Cindy Crawford Un-touched Pictures

retouched                                                                           untouched



Cindy Crawford's UN-retouched picture that was used on the front cover of  Marie Claire in 2013 was leaked this week, I have to be honest my first thought was OMG she has a belly, cellulite she doesn't look like a supermodel.

I was thinking to my self of my first reaction to the why was I horrified at her belly and cellulite? she a beautiful woman who is 48 years old has had children, yet all I could see was her imperfections well what we have been told are imperfections.

I have grown up looking at magazines seeing these air brush models and celebrities who don't even look like themselves by the end of it, we are conditioned to be perfect and that if we have a belly, cellulite or stretch marks that they are imperfections but they aren't they are us.

It so sad that since I was a child I've been conditioned not to like my body to see the imperfections I have I dislike my thighs because I've been made to see models stick thin legs as the norm, that I have thunder thighs because they aren't stick thin.

The media has such power over us, they tell us what to think about us which is sad we spend so much time hating ourselves and don't enjoy that we have these beautiful, healthy bodies

I didn't like that my first thought was that she hadn't aged well and she had let her self go, she hasn't she's a beautiful woman she has no imperfections that is the woman she is and these so called things that magazines have made us feel are imperfections aren't they are what make her her.

I believe that if magazines or any form of media changes images It's OK to remove the odd spot or bruise but changing someones body where its no longer their body is wrong and should have to print under the image that it has been altered and say what's been changes so we don't have this fake image of what we are meant to look like.

Book Review: Looking For Alaska By John Green

As all the other 3 of the John Green books it lived up to the expectations, John Green always captures the inner thoughts and feeling of teenagers and young people really well, even though he writes books about teenage life his words translate to everyone with the way he writes.

Looking for Alaska is following Miles (Pudge) story is lives in Florida with his parents he's a loner in school not popular 6 foot tall skinny kid who likes to read biographies of writers but he never has read any of the work by the authors, his "thing" is remembering all of their "last words" before they die.

He was wanting a greater perhaps knowing that there is greater things and adventures to be had, he thought his great perhaps was going to Culver creek boarding school in Alabama where his dad went when he was a teenager. he had told him of his adventures he had whilst he was there and Pudge was hoping this was his greater perhaps so he said goodbye to his parents and went to Culver's creek.

Pudge was greeted by his room mate chip martin who everyone called the colonel he was short and liked to memorise countries and states, he was all about loyalty that meant a lot to him, he also hated the rich "weekends" those who went to the school during the week then back to their rich parents and big houses on the weekends. the colonel was from a trailer park but had a lovely loving mother and didn't want Pudge to hang out with him if he wanted to be popular, Pudge had never been popular so wasn't bothered and wanted to be friends with him.

Through colonel Pudge met Alaska who was also their on scholarship like colonel they loved to play pranks, Alaska had a room full of books she bought from second hand stores wanting to read them all. she is mysterious through out the book not really knowing her it turned out when she was 8 she was at home with her mother who started to fit she just sat there and watched and when her dad arrived home and hour later she was dead. Alaska cant get over that she didn't try to save her mother instead she just sat there silently while her mother died

On his first night pudge was ripped from his bed only in his underwear it was a ritual to throw every new student in the lake, this time they changed the rules they tapped Pudge up like a mummy throwing him in and he could of drowned this angered colonel and Alaska. they did it because they thought colonel was the person who ratted out Alaska's roommate at the end of the last term her and her boyfriend were caught breaking 3 major rules and were kicked out. colonel being all about loyalty he hated rats he never did it so he and Alaska and Takumi who pudge met the previous day vowed revenge.

He also met Lara who is Romanian and would be his girlfriend for all of a day, and Takumi  who loves to rap. they make a great group of friends they do pranks, drink, smoke at the smoking whole its a new world for Pudge, he's never had friends though he's being himself the whole time he kind of is going along with everyone with smoking and drinking that wasn't really his thing but that's what we all do when we are younger we do what we have to fit in but they loved that he was this skinny kid who was kind and loyal.

The book is counting down to a life changing event for them all, though pudge went out with Lara for a day he was infatuated with Alaska even though she could be a bitch at times, she would never answer questions to do with when, where, how etc but she was really smart and when her and pudge first met they were taking about books and she asked him how do you get out the labyrinth?

One night  Pudges prayers where answered when they were hanging out in Pudge and colonel's room he and Alaska started to making out didn't go any further but she gets a phone call and then comes back in crying saying she needs to leave even though shes drunk they let her go.

The next day they heard the worst news whilst driving Alaska drove into a police car and was dead on impact. they didn't know how to deal with it, they wanted to know what happened on the phone call, did she try to kill herself because she didn't swerve so many unanswered questions they needed to know the answers.

Pudge was so wrapped up on her last words to him to be continued did she really want to continue with him, did she like him or was she up set that she cheated on her boyfriend that she always said she loved. he and colonel blamed themselves for letting her go, Takumi  made them realise that the reason she was so upset was that she forgot to put flowers on her mums grave as it was her anniversary she felt that she did nothing but screw up things up, she betrayed her room mate she let her mum die, she cheated on her boyfriend and then she goes and forgets to put flowers on her mothers grave.

At the end of the book we find out that though Pudge and colonel blamed themselves for Alaska's death them being the last to see her they weren't the last Takumi  saw her later trying to find flowers to pick and put on her mothers grave he thought she would go to bed and go the following day. they didn't realise he thought a lot of her to and didn't like that they kept the searching I the beginning from him like she only meant something to them he loved her too.

Through the book you want to know more about her you never really get to know the real Alaska, and that's what Pudge realised whilst they were trying to find out whether she killed herself or if it was an accident. through trying to find out he realise he didn't know her but he had got to know his friends even more he got to know the people they were it brought them even closer.

Pudge has two questions to answer through the book the greater perhaps he thinks it dies when Alaska did but with the searching realised it didn't with the help of his friends they made him see life didn't end with her. they have to move on and keep living their lives there are so many more greater perhaps out there to be had.

Two how to get out of the labyrinth and the answer to that is that ever since Alaska didn't help her mother she held on to so much guilt though she was a child even if she called for help she wouldn't of survived but she never forgave her self and felt that all she ever did was screw up. that guilt effected the rest of her life the labyrinth is dark and the only way to get out was to forgive your self and others and by letting those around help you and support you yes its hard to get out of but you can don't hold on to the past as that will keep you in there and it will always be a dark place.


It's a great read and I would recommend it

Peanut xx

FITNESS

I was slack on my fitspration last month well it was non existent sorry about that, I'm getting on it this month. As I have previously said I want to have a strong healthy body in the past, I've wanted to be skinny but a I've gotten older I just want to be healthy and fit so I can live a long healthy life.
I'm not really a gym bunny I used to be but I prefer it mix it up and do home work out videos all you need is some weights and saves on time if you have a spare 20 minutes.

I also love to dance so I will put the music channel on the telly and boogie around the room if only my neighbours saw me they would think I as having a fit but hey its getting me off my butt and moving.

The main thing I love to do is walking it clears your mind and gets you in the fresh air, I have a local park where I go and I'll jog and walk I've found it really helps with me insomnia which is a bonus.

You don't need to spend a lot of money to be fit some light weight, workout DVD and a pair of trainers and your good to go.

This week my work outs have been:

Monday: danced for 30 minutes and walked for 30 minutes
Tuesday? yoga for an hour
Wednesday: Pilate's for an hour
Thursday: walked for hour 30 minutes
Friday: Davina McCall's workout DVD boxercise for 30 minutes and weights for 30 minutes
Saturday: shopped for 3 hours with all the heavy bags and walking up and down stairs I'm classing that as a workout :)

Can you recommend any workout for me you enjoy?

January Reflection

At the end of each month I have decided to do a post on how my month went, if I followed through on things I wanted and planned for and how I can make the next month better than the last.

My January was an up and down month, I have been so busy with university work its been a real struggle but I passed my essay though I wish it had been slightly better mark but hey It's a pass :).

My exercise plan has been going really well, I have been managing about 2 hours every day 6 days a week, sorry I haven't updated like I meant to I will be back on it in February.
My healthy eating on the other hand well lets say I've had a few cheat days OK a lot, I've had my head in my books and have  gone for the easy option of sweets naughty peanut.

The beginning of the month there was sad news, a guy I was in high school with but was directly friends with but a lot of my friends were had passed away, he died of a heart attack at the age of 28 so young so out of the blew and which makes him the 5th guy from my year in school to pass away which is hard to get your head around people you grow up with passing so young with so much more life to give and do.

On reflection I have had better January's, but how I can make February a better month is learn from the last I plan to eat more healthy I have the exercise down and will keep it up.

I plan to see more of my friends I haven't seen them in a while and I have missed not hanging out with them.

A good part of my January I have booked my hotel for Manchester for July to see Bette Midler I cant wait me and my mum are so excited we have loved her for years.

I have procrastinated a little too much this month so I have vowed not to do so much, I have decided to write a plan of action for eat day a list of the things I need to do and mark them off when its done I think by seeing the things crossed off will make me what to finish more things.


How has your January gone? what can you improve for February?

Peanut xx

khaki shades

The nights are slowly drawing out and its time to start thinking about spring trends, all shades of khaki was seen on the run way acne, yigal azrouel and no,21 all had it in their run way shows for S/S 2015.

khaki is a easy wearable fashion trend there is a shade for each person and style for everyone from military to safari here are a few of my must have pieces.

I love ripped Leigh jeans £40 and these from http://www.topshop.com/en/tsuk/product/new-in-this-week-2169932/new-season-style-3274297/moto-khaki-ripped-leigh-jeans-4014103?bi=21&ps=20 are perfect I would wear them for every day whether I'm doing errands or meeting friends team it with a white t-shirt and white vans and a denim shirt for a relaxed look.

This skort is from khttp://www.topshop.com/en/tsuk/product/new-in-this-week-2169932/new-season-style-3274297/textured-wrap-skort-4005926?bi=1&ps=20 £36 it would look amazing with ankle boots and sweater.

 

 

This shirt dress from www.asos.com £48 is a versatile dress in spring wear with ankle books and a cable cardigan or leather jacket, in the summer team it with sandals and a hat and as in this picture put some heels on and your good to go for a night out.

 

 

 

 

 

  sheer blouse from http://www.newlook.com/shop/womens/tops/khaki-double-pocket-cuff-sleeve-shirt-_326316934 it is a perfect blouse to incorporate the khaki trend into your work wardrobe  £17.99

 

 



Book Review Paper Towns By John Green

I had such high expectations of paper towns after reading The fault in our stars, which broke my heart, was uplifting at the same time so I ran out and bought as many of John Green books as I could.

I new that they were turning paper towns in to a film so wanted to read it before it came out, I just hoped I wasn't disappointed and I wasn't.

Paper towns is very different to The fault in our starts, It's not a tear jerking rip your heart out kind of book its mysterious, comical the only thing it has in common with the fault in our stars it makes you see things in a different way John Green is really good at that, it gets you to think see things in a way you didn't before and you become a better and understand person after reading it.

The book is about Quentin and Margo they live in a the same street in Orlando Florida since they were two, when they are nine they find a dead body in the local park, Margo is intrigued wanting to know how and why he died where as Q is scared wants to get out of their and wish he hadn't seen the dead body.

Margo investigate what happened, It turns out it was a man called Robert he lived close to them the neighbour said his last string broke when his wife left him so he killed himself.

The book then skips to when they are 18 they are in their last few weeks of high school, they are no longer in the same circle of friends, Q is just one of the regular students not a geek just a normal guy  has two best friends called Ben and Radar who are in band, where as Margo is the most popular girl in school lives for adventure and goes days at a time and comes back with crazy stories.

One night out of the blew Margo turns up at Q's window at 12am like she once did when they were 9, he was surprised but had been in love with her ever since he could remember. She had found out her football BF had cheated on her with her best friend so she had a plan of pay back so they new they had hurt her and wanted Q to come along for the ride

They put fish in her BFF car, put hair removal cream on her BF eyebrow one of her Friends parents court them and nearly shot them but they managed to get away. One of the last things they did was go to the Suntrust building to see all of Orlando and see the houses that they had just been too. Margo said it was like a paper town fake, superficial and only 2 dimensional she thought that people just did things finish school go to university get married have babies etc and nothing changed they lived these mundane lives where nothing changed and she didn't like that that's why brought Q on this adventure so one day he could say I had an adventure but she also missed him and regretted not spending more time with him instead of her fake friends.

They later broke in to Sea world Margo loved the planning of the ventures not so much the actual doing of the adventures.
Q was up set with Margo when she was saying everything she had done for him that night then said “I didn’t need you, You idiot. I picked you. And then you picked me back." that is my favourite line in the book. She missed his friendship all these years she had stopped the cool kids picking on him all these years that shows she cared about him. Through the book I felt Margo has a lot of regret I wondered if  Margo had never become one of the popular people because of her looks which she found silly would she still want  to leave if she had stayed with Q all these years and he got to see the real her all these years but you can never go back.
They both went their separate ways Q hoping they would be friends again and she'd hang out with him in school instead of her horrible friends but the next day at school she didn't turn up and had gone missing again nothing new for Margo so people weren't that worried but Q was.

He realised like before she had left clues of where she would be, he was worried that she may have killed herself with what she had been saying that he last string broke when finishing out her BF had cheated on her and that reminded him of when Robert killed himself when his last string broke so frantically looked for the clues to see where she would be.

Q got his friends Ben and Radar to help him Ben was a little self absorbed which irritated Q but he helped him like friends do as radar got Q to see that though Ben was self absorbed he was a good guy he was a good friend most of the time and that yes he had a floor but so did he too he was obsessed with Margo but they still liked him as a friend. It was really nice to see the 3 guys relationship you never really get to see that in many books they had a good dynamic between them from funny comments of Ben and his honey bunnies and radar being thoughtful and insightful he was lucky to have friend like them.

Margo's friend Lacey who she thought didn't let her about the BF cheating when she actually didn't know was worried so helped them look for her and funnily ended up dating the band guy Ben he finally found his honey bunny and she found him funny.

They went from clue to clue finding address for abandoned buildings, posters being stuck on the back of Margo's blind in her room to poems with highlighted sentences trying to piece each clue together so Q could get to Margo.

The morning of graduation it all pieced together the gang go together missing their graduation and set of on a road trip to Agloe near new your city which was a fake place that the inventors of the map made up but it then turned into an actual place when people kept going there and then built a general store there, they only had 21 hours to find her before he would leave they had an eventful trip there but they finally found her.

She was in an abandoned building though she had left clues for Q she had left them last minutes as she was planning on leaving after graduation but with her BF cheating on her she left last minute no longer being able to take being there any longer though she wanted to be with Q to spend more time with him. With her leaving last minute her clues weren't great and though she wanted Q to find them she wasn't expecting her to find her they were for him to have fun and no she's OK but she was glad he found her she missed him.

When Margo and Q found Robert when they were 9 she started to write a story where Q was her superhero the boy she had a crush on and her talking dog after their adventure of paying back her friends she realised he was that guy she wrote about and she liked him too.

Though Margo previously said that Orlando was a paper town she meant she was, she had made herself to be what others wanted of her this cool girl but people didn't know the real her that what's this books about. Q had this version of her from when they were 9 though he loved the idea of her he didn't know her and along the way he started to actually know Margo a 18 year old girl who wasn't happy with her life who had been making this plan for years to leave so she can start over and be the real her. He saw her cracks no long seeing her through a perfect window and seeing her cracks made him love her more as now he was seeing the real Margo. My other favourite line in the book was “When did we see each other face-to-face? Not until you saw into my cracks and I saw into yours. Before that, we were just looking at ideas of each other, like looking at your window shade but never seeing inside. But once the vessel cracks, the light can get in. The light can get out.”

Q really wanted to kisses her but knowing it couldn't go any where he stopped himself but later gave in when it was the right moment, she kissed him back she was planning on going to New York to start over she wanted Q to go with her, she new he wouldn't he had his life set for him university work family etc but I think though he did have that in his future she changed him she opened his eyes up he became confident and had done things he would never thought he could do she changed him for the better.

They buried the book that Margo had written her story of her and Q in and had over the years written her plans for her big adventure in, they were saying good bye to their 9 year old selves and starting a fresh.  
It was time for Q to leave they held each other they kissed, Q was happy that he finally got to know the girl he loved for so long though she wasn't what he thought she was he loved finding out who the real Margo was the Margo that wasn't perfect that she had cracks and they promised to stay in touch.

I really loved John Green's message in this book with what Q learnt about friendship that you may not like aspects of your friends as they may not like aspects of you either but they and you can still be great friends give them a little slack.

Kind of like friends I have sometimes I may not peak to the a lot or they maybe a but about them selves but when ever I need them like Q needed his they are always there.

With Margo and Q's relationship he loved this idea of her this imagine he had made of her from knowing her as a child but that image wasn't the person he thought she was he saw the real her, her flaws and he still loved her without letting others see you flaws they Will never no the real you.
By letting those around you see your cracks it lets the light in making living a less dark place.

If you have read it what did you think of it?

Peanut xx

My 29th Year

Every birthday comes around so quickly, I've blinked and I'm another year older. It only feels like yesterday was coming out of my teens then turning 21 now I'm coming up to my last year in my 20's and I have to say It's a scary thing.

I've always hated getting older ever since I was a child, over the years of losing childhood friends I have come to realise I should celebrate another year I made it that they sadly didn't.

It got me thinking from the 6th of May of this year It's going to be my last year being in my 20's, so I have to make this year count and do things that I have always wanted to do so here is my list.

1, Do a photography course I really got into it last year and has become a new passion of mine.

2, Driving lessons I've put them off for too long.

3, Go to Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, Sweden as many places as possible

4, Take a dance class, I always wanted to be a dancer and would of loved to have lessons when I was younger. probably ballet or street.

5, To learn to snowboard though I'm a huge clutz I have always wanted to learn to snowboard go down the slopes and yes drink a lot of hot chocolate by a roaring fire :)

6, Finally learn to swim in school I had glasses so when I went swimming with school  I couldn't see a thing looking back probably dangerous that they let me near the pool but now I have contact whoop whoop I would like to learn especially as I goes on to my last thing I want to do.

7, Learn to scuba dive I want to do a marine conservation work after I graduate, and I cant wait to be in the ocean its a magical place and being able to swim an scuba dive will be pretty handing lol


Peanut xx