Since I quit the shampoo and went silicone free a few months back, I've been enjoying well defined curls and hair that feels truly moisturised and healthy. The past few days have involved a lot of arrangements, running around, and not enough time for air drying - my hair takes 4 to 5 hours to fully dry, and I've just not been able to find it this week. So I broke out my hair dryer and prepared to do battle.

Ordinarily, blow drying my hair takes about 45 minutes, by which stage I've usually given up attempting to get it sleek, and settled for roughly straightish hair (with a LOT of body) and very achey arms. This time, though, I found that my hair was a lot less puffy after blow drying, and it only took me 20 minutes or so to get it into a vaguely sleek state. All this, with just a small amount of Naked silicone free serum. This is a definite improvement, and a very unexpected bonus.

Well, I might be a little bit early with the New Years resolution, but this is something I've been meaning to do for a long while now. I'm slightly embarrassed to be posting the photo on the left; let me introduce you to my dressing table. Or rather, table covered with crap, as it's probably better described.

In all honesty, I have a lot of product. Lots of makeup, lots of skincare, lots of nail polish, and only one tiny wooden drawer unit, which I spray painted blue and silver (I thought it would look much classier, and less primary school, than it turned out). This afternoon I used up a little of my Christmas time off in reorganising my stash.

To the right, you can see what my dressing table looks like now. I've replaced the wooden unit (which was from Ikea, and cost about £7) with four stacked drawer units from Muji - three two-drawer units designed for MiniDiscs (does anyone still own an MD player?!) and one deep single-drawer unit designed for DVDs. The two-drawer units come with dividers inside so you can section off the drawers for similar sized products.

Both types cost £14.95 each - not cheap, but given the value of the product I'd previously been "storing" haphazardly across my dressing table, a worthwhile investment.

I'm keeping all my skincare and regular perfumes in the bottom DVD drawer. My nail polish collection has been pared down a bit and has it's own drawer, as do my eye and lipliners. Face products have a drawer, as do highlighters and blushers, lip products and eyeshadows.

I'm hoping that as well as looking much, much better, this reorganisation will encourage me to use a wider range of makeup, instead of what I can immediately see in my day-to-day makeup bag, or on the dressing table surface.

Plus, it'll stop my husband grumbling about the mess, which is worth the money on its own!

I gleefully unwrapped my new NARS palette yesterday, and this morning I've done a look with it. I have been wanting a NARS palette for years so I felt rather awed as I actually dipped brush into pan and applied the hallowed products to my face.

This is the Everlasting Love palette. The colours I used are Underworld 1 and Underworld 2 (eyes) and Edie (highlight), then Orgasm on cheeks and Dolce Vita on lips.

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope that you have the most wonderful day spent with your friends and family. Last night we attended mass given by the same priest who married us. He was as always very entertaining and after mass was over we had the chance to chat with him (even though there were more than 1,100 people in attendance!). He was really excited to see us (and we were excited to see him!) and it showed by the huge smile on his face!

We're getting ready to head downstairs to start opening some presents and to eat the homemade cinnamon rolls that my mom always makes, but I wanted to share our first married Christmas card with all of you!

I found a design online that I really liked (but it was way too expensive for this NYC gals budget, and actually a little bit too late for me to order them!) and so I booted up the trusty old photoshop and got to work. Well, of course first I had to hand draw the design piece by piece and THEN input them into photoshop. I really like the way that it turned out and I mounted the cards on rounded edged Tiffany Blue cardstock.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate it! We hope that wherever you're spending it, you have a very enjoyable day.

Our updates might be a tad infrequent between Christmas and New Year, as we zip around the country seeing friends and family, but stay tuned - in January we'll have a whole heap of lovely little giveaways to lift your back to work blues!

I spend too much time in Boots. I know the aisles off by heart. Sad, but true - it's my mecca and I worship there most days on the way home from work or at lunchtime. So when something new turns up there, I tend to notice right away.

I was curious to see a fixture full of a new brand of mascara, Belvada, sitting atop of one of the display shelves. Clocking the £20 price tag I decided it must be either a cult brand or something of exceptional quality. (Or it could be both, of course.) Sadly I lack the disposable income to pick one up to try out offhand, but I resolved to find out more about it.

Belvada is a brand with a unique selling point - their packaging, which exposes the product for use via a sliding mechanism on the handle. It's one-handed application. Great for people with disabilities, but is this strictly an improvement on the standard unscrew-pull out-apply mascara system? Well, the company seem to think so, since they have a patent pending for their design.

Belvada's website claims that "this unique one hand applicator will change the way you use mascara forever", citing the following as evidence:

• One Hand Application
• Mascara Loads Uniquely from Tip to Bottom
• Greater Stability and Control
• Optimum Volume
• No Pumping Necessary

Hmm. Without trying it myself I don't feel able to give a verdict, but on the strength of these claims I'm not wholly convinced. I'm interested in the tip-to-bottom loading though, and whether it makes a difference to have the brush pushed through the product rather than dipped into it.

I found some more information at Packaging Design, where I learned that the packaging has a "double-wiper system" to prevent overloading which can lead to clumps. It also seals air away from the product to keep it from drying out. That does sound good. But £20 worth of good? Bear in mind that we're advised to keep mascara for just 3 months anyway, so drying out shouldn't be that much of an issue if we follow that timeframe.

Belvada also make concealer and lipgloss with the same push-up mechanism, presumably with a similar pricetag. At the moment you can buy the mascara in the UK at Boots, priced at £20.

Has anyone else tried Belvada mascara? Please let us know your thoughts if you have.

If you don't already know the story of how my fiancee and I met, let me tell you...

The Public Interest Law Society at M.'s Law School held a tennis tournament as a fundraiser. M. was a member of this society and had signed up to play in the tournament with his friend Jeff. Over at my University, my sorority was recruiting girls to participate in this Law School tournament. Me & my sorority “big sister” Lindsay decided to enter as a team. On the tournament day, me and Lindsay were feeling less than excited about getting up early on a Saturday morning to play...in fact we had had a late night out the previous evening. At the last minute, we decided to skip it, thinking the show would go on without us -- you know, a typical college student -- volunteers for something and just skips it (oops!). Well, we would have skipped it if not for a very persistent sorority sister of mine who called non-stop until me and Lindsay put our tennis gear on and made our way to the courts. After playing and winning our first two matches, Lindsay and I had reached the championship match. As fate would have it, M. & Jeff were our opponents. A few aces (and really nice volleys) later, Lindsay and I won the tournament championship. (Michael now claims he would have won had he not been so distracted by me! Ha!).

Organizers of the tournament had assumed the second place team would be women and the tournament would be won by men (can you imagine a law school showing such discrimination?) The prize packages matched this assumption since the second place prize was a cute bag containing socks, headbands & other women’s tennis gear. Lindsay & I graciously accepted the "girly" prize & handed over our would-be prize of restaurant gift certificates & movie passes to the guys. I was already interested in getting to know M. better, so I hinted that the guys should use those restaurant certificates to take “the real winners” out to dinner and a movie. The subsequent double date was a little awkward & Michael (who later said he was "sooo tired and SO over the 'date'") ended it in a very businesslike manner by shaking our hands and saying "it was nice meeting you."

The spark was there though, & M. asked me out again. Now M. and I, the original tennis competitors will say “I do” on June 19th & Jeff & Lindsay will be standing by our side as members of the wedding party!!

In honor of our meeting on the tennis courts, we are hosting a Pre-Wedding (meaning on Thursday afternoon) Round Robin Doubles Tennis Tournament!!! This event will be for my bridesmaids and M.'s groomsman & any family who may be in town early -- I think we're going to pair each bridesmaid with a groomsman and of course M. and I will play together. It's going to be a great way for all of us to mingle & a super fun way to kick off our wedding weekend!! I DEFINITELY need to think of a fun prize for the winning team!

After the tennis tournament, we will be hosting a cookout at the marina on the lake close to my parents house. It going to be super casual -- think sundresses & sandals, lemonade & bbq, popsicles and homemade cookies! -- Ok so I really don't have the menu all planned out, but I'm still excited about a casual summer bbq experience with all of my closest friends & my soon-to-be hubby!!

**I love this inspiration board for a "tennis themed" wedding -- I definitely will be making those cookies for the cookout -- TOO CUTE!**

**Photo Credit: Snippet and Ink or Ritzy Bee -- I can't remember!!!!