Saturday 28 February 2015

Carnival Time!

What I really wanted to show in this post was how spontaneous this appeared to be and also how fun it was too. There were drums and music so the atmosphere was really exciting. The costumes were absolutely incredible - just the sheer size of them! They were colossal and covered in glitter and feathers with minisule details. I was surprised that people weren't toppling over left, right and center with the weight of them. It was like they had built themselves a giant personalised shell to walk around in. Everybody got involved from all ages and everyone enjoyed it. As this was all about a dead fish (yeah, I don't get that bit either) there was a giant purple one that got wheeled around, squirting water out it's sides. That caused a little extra chaos. It was so unexpected yet so amazing.

Friday 27 February 2015

BsaB Soy Wax Lemongrass Candle ǀ Review

I think this is really cute. I love that the candle is in a coconut rather than just an ordinary glass jar because, it's a nice idea that makes it seem natural even before you've read the ingredients. When lit, it smells so good. It isn't a really an overwhelming or obvious smell, instead it has a subtle but fragrant scent that cannot be considered distracting. In it's box there is a small stand for it that works upside down also, so you can almost customise how the candle looks, choosing how you like it best. The Soy Wax makes it slow burning so it will last you a lot longer. 

I tested if it floats on water in the sink and it just about does. I guess you could put this in the bath with you if you wanted however, I imagine you'd have to be very still and very careful of the flame! You could take it out after five minutes trying to get an Instagram-worthy pic. I'm too scared to give that a go (or put fire anywhere near my bath) because my friend once told me about a time she tried to have a relaxing, candle lit bath. She'd put candles around all of the sides and, without thinking leant back putting out the flame with her hair. It still makes me cry laughing just thinking about her chilling there, hearing a little sizzling noise and how alarming that would have been. Since then I have avoided that particular idea. If I was going to burn my hair on any candle, I have decided that this is the candle I would want it to be: it smells great, looks great and has a really individual and cute design.


Wednesday 25 February 2015

Malaga, Spain ǀ 2015

I'm sure everyone has been expecting this post for a while due to my posting on Twitter and Instagram about my trip to Spain last week. This was so much fun because I went with my friend Clare and we spent a whole week together exploring Malaga and taking pictures. I don't think I've ever been on holiday with a friend and without my family before but I did really enjoy this. You'd expect your first holiday away from family to be wild (lads on tour! lads! lads! lads!) but no. We decided to spend our free time, when given the independence to go out for a meal together, in the flat eating cereal and watching TV. What a sad person I am. I hope I get opportunity to go again sometime because there was plenty to do there and no possibility of boredom. Malaga reminded me a little bit of Chamonix and a little bit of Mostar (click HERE) for some reason, even though it was very different from both. I loved it. 

Being vegetarian I was worried before leaving about what I was going to eat. I can remember me, Pia and my mum sitting in the car and me asking if eggs existed in Spain. Someone replied "That depends if there is a Spanish chicken" so I then spent the journey home imagining a chicken in a flamenco dress, one wing up, one wing down saying "Olaayyy... an egg!". I feel like everyone has to have a moment where their own insanity is highlighted, even if they don't confess it on a blog. Anyway... I hope you appreciate these photos, I had to click through so many to choose them and I still don't think I've seen all of them. As ever, more photos of the trip are on Instagram if you would like to see them. All the photos of me are taken by Clare so I should probably give credit to her now, for spending so long making me seem slightly more photogenic! I promise that is very rare skill.


Meet Clare btw
Just saying: Spanish eggs do exist. I had a lot of potato omelet there so I'd know. 

Sunday 22 February 2015

Granada, Spain ǀ 2015

During my time in Spain, I was fortunate enough to be able to visit Granada for a day, as well as spending a lot of time in Malaga. There were several things I enjoyed about this trip, firstly the view. I couldn't stand far back enough to get it all in shot but, there were mountains and a city, as well as a castle in sight. If we had of stayed longer, a picture of the sunset over it all would have been amazing. 

We (me and my friend Clare) travelled via a Coach to get there which, was great because each seat had its own TV. There were two films available in English: 'Frozen' and what I originally thought was 'Friends with Ben', which I imagined would be about a lonely kid who gets his life changed at high school or something. I clicked on it and as it transpired 'Friends with Ben' is actually short for 'Friends with Benefits'. This was quite difficult to explain to those sitting on the rows behind me getting various glimpses over my shoulder of naked arses. At this stage I should probably point out I was sitting at the very front of the entire coach. Awkward.

It was pancake day so we had pancakes ("You don't say!"). We stopped at a little tea shop that was decorated in a really lovely way. It was dimly lit, had only lantern and candle light to see by. I thought it had a really nice smell  which I assumed at the time to be some kind of incense but actually transpired to be the other people in the room smoking weed... oops. The pancakes did taste nice though! Granada was filled with funny moments like this, even walking the cobbled streets in my clunky shoes I'd give Clare's parents a heart attack every five minuets as I fell over.



Friday 20 February 2015

An African Experience

Having arrived back from Spain only yesterday, I went out today on an 'African Experience'. This basically consisted of me and my sister being allowed to go into the enclosures of animals, learning about each species and getting to hold and stroke them. We fed Lemurs, held Meerkats, which crawled up the back of my coat and sat in my hood, then proceeded to meet a friendly little Serval, have a Caracal on our laps and then to finally take a look at two giant tortoises. All of the animals were very cute but my favourite were the Lemurs because I was able to feed them. As I posted about this the day it happened, you can tell I had a good time however, if you would like to stay even more up to date, then feel free to add me on snapchat (my username is keatingmary)



If you would like to book a similar wildlife experience go to:
www.willswildanimalencounters.com

Saturday 7 February 2015

Working on a Photo shoot ǀ Missing Photos

To understand this post, you need to have read the first half. If you haven't done so already click HERE before returning to this page. Here are some more unedited photos from the day.

Thursday 5 February 2015

Working on a Photo shoot

I want to begin by saying that this was amazing to be a part of. My job was to manage the social media accounts for the day and to take pictures of everything going on behind the scenes - from food ordered for the lunch break to the lighting and equipment used. That meant I could photograph the various stages of hair and makeup being done, which I found most interesting of all. I am pretty sure there was more makeup in that one room than there is in the rest of London! There were brands I had never even seen before and, on the whole, I picked up so many new tips from the four makeup artists purely through observation. However, in no way whatsoever am I saying that this wasn't a challenge, trust me it was. 

Most of the time, behind the ten big bright studio lights, the lighting was dim and there was so much action, it was hard to know in which direction to point my camera... and the makeup artists weren't slow. Brushes flitted around faces transforming the models in a matter of seconds. It was incredible! The whole day just seemed like a blur of different people and sets of more eye-shadows or foundation. Each and every one of the models acted so naturally in front of the camera even though it was the first time modelling for many of them. The atmosphere was great as well; everyone was so supportive of each other and so nice to be around.

At the end of the day I even got the opportunity to get my own makeup done. I was super excited because this lady had done makeup for the Harry Potter and Tomb Raider films. Being a huge Harry Potter fan myself, I just loved it. My eyes were gold with black eyeliner. 

The photos were to be used in a book, which offers beauty advice for those fighting cancer. Each model had encountered cancer personally and each member behind the scenes was a volunteer, spending a day of their time to help out. I will  include the link at the bottom of this post if you would like to look at the book itself.




Click HERE to view Part 2.