A Day of My Life in Pictures | March 2015

A few years ago I did a ‘Day of My Life in Pictures’ post, and some people seemed to like it, so I decided to make it into a regular series, where I’d document various, random days in my life, and then one day be able to look back on all of the minutiae of everyday life that fascinates me so much.

Of course, I didn’t ever do it again after that. Well, my life, as I’ve said, is pretty boring, and to be perfectly honest, once you’ve seen one day, you’ve more or less seen them all, so I let the idea die a quiet, dignified death. Then, last Saturday morning I thought, “To hell with that! Ima do it anyway!” So, without further rambling explanation, here is my Saturday, March 21st 2105 in pictures…

About 10am

I’ve been awake for a while, and am already one cup of coffee down when I randomly decide I want to do a Day of My Life in pictures post, and I want to do it NOW.

10:15am

Realise I should probably have thought about this earlier, so I could’ve documented the whole “Here I am waking up!” bit. Pretty sure that’s the kind of thing you’re supposed to do in these posts. Am rebel. Take photo of Rubin lying on the bed instead. It represents “morning”. It also represents the fact that I can’t think of anything else to take a photo of to represent 10:15am. This post is off to a bad start.

I know! I could take a photo of my bedside table!

10:30am

Er, OK, so this is obviously going to be a “warts and all” kind of post, because that’s ACTUALLY what my bedside table looked like at 10:30am: I didn’t add or remove anything, or artfully arrange things for Instagram. Also, I don’t actually have a bedside table: I have an ancient wicker basket, which holds all of my various electricals (hairdryer, curling irons etc), and which I precariously balance cups of coffee on in the mornings. That other table? The one that was in this post? Actually lives in the living room. I totally just moved it in order to take some nice product shots. Am a big ol’ fake. Oh God, everyone is going to hate me now. Maybe it’s not too late to re-position this post as a fearless expose of the blogging world? No? OK, well, in that case, on my bedside table you can see…

01. Empty mug of coffee. I wish Terry would come and bring me a fresh one, because even although it’s now 10:30am, I’m still in bed. Look, it’s SATURDAY, OK? I spend Saturday mornings “working” from the bedroom…

02. Notebook. This is the one I use to jot down ideas for my book. I keep it in the bedroom because I get most of these ideas at 3am in the morning.

03. Earplugs. Many, many earplugs. I can’t sleep without earplugs. I don’t ACTUALLY have five ears, I hasten to add: I just seem to collect earplugs. We find them all over the house. A few weeks ago, Terry had to pull a large collection of them – plus a collection of hair ties – out of the washing machine filter. I blamed it on Rubin. I don’t think he was fooled.

04. Caudalie hand creme. This stuff smells amazing, seriously.

10:50am

I have another coffee! I also have my laptop out because, as I said, I may be in bed, but I am actually working. For a while I tried to declare the weekends a totally blog-free zone, but then I realised that Saturday morning is a particularly good writing time, so now I tend to use it for that. I stay in bed so I still feel like I’m being appropriately lazy. Right now I’m working on an ebook of my blogging tips. I haven’t mentioned this, because I’ve been afraid everyone would be all, “Who would read THAT?” and “Why not stick to one book at a time, woman?”, but the fact is, I really enjoy writing about blogging. And I have a lot to say about it: more than I can really fit into my already-lengthy weekly blog posts about it, so I figured why not write an e-book?

(Actually, I have a lot to say about everything, as it turns out. For instance, I’ve already written 713 words of this post, and it’s not even 11am yet. GOD.)

12:40

2000 words (and quite a few breaks) later, I realise it’s 12:40. Which is news to me, because I’d have sworn it was only 12:00 at the very most. Where did the time go? Have I been abducted by aliens? And if so, do you think the aliens would have taken any photos they could send me? For my blog?

13:00 Today I’m doing a henna gloss, using henna I soaked overnight, plus some cheap Tesco own-brand conditioner. I really wish this made for a more aesthetically-pleasing photo, but it doesn’t, so we’re all just going to have to try to live with that. I do a henna gloss maybe every 2-3 months. I’ve been meaning to do a tutorial on it for ages now, but the problem is that it really just boosts my natural colour, as opposed to changing it. The difference it makes isn’t one I’ve ever been able to capture in photos, and I feel like for a post like that to be useful, it would have to include some before and after photos… which people would just look at and say, “What’s the point of this? It doesn’t make any difference?”

Well, it DOES make a difference, but it’s a subtle one, so let the record show that I’m currently typing this with my head wrapped in clingfilm, because I couldn’t find the plastic shower cap I normally use for this. Whoops.

13:10 I normally leave the henna on for about an hour. While I’m waiting, I decide to paint my nails: I’m currently giving them a break from my usual gel manicures, so I’m using OPI Nail Envy as a base coat, Barry M Bright Red, and Seche Vite as a topcoat. Since I started doing gels, I’ve developed more of an interest in nail polish, so today I’ve decided to branch out and try something a little bit different, but not too adventurous. The plan was to follow the instructions from this pin, but I’m too lazy to cut tape into thin lines, and I don’t own any of the pointy metal things shown in the photos, so I just cut the tape into squares, snip off the corners, then stick them onto the nails. This will NEVER work.

13:31

LOLZ.

14:00

Time to hit the shower. Yes, at 2pm. I know, I’m a disgrace. I’m my defense, I didn’t actually plan to write for quite as long this morning, so that threw me off a bit. Then there’s that missing time. And it’s Saturday.

Now, I may be stupid enough to have posted that “nail art” photo on the internet, and also to think anyone’s going to be even remotely interested in the tiny details of my day, but I’m not QUITE stupid enough to take my camera into the shower, so the next part of my day will be represented by the products I used. First up:

Let’s hear it for my shower buddies, Sanctuary Spa Shower Creme (PR sample) and Revlon 45 Days Total Colour Care 2-in-1 shampoo and conditioner. I’d normally use a separate conditioner with the latter product, but as I’d just spent an hour with conditioner slathered on my hair anyway, I was able to skip that step.

Inhibitif Hair Free Deodorant. Now, I know MOST deodorants are “hair free” (Well, I should HOPE so, anyway, because, eeewww!) but this one is designed to reduce hair growth over time. I received it as a PR sample a few weeks ago, and have been using it ever since, but… I honestly can’t say I notice a difference. With that said, I don’t think I really WOULD notice a difference, because I shave in the shower every day anyway, so I’m possibly not placed to judge this one, which is why I haven’t reviewed it. This was no help at all, was it?

Caudalie skincare. I blogged about these products just a couple of weeks ago, so I won’t repeat myself. Documenting the products I used was the one part of this post I actually did thoroughly, though, so I’m dammed if I’m going to skip a step. Speaking of which:

Yes, I even photographed my contact lenses. -2.25 on the right eye, -2.50 on the left. The right eye is my favourite. Don’t tell the other one…

I’ve been wearing my hair straight most of the time lately, so most days I’ll blow dry it, then stick in some of these Sleep-In Rollers, just to give it a bit of volume, and smooth out the layers. As I said in my review of these, I don’t actually sleep in them, and I don’t often use them on damp hair either (My hair takes literally hours to air-dry, and I don’t find it makes enough of a difference to the end result to justify wearing them for hours on a normal day…), but I’ll leave them in while I’m doing my makeup, and I find that’s long enough to make it look a bit more polished.

With the rollers in, it’s time to put on my face. I was running late by this point (Er, mostly because I’d spend so much time messing around taking photos of rollers and contact lenses), so this isn’t the best photo, but here’s what I used:

L-R: Smashbox Photo Finish Primer; Rimmel Lasting Finish Foundation in Light Porcelain, Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer in Porcelain, MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in ‘Light‘, Max Factor Masterpiece Glide and Define Liquid Eyeliner in Black/Brown, Ancient Boots 17 brow pencil, which the name has long since rubbed off; Urban Decay Naked 3 Palette (From which I used ‘Strange’, ‘Dust’ and ‘Burnout’); NARS The Multiple in ‘Orgasm‘, Too Faced Better Than False Lashes Mascara; ELF Lip Lock Pencil in Clear; Maybelline Color Drama lipstick in ‘Light It Up’

Um, seems like quite a lot when you see it all written down, huh?

At this point I completely lost track of time, so, in my best 24 voice, the following events take place between 15:00 hours and whenever it was that I stopped taking photos. Once I’d put my makeup on, it was time to decide which of approximately 15,000 skirts to wear today:

The weather is absolutely beautiful, so I decide to go with good ol’ florals, in the shape of this navy skirt, which was a gift from ChicWish last year, and which I pair with a mustard cardigan from J Crew and yellow Zara heels (both from last year):

Unfortunately, this was one of those outfits which was better in theory than it was in practice, which is why there are no photos of me actually wearing it. I DID wear it (Purely because by the time I was done laying it out on the floor and taking photos of it, there wasn’t time to pick something else: whoops!), but although I like all of the pieces separately, I don’t think I’ll be wearing them all together again in a hurry!

We’re finally out of the house! And would you look at that blue sky? It really feels like spring at last, which makes me very, very happy.

Rubin is less impressed.

We’re off to visit my parents’ for dinner, and just to warn you, I’m about to completely forget that I’m supposed to be documenting my day. I do, however, remember to take some food photos:

And then I completely forget about this post, until we’re back home again and I’m lying in bed trying to sleep, but actually thinking, “Oh crap, I was supposed to be taking photos for that post…”

I’ll do better next time (assuming there actually IS a next time, obviously). And on the plus side, just imagine how long this post would’ve been if I HAD taken any more photos?!