OTT Christmas Lights

Christmas is a time to go OTT - whether you eat your own body weight in food or decorate your house impeccably, there is always some people who will take Christmas to the extreme (and we love it!) 

In my town, there is one house which never fails to disappoint at Christmas time - and it's this one.  The couple (Mr and Mrs Bell) have been decorating the outside of their house for over thirty years.  They have recently started raising money for a local charity close to their hearts - the Phoebe Research Fund, an incredible cause.  

It has become a tradition for me and my family to walk and look at their crazy-beautiful house and honestly it gets better and better each year.  

The Countdown to Christmas

It's finally December! Advent calendars line the shelves - from chocolate to beauty. Beauty advent calendars have been the 'trend' for about four years now and I have never bought one because of the price.  So, this year I decided to buy two beauty advent calendars.  Behind every door of both of these advent calendars is a small, although it may be large sized product.  This is such a great way of testing new and different products, perhaps products which you normally wouldn't use - but by the end, you may end up loving.  These advent calendars would be such a lovely early Christmas present.  

Decléor Hello December Surprise Me Advent Calendar

Before even opening any of the doors of this advent calendar I could smell the pungent scent of rose and orange - it smelt delightful.  This only made me more eager to open the rest of the doors.  The calendar promises many skin products including the Aroma hydro radiance cleanser and Hydra floral BB cream.  All of Decléor's products smell incredible and leaves your skin feeling so hydrated and soft.  It cost a slightly steeper price of £65, but I would say that it is well worth the money as you get so many different products and the popularity of this calendar definitely shows that. 

YOU Beauty Advent Calendar

Simply by looking at the packaging, there is such a variation of brands and products - from shampoos from Charles Worthington to The White Company home sprays, this calendar has the lot.  I find it incredibly exciting to open a door each day and not knowing what product I will be able to try out next.  The advent calendar itself cost £50, with over £230 worth of products inside (an absolute bargain.) A lot of the gifts are full sized which would certainly make a good 'Secret Santa' present, but if you didn't want to give it away, a full sized product means that you can try out more of the product before you decide to re-purchase.  I would 100% recommend this product to a friend. 

Holiday Snaps || Gran Canaria

Last week I went on my holiday to Gran Canaria (it is located between Fuerteventura and Tenerife.)  It was so nice to get some sun in October when England is so cold and dull a lot of the time - it's fair to say that I am much more of a summer person than a winter.

Gran Canaria itself was a beautiful island with incredible 5 star resorts and restaurants.  The scenery was breathtaking too as we looked down from a mountain to see a myriad of white buildings and the stretching Atlantic ocean.  

On one of the days we visited a small town called Mogan which has been nicknamed 'Little Venice' after all the quaint and unique buildings and rivers running throughout the town.  It truly did emulate Venice.  

We stayed about one mile away from the tiny town of Maspalomas which was packed full of designer shops and Michelin starred restaurants.  In the midst of all the hustle and bustle was the tranquil 'Cafe del Mar' which had a unique selling point - it was based around a waterfall, yes a waterfall!  It was very modern and the food was delicious.  

This holiday holds a lot of very good memories, cheers to many more!

My Work Experience

In June 2016 my work experience placement was with a local publisher: 'Warner's Group Publications' where I had an amazing time creating my own thirty page magazine.  I began my week by creating an A2 mood-board consisting of photographs and inspiration from other magazines.  Throughout my days I learnt how to use the software Adobe Indesign, which is widely used in journalism and publishing.  I wrote all of the articles in the magazine, including an interview with a junior athlete.  I love photography and it was awesome that I was allowed to include some of my own pictures (the ones on this blog are all my own work.) It was incredible on the last day to see my magazine in the actual print production and receive several 'hard' copies which had come from the same place as many professional magazines had come from.  

Take a look at some of my magazine extracts:

Snippets Of My Bedroom

HELLO! It has been soso long since I have blogged, it almost feels new again, I have been so busy with everything; from work to passing my driving test (yay) anyway, I am going to prioritise my blogging, so here is a blog post about the interiors of my room - I know I love looking at posts like this just because I find it highly satisfies my nosiness and curiosity.  

So, where to begin, I will start at my beautiful gallery wall which is the focal point of my room (I know next to nothing about interior design so this looks very show home[y] if you ask me.) The four main colours in my room are pink, grey, white and copper (which I find is so flattering next to the pink as copper has pink tones in it anyway.) Using these colours I found five poster prints from Desenio which complimented my room perfectly, especially in the copper frames.  It was hard work to put up, but they now look magnificent on what was once a blank wall.  Now is probably a good time to mention the paint on the walls, it is called 'English Muffin' from Crown and after much deliberation (and many paint samples) I finally settled on this warm cream with pink tones which makes my room look so much bigger (a win-win situation.)

Next has to be the bedding, cushions and throw which I actually bought just after Christmas last year and has just been sitting under my bed waiting for me to finally use it.  As grey is one of my four main feature colours, the bedding suited the room perfectly. It has a 'knit' pattern on it which is very cool and different.  The cushions, bedding and throw were all bought from DFS, but they don't seem to stock any of the products online, maybe because it was so long ago.  However, the pink cushion with the gorgeous green leaf print on was only bought recently from a Tiger store in Nottingham and was very reasonably priced at £7.99.  The geometric copper lights are from The Range and were around £5 but I can't seem to find these online either.  

I like to keep my window-ledge minimalist so I just have a few candles and two cacti on it.  The copper candle with the pineapple on is from Primark and smells lovely (it doesn't say what the scent is, but my guess is fresh bedding or something like that as it has a very crisp and fresh smell.)  The candles which spell out my name are from ASDA - I believe they still stock them as I saw them in there the other week. The two cacti both came from Homebase in a pack for around £7, including the pots.  I like how the black brings something different to the room and is eye-catching.  Also on the window-ledge is a fairy statue I was given when I was around four years old and I can't bear to get rid of her yet.  

My desk is all Ikea, with the alex drawer underneath.  On the desk itself is a copper plant pot bought from Ebay, the plant is again from Ikea.  Possibly my favourite part of my desk is my mirror, which we initially bought from The Range but it was wood and not copper, so we did a DIY job and added some copper tape along the sides of the mirror to give it a copper-effect, which worked wonderfully!  Again, the copper lamp is from The Range and the copper pot is from ASDA.  The little white rustic box which I use to put all my toiletries in is from a charity shop - my mum picked up a set of three for around £3 which is incredible and I really like the way this looks sitting on my desk.  I almost forgot to say -  my chair adds a modern feel and is actually really comfortable.  

My wardrobe from Ikea, I believe it is called the custom 'PAX' wardrobe, in which I customised it with a jewellery drawer (which is extremely helpful - I would recommend this to anyone) four drawers and two rails, and just about I manage to fit my ever-growing collection of clothes inside.  

ANYWAY, that's it! A super quick tour of my room.  I have created something which I am so proud of - I hope you have enjoyed this too.  If there are any specific interior style posts you would like to see then let me know! 

#NoFilter

Are disposable cameras making a comeback?

Disposable cameras haven't been a trend since around 1990 but suddenly they are becoming a Tumblr obsession, it seems that blurry pictures have never been cooler!  I haven't used a disposable camera in about four years so as I was in Boots the other day, I decided to purchase one at quite a steep price of £7.50.

I took my disposable camera to the beach and you can see below how my photos turned out (not all of them turned out as good as these I'm afraid - there were lots of blurry photos, or photos which I had accidentally had the flash on for, or photos which I had my finger over the shutter) but they are the struggles of using a disposable, rather than a digital camera.  

I tried to be as creative as possible with my photos, so here are the photos I took on my visit to Cromer seaside:

In this blog post I also wanted to talk about digital cameras, I love photography and I always have but I couldn't always afford a camera (sadly I'm a student and not a millionaire) so when I was given a hand-me-down from one of my mums friends I was overjoyed.  My camera is a Sony A230 SLR with 18-55mm Lens - I love this camera, it is so simple to use and it focuses so fast.  I don't really know much about the technology side of cameras so my best advice is to go into a shop before committing to buying an expensive camera as you need a camera which will work for what you need it to do. 

Happy Snapping!

The Coolest Shop

Everyone has that one shop that they're obsessed with - mine is Brandy Melville.  

It is not a shop which is widely known in England, but in America it is huge.  I discovered this shop when I was in Los Angeles, and I took a liking to it because of its different interior design inside of the shop and the versatile pieces of clothing.  That is probably the best thing about Brandy Melville - one piece of clothing can be worn many times with different things and their clothing comes in colours which you can style with anything (you'll see that in the outfits below.)  Their prices are also a bonus as they are very reasonable for the quality you get - tops are mostly £10-£20 and trousers £20-£30.  

Tilden Pants - £27

Maura Top - £18

Ray Denim Shorts - £27

Caroline Cardigan - £39

Kaya Tank Top - £10

Armelle Skirt - £25

Charlene Top - £18

Find all of the items here:
http://www.brandymelville.co.uk

When In Rome...

Hello (or Ciao!) Today I will be blogging about my trip to Rome, Italy.  I went in April this year, and I've never been to Italy before so I was quite naive about the beauty of Rome.  Even from the minute I stepped off the plane I was looking around at the brightly coloured buildings with the intricate ancient architecture.  I never knew Rome had so much history either so my trip was a lovely surprise.

Colosseum - Obviously!

On the first day we decided to go to the Trevi Fountain which was absolutely packed when we got there with both tourists and people attempting to sell you things.  A word of advice here is to just be careful with your belongings as often we put things down for photographs for example, but pick-pocketing is very high in Rome, especially in crowded areas where they can make themselves discreet.  Other than that we loved Trevi Fountain and we revisited it before our flight home on the final day.  The fountain stands so grand and detail in the cement is outstanding.  Make sure you get some good photos of this landmark.  

The famous Trevi Fountain

The next day we took a trip to the Colosseum, a very very famous Rome landmark, I really enjoyed wandering around here and we got there at such a good time - just as the sun was setting! We didn't do a tour we just walked around ourselves, although we didn't have all the information and history that the tours could provide for you, there were plenty of signs and boards telling you history.  The Colosseum was a lot quieter than I expected but in summer I guess it does get busier.  You can get some nice photos both outside and inside the Colosseum and there are always people willing to take a photo with you - but be careful sometimes they charge.  

A nice view of my hair and oh! The Colosseum

Inside The Colosseum

I can't talk about Rome and not talk about the food - it was amazing.  I'm pretty sure every night I had a carbonara apart from one night because it's my favourite.  On the final day we ate lunch in this quaint family run restaurant in a picturesque side road and it was honestly the best meal I'd ever eaten.  Another tip would be to go to restaurants off from the main roads as they are often nicer and cheaper than the ones on the main road.  

Spaghetti Carbonara (yum)

We also did do a little bit of historical Rome by going to the Spanish Steps and St. Paul's Cathedral, this time we decided to do a guided tour and it was very interesting (apart from it was a little bit long - 3 hours is a long time) which gave us a lot of history behind arguably the most famous building in Rome.  The Spanish Steps were also surrounded by high brand shops such as Gucci, although the high street shops were only around the corner - we found that this was the best shopping area for well known shops, if you wanted more family run and individual shops there are stalls and shops dotted along the main road.  

Saint Peter's Square, Vatican City

Spanish Steps

Even if we only went for 5 days, we still managed to fit in everything we wanted to see (somehow) but I'm sure that there is so much more which needs to be explored.  Rome was so beautiful, more beautiful than I had ever imagined and I would love to return to Rome as well as travelling to other parts of Italy.