Hi lovelies,

Well, weirdly enough, it's now the end of the month, and that means it's time for another Monthly Favourites.

I'm going to say right up that this is going to be a short post because a) I didn't plan during the month and write bits of the post as the month progressed b) I forget that today was the 31st until just now, which is evening for me and I'm not very inspired at the moment c) I am really super tired! I was baby-sitting last night and they didn't come back until 2 in the morning, which is way, way past my bedtime. But, enough of my excuses and explanations - let's crack on.

Lorde
I got her CD Pure Heroine at the beginning of this month and I really, really love it. Her songs are just really haunting and beautiful - especially those that weren't released as singles. The lyrics are really evocative and I love the way some of the songs seem to be about nothing, and yet all of them make sense. I find her work very similar to Natasha Khan's - or Bat For Lashes, whom I also really love for the same reasons - the imagery and emotions that the lyrics and songs create. I talk about Laura (by Bat for Lashes) in this post.

Currently, I think my favourite song on the CD is 400 Lux, just because it's really beautiful.

Exercise Can Be Really Unhealthy. True Fact. | Exercise Part 2

Hi lovelies,

Today we are moving onto Part 2 of my exercise series. If you missed the first part, you can find it here.

This post covers my experiences with exercise during my eating disorder and talks a lot about what I was feeling and my reasons and rationale behind my decisions at that time. If you are triggered by discussions of disordered thoughts about exercise, maybe this post isn't for you. xxx

Last time I pretty much gave a run down of my early experiences with exercise and I finished up with me being happy and jolly while doing Tae Kwon Do. However, unfortunately, that wasn't going to last.

After I had been doing it for about 2-2.5years, things started to head downhill. At this point, I was heading into my eating disorder and was a very stressed person. At first, Tae Kwon Do was a lifesaver for me. I was somewhere I went, twice a week and escaped every other bit of my life. The people that I met there were amazing, amazing people and were completely different from anyone else in my life. There were very few, if any people my age (16-17 years) and so I spent my time with a couple of girls and a boy about 13-14 and a few older men and women (probably in their late 30s or early 40s). This was so extremely valuable to me because these were people with whom I had very little in common with in regards to everyday life. I don't really care what other people say, there is a world of difference between the everyday life of a 13 year old and that of a 16 year old. The fact that they both go to high school is fairly negligible.

And those that did go to school were at schools that were very different from mine. One girl went to the local public high school and was in a constant battle to pass her subjects so that she would be allowed to stay on the triathlon team. For me, this was world's away from my struggles, although equally challenging, and it was a relief to be around these people. People that didn't care about school in the way I did and people that were just lovely, lovely people.

Peacock Nails

Hi lovelies,

These nails are beyond doubt one of my favourites I've done this year. They didn't quite go down as well as my Rainbow Butterflies (the photos of which were not that great and I haven't actually sorted through yet, so you might see them on here and you might not), but then again, they are a little more muted than a giant rainbow gradient across my fingernails. So, lets have a look, shall we?

Please excuse the less than great pictures, I desperately need to sort out my photography set up. Before I just went outside and took pictures in the sunlight because hey, it's Australia, and it was summer. And that means sun. Plentiful supplies of sun for pretty consistent pictures. But we've had lots of rain and clouds recently and now my garden looks like this.

What a lovely shot right? Would you look at that artistic angle? Maybe I should give up photography nails and instead just take regular photos? No? Fine... But I think I have potential talent. :P

I mean, don't get me wrong - I love the rain and I am totally happy with this rainy and colder weather at the moment, but unfortunately, it also highlights how much I need to get my photography stuff set up..... So, if any body has any suggestions, please let me know in the comments! I did have a home-made light box, but me mum accidentally put her hand through the top and broke it and I never had huge success with it so I never repaired it.

I Have Some Really Confused Ideas About Exercise | Exercise Part 1

Hi lovelies,

So, exercise. I have so many mixed feelings on exercise it's not even funny. Or mildly amusing. It's actually just very, very confusing.

And just on a quick, definition-y note before we get started, I'm talking about formal exercise here. The term 'formal exercise' refers to exercise that's done with the primary goal being to exercise, rather than to socialise or to get places or stuff like that. So I'm not counting things like walking to work/school and I'm not counting social outings. Like, I go ice-skating with my friend about once a fortnight, and while that is exercise (skating around in circles for a couple of hours does burn calories) we do it because it gives us a chance to catch up and do something a little different, and because it's fun. But it's for socialising, not exercise, primarily, so I'm not counting it under the umbrella term of formal exercise.

Got that? Yes? Okay, lets move on.

But before we crack all these different feelings, lets recap my experiences with exercise...

Fair warning - my exercise stories are not going to be happy jolly gold-tinted things and joy. Also, who even looks like when running. When you look like me, running fucking hurts! Source here