First step I took towards therapy

Hey, 

So this is a bot of a serious post, but I thought I would write this just in case it can help one person that reads this. The reason I went to see my doctor about going for therapy was because I have comfort ate since a really young age but never knew it was classed as an eating disorder until I started looking further into it and trying to find ways to stop so that I could start losing weight. 

Once I had found out that I was suffering from an eating disorder I decided to book an appointment to see a doctor, this appointment wasn't that helpful as I already had a brief idea of what triggered my comfort eating the doctor said I was already halfway there and therapy was for people that didn't know what triggers it. So I came away from that appointment thinking that I would either have to just find a way of living the rest of my life comfort eating or try to get over it myself although I had been suffering from this for 15 years already and I knew it wasn't going to change anytime soon. This appointment did dishearten me from going to see a different doctor to get their opinion as I thought I would just get the same answer as before, but my family told me to go back, this time I went to see a different doctor and told him what the problem was and how long I had been suffering with this for, the doctor then asked me what I thought would help me and that is when we agreed on therapy.

So from there I rang the number I was given for self referral and booked an appointment with a therapist for an initial assessment. The day of my appointment I was really nervous it was somewhere I had never been before and I didn't know if having an eating disorder was the only thing I was going to need therapy for. I made sure I got to my appointment with plenty of time to spare and so I could collect my nerves before my appointment. Once I started my appointment I knew I was going to get upset as I needed to give the therapist a brief background on what I thought was triggering my comfort eating, during this appointment I found out that I also suffer from minor anxiety and minor depression. Once the therapist had assessed my situation properly she told me all the options that were available for me and we both agreed that CBT would be the best treatment for me the only thing the therapist wasn't sure about was whether I needed high intensity or low intensity CBT. So I had to wait until the following week to find out, it turned out that I need high intensity CBT but the problem being the waiting list for NHS therapists is a minimum of 4 months.

Whilst I am waiting to start therapy the NHS run three seminars that are available to go to for those who are on the waiting list so I can start helping myself before therapy and make the most of therapy when I start it.

This may or may not help anyone but if you feel as though you possibly need therapy or just some advice on something don't be afraid to go talk to a doctor about it.

Thanks for reading,

Lou

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Ways to re-use old Glossyboxes and Birchboxes

Hey,

As I am subscribed to both of these beauty boxes I wanted to think of ways to re-use the outer boxes, the actual glossybox and birchbox and the pouch the products come in from the birchbox.

1) A way I use the outer glossybox, I cut off the top part of the box and use this to store birthday cards, ribbons and other bits and bobs that don't have a home.

2) When I have opened my birchbox I flatten the outer box and store them until Christmas or someones Birthday and just use these when I need a quick box to put the present in.

3) I use the actual birchboxes and glossyboxes for gifts as well but I also use these to organise my makeup in my top drawer of my chest of drawers, it's easy to do and all it costs is the subscription prices each month.

4) The pouch from the birchbox I either save this for gifts or use the special edition pouches as makeup bags for my handbag.

I hope this helpful, thank you for reading.

Lou

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DIY advent calendar

Hey,

This year I decided I was going to make a advent calendar for my dad as your never too old for an advent calendar.

This was the finished calendar it doesn't look as good as I wanted it too but I am pleased with it.

The things you will need:

A wire coat hanger

Brown Parcel Paper

Parcel String

Ribbon 

Sharpie

Sellotape

Christmas Chocolates ( or whatever you want to put in your calendar) 

A bow is optional

Step 1: Plan the order you want the gifts to go (I bought 25 things to lead right up to Christmas day). I did this by laying it out in the order and taking a picture of it.

Step 2: Wrap all the gifts and make sure you number them as you go so you don't get confused, I did this in pencil first then once I had them all wrapped went over it in a black sharpie but you can use whatever colour you want.

Step 3: I then tied the string around each wrapped gift like you would a parcel.

Step 4: Cut 24 pieces of the string at three different lengths and the 25th needs to be longer. Then I tied a piece of string to each gift alternating the three different lengths between them all.

Step 5: Starting at with number one I tied this at one end and number two at the other and kept adding the rest in random places until I got to 25 and tied this in the middle of the hanger.

Step 6: I strengthened the hanger by wrapping the ribbon in a zig-zag and then around the hanger, once this was done I tied the bow to the hanger and wrapped the excess around the hanger as well and tied it in the middle where I had tied the number 25 gift.

You can adapt this so it is your own by adding different decorations and using something different to attach the gifts too.

Thank you for reading.

Lou

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My Top Tips for Christmas Shopping

Hey,

I just thought I would share with you ways I make Christmas shopping easier.

1) If I see something instore before I buy it I will check online to see if I can get it cheaper elsewhere or if there are any deals on.

2) Amazon and other internet shopping sites are my go to for Christmas shopping as I can usually get plenty of ideas from them even if I don't necessarily buy the items off of them sites.

3) I also find that if you are wanting to buy Christmas chocolates for people you may find it better to look on Amazon to buy it in bulk or buy the hampers that they have on there.

4) I also use discount and voucher apps on my phone so that I can by more for my money and get some good discounts on things I wouldn't usually buy for people.

5) The majority of vouchers and coupons I get throughout the year for extra points or money off mainly for Boots I use as I then have more money to spend on Christmas presents.

6) It's never to early to start Christmas shopping especially when the sales are on, if you see something you know someone would like and it's a great price buy it and put it somewhere it won't get ruined or in the way just make sure you don't forget about it. August is the busiest month for Christmas shopping I started mine at the end of August, mainly because I have a lot of people to shop for.

7) Make a budget for each person but make sure it's not a stupid one, I tend to roughly add up all the things I want to buy them then add a little extra so I know I will have enough money for each person.

8) I tend to buy what I can for people then make a list for each person to see if I need to buy anyone anything else I can without going ridiculous and buying too much.

9) I will make a list of Christmas cards I need to buy, then go out and buy them all at once so I'm not having to make multiple trips to the card shop.

10) If you don't have much money don't be afraid to make gifts for people, I looked on pinterest for ideas this year and adapted them to make them my own, this is also the case with gift boxes and bags there are plenty of DIY tutorials and gift wrap ideas if you don't want to spend much money on gift wrapping.

I hope this is helpful, thank you for reading.

Lou

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Halloween Zombie Look

Hey,

As I am now too old to go trick or treating and the majority of my friends work on Halloween, I don't go to any party so there's not much for me to do. I still carve a pumpkin and put up a few Halloween decorations but I miss dressing up, so I decided that I would put a bit of effort in for all the trick or treaters that come.

I usually do easy and cheap things as I don't want to spend that much money on something not many people will see, but last year I decided I wanted to put a bit more effort in than usual but I didn't decide this until the actual day so I had to think quick on what I could do, so I decided Zombie but there are a lot of things to think about. I already had the clothes side of things sorted I just ripped some of my old clothes that already had holes in.

So the next thing I had to think about was the make up and how I would create the wounds, the majority of people use liquid latex to create this look but I wasn't able to go buy any as I cut it too fine so me and my sister decided we would use PVA glue and toilet roll. This didn't give as good effect as liquid latex would have but it was good enough.

1) I applied white face paint from a cheap Halloween palette then added grey to make my skin look more dead. I then also used the grey with a little black and layered this to contour my face properly so the right areas appeared sunken. So underneath my cheekbones, my jaw line, around my eyes, down my neck in places and my temples.

2) I then gave this a bit of time to dry while I made some fake blood as I only had a small tube. I made this by mixing 1/4 cup of water, 3/4 cup of golden syrup, drops of red food colouring until I achieved the right shade, then I added a drop of blue and green food colouring to achieve a more realistic shade ( keep adding blue and green until you think the shade is realistic enough), to thicken this I then added cornflour until I achieved the thickness I wanted. Then I left this to thicken for about 5-10 Minutes)

3) Whilst the blood was thickening I carried on with my makeup and used grey and black eye shadow to deepen the contour.

4) I then decided where I wanted each of the wounds to go on my face and used a red eye shadow to redden the areas to make them look sore before applying the glue and toilet roll.

5) Once I had decided where I wanted the wounds a applied a thin layer of glue with an old make up brush, then applied small pieces of ripped toilet roll, I applied about 5 layers of each then let this dry. Once this had dried I used some tweezers to make the effect of a cut by pulling part up and away for the skin whilst making sure the edges stayed smooth.

6) When I had received the desired look I started with a dark red face paint to the middle of the wound to give it the effect of being deep and bloody before adding the fake blood. I then reddened to outside of the wound to give it the sore and realistic look. Then came the messy part using the fake blood, I used my finger for this part so it looked more realistic and applied it over the dark red face paint I had applied and I also applied a bit of this around the opening of the wound and around my mouth so it appeared like I had just eaten someone. Then I used the fake blood I already had to drip down from each wound.

7) I then put the clothes I was going to wear and splattered them with blood and applied blood around the tears and underneath them where you could see my skin so there appeared to be more wounds.

8) Finally I backcombed my hair a little to make it appear messy and added any finishing touches I thought I needed.

I hope this has given you some ideas, thank you for reading.

Lou

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Ps. The good thing about making the fake blood with syrup is that it is edible and you don't have to worry about getting any in your mouth.

Taiji Dolphin Slaughter

By the title of this blog you will know that this isn't a beauty blog but about something that shouldn't be happening in this day and age. I decided to write this blog as the slaughter season started on the 1st September and will last until May next year, so far there has only been blue cove days (no slaughtering) but the boats still head out every morning.

I know that there are a lot of people out there that know about this but there are still people that don't even know that this is happening and it needs to stop. There are some people that argue that it is the same as killing cows, sheep, pigs and other animals for meat but it isn't as these animals are bred for their meat and dolphins aren't, also the meat off of these animals aren't toxic and dolphin meat contains high levels of mercury so they are willingly poisoning their own people by selling dolphin meant.

Also they are killed in the most inhumane way as the fisherman round them up by using sound barriers, they create these by lowering poles into the water once they have spotted a pod of dolphins and strategically bang the pole, this is done strategically around the pod so that they become disorientated and are then driven in land and into the bay where this is then sealed off with nets and the dolphins are usually left to calm down usually overnight.
Once the dolphins or porpoises have calmed down the fisherman the enter the bay in small boats and select the dolphins that can then be sold onto marine parks around the world. Once these dolphins have been selected the rest of the pod are inhumanely killed and the meat is the sold to sell across Japan. From the slaughter last year there are still dolphins being held in the sea pens in the harbour of Taiji.

During the last slaughter on the 17th January this year a baby albino dolphin was rounded up with it's mother and the rest of the pod into the cove in Taiji, this pod was then netted up in the cove for over 20hrs. As albino bottlenose dolphins are extremely rare and are worth more than other bottlenose dolphins the baby was the first to be selected and taken for his mother. As she was being handled her mother was frantically calling out for her. After 30 minutes the mother swam to the bottom of the cove and never resurfaced, the albino dolphin that has been named Angel is now living in the Taiji Whale Museum where she is seen swimming in circles and she is also bullied by the some of the other dolphins that she is now living with.
The captive dolphin industry is the driving economic force behind the dolphin slaughter in Japan, as this is a big industry all over the world.

There is no international law that provides protection against the killing of dolphins, the International Whaling Commission offers no protection for the majority of cetacean species including dolphins and porpoises this is why japan can legally kill them by the thousands.

There are ways that you can help to stop the slaughtering of these amazing and clever animals, you can donate, sign petitions and get involved in other ways.
http://dolphinproject.org/
http://www.savejapandolphins.org/
http://www.takepart.com/thecove

This is a link to the 'The Cove PSA' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8JC_239vnc

You can also follow the dolphin project on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for updates on what is happening in Taiji.
https://twitter.com/Dolphin_Project
http://instagram.com/dolphin_project
https://www.facebook.com/ricobarrysdolphinproject

Thank you for taking time out to read this. We are their only hope.

Lou

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Sorry!!

Sorry I haven't posted a new blog lately things have just seemed to get on top of me, my laptop broke and I just got it fixed and as it's been the summer holidays here in the UK I've been spending time with my cousins, went to see my dad and also got my first tattoo.

Good news is that I have blogs written to be uploaded each week and my beauty series will be continuing and I will also write a blog post on my experience of getting a new tattoo and the aftercare that worked well for me as I have eczema.

Then when it gets closer to Christmas I will be doing a gift guide as I have already started my Christmas shopping because I hate shopping at Christmas there's just too many people and I will be ordering most of mine online and I want there to be enough time for shipping and if there are any problems I have time to send it back, some of you may think it's early but I find these next few months fly by and I couldn't deal with how much I had to get last year still in December.

That's it for now the next blog will be up tomorrow.

Lou

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