My Week in Pictures #46

Uni is very much back in session. Although I've been super busy this week, I've tried to take some time out here and there to enjoy myself.

On Thursday, I headed back to Sydney in the car with Brad and Ellie to see Nine Inch Nails and Queens of the Stone Age. Of course I had to break out the old, distressed NOFX shirt. The gaping holes make it nice and airy when in moshpits. Anyway, NIN and QOTSA were playing at the Entertainment Centre, which is super confusing to drive to apparently. 

We accidentally took a detour onto the Sydney Harbour Bridge and ended up in North Sydney. We promptly turned around, and luckily we made it right on time...

Both bands were incredible, and although it was my third time seeing NIN, and my second seeing QOTSA, I would absolutely see both again and again. And again.

On Saturday night, Dad took me and my siblings out to Rocksia for dinner to celebrate my new job.
I tried oysters for the first time in years and honestly, wasn't too fussed about them. Very salty, sea-watery taste. They taste disgusting with cheese, by the way. J had ribs three ways for his main, and I had a lamb shank in red wine sauce. I'd been looking forward to eating this all week, and sadly it was over-cooked and a bit of a let down.

Dad kindly donated his old fridge to us which was nice. We spent our Saturday afternoon after I finished work scrubbing it down. It's now sparkly white again, and looking a lot more organised (and a little more sparse) than our old fridge. It is a lot bigger than our old one too, which meant we had to re-shuffle our kitchen furniture around to make everything fit. We took this opportunity to get through a heap of organising. I'm in love with our neat kitchen now. 

And we finished off the week with a Sunday Roast Pork. Yumyumyum.

What did you get up to this week?

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Fit Fridays: My 6 Favourite Yoga Poses

In the past year I've really started getting into yoga, and started practicing stretching so much more than I previously was (although I'm still not doing it nearly enough for the level of flexibility that I want)

What I love about yoga is that you can do it at home, in a class, with a DVD...there are so many options available to you! I also love that it's not competitive and it teaches me things. Like patience. Because when you're trying to hold 'plank pose' for 3 minutes, you start learning a lot about patience. I get incredibly frustrated with stretching, because I am really inflexible from years of running without stretching. But I like that in yoga you can see little improvements every time you practice, and for me, that's enough to keep me going.

Anyway, I am still pretty new at it, I'm not a super yogi. But I thought I would share my favourite poses with you. Someone who has been practicing at years might be more flexible in these poses, but that's okay. I also like that yoga can be adapted for every body.
Okay, here we go. My favourites, in no particular order:
(btw I'm not going to pretend to know the proper names for these poses)

Downward dog: I used to do this pose wrong. I focussed so much on pushing the backs of my legs to the floor that I was missing the wonderful shoulder stretch you get out of this one. This pose is adaptable depending on which areas you want to focus on: for a stronger stretch in the arms, bend your knees a little. For a stronger stretch in the back of each calf, peddle the legs gently. You also built a bit of strength in your shoulders as you push the floor away. I used to hate down dog, but it's now one of my favourite poses. Strength and flexy training? Check!

Plank pose: Plank pose is an all-over strength builder. This is part of the sun salutation sequence (which let's be honest, is probably the only real sequence I will do unless given guidance on others). This pose is basic and almost anyone can do it, even if only for a few seconds. I just love this one because every muscle is engaged to hold you straight.

One-Legged King Pigeon Pose: This is another awesome pose because it stretches so many different areas of the body. You can also get a glimpse of just how inflexible I am! This one has a little side stretch (or a backbend if you can do the advanced pose) and is also a hip and chest opener. Once upon a time (okay, only a few months ago) I didn't even have the hip flexibility to stretch my arms above my head. But that's what yoga is! Little improvements, all the time. If you're a beginner you can practice this with just the legs. The back leg stays straight behind you as you try to keep that front leg parallel to your body (although that is super advanced). I love this pose and could relax in it for ages!

Headstand: This is a supported headstand, because the grass under me was quite uneven. I also quite love tripod headstands. Again, this pose is an all-over strengthener. It strengthens your shoulders, arms and your core as you stay upright. Your core is what keeps your heads straight above you, so this is a big core workout. There's also a heap of yoga literature about it increasing blood flow to the head and draining fluid from the feet. And it looks awesome.

Crow pose: Crow is a new one to my yoga repertoire, and one that I have spent quite a number of weeks working on. This balancing posture strengthens your arms, shoulders, wrists and core. It also takes a surprising amount of mental clarity to reach it. And by that, I mean you kind of have to focus on what you're doing to get there. Which is incredibly humbling.

Camel Pose: I've shown you a few poses that are over-all strength builders, but this one is an over-all stretcher. I started this one as a precursor to some more serious back-bending and was surprised at how difficult it actually is. This is a pose that takes a lot of focus and trust in your body. I would recommend doing it with a teacher first though, because it is very easy to get it wrong.

That's it! My favourite poses! Do you practice yoga? Are any of these your favourites or do you have others that you love? Let me know!



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The Lipstick Tag

I was so, so excited when I saw that suelovexx tagged me to write up this post. Lippies have always been my favourite makeup product, so yeah, look. I am happy I now have an excuse to write up this post ahhahaha. 

1. How many lipsticks do you own? 

This is really embarassing. Over 50. not including lipglosses or lipbalms. 

2. What was the first lipstick you owned? 

I honestly have no idea whatsoever. Probably one my mum passed on to me for dress ups when I was a kid. We always had some to play with, although I was pretty terrible at applying it, and would get it all over my lips. I remember one time Mum told us we were going to Coles in about 15 minutes. So I thought I'd "get ready" like an adult, as you do. And for some reason, that just meant putting on bright red lipstick. That day I did apply it really well (for a little kid without a mirror), and I think I was allowed to wear it to the shops, after I complained when I was told to take it off. I was pretty happy that day. 

3. What is your favourite lipstick brand?

MAC have some beautiful finishes. Unfortunately I only own one MAC lippy. This is a really hard question. I don't like to play favourites. Although I do really like Maybelline's lippies. 

4. What is your most worn lipstick?

Uhhhhhhm, my top three are: Revlon Lip Butter in Candy Apple and Berry Smoothie, and Maybelline ColourSensational in Are You Red-dy

5. What is your favourite finish? 

I really agree with Sue, in that I mostly look for whether or not it's hydrating and how long lasting it is, rather than what the finish is. 

6. What was the last lipstick you bought? 

I haven't actually bought any in a while. I think it might have been a Maybelline Colour Whisper in 'Who Wore it Red-er'

7. How many lip products do you currently have in your bag? 

3.... I just dug out the Revlon Lip Butter in Candy Apple, and I have a Bourjois Colour Boost in Red Sunrise, and a Nivea lip balm.

8. What is your favourite red lip colour? 

This is probably the hardest question, ever. Red is my favourite shade, so it's really hard for me to pick a favourite. I recently did a post on my top 6 reds though, so you can read that here. 

9. How do you store your lipsticks? 

I store all my make-up in a chrome drawer set I got from officeworks, and all my lip products live in one drawer of that. They are currently sorted by product type with little containers I got from Daiso, and with the old Bellabox containers. 

10. Which lipsticks are you currently lusting after? 

I am waiting impatiently for the new Revlon Lip Butters to finally hit stores. The display has been empty for weeks now and it is killing me. 

I would love to own some more MAC lippies, and YSL and Chanel are both also on my wishlist. Unfortunately I cannot justify that expense at this stage of my life, so maybe one day, but not today. 

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Daiso Beauty Haul

A couple of weeks ago I had to head into the city to pick up some uni textbooks. As I was walking to the bus stop, I passed a Daiso. I still had some time to spare, so thought I'd head on in. J and I checked out the one in Parramatta back in December, but I thought I'd give it another go. If you're not familiar, Daiso is basically a 100 yen Japanese store, where absolutely everything is $2.80. I picked up a bunch of things to help me organise some things at home, (more on that later) as well as picking up a few beauty items. 

I'm not going to lie, I am a little wary of $2.80 make-up, and wasn't quite game enough to try it. So instead I picked up some lashes:

I also grabbed a bottle of the famous brush cleanser. I'm happy with the cleanser I currently use for my brushes, but for $2.80...how could you not pick it up to try it? What can I say? I am a weapon of massive consumption.

I also picked up these cute nail stickers. I think the lace design is really cute, and can't wait to play with it and show you all how it turns out! 

What are your top Daiso picks?

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