My Winter Holiday Reads 2017

My mother treated me to a holiday away in Fuerteventura earlier this month (Jan 2017) and I thought I would let you all in on the books that I read!
As an aside, the books I read were slightly varying in themes but were very easy to read. No one wants a tough pool-side read, and I didn't feel like testing myself while trying to relax.

Tracey Chevalier, The Lady and the Unicorn,
Harper Collins Publishing, 2003

 Book one for the holiday was The Lady and The Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier. I took this on holiday as a loan from my Creative Writing tutor, Jennifer. She gave me this because it related to my project for this year.
It's a multi-person narrative, which is based around the tapestries of the same name, which are created by the ambitious artist Nicolas des Innocents for Jean le Viste (who is the only man that history can place these tapestries in the hands of first). The book openly talks about sex and relationships, with lines such as 'That night I dreamt of a strip of tapestry with Claude's face on it and woke sticky. That had not happened in some time' (p. 149) or 'And there was Marie-Céleste - I might have to plough her just to be rid of her' (p. 154).
I give this book a solid 4/5 kittens. The changing narrative could be a little jarring, and I wanted to see more from the other characters. However, I absolutely loved it! Highly recommend.

Book numbers two and three were the original diary-form romance of Bridget Jones' Diary and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, by Helen Fielding. I obviously have nothing bad to say about these books. They're tried and tested romances, and I liked them. I found it hard to not see Colin Firth as Mark Darcy, so was very much routing for him throughout. They were hard to put down. I'm not looking forward to reading the next two, as I know they aren't as good. 4/5 kittens - come on, it's Colin Firth!

Book number four was Consequences, by Aleatha Romig. I'm honestly not sure where to start with this book. If someone, the real life Claire, actually went through this I hope that they get a huge amount of counselling and that if Tony were a real man he would be in jail. Although I was shaking my head for a lot of the novel, I still found myself feeling happy with Tony showed his love for Claire. I think I'm just a hopeless romantic. I've had to download the rest of the books (all four of them) onto my kindle, because I have to finish this series and see where it actually goes. 2.5/5 kittens.

What books do you read on holiday? What did you think of the books I read? Have you read any of them before? Leave a comment down below! 

The Year in Review - 2016

2016...what a year, 'ey? Countless celebrities have died, my degree ran into it's final year and I started to lose weight, (for real this time).
In the second half of 2016, I decided to; lose some weight, begin to use vegan friendly / green beauty products and to begin to feel happy with my body.
An extra gift for me was to become an Aunty to a gorgeous little girl called Poppy.

Losing weight was the hardest - I just couldn't work out how to shed the pounds. Without the help of my dear mother, I wouldn't have decided that the best way for either of us to try and lose our tummies was Slimming World - this is no means a sponsor for them, just me telling you all that it worked for me. I can proudly say that since the end of November, I have lost nearly a stone in weight. For me, that's an amazing amount of weight, and I am now lighter than I have been in a good few years.
On the 7th of Jan 2017 (4 days from this post) I am going on holiday for the first time in 3 or 4 years. And I am excited to show off my trimmer tummy in the bathing costumes I have. I am very excited.

I feel so much happier with my makeup choices. My face may have broken out currently (damn the weather), but the makeup I have has made my sensitive and angry skin pretty healthy. I hope that my breakouts and dry skin issues fix themselves a bit more when it gets warmer.
My fave products to date are Ooh! Cosmetics: Organic Baobab Rejuvenating Face Oil*, Dr Organic: Organic Aloe Vera Skin Lotion and Lush: Daddy-O. Review of my new favourite products is to come, don't worry - I can't wait to let you all know my faves!

This year I finish my undergrad, hopefully move onto a masters and attempt to keep dropping the pounds!
And I would love to take you to the next step of my journey.

This picture was taken during the Summer of '16, when my boyfriend
(@SilverMountMan) and I went to my family farm

How has your 2016 gone? Feeling optimistic for 2017? I'd love to know. Leave a comment in the box below! 

Verulamium Spa Day

For my 21st birthday, I was given a voucher from buyagift by my Dad's friend. After searching high and low for an experience to do with it, I settled on a Spa Day for 2 at Verulamium Spa.
With my Mum in tow, we spent a day at the Spa together.

We spent an hour before our treatments trying out the spa, which is underneath the treatment rooms. It included things like 3 types of sauna, a steam room, a monsoon shower and a hydro pool. We had wanted to have a proper swim before using the spa, but had no idea how to get down to it, so gave up on the venture and attempted (and failed) to do a small amount of swimming in the hydro pool - bear in mind this pool was as big as a jacuzzi.

After spa-ing we had a light lunch at the bistro, because by 1pm we were hungry, and then had our treatments.
Mum had a head massage and a pedicure and I had a back massage and pedicure.

The oils were amazing, my back felt moisturised for days - which is a weird thing to think about when backs are notorious for being the hardest place to reach to moisturise by yourself. I have a bad lower back, I hurt it during a zumba session many years ago and have never had a day without a small twinge. Suffice to say, the massage hurt a lot there, but the day after I had no pain. In fact I hadn't had any pain until a week after, for me that's a massive plus. I wished it had gone on for longer, 25 minutes was not enough. Note to self - book a longer one next time.

After my massage I had a pedicure done. My feet aren't normally scaly or dry, but the winter kicking in has definitely begun to dry them out - hot to cold and vica versa is not good for my ezcema prone skin.
As you can see from the picture, I had my nails painted a black-purple, which has to be my favourite colour of this Autumn/Winter - as my mum had heard me say many times "I want a cardigan in this colour" (I am still waiting on that cardigan, hint hint).  
The colour still hasn't come off, and it's over a week later. Whenever I do my nails at home it lasts 3 or 4 days tops, so I am very happy with this.


While our nails dried, we had an afternoon tea of cake and cava. Most of which we had to bring home with us because we were so full.

I think all the products used were Caudalie or Clarins, the former being a CF brand and the latter sadly not being a CF brand. Obviously, this a point of contention for me (which is why I have linked Caudalie, and not Clarins), but I wanted to enjoy my day out with my mum so may have let it slide. The nail polish was from a brand called Jessica, which I hadn't heard of until we went to the spa, but with the amount of colour pay off I might have to invest.

Have you been to a spa recently? What treatments did you get? What would or wouldn't you recommend? Leave a comment down below!