Bad life choices!

Recently I've gotten into a disgustingly bad sleeping pattern. And what I've found amazing, but not too surprising, is the extent to which it effects my life. It's currently 3am and this is the usual time I've been finding myself awake, after hours of feeling guilty that I probably should be asleep, not in bed but actually asleep. Don't get me wrong, this is in no way a rebellion type of thing, and there is no clever and justifiable reason as to why I find myself in this silly situation, it just happens. 

Ironically, today (well yesterday now, another example of it being too late to be awake!) I put up a video about getting clear skin naturally without too much hassle. Now this is a strong piece of evidence of how you should 'do as I say not as I do' because I've found spots slowly creeping up on me these past few days. In the video I mention about sleep being an integral aspect to having clear skin and at the moment it's like every time I look into a mirror my spots are just there subtly reminding me of all my current bad life choices. It always used to annoy me when I was little and felt ill (or was just being a drama queen and hypochondriac) when my dad would always just tell me to go to sleep. There was next to no sympathy, although I know that his advice was perfectly legitimate and from a place of love but it never pleased me at the time but sleep really does fix most things!

I'm not going to sleep late either because I don't enjoy sleeping, my whole body clock just shifts so I wake up mid-afternoon everyday, be rest assured sleeping is one of my all time favourite things to do. But the quality of sleep is much less when you go to sleep later and I've certainly felt this in my over-all well being. I've been beyond lethargic, lazy and un-motivated over these past few days. I've hardly done anything, despite the prior plans I'd set myself to get done before college. As I said, my skin has just been dreadful in comparison to what it was and from the lack of caring I've consequently eaten awfully too. My mentality has shifted to an over-all more negative frame of mind, nothing quite seems so bright and cheery as it did before, haha I really feel like I'm taking you to a deep and dark place but hopefully it will convince you not to follow in my bad footsteps! 

So all in all I'm certainly aware that there are no positives to come from this current arrangement that I've got going on. But, I've got my induction for college early tomorrow (that will be a fair shock to the system) and I start properly next Monday. I know that the best way to get out of these awful habits is to force yourself into a situation that means you have to change it, if you've got bad willpower like myself. I'm hoping that all the plans that I'd made for this blog and for my YouTube will come into place a bit more when college commences and when hopefully all of my motivation returns!

Let me know if you ever find yourself getting into bad habits like this!

love, bean xx

‘Do you want some dahl, darl?’

I’m aware that I can be relatively enthusiastic about some of the products and topics I talk about on here… and this post shall be no different! Dahl and rice is a perfect protein, so all those people with the mis-conception that being a vegan or vegetarian means that you suddenly become protein deficient can be rest assured that this is a prime example of how that’s a myth! I digress, besides its copious health benefits this dish is also wonderfully delicious; a highly requested dinner by me to my Mum. Now, just when you think a meal couldn’t possibly get any better, it’s also incredibly easy and quick to make, something I realised when I thought I’d thrown myself into the deep end when I asked my Mum to teach me how to make it!

Every dahl you make, because trust me once you start you’ll get hooked, will be slightly or dramatically different from your last. For me, this makes it interesting and also offers the room for those who want to experiment a bit more too. Although there are many different recipes out there I personally think my Mums is pretty sublime (not to be bias or anything…) so I shall hopefully get her to write it on here for you all to have (although it changes constantly).

It’s really perfect especially as we are making that transition into autumn (or for some of you ‘fall’) and it really is a meal that does tend to fill a hole as the nights get longer and you generally begin to crave bigger meals (well I do..). The little extra bits and pieces on the side are from ‘Unicorn Grocery’ in Manchester, although you can get these types of extras from anywhere. Let me know if you give this easy dish a go!

Love, bean xx

Only touched the surface

I want to quickly tell you of an interesting moment I experienced earlier today. I was in a room that had reddish coloured curtains that were drawn shut, allowing the sunlight to shine through, tinting the colour of the room. As I sat in the room I saw some obvious blue veins on my leg which I’d never noticed before, I then shifted my focus and noticed that bright blue veins were showing up all over my body due to the light. Although I’d always known that there were veins all over my body it was the strangest thing actually seeing them, I felt rather like a picture out of my high school biology textbook.

It got me thinking, in a slightly more metaphorical sense, how many other aspects to myself I haven’t yet seen. I wondered how much there really is to me just under the surface that hasn’t yet been able to come to light, but would given a change of circumstance. These veins keep me alive, they never stop working and I’m covered in them, they’re a truly fundamental part of who I am yet I'd never given them a second thought before. It all sounds very silly, but for me it was fairly symbolic and I learnt a lesson; there are so many aspects to ourselves which we haven’t yet discovered or even acknowledged to be there, both physically and I suppose too within our personality. They showed me that there are endless bounds of self-discovery that I have to do and really I’ve only just touched the surface on getting to know who I am.

love, bean xx

Miranda Kerr Inspired Makeup

For my latest YouTube video I did a makeup look, using vegan products, inspired by Miranda Kerr. Now, I think she is so naturally beautiful and thankfully she is very open about her many secrets to looking so good. She vows by yoga, eating well (she studied nutrition) and 'being beautiful from the inside out'. I personally think she is a wonderful role-model (especially considering the current media which tends to be filled with surgically enhanced 'celebrities' checking into rehab) it's so refreshing having somebody like Miranda who always appears just at peace with herself.

Her usual makeup look is relatively simplistic, she tends to wear a soft brown eye but with a splash of colour on her lips, you'd certainly never see her with big false eyelashes and caked on foundation. Below is the picture which I used as inspiration for my video as I knew that I wanted to incorporate a bold pink lip in order to use my new Bare Minerals lipstick which is part of the 'Marvelous Moxie' collection in the shade 'risk it all'. I think, however, without the lipstick and with just a nice lip gloss that this is a perfect everyday makeup look. 

I think the following quote by Miranda is really beautiful and says a lot about her mentality when it comes to real beauty; 

“A rose can never be a sunflower, and a sunflower can never be a rose. All flowers are beautiful in their own way, and that’s like women too. I want to encourage women to embrace their own uniqueness.” 

I will hope to do a more in-depth post about Miranda, a think she's a real positive inspiration, which tends to be a fairly hard thing to come by nowadays.


love, bean xx

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Ultimate favourite of the month; Booja-Booja

I think out of the few videos that I've put onto my YouTube channel so far I have mentioned in pretty much all of them a heavenly brand which is a slight obsession of mine; ''Booja-Booja''. There we go, blogpost done; enough said.

Well, I may say slightly more. It's a brand which I came across a few months back when my Mum & sister got given a box which was an assortment of various booja-booja chocolates. Of course, due to my nosey disposition I had to try them too. I can think of few pleasures in life which I deem equivalent to those feelings that I had tasting those chocolates for the first time. 

I found that my favourite of all the chocolates were probably the champagne truffles, made with french champagne. Each time I eat one of those little wonders it reminds me of the fact that some of the best things in life really do come in small packages. However I do generally care very little for small things, especially when it comes to chocolate, but the compact chocolate sized treat that Mr Booja created is suffice. Well, this is dependant on the type of day you've had, some days call for a slightly higher dosage of chocolate.

Of course, the next best thing to Booja chocolate is Booja ice-cream. Now this stuff really is dangerous, my self-control tends to be fairly in tact when it comes to the truffles but for the ice-cream? Forget it. I can easily guzzle my way through a freezers worth. The simplistic recipe leaves me dazzled every-time, if something so simple with barely a handful of ingredients is so scrumptious then why are all our supermarkets filled with chemically, poisonous shit? Excuse my french.

Writing this post I realise I'm also giving away the secrets to winning my heart. It's a simple formula really: Bean + Booja product = Happy Bean. I feel I have done my good deed for the day, sharing the meaning of life for all people to freely read as they please. Happy eating!

love, bean xx

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A Genuine Smile

I was on the train making my way to Glasgow and my head was pretty full with irrelevant worries which as the train progressed, through increasingly more beautiful countryside, seemed to gradually slip away. At one moment all I could see was fields which stretched for miles, slightly resembling a patchwork blanket consisting of hundreds of different shades of green. The next minute the train was surrounded by hills, with sparse white dots scattered across them. I think it's safe to say that the bliss scenery was a pretty big factor in helping me get lost away from my thoughts.

However, something much smaller caught my eye throughout the journey. A minor little detail, I may have been the only person to notice, but a woman was sat in the corner just taking in her surroundings yet there was something so pleasant about her. At first I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was about her that captured my attention to such a degree, whatever it was it made me want to just sit down with her over a brew. Yet she was just an ordinary woman. After a while had passed I figured that the part about her that was so inviting it was her most infectious smile. Once I was conscious of it I couldn't then help it, she'd passed on the disease to me. There was no way I couldn't not smile about somebody who just seemed to be so content with life, making everything seem simple. 

She could have been going through something awful, her life could have been the biggest mess imaginable but you'd never have guessed it due to the genuine smile painted across her face. For me, it was inspiring. I couldn't believe the difference it made to my mood almost instantaneously, I was absolutely intrigued by her friendly and calm disposition. It got me thinking what a difference it could make if everybody incorporated that simple gesture into their lives. We have little control over the majority of things in our life, ultimately we just have to go with the flow, but this is something that anybody and everybody can do. 

It's simple and in the grand scheme of things it's probably towards the bottom end of most people's priority list. But we just don't know how it could change somebodies day, like it did to me. And after a while you may even find it turns into a bit of a habit which helps you in creating an overall happier mentality. A genuine smile, who knew something free and so in-elaborate could make such an impact on a person's day.   

Love, bean xx

''Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.''

-Leo Buscaglia 

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD4otT45t00