Plans for Australia... A Rough Itinerary...

3 weeks and counting!!!! If you pop by this blog regularly you may have picked up on the fact that I am heading to Australia for the whole of November! One of my amazing friends lives out there and I'm heading out there to attend her wedding. I am ridiculously excited and as an added bonus I'm one of her bridesmaids! So I leave the UK on the 30th October and arrive in Oz on the 1st December, slightly terrified about the long journey by myself. I think it's more about boredom than anything else, I may become a crazy lady who starts chatting to myself! Any ideas on how I can entertain myself would be very welcome!

So this post is all about sharing with you my rough itinerary! I say rough as it's still a work in progress, I have internal flights and hotels / hostels booked, but the day to day and places to visit are still in the planning stages. Before I go any further I better also state that I have been to Australia many years ago, I backpacked from Cairns down the east coast to Sydney. I had an awesome time but did it on the smallest budget ever so didn't necessarily get to do and see everything I wanted. So this trip, as well as attending the wedding of the year, I want to see a bit more of the country.

So the first two weeks will be spent with my friends, catching up, doing all things wedding and spending time with her family who I've not seen in so long. It's going to be so lovely and special. The wedding is on the Gold Coast about an hour from Brisbane.

After my two weeks of all things Wedding I am then flying down to Sydney to meet one of my besties from home whose flying out for my last two weeks to travel around with me. We are going to spend 5 days in Sydney, staying a hostel. Sydney is hopefully going to involve the opera house, darling harbor, trips to Bondi Beach and Manly and maybe a surfing lesson thrown in? For the last whole weekend in Australia we are going to fly out to Uluru to see Ayres Rock. We have booked to stay in this very fancy hotel, which will be lush after a few nights in a hostel. Whilst there for 3 nights, I really want to do one of the sunrise or sunset trips which look incredible.

From Uluru we are then heading down to Melbourne for 5 days, I'm particularly excited about this bit of my trip as I never made it here last time and it was something I wish I had done, therefore I'm feeling pretty lucky that I get to have this experience! Ideas for Melbourne include visiting Ramsey Street (sorry! Not sorry! Huge Neigbours fan here!), heading to a local winery and checking out the graffiti art that's famed in the city. 

Then it will be time to head home! Boo! This thought already makes me feel sad! Luckily I'll be home to get swept up with the crazy Christmas spirit that tends to sweep up December so already have a few party's booked in to look forward to! 

Have you been to Oz? Any suggestions of what other things I can add to my itinerary? Do I have any massive holes here?? All help seriously welcome! 

 

Lets have a coffee and a catch up...

Well hello! It feels a little odd to be sat here blogging again after what feels like a massive break! I feel like I've been a bit of an adhoc blogger lately and I don't like it one bit! Life's just been so hectic, so I figured I would do a little catch up post and share with you all what I’ve been up to so we are all on the same page! Right, get the kettle on make yourself a cuppa, and get comfy!
 

I have a pot of coffee on the go here, I have just received this amazing coffee from Perk U Latte, who do a monthly coffee subscription. Forget a monthly beauty subscription; send me coffee monthly and I'm in heaven! I do love a good fresh coffee and I wasn’t disappointed with this. I was sent their Bali Kintamani Organic Natural coffee in a Turkish blend and just from the strong sweet aromas while it was brewing, I knew it was going to be good. It has a strong creamy, sweet caramel taste. It’s described as medium bodied but I would state it’s a full bodied coffee and has a little rustic flavour to it. I can find some coffees a little bitter but this wasn’t at all, it was definitely moreish! If you want to try the brew for yourself, the lovely folk over at Perk U Latte have offered my readers 10% off! Just use the code LIPSTICKLASHES.

So are you comfy? Well shall we start from the beginning of summer… well way back at the end of July I had an amazing two weeks in Turkey. It was so relaxing and we had an amazing time, it was just bliss. I properly had the holiday blues when I got home! It was awful! I felt so down in the dumps! I’m sure I have that SAD syndrome, where I need sunshine or I get a little grumpy!

However I soon perked up as the weekend following I headed to one of my gorgeous friend’s wedding. It was such a beautiful day, they even had an owl fly the rings down the aisle! It was a fab surprise for all the guests and the whole day was just perfect.

Following that, a few weekends later I completed my first ever Tough Mudder. To say I was bricking it would be a massive understatement. It was 12 miles of absolutely crazy obstacles, such as electric wires, skips filled with ice… serious madness! However saying that, it was an amazing day and I am definitely doing it again! It was seriously hard work but there is no way I would have been able to complete it a year ago. I think all my training this year paid off and I was with such an amazing team, I had so much fun.

I also completed another one of my bucket list challenges this summer and completed my first ever 10k! I did it with one of my besties and we completed it in 1 hour 20 minutes and I am so blinking chuffed that I did it! I genuinely couldn’t run 2 yards 6 months ago so it’s been a huge challenge for me and I am so pleased I did it! I am going to keep working hard and am determined to keep running and sign up for some more runs!

Continuing on the fitness theme, I’ve also massively changed my diet this summer and have been sticking to clean eating and man do I feel better for it. I have more energy and have such a clearer head from it. I have also started weight lifting, don’t worry I’m not going to go mad and become some sort of body builder. I’ve been doing it for about 6 weeks and I am already feeling stronger, more toned and fitter.

So there’s a rough summary of my summer, there’s tons more been happening but that’s kind of the highlight reel for now! Now I’m just plotting for Australia, I’m going there in less than 5 weeks for a whole month and I can’t wait!

So that’s me, how are you all? What have I missed?

20 Thoughts from my first Festival!

So way back at the beginning of July (why is this summer going way too fast?!) I attended my first ever festival and actually kind of loved it! I’ve always wanted to go to one but was worried I would find the whole not washing for a few days thing a bit stressful! We went to Blissfields Festival which is held near Winchester and is relatively small, which a few thousand festival goers but it was an incredible atmosphere. Today I thought I would share with you 20 random thoughts I had during my first ever festival experience! So here we go…

Photo from day 2, looking tired but dressed as a hippy and coated in glitter so all is well in the world!

'Err I think I bent another tent peg' 

'The sun is shining, this is bliss!' 

'This sushi roll is amazing' 

'I love this band'

'That women looks like she's dressed as a pineapple' 

'Omg it's lightening! Please don't rain!'

'Omg it's lightening and it's amazing to watch!'

‘Oooh I want to learn how to hula hoop with fire!’

'Thank god for having a torch! Someone has puked all over the toilet seat! Eeeeeew!!!' (No lights in the portaloo!) 

'Wahoo my shower is hot!'

'This gypsy circus is incredible!'

'Err that acrobat man is naked on the stage' 

'I heart glitter' 

'I wonder if I can wake Katie up and get her to drive me home' -4am on first night when the stag do next to our tent won't shut up and I'm seriously lacking sleep! 

'Oooh I managed to sneak a four pack in, whooop!' 

'Why does no body else's feet look as dirty as mine?' 

'Thank god for alcohol gel' 

'I need a fire pit in my garden' 

‘Crepes and melted Mars Bars, why have I never had this before’

‘I need do control my dance moves, my dress has completely split open!’

Lipsticks and Lashes 3rd Birthday!!

It feels so weird to think that 3 years ago today I was sitting here writing my first every blog post! It still makes me giggle looking it now, it was a post about Topshop Makeup and it isn’t my best work! I am hoping after 3 years my blogging skills have improved a lot since those first few posts! I started out very much wanting to blog about beauty but as times moved on and i have changed as a person, I wouldn’t have a clue what type of genre you would pop my little space under now! I tend to blog about what ever takes my fancy at the time from health and fitness, books, travel, DIY, Positivity, Lifestyle… don’t get me wrong I still have an unhealthy addiction to make up so beauty posts are always going to pop up! 

Not only has my blogging style and what I blog about changed over the past few years but I think i have definitely changed as a person and I think I owe a lot of that to blogging. I think i'm a hell of a lot more confident, I get to embrace being creative and I smile a lot more! Its funny how when you find something you love and enjoy it can have such a knock on effect on the rest of your life. 

While i’m being all nostalgic and gooey about blogging I just wanted to say a big thank you to all the wonderful friends i have made through blogging. I may not have met you in real life but I appreciate you none the less. And a big thank you too, to all lovely folk who spare the time to stop by and read my waffle. I can’t explain how much it means!

Anyways I have my first ever Tough Mudder today! Its 12 miles of gruelling obstacles and I currently have a weird mix of nerves and excitement going on! I just hope I make it to the end! Wish me luck!

How has blogging changed your life? Are there any particular posts you would like to see more of on Lipsticks and Lashes?