Entertainment of the Month: March 2016

This month has been a pleasant mixture of old and new entertainment for me. I've been reading much more this past month, or at least trying to, so when I'm reading I've just been popping on How I Met Your Mother because I've seen it all before and it's easy for me to zone out to. However I have watched some exciting new programmes too!

Thirteen

So over the Easter bank holiday everyone on twitter was talking about a BBC drama called Thirteen. Any kind of thriller/drama is right up my street so I basically sat and binge watched the entire 5 episodes. It's about a girl that gets kidnapped and held hostage for 13 years who escapes and the drama follows what happens after that. I really enjoyed this programme, keeps you guessing and constantly on edge!


Daredevil Season 2

I really enjoyed the last season of Daredevil, it took me awhile to get into it but I really enjoyed it. Season 2 is finally live on Netflix and I sat down to watch it right away. To be completely honest, I didn't enjoy this season as much as the last, it seems to be very focused around Elektra. Firstly I don't really know anything about her and secondly, meh, although there are still some pretty impressive fight scenes.


Siblings

This is a new comedy that has popped up from Netflix about a brother and sister who live together. A few familiar faces show up and it's typical awkward situational humour. It's great to just stick on and kind of zone out, but I've been generally enjoying this.

The Night Manager

I was also told about this over the bank holiday Easter weekend, so I headed to the BBC iPlayer immediately. Unfortunately episode 1 had already expired, so I asked my lovely friend Beverley to give me an overview of episode one so I was all caught up. It has an all star cast and hellooo Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie (yes I totally have a crush on him too, it's the accent!). It's about an arms dealer who has been basically untouchable by the police for years and the attempt to bring him down with an undercover agent. I really enjoyed this and if you were thinking of watching it I'd jump in right away before all the episodes expire on BBC iPlayer. Controversially one of my favourite scenes is when you see all of the weapons in actions, it's a very impressive light show.



So this month has been a good mix of old and new, I've really enjoyed watching some new thrillers actually, I wish I knew some more. As always, please send me your TV suggestions, I love watching all sorts of shows, so any recommendations are welcome!

If' you'd like to see what I watched last month, you can do so here.

Interiors: DIY Washy Tape Photo Frames.

I've always been one for displaying my Polaroids on the wall, it's a passion of mine and well, lets face it, they look kinda cool. But this time I didn't want to just stick them to the wall like I had done previously and putting them in a simple frame wasn't 'interesting' enough for my liking.

Fashion: Getting a Little Shirty.

Over the course of winter my style has been bogged down with layers of black, checks and oh, some more layers. This spring I really wanted to try some new things and widen my horizons for cute outfits and things got a little shirty.

I'd always worn shirts but as outer shirts, unbuttoned, checked and baggy, to keep warm or to feel comfy but when I came across a few more 'girly' shirts I had to snap them up. 

After trying on this blue spotted shirt from H&M I really liked the look on me, although it's a little baggy and not the most flattering on my figure but when the buttons were done up to the top I felt like it went really well with my short hair. It's quite a preppy look that I've never really gone for before but I enjoyed it enough to go buy another shirt.

This one is waaay more daring than I would usually go for but I thought I'd try it and I actually ended up really quite liking it.  It's super feminine and girly which isn't normally my style but this goes great with some blue jeans and converse for a very bright and refreshing spring look, be gone black layers!

The pattern is really pretty and detailed, lots of wild flowers with the occasional bright butterfly, it goes perfectly with my new tattoo (post here)!

I also think shirts are great for spring because they still have a long sleeve that can keep you warmer on the chilly spring days but can be rolled up during the warmer days for a more casually look. I've been wearing these with my new white leather converse and it's such a fun bright look that I've been absolutely loving. 

I'm also planning on wearing a shirt and trouser combination to my friends wedding at the start of April instead of a dress, as I think it can be quite a grown up and sophisticated look. It's quite interesting how one new piece of clothing can open up a whole new avenue for your style, isn't it?

What do you guys think, do you like shirts? How do you style yours?

Gemporia: Silver Stacker Ring.

When it comes to jewellery I'm a very hard person to please. I prefer something classy and simple but with a twist, because I'm a complicated person y'ano?

I find it really hard to find items that stand out to me especially as I love silver, when gold and rose gold always seem to be more popular, so finding silver pieces can be difficult. 

Interiors: My Lounge Staple Pieces.

After moving into our house last year, it's been one of those 'make do' situations that usually happens while you figure out what to do with your new space and lets face it, save up a bunch of cash.

When we first moved in we had to spend a fortune on buying things we needed, like a cooker, washer, dishwasher etc rather than on making it look nice. That's all about to change this year. I'm going to take some serious time (and money) to do up the house and make it a place I want to spend my hours.

Tattoo #3 and Tattoo Talk

As you can probably tell from the title of this post, I've recently had my third tattoo! I wanted to write a post about tattoos because it's something I've been interested in for yonks, from when I first fully saw my dad's tattoo's through to when I first discovered the love of my life that is Kat Von D and the TV programmes that followed. Since then tattoo culture has exploded massively and I find it all so fascinating, so I thought I'd talk you through my new piece of ink and my general thoughts around tattoo's.



Fresh and sore....
Ouch!

So I'll start with a little history, I already have 2 tattoos, one on each of my feet. I got my first tattoo when I was 20 in my 2nd year of uni and I'd always wanted a tattoo but could never decide on anything so just went for something a little off the wall. Then I got my second tattoo when I was 23 for very personal reasons. I've decided to do a separate post on my tattoo history, so I'll talk more about those in that post.

So for my third tattoo I'd been toying with getting an arm tattoo for ages, I was dreading the 'commitment' to having an arm tattoo but I couldn't think of anywhere else I wanted one so it was about finding the right placement. I saw Essie Button talking about her new tattoo and the placement on her arm was exactly what I'd been looking for and knew immediately that's where I'd get it.

The placement can't be seen at all from the front, so just walking along no-one would have any idea you have an arm tattoo from the front. When my arm is by my side and viewed from behind the tattoo sits more tucked into my side but is more visible which is what I liked about the position.

Then the hunt for something to have tattoo'd on started. For some reason, every single tattoo idea I have seems to be animal based and I really didn't want a kind of 'theme' to my tattoo's so I went on the hunt for something feminine and girly but not huge in size. After some Pinterest searching I came across some wild flower tattoo's that were small and simple but really pretty and feminine. I'd found a version that I just loved and settled on that one. I personally prefer just black and grey tattoo's, although saying that this tattoo would be quite nice with a very subtle shading colour.

Loads of people have been asking me what it 'means' and to be honest, it kind of annoys me when people ask this. It doesn't mean anything to me, it's pretty and feminine and I felt like it was very 'me' so why does it have mean anything at all? When you buy and display art around your home you don't question every piece with 'what does this mean?' 

As someone who has had meaningful and completely random tattoo's I feel like people over think a lot to do with tattoo's, I understand it's a huge commitment to have something inked onto your skin but it doesn't have to mean anything, it could just be a beautiful piece of art that you love to look at or represents you in some way. Why should I have to justify the tattoo's I have?

What are your thoughts on this? I can't be the only one that feels like this! :)

Peace,

LUSH Skincare Routine March 2016

If you caught my last Lush Skincare Routine you'll have known for awhile that I'm all aboard the Lush boat for pretty much everything self-pampering wise these days.

After heading to a recent Lush Event I spent some time one on one with one of the lovely staff talking about my skin. I've been using the Ultrabland cleanser since being kindly gifted at the last event and  have absolutely loved it, so much so that when I've eventually used it all up I'll be sure to buy another pot! It's slightly thicker than average, I work this into my face using a good layer including over my eye make-up as it doesn't irritate my eyes at all. I then take this off with a warm wet flannel and it leaves my face feeling really clean and moisturised. My friend Aimee even said she uses it as a moisturiser too, so this is a great all round product that I highly recommend!

So when I ran out of both my toner water and my moisturiser it was time to head back and find something new to experiment with. After talking with the lady, I've come to the conclusion that I have combination skin, meaning sometimes it can be dry and other times it's quite oily and she immediately recommended the Full of Grace Serum bar.

This is pretty self explanatory, its a serum in a solid bar form, you hold this in your hands until it warms up to the temperature of your body and then it starts to melt slightly. Then when you've got enough on your hands you just apply this to your face and make sure you've rubbed it in properly. As it's a serum I use this at night time as it takes a long time to sink into your skin properly, you could use this at any point but obviously you'd need to allow yourself the time. I place the serum back in the bag and it almost immediately sets again.

After applying my serum I use a new moisturiser over the top of it called Celestial. This smells amazing! My favourite scent in all the world is Vanilla and this smells of vanilla and almond, it's perfect. It's not too thick either, so it sinks it really nicely and doesn't leave your skin really sticky. I am really enjoying this moisturiser and it goes a long way, so I can imagine this lasting a long long time.

After using the combo of all 3 of these things my skin has been doing really well. It hasn't been anywhere near as oily or as dry, it seems to be fairly stable. It also seems to be helping keep my spots under control too, which is always a bonus right?! It also seems to be helping keep my make-up on longer too, which is something I always seem to struggle with.


Do you use Lush skincare? What products do you love? As I would love to hear your suggestions :)

Sunday Sitdown #6

Once again, its time for a little Sunday Sitdown and have a little catch up. Is it me or has the past 3 months just absolutely flown by? I can't believe we're 2 weeks away from April...seesh.

The past months I've been super busy on both the blogging and personal front. So this month I'll certainly be splitting this post into two!

LUSH Spring Event, Sheffield.

Spring is coming and with every new season, Lush bring out some gorgeous seasonal products. I was once again a very lucky lady to be invited along to the Lush spring event and I couldn't wait to get in there!

After a little introduction from the lovely Becki I headed around the shop to look at all the products, some of the spring stuff is super cute, I love the carrots, easter eggs and the adorable lady bird! There was plenty of mothers day products too with lovely gift boxes such as the one pictured below, they are still available in store until stocks run out :)

After looking around I headed over to the skin care area which is my favourite bit! After speaking through a few different products I added two new things to my basket, I'll be writing up an updated Lush skincare routine very soon, so keep your eyes open for that one.

I then headed over to play area! Today we were making the peoples favourite, The comforter, which I've never actually used before, so I was very excited. We were asked to take 2 handfuls, one of each colour and make them into sausages, you then twist the two around each other and then squash them down so it makes a swirled pattern. I had so much fun doing this and it smelt amazing the entire time!

Mine is on the right ^_^

Mine didn't exactly have the most amazing swirl in it but it would do, all we had to do was leave them 24 hours to set and then use them!

After this I headed over to the 'shower' station. Here I watched a couple of people have a consultation about some lovely body scrubs, shower gels and moisturisers! I saw and smelt the Yuzu and Cocoa shower gel which smelt just like chocolate orange and I couldn't help but add it to my basket, it also helps that my favourite colour is yellow!

After having a little chin wag over a drink and some snacks it was time to pay and head home, we were once again given the most generous goodie bag and I couldn't wait to have a play!



After waiting 24 hours for my the comforter bubble bar to set, the next evening I had a lovely soak in the bath, the comforter smelt amazing, even Nick commented on how nice it smelt. I used my new gifted face mask Cosmetic Warrior which smells like garlic, so not the most relaxing thing to smell in the bath but worked great on my skin. I can't wait to try the rest of the products I was gifted and let you know what I think of them, I think I'm going to use the Ladybird bubble bar next because she smells and looks great!

Let me know what products you are loving at the minute, as I would love to know!
I'm always up for some Lush suggestions!




If you interested in seeing what we made at the last Lush event please click here :)

The Fragrance Shop App Review.

Over the past couple of weeks I've been hanging around the fragrance section in Boots like a right creep smelling all the new perfume launches, I've found a couple of new amazing scents that I've been considering buying. One lunch after creepin' around I got back to my desk to see a lovely little email from The fragrance Shop, no joke, it was like fate. 

I was asked to have a play around on their iPhone app and see what I thought. I downloaded the app immediately because I wanted to try it out.

Once you've signed up you are presented with a mini questionnaire but with photographs, so they give you the option of 4 different photos for each section, such as Deco Style, Ambience and Primary Colours and you pick which one you like the most from the 4 photos and it eventually gives you a list of fragrances it suggests you try.

The 'My Try List' gives you a % of how much the fragrance matches you, so for example, here is my current 'try list' and you can see the top one is a '97%' match. I was actually quite impressed that from the photos it managed to match me with quite fruity, sweet scents, which is what I'm really into.




I actually really love Britney Spears - Fantasy  Intimate Edition, I used to wear Britney Spears when I was younger and DKNY - Delicious Delights Cool Swirl is lovely as well as I've smelt that before.

I think this app is a litter bit of fun and if anything, fun to just see what you get matched with and if it's anything close to your style or taste in perfumes.

I was also kindly sent a package from The Fragrance Shop called 'The Discovery Club', this includes samples of a bunch of 'classic' fragrances for you to try before you buy. I was really excited about this, as I  mentioned before I've been in full 'wanting to get a new scent' mode and this is a great way to have a sniff without the commitment. I also thought it was a great way to smell some that you wouldn't necessarily choose for yourself. 

There were a few that I liked but as soon as a smelt Nina by Nina Ricci I sprayed it all over me and wore it for work that day and it smells lovely and sweeter and lasted all day, I swear I could smell it for a couple of days after too. It was fruity/floral and I love that scent, I'm all about the sweeter scents. So if you are in the market to try something new and have no idea what, then this is a perfect way to try some, it would also be a cool and different gift for a friend or mum who wants to try something new but doesn't know which direction to head in. I have to say that the sample sizes are pretty decent too, so it's not like you get one or two uses out of these, they will last you awhile for each and you can get a really idea of the smell and if you like it. You also receive some discount codes so if you do like any of those in the samples, you get a discount if you want to buy the full bottle, bonus!

I can't wait to try out some more of the samples sent to me, maybe I'll be able to decide what fragrance I want before I go away in May...here's hoping!

What's your favourite perfume? I seriously want your suggestions! Specially those that love fruity and floral and sweeter scents, please leave me some suggestions!




*Items mentioned above were gifted to me but my thoughts and opinions are 100% my own.

Entertainment of the Month: February 2016

I've been ill twice this month, so I've spent more time than usual binge watching TV whilst feeling sorry for myself. Although I have watched a lot there are a few things that stood out to me, so I'll just dive right into the juicy stuff.

The Martian (2015)

I listen to alllll of the film podcasts and have heard a lot about The Martian since it's release last year but didn't get around to seeing it. Nick came back from the shop one morning after buying his breakfast and had this in hand. We actually sat down to watch this on Valentines day date night. I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed this film, its really interesting and entertaining, with the right amount of drama. I do have to admit the ending was a little far fetched but I still really enjoyed the film overall and was happy to finally watch it!


Love (TV Series 2016 - )

My friend actually mentioned this in casual conversation last week and I immediately found it on Netflix and sat down to watch. It's about two completely opposite people who accidentally meet and start a strange love/hate relationship with each other. This is right up my street, both of the characters are quite opposites, one's nerdy and quiet and the other is a rebel and a little chaotic and somehow they just seem to get on. It's also written by Judd Apatow, who wrote Knocked up, Pinapple Express and 40 Year old Virgin, so you are bound to enjoy this if you are a fan of the comedy films mentioned. Very easy to watch and I zoomed through it in about 3 evenings.



The Big Bang Theory Season 7 & 8

Netflix has finally added the 2 most recent seasons of TBBT, I've been waiting to watch these 2 seasons for ages so I'm finally up to date. A lot kind of happens in the two seasons, along with plenty of filler episodes but I still love this programme and I can't wait to watch season 9 after the exciting and very sudden ending to season 8.



The Walking Dead Season 6

For all the mega fans of TWD this month was the month that the season started back up again after a mid-season break. It's been pretty fucking drama filled as you would expect and a great start back to the season! I literally can't say anything without spoiling things but you will not be disappointed as a TWD fan.


As you can see I've been enjoying quite a lot of TV this month, I really am planning on watching more movies from now on. I really want to watch Room, The Revenant and Deadpool this month.

Let me know what you've been binge watching this month! Any suggestions welcome! :)

Revolucion De Cuba Menu Tasting, Sheffield.

Last week I was very excited to get invited along to taste the menu at Revolucion de Cuba in Sheffield. I've been in here to drink a couple of times with Nick back in the early days of dating and haven't been back since. When they kindly said I could invite along a friend, I thought it would be lovely to go back with Nick and have a date night and try the food together.

When we arrived we were immediately asked if we wanted a cocktail, for those that don't know they specialise in Rum at Revolucion de Cuba, so Mojito's were on the menu immediately, it would be rude to say no, right? We were seated, waited for everyone to arrive and before long they started bringing out some tasty food.

The first course they bought out was a sharing tray with a very strange combination of  Pork Crackling, Dried Sweet Banana Flakes and Spicy Mixed Nuts, but it worked and they all got devoured pretty quickly, my favourite had to be the spicy nuts...followed closely by the banana flakes.

Shortly after we were presented with 4 main dishes, the first of which was my favourite, Beef Fillet Skewers with Sweet potato wedges and Home-made Black Beans. The beef was really tasty with the peppers, wasn't tough at all and worked really well with the the sweetness of the potato. I didn't try the black beans because I'm not a use fan of them but people seemed to like them when trying!

Next was Sardines with Smokey Tomato Salsa, I didn't try this as I'm not a huge sardines fan, but Nick tried these and enjoyed it, the bones were soft so you don't need to spend ages picking them out!

The next dish was Roasted Butternut squash with peppers, smoked chilli jam and goat's cheese and honey sauce. I didn't try this either because I really can't stand goat's cheese but again, people were saying it was nice! It's a pity because I love squash, chilli jam and honey, just the goat's cheese really put me off with this one.

Then the last thing I tried was this dish, that I can't for the life of me figure out what it is, it appears to be chicken but when I tried it, it tasted like fish? so I'm not really sure and browsing the menu hasn't helped at all. but it tasted alright haha.

We were given another cocktail from the specials menu, which means unfortunately I can't remember the name of it, but trust me when I say it was amazing, very tasty and easy to drink (so watch out for that rum!), this was so nice it was the choice of drink for the rest of the night! It tasted like fruit juice, sweet with pineapple and of course, rum.

Then began the fun part of the evening...the burrito making class from the chef's themselves. We were all given the same ingredients and taught how to roll the perfect burrito, which was really fun and interesting to learn how to properly roll one! We were all given a flag to write our name on so they could all be taken back into the kitchen and judged on which they felt was the best burrito! and whoever won, won a lovely dinner for 2!

Everyone had fun putting these together and unsurprisingly every single one looked different! Nick's actually looked pretty good in the end and mine fell apart because my wrap was a little dry and hard, so harder to roll, but we all had fun trying! :)

After the burrito's were taken off to be warmed up and judged, we were greeted by a lovely man who was their 'Rum Expert'. He spoke to us about the history of rum, what it's made out of, where it's usually made and some of the varieties.  He bought out 3 different bottles of rum which we of course got to try! I have to say I found this really fun and really interesting! I could certainly taste the difference in the 3 types of rum, the first and cheapest of the three, burnt more, the second one didn't burn as much but tasted of dark chocolate as it was soaked with cocoa beans and the third burnt less but was really tasty and was my favourite, Nick and I clearly have expensive taste!

I did learn that rum should be used only in equal part with coca cola, which is interesting! Cola is used because it compliments the flavour, so those that drown the rum in coke are doing it all wrong! I mixed in a tiny bit of coke with my rum and it tasted so much better!

I have to say I really enjoyed this evening and it certainly opened up a new option for date nights! I'm never normally a spirits drinker but I really enjoyed every single drink I had. The burrito was pretty amazing and I quite literally inhaled it. It was really nice to be able to bring Nick along to a blogger event, so he can see what I get up to when I leave him for the evenings! He had a lovely time!

Oh and we didn't win the burrito competition, much to Nick's disappointment.

Really recommend you head here for a fun date night, especially as there was a cool live band as well which I had no idea they did!

Let me know if you head here and what your thoughts were on the place!