Breath-taking photos of people looking their best & their worst!

Woah well hi guys, sure feels like forever since I made a post, when really its only been 8 days. But 8 days!! I mean I was on a roll, was really getting into this blogging thing. But I'm back with another post, for a very short interlude (as I leave Sunday to go Interrailing), this one being slightly odd, and in no relation AT ALL to my ever so fabulous blog title.

With technology these days we all so easily fall into that social rigmarole of selfies! Everyone (well no, everyone fortunate enough) has a phone with a frontward facing camera, or device of some sort that can successfully take pictures. So when your feeling like a particularly pretty human someday, why wouldn't you want to take a snap to remind yourself, or the world of how gorgeous you looked (and are!). Wooo positive self-happiness guru Sinéad here. So there's no denying, that at some stage YOU fell victim to this plight and took a picture of yourself. And you were proud of that picture sister (or brother)!

BUT

For every moment of self admiration, there is a moment of boredom. And it is then that we take photos like this:

Oh you know what I'm talking about! Christened with the name 'Uglies', they are the evil, yet humorous, step sister of 'Selfies'. And without a doubt, you have also taken one of these bad boys!

Fun little scientific fact, that explains why sometimes we are unhappy with the way we look in a selfie -

"We are used to identifying with our faces as they would appear in a mirror, but when we take a selfie, the camera captures our faces as strangers would see us from head on rather than we would see ourselves in a reflection." - The Times.

I am so fascinated by this fact! Not the part to do with the camera but the fact that if you were to walk past yourself on the street you wouldn't even recognise your own body and face! Because when you look in the mirror the reflection is a little bit distorted. Have you ever seen anyone else's face in the mirror and they look a bit different!? I have and it always baffled me! Anyway back to business. 

So bellow you will find a collection of images demonstrating both uses of the terms 'Selfie' and 'Uglie'. Pictures of a person looking their best and a picture of them looking their worst. So of course if your human, you'll enjoy these!

My absolute favourite hahah

The Voices In My Head | This Week

Jake Bugg

Do you ever listen to a song, an feel completely captivated by the lyrics and melody? Or by the artist vocals? So inspired by the music that you get that fuzzy feeling inside. Or perhaps you get that feeling because the music hit a nerve within you? Well that's how I feel right now, and maybe I'm the only one who gets this 'fuzzy feeling' (but I highly doubt it)! For me, it think it happens especially when listening to something live, be it on a stage, live on tv or a live audio recording from a gig. Over the past week I've been listening to a lot of music, which is awesome as usual (I mean who doesn't love music?). This music coma was furthered by the Glastonbury Festival, which the BBC so fabulously live streamed for those of us less fortunate to make it this year. So when I wasn't browsing Spotify or Youtube for tunes, I was sitting on my couch singing along (where possible) to live Glastonbury gigs. This year I jammed along to the likes of Kaiser Chiefs, Ed Sheeran, Jake Bugg, MGMT, Kellis, Kodaline, The Kooks and much more! My new addiction being Jake Bugg. I had heard of him and knew one or two songs, but really only discovered him for real at the weekend when he braced the 'Other Stage' in Glastonbury.

As soon as he began to sing I was hooked, his voice is sooo original and beautiful. A voice expected to emerge from a much older man, least expected to be the voice of a 20 year old Nottingham bloke. His songs are bluesy in style with melodic hints of his influences (The Beatles and Johnny Cash to name two). But his music is also quite like indie folk/indie rock which I love aswell. He has this 'I couldn't give a fuck!' appearance (not saying he's shabby looking, that's not at all the case), which infact makes me more fascinated with his music and voice! I get that 'feeling' listening to his music. Its so comforting for some reason? But I suppose its not odd that it is, it would be more odd if screamo music made me comfortable. But then again that's somebody's thing, somebody's comfort. I really like his look, find him quite attractive for some reason haha.

His tunes I'm loving at the moment include:

So I Went Surfing

                       

My friend and I attempting to surf. That's myself on the right.

I've always wanted to be a surfer for as long as I can remember :L As a child me and my friend would pretend we were surfers and that we lived in Australia with our famous surfer parents haha. Then as teenagers we'd fan over famous surfers and skateboarders (Ryan Sheckler to name one). I've been told numerous times that I look real beachy/boheminan/surfer, when I've never even surfed before or live nowhere nere the beach or places of such style influence! I have also been informed by a few different people that I look really like Ivy in 90210. I've never seen the show but looked her up as one would do, and what a compliment that is! Would be great if I also shared the same height as her, just saying! Just shows that when you have a passion for something you display hints of this passion without even trying. Kind of works like the law of attraction!

But anyway, the other day I finally went surfing! Something I'd longed to do for years but never actually got around to it, well that's half a lie. When I was in Australia a few years ago, I did try on a friend's board.. ON BONDI BEACH! But it didn't go so well. Like a lot of beaches there's the swimming part of the beach and surfing part. And generally the surfing parts can be shallow one minute and deep the next. Which I discovered in a panic and then swam back in. Mind you I was probably only 13 and was only going to be on the beach for a few hours so decided to enjoy myself without getting the living s*** kicked out of me with fear.

Back to that glorious day, when I rode a few waves in the Atlantic.

InterRail pass purchased | The countdown begins!

Woo I'm so excited!!

After months of planning, I've finally taken the second plunge towards my InterRailling adventure, I've purchased my pass yeeewhoo. I had my flights book almost 3 month now, and it was only time I got my feet in the water (being two weeks away and all!!). My route is probably quite different to a lot of other interrailers, mainly because we are drawn to the sun like magnets are to the door of a fridge, so Croatia and Italy are very important stops on our agenda. We are going for a little over two weeks, although we had originally planned on going for a month, but that was unrealistic for two broke students!! We are using the 10 days within 22 days pass, which will give us a lot more freedom than the cheaper option (5 days within 10 days). With the 5 days within 10 days we would have been whizzing through the cities! 

Yummy Crème Pâtissière Raspberry Tartlets

With no goodies in the house, and craving something fresh and sweet, Raspberry Crème Pâtissière Tartlets were a definite bake! If I haven't already expressed my love for baked goods, well I will now. I love pastries, desserts and all that yummy stuff!! So as you can imagine, I was totally excited to bake up a batch of these bad boys. Having never baked a Crème Pâtissière Tart, it was a new and fun experiment. So if your interested in how I made these little delights keep reading! 

They tasted beautiful by the way!

(I was so bummed with my final photo of the tartlets, all along I was using my Canon T3i to take pictures, and was so excited to get some use out of the camera for baking purposes. But sure didn't my mom take it on her walk so when the tarts were finished the camera was gone! And to add to that, most of the tartlets were eaten by the time she got home haha! So no new photos could be taken, but you can enjoy the impeccable quality of the process photos bellow :P)

J'adore | Summer Edition

Loving too many things this month but here's just a few items I long for!! 

Being super nice outside and all, I'm totally inspired by colourful items even though I'm generally drawn to black haha! Anyone else out there the same? I love bohemian fashion and also adore grunge (music and all, Kurt - you're my man). I suppose my love for grunge is probably partially the reason why I'm drawn to darker colours! 

So here we go, a quick run through of my summer wishlist!

Strawberrys & Cream

If you live in Ireland (or the UK) like myself, your probably as delighted as I am with the weather! It's not that usual for us to have a 'real summer', and by 'real summer' I mean - average day to day temperatures ranging from 20 degrees Celsius upwards! Actually what I mean by a 'real summer' probably stems from what I absorbed from the media and TV of what I perceived American weather to be like! Or even my experiences of weather abroad in countries such as Spain and Greece during the summer! But that's just unrealistic! I'm from the land of the pale and pasty!

But anywho I just wanted to share a few photos with ye of my awesome lunch, or dessert even! Who doesn't love strawberries? Especially during this time of the year when they are at their best!!! 

Little tip, if your travelling in Ireland this Summer and happen to be driving through Wexford, make sure you stop at the little strawberry stalls on the sides of the road and pick up a pundit or two. You won't regret it! Wexford strawberries are world renowned! Well haha maybe Ireland renowned..