taryn k.

Had a little fun with my nail polish this week - I decided to try the glitter accent nail. Most people really didn't understand, but I thought it was pretty and something a bit different from my normal nails. The purple is a Sportsgirl colour, Grape, which I'm pretty sure is part of the permanent range, and the glitter polish is Confetti from Jesse's Girl (which I'm pretty sure has been discontinued, on the website at least). Grape took three coats to get my desired level of opacity, Confetti look about nineteen. Haha.

Happy Thursday everyone! Almost the weekend again, yay! My plans for the weekend consist of painting my bedroom and bathroom - then I'll only have one room to do and the house will be finished. Not particularly exciting plans, but I can't wait.

I thought I'd share with you my most recent hair-colouring episode - mostly because I'm so happy with the result. Now, my Mum is a semi-retired hair dresser and while she doesn't seem to really mind cutting my hair for me (after you beg and beg), but I feel bad asking her to colour my hair all the time because I know she doesn't like doing it. About six months ago I decided I wanted to go a lot lighter than my natural hair colour, and Mum obligingly did it for me. It look for.ev.er. Since my hair is so long it was quite a task - about two hours worth - and quite difficult. I loved the result, but hated the maintenance. As well as hating getting roots (something I've never had to worry about before), I hated having to bug Mum all the time for touch ups.

So after I think three root touch ups, I decided that was enough. And I decided to take matters into my own hands. I took myself to my local Woolworths to find an at-home colouring kit. I found this baby:

I didn't actually notice that on the box until I got home - I picked it for the colour. Sadly I forgot to take a before photo - but it would've shown you a hole lotta dark roots and a kind of brassy blonde-ish brown colour.

I was a little nervous that it might make my hair even lighter since it does have lightening properties. But -

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!

I love it. It's not really much darker than it was before the colour, but it seems to be a much nicer tone, less brassy, roots completely gone. This is about a week after the initial colouring, but I wanted to see how it settled before I took photos. I would definitely recommend this product for anyone with light brown hair wanting a subtle change. Worked out incredibly well for me :)

I figure since I'm in the mood today, I might as well post my nail polish of the day. I've stuck with Essie and gone for Bootleg, which I picked up in my most recent haul from BeautyZone2007 (which was a while ago, mind you). I'm not usually a fan of fleshy/pastel pinks on my skintone, but this one is not so bad! I love the formula, it goes on really smoothly and evenly, and is quite opaque after the second coat. It looks quite shimmery in the bottle, but comes out creamy on the nails (which is great for me since I hate shimmer).

I'm desperately in need of a new everyday handbag. I've been carrying around one from Sportsgirl since...mmm...must've been at least April last year. I love it - so much - but the leather is all scratched up. Here, I'll show you:

I wore it with a pair of black jeans that have zippers all over, and the zipper tore the leather. I was so devastated, since it was only about a month old at the time. So I just dealt with it, but now I'm almost ready to move on.

Apparently, judging from my picks on Polyvore, I'm kinda into a more structured bag with a shoulder strap and chain detailing. And apparently I'm into the darker, more wintery shades. I think I'm just into winter in general at the moment.

Nail polish this week is Essie's Lapis of Luxury, from their 2010 Resort Collection (actually it could be 2009). I freakin' love this colour, and I'm not usually a fan of blue polish. This is different - I suppose I would call it a periwinkle blue. The photos don't really capture the

Now - it may look like I've been biting my nails, but no. They broke off when I was moving filing cabinets around at work (we just had a refurbishment). They were so long, I was so proud! Ah well, start again.

I've placed myself on a two month beauty/fashion purchases ban. In February I went mad, buying pretty much everything in sight - which, although fun, was not very good considering we want to purchase a new, large house in the not too distant future. This is the haul that inspired my ban - apparently I got all excited about all the winter clothes starting to arrive in shops. Sad thing is, I've still got to wait a little while before I can wear most of this!

This knit is off the shoulder and so chunky and cozy - my favourite winter purchase so far. I haven't got anything off the shoulder (shame on me!), but this might be the start of something :)

For some reason, this skirt is all crumpled up - weird coz I haven't worn it yet. I picked this up because I don't actually have any lighter coloured high-waisted skirts, and I think this is a great classic basic to have.

I'd probably call this a sweater-dress. Again, nice and cozy with ribbed arms and collar. Can't wait to wear this with tights and my thigh-high boots (you'll see them in a minute) on a wintery day at the football. This actually makes me want to go to the football. How sad ;)

I know this dress looks not much on the hanger, but I swear it is the most flattering dress I have owned thus far. I've worn it about five times already, for all different occasions - birthday parties, work, shopping, dinner.

I'm really into this style of shorts at the moment - I think they're called skater-shorts. They're high-waisted, but loose, they almost look like a skirt when you have them on. This particular print reminds me so much of the first Whitney Eve collection, which I loved.

I'm not sure about this foundation. It definitely has the all day staying power it claims to have, but the colour range isn't very wide. This shade is probably slightly too dark for me, but I will keep trying to make it work. I'm finding it applies best using fingers, but I haven't tried stippling yet.

Woo! Thigh-high boots! I've been waiting to find the right ones, ones that wouldn't make me look all "Pretty Woman" ;) I think these are it! I can't wait to start wearing these, but I think it's going to be quite a little while longer yet.

So that's my haulin'. Don't expect one for March or April (gulp, that's a long time) because I plan on staying strong during this ban. I can do it, I can do it!

I'm not one to usually purchase anything from Portmans - I think it's all a little too grown up and polished for me - but I must admit, I am absolutely loving the accessory line for A/W11. Little miss lovely, Abbey-Lee Kershaw, is the face of the campaign, so I suppose that's not hurting their sales either!

I love the neutral and military-inspired colour palette they're using for this season. The last bag reminds me of one of my favourite bloggers, Marianna - although, she would probably wear it in black. Love it, would make a fantastic casual evening bag. Might be the item I end up purchasing.

Man, I am pooped. I just went to a Body Pump class at the local gym, and I'm quite out of practise (I've only been once since my accident in November). I can tell I'm going to be sore tomorrow (and likely, for the rest of the week), but I do feel like I accomplished something. Pump is my favourite workout class - I tried Body Combat, a cardio class based on boxing movements, which I hated (I don't think I'm aggressive enough) and I did Zumba for a little while, which I found to be a complete waste of time and money. I think I hated both those types of classes because I am just not very co-ordinated. Pump seems to not require such co-ordination.

I want to find a good yoga class or dvd as well. I used to do yoga during school but haven't really practised in the past five years and I miss it. My flexibility has suffered a fair bit, although I can still touch my toes - yay! - but it's not as easy as it used to be. I'm really (really) not a morning person but I swear, one day I will get up early and do some yoga to start the day. Maybe I could alternate yoga and going for a jog on my treadmill first thing in the morning.

See, doing Pump puts all these idea's into my head. I suppose it's all those endorphins kicking around up there. Just watch, tomorrow morning when it all wears off I'll be like, "Who the HELL gets up this early?!? I mean, 6:30am, jeez!" and I'll roll over and sleep for another blissful hour.