The post chlay meant to draft but posted unknowingly ...

Hey loves,

Sorry for the empty post, obviously pressed le wrong button...

Everything, about this girl...is kindof captivating me she's all like grungey and grey but beautiful

\

I love white tights so much

Anyways lovess I hope you all had a bloody fantastic new years eve & if you didn't, there's NYE 2011 isn't there...that's what I'm going with anywaysss
loveeeeee x

Part 2; Christmas Hair & Make up & How to transform it for NYE

So this was my christmas hair with christmas make up before christmas outfit , it might not look so great on here, without the outfit and with my webcam, but it was far more flattering in person (also a thing you need to think about when doing your hair, it needs to be photogenic hair, so you don't look hideous in all those photos that are going to be posted all over the internet, if you care about that kindof thing, if not, go wild ^___^ )

All I did was
1 grabbed the first layer of my hair,including the majority of my out grown (if that's the word) fringe

2brushed it away from my parting twisted the two sides together at the back, and twisted it into a mini bun

3which I kindof popped underneath the hair that was sitting ontop, to create the mini beehive

4twirled the rest of my hair with my fingers,and lightly back combed the roots

5 and lastly secured one of my favourite slides :)

if you don't have as much hair as me , clip in extensions, or more backcombing will be needed


I would wear my hair like this for NYE, maybe just making it bigger by backcombing more , or I have a few options

Option 1

turn it into a full on beehive
I like the messy ones, with bows
(not the biggest fan of this headband)
but I like ribbons or clip in boows, to make it softer and more interesting,
It also covers up bumps/imperfections if you do it in a messy way, and looks less strict, and is lower maintenance so it's the best updo route to do really, as long as you secure it well and use a good hairspray and take extra pins with you

If you're having trouble with it, sometimes it helps to put a bit of your hair in a bun, and then layer the rest of your hair over or towards that :)

If you have absolutely no life/layers/wave in your hair, then you might need to plait it wet so you get something to play with or choose something that goes more with your hair type

This is another option, if you imagine how my hair ia, all I'd have to do was take it to the side (or back, but I prefer side ones) and either backcomb it, twirl it around and put some product on the ends, or get a curler and do one curl, and then separate it with my hands a bit :) this would be a good look to add something pretty into the mix hair accessory wise
Same goes for this;

If you know how to french plait, just gather the loose ends of and make it into a pretty textured side plait :)



Last actual look; Just let it all out :)

Top 3 things to take in your bag to your party:

• 1 Some sort of cover up, silk vintage scarf, one of those pretty stretchy headbands from accesorize , a bandana , they can save a lot hassle/stress and cover up a multitude of problems
• 2 Extra Pins/Clips - Life savers, for not only you, but the girls who forgot about them ;)
• 3 Depending on what hair style you  went for - A mini brush or A mini hair spray

 I think if you've got a really classic dress you can easily pull off the short hair thing (even if you just give the illusion of an edgier hair cut by tucking it back or up

I think NYE is a night to go with your natural hair type, as you don't want to have to worry about your hair all night :) I have spent many a night panicking about my hair starting to go super wavy when I've straightened it and got to a really humid venue
 (in the days where I would never leave the house without putting it up or straightening it as I genuinely hated my hair)

• if its wavy make it textured or big or vintagey (if hair can be vintagey , you know what I mean)
• If it's long and straight, go with it and make your hair your statement piece
• If it's really curly, make it big and beautiful, put glitter in it, do something special :)
• If you know your hair is going to just look limp, put it in a chignon or plait it in an unusual way, make use of pretty head bands , like the pearl ones that are worn almost on your forehead, or the pins with peals on the top
• & if it's super short ,let it make a classic outfit more interesting

I've had all sorts of hair , can't find my crazy colours right noww but  someone requested hair photos, but yes I've had short hair , long hair, sraight, wavy, curls, red, orange, hugee hair, pink, black,blonde


It's my birthdayyy todayy, I'm poorlyful even for me , but oh well, I wrote this yesterday but forgot to posttt :) Lots of loveeee & thankyouu for being such wonderful people with all your messages on formspring and emailsss
Chlay xx


PS-If you want to say happy birthdayyyy or a bit more... pleasee buy le charity singlee or even my EP & I shall love you forever for helping to make another step towards my musicalness and charityness :) or Donate with the button over there >
(I'm allowed to bore you with this as it's my birthday mwahaha;] )

Christmas Hair & Make up, and how to transform it into the perfect NYE look

Part 1; Make up

So this was my Christmas make up

Foundation - Estee Lauder Double wear in Bone N1 I think
Blusher - Mac Mineral Blush in Gentle
Mascara  - Clinique
Eyeliner - Surprisingly , it's a pencil one from No7, which I usually would never of looked at as I'm a liquid girl, I got it as a gift set from a lovely person
Mineral Veil - Bare Escentuals
Lips - patted with blush then a lush lipbalm over the top

This probably took , 10 minutes, with a rest half way through, I just wanted something subtle and pretty as I rarely get to wear make up at the moment

For NYE;

I would do one of two things

First option, keep the face the same, and add a red lip using my personal favourite lipstick right now, lancomes colour fever
I'd use one of those wax barriers around the lips to stop any lipstick bleeding, and I'd also fill the whole lip in with red lip liner (I use Barry M) to make sure it last longer, also blotting the lipstick once or twice with blotting paper will help it stay put with minimal touch ups
It's important to find a shade that suits your skin tone

Option 2, we go all Eddie S & go with lots of mascara ,eyeliner, and even fake eyelashes if you're into that type of thing , personally I think NYE is one of the few ocassions where false eyelashes don't look like you're over dressed make up wise, as long as they're done right and you keep the rest of the face fresh

If I was going to do this I would focus on the flick being fairly thick, my favourite eyeliner is really cheap, collection 2000, benefit's one runs like crazy and smudges far too easily for the biggest party of the year , you need reliable, photogenic make up.
To keep the eyelashes not looking too fake,  I'd probably just add the outer half of the fake eyelashes or use the individual ones

You could also have fun with your eyeliner around your face, maybe a little heart or a sequin star if you're after something a bit more playful, this was just me having a little play around about a year ago, and I'll happily wear hearts/stickers/sequins on my face all year round , but if playing around for you,is only for parties make up wise, it might be a nice change :)

2 Sleeps til my birthday, 3 til NYE - Woaaahahhh *resists jumping around*
I hope you're all well :) I shall try and do the second part to this tomorrow , I also have christmas day photos to show you <3

Lots of loveeee
Chlay x

Boxing Day Brownies :)

Hello loves! I hope you had a wonderful day yesterday :) my day was magical although I can only just about move now, hence the delay in boxing day brownies, but they are super yummy so here we go

I think these are super sweet :) and you could easily do these with this recipe by cutting them into triangles

Ingredients:
 We have done this recipe gluten & dairy free or just gluten free before and it works just fine for us:) (and our oven is broken) So I'm going to write it out how it is in the book and if you want to try and make it vegan then obviously it might need a bit of playing around, gluten free + vegan is hard in baking world, so basically, I'll write the 'normal ' one out, and you can substitute towards whatever ingredients you can't or choose not to have :)

55g/2 oz Unsalted Butter
115g/4 oz Bitter Chocolate
2 Eggs
30g/1 o Cocoa Powder combined with
55g/2oz Plain Flour and
1 tsp Baking Powder;sifted together
Pinch of Salt
55g/2 oz Ground Almonds
115g/4 oz  of any of these things
Extras*
Mixed Nuts
Almonds, Pecans, Walnuts Etc

Extras*-Personally I'm not a big fan of nuts so I usually add in organic glace cherries (Not the gross bright red ones you see in supermarkets) & Chocolate chips in dark (dairy free) or White (Dairy free)
If you are going to do the alternative icing suggestion that I'll add at the end, I wouldn't add the fruit

So, once you've measured all your ingredients out

Preheat the oven to 180 Degrees C/Gas 4/350 Degrees F
Line an  18x28cm or 7x11 ich tin with parchment paper, buttered and floured

Melt together the butter and the chocolate
Whisk the eggs with the sugar until pale and fluffy, then add the melted chocolate& butter
Fold in the Flour Cocoa Powder and the Baking Powder and salt
Then add your chosen extras*
Spread Evenly into your chosen tin and bake for 30 mins (Obviously your oven may take a bit less or a bit more)
& there you go!
Remember to leave them to cool before you try to handle them

Now you can either just dust them with icing sugar or you can make them into after eight (like the chocolate) brownies

Just cut into triangles make up some icing, and add a bit of peppermint extract : ) If you want to make them look like the ones up there you could make mint butter icing and add some food colouring, stick in a section of candy cane , and add some decorations :)


Here is le book where I adapted le recipe from :)


Chocolate: The Definitive Guide

Ta daaa ;)

How was everyone's christmas day?

 

Sooo, guess what I got for christmas?:)
I've only opened this and my stocking and 1 or 2 others as I had a super exhausting , but wonderful day :)
Can't believe it's my birthday realllyyy soonnnnn :):) (30th)
Love to you all x

Christmas Eve :)

Christmas Eveeeeee :)

Hello my beautiful lovelyfaces

 Cannot believeee it's here , oh so very excited ^__^ yayyyy!

We decorated my room todayy, and now I feel properly christmassyy, I have lots of photos that I need uploading, so I might post those tomorrow, along with a boxing day brownie recipe that I've adapted to make it even yummier from this book that is entirely about all things chocolate (Nommm)

 I love this one a bit too much

Peaceeee & Joy & Loveee :)

 I think this may be the cutest thing ever.

 Magical:)

Links a la rosieee

http://www.itunes12daysofchristmas.co.uk/

http://www.fluffytails.ca/christmas.asp

For people who are struggling;

 I really hope you can make christmas as magical as possible, fairy lights definitely help, but if not you could make things like paper chains & Paper baubles and stars etc , dressing up etc

If you're alone this christmas, maybe visiting a soup kitchen and helping out would help you feel better, or giving a hot drink or food to someone homeless 

I know it can be a very lonely time of year for some of you , and I know people find this time of year hard for numerous reasons, especially if you've had a loved one pass away at this time of year or something but remember that in reading this , you are not alone, thousands of people read this blog every day, and you're in a big community of readers :) 

There is always something you can do to feel better, whether it's baking your favourite cake , dancing around to your favourite songs, calling a friend , and I know if you're feeling rubbish someones cheerful words from some random poorly girl who's currently wearing a massive russian hat in bed could be the last thing you wanted, but I really wanted to just said so much love , hugs, sparkles and merry christmasness to each and every one of you :)  I really want to try to help as much as I can so don't hesitate to email me, it's in my links

I really hope you're enjoying christmas eve my darlings : ) & that tomorrow is truly magical & special & wonderdfully white 

All my love, and don't forget to check back for chlay's boxing day brownies :) suitable for free from people as well as the ' I'm lucky and can eat whatever I want'crowd ;)

Sparklynessssss and candy canes

Chlay xx

Be a part of chlay's blog & Your thoughts on Lara Stone..

 Hello loves :)

It's christmas eves eve :) Cannot believe it, feel half christmassy, half not, need to do christmassy artyness or something, or watch a really bad but awesome christmas film

Thankyou for the  influx of comments today! One girl/boy's post got me thinking...

 

 In the new year, I'm starting on a whole new regime for my health, and I'll probably have to cut down a hell of a lot,even though I don't really feel like I'm doing that much in the first place, I'm still getting worse, and I'm not just going to sit back and let it happen, but unfortunately this will probably mean I won't be able to post as much & I'm not going to give up blogging by any means, but I could do with some 'fillers' as such for when I'm too poorly or have done too much or have a virus or whatever, and I'd love for you all to be involved

 Now, these were for vogue, possibly British? Idk, anyways... generally, I've never really 'got' all the hype surrounding her for so long...but I actually like the 3 & 5th picture of these quite a lot anda few others are okay, I didn't include the one I really didn't like, but maybe I should have ...ah well too late now

I wanted to know if you completely love her or aren't really bothered by here or any other opinion

I also wanted to know, as I am going to be putting some time aside to do up some posts, what you'd like to see more of, or less of , and if you had any specific requests ? As my regular readers know my blog is kindof a bit of everything ...and as much as I like having the freedom to do posts on a variety of topics,  it does mean I'm prone to forgetting certain things..

So here's a list of things I can think of;

Seasonal Posts (Halloween, Easter etc)

Playlists on Spotify

Q&A sessions

Make up or Hair tutorials

Youtube Videos

'What I'm using beauty wise at the moment' posts

Product Features

Photos of my life

Tutorials on making things

Sets of pretty photos

Random Groups of themed pretty photos

Guest Posts

Things I've recently bought posts

Charity single/Other charity projects

Requests from reader posts

Etc

Love you all, hope you're all safe and happy and ready for christmas, I'm going to try and do a little christmas video tomorrow if I'm well enough ,as I know it can be a hard time of year for a lot of people , not that I can overly fix that, but I wanted to spread some lovee

Sparkly christmas loveee

Chlay

Drinking champagne from a paper cup,is never quite the same

Hello loves, just a few photos for you :)

 This one is so atmospheric and dramatic, yet hazy and dreamy at the same time

 I love the way they've captured this flowing , beautiful fabric in the sky

 This is so beautiful, look how the sunlight plays such a role in this photo, where  it catches the lightness of the veil, simply stunning

Every girls princess moment captured.

Lots of love, I do have christmas photos, I've just been poorlyful
Love & Christmas sparkles
 Chlay x

Ricor & Snow day!

Hello lovelyface's

We're like, properly snowed in! :) :) :) & it's my mumahbears birthday! Eeeeeeeeeeep
I'm making my room christmassy today, and I shall show you a christmas table decoration that we made for our 'mini christmas' yesterday, I got pretty clothesss :) & I just ordered a load of pretty dresses, and a pair of pretty ankle boots, so lots of lovelyness to come!

I'm a bit in love with these...

 Love this , I wish I could pull off the ankle socks thing
She blends so seamlessly into her surroundings, but the black makes sure doesn't get lost in the walls & still catches your attention with her dreamy stare and lightened fac, her pose seems full of thought and seems to add meaningfulness to her gaze

 So simple, yet elegant and beautiful

Thus is so simple and stripped back, no exotic location, just a cream coloured room, a girl a dress, some beads and a camera, and the way her hair is tousled down around her face, just frames her beautifully

Ricor.


I've had a few more ideas for pretty much free decorations as long as you have some basics in the house, hope I'm  well enough to do them & show you all, I cannot believe there's only 5 days til christmas, I am so not prepared , I hope my gifts to people come in time and that we can make it out to post jazzy's (hiven) gift

That is all for now my darlings, stay safe, have fun in the snow, drink hot chocolate or mulled wine after & get all cozy-ful with lots of blankets and stay snuggly and warm,

I hear those sleigh bells...

 
hello loves :) hope you're all okayy & keeping warm insideee and safe from all the snow :') we have proper snow for the first timeee this christmas, yayyyy , but eugh as I think we may be snowed in aha and people were planning to go christmas shopping today eeeep





I feel kindof like these photos encapsulate many seasons with all the different atmospheres and clothing in each photo & the variants of weather & location make beautiful contrasts , as some photographers get an idea and it's pretty much the same in each photo.


The stylist and hair & make up team have also contributed to each photo by matching the theme & location with corresponding styles, which often doesn't happen, apart from one photo one of the girls looks like she has a massive bag under one of her eyes, Idk what that's about ;) maybe because she's bending over it's created a shadow...

















Sorry for the lack of posts this week, I've been using any energy on getting all my gifts/cards sent out :] Christmas cards are the best, and if you want you can send me one , and I'll try and write back if you leave your address:)






alexandra valenti
 
If you want to write/draw/doodle/send me anything, it can be your bands demo, your photography , your art, if I like it, & I'm sure I will as I a have pretty long collection of likes, I'll post it on le blog to give you some new fans  :) I've already got one person I need to contact , oh wait two..

 Above thing^
&
Postal world tour or christmas cards to...


Chlay
PO Box 173
Tiverton
EX16 0ES

Oh I'd also love it if you could email me your snow photos or christmas photos, or gingerbread house photos! :) I'm doing a christmassy post soon
chlay@mobileemail.vodafone.net

I shall do an update on le map soon : ) I haven't had the chance to stick your wonderful post up  on le map yet..but if you've sent me a christmas card already I've put it with my christmas stuff :)



Health Update for those who were asking on formspring;

Still recovering from the exhaustionyness of ambulancey & hospital , but the kidney stuff is a million times better : )
I've been detoxing over the last 7 days as I had like toxin buld up due to everything getting inflamed & not working, detoxyness is always a bit eep but I feel like I've got the worst of it out of my system which is awesome:)
Although I'm struggling to swallow and have a weird virus now which is why I'm sleeping so much, hence lack of posts, as I've been passing out from like, 2pm-10pm, & then I wake up & am all, 'was I asleep?' 'Yes chlay you were, you have 3 missed calls' ;)

Loveeee you all lotsss
Chlay x