Sunday 27 April 2014

Thailand || Koh Lanta




















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:

Friday 25 April 2014

Maybelline New York New Baby Skin Instant Pore Eraser


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!
Have you tried this product? Did it work for you?

Wednesday 23 April 2014

Nails // Gelish in Deep Sea and Glitter


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.

Tuesday 22 April 2014

‘Planting Dreams…Or Just Plants’

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!



Monday 21 April 2014

Motivational Monday #12

 
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!
Happy Monday lovelies!

Friday 18 April 2014

20 Random Acts of Kindness!


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!
 

 


Wednesday 16 April 2014

Nails // SEVENTEEN Gel Colour in 'Razberrito'

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.
What colour nails do you like to have for spring?
 

Tuesday 15 April 2014

DIY: Neon Animal Key Ring

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?

Monday 14 April 2014

Motivational Monday #11

 
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!
Happy Monday Lovelies!


Sunday 13 April 2014

The North Coast of Cornwall


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!











 
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