Notes from Sunday

Luke and I spent the weekend just gone at my Dad's flat as 'rest days' because we were both exhausted, and I was mentally a little fragile after a testing few weeks. Our plans didn't expand further than 'go for a walk', 'watch the rugby' and 'go to Aldi' but somehow on Sunday morning we ended up aboard the ss Great Britain.

Loved Lately: October

 
Another bi-monthly favourites post for you today, gang! I'm not sure why I end up writing them every other month - perhaps I'm simply boring half of the year. It is entirely possible. This October I've been focusing on self care, self love and calm. I've been struggling a lot more with my anxiety now that the nights are darker and the days are shorter and the items in this post are now part of my combat kit to conquer my panic.

Life Lately

Life lately has been...

The inky silkiness of Luna's fur beneath my fingertips and the black-in-some-lights-brown-in-others cloud of Tilly's. | Luna's quiet, rhythmic, reassuring purr and Tilly's loud, erratic, warm rattle. | All of the beige, bland food. Side effects suck. | Slices of light slipping through my new blinds. | Reading The Goblet of Fire aloud to anyone that will listen. (It helps with my concentration which has been iffy for the past... six months.) | Taking polaroids of my babies, sleeping on the bed together for the first time, and popping the discoloured shots into a photo frame. | New glasses and a new haircut.

Lorde's Melodrama on repeat. | Nails painted with Barry M's Mustard nail varnish. | The sharp, irritating pain of a kitten climbing your leg, seeking attention, whilst you're trying to make a birthday cake. | Pink roses and fressias in the living room because Mum and I know how to treat ourselves. | New names and nicknames for Tilly every day. So far we have Tiny Baby, Tallulah, Tilly Rowena and the ever-endearing 'silly cow' when she falls off of another piece of furniture. (She's completely safe, just clumsy AF.)

Feeling the sun's rays on my face for the first time in a week whilst sat on a park bench with my love. | Crystals cleansed in tiny waterfalls and charged under the full moon. | Giving less of a fuck about making my Instagram look perfect. | Attempting to brush up on my aromatherapy knowledge and diffusing oils with water in an oil burner. | Early morning cuddles in bed with a purring baby whilst reading my Mystic Mondays tarot card of the day. | 2 for 99p book deals.

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My Lush Halloween Picks

I've been doing Lush reviews since What Lauren Did Today began and, actually, several years before that. My first ever blog post (on a blog I shudder to look at now) was a review of my long-term favourite: the Seanik shampoo bar. Recently, when I was considering what I wanted my blog to be now, I considering ditching the Lush posts - they felt a little done. My old-fashioned blogging style. Like I was stuck in 2014. 

But I still adore Lush. I love their ethics and their pioneering methods for packaging-free products. I love how a simple bath bomb can really, truly, comfort me. So I thought, fuck it. I'm not dropping Lush from my blogging repertoire. But I do want to breathe a little life back into the way I talk about the newest collections and products. I want to make them more current-me-friendly. So welcome to one hell of a walk-through of my picks from the Lush Halloween collection for 2017.

Hello October

Intentions, wishes and daydreams for the tenth month of the year.

Goodbye September



Well. September was a bit of a whirlwind, wasn't it? I've been so incredibly busy (and exhausted) that, despite my best intentions, I only managed four blog posts this month, including this one. Ah well. There's always next month.

Movies I've Watched This Year (So Far)

I'm a TV show kinda gal. When it comes to stories I'm in it for the long haul - I want all of the character development and storyline crossovers, carefully crafted and woven together across multiple hours of viewing. I want insignificant conversations and back story and all of the wonderful things found folded between book pages and 22 episode box-sets.

Loved Lately: August

{ This post contains spoilers for Game of Thrones season 7, episode 7. }

 

Despite being a Summer month, August always holds a little bit of excitement for me. It's my little sister's birthday month and out of the three of us - being Leigh, Matt and I - Leigh's birthday is always the one we celebrate the most. Perks of being the youngest, eh?! August is also the only entire month of the year that my family are all home, all at once, and it holds the last few weeks of heat before my favourite season blows the last of it away with the promise of cosy jumpers and dog walks that won't kill me off.

Anyway! I'm sure you're sick to frickin' death about hearing about Autumn. Although I am firmly in the 'Autumn begins September 1st' camp. Here are my August and end-of-Summer favourites!

My September To Do List

Recognise this little baby from my 8 Little Happy Things post last month? She's grown so much!

Over the past few weeks I've experienced an intense revival of my love for goals. I've spoken before about the pressures I feel around a 'to do' list (especially ones scrawled in notebooks or on desk pads with 'I'm So Busy' and other intimidating phrases written on them in fancy font) but as I'm growing stronger mentally, I'm finding a lot of solace and motivation within a list of things I want to do each month, week and day.

8 Little Happy Things

Eight little happy things.

one |  Finding a bottle of Lush Fairy Dust in a charity shop for 99p.
two |  My amethyst pendant.
three | New Look bralettes.
four | High-waisted jeans.
five | Melon bags from McDonalds.
six | Just-warm baby sweetcorn tossed into fried rice.
seven | The restoration of my print wall.
eight | Holding a teeny tiny kitten in the palm of my hand.

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The Crystals That Called To Me

I firmly stand by the belief that you should choose and purchase crystals in person - it's a much more personable and inspiring experience, especially when the sales assistant is so calming and knowledgeable. Mum and I headed into town last Friday morning and on the way back to the car we stopped in my favourite crystal store to buy crystals as a gift for Mum's god mother. I didn't intend on buying anything, but a few things screamed at me so I picked them up - I never ignore the internal pull towards a certain crystal, and it's always funny to read up on them later to discover they're exactly what I've been needing. On this occasion I purchased a single crystal and a necklace, and my mum treated me to a polished piece too.

The Sunday Post 20

Well this feels a little nostalgic, doesn't it?! Mainly because I haven't written a Sunday Post since the end of Blogmas and I've been dreaming more and more frequently about Autumn/Winter lately. I feel like sometimes I can't express my adoration of those seasons without fear of being branded a blogging cliché, but I'm so over censoring myself.

June.

June was a busy ol' month for me, and I feel like I achieved a lot of things despite not setting any goals. I want to get back to creating goals and lists and generally keeping track of my life a little better so, along with another attempt at journaling, I've decided to talk a little on the blog about what I got up to this month.

4 More YouTube Channels I'm Loving Right Now

 

I've discovered a few YouTube channels lately and I thought they were worth sharing!

Cruelty-Free Skincare for Dry & Sensitive Skin

Proof I'm sticking to my new year's goals.

I've spoken a handful of times about the topics I studied at college (aromatherapy and massage being my favourites) but I've never really applied any of my knowledge to the ol' blog. When I was at college I ran a different blog and shared a series of posts all about skincare - how to determine your skin type, the best corresponding products to use and how ~professionals~ perform a facial routine. I really want to brush up on my knowledge and skills as I've moved away from them over the past few years and I think they're a real asset. This also falls in nicely with one of my new year's goals, which was to get back into my skincare routine! Now that I've finally figured out the type of make-up I like to wear, having clear, soft skin as a base has made all the difference.

15 Little Happy Things

Fifteen little happy things...

one | Jane the Virgin.
two | Cities: Skylines for the Xbox One.
three | 9pm walks along the harbourside.
four | £1 bunches of white roses & peonies.
five | Feeling inspired.
six | Leaving the house without my safety items and not panicking.
seven | Cooking for Luke.
eight | My Topshop midi dress (bought via a charity shop, hollaaaaa)
nine | Wearing liquid eyeliner.
ten | Blush pink everything.
eleven | Watching hot air balloons fly overhead.
twelve | A cold breeze on a hot Saturday.
thirteen | My new blog layout.
fourteen | Grace's blog, Almost Amazing Grace.
fifteen | Teeny tiny Party Rings.

What tiny things have made you happy recently?

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The Game | Creative Writing

 

Thursday 23rd February 2017 

Songs For June

I mentioned in one of my Self-Care Sunday posts a few months ago that I'd been using music as a kind of self-therapy, and since then I've been trying to figure out exactly how to share the playlists I've created. I used to have all of my music downloaded onto my phone or I listened via YouTube but I now have a Spotify account and I just learned that you can embed entire playlists into a blog post! So here we are ~

Lush Think Pink Bath Bomb

Did you know that Lush recently re-invented their classic Think Pink bath bomb?! I didn't until I spotted it in-store yesterday. Needless to say I snapped one up real quick. It was one of the few left in stock so I'm glad I got there when I did! I also got my hands on the glorious limited edition tote bag - finally using the gift card my Nan got me for Christmas!

5 Mini Book Reviews

In an effort to talk more about the books I've been reading & loving, I thought I'd put a little spin on my usual book review style. I like to write long, in-depth reviews because I have a lot of thoughts and opinions on a lot of things but it steadily grew more daunting to write them - especially if they were for a book I've really loved. I try my best to think critically and logically about books when I review them as I'm a v emotional person and sometimes my emotions cloud my judgement, but that meant that I wasn't ever talking about the books that really moved me. Today I thought I'd challenge myself to write tiny reviews of the books I've read so far this year - using 100 words or less.