London Fashion Week Blogger Party // Bloggers Hangout

Morning guys :) 

I hope that you're all well?! 

It's pay day weekend for most of you (except me) and I bet y'all are going to do some serious shopping, *weeps into my comfort food*. 

Speaking of shopping, the past week was London Fashion Week, the most prestigious fashion event like... Ever. 

Anyway I was invited to go to the Bloggers Hangout 'London Fashion Week Party' down in Hoxton, London, Monday just gone. 

I love going to these events as you meet so many new bloggers' and brands and they are always so much fun. To be honest with you this is only the second one I had been to because in the past, these events have been on whilst I have been working. 

On the way down I was... And this is SO SAD, on route to go past Harry Styles house... And if you don't know already, I am majorly crushing on him right now, not in a 'fan girl' way but in a my stomach is in my mouth when I see him kinda way. Ha. *Covers eyes*. This girls got it bad. So yeah Papa Hutt pulled over and we just strolled by his house for like a second and then went back into the car. Later that night though... And I was GUTTED. I found out that he was in fact in bloody London that day too, I mean come on!!! The only day I am there he's back from LA and I freaking missed him by god damn seconds. I couldn't believe it. I was so near yet so frickin far. I could of cried. Ha ha. 

I won't put a picture up because it would be rude to, so you can have some of London instead. :)  

Now, I've got that off my chest. After my little detour we arrived in Hoxton to the studio the event was held in. 

The venue this time was pretty small compared to the last event, but it had more of an intimate feel to it. 

I wasn't aware that my little blogger friend Beth Chudley was going to the event too. When I saw on Twitter that she was going I was instantly more excited because I wasn't walking in on my own and I actually got to meet her after talking online for a while.Ha. She is sooooo lovely and dinky and very talented, go check out her blog here... http://littlecapsulewardrobe.com/

If I am completely honest with you I preferred the last event that they hosted as I found that this one was based more for the foodies and there were only a couple of beauty brands. :( 

We missed out on the Bloggers Hangout gift bags too which was a bummer.

Other than that I met some really nice brands and got gifted some lovely little products. I only really went to the stands that I was genuinely interested in because I felt I would get more out of it, rather than going round them all and wasting people's time. 

The first brand I went to see is Ark 'Age Aware Skincare'. This is a brand that I haven't actually heard of before and the lady I spoke to was really friendly and informative. Their brand is designed to "treat your skin through every day life stage with products that are suited to your skin's age-related needs'. 

I was gifted their 'pro remove, pre cleanse' oil. It's a unisex product that is put onto a dry face and massaged in to the skin and then you wet your face and emulsify the oil into a lather and then wash off. Its aim is to " prepare the skin for deeper cleansing for a perfectly flawless complexion.". It claims to remove waterproof makeup and also is effective as a shaving oil. 

The product contains a lot of natural ingredients and essential fatty acids. 

I have left it this long to put the post up because I wanted to test the products out and give you my first impressions. 

The oil has a signature smell and reminds me of petunia oil. It glides on the face nicely, for me it doesn't majorly lather up but it leaves my face feeling really clean and soft afterwards. I really like this product. I have had some breakouts so I am unsure whether that's just happened naturally or that the new products I am using are causing it. The more I use them, I guess I will find out. Ha. 


Next I went to see the Deborah Mitchell stand. I saw this brand at the last Bloggers Hangout event but didn't really get to talk to them as again it was so busy. The lady I spoke to was really nice and really paid attention to my skin needs and she then gifted me two of their full sized products to match those needs, which was really nice of her. 

She firstly gifted me their Heaven 'Cleanse & Foam Wash', which smells amazing. It contains Organic Mandarin (which is the main scent) and orange flower.

I use this after my Ark cleanse now and use it with my Magnitone. This has become my daily skin care routine. This product claims to be good for anti aging, firming, increase collagen levels, removes scars and removes pigmentation. 

I have only been using this for a week so it will be good to eventually see the effects. 

They also gave me the Heaven 'Peppermint Clarifying Hydeogel'. 

This contains, peppermint, spearmint, lavender and coconut. 

It is really soothing and I put this on my face after I have cleansed. You can use this as a primer too under your makeup. That's cool. 

I told the lady that I have been getting breakouts so she gave me this to help calm down my skin after cleansing as this acts as a toner. It closes pores, is great for pale skin and apparently it helps with morning sickness. This obviously won't affect me, but preggo ladies out their, this could a the product for you. 

I am liking these products a lot at the moment especially the gel. I think I like gel formulas as for me they seem to have more substance. 


I then moved on to the food area's as the beauty was basically over. One stand that caught my eye was PopKakery. They are a brand who make products that are gluten free, which is awesome. Their range includes gluten free cake pops, brownies, marshmallows and cookies. 

I was given a cake pop to try which is one of their best sellers. I swear down, it was one of the best things I have ever put in my mouth. It tasted amazing. 

The only thing I wasn't keen on was the fact that palm oil is used in this product. I am against animal cruelty and I know they test palm oil out on animals, so that did put me off a bit. Other than that the product is beautifully presented, the concept is great and they bloody taste amazing. 

Other products I tried was from a brand called Get Buzzing who produce 100% natural nut free flapkjack bars. 

These were really nice, I particularly liked the date and seed one that I was given. 

Other brands I tried was Cocktail Mania. They served alcoholic cocktails and they were amazing!!! It literally tasted like there was no alcohol in it. I tried the passion fruit one. 

I tried out Coconuts natural 'Mint Choc Chip' ice cream that's made out of natural ingredients and raw chocolate. 

And finally I grabbed some samples of the Bluebird Tea Co tea bags. I didn't try any there so thought I would at home. I haven't actually got around to trying them yet but they had a lot of varieties. I picked up 'Ginerbread Chai' and ' Skinny Minny'. I picked up the gingerbread one because who doesn't love that taste. I don't know how it's going to taste within a tea but I am hoping it's going to be great. The second one I picked up because it claims to boost your metabolism (score) and calms you stomach. This sounds like something I need. 

I was there for about an hour and then left as my interests lie in beauty and fashion, but it was nice to try out new things and meet new brands. I had a real nice time and it's great that these events are available, especially for us smaller bloggers' who want to get involved but can't in the bigger events in and around London. 

I'll leave you with some of the pictures I took on the way home out of my car window, driving at 60mph. :) 

Thanks for reading and I will see you in my next post. 

Love

L 

X 

B12 Deficiency // Welcome To My World : A Silent Epidemic With Serious Consequences.

Hey guys!!! 
So today I have decided to do a 'Serious Sunday' post and talk about something that affects me and maybe a lot of other people too, that don't actually know about it. 

I found out that I have a B12 deficiency a few years back now, maybe 3 years? I cannot exactly remember, but yeah it doesn't seem like anything to someone just reading those words. However it can be a lot more serious than you think!!

I went to the doctors with my mum because I needed to see someone about my periods (we are all girls here, so I hope you aren't grossed out by that) ha. I was getting quite bad ones which were really painful and I still get them really painful to this day. On the second day I would start to pass out and it made me so ill I couldn't move. So when the doctor asked if I was anaemic, due to me being really pale I thought it was linked to my bad periods.

Nope.

If it wasn't for that doctor investigating my 'paleness' I most probably wouldn't even know to this day that I had a problem. I have always been pale, and maybe that's why but she checked the redness in my eyes,under my bottom eyelid and decided they were too pale and did some blood tests. 

For quite a while I had been breathless, I couldn't get upstairs without gasping for air and I went to the doctors time and time again about it, but nothing was done.

 I had continuous insomnia and just couldn't fall asleep, I was losing weight rapidly even though my eating habits hadn't really changed. I was getting dead legs constantly and pins and needles in my right leg. I kept forgetting the simplest of things. I was getting a lot of headaches and thought that was because I changed my pill. I was also getting a lot of palpitations which were really uncomfortable and at one point I could see a weird like 'popping' movement coming from the skin in my chest. And a patch of skin on my right foot lost all feeling. It went dead and that scared me. Actually...

It freaked me out!!

I looked awful as you can see. Ha. I did have a real bad picture but I no longer have it. My face was really thinning out.

I started to really notice these symptoms (but obviously thought nothing of it) when I was performing in my first ever singing competitions. I had all these effects going on and it really affected my singing. I couldn't keep the breath on notes and in Worcester's version of 'Britain's Got Talent' (Worcester's Got Talent) I was in the semi-finals singing Jessie J's 'Do It like A Dude'and I was soooo ill. I just couldn't hold the notes, I was dancing around too which made it worse and I was having to gasp for air. It was horrendous trying to perform when I was anxious anyway, my immune system was low too so I kept getting tonsillitis to top it all off. In the video which is on my old YouTube channel you can see at the end of the performance when being interviewed I almost passed out. I cried after I felt that bad. 

Not long after that I was in the 'Text Factor' competition, again another singing comp. And once again I wasn't well but I soldiered on, I was then called to come into the doctors to discuss my blood test results. 

I got told that the blood tests actually come back saying that I had a condition called Macrocytosis which is where my red blood cells have enlarged quite dramatically and that means not enough oxygen is being carried around my body. This explained the breathlessness and that fact I couldn't breathe properly. The doctor then told me I had to have more tests to determine what was causing this. I think I was put on some medication to reduce the size of the cells, but I can't fully remember. 

A few weeks later I was then told that I have a vitamin B12 deficiency and low folate too. The tests showed that my levels of B12 should be around the 1000 mark and mine were at 60. I was then told I was at the danger point of being permanently brain and nerve damaged. 

I was really upset as I didn't understand why I had this and how serious it was. If I remember correctly I did get told it was genetic. I was told as a test, to eat things that were high in vitamin B12 to see if my levels increased. It didn't. I was on folate and vit B12 tablets (folate and B12 work together) and neither of those worked.
 Obviously I was getting worried, but then I was told that my stomach wasn't absorbing the vitamin, and B12 can only be present through eating foods with it in. We as humans don't produce it ourselves. I was told there wasn't enough intrinsic factor in my stomach to absorb it. Therefore it is conclusive that I have pernicious anaemia (an autoimmune condition where the body destroys intrinsic factor, a protein needed for the absorption of B12). This was a lot to take in for one person. 

And if that wasn't enough I was then told that I would need to go to hospital as they think I have celiac disease and have a camera put down my throat into my stomach/intestine.   

I freaked out, there was NO way I was going to have anything shoved down my throat. I struggle to breathe through my nose as it is, and I was worried I wouldn't be able to breathe with that down my throat.  

Celiac disease I was told was linked to food intolerance. To this day I am slightly confused by it all. And to this day I still haven't had that camera down my throat. 

I now have to have B12 injections for the rest of my life and I will have to live with certain symptoms but it doesn't affect my working life or anything like that. It just is really annoying to have. The injections hurt, especially if the doc hits a nerve. It stings but it is bearable. I have mine in my bum as it has more muscle there and I thought it would hurt less. The injection gives me an energy boost and makes me feel awesome, it stops me being cold for a while too (I am always cold due to the condition) and I can sleep properly. I love having it because it helps my symptoms. 

http://wlsvitagarten.com/tag/anemia/

A lot of celebrities have it now because "they can". And it has been treated like a fad for weight loss and to keep their skin and hair healthy. It annoys me that celebs' such as Rita Ora and Victoria Beckham are using it like this. For people like myself it's a necessity for me to be of normal health. I just feel a lot of medicines are abused for the sake of vanity. 

The article is here.

http://style.uk.msn.com/health/vitamin-b12-injections-do-they-work-1

I would like to point out that this all happened in the start of me going to university and it really affected my first year as I had a lot of time off because I was poorly and I kept having panic attacks and real bad anxiety. 

I am now completely over that, thank God and although I am not 'fine' I am living with it and as I have said it doesn't harm my working and day to day life. 


If any of you have noticed anything that I have mentioned here or even all of it, then go straight to the doctors. That one doctor who took the time to investigate this has potentially saved me of something that could have been drastically a lot worse. A lot of docs don't recognise this condition as the symptoms that are presented can be linked to other illnesses. But I would push for tests because doctors aren't always right!!

If you have any questions that you would like to ask me regarding this, I will be happy to answer them. When I told people about it they didn't take it seriously and they still don't. They don't really understand the implications of this deficiency and how I see it is, if you don't understand, you can not belittle the problem that someone else has. 

A little life lesson people.


♥

Guinea Pig Attachment.

My fluffy monkey Cody.

This is a LONG one...

Okay guys, I know I haven't done a blog post for a few days now, but there has been a genuine reason. 

And this reason is pictured above,

and this is my Cody.

I write about and photograph all things fashion and beauty related right?! But I also have 'life' attached to the end of that little heading. And this right here is part of my life, it's real.

I wanted to take the time to write a post about something that effects my every day life in the most stressful ways, but also in the best ways. 

To most people, yes, he is "just a guinea pig", but to me he is regarded in the same manner as if he were a dog or a cat. He is still a living creature, he has feelings and he has the most awesome personality.

Cody hasn't been an easy ride, let me tell you! You would think just by going into a pet store to buy an animal it would be easy as pie, yeah? 

No. No it wasn't.

What was about to hit me like a tonne of bricks was something I had NEVER anticipated when homing this monkey. In a way this post is telling you my story (in short as it is majorly long) but also advising you readers out there that are animal lovers. 

I got Cody at around 8 weeks old. He was teeny, alert and most of all he was cute and already had a quirky personality. 

I fell in love instantly.

Unfortunately, after this picture was taken (the day I got him home) I noticed something wasn't quite right with him. He was sneezing constantly and scratching like a maniac. 

I love to research, especially when it is to do with animals as I have a major passion for them and their care, and I concluded by his symptoms that he had a URI (Upper Respiratory Infection) and Ringworm. Now, the URI needed to be dealt with straight away, as guinea pigs go down hill very rapidly and they hide their illnesses well until the last minute. And well, the ringworm was contagious as hell and it must have been hurting him.

Ha, no word of a lie my mum was cleaning everything like a dog on heat, she wouldn't leave anything untouched.

Bleach became our new best friend!!

The next day, he went back to the vets and this is where my hell began. He stayed in their care for months, it was horrible. I didn't really get to see him and I felt so helpless. I was even suggested that I "swap" him for another one or "given back". These remarks made me furious. He isn't a mobile phone that you can just send back because it's faulty. He is a living creature. Just imagine if I had given him back, I would have never of forgiven myself. 

I believed in Cody and I knew he would make it. He was strong.

He was however in a bad way. He was on antibiotics for months and even to this day he is still on them. My knowledge on guinea pigs, their care, medicines, diet, warning signs and illness is above average and most of the time I have diagnosed him before the vets have even figured out what is wrong. 

That is the shocking thing, I am untrained yet I spotted all the signs and symptoms! (That is is a WHOLE different story on its own.)

I won't go into major details as this post would be going on for weeks, ha.  But yeah, I eventually got him back like this.

He had grown LOADS and was sooooo long. I was a little shocked. Obviously, now he is quite the chunk but it was still strange and he was so tame too. 

I thought my ordeal was over. 

He was on continuous medication but when I brought him back on this day, I noticed a scabby patch on his right ear and some on his nose before that and it wasn't again picked up. So he had another trip back to the vets. I literally spend most of my time there these days. They suspected ringworm on his ear and took him back in. It was then confirmed a week or so later that it was a bacterial infection.

From the very beginning of me taking Cody to the vets I complained about his ear scratching and head flicking but nothing was really done about it. 

And now, we come to the present day. For over a year Cody has been on various different types of medication; Septrin, Baytril, Metronidazole, Loxicom and Emeprid. It's got to the point now where I indistinctly know when to give him medicine and what type. Oh, and another thing I learnt, just like humans, guinea pigs very much dislike having to take their foul tasting medicine. It is a daily struggle, but I have been doing it for so long now I am a pro. 

I now know all about GI Statis, bloat, rhinitis  when he becomes what the professionals call 'Anoretic' (stops eating and drinking), I have to deal with seizures, him almost dying from poor advice. You name it I have been through it with this guinea. I know A LOT. 

And now chronic middle ear infection. 

I would just like to point out that, I have tried SO hard to save his life because I had a gut instinct and knew he was too healthy to be put to sleep. And that if at any point he was severely suffering I would NOT of kept him alive for my own benefit.

 Cody had gotten over his persistent URI and stubborn Ringworm but was left with Rhinitis (which is rare in guinea pigs) that makes him allergic and sensitive to a lot of things. He cannot have wood shavings as his main bedding so now his cage is made of fleecing, he is allergic to grass (his favourite) and his hay irritates him. 

It's a lot of hard work. I never did think when I brought him that both me and him would be going through all of this stress. 

He is worth it though. :) 

Last week, I had to take Cody to Bristol (UK) for a CT scan. It is a long way from where I live but I needed to know what was going on with his ears. As I mentioned earlier from the beginning he had been constantly irritated by his ears and on Christmas day  13' he developed a 'head tilt' which becomes present when an animal has an ear problem. He lost his balance and began having mini seizures which was so upsetting to watch. Again, I researched and I concluded he had signs of a middle ear infection. He also had green matter being brought up his ear canal which showed he had some sort of infection that just wasn't budging. Cody isn't an ordinary guinea, he is a moody piggy and dislikes being touched and held and is very anti-social that way.

With what he has been through I am not surprised. 

I wouldn't have him any other way though, he isn't boring that's for sure. 

Codes loves to travel and often sleeps. 

So, yeah the results came back yesterday and it wasn't great news. I was told the bone structure in both ears had severely thickened and there was fluid stuck down there. The vet also said that he is almost definitely completely deaf but otherwise he is healthy and happy. And it was confirmed this was all down to the URI he had in the beginning and that it is common knowledge that middle ear infections result from a URI. The first signs were the patch of skin on his ear, that I noticed in the beginning. The bacterial infection. 

Speaks for itself really. 

I was told they wouldn't recommend surgery after all as his ears are so small and to drain the ears could do more harm than good. 

So it is now a case of trying the last few antibiotics to try and alleviate the symptoms but he will at some point become immune to them and the day will come where I will have to make the decision to put him to sleep. 

I was and still am devastated. I have battled so hard, and apart from his ears he is a healthy and happy guinea pig. He has hair that I am jealous of, he popcorns (a jump they do when they are happy) eats like a horse (he costs me so much money) and is so funny I could watch him for hours. 

I have spent months looking after him, a lot of money, so much stress and heartache but I wouldn't change him for the world.

When you fall in love, you fall in love. 

I don't know how much time I have left with him and I am hoping we can defy the odds like we always have and I can make him better. But whatever time we do have I will make sure it's the best time he has. 

He is my little buddy and I will not give up on him. 

I hope you liked this post and at some point I will be doing an advice post on guinea pigs from my own personal experience. 

If anyone would like to ask me anything regarding this post just drop me a comment. :) 

I will now leave you with a few pictures as the vids won't upload so I will put them up at a later date.

Enjoy.

♥

This is a state of total relaxation. 

Love this picture!

What guinea pig even does this?! Look at his little frog legs! Ha ha.

Cuddles ♥

He actually puts his head on the pillow to sleep. He even moves it
to where he wants it. Too cute. 

His favourite place to 'chill'.

All of my babies :)

♥