the bits at the side of my nose, so that wasn't so good. However, I used a sensible amount this morning* (about 7.30am), applied MAC Studio Fix over the top and I haven't had to powder my nose once!! It's now 5pm. Normally, I'd pat a good wad of translucent No.7 powder over the Studio Fix before I leave the house at 8am. Powder again after lunch, tea break and then again at 5 before I leave work. Porefessional is Da Bomb!! I can't recommend it enough for any fellow greasers out there. Not sure if the Boots offer is still on, but for £23.50 a tube, this stuff is well worth it.
*wrote this post yesterday

Toaty Wee Tree

This is Evil Edna, the fairy at the top of our toaty* wee Christmas tree. We didn't bother with a tree last year - it takes up too much space, but Mr G agreed to move things around a bit and we made room for a tiny little 3 foot fir at the fireplace.

*Scottish Slang "something small"

These toaty wee photos are bugging the hell out of me - although I resize to 600 pixels wide, Blogger seems to have shrunk them all down. Can anyone help me fix the problem? *edit* Fixed the problem! If anyone else needs help, see here or email me x

Shiny Disco Balls

The new telly on 'Christmas Mode' to set the scene...

... Our nativity cats. 'Cat people' always receive cat ornaments as presents, hence our Motley Crue of moggies. Someone pointed out on Facebook that they looked like a nativity set with baby Jesus as a mouse/dinner.