Hi lovelies!

So we're at the end of another month and that means it's time for another round of my Monthly Favourites! Without further ado, here they are....

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How To Train Your Dragon 2
Okay, technically this should have gone in the June Monthly Favourites, but it didn't and anyway, a month later and I'm still raving about. Wait, I went and saw it for the second time in July, so that totally makes it count. Right? Anyway, I'm sure you're thinking, 'Dani, it really isn't that great. Like, it's pretty good, but not at the level that you like it'. (It's also very true, I legitimately know 95% of the lines from the first movie, in order. I can recite entire scenes for you and I know large parts of the soundtrack off by heart) but I also don't care. I know it's illogical and irrational for me to love these movies as much as I do, but I love them anyway. They are among my favourite movies of all time, if not my absolute favourite.

I don't know why I love them as much as I do. But when I went to watch the second movie at the cinemas, I went in with a smile on my face and I smiled the whole movie, with the exception of the times I was crying. The characters are three dimensional and interesting, the relationships are interesting, visually, it's spectacular (especially in 3D) and somehow, they make me want to be a better person. They make me want to be as brave as Hiccup, as loyal as Toothless, as sure as Astrid, as funny as Gobber, as nerdy as Fishlegs and as tough as Stoick.


Jonsi
So I swear that not all of this post is going to be related to How To Train Your Dragon, just bits of it. :) I discovered Jonsi from the HTTYD soundtrack (he sings the end credit songs in both movies) but I've rapidly fallen in love with the rest of his work as well. I find a lot of his stuff to be just beautiful, in the lyrics, instrumentation and the melodies. I love the way he uses fairly unconventional instruments in his songs, like the bowed guitar, celesta, ukulele, kalimba and the glockenspiel. It gives a real haunting, magical sense to his music and I really like it. Strangely, some of his songs remind me of Owl City, but that could just be me being weird. :) Also, this song is beautiful and the fact that it's got clips from HTTYD just makes it better!!

All About That Bass... Or Not

Hi everyone!

So, I don't know if you guys have heard of it, but I've heard a lot about Meghan Trainor's newest song and music video recently. And I have a lot of thoughts about it and I think the people around me are getting sick of hearing me talk about it, so I thought I might talk about it here. (And writing a post about it forces me to get my thoughts in a logical order so that the next time someone brings it up, I'll have a great list of concise and organised things to mention, rather than jumping around manically as I think of more things...)

In case you haven't heard the song or seen the video, I've conveniently added it here for you.



A couple of weeks ago, people kept telling me that I had to hear this song and it kept popping up on my social media sites, and everything was saying the same thing - that it was a great body positive song, that I'd love it so much and that we needed more songs like this.

Naturally I was intrigued. Of course I wanted to hear this amazing song that touted body positivity and made everyone that was not a conventionally attractive size feel great. And so many people loved. That meant that it had to be amazing, right? Especially since the people I surround myself with on my social media all tout positive messages and good stuff like that. It sounded almost too good to be true

And sadly, in a way it was.

Don't get me wrong, the song is still pretty good. It's really catchy and has some really good sections in it. I like that the people in it are fairly diverse and I really like some of the lyrics. And, it's a step in the right direction for what we do need in the music industry - particularly in the music video industry.

But, there were some elements about the song and it's video that I was really not keen on. This can pretty much be summed up in two sections, the skinny shaming and the emphasis on men as a decider of what sort of bodies are attractive.

Face of Australia Dark Side Review | Part Two

Okay, so today I'm back with the second half of my Face of Australia Dark Side collection review. If you missed the first part, you can find it here.

First up we have Ursula, named for the wicked sea witch from the Little Mermaid.

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Face Of Australia Dark Side Review | Part One

Hi lovelies,

So, today I have some really, really, really lovely polishes to show you. Normally, I'm pretty good about my polish buying. I don't do extremely extravagant shopping sprees and I normally keep my 'Absolutely Must Have' polish list to a length that won't break the bank. All in all, it means that I generally never end up buying an entire collection.

But.... When I was walking through my local Priceline last week, I came across these babies and I just knew that I had to own them all. But I was very frugal - I fought my my inner polish demon and only bought half. I felt very proud of myself.

And then I went back the next day and bought the rest. :)

Well, actually, technically, my sister bought one of them, so I didn't buy the entire collection, but at least I have the entire collection available for my use. :)

Face of Australia have brought out some really great polishes recently (See my rave about their Carnivale ones here) and these are no different. They are really gorgeous polishes and also, are named after famous villains. For me, this was what really cinched the deal. How could I pass up the opportunity to tell people I was wearing Voldemort or Darth Vader on my fingertips?!?!?

First up, we have Mystique, named after the amazing villain-but-not-quite from the X-men series.

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Nail Art Inspired By: Fifa World Cup

Hi everyone!

So, who’s excited for the world cup final??

Actually, if I am completely honest, I’m not that excited. I’ll watch the soccer while it’s on, but I’m not a massive fan. However, my sister and dad are quite into it and so I keep up with the scores and the goss and as a result, have been quite sucked into the world cup this time round. :)

But, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to do some appropriately themed world cup nails, could I? However, because I had done my nails only a day before, I was not taking them off, so it's a good thing my mum was happy to have some soccer themed nails. :)

I was actually really proud of them! Especially the Argentinian flag. I honestly thought that was going to be a flop, but it turned out much better than I expected. I don't actually think it's recognisable as the Argentinian flag by itself, but with the soccer balls and German flag, I'm hoping/assuming people will get the gist. :)

Pastel Glam Nails

Okay, so maybe that title sounds a little contradictory, but I honestly didn't know what else to call them! They have sparkles and jewels but also pastel colours? I think they can be called pastel glam and since it's my blog, I'm gonna call them that. :)

I was really happy with these as it actually gave me a chance to use a polish I won from Jindie Nails and that I love to bits, but find it difficult to wear. It's called Candyland and while it's super different to anything that I would normally wear, I really like it. However, it is a milky glitter and I find them very hard to use. I also have to do a lot of fishing to get a good amount of glitter out...

So, as a rather impatient person, I do not the whole process of white base + thick/multiple coats + fishing that is required to use this polish, especially when applied to all ten fingers! But then, if I don't apply it to all ten fingers, what do I match such a unique and interesting polish with?? Ergh! What a dilemma!

Nail Art Inspired By: Marceline The Vampire Queen

Hi lovelies,

As you would know if you've been reading my Monthly Favourites, I really quite like Adventure Time. It'ss just so soothing and lovely and wonderful. For a children's program it's surprisingly well-thought out and the characters are really quite three-dimensional.

Anyway, I won't go into the rest of the reasons I love Adventure time right now, but if you are interested, I did write a little more in this Monthly Favourites.

While my favourite character has to be Finn, Marceline comes a very, very close second. She is just a pretty cool girl and I love her songs. So when I decided to do Adventure Time nails, she was definitely my first choice. I just think she has more scope to incorporate in a nail design.

Or at least, that's what I thought when I started out. I had a great plan to do a little Marceline face on each thumb, bats on a couple of fingers, one nail of her guitar and one of a full body, or at least a torso, to make sure I could include her fabulous hair! So I started off and did the thumbs and they turned out great! I was so confident I was going to nail this design.

I mean, look at that - it's so true to life! It looks very much like her.

But then, I started doing the other nails. The bats turned out okay but the guitar nail and torso nail just flopped. The guitar was completely unrecognisable as a guitar and I went a little overboard with her hair and she ended up looking a little bit like one of the trees from The Lorax. Well, if the tree bit was bigger and black and the trunk was shorter and was split in two and was red (for her boots).

For defs what she looked like. Only, in black and red and shades of grey. Source here

What I Liked About June

Hi lovelies,

So this month I was determined to get this post up before late on the night of the 30th, but I guess that didn't happen... But.... Guess what? I actually did more this month than just listen to music! Unlike last month... Anyway, on to the actual post.

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Miami Heat by Sinful Color
So, this polish. Logically, I shouldn't like this polish as much as I do. It's not a glitter, I didn't have to covert it from after until I could justify the high price/ridiculous shipping costs, it's not a purple or a pink and I didn't even have issues getting my hands on it. It's really actually just a plain blue creme. I picked it up on a whim with five other polishes I bought in a sale at Kmart this month. I really only bought it because I didn't have a darkish-blue creme. It wasn't until I got home and looked at my haul again that I fell in love with it. It's so shiny and pretty and really gorgeous and extremely wearable.

Also, I loved it so much that the first time I wore it I couldn't even bear to put nail art over the top of it - I just really wanted to show it all in it's full, if illogical, beauty. Check out my post about it and the tiny bit of nail art I did over it here.

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My New Phone (Motorola Moto G)
At the beginning of this month, I bought myself a new phone and I'm still pretty excited about it. I lost my old phone on a bus about 2 months ago and I'd been using a very old phone we had lying around the house. I got sick of it pretty quickly and started looking for a new one and I ended up with the Moto G. It's my first smartphone (I know, I was very late joining the ranks) and to be honest, that's probably like 60% of why I'm still excited about it. All the new things I can do!! :)