The Lo Down - VH1 Ed Sheeran Storytellers Gig in Whelans

Hey Guys and Dolls,

In 2015 I was lucky enough to go along to Ed Sheeran's VH1 Storytellers gig in Whelans in Dublin. I won the tickets online and I brought along my brother Ger as we are both really big fans. The night itself was was amazing, we both had a lovely time. I wish I could get tickets for his gig in the 3 Arena but tickets are like gold dust and are pretty pricey. I'm going to other gigs this Summer though so I'm looking forward to them.

Back to the gig in Whelans, the atmosphere was unreal like nothing I ever experienced before. We both had such a good night. He sang lots of his hits from his first and second album e.g. Lego House, A Team and Sing etc.

We definitely danced the night away and I'd love to see him again. I'm so jealous any of you that are going to see him tonight in the 3Arena. I love Ed Sheeran's new album especially the song Galway Girl.

Laura<3

Real Techniques Roadshow!

Yesterday I met none other than the Pixiwoo sisters (queue fan girl moment), Sam and Nic. Anyone who looks at YouTube beauty videos will know these two well known beauty gurus. They were in Dublin's Boots in Jervis street for their much anticipated Real Techniques Road Show. The girls are a real success story and just shows the power of social media. I've always been a huge fan of the girls and really enjoy watching their beauty tutorials as who doesn't want to look like their fave celeb. I know I've gotten quite a few tips and tricks from their videos that's for sure.

I headed for a ramble around town with my Dad and popped into the Jervis centre to see the girls. I absolutely loved Nic's outfit, I definitely need to find out where she got it from. Of course I left my old Dad a little on the embarrassed side as I dragged him into the photo with me. I picked up the Real Techniques Retractable lip brush and makeup sponge on the day as I know I'll get plenty of use out of both items. As I picked up makeup brush on the day I was eligible to the free gift they were giving out on the day which was there amazing buffing brush. I have to say it is my go to makeup brush and I use it to apply my makeup everyday.

I can't wait to pick up Nic's makeup brush kit when it launches in October, it can't come quick enough.

Did anyone of you go to the Real Techniques Roadshow?

Laura<3

Our Fabulous Day Out in Powerscourt!

I love Summertime in Ireland but one thing you can't rely on too much is the weather. I heard predictions of horrible rainy weather but that wasn't a problem today as it turned out to be a scorcher out. Seeing as it was so nice out, Paddy and I decided to take a bit of an adventure and headed to Powerscourt. We both hadn't been in years so we couldn't wait to go. Considering neither of us drive yet the best way for us to get to Powerscourt was on one the City Sight Seeing buses. If your ever in Dublin you won't miss them as they are bright red in colour and there pretty easy to spot from a mile away. The route to Powerscourt was great as it took you through Dublin and showed you different landmarks, even though Paddy and I are born and bred in Dublin we still find things like this really interesting as you can miss out on small little things like this when you live in a city all the time. The journey to Powerscourt took roughly 30/40mins which for me personally is time well spent as the views once you get there are breathtaking! On the driveway up to Powerscourt, we passed the Powerscourt Hotel Resort which is the most beautiful hotel I've ever seen! I'd love to stay there sometime but I'm guessing it would cost an arm and a leg.

Our tour guide was such a lovely lady and super friendly, we arrived in Powerscourt at 3.30pm and she let us wander around for two hours taking in all the sights. I put all my favourite pictures from the day up above as you can see we definitely had a beautiful day for it! My highlight from Powerscourt has to be hands down, the Japanese Gardens which you can see a bit of in the top picture! It was so nice and peaceful, I could of sat and sunbathed there forever! I also got to pull out my sunnies for the first that Paddy bought me, there pink and yellow what's not to love! There was actually a wedding taking place while we were there so there was alot of well dressed people walking around the gardens and lovely classical music playing. By far the weirdest thing I seen was the pet cemetery, soo creepy I couldn't deal!! It's hard to believe that Powerscourt used to be somebodies house and gardens, unreal if you ask me! I thoroughly love the place and I'll be heading back soon to check out the waterfall, apparently it's seperate to the bus tour so another day out to Powerscourt is certainly on the cards. If your looking for a place to go on a day out to if you ever visit Dublin, I'd definitely recommend hopping on one of the City Sight Seeing buses, Paddy and I are already looking into our next trip!

Did you get up to anything nice over the weekend so far??

Laura<3

Parklife!

Who doesn't love the gorgeous weather we're currently having? We've been having an heatwave in Ireland at the moment and I'm loving every last minute of it. A couple of weeks back Paddy started an internship, he'll be working away there until the end of October. Having a bit of free time on my hands on Wednesday I hopped on the bus and met him after work. With the weather being so nice lately we decided to get some lunch and sit in the park. Whilst Paddy opted to get Supermacs, I went for pad thai noodles from Diep. I've never heard of this particular food chain before so I wasn't too sure on it at first. In the end it was really good, kinda expensive but the fact that it was yummy was the main thing.

Here are a couple of photos we took, Paddy's offices are right beside the sea so he has this beautiful view to look at on the way to work everyday. I never do outfits of the day post for some I don't know why as it's always been something I've wanted to start doing for a while. My dress below is from Dorothy Perkins whilst my cardi is from New Look. My Mum bought me a gorgeous bag from Penneys when I was going to London not too long ago. It's not pictured below but I may feature it in an upcoming post. I love it, it fits absolutely everything into it whilst still looking smart. My favourite nail polish for Summer is Cake-Hole from Butter Londons new Autumn/Winter collection. It's such a fun shade that I can see a lot of people loving, I don't think the picture below does it justice plus my nails are a little chipped. The collection itself consists of  five neon polishes and a white base coat, I'd definitely keep my eyes peeled for these. The only downside of the day was that I broke my sunglasses. This is the second pair I've broke in the last month, thank god they weren't expensive. I want to get another pair of aviator style sunglasses, have you guys seen any nice ones around?

 I'm hoping this gorgeous weather sticks around for a while. It definitely makes people seem in better form that's for sure. I still haven't managed to get a tan but I hear the weather is supposed to be amazing over the weekend so I think a trip to the beach is in order.

What have you been getting up to while the weather has been amazing??

Laura<3

Flora Mini Marathon Update #2

With the Mini Marathon just a week away, I thought it was about time to do my second update. Not going to lie I'm a bit nervous, training fell by the wayside with college exams so I've been trying to get back into the swing of things. I recently received my charity pack from St Luke's Hospital, a charity that is really close to my hear. I'm hoping to raise a good bit of money for them in the lead up to the big day as every donation really does help. I'll be collecting my race number over the weekend at the Womans World Show. The largest female exhibition event runs from Friday 31st May - Sunday 2nd June. I'm looking forward to heading along as I've been before with my Mum when she was collecting her number when she was competing and I remember having such a good time. There's something for everyone from live catwalk shows to beauty & hair, I love nothing more than browsing through all the different stands. I heard Vita Liberata have a stand this year, being a tan I've seen so many reviews of lately I'm definitely going to be checking them out. If you'd like to come along over the weekend yourself, you can avail of free tickets from their website which you'll be available to find here. The tickets are €12 at the door on the day so it's definitely worth getting your hands on them now so you don't miss out on a great day-out. If you do end up going definitely let me know I'd love to meet some of you guys.

Lastly I'm trying to get my attire right for day as we all know there's nothing worse than running in something your not comfortable in. I want to get it right, I'm thinking leggings or possibly shorts. Would love to hear your suggestions! I already have my top sorted, my St Luke's Hospital Official 2013 Marathon top. I wasn't too sure on which size to get but this one fits perfectly.

In the coming week I'm going to do a post featuring my essentials for the Marathon. This will consist of products which I think are worthwhile getting your hands on, if you too are competing in the Marathon. The post will be up in the next day or two so stay tuned for that.

Are you competing in the Flora Women's Mini Marathon this year? Is anyone heading to the Womans World Show in the RDS over the weekend?

Laura<3

A Family Day Out at Dublin Zoo

On Saturday I headed to the Zoo with my Mum, Dad and nephew. I haven't been in years, I'm pretty sure the last time I went was about four years ago. I love the Zoo and I used to go so much as a child. The whole place changes everytime I go, there always finding new ways to make it better. When I was younger I always got super excited seeing the elephants, my Mum told me I went as far as collecting tiny figurines.  The weather couldn't of been better on the day, dare I say I even got a bit of colour. Ryan really enjoyed his day, h's obsessed with animals, for the whole car ride there he kept saying which ones he really wanted to see. I had such an amazing time, I'm definitely not going to leave it so long before I go again. I thought I'd share some pictures with you that I took on the day. I think they look amazing if I do say so myself. My next post will be up in a couple of days and it will be my April Favourites, sorry it's a bit late coming!

Would you like to see more posts like this in the future showing what I get up to in Dublin?

Laura<3

A little bit of Music - Homeboy Sandman at the Sugar Club

Last night I went along to my first Underground Hip Hop gig at the Sugar Club. I went to see Jay Z at the Old Trafford Cricket Ground two years ago but that was a much bigger scale concert than this one. I went with Paddy as he is really into this genre of music, he even writes for a well known  Hip Hop website. I bought these tickets for Paddy's Valentines Day present last month, I was surprised the gig came around so fast. He was really upbeat and excited about going, I on the other hand wasn't too sure what to expect from it. Homeboy Sandman isn't an artist I'd be familiar with at all. From what Paddy told me before the gig, Homeboy Sandman hails from Queens, New York and he's quite a popular Underground Hip Hop act. I'll listen to just about anything, you just have to see the selection of music on my Ipod to notice this but I'd never heard of this artist before.

We headed over to the Sugar Club at around 8pm when the doors opened. I went into town extremely early so to kill some time we went to see Broken City. It's such a brilliant film I'd definitely recommend it if you love Mark Wahlberg movies like I do, which is a lot. Russell Crowe also stars in this movie which I presume was filmed around the same time as Les Miserables. He couldn't look more different in this movie he plays a permatan New York City Major a far cry from   his performance as Javert. The venue itself was pretty nice, it's all seated which I definitely prefer for smaller gigs. The Sugar Club have amazing cocktails, seeing as they were only €5 I took advantage of it. 

Of course in the time leading up to the support act taking to the stage Paddy and I took some funny pictures, the result is the above picture. I caught the boy striking a pose, don't think he'll be too happy seeing this up here. After watching Butter for a little under two hours, Homeboy Sandman took to the stage at just before 11pm. Pretty late for a gig to start but he certainly got the crowd going right away with his charisma. I ended up really enjoying the gig, it went on for just over a hour. It only spotted because another act was due to go on after him which was a shame as I know the crowd would of stayed to listen to more. After going along to his show, I'll definitely be looking into his music more. I wouldn't be surprised if it gets added to my Ipod playlist.

When Paddy and I were leaving the venue post gig we ran into the man himself , Homeboy Sandman signing merchandise. He was such a ace bloke and unbelieveably nice. Paddy bought his CD to get signed, he goes to a lot of these sort of gigs so he's built quite the collection of signed merchandise. He was going to get a tshirt but they only had a S and XXL left which would either be way too small or way too big. I didn't buy anything as I'll probably just get a loan of the CD off Paddy at some point or another. I did get my ticket signed though and a cheeky picture avec Paddy and Homeboy Sandman.

Laura<3

My Trip to the Closer2Fabulous Studio

Last weekend I headed over to the amazing Closer2Fabulous studio on Clare Street in Dublin. The lovely owner Debs invited me along and I couldn't wait to go, I was looking forward to it for a while. I intended to visit ages ago but with college and the like I never got around to it. The studio itself is absolutely gorgeous, I love everything from the layout to the decor.

First thing that caught my eye and all my attention was all the fabulous beauty products, it was like makeup/skincare heaven. Some brands I was familiar with and others were new to me. It was a early start on Saturday so I went to the studio with not a trace of makeup on my face to let Debs work her magic. First off I had a skincare consultation made up that was specifically for my skin type, some great products were used that I immediately added to my wishlist. I like how Debs works around people's budgets, I myself think more skincare brands should do this and not just throw products at you with ridiculous price tags. Being a student myself my budget wouldn't be huge butI have my eye on a few bits from Nuxe, a brand I love already. Debs said that my skin was in great condition but that I maybe exfoliated too much. Apparently at my age I should be exfoliating once every 2/3 weeks which I wasn't aware of until now. Our skin naturally performs it for us so if we exfoliate 2/3 a week its leaving our skin bare. See you learn something new every day. I know how important it is to keep my skin in top condition. There's no point in wasting tonnes of money on expensive makeup when you don't have a good base to work with.

That leads me on to my favourite part, MAKEUP. I usually get really nervous when other people do my makeup as I had a bad experience at a certain well known makeup counter a while back. My face looked a mess and I quickly removed all my makeup as soon as I was out of seeing distance from the counter. I felt perfectly safe with Debs though as she knows what she's doing. I learned so many new tips and tricks along the way. This girl is a makeup genius! I loved the finished natural look she came up with, my skin was glowing and looked flawless. We decided on going for a smokey eye which would be perfect for daytime and I got so many compliments on it. The lipstick used on my lips was MAC's Lovelorn with one of the amazing Clarins Lip Perfectors on top, a gorgeous combination if I may say so myself.

Of course, being me I left with two new products added to my beauty wishlist, Giorgio Armani's Luminous Silk foundation  and the new Urban Decay Naked Flushed compact. The latter contains a highlighter, bronzer and blush, perfect for travelling which I'll be doing a lot of this year. I'm a big fan of both brands so I'll definitely be adding these to my collection come payday this month. I have a bit of a wait until then, it will give me plenty of time to finish of some of my other foundations.

I enjoyed my time at the Closer2Fabulous studio, it has such a lovely relaxed atmosphere. I'll definitely be popping back again soon for another visit and a chat. For more information on personalised skincare consultations and makeup lessons pop over to Closer2Fabulous website were you will find more details.

Laura<3

23..

Today I celebrated my 23rd birthday! I had such an amazing day, the weather was fairly nice out which was a big change from the rain we've been getting by the bucketful lately. Thanks for all the lovely birthday messages you guys sent me on Twitter so nice to wake up to them. I got some really nice presents this year from my family, they were far to good to me! Paddy also got me a new camera that I'm completely in LOVE with. I can't wait to start using it, I'll probably have to read up on the manual first as I've never had such a fancy camera before. If you'd like to see a post on what I got for my birthday let me know in the comments.

I had a pretty relaxed day, Paddy and I headed out on the Dart to Dun Laoighre. We the nice weather and walked from Dun Laoighre to Killiney. It was a bit of a trek but I really enjoy this walk everytime I do it. Walking down the coast road is so nice, I love looking at all the scenery. I think we Irish can take them for granted sometimes. Saying that the horrible weather we've been having lately doesn't really help either. Throughout the walk I spotted lots of seats facing the sea, I would happily sit there and take in the view all day. On the way to Killiney Dart Station we walked by Bono's house so of course I got a snap of that, that being the big green gates outside. I forgot to take a photo the last time I did this walk so I didn't want to forget this time around. When I got the bus back home, I met up with my Mom  and went for dinner to Milanos which is kinda like Pizza Express in the UK. I think they're the same company but I'm not a 100% sure. After all the walking I did I was starving so this really hit the spot, so yummy! I didn't get to picture the food I got, let's just say it disappeared almost immediately.

I have such an amazing day, I can't believe another year has come and gone. I'm looking forward to seeing what life has in store for my 23rd year! If it's anything like the last it will definitely be a good one.

Laura<3