31 May 2014

A Breakfast kinda Picnic!

Hello! Last weekend I took breakfast over to my amigo's house and we had an indoor breakfast picnic! Whenever Scott and I plan summer days out, the first thing I'll say is "we'll take a picnic", it has pretty much become a standard procedure! There's just something about eating food, sat on a blanket, on a hot summer's day that makes me super excited! But because the weather was crappy here I thought it would be a fun idea to bring the picnic indoors! Two "picnicy" things I have never done, an indoor one or a breakfast one, ooooooooh exciting!
I went into town planning on buying croissants, which easily passes as a breakfasty kinda food. Unfortunately (not) all I could find were these delicious Nutella chocolate chip cookie cakes...
I then popped to our local groceries to buy some fresh fruit to accompany our ever so healthy breakfast! I love going to the groceries to buy my fruit, lets just say I fit in very well amongst all the little grannies early that Saturday morning!
I went for the strawberries and the cherries! Everyone was buying the cherries at the till, so just to make sure I wasn't missing out, I copied... and boy were they tasty!!
I fell in love with the orange juice that was in a cute little milk bottle, is that possible, to fall in love with a glass bottle? So of course this had to join the picnic too!
The cherry scone was a secret... But we did share, I promise!
While digging into all the yummy foods we sat and watched Modern Family! It was such a lovely saturday morning well spent chatting, eating and cosy'ing up on the sofa!
Happy Weekend Everyone!

Love, Laura x

30 May 2014

YouTube: Summer Holiday Clothing Haul




Well hello there! This is rather A BIG deal for me! Yesterday morning I set my FIRST EVER Youtube video live, and oh my was it nervous, scary, exciting, weird,.. a lot of different emotions going on there! But I have finally ventured out into the world of Youtube and I am so so happy that I have! I am forever watching haul and beauty related video's on Youtube and I just thought to myself recently, I can do that! Right? Well at least I have given it a go! I know it won't be perfect and I may have said the words "like" and "love" a loooooot of times! I am still learning, but I do apologise in advance! But I love being able to see what new clothing is out on the high street, especially when you can do it sat in you jammy's tucked up in bed! I hope you enjoy my summer holiday clothing haul and hopefully it will give you guys some inspiration for your own holidays!!

You can find me at www.youtube.com/doddslaura OR
Click on the first image to take you directly to my video!

Love, Laura x


19 May 2014

KATE Mascara by Rimmel London / Product Review

Recently Rimmel London have launched their first eye collection by Kate Moss called "Idol Eyes". Immediately I was drawn to the mascara because of the gorgeous packaging that very much reminded me of the "They're Real" mascara by Benefit, because of the shiny metallic colour. To then open the mascara to reveal the unusual broken heart shaped brush I just couldn't wait to try it out! 

This product is so easy to get on with, whilst applying the mascara to my lashes I found the brush gripped so well, catching each individual lash and getting right into the root. Leaving the lashes beautifully separated with no clumps or lashes stuck together (see image below). I cannot bare it when a mascara applies too much product, resulting in spider eyes! You all know what I mean right? You try so hard to separate your lashes by going over and over again with the brush, applying way to much product and merging your lashes together and BAM, before you know it you have a set of spider eyes! 

The broken heart shaped brush helps give your lashes a very natural curve without curling your lashes before hand. Also giving you great definition in every individual eye lash. With the mascara having a smaller tip on the end I find it is very easy to catch all the lashes in the inner corner of my eyes, without getting mascara on my eye lid. This also makes it so much easier to apply the mascara to your bottom lashes too!  The brush fits perfect into the natural shape or your eyelashes, making it very easy to apply without being too vigorous. When applying mascara I like to use the blinking method to ensure my lashes push right into the bristles of the brush covering all around my lashes. 

I would definitely say this mascara gives a more natural look rather then a false eye lash effect. I would wear this mascara for my every day make up because of the voluminous lift that it gives. Whereas for a night time I would opt for a mascara that makes my lashes appear fuller and thicker. 

Well I think I have said the word lashes far too many times and now the word just doesn't sound normal anymore (heehee)! 

Love, Laura x

17 May 2014

We've Got Company!

Hey Guys! Today is my dad's birthday and yesterday some of our most dearest friends, Linda and Jock came over to stay with us for the weekend to celebrate! Which of course meant lots of drinking and eating!! Nibbles is one of my biggest weaknesses, for some reason it seems a lot less harmless eating small amounts of different bits, until the whole bowl of crisps have disappeared and you realised no one else has taken any. Yes this happened... Numerous times! 
So today was such a beautiful day. I woke Scott up at 6 am just to show him how sunny it was outside! Taking advantage of the lovely weather we all went for a walk into town for some lunch and a look around the market. Jock and Eddie found these dead cute ninja turtle caps!
My dad and Linda were very interested in the herbs! (Serious herb faces going on here).
This is the top I bought my dad for his birthday! He is completely obsessed with all Marvel films!
It was so sunny I was actually squinting a little!
A little more browsing... 
Then we hit Lucia's for some lunch!
Unfortunately it was super busy so we had to sit inside!
Most of the day was spent teaching my dad how to use his new "technical" (touch screen) phone! He actually went into Carphone Warehouse to get them to download apps for him! There is no helping him... 
I was really happy we went to Lucia's because I have been dying to try their mussels because Scott has been saying for ages how yummy they were!
They were so gorgeous and afterwards I soaked the sauce up with some crusty bread! Mmmm!

I was very good and held off on buying any new clothes. With me and Scott going to the Trafford Centre next weekend I wanted to wait to look at all the bigger shops to buy all my holiday clothes! 36 days and counting!

I hope you're all having a lovely jubely weekend!

Love, Laura x 

12 May 2014

A Not So Lazy Sunday?

So the day may have started a little lazy but I promise you things get a lot more active! We spent the morning lazying around in bed with Zara listening to the Frozen soundtrack! Zara and one of her many teddies, frog, love to spoon! She is a very good doggy in the morning, she will literally laze about all morning until I decide to get up!
Time for some tummy tickles... 
So here we are, me and my dad have been running together for the last few months training for the Beverley 10k. I ran it last year for the very first time and my dad managed to persuade me into doing it again this year! So here we are just before the race! Looking rather happy considering it was raining outside and the race was literally half an hour away!!
So here is a pretty awesome action shot of me and my dad, taken by one of the photographers on the day! Weirdly I look like I have three legs because of the women running behind me! Though a third leg might have been quite useful actually!
AND WE FINISHED! I managed to finish in 1 minute quicker than last year, which I was so happy about!! My official time was 57 minutes and 14 seconds! Luckily the rain held out until the very last minute and happened at the perfect time as we were passing the finishing line for a nice little cool down! All my family came to watch aswell as Scott and Chelsey! It was so lovely to have them cheering us on at the last stretch to keep us going! I did find it pretty tough, whether that was because I was running with my dad, I dunno!!! ;) But the feeling when I finished was just the best feeling in the world! We bypassed the free bananas and head straight to the pub for some lunch and a well deserved cider!
Later on after a little doze I took Zara for a long walk! She was very interested in the cows this time, soon after she scarpered and ate some grass?! Copying the cows maybe? haha

Love, Laura

7 May 2014

Revlon Nail Enamel / GRAY SUEDE

Hello! Today I wanted to share with you this beautiful nail varnish by Revlon, it's called the Revlon Nail Enamel in the shade "Gray Suede 030". I have fallen in love with this simply because it's such an easy option to painting your nails. I am not going to lie, painting my nails is just one of those things that takes me a long time to get right, ok I am a bit OCD when it comes to paining my nails, I just can't bare smudged or chipped nails!! So if you're like me this one is perfect.

Firstly the shade is this gorgeous nude/champagne colour with a slight shimmer running through it. With it being such light colour it really doesn't matter if you paint over your cuticle or onto your skin because you can hardly tell (shhh, nobody will know). Whereas with a bright colour you have to be super careful and patient - and patient is one thing I ain't. With the slight shimmer in the formula it makes your nails appear more shiny, almost like you are wearing a top coat! Which in these photo's all I am wearing is two coats.

I would recommend two coats with the varnish because the consistency is very thin, but to me a thinner formula is something I much prefer. To create an opaque finish I like to build the colour up with a couple of coats. This way I find your nails are less likely to chip, as you're gradually building the coat up instead of waking on one thick coat. Generally with thicker coats you're are more prone to smudges and chipping.

If I had describe the colour of this varnish it would be "My nail colour, but nicer". I think this nail do if perfect for those lazy days or for those times when you're in a super rush but can't bare to face the day with naked nails! This product dries super quick that once you have completed your first coat on both hands you're ready to go again with the last coat!
P.S why do we all make this horrendous claw with our hands when photographing painted nails, yes, guilty as charged!

Love, Laura

6 May 2014

MAY DAY BANK HOLIDAY - TO THE RACES!

Hello! Yesterday here in England we had a bank holiday, which meant I had a three day weekend! The feeling I got on Friday afternoon knowing I had an extended weekend was just, well, made me a very happy girl! So yesterday I spent the day with Scott, we decided to make a picnic and enjoy a nice chilled out day at the races! With it being a bank holiday, it was just crazy full of people and little children. For once we actually walked instead of relying on our cars, it was nice to being able to take our time and chat along the way! It also meant we didn't feel as bad eating all the yummy foods we'd bought for the picnic!
I wore my floppy hat from Topshop and a lovely bright yellow top from Next! 
I also wore this really cute little necklace I bought from Primark, I absolutely love wearing this, it just adds that extra something to a plain outfit! I got this for only £3! I am just loving all pastel things at the moment, it's my favourite trend for Spring/Summer.
Here was the selection of food we chose for our picnic, along with some Rosè wine and some beers! The carrots and fruit were to cancel out our naughty purchases!! 
Scott looking all handsome...
I actually won! I was so happy because my horse overtook the front two horses right at the last second! We were sat right in front of a massive screen which meant we could be lazy and not move pretty much all day... 
I then put a bet on "Lynngail" later on because my mum's name is Lynn... and she won for me!! Two out of three wins, not bad, not bad!
Scott's sad (losing) face from not winning any of his bets! There was a lot of comfort eating going on in between races...
We had such a lovely day and considering the amount of energy we didn't use, we were so sleepy when we got home, we couldn't resist a little afternoon nap! 

I'm starting to understand horse racing a little better now with a little bit (a lot) of Scott's influence, though I kept using football references, like, pitch instead of course (oopsy!). 

Love, Laura x