Sleeping In A Different Bed

I'm something of a serial insomniac, so for me getting to sleep is tricky at the best of times, never mind when I'm not in my own bed. Whether it's a hotel, a friends house, or the sofa because you've had a row with your other half, here are my top tips for getting to sleep easier in a bed that's not yours.

1. Creature comforts. I'm a creature of habit, and I like familiarity. Whether it's bringing along your own pillow, a much loved stuffed companion, or even just something that smells of home, having something around you're used to sleeping with is a big help. I don't go anywhere without my bunny!
2. Aromatherapy. Now I know that whipping out an oil burner and a range of essential oils isn't ideal for travel, but having a soothing scent around really helps out. I have a travel sized version of the This Works Deep Sleep Pillow Spray, which is also, handily, refillable, and this lives in my travel bag! It works a treat at calming me down, and helping me turn my busy brain off at night. Another great option is to take a small aromatherapy oil, lavender and jasmine are great, to add a little to your pillow!
3. Blackout. I've gotten into the habit of sleeping with an eye mask, particularly since The Boy rarely goes to sleep at the same time as me anymore. I love my Victoria's Secret Eye Mask, which blocks out the light, but also is super soft and comforting on my eyes, and now I feel sleepy just putting it on. It's like I've trained my body to go to sleep when the mask is on!
4. Fade Out. I tend to need a little helping hand when it comes to switching my brain off at night, and right now, I'm all about the Bhuddify App, which has a whole section of guided meditations for going to sleep, and another section for when you can't sleep. They really help to let your brain stop thinking too much, and allow you to shut off!

Do you struggle to sleep away from home?

13/52

After the best Monday morning on record (eating Pancakes, riding the Rock'n'Rollercoaster and soaking up the sunshine in Disneyland), this week has mostly been returning to the real world with a crash, bang, wallop. I've been catching up with emails, blog work and Uni stuff, and starting to think about scary future things. Wahh for being a grown up.

However, there have been lots of happy things this week.

1.  Feeling like Spring had finally arrived in Disney. On our last day the sun came up, and made all the flowers, the castle, and the Spring themed decor that much prettier.
2. Eating the best McDonalds burger EVER (shh don't tell my nutritionalist) outside in the sunshine at Disney Village. Why is European McDonald's so much better?! They have order machines so you don't have to talk to people, better burgers and DAIM MCFLURRIES. Amazing.
3. Finding a beautiful black Moleskine Diary in my local Tesco, reduced to £3.50. I think I'm going to use it as a kind of journal, as opposed to a planner! But make it pretty with washi tape, of course! 
4. Feeling like I'm getting somewhere with my Uni work. Slowly. But we're getting there! 
5. Going to see Home with Con and a friend as a little post-birthday treat. It was seriously funny, Jim Parsons is the best.
6. Spending all day working from home with The Boy, and sneaking out for mid-afternoon coffee.
7. New stickers from Scribble Prints Co and Hello Stationery Co. Planner nerds unite over beautiful stationery.
8. Catching up over lunch with my girl Daphne. We ate giant burgers at Giraffe and drank out of mason jars. It was great. 
9. Thursday night belated birthday bubbles! I got a mini bottle of prosecco as part of a birthday gift, and on Thursday night the boy and drank up whilst watching Louis Theroux documentaries. WILD.
10. Donut sticky notes. That is all.

I'm looking forward to next week, even if it will mostly be spent working!



Have a wonderful week guys! x

Worth The Splurge #4

If you guys have read more than one post on my blog, you're probably already aware, I've got a weakness for high end beauty products. I've always found it hard to find 'perfect' products from the drugstore, but it's oh so easy in a beauty hall.

That being said, not every high end product is worth parting with your pennies for, but here are four that are.

The Tarte Amazonian Clay 12 Hour Full Coverage Foundation is a recent addition to my beauty ranks (thanks Daphne), and something that's been on my wishlist for a very long time. This is a pretty interesting foundation, it's good coverage, and a slightly 'moussey' texture, with a really long lasting formula. In terms of finish and wear it's fantastic, but I do find it a little drying on the skin, so it's one to avoid if you're prone to dry skin. I really like this, and I know I'll be reaching for this over and over come the Summer months.

The MAC Mineralize Skinfinish in Stereo Rose is something of a blogger favourite, it sells out every time it's released, and everyone and their mothers seems to love it. I was sceptical but I managed to score this last summer, and it's become a makeup bag staple for me. This is a bronzey rose blush with veins of golden and rose shimmer, and a little of the cheeks adds dimension and colour in the most beautiful way. It's like a bronzer, blush, highlight hybrid, just this is enough to sculpt out cheekbones. I basically think this is cheek magic.

Let's talk about my one true mascara love, the YSL Shocking Mascara. Volume, length, and drama, I've never found a mascara that does as much for my lashes as this option. It's very very pricey, but this is a total treat purchase for me, not something I always have on hand.

And lastly, let's talk about the Chanel Rouge Coco Shine Lipsticks, my favourite high end formula! These are sheer, but you can build up the colour for a more intense look, and they wear really comfortably on the lips. I've got three in my stash currently, but my favourite is Boy, the perfect nude. Just look at that packaging, they're so gorgeous!

What are your favourite pricey items?

Disneyland: The Park

Here it is, the first in a series of posts all about my Disneyland Paris experience! I've thought long and hard about the best way to do this, I know a lot of you are just interested in a general show and tell, but a lot of you are also in the details too. So, I've decided to split it into a few post, The Disneyland Park experience, The Walt Disney Studios Experience, The Disneyland Hotel New York Review, Eating at Disneyland and then a general tips/best bits post. Hopefully, this will cover everything you guys want to see! If there's anything I've missed that you'd like to know, just let me know!

 So lets talk about the park in general! We visited from Thursday through Monday, so we got to experience the park quieter, and busier on the weekend. I would definitely try to avoid a weekend trip, because the queue times were dramatically longer for everything, and it was definitely a more stressful experience! I've visited the park before, but we're talking about 14 years ago, and I've visited the California park more recently. I've never been to the Florida park so I can't compare it to that! It's definitely smaller than it's California counterpart, and there are fewer 'big thrills' rides!

The park was decorated for Spring and looked beautiful, especially when the sun made an appearance! I loved all the flowers round the park too, it all felt really beautiful, and like Spring was on it's way (despite the weather)!

It's worth pointing out at this point that it was FREEZING. With the exception of the last day, it was bitterly cold. Like, coats, scarves, gloves and hats cold. Like, on one day, my mum wore two pairs of trousers cold. Obviously this is kind of to be expected considering the time of year and destination, but when you're spending so much time outside it was really quite uncomfortable!

The park itself is quite compact, everything's quite close together, but you do end up walking miles whilst your there! My legs ached a lot! According to my phone, I was walking around 12k a day, which when you spend most of your time sat at your desk is a LOT. You'll definitely be wanting comfy shoes, I wore my Vans on the first day, and regretted it, then just stuck to my Nike 6.0s for the rest of the trip! 

 One of the disappointing things was that a lot of the park was closed whilst we were there. Obviously we knew this was going to be the case before hand, but on the website it just listed a couple of closed rides, when in actuality, a lot of the shops and restaurants were closed too. This was kind of a bummer in two ways, the first that obviously, things were shut. Both Space Mountain and Phantom Manor were closed, which are two of the bigger rides, and two of my favourites, so that was a shame. The second was that because big chunks of the park were shut, it made the rest of the park much busier, and bumped up the weight times for the other rides, so it's definitely worth checking what's closed prior to visiting. 

Ride times totally varied the entire time we were there. Thunder Mountain (my favourite!) varied from around 20 minutes, right up to 90, which is just madness, whilst the smaller rides generally were between 5 and 20 minutes. Not all the rides have fastpasses, so it's worth checking which rides do, and you can only have one fastpass at a time, so if you have one, you have to wait until you've used that to get another. Kind of annoying but I guess it's the most fair way to do it! The fastpasses are free, but done on a first come first served basis, a lot of the rides (namely Thunder Mountain and Peter Pans Flight) were out of fastpasses by midday, so definitely get in there early!

 DON'T MISS: Thunder Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, Alice's Curious Labyrinth, Buzz Lightyear's Laser Blast, Mad Hatter's Tea Cups.

 The park definitely doesn't have as much character interaction as it's California counterparts, there were several organised character meet and greets around the park, but none of the characters just strolling down the street stuff! I'm not sure if this was just because it was out of season! There also wasn't as much music playing around the park, which my mum and I both commented on as a bit of a shame!

The park is undeniably stunning. The attention to detail is positively stunning, everything from the gas lights in the arcade on Main Street, to the 'barbers shop' inside one of the stores, to the rooftiles in Fantasyland! It's easy to spend the day just wondering around soaking up the details. Some of the stuff was a little run down, but there was a lot of maintenance going on whilst we were there. Discoveryland was a bit of a disappointment, most of it was shut and it all looked a little tired, but Fantasyland and Frontierland made up for it!

I somehow missed most of the parades, but I caught the Disney Dreams Lights and Fireworks display twice, and it was honestly breathtaking! Such a magical experience. 

Despite the cold and the closures, we had the most amazing time! I don't think you'd need more than two or three days in this park, unless it was really busy, I think we were there for the perfect amount of time to experience everything! 

I honestly can't thank my parents enough for the best birthday experience ever!

The Chelsea Blow Out

Letting someone else style my hair is one of my favourite things, up there with fresh Krispy Kreme Donuts and Sunday mornings in bed. Despite being happy to spend ages on my makeup in the morning, I hate doing my hair. It takes ages, it makes my arms ache, and it never looks as good as when somebody else does it. So, when an invitation to the Richard Ward Salon dropped into my inbox, I said yes rather quickly. It worked out kinda perfectly too, since the appointment was for the day before my birthday, meaning I had awesome hair, and I didn't have to do anything to it!

The salon is located in the heart of Duke of York Square, just a few minutes walk from Sloane Square station, and very close to the best Zara I ever did shop at. From the outside it looks pretty small, but inside is one of the biggest salons I've ever seen, with separate rooms for washing, cutting and styling, colour treatments, a beauty salon, as well as a very well stocked bar. My coat was whisked away to a cloakroom and I was offered pretty much any drink I could have asked for (typically, I'd just drank my body weight in green juice at Jo and the Juice, so I politely declined, for fear of having to leave the blow dry half way through to go to the bathroom). After a few minutes in the waiting room/bar area, I was introduced to Salon Director Matt, who chatted to me about my hair, how I like it styled (anything that looks good) and the condition it was in (terrible). He decided the best course of action for me would be to use the Keratin Sleek shampoo, and Keratin Rehab mask to give my tired locks a little TLC. What followed was the best head massage of my life, I swear I could have fallen asleep in the chair and slept for a week, it was total bliss.

Post sleepy hair wash, I was back in the styling room, where Matt spritzed the lengths of my hair with Keratin Shine spray and the Keratin Bulking mist, which definitely gave my hair the volume and shine it so desperately needed. From there he got to work with a big old roundbrush and hair dryer, and within 20 minutes, I had the big bouncy hair that Disney dreams are made of. He even trimmed my fringe back in for me, which was greatly appreciated!

You can visit the Richard Ward salon for the Chelsea Blow Dry experience for £25, perfect for special occasions or when you just want to feel fancy. My hair lasted four days of looking fab (with a little dry shampoo help at the roots), and it looked great in my birthday pictures! It was also a seriously luxurious experience, I felt thoroughly pampered when I left! I'm definitely going to be heading back for my graduation, that's for sure!