Koh Lanta was my favourite stop during my Thailand adventure.
It’s about a four hour drive from Ao Nang and is just such a beautiful small
island, it felt like we had landed in paradise.
We stayed at Lantas Lodge Resort which was a cluster if
bungalows along the beach which was run by ‘the boss’ a funny little Thai man. The
bungalow we stayed in was basic but lovely and clean, I would definitely stay
here again. The best part was there was
a beach right in front of the bungalows and it was just so beautiful, I wish I
could transport you all there as my photos just don’t do it justice. All along
the beach are bars and restaurants but it never felt touristy. It felt off the
beaten track and was just a great atmosphere.
Whilst staying on Koh Lanta it was my 28th
birthday! So I decided a trip was in order, we booked ourselves onto the ‘4
island tour’ which was a boat trip on a long boat. The highlight of which was
visiting emerald island, which when you first see looks like a giant cliff face
with a cave underneath. We got to swim through the cave and inside was a
secluded beach, it was breathtaking and so surreal. It felt like you were on a
movie set. To finish my birthday we went to a restaurant and sat drinking
cocktails on the beach, with some new friends we had made. It was such a great
way to celebrate!
I am not going to lie, we did a lot of sunbathing and beer
drinking whilst here, making the most of soaking in the gorgeous weather and environment.
However for our final day on the island we headed to the local cookery school! Now
for anyone who doesn’t know me, I am a useless cook. I am way to easily
distracted which means I tend to burn everything. So I wasn’t sure if I was
going to enjoy it. My friend is a keen cook so I agreed to give it a go. We were
there for three hours and made three Thai dishes (and ate them all of course). It
was really enjoyable and our group was so lovely.
If one day I make it back to Thailand I will definitely make
the effort to return to Koh Lanta. It really is paradise.
You can check out my previous blogs on
Thailand here:
It is terrible rare that I write a ‘meh’ or bad review about
a product. I love to share beauty bits that I am excited about and want you
guys to know of! So I feel a bit weird writing this post. I had heard so much
hype around Maybelline New York’s Baby range and I’ve been really getting into
primers lately so I was excited to purchase Maybelline New York New Baby Skin
Instant Pore Eraser and give it a try!
At £7.99 it’s a reasonable price when I compare it to recent
primers I’ve used such as Benefits Porefessional and Laura Mercers Primer, both
of which I love. The product itself is a clear paste and when applying all I
can compare it to is Vaseline but not as greasy. Not something you particularly
want to use as a base under your make up. The purpose of primers is to smooth
out any lines or blemishes on your skin so your makeup looks flawless, but
sadly I didn’t experience this when using this product. It also didn’t hold any
of my make up in place, it just made me face kind of slimy.
I had really high hopes for Maybelline New York’s Baby range
but so far I’ve just not been that impressed!
For my birthday way back in January a couple of my friends treated me
to a voucher for my local beauty salon. I have been so busy that I have only
recently got a chance to use it! I decided to go for gelish nails as I was
attending one of best pals wedding the following day. To co-ordinate with my
dress I went for the shade Deep Sea with a gorgeous layer of glitter on top. I
am so chuffed with the results, there is nothing like getting your nails done
professionally.
If you haven’t heard of ‘The Creative Collective’
yet, go and check out this link here! The latest activity on the list is ‘Planting
Dreams…Or Just Plants’. The idea behind it is to encourage you to go to a farmers market or large plant
store. Buy one plant that inspires you, along with one plain pot. Do as
much research on your plant species as you can. Then care for it and watch how
your research gives it a full life. Alternatively, you could buy a bag of seeds
instead.
So last weekend off I headed to local garden centre. I
have to state I have none, I mean less than zero gardening experience, and I can’t
even keep a house plant alive. However, always up for a challenge and an excuse
to enjoy the recent gorgeous weather I decided to throw caution to the wind and
have a go!
I decided to buy a mix of already grown plants and some
seeds. I have to admit I found the whole experience quite therapeutic and
really enjoyed planting my seeds and decanting my plants into their pots.
I think I am most excited to see what happens with my
seeds, if they grow and what they will eventually look like! I went for
sunflowers and a mixed seed pack of wild flowers.
Keep your fingers crossed for me that they spring to
life!
I want begin today’s post by saying a massive thank you to
all those lovely people who took the time to tweet me, comment or email me in
regards to my last post ’20 Random Acts of Kindness’. I received the most
kindest, sweetest messages that put such a massive smile on my face! This got
me thinking, and it’s why I’ve chosen today’s motivation in the form of the
above quote.
I think as a society we are terrible at picking up on
peoples weaknesses and faults, we don’t compliment people on the good not
nearly as much as we should. It can make the world of difference to the person receiving
the compliment!
I have had the past week off work, and have had the most awesome
time catching up with friends. I feel so relaxed and refreshed now, I didn’t
realise how negative and critical I had become. I am determined to have a
positive week back at work (It’s already looking good being a four day week!).
I am going to make the most concerted effort to look at the good and I am going
to try and wing genuine compliments left, right and centre!
As I
mentioned way back at the beginning of February (how quickly has the past
couple of months flown by?!) I was going to attempt to do a random act of
kindness for each day of the month. So that’s 28 Random acts of kindness... I
know, I know, the title of the post states 20 random acts of kindness, well that’s
because I did a couple of them a few times. I also did a few that I wasn't sure if
they would count so left them out.
The definition of a random act of
kindness is ‘a selfless
act performed by kind people to either help or cheer up a random stranger, for
no reason other than to make people happier’ (Wikipedia). My aim was to put a
smile on people’s face, to do some nice deeds, start thinking of others more
and build up a bit of good karma!
So here
are my 20 Random Acts of Kindness:
1. My
friend was having a bad day so I took her daughter who has very challenging behaviour
for a day out. So my friend got to have a day off to do some stuff for herself
and I had a good excuse to get to see the film frozen!
2. I donated
blood, I am not a fan of needles and get so anxious every time I do this, but
it makes such a difference and it’s so important to keep those blood banks
full!
3. Used a public toilet that was completely out of
loo roll, so left a pack of pocket tissues on the side so the next few people
had some.
4. My
sister lives in London, which is a few hours from me and she has just finished uni.
She is juggling bar jobs, working crazy hours and is always tired and skint. So
I decided to send her a pamper pack in the post. Lots of girly pampering treats
as a surprise to cheer her up.
5. Treated all my work colleagues to a cream egg, just cos...
6. For the
whole month, each time I went to a car park, when I paid for my ticket I would
put an extra £1 in for the next person who comes along.
7. Wrote
letters to poorly children. I found this great website called postpals.co.uk which is a charity that helps
you to ‘Post a Smile on a Sick Child’s Face’ by the sending of cards, letters,
emails and little gifts to seriously ill children and their siblings. I found
this experience really humbling and I also love to send fun things in the post
to others especially young children.
8. One of my oldest friends, who also lives 3 hours away was having a pretty rough time, so I sent her a card to cheer her up. I filled it with a note saying how awesome I think she is!
9. My
friend moved into a new house, I went round to congratulate her but found her
stressed out and not sure where to start with decorating etc. The house was a massive
do-er upper kind of job. So I took off my coat and helped her strip the
wallpaper off in one of the rooms, in a bid to ease her stress and be helpful.
10. Thank
you boxes. Okay so this was probably the most extravagant act of random
kindness I did. I filled two shoe boxes with various chocolates and treats and
sent them anonymously to my local fire and ambulance stations to say a thank
you for the amazing job they do at looking after us and keeping us safe.
11. You
know when you go to boots and they always seem to ply you with those £5 off
vouchers for certain items? Well as I leave the shop I find said product and
leave the voucher next to it so if someone wants to buy it they may spot the
voucher and get a bit of a discount!
12. Sent
some anonymous Valentines cards to some of my single girlfriends, incusing my
sister and my Nan. I had so much fun with this one, and I am pretty sure no one’s
100% sure who they came from still! (Hi Hayley if your reading this! Busted!)
13. I
love dogs so much, I actually have 3 of them. So when I was in Pets at Home
recently I noticed they had a donation box where you could pet food in for our
local animal shelter. So whilst purchasing some bits I got some extra tins of
dog food to donate.
14. I am
still doing this one 2 months later! It just makes me smile too much to stop.
The idea of this random act of kindness is to spread some positivity and cheer
people up. So I have a load of Heart shaped post-its which I write positive
little messages on. They are either really direct, so if someone looks sad I
will stick one to their coat or bag (If you are going to do this, be careful
you don’t want people to think your bag napping!) or I just leave them randomly
on bus seats, public toilets, on windows for people to find.
15.
Shared my lunch on various occasions, as a last minute gesture to someone else.
It always feels good to share.
16.
Bought some flowers out of the blue for my mum as she's been a bit poorly.
17.
Emailed my favourite bloggers, just to tell them how cool they are! I don’t
think we do this one enough, give people positive feedback! If you are hooked
on someone’s blog or like a particular post, TELL THEM! Guaranteed it well make
them smile! I also felt good for telling them.
18.
Donated tinned food to my local food bank, with the current financial crisis, there are people who genuinely need support and cant afford the basics.
19. Give and Makeup are a
fantastic organisation whose sole purpose is to get
everyday essentials into the hands of these women and children who need them
the most, who are living in refuges due to domestic violence. As a beauty
blogger I have tons of makeup, the majority I have barely used and is just sat
there. With this in mind I filled a box full of makeup and cosmetics and sent
it off.
20. It
was one of those rainy, dreary mornings and I was in the queue in Starbucks
when an old lady started chatting to me. I found out her husband died not so
long ago and she felt a bit lonely so had nipped into town to treat herself. As
I bought my drink I left some money behind the counter to treat her to a coffee. Finally I want to leave you with this awesome video about
happiness and gratitude! I hope this post has left you feeling inspired and
encourages you to go out and do some good deeds yourself!
This is such
a fun colour! Razberrito is a vibrant coral / bright pink shade. I know i have
raved about SEVENTEENS Gel Colour range before but it is such a great polish. Its
chip proof and really good quality. This is a great shade for spring and adds a
fun pop of colour to any outfit.
I have a
handful of blogs I read religiously and one of these includes The Nectar Collective which is run by the
lovely Melyssa. When I spotted that she
was running ‘The Creative Collective’ I just had to get involved. It’s a
year-long community building, creative program that you can hop in and out of. Melyssa
has thought of 23 fun activities for us to do, that are creative yet varied so
there is something for everyone! I love the whole concept, over the last year I
have been determined to try new things, be more creative and enjoy myself and
this project fits in perfectly with that!
The current activity is entitled ‘When pinterest comes to life’, I have
a sad addiction to pinterest and my DIY board is huge! I had to decide between
a few bits and bobs as to what I was going to make, so here is what I decided
on…. DIY Neon Animal Key ring! Here is the original link.
What you need:
Acrylic Paint
Small plastic toy animal
Key ring
Small screw hook
Paint brush
What to do:
I started by attaching my small screw hook to the key ring chain (I purchased
a pack of these off of EBay). I then had to choose what animal I was going to
do, I went for a giraffe! I then screwed the hook into the back of the giraffe,
which took a bit of effort!
I then started applying my acrylic paint, I went for awesome neon pink!
Overall it took three coats of paint to get the correct coverage. Then leave to
dry, then voila! A really funky neon key ring!
What do you think of this? Would you purchase it? I’m thinking of
starting an etsy shop to sell my jewelery and was debating whether to add these
key rings to? Thoughts?
This post is slightly later than normal, mainly because I don’t
have work today! I have a whole week off! Whoooop! However for the past two
weeks I have been so poorly, I ache all over and I have all cold like symptoms
with headaches and hot and cold sweats on top. This morning I woke up feeling
pretty gutted that I still feel pretty rough, so I am off to the doctors this
morning. I am determined to try and power on through and remain positive as I
am hopefully off to Bristol tomorrow until Friday to hang out with some of my
lovely friends and celebrate one of them recently getting engaged!
So writing this post this morning reminds more than ever of
why I do these motivational Monday posts. They are to keep me positive, focused
and help me a better person, even when I am feeling low they help me get
perspective. So I am determined to have a happy week!
Living in a small
side town growing up a lot of your friends tend to move away, for work, uni etc.
it pretty much sucks and means I don’t get to see as much of them as I would
like, however it also means a lot of fun road trips all around the country! I have
besties based in Bolton, Cornwall, London, Gloucester and that’s just for
starters!
Last month I headed 3
hours down the coast to Cornwall to see my oldest (in terms of how long I’ve
know her, not her age!) Jen who moved down there for uni and has never headed
back! I love visiting Cornwall, it’s just such a beautiful, friendly place and I
love the beaches! During this adventure we headed along the north coast and
checked out a few of the gorgeous beaches and I thought id share a few of my
photos with you all!
No matter where I end
up in life as long as I’m near the sea I am a happy soul!
