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Blog has successfully moved!

Hi all! 🙂

How’s your Easter weekend going? 🙂

Great news – the new version of the site is now up and running! Go check it out at http://abeautifulstory.net 🙂

Over time I’ll gradually delete content from this site. Currently there are some backlinks and pingbacks I have to properly update/upgrade on the new site so this won’t be for a few weeks at least.

If you follow me on Bloglovin please check to see you are getting new post updates during the coming week – 3 posts are planned. If not it means that my attempts to edit my Bloglovin profile have failed and I will be on a new profile within Bloglovin (if this occurs I’ll also alert y’all via Twitter and Facebook).

I look forward to hearing  your feedback on the new site!

Best wishes,
Sarah X

Announcement – Blog is moving THIS week!

image: merchantcircle.com

Hi everyone! Has your week got off to a good start? Here daylight savings (for summer) has ended and we wound our clocks BACK 1 hour yesterday. This was great as I got extra sleep (yay!). 😛

If you read a beautiful story regularly you will know that I have been working on a privately hosted version of the blog over the past few weeks. Well, it is almost ready to launch! I’m excited about it and hope that you guys will like the new version of the site as much as I do! 🙂

As I will be busy doing the finishing touches this week I will not be posting again until the Easter long weekend – which is this weekend. I will be launching the new site then and will post here and on Twitter and Facebook to alert you all to the move.

If you have the blog bookmarked please update your bookmark to http://abeautifulstory.net 🙂

For those who are subscribed via email, unfortunately you will need to re-subscribe on the new version of the site once it is live. Same goes for RSS subscribers, sorry!

If you keep up with me via Twitter or Facebook there is no change. I’m not sure for Bloglovin as I did use the .net address when setting up that profile but, as it currently redirects here it attached the wordpress.com address to the profile instead. (I will be able to say more about Bloglovin once the new blog site is live.)

If keen, please visit my Facebook page to check out pics from yesterday’s High Tea meetup for Adelaide Beauty Bloggers! 😀 It was ABBM’s first birthday – ~Happy Birthday to You, ABBM!~ X

Enjoy your week and I wish you all a safe and Happy Easter, if you celebrate it! 🙂

I’ve been tagged! “Shtuff Y’all Don’t Know About Me But Probably Will After This Post”

Hi everyone! I recently got tagged to participate in a blog post with the above theme. Haven’t done this before so I thought, “why not?!” It will mix things up a little! I was tagged by the lovely Claire at http://msclairehana.wordpress.com/ 🙂

In unrelated news, here are some cakes I got from "Cupcake Camp", a local initiative to raise $ for charity. I'm going to decorate this post with cake pix hehe! 🙂

“The Rules

1. You must post 11 things about yourself on your blog.
2. You must answer the questions that the tagger has set for you as well as create a new set of eleven questions for those who you tag to answer
3. Choose eleven people and link them in your tag.
4. Go to their page and tell them! [In my case I’ve either told people before posting and/or tweeted them afterwards! ;)]
5. No tag backs.
6. Yes, you legit have to tag.”

***

Part 1: 11 things about me!

Red Velvet cake

1. When I was a kid, I dreamed of becoming a veternarian.
2. I have a *slight* obsession with hats and love to wear them any time! Here’s a picture of myself that I took yesterday and surprise – I’ve got a hat on LOL! 🙂
   
3. I’m left handed.
4. I would love to visit Japan and enjoy listening to Japanese music (J-Pop) as well as studying the language.
5. I have American relatives but their actual nationality is not American OR Australian.
6. I can while away many hours online without even realising it and admit that at times it is a form of escapism for me!
7. I have (successfully!) studied at university.
8. I believe that I am an introvert.
9. Following from #8, my Myers-Briggs profile is actually ENFP.
10. I would love to get a new (second hand) car this year… However I’m finding it hard to convince myself that it truly is necessary!
11. I have seen David Bowie and Bjork perform live in concert, respectively.

***

Part 2: Answering Claire’s Questions for Me

L: Raspberry, R: Vanilla (this one was my fave of them all!)

1. You’re given a shopping spree but can only buy one type of clothing, i.e. shirts, blouses, shorts, jeans, etc., what would you buy?
   I would buy coats – I adore coats and have so much other clothing that it wouldn’t matter if I didn’t buy any of those for a while!
2. The Mayans were right and the world is going to end. You’re allowed one toiletry. What do you grab?
   Shower gel. The hugest bottle I can find!
3. What’s your favorite sound?
   Decent music.
4. If you could be freakishly good at something, what would it be?
   Art… or writing… Can I choose more than one?! 😉
5. What type of life do you secretly envy? I.e. the party girl life, the holed-up bookworm life, the frat boy life, etc.
   The successful internet entrepeneur – I’d love to be able to work from home.
6. What’s the longest you can go between haircuts before you’re going insane?
   I’m guessing around 10 weeks.
7. Kill, erm… “make love to,” Marry – Adam Levine, Robert Pattinson, Zac Efron
   Hmmm… Adam Levine – Marry, Robert Pattinson and Zac Efron – the first option!
8. Sushi or Mexican food?
   Sushi all the way! But I do like Mexican food as well.
9. You have to take classes in one subject for the rest of your life, what subject?
   Visual arts (practical).
10. Describe your style in three words.
    Colourful. Accessories. Statement-pieces.
11. What’s your favorite quirk about yourself?
    That I’m able to remember a lot of random facts and historical stuff about all sorts of things.

***

Part 2a: 11 Questions for those I will Tag!!!

Chocolate. Tasty but a bit dry!

1. What’s your #1 beauty tip?
2. Who was or were your celebrity crushes when you were a teenager?
3. What is your dream travel destination – and why?
4. Dogs or cats?
5. Tea or coffee?
6. Chocolate or cheese?
7. What is your favourite takeaway food?
8. Have you ever had a hair colouring disaster? If so, what happened?!
9. What is your favourite book of all time? (Can be fiction or non-fiction.)
10. Have you met anyone famous? If so, who where and how? 🙂
11. Why did you start blogging?

***

Part 3 – Tag 11 other Bloggers – Peeps please answer the questions I’ve come up with above, in Part 2a! 🙂

L: Chilli Chocolate, R: Peanut Butter

1. Lizzi at Makeup and Smell the Coffee.
2. Sandylashxx at Pout Perfection.
3. Tina at My Highest Self.
4. Kira-Lea at BellaBoo Beauty Blog.
5. Joline at Just Plain Delirious.
6. Omega at Fashion Adjacent.
7. Amanda at Thai Tales.
8. Sakura at Sweet Days of Girly.
9. Luci at The House of Tudor (HOT).
10. Sierra Lei at SIERRALEI and last but not least!
11. Lil Miss Shanghai at Lil Miss Shanghai. 🙂

I hope that you tagged lovelies join in the fun and keep it going! Remember, however, that you can’t tag me back… Otherwise it’ll get like Groundhog Day!

***

L: Choc Turkish Delight (you wouldn't guess that from the icing/frosting, would you?! :)), R: Gluten Free Chocolate (mmm this was my equal favourite!)

Well readers and visitors, I hope you found this post interesting. 🙂 All of the above blogs are well worth reading so if you have the time, do check out the links!

Would you like to answer any of the questions I have posed to my tag-ees? If so go for it in the Comments! 🙂

I also plan to do a post tonight on a men’s product new to the Australian market. During the week I have a Thalgo product review planned – a real gem of a product – as well as a review on my new most-favourite-in-the-world-and-a-budget-price body lotion! 🙂

Hope you are all having an awesome weekend and that you have an even better week ahead! x

evo end doctor smoothing treatment

Hi everyone. 🙂

Phew this week has been a busy and tiring one so far. Have had a really bad bug (cold but possibly flu) which hasn’t helped! I hope that you are all having a much better week than me!

I also hope that you enjoy this review. 🙂

***

Discovered this product by chance – at my Mum’s house of all places! 🙂 (A lil secret of mine – the brown part of my hair I dye at home – my mum helps! Thanks Mum. ;))

Last weekend, after colouring my hair, Mum encouraged me to give evo‘s end doctor smoothing treatment a try. She’s been using it for a while and stated that she thinks it’s pretty good.

I just had to laugh (in a good way!) when reading the packaging for this product; you’ll see what I mean!

(the comb is not part of the product; it was just sitting there as I'd used it!)

Price: $25.95 AUD

Where can I get it? exclusive to salons which stock evo or online at their site: evohair.com .

As you can read on the packaging shots above, this product is designed to do a few things – smooth unruly ends, provide heat protection, and also provide SPF protection (which would reduce rate of fading of colours due to sun exposure). On the latest version of the product packaging on evo‘s site, it makes specific reference to making curly wavy hair look good. This is ok as my hair type is wavy, however I do straighten my hair due to the cut I have!

I used the amount of product that my Mum stated she’d been advised to use – pea size (her hair’s about the same length as mine). It has a nice and mild fragrance and was easily absorbed by my damp hair.

This product didn’t leave my hair greasy, which is great, but it didn’t leave it looking any better than it usually does! I still had flyaways and the bits that tend to kick out really kicked out despite me using proper blowdrying techniques. So much for “taming” the hair! (In case anyone is wondering if the colouring of my hair before hand was a factor, I find that the colour I use tends to leave my hair shiny, smooth and healthy looking.)

As I’ve only tried this product once, do take my opinion with a pinch of salt, but I give it ~

Beautiful rating: quality 3/5, value 3/5. I love the packaging but it seems to be pretty average, given the price. (Sorry Mum – we’ll have to agree to disagree! ;-))

***

Does anyone else also like the use of quirky blurbs on products that they buy? Bed Head’s blurbs are my favourite! 🙂

Roxette LIVE :)

Heeeeeyyyy! 🙂 How is everyone’s week going so far? I hope to upload a few posts tonight but I think I may have overestimated what I’ll be able to manage as I’m pretty tired… As I was up late last night at the Roxette concert!

Roxette, as many of you know, are a Swedish pop group who were big in the 1980s and early-mid 1990s. (They have actually released albums since and their latest album, Charm School, was released last year. Another album is reportedly due out at the end of next month, Travelling.) As a kid I grew up listening to a lot of their music and was excited to hear they are doing a world tour after all these years, and visiting my home city! Australia is the first stop on their tour and you can read more about the cities they will be visiting on the tour here: http://roxetteblog.com/world-tour-2012/

The concert was absolutely EXCELLENT!!!!! I actually think that they sound better live than they do on their CDs. It was a fun night and they played a huge range of songs, including some of their most famous such as “The Look” and “Listen to Your Heart”. If Roxette are visiting your city I strongly recommend going to their concert! 🙂

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get a lot of photos (long story!) but here are few from the night 🙂 …

outside the venue...

opening act, 1927 (80s Australian rock band who I hadn't heard of before, but they were really good on the night!)

Marie! 🙂

Has anyone else seen Roxette in concert? What did you think of them? 🙂 Whilst it was great I think David Bowie’s concert here in Adelaide a few years ago remains my #1 concert experience!

It’s a nice day for a white wedding…

image: mosmans.com.au

…Anyone else remember that song?! 🙂 I hope that you are all enjoying your weekends! 🙂 I’ve been catching up on chores I’ve needed to get done as tomorrow I’m going to a friend’s wedding. I’m looking forward to it; the bride comes from a Romanian family and so the wedding will be held at a Romanian Orthodox church. I have never attended a Romanian wedding before so I think it will be interesting! 🙂 I like to learn about different cultures and the similarities and differences between how different cultures celebrate things.

I have thought a about what I will wear to the wedding, how I will do my makeup and so on… Will upload some pix next week! 🙂 I have decided not to have funky nails after my experience earlier this week and will go for a natural looking nails, I think.

Anyone have any wedding stories to share? My favourite wedding experience was when I travelled to Germany, waaaay back in 2006, to meet a penpal of mine and attend her wedding! I had a great time and made many friends on that trip. 🙂

Marina (R) & I (L), Heidelberg, 2006!

I have been thinking about sharing pics of my travels to different places with you all – will do it if people are interested! If I could I would go overseas every year, but unfortunately can’t afford that! So far I have been to: Germany, Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia… Within Australia I’ve been to Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth.

Anywhoo, I’d better get on to writing my next beauty related post for all y’all! 😉

Special Announcement #2!

Hiiiii!

So, it is time for my second special announcement!

image: goretro.blogspot.com

*Drumroll please….*

The “GUEST WRITER” section of the blog will open tomorrow!!! 🙂 Following on from my post last week in which I put out a call to guest writers, Canadian blogger Jake Sauvage has stepped up! If you are curious, click here (or visit my blogroll via the homepage) to check out his own blog – which is pretty awesome if I do say so myself – right now! 🙂

I am open to receiving guest posts from male and female bloggers on topics relevant to a beautiful story, but am particularly keen to hear from male bloggers to add a bit of balance! In return for you taking the time to guest post on my site I will be happy to guest post on yours. 🙂 Please direct any enquiries about guest posting to abeautifulstory@hotmail.com

Hope everyone’s having a fabulous weekend! 🙂 Mine’s been busy so far but now taking some time to put my feet up and watch more of the Australian Open (tennis) on the telly!

Special Announcement #1!

Happy Friday everyone! 🙂

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have some announcements to make! Today I would like to make the first of two announcements…

I have been lucky to have been given the opportunity to try out a skin care range that is new to Australia and not yet available in stores! 🙂 I received a package of goodies on Wednesday as you can see below:

I’m not able to provide more details on the particular brand or range as yet, hence bag logo. However, as soon as I can, I will (along with my review)!

This is a short post so I plan to upload another tonight. 🙂 I’ll be making announcement #2 during the weekend!

Bye bye for now,
Sarah

PS. Thought I’d share a funny photo with you all – some friends of mine put this at the front of their house so people could easily find the house on Australia Day, where they were having a BBQ! They’ve named him “Frank”. 🙂

*Road Safety Alert* – the Tour Down Under is starting soon!

image: http://chitanda.poznews.net

Happy Thursday everyone! 🙂

Now, I do intend to post about sleep today but – after hearing so much advertising on the radio on my way home from work – I felt the need to post about this first!

My home town, Adelaide, is in the midst of preparations for a massive international competitive cycling event – the Tour Down Under (click here to view the official site and learn more, if interested!). It officially starts on Sunday and takes riders through varied terrain around Adelaide and surrounds including the Adelaide Hills (very pretty area) and down by the ocean.

I’m all for exercise and healthy activities such as cycling, and the event is great for local tourism. However, I’m not a fan of the unexpected by-product this event produces reliably every year it is on – chaos on suburban roads…

What do I mean by this? I’m not talking about the race itself, as that is well organised and roads are blocked off to ensure the public’s vehicles don’t interfere. I’m talking about the phenomenon by which almost everyone who owns a bicycle in Adelaide, regardless of how long it’s been since they’ve been on it, decides to hop on, in their lycra, and clog main arterial roads riding to and from work in peak hour traffic, and on most weekends, during this event!

Unfortunately Adelaide drivers have a reputation in Australia as being the worst in Australia. Add tons of Adelaidian cyclists to the mix = chaos! People suddenly decide it’s okay to ride 3 or 4 abreast, outside of the designated bike lanes, and break other road rules, which can lead to dangerous situations with cars.

I drive my car to and from work on the days I work in the ‘burbs (2 days/week), and consider myself a responsible driver. I keep my eyes out for cyclists when I’m on the road and am careful. But it gets very frustrating when cyclists don’t obey road rules and cause or almost cause serious accidents.

Anyhow, I’ll end my rant here. The key message I want to send out is enjoy the Tour and getting back into bike riding but please do it safely and observe basic road rules!

With luv,
Sarah

PS. On another note, Adelaide’s annual German festival Schutzenfest is on tomorrow and Saturday – anyone going? It’s the largest German festival in the Southern Hemisphere, complete with all kinds of beer! (More info here.)

looking towards 2012

Hey everyone! 🙂

If you celebrate Xmas, how was yours? 🙂 Mine was quiet but also relaxing – I caught up with my parents and brother for lunch at their house. My grandparents also attended. Despite it being summer here, we had the “traditional” lunch of roast turkey etc etc!

Here’s Bonnie using her Xmas gift! 😉

For the remaining days (we had public holidays on the Monday and Tuesday) I was helping my Dad with the kitchen renovations.

Here’s the kitchen when we began to dismantle it – our first step was to take the doors off most cupboards (how 1970s is this kitchen?! )… Yeah the kitchen is pretty messy! 😮

Here are some step by step pics of what we’ve done so far….

hehe photobombed by Bonnie! 😉

…and this is how it looked when I returned from work today! (Yes I’m back at work already 😦 however I get a week off on the week of Australia Day – that’s 26/1! :-))

Hope that you have all had a great holiday weekend! 🙂 I will upload more pix of the kitchen as the renovations continue… Can’t wait till I have a functional kitchen again!

***

I’m starting to think about my resolutions for 2012… Do you make new year resolutions? 🙂 I don’t do it every year but I try to do it most years as having some goals gives me focus! Health will be important in 2012 as well as career. I’m considering doing some further study but I’m not sure what area; also I must take into account that my Japanese classes restart soon so that will take up my Wednesday evenings (class) and Sunday afternoons (study)! Hmm and it would have to be an inexpensive course as I’ve had to spend a lot on the kitchen…

What are your resolutions for 2012? 🙂

A website that I find useful for goal setting but also other things is www.mindtools.com 🙂