Arabian Nights

Hi Everyone!

We're getting one of our lounges done up, and I wanted to go for the Middle Easter/Moroccan look. I love how its so rich and opulent, and still comfortable. Its so beautiful. I'm bored of all these all white/ all cream...lifeless rooms, I love colour and brightness. I hate clutter though, so I like to still keep it minimal.
We chose a colour called Eastern Spice (3) by Dulux, as on the tester page it looked like a mix of that sunset orange/brown. Unfortunately, it's actually more orange! However, it's a really beautiful colour...
Now our lounge has floor to ceiling windows, so it can get very bright so the orange can look a bit much, but I'm thinking once the carpet and curtains etc are all in it'll look much better.

So, the look I wanted to go for was:

 Ok, so this is a bedroom lol...

 I just love this below room...So bright, but gorgeous! Obviously not to everyones taste though...

So far it the paints been done and looks likes:

I didnt want to show the whole room as it's a mess with the old carpet and painters bits and bobs!

That's the colour, with the door, I want to put some material draping over it.

Old carpets....and everything else!!

Once it's all fully done, I will do an updated post with the full look, just wanted to get your ideas on what you think is a Middle Eastern style room??
 Lanterns, candles, cushions and drapes are all obvious, so now to go find them. Where would you recommend?

Love ShameeraXxX

Past posts you may be interested in (Edited with a few more!)

Hello Everyone!

As I've recently gained a few more followers...Which always makes me so happy as it means people are actually reading my blog! I thought I would just do a post of older posts I've done that might be of interest to you...

• Skincare Tips
• Haircare Tips
• Hairloss products that worked for me
• Hair tips here and here
• Bodycare Tips
• Neem Facemask
• Properties of Honey
• Free Radicals
• Help with finding a new job
• Roaccutane (1)
• Roaccutane (2)
• Garlic Shampoo
• Oil Treatment
• Green Tea recipes (1) and (2)
• The Oil Cleansing Method
• Benefits of Raw Coco Butter.
• Weightloss & Anaemia 
• Salt Water Cleanser
• Emu Oil Review
• Healthy Foods & Tips

Love ShameeraXxX

Guest Blogger - A Diary of a Detox

Hi Everyone,

TGIF right?! This week has gone by so slowly! 

Today, I have a treat for you, my friend Verity did a detox last week, and I had asked her to keep a diary to post for you guys and here it is. Its really tempted me to detox, but I dont want to do it alone...! 

Verity's Detox Diary

Me and my partner, Rob, decided that we needed to do a detox - his reasons were that he is trying to lose weight and couldn't seem to shift any so wanted to get the ball rolling and my reasons were that I've felt so lethargic and under the weather over the last few months that I needed to try something to give myself more energy.

We decided to follow the detox guide give in Tony Robbins 'Life Balance' Plan. This detox plan is aimed to cleanse, detoxify and renew your digestive system through following a relatively strict detox regime which involved not eating anything other than a vegetable broth in the evening and the occasional green leaf juice and by taking several supplements which aid the digestive and immune systems. 

Day 1: 

It's really important in a detox to ensure that you drink alot of water.... so throughout day one I drank like a fish and pee'd like a race horse!! This detox required that we take our supplements first thing in the morning, midday and in the evening. It wasn't too bad taking these (enormous) pills at first but eventually I felt so hungry that taking the pills just made me feel sick. We both felt hungry by the end of the day and were actually looking forward to our 'vegetable broth' which is just water with vegetable stock in! All in all, day one wasn't too bad - we felt really hungry and were a little more tired than usual but apart from that it was a piece of cake! (mmmmmmm cake!)

Oh and all day I had a crazy craving for apples and pears... I don't like apples and pears! 

Day 2: 

I wake up at 3am with an overwhelming urge to vomit... which I did! I felt so poorly! I felt sick and could barely move without making the nausea feel worse so at about 8am I gave up trying to sleep and just sat on the sofa and watched Grey's Anatomy and felt quite sorry for myself, my poorly belly and my increasingly sore head. A few hours later Rob finally emerged from bed (so lazy!) and announced that he too had a really bad headache. We decided that we couldn't keep this up for another few days and that we'd make a small adjustment in our detox plan; we were going to have some juice! Rob went and bought us some fresh berries, apples, pears and oranges and we made a mixed berry juice for lunch... at the time I thought it was the nicest thing I'd ever had plus it took the edge off both our headaches. My nausea eventually subsided and we just spent the rest of the day watching films and being quite lazy as we were both too tired to do anything else. That evening I started to get pains up and down my legs... it felt like I'd run a marathon as all my muscles hurt. I had a terrible nights sleep as my legs hurt so much that I couldn't get comfortable and the pain kept waking me up. 

My craving on day 2 was potatoes! 

Day 3: 

I got up quite early again as my legs were still hurting... thankfully they weren't as bad as they were however my back and neck had joined in the party so I was pretty much aching all over. I did a bit of research and discovered that this is quite a common issue with detoxes as whilst toxins are stored all over your body, they particularly like to hang out in the leg region, so when you stop eating, these toxins are released into your blood stream and that's where the pain comes from. Day 3 was probably the worst day for me, it felt like I had the flu... I was aching, I had a headache and I was really snotty.... Rob on the other hand turned into the energiser bunny! He complained that he had a 'fuzzy head' (oh dear!) but apart from that he was jumping around everywhere, and frankly doing my head in! We had another mixed berry juice for lunch and our usual vegetable broth for dinner (I really hated that broth by this point). As the day progressed I did start to feel a little better but I had no where near the Olympic levels of energy that Rob had. 

My crazy craving for the day was lamb and spare ribs - I don't eat meat so this was very very strange!! 

Day 4: 

Today we eat!!! When you do a detox they advice you to ease your way back into eating so as not to shock your body. Rob still felt absolutely fine and whilst I was still a little tired I felt so much better than I had over the weekend! We continued with our supplements and detox throughout the day and that evening we had our first meal in four days - we decided on having a small amount of bruschetta.... yummy!

Throughout the detox we both lost 6lbs - Rob put a pound back on and then lost it again a few days later whilst I've put back on 1.5 pounds and haven't shifted it yet - however we didn't do it to lose weight, we did it to restart our systems and to become healthier. I think the best thing about doing this detox for us is that it's kick started us eating more healthily. We only completed the detox four days ago so I'm sure we'll eat the odd takeaway or chocolate bar in the future but it has made us re-evaluate our lifestyle, both in terms of what we're eating and portion sizes. From an energy perspective, it's definitely increased my energy levels... I'm much more active right now and I'm definitely more aware of what is going on with my body. I found it interesting that I didn't realise how bloated I was every day and by reintroducing food slowly I've been able to identify different foods that my body reacts badly to. 

If anyone else is thinking of doing a detox, I can't stress enough the importance of doing your research, preparing in advance and making sure you have support whilst you're doing it. I wouldn't have gotten through 4 days if Rob wasn't doing it as well. Be aware as well that hydration is the most important part in any detox as well as listening to your body and being conscious of where your limits are! 

Thanks Verity, that was really informative, and very funny!! 

Has anyone else tried a detox? If you have any questions, let me know and I'm sure Verity will be happy to answer them for you!

Love ShameeraXxX

And the winner is...

So, the contest is over and the winner is Sinead with sending 4 followers!!

Well done!!

Email me @ shameera1@live.co.uk with what you want for £30, your address so that I can send it to you!

Love ShameeraXxX

Sunday Random-ness

Hello!

How has everyones week been? Mine has been pretty boring! I just thought I'd do a weeks in pictures/random-ness post!

So, on Monday I received an email from the people at Nakd Bars after they read my post and they sent me some bars to try :-) I haven't had them yet as I eat them during the week, so will update next week I have cocoa mint, cocoa delight and the berry one. I'll give this berry one to my friend to try :-)

This brings me nicely onto my contest - Verity is now winning with 2 new followers :-) 3 days to go if you want to participate!

Yesterday, I went to a wedding. Boring...!! I swear when I get married, I'm going to try and make it at least a little interesting for my guests...Don't know how, but I'll try! Anyways, my friend did my makeup for me, with Arabic liner...It looked amazing! She's so talented, I'm always telling her to create her own YouTube channel or blog.

I don't know why they say that the iPhone 4 camera is so good, I don't think the photos are clear at all....

Also, yesterday I was talking to my friend and we started talking about ourselves as babies/kids, which made me want to look at my old photos...I was obsessed with Barbie!! I had the house, car, dolls, everything...! I made the mistake of telling him my cousin called me pudding, so that is now my new name :O lol!

Me with Barbie...

I also watched Mean Girls 2...Rubbish compared to the brilliant first one! I loved the first one, I can still watch it when I'm bored...So funny! The main actress was rubbish, never seen her before, so don't even know who she is....Whoever she is, she cant act!!

 So, what have you been up to this week?

Love ShameeraXxX