I miss you Amy...

What a track.

Since Amy Winehouse passed away there has been a distinct lack of decent new music. I really can't stand all the crap I hear on the radio nowadays. I'm sick of the same old, same old.

I actually cringe each time a pop "singer" releases a 'new' song. Sounds exactly the same as the last one. And right now every song which pops onto the charts is guaranteed to contain yet another break out of so-called 'dance music'.

Does the mainstream music industry always have take a great genre and rip it to shreds?!

Anyhow, struggling to find something decent, I ended up on the track above. Perfection in its purest form.

Oh Amy, where has all the decent music gone? Your presence is definitely missed...

Let me know your thoughts in the 

comments box below :)

How to be a happy person

Oh dear blog, how I have missed you. It has been far too long since my last post - and for that I apologise. I have been busying up my time like a maniac in times of late and I've finally got the time to sit down, reflect, and out pops this blog post! My little 5 step guide to being a happy person...

STEP 1. Remember your priority: Happiness!

As much as making that next career decision might bog you down and seem the like most important thing in your world - it isn't. Your priority must always be happiness. Happiness is the key to... a happy life! Wouldn't have guessed that now, would we?

Sometimes it's easy to forget that life doesn't end when you're stressed, when your boyfriend breaks up with you, a family member dies, when your cup of coffee turns cold...

Life goes on. 

And whilst the bad times can really suck, the good times are really great. Without both, how do you even know when you're happy and when your sad? 

Ultimately, the worse the bad times, the more you appreciate the good. Never underestimate how much happiness you can get from the smallest most insignificant thing - even just a friendly smile from a passer by on the street. 

Embrace that moment and remember not to take life too seriously. You don't have to have been bought a lambourgini to be happy. Pleasure is pleasure.

I believe that ultimately, your own life is in your hands and it really is only ourselves that can control our happiness. Let yourself be happy!

 STEP 2. Invest in your friends

No matter how many friends you have, from 5 to 5000, a person will only ever truly have a small selection of close friends. Those who you make you feel good about yourself, acknowledge your problems, will make an effort to fit around your tight budget, don't cancel on you, and go out of their way to make sure that you're OK.

And to keep these good friends, you must also reciprocate. 

It's incredible the difference that a good friend can have on your life. No matter how tired you are, how much you don't feel like socialising, it's your good friends that will bring comfort to you in the worst of times. 

STEP 3. Acknowledge you have problems

Every human being has problems. Even that tall skinny 'bitch' whose facebook pics are packed full of photos of amazing adventures and flawless skimpy bikini snaps.

If you don't have problems, you're a freak. Your life must be packed with unhappiness because that's just not normal. 

I think it's incredibly important to admit that you have faults. I, for example, have this massive issue when I want something so bad. I'll do anything to get it, and almost always I ruin things for myself. I get so damn nervous trying to be 'right', I end up totally wrong. 

That's one of my faults... It takes me a long time to get fully comfortable with someone. I'm far too self aware. 

Because of this, I always think to myself GOD Jasmin, will you not just be yourself! I know if I just chillaxed my ass down I could ace every opportunity I get! Or at least do my best and be satisfied with the attempt...

But that's just the way it is. That's who I am. I'm not going to pretend I'm not like this. 

This is me, everyone! I suck sometimes. Poo. 

But I love me really. You have to love yourself - otherwise you're not living life properly. Don't get me wrong and think you're God's gift to the world! But you do need a sense of 'me love' or you'll never be happy!

STEP 4. The above image says it all... 

Never ever ever ever stop yourself from doing what you love most. Even when you've got piles of work on your shoulders, at least take a 10 minute phone call out to your best friend and talk shite. It's definitely necessary!

STEP 5. Do stuff you wouldn't normally do

It's sometimes nice to stick within your own little bubble; same coffee every morning, same pub every Friday night, same hairstyle, same holiday location every year.

I'm constantly pushing myself to do things outside of my comfort zone. I practically force myself to do stuff. But it's these times of immense anxiety and the overcoming of it which makes you a better person.

... And one last thing: DON'T GIVE UP! 

When things go wrong as they sometimes do...

When the road your trudging seems all uphill...

When the funds are low and the debts are high...

And you want to smile but you have to sigh...

When care is pressing you down a bit...

Rest, if you must, but don't you quit...

Life is queer with its twists and turns...

As every one of us sometimes learns...

It may be near when it seems so far...

So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit...

It's when things seem worst you must not quit.

Got any tips for me?!

Let me know in the comments below :)

Let's kill grey.

I am so sick of the gloomy weather right now. It's actually affecting my mental health. So it's about time we took the situation into our own hands and killed the grey...

The weather seems to think that summer is never going to happen. That's unacceptable. Seriously - are your just going to sit there and let the weather get away with this?!

No! Let us rebel!

We shall not stand for this any longer! If the weather wont make it sunny, we must take the situation into our own hands.

Let's face it. This is pretty much our only option. I'm sorry it has had to come to this.

... But it has.

Strip out all signs of grey from your wardrobe. Throw it out! Seriously, that stuff is depressed.

In order to be a positive person, you must surround yourself with positive things. Grey is bad for your mental stability.

Now I demand that we all start wearing colour. As much as possible. Right away.

We've got to dress as much like it's summer as we possibly can - taking the circumstances into consideration, of course.

The aim: To make the world a happier place by cheering people up as you pass them on the street. So here's 4 ways of injecting colour into your look:

Same garments, brighter colours...

Pink jeans are a yes. Jeans are jeans after all. The colour of them doesn't make them any hotter/colder. So wear ones in happy colours.

Chunky knits are necessary in this freezing coldness. Wearing a white chunky knit will keep your outfit bright, whilst keeping you snugly warm at the same time! It's the perfect choice.

All hail opaque black tights...

Dig the summer clothes out of your wardrobe and dress like it's 30 degrees outside.

Now stick on some 80 denier opaque lack tights. Voila! Perfection.

It's summer if your hair says so... 

If you don't want to buy new colourful clothes and you hate your old ones, dying the crap out of your hair is definitely the answer!

A box of dye usually only costs around a fiver. Get a permanent one and you'll never be sad again. Happy days!

Take action now! And remember - if you're thinking of picking out something grey to wear tomorrow, you'll make people around you depressed. That's screwed up. You better think again...

Will you be brightening the lives of everyone around you from now on?! 

Let me know your thoughts in the 

comments box below :)

My fashion epiphany...

As you may already be aware, my name is Jasmin Andrade and I'm addicted to shoes. It's genuinely shameful. But today is (hopefully!) the day that things might finally change!

I'm that girl who clicks side panel adverts on web pages if they involve shoes. Shoe shops' displays vacuum me in for at least 5 minutes at a time. I'm always on the hunt for my next pair of shoes. Even if I just bought a pair.

I'm THAT bad.  

If people monitored the amount of time I spend oggling shoes they would probably refer me to 'Shoe Addiction Rehab'.

So today I had an epiphany. It all started yesterday when I did everything I could - beg, borrow, steal - to get not one, but THREE new pairs of new shoes:

No, your vision's not going funny. They are in fact all 'same same but different' (I've loved that phrase ever since travelling to Thailand!). 

Here's my reasoning / what I'm using to justify my purchases:

Those shoes you see pictures of above are not JUST shoes! This is where my epiphany comes in...  

A feature of these shoes might just SOLVE my shoe problem. It could make me feel like I'm wearing different statement footwear every time I leave the house:

!!!!!!!!!! DIFFERENT COLOURED LACES !!!!!!!!!!

Kaching! Booyah! I've really outdone myself this time, right!? GENIUS.

The idea is that one day I will end up with laces in every single colour imaginable. And (hopefully) new shoes will no longer be necessary! 

I will no longer have to SPLURGE out on new shoes... All I'll need to do is splash out on a new pair of laces every day! 

I'm overjoyed with my epiphany! I feel like I've just got a buy-one-get-one-for-every-colour-of-the-rainbow-free AND MORE deal! This is huge. Oh, the endless possibilities!

Do you reckon this is the answer to all my problems? Let me know :)

Make good of a bad situation

I have an absolutely gorgeous, bubbly blonde friend. Her name is Sam Denny, and this post is dedicated to her!
 

A very young Sam and her Dad

So last year my gorgeous babycake Sam lost one of the people she loved most.
It happened so fast. First came the terrible news, almost out of nowhere, that her Dad had been admitted to hospital. Sam was heartbroken, understandably. But no one expected the terrible news of him having Cancer coming next.
 
On 20th September 2011 Sam’s Dad sadly passed away. It won’t come as any surprise that Sam was left in pieces.
 
It was a horrible time. It felt hard enough for those around Sam, including myself. It really hurts when someone so close to you goes through a terrible ordeal that you have no control over. Nothing you say or do can possibly make the situation better.
 
Sam was traumatised. She had spent nearly every night in the lead up sleeping at her Dad’s bedside in hospital, ridden with anxiety - just waiting for the inevitable.
 
It was unavoidable that it was something which Sam would have to go through. It’s impossible to imagine what it was like for her - unless you’ve been through a similar situation, of course. Perhaps you have?
 
Luckily I haven’t. But as they say, you never know what the future will bring…
 
Nearly a year on and Sam has made it! She’s back on track and going strong!
 
She’s returned to Uni to finish her degree. Plus, she works a part time job as a Sales & Finance Executive in London on the side! I am SO proud of her!
 
And THIS April 27th, on Sam's Dad’s birthday, she’ll be swimming a whopping 5k for Marie Curie Cancer Care! It’s all in an effort to make sure that people like me and you don’t have to suffer in the same way that she did.
 
So please, sponsor Sam and help make all her efforts worthwhile. Just imagine if it were you in her situation. Make good of the bad situation she’s had to go through. Put a smile on her pretty face; there really is nothing that would mean more to her!
 
Simply visit her Just Giving page here, or text "SAMD80" followed by the amount "£XX" to 70070. Don’t forget to follow her progress in her swim blog by clicking here.
 

Thank you so much :)

My skirt length means nothing!

It's International Women's Day this Friday 8th March. And yes, women have come a long way. That's cool! But why am I still having to worry about whether my skirt is too short to wear to work?

Above: Not a happy short-skirt-wearing bunny.

I recently started a new job. I'm loving it. However, it's now my third week in and already I'm struggling for what to wear tomorrow...

A large chunk of my modest-sized wardrobe is taken up with short skirts, short shorts and see-through tops. I'm not talking fully see-through. But that kind of see-through which you LITERALLY cannot avoid if you enter ANY high-street shop in search of tops right now.  

Yeah, that's right. I'm not a slut.

I'm perfectly comfortable wearing these garments on all occasions. I don't feel like I'm exposing too much. I'm not saying I condone those ridiculous 'knicker short' concoctions. My bum's fully covered, I'll have you know! 

So yeah, if you look closely through my top you'll see my bra. But who cares? My bra covers my nipples. Would you rather see THEM?!

Either way, if I were to go shopping for appropriate clothing right now, I wouldn't find anything. 

There's either proper suits suits - which are expensive and overdressed for my office. Or there's pretty, short skirts and cute see-through tops. So what am I do to?

You know what?! Let's stop there.

Why am I even in this situation in the first place?! Why am I so scared to wear something too short or slightly see-through to work?!

Oh, of course! It's inappropriate. Improper. Unfit. Offensive!?

The more I think about this the more it gets me... How is it in any way inappropriate to wear a bum-covering short skirt? Or slightly see-through top?

Lots of offices are full of jean-clad employees, so it's can't be because clothing which 'pretends' to reveal more is too casual.   

Ohhhh..... Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh......

It all comes down to sex!!!!

We may not have to wear burkas in this country, but the fact that I can't wear short skirts for fear of them being inappropriate for work is pretty much the same thing. Less extreme, but the same concept!

I can't STAND the fact that middle eastern women have to completely cover themselves up because men can't control themselves. It's pure insanity!  

Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with them believing in religion. But oppressing femininity like that is JUST not right.

Our country's nothing like that though, right? Hmm.

People think that kind of stuff is way beyond our territory. Well it's clearly not the case!

And even if everyone in my office couldn't care less about the length of my skirt or opacity of my top, I couldn't help but feel like they were under the impression I'm trying to attract a mate!!

Lend me some sugar and please let me 

know your thoughts? :)

Musical meds: Elli Ingram

I've been frustrated recently. It's been a while since I've found a piece of music which has hit me hard. That's until I stumbled upon the track 'Poetic Justice' by Elli Ingram...

I often find myself toying around with a multitude of tracks all of the same genre. Each one somewhat resembles the other...  

Sometimes I'm lazy like that. I just get sick of the same tune all the time and go find myself a 'same same but different' one to keep me partially sane.

But tonight - well I was bouncing around from track to track on Soundcloud... Then out of the blue this tune randomly started playing?!  

How odd. Dr Soundcloud clearly knew I needed some musical medication, I see!

And this is what he prescribed:  

 

This musical beauty, produced by Felix Joseph & Rudi Redz, mixes jazzy vibes and hiphop with the most satisfying proportions. 

It's got everything I need. Bass. Beats. Umph. And I must admit - I'm a sucker for gentle female vocals with the appropriate levels of sass. 

Purrrrrfect!

So thank you Dr Soundcloud... <3 you more and more each day!

Will you be checking out more of Elli Ingram?