Do more of what makes you happy. (Blogtober #6)

On the one day I actually can have a lie in I end up waking up early. Not only am I waking up early, I'm waking up early with a cold! Not only do I have a cold, it's raining! Pretty heavy rain as well. So it's cold, wet and rainy outside. And I'm cold, sniffly and tired inside. What a miserable day I have ahead of me. And I have to work this evening until 9pm, which also sucks. But apart from all this rubbish stuff, I've tried to fill my day with nice things, to make myself feel better.

I'm wearing my favourite cosy jumper.
I've listened to some of my favourite music.
I've had three cups of my favourite tea.
I had leftover pizza for breakfast, YUM!
I've been catching up on different Youtubers vlogs from vlogtober.
I did some more of my current cross stitch project.
I did some online shopping, I bought two mugs from John Lewis which should get here tomorrow.
I'm wrapped up in a blanket.
I've been creating a birthday wishlist, because my birthday is next month.
I've scrolled through pinterest, looking at lots of lovely photos and quotes.
And now I'm writing this blog post!

So even though I feel tired, ill and now my nose hurts from all the sneezing and nose blowing. I've done some lovely things today so that's made me happy. I just wish my feet weren't so cold!

Rest Days (Blogtober #5)

Even though it's the weekend, I still have to work. I have a part time job in my local Waitrose and Sunday is my main day to work. Today I worked from 10 till 8 rather than finishing at 4 like I normally do because we were deep cleaning our store.

It's safe to say I am absolutely shattered! But we got a lot of work done this afternoon and we all got pizza when we finished.

I hope everyone out there reading this had a lovely Sunday. Either relaxing, spending time with your family or working like me!

But now I'm relaxing on the sofa, watching Our Girl and drinking my favourite tea.

I've got a busy week of extra shifts coming up, as well as my Art Journaling class tomorrow, which I should write a post about at some point and a few errands and jobs I need to do. So let's hope it's a good week!

Candy Kittens are my favourite kind of kittens! (Blogtober #4)

Another food based post! I think you're starting to get to know me quite well here!

But this one is quite a cool one. Have you heard of Candy Kittens? They're a relatively new company, Jamie Laing of Made in Chelsea began his gourmet candy brand in 2012 and recently they started selling them in Waitrose. More specifically, the Waitrose I work in!

And here they are on the top shelf in the sweets aisle of "my" Waitrose. It is my Waitrose, I work there, therefore it is mine!

I've tried two of the four flavours of Candy Kittens. The ones I have tried are Eton Mess and Peaches & Cream. The two other flavours are Apple & Elderflower and Sour Watermelon.

Both are really good! They have a very chewy texture, similar to those big flat strawberries you can get in pick and mix. 

They are made using natural flavours, colours and fruit juice. They're also gluten free, which is great! But they aren't suitable for vegetarians though, which is a shame.

This is what they look like, they're shaped like little cat heads! All of them have a two tone colour, which is different depending on the flavour. As well as being branded with the CK logo. 

Eton Mess is my favourite flavour, they're just like a creamy strawberry flavour. They're great!

The Peaches and Cream ones taste exactly like that, like real peach as well. Not like a synthetic peach. They're really sweet and creamy.

The only thing wrong with these is they're so good I can't just have a few. I have to eat the whole bag...

Are My Eyebrows "On Point" Yet? (Blogtober #3)

This time last year I didn't do anything to my eyebrows. Maybe every now and then I'd pluck the stray hairs but that was it, I was never very good at that either.

But over the last year, since I began training as a makeup artist I've really enjoyed doing my eyebrows.

I finally understood what every makeup artist/beauty guru/girl who fills in her eyebrows was on about when they said it makes such a difference when you fill in your eyebrows. But it really does! It can completely change the way your face looks and change your makeup look as well.

The products I use to fill in my eyebrows are pretty cheap and nothing exciting. But I wanted to share them on my blog because it's something I love!

I have two pencils that I use to fill in my eyebrows, depending on how I want them to look.

My favourite pencil to use is the Eylure Brow Pencil in dark to medium brunette. It's a cool toned dark brown and you can get really precise lines with it. It's great for adding extra shape and defining your brows, as well as adding fullness and colour. I also have the Essence brow pencil in brown , which is a slightly warmer brown.

To set my eyebrow hairs in place I use the Maybelline Brow Drama in either medium brown or dark brown. Depending on what makeup look I'm going for or how dark I want my brows. It does a good job of adding colour and texture to your brows as well as keeping the hairs in place.

Here's some examples of what my eyebrows look like, as you can see I keep them quite natural. I focus most of the products in the end of my brows to give them more definition and shape. Now my eyebrows aren't anything amazing or super sculpted and defined like some people. But I really enjoy filling them in now! It's really satisfying when I have a good eyebrow day! It's the little things!

(Every time I see this online it makes me smile!)

Two for Tea? No, Just One! (Blogtober #2)

I have always said I hated tea. Like the normal tea kind of tea that you have with milk and sugar. But I love iced tea! It's one of my favourite drinks, if I go to a restaurant or cafe and they do some kind of iced tea I will always get it. My favourite places to get iced tea from are Bill's and Costa. Bill's put fresh mint and sliced peach in theirs and the Costa one is just really sweet! But Both of them are really good!

I tried to find a hot peach tea to try, that I can make at home. But I couldn't find peach tea ANYWHERE. Literally anywhere. So I went for something else instead.

I have three different flavours of tea that I'm trying out and they're all from Twinings. I have Lemon & Ginger, Cranberry & Blood Orange and Blueberry & Apple.

I've had the lemon one for about a week and I've had one everyday which I never thought I'd do! It's quite spicy so I've been putting a teaspoon of honey in it. But yesterday I bought this Agave Nectar which I can use instead, it does basically the same thing as the honey but is less sugar and calories. At least I think that's true...

I've only had a few cups of the fruitier ones so I don't have a lot to say about them, but I like them so far. Especially the Blueberry & Apple one, it's really sweet which I like. Both of them have a slightly tangy/sour taste to them as well which is a bit weird.

Another thing I want to get now is a few cute mugs and cups to drink my tea from. So I've been doing some mug shopping on John Lewis. These are some of my favourite ones that I've found. 

1/2/3/4/5/6

Here's the links to all of these mugs on JohnLewis.com

I bought one yesterday in Waitrose because it was cheap. So this is the first mug in my collection, I've never bought a mug for myself before! I'm growing up!

The Beginning of Blogtober! (Blogtober #1)

As everyone will know, today is the 1st of October and for this month I want to try something new with my blog. I'm going to do "Blogtober"! I've seen people on YouTube do "Vlogtober" before and I thought I'd do a similar thing here on my blog.

So for the next month I'm going to try and post everyday, but it may not be everyday as I'm still quite new to this blogging thing. I've got some ideas for upcoming posts and all sorts of things I want to write about.

Hopefully I'll get my posts out on time, lets wait and see!

So you'll be seeing a lot more of this face in October. And reading a lot more of my words. I'm looking forward to it!

I've Gone Cross Stitch Mad!

Over the last few months I've really been getting into cross stitch. I first started doing little cross stitch kits when I broke my ankle at the beginning of the summer and now I absolutely love it. I'm a little bit obsessed!

This is all the stuff I have in my cross stitch kit and how I store everything.

So first I have my sewing box, I bought it from John Lewis and it is the Daisychain print from one of their 150th anniversary collections. The outside is cream with yellow and blue flower details and the inside has a contrasting blue polka dot pattern. I love the little pocket and pin cushion, they're so useful!

In the top I keep the threads I'm using for the project I'm working on, as well as two pairs of scissors, a tape measure, a stitch picker and needles. I also have a few pens and pencils as well as the bits and pieces the box came with.

Underneath I keep my 10cm embroidery hoop, aida fabrics, spare thread, old patterns and mini cross stitches I've finished.

This is my bobbin box, isn't it amazing?! I got it from amazon but I have seen them in craft shops as well. You can also get different sizes, depending on how much space you need.

I have started organising my threads into colour order but I haven't done it properly yet as I did this quite quickly last night. All of my thread is from John Lewis. They have really good value embroidery floss there. You get a packet of 36 different colours for £5.50 so it's perfect for starting your collection. I got the cardboard bobbins from Ebay.

I have one cross stitch book and it's the Cath Kidston "Stitch" book. It's a really great book with beautiful photos throughout. It's full of different patterns and projects. It has tips and tutorials on different types of stitches and the projects in this book suit a range of abilities. 

This is my current project that I'm working on and it's from this book, it is the House Cushions pattern. But I'm not making the cushions I'm just following the pattern and making it into a picture to frame it.

Recently I found this Cross Stitcher magazine in Tesco and it's brilliant. It's full of different patterns and projects. I've seen one I really like in here and I can't wait to get started on it. This issue also came with a free gift - 6 cardboard sausage dog thread bobbins and neon thread! They are so cute!

I also use an A5 Black n Red notebook to plan any little cross stitches as well as copy some patterns from the internet. It has squared paper and is perfect for drawing your designs.

I'm so glad I started cross stitching and I'm really happy that I've found a hobby that I love so much. It's really satisfying to finish a cross stitch after you've worked so hard on it as well. Soon I'll be finished with my Cath Kidston House picture, I can't wait to frame it and hang it on my wall!