A little bit of everything

This past month has been filled with what seem like never ending days filled with arguments and bad news with a few great memories here and there.

My dad's currently fighting prostate cancer. It was caught early, which is good, but 2 years on from finding it, months of pain, and one surgery later they've decided they might need to actually do something real this time and are going in for a second surgery on the 26th November. I'm both relieved and nervous about this, I'm sure you can understand why.

It's also nearing Christmas, but before that I have to hand in my essays and do an exam for university. For anyone who doesn't know, I'm currently studying a Bachelor of Arts degree in Early Childhood Studies with practitioner options in the hope of becoming an Infant School Teacher after completing a PGCE. It's something I'm very passionate about doing, but getting there is somewhat of a struggle due to things happening in my personal life.

Let's move on to happier things! On the 31st October (yep, halloween!) I went down to Brighton. I'll write a proper blog post on it, but my main reason for going was to do a Tea Mixology Course at the Bluebird Tea Company. I really enjoyed it and I was really glad I went. I even want to go back for a second time, and I may be taking my sister next time. Whilst I was there I also visited Lush and bought so much stuff! It's definitely worth a haul blog post so look forward to seeing that in the near future also!

I think that's pretty much everything up to date now. I hope you're all well? How was your Halloween?

Bye for now!

Pumpkin Loaf Cake recipe

I am so sorry for not posting on here recently. Other than the usual excuse of university and coursework I am also full of horrible flu! I went to Lush earlier in the week (and again today) to pick up some of their new Christmas and Halloween range and I want to do a haul on that for you, but I can't smell anything! That will be coming soon though. For now, I'm going to stick with the Autumn season and show you my pumpkin loaf recipe. This recipe has aspects taken from other people's recipes but it's basically my own. I hope you like it, I think it's delicious and perfect for this season.

340g Self Raising Flour
2 teaspoons Ground Cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Salt
300g Caster Sugar
125ml Sunflower Oil
3 eggs
1 teaspoon Vanilla Bean Paste (alternatively use 1.5 teaspoons Vanilla Extract)
500g Shredded Pumpkin
Preheat oven to 170°c

Firstly I sift the flour, cinnamon, salt and sugar into a bowl and stir it so it's all combined.
Then in a separate bowl mix together the oil, eggs and vanilla.
Pour the wet mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients and mix until all the dry ingredients are no longer visible.
Grab your shredded pumpkin (to get this, buy a smallish sized pumpkin, scoop out the insides and peel off the skin and blend the fleshy part in a powerful blender or food processor) and stir into the rest of the mixture. I actually do this with my hands so that it gets combined quicker without going everywhere but you can easily do this with a wooden spoon or spatula.
Put some grease proof paper into a loaf pan and pour the mixture in. The mixture should come up to almost the top of the pan. If you have too much (I did) you can put it into cupcake cases or mini loaf pans and make some little pumpkin loaf cakes.
Put these into the oven for an hour an a half (between 30-45 minutes for smaller sized cakes). Put a knife or cocktail stick into the centre of the loaf and if it comes out clean (or pretty much clean besides a couple of crumbs) your cake is probably done, if not put it back in for another 5 minutes and try again. Once you get to the point of having a clean knife you're done! It's amazing when it's warm, but comes out boiling so leave them to cool in the pan for 15 minutes before eating.

You could also put in some additional things such as: toasted pumpkin seeds, raisins, currants etc. but I decided to leave it simple.

Have a LUSH day: Lush haul and review!

I apologise for the rubbish pun in the title of this post.

Today I'm going to be showing you what I recently bought from Lush and whether I love, like or hate it. 

I really love Lush products so I'll try my best to be unbiased. 

Above is a photograph of the items I bought. 

• New Shampoo Bar - "A spicy, stimulating bar with cinnamon, clove and nettle that's especially good for thin or fine hair." 
• D'Fluff Strawberry Shaving Soap - "Taking a beloved sweet treat packed full of yummy ingredients, the inventors translated the strawberry marshmallow snack and created this lovely, light, fluffy and silly shaving foam for any part of the body."
• The Hair Doctor - "A fresh, deeply conditioning hair mask with nourishing seaweed and cleansing fuller's earth."
• Big Shampoo - "A rich shampoo with sea salt, seaweed and coconut oil to give softness and volume."
• Veganese Conditioner - "Fresh lemon juice for shine, seaweed for softness and herbal infusions for your scalp."

I'll start at the top of the list. New.

Now, with New I was expecting a really nice, warm, autumn-y smell...however I really don't like it. It definitely has the cinnamon and clove in it, but it isn't sweet at all and to me it smells almost like a medicine. With that being said I have used it and it does have some good qualities. It foams up well and in doing so means it goes through your hair nicely. I have only used it once so I can't give you a solid review, however I do think its a very good clarifying shampoo and my scalp felt quite refreshed after use. I will continue using it as a clarifying shampoo, but there are better smelling shampoos out there that do the job just as well, and it's pretty expensive for something I don't enjoy (£5.50) so I don't think I'll repurchase this.

D'Fluff Shaving Soap

I was so excited to try D'Fluff, it's been on my wishlist ever since it came out and maybe that's the reason I am so disappointed by this product. As you can see on the picture above it's a "strawberry shaving soap". There's no denying that there's strawberries in there, but the scent of this has only the teeniest tiny bit of strawberry in it. I don't know, maybe I got an off batch, maybe the strawberries they used weren't very fragrant, but when I bought this I expected it to be the nicest smelling shaving soap ever. The texture of this is not unlike Soap and Glory's Whipped Clean in the way that it takes a little work to rub it onto the skin. I found when putting this in it moulded into the gaps between my fingers than it did onto my leg that I was trying to shave. Once you do get it on your skin, however, it does work very nicely. It doesn't foam up as much as I expected but once you've shaved and washed it off it feels as though you've already moisturised and my legs feel extremely smooth. I'm very torn about this product, at £9 for 250g it is expensive but is it worth it? I think I'm going to have to keep trying it to see how much I like it. 

The Hair Doctor

Above I have included photographs of Hair Doctor before I used it, during use and after use. You have to use an incredibly large amount of product on your hair as you have to cover your whole head - including you scalp - with this stuff. I'm very selfish with product use and only use the minimum amount possible, however I read reviews on Lush's website of people using the whole tub! Once again this has a very ugly smell. I couldn't quite put my finger on it so I made my dad smell it and almost immediately said "that smells like vapour rub!" and it really does, that with a bit of menthol mixed in. Not a nice smell to be putting on your hair, but it cost £6.95 for this tub so I'm not going to waste it. I'm not sure how well you can see in the photograph, but when its on your hair it feels all matted and gross. I powered through, left it for 20 minutes (ugh the smell was awful) and then washed it out. My final verdict waaaas.....do not buy this product. It's meant to help replenish your hair, give it more body, conditioner it but it did the opposite. I mean my hair feels okay now, and the smell didn't stick around, but I only put that down to another product I've used. When I first got out the shower it felt as though I had straightened my hair with hair spray on it. It was so stiff and frizzy...it was awful. I just had to wash it again I couldn't stand it. After about 3 washes its okay now, and yes - it is very soft - but I'm certain it wasn't this product. I will not be repurchasing this. I can't even tell you if I can pluck up the courage to use the other half of the tub.

Big

If I had to marry one of these products, it would be Big. Not only because Carrie from Sex and the City marries Mr. Big and that makes me happy, but because it is honestly the most amazing product I have ever tried. It doesn't look pretty, I'll give you that, but the results it makes are beautiful (see picture below). It has coarse sea salt in it which - I believe - helps to exfoliate your scalp. It gets rid of any build up, has seaweed and other ingredients in it that makes your hair soft. It's just a-ma-zing. Lush say it makes you feel like a mermaid and in a weird way, it does! You get that beachy feel but without the stickiness of the sea spray in your hair. It foams up amazingly well and you barely have to use any product. In fact, the picture taken above was after washing my hair 5 times with it. I am so impressed with this product, it's pricey at £11.95 but I will definitely be repurchasing it. It'll last forever and gives soft bouncy waves and curls, feels amazing and does exactly what it says it does. In the picture below my hair has not had any heat on it, the only products used on it were Big and Veganese, it was brushed and then just left to air dry, and these were the results:

Veganese

Veganese is a very citrus scented conditioner. This small bottle cost £4.45, so pretty steep however, it works well with Big because it's light so it doesn't weigh down my hair or get rid of any volume created by Big. The problem I have with this is that it's so light that I feel I need to use more and more, this also isn't helped by the fact it's very hard to work in and spread it all over your hair. I've used up quarter of this bottle already and I've used it 5 times (the same as I've used Big). It's a very lovely product, and I might be tempted to buy this again if within the next few washes I start to learn to use less and just work it in better. It's advertised as being good for your scalp, I don't personally use it on my scalp but if you have a dry scalp maybe give this a go. The citrus in this, I imagine, would be very refreshing. 

What are you supposed to do when your world comes crashing around you? You've been avoiding all the big chunks of falling debris and only get hit with little bits of rubble once in a while, until you become trapped in between mountains of all the little pieces of rubble that have been piling up over time and suddenly they fall on top of you and trap you. You can't get out and you start to panic, you can't breathe because of a lack of oxygen and each sharp stab of a rock hitting you feels like the end of the world. 

I know you have to get up and remove one piece of rubble at a time, but that moment of anxiousness and panic where you can't think rationally is the worst.

My mind is a cloud of fog right now. I can't finish off thoughts and I can't focus on anything.

a little bit of random

I don't really have a title for this post, it's just a bit of random.

Today is my day off from university and after arguments between the other housemates everything's a bit awkward. Everyone's being civil but you can tell there's a bit of tension...it is a bit awkward for me particularly because I don't really know these people well yet, and everybody was crying and I didn't know what to do. In situations like that I usually make hot chocolate with marshmallows because I'm not so good at the comfort talk thing...but I have no marshmallows. I still made them hot chocolates though and then left them to it for most of the night.

This morning one of the housemates asked if we would like her to cook for us all, we all said yes (because lets face it, pork with potatoes and veggies sounds amazing!) but to try and say thank you I asked one of the other housemates to help me make a pudding. We decided on apple crumble and my home made vanilla custard, went to the shop and bought all the items and then remembered one of the housemates is allergic to apples. Ugh! We did ask if they liked apple crumble and custard though and they said yes so...it isn't really our fault! I did feel a bit bad though, but they said they would just have some of the crumble and custard.
Me and J went to the shop to get the ingredients, and we got everything we needed. I frantically looked for marshmallows too, but they didn't have any! They didn't even have flumps! I was so disappointed. What am I supposed to put on hot chocolates now?!
We made the dessert and it looks amazing. We haven't put it in the oven yet because we thought it would be best to put it in after dinner's been cooked so that its delicious for then! After I take it out the oven I'll make the custard so that the pudding has time to cook down to eating temperature. I'm so excited but I'm pretty nervous as cooking/baking is the only thing I'm good at, especially desserts, so if it doesn't go well I'll be so embarrassed.

My boyfriend of 6 months is finally coming to visit next week. Next week. When we were planning it I thought it was like 3 weeks away, but nope. I'm so excited I could cry. I don't want to tell everyone about it because if something happens which means he doesn't come I have to tell all the people I told why he isn't there and I'll feel even worse about him not coming. He's going to be staying for a minimum of one week, but hopefully longer. I never want him to leave, if he was in Chichester forever life would be amaaaazing. He lives so far away :(
I'm counting down the days!

First night in a new house

It's 07:55am. I have been awake since 5:30am. I am exhausted.

On Saturday I moved a lot of my stuff in but I couldn't move in anything big because we forgot how big the room is. We spent the day measuring and trying to find ways to make more storage space. I have the smallest room in the house, it's probably around 3.5x2 meters big, so not huge but not tiny. After measuring up we went to ikea to buy some furniture. We ended up buying a chest of drawers and 3 boxes (those square ones that are meant to go in shelves). I have more than enough storage space now so I shouldn't ever have a problem with that, so that's good.

On Sunday we had an early start. As soon as shops opened we went down to town to buy a cheap shelving unit for the kitchen. The cupboard space in there is horrific. We each have one shelf in the fridge, 2 freezer drawers and quarter of a cupboard. However, the two girls who moved in a month before me have occupied another cupboard space. The same two girls also gave themselves the 4 largest drawers (we have 2 freezers between four of us) and I have been left with a small drawer, and then the bottom drawer which has half the space in it - not happy. I've taken 2 of the drawers in the shelving unit I bought out of the 4, because I just had no where to put stuff. 

Something else I'm not happy about is there is a dog staying with us. The two girls (I'm going to abbreviate this to TTG) decided it would be okay for a dog to stay with us without asking our permission. I have asthma which is brought on by animal hair and I also am not that big of a dog person. I've been having anxiety about this dog as they're letting it go all over the house, on all of the furniture. I have told them the problems I have with dogs but they just said "we'll see how it goes". It's supposedly leaving next Monday so one week left to go. If it doesn't go I'm going to be contacting the landlord - I'm not convinced they've got permission anyway, and the tenancy agreement says no pets.

Last night was the first night I slept here. I got woken up 5 times. They must seriously have the bladders of chipmunks. They don't use the door handle to close the door so it makes a loud noise as it closes which makes me jump, then the noise of the drainage system (which I'm guessing must go above my room) wakes me up properly. That along side the anxiety and, frankly pissed off state I'm in, made it almost impossible for me to sleep.

They're now all faffing about, without any respect for me not having to be up for another 2 hours. I bet they wouldn't be happy if that was them.

The problem I have is I don't want to say anything to them because they're all friends (TTG are in a relationship) and I'm just the fourth housemate who's filled the last room in order for them to get the house, so I don't want to moan on the first full day here.

The people/person I would usually talk to about all this stuff is probably fed up of hearing it. I know I make him feel bad about it too because he never knows what to say. I just want to sleep, feel comfortable in my own home, and be happy.

Rant over.

Harry Potter Studio Tour

This is an old post from January 18th 2014

Yesterday I went to the Warner Bros Studios: The Making of Harry Potter studio tour for the second time. The first time I went I was amazed and I went with one of my good friends, Keeley, and I thoroughly enjoyed it...minus the fact I was horribly ill with a migraine and because of this I ended up missing a lot of it on the way round. My dad surprised me with tickets as a late Christmas present and this time I managed to see almost everything - I'm sure of it. I even ended up buying myself a time turner!

I've put together a little video of all of my photographs and short video clips I took during the day. I took over 1,000 so I have condensed them down quite a bit. We were there for over 4 hours, and this is only a 12 minute video. I hope you enjoy it!

I do not own any rights to the music in this video. All rights belong to Warner Bros.

Packing for university check-list!

I'm going to be starting my second year of university in less than a week, and this weekend I'm going to be moving into a student house with 3 housemates.

This time last year I wrote a blog post of what to take with me when I moved into halls. I've just reread that to see if it could help me when making a list of what to take with me, and it really did! It surprises me how much stuff I need to take even though I'm going into a different accommodation. 

So far I have lived in two different types of student accommodation. Both in halls but one was catered and shared facilities, and then for the majority of my first year I was in self-catered and en suite facilities. 

Below you'll find the list I used last year, with any additions I found to be useful. 

• Duvet

• Pillow(s)

• 2 sets of bedding (sheets, pillow cases, duvet covers)

• Mattress Topper (I actually used a mattress topper, a blanket and an old duvet on my bed because I'm fussy and the mattress wasn't very nice. I would recommend waiting until you get there and then see if you need to use any of those things. Remember, if it's truly terrible you can complain and get a new mattress!)

• Alarm clock (early mornings are going to become a familiar thing I'm afraid.

• Door Wedge (I found living with new people that it's best to have a door wedge and to use it frequently. It'll soon become obvious to the people you're living with that when your door is wedged open you're happy to speak, and when it's closed you're not feeling so social or you're busy doing work)

• Hot water bottle

• 2 sets of Towels (large and small)

• 3 types of bag (or a couple of multifunctional bags!) Handbag - for every day use, uni bag - to hold pencil case, notebooks, possible laptop etc., and an evening bag such as a clutch.

• keys and purse!

• Anything prescribed to you (i.e. I have prescription glasses and sunglasses, and asthma inhalers)

• Medical kit: paracetamol, ibuprofen, antiseptic cream, plasters etc.

• Toiletries: face wash, cleanser, toothpaste, toothbrush, moisturiser, hairbrush, spot cream, shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, razor, flannel (x2), sponge, face wipes, make up remover, cotton pads/buds, those items for that special time of the month ladies, condoms (if you're that sort of person)...

• Wash bag to shove all your toiletries into (this is particularly useful if you're in shared facilities).

• Make up + bag. Don't over pack your make up, I know I did and it took up an entire drawer. Just pack your daily make up, and then a couple of extra's for going out!

• Any electrical items you think you'd want: shaver, hair dryer, hair curler, hair straighteners...

• Nail varnish + remover

• Push Pins. It's likely your uni room will have a notice board in it already - especially if you're living in halls so don't panic about that until you get there

• A4 lined notebooks (x2), A5 notebook (x1). The A4 notebooks are good for writing up your notes that you take in class in your A5 notebook.

• Memory stick. 4GB is probably big enough for you to back up all your assignments and important documents on if you need to. Don't clutter this with personal stuff - buy a second one for that. If you're doing a tech or computer course you might want to check with your course administrator if they have any suggestions on the size of memory stick you'll need as it's more computer based.

• Stationary: pens, pencils, highlighters, eraser, pencil sharpener, permanent markers, ruler, calculator, stapler, staples, hole punch, paper clips, pencil case

• A4 Ring binders, lever arch folders & plastic wallets

• Envelopes and stamps (Although I didn't think I'd need these, they came in more use than I thought, and it's better to have them than not to!)

• I.D. (driving license/passport)

• Laptop/Kindle/Phone/iPod/iPad/computer & their chargers/cables

• Camera + memory card(s)

• rechargeable batteries

• Printer, ink & paper

• Books

• Weekend bag (for those spontaneous visits home when you feel homesick when you need your mum to do your clothes washing for you)

• Clothes: your wardrobe at university probably won't be as luxurious as the one you have at home (and by that I mean I have a hole in the wall at my new house -literally) so pack lightly. Remember that even if it's warmer when you're packing, you'll be starting uni in September so it will very quickly become cold. I recommend taking 7 outfits with 5 extra tops, 10 pairs of socks and pants etc. You'll be washing these yourself so make sure they can all be washed in the washing machine easily.

• Shoes: Don't take many. A pair of boots, sandals/flip flops, pumps, trainers, heels (although don't wear them to the student union, there's no point) and maybe even some wellington boots.  

• *This isn't necessary but I would get a cheap airer for your room that you can hang your clothes on to dry. It's unnecessary to spend even more money on the tumble dryer when you can just as easily whack them on the airer and leave them there overnight. You'll definitely earn your money back after as little as a month. (you could also hand your clothes up around your room on doors, drawers and doorhandles if you're creative enough!)

• Take a mug or two with you, even if you're in catered accommodation. Everyone needs a hot drink or a mug of soup now and again. You can even go real student and make some noodles in a large mug!

• Toilet rolls - even if you're in shared facilities, it's always good to make sure you have a toilet roll, just in case!

FOR SELF-CATERED STUDENTS

It's likely that if you're living in halls you'll have to bring all your own stuff with you to cook with/eat with etc. When I lived in self-catered we shared things like washing up liquid but for the majority of stuff we used our own stuff (and after the many, many times of finding the washing up liquid I bought to be empty, and the washing up brush still clogged up with pasta pieces, I got my own of that too.) I enjoy cooking things from scratch and baking, so a lot of these things you may find you've never used and will never use at uni so just be sensible!

• Saucepan

• Frying pan

• Spatula

• Wooden spoon

• Mixing bowl

• Cheese Grater

• Serving Spoon

• 4 sets of cutlery (dessert spoons, teaspoons, forks, knives)

• Sharp knife

• Whisk (I had both a hand whisk and an electric whisk)

• Chopping board

• Washing up brush + liquid

• Brillo pad (wire wool)

• minimum of 2 plates, bowls, glasses and mugs

• Measuring jug

• Measuring spoons

• scales

I'll be sure to add to this if I think of anything else, but in the meantime if you have any tips for me or anyone else at university or who's moving away for the first time, please leave a comment below!

My 18th Birthday Haul!

It's recently been my nineteenth birthday, so that haul will be coming up soon, however on a previous blog I had written a post about what I got for my eighteenth birthday so I thought that might interest you too!

As I told you before, my plans for my birthday were to go to the salon in the morning for some pampering, then going out for a meal in the evening and then out drinking with one of my friends, Chelsea.

I did spend the morning at the salon and it was LOVELY. I have to say that the eyebrow threading and leg waxing was much more painful that last time, but I can now say that my legs are much, much smoother than last time and my eyebrows are much more natural looking and are such a nice shape, so they were both definitely worth the pain!

Sorry to all the people who don't like feet! this is my beautiful pedicure. This is an O.P.I nail varnish and I wish I had asked what it was called because I love it. It's a blue-toned pink and absolutely stunning.

In the evening of my birthday I went out for a meal with my family, Chelsea had some important last minute plans so had to cancel on me, but it was still lovely to have my family all together for once (the last time we were all together was for my granddads funeral, pretty much a year ago). The only person who was missing was my mummy, but I'm seeing her in September.

For my birthday meal we went to Chiquito's, which is a Mexican restaurant. It has very lovely food (not to mention a very large selection of alcoholic beverages) but there was only two waiters on hand so it was very slow. Nevertheless I had a very lovely time and I'm so pleased with the evening.

I'm claiming this woo-woo to be my first legal alcoholic drink, although my first was actually a strawberry daiquiri!

I got some very lovely presents for my Eighteenth, I'll include pictures below.

Made a display of all my birthday presents for my lovely readers!

Okay, so lets start.

My mum lives over 3 hours away, so unfortunately I didn't get to see her on my birthday. She did, however, get my presents posted down to me. She got me some balloons, some beautiful flowers, some biscuits in the shape of '18' (which were very yummy!) and a lovely little decorative dish!

My best friend Amy lives a long way away as well, but I'm also seeing her soon. Eee! She posted my presents down for my birthday too. As I was out int he morning I was worried about missing the post, which I did! They posted at 10:33, so I missed it :( I was so upset! Previously the post last had delivered the parcels from my mum which had the writing "DO NOT OPEN UNTIL THE 13TH" and we had had a big discussion about how it was my birthday on the 13th and since then she was checking I hadn't opened my presents - she was lovely. Since I had missed it I could go pick it up for 24 hours, so I was pretty bummed. Then I head a knock at the door. She had brought the packet with her when she was delivering the letters. She told me she had to attempt to deliver the parcels before 1PM but as she knew it was my birthday and it wasn't a very big package she decided to bring it with her just in case. I told you she was lovely!

Amy and I had recently been expressing our love for fineliners, but I've only ever been able to afford the cheapest ones - these ones are the nicest I've ever tried. I also told her how much I really wanted a large badge for my eighteenth as I've never had one so she got me one (and then my brother got me one too!) She also got me my favourite card of this year, it's so pretty! Being the lovely lady she is, she also bought me some more Barry M nail varnishes to go into my collection and 'Guava' (blue-green) is now my favourite colour nail polish. Amy also got me two face masks, but they were so lovely I had used them before I took this photograph.

I'm going to put my sister and eldest brothers' presents to me in one picture. When I was little I LOVED these dollies from Marks and Spencer. I liked them because of how their hair felt (I used to pull it out of their heads and leave it lying around the house, it drove my parents crazy!) So for my eighteenth they both had the idea of buying me a new one. My brother also got me a large badge.

My other brother bought me a few little gifts too, which is more than I expected so that was lovely. I'm not sure if he thought about it or whether he just winged it, but he got me some nail art pens (which I have been desperate to try) and a pen from paperchase - which is amazing to write with.

My dad bought me quite a few little things for my birthday. My main present was him paying for me to go to the spa I mentioned earlier, but he also got me a lovely pair of shoes. They are so surprisingly comfortable to wear and walk in. They're a studded, nude suede material, with floral detailing made out of stiff lace. They have a zip up the size and a pretty bow on the heel. They're absolutely gorgeous and look pretty with a dress or with skinny jeans.

My friend from school and college, Sarah, got me a lovely bath set for my birthday. As funny as it sounds, I can't wait to use it up so I can use the beautiful tray it comes in. It looks a bit vintage-y and it will probably hold all of my jewellery. 

My friend from school, Poppy, got me a beautiful present from ESSENTIAL which is a lovely jewellery shop. She got me a gift box of a gorgeous bracelet and a lovely ring! I'm a bit funny about rings but I really like this one and I can see me wearing it more than any of my other rings.

And what's a birthday without buying yourself a birthday present?

Who am I?

Hey, I'm Maisie!

I'm a nineteen year old, second year university student. I am currently studying Early Childhood Studies in the hope to achieve my overall career goal of becoming an infant school teacher (school teacher for 4-7 year olds).
In my spare time I enjoy spending money...even when I don't really have it! I have become a lot better but I still shop enough for me to blog about it. I absolutely hate buying things and then finding them to be rubbish or not work how I wanted them to, so before I buy things I usually research them. One of the best ways I have found to research products is through blogs. As I buy a lot of stuff I'm willing to give my opinion on, in the hope that it will help influence someone to buy or steer clear of those products.
Not only will I be posting reviews on here but there's a good chance I'll be posting D.I.Y's and life updates from time to time.
I'm not committing to anything (just like Louise from Sprinkle of Glitter, I have commitment issues when it comes to things like these) but I am hoping to post at least once a month, but ideally once a fortnight.
I really love beautiful things and I enjoy being creative to make average things turning into pretty things!
I have two pet bunny rabbits:

Weasley - a one year old, ginger, dwarf lop

and Trouble - a two year old, tortoise-shell, dwarf lop.

In September I will be moving into a house with 3 housemates, so that will be a new adventure I'm sure I will blog about!
Me and my best friend, Amy, recently took part in the Pretty Muddy Obstacle Course for Race for Life and raised £200 for cancer research and we were pretty impressed. I think we both want to do this again next year, it was amazing fun, although I need to remember to take my inhaler with me next time as we had to walk pretty much all of it because of it.

Me and Amy right after the muddy obstacle course!

I have had two previous blogs, so popular blog posts from there I may repost on here sometimes, but they just got too messy and out of control for me to handle, so I'm giving it another go!
Please drop by again soon!