Gifting with Uncommon Goods.

It’s never too early to start shopping for Christmas, with only 10 weeks 6 days left to go! But what about the age old question of what to buy for everyone? Luckily for you, i have the answer!

Uncommon Goods is a online shop that has a staggering amount of handmade, recycled and sustainable gifts, they are also committed to animal welfare and don’t sell products that contain leathers, feathers or fur! (How great is that!)

We all know some men can be difficult to buy for, and i’m pretty sure we’ve all heard the “I don’t want anything” saying, but here are a few ideas for the men in your life. (Y’know in case they change their mind.)

For the one’s who like to party:

This Beeropoly game would make a awesome gift your Boyfriend/Fiance/Husband or Brother. Any fan of Breaking Bad would go crazy for this chemistry cocktail set.

For the business man:

This calendar would fit in, in any office, and these funny plaques would make great gag gift.

women can be difficult to buy for too! We always give a list of wayy too many things and by the time we’ve got to the end we probably can’t remember what we asked for in the first place. Here are some of my favourite gift ideas for women in your life.

For the wine lovers:

How great is this decanter bag?, whether you like wine, prosecco or G&T, if someone bought you this for Christmas you’d bloody love it. Wouldn’t you?! And how beautiful are these iridescent unicorn glasses?

For the ones who like to pamper:

These birthstone gemstone soaps are so beautiful and look amazingly realistic. This lip balm kit is fantastic such a useful, thoughtful gift.

Here are the other items perfect for Christmas gifts that caught my eye.

The best of the rest :

with gifts for pets and their owners, beards and their owners and the lovers of unicorns, gifts from Uncommon Goods will not disappoint.

I hope you enjoyed my first Christmas gift guide, let me know what you think of my choices.

**This post has been sponsored by Uncommon Goods, the pictures in this post have been used with their permission. All opinions are my own.**

Until next time.

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September Favourites

I’ve been neglecting my blog a little as of late so, i have decided to get in early with my favourites for this month, i’ve got some pretty awesome purchases to share with you this month. So here we go.

Tk maxx nails Halloween homewear every year. I get so excited to go see what is available. At the start of the month i went to Ikea in Nottingham with my OH’s family and there was a TK maxx on the shopping complex so me and my sister in-law decided to go have a look in there first I found these cute little towels as you’ve probably noticed i’m cat crazy and when i saw these i didnt even look at the price they just went straight in my basket! I love the adorable little kittie! Look how cute he is!! These towels came in a pack of two and cost about £7.

I also found this cute little battery powered light i keep this kind of decor up all year in my house so it was totally worth the £5 i paid. As the nights are getting darker i love to have loads of little lights and lamps scattered about the lounge to give it that cozy feel.

My fiance also found this little wooden sign and because we have three kitties that terrorise us on a daily basis this was a must. Again like with the little light i will most likely keep this up all year round.

These nail varnishes are from Primark they are so small and perfect if you’re going away. I bought two just to try them out and i’ve got to say i’m impressed, they last a long time without chipping and they are actually fast drying. They are 60p each so a absolute bargain!

Also from Primark this Eau de Toilette, its from the men’s section but because of it’s most gorgeous spicy, woody scent i couldn’t help myself i purchased it and gave it to my OH so now he smells great. It was another absolute bargain at just £2!

I found these bracelets on Depop they are originally from Dixi, i swapped them with another user so they only cost me the price of postage. they are so pretty and perfect for teaming with a autumn outfit.

I hope you enjoyed my September favourites.

Photo editing explained.

Blog photography can be hard, everyones images always look so professional and well edited. I feel since i started my blog i have really improved my photography. I did a photography course at college but by the time i started my blog i’d forgotten most of it, and had to re-learn everything all over again.
I use the apps ColorStory and Facetune 2 to edit my photos and i have recently got photoshop, so my editing will hopefully get better.

 

Your don’t have to use expensive props or photoshop to get good photos for your blog. it’s mostly to do with composition and lighting here the only items i used are things i already had lying about the house. Who knew a plate could be a great prop for your photographs?! All you need to do is get a little creative.

In this photo i simply laid out the items on a plate and used some jewellery for texture in the background added some artificial leaves i had lying about, and focused in on the highlighter.

ColorStory has some great filters – Ice Ice is my favourite filter it sharpens up your image and automatically saturates the colours it’s such a simple yet effect way of editing. If you’d like a bit more control over your editing there are also tools on this app that let you manually edit things like saturation etc.
Facetune 2 is one of the best apps i have found for editing photos, and not just for your blog. I also use this app for editing my Depop images.
There is a whiten tool which is amazing for editing your background, you can take a picture and it might not have the best lighting but with this tool no-one would ever know!
This app also have four categories of free filters, The “no filter” filters are my favourite you can add a subtle change to images without making it look over edited.

First blog post photography.

Photography Now

Hope you enjoyed my tips. If you have any of your own i’d love to hear them.

Until next time.

 

In awe of Autumn

Here are the items im lusting after this Autumn. From fashion to fairy lights its all here.
Halloween ranges are here and i just can’t help myself, ive already purchased a few things which i shared over on my Twitter. Here are the homeware items i just can’t get enough of!

Skull lights, £9.99 Pumpkin Mug, £7.99 Star LED , £1.50 Velvet throw £16

 

Skull Draws £995 Floral Cushion £17.99 Geometric Lamp £5

 

Autumn beauty is all about dark natural colours and earthy scents here are the beauty items i’m dying to get my hands on!

Kat von D Perfume £52 Garnier Moisturiser £7.99 Nyx Foundation  £14  Maybelline palette £11.99

 

The best season for fashion is here. and i’m all for it, i love the dresses mixed with fedoras and big chunky boots. Here are my fashion must haves.

Killstar Moon Bag £44.99 Killstar Fedora £39.99 Floral Dress £24.99

I hope you enjoyed my wishlist.

Untill next time.

August Favourites

I’ts that time of the month again when i show you my favourites.
I cant wait for Autumn, Halloween, cozy nights in and lots of hot chocolate.
I’m so proud of the photography in this post, i feel that since i started blogging (Only six months ago) I’ve really improved.  I’d love to hear your thoughts on the photographs in this post.
So, enough of my rambling lets get on with it!

I recently ran out of my spare foundation and decided that i needed to go back to my old faithful. This Max Factor facefinity powder is the best bloody foundation, i’m constantly recommending it to my friends. If you have spots this will cover them, dark circles this will cover it. Going through a break up, use this it will cover it! Ha! But seriously If you haven’t tried this yet you NEED to! I used the shade 01 Porcelain. You can buy it here.

I’ve tried loads of highlighters, because i’m quite pale its quite hard to find a colour that suits me, i saw this one and thought it looked soo pretty and the colour looked quite subtle. And only costing £3.00 i decided to give it ago.
I love it, it gives your face that healthy glow without making you look like a disco ball! for anyone with pale skin id definitely recommend you trying these highlighters to find a shade you like, i mean for £3.00 you could buy them all! When i bought this highlighter and the foundation above Superdrug had a 3 for 2 on cosmetics so i got a eyeliner for free! Its a win win situation. You can buy it here.

Everyone has this bottle, i know. My old water bottle had a fight with my dishwasher and lost. It said it was dishwasher proof and let me tell you, it was not. It melted and the bottom of the bottle had fused together. I was less than impressed. The moral of this story is to wash your water bottles by hand unless you’re 100% sure your dishwasher won’t eat it.
So when i was in New Look having a bit of a nose around their sale and saw this bottle i snapped it up straight away, as it was in the sale it only cost me £3.50!!
The design is simple yet beautiful, and its a great size too. I find that if i have a water bottle that i keep next to me during the day i’m a lot more likely to keep myself hydrated rather than having to keep getting up and filling a glass. Yes it might seem lazy, but who doesnt like convenience? Its also helped with my fatigue and constant hunger because if im not in the kitchen as much i’m not reaching for cake as much. And that’s always good! Haha.
I hope you liked this months favourites.
Until next time.

How Twitter can help your blog.

I love Twitter it’s my favpurite platform. I started my first Twitter account around 2009 and honestly i had no idea what i was doing. I think twitter can be quite a hard platform to master. But when you know how, it can open up a world of opportunities for your blog.

Hastags.
By now i’m sure everyone knows what a hastag is, but heres the low down just incase you don’t! A hastag (#) is used to group the same information under one word for example it you were on Twitter searching for Cats all you’d need to do is use a hastag infront of your search – #cats and all of the images and posts about cats would appear in one place.
PR companys offten use Twitter to recruite bloggers for their campaings and collaberations. They use hashtags such as #bloggerswanted #bloggersrequired and #prrequest. This makes it so easy to find content opportunites for your blog.

Support.
Twitter is great for bloggers new and old there are so many pages for blog support such as blog RT groups ( Pages that will retweet your posts to their audience when you use a specific hastag) This means that instead of just having your tweet reach your own followers, it reaches their followers too!
Since iv’e had my twitter for my blog iv’e been much more active on the platform and i can’t belive how nice all the bloggers are on there. They are so down to earth and helpful when you get a little stuck. The blog community on Twitter is always willing to help you out when they can. I am a member of many blog groups on Facebook but when questions are asked i feel like it can be just a reason to plug their blog to you, which is not helpful at all. Where as on Twitter i feel the responses are much more genuine and helpful.

Blog Traffic.
Twitter is a fantastic way to drive traffic to your blog, i’d say at least 30% of my blog traffic is from twitter. Twitter is a very personal platform and people who follow your blog want to get to know you, who you are as a person what are your likes and dislikes and Twitter is a great place to show this. It’s not all about being professional and minding your P’s & Q’s, it’s about sharing your personality with the world.
Using Twitter on a daily basis to conect with your audience, offer help to other bloggers, RT their posts and join in blog chats can really improve your online visability.
I hope this was useful and if you have any more questions i’m more than happy to try and help.
Until next time.

Be a Bank Holiday Boss.

We have a bank holiday upon us, and the worst thing you can do is waste the day or night. Long gone are the times where its just another excuse to stay in bed and get over that hangover!
Here are three ideas of things to keep you busy this bank holiday weekend.

 

1.Picnic Time
Lets face it summer is not going to be here forever so this bank holiday weekend is the perfect excuse to grab a blanket and that picnic bag and spend some time with your friends, its great if you’re on a budget because you don’t even need to leave your back garden.
What you need for a perfect picnic –
The food- Most supermarkets do a great pre packed picnic range at this time of year such as sandwich platters and packs of sausage rolls or mini pasties.
If you’re a dab hand in the kitchen you could even make them yourself, checkout my Pintrest Food & Drink board for some great ideas (I always use Pintrest when i’m stuck for meal/snack ideas)
The Essentials- Obviously every picnic needs a blanket or a towel even a old bed sheet will do the job! A basket or bag to carry your food, paper plates, cups and cutlery. Don’t forget the bin bags swell to clean up after yourself.Portable speakers are great for a picnic adding some music to your picnic really sets the mood, and if you’re planning your picnic later in the evening why not take some fairy lights to add some ambience.

 

2. Pizza & Film night-
Order the pizzas grab the wine and have a good catch up and relax , this is what i will be doing this bank holiday weekend. Nothing beats a good gossip with your friends with services like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Now TV you never have to worry about finding a film everyone will agree on. Like i said before its much better than waking up with the hangover from hell (I’m too old for that shit now!) You also have the added bonus of not crapping yourself when you check your bank balance the following day, who the hell wants to live off super noodles for the rest of the month. Why not bake some cakes for your besties or plan a pamper night?
One of my friends gave me the best idea of a swapping night – bring your clothes, home wear or cosmetics that you no longer want/need anymore and swap them with your friends this saves you some cash and you get to help the environment by not sending them to land fill!

 

3.The to-do list
Okay, so its not the most fun filled activity to do on your bank holiday weekend but you’ll feel SO much better when its done, write down everything that you need to do, and the things you’ve been putting off and get on with it! Clear out that wardrobe – you can even make some extra cash by selling your unwanted clothes on eBay or Depop. Pay those bills, clear out the garden and deep clean your car.
Its a fact that clutter and mess has a physiological effect on your mood, it stresses us out causes anxiety and can even cause depression! Clutter and mess just signifies all the jobs we never got around to finishing. So use this bank holiday weekend to get your life into order
After you’ve done all the jobs on your list you can treat yourself to a big fat chocolate cake or a long soak in the bath. Trust me you’ll feel so much better after you conquer that list!

Whatever you’re planning on doing with your bank holiday weekend have fun and make some time for you!
until next time,