My priorities have shifted and i'm putting all my effort in my teaching career. I'm making sure I have relevant and engaging lessons for the 24 kids in my class and unfortunately that means that my hobby with beauty is being put on hold.

I haven't bought a new beauty item for months and I'm feeling like a huge shopping trip soon hint Carla hint.

Hopefully I can whip up a good blog post about a make up product soon! 

In the mean time, i'll be in my classroom with 1/2A AKA 1/2Awesome. 

Bye.

Looking forward to 2014.

2013 was a tough year physically, emotionally & mentally. Both Gideon and I faced trials that we never thought we would've ever have had to face. We were driven out of our first home which was the biggest trial we have ever had to face. Our home which we spent so long to make into our little haven, taken away from us so quickly. Our health was at risk and we couldn't stay.

I don't like talking about that trial because it is really something that changed Gideon and I. Thankfully we have a plan to buy a house in the future and bury the memories of our first experience. Furthermore, we faced car issues, employment hassles and the stress of university. Life lessons being taught over and over and we saw no end.

2013 was emotionally exhausting but thankfully with my husband by my side, we were able to conquer everything together.

Based on our 2013 experience, we are now optimistic toward the future. We have set goals together which are:

1. Love each other more each day. Pretty self explanatory, really. This entails dating each other & lowering the amounts of times we bicker... haha.

2. Set foundations for ourselves. Our parents respectively taught us to be diligent with our money. 2014 will be the year that we *hopefully* purchase a home. Although the market is not in our favour, we hope that once I begin to gain more casual work & Gideon starts his new line of work, we can start to plan our future home together.

3. Be happy. Gideon and I both had a tough 2013 & at times were hardly happy. This year we have no choice but to be happy. Smiling, laughing and loving are what we are striving to do more of.

4. Continue our education. I'm a firm believer in education & our constant need to learn and educate ourselves. I plan to learn Auslan to further my abilities and skills in education & perhaps complete a photography course part-time. Gideon is undertaking his Bachelor degree in Counter Terrorism & is enjoying it. After finishing a Masters degree and a Bachelors degree at the age of 23, I am planning to learn more hobbies and skills that are fun & practical.

5. Travel. Gideon and I have the most fun when we are exploring and we strive to do more of this within the year. Hopefully we can visit new countries and add stamps to our passports soon.

I feel really good about this year & I wish for nothing but the best for you too.

-C.

Mini Essence Haul | Make Up ♡

Money has been getting a little tight these days, so my shopping addiction is going into it's withdrawal phase.

I experience these feelings when I can't

buy something I really want.

I literally go online window shopping to take the edge off. You know, fill the cart but never make it through the payment phase of the checkout? Yepp. 

But all is not lost because on Tuesday I finally got to go shopping when I was wondering around Canberra alone while Gideon was in an important interview. What else is a girl to do when her husband gives her his credit card? Seriously. 

I wandered around Canberra Centre which is like... the biggest shopping centre I have ever been do. It went on for days! I visited nearly every store (I liked) and picked out some stuff while I still had time to kill. I even watched a movie alone, which I've never done before. I watched The Heat. It was O K.

I bought some new stuff from the Essence line that recently came out at Priceline and at Target called "50's Girl Reloaded". I LOVE Essence. Their products are of such a high quality and they're so affordable. I couldn't say no to some new stuff from their new line as well as some old favourites which I've been eyeing off for a while.

I bought:

1. I Love Punk Jumbo Eyeliner- I love eyeliner so I always try to go for ones that I've never tried before. I like this product but it wont give you that natural eyeliner look. Use this for a more dramatic and bold winged eye-liner look on your eyes. I used this as a preliminary guide to create my perfect bold eyeliner look.

2. Match2Cover Cream Concealer- I'm so pleased with this product as you can mix the two shades to achieve your natural skin colour to cover up those not so lovely blemishes on your face. I like to layer this product to cover up my dark circles under my eyes.

3.Translucent Loose Powder- I haven't bought translucent powder since I started using a powder foundation to set my liquid foundation, but I'm so pleased with this because it makes my make-up look flawless without it looking cake-y.

4. 02 I'm Sailing Lipstick- An awesome creamy, coral colour. I wear it over my Benetint lipstain to give a salmon-y lip colour, which I love. The consistency of this is like a creamy lipstick, which does need to be touched up throughout the day. The colour is opaque depending on how much you want to smack on your lips. I prefer a subtle application. 

Overall I'm so pleased with the products I picked up and it all totaled to about $18, which is a bargain for quality products. Check out their new line, you wont be disappointed. 

-C.

Lazy Day ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I'm in a really lazy mood today so I didn't do anything with my hair, I slopped on some BB cream on my face and I wore tights & ugg boots all day.

I regret nothing.

With my holidays slowly coming to a close and my final semester of my masters suddenly beginning, I cherish these days where i'm able to bake brownies and read wonderful books all day long.

I love these days I have to myself. I can relax until the wave of assignments, tutorials and lectures comes flooding in. My anxiety grows but hopefully i'll be able to stabilise my symptoms by being prepared and ready for what is about to come.

What do you do on your days off? Do you sit outside and take in the fresh air? I do. Do you ponder the future and all that will come of it? I do. Do you wish these days could go on forever? I certainly do.

I can't wait for this semester to be over and it hasn't even started yet. The prospect of my practicum in the classroom terrifies me (teaching is scary), but hopefully i'll be able to face it like I do with everything else in life.

My apologies for a more personal post today... I just have a lot of feelings.

So, what was your day like today? 

And if it was busy and stressful, I hope you can have a day where you hang out in your underwear, watching reality tv whilst eating doritos. If that's what you're into... cause I totally am.

Take care of yourself. 

-C.

The Little Things.

Sometimes I am reminded of 'The Little Things'.

Little smiles

Little kisses

Little gestures of love from my husband.

Sometimes its the littlest things that matter the most.

I tend to appreciate these little moments.

I had an experience this week that made me appreciate my husband and his little gestures of kindness.

On top of being cute and stuff, he is very observant. 

He found this... on my dog after she went rummaging through some bushes.

Something that would've usually remained unnoticed, G took the time to make sure it was ok and put it back outside after we took some photos with the little guy.

Yes he was slimy and a little gross, but Gideon insisted we put him back on the best plant in the garden even after my mum told him that snails have been eating her parsley! Gideon won.

If anything, this made me appreciate Gideon and his little acts more and more. He really is a sweet guy and I hope he won't get embarrassed by me blogging about his cuteness (he likes to believe he's a tough guy with muscles and a beard but really he's a big softy with a heart of gold... and a beard).

I'll finish this off with a song that reminds me of Gideon and the time around our engagement.

We love this song and he even told me he gets emotional when he hears it. 

He's definitely a keeper.

Little diamonds are little things...

Stay classy.

-C.

Colab. with Carla!

So, I have a friend named Carla.

We've known each other since the moment I moved to the area, which was in 2002. We were in year 6 at Winston Hills Public School together.

We've gone through every awkward phase together. Her with her colourful plastic jewellery phase to me in my all black emo stage with accompanying emo fringe. Awesome.

We've gone through highs and lows together and experienced the good and the bad.

Anyways, I took some photos for her blog yesterday and she's going to be featuring them in her blog which you can find...

HERE

I hope you can find her blog because the link I added wasn't too big. She blogs all about design stuff, fashion and inspiration pieces, make up and her everyday life. It makes for a really interesting read.

She's got some pretty cool stuff in her room, & her jewellery collection & ability to piece items together is impressive. She's always had that eye for knowing design and fusion. I guess that's why she specialises in that sort of thing. Design. Carla. It just goes together.

You'll be able to check out the blog post soon.

Until then...

Stay classy.

-C.

Rough days ahead.

Before Gideon and I got married, so many people told us that the 1st year of marriage would be the hardest. "You don't know somebody until you've lived with them!" they'd say. Well, seeing as though we had been together for nearly 3 years, i'd say we pretty much knew a lot about each other to ease into married life pretty smoothly. And it has been pretty effortless.

We've had no dramas getting to know each other. We respect each other. We're each other's best friend. So, it's pretty much us hanging out, being stupid 24/7. It's awesome.

But the one thing I would have to agree upon was the fact that this year would eventually come out with some heavy trials, and it has.

We're facing something we were not prepared for but we hope to have a solution soon.

We have to relocate due to something unforeseen and it's taking it's toll. We weren't prepared.

Knowing Gideon and I, we will come out of it unscathed & that's why I think we're awesome. Because no matter what we face, we still are able to come out happy & fabulous.

We've seen and experienced our fair share of bad luck and also a mountain of good luck & blessings; and we are grateful for both the good & the bad.

So, here's hoping we can settle down somewhere safer, somewhere that doesn't affect my heath & somewhere where we can call home. Our home.

Wish us luck.

On our wedding day... obvs.

-C.

Lurve day.

So, if you haven't noticed TODAY IS VALENTINE'S DAY! YAY!

I've been seeing countless posts on Facebook from both Valentine's day lovers and haters alike & I love them all! No, seriously. People that hate on Valentine's day are awesome!

I too was once a Valentine's day hater, stuck in the perpetual doom of singledom. I never received a single rose or chocolate from the opposite sex (until I met Gideon). My high school experiences of Valentine's day were filled with anxiety as I knew i'd see girls carrying bouquets of flowers and boys presenting them while I sat quietly at lunch admiring my salami sandwich. It was a tough couple of years.

There were instances where my other single friends and I would exchange little hearts, lollies and flowers to show our love to each other (in a totally plutonic sort of way) but it wasn't the same!

I always wanted the male to present me with roses! I wanted the chocolates to devour when I was alone! I wanted the sappy poems/song lyrics scribbled inside of a good hallmark card! I wanted him to serenade me with a lute! WAS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK?!

I never, ever received anything (aside from some flowers from a friend) until Gideon came along. He surprises me daily but on this special day, Feb 14th, he always puts a little bit more effort. From lovely letters, to chocolates, to massive bouquets of flowers; he spoils me. And I love him for it! This year (as our first married Valentine's day) featured a love heart trail to the front door where he was awaiting me with a bouquet of fresh roses, a box of Ferrero Rochers and plans for us to spend the weekend in the Blue Mountains at a lovely hotel (how romantic!). He even made reservations at our favourite restaurant Brasa for dinner! (I was almost TOO spoilt this year!). Oh, might I add that the spoiling is mutual, yes. I registered Gideon into the Tough Mudder challenge... a bi-yearly 20km obstacle course filled with mud, water, climbing walls, getting shocked by electricity and other endurance-provoking activities (I knew my husband would appreciate something more rugged than a movie night in watching Valentines Day) I also bought him chocolates!

 Gideon's love heart trail

Lovely red roses

I made myself love heart eggs on toast for breakfast

And below: some of my favourite internet valentine's day cards I posted on Gideon's Facebook, ha.

We must also remember that even though Valentine's day is known for being an over materialistic day, centred round who gets what, let's just remember that it's a day where we celebrate love and kindness towards one another, and who doesn't love feeling those warm fuzzies? I know I do!

So this year, i'd love to just tell everybody that I love you & I hope you spent the day filling your brain with lovely thoughts, filling your body with lovely food and surrounding yourself with lovely people and lovely things!

-C.

P.s Don't forget:

Music.

I'm all about music; I live for it. I love it. It's a passion.

Discovering new music is basically the greatest thing ever, especially when it's good. I feel like every moment of life could be defined with a song, just like how they do it in the movies... except in real life.

Whenever I listen to a certain song, a period of my life comes flooding back. It's the best, even when the memory isn't that friendly. It's like my own personal way of remembering momentous occasions of my life.

See, let me give you some back story.

My mum is a huge music enthusiast. Her parents never allowed her to pursue her musical talents so she fed her children that repressed energy, in a good way. I have 2 older brothers and 1 older sister and dead set we were The Ferreira 4 (our little spin on The Jackson 5, heh). We all play musical instruments, we all can sing, and we all love music. Some of the best memories I have are of my siblings and I free styling songs together and making it sound amazing. Thanks mum.

I personally play the violin (although now out of practice, I will get back into it), the ukulele, I can play some chords on the guitar and I can sing. Gideon bought me a stylophone for my birthday once and I can play Beat It! by Michael Jackson so I can totally call that a talent too.

Gideon, my cousin Josh & I recently went to The Big Day Out and we saw so many good bands and two of our absolute favourites, The Killers and Red Hot Chilli Peppers. At the end of the RHCP's set, Flea, Michael Balzary the bassist, yelled out to the crowd to embrace every form of music whether it be the most farfetched style on the planet or the popular music of today. Gideon recalls it as him yelling out, "IT'S THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE! IT'S THE VOICE OF THE F****** PEOPLE!"

Can't believe G found a photo of this exact moment.

 And that's what I believe too. My music preference isn't limited to one style, I try to embrace all different styles... TRY (Country music still isn't doing it for me). But we will see.

I've tried to place myself into a certain musical-genre-kind-of-person, but I can't. I feel like I am sort of defined by what kind of music I find enticing but I wouldn't say it comes out in my everyday look like a punk or something. I have 11 GB worth of music on my iTunes and it's like a fruit salad of musical genres. I think i'd make Flea proud in my own little way.

I didn't really know where I was going with this post at the time (I kind of put it down for a week and then randomly came back to it) but I think I was deep in thought about how I handle big changes in my life, and usually music helps me. So, I guess that's why.

So, to change things up a bit, here is a 'Clarissa's lucky dip of some songs she really likes and thinks you will like too' maybe you'll find some songs you like, looove from the mix I have compiled here... maybe. If not, that's OK too. Some of the songs i've chosen are soooo underrated. but I love them anyway.

Happy clicking!

click love Heh Yepp fav shuck :) 

click OPP Yes THIS rise Bon

 LOVE Swell YES Dew <3 this. 

truth. FF flaws. @  bay 

oh ?? listen. money yesssss & boyz

Oh, & sorry some of the video clips are lyric videos made on Windows movie maker... I just can't get enough of those sweeping cuts and dissolves!

Let me know if you have any good new/old music to add to my library!

-C.