Happy ANZAC Day.

Today started off with me being woken up by my brother at about 10.15, wanting to go to an Anzac service in the city at 11am. We were almost half an hour late getting to the Supreme Court Gardens for the service but we still got to hear some speeches, prayers, hymns and the national anthems. On the way back we had some Mexican for lunch (Mad Mex). 

Home again, and I watched some YouTube videos (I never go without my Shaytards fix!), and then I had to see the Parks and Recreation season 6 finale (Michelle Obama cameo, woop!)... it was epic. I've successfully marathoned six whole seasons of that hilarious show (if you're new to it, watch it, but beware - the first six episodes are underwhelming).

Next I felt sleepy and decided to take a nap.

Then I changed my mind, and decided to visit our garden and get some fresh air and sunshine. I picked some weeds near our sweet potatoes and aloe vera, and then went back inside and asked my brother to play table tennis. I came back outside, did more weeding, cleaned up a lot of dead papaya and fig leaves from under the trees (there were A LOT), and we played table tennis. I won every single game. It was actually kinda annoying how I kept winning coz I felt bad.

I came back inside, loaded The Vampire Diaries, watched a bit of #BBCAN2, maybe a few more YouTube videos, and decided to take that nap. 

Then I changed my mind, and went downstairs to the kitchen to get the leftovers out of the fridge for dinner and waited for the Freo footy match against North Melbourne. The Kangaroos defeated the Dockers. Sad face. On the bright side, I did the washing up, and put on a face mask. I'm still wearing it now. I have some rose white tea sitting next to me and I'm going to drink that while watching TVD. 

And I'll probably fit in some reading before bed. The other day I rearranged some of the furniture in my bedroom and brought in a really nice floor lamp next to my bed so it's way easier to read in bed now. I'm currently reading The Cracks in the Kingdom by Jaclyn Moriarty. It's fantastic.

A lip balm post is coming soon.

In the meantime, LEST WE FORGET.

Tweetspurt Monday!

A quickfire spurt of random tweets from yours truly over the course of the past... week? It's only called Tweetspurt Monday because it's Monday right now... next time it might be Tweetspurt Tuesday or Tweetspurt Friday, who knows? Certainly not I. 

I might never do this again, ever, for all I know. Do I even know anything? 

Who's to know?

Anyway, here we go.

I mean... it could be worse than to die from wedding pie. Absolutely loved Margaery at the #PurpleWedding

— arielle (@Elleira92) April 14, 2014

I used Golden Wonder by @lushcosmetics in my bath tonight. now I constantly wanna stare at my tummy coz it's all glittery!

— arielle (@Elleira92) April 14, 2014

it felt VERY strange watching #newgirl Schmidt on #themindyproject.

— arielle (@Elleira92) April 16, 2014

after a contemplative pause, my laughter erupts in earnest. http://t.co/kF9VsGWlDr @realjohngreen

— arielle (@Elleira92) April 16, 2014

I'm hungry. Watching #parksandrec all the time makes me want to eat a tonne of meat, and waffles. Thanks Ron Swanson and Leslie Knope.

— arielle (@Elleira92) April 17, 2014

Woop woop! Jesus is alive!!! #realtalk

— arielle (@Elleira92) April 20, 2014

oh no. only 11 more episodes of #parksandrec left before I'm all caught up. :( I wish tv shows could be like a neverending packet of timtams

— arielle (@Elleira92) April 20, 2014

definitely a good thing I made @blogilates slimming detox water this arvo. coz I put a lot of kentucky fried chicken in my mouth tonight.

— arielle (@Elleira92) April 20, 2014

Tonight's Green Smoothie Recipe!!!

I make green smoothies a lot, and I like to pride myself in creating really healthy things that actually taste delicious, and this green smoothie (which I made just then!) is one of them. It's a really basic recipe and it took little to no time at all! 

Most of the ingredients are ready-prepared, except for the coconut which I had to chop open (and when I don't have coconut, I just leave it out and add more almond milk or water, to replace the liquid base) - so if you have these ingredients handy, then you have no excuses! Making a green smoothie is easy-peasy Japanese-y.

Read on to see how I made tonight's green smoothie. :)

Note: This recipe filled one whole glass (how much the glass holds, I could not possibly fathom). 

Ingredients

Half of the water from a drinking coconut (I spilled the other half hacking the coconut open with a meat cleaver ~sad face~)

A few spoon scrapings of coconut flesh

One frozen strawberry (I buy these pre-frozen)

Half a dozen frozen banana bits (I freeze them myself, breaking the banana into small pieces by hand before freezing)

A large handful of spinach/baby spinach

A tablespoon of white chia seeds (could use black chia seeds too, they are exactly the same)

A splash of unsweetened almond milk (there was a little bit left in the carton and wanted to finish it off)

Method

Now this is the really complicated part!

Put all ingredients in blender and blend until blended.

Note: Putting the frozen things and the coconut flesh (if your coconut flesh isn't soft) at the bottom underneath the spinach helps it all blend together faster. I find. 

More Notes/Tips

*Almond milk should not contain any sweeteners, including cane sugar. The sweetness from the banana, strawberry and coconut will suffice! More than suffice.

*Don't put too many berries in your smoothie. I don't like to put many strawberries or any blueberries in because they can cancel out the green of your spinach/kale and make your smoothie look like poop. If your green smoothie is brown, you're less likely to put it in your mouth. That's my philosophy. You're welcome.

*The almond milk can also help highlight the green-ness of your smoothie. It makes it look a bit creamier and brighter than if you use only water or only coconut water (which is what I do sometimes). 

*If you like it more chilled, add a couple of ice cubes.

*If you substitute spinach out for kale, use just the leaves, not the stems, unless you don't like your smoothies to be smooth. Or use baby kale. I freaking love that stuff. I don't know where to find it in Australia though. 

*Try not to spill the precious coconut water when you cut it open. Every time I do I grunt really loudly and scream, "URGHHHH SO MUCH WASTAGE!!!!!"... I love coconut water.

I probably have more tips but I'm gonna stop there.

Escentual Haul!

Escentual had a sale on all their French pharmacy brands - 30% off, or something wonderful like that, which I took advantage of! I had to... even in my broke, unemployed state.

Bioderma Sensibio H2O Micellar Solution

I've used this stuff for a long while now - when I can't be bothered going to the bathroom to use a cleansing oil to remove my makeup. I just grab 3 or 4 cotton pads, soak 'em in this cleansing water and wipe it over the whole face - it cleans my skin of almost all the makeup. It's not as effective as an oil (especially in regards to eye makeup removal), but it's one of the top cleansing waters/micellar solutions out there. I've also tried the Bioderma Sebium H2O Micellar Solution (for oily/problem skin), but I felt like it wasn't as comforting or gentle as this Sensibio one. Oh, and I mentioned this product before in a Bellabox Haul (it had a different name back then!)

I actually got two bottles of these bad boys - it was buy one get one free! Way better than 30% off. :)

VICHY Dermablend Setting Powder

I'd been reading on multiple beauty blogs about how great this setting powder was so I figured I may as well get it. I haven't tried it yet because I have a few other setting powders to use up/try out first, and also I just don't wear makeup that often. But I think setting powder is one of those things you'll always need and you may as well stock up on a few different ones! I still have to try out my Bareminerals Mineral Veil powder and my Make Up Forever HD translucent powder. 

By the way, it's actually quite affordable, which was a pleasant surprise. Powders can be quite pricey, and I'd never used anything by this brand before so I wasn't sure what to expect. 

NUXE Reve de Miel Honey Lip Balm

We all know how much everyone's been raving about this lip balm. I thought I may as well try it out for myself. As it was on sale, I bought an extra. Just for the heck of it. ;)

It's not that honey-scented, which is nice because I don't like honey that much. The consistency is really thick and dense, which I like because it instantly smooths onto your lips and makes them feel like they're wrapped up in a cozy blanket ready for a nap. :) 

La Roche-Posay Cicaplast Skin Recovery Accelerator 

This is another re-purchase. Cicaplast is great for when my skin is dry and flaky, and I think it also helps with fading my acne scars and evening out my skintone. It's a really smooth gel-type of a treatment which you can wear under makeup (I saw Lisa Eldridge do this) which I've tried and it makes any flaky areas of my skin completely smooth and non-flaky. I mainly use this at night though, to counteract the dryness of my skin from using Proactiv +. My skin is pretty sensitive and sometimes easily irritated, so this Cicaplast product works really well for that. I haven't tried Cicaplast Baume B5, but I hear that one's good too.