Coffee Morning!

Coffee Morning!

I've been so busy recently with studying, training sessions and work, that I felt a much needed coffee morning was in order to de-stress. It was a lovely morning today, so without much deliberation, my study books went down and I went out! My mother and myself, walked to a local pub, The King's Arms. This doubles as a restaurant and hotel, whilst also serving breakfast and morning coffee's. The atmosphere in there was lovely for 11am, with many other locals drinking coffee and chatting, with low music in the background. We were served instantly by a friendly waitress who was smiley and couldn't have done enough to make the morning pleasurable. There was a little fire going in the corner and the whole atmosphere was cosy and traditional, whilst having a modern vibe to it.

After this, I visited one of my favourite shabby-chic shops, which I was devastated to hear is going to close down shortly and may not re-open. Ever since this shop opened in my town, I have loved going in and browsing all the gorgeous furniture, nick-knacks, jewellery and art work that cover the shop and garden area. It is perfect if you are looking for a vintage gift for someone special, that you want to be unique and beautiful. This shop will not disappoint!

Love, Hannah

RECOMMENDATION

Recommendation

I have suffered with anxiety for over six-years and I have bought countless fads which claim to work in "reducing stress and anxiety induced symptoms". None of them have worked, much to my disappointment. Anxiety is a psychological illness, meaning its unlikely anything but psychological treatment such as Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, will reduce symptoms. However, I came across a spray called "Rescue Remedy: Comfort and Reassure". I had tried everything else on the market so I thought I may as well try something new that I'd never come across before.

This particular spray claims to be effective in reducing high levels of situational anxiety and improve mood in every-day stressful situations. At the point when I started using this, I had some stressful events coming up such as driving lessons, driving tests and a job interview. What a perfect time to try out the product!!

Rescue Remedy is made by flower essences (rock rose, impatiens, clematic, star of Bethlehem, cherry plum) which involves placing flowers in water and leaving them to infuse in the sun. So this is a purely natural substance for anybody who doesn't like the idea of putting unknown medicine into their body. It can be bought over-the-counter and is perfectly safe. It is used by spraying 2 drops onto the tongue during stressful intervals throughout the day. I used this for two weeks and WOW. I am 100% adamant that the only reason I managed to get through my driving test and my job interview, was due to this tiny bottle of spray. It's been life-changing. Once you spray it onto the tongue, you cannot feel it working. Yet once you go out into stressful situation you begin to notice that you are coping and dealing with things much differently than you normally would. I love this effect as it feels very natural, rather than anxiety meds which put you under a foggy spell (I've tried these also). I will continue using this for as long as I feel it works, as I truly believe it has been helping me with my anxiety. I believe everyone suffering with anxiety or stress should try this to see if it helps reduce some symptoms and make life a little easier for you.

Love, Hannah

(Of course, please do not rely on this to change your life or entire mind-set. Anxiety needs proper medical attention in the form of GP's and Psychologists. Please do not take this without consultation on your disorder, so this can be properly treated combined with this spray)

COLLECTION HAUL PART 01

Collection Haul Part 01

I am a complete shopaholic, meaning that these haul blog posts will be very frequent on my blog. Pay day is the perfect excuse to go mad and do some shopping! There will be two parts to this haul as I've bought too much to be able to show it all on one blog! I will leave the links to the items in the item descriptions, where available. Enjoy!

This is the Maybelline EyeStudio Colour Tattoo 24hr Cream Gel Eyeshadow, in the shade On and On Bronze. I love my neutral eyeshadow shades, and when I saw this I fell in love. Its highly pigmented, so a little goes a long way! It applies nicely and doesn't dry instantly like some cream eyeshadows - it gives you enough time to blend and cover your eyelid as you wish. It has a hint of sparkle which is nice to lift the neutral shade into something a little more special.

Anybody that knows me, knows my favourite colours are pastel shades, in baby blue and pale greens. So when I came across this handbag on Matalan's website, it was a must buy! Its a very large tote and the baby blue colour is just perfect for summer. As its very large, during the summer when I go on holiday, I can fit all my much-needed bits and bobs such as suncream, sunglasses, make up, cash, camera. I love the idea of having a long strap also, so it can easily be placed on the shoulder rather than have to hold it in the crease of your arm. Its very versatile and due to the pastel colour, it can go with many of my clothing items!

Having a new, massive Primark built relatively close to where I live, I'm forever going in there on the weekends and picking up pieces. I adore their homeware and usually spend the majority of my time looking through this rather than the clothes or shoes sections. In particular, I love their candles! These are the only candles I ever buy anymore as they smell incredible and for £2 you definitely cannot go wrong. I have tried every colour, aside from the green and pink, so I picked up these scents "Pink Grapefruit" and "Lotus Flower". I also picked up one of their diffusers in "Sweet Berry & Patchouli" for £3.

This little device is something I've been desperate for, for a long time, and not realised they existed. This strange looking comb is a wool comb, which removes any bobbly bits off leggings and jumpers. Having thrown many jumpers away because of bobbles, I'm glad I found this easy solution!

Another Primark purchase I recently got, was this little baby blue change purse. I have a gorgeous purse from Kate Hill but I have so much change that makes it bulky and I'm afraid of breaking it. So when I saw this, in the exact same colour as my bag, I couldn't resist buying it!

Many other bloggers and YouTubers have been commenting on Collagen eye masks and their brilliance in reducing puffy eyes, redness and under-eye bags. Although I don't have any of these, they are supposed to combat fatigue in the eye area. I found these on Amazon in a pack of 10 so bought them to test the recommendations. These are Crystal Collagen Gold Powder Eye Masks and I will review them as soon as I've tried them to describe any benefits!

As an English Language and Literature student, I read A LOT of books. I run a successful book club on Facebook for my Open University course and picked these out of the recommendations. I ordered the following; A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, Animal Farm by George Orwell, 1984 by George Orwell, Coming Up for Air by George Orwell, The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick, Talk Before Sleep by Elizabeth Berg &The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. I look forward to reading them!

Love, Hannah

BIRTHDAY CAKE, YUM!

Birthday Cake!

It's my mother's birthday and I decided that instead of purchasing a cake, I would use some of the ingredients in the kitchen up and make her one. I used a recipe from the BBC Good Food's website, which was simple and easy, then I decorated the cake to make it more impressive!

First, I weighed all the dry ingredients and put them into a mixing bowl. I then weighed the wet ingredients (egg, milk, butter) and combined everything with a electric mixer until the mixture was soft and smooth.

Next, I greased two cake tins with butter and then cut out some grease-proof paper to coat the inside, to ensure the cake wouldn't stick to the tin and would be easy to remove. Next, I separated the mixture into both of the cake tins and popped it into the over for 20 minutes.

Whilst my cake was in the oven, I began to organise the decorations for the top of the birthday cake. My mum loves flowers, so I chose wafer flowers to put on the top of the cake. I also used

silver balls, butterfly candy and a mixture of vanilla and cream cheese buttercream icing.

I removed the cakes from the oven and waited until they cooled before removing them from their tins and getting ready to decorate. Then the fun part began!! Decorating and eating!!

Love, Hannah

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING

The Most Important Thing

Having seen many posts from other bloggers on "January favourites", I thought for February I would write a post on not only my favourite thing for January, but the thing that has been my favourite for the past six-years. This isn't a piece of clothing from a brand's "NEW IN" collection. This isn't the latest make-up product or Netflix series sweeping the country. This is a living, breathing, feisty, stubborn little girl who has taken up the biggest place in my heart since day one, over six-years ago.

Anybody who owns a dog will understand the complete joy they bring; greeting you with wagging tails and smiley faces when you walk in, having only left them an hour ago. Seeing their little faces first thing in the morning waking you up. Playing fetch after a long day, and seeing the joyon your dog's face, making you realise it really is the simple things that can bring you the most happiness. Having your dog cuddle into your lap because they trust you to keep them safe. Watching your dog dream and seeing them twitch, shake and shiver in their sleep. The way the fur behind their ears stay puppy silky soft. When they bring you all their toys, one at a time, thinking they are making you happy. Watching them pick through all their toys for the one they specifically want. When they look behind during a walk, just to check you are still there. When they smell of sleep just after waking up, and they become so delicate, rather than the rough-and-tumble puppy you had only an hour previously when playing. When they stroke your leg with their paw, when they want attention.

It is the most rewarding experience of my

life, looking after my puppy, watching her grow and learn new things. She is way more important to me than a piece of make up.

Love, Hannah

FAVOURITE GRAMMY 2016 LOOKS!

Favourite Grammy 2016 Looks!

The Grammy's are known for outrageous and gorgeous outfits, and 2016 didn't fail expectations! Here are my favourite outfits from 2016's Grammy performances/ red carpet!

Love, Hannah

MY DRIVING TEST!!

MY DRIVING TEST!

Due to my anxiety, I have stopped and started my driving lessons since I turned 17 years-old. Finally, today, after one year of continuous lessons I passed my driving test first time!! I am over the moon! It's been a long period of stress in my life, but finally I have this achievement under my belt and I can move forward with my brand new driving license. I'm so proud of myself!

Love, Hannah

I'M A BUSY BEE!

I'M A BUSY BEE!

This is the first time I've had chance to sit down all week and really focus on my university studies, and updating my blog. As many of you will notice, I have completely changed my blog design, fonts and layout, which I feel was much needed! As well as this, I felt it would be good to fill you in on my adventures this week because as the title suggests, I've been hard at work!

Monday

My week began with a fairly stressful activity, first thing on Monday morning; A DRIVING LESSON. Many of you who have learnt to drive/ are learning as we speak, will understand the pressure of them and how stressful they can be. I've been taking my driving lessons for one year, and this week was extra stressful due to the amount of lessons I had before my approaching test next week. It went well however, with minimal screw ups on my parallel park, reverse around the corner, turn in the road and bay park. My Monday then continued with focusing on my next university chapter, The Art of Benin! Luckily, this I found interesting so it was less of a chore than previous chapters!

Tuesday

Tuesday was my quietest day of the week and a chance to really sit and focus on my university studies, which recently have been taking a backseat to other priorities such as work, driving and socialising (Sorry OU!!). The luckiest thing about being a member of The Open University is.. I GET TO DO WORK IN BED. Tuesday I spend the entire day, up until early evening battling my way through Benin. Successfully, I managed to complete over half the chapter in two days - A new record for me!

Wednesday

Wednesday, again, began with another gruelling driving lesson at 9:15am. Way too early for my liking! I'm more of an 11am girl. After another surprising good lesson, it was time for a long catch up with one of my oldest friends. We had lots of laughter and gossiped for well over an hour, which was definitely some well needed relaxation time away from other pressures. Ater this unfortunately finished, it was back to the books! I spent another two hours making my way through the chapter and climbed in bed exhausted.

Thursday

Another morning driving lesson occurred, followed by going into work to get things done before the weekend. After spending several hours working hard, I dragged myself home and completed the rest of the Benin chapter for university and began on my first chapter of my new course, which I picked up on January 30th. Having been a part-time student on one module since October 2015, it has been a big jump to a full-time student in January, moving onto two modules alongside each other. Unfortunately, I have zero motivation for my first chapter in the second module I picked up, as its a complete snooze-fest. I'm hoping it wil become more enjoyable!

Friday

Friday was a lovely quiet day, starting with a fantastic lie-in and brilliant hot shower. I got dressed, packed my handbag and met my mum for coffee in a small local café. There we discussed books (my favourite thing!) and general other topics of conversations that popped up. This then followed with more university study, attempting to complete my chapter before deadline day on Saturday. Also, I receieved my mark back for my 4th Assignment and achieved a 76!! Considering the pass mark is 40, which I was well over, I'm very pleased with how I completed my assignment and want to move forward to achieve an even better grade. I finished my busy week with a Yoga session just before bed, ensuring a perfect night sleep!

I hope you have all had an enjoyable and productive week.

Love, Hannah

January Tumblr Favourites!

JANUARY FAVOURITES

I adore Tumblr. Simple as that. I spend hours per day re-blogging and commenting on posts, which creative people have beautiful taken to inspire all of us. This has obviously amounted to masses of posts per month, and I wanted to share the few I felt most inspiring and beautiful through January. So, here are my January favourites. I hope you find them as beautiful as I do.

This quote really stood out to me as it has many meaning behind it, unseen from the outset. Some people think money is the only thing that can cause happiness and make them rich. However, being rich isn't about how much money someone has. Being rich to me, is having my friends and family there whenever I need them. It's having their support, love and sense of pride about myself and what I'm achieving. That's what being rich is. Not what you have physically. But what you have emotionally.

I don't think there is anything to be said about this photography. I love the vibrant pink colours, the white of the box as a background. I find this photo so pretty and delicious!

I found this photograph incredibly strange but amazing. It shows nature, and the true beauty of what it offers us. And that's something that cannot be ignored.

This photography I found gorgeous. It sums up everything I would like my work desk to be - beautiful, creative, inspiring. The little sketches show a creative mind at work, drawing and pencilling their thoughts as they arrive, pinning them up to remind themselves of that day, that time, and that thought.

 

I loved this photograph as I found it seriously pretty, and traditional. I adore girly tops like this which are super feminine and lacy. Combined with the cute little necklace, this is the ultimate feminine look.

I love mini sketches such as these, and I wish I had the artistic ability to manage these myself. Instead, I blog them 24/7 and brainwash myself with pretty images!

There is nothing more beautiful and simple than letters. I feel many of us lead lives that are too busy, too technically involved. We all need to step back every so often and reflect. I think letters are the perfect way to do this. Whether you write a letter to yourself in a journal to remember a certain event or emotional, or whether its a letter to somebody special, I think the process of writing and reading letters should never be taken for granted.

Anyone who knows me, knows I love golden, brown, metallic colours such as this. I love the shin and vibrancy of this eye shadow!

I think this tea set is just so beautiful. As simple as that.