Update *

Hi friends,

Sorry I haven't been around much lately, here comes the dreaded "Woe is me" explanation post.. 

I've just been having a rough time lately. My boy and I have been going through a row for awhile, my hamster died, my best friends are fighting and there is massive flooding going on in toronto which has ruined my plans for the week. Such a shame! I've just had a lot going on lately and haven't had much time or motivation for anything, much less blogging. Hopefully that'll change in the coming weeks as blogging is something I love doing.

In the meantime, if you really miss me, be sure to follow me on

twitter // instagram // vine // keek // snapchat : lbechkos17

xLB

#BellLetsTalk

Today, 12 February, Bell Mobility (A Canadian service provider) is holding their third annual Mental Health Awareness day. What's so great about this is that for every tweet (on twitter) hashtagged with "#BellLetsTalk" they donate 5c (which converts to ~3p for you brits) to Mental Health Programs! 

In the past they have raised MILLIONS with the initiative.

As you may or may not know, this is a cause I hold very dear to my heart, so to me this is absolutely incredible. There has been an overwhelming response so far, and halfway through the day we are at 1.5M which is incredible in itself! BUT how about we raise even MORE!?

For the next 10 hours hashtag ANYTHING you tweet on twitter with #BellLetsTalk so we can get the word out and raise awareness for mental health, while also raising money for such an incredible initiative! 

I also did some Q&A with CAMH (Centre for Addiction and Mental Health) so hopefully you can check that out too! In the meantime check a blog post we did here.

Thank you in advance, and I really hope some of you are able to take some time out of your day to support an issue you, or someone you know, has gone through.

xLB

twitter: @bell_letstalk
my twitter: @lbechkos17
some of my mental health story here

❤ 25 Things I Love..

It's all about the little things.. :~)

1. ❤ Poptarts
2. ❤ Cats
3. ❤ Floral Print
4. ❤ Stationary/Notebooks
5. ❤ Pyjamas
6. ❤ Candles
7. ❤ My iPhone
8. ❤ Peonies
9. ❤ Smiles
10. ❤ The internet
11. ❤ Pizza
12. ❤ Reading
13. ❤ Instagram
14. ❤ Baths
15. ❤ Makeup
16. ❤ Netflix
17. ❤ Hot Chocolate
18. ❤ Baking
19. ❤ Nail Polish
20. ❤ Big Jumpers
21. ❤ Pastel Colours
22. ❤ Tea
23. ❤ Disney films
24. ❤ Shopping
25. ❤ Warm Weather

xLB

Liebster Award

Hello all! I was nominated by the lovely girls over at Style of Savannah for the Liebster Award! They have a super cute blog filled with loads of OOTD posts, so if you're into that sort I'd highly recommend checking them out. I love doing these question-y type things, so I'm quite excited! Onward!

So the directions are:

❤ 11 random facts about yourself

❤ Answer the 11 questions which are given to you by your nominator

❤ Ask 11 new questions for all the bloggers that you nominate to win the award

❤ Nominate 9 bloggers with less than 1000 followers to win the award

❤ Go to each of the blogger's pages to let them know about their no mination

❤ Thank the blogger who nominated you by mentioning and linking back to their blog on your post

11 Random Facts:

❤ I'm obsessed with buying phone cases for my phone ever since I got an iPhone.. so many choices!!

❤ I'm a Greek-Brit currently living in Toronto, Canada (for school purposes), but moving back to the UK in 1-2 years.

❤ I reallyreallyreally want a penpal.. from the UK/US.. wherever. ANYONE INTERESTED?! :D

❤ Poptarts are the most delicious thing on the planet.. 

❤ I want a black cat with green eyes called Voldemort. One day.

❤ I can't sleep without a tea or hot chocolate before bed.

❤ Netflix is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me.

❤ I'm OBSESSED with the Harry Potter series.. you have no idea. SLYTHERIN!

❤ I'm a shopaholic.. I often can't go out without making a purchase OOPS!

❤ Currently in my last year of studying Fashion Business, then after I graduate, I'm doing my post-grad in Public Relations/Journalism.

❤ Lipstick and eyeliner are my makeup must haves.. can't leave the house without them!

Questions:

❤ What's the one piece in your wardrobe you couldn't live without?

Tough.. I can't think of one particular item, but I'd have to say cardigans. Perfect finish.

Who is your favourite designer?

❤ I can't narrow it down to one.. lol.. so how about three; Elie Saab, Dior (especially after the 2013 resort collection) and finally Victoria Beckham!

What is your favourite makeup brand?

❤ These are such hard questions!! But um, probably Make Up For Ever just because my go to foundation and mascara alone are from them.

What is your favourite blog to read?

❤ I don't know about read.. but in general I would have to say The Sartorialist. Great place for RTW inspiration.

Do you wear makeup everyday?

❤ Anytime that I'm going to be seeing people I might know I wear makeup. But at any chance to, I don't.

Would you rather dress up or be casual?

❤ Definitely dress up. Without a doubt. When I'm outside of my room, at least. When I'm home comfies it is!

If you could only have a hair dryer, flat iron or curling iron, which would it be?

❤ Probably a flat iron, just because without it my hair looks like an afro and my baby hairs are wild!

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?

❤ Probably the UK. I've always loved it there, and I know so many lovely people there.

What's your favourite TV show?

❤ I'm a closet tv junkie.. so this is hard. But probably Gossip Girl (R.I.P. tear, tear), 90210, Modern Family, American Horror Story or Dexter. Bet you weren't expecting some of those ;~)

What's the one place you would love to visit?

❤ Egypt, Thailand, Verona (Italy).. the list goes on!

Heels or flats?

❤ Probably flats.. hard to say right now since I'm stuck in boots.. darn snow! :~(

My Questions:

❤ What are your three top used websites?

❤ What is your favourite lip colour to wear?

❤ What is your favourite magazine?

❤ What is your favourite thing to snack on?

❤ What is your favourite youtube channel? (doesn't have to be beauty/fashion)

❤ What is your favourite song to belt out when you're home alone?

❤ What is your favourite thing to have for breakfast?

❤ What is your favourite flower?

❤ What is your worst beauty habit?

What is the last book you read?

❤ What are some of your hobbies?

❤ What does your bedding look like?

I nominate:

❤ http://thecurleygirl.blogspot.ca/

❤ http://passionobsessionx.blogspot.ca/
❤ http://theprettyseason.blogspot.co.uk/
❤ http://just-loves-fashion.blogspot.co.uk

❤ http://www.vivalamakeuptv.com/

❤ http://styleandstarbucks.blogspot.ca/

❤ http://serendipitystyleblog.blogspot.ca/

❤ http://liyanasadvice.blogspot.ca/

❤ http://cestkenza.blogspot.ca/

❤ http://eyelashwishes-x.blogspot.ca/

❤ http://cocoandvera.blogspot.ca/
[Had a hard time so I tried to keep it around the 1k range, oops!]

xLB

Bloglovin

Follow my blog with Bloglovin :) xx

This or That tag

I thought this looked like yet another fun way to procrastinate my studies, so here goes!
Taken from the lovely Annabelle!

MAKEUP

Blush or Bronzer – This is tough - lately I've been using bronzer AS blush.. but I'm going to say blush! lol

Eyeliner or Mascara – Eyeliner! I feel like my eyes look naked without it, so without it I look really young.

Lipgloss or Lipstick – Lipstick, without a question!

Foundation or Concealer – Foundation

Neutral or Coloured Eye shadow – Neutral for sure. I'm a sucker for neutral shadows.. who would think there could be so many!?

Pressed or loose eye shadows – Pressed for sure

Brushes or Sponges – Brushes; I'm a failure when it comes to sponges. I just can't seem to get a hang on it.

NAILS

OPI or China Glaze – OPI for sure

Long or Short – I like mine best short, long tends to annoy me. 

Acrylic or Natural – Natural! 

Brights or Darks – Definitely dark.

BODY

Perfume or body spray – Perfume

Body Wash or Soap – Body wash

Lotion or Body Butter – Body butter

FASHION

Jeans or Sweat Pants – Jeans

Long or Short Sleeves – Long at the moment..

Dresses or Skirts – Skirts for this season, but summer/spring definitely dresses

Stripes or Plain – Plain

Flip flops or Sandals – Sandals 

Scarves or Hats – Hats currently

Studs or Dangly Earrings – Studs

Necklaces or Bracelets – tough.. I have my everyday of each and I don't think I could live without either!

Heels or Flats – Flats 

Cowboy Boots or Riding Boots – Riding boots!

Jacket or Jumper – Lately jumper

Abercombie or Hollister – Not a fan of either, if I had to choose, Abercrombie. 

HAIR

Curly or Straight – Curly

Bun or Ponytail -  Bun

Hair Spray or Gel – Hair spray, never touched gel in my life!

Long or Short – Super long!

Light or Dark – Dark, very dark

Side Fringe or Full Fringe – A bit of side fringe, I wouldn't say I have much of any fringe now..

Up or Down – Lately I haven't bothered much with it, so up. But normally down!

Try this one! Fun, fun, fun!
xLB

Random Little Things

Hi beauty bunnies!

Sorry I've been a tad MIA lately, but it's been finals week YIKES. Needless to say, between cram sessions and work I haven't had much time for my best friend, the internet. That changes today! Tomorrow I don't have work OR an exam, so I have a free day! YIPEE! So I figured I'd do this tag.

You are to post 10 random things about yourself! GO!

1. I put peanut butter on absolutely EVERYTHING possible
2. I can't go without curling my eyelashes.. even if I'm not putting on makeup
3. I eat pizza from the crust down
4. I can wiggle my ears
5. I'm currently in school studying fashion (business)
6. I eat burgers in circles
7. I love to read
8. I currently live in southern ontario, but I'm of Greek and British ancestry 
9. My favourite music to twerk to is Beyonce
10. I currently have a massive list of things to purchase in my phone because I'm constantly adding things after hearing great reviews from beauty bloggers!

okay, that was a tad interesting! Quite fun. I'm sure you learned some interestingly random things about me! 

I tag anyone and everyone to do this, I'm thrilled to learn some unique things about you lot xx

xLB

Depression..

I have a tendency to write deeper, more detailed posts late at night. Albeit relatable, this is a very personal post, so if you're not into personal you might as well stop reading now (it's okay, I'll forgive you). Here goes..

Depression is a growing pandemic in young adults which doesn't receive enough attention. 1/5 women can expect to develop clinical depression at some point in their lives, and 1/7 men. A Canadian statistic found was that 6.5% (>1/4 million) of youth/young adults in Canada met the criteria for major depression within the past year.

Depression is defined as

1. Severe despondency and dejection, accompanied by feelings of hopelessness and inadequacy
2. A condition of mental disturbance, typically with lack of energy and difficulty in maintaining concentration or interest in life

I found this alarmingly accurate to how I constantly feel when I get these feelings.

I, myself, have suffered from depression for the past 5 years. And honestly, it's one of the hardest yet more rewarding things I have ever been through in my life. There are days where I feel so much pain and where I feel so worthless and just don't want to do anything at all. It sets me into a state of being numb. However, it has taught me how to cope and who is really present in my life. For me, I'm not always in a per say 'depressed' state. I'd say it's turned more into extreme mood swings, but not spontaneous mood swings. For the longest time I had no idea what was wrong with me, but the worst feelings would overcome me and it was just absolutely unbearable. I just wanted someone to tell me everything would be okay and for all of those feeling to just vanish. But for the life of me I couldn't talk to anyone, and just pushed people away.

I first started gets bits of it around 7 years ago when a very close relative passed away. It wasn't depression, but it was definitely buildup towards it. 2 years went by and I was still the same, I just had bits of sadness, but nothing extreme. Then 5 years ago when I was in high school it seems now as if it all just hit me at once. I want to throw out a little disclaimer; I didn't have a bad high school experience. I wasn't bullied, I didn't go to a school where there was a significant amount of it and I had a good life. Now you might be thinking I'm some pretentious drama queen. And that's somewhat okay I guess since it's your opinion, but hear me out at least. I promise I'm not. When I was in 10th grade it really just hit me all at once almost. I came to realization that there wasn't anything I was good at, or passionate about, I didn't really have friends and I couldn't get male attention for the life of me. These feelings all kind of snowballed at me as I continued through high school. In 11th and 12th grade I hit my all time low. It started not even being about the same reasons, I just always had this cloud over me. It affected everything I did those two years. I began doing poorly in school and not putting anything into my relationships with family and friends. This caused me to lose a lot of friends, but also realize who my real friends are. I felt so alone, which was the worst part of it all. Once I got out of high school and into post-secondary things started to get a lot better. I wouldn't say I had this epiphany where everything became better, but my head just clouded less and I realized that I was given life for a reason, and that I need to try to make the best of it. Don't get me wrong, I still have my moments. That's why I'd say it's now a mood swing type thing. I don't have the same cloud over me, but depression isn't something that completely leaves you. Sometimes I'll just inexplicably get in an awful mood. There won't be a reason or a trigger for it at all sometimes, it just happens. But I'm getting used to it, and I've really learned to cope.

Which brings me to my next point; coping with depression. For me, once I get into these states the first thing I need to do is get myself out of the situation. If I'm with people, I need to get out and be alone. The next thing I need to do is be in complete darkness and silence. If it's light or loud it often get trigger a panic attack for me, along with many other things depression has also caused me to develop terrible anxiety, especially socially. One of the best things for me is to take a nap and drink lots of water, I almost treat it like I would a migraine, which kind of makes sense.. Then once I feel slightly refreshed I vent about whatever it is I'm feeling, and if anything caused it what caused it. However one of my biggest things is I can't talk to people about these things. I always feel like I'm burdening them. So things I do are: 1. Write a letter 2. Write a post on my private tumblr 3. Write into the thoughts room (see this blog post) I've learned it's not healthy to keep things built up inside, so since I can't talk to people I try to find other mechanisms to cope.

By no means will these feelings go away over night, but the only things you can do is hope for them to go away, and try to make a life worth living for yourself. For me, it's the prospect of the future that gets me going. I constantly set goals for myself and map out accomplishments I'd like to achieve. By having something I really want there to look forward to it gives me so much more hope and motivation.

Another thing I really try to do is treat others the way I'd like to be treated. Even though it's not what I'm thinking/feeling I'm always smiling and giving compliments. Not because I'm being fake or any of that, but more so as wishful thinking. Maybe one day it will become how I feel, or maybe someone else is having an awful time and that smile could completely turn it around, you never know. If you continue smiling, and try to find more reasons to smile as time progresses it will become more genuine and real to you. You just have to keep at it and keep pulling through. Find things that make you happy and stick with those. If there is any negativity in your life, get it as far away from you as possible.

All in all, focus on the positives, not the negatives. There are always going to be negative factors in your life and I'm trying to tell you sadness will go away forever. But you were given life for a reason, so try the best you can to cherish it and make the most of it. Someone out there is so jealous that you're alive and well.

And finally, if you ever need anyone to talk to I'll always be here to listen. Don't ever hesitate to message me by any means of your choosing. I'll always be here because I know what it feels like to feel completely alone. I love you xx

xLB

This weeks "It's okay that.."

It's ok.. that I've spent my day off so far entirely on blogger/pinterest in bed
It's ok.. that I should have been writing an essay
It's ok.. that I spent monday night weeping over my computer at a live stream of One Direction @ MSG
It's ok.. that I haven't been to the gym in what feels like forever, I have been working a lot
It's ok.. that I spent money and bought a new skirt last night at/after work
It's ok.. that I've spent hours watching all of alfie's old videos on youtube.. aka the love of my life
It's ok.. that I've just been in bed for hours doing nothing but watching 90210
It's ok.. that I've just made a list of 30+ Mac lipsticks I want.. OOPS

xLB

The Thoughts Room

I've been obsessed with this concept for the longest time. Dare I say years? I'm the type of person who has trouble talking to people; not for lack of trust or anything, I just hate the idea of burdening people with my problems so this helps out a great deal. It's really nice to just get things off your mind once in awhile and have peace of mind, even for a little bit.

This website is great and I suggest you try it out. You can find it here.

Let me know your thoughts xx

xLB

I'm a fan of..

I'm a fan of.. boys who open doors and smile at me when I look at them
I'm a fan of.. Spending the day in bed, in my pyjamas
I'm a fan of.. buying new makeup, then using it for the first time
I'm a fan of.. great hair days
I'm a fan of.. new nail polish
I'm a fan of.. making things work out
I'm a fan of.. seeing my family
I'm a fan of.. procrastinating projects to go on blogger/pinterest
I'm a fan of.. christmas shopping (if only I had more money for it..)
I'm a fan of.. pizza nights with the girls

Lastly, I'm also a fan of the VSFS being on tonight! EEEE

xLB

LUSH wishlist

So earlier today my best friend and I were talking about LUSH, which oddly she hasn't heard of! I'm rather surprised she hasn't heard of it as I'm a massive fan and talk about it constantly (so I thought..) anyway it inspired me to look online and save for a mega haul, since it takes me about 1.5 hours to get to one (using transit, there are multiples in the city). Me being me, I just haaaad to make a list, because I'm that weird/OCD.. thus my fab LUSH wish list! If you've tried any of the products let me know your thoughts!

Bath Bombs:

• Butterball: vanilla scented for softer, sweeter skin
• Twilight: dreamy lavender and ovaltine for sweet dreams
• Blackberry: a purple, fruity fizzer for a burst of cheeriness 
• Geo Phyzz: a sea salt spa bath with calming cypress and pine
• Sex Bomb: ultra sexy bath bomb of seduction
• Softy: revive flagging spirits with a bundle of fresh roses
• Rose Queen: rose scented bath bomb, fit for a queen
• The Enchanter: neon citrus fizzer to remember gorgeous summer evenings
• Fairy Jasmine: makes all your glittering dreams come true
• Silver Cloud: sparkly citrus and gardenia fizzer

Soaps:

• Snow Globe: a festive grapefruit 
• Sea Vegetable: lime and lavender, seaweed and sea salt scrubber

Shower Gels:

• Slammer: Fresh Lime
• Back for Breakfast: sunny citrus wakes you with a smile and a drizzle of honey
• Happy Hippy: squeaky clean grapefruit gel
• The Olive Branch: sunny wash with olive oil and mandarin juice 

Shower Jellies:

• Sweetie Pie: shimmering, sweet smelling skin
• Whoosh: citrus

Cleansers:

• Ocean Salt: my absolute favourite, I'm running low on it..
• Grease Lightning 
• Mask of Magnaminty

Face:

• Tea Tree Toner
• Imperialis moisturizer
• Gorgeous moisturizer
• Fresh Face Masks: Brazened Honey, Catastrophe Cosmetic, BB Seaweed

Body Lotions:

• Dream Cream
• Sympathy for the skin
• Ro's Argan Body Conditioner 
• Handy Gurugu: hand cream

It's quite a bit.. but this is just what I'd like from the looks of the website, I'll have to see for sure once I go to the store, I don't intend on buying all of this! hahah

xLB