A healthy dose of hot!

HOTTTT

Just a little dose of hottness, will make any red blooded female happier!! 

Enjoy

Got the Blues?

Today I have been feeling pretty stressed and grumpy. I have always had this mantra that happiness is a choice, that you can stop yourself from being sad, but even I forget this sometimes. At the moment we are trying to find a new house to rent out for our final year at uni, the problem is, most of the 4 bed houses are gone and the ones left are utter dumps. So I started to feel down and then I decided to take Barney Stinsons advise...

Here are my top 5 tips to cheer yourself up and get back to being awesome again!

1. Turn on some of your favorite music, loud, jump around and sing loudly! This works for me every time!
2. Doll yourself up! When I feel blue, I put on one of my favorite outfits (even if I'm just sitting around the house) and I do my hair and makeup, looking good on the outside, makes you feel better on the inside!
3. Get together with some friends and tell them you need cheering up, I know in my case, my friends come up with some hilarious ways to make me smile!
4. Tidy! This probably sounds weird, but when I'm sad its often about something I can't control, but I can control how tidy I am, so I go on a cleaning spree (cleaning also helps to take your mind off things)
5. Plan something you know you will enjoy, (I'm planning an outing for tomorrow night right now haha)

So there are some simple tips to cheer yourself up fast! Just listing them has made me feel ten times better!

New term, new me?

So the new term at uni finally started this last Monday, and surprisingly I am actually enjoying getting up early and being productive. This however is not always the case. I am by nature an excruciatingly lazy person, I don't want, nor intend to be, but I often find myself slipping into my lazy habits. I have found University sometimes difficult for this reason. If you want to do well, you have to be very independent, there are no text books you can learn off by heart that contain the whole syllabus, no one really cares about your attendance and there are no teachers or parents hassling you to work. So actually getting myself to do some work was a very difficult task.

I call what I have, the curse of the lazy ambitious person (many people I know have it), I want to do well and I know that I can, but I'm too lazy to ever get on with it. I then hate myself for not working hard enough. I get myself into this vicious circle of self disappointment, which in turn makes me less likely to get off my bum and do some work!

But I'm not going to sit here and whine about my problems, I am not often a self pitying person and I certainly don't appreciate the trait it in others. I am known in my house for giving the honest sometimes harsh truth, usually involving phrases like 'man up' and 'just get on with it'. So this post is mainly for myself, telling myself, and others like me, to start being more proactive and to grasp every opportunity that comes my way, instead of thinking 'I can't be arsed!' I am trying to loose the lazy part from my curse and instead just be ambitious!

Makeover madness...

I live with 5 girls, and that means we like to do some very girly things like.... MAKEOVERS!!!
I especially love giving makeovers, as it gives me an excuse to play around with all my makeup. So here is a picture of one of my beautiful house mates Izy, who has about 3 pieces of makeup and doesn't even own a hairdryer (sacrilegious!!)

 Izy before

Izy after

These pictures were taken last Thursday, in preparation for our end of exams big night out! I think she looks great!

Cheers!!

A Love Story (Urban Decay)

As I mentioned in my last post, I have a bit of an obsession with makeup. Makeup is probably one of my favorite things to shop for, I love all the lipstick and eyeshadow and I have a whole draw dedicated to all my makeup!

My current makeup obsession is Urban Decay, which I first learnt about from a friend last year. Said friend had the ability to go clubbing, pass out in her bed, wake up still fully dressed, her hair a mess, but her makeup still almost perfect. This was amazing to me, so on one such day, (whilst I looked on with my serious post night out pander eyes) I asked her what her secret was. She told me about this Urban Decay makeup she had been bought, that came with an eyeshadow primer.

The amazing eyeshadow primer!

After learning about this miracle primer I invested in some myself and fell in love.I now have a growing collection of Urban Decay gear, including a few palettes (which come in a fantastic range and very pretty packaging) various primers, highlighters and makeup brushes.

A sample of my Urban Decay collection

For Christmas I was bought two of my favorite pieces of Urban Decay makeup, the Naked Palette and the Midnight Emergency set. I love the Naked set, it comes with lots of versatile eyeshadow colours, lots of bronzes, browns and pinky which are great for subtle day looks and can be vamped up for a great evening look. Another reason I loved this purchase was that it came with a small bottle of the eyeshadow primer potion and a fantastic makeup brush, all of this combined makes it one of my favorite pieces of makeup!


My second favorite piece of Urban Decay makeup is the Midnight Emergency set. It comes in a pretty zip up silver case which I love. It is small and the perfect size for most handbags which is great for any little makeup emergencies (perfect name hey!) The set comes with four great  eyeshadow shades, some pink glittery lip gloss and a makeup brush. I especially love the lip gloss, which comes in the shade, midnight cowboy, It really makes your lips tingle and tastes like spearmint!


Now that I have discovered my love for Urban Decay makeup I am turning all my family towards it, going with my mum, aunt and cousin for a little makeup spending spree over the holidays. The only problem is, is that Urban Decay do not have their own stores in England, or even an online store, so you have to depend on it being stocked in other shops, which can really limit your choice sometimes! None the less however, it, as of yet, has not stopped me spending my very limited funds on lots of makeup!

Hope you enjoyed!

So it begins...

Hello lovelies! 

Yesterday I finished my exams!!! WOOOOOO!!! I had a surprisingly good exam and now, finally, I’m free! Since I no longer have to revise all day, I can go out again, dress up and dance until the early hours!

So I thought I would bring you along with me on the process of getting ready for my night out! Below is a beautiful (not!) shot of me after getting back from my exam, I have to say the major eye bags really suit me, no?

After I washed my hair, I used two of my new favorite products, Lee Stafford- Arganoil miracle heat defense spray and Arganoil nourishing miracle oil. They leave my hair feeling soft, healthy looking and shiny, and since I had decided to straighten the life out of my hair, it needed all the help it could get!

I decided to sweep my full fringe to the side for the night, and go to town on my hair with my straighteners. I prefer my hair curly or natural usually but when you go to a club it gets sooo hot and sweaty and my hair, with it being as thick as it is, ends up looking like a puff ball!

Finally I put all my slap on! I love makeup, and I have no end of it. My favorite brand is Urban Decay, and I own a lot of it! I used 'creep and 'gunmetal' from my Naked palette and some rimmel 'gold rush' shadow on my eyes, with my urban decay mascara. I prefer using bronzes and golds usually, I feel that they suit my colouring better, but I decided to go for something a bit different this time around!

So There is the finished product, off to paint the town red! I had a fantastic night, we went to a small club in Leeds called Wire, its a tiny little place and our group pretty much filled half of it! 

I hoped you enjoyed this little post, sorry at the poor quality photos, but I took them all on my web cam! Now I am going to go off back to sleep!

The tragic tale of the mug

This is a story about a mug, a mug that came to an untimely demise and is left as an empty shell of its former glory. This mug was purchased by me approximately a year ago in Urban Outfitters for about £10. Expensive for a mug I know, but it was an awesome mug…

The very same night I bought this mug, the block I lived in at uni had planned a group outing. The music was cranked up the beer pong table was brought out and the alcohol began to flow. I, being the extremely smart person that I am, decided that I should use my brand new mug to drink from on this fateful night. We all steadily got drunker, louder and of course a lot more clumsy and yet my mug was left unscathed.

A highly unattractive picture of me, with said mug.

We went and danced the night away returning at around 4:00 AM for cheese toasties in one unlucky persons flat. At this point my memory gets slightly hazier. I took my mug and went to return it to my own flat to keep it safe from harm. I put it on the kitchen counter, and as I went to turn to leave, knocked the mug onto the floor smashing it into pieces.  

I imagined I looked something like this, when I had seen what I had done

Instead of doing what any normal person would do, I decided now would be the best time to fix the mug, and so began the search for superglue. I managed to acquire some, from where I don't know. I stumbled back down to my own flat and proceeded to totter through my hallway singing at the top of my voice ‘SUPERGLUEEEEE, SUPEERRGLUUUEE!!!!’ Which pissed off numerous members of my flat.

Now superglue even at the best of times is a bit of a bugger to use, when drunk however it is a nightmare! I ended up with the mug stuck to my fingers, waving it around my room. I don’t know how I managed it, but in the morning I found the mug glued back together (quite well I might add) with only a few faint bloodstains on it. 

The mug now however drips, so can no longer be used as a tea mug. And so my once beautiful mug, now sits on my desk, as a very handy pen holder.

Dreaming of cushions, lights and mirrors...

Today, I'm going to talk about one of my many passions (I tend to get passionate about rather a lot of things!). That passion is decorating and interior design, I love to make things and shop for rooms. I have many trinkets and decorations in both my room at uni and at home, I can spend hours moving and arranging furniture until it feels just right. I love all sorts of types of interior design and that often is my problem, I have lots of mismatching pieces of different colours and styles and I can never get anything to work quite right.

Ideally I would love to recreate what is in the pictures below...

But alas my room is not nearly as stylish and pretty as these above. In reality I am far to scruffy and cluttered to ever keep my space looking as tidy as the rooms in the pictures above. However I have had a try at making my very bland room at university fun and homey!

Most of the pieces in my room have been modified or made by myself with the help of my mum (She in reality doing most of the work). She made the bunting and sewed onto it the little metal hearts that go across my fireplace. We found lots of cheap little things to make the room prettier, the small white lanterns came from Hobby Craft and the candelabra and clock came from the Range. The jug of flowers, fairy lights, mirror and small pink vase, in which I put popery all came from Ikea. The vintage style world map in the first picture, is actually wrapping paper that I found in a little boutique in Norfolk, it only cost me £2, but when framed looks like a real poster. I have also used my Christmas presents, Juicy Couture perfume bottles as decorations! All of this together didn't cost very much, which is important when you are on a tight budget like me!

So as I resist the temptation to buy more and more little bits and bobs for my already jam packed room, I dream of a time when I will have a whole house to furnish, not that I will ever be able to afford it!


Check out my mum, who has just started a blog herself!
http://dawntheconstantcrafter.blogspot.com/

Mood Board

So, as I have before mentioned, I am suffering through a period of exams. As crappy as that is, I have something that cheers me up whenever i need it.That something is my wall of happy! This wall is the backdrop to my desk, and so when I start loosing the will to live, I just have to glance up to get a big smile back on my face. 

 

This wall is full of all sorts of things that make me happy, photos of friends and family, pretty cards and one or two hot men (yum). It even has little trinkets, like the heart my cousin Clarissa made for me last year and a silly little plastic medal that we won at the zoo in the summer. All of these things remind me not to get too stressed, that soon enough this time will have passed onto something a hell of a lot more enjoyable!

So if like me you can become preoccupied with stressful things in your life, create something like I have, your very own pick me up! :)

A little update

Why, hello again! I am already feeling addicted to blogging! So I thought I would post again and tell you a bit more about what I am up to at the moment.

Well as it is January, I have recently returned to University, to my freezing cold house with slight damp in the walls. With the return of university brings an unpleasant period of time however, exams. Now these exams are part of the reason why I started this blog, as a sly form of procrastination; I can't feel guilty about not revising, if I am doing something as productive as starting a blog now, can I? 

This year I have 3 exams, one of which I have already bashed out, the second two however are dreaded. On Monday I have to write 3 essays on Population and Community Ecology (a riveting subject) and on Thursday a Statistics paper (even more riveting). So at this point in time, my soul has been somewhat destroyed, but I know I have next Thursday evening to look forward to, a night of revelry and debauchery (I joke... well probably). Once my exam finishes at exactly 11:30 AM I plan to go home and pop open a bottle (or two) of Pink Fizz, my favorite kind of alcohol, cheap, sweet and fizzy!

Now back to revision…

Welcome!

Hi, and welcome to The Twining Vine, a blog about anything and everything! You may think the name of the blog is somewhat strange, but all will soon become clear... My name is Bryony, which as some of you may know, is the name of a twining vine. Probably not the most flattering name when you come to learn that the plant Bryony is highly destructive and invasive, but I love the name none the less and it is a pretty plant!

So away from my name, as interesting as I know everyone must find it, and onto what I hope this blog will become.  I would love this to be an outlet for all sorts of interesting, outlandish, helpful, and aggravating (and all sorts of other adjectives) stories, tips and whatever else I think someone would want to read.I hope I can offer some sort of entertainment!

On to a little information about me, I am a 19 year old, second year at Leeds university, studying a BSc in Zoology (which does not mean I plan to become a zookeeper). I live in a rented house with five other girls, who are also students. I have wonderful parents and older brother, who are eager to have a read of my first ever blog post!

This is me!

Enjoy!