Fresh Year, Fresh Skin

It might be a little late but a Happy New Year to you!

I don't know about you but after the magical festivities of Christmas and New Year I just can't wait to pack up the tree and decorations and clean my house from top to bottom and re-organise my house and my life! Well, my life is a bit of an over statement but how about we start with skincare?

I always get lots of bath and bodycare goodies for my Christmas and I enjoy reinvigorating my skincare routine with new products. My mum always gives me an Elemis set and this year I was given their Freshskin range mini travel set. The Freshskin range is aimed at teens to 20's and includes all the necessities for a good skincare regime. The set included a foamy face wash, exfoliating face wash, a day and night time moisturiser and a sachet of their hydrating face mask. 

The face washes are meh, I only use balmy face cleansers that do not strip my skin, so I will keep those for travelling or in cases of face wash emergencys. The moisturisers I love and I actually purchased the full size bottles as I found them on sale on Superdrug for £9.99 each. I have checked on their website and they are sold out now! *sad face* However, I would purchase these at full price.

The softly softly daily moisturiser sinks in to the skin beautifully and leaves my skin baby butt soft. It quenches my dry patches. The scent is lovely, it contains oils such as rosehip and sweet almond. I think this would suit normal to dry skin types.

The dreamy sleep night-time moisturiser is beautiful and my favourite out of the two. It is wonderfully skin quenching like the day time moisturiser and leaves my skin supple and soft. The scent is divine with lavender and blackcurrant extracts. I love including this in my bed time routine, the lavender really helps my mind to relax.

Another beautiful collection from Elemis.


Have you tried this range? 

DIY Chalkboard Wine Bottles

So I have a wedding to plan. Actually, first up I have an engagement party to plan for. And... if anyone knows me, they know I love to get stuck in with the theme and decor of the event. It's my favourite part of the planning!!

We decided to have a small intimate engagement party (I am calling it a gathering...party sounds too wild for the vibe I am going for, yes I am a bit of a control freak like that!!) Nicki's brother and his girlfriend kindly offered to host it at their home as they have a big extension on their house, so sweet of them. So as always there had to be a theme. This was easy as we were just back from the romantic island of Santorini and so wanted to add a bit of inspiration from our holiday in to the night. We spent many evenings of our holiday at this lovely wine bar called Heliotopos and so it was decided we would have a Wine & Cheese night! 

I have been scouring Pinterest for ideas and inspirations (my go to source of course!) and came across a lovely idea on how to decorate wine bottles. These were so easy to make and I think will look perfect as decor for the night. I might even pop a flower in the top of them.

All you need to make these are;

Bottle of wine

Chalkboard spray paint

Twine

Chalk

The instructions are quite simple.

Drink wine. Clean bottle. Spray paint bottle. Wrap twine around bottle. Draw on bottle...

...and there you have it, a lovely rustic/shabby chic style wine bottle decoration. These would be lovely for decor on wedding tables or just for the home. I think these also make a lovely & unique gift for any wine lovers!

Have you any tips on how to decorate with wine bottles?

Angela x

Santorini Vlogs - Part 3

In my Vlog number 3 we had rented a car for a couple of days. This is something I would highly recommend doing in Santorini so you have complete freedom to visit anywhere you want. We took complete advantage of the days we had the car and crammed as much fun things as we could into our days.

On day 1 we headed through to Oia in the morning (recommended to avoid the cruise ship crowds in the afternoon) we then drove to the other end of the island to visit a couple of the beaches. We stopped at the red beach and then stopped at Perivolos beach which is a black beach.

We didn't go down to the Red Beach as it was quite a steep walk, but Perivolos was our favourite as the water was quite calm and tranquil. We parked our behinds on a sun lounger right next to the sea and chilled for a few hours before our tummies were crying out for food. The sound of the water was so relaxing, we will definitely visit this beach again. There is an array of bars and restaurants on the waterfront to choose from. We picked a place called Terra Nerra that served greek food with a beachy twist. Nicki had a huge burger and I had a salad. We then shared a plate of waffles with praline sauce and ice cream, they were totally amazing!!

Here is Vlog number 3. Link to my YouTube channel here.

Angela x

List Making - the solution to your busy brain!

I am one of those people whose mind works at 100,000,000 miles a minute. I can't keep up with it, Nicki can't keep up with me...it's scary sometimes. My mind is constantly churning, popping out ideas, inspirations, things to do, the future, the past, sometimes it's difficult to focus on the present when my brain won't let me. And more often that not those thoughts like to pop in to my head at 11pm when I'm trying to sleep, yup, I'm sure you know the feeling, and your like "Brain, really? you want to think about this now?" Whoa! I feel exhausted just writing this.

I am constantly being inspired by everything around me and my brain just loves it!! I am blessed to have a creative mind, it's forms a big part of my well-being. My thoughts just need to be organised and put somewhere other than floating around in my head.

And soooo, welcome to my magical world of list-making...

Yes, a very simple solution to that complex brain of yours. List-making compiles all of my thoughts in to structured categories, once they are put to paper, my brain can relax because they are not going anywhere. It really helps me and ensures I don't 'forget' anything, because heaven forbid that happens and I'm just the biggest failure in the world... yup you weirdo's will know what I'm talking about.

I use this notebook I got as a free gift from Redken (weird, I know) It's a lovely notebook that has blank thick paper pages which I like and an elastic page divider which is really handy. You can get notebooks in all different shapes and sizes, I bought Nicki a pocket sized one which he uses at work to jot down his to do lists for the day. I have a magnetic shopping list notepad on my fridge which is so handy for scribbling things we need to buy as they run out.

I write lists of anything - to-do lists, draft ideas, YouTube ideas, things I plan on doing in the house, Xmas gift lists, event planning, shopping lists... The list goes on.

I find it really helps me keep on top of things. I don't feel as worried or anxious because I know I have everything organised and I can just refer back to my list to check on things and It's the best feeling when I get to tick things off :)

I don't put pressure on how long it takes me to get through my lists, I just feel content knowing that the thought or idea isn't going anywhere as it's written down. I have things still noted down from last year, projects I want to do in the house and they will get ticked off someday. In the meantime it's there as a little reminder and it won't get lost in my wandering little brain.

One of my biggest tips would be to keep a notepad next to your bed and when that niggling thought or idea pops in to your head, distracting you from sleep, just note it down on your pad. I find this really helps my brain switch off and I can refer to that thought or idea tomorrow at a convenient time for me. Ha! brain, that's right! I am the master of my thoughts :)

Do you take lists?  Do you find them helpful? Any note taking tips? I'm all ears :)

Angela x

The Santorini Vlogs - Part 2

So as I mentioned in my last post, I did a bit of Vlogging while I was on holiday. This is Vlog number 2 and it's one of my favourite days.

For our holiday Nicki and I decided we would each take a day to plan as a surprise for the other. This was Nicki's day and he took us to visit the prehistoric town of Akrotiri (which was amazing if you are a culture geek like me!) he then booked a table at a gorgeous sunset view restaurant in Fira called Ellis. They did the best Tzatziki there I had tried on my whole trip!

If you didn't know, I mentioned in a video that we got engaged while we were away, and this was the day Nicki had originally planned to pop the question. We look back and laugh now as there were a few things that went 'wrong' on the day for him...

He wanted to take me to the Fira museum after our visit to Akrotiri but it was closed, we had to endure the waft of donkey dung as we ate our dinner and there was a slight breeze in the air, we then got lost walking home and Nicki stubbed his toe! I think I toppled him over the edge when I kept stuffing things in to his man bag A.K.A the exact pocket the ring was in...

Yup, overall it was a very fun day and a fond highlight to our holiday that we laugh about now. I finally get why he was being slightly 'off' that day. We must give it to them, it must be stressful knowing you are about to make a grand gesture like that, all the pressure, but in the end the moment he picked was perfect :)

Here is Vlog number 2, my personal favoutite. If you watch until the end of the video you get to see my petrified face as a cat trys to break in to our apartment. It is worth it...

Link to my YouTube channel.

Angela x

Katharos Lounge in Oia, Santorini

We visited a few lovely places to eat whilst we were staying in Santorini, but Katharos Lounge definitely stood out for us. I had heard about this restaurant through Trip Advisor and another blog and had it noted down on my Santorini to do list.

Katharos Lounge is in Oia, on the north part of the island. Tucked away from the main town, it sits right on the edge of the water of the Aegean sea offering the most stunning view of the sunset as it vanishes below the horizon. We headed through to Oia by bus from Imerovigli (where we were staying - a blissful place) the bus journey is about 15 minutes, complete with windy roads and panoramic views of the island and it's surrounding blue ocean. We did not know where we were headed once we arrived in Oia on the main town, so we asked around (the locals are so friendly) and found out it was about a 5km walk by foot down to the sea and so we hopped in to a taxi. My advice would be to either visit this place when you have rented a car or buggy, or to wear appropriate footwear for the walk there and back - which we attempted and quickly failed after my complaining of blistery feet from fancy but unpractical sandals ;) 

On the way back you can reward yourself with a Lolita's Gelato... just saying!

The restaurant had a very cool but quaint and laid back vibe (how is that for a description)...

There are comfy cushions to lie back on, a disco ball and candles which lit up the place after the sun had set.

The menu was mouth watering meze ~ tapas style dishes with a Greek twist. I love tapas because you get to try so many different flavours - it's like a posh picnic!

 We chose a selection of fish and vegetarian plates (the selection of veggie foods over there was phenomenal) the shrimp was out of this world and the stuffed tomatoes were so moreish...

The view of the sunset was like a dream, the change of colours from bright yellow to deep orange and reds, it was just gorgeous. Boats dotted the top of the sea, lining the Caldera getting ready for the show, they looked tiny in the vast ocean.  

The sunset was one of my favourite parts of the day, every evening there was something different about it, it always felt a little exciting...

The price was a bargain for the quality of the food and the view we had! After dinner we got a taxi back up the hill to the main street and enjoyed a 

Lolita's Gelato (FYI - the dark chocolate sorbet and coconut are a winning combination!!) we chatted to a Canadian couple we met there who also sat beside us in the restaurant, then we strolled around the pretty winding streets of Oia before heading back and falling in to bed with full bellies and sleepy heads. It was the perfect night!

 I would highly recommend a visit if you are in Santorini - it is definitely a unique place there to eat. We will definitely book a table when we go back in the (hopefully) not so distant future...

Have you ever been to Santorini? Have you ever eaten out in Katharos Lounge?

Angela x

The Santorini Vlogs...

So while I was in Santorini I dabbled in a bit of the old Vlogging...

It was great fun and after the first couple of days I didn't care that people were looking at me while I shoved a camera in my face talking to myself, as you do! Nicki started to get used to it too and even made an appearance in some...he didn't really have a choice did he?! :) 

So it has taken me a few weeks to trawl through the countless video clips and put them together in to a few video's. I was just getting in to the swing of it in the first one here so excuse the cheesy music in parts, ah hem.

Here is the first vlog of our trip.

Link to my YouTube channel.

Angela x