OKA @ PADDINGTON

You remember last post when I told you about my new adventures? Well I thought I'd share one of them with you!

(OKA @ Paddington Chapel)

(Action shot of my continuous laughter throughout the event - so much fun)

On Saturday night the event company in Sydney that I intern with, One Space, held a truly amazing gig for OKA and Markandeya. I was lucky enough to get to enjoy it while I was working and I'm still high as a kite from the atmosphere.

(Full house!)

OKA are this incredible indigenous Aussie progressive roots band. I am no way adapt enough in the English language to even describe their sound it's that unique but we could try and some it up by saying Imagine Bob Marley met The Chemical Brothers and they had a child and that child could play the didgeridoo. YES. BOOM. Electrified didgeridoo. That and Home and Away is pretty much the only reason I moved here. Not to mention the sun, the beaches, the hot men... where was I again?

OKA are one of those bands where every member has incredible talent and they use it to do good in the world. What else could you ask for? They have a voice and a message and they communicate it with their sound. They are also really really nice guys (I know right - can they do anything wrong?!). They took the time after the gig to talk with fans, thank everyone and chat with us all. DidgeriStu and I also shared a bonding moment over his Scottish roots.. Who doesn't love a bit of Braveheart?

(Markandeya @ Paddington)

Now we get to Markandeya from Sweden. His voice is beautiful and the songs seriously resonate with you. There is something in his music that seems to have a different meaning and interpretation for everyone. We all took something different away from his performance (although I think we were all in agreement that he is a babe) and isn't that what music is supposed to do? Again, such a nice man, so smart and conscious and aware. It's empowering to talk to him and his love for music and for life is contagious.

 (The guys from Corn Fritters)

(Festival feel with the market)

So we had two amazing artists in the incredible venue Paddington Chapel, Sweet night huh. Well Steph & Pip, my two lovely bosses and company owners, upped the anti hugely. The clever buggers had a raw market with food and drink from some of Sydney's best health stores: Raw Eats, CornStars and Green Goodness and to top it off DJ Leigh Woods from World Music was playing. I kid you not had that just been the event I would have already loved it. It was like a mini festival. Everyone was enjoying the food, music and company while we were waiting for the doors to open and it just set the tone for the rest of the evening. Everyone was buzzing and fed and ready to go wild and wild they did go.

It was absolutely not the type of event were it was 'uncool' to dance and visibly enjoy it, in fact it was 'uncool' not to just go with the music. There was no judgement from anyone, no sleezy guys or girls groping, no one making you uncomfortable it was just pure good vibes and positive energy. Jesus I sound like a hippy but you know totally flower power duuuude.

We haven't finished the official count but from our scanner and pre sale tickets we're estimating we had around 400 people turn up and enjoy. For our first official event as One Space and our first event all together that is amazing. Things can only go up! We already have our next event pencilled in and we're in talks with some amazing artists and contacts. WATCH THIS SPACE.

If you're in Sydney and would like to keep up to date with our future events then you visit our website here.

C x

Twitter // Facebook // Instagram

No Excuses

Where have I been?

The hawk eyed among you will notice I haven't posted on this blog in two years. TWO YEARS. I've not completely disappeared from the blogging world and have actively kept reading and commenting on blogs and twitter but I shut my own blog down.

Why? Lots of reasons. I'm 20 now and I went through some huge changes, one of which was a break up of a 5 year relationship. An earth shattering, heart breaking, break up. The kind that takes a lot of time and tears to heal from. I needed to work on enjoying my new single life (which I now love!) and learning how to go from an 'us' to a 'me'. If you've been through this before you'll know what I mean.

Another reason, I went to uni and got my BA degree in Communications & PR and got swamped by uni work, real work and alcohol. In no particular order. If I'm being honest, I got lazy. I let life get in the way and I changed my priorities, I don't regret that. It's what I needed at the time and I'm now more happy and self aware than before.

One huge change, the biggest in my life, is that I moved to AUSTRALIA. Sydney to be exact. I did this alone. By myself. Sometimes I can't believe I got the balls to do that (The 17 year old, long term relationship girl who started this blog wouldn't have dreamed!) I now live in one of the most beautiful and diverse cities in the world and work in PR & Events. I am that girl. The one I was meant to be and the one I didn't know I wanted to be. I am the girl who go's for what she wants, seizes opportunities and moved abroad alone. Wow.

So this blog is finally going to be me. I used to feel pressure to write posts and for them to fit in a certain blogger box or what was right and wrong. Now, I'm going to write about the things I want and hope you enjoy them too. This is a hobby and something I love and I'm so glad to be back.

I've deleted a loooot of my earlier posts. About 30 to be exact. They were young and cringey and I had to get rid of them but I kept a few. I kept them because although they are embarrassing and naive and teenagery they are mine and at the time I was so proud of them. I'm a different person now but the excited for life girl is still tucked away inside me and these posts are a nice reminder. If you're new here have a look.

So.. I'm in Sydney. I have a degree and a career. I'm single and I'm happy. A lot has changed since we last spoke. What have you been up to?

Follow me on my social media links at the side to keep up to date with the best things Sydney has to offer and let me know what posts you want to see coming up!

C x

Blog Love

One of the best thing's that has happened to me since starting Keeping Up With Carmen is that I've met so many amazing people and found lots of friendly bloggers. I thought I would do a little blog love post, these are only a few of the lovely blogs I follow but I can't do it all at once or I'd be here forever. I'll do some more soon as I've got a lot of blog love to spread. So go over and say hi or leave a comment for these ladies.


Kristy's blog Smug Pug has become a daily read for me, I can't believe she doesn't have 100000 followers already. She has amazing fashion sense, beautiful hair and amazing nail tutorials
Green Finch Linnet Bird - Rachael is so sweet and one of those bloggers that is just supportive of everyone else, her layout is adorable and her posts always inspire me to run out and buy everything..


Whimsical Nothings is like a one stop blog for everything you need to know! Reviews, fashion and step by step recipes that are so helpful for the baking handicapped like me. Her pictures are also always beautiful.


Katie from Sleep Wake Hope was one of the first people I started speaking to in the blogging community, She's very sweet and helpful and you can tell how much effort she puts in to her blog and her posts are always so detailed with lots of information and pictures! Plus her layout is so cute.

Millie from Mini Adventures blog is different from the ones I usually follow but I love it, I love her quirky sense of style and amazing red hair!



Amy from Beauty Boutique is absolutely beautiful and I love the way she writes it's so easy to read.


Under Blue Lights: I love her blog layout and she has amazing taste in make up and fashion. Plus she just did a post about my style icon Kim Kardashian!

Do you follow any of these beauties already? Have you just found a new blog to follow?
What are some of your favourite blogs?

Carmen xx

Review: 1,2,3 Perfect - Bourjois

What Bourjois say:

3 colour correcting pigments:
1. Yellow pigments – conceals dark circles for a rested look
2. Mauve pigments – corrects dullness for radiance
3. Green pigments – neutralises redness for an even out the complexion
Soft and smooth formula for an undetectable, second skin finish. Available in 9 natural shades to suit all skin types.
And it’s good for my skin!

What I think:
I don't have particularly dark circles under my eyes but I am a student so sometimes late night studying leaves me a bit tired, I think the foundation covered my circles quite well but I still needed to use a concealer so if you have very dark circles I don't think you could get away with just the the foundation. The second point it's supposed to do it correct dullness for radiance, I'd have to say that I felt it did the complete opposite. I have normal to dry skin and normally only get a bit of dry skin in the winter but with this foundation my head just looked flaky and disgusting and I didn't see any illuminating from the product at all. I usually like more of a dewy finish but this is more matte, I think it would be great for people with really oily skin but for people with any sort of dryness it seems to be too drying. It evened out a lot of my redness but I don't have a lot of scaring or spots to cover so for someone with more redness in their skin I'm not sure how it would work.

Pros:
Conceals dark circles lightly
Good for people with great skin already
Is matte for oilier skin
Covers light redness
Affordable

Cons:
Very drying
Does not illuminate
Only very light coverage of dark circles and redness
Can feel thick on the skin
Doesn't blend well
Shades seem to come up dark

So unfortunately there seems to be more cons than pros for this one. I think if you have oily skin and you are looking for something with moderate coverage that is matte on the skin this would be the perfect choice but if you are looking for a dewy finish this isn't the foundation for you. It's a shame because I had high hopes for this foundation after bourjois healthy mix.

Stars Rating:
3/5

please always remember that opinions expressed are only based on my own personal experience and what works for me won't always work for you and vice versa. 

Scottish Fashion Awards

Hi everyone!

I have some exciting news today..

I've been awarded a press pass for the 2012 Scottish Fashion Awards. I will be able to get photos of everyone on the red carpet (including Alexa Chung) and also get some interviews. It's very exciting.
I will do a full post on the Fashion Awards with all the details soon but I was just so excited that I had to tell you! This will be really good for me and hopefully all of you as well.



This is my first event like this so do any of you have any tips on what to do, how to act or what to wear?

I'm still waiting on a camera cable and I've missed blogging but I should hopefully have one by the end of the week so I can upload all the face and outfit of the days I've been taking. I also have a summer holiday haul to upload so fingers crossed  I can get that up soon.

Hope you are all good. What have you been up to today?

Carmen x

Confidence and Positivity!

Warning: unplanned, unstructured, rant, ramble post coming up.

I've been a little absent from the blogging/tweeting/social anything scene lately and I'm actually a little embarrassed as to the reason why. I was going to just ignore it and come back posting as normal but I realised I have a good platform to talk about this with other people who might feel the same..

So basically the reason I have been away for a couple of weeks is because I've had a real issue with the way I look/feel lately. It seems a little silly and to lots of  you it might be completely absurd but it has seriously affected the way I feel about, well, everything really. I hate getting ready in the morning and never feel comfortable anymore, I can't stand to see photos of myself and cringe at any compliments. It was when I caught myself almost cancelling plans with my friends that I hadn't seen in ages because I was embarrassed about how I look that I knew I had to snap out of it. If I don't like something about the way I look, I can either change it, deal with it or stay miserable forever but the most important thing is my attitude towards myself has to change.

As people (the majority of us) we are usually so quick to compliment each other and make everyone else feel good but a lot more resistant to being kind to ourselves. Why is this? If we can't be kind to ourselves who can we be nice to!

I've never felt particularly pretty but lately its reached another level. Last week I got some STUPID comments from some stupid boys out of nowhere about the way I look and although my head told me not to listen to it, I did, I got really upset actually. Then I thought about how ridiculous that is, how could I listen to random people I barely know over myself? I need to feel better about myself both the way I look and how I am as a person. This needs to be something I do for myself, if I ever want to succeed in life. Everyday I felt ugly or stupid or boring or mean I could also feel myself becoming more shy and less open to sharing my ideas or going for the things I want in life.

There are a few parts to this post.

Firstly, If you are one of those idiots being cruel to people because it makes you feel big or cool. Shut up! Just stop and think. You have no idea how that person is feeling at that point or all the things that might be happening in their life. Could you really live with  yourself knowing your stupid comments could be the thing that damages the way that person looks at themselves or their abilities FOREVER? Whether face to face or over the Internet it is bullying and there is never an excuse.

The second point is if you feel like you are inadequate or not important I want you to know you are important.  You are beautiful and you can accomplish so much. It's your life and you deserve to be happy. I may not know you but you are important to me and you are special. You are not alone. In fact it's perfectly normal to sometimes feel as though you don't like things about yourself but it is never OK to just not like yourself full stop.

Its unlikely that you will feel so down about yourself and then feel absolutely perfect all of a sudden but you can feel better every day. I have a few ideas that can make you feel more positive about yourself and your life. These are only very little things but sometimes little changes are the things that make the most difference.

Talk to someone

Speak to someone you trust and let them know how you feel. Sometimes they wont understand because they love you and can't see why you wouldn't love yourself as much as they do but they should support you and sometimes just talking about it can really help. I am lucky to have an amazing boyfriend that supports me. I also have amazing friends and really supportive parents. Choose someone you can be yourself with or feel comfortable telling how you feel. You can always talk to me via twitter or email. Just don't keep it bottled up it will only make you feel worse.

Acknowledge an accomplishment

Whether you have done really well at work, finished course work, completed a book or simply chose fruit over a bar of chocolate. You accomplished something! BE PROUD.

Listen to music

Whatever music you love turn it up and dance around your room (or if you have neighbours put in your headphones!). Some favourites of mine for making me feel good just now are:

Nicki Minaj - Starships

Belle Amie - Girls Up

Sean Paul - She Doesn't Mind

Katy Perry - Part of Me

Carly Rae Jepson - Call Me Maybe

Make Plans

Give yourself something to look forward to. I'm going to Turkey in June and I can't wait and getting excited about this is what's making me happy. In the nearer future I'm going out with my friend I haven't seen in weeks on Tuesday another thing to be excited about.

Pamper Yourself

Face mask, long bath, painted nails. Make yourself the centre of your attention tonight. You deserve it.

Exercise

Not only does exercising help you make positive changes to your health and body its such a mood booster. They say "your only one workout away from a good mood". Even going for a walk outside can make you feel happier.

Watch your favourite film

Comedy, Romantic, Horror, Animation. Stick your favourite film in! I love Mean Girls.

Those are just some things I do when I'm feeling down. Do you have anything you do that makes you feel better?

I know this was a really off topic post but I hope a few people found it helpful. Normal posting will resume in the next couple of days got some outfit of the days and product reviews I can't wait to share.

Please let me know what you thought of this post in the comments box.

& Remember...

What's Made Me Happy This Week..

A collection of things that have made me a very happy little monkey.

• I have been eating so well (lots of recipes for you coming up) lots of low fat but really tasty food. I've managed to resist so many tempting meals and snacks and have been cooking all my food from scratch. I was thinking about doing a 'week in food' next week, let me know if you'd like to see that
• As well as eating healthy I've been exercising and don't get me wrong I've exercised before I'm not totally lazy but I've just never been consistent in my routine and let it all stop after the first few times but lately I've been running at my local beach and I started Zumba tonight. I've exercised for 4 consecutive days in a row and I just hope I can keep it up.
• I GOT INVITED TO AN EVENT! The lovely Laura mentioned the possibility of an event a few weeks ago but today it was confirmed that I'll be going to the Inglot event in Aberdeen next Friday. Very exciting and will be so good to meet other bloggers from where I live. I'll blog all about it after I've been with lots of photos and no doubt a haul of some of the things I buy. Now I've just got to figure out what to wear...
• My mum came to visit me on Friday. I'd missed her and hadn't seen her since my Grannys funeral two weeks ago so it was nice to see her on happier terms. She's like my best friend and we speak on the phone all the time but obviously moving away for college means I don't get to see her as often as I'd like. She gave me some very meaningful jewellery that belonged to my granny and we had a good chat.
• My iphone that I had a drunken incident with (I spewed all over it and it was already cracked) that stopped working in November randomly starting working again. I'm just using it for the ipod now because I bought a new phone and it's smashed so bad but it's handy to have another ipod incase my phone runs out of battery.
• Summer is coming which means all the beautiful summer clothes are hitting the shops
• Every day is a day closer to my HOLIDAY I can't wait for the sun
• My mum bought me new exercise clothes and I'm in love they are so comfortable and easy to wear and not to mention two of them are pink, one is purple and another blue. Colourful and pretty work out clothing is such a motivator. I'll blog about them as part of my fitness series.
• I reached 100 followers on Twitter
• I'm off tomorrow and I get paid!

So as you can see I've had lots of things to feel happy about lately. What is making you happy just now?

Carmen xx