New tablet!

Hello all,
I've spent the best part of today marvelling at my most recent purchase - a Microsoft Surface 2 tablet! I got it mainly for going to university in September, but I'm so excited about some of the features on it (including the insanely cool painting app haha). The camera quality on the front and main camera is a lot better than on any other device I've used in the past so I'm really looking forward to taking some good pictures for this blog!

Of course I had to test out the camera, so took a couple of pictures of an outfit... I cut out my face because I'm actually wearing no makeup other than the lipstick for the pictures, and I thought it'd be best to save you from that disturbing sight haha!

 

Everything seems to look better on a semi-good camera, yay! Anyway, if you like this outfit you can hype it on my Lookbook here or vote for it on Chictopia here ! I hope you're  having a brilliant day,       

Iona x

Manicure With A Twist

Hello, 

as I'm currently on my Summer holiday I have a lot of time to spare, so in turn have spent a lot more time testing out nail art than I usually would! The design that this post is about was surprisingly really, really simple to do and only requires a relatively steady hand. 

This works best with fairly long nails for the 'french tips' aspect of it. You'll need a pale pink coloured nail varnish and one other colour (it was an obvious choice for me...had to be mint...). If you have a nail art pen this works best as with a normal sized brush, the tips could get fiddly. 

I used a Model's Own Nail Art Pen.

Method

1. File nails down to a square shape 
2. Paint nails a pale pink and leave to dry (may require two coats, depending on how opaque you want it to look)!
3. Using the thin brush section of a nail art pen, carefully go over the naturally white nail tips 
4. Use a clear top coat to ensure they don't chip too soon!

Once you've mastered the method you could try this with any colour combination - I might try it again soon but swap the French pink for a brighter colour!  

I hope you're all enjoying your weekend, 

                                                             Iona x

Super Simple Breakfast Smoothie

Hello!
I'm really excited to share with you my first food-related blog post.
Recently I've been trying to stay as committed to healthy eating as I possibly can. Obviously, it's never going to be easy but it definitely does improve my overall mood when I do it right! At the same time though, I'm being careful not to get angry at myself when I go off track - I've had far too much experience with doing that in the past and it only leads to very negative places!

I do think it's very important to find a balance between eating well, and knowing when it's okay to eat pizza and cake. Life is too short to get too hung up about it!

That all said, I started off my day in a healthy and incredibly tasty manner with a breakfast smoothie.

You should probably know before I go any further...I'm not really one for using measurements when making smoothies. I kind of just chuck everything in and hope for the best! As of yet, it has never led to any disasters so I think it's okay, haha.



I made enough for a couple of small glasses (or one large one really), using:

• 1 small kiwi
• 6 wedges of fresh pineapple
• Handful of cherries (5/6)
• 150ml sweetened soya milk 

I used soya milk purely because I don't drink dairy milk, (though it would work just as well with any kind of milk) but because it's sweetened, it does give the smoothie a lovely sweet taste.  

There's not really a method to it...basically if you have a blender, put it in and blend it until it's smooth, haha!
Just to make it a little more interesting, after pouring it into my cup I added:

• Handful of sunflower seeds
• Handful of dried cranberries

This is relatively low-calorie (slightly higher if using dairy milk), so could accompany toast/cereal or whatever else you may enjoy for breakfast...it also makes a great healthy snack at any time of the day!

Please let me know what you think of this post or this recipe if you decide to try it! It would be much appreciated to get some feedback as this is not something I'm used to writing about, so I'd like to know if there's any point continuing!

Thanks for reading, 

                              Iona x

IMPORTANT/EXCITING NOTICE

Hello all,
as you may have noticed, I have come to neglect my fashion blog over the past few months (...maybe even years...). To be 100% honest, my interests have changed a lot since I first decided to create a blog way back in 2011, so I think now it's time that I altered my blog to cater to my current lifestyle!

I'm really excited to begin regularly blogging again, however my focus will be less upon just fashion and more upon my life in general which may include such things as: fitness, nail art, recipes, just little rants and rambles and of course still some outfit posts!

If you haven't noticed, I've already changed my blog title to Mint, Minimalism & Me , and my URL to http://mintminimalismandme.blogspot.co.uk/ (quite a mouthful, haha)! I'm still working on changing other elements of the layout etc, so please bear with me in this period of transition!

I'm looking forward to keeping you all updated on what is going in my life and I really hope you will enjoy the new direction that my blog will be taking!

Have a wonderful day,
                                        Iona x