I love to pretend I'm great with Technology and new Social Networking sites, when the truth is that I am crap at it all.

I have had a smart phone for almost a year and only in the last two weeks have I found out how to do a screenshot on it! I take ages doing the most simple things such as uploading on instagram and I can not cope with all the wifi products that connect to anything and everything when I have only just got the wifi figured out on my phone! Im supposed to be able to link all different sites and updates to the people on my phone where I can view their activites just by looking at the person, but be damned if I know how the hell to do it.

By the time I catch up on the technology I own, I'm about 3 generations behind on what the new thing is. To anyone out there like me, who tries and tries and still finds most things confusing, then just fake it. When people start talking to you about wifi capabilities of your toliet (which will happen before long- Mark my words - or don't) Just nod and say 'ahh, now that's interesting, but it will be obsolete as soon as its released, as a newer version will be just round the bend!'

Tell you what pisses me off, are the instructions now. I bought a laptop that had no instructions with it, and my phone came with a booklet the combined size of a sheet of toilet paper (god I seem to be obsessed with toilet analogies in this post!) with a 'Quick Start' guide. They seem to expect that everyone can understand how to use these items without being shown, we are just supposed to know! Hence why I prob use my phone and laptop for only 5% of what they are capable off, as I'm not Tech-savvy and never will be!

I have plenty of friends who could pick up a new Samsung or Iphone and be off in a matter of seconds, not me, I'd struggle just to get the names in the phone book. Alas, even though I suck as such things I still try and won't ever give up trying to stay 'In Touch' with the world.

To anyone who reads my blog religiously, I must apologise for being away for so long and for such sporadic posts, I normally only leave it two days between posts. however this week I have spent the better past of the last 3 days in work, and when I wasn't in work I have been out and about, meeting friends and shopping.

This pattern will unfortunately continue to be my weekly life until the new year. I will try and blog as often as possible and I will make time to do a post of what I got for Christmas, but other than that I don't think I will be posting more than once a week. I feel bad for this as I love coming up with new things to say.

I will be going food shopping tonight, was originally going tomorrow morning, but have just found out my partner is off work and he want to help me to lug it up the stairs to the flat, and who said that chivalry is dead? Once this is done all I have to get is some alcoholic bit and pieces for my Christmas eve fun with Laura and to top up the car with petrol to last me over the festive period.

In my life , the countdown has begun and with all but a few presents to wrap and a big shop to do, im in a good position for Christmas this year and I can't wait!

What are you plans for the next two week?

I've not had an eventful week, bought some nail polish that I have fallen in love with, some Kate moss 107 Lipstick, dressed up for work as a Christmas Chef and had to wear a hat. Bought some lights for the bath, to have a relaxing bath when needed as the light in the bathroom is super bright and not nice when you need to be soothed. a pic of my fav Christmas card I have received so far and the presents I have bought for my best friend all wrapped and ready to tease her!

There are so many different traditions that people do, I have read many different ones and my favorite that I've heard is my friend who moves an elf statue around the house and tells the children that the elf will report to Santa and tell him if they are being naughty. This is fabulous and I may have to adopt this when I have any children.

My first Christmas tradition is putting the decoration up on 30th November ready for December. I don't know why this has come about, but it is what I do every year. My parents were not so strict with the date, but I am.
As soon as all the presents are wrapped they go under the tree, even if their for other people (this makes me look more popular than I am LOL). I always arrange to meet people to exchange presents within two week before Christmas, I can't abide doing it any earlier. this is just my nature, I feel that any sooner and it ruins the run up to Christmas. Though there is one particular friend (Laura) who would open them as soon as she got them so I do my best to get hers to her as close to the big day as possible, this year we are meeting up on Christmas eve.

My best friend and I (Laura - as mentioned above) also have a tradition of buying each other a Christmas Tree decoration each year, This way our decorations grow and we have our own personal story to tell, I would love to start doing this with more of my friends, but then it wouldn't be so special.

I always open one present on Christmas Eve, I never choose a big one, but just something to open to tease for the next day, My husband has embraced this tradition with some rather zealous enthusiasm as he is a giant kid. This has been a tradition for as long as I can remember, My parents used to pick the present for me, to make sure it wasn't my main present, but as an adult I now choose.

I still have advent calenders always given by my mother in law and I have to have a stocking. Once again the big kid was happy to adopt this. I love waking up about 7/8 and opening my stocking, and we always put on our Christmas hats and wear them until we have opened the gifts. Then while I adjust (as I'm not a morning person) Nick makes me a cup of tea/hot chocolate and turns all the lights on as I come into the living room. Then we start to open our presents, we always take turns one at a time and try and have fun and make it last as long as we can.

When I had a dog, we'd always give him the paper to play with, that was the dogs Christmas, paper to eat! After all the present fun, I start to prepare for dinner, peel & cut veg, get stuffing mix ready and normally start cooking about 11. With dinner/cooking comes some alcohol, normally Baileys or Disaronno and Coke an of course some Crackers, and then wear the stupid cracker hats for an hour or two.

These are my tradition and I'm sure there are many others that do this and more,
What are your traditions, I would love to hear what makes your Christmas special!

for anyone out there who has a bad sleeping pattern, I feel with you. I never have a good night sleep, I'm always trying to catch up or oversleeping to compensate.

I've been a bad sleeper for as long as I can remember, It normally takes me anywhere from 45mins to 2hours to fall asleep at night. I normally wake up at least 3 times a night and average about 6 hours sleep (when you minus my wake ups its prob more like 5 hours). At least once a month i will have 4-6 days of only getting 3/4 hours of sleep, so being constantly tired is a part of my life.

Not many people in my life realise that I sleep so bad, and prob think I'm exaggerating. I have been to doctors and gotten sleeping pills and found that they don't really make much of a difference and to tell the truth I felt so much worse after taking them than dealing with the lack of sleep.

Generally lack of sleep can make you groggy, irritable, drowsy, have trouble with memory and basic function. When talking to me you will find a lot of the time I struggle to think of basic words or remember the name of obvious things like the bathroom. It may all seen funny and trivial, but I can tell you that it is irritating and sometimes makes you feel stupid!

For anyone out there experiencing some bad nights or have patterns like mine I just wanted to share a few little things that I do to help me, they don't always work, but sometimes is better than never.

have a hot drink before bed, some milky hot chocolate or just hot milk. try and stay away from tea, coffee or any caffienated products within 3 hours of going to bed.
Take a hot water bottle to bed with you, maybe even put it in the bed 10 mins before you get in, heat can make you sleepy.
if you have not fallen asleep withing an hour (an hour and a half tops) get back up and do something, watch some tv, read some pages of a book. there is no point in lying in bed if you are not sleeping, and sometimes this can cause a psychological effect.
Try and avoid watching tv or taking you laptop into the bedroom, try and keep your bedroom as a calm, dark and quiet place.
If you have a brain that wont ever shut up, try and force it to think about nice things instead of the day, eg, what would you buy if you won the lottery, planning your dream holiday. This may sound strange, but 50% of the time by doing this I force my brain to start day-dreaming and eventually will drift off to sleep.
try and make your bed as comfortable as possible, make sure the sheets arn't creased and the bedding is soft, once again it sounds strange, but if your uncomfortable then you won't sleep.
Also set your alarm and get up no matter how tired you are and don't take any naps, try and set you body back to normal on its own.
If you do have a really bad bout and need sleeping tablets, try no to rely on them, only use them every other night for a week. It's a lot healthier if you can get back to normal on your own.

Q.   What’s your favorite thing about Christmas?
all of it, From the smells to the anticipation, to the cheesy films and bad music, Its just that time of the year that makes me feel in a good mood no matter what. Childhood memories of opening giant presents and playing for hours. Its all so lovely!

Q.   What’s your favorite makeup look for the festive season?
If I have said it before and you've read it I'm sorry, but glitter, I love glittery lip sticks and lip glosses and glitter on the eyes, I especially love gold eye shadows and making your make up fun and festive.

Q.   Real tree or fake tree?
I love the smell of a real tree, there is nothing like it. However I do not have the money to pay £60+ every year for a tree. Plus with the small space in our flat, real ones are generally far to fat to fit in the small space we have for it. Unfortunately I have to say fake, Just because it cheaper (mine is pre-lit and cost £20) and lasts longer.

Q.   Giving presents or receiving presents?
I love to give more than to receive, don't get me wrong I'm not adversed to receiving, but I love to give as much as I can, I will pile presents to my friends and family and spend way more than any original set limit, just because I love them to open them up and enjoy what they have got.

Q.   Do you open your presents Christmas morning or evening?
Christmas morning! I have always had one present on Christmas eve (something my parents allowed me to do) but the morning is when I always had them. I still get up pretty early to open them, though not 6am like when I was a child, normally around 8.

Q.   Handmade Christmas cards or bought?
I'd love to do handmade cards but I have neither the time nor the artistic talent to do so, so its normally store bought from me, though I do spend quite a while picking out everybody's cards and making sure its individual the them.

Q.   What’s your favorite Christmas film?
I love love love A Nightmare Before Christmas, not 100% a Christmas movie, but it is. Its just fun to sing to and I love it. Otherwise I love all 3 Santa Claus movies and normally watch them on the week leading up to Christmas. I also have a tradition of watching Raymond Briggs Father Christmas at somepoint on Christmas Day, I love how hes such a grumpy old git!

Q.   What’s your favorite Christmas food?
Turkey, Stuffing, Christmas Log, I have so many there is just no way that I can choose.

If you read this, then please count yourself as tagged!
taken from makeup pixi3.

This tag was started by Sophia of TattooedTeaLady and I picked it up from Laura of What Laura Did.

Why did you start blogging and how long have you been blogging for?
I started my blog only just over a month ago and I started because my friend told me how fun it was and the sense of accomplishment you feel when when you even reach just one other person, and she was right.

Whose blog did you fall in love with first?
I am a novice to most beauty bloggers however my favorite is Rachel Whitehurst for her downright honesty and the fact that she swears with no apologies. I also love my friend What Laura Did (linked above) and have since found a few good ones that I love to check up on Makeup-pixi3 as well as 40 percent fringe and finally VIPXO.

What was the first blogosphere hyped about product you bought and was it worth the hype?
As I haven't really been blogging long I cant say that I have bought anything yet, but I do have my eye on a few things that I have to try, such as the Urban Decay Naked 1 Palette and Revlon Color stay gel liner in another one, especially as I've heard that it exceptionally good at staying on!

What are your favourite five things about blogging and being a beauty blogger?
1. I love the fact that I can loose hours in looking at reviews and reading about others inspirations and beauty tips.
2. I Love being able to put my thoughts down for other to read and whether I have 1 or 100 readers, i love that my words are out there.
3. I love spending time on me either looking at other blogs or writing something for mine.
4. The fantastic sense of community from other bloggers and the welcoming that is sent out, speaks volumes to me.
5. I trust others words of a product than what a company says and to be a part of that no matter how small is beyond amazing.

What have you learnt from being a beauty blogger?
That things are not always what they seem, silly lesson really, but one that is just as good to apply to life. Hyped up things may not be as good as they say and cheap stuff may live up to a product that way beyond excedees expectation. Also the truth is always good, If I say a product did not work for me, it does not mean that the product is crap, it just means that it was not suited to my skin or tastes, everyone is different, and there is no universal product that will suit us all!

Have you changed anything since being a beauty blogger?
YES, I have started to loosen up in my attitude to make up, I was very set in my way and would not change something if I liked it. I now enjoy testing products and hoping to find items that are better and maybe even perfect for me.

What advice would you give to a beauty blogger just starting out?
I do it for fun, not for fame. think of it as a job that you love and you do it because its important to you, If you reach 10 followers or 1,000 followers it does not matter. if you end up making money from what you do then that is a bonus, but it should be done because its what you want to spend time doing and not because you want internet fame!

Name your top five brands!
MAC, MUA, Rimmel, Benefit & Dior.

Recommend your top five favourite beauty products!
1) MUA Mascara - It maybe cheap but it works as well as mascara priced at £6 or over.
2) Benefit High Beam - I love it because even though I have only started to use highlighter and to start contouring on my face, this is a easy product that add luminocity to my face.
3) Maybelleine watershine diamond lipgloss - now I don't really like the new and improved version, I'm talking about when it first came out 10 years ago and I still have some left. I love the consistency and the staying power, the new recipe just does not live up to the old one.
4) Dior Iconic eyeliner - This just glides on and stays on all night, It is a more expensive choice but for me I have found no eyeliner that matches it.
5) MUA Lipgloss - They are in a great range of colors and glide on the lips, they smell great and even though some of them have glitter in them, it not too much, just a light shimmer effect.

Tag other beauty bloggers to do this tag!
I tag anyone who reads this post to do it. If you do it please leave a comment below with your link as I'd love to read your blog and see what you have to say. xoxo