Versatile Blogger Award.

Cheeky Jo of Life In The Wendy House; a blog I feel very much at home at, nominated me for a versatile blogger award. 

Now I know this isn't an actual award but I am ever so thankful and happy that Jo liked my blog enough to tag me! 

If I could nominate you back Jo believe me I would. Please go and have a gander at Jo's blog instead of reading the ramblings of mine, it'll be a much nicer experience for you I promise. 

Anyway here are 7 random facts about me:

1) I can wiggle my eyebrows in time to music.


Unfortunately not as amazingly as in this Cadbury's advert:

2) I have a dream to work or at least volunteer with Kakapo's (they look like Victorian gentlemen).

Meet Sirocco the spokes bird, if you have some time you can read about him and other Kakapo's here. To help preserve Kakapo's in the wild you can make a donation here.

3) Don't touch my toenails unless you want to be kicked in the face. 

Here

4) I know all the words to 'Wild, Wild West', 'Miami', 'Gettin' Jiggy With it', 'Will 2K', 'Men In Black', 'Black Suits Comin' (Nod Ya Head)', 'Just The Two Of Us' and of course  'Summertime' and 'The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air (extended version)'. Basically what I'm trying to say is that I'm a Will Smith/Fresh Prince fan, but then who isn't? 

Here  I am ridiculously excited for MIB3

5) My cat is called Spice. I used to tell people he was named after the food stuff. Now on this day, I admit to you that he is named after the Spice Girls. I feel no shame anymore.

6) I know the latin names of a lot of common British birds. *insert sexist classist joke here*

Here I actually own this t-shirt by Tee & Cake

7) I could do with a Wall's Calippo right about now.

Right here are the 5 blogs I nominate:

1) Bacon Tastes Nice
2) Chestnuts and Cedars
3) Electric Sunrise
4) Sleep Wake Hope
5) The Pampered Sparrow

I'm sure that the above blogs have already received this award numerous times over; but this is my way of saying that I really love your blogs and keep blogging what you're blogging!

Love
Madame Squirrel

Blog Wisdom

I have been reading blogs for years; it's only recently I felt that I too had something to say and share (you poor, poor people). Anyway to share the love for some of my favourite blogs, I thought I'd take a look back and see just what they've taught me:

First up: Beauty

I've always looked at other girls (and sometimes boys) and wondered how did they get their hair like that? Or how did they do their make-up that way?  Make-up and hair styling seemed to be an innate ability that I'd been born without. However, thanks to the blogosphere I have learnt the ability to:

1. Do the smokey eye: Shirley from Meek~N~Mild does the most amazing make-up tutorials (and fashion posts!) thanks to her I accomplished the smokey eye.

2. Do the cat eye flick: Keiko Lynn's tutorial allowed me to master this one!

Here

3. Contour my face: I had no idea about face contouring until I read/watched these amazing posts from The Beauty Department and Essie Button.

4. Wave my hair: For some reason I could never wave my hair without it looking awful. Turns out I was curling it the wrong way and pointing the tongs in the wrong direction! Thanks to See Creatures and Gembear I like to think my wavy hair ain't too shabby nowadays (don't even get me started on what it's like the rest of the time; stupid and temperamental should cover it).

Here

5. Fishtail braid: I always thought that the fishtail braid must be really time consuming and complicated. Not so! Check out The Beauty Department's tutorial

Why I couldn't ever get the gist of doing these things on my own I will never know, the main point is that I can now contour my face, do my eye-make-up and wave my hair to my hearts content (not all at the same time though...I'd love to see a blog teach me that!).

Tutorials I still need to try:

The sock bun which I saw on The Skinny Blonde Girl

Here

The hair turban which I saw on Mammal And Lamb

Here

Bloggers tutorials and reviews are second to none (in my opinion...I'll try not to get on my high horse too much) when it comes to new products and what women like me really want to know about in the world of beauty. Their reviews have lead me to some of my favourite beauty products (Liz Earle Hot Cloth Cleanser anyone?). Even if a bloggers post is sponsored; the blogger tends to still give their honest opinion. This means that I as a reader trust them and so I'm much more likely to purchase the product they're reviewing opposed to if I'd seen that product being reviewed in a magazine.

What beauty tips and techniques have you learnt from your favourite bloggers? Do you trust blog reviews more than magazine reviews?

Love
Madame Squirrel.