Hiphopsideproject

Dear Ugg Boots,

I thought it was time we cleared a few things up, I mean, the air between us hasn’t been good for a while now… and I feel like I owe you an explanation. Where should I begin? …

I remember when I first saw you, wow, that was a long time ago. You weren’t as popular back then, or as colourful! heh… You were cute in that short and dumpy way, I’ll give you that — I guess in your own little way you still are. I remember those stories you told me about how you used to hang out with the surfers and swimmers, I’m sure you fitted right in there!  I don’t know whether it was your homesickness from leaving Australia and your attempt to fit in, or some wish to be thought of as ‘cool’, but ever since you started hanging around with that Paris girl, well,  you changed — you never used to wear pink for a start. Then I started seeing you with all her friends too, that crowd of people… why did you do that? I guess I can’t lay all the blame with you for that, they knew you were different… paraded you as some kind of new toy. Even when they dropped you that time for Mukluks? when they came running back to you I watched on as you greeted them with open arms.

Yes, looking back that’s when things started to change. I think it got worse when I saw you hanging out in those cheap high-street shops, you’d really let your standards drop… you’d turned so synthetic, half the time you went by some weird pseudonym or something, too. What happened? I think you might have started to spread yourself too thin, wanting to be ‘in’ with as many people as you could.

And now? Now I don’t even know who you are anymore, one day you’ll be wearing wool, the next you’re covered in laces…and some of the colours… oof. I see you more than ever now, sometimes I think you look like you’re doing ok, other times I really wonder what went wrong. Like the other day, you were hanging out with this girl who was wearing baggy sweat pants and a baggy pink hooded sweater, and she wasn’t even at the gym. Wow. I thought you had a bit more class than that. When I saw you in Australia last year you looked so well! Like your old self again! You’d got your colour back and looked homely again.

Anyway, I’m babbling, I just wanted to let you know my reasons. I hope you can understand. Don’t get me wrong, I still think you’re so lovely, warm and cosy… I just can’t be seen with you anymore. I hope we can still hang out around the house, though.

Yours,

Kim

PS. I don’t know if you’ve been in touch with Crocs lately, but I’ll be writing to him at some point. We also have a few things to clear up.

I had a strange, eye opening experience last week. At a class we were all invited to stand up, walk around, and introduce ourselves/ Say HI! to each other. This suggestion was met with the sound of nervous laughter, uncomfortable shuffling in seats and reddening faces.

What?

Is it really such an outlandish, absurd and embarassing situation to say hello to your peers? Really? No one was invited to tell their deepest darkest secrets, or remove any items of clothing, or even stand up in front of everyone, it was a simple How Do You Do hand-wave and smile.

When people eventually did get out of their seats and start to wander around the room, several skulked towards the back after saying hello to a couple of others, one person looked as though this was the worst thing that could have ever happened – eyes down, cold sweat. What have we come to when we are so utterly shocked at the prospect of saying hi?! Oof.

Take Inigo Montoya’s advice and practice how you’ll say Hello when you meet someone! First impressions count for so much, and if someone’s first impression of you is with your eyes hitting the floor, your face red and voice stuttering…. well… that’s pretty hard to come back from! I know people can be shy, I’m shy, but saying Hi is easy peasy, muster your confidence and say it with conviction :)

Over the past couple of years or so I’ve found myself doing things that grown-ups do, buying a house, being accepted for credit, holding down a job etc etc. Not to mention the fact that my age seems to be increasing rapidly nowadays. Growing up scares me, I’m way too immature to be classed as a grown-up and I really don’t want that responsibility.

Being a grown-up means you have to abandon toys, doesn’t it? you can no longer be ridiculous, out spoken or colourful without being frowned upon.. Bah! Peter Pan had it right, sort of, but we’re unlucky enough not to have a Neverland reachable by British Airways (no MJ jokes, plz)… and no matter how long I keep my window open at night I really don’t think I’m going to be sprinkled with pixie dust anytime soon. There are a tonne of fantastical activities that we enjoyed as children that we can still enjoy today, they’ll make you feel tiny again. Woop! And now that we’re ‘grown-ups’ we can concoct believable excuses for our immature actions (but honestly, if it’s fun for you, why lie?) and even make these things more fun than they used to be!

• Visit Theme parks
  There’s nothing better in this WORLD than riding roller coasters, wearing mouse ears & running around with a sugar high.
  Grown-up Bonus: Go on your favourite ride over & over without being dragged away, head home when you want!
• Invest in a Hula Hoop
  It might take you a little time to figure out how to use it again, but when it finally clicks you’ll have a whirl of a time. I personally own this fluorescent beauty. Alternatives are roller skates, pogo-sticks and skipping ropes.
  Grown-up Excuse: You’re doing it for exercise!
• Build forts
  Draping sheets over chairs and making a den used to be one of my favourite things to do. I used to pull all the cushions off the sofas and line the walls (extra defences), and I’d take in snacks, teddy bears and a book and hold out in there until the enemies retreated.
  Grown-up Excuse: Cleaning!
  Grown-up Bonus: Apply your structural knowledge to create even better constructions.
• Camp out in the living room
  It still feels exciting to spend a night camped out on the living room floor, watching movies and improvising a mattress from sofa cushions.
  Grown-up Excuse: Broken Air-conditioning, the cat threw up on the bed.
• Eat so much ice cream that you throw up
  This sounds so negative, but it’s not. It’s probably not the best thing for you, but omg, it’s such fun to stuff your face and have a ridiculous sugar high. Head to pizza hut for their ice cream factory :)
  Grown-up Excuse: Tummy bug, no one will believe you were dumb enough to eat too much ice cream ;)
  Grown-up Bonus: You can eat well more now!
• Run around the woods pretending you’re on an epic adventure
  You could even go so far as to take some nerf guns and declare all out spongy warfare!
  Grown-up Excuse: You’re on a nature walk
  Grown-up Bonus: No curfew!
• Spend time day-dreaming
  Imagination is more important than knowledge. For while knowledge defines all we currently know and understand, imagination points to all we might yet discover and create. – Albert Einstein
  Grown-up Excuse: You’re thinking over a realllly difficult task
• Make ice-lollies
  Bonus points for making rocket-shaped ones!
  Grown-up Bonus: add vodka!
• Make weird and wonderful concoctions in your kitchen, pretending you’re doing science
  Mentos & Soda-water & haribo sours & rum = some kinda twisted mojito.
  Grown-up Excuse: You’re following a recipe, it’s your kitchen!
• Create the most amazing midnight feast you could ever have imagined, think the food-fight scene in ‘Hook’
  Remember when you used to set an alarm at sleep overs when you were tiny? just so you’d all get up for a midnight feast? You’d never hear it, and it would all fail. Alas! You can now feast in the wee hours, and that feast can be fucking amazing.
  Grown-up Bonus: You can splurge on really ridiculous food for the feast!
• Dig up worms
  If you never did this as kid it probably sounds super odd, but if you spent your days scouting out the longest worm in the garden then this is for you! Don’t eat them though, we’re past that.
  Grown-up Excuse: It helps with composting!
• Dance to the superman song

  Grown-up Excuse: You’re just doing aerobics, duh

• Invent your own language
  I talk in random languages to all the cats I know constantly, and if I don’t know the words to a song I’ll sing in tongues. It’s stupid, fun, and ridiculous. Perfect!
  Grown-up Bonus: You’re now old enough to actually be convincing when telling someone that it’s a real language o.O
• Dress up like a fairy princess/cowboy/bear/robot
  When I was little my dressing up box was bursting at the seams, I think it’s time to crack it open again and start sporting ridiculous outfits on a weekend. FunFun!
  Grown-up Bonus: You can invest in key pieces for your dressing up box!
• Have a conker tournament
  Perfect time of year’s coming up for collecting conkers and having an all out conker war. Jazz them up with fabulous coloured laces! yeh!
  Grown-up Bonus: You can spend even longer making your conker the hardest, now, several coats of varnish should do it!

Have fun x

Happy Monday Chicklets, how’re you feeling? I always find it useful to look at your finances, even if you’re not feeling particularly stretched, and see where you can reign in some of the spending without altering your life drastically (I’m talking quitting that takeout coffee completely – yeesh! What’s the point of existing after that?!). Lately I’ve been taking a look at my own spending habits and figuring ways I can save a bit of money on a daily/weekly/monthly basis, I figured some of the ‘tips’ I’ve uncovered may be helpful to some of you. Instead of bombarding your with a gigantic list of thrifty tips I’ll be doing a few posts instead, here’s your first one :)

image via.

1. Magazine Purchases
   Do you have a severe addiction to fashion magazines? Chances are you have a particular favourite that you’ll buy each month off the rack without fail. I was guilty of this until last week. Did you know that by subscribing to your favourite magazines that not only will it be delivered to your doorstep a day or so earlier than it hits the shops, but you also stand to save over the course of a year approximately 50% off the regular price? Last week I subscribed to Elle magazine, getting the first size issues for just £6 and the subsequent 6 for £16.80. That’s just £22.80 for the entire year, bringing each issue down to the cost of £1.90. Alongside this I also got a free gift of makeup that was offered with the subscription – ace! If you shop around you can find yearly subscriptions for as little as £19, too.
2. Bulk Buy
   I don’t mean buy things in ridiculous amounts, but there are certain times where you can take advantage of buying a few of the same item. Recently I’ve been buying 6-packs of bottled drinks instead of just one each day. I either keep them on my desk at work, or stick one in my bag in the morning. Instead of costing me £1+/bottle it costs me around 50p. A great saving over the course of a year! Infact, with the money you save from doing this, you could afford some new high-end makeup. Epic.
3. Medicine
   The price of certain branded medicines really annoys me, did you know that things like sudafed, zirtek and nurofen all have shops-own-brand equivalents which contain the same drug? have exactly the same effects? AND cost around 40% less. Next time your in the medicine aisle compare the ingredients of the branded items with the own brand equivalent, apart from silly things like caffeine (just have an instant coffee instead!) they’re the exact same thing.
4. Packed Lunches
   A few months ago I made a promise that I’d bring a packed lunch from home at least twice a week. It’d gotten to the stage where I’d spend around £5 each lunch time, because I wanted something tastey, and cheap food is gross. I’ve kept up with this and become a little more adventurous with my lunches. I still let myself have a cafe meal treat once a week, though. Doing this has saved me a tonne of money, and made my lunches healthier and tastier!
5. Walk More
   I invested in a jansport rucksack for the ultimate reason of walking to work, I carry a lot of shit (& a laptop) with me so my regular work bag wasn’t suitable for such an activity. I’ve since walked to work usually 4 times a week, sometimes the full 5 days. And at a saving of £6 a week in doing so I’ve already paid for the bag purchase tenfold! Even just walking to work a couple of days a week adds up to a great saving over the year. I know for some people this is something that isn’t really possible, but there are other ways to make this work – get off at the stop before the price increase to your usual fare, if your commute is in two legs try walking the second half, why not replace the bus with a bike? another firm investment that could be paid for within a year!

Hopefully some of these money-saving activities that I’ve adopted might help some of you, too. It’d be fun to see how much money you can actually save during a year! Have you got any thrifty tips to share?

Yegads! Looks like our summer is slowly coming to an end :( I’m sure you’ve noticed the weather changing, however muggy and random it may be. Alas, we’re almost midway through August, the nights are closing in and the sun’s slowly drooping in the sky (making it fucking horrendous to drive between the hours of 5-7pm) . Sad face. BUT! Look on the good side, we’ll soon be able to don our favourite coats, scarves and hats again (and invest in new bits and bobs, too), and eat yummy casseroles and stews whilst watching the rain outside ♥

Those of you who were early readers here may remember that last year I wrote an article about looking after your skin in the colder months, which is a bit of an epic read detailing the separate areas of skin care and focusing on certain products that keep your skin in tip-top winter condition. I’ve already started making a few changes to my routine in preparation for winter, not just with my skincare but with other aspects of day-to-dayness too. Here…

• Wardrobe
  Without stating the obvious, it’s going to start to get a bit colder. I know it can be hard to lose the summer ritual of stepping out without a jacket, but ladies, do yourselves a favour and grab a cardigan before you leave the house. For those of use who’ve been enjoying this lovely British summer, I’m sure this is something you’ve been doing for the past few weeks anyway! A lot of the highstreet stores have already started stocking their winter coats, too, so why not spend some time investigating the style you’d like this season? Don’t forget your hats & scarves, too!
• Vitamins
  Nothing beats a varied diet of fruit, vegetables and protein to keep your body’s defenses high, but in Winter it can be difficult to get the right kind of nutrients from the food we eat and the environmental changes. Vitamin D, for instance, is created in your skin when it’s exposed to the sun… hello, winter! your general multivitamin should contain a dose of it. I’ve just started on my winter vitamins so I’ll definitely be ready for what the season has to throw at me, starting now will build up a super strong winter barrier! This year I should have probably continued with my vitamins throughout summer seeing as I managed to get two pretty bad summer colds. I’m taking a skin, hair & nails supplement, a cod liver oil tablet (dude, I’m gonna have glossy Labrador hair!) and a general multivitamin. If/when I feel like I’m chugging along with sniffles and a cough I’ll add an echinacea supplement to this, too… and wash it down with a gallon of Orange juice!
• Skin Care
  As I mentioned earlier, my article last year describes a full-on assault into beating a greying winter complexion. The easiest things to do right now are to start switching up your light summer moisturiser for your heavier, skin protecting winter version. If you haven’t already got one, try pick one up with an SPF, it makes life a lot easier! otherwise, check your foundation (if you wear one) for it’s SPF, or invest in a facial SPF. Also, is it just me, or does winter bring with it ridiculously dry elbows? I’m thinking it’s because of wearing long sleeve sweaters that rub the skin. Anyhoo, invest in a small pot of nivea cream – it’s a lifesaver!

• Footwear
  Ok, ok… here’s where I admit that my feet are generally stuffed into nikes, hardly ever seeing the light of day. This year I did wear open flats quite a lot, though, and I’ll be sad to see them go. For me and my sneaker clad feet there won’t be much of a transition, however I have started walking to work and even the best trainers in the world won’t stand up very well to huge puddles and hail. I think this year may be the year of the welly for me! In all seriousness, though, whilst there are those who think that the only way to look fashionable is to wear heels every day, you need to bare in mind some kind of practicality. Opt for cute alternatives that won’t see you slip-sliding down the street., You’ll just look like a douche otherwise!
• Haircare
  Yeesh – rain, hail, snow, wind, central heating. It’s a wonder that we come out of winter with any hair left! Hats, hats, hats, ladies. They will be your winter hair saviors. Start introducing hats into your wardrobe on the windy Autumnal days that are already starting to destroy any idea of a hair style. Prepare your hair-emergency kit, too, a brush, a small tin of wax and some clips will come in VERY handy when you’re out and about and get caught in a gale!
• Looking Foward
  Don’t dwell on the loss of Summer, it’ll be back again (in some form) next year. Instead, spend a bit of time listing the things you love about the colder months, get excited by the changing seasons. It’ll make those dark mornings and long nights much easier to deal with! My list includes pumpkin pies, yankee candles throughout the house, cooking up bubbling beef stews with dumplings, curling up with a book and watching the rain, snow storms, the excuse to shop for new winter clothes, huge heavy duvets.