Figuring things out

Hello everyone!!

It’s nearly the end of the school year, which means it’s nearly time for 6 weeks off work. This time of year is really busy at work and I’ve had a lot to do outside of work hours. I’d say this is a big reason I haven’t been posting as regularly as I would like to. I have also been quite ill. I don’t think I want to go into details today I might one day soon!! And on top of this I have been really stressed with my current ‘home’ situation.

Basically nothing has been going my way this past month and I am trying to figure out how to fit everything in my life. Blogging is something that I am passionate about but many things about my life make it difficult for me to do well. I don’t want to blog if the content is rubbish or if I’m not actually getting any views. I’m just figuring it out. Slowly but surely. I will blog soon, possibly not until next week, but I haven’t forgot about my little place on the internet!! And I will be back soon!

See you soon!

Bethany x

New Years Resolutions – Six Months In

Hello everyone!!

So I thought it might be fun to revisit my New Years Resolutions! I only had three this year but I think they were all quite big ones!!

My first one was to stop complaining. This one has been really difficult so far. I’ve been trying to focus on the good things that are happening, and when something not great happens I try to come up with something good about it. So an example of this is one of my cats had a wee on the living room floor and up the front door curtain. Obviously my first thought was to complain about the fact I had to clean it up. But instead I used it as an opportunity to wash the door curtain and thoroughly clean the floor. This is a job I have been putting off doing.

My second resolution was to become the best me I can be. This is a really big one because it relates to losing weight, getting fit, eating better, becoming less anxious, and quite a lot more!! In some aspects I have been doing well, my confidence has definitely grown and I’m eating much better. But I haven’t really lost much weight or exercised that much. Looking back, I think that I should have broken it down into more than one resolution.

My final resolution was to have more adventures!! I’m not really sure I had in mind when I wrote this one. I guess I just thought that I’d like to go more places and see more things! I haven’t had many adventures yet but I’m planning some for over the summer and some near Christmas time.

Let me know how you’ve got on with your resolutions!

See you soon!

Bethany x

DIY Workout top

Hello everyone!!

Today I have a DIY to share with you!!

I have a favourite workout top which I find really comfy for all types of workout, but as I only have one I obviously can’t wear it for every workout. As I have been sorting out my wardrobe I have a whole pile of t-shirts that to be honest I don’t need, but I also don’t want to get rid of. That is when I thought about making my own DIY workout tops

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I will first go through how I made it then show some photos, I’m sorry the photos aren’t great quality I couldn’t find any good lighting.

I used the original workout top as a template for my DIY. I put it over the top of the t-shirt to see where I needed to cut. I first cut the front of the top, making a deeper neckline at the front and cutting the front of the arm holes.

Next I flipped over the t-shirt and again used the original top as a template. The back of the arm holes go much further in so I cut wide semicircles into the arm holes ensuring they matched up with the front cuts.

To finish the top I cut a strip of fabric from the off cuts and tied a bow on the back!!

And there you have it!! Your own DIY workout top!! I am going to do this with most of my old tops so I will have a good collection to work out in. They pair up really nicely with plain black leggings!

See you soon!

Bethany x

Spread love not hate

Hello everyone!!!

I feel that this quote is very applicable to the worlds current situations. Many things have happened recently in America where people have been killed and seriously injured. To me it does not matter the reason you are hurting someone, just the fact that you are hurting someone. You can hate people of a different sexual orientation to you, a different race to you, or a different religion to you. It does not matter why. Hate is hate, and it is a horrible thing.

My little Monday challenge for you is to spread some love! Just show someone you appreciate them and that you care. I also feel that we should show the victims of the terrible events that we support them. It’s not about supporting their religion/sexual preference/anything else, but more that we support their right to not be hated. No one deserves to be hated.

So spread a little love and little by little we will make the world a nicer place to live!

See you soon!

Bethany x

Fitness Update 1 – I already feel like quitting

Hello everyone!

So I thought that I would carry on blogging about my fitness journey!! Since my last post about getting fit and losing weight I have lost 2 pounds. It’s not a lot but it’s a start.

I wanted to be really honest in my fitness posts and show that it’s harder than it looks but it is possible!! I have wanted to give up so many times in the last couple of weeks, specifically when starting a workout. I have now planned my workouts for the next month so I have something to stick to and work towards.

One of the things that I had planned to do was start running. I went for a short jog on Saturday. It was so hard!!! But I felt so good afterwards, I was so pumped to carry on!! I’m just going to run once a week to begin with, but I will be gradually increasing the length of my runs and how often I do them.

I also did my first proper guided yoga session yesterday. It was truly amazing!!! I’m going to carry on doing weekly yoga sessions because I want better flexibility too! I will let you know how I get on.

Let me know if there is any specific fitness topics you want me to blog about. And I will see you next time!

See you soon!

Bethany x

May Favourites

Hello everyone!!!!

I can’t believe it’s been another month!!! I completely forgot to keep track of my faves this month! The month has just flown by and I have been so busy!! As usual my favourite things this month are bit random.

The first this I have been loving this month is reading!! I haven’t had as much time to read as I would have liked, to be honest I could sit and read all day long!! And I do have a really bad habit of starting several books and swapping between them. The books in the photo are my current reads, I am also planning on doing some book reviews soon so let me know if there is anything you think I should read.

My two beauty(ish) faves are the Gillette Satin Care shave gel with Olay. It smells amazing and leaves my legs beautifully soft!! I will most definitely be buying it again! I have also been using a lot of Vaseline/petroleum jelly. A lot of people say that it isn’t actually good for you but I use it on my feet every single morning without fail. It stops me getting blisters and corns when I have to wear trainers all day, and it helps when doing workouts in trainers which can cause very painful blisters.

As I have been starting my get fit journey I have been using a pedometer. The one I have is really old and not that reliable but my sister has just bought me a new one, I will be reviewing it at some point when it arrives and I have chance to try it out! It basically gives me a bit of motivation to move more and do more steps. My record is over 12,000 in one day which I this is pretty impressive for someone who isn’t very fit!

Another product I have been loving that is also helping in my fitness journey is an infuser bottle. I got mine from Wilkinson’s but they are becoming increasingly popular and you can get them in lots of online shops. Basically you fill the bottle with water and put fruit in the inside tube. I enjoy putting green and fruit teas in the centre to make delicious cold brewed iced teas!!

I have also been shopping a lot in Poundland. I was very excited to find some Gluten-free products on my last trip! I got some cereal bars and some Nutribix, both products are available in supermarkets bit at a much higher price!! The Nutribix are amazing and I am planning on going back to see if I can get my hands on more!! Whilst in Poundland I also got some almonds and chocolate covered raisins to make some little snack pots for when I’m feeling peckish!

The last two things on my favourites list are apps. First is a game called Slither. Basically you are a snake/worm thing and you try and get as big you can by making other snakes crash into you and eating their remains! It’s very addicting and good for wasting time! The second app I have been loving is Spotify!! I only discovered it a few weeks ago but the amount of music on it is unbelievable!!! I have particularly been enjoyed the Disney playlist!!

Well that is all for May’s favourites!! I hope you enjoyed, let me know in the comment if there is anything you have been loving in May!

See you soon!

Bethany x

Pyjama Party

Hello everyone!

I love any excuse to put my pyjamas on!! I have a week off work next week which I am very excited about!! What better to do then have a little pyjama party!!!

I got a few films, books, and snacks ready and put on my favourite pyjamas and snuggly socks. PJ parties are great fun with friends or alone. I particularly enjoyed bit of alone time today whilst my sister was at work. Although I must admit I didn’t watch a film or do any reading. Instead I listened to Disney songs on Spotify!! I love Disney films and I’ve just made a Spotify account, so I was very excited to find a Disney playlist!!!

I’m definitely planning on having another pyjama party soon!!

See you soon!

Bethany x

Always look on the bright side of life

Hello everyone!

It is safe to say this week has been crap! Everything seems to have gone wrong! Work was super stressful all week and when I have been at home I always seem to be working or waiting around for people. I have dwelled on the bad things that have happened in the past week but perhaps I should have been focusing on the good things that have happened?

I thought I would share 5 things that have made me happy this week.

1.    I finally finished a book that I have been reading for ages, it was an amazing book and I will be doing a book review on it soon!

2.    Catching up with Vlogs on YouTube. This is one of favourite down time activities and it was really nice to have the time to do it.

3.    Having a Lush bath! I love relaxing in the bath with my favourite Lush products, it was nice to make the time this week to relax.

4.    Tidying the house up and making it cosy and relaxing. I always feel less stressed when the housework is up to date.

5.    Drinking tea! I seem to have had so many cups of tea this week! Sitting down for a nice cuppa is my favourite way to have a peaceful five minutes to myself.

So even though I thought that this week was really rubbish, there have been things have made me happy!! It’s important to look on the bright side of life and think about all of little things that have made us happy!

See you soon!

Bethany x

Random Acts of Kindness

Hello everyone!

I thought I would share a quote with you today! I’ve seen this quote around quite a lot recently, on Pinterest, Facebook, and most recently in my Sprinkle of Glitter diary.

It’s a quote that I have always thought to be true but not always lived by. I know that our actions strongly affect others our actions also affect the person that we are going to become.

I have a little confession to make. I sometimes feel like I am a bad person. My mum came to visit at the beginning of this week and we ended up arguing. I wanted us to do something ‘fun’ but I hadn’t really told her or anyone else for that matter, that I had wanted to do something different for a change. I then got mad because we didn’t do anything ‘fun’. I really upset my mum because I was selfish. I think that makes me a bad person.

After thinking a little bit more about this I feel like it is the perfect time for some random acts of kindness!! I feel like I want to do some nice things for some nice people! Starting with my mum!

Random acts of kindness are things that anyone can do! Doing something kind to show that you care! They can be as simple as buying flowers or baking a cake!! I want to set you all a challenge to do one random act of kindness this weekend and see how you feel!

See you soon!

Bethany x

Green Fingers!

Hello everyone!!

Last week I spent quite a lot of time in the garden. I thought I would share some photo that I took! I planted a variety of vegetables which I’m hoping will all grow!! I’ve always enjoyed spending time in the garden getting my hands dirty, and it makes me really happy that I can share it with you!

I will share some more pictures when things start growing!!

See you soon!

Bethany x

Look Ahead

Look Ahead

Hello everyone!!

Today I wanted to talk a little bit about planning for summer, I had planned this post a few weeks ago in one of my many planning sessions. Since then I spent some time (a hell of a lot of time tbh) on Pinterest. I came across this…

(source)

I guess it kinda made me think that I am quite guilty of waiting for good things to happen! I have all kinds of fun and exciting things planned for summer! But why wait for summer? Quite a lot of the things I have planned can be done on a weekend, I don’t need to wait for the summer holidays.

Here are a few of my ‘summer’ plans!!

•  Build a blanket fort and have a movie night
• Have a picnic
• Go to the beach
• Make cocktails and drink them in the sun
•  Water fight
• Have a BBQ

I can definitely do some, if not all, of these things before the summer! And that would give me more time in the summer to do even more fun things!!

Let me know if you have any plans to do any fun summery things!!

See you soon!

Bethany x

Wondering about a new topic

Hello everyone!!

I’ve been wondering over the last few weeks about adding a new topic to my blogging schedule. I wanted this blog to be very much a lifestyle blog based around my life. Currently I big part of my life is getting fit and losing weight. I wasn’t sure if this was something that I wanted to blog about or not. I guess I could give it a go and if it doesn’t work out then I’ll just stop blogging about it.

I weighed myself this morning. I weigh 18.2 stone. That is a lot, a very lot. I’ve always been overweight but over the last five or so years I have struggled a lot more with it. I have lost weight in the past, but I end up putting it all back on again. Right now I guess I’ve reached the point where enough is enough. I will lose weight for good!!

I don’t know how regularly I will be posting specifically about weight loss I will just see how it goes. I will however be posting things such as healthy recipes, fitness tips, and various other things are relevant to weight loss and my life!!

I hope you will enjoy my posts about getting fit but have no fear, my other usual topics will still be as regular as ever!!!

See you soon!

Bethany x

April Favourites

Hello everyone!!

It’s monthly favourites time again!!! I have really been enjoying doing monthly favourites because it makes me actually sit down and think about the things I have been liking!!!

The first thing on my monthly favourites list this month is a TV show. Childhood’s End was a miniseries on Syfy. It is based on the novel by Arthur C. Clarke (which I haven’t read but plan to) It is about aliens peacefully invading earth and what happens in the coming years. I really enjoyed this series even though there were only three episodes they all left me on the edge of my seat wanting to know what happens next!! I must say I was not at all prepared for the ending!! Even though it was unexpected it was such a great show to watch and very thought provoking!!

My next favourite might seem a bit random! Tea!! Not fancy herbal tea, not green tea, not fruit tea. Just regular normal tea, with a splash of milk! My preferred brand is Yorkshire Tea but this month I’ve also have a few cups of Typhoo and PG Tips. I always drink tea, and usually always at least one cup of regular tea a day, but this month I’ve been having anywhere up to six or seven cups a day!! I just love tea!!

Next up is a book favourite! I’ve been reading this book since about the beginning of the month and I still have quite a lot left to read but it is seriously amazing!!! It is called Me Before You and it is by Jojo Moyes. I have several other Jojo Moyes books that I have yet to read and because I have been really enjoying this book I am looking forwards to reading her other books!!! I will be writing a book review when I have finished reading it!!!

My final favourite for this month is a brow palette. I have been wanting to get a brow palette for a while now and finally got around to getting one! I spent ages looking at them all in Superdrug and finally chose the BarryM one. I chose the medium to dark shade because I have really dark hair. It has a small pair of tweezers and an applicator brush. You put the wax on first to shape the brow, then fill it in with the dark brown, finally you put a little highlighter underneath! My brows have looked so much better since I started using the palette on them!!

That is all for this months faves, sorry there isn’t more..

See you soon!

Bethany x

Horoscopes

Hello everyone!

When I was younger I had a book of daily horoscopes. My star sign is Aquarius and the book was just a new horoscope for Aquarians each day. I used to read my horoscope every single day!! I can’t remember where the first book came from but for at least three years after I bought a new book.

I’ve been using the Sprinkle of Glitter diary this year, each week has a page about a different topic. I was excited to see that the page this week is a horoscope page!! My horoscope is “You will always lend a hand, no matter what your own problems are.” I’d like to think this is true! I don’t take what I read in my horoscopes as absolute truth but for some reason I enjoy reading them.

I think I might see if I can find a horoscope book that I used have, I will blog about it if I find one!! Let me know what you guys think of horoscopes! I’m excited to see if anyone else reads them!!

See you soon!

Bethany x

Silly Panda Box Review

Hello everyone!!!

Today I have a product review for you! When I first decided that I wanted to start a blog I decided that I wanted to do some product reviews. I have always said that I would be totally honest when reviewing products, if I pay for them or get them for free.

Today I am going to review the Pamper Box from SillyPanda.co.uk It costs £20 and contains a range of natural and eco-friendly goodies, including a cloth pad. You can read more about cloth pads in my blog post here.

I was a little bit disappointed by my first impression of the box. The box itself isn’t very sturdy so it got a bit battered in the post. I did however like the cute little Silly Panda sticker on the box!

The first thing I pulled out of the box was a bath bomb from BathBomz&Co. It smells really nice and has flowers pressed into the top of it which I think is really pretty! I haven’t yet used it so I can’t tell you how good it is but I’m sure it will be lovely!

Next I pulled out a Secret Scents wax melt, I can’t remember the scent but it was amazing!!!! It smells really strong but not overpowering when it melts, and smells just as good when you melt it after it has hardened! I was really impressed as many wax melts don’t make the whole room smell you usually have to be quite close to the wax burner. I will defiantly buy some of these again!!

I was really happy to have got a Faith in Nature soap in the box as I have been using Faith in Nature shampoo and am really impressed by it but haven’t yet tried the soap. It’s Aloe Vera which will hopefully be nice for my sensitive skin, I haven’t yet tried it but I will no doubt talk about it in an upcoming post when I get around to using it.

In the box was also a hot chocolate coin from The Real Hot Chocolate Co. It was in the flavour Garden Mint but I don’t like mint flavoured things so I gave it to my sister. Even though I’m not a fan of mint I wanted to try a sip and I was pleasantly surprised!! I was expecting it to taste like fake mint, a similar flavour to all other mint chocolate flavoured things (and toothpaste), but it didn’t. I had a much more natural taste, more like fresh mint! It was still a little to minty for me but I am planning on trying some of the other flavours they make.

I was really excited to find an Ombar in the box!! I have always wanted to try a raw cacao chocolate bar but have just never gotten around to it. The Ombar was in Coco Mylk flavour which is basically milk chocolate. It was amazing!!!! It was really rich but not too sweet, I will most definitely buy more of these!!!!

Also in the box was a cloth pad, a sleep eye mask, and three washable make up remover pads, all from Silly Panda Co. I thought they were all really cute fabrics and really good quality. My favourite is the eye mask because the fabric on the back, that touches your face, is the softest things I have ever felt!! I just wanted to keep touching it!!

There was also a cute little tree necklace in the box which I thought was a really cute little touch!!

So that is my review for the Silly Panda box. I plan on doing more review posts in the future, let me know if there is anything you think I should review in the comments!

See you soon!

Bethany x