What's on my Pandora bracelet?

Carrying on with the theme from my previous post, I thought it would be...interesting? if that's the right word, to show you what's on my Pandora bracelet.

Now one of the things I should actually tell you, is that I actually never wanted a Pandora bracelet. I thought they were far too expensive, and I could never ever see myself wearing one. I've always wanted a "proper" charm bracelet. I remember my Nan having one when I was little, like a proper gold one full of charms, but I've not seen it in a while so I think she might be storing it away! This is something that my partner openly knew, however one day he caught me browsing the rings on their website. Low and behold, the next day he produced this square box, which I instantly knew it's contents.

Upon opening the box, there it was, a beautifully perfect silver bracelet, with 4 charms on it. I sat there thinking wow, this instantly must have cost around £200!...and I wasn't wrong. Now I know previously I said I never actually wanted a Pandora bracelet but my god I instantly fell in love with this. It was the right size to fit my wrist and the charms my partner had picked out were gorgeous!

Moving forward two years, this bracelet is nearly full, and I mean I can literally fit about 2 more charms on there, 4 if they are small. I've had presents from family, my partner, as well as purchasing some for myself. So what does my bracelet actually look like?

This isn't the best picture in the world, but it's the best I can do. For some reason the lighting in my house is atrocious today! As you can see, the bracelet is quite full! It's also getting kinda heavy to wear. Since I've had this bracelet, it's certainly stretched due to the weight of the charms on there. 

I won't list charm by charm, but I totalled my bracelet to be worth around £400, give or take. Considering I didn't want one, that's not bad going haha! I'm not sure if I'd ever have another one, as I feel like a lot of thought has gone into this bracelet. Also, as stupid as this sounds, each charm has it's own personal meaning to me too. I feel like if I ever had a second bracelet, it'd just be an easy option for presents for people to get me, which isn't something I want. I know that sounds selfish, but the ones I have at the minute mean a lot to me. 

This is such a random post, I realise. But I fancied doing something different, I've been writing up the start of a series I'm going to be doing and needed a bit of a break from it! It'll be posted soon, possibly later today, so keep your eyes peeled! 

x

What's on my Nokia Lumia 930?

After nosing around YouTube and a couple of blogs (standard evening for me...) I've noticed that a lot of people are doing "What's on my" (iphone, windows phone) etc. I thought I'd do my little piece! 

I've had my Nokia Lumia 930 since November 2014 and I absolutely love it. I made the switch from Apple to Android to Windows over a couple of years. I was very skeptical at first as I'd heard a lot of negative reviews and about Windows phones and remember the very old version of Windows phones (and hating it...) but I thought I'd give one a go - they can't be that bad can they?! I mean, how much has technology advanced in the last couple of years? 

I'd done a lot of research on this phone before signing my life away to a phone contract, after much debate of "I'm never having a contract phone again" and "I want this phone" etc...I decided to get the Lumia 930 as I liked the way it felt, it's nice chunky phone which means I don't feel like I'm going to break it. It's got a bright, vivid screen and it's also a nice size too.

First thing I'd like to say, with the new Windows phones, I love the amount you can personalise them. I've got my phone perfectly synced with my laptop now so I can keep everything up to date! You can also choose to have large or small tiles, meaning I can have as many or as little apps on my homescreen as I like, but not having to worry as there's a whole other screen with a list of apps. (I hope that makes sense!) 

Okay so let's get into it - what's on my phone? 

I've got my 3 mains apps that I use on the first row - phone, people and messages. Normally when I unlock my phone screen, I check the time which is at the top right hand corner. It's perfect having these apps here as it's easily noticeable if I've had a missed call or a message come through. 

On the second row, I've got the calendar, Cortana and also Whatsapp. I don't really use the calendar app on my phone as I always have my filofax in my handbag. Cortana is brilliant, it's almost like a personal assistant who is also your best friend. Again, this is another app which you are able to personalise to suit your needs - Cortana remembers my work location and is always telling me the quickest route home to avoid traffic, I can store shopping lists, it can also remind me to get petrol when I go near a petrol station. I know a lot of people don't like this app but personally, I use it quite a lot. Whatsapp is another app I use a lot as I use it when I don't have signal (which is actually very frequent around where I live...) or if I want to send picture messages to someone. 

Third row -  I've got a couple more apps as I've resized them. I've got a small battery app (which I can set to power saver mode with 1 click) and a small store app. The largest tile is my Photo app, where I've chosen a static photo to have as a background (this was a rose that was in my parent's garden which was absolutely beautiful!). Next to this I've got my Instagram app and also my OneDrive app which is set to automatically back up all of my documents from my phone to my laptop. This is an absolutely life saver as I normally forget to do send documents to myself! 

Fourth row - Alarm app, settings app, Halifax app and also a group folder. This folder contains 4 different apps (media apps basically) which are as follows: video player, FM radio, Music player and also MixRadio which is absolutely amazing for the days I forget my ipod! Next to the group folder I have my Camera app and next to that is my Internet explorer. Yes, Internet Explorer...and it's actually alright on my phone! I use Microsoft Edge on my computer and the two again stay linked together which is also quite helpful for when I'm on the go and can't take my laptop with me. 

Fifth row - News app, Weather app and also my emails. 

The thing I love about my Windows phone is that I can personalise this homescreen to suit exactly what I need. You can make the apps smaller, larger, group folders etc. At the moment, this layout suits my needs perfectly. No doubt I'll change it again in the future, maybe even the colour scheme. 

If you would like to read in depth reviews about the Nokia Lumia 930, there's a whole bunch of articles out there showing different view points, pros and cons. I'm pretty certain that if this phone is still in perfect condition when my contract is up, I'll get a PAYG sim and use it afterwards. 

This is a bit of a random and mishmash post but I felt like Windows phones have a bit of a negative review at the moment, I just want to break the trend a little! 

♥

I changed my hair!

Guess who's back, back again? Philly's back, tell a friend! (If you want to...or not, it's cool.)
So! I've been umming and ahhing about changing my hair since...well, when haven't I wanted to change my hair as soon as I've already changed it?!
I've had a side fringe now for around..oh god, since I was about 13, so nearly 10 years! Throughout that time period I've had it short, thick, thin, grown out, you name it, my fringe has probably done it. I've always wanted a long, thick, full fringe for as long as I can remember, but I've got a really big cowslick right in the middle of my parting, meaning any sort of flat hairstyle just does. not. work. on my hair, hence the side fringe! I've tried it once before when my hair was shorter than my shoulders, which made my face look super chubby and it just didn't suit me.
Fast forward about 6 years and my hair is now halfway down my back (probably more if I measured it properly) and it's been several different colours throughout that time. I've finally settled on the thought that I'm going to be a redhead for life (hence taking the plunge for henna dye again, I'll do another post on that! besides, no amount of "ginger skin" can fool people!) but I also had a desire to change my fringe. I last had it cut in September 2014 and as you can imagine, it'd grown out horrifically since then! I basically had a long flop of hair, which in all honesty just looked really silly. It would never stay straight, it'd somehow get really greasy easily and it was just really, really f*ing annoying. Girls and guys, you know my hair problems are real.

You can sorta see the long flop here...sigh!

My sister was up from London for the weekend and I had the usual "you need at least 5 inches off your hair" discussion with my family - no, I don't by the way! -  she actually approached me asking if I wanted my fringe cut (she is in fact a fully qualified hairdresser - it's great having someone who cuts it how you want it!). Now seemed like a better time than ever to get that full fringe chopped in. So, I sat in the chair, closed my eyes and as she uttered the words "I'm not an expert in full fringes so bear with me" - I hoped for the best. It's only hair right? It'll grow back, I may own shares in bobby pins to clip it back whilst it grows again but hey, who cares.
Turns out, she cut it perfect and guess what, I absolutely love it.

I went to check it out in the mirror and instantly fell in love with my new thick full fringe! Now my hair is long, it suits my face SO much better, it looks great whether I wear my hair up or down.
If you're thinking of changing your hair and you're not quite sure whether to take the plunge or not, just do it. It's hair, it grows back! If you'd of said that to me years ago, I'd of been sat in my room crying, wishing my life away until my hair grew back. Sure, I've had my share of disasters (albeit AFTER I was a hair model for my sister whilst she was training, I thought I was the biz with that brown hair dye, which horribly turned black!) but honestly, it really does grow back or you can strip colour out and start again. You can pin a short fringe back or style it slightly differently.
It's not the end of the world, just rock that new hairstyle in your own way.

♥