Statement Coat Styling Challenge (with Marks and Spencer)...

I am pretty boring when it comes to coats, with the exception of my pink coat almost every other coat I have ever owned has been black or navy blue. I have always been wary of spending money on a coloured coat because I thought there would be limited outfits I could wear it with. I was wrong. When M and S asked if I would take part in their Statement Coat Styling Challenge I jumped at the chance. I chose a red coat, something I think I would normally be too afraid to buy but when it arrived I was immediately in love. Not only is it super warm but the red is really striking too. I suddenly wanted to wear it with everything but eventually I settled on four different looks proving that a statement coat doesn’t just have to be for Christmas it can be a real investment. 

Look one...

Get the look (or similar): Coat. Jeans. Wellies. Jumper. Hat. Scarf.

Look two...

 

Get the look (or similar): Coat. Jeans. Top. Boots. Headband. Bag.

Look three...

Get the look (or similar):  Coat. Shirt. Skirt. Shoes. Bag

Look four...

Get the look: Coat. Shirt dress. Shoes.

So I say go on be bold, take a risk and indulge in a statement coat this Winter...

You can see more of the M and S coat collection here.

Love you long time. X

Spa days, important dates and that festive feeling...

Hello everybody.

I thought I would write a quick post to tell you all about a spa day that I attended a couple of weeks ago. Rock on Divas, run by the lovely Gloria, is a day aimed at women who have finished cancer (or any other illness) treatment and are looking for a way to re-establish their health life balance that some women feel they have lost during treatment.

On arrival at The Spa Dolphin Square everyone was greeted with a hug and then given a name tag. We were then all invited to share as much or as little of our story as we liked with the rest of the group. Once all the introductions were out of the way, the day began with a juicing tutorial from Gloria who explained the benefits of juicing and gave a demonstration. Afterwards we all went for a healthy but delicious lunch where everybody shared stories and laughs.

The wonderful Jennifer Young then gave a skincare and make up workshop educating us all on what was actually in our favourite beauty products. She makes a bespoke skin care range that is made with 100% organic and natural ingredients. There is even a line designed especially for people under going cancer treatment. You can find out more about Jennifer and her skin care range here.

After another glass of juice we all got changed into comfy clothing and went to a yoga class which was aimed at beginners and was incredibly relaxing. The day finished with a beauty treatment. You could choose a massage or a facial. I went for the facial and it was AMAZING, the 25 minutes of bliss left my skin positively glowing and I made the trip home (with my lovely goody bag) on a busy train with NO make up on.

The best part of the day was meeting other ladies who had been through a similar thing to me. Everybody was supportive and kind and I had a lovely time. To find out more about Gloria, her spa days and retreats click here.

Me and the other lovely ladies who attended the spa day

Apart from treating myself to spa days I have also baked a Christmas cake with my lovely friend Jane (Mary Berry eat your heart out).

The cake before it entered the oven

Oh and there is the small matter of my one year Cancerversary which was on the 23^rd November. I cannot believe it has been one whole year since I was diagnosed and what a year it has been. I am so glad it is mostly over now and for those of you reading this who are currently undergoing treatment I hope that I can reassure you that times can get better. I am a happier person now than I was before treatment, I have a whole head of hair (even if it is unbelievably unruly) and I am hoping that soon the last year will just be a nasty memory that I can lock away in some far corner of my mind.

I am unbelievably excited for the festive season so excited in fact, you might as well start calling me Mrs Clause. I cannot wait to snuggle up watching Christmas movies and start wrapping presents. I pretty much hum carols in my sleep and the prospect of a New Year and a new start is also extremely appealing. I plan on making 2014 my year no question. 

That's all from me for now.

Love you long time. X

Radiotherapy weeks four and five...

Hello everybody, I am so sorry for taking so long to blog. I wasn’t very well but now I am back and ready to update you all.

I have now finished radiotherapy. WOOHOO! The main side effect I have found is tiredness but it really isn’t that bad and is definitely manageable. My skin is red and apparently will keep ‘cooking’ for the next two weeks but aqueous cream helps to soothe it. I have been wearing loose clothing and avoided extremes of temperature (luke warm showers are not much fun) in an attempt to minimise irritation to the area. So far so good. 

I won't have to see this sign for a while...

 

I celebrated finishing radiotherapy with a cosy night in. I whacked on a layer of my favourite face mask (Eve Lom rescue mask), lit my favourite scented candle and painted my nails. Rock ‘n Roll I know!

I did make up for it on Saturday night though as I went out to celebrate a friends 21^st birthday. I went for a wet hair look. What do you think?

I have spent some of my spare time making Christmas cards to sell at a Christmas Fair to raise money for Coppafeel! and Breakthrough breast cancer.  

What next? 

Now that I have pretty much finished treatment I am faced with this massive question. I still have to finish my course of Herceptin and I will be taking Tamoxifen tablets for the next five years but really I am pretty much done treatment wise. This of course means that really the 'naughty disease' part of my blog is pretty much done and dusted. I have really enjoyed blogging and as long as people want to keep reading about what I have been up to I will keep writing. I am sure that I will still have a few breast cancer related things to talk about in months to come. I have also thinking about starting a new lifestyle blog would any of you read it if I did?

Let me know what you think,

Love you long time. X

  

Radiotherapy week three...

Hello lovely people,

I have had a busy busy week. I now have only 2 weeks left to go of radiotherapy YAY. My skin is getting red and slightly sore and my stupid left arm is hurting again. I think having radio has aggravated it as it involves having my arms above my head everyday. But I have been given some pain killers so hopefully they will work soon.

On Tuesday after radio and Herceptin I hopped on a train and made my way to London to go to the John Frieda 25^th anniversary event at Claridges. It was a wonderful evening and I had a great time. I brought my friend Nia along and we sipped on champagne and ate yummy canapés all evening. The theme for the evening was glamorous. I wore a leopard print dress from ASOS, blue Kurt Geiger heels and borrowed my Mum’s Chanel bag. Here are some pictures from the night. 

Dress ASOS, shoes Kurt Geiger and belt Topshop

Accessories

My make up for the evening

The lovely Nia

As well as attending the event I also did some filming for German television. They filmed before the event and then filmed us sightseeing the next morning.

After a very busy 24 hours I then hopped back on a train and headed back to the hospital for radiotherapy. Tired is an understatement. My lovely cousin Olivia came to stay from Wednesday to Friday and very kindly took me to the hospital. It was really nice to have a proper catch up with her and we did a lot of laughing.

On Friday night I went to a Halloween bash dressed as a vampire (minus the fangs because they were really annoying) and I had a great time. 

As I am sure you can imagine I am now feeling exhausted from all the excitement of the last week. I can’t wait to finish radio and I am counting down the days until it is over. 

In other news I have been nominated for PVB woman of the year award. If you would like to vote for me you can do here.

Love you long time. X

Radiotherapy week two...

Hello hello, me again.

I am happy to say that radiotherapy is still going OK. I have slightly pink and sore skin now but so far I am not too tired at all. I have been religiously applying aqueous cream twice a day in an attempt to protect my skin as much as possible. 

The time I have had away from the hospital I have spent writing away working on the book. The online shopping bug has bitten me again (obviously this is not my fault). I bought a couple of new dresses, one of which I will wear when I pop up to London for the night on Tuesday (read all about why in next weeks post).

The most exciting news that I have for you all is that I HAD MY FIRST HAIRCUT since my hair has grown back. The lovely Sarah from HAC snipped away at my fluffy, wispy ends and transformed them into a styled crop. The last time I had been to the hairdressers was when this happened. This time instead of leaving with tears in my eyes I left with a big smile and some advice on how to control my often crazy locks. They really are crazy locks too, my hair has grown back thicker than ever it is also fluffy, unruly and never does what I want it to. The ends have a slight curl to them, which is strange for me as I had fairly straight hair before but the colour is the same. I can’t wait for it to grow a bit longer so that I can do more things with it. 

My weapon of choice to tame my locks.

I have recently purchased some new lovely things for my bedroom (all from Primark).  

New star print bed linen

New LOVE light

The weather warnings have me slightly worried about my journey to the hospital tomorrow morning. I am not sure what happens if the roads are blocked by fallen trees or if the conditions are too bad to drive. I guess I will just have to wait and see what happens and cross that bridge when I come to it. However I am hoping the people over at Weather HQ have made a mistake and the storm won’t be as bad as they think.

Love you long time. X

Radiotherapy week one...

Hello to all my new friends. I now have a really great following abroad so here I am attempting to say hello in some other languages…

I have had so many lovely comments and messages from you all recently and I just want to say a big fat thank you. It’s really nice to hear from people that read and enjoy my blog and it always makes my smile bigger (if that is even possible). It is also amazing that this little old blog has managed to reach so many people. The thing that really makes all of this rubbishness worth while is hearing from people and learning that they have gained something from the blog.

I have now completed my first week of radiotherapy and so far so good. I am yet to have any side effects. Apparently this is normal and it will take a couple of weeks before the side effects present themselves. Of course I am hoping that I will be the lucky patient that gets away relatively side effect free but I guess I will just have to wait and see what happens. The main pain is having to spend two hours travelling each day but it is a small price to pay to zap any naughty cells that may still be left behind.

I had to laugh at the fact I get my very own hospital gown to keep for the next five weeks. As I am sure you can imagine it is very sexy. My new best friend is aqueous cream which I apply twice a day to try and keep my skin behaving throughout treatment. Luckily the hospital provides me with the stuff so I should have plenty.

As well as spending a lot of time travelling too and from the hospital everyday I have been a busy lady doing other things. I have made two radio and one television appearance which is really great for helping me to raise awareness that younger women are at risk of breast cancer too. 

Don’t forget to check out my friends over at Coppafeel! too, they do some REALLY great work.

My hair is finally getting its grow on! I managed to properly (well kind of) part it today. Check it out..

What sort of things have I been wearing?

BOOK talk has been taking up a lot of my time recently which has been really exciting. I am crossing all my fingers and toes and sometimes even my eyes hoping that something will materialise from all of this. What do you all think, would you be interested in reading my book? Let me know your thoughts, either email me or leave me a comment. I would love to hear what you think. 

That's all from me for now folks. Have a great weekend.

Love you long time. X

Cosmo Blog Awards 2013

Hello beautiful people, as some of you may already know I was lucky enough to be shortlisted for the Best Newcomer Award sponsored by Next at the Cosmo Blog Awards. So on Wednesday I donned my glad rags and made my way over to the OXO tower in London for the Blog Awards Bash to find out who the winners were.

My outfit choice for the evening…

Dress ASOS, necklace Debenhams, shoes Miss KG, coat Topshop and handbag TK MAXX.

The most beautiful shoe boots in the world?

Gorgeous green clutch.

My nails for the evening.

You weren’t allowed a plus one and so I put my brave face on and with a glass of bubbles in my hand, I went to introduce myself to some friendly looking bloggers. I met some lovely people but the most lovely of all was Rachel, the very same lady that had alerted me to the fact that my blog was shortlisted in the first place. Rachel and I found each other within about 10 minutes of arriving and we had many giggles over some cocktails whilst we waited to find out the results. You can check out her awesome blog here. 

After about an hour and a half of mingling, all of the bloggers gathered at one end of the room to hear the results we had all been waiting for. Louise Court the Editor and Pat McNulty the Digital Editor of Cosmopolitan took to the stage to announce the winner and the highly commended blogger in each category. After watching some of my favourite bloggers walk home with one of the coveted awards finally last up was my category. The highly commended blogger was fashionista Gillian Lee Rose (you can check out her blog here) I was really pleased for her as I love her blog. The last award of the night went to LAURA LOUISE AND HER NAUGHTY DISEASE! Yes ladies and gents this little old blog WON an award I didn’t even know I was nominated for until 2 weeks before the end of voting. I was in total shock when they called my name but I tentatively made my way to the stage to collect my award, posed for a few photos and then made my way back towards a very smiley Rachel for a hug. Check out the list of all the winners here.

The rest of the evening was spent drinking one too many of the delicious cocktails provided by Pinky Vodka, meeting fellow bloggers, posing for photos and smiling so much my cheeks hurt. I was in such a daze from winning that I forgot to take many photos, big error I know, but luckily a photographer from Cosmopolitan was on hand snapping away. You can check out the amazing photos here and here. Unbelievably I also managed to make their style gallery *I chuckled muchly when I discovered this* but you can view some of the other amazing outfits worn here. Below are the two photos that I did remember to take…

 

Me and the lovely Rachel who is wearing a gorgeous Boohoo playsuit.

Me posing with my award at the Best British Blogger stand.

So there you have it, after what can only be described as a rollercoaster of a year so far for me something great has come out of an otherwise rubbish situation. It still hasn’t settled in yet. It was an honour to even make the shortlist out of 43000 entries but to win is something else entirely. I can honestly say that it was the best day of my year so far. Thank you to all of you for following me and my journey so far and providing me with so many lovely messages of love and support and a big fat thank you to everyone who voted for me too. The lovely people at Next have written a great blog post all about the evening which you can read here. I have lots of other things to tell you all about from my London trip so I will be blogging again soon but for now I shall leave you with this image.

Love you long time. X