I really like to read books: part 1

I always have my head in a book, it has led to the nickname of book worm among my family, a nickname I love and continue to support. Whilst at school I adored reading, however I often struggled reading age appropriate books, this has never stopped me from reading and trying new books.

When entering GCSE years, I was put into top set English, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to keep up with the work and the amount of reading, however with help from teachers and close friends they gave me the confidence to read bigger and longer books. I went through the usual crazes of books, Jacqueline Wilson, Harry Potter and yes the Twilight series. These books helped me develop a greater passion for books and broaden my horizon. Although I still often struggle with pronouncing and spelling words, I am a much more confident person when it comes to reading aloud and taking control in class.

Anyway, I thought I would reveal some of my personal favourite books.
My favourite author of all time has to be Cecila Ahern. She has written some amazing heartfelt books. P.S. I love you was the first book I read of Ahern's, and I was hooked from then, However,  Ahern's book titled Where Rainbows End or now titled Love Rosie, is my favourite of her books,  I loved this book because of how it was set out, it starts with seven year old Rosie and Alex who are sat in class together discussing Alex's party plans. The book is set out in letter, email and text form, it follows the life of Rosie and Alex, Alex moves away suddenly with his parents to America, leaving Ireland and leaving Rosie behind. Rosie falls pregnant when she is 16 and Alex blames himself, saying if he was there Rosie would have gone with him. It follows their lives and ever changing relationship between the both of them and other relationships. Throughout the book the question always lingers: were they meant to be? Were they destined to be together? Without spoiling the book, the ending for me was perfect in every way. The book has now be turned into a film called Love Rosie, I have yet to see the film because I do not want one of my favourite books to be ruined.

The trailer for Love Rosie: 

That is just one of my many favourite books, which I will write more about later on. If you like romance books this is for you. I adore Ahern's writing its wonderful, I have read the majority of her work and still love her writing.

Love yah

IsThataRedHerring

How to get bright hair.

I have always dyed my hair, since I was about 9. I know that sounds very young but it was always wash in wash out dye, nothing that lasted until I got to my teens. Which is when I decided I hated my natural hair colour, which was an odd brown colour. So I made the decison to dye it black. I have a very pale complection to I felt that the dark hair suited me the best. I hate black hair for a very long time, but in my second year of university I decided that it was time for a change. I had bleach half of my hair before, it was terrible, it went yellow, orange and when I put pink onto it, it went several different colours. I was in sixth form at the time and was made to dye it back to black.

But at university everyone goes a bit crazy, and I was no exception. I attempted to dip dye my hair, which was still black at the time, so the bottom went an orange/yellow colour, but it didn't matter so much as I put purple on the bottoms. I really liked this style, but as my hair grew I couldn't be bothered to keep up with redyeing it the bright purple colour. So, I resorted back to black hair.

the first lot of bleaching, not length of hair 

After cut and purple added. 

In the summer of second year as I was entering third year of uni, I decided that I should go back to my normal colour! Now this is when my hair took a battering, and actually ended up falling out! My hair went from boob length too chin length, it was horrible and I actually cried. But finally my hair is beginning to grow again.

And this is what happens when you bleach hair from black, with natural roots :/ it started to break and fall out already. 

Here it is straightened and already shorter. 

Here it is a lot shorter, after it has broken and is very dry. 

And again, starting to grow a little again, thank goodness but still a little dry. 

And this was December 2014, finally back to a healthy feel, I had to bleach the roots, but I bleach bathed it so it didn't go dry. 

I got bored of the purple quite quickly, so I dyed it blue. However I had to light bleach it all over. I bleached bathed it, which meant instead of just bleaching it, I added one part shampoo, I used a cheaper version of Tresme colour protect shampoo, too one part bleach power and one part bleach developer. I only allowed it too stay on my hair for 20 mins, maybe not even that long. It went a very white blonde which was amazing in itself, but I had missed a few places so had to bleach bath certain places. (silly me haha). I didn't even wait an hour before I put the blue straight on. Because the blue is a semi-permanent and has zero amonia, it didn't damage my hair at all. Therefore, I left it on for about an hour, because I really wanted a bright vibrant blue, which is what I got.  

I got my hair cut today, which has brought out more shades of the blue and I love it. And I enjoy having the full fringe. 

What did I use?

• Jerome Russell B Blonde Powder Bleach 100g Lightner - I used two sachets, there are four in a box. It is always handy to have a few sachets in, it is about £3.99 from Superdrug, Boots or Wilkinsons.
• With that I used the Jerome Russell B Blonde Cream Peroxide 40 Vol 12% lightner, it is one bottle per sachet of powder, its about £1.69 from Superdrug, Boots or Wilkinsons. 
• For the colour, I used Live Colour XXL Ultra Vibrant Bright Purple Punk 94, this is available in most shops that stock hair dye. It is normally on offer in one shop or another, £5.49 each or often cheaper or buy 1 get 1 free etc. 
• For the blue I used something  bit different, I went to Sally's hair dressing supplies as they have a lot of bright colours in there, and hundreds of shades of colours. I recommend popping in as they give great advice and aren't too badly priced... Anyway,k the blue I used was Ion Colour Flash, Cobalt blue which is often on on offer as well, mine was £5.99, but was buy 1 get 1 half price. 
• I have also in the past used Crazy Colour, which gives great results, very bright particularly the pink. 

I hope this has helped some people, I would love to answer any questions people have.

Love yah 

IsThataRedHerring 

Trying to add more veg into my life

2014 has been and gone so I thought it was about time to try something different. I'm not really a meat eater and tend to stick to white meat and occasionally beef mince. I normally cook the same things as university, which tend too be chicken and pasta and some sort of sauce, or cottage pie! But when my good friend Beth made me an amazing vegetarian curry I was in love. Finally I got the recipe after months of forgetting to ask for it. And I was not disappointed. Full of spices and amazing tasty vegetables, most definitely one of my new favourite dishes. I've been trying to use new and exciting spices and vegetables, and looking for new veggie recipes.

I have two amazing recipes so far thanks to Beth, which are the amazingly packed and tasty spicy veggie curry and gnocci in a rich tomato sauce which I am trying this week. I also have a few soup recipes that I still need to try out, but if anyone has any recipes I would greatly appreciate them.

Sorry for short but sweet blog

Love yah
IsThataRedHerring