Moments

I think we forget what it is like to just sit and do nothing. When I say nothing, I mean nothing. No phone or laptop or any online device or music or magazine. But just to sit and be surrounded by silence and our own thoughts. That I believe, is scary to most of us.

In a world where everything is so fast and everything happens immediately, I feel myself getting pulled into this chaos where my equilibrium is off kilter. Whether that is watching the TV and being on my phone or being in a queue and not quite knowing what to do with myself, I feel a bit lost.

Looking around, I see people sucked into their devices, which may seem hyperbolic as I am writing this on a laptop. However I have been doing more observing in real life, more listening to me and less scrolling, less time wasting.

I have been  reading a book called 'Everything that Remains' about two Minimalists and their story. It has been so refreshing and wonderful to read, I have thoroughly enjoyed it.
From reading this I realised I have been a bit lost in a world of complete buzz, being sucked into the word "successful". It made me re-evalute how I spent my time - I may be challenging myself this year, with things like no phone for a week etc. I feel genuinely excited by all this that its lovely!
While currently being a complete minimalist isn't what I want or can manage currently, taking little pieces from the lifestyle is the best way for me to stay real.

You know that feeling when you're with friends and family and you think "I am going to remember this moment forever", and you truly experienced it? You just were enveloped with that warm gooey feeling? That is my mission this year. To have more Moments like that. To create Moments and I suppose to share Moments.

This is very unlike my usual posts but this is a bit of a random patchwork type blog anyway!
Here is to more Moments (and more sharing moments on my blog!!)!

An Ode to THE Shoes.

There have been certain shoes this season which I have been reaching for over and over again. I have definitely been branching out from my usual plain shoes 'that go with anything' and have surprised myself by opting for the more funky of shoes.
I have to say these three shoes are from ASOS- who doesn't love ASOS? They really have been upping their game recently!

The first pair are some ASOS Embellished Mischa Brogues, link below.

http://www.asos.com/asos/asos-mischa-embellished-brogues/prd/7177848?iid=7177848&clr=Silver&SearchQuery=mister%20embellished%20brogues&SearchRedirect=true

 Pretty much an everyday sort of shoes. They still have that subtlety which means they are versatile but they also have the funk which you want!

The next are a pair of embroidered ASOS ballet Flats, which I have been wearing to work non stop these past few weeks- hence the scruffiness of them.
I pair them which anything- even my more bold of patterned dresses and on a particular day paired them with my embroidered jeans - for that extra kick of embroidery!

 The final pair are from New Look and an embroidered heel boot for the more dressier of outfits!

So these are my top shoes that have been my saviour on the terrible outfit days! What are yours?

What I ate today - Spain

 I love these posts as they give me huge inspiration for my meals in a day. I thought I would do a 'what I ate today' holiday edition. In Spain finding any vegan/vegetarian options is very hard - especially as they have isles upon isles or meat 😔. However once you have scoured the supermarket, you find a good few basic items. It really makes me realise how lucky we are in England to have such a wide variety of health foods.

For breakfast- I had a huge plate of fruit, full of water melon, peaches, grapes and a huge banana. Following that I had some basic cereal with soy milk and a blueberry soy yogurt. It was all pretty delicious and I felt very satisfied afterwards 😀!

For lunch I had 4 rice cakes topped with hummus, spinach and rocket. They are really quick and easy to make, while ofcourse being delicious. I had lunch quite late, around 3pm! In Spain they tend to eat everything later which means lots of lie ins! With my lunch I also had a peach which I bought from the market a few hours earlier.

I did exclude water in this post as I didn't class it as 'what I ate' as such. But I usually drink a minimum of 2 litres per day. Usually I drink more but it all depends on the layout of the day.

For dinner we had fajitas!! While the rest of my family had chicken on theirs, I opted for red beans and pan 'fried' peppers in mine fajitas. This was an amazing meal which I devoured quickly :). I also served a salad with the fajitas which went down a treat. In Spain we alternate between staying in or going out, this night we happened to stay in and cook our own meal.

After dinner I had a few squares of my 100% dark chocolate, my absolute favourite!

I hope you enjoyed this post and it gave you a few ideas as I loved writing it! 

Becoming Vegetarian

For even uttering the words in the title, many of my family members have argued with me multiple times. I have also been told by strangers that no one will want to come to my house ever! Since when did our society think eating mainly fruit and vegetables is a bad thing and no one will like you?! It is unbelievable craziness.

So I have decided to become vegetarian. It is not as easy as one thinks. As before I was planning my meals around one piece of meat but now I have to completely rethink my whole meal plan as you can imagine. With the help of two lifesaving books - 'A modern way to eat' By Anna Jones and 'Deliciously Ella' by Ella Woodward, It has made my journey a hell of a lot easier.

Anna's book really does have FABULOUS recipes that are filled to the brim with flavour. Even my die hard carnivore family really love her recipes. Ella brings alternative easy recipes, which are a godsend.

Now you may be wondering... 'well why become vegetarian?'. Well I am huge believer in animal rights and can't support an industry which kills so many innocent beautiful animals on daily basis, that is just my opinion. I also think that eating mainly fruit and vegetables is the best thing possible to live a healthy life and keeps you energized. I am a bit of a hippy at heart and my main goal is to become Vegan but I am getting ahead of myself. Finally I actually don't like meat, so it didn't make sense to me to keep eating it.

For those of you who are also thinking of doing the same or even doing something similar- 

Buy some recipe books and really plan your meals- as it is a misconception that vegetarians only eat pasta.

Think about why you want to do it and is it something you can do long term.

Overall I have never felt better and I have found a new passion for cooking. As without meat you are a lot more involved with the cooking process.

Sitges, Spain

This summer is absolutely packed full of adventure and the first of my travels was to Sitges, a town half an hour away from the famous Barcelona (anyone else hearing the George Ezra song in their head now?). I went with one of my closest friends and we had a blast! There were lovely beaches that stretched for about 2 kilometres. It was also a lovely walk to get your steps in on holiday. I mean who wants to be a couch potato all the time, right?? So behold some of the pictures I took on my fab new camera. 

We stayed in my family's apartment there which is close to the buzzing centre where there are lots of bars and caberet shows going on. Sadly we did miss the pride by a couple days but rainbow flags were still placed around in all their glory. It was a lovely sight to see people so accepting. Almost a refreshing view to the hate sometimes we see in our normal everyday lives.

Delicious Vegan Pancakes

For me, Sundays usually consist of relaxing and unwinding. Breakfast on a Sunday are usually something different to my normal breakfasts, as it starts the day off fabulously! 

This week i made Vegan Pancakes! Sadly, i am not all vegan as my situation at the moment doesn't allow me to be. However i do like to add bits of veganism to my life where i can.

These were the most delicious pancakes i have ever made, and they taste very healthy (bonus!).

These were my ingredients:

260g whole wheat flour

Flax 'egg' (2tbsp Flax Seed + 5tbsp Water)

2 tbsp groundnut oil

2tbsp Acacia Honey (or any honey)

1 tsp Bicarb of soda

2 tsp Baking powder

pinch of sea salt

480 ml + 2tbsp almond milk

4 tbsp rolled oats

1) Make your 'Flax egg' and leave for a couple minutes for it to do its magic.

2) Add your honey, Bicarb of soda, baking powder and groundnut oil. Then whisk!

3) Add your almond milk!

4) Add your flour and whisk to combine. Add your salt here.

5) This is completely optional but i added some dried cranberries as it adds a little more sweetness and variation. Also look at the colour of those amazing dried cranberries!

6) Pop the batter in a pan and enjoy!

If you try this recipe please let me know at:

@SkinnyLipstick

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New Year Resolutions

I make New Year’s resolutions every year, along with billions of others.

I think they give you an opportunity to reflect and improve on your life, a fresh start. A new year is always exciting as after Christmas there is a bit of a ‘slump’ because the main event is over. However to lift up our dampened spirits are the New Year parties, fireworks etc… It comes at exactly the right time.

Sadly my new year will be quite dull as I have tons of work to power through before returning to normal life. But that doesn’t stop me from making my resolutions:

1)      Become healthier. Yes this is pretty much the generic New Year’s resolution, but I mean healthy in an overall way. Mentally and Physically. When you’re in the midst of busy lives and work, you forget how important mental and physical health actually is. I have decided some days I can allocate to ‘me’ days as I don’t really have many on them! Also I want to get some of the muscle back I lost of the Christmas period of too much food consuming!

2)      Work Harder. Especially this year, as it is my GCSE year I want to really aim high here. I just need to put my head down and not get distracted as much. Should actually be doing work now…oops!

3)      Say ‘Yes’ more. This may seem a bit weird but apparently saying yes to more things can make you an overall happier person. I mean you obviously have to say no to something’s, saying yes to everything could be potentially dangerous (that went downhill quickly haha). What I mean is, saying yes more to the things you know are going to benefit you.

4)      Being Grateful. Sometimes I feel like I just continue on through life without really looking round and realising how lucky I actually am. So this is my final resolution, to be grateful for everything that happens in life, as some people literally have nothing. To take in all the beautiful moments that we take for granted, like seeing my family or doing something small but fun.

I know I haven’t been very active recently on my blog but life just gets in the way. Hopefully 2015 will be the start of something great for this blog, however I won’t be committing myself as sadly revision comes first!

What are your New Year Resolutions?