Happy Birthday I Guess

So its been exactly a year since i posted last. I dunno what i was on that night/day but i was on a roll. On the same day last year that i wrote my last blog post, i also took the plunge and set up my own business. I set up a Facebook page, ordered business cards and started designing a website. All on that same night. And now its been a year and i find myself thinking was it even worth the time spent awake. I have had some moderate success at Christmas time with my business ( i make and sell artisan confections and baked goods) and some small orders for birthdays or weddings. But it hasn't taken off as well as i thought. Not that i was planning to quit my day job over it or expecting to become a millionaire over night making fudge and cookies. But i thought that i would be a little bit further along the ladder of success.

I have been making and selling my creations for over 3 years now and have always gotten positive feedback. People love my stuff, buy it in bulk at Christmas time and tell all their family and friends about me. Now i wonder was that all for show. If people truly liked my stuff, they would buy it. They wouldn't need to wait for the fattening that is Christmas, they would just buy it for a Saturday night junk food binge session.
But alas that is not how it is. Sometimes i go so long between orders i almost forget how to make the stuff, like if i don't get an order for macarons the recipe just falls out of my head.

I'm not ready to give it up but i am already finding myself no longer pushing as hard. I need to be reset, just unplug me and wait a few seconds. Maybe all i need is sleep, but that sounds like crazy talk

I don't think anyone reads this but if you do.... whats up? do you like chocolate? i'll send you some

Nova
x

Looks like its gonna be a nice day......maybe

Well its 07:46am on Friday morning and its pretty nice outside my living room window. I can see the hills and mountains in the distance and the sky..., well its up there alright. Going to be a quiet day today, have to work later on this evening for a little while but that's always fun on a Friday.

I haven't really been up to much these last few months.

I have been working hard to lose weight (again). I still find it sorta comical that for almost 18 months my job was to help people lose weight and now, i cant seem to keep it off myself. But I am doing quite well, i'm pretty pleased with my progress.
My boyfriend and I went to a wedding a few weeks back and I had told myself I didn't want to wear some massive sack dress and not be in any pictures. I actually wanted to enjoy the day, feel good and look sexy. So i dug my fucking heels in and coped the fuck on and i lost over 20 lbs in about 8 weeks.

High fives all around.
I weigh in on Wednesday nights, so i have just been two days ago and i lost 2 lbs. So, taking into consideration the poundage put on over the weekend away (its amazing what a buffet breakfast will do to your diet), i currently have 22lbs off.
I am hoping to be at my target weight by late October for my holiday so i don't have to suffer the awful shame of not being able to get the belt fastened on the plane. Fuck you Ryanair, you make me feel bad. Cunt!!

I won't apologise for cursing just so ya know...i curse like a sailor who just stepped on a piece of lego that is on fire. So theres that....fuck balls McGee. Also, i get more odd the more tired i am so lets just say right now, pretty fucking ood.

Anyhoozle, thanks for stopping by

Nova
x

Seriously...Again...Really!!

I feel like sometimes i never should have unpacked after the first time.

I have just moved house again for the 3rd time in the last 4 years.
But i do honestly think (and hope) that this is it for me, for many many years. No more fucking moving. Ever. Well, not without paying someone else to do it for me. The idea of moving house again within the next 10 years makes me feel physically ill

My little family unit has just moved into out first real family home. A house that is truly ours. A place we can put our own stamp on and call our home.
We can hang things and paint the walls. We can change the curtains and pick what flooring goes in. We got to choose what kind of furniture we wanted (and only what we needed also) and we can do what we like with each room. Its really freeing.

Of course, at the moment, im not thinking about doing anything with the house. We had to be moved in 6 days before Christmas which was stressful as hell especially when the house we moved into didnt have floors or a kitchen when we got the keys 3 weeks prior to that. Yeah, we had 3 weeks to move in.

Crazy times, but we managed. Somehow.
I have a new admiration for professional cleaners. I mean, between leaving the old house and moving into the new house and the mess caused by putting in floors and carpet and what not, it was a butt load of cleaning.
But it was all worth it.
Its hard to believe we have been here in our new home almost a month now.

For such a young family ( both my boyfriend and I are 25 and our son is 5) we have moved a lot.
My boyfriend has lived in 11 different places since he was born, i have lived in 9 and my son has lived in 4 different places and moved 3 times.

But I'm glad we have this stability now.

Right now, outside the ground is covered in a thin layer of snow and its supposed to snow more as the night wears on. Its been a weird day for me.

I don't know what prompted me to write here again but it just sort of flows sometimes.

Today was a black day for the world
RIP Alan Rickman
A true gentleman if ever there was one. 


Nova

xx

Coconut Oil in Nova's World

Ok here is a fun little post

My uses for COCONUT OIL

Now let me start by saying I don’t believe that there are 1000+ uses for coconut oil, but I have found it extremely useful in a lot of situations.

And I LOVE the smell of coconut

This is the Coconut Oil that I use

So let’s start with…

BEAUTY

• I love using it on the ends of my hair, which are constantly being fried with bleaching and coloring. When I come out of the shower, I little dry my hair with a towel so its stills pretty damp and then rub a little in through the ends. I don’t put the oil anywhere near my roots as my hair can get greasy very quickly just by touching it is great on the dry ends.

• I know a lot of people swear that coconut oil is great for your face even if you have oily skin but I haven’t had great amazing results with it. Instead, I love to use it on my legs after shaving them and of course, it’s great to stop any little nicks from bleeding.

• It’s great for dry patches like on the elbows and if I’m looking to pamper myself, I will put 2 tablespoons of oil into some hot water and steep my feet in it. Makes them so soft and helps in the removal of dead feet skin. Mm mm!

• It is a very useful eye makeup remover. I wear eye liner every day. I can go without eyeshadow, foundation, even concealer but I can’t forego my eyeliner. And because the eyes are such a sensitive area, I don’t like to use harsh chemicals or even soap near them on a daily basis. So a little oil on a cotton pad and it’s off.

• A lot of posts I have read say it is great on your lips and it is, If you like the smell and taste of coconut (which I do). It’s a natural lip conditioner and it makes your lips buttery soft. However, it is extremely difficult for this to be an on-the-go treatment. I have put a scoop of the oil in a small empty lip balm pot and popped it in my bag. Go to fish it out later and I have a pot of liquid oil. You see, Coconut oil is a SOLID product and melts to a liquid at body temp. It’s easy to scoop some from the jar and rub it between your palms as it melts with skin heat and it will solidify again when it gets cold. Not handy if you want to bring it with you to the beach or on holiday but for at home, it’s great. I keep some in a small jar in my bathroom and I put it on my lips after a shower or when I wash my face.

• It’s really useful for softening your cuticles and makes your nails look and feel great after than manicure you just spent hours working on. I don’t use it all over my hands as I find it takes ages to sink in and there is nothing worse than trying to do things with oily hands. So I just rub a small bit into my cuticles using a cotton pad. It works wonders.

FOOD

• One of the first things I used coconut oil for in the kitchen was to thin down melted chocolate when I was making cake pops. If you use too much, it will flavour the chocolate but again, if you like coconut this isn’t so bad. But in small amounts, it is great for thinning down the chocolate and makes it much easier to get a smooth coat on your cake pops.

• Coconut oil is also a fantastic substitute for butter and if you are interested in trying a vegan diet but still want something sweet, then you can bake with coconut oil instead of butter. Even if it’s not vegan you’re going for but simply a healthier diet, then coconut oil is a great substitute. It is still oil and as such should be taken sparingly. But in comparison to other oils, it is a much healthier and of course much more natural oil.

Here is a delicious recipe I have tried for super moist banana bread.
http://kidscooking.about.com/od/quickbreadrecipes/r/moist-banana-bread-coconut.htm

It’s a really simple and fast recipe. And if you are looking for great ideas on how to use coconut oil in cooking, check out Pinterest. That’s where I find all of my ideas.

• It is so delicious in stir-fries and curries as well. If you use it sparingly, it won’t make everything taste like coconut. Instead it will give it a nice hint of coco-nutty flavour.

HEALTH

• One of my newest uses for coconut oil is that it makes an incredible after sun and I’m putting this under health and not beauty because sun care should be a health concern and not a beauty one. We only get one skin in life and we should do what we can to protect it. Now I live in Ireland and of course stupidly underestimated the strength of the sun and got badly burned on my shoulders. When I got home and noticed how red my skin was (like fire engine red) I applied some coconut oil and felt immediate relief. It didn’t sting like some after suns I have used and it smelled great. The next morning, my skin had calmed down from a lobster red to a warm pink. I was amazed, never had I had such a quick effect from an after sun. My skin feels (and looks) great now after 3 days. Rest assured, I will make sure I wear sun cream for the rest of the summer even if it’s cloudy outside but it’s great to know that I have a natural after sun in my kitchen cupboard.

• It is great for minor cuts, scratches and stings. It can help kill bacteria and I would much rather put coconut oil of my son’s knees after a fall than something with all sorts of chemicals that is going to sting and burn him.  And with the added benefit of it being a great moisturizer, it helps with his eczema.

• Speaking of my son, he had horrific eczema for the first 3 years of his life. So many times he was given harsh steroid creams and medication to ease it. Eventually, it subsided and he was much better. But every now and then he gets dry scaly patches of skin and it worries me that the eczema will be something he will deal with forever. So now, when I see one of the patches of dry skin, I rub a little coconut oil onto it. It does wonders and again, it is natural so that’s a super bonus.

All in all, Coconut Oil is pure dynamite and even if you never use it in the kitchen, keep it in the bathroom.

love

Nova xx

Whats the What??

Its been a little while since I have had time to write anything that remotely resembles the English language, my head has been all over the place.

But here goes, I think I'm pretty steady today.

The weather here is beautiful, really hot but somewhat cloudy. Just how I like it. It was pretty bright yesterday and or course, being semi-idiotic, I got bitchin' sunburn on my shoulders. It is super ouchy.

I didn't have any after sun or aloe but a lot of people have turned me on to coconut oil and its amazing benefits and how you can use it on sunburn, I must say, its seems to be working really well. My skin is not bright fire engine red today but more of a warm pink and all i have applied to it is coconut oil so that's cool.

I might write a post about all the ways I use coconut oil for soon (after sun now included in that list). It is quite a versatile product.



Not much has been going on in my life. My hair is blue now but that's nothing new, i dye it quite frequently. Its feeling pretty gross today because I like to keep the colour bright for as long as i can and that means NO SHAMPOO. Its been doused in dry shampoo but its still feeling icky.
 Here is the colour on my head

Ignore my lack of face, but i have no makeup on. I don't usually care about being sans makeup and have no problem going out and about bare faced but when it comes to taking photos, i just like how makeup makes my skin look.

My son finished preschool yesterday and that was an experience. He goes to primary school this September and it so surreal to think i will have a 5 year old school going uniform wearing child in just over 2 months time. Weird!

I'm feeling a little blah these days, feeling a little boring and gray. I need some sort of artistic outlet soon and if i dont get it, i feel the summer may take me.

Maybe I'll just have to spend more time on this blog.

But for now, I must go sit in the sun

Love

Nova

xx

Crazy Times call for Super Awesome Crazy Nova

Oh wow, it has been an insanely busy week.

One of the best parts of my year is a festival that i help organise in my home town.
It runs over the June bank holiday and this years festival is 10 times bigger than other years.

In the few months leading up to it, its mostly committee meetings and calling/emailing/facebook-ing people, nothing too strenuous or demanding.
But in the 2 weeks before it, all hell breaks loose.

We decorate the town top to bottom with flags and bunting and pretty things, put up signs all over the county, stick up posters and hand out leaflets. And that is all heavy lifting and up and down ladders.

The week of, we have to run around and check every little last thing to make sure its all ready to go. My phone has not stopped ringing since Friday and I FUCKING LOVE IT. 

I love this part almost as much as the actual weekend itself. The adrenaline is pumping and you have to think on your feet. Something goes wrong and you cant panic or cry. You just have to fix it.

Last year, some of our talent and our bouncy castle company cancelled last minute ( 3 days before our launch) and instead of freaking out, i just thought.... I can totally fix this. I thrive under pressure.

It made me stronger. We all need to face things like that in life to make us stronger.

I dont mean life or death situations because I dont even know if i could handle that, but situations where if you dont think on your feet, everything will fall apart.

It makes us stronger and we need that to help us grow as people.

There are two types of situations in life that you will face

Those you have no control over and Those you do have the power to fix if it goes wrong

We have no control over the weather so it makes no sense to spend time worrying or stressing when nothing we say or do has any affect on the outcome. Just let it happen

But if someone cancels at the last minute and you have 5 minutes to get on the phone and call a replacement, then you should and then it is ok to worry a bit. Keep calm, breath and fix it. And if you have tried everything and it cant be fixed, pat yourself on the back for working your butt off and trying and go about your day. Its not the end of the world

Festival starts on Thursday night but opens officially on Friday. Wont end until Monday night.

5 days of little sleep, eating on the go, music and art and dance and culture and noise and fucking awesome people.

Hell yeah...bring it on

Nova xxx

What are words anymore??

I worry ( a lot ) about the state of the English language. I know that slang has been a thing for many years ( hundreds in fact ) and that making up words is nothing new.
*We will not speak of bae*

But i have a serious problem with a word i just discovered - BRONDE!!

What the actual fuck.

This is a product by L'Oreal and it claims you no longer have to settle on being just Brown or just Blonde. Now, you can be Bronde.

THIS IS NOT A NEW COLOUR NOR DOES IT NEED ITS OWN NEW WORD.
This is brown hair with blonde highlights. Something a clever hairdresser thought up maybe 20 years ago. This style was really in in the early 2000s.
I myself had a style like this when i was 15.

The words Brown and Blonde already exist. Highlights are already a thing. Hell, you could have brown lowlights on blonde hair if that was your thing. You do not need to create a word to describe this hair style, it has been around for years.

I used to work in a salon and if i was still there today, i can guarantee I would be smacking bitches who asked for Bronde hair.

I weep for the future of hair and people in general.

Nova xx