Blog Layout Tips & Tricks #4: How To Import And Export Your Blog

Exporting your blog can save you a lot of heartache. For those unfortunate enough to have 'hacked' blogs (very rare but very upsetting) or those who simply made a few simple mistakes when editing, it's the best way to get your blog back to 'normal'. Risk not exporting your blog and you could lose all the hard work you've put in to it over the years. I should say before I start that exporting a blog is not the same thing as saving a template. Saving your template (which I can also do a post on if you like) will save the appearance of your blog. The background, tabs and gadget customisations ect. Exporting your blog will save your posts and comments, arguably the most important thing about a blog. Also note exporting your blog will not save your followers. Personally, I export my blog every 3-5 months as a 'just in case'. I also use it (rather handily) for my test blogs I mentioned in a previous post. If you upload your template and import your blog on to the test blog URL, it gives the illusion that the two blogs are exactly the same. This way you can try out drastic changes but not have them disrupt the readers of your 'real' blog. It can save you so much time, believe me! 

It's really really simple and quick to do, which is why it seems so silly when people don't export their blog and regret it later. Go to Settings > Other > Scroll right to the top > Blog Tools > Export Blog > Save. The posts and comments on your blog will be stored as a file on your hard drive where you can access it at any time. In the event that you lose all the posts on your blog, you can 'upload' your posts back on to the blog using the Import button see can see in Blog Tools. As a default setting, Blogger will not automatically publish imported posts. Simply go to Posts > Select All > Publish. Exporting your blog will not delete anything from your blog. It will go completely unchanged. Importing a blog will display the posts that were live on your blog the moment you exported it. Because of this it is important to frequently export your blog if you post often or you risk losing a number of posts. Remember you can follow AIFA on Bloglovin' and Twitter!

Lifestyle: A Day At My Favourite Place

 
 
 

Just for the record I can assure you that is in fact a massive lake, not the dried up pond it appears on camera. It makes me laugh looking at that top photo because honestly I look like an ant next to this lake. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before but I'm a bit of a sailing freak. I don't sail myself too much (why do boats have to be so expensive?) but I love watching. The local sailing club sits on the far side of the lake (you can almost make out the clubhouse at the back of the photo). Usually the place is pretty dead. It sits in the middle of a massive group of reservoirs, rivers and lakes, which I guess as a water sports lover, is why I like going there so much. On this particular day, the sun had brought out tons of fishermen and all the local farmers and their dogs (literally) down to the banks. Amongst the cupcake-eating-hunger-games-reading relaxation there was also a bit of 'lets-run-all-the-way-around-the-lake-in-the-hopes-of-catching-the-3ft-umbrella-Mr-Lancashire-farmer-lost-grasp-of-while-his-two-sheep-dogs-chase-me'. Note. I'm petrified of dogs and I can't swim either. It was a lively day at the lake lets put it that way! Remember you can follow AIFA on Bloglovin' and Twitter!

Favourite Nail Polish Shades Of The Spring/Summer

Essie - Orange It's Obvious & To Buy Or Not To Buy (lilac) This is probably the most used nail colour in my collection, a sort of 'go-to' choice. It's perfect for both daytime and evening and especially appropriate for Summer. Essie's formula is one of the best I've tried and the cost per ml is pretty good too! Barry M - Magenta Glitter & Aqua Glitter I'm not the worlds biggest fan of Barry M (shock horror!), their regular formulas are very gloopy and spoil too quickly for my liking. However, I love their glitters! They're well 'packed' in comparison to other brands which means it doesn't take 10 years to dry. I tend to layer these two over similar shades first to reduce drying time further. They're a pretty, girly nail for those who are awful at nail art like me! Max Factor - Diva Violet Before Essie's Orange Its Obvious, this was my all time favourite nail polish. I love that its an unusual shade you cant find in other brands. The brushes on the Max Factor Mini's is really really good, a perfect size and density for good application. My only gripe is the availability of these and the cost per ml. Other than that, I'm obsessed! Rimmel - Pear Drop I'm not usually one for a 'shimmer' finish nail polish, however I loved this shade too much not to buy. It's a perfect alternative for those who feel like mint greens make their hands look ashy or yellow (me me meeee!) The price is one of the most cost effective of the bunch and they're readily available everywhere! Misc - Neon Yellow Back in Jan/Feb as the neon trend started to creep in, trying to find a good neon yellow nail polish was near impossible. And yet, when dashing through the shopping centre one day I caught a glimpse of this in a little 'stall' sort of thing (yes, it was like a magpie moment). I'd never normally waste my money on cheap nail varnish as 99% of the time you can predict the pigmentation will be awful, however, me and this nail polish were fate! Although its hassle trying to make it look good, I love neon yellow nails too much to neglect it. Remember you can follow AIFA on Bloglovin' and Twitter!

Back To School Haul / Whats In My School Bag 2013!

 

First off, apologies for the photos. I have no idea what was going on with my camera, I can assure you they didn't look like this on the camera screen! Really, I wouldn't put this up but I know a lot of people wanted to see it after the success of last years Whats In My School Bag Post, which has been in my 'Popular Posts' column every week since I posted it! I don't have as much this year as a lot of my stuff I'm carrying over, considering I bought so much at the end of year 11. Since I photographed it all I've bought a few more refill pads and basic notebooks, nothing too interesting. The majority of my ring binders I'm taking over for last year (save the planet woo!) but I bought another one from Asda as I need another language folder. The refill pad and purple notebook are from WHSmith, they were a couple of pounds each. I've used those notebooks before and they're pretty good for the cost. The edge can bend if you're not careful though. The little black notebook was £2 from Asda. I needed a new blogging book so I picked that one up so I can keep it in my bag at Sixth. My mid year diary is from Paperchase this year, It was £8. I expected it to be much more! The quality is really good and although I'm not crazy on the print, the inside layout is one of the best I've had.  The black pens and purple ruler are again from WHSmith, they're just simple back-ups. The pack of three pens (2 striped, 1 floral) were from Home Bargains, a store I'd never actually been in before! I saw a girl on Instagram (you know where this is going) with them and I thought they were cute, and soooo cheap! I think they were about 70p! I bought the blue hole punch while I was there too, that was £2.  The mini stapler and 'Keep Calm and Back Up' memory pen were both from Asda. And lastly, my ticket holder was from the Cath Kidston outlet at Bicester. I bought it when I went to Oxford and I love that its so colourful , very well made too! Remember you can follow AIFA on Bloglovin' and Twitter!

Collection Eyeshadow Pencils in Hot Chocolate & Vanilla Sky | Review & Swatches

+10 blogger points for spending an hour trying to photograph these and yet still getting THAT^ photo *sigh*. I was pretty excited to go out and buy these after I saw them on a few blogs. I'm glad the UK finally has a dupe for the NYX Jumbo Eye Pencils in the same price bracket. These retail at £3.19 which I think?! is slightly higher than their American cousin. I line has 6 shades, all of which are really really wearable. I went for Hot Chocolate, a shimmery bronzey-brown and Vanilla Sky - a bright, almost-white, cream. 

The pigmentation is really very good for a drugstore cream shadow. The pencils are shimmery, but not so much so that they drag across the eyes. The pencils themselves are pretty big, but with a bit of effort you can line the lower lashline as well as lids. The product applies pretty thinly because its so pigmented. It doesn't lose its colour when your blend them out either. However, because they apply so thin the drying time is unbelievable. I'd advise applying the darker shades in very small patches then blending, then building it up some more. Once they've tried they don't budge at all. Trying to remove these pencils at the end of the day is an absolute pain, especially if you've only been wearing them a couple of hours. But I guess thats not a bad thing? My biggest gripe is with Vanilla Sky. I find that in the inner portion of the lid it sits much funnier than Hot Chocolate. I'm not sure if all the pencils sit this way and its only noticeable on the lighter shades. It was my sister that pointed out I had a 'lump' of product on the inner corners. Now these are very fine, apply very thinly and don't budge at all. It turns out the 'lump' was where the product had undergone some sort of creasing in a small section. However, this only happened once, only within a small area and only with Vanilla Sky. I'm going to pretend it never happened for 2 reasons - I am pretty animated in my faces so it's probably my fault anyway, and they're too good in other areas not to use anymore.   Have you tried any Collection 2000 Eyeshadow Pencils? Which are your favourites?

Remember you can follow AIFA on Bloglovin' and Twitter!

Eyebrow Shaping - Threading Or Plucking?

Image found here

Whenever, I get very lazy and cannot be bothered to get my brows threaded I always end up plucking them. However, a lot of people tell me to always thread them as apparently, a mixture of the two is quite bad. Therefore I thought I'd tell everyone about the 'pros and cons' of threading, over on my blog GeorgiaaNicolaou, and the pros and cons of plucking, here on Rachael's beaut of a blog.

PROS:

• Cheap: All you need to pluck your eyebrows is a pair of tweezers that will last you for ages.
• Hair grows back finer: You cant physically change the thickness of you hair, which is a common misconception that many people have. People think that if you thread your eyebrows or anything, your eyebrow hair will grow back thicker. This is wrong, as all you do is blunt the hair. However, when you pluck, you pull the hair away from the follicle, therefore it will grow back naturally.
• Duration: As you are pulling out the hair, it will obviously take longer for the hair to grow back.

CONS:

• Aggressive: Some impatient people, like me, do not have the patience to pluck their eyebrows. Therefore, when I do pluck my eyebrows I do it very hurriedly and I end up irritating my skin.
• Duration: A different duration, this is time to actually pluck them wise. Lets admit it, it does take long to pluck your eyebrows as there is always that one little hair you spot just when you think you have finished.
• Shaping: It is really hard to shape your brows, especially when you have no clue where the arch is meant to go and when your brow is meant to start and finish. The picture above explains how to pluck.

Well there's my little guide type thing! hope you found it helpful:) I loved being a guest post on Rachael's blog! I hope you guys check out my blog here. If you'd like the see the second part to this post, the pros and cons of eyebrow threading, click here!

Lifestyle: Week In Photos #4: Adventures 'Down South'

If you follow me on Twitter you might have known I was absent from the blogging world for a little while as I went 'down south' with my family. It was a pretty spontaneous trip. High five for managing to get a hotel in London on the day! We traveled all over so I wont go in to massive detail, partially because I can even remember the names of some of the places. All I do remember is I WENT TO BICESTER VILLAGE!! after I practically begged my Mum. I didn't buy a massive amount really, I kept putting off buying stuff as I hadn't brought that much money down with me. I did go in to the CCO though and I bloody loved it! My family weren't so enthusiastic. I'll put some photos up whenever I get the chance. I'm off to Sixth Form tomorrow (Tuesday), wish me luck! gahh Remember you can follow AIFA on Bloglovin' and Twitter!

Maybelline Baby Lips in 'Pink Punch' Review & Swatch

I'd imagine theres probably 10 thousand reviews on the Maybelline Baby Lips Lip Balms by now, however, some of you were keen to know my thoughts so I figured I'd do a quick write up of my opinion on the Baby Lips Tinted Lip Balm in 'Pink Punch' - a buildable, mid-toned pink, gloss finish balm.

Personally, I was quite excited to see the UK release of the Baby Lips after the hype period over in the US. However, after I spied a few PRs I was quite disappointed to see 3 clear balms in the line of 6. In my eyes, you can buy a cheap, clear balm anywhere. It was the colour of the balm and the fun packaging which caused such a stir, so I don't quite understand why they chose to stagger the release of half a line of clear balms when there are other tinted shades still available in Asia. 

Despite this I did pick one up, of course the brightest one out of the three. They claim to rejuvenate your lips in 7 days. Do I agree with this? no not at all. I think the moisturising effects are minimal and most certainly temporary. Personally I feel like the formula is just too liquid, it needs to be thickened to produce any sort of barrier. I wouldn't say the Baby Lips are any better or worse than other offerings like Burt's Bees, Vaseline or Korres. Personally, I think they're just 'different'. For me, the Baby Lips are (and have always been) about being a cute, girly, tinted balm in pretty packaging. I'll continue to use this for a light, low maintenance wash of colour, but I won't rely on it throughout the Winter. What are your thoughts on the Maybelline Baby Lips? Do you agree with the hype? Remember you can follow AIFA on Bloglovin' and Twitter!