Date Night - Cinema

Kirsty and I went to see Disney's live action remake of Cinderella today. We are huge Disney fans and have been looking forward to this for a while.
We dressed up to watch it so I took photos of our outfits and accessories.
Inspired by this photo:

Raychul: 

Dress: Next
Shoes: Primark
Hair Bow: Magical Ribbons
Necklace: Internacionale
Rings: Sainsburys
Nail Varnish: Rimmel's Bestival Blue

Kirsty:

Shirt: Matalan
Jeans: H&M
Bow Tie: Debenhams
Shoes: Osiris
Watch: Timex

 The film was really good. I loved it so much. It was true to the original Brothers Grimm storyline with a little Disney Magic. The set designs were amazing, there was so much detail in each scene. There were parts of the house, for example, that were fully decorated with such small objects and only seen as a distant corner. You can tell that a lot of work went into the scenery for this film. And the costumes for every single character were beautiful. I'm sure you've seen posters of Cinderella's dress or glass slipper, they look even more glamorous on screen!
I definitely recommend you go and see it in the cinema or when it comes out on DVD, it's a really magical film that makes you feel all warm and exciteable.

Easter Crafts and Baking

Kirsty and I like to celebrate Easter with a little party, we buy each other surprise eggs or chocolate, bake cakes and decorate the table.
This year I'm going to make a table decoration for the centre of the table and Kirsty is going to make Easter nest cakes. We are also going to make place cards for each other.

Easter Table Decoration

For this craft I bought some ribbon, paper flowers and a small green bucket all from Hobbycraft and all £1 each.
I also had some pastel coloured paper and plain card already, and I collected some twigs from the garden.

To start with we ripped up the pastel coloured paper into thin strips to put inside the bucket to make it look nice and colourful.

Then I used some pritt stick on the back of the ribbon and wrapped it around the bucket in 3 strips. If you don't have ribbon you could draw patterns on some strips of paper instead.

I tied the paper flowers around the handle, they already had wires attached to them (you could use real flowers if you prefer.)

I placed some twigs in the top of the bucket to make it look like a nest.

Finally, I coloured a little happy Easter sign and stuck it to a bamboo stick for the middle of the bucket. You could use a lollipop stick or a twig to stick your sign too. You might want to use a piece of blutack for the bottom of the stick to keep it more steady.

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Easter Nest Cakes

Ingredients:
Shredded Wheat - 85g, crushed
Chocolate Bars - 200g
Mini Eggs - 2x 90g bags
Cake Cases

To start with Kirsty weighed the amount of Shredded Wheat and then crushed it into small pieces. This is going to give the cakes a nest-like texture.

She melted the chocolate in a pan. Once it was melted enough she poured it into the bowl with the Shredded Wheat. She stirred it until it was mixed well.

She spooned the mixture into the cake cakes and pressed the back of teaspoon into the middle of each to create a dip for the eggs to go in the nest.

She added 3 eggs to each nest cake and put them in the fridge to cool and to allow the chocolate to set.

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Easter Place Cards

We made place cards for each other using twigs, cocktail sticks, tissue paper, plain card and pens.

First of all we cut a piece of A4 card in half and then folded that in half again to allow it to stand and because we only wanted to decorate one half.

Then we glued tissue down to create the background. I used scrunched up tissue on mine to make a sun and a sheep and used twigs for the sheep's legs. Kirsty used twigs and cocktail sticks on hers to create the letters of my name.

I drew her name on in pen and drew around a tissue easter egg. Kirsty drew easter eggs in the background of hers and wrote Happy Easter.

Then we set up the whole display together! (including my wooden chicken that I bought from Waitrose's Easter range)

Nail Varnish Review - Roll In The Grass - Rimmel London 60 Seconds Super Shine By Rita Ora

I love bright coloured and glittery nail varnish, I have a few reds, pinks, and purples that I wore during Winter but nothing brigher. So I really wanted to update my collection with a new Spring colour.

I've bought a few Rimmel London nail varnishes and really love the quality, they dry really fast and only chip slightly after a few days; so their new Rita Ora range is perfect for me.

The labels on the bottles have flowers which match the colours of the varnish, and the names of the colours are really Summery and fun.

I've only started wearing nail varnish over the past few months so some of the colours are definitely out of my usual comfort zone but still subtle enough for me to try out. I'm hoping to get Tangerine Tent, the bright orange colour, which is something I would never normally go for.

For my first brighter colour, I chose a spring green because I've never had green before - it's called Roll in the grass which I love. I put it on a few days ago and it's lasted really well. It makes me feel really happy and confident.

 

I will be getting a few more colours soon to wear throughout Spring and Summer.

I definitely recommend buying these for Spring or upcoming Festivals, the colours are perfect and the quality is amazing for the price.

They're £2.99 for 8ml bottle. 

3 for 2 if you get them from Boots. Perfect excuse to try the colour you wouldn't normally go for!

Trying to get fit - Simple exercises

I have put on a lot of weight over the past few years due to different medications and lack of motivation. I have been telling myself that I will lose weight for a while now but my problem is that I can't really diet because I'm such a fussy eater.

I wouldn't recommend anyone diet, as in cut down on the amount you eat for a period of time. The best thing to do is to make a permanent change. So, as an example, you cut down on the takeaways, snacks and unhealthy cereals and aim to cook a homemade meal rather than a ready meal, control your portion sizes and drink more water.

If you are already doing all of this and would still like to feel a bit healthier then exercises are great.
I'm definitely not the type of girl to join a gym, or even go to dance classes. I'm far too shy and self conscious. So Kirsty and I have started to exercise together at home/near our home.

We are currently exercising 6 days a week.
 Twice a week we do each of these:

• 45 minutes of yoga and muscle exercises on WiiFit, 
• 20 minutes of Zumba on Wii and 
• Week 1 of Couch to 5K

The Couch to 5K track we use is free on the NHS website. The other two are games that are pretty cheap. We also love the JustDance games for Wii. Dancing to music in general is a great exercise. You don't have to take exercise seriously to feel the benefit.

I have dieted in the past; limited my intake and upped my exercise but I have just been really unhappy and felt really pressured to lose weight. I would weigh myself morning and night every single day and get really upset when I still wasn't able to fit into smaller clothes.
I don't want to go down that route again so this time I am doing it with Kirsty - it feels better to do it with support. It's more fun too. It's something we get to do together and she's there to encourage me when I'm starting to feel like I can't be bothered anymore.
This time I'm not exercising to lose weight and I'm not counting calories. I'm going to weigh myself every 2 weeks just to track my progress - not to hurry myself along.

If you have any exercises you enjoy doing or any tips for making exercising more enjoyable let me know in the comments.

Book Review: All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

I read All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven as part of a teen book club. I had seen the book before but not been interested enough to read it. The cover doesn't attract my attention and the story seemed predictably "girl meets boy and falls in love". I don't usually read teen romances. I prefer dystopian/dramatic/crime books.


I started to read with an open-mind. However the predictable "girl meets boy" happened within 3 pages. There was no real build up of the individual characters before the meeting so you never really find out what they are like by themselves. The entire book then revolves around these two characters together; how they feel about each other, how long until they will see each other, talking to each other on facebook.

This book is massively lacking in descriptive narrative. I had no idea that Finch had black hair until about 100 pages in. Occasionally I get to read that he is wearing a beanie.
I have no idea what colour Violet's hair is or the type of clothes she wears. There is no description of her bedroom (minus a pinboard), her house, her mum's car etc.
I don't know what their voices sound like, their accents, the way they carry themselves, the way they look when they see each other etc.

It's as though the author was solely fixated on Finch's mental health and nothing else mattered. As for that aspect, it seemed as though every possible aspect of bipolar was thrown onto his character without much thought. It felt like she had tried to cram every possible symptom into the 350 pages. But just in case we forgot, let's follow the author's suit, and briefly mention Violet's grief and self-blame over the car crash too.

The character of Finch seems to know no boundaries where Violet is concerned. He will turn up to her house in the middle of the night and tell her to come with him, with little care for what she wants to do. She does what he wants her to do because she is worried about his feelings. I can't recall him worrying about hers. The story tries to paint them as a perfect romance but I disagree. It seemed pretty one-sided to me.

The title of the book refers to a part where they recite a Dr. Seuss poem. For me it was such an insignificant part of the story. I understand that it is supposed to symbolise their future and show that they have hope but it was such a small part of a big book and there weren't many bright places. "The blue hole" would make a lot more sense. As I was reading I actually thought to myself that, had the book been called "The Jovian-Plutonian Gravitational Effect" I would have been a lot more likely to pick it up. However, this book came out around the same time as Meghan Trainor's song with the lyrics "all the right curves in all the right places" which is all I think of when I see the title.

I did really enjoy the parts where they would go wandering - there seemed to be more description for these parts so it was easier to feel like you are part of the story and it was interesting enough to hold my interest and keep me reading.

Some parts of the book are written well and it flows nicely. But every now and again there just seems to be a mash of romance, mental illness, loss, abuse and general school life as if the author is trying to appeal to all possible teen audiences. I prefer books that stick to one main theme but this might be good for those that prefer a bit of everything.

The story does get more interesting towards the end where the characters have chapters that don't solely revolve around each other.

The helplines at the back of the book is a nice touch and the author's note did make me sympathise a little more with the characters.

I wouldn't read it again but it wasn't the worst.
3/5

Book Clubs

I have been a lover of books my whole life. 2 years ago my dad turned the spare room of our house into a library for me. The shelves are already completely full so there are piles of books in almost every room of the house.
I have been a user of goodreads for a few years and always look to their reviews to aid my next purchase choice. I have an endless 'to-read' list thanks to their suggestion pages and love testing my knowledge on their fan-made quizzes.
More recently I have discovered 'booktubers': people who show their latest book hauls and review their favourites on YouTube. I haven't found one I would subscribe to yet because they tend to read a lot of books that don't interest me enough but I will keep looking.

So, as a huge book lover, I have always wanted to join a book club but never really knew how to find one. Last month, Kirsty and I were in Waterstones in Manchester Arndale when we saw a sign-up form for a teen book club. I am 23 and Kirsty is 20 so we were a bit unsure as to whether we would be allowed to go but we signed up anyway. We got an email with two book suggestions, and two dates and times for everyone on the list to vote on. We chose Thursday at 4.30 and All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven.  I emailed back asking whether it was okay that we aren't teenagers and the woman running the group said that there is no age restriction. For members of the teen book club you can purchase the book for £5 instead of £7.99 if you mention that you are a member at the checkout. However, Manchester town centre is quite far for me and Kirsty to get to so we went to our local Waterstones and used the 'Buy one get one half price' offer so Kirsty could get another book too. We have been sharing the same book with two bookmarks in and read about half of it before the book club day.

So what happened at the book club?
I'm a really shy person, I have social anxiety and it takes me ages to be able to talk in front of strangers. So for the first half hour I didn't speak at all. It was a little unorganised with no questions about the book pre-planned. I feel like asking people how they feel about a particular event in the book would have got people talking more than just a "did you like it?" but I didn't expect it to go smoothly on the first meeting.
After a while, the other members of the book club started to talk more openly about other books they had read and suggestions for next time so I think people will be more open to starting the topic with the next book.
The organisers told us that there are some authors interested in coming in to talk to us which sounds really exciting. One of the authors interested is an illustrator which I am particularly interested in. And we were told we could get priority tickets to future book signings. I expected it to just be a place where you turn up and discuss a book every few weeks, but we got so much more from it. I'm so glad we went.
We got given teen book club membership cards which we can use to get money off the book club books. And we also got given goody bags which had free books and bookmarks in and I thought it was a really cool addition.

Mother's Day Gift Ideas - £5 Budget - Affordable

In the UK we celebrate Mother's day on a Sunday in March. It's always a Sunday, which is perfect for my mum because she makes sure she gets to have at least an hour long bath every Sunday. And no doubt one of her 4 children will buy her a bath product.

The first present I chose for my mum by myself was a pink TY teddy bear with a rainbow coloured ribbon around its neck. I was about 9 at the time and it cost me £5. I remember proudly telling her the price when I gave it to her.

I was really close to my sister while she still lived at home so we used to just put our money together and choose a more expensive present. For maybe 4 years in a row we bought her a body shop gift set which was £15. It was her favourite scent but I don't think she ever managed to get through the set in a year.

When it comes to cards I won't choose the most expensive one, I prefer the cheaper cards that are blank inside so I can write something more personal. I don't find it particularly easy to tell people that I appreciate them with words, so, more often than not, the card contains a recent funny memory and a stick-figure drawing of her relaxing, surrounded by gifts.

When I was on a tight budget at University I made her a card with scrap paper and tissue paper and she loved it. That same Mother's day we were staying the night in Bangor so for her present I bought a few different bars of chocolate which I know are her favourite and we spent the night laughing and taking silly photos together. I spent about £3 in total and it is the Mother's day that sticks in my mind the most.

I am a lover of children's magazines and 2 years ago I found a tutorial on how to make a sleepover gift for a friend. It was a Sundae style glass with a face mask in and headscarf tied around it. I used this as inspiration to make a bath Sundae for my mum. I bought her a box of Radox bath salts and half filled the glass. Then I rolled up a purple facecloth (her favourite colour) to put on top. And put a mini Soap and Glory bottle on top of that. The Sundae glass was probably the most expensive, it cost about £10 all put together and she was really happy with it. The rest of the Radox box lasted a good while too.

2 years ago I bought her a Me to You mug and hid 2 votive yankee candles inside. The yankee candles smell really nice but I wouldn't buy those again, only because she doesn't have anywhere to put them. It's much easier to buy her a candle in a glass or tin than find a holder that fits them too.

Last year I bought her a Bomb Cosmetics candle from Clintons which smells beautiful and I wish I got one for myself too! They don't sell them in store near me anymore but are still available online for £7.99.

This year she has been listening to music in the car a lot more but hasn't been able to find a few of her CDs she likes. My fiancee, my mum and I have been playing a game when we watch Take Me Out. We have to choose a man each and keep our light on no matter what. My mum seems to always end up choosing the youngest man of the episode. So it felt appropriate to get her the Take Me Out CD for the car. It's the type of CD we can sing along badly to and laugh at ourselves.


So those are a few of the Mother's day gifts I have bought in the past, I'm going to list some more affordable ideas below:

A simple White Box Photo Frame from Boots to put a photo of the two of you together in. I chose white because I feel like you can put white photo frames anywhere and they won't look out of place. £5.

A Glade candle in a glass jar. I love the style of the jars, it just makes it look even more pretty. There are a few different scents to choose from so I would advise you to find them in store to decide. I got 2 of the ' With Love' candles for christmas and I love them. £5.

A Rose bubble bar from Lush. This is part of their mother's day collection and I think it's pretty and feminine. With the bubble bars you can normally crumble them and use them over 2 or 3 baths but this one is cheaper and quite small so I think it's more ideal for one bath. £2.95.

Portobello Rose A6 Journal from Paperchase. I really like the designs on Paperchase notebooks and this one is really pretty with a pink ribbon to tie it shut. It's a great price for a padded notebook too. £5.

Pack of pens or just one pretty pen. I always prefer to get my mum a pack because she always leaves pens in different rooms. I bought her a pack of 4 pastel coloured pens for her birthday and she used them to write letters to her grandchildren. There are a lot of pens that look prettier but I prefer to buy ones that I know are nice to write with. £4.99

You could also:

• bake her a cake or some biscuits, or bake them together so you can spend quality time together too.
• take her out for lunch
• choose a DVD you can watch together
• buy her some bubble bath
• put together a mini scrapbook or photo album
• get a photo keyring made (max spielmann sells the keyrings for £1 if you could print your own)
• paint or draw her a picture of a place you have been together that is special to you
• just spend time together!

If you use any of these ideas  or have any of your own gift ideas I would love to read about them. Leave a comment letting me know how you spend this Mother's Day (: