The City Girls UK Blogger Event

A week and a few days ago I attended a wonderful event set up by Lorna from Life by LDE and Holly from Tea and Blush called quite fittingly The City Girls UK. These two lovely ladies have brought together bloggers from the north in two fun filled events, their first event being in Sheffield last year and the second that I was lucky enough to attend, right here in Leeds.

The event took place at The Liquorist on Greek Street, which is a bar I hadn’t heard of until the event. The decor inside was astounding, seriously...so much dark wood, crystal chandeliers and beautiful velvet vintage style chairs, not to mention the mirrored staircase (see below...it’s a pleasure). After ordering a cocktail (Long Island Ice Tea...ah thankyou) I met some of the other lovely bloggers and we all had a chuckle over the rearranging of items that began for those much needed ‘perfect’ photographs. 

Before we started the afternoon of chattering and socializing we had a talk by a lady, Suzie from Leed’s Women Aid, which is a fantastic charity who help local women who have experienced domestic abuse and violence. It really was both shocking and inspiring to hear what they do for these women and how this kind of thing can tick over without anyone really knowing about it. Us women are strong and powerful, never should we be made to feel any less by anyone. Take a look at their website here to find out more about what they do and how you can help, even if just volunteering or donating a few pennies. It really is an amazing cause! 

The way then became clear for us bloggers to rush off to talk to some of the brands and get to know each other a little better. Piling through the archways we discovered some incredible brands had set up little tables with goodies for us to have and a chance to get to know the brand! Some of those were Benefit, The Bodyshop UK, Nails by Ivy, Manuka Dr and Kendelle Clothing. We got to talk to each brand about any new products that were coming out or tips on how to stay looking healthy. It was a fantastic opportunity for us to network and have some fun along the way. 

I immediately ran over to Benefit (sorry, not sorry) to try out their latest Licence To Blot stick which I’ve been lusting over for quite some time. What I didn’t expect was to come away with blue eyelashes and purple eyeliner. I kid you not! I’ve always been a little scared of colour on my eyes….but after having They’re Real Mascara in Blue and Eyeliner in purple...i’m hooked. 

Not to mention Voss Water, Twig & Dot, Virtue Ice Tea and Michael ‘OMara Books had also left us some of their products to take home! Could this day get any better I began to think after almost breaking my arm with the amount of goodies I had stuffed in my bag. Yes...yes it could. Along comes raffle time which the proceeds went towards a donation to Leeds Women’s Aid. We managed to raise over £200 which was then matched by Holly’s work, huge clap on the back to us bloggers!! I’m never one to win raffles or tombolas...seriously, NEVER! Buuuut, I only went and bloody won didn’t i. I was the lucky receiver of a set of any lingerie from their new SS catalog AND a swim set. I’ve just picked out my choices and may well do a blog post on them soon, probably not going to be pictures of me in the lingerie though…..just sayin. Then...my number is called again….and there comes along a bottle of yummy Henny & Joe’s Chai Syrup, delicious. I’m finally having a lucky streak, wooo!

After more cocktails, chatting, giggling, and having general girl time we were surprised with a box of brownies! From a choice of salted caramel, praline, hazelnut and a few others I obviously had to go for salted caramel, my fav!

As the event came to a close we were handed goodie bags filled with treats, it seriously felt like christmas! The bag itself even had a personalised logo on the front, with The City Girls brand. I’ve included a snippet of what was inside the bag, but will be doing individual posts soon on a few of my favourite items. Lorna and Holly really went all out for us and made this the best experience possible. So much hard work and time must have went into the organisation of this, and for girls who work full-time as well as blog they completely baffled me to how perfectly arranged everything turned out. But they are living proof that we can do it girls! Anything we set our minds to is achievable!

A fantastic day filled with new friends, inspiring stories, fun goodies, lots of laughter and a few cheeky cocktails. 

I can’t wait to see what The City Girls do next…
@TheCityGirlsUK


Thanks for reading!

HAIR | HAIRWORX HAIR VITAMIN TABLETS REVIEW

* I’ve always wanted long hair, I’ve always had (in my opinion) quite short hair. From years of straightening my hair and using a lot of heat, it’s never been at the length I want. I tried getting my hair trimmed every 6 weeks but with having extremely curly hair that never seemed to work as I would still continue to straighten it which was contradicting getting the damage cut off in the first place. I've tried countless 'your hair will grow 10 inches in one month' vitamins, which really are a waste of money considering I saw no change in my hair.

So two months ago I decided to completely stop using ANY heat on my hair and to start taking hair and nail vitamins. I’d heard that the majority of ‘hair growth’ vitamins contained about 60% Biotin, so down I popped to Holland and Barrett to fetch a bottle of Biotin. For the month of taking it I noticed my hair looking a little healthier but still not to the level I wanted or at the speed (i’m very impatient). Then the wonderful TN Healthcare approached me and asked if i would like to try their new Hairworx Hair Vitamins For Faster Hair Growth...uh HELL YEAH.

The tablets contain a blend of over 30 active vitamins and minerals which are essential for healthy hair and maintenance also helping to improve skin and nails, result! I won't list all of them or we'll be here for days, but they are all natural vitamins that our body already has, we're just upping that level or providing our bodies with vitamins we may not be getting enough of via food etc.

I’ve now been taking these vitamins once a day for approximately 33 days, the bottle contains 60 capsules which is a two month supply for £21.99 or £17 at the moment on Amazon and i can honestly say I will be taking them for the foreseeable future!

I’ve taken before and after pictures to show my one month progress. I chose to take the pictures with my hair wet because as you curly haired girls out there know, our hair shrinks a helluva lot when it’s dry, so to give an accurate view of my hair length wet hair it is!

As you can see in the left picture which is before I started taking the vitamins, my curl pattern is rather scattered and the ends are fine. The length is standing just on the 1 inch line, and the under section of my hair is quite separated. The right picture is my hair now, well about a day ago! Although at first glance the length looks to be the same, my layers around the sides of my hair have now grown to match the rest of my hair and the quality of my curls has improved tenfold! The curls are pronounced and the curls are held together more.

When my hair is wet I would normally have to use almost half a bottle of leave-in conditioner, creams, endless amounts of serum to tame the impending frizz, but now i can get away with a few spritzes of leave in conditioner, a pump of serum and honestly that’s it! My curls hold their shape, there’s no concern of rogue curls anywhereeee!

Another plus i’ve noticed is the amount of shedding. I’ve barely lost any hair whilst taking these supplements, no longer does my shower look like a hair murder scene and no longer do i have to de-hair my brushes. My hair seems to have a lot more strength at the root, and in time will hopefully grow thicker and with more density.

After about two weeks i also noticed the improvement of my nails. Now I’m ashamed to admit it but I used to be a nail-biter...yes I know, it’s an awful awful habit and I wore false nails to hide it...along comes Hairworx….my nails are healthy and no longer do I want to go anywhere near them with nail clippers let alone bite them off. Considering years of false nail wearing can cause quite a bit of damage to natural nails, my nails are now strong, hair and once filed/buffed have a natural sheen to them!

I’d like to thank you TN Healthcare for making my long hair dreams a reality, I’d honestly say these are the best hair/skin vitamins I've taken and believe me I've tried them all...well almost!

You can check out TN Healthcare and their other products over at...

• http://shop.tnhealth.co.uk
• www.facebook.com/tnhealthcare
• TN Healthcare Amazon

What are your tips for growing your hair long and healthy?

Thanks for reading!

LIFE | EYE OF THE WOLFE #3

Stay fit. Go to work. Do food shopping. Socialize. Write blog posts. Plan the following week. Go to work again. Get to the gym. See family. Pay bills. Have enough sleep. 

There’s so much we need to do whilst remembering to breathe too. Sometimes life can get a bit on top of you and you end up not doing what you needed to because something else cropped up along the way. Then you start to feel bad for not doing that thing you were meant to do the day before *sigh* We don’t have enough hours in the day it seems, and those of you with kids...I raise my glass to you because along with all of the above, you have another little person depending on you and taking up 110% of your time. Hail all mums and dads out there!

I’ve come up with 5 ways to manage your time or just some tips that I follow in order to make sure I've done what I need to when I need to whilst giving myself some time to relax!

PRIORITIZE

It’s easy to do the tasks that you like first...like socializing or sleeping! But i’ve found if you get the boring or annoying things out of the way first, you feel better for being productive and you know exactly what you need to do next. Personally i write lists, lots and lots of lists. Put the most important, must be done task at the top and work your way down. 

GOALS

Set yourself a goal, for example…

• I want to sit down and write 4 blog posts tonight so that I’m up to date for the next week.

• I’ll call that company before 12pm tomorrow.

Giving yourself a deadline, an attainable one by the way, there’s no point in setting yourself something you won’t stick to like getting to the gym before 6am every morning, if you do that again I raise my glass to you.  If it’s something that has to be done, like paying a bill, set yourself the deadline for a few days before so you know it WILL be done. 

DOWNTIME

When I say this I don’t mean your spare time that you should be relaxing, I mean those moments like when you're stuck in traffic or waiting for a train etc. Start thinking about your day ahead or prioritizing the things you need to do when you get to work or home. Then once you're where you need to be you already know how you're going to get stuff it done and how to make a start.

LIMIT MULTITASKING

Yes, it’s brilliant when you multi-task and it works. But more often than not, by splitting up your focus and concentration on two or more things means your probably not able to do them at the best ability you could. Of course certain things like writing and listening to music can happen simultaneously and it’s all good, but try writing, watching TV, talking on the phone and eating a sandwich...no, you’ll either have mayo on your top or you’ll drop your phone. Try and focus on one thing at a time!

REWARD YOURSELF

After all of that time managing and task completing you deserve a break. Grab a cuppa and watch some mindless TV or a film you’ve been dying to see. When you accomplish something that was difficult or time-consuming, celebrate! However you choose to do it make sure you're giving yourself credit each day for being productive and getting what you needed to done! Okay, okay, so maybe a Matilda sized chocolate cake after every accomplishment could end up being counter-productive….but, you get my gist right?

Even if these tips aren’t right for you or you have other ways of managing time, just make sure your not living life just going through the motions. Managing your time efficiently means you’ll have more time doing productive things and also more time to do the things you love. 

What's your favourite way of making sure you get stuff done?

Thanks for reading!