Lifestyle
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Christmas Gift Guide for Him | 2018
The final post in my series of gift guides... it's all about what to get the important men in your life. I've let the boyf take the reigns on this one and pick items that he himself would like or would know plenty of other men would enjoy. As always, I've split into three categories- budget, mid-range and luxury. Happy shopping!
Budget Buys
- 52 Things to Do While You Poo - £6.99
Men are always on the toilet, so what a perfect little stocking filler.
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol2 Vinyl - £15.99
Marvel fans will love this vinyl.
If you and your other half love travelling, this is a great gift. With stunning photography, it provides inspiration, information and tips.
Mid-Range
- Have a Good Day Orange Hoodie - £49.00
I love this... I might even buy one for myself.
- Hugo Boss Bottled Night - £34.99 to £85.00
- Nerf Modulus Regulator - £32.99
Ooh La Luxury
My boyfriend and I are massive JBL fans. I bought him JBL headphones last Christmas and he loves them. With great bass, these are perfect for the gym, noisy train journeys or gaming.
- GoPro Hero7 - £279.99
The latest GoPro to be released, Hero 7 has everything that made the previous models so iconic but with several new features including hypersmooth image stabilisation, improved audio and live-streaming, just to name a few.
- Land Away Double Flying Lesson - £249.00
I hope you found inspiration from this gift guide, even if it was just for yourself!
Catherine x
Christmas Gift Guide for Her | 2018
Time for the second of my Christmas gift guides, this time all about the galsss! Hopefully you'll be able to find something for the women in your life! If you're after solely beauty items, check out my Beauty Christmas Gift Guide.
As before, it's split into three sections and hopefully covers all budgets, happy reading!
Budget Buys
- Friends 2019 Calendar - £9.99
This makes a great lil stocking filler for anyone that's still Friends obsessed- I mean, who isn't??
- How to Raise a Plant Book - £12.99
A lovely coffee table book for any novice plant parent. With tips on how to choose plants and most importantly, how to care for them, it's a lovely gift for a house plant enthusiast... and there seems to be a lot of them atm!
I love glass trinket trays. They are perfect for keeping on your bedside table and popping all your jewellery in at the end of the day. I also use one to display my perfumes. The pressed flowers are an extra nice touch.
Mid-Range Love
You can never go wrong with a candle. Standard. This one has 3 wicks, 80 hours of burning time and is a great decorative piece.
- KADO Cocktail Gift Set - £29
I've always been a cocktail lover, but I never really made them at home... until I got a shaker. Now I make them alllll the time! This set not only comes with the shaker but has everything else you will need for the perfect cocktails.
- Zara Colour Block Cable-Knit Sweater - £49.99
The ultimate cosy jumper.
I know so many people already have an instax camera but it makes a great gift for anyone that's not on the polaroid trend just yet. If you wanna go all out, you can get her accessories too, such as a case, extra films or lenses.
Rose gold and marble- do I have to say anything else? ha! I loooove this, so stylish, so elegant and so luxurious. It is guaranteed to look amazing on a dressing table!
We're definitely talking luxury now. With the classic handbag shape and modern colours, this bag will become her style staple. A luxury gift for that someone special!
Hope you enjoyed and found some inspiration from my second post in my series of gift guides. Don't forget to check out my beauty gift guide and come back in a few days for my third and final Christmas gift guide- what to get the men in your life!
Catherine x
Beauty Christmas Gift Guide | 2018
I can't believe we're already talking Christmas. Every year seems to fly by and this year is no different. It's time for cosy nights, mulled wine, get togethers and parties. It also means Christmas shopping, which may inject you with fear. I normally do all mine online to avoid the crowds! But wherever I shop, I love using gift guides for inspiration and to help me when i'm stuck in a rut. SO, I thought it'd be helpful to create my own gift guide this year.
This is the first of 3 Christmas gift guides i'll be posting on my blog. Each guide will have budget, mid-range and luxury items, to cover everyone's needs. This one, as you can tell by the title, is all about beauty. So lets dive in....
Budget Friendly Options
These items cost no more than £20 and are great gifts for friends or family if you're on a budget. They'd also be great as stocking fillers or secret santa prezzies!
Mid-Range Beauty Treats
Ooh la luxury
These items cost no more than £20 and are great gifts for friends or family if you're on a budget. They'd also be great as stocking fillers or secret santa prezzies!
These bath salts use biodegradable glitter (very important) to turn bathwater gold and shimmery. And the prosecco scent makes it the perfect pamper evening treat!
- Essie Nail Polish Candy Box- £14.99
A lovely selection of three nail polishes, perfect for Essie fans or nail polish fans in general.
I think this is a really thoughtful gift for anyone you know who struggles to sleep. The deep sleep pillow spray and stress check roll on are two of their bestsellers and really do work a treat!
Everyone knows i'm obsessed with the Stila liquid lipstick in Perla. I've mentioned it so many times it's now boring and even classed it as my favourite liquid lipstick! Sets are great ways to try a few colours and this one features a gorgeous range from nudes to deep reds. This is going on my Christmas list....
Brow lovers rejoice- this kit has everything you need! Perfect for eyebrow obsessed gals or maybe for a friend who has never got on the brow train before. It comes in three shades- light, medium and deep, and I think it's pretty good value at £31.50. They also do a 'defined and refined set' and 'soft and natural set'.
Eyeshadow lovers or Naked palette lovers will love the new Urban Decay release for Christmas. With 12 new shades, featuring mattes and shimmers, and ranging from ivory to rose gold to black cherry, this has everything needed for daytime glam or festive party!
- The Dolce Vita Eye Kit -£80.00
Charlotte Tilbury for me is ultimate luxury. Charlotte does several of these kits but I love a bronze and copper toned eye, so Dolce Vita is the one for me. With eyeliner and mascara, it has everything you need for creating a smokey eye, just in time for New Year.
The latest limited edition Hourglass Ambient Lighting palette, featuring four bestselling powders and two new shades. A great investment for travelling or makeup junkies.
- Jo Malone Cologne Collection- £70.00
Discover 5 of Jo Malone's beautiful fragrances with this collection. Perfect for travelling, trying a few scents before investing in one or for mixing and matching.
So there, the first of my Christmas gift guides. Hope you found some inspiration, maybe just for your own Christmas list... Check back in a few days for the next one!
Catherine x
Pumpkin Picking
For the first time ever, I went pumpkin picking last week.
I've always been an avid follower of traditions and festivities, so I always carve a pumpkin, even at 23... But i'd never picked my own pumpkin, always just bought one from a shop. I don't know if it's a relatively new thing, but I can never remember pumpkin picking farms being around when I was a kid, not near me anyway. But, it was so fun! The farm was huge and there were several fields full of pumpkins of all shapes and sizes. We spent nearly two hours looking for the perfect pumpkins! (I'm a bit of a perfectionist and I had an image in mind of what I wanted).
There was something about it that was so enjoyable and made me feel so autumnal and cosy. I know i'm going to get even more satisfaction from carving my pumpkins because I picked them myself. And this is going to be something we do every year. I guess i'm just a big kid at heart...
What's your favourite thing to do in autumn?
Hello September!
Hello September! Goodbye August!
I'm so ready to see the back of august, it's been a pretty tough month and September hopefully brings the start of better things. September also means the boyfs birthday, our anniversary, my birthday and autumn! Yay! For the past couple of weeks since the heat wave left us, the weather cooled and we started getting a lot more dull and dreary days, i've been getting SO excited for autumn. I can't wait to be wearing jumpers, coats, drinking hot chocolates, getting cosy, not forgetting Halloween and Bonfire Night! On makeup terms, i'm excited to bring out the berrys and plums again (AKA- Best of Berry). MAC Rebel, i'm looking at you here! On personal terms, i'm feeling so motivated and there's so many things I want to do this month. It's time to get started!
The Graduation Photos
I graduated! After four years of University, it was finally time to graduate and move on to the next chapter in my life. It was a great day filled with smiles, lots of photos and a lil bit of nerves. Side note: the walking on stage was nowhere near as bad as I thought it was going to be, so if anyone else is graduating soon you really don't have to be nervous! So I thought i'd share a few photos of my day...
Here's a link to my dress which I got from ASOS (obvs): http://tidd.ly/7f03dda4
Catherine x
Book Inspiration | The 2018 Reading List
Once again as we head towards the Summer months i'm getting into reading again. 3 years ago I wrote about rediscovering a love with reading and vouched to get my head stuck in a good book much more regularly again. Guess what? I read 2/3 books in the couple of months after that post and then didn't properly pick up another one til this year- dammit! My want to read again has come after realising I spend far too much time on the internet and on my laptop, I need a break from it all. And therefore instead of putting on a YouTube video to help me fall asleep i'm going to close my laptop, move my phone *not too* far away and read a book instead. Here are a new stack of books that i've either read or i'm excited to read and maybe it'll give you the inspiration to close YouTube or Netflix once in a while- I know, shocking!
The Company of Shadows- If you want a book that'll ignite your passion for reading again, this is the one. I barely put it down, I was taking it everywhere with me. It has so many twists and turns you'll just not know how to stop reading. The synopsis? A woman spots her dead husband in the background of a recent photograph and goes on a trail from Miami to Sicily to track down the man.
We Were Liars- I think this could be the marmite version of a book. Some people seem to love it, some people seem to hate it. I liked it. It's just over 200 pages long, so not a daunting prospect if you haven't read a book in ages. Still, I barely put it down and read it in not much more than a day- always a good sign! Towards the end I began expecting what was happening next, feeling a bit smug but then bam! The plot twist at the end totally caught me out. I was left reading extracts again trying to find clues of how I missed this.
Say Goodbye- I'm only part way through this book but i'm enjoying it. It's starting to pick up, get more intense and gripping, and i'm starting to not want to put it down. If you like thrillers this may be the one for you- the story delves you deep into the mind of a serial killer. It apparently gets more chilling, intense and even a little disturbing, and i'm excited to carry on reading. Side note: what does that say about me??
Do you have any book recommendations?
My Travel Photo Diary | Split
I was looking through my photos and found a load from my holiday to Split in Croatia last summer that I really liked. I was umming and ahing about what to do with them, and eventually decided to put them in a post so I can have a look back on them in years to come! Hope you like browsing through them too! And maybe it'll inspire you to have your next holiday here...
Beautiful place!
The Budapest Guide
I recently went on a city break to the beautiful city of Budapest to celebrate finishing my fourth and final year of University! Yay! As it was my first time there and I was very excited to go, I spent hours researching what to do, where to eat and so on. So I thought I’d put together this guide for anyone that may be planning a trip to the Hungarian capital.
Where to Stay
Like a lot of people, i'm an Airbnb convert. I generally prefer styaing in them rather than hotels; they're normally cheaper and you get much more space. There are so many gorgeous Airbnbs for really good prices in Budapest that it took us a long time to narrow it down and finally pick the one we did. The one we eventually chose was just off Andrassy Avenue, had the most amazing interior design and was only £38 a night- bargain!
Where to Explore
There is lots to do in Budapest, you'll be spoilt for choice for a long weekend.
The Parliament building is architecturally brilliant, and is even more dazzling at night.
Wander to the Fisherman's Bastion on the Buda side of the city for great views, even better at sunset.
Head towards Heroes Square and city park where you'll also find several museums and the famous Szechenyi Thermal Baths.
Sitting by the river watching the world go by was the perfect way to finish off an evening.
Where to Eat
For a food lover like me, this is possibly the most important section hah! There's so many restaurants in Budapest, we often found it hard to pick one. We went to a real mix, my favourite though was TG Italiano, and if you can get a table outside you get views of St Stephen's Basilica. I had the tagliolini with prawns, squid and cherry tomatoes and it was delicious! They also do a very large Aperol Spritz, another tick point! We also went to the ever popular Menza for a long lunch on our final day and I had the Duck burger with Gorgonzola and blueberry mayo, very interesting!
Where to drink | Ruin Bars
You can't go to Budapest and not visit one of the ruin bars. We went to Szimpla Kert- the first and most well known. Ruin bars are derelict buildings turned pubs, with interior design that features an eclectic mix of rusty chairs, tables, broken mirrors, tyres and even an old bath tub. We went soon after opening, about 12:30pm and were only planning on staying for a quick drink but ended up staying until 4pm! It had such a chilled out vibe and was the perfect place to relax with a very cheap pint (or two) for a few hours. You can also get food there- another major plus point!
Where to Stay
Like a lot of people, i'm an Airbnb convert. I generally prefer styaing in them rather than hotels; they're normally cheaper and you get much more space. There are so many gorgeous Airbnbs for really good prices in Budapest that it took us a long time to narrow it down and finally pick the one we did. The one we eventually chose was just off Andrassy Avenue, had the most amazing interior design and was only £38 a night- bargain!
Where to Explore
There is lots to do in Budapest, you'll be spoilt for choice for a long weekend.
The Parliament building is architecturally brilliant, and is even more dazzling at night.
Where to Eat
For a food lover like me, this is possibly the most important section hah! There's so many restaurants in Budapest, we often found it hard to pick one. We went to a real mix, my favourite though was TG Italiano, and if you can get a table outside you get views of St Stephen's Basilica. I had the tagliolini with prawns, squid and cherry tomatoes and it was delicious! They also do a very large Aperol Spritz, another tick point! We also went to the ever popular Menza for a long lunch on our final day and I had the Duck burger with Gorgonzola and blueberry mayo, very interesting!
 |
| Lol at the boyf in the mirror! |
Where to drink | Ruin Bars
You can't go to Budapest and not visit one of the ruin bars. We went to Szimpla Kert- the first and most well known. Ruin bars are derelict buildings turned pubs, with interior design that features an eclectic mix of rusty chairs, tables, broken mirrors, tyres and even an old bath tub. We went soon after opening, about 12:30pm and were only planning on staying for a quick drink but ended up staying until 4pm! It had such a chilled out vibe and was the perfect place to relax with a very cheap pint (or two) for a few hours. You can also get food there- another major plus point!
Are you inspired to visit Budapest?
Catherine x
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