DIY Harry potter boxes

At the beginning of September my Auntie asked me to make some DIY boxes for her and my cousin and I couldn't wait, she had seen some in a market in London but they were quite pricey! I had been given  picture of the third year potions on one side of a box as the only guide and pretty much got to do what I want with the rest! I knew straight away I wanted to do the other box as if it came from a wizarding shop in Diagon Alley.

To make the boxes you need:
- Plain pinewood box
- Wood dye (  I bought the georgian medium oak - from B&Q)
- sandpaper
- some paint ( I mixed brown and black to get this shade)
- thin paint brushes

Depending on how you want to put the words on.... you can draw them on, but I used
- tracing paper, oil pastel covered plain paper.

Firstly, you need to sand the boxes down to help the dye stick and it'll take two coats of the dye. ( the third pic down is the difference between the two coats! and the second pic is the difference between the original box and first coat) Then cover a piece of paper with a dark oil pastel, trace  your design onto it and then trace it on and paint! I used a really thin brush and just take your time,you can add any accents on that you want!  ( if you make any serious mistakes you can wipe them off with a watered down cloth - just be verrrryy careful) 

First the first box I went for the hogwarts school and third year potions my aunt had sent me a picture of and on the side I decided to add what any 3rd year may need - a cauldron, phials and of course - ingredients! Like I said for the second box  I wanted to do a shop from Diagon Alley, so I researched and found the name and then found some apothecary stickers on pinterest and adapted them to the design I wanted which was the dragon claws.

         Pretty simple and they look amazing! I really loved doing these and I may have to do a few                                                                    more for myself, I'm already brewing ideas!

                                                                            x
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Learning to #eatpastarunfaster with Vapiano Mcr

On monday I was invited to Vapiano's in Manchester to learn about their new campaign promoting how eating carbs whilst training is actually good for you and also getting to try what was on offer on the menu. I had been to a Vapiano's in the Hague a few years back and was in love with it and had wanted to go back ever since so when one finally opened up in the triangle I was buzzin!  First I will go into the campaign a little then talk about my experience in the restaurant. Vapiano have teamed up with nutritionist Sarah Schenker to explain why pasta and it's slow releasing glycogen qualities are so good for you. This was perfect timing for me because I've just signed up to run a half marathon in October and I'm already doing the BBG plan which is quite intense. Mostly if you are running even a 5-10k it's really important to carb load the night before, this ensures that you have a good amount of energy stored for your entire run so you don't ' hit the wall' and struggle with low energy. Sarah Schenker recommends you carb load up to 3 days before any long run to make sure you have enough energy to last. I can fully vouch for this because I had a hot yoga session right after our meal and although it was one of the hardest classes I had ever been to but

 

I also performed pretty much the best I ever had. A few days later I went to a hot pilates class which isn't anywhere near as hard and I hadn't really prepped a meal that was going to store energy the way that pasta can and I honestly really struggled, I couldn't beleive it! Fuelling yourself properly is so important and you can read more about it here. 
NOW, onto the restaurant, as I said above I had been to a vapiano before and loved it and I also have a seriously deep love for all foods of the Italian variety so I knew this was going to be a great experience. Firstly one of the managers showed us around and gave us some extra little details like how they make the pasta fresh every morning and they even prep all the veg fresh in the morning as well!!  You can tell it's fresh just through the taste and although we had bread,pasta and pizza we didn't feel bloated at all, just nicely full which I was pleasantly surprised about. When I was getting a pasta dish made there was a little queue and the manager jumped on to cook my dish and later on the other manager told us that they have to spend 3 months on each station before they can get their position as manager which I really loved the idea of. I love it when managers understand and can do the actual jobs themselves! 

WHAT WE ATE.  So we took their advice and decided to try a little of everything - the best thing about Vapiano's is that they make it all in front of you so you can edit the dishes to suit your tastes -perfect for any dietary requirements or allergies! 
ANTIPASTI - we shared the Piatto Antipasti and this was gorgeous, put together in seconds with delicious meats, breads( perfect for teaming with the oils on the table) veg, mozzarella and bruschetta. We got the smaller size and it's perfect for 2-3 people and really not overly filling for a starter.
PASTA - we had the Rucola Ravioli - this was gorgeous ravioli with a ricotta stuffing with cherry tomato's, rocket and pine nuts. I had some extra garlic and a little chili thrown in as well. This was lovely and was a massive hit with my friend! I'm not 100% sure if I would order this for myself again, I found it a little rich and thought it may be a bit much to have the whole dish to myself but I would definitely share it with some one because it was delish! ( this dish is actually one of Dr Schenkers dishes on her plan as one of the recovery meals as the natural whey protein from the ricotta is perfect for helping repair your muscles!)
PIZZA - I'm calling it guys. this was THE BEST pizza I have ever had. All my favourite things combined onto one pizza and it was heaven. We went for the Carne Pizza - chorizo, chicken( the most tender fall apart chicken...) peppers and onion. Although there is so much I want to try there, I am 100% ordering this pizza when I go back.
DOLCI - we couldn't pick between the desserts, I wanted something chocolately and my friend was drawn in by the strawberry and cream combo. Luckily they offer smaller options for some of their desserts so we got two mini desserts - Panna Cotta & Crema Di Fraggola - both absolutely amazing- if I had to pick one of the two I would go for the Crema Di Fraggola. I picked the death by chocolate which was gorgeous and rich but not to overwhelming the way a rich chocolate cake can be. I am deffo getting the Cioccolata foresta nera next time because it sounds heavenly and I was torn between the two and took the waiters recommendation this time. 
DRINKS - we decided to try the white tea & elderflower and also the Green tea & lemony drinks both really lovely and refreshing. If Vapiano's sell these separate I'm stocking up! The white tea does have mint in which I was a little concerned about as I'm not a massive mint flavour fan but it was really subtle - this is a really nice alternative to a white wine if you aren't drinking.
The restaurant had a really lovely easy going feel perfect for going out with your friends and sharing food the way that we did. It honestly wouldn't take much to convince me to go back, I'm already dreaming of that pizza!! The pricing is really reasonable as well - for 3 drinks, starter, two mains and the 3 desserts it came to £40 so £20 each which I think is an amazing bargain for what we got! 
Have you been? Which dishes did you try? 
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Koh Samui - things to do

Next up is Koh Samui, I definitely loved it here more of the two places and really could have spent more time here! I can't wait for the day I get to go back! Here's a few things we got up to...

1. Tamarind Spa We saw this place on an airport billboard and after 2 minutes of googling decided we HAD TO go. We opted just to use the springs and steam caves as we couldn't afford the massage package. When you get there all phones and cameras are taken away so you can totally relax. So outside the spa was all we could take photos of, I think you can see how stunning it is anyway! so there are a couple of cool springs which has the freshest water I think I've ever been in, my hair felt so soft after being in them. Then you have two steam caves at two different temperatures. The steam cave with the lower temp. had some body scrubs outside you could scrub onto yourself to then go into the cave and let all those good ingredients sink into your skin. Afterward they even provided us with a light snack and drinks which was crab cakes and tofu spring rolls. I would 100% recommend to come here! 

2. Zenses Spa So we booked this spa as a little treat and oh my gosh it was gorgeousss. We got the hot coconut oil massages and this was hands down the best massage I've ever had. I honestly came out feeling like a whole new person. The massage was around 1200 or 1600 Baht I can't remember but honestly although its like 1000 Baht more than other places it's totally worth it! This is just down the road from Ark bar and that general strip. 

3. Potato beach club - we stumbled upon this place accidentally, but bean bags on the beach? banging tunes and decent food? this place was a hit with me! You could even get massages on the beach as well! I could have easily spent all day here! 

4. Bars - Ark Bar/ Green Mango/ Hush Of all the bars Ark bar seemed the most well known and was rammed with people, we kinda used it as a pre drink place but it was a really great place to meet people and one night they even had fire dancers, it was mostly house music when we were there. Most nights we went to green mango which played more chart music, this place actually had two different djs but we never ventured that far into the club and stayed near the front. Lastly we went to hush, we kept going past and I kept hearing all these banging tunes - old school r'n'b and hip hop so I convinced us all to go and it was so good! they didn't have much in the way of AC so it was freakin boiling in there but at one point everyone was in a circle having a dance off! 5. Diving/ snorkelling trip to Koh Tao. 

6. Trip to Koh Pagan - You can get the Ferry from Samui to Koh Pagan for around 300 Baht, on our boat on the way there we got to watch Mr Bean! aha! We only had one night in Koh Pagan but we went to Amsterdam Bar which is a mooch up a hill but look at that view ( ...see photo above...) it was stunning!! - totally worth going just for that - Especially at sunset! It was also coincidentally the half moon party! Expect a lot of house music but it was really good! It wasn't so much my friends scene and to be fair it wasn't really the kinda house I like but I still really enjoyed it! And the paint designs are crazzzy though if you aren't at the ' main stage' the paint is a little redundant. Keep up to date with my latest posts by following me! :)
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Phuket - Things to do

Second instalment, holiday blues are strroonngg right now. It's been 3 weeks, I can't believe it! I just want to go back esp as Manchester is freezing right now! In this post I thought I would talk about what we got up to in Phuket! 

1. Day trip to Phi Phi Islands & Maya bay - This was our first day trip, we went snorkelling around some of the islands - there were 3 stops in total. The boat wasn't huge and it was pretty cramped and uncomfortable to be honest but they did have snacks and food for everyone, though there wasn't much choice. The first island was pretty touristy so they had shops and a bar available and the snorkelling was nice. We paid 1200 Baht for this. 

2. Canoeing trip to James bond island - this was my favourite of the two day trips! We paid around 1200 baht for this trip and it was just stunning, the islands were amazing and you went on the canoes twice with a guy steering you round, The first place we went in this cave which had insanely love ceilings, some crazy green glowing light and a statue of Buddha that had formed out of water dripping. The second trip we went through a kind of tunnel and came out at the most stunning scene a kind of alcove, I'm not sure how to describe it but we were surrounded by rock and plants with the sun coming from above. Then we came out into a stunning view of giant rocks coming out the water - randomly though there were two chickens just chilling there ahahaaa! The boat wasn't too cramped and they provided some delicious food and drinks for us all. I even jumped off the boat whiiich did take quite a bit of convincing as I am seriously scared of heights. Same as the first boat trip we got a deal where we paid 1200 Baht.

3. Bangla Road - this is the party road, full of bars, strip clubs and all sorts! Be prepared for some sights but all in all this road had some really good bars - we passed on all the ping pong shows. A LOT of live bands who were more than willing to play any requests and were all so lovely. We had a little bar crawl and loved them all! Just off Bangla road to the right are some restaurants and I really recommend No. 5 ( yes that's it's name) - Just get the Pad Thai! 

4. Patong beach - The beach is stunning and you can get umbrellas and seats for around £150 per umbrella. They have people coming round with water and fruit you can buy and there are even beach view massages and jet ski's for hire. The beach at sunset is beaaautiful. Just behind are heaps of shops as well! 5. Simon Cabaret - you will see this advertised everywhere and it was really good. The set production was insane and so were the costumes, They did an array of english, Thai and even Russian dances. There was one lady who did an insane rendition of 'single ladies' and a crazy bigger lady who was hilaairious coming into the crowd and striking fear in most of the men that she was coming for a kiss! ahaaa. All of a sudden the beginning of cell block tango came on and I was buzzzin, me and my friends had all gone to see chicago live a few years back and we all love it...but then... IT WAS THE DISNEY VERSION. oh my god. YASSS. At the end of the show you can pay to have pictures with them all, be careful as they can easily con you into paying a little more by getting more people in the photo or a friend but it was all good fun so I would really recommend this. If you have been to Phuket let me know where you recommend to go!  Ciao x Keep up to date with my latest posts by following me! :)
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Phuket - Places to stay

Here comes the first instalment on my Thailand series - I can't beleive it's been a week! I have such blues :( - but I thought I would start with where to stay, I had the opportunity to stay in 3 hotels while I was in Phuket so I thought I would give you the low down on them all. 

1. Aspery Hotel - This was the first hotel I stayed in, I pretty much booked it because it had a rooftop infinity pool overlooking the sea...or so I thought, since the picture had been taken a new hotel popped up slightly blocking the view from the pool but the poolside did have 3 tiers so you could still get that sea view. The room itself was really nice, tv, double bed, really nice bathroom - so I was pretty chuffed with it! The hotel is about a 3 minute walk from Patong beach and has some 7/11s close by. It's also a 10-15 minute walk to Bangla road ( I have a post on this coming in a few days!) The hotel itself also has a mini spa which has got decent prices and I had a Thai massage there which was really good ( even though I got stood on by a giant Thai lady!! it was 200 Baht) - it also has a restaurant on the ground floor and the staff were really lovely and helpful. I arrived several hours before check in and they took 15 minutes to get the room ready and even upgraded me! The hotel was £54 for two days(£13.5 for one person if you are a pair) which I think is a really decent price for the location and quality of the hotel. 

2. Wyndham sea pearl resort- oh my god. this hotel - it's what dreams are made of. This hotel is stunning, honestly, it's got amazing views of the mountains and the sea. Our suite had a Jacuzzi for each room and then a 2 minute walk away was a pool between our block. The rooms and overall decor throughout the hotel was just stunning. The breakfast here was really decent as well! The only slight downside to this hotel is that it is a little bit of a mooch from town so you aren't able to walk anywhere but tuk tuks were 200 Baht during the day and sometimes 200-300 a night which isn't heaps. The hotel itself has a spa and it does offer some discounts on activities but we did find that a lot of things were cheaper outside of the hotel - esp getting a taxi to the airport. The prices for this hotel varies on what style of room you book and the pool/jacuzzi situation but for 1 night between 2 for a jacuzzi it was £69 - so around £34.50 each. -  I honestly think it's worth it though!! Even if you only do it a couple of nights!

3. Sira Grande hotel - this one I stayed in last and of all of them it was my least favourite. It was a decent room, the bed was huuuuge it fit 3 of us comfortably but the shower leaked all over the floor which wasn't great. The pool was stunning and was really lovely,it also had a mini gym on top if you want to stick to your fitness on holiday. The location is good though, it's a 5 minute walk from the Robinson mall and around 5-10 minute walk to Bangla road as well. I  got 2 nights for £48 and one night for £53 which didn't make sense! It was still a decent hotel but if I was going back I probably wouldn't stay here again as I enjoyed the other two so much more!  Keep up to date with my latest posts by following me! :)
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Goal wishlist

So...life has been mental, I've kinda gone into overdrive into making and painting for my shop with working 20-30 hours overtime and gymming as well, safe to safe I AM exhausted, I'm telling myself its a good kind of exhausted but I need to get better at time management because I need to squeeze in that time for blog posts - I am getting a teeeeeeeeny bit better at posting on my fashion blog - okay I'm rambling. So last week in all the chaos of life I tried to spend some time reading blog posts and I LOVED this one by reinventing Neesha where she talked about her goals and beauty things she would reward herself if she achieved them. It made me think of all the million and one things I want and how I could push myself to work harder to earn them. - I didn't want to focus on one thing so I've made goals for all aspects of my life blog/art/ money. 
So some goal/treat ideas
1. ADIDAS cheetah stan smiths. BEAUT BEAUT BEAUT. I can purchase these once I have properly completed BBG 1.0 this means sticking to my LISS and doing ALL my resistance and HIIT when it gets introduced. These kind of shoes NEED to be earnt. 
2. Triple helix piercing, I've wanted this for a while and was going to go last month but realised that money for Thailand was much more important so I decided to make this a goal. I can get this once I have sold my first 10 jars. 
3. Foot tattoo's I saw a pic of a blogger with some simple traditional flowers on both her ankles and I've really loved the idea, I would have to work it around my current foot tattoo but decided to treat myself once I've finally gotten rid of that pesky overdraft.
4. Olivia Burton tortoiseshell watch, oh my god this is my dream watch, I want to start doing stall's so decided that I can do this once I've made £500 at a stall. ( I'm going to re-assess this once I've started stalling incase that's just a bit unobtainable...)
5. Get some black and white Nike Roshe Runs, I have a pair of these to send back because the tick is silver and maybe that sounds weird but if I am paying £70 for a pair of black and white shoes I want my tick to be WHITE. so decided to put these off  until I have completed BBG 1.0 for the second time with higher weights. 
6. Buy a Charlotte Tilbury highlighter, a girl tried this out on my when I tested for my foundation and I have never wanted a highlighter so much, oh my god. Can't get this until I've gotten 500 bloglovin followers!  -C'mon and help me out folks aha! 
7. Get Gallance Dore's book Live Life Love - I've wanted this for ages so decided this can be a treat once I have gotten up to 500 twitter followers. 
8. Get a leopard print triangl bikini, I've lusted after this for so long but agreed to myself I wouldn't get this until I had nicely toned up - it's going to take a lot of work but it'll be worth it! 
9. Get grey/pastel hair, I've wanted this for tiiiiime, but the up keep is something I just can't afford at the moment. so decided this one is happening when I pay off my credit card. ( I may also treat myself to a Charlotte Tilbury magic cream..... you can never have enough CT!) 
10.  Nars cruella lip pencil, something else I've wanted for ages, named after one of my favourite and most stylish villians. I can treat myself once I have 500 instagram followers. 
11. Olivia burton bee watch - Sell 30 paintings, I've become obsessed with colour study paintings, they will be coming to the shop this weekend once they are dry, at the moment I have 11 canvas's but I hope to order a lot more in april for when I do the stalls. 
12. Treat myself to some topshop jeans, I've honestly not worn jeans for years now because of inner thigh chaffing and just generally being uncomfortable. So I decided when I have shrunk my inner thighs a little more I'm going to treat myself to my first pair of jeans in ages. Through the BBG plan I have managed to shrink the things A LOT, I'm so happy with it, I definitely feel more confident so perhaps by the end of the plan I'll have a pair of jeans! 
That's all I've got so far, making this list has been so much fun, I may do a post in 6 months time with an update on how I got on with all my goals- or I may come back and slash them off when done. Have you written a list like this? what's on your wishlist? xx
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DIY:Budget friendly Herb Garden

You need - a crate. paints, brushes, sponge, crafting knife, cutting board, tracing paper. Waaaay back I promised my sister I would do her a herb garden for her new house and I knew I wanted to do some sort of wooden rustic box. Initially I was going to get one from H&M home but the one I wanted kept selling out and I had seen another wooden storage in Ikea I had decided to get so I could personalise it. When I was there I came across this little crate and I knew it would be perfect!!  First off I painted the box red with just a bog standard acrylic paint, I had tried to sand the wood down but I don't really feel like it added anything when applying the paints. Then I stencil'd their name and fresh herbs onto some tracing paper and cut this out. Don't worry if your cut out doesn't look perfect you can always paint over any imperfections. Then I dabbed on some white paint, dabbing with a sponge worked A LOT better than doing it with a brush- et Voila! It's done!  I got a block of soil from Ikea for £2 and you don't even need half of it to fill this up! I also got a pack of 8 herbs from B&Q for around a fiver so for £12 in total it's a great and personal gift to do for someone that doesn't break the bank. Depending on what colour you want the crate, what you want to write and how brave you are at free handing - you can knock down the amount of tools needed. I did think after that maybe I should have lined it with some sort of plastic to make it deeper but for standard kitchen herbs it should be deep enough. So that's another option that you could do! You can also buy already grown herbs and just re-pot them! if you try this let me know!!  x Keep up to date with my latest posts by following me! :)
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The perfect way to end a week?

I've been slacking... I know, I've been very painting motivated lately so the blog has kinda fallen by the wayside(?). It also doesn't help that I changed cards and haven't updated my photoshop subscription and now I don't have it -oops expect poorly edited photos!! Last week I decided to test out my Lush yoga bomb as I had had a little bit of stress going on and apparently 15 minutes of the yoga bomb is the same as 3 hours of yoga..... nooooot quite sure how true that is but I'll take lying in a bath over downward facing dog any day.  This bath bomb has a really nice refreshing and uplifting smell which I found quite energizing, it had a lot of glitter which I didn't expect it also randomly started producing purples and other colours which was exciting! I'm always a bit apprehensive about glitter in the bath bombs but it didn't stick to me at all which is great but then you do have the afterbath ( aftermath...see what I did there?) of glitter ALL OVER YOUR TUB. So after you are all nice and relaxed you then gotta do some cleaning up - not quite the dream there but I will let it slide....aaaanyway a lovely lush bath with Rudimental's new album playing was just the perfect way to end the week off, I'm seriously loving this album and it's feel good vibes so the two together are a dream, I just feel a bit sorry for my neighbours who may or may not have heard my screechy cat voice singing along. Oh well, swings and roundabouts.  What's your favourite Lush bath bomb? What music do you play to compliment it? Keep up to date with my latest posts by following me! :)
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Learning an old(ish) skill

I'm FINALLY living my dream of painting again, except this time I am tackling oil paints. This isn't something I have done since high school and I am pretty much making it up as I go along. I decided to swap to oils because if I ever wanted to paint in colour with acrylics I was finding by the time I had mixed the paint got a stroke on it would then be dry( I maaay be exaggerating a little there) but I tend to paint with a very dry brush which didn't help. I was at a point where I felt like acrylics just weren't for me but at the same time I found the idea of oils very overwhelming and I was struggling to find the space and also the creative drive to paint for years.  Oils definitely AREN'T as scary as I thought, they have all these liquids and extras you can use but I actually prefer them without for now. It is hard reteaching myself because I haven't actually painted for years and I haven't used oils since I was like 17 but I am slowly learning the way I used to paint and adapting it to oils. I really love the challenge and seeing the picture come together.  I thought I would start by painting Ella Eyre which.. maybe wasn't a smart move to start with considering I am awful at hair but I got there and I'm happy with it -ombre and curly hair was definitely a challenge! I've found I've got a whole new drive for painting, the new space I'm in is really helping me and I feel so creative. There is a lot for me to work on with both painting and relearning to sketch and draw and develop a style I hope people will see and recognise as mine. I get so frustrated with it sometimes when it doesn't come out like I feel it should it look; so I need to learn to work past that and admit that sometimes some things are going to look absolutely awful while I am still learning. I've ordered a couple of books of oil painting paper so I'm going to keep picking out pictures and people that inspire me and hopefully test my painting skills so I can become better and then at the same time start developing idea's for collections which I can start next year and hopefully get into a gallery. It'll be a bit of a challenge with working full time but I am hoping to get out 30-50 portraits by the end of the year! I'll keep you updated on how it goes! I will be selling these on etsy and I am thinking about taking commisions as well!  Have you tried something new lately? Laura x Keep up to date with my latest posts by following me! :)
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Another update - I'm back!

Hey guys! I know it's been a while but I AM BACK.
The internet basically didn't get set up until friday - a lot later then expected!!  3 weeks without the internet has been a little refreshing but I have missed blogging and I have a list of things I am excited to blog about so I am hoping to get regularly posting again from maybe weds or friday onwards. I want to get some pictures and posts written up in good timing and not rushed. 
I was debating doing a mini house picture post - of like little details we've done to make the house more homely. I'm not sure just yet, I may wait a while until things are more set up and we have a few more bits and bobs in the house. I really want to do a room post but the walls need painting and frames bought so perhaps October when I have worked on it and got it how I want it set up.
Being in the new place has already sparked my creativity and inspiration, it's insane how quickly life has changed. We've been cooking really healthily and I may do a few meal posts and healthy idea posts which is exciting. I've started creating ideas and brainstorming for my clothing line again, I really want to get this out next year and I've been thinking of ways to raise the funds for it. I've also started drawing and hopefully going to start watercolours and re-learn how to oil paint! I'm thinking about selling my paintings to help raise money to start the brand so keep an eye out! the oils are going to be portrait practices so we will have to see how I get on as I haven't painted with oils since high school and I haven't really done colour portraits. all in all I'm just really excited about life and thinking about what my life may be like this time next year - fingers crossed I won't be stuck in a call centre! 
What have you all been up to?  x
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When bloggers meet up... feat. Kitti

(all these photos have been taken from Emma, please check out her post for even more photos!) A while back Jemma asked a couple of us bloggers from the previous #nwbloggersmeetup if we would like to meet up again but this time with the assistance of santanders new app Kitti.  Not only is it named well but this app is really handy for organising events with friends, basically you can start a fund and invite your friends to join in. So we started one for a nice meal and drinks and each of us put in how much we wanted to spend. There is a small fee for adding money, something like 35p each time but that's not too bad. Jemma then got a card and pin that we used on the night - super easy! We actually had some money left over we had to ask the waiter after we paid to let us tip him it all!  So I got to see Katy, Jemma, Holly, Sarah (for the first time!), Emma again and we all picked to go to smugglers cove in liverpool. I was so excited as it all looked delicious and the place looked amazing with awesome decor. The service was excellent (props to poor Eddy who had to put up with us!) and the food was delicious - FYI I had the chicken and rum pate which you can see above and a chicken burger. Only problem was me and Katy were facing a giant window and pretty much couldn't see anyones faces if we looked that way! The drinks were delicious and some of us (... maaaaybe me and Jem more than others....) enjoyed a few more then we should have on a school night.  Overall it was a lovely night and I can't wait to see the girls again! I would definitely use the Kitti app again as well it was really handy for paying and knowing how much you had to spend! you can also see what I wore here.  Have you tried it out yet?  Ciao x Keep up to date with my latest posts by following me! :)
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Lost & Found - My first festival 'abroad'

I love festivals. I love the atmosphere, the people, the music, the style - everything! I've been to several festivals now - Leeds, Parklife, Glasto to name a few... but I kept dreaming of festivals abroad, they have some amazing line ups! Next year I really want to try to do as many festivals as I can but this year I will settle for 3-5. When Annie Mac announced a brand new festival in Malta called 'Lost and Found' I was buzzing, I had always wanted to go to Malta so it kinda killed two birds with one stone! 

' Lost and Found' is a dance/house fesitval. Some of the acts I saw were: Shy FX, Kaytranada, Heidi, MK, Skream/Route 94, Eats everything, the lady herself - Annie Mac and various other people. We didn't get a hotel through the festival and instead got an apartment close by to save money ( turned out it was opposite one of the hotels in the packages offered so this was a pretty good idea!) I had absolutely no idea how this was going to work espcially when I saw the shuttle bus operated from 8pm to 6am!! Basically they had pool parties and djs in the day with boat parties you could buy tickets for and then at a separate site all the Djs were on at night over 4 stages with a full day event on the sunday. I went on the Skream/route 94 boat party and once we took off and my seasickness went I had such a great time. Guaranteed I have A LOT of sleep to be catching up on! 

The festival was quite small around £7,500 which was actually really nice because we constantly found ourselves bumping into people we had met before! As well as the 4 stages it had a chill out area full of flamingo's! It was so cool! They had bars at every stage and I never had to wait that long for a drink! It wasn't ridiculously expensive but I did find I spent a lot more then expected and actually the festival is one of the best organised I've ever been to, I never had to really queue at all!! Sadly I didn't get to see too much of Malta itself but all I will say is - it's one windy place!( something I was not prepared for!) From the boat it did look stunning. I took pretty much just beach clothes and had to borrow a jumper! Though it was only windy for a few days! Would I go back? - absolutely! next time I'll take a few more jumpers though! Did any of you go? what festivals do you recommend?  Ciao x Keep up to date with my latest posts by following me! :)
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Lifestyle: 14/03/2015 NW blogger meet up

Taken from Liv

The only photo I remembered to take - on my phone!

This saturday I got to go to my second blogger meet up which had been in the pipline since around January time! I wasn't as nervous as last time 1) because I already knew Gemma and 2) because a lot of us had been chatting in a FB chat so I already knew I was going to get along with these girls just fine and 3) last time I turned up late in a room of strangers I was welcomed so nicely.  The event was held at Kabinett in Liverpool which is a stunning little bar, I am in LOVE with the decor and they played such an amazing album( I had to ask the bartender what album it was - turns out it was a spotify playlist of acoustic covers!). Being the ever professional blogger - I left my SD card at home so I'm sorry about the lack of pictures! We each got a cake each ( From Hello and...) which was delicious and everyone grabbed a drink and started chatting, we were pretty much laughing from the word go! Admittedly I didn't get to chat to everyone so hopefully I'll get to chat to them all soon! Though I spent quite a bit of time falling in love with Carrie's life and shop Junkbox ( Where I got a lovely t shirt from). There was also a lovely girl from Natalie Roche who was testing out some of their amazing products on the girls. Later on we held a raffle to help raise some money for two charities - We raised £80 in total( for freshfields and claire's house) - I won a lovely candle from ArranAromatics and also a jar of coconut oil from Lucy Bee - which I can't wait to use for some hairmasks!

At the event we got a goody bag filled with so much! I couldn't believe it! so many companies have been so kind and generous! Beauty, food, stationary - allsorts! ( some of the food maaaay have got eaten before the pictures were taken....#sorrynotsorry). I got a little crazy excited about the stabilo pens and the busyb stationary...I'm just a bit of a stationary freak. There is just so much here to mention, I am going to do a few separate posts on products so keep an eye out for them in the next 6 weeks!

We also got a gorgeous little goody bag from Utility( which had a pineapple car freshner which I am SO excited to put in my little brum when I get it!) and Natalie Roche which had some amazingly soft brushes and products to test!  Afterward we went to Las Iguanas in Lpool One where we didn't get the best service from the staff ( though the manager was lovely and made up for it) we did have some delicious food. It was such an amazing day - my throat hurts from laughing, I can't wait to see these girls again!  To see some amazing photo's of the event check out Hannah who captured it beautifully! Ciao x  Keep up to date with my latest posts by following me! :)
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Homespiration

I'm in the process of looking for a new place to live and this means I need to plan my ideal home....naturally I headed over to pinterest for some inspiration. ( and also gh0stparties because I am borderline obsessed with her house...)  Here are some pins that have really inspired me from my home inspiration board

I've already picked out our sofa's, tables, tv stand, throw and bar cart! Still some accesories and extras to go! Obviously this is going to be quite pricey so I am aiming to get the house decorated over several months. So....check back in a few months time to see how I got on!  What has been inspiring you? Where is your favourite place for home buys? Ciao x Keep up to date with my latest posts by following me! :)
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