Feeling a sense of achievement...

Sounds silly but i feel so proud of myself!

I was having issues with my domain name a month or so ago. I received an email from Google saying i had to have my payments for my .com set to auto renew. Easy enough i thought, how wrong was i.

It took me numerous attempts to sign in to the Google app store, but to no avail i couldn't get in, and it was seriously driving my nuts!

Last night i sussed it, and ran around the room having a one woman party and high fived mike... It was a happy moment. At least it means i dont have to change domains which is what i planned to do as im a quitter when the going gets tough.

I have been feeling a bit more positive about my blog since last night, and gave it a bit of a spruce up. I'm loving it, and i hope anyone who reads it also likes it. I got the back ground from Shabby Blogs and got everything else from a few other websites. I even had a dabble at HTML, and made the social icon thingys work. i have litterally no patience for things like this, i get mad and want to get smashy with my computer. But i did it! yay!

I will be back soon with some festive posts :)



 

Photo a day challenge for December..

I have been a follower of Fat mum slim on instagram for a long time now. 

I have usually signed up to her monthly photo challenges but always forgotten a few days in, but not this month! 

I'm still going strong 9 days in, and im enjoying it, i think its because its december and festive and a bit more meaningful.

Here are some of my snaps so far..



Day one - Red

Day 2 - Where i stood

Day 3 - Silver

Day 4 - Tiny

Day 5 - In the cupboard

Day 6 - Shadow

Day 7 - 6 o'clock

Day 8 - I shop here
This is where i am so far, and ill post again when im further through the month. If you are doing the challenge be sure to let me know so i can check it out!
 

Review: Instajunction Vinyls & offer code!


Dont they look so vibrant, i was pretty excited to get my hands on them as i love photography and different ways to display art.

I have been after some artwork for my Hallway for months. My hall way is narrow and has no natural light so it needed to be something that wont be knocked off the wall and something to brighten the place up a bit.

I was contacted by Instajunction and offered a product of my choice off their website, i saw the Vinyl pictures they offer which are 15cmX15cm square stickers that are easily removable on any flat surface.


You can order the Vinyl's in quantities of 1, 4 or 8. They range from £3.99 to £19.99.


I chose 8 Vinyls, 4 for my Hallway, and 4 to use elsewhere.

I ended up choosing different prints...
 Instajunction if you hadnt already realised primarily uses your instagram photos for your products, although you do have the option to upload images from your computer as well. 

Their website is easy to use, simply choose your prints and then add them to the check out.


Ordering the prints
 The prints arrived within a few days, and they were really easy to apply, literally just peel off the backing and stick to the wall. You can pull them off and replace them too. Perfect for people who Rent, you can make a really cool collage and not damage the walls with nail holes!

This is them attached to the wall, they are seamless and SO bright. I have decided that i need more in the hallway, 4 just isnt enough and the other 4 i ordered dont go with these. So ill be putting in another order soon!

One thing i would like to say about Instajunction is their brilliant customer service, they got back to me super quick and couldn't do enough to help me. Customer service is what makes it for me, if they have good customer service i trust its going to be a good product so well done Instajunction! :)

Instajunction are giving you the chance to get 25% off any order place up until the 8th December, perfect timing for Christmas!

Use the code FRIEND25BW  - You can use this as many times as you like!!!

They offer a wide range of products such as Coasters, Posters, Key rings, Wall calendars, heck they even do photo cufflinks perfect for the office man in your life!

There is loads more gifts for your friends, or yourself.. muwahaha.

My Youtube Channel & Some Video's

I dont know if i've posted about this before but i have a You tube channel. I dont post a lot as i dont get the time at the moment, but i have posted a few videos lately so thought i'd give you the opportunity to have a watch.


The link is - http://www.youtube.com/user/RamblingsofGeo 

Here is the latest Video with my Inglot Haul - 



Another Video with a quick over view of Afternoon Tea at the Berkeley - 



There is a few more Video's and Vlogs so please check them out and let me know what you think :)

Thanks

 
 

Sephora Haul - France 2013

As promised im posting my Sephora Haul, its only small, but a haul non the less.

We went to the Sephora in Bergerac in France, battled through the wind and torrential rain. 

 Bad. weather. com

Sephora isn't huge, but its got a lot inside, it had a whole section of their own branded products, and it had Make up forever, then lots of other high end like Chanel, clarins, yves saint Laurent.


Sephora Branded products
So without further ado, here is my little haul;





I got some Sephora Mini eye make up remover as i wanted to try it out, it has a really chemical smell to me though. It will come in handy for travel though.

I also got a Sephora nail polish, 5ml which cost 5euros its a lovely bright purple/blue colour, however i cant remember the name... I also picked up a magnet for the magnetic nail polishes, this basically just does stripes but means you can use any polish to get the effect. (obviously magnetic ones) This cost me 2 euros.

I bought Sephora own branded mascara & eyeliner which i will do a post of its own to show you them. 

I also got a really good face mask, there is 2 sachets which i managed to get 4 uses out of. It is pore clarifying and made my skin feel pretty awesome after. 

I didn't buy the Bio derma in Sephora, i picked it up in a chemist. Ive been using it im on the fence about it, its neither amazing or rubbish. Does work to get mascara off though which is good as i hate scrubbing my eyeballs :)









Saving Money!

I thought i would write about saving money, and what i do to try and save some money everytime i go shopping.



A website that i use to print coupons is Super Savvy Me they have coupons for products like Washing detergent, tooth paste, nappies, cosmetics and tons more stuff. 

You can print the vouchers once only. What i like is that you add the coupons to your 'basket' then you can print them all at once so there is no paper wasted. This month they have savings of £22.50... you could save a whole £22.50 in your shopping!

They have a mixture of coupons for specific stores (usually tesco) and ones which you can use anywhere. We always do our food shopping at Tesco as my husband has a 2nd job there which gives us 10% discount, thats another place we save money!

I'm not saying you need to get a 2nd job to save money, but with stores like Tesco where you get a club card, or points card you can save up all your points to spend in store, or use to double up and spend on days out, meals out, kids toys and tons more stuff. 
We want to visit Longleat safari park next year so we have saved up our club card vouchers to buy our tickets. We have saved ourselves £53.50 by doing this. BARGAIN!

You can get more coupons from Facebook, a lot of Brands give you 50p off, or £1 off, or even free products like i recently had a free bottle of sprite from Subway. All i had to do was like the page and print the voucher. Free Sprites are the best kind. 

If you search for 'UK supermarket coupons' or 'UK shopping coupons'  then you can find all the best coupons where you just need to like the page to print the discount coupon (you can unlike afterwards.. hehe)

Another way to bag yourself freebies is by getting loyalty cards. 

I have Nando's, Superdrug, boots, & Costa Coffee i might have more, but they are the ones i use the most. The most i have saved on my Boots advantage card is £27, i used it to get my lunch when it was towards the end of the month, and to get a few beauty bits. 

Costa Coffee card is good as i have used it to get myself a free tea and cake before when i felt like a treat. 

Nandos and superdrug are recent ones i have signed up to, i figured i like the odd nandos so if i use the card i can get some freebies (annoyingly i lost my nandos card when i had 2 stamps, then i had to get a new card#!!!!) 

I hope this helps, if you have any money saving tips let me know below!
 

The Berkely Afternoon Tea: Pret a Portea

On Saturday for our shopping trip in London the highlight of the event was going for afternoon tea. We booked the sitting around July time as it was fully booked most weekends!

The Berkeley have a Pret a Portea afternoon tea in their Caramel room, its fashion inspired. We went to the Autumn/Winter 2013 sitting, which had only just started a week ago. 

Outside the Berkeley
We we're seated straight away at a window table, and given menu's to choose our tea, they had a huge selection of Loose leaf tea's like; Assam, English breakfast, Vanilla, Earl Grey and they had Fruit/ Herbal tea's like Peppermint,  African Amber, Chocolate truffle, Camomile and a few others. I chose decaffeinated English Breakfast, and Katy had Assam.

Our table setting when we arrived
Once they brought the tea over they poured it for us, then asked me about my dietary requirements and what i could and couldn't eat. They then brought the sandwiches over.

Our tower of goodness!!!

 How cute is the tea set!!!!? 
Its made by Wedgewood, and you could even buy a set from the Berkeley if you wanted to!


My favorite sweet thing was the Yellow Mousse on the top, The berkeley describe it as ' Jean Paul Gaultier gold quilted banana and caramel cremeux with passion fruit compote accessorised with leopard print chocolate shard'

But in my words it was bloody lovely!!!!!



I have to admit i was a bit apprehensive about the food, im Veggie and a really fussy eater, but i made sure to tell them in advance. I was so happy with the food, it was absolutely delicious, the sandwiches were cream cheese and cucumber quintessentially British! I also had sweet pepper and rocket, mozzarella and tomato, and cheese and onion
. There was also savory spoons with tasters like Artichoke, aubergine pastry with tomato salsa type thing in side. (that was my favorite!) 



With our name card - i kept it for my smash book!

My new handbag... teeny tiny cake! yummmmm
The best thing about the whole experience is that they replenishing everything non stop, you could ask for 10 refills and they would do it!

 It cost £39 each but i really think thats its worth it, they give you the MOST tastiest cakes and sandwiches, you can have more than one pot of tea so you get to try a variety, and the service is just above excellent. They even ask if you want to take a goody bag home with a couple of cakes in!!! 

Of course we took up that opportunity..



The lighting has made my face look really brown... weird!
I cant wait to go again to see the next seasons fashion inspired cakes, i might even get my mum to come along! :)

 



London shopping trip Nov 2013!

On Saturday i went to London with Katy for a shopping day. We left at 8am got to our first destination, Shepherd Bush Westfield. Its an impressive Mall when you are walking up to it..


Advert for Call of Duty - it was HUGE!

Walking through the entrance past the restaurants
 We started the morning off with a Costa and i had some Banana and Pecan loaf for my breakfast, its too good to miss! By the time we finished all the shops were open (they open at 10am FYI)

There are so many shops there that we just dont have local to where i am, like Yankee candle store (it had so much Christmas stuff i wish i had bought a cute little tea light holder i saw... but i hesitated.. wop woppp) 


I took the opportunity to visit Boux Avenue and get a Bra fitting, and i discovered im wearing a size thats too big in the back, and to small in the cup... oops. I bought a nice new Bra, a basic skin colored T-shirt bra that was £18, i would show you but im wearing it and that would be wierd!!! haha

Look at the pretty packaging... ♥
 So here is a link for the Bra i bought, its feels really nice quality and my overall experience of Boux Avenue was really good. The staff are really helpful, the changing rooms are brilliant, have three different lighting settings, day, dusk and nighttime so you can see your undies in different lighting. Im just happy now i can buy new underwear in the right size! yay

Next stop was Beauty base where i bought a 99p glitter nail polish in 'Treasure island' bargain price, lets just hope it looks nice on.


Next we went to Inglot which was the main place i really wanted to visit...


The make up is nice, but i was a bit put off by the service. Dont get me wrong they were helpful, offered to show us the products, if we had questions then just ask etc... BUT, she asked me what palette i wanted the eye shadows in (i chose the freedom system)  she went off to get my order ready, then the convosation went a bit like this...

Her: 'sorry we dont have the magnetic palette just the mirrored one' 

Me: ' Ohh right, well i dont want the mirrored one' 

Her: 'I can go and look in the store room for you'

Me 'Thanks'

Then i watched her disapear into the store room, come back with a face like a slapped arse, then get a big step ladder and walk back to the store room.

Her 'I have found some, is this everything you would like'

Me ' Yes thank you' (whilst being made to feel incredibly awkward!!!!)

Even my friend commented on how awkward it made us feel, like we had put her out... i mean its HER JOB!!! haha..

Jeeeeez, anyway this i what i bought.




The next place we visited was Apricot, i've seen the clothes in Newlook before but never really paid much attention.  It was Katy that wanted to see the shop so i had a mooch about, and found a reaaaaaaaally nice Waterfall cardigan. Tried it on, fell in love, and bought it within about 2 mins.. how's that for being spontaneous!

I havent got a photo of me wearing it yet, so here is a picture from their website. (Cost £24)

Picture from www.apricotonline.co.uk
After we left Westfield we trecked over to Knightsbridge to goto afternoon tea, but thats for another post of its own. Whilst we were waiting we went and sat in Hyde Park, it was Hilarious!!!

A little Outfit of the day...
 The little squirrels were running round, taking nuts from peoples hands it was so cute, someone was feeding pigeons and they jumped on his arms like he was the lady from Home alone!


Cheeky Squirrel
After the Afternoon tea we went over to Harrods as Katy had never been there before so its a must to see, it was Jam packed though and it was slightly annoying. 

How do they do this???

Katy outside Harrods
After spending time trying to get out of Harrods we went to Selfridges, which was packed but not as badly as Harrods. Selfridges just feels a bit more spaced out and airy so it was nice. 

We went straight to Lola's cupcake Cafe to sit down, and luckily enough there was a table free!!! there is literally 5 tables and one was empty so i practically threw Katy at the table whilst i got us a drink. I also bought a cupcake for Mike to take away, which got smashed up on my way home :(

I would love to say i splashed out out in Selfridges, but sadly No. I did buy some Tea pigs thought, in Peppermint. 

We finished the day off by having dinner in Wagamama's Holborn. I had the Yasai Katsu Curry.. same old thing for me. I had coconut reika (ice cream) and peppermint tea to finish. 



It was a nice day out, and i even came home with money!!! 

I used some of it to get a head start on Christmas presents on Sunday though... 

This was a long blog post... if you made it this far then well done. :)

 


 

Raaaaaaaaaaaandom!

Do you ever have those days where you just feel angry... thats how im rolling today.

I think you should just roll with the mood, dont fight it, if you feel a big grump then just let it all out...

On the plus side... 

I'm going to London Saturday!!!

Afternoon tea at the Berkeley, shopping at westfields, hit up some Selfridges and Harrods and probably a bit of oxford street and Covent garden if we can squeeze it in. I've been saving for this for a while, so im excited to treat myself and get some Christmas shopping done. 

Ill post about that next week... but for now her are a few pictures to keep you entertained.

 
Nugget our Golden nugget sail fin Pleco... so cool!!


Yummy English breakfast Decaffeinated tea with a HUGE custard cream!


Fortune cookie!


Snuggly Diesel dog ♥

Yummiest muller yogurt for kids!

Thats all folks...

Christening day!

Last Sunday we were invited to a christening for our friends Daughters, it was a lovely day and really nice to catch up with friends and fa...