Monday 30 January 2017

Monthly Favourites #21 - January


So I skipped a December faves, but it's time to 'bring it all back' as S Club 7 sang - and start off the new year with a new faves post! Keeping with the same categories each month, lets see what's made me happy this past month!

Song
I have been hooked on this song ever since the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 trailer came out in December. I've actually seen The Sweet perform this live, which makes me all the more excited. The trailer was amazing, but it left me listening to this song on repeated for a whole weekend - so much so that according to my iTunes, I listened to it nearly 120 times in 2 days... Ooops! 


Picture
My favourite picture from this month has to be this one of all the family on New Year's Day! It's a bit blurry as it was on my phone, but this the first full family picture we've had in about 15 years! It was also nice to have Mosh in the picture too!

TV Show
Cameron has been on at me for about a year to watch this - so I finally gave it a shot. Well I was hooked from the first episode and finished the first season in about a week. I'm now frantically trying to catch up with season two so I can watch the latest episodes as they air! I'm still girl crushing on Sara, and adoring Mick so far!


Movie
Cannot tell you how excited I was to see this movie. I've been a big fan of AC Syndicate since I stole the controller from Cam one day, and I feel in love with the story and the characters. So when I heard they were making a film with a new story line and characters - we had to see it. Albeit a few confusing moments at the start of the film, it was incredible. They had the assassin's moves, clothes and free-falls down to perfection. I'm just really hoping there are more now as I loved this!


Bullet Journal
So for my new, 'Bullet Journal Fave Page' section, I've selected this one of what my new journal looks like - with my new pens, some washi tape and stickers! I've started to fill this in as you might have seen in my Bullet Journal 2017 post last week! Can't believe I've been doing this for almost a year...


Hope you enjoyed these faves for January! What have you loved this month from each category? Let me know! Hope you have a great day and keep safe!

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Friday 27 January 2017

52 Weeks Saving: Weeks 1-5 | Bullet Journal


One of my goals of the year, was to be a bit better with my money by spending less and saving more.

If you've heard of the 52 Week Saving Challenge before, then you might have even tried this yourself! If you're unfamialir, the idea is that each week you save an amount that corresponds to the week of the year. So the 5th week you'd save £5, week 26 you save £26 and so on, until you have £1378 by the end of the year.


I had tried this last year, and got to about 11 weeks before I gave in as I done it all wrong in how I approached it.

The main way is to do it as above, but I know that come December, saving £49-£52 over the last 4 weeks of the year (and at Christmas), would be too hard. So instead, I'm going to save a random amount each week, so I can then knock some of the larger amounts out of the way now, and work down to the lower amounts through the year.

So that's what my plan is anyway!

I also wanted to give myself some encouragement in the form of stickers - which are from The Sticker Party's store on etsy! I know these are in dollars, but it's the same amounts, so ignore that! I love using stickers, and thought I could put each denomination into my bullet journal as each week goes so I can keep track of which amounts have been done.




As you can see, I've actually done 5 weeks straight from the off, even though this is only the 4th week of the year! I just wanted to go a little further ahead so I could try and finish this a week earlier!

I've gone straight in and done the four highest amounts, and then chucked a random low one in, just to bump up the current total a little bit more. I'm planning on putting each amount away into a saving account each Friday, so will do a check in post on the totals as I go, throughout the year ahead.

I'll even do a little tracker below of the total and how much is left, in case anyone is interested!

Week 5 Total: £210
Amount To Go: £1168

At the moment, I've not got any immediate plans for the money, but after Florida this year, I have a feeling this savings pot will come in handy!

Have you tried the 52 weeks saving challenge before? How far did you get, and how did you find it? Let me know! Hope you have a great day and keep safe :)

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Wednesday 25 January 2017

MUA Luxe Enrapture Palette


I love me a good eye shadow palette.

I have many of them, if truth be told - and I love all of them. BUT, I always want more. Like cake.

I ended up buying this snazzy little Enrapture number before Christmas, and I bloody love it. Also, like how I feel about cake.

Anyway, I digress...





Bought from Superdrug, at a pretty £6, this is in fact a block of eye shadow. Like a big block of cheese. (Can you tell I'm hungry as I'm writing this!?!)

You have 5 really nice deep purple shades, that all blend into one another in the palette, so you can easily see which colours compliment each other. Plus if you use them from one end to the other, you'd get a seriously nice smokey eye going on.

Each individual hue is a lovely shade of purple, and like most MUA products, they're really nice and pigmented.

Check out these swatches on my super un-tanned skin!


I really like this palette, and it's not something I've seen before where it's a big block and not in separate pans, so I'm loving it!

What do you think of this, and have you tried it yourself? Let me know! Hope you have a great day and keep safe :)

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Monday 23 January 2017

My 2017 Bullet Journal


Last April, I decided to start a bullet journal. I've not exactly gone into detail about it or showed it much here on my blog, but I stuck at it all year. I shared a lot of it on my Instagram, along with some pages from my new one.

A Bullet Journal is a cross between a planner, journal and diary - and as you design the pages, it's totally tailored to you. The main components are a:

  • key page of any icons and colours you'll use through the book
  • an index - list the page numbers and what's on them so you can easily flick to it
  • a future log - a bit like a year at a glance so you can see what is going on each month
  • collection pages - each page is a topic/module, called a collection, that you would then have in the index. This can be something like 'workout plan' 'comic book tracker' 'monthly gratitude' and so on. 
  • montly log - a little page at a glance view of the month ahead to log any important dates or events
  • daily log/rapid log - each day you write the day and date and then list underneath what you need to do that day by using the icons from your key

For a better idea, check out the bullet journal website!

I used the Leuchtturm 1917 Journal with dotted pages, in the shade called Berry for my first one. I used all of the main components and thankfully, the 1917 comes with pages numbers already, so it's one less thing to worry about! I also done a monthly layout including my goals and blog goals, and each daily log was turned into a week log over two pages so it was like a little diary.

I use a lot of colourful pens for my journal, as well as a crap ton of stickers and washi tape so I can decorate it! But you can use a plain black biro and not decorate it at all if you're not fussy on how it looks. I finished my Berry planner in December, so I bought a new one in Purple for 2017! So far it's going pretty well, and below are some of my pages and layout that you can always try for yourself!

Buckle up folks, this is going to be a lot of pictures...





The above pages are the ones that pretty much everyone will have, in some form or another! The 2017 diary layout is new for this journal as I didn't do it last time. I thought it would be a good idea to have birthdays and holiday dates all in one place so I could see it a bit easier, rather than in the future log.


This emotions tracker was pretty popular on my instagram from my last journal! In my new one, I've updated the colours so it's a bit easier to discern each emotion - plus I added in a tracker for the green days, so I can see what any issues are that I can try focusing and working on.



I'll be doing a post about the financial planning and future savings plan pages on Friday, so keep an eye out for that!








So that's my bullet journal so far!! I put all of these at the front of my journal as I knew I'd want to use them a lot, as most of these are 'trackers' and need to be updated regularly.

Updated 13/3/17: If you want to see a flip through of my journal, check out the video below!


I'll do another post soon with my monthly layout and my daily layout, otherwise this is going to be a stupidly long post...

Have you got a bujo yourself, and if you, please let me see what it's like as I love looking at them! What's the best page I've done so far? Let me know! Hope you have a great day and keep safe :)

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Friday 20 January 2017

900 Bloglovin Followers #Giveaway | UK Only


So as you may have seen, I'm at 900 bloglovin followers! I've been saying that I'll do a giveaway when I hit this, so now is the time! Thank you to all you lovely readers for coming with me on this journey and who read my blog still - I love you all and really appreciate all the views & comments you leave me!

What can you win? Well read on! Terms and conditions are listed at the end :)

What you will win:
1x Bev Ridge + Friends Note Book
1x Spa Floating Candles
1x Ciaté Velvet Manicure Set 
Plus some extra goodies, not in the picture!





This giveaway is UK & ROI ONLY. All you need to do is follow the instructions below to get an entry into the giveaway! You will need to follow me on Twitter and Bloglovin as well as leaving a contact email address before unlocking the other options :) The giveaway will run from today (Jan 20th) and will end on Friday Feb 17th!
  • You must be 16 years old or over. If you are younger, please make sure you have parental consent to enter
  • The winner will win the contents of the picture/list above.
  • You will need to follow me on Twitter and Bloglovin as well as leaving a contact email address before you unlock the other options!
  • This is open UK & ROI ONLY, due to nail polishes being on the restricted shipping list
  • The winner will be selected at random using the Rafflecopter randomizer
  • All products are brand new and unopened and unused to the best of my knowledge. If they are damaged in the mail, I cannot be held responsible for it.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Good luck!! Hope you have a great day and keep safe :)

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Wednesday 18 January 2017

Things I'm Looking Forward To In 2017



There's a lot happening this year that I'm quite looking forward tooand I wanted to share them with you. 2016 was a pretty decent year in my opinion (lets just ignore the abundance of celeb deaths...) and I'm hoping that 2017 is just as amazing!


Going To Florida
We've been planning a holiday to Florida for nearly 3 years now, and we're now down to less than 250 days at long last! We've booked the flights and the villa, so just have the park tickets and the car hire left to sort out and then it's pretty much sorted. We're going in the Summer, so it's going to be hot as fuck and I might melt like ice cream, but it will so be worth it.

I will do a blog post on this some time over the coming months just to chat about it and share some helpful links for anyone who is also planning their holiday to Orlando!


My Blog Is 4 Years Old
October 3rd is my 4 year 'blogoversary' which I am super impressed with. I honestly thought I'd give up after a few months at this, so this something I never thought would happen! I'll have to break out a seriously awesome giveaway when the time comes...

Purging Possessions
This is probably an odd one, but something I seriously need to do. I have more makeup, shoes, bags and clothes than a department store. It's ridiculous. So this year I'm going to try and use what I've got - thus saving money for holidays and outings more than material possessions. We're three weeks into the new year, and I've yet to buy a single beauty product, so it's going well so far.

Book Writing
I've not really spoke about this a great deal. but last year I started to write the first chapter or so of a book which I've had spinning around my head for years now. I've got about 1000 or so words of it done so far, along with an outline of what I want to happen, but I just need to sit my ass down and get to writing it a bit more. I'm hoping that by the end of the year, I'll have it finished, or at least, almost done! Not sure if I'll ever try and get it published or not, but we shall see for 2018!

London
Although no official plans yet, I'm hoping to go to London a few times this year - just to be a little tourist! Even though I've been and done a dozen of the attractions a few times, I love being there!


As always, thank you for keeping with my blog and reading it - I appreciate it a lot and hope you enjoy all the posts I have in store for this year. What things are you looking forward to for this year? Let me know! Hope you have a great day and keep safe :)

Let me know! Hope you have a great day and keep safe :)

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Monday 16 January 2017

BH Cosmetics: Foil Eyes To Go Palette | Review


We all love a freebie right?

Well, with my last BH Cosmetics purchase back in 2016, I was sent a little freebie eyeshadow palette with the order as I'd spent over $25!

I found this little 6 colour eyeshadow palette in the box and thought it was super cute and handbag sized! I loved all the colours - well maybe not so fond of the bright blue - but all of the neutral shades that were on offer.


Cannot for the life of me, find this on their website, but it is on Ebay right now for $10.39, along with a hefty shipping fee - so I'm guessing these are either new items they're trial running at the moment, or these are just on stand by as free gifts only.

Who knows.

Anyway...



I worked as much of the product onto my forearm as possible, but the pigmentation is sadly disappointing. Albeit bright and shimmery, these really need to be built up to get some coverage. Except that pesky blue!

However, once they are built up to a relatively good colour, they blend really well, and last for a really long time. I can't see me using this a great deal, but it will be going in my work handbag anyway as it has some good neutral shades that are perfect for a touch up during the day.

I've thrown the stupid little foam applicator in the bin as I hate them as much as I hate peanuts. Which is lots.

So yes, a freebie is always lovely, but this is just a bit... meh? Still, I'm sure I'll use it a bit over the year, but I have a feeling my Mum will get a much better use of of this than me!

Have you tried any of BH Cosmetics products before, and have you tried this mini palette out? Let me know! Hope you have a great day and keep safe :)

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