Oh I do like to be beside the seaside...

Hello. So I'm a little behind with this post as it's already mid-week but I wanted to quickly share my weekend with you. I headed down to sunny Skegness- sadly not so sunny! However despite the overcast weather it was very enjoyable. 

As a kid I would often go down to Skegness with my family as a mini getaway. With it being around a 2 hour drive from my house, I believe it's my nearest beach and hence I'd love going to the seaside! 

My friend Abi, also a primary teacher and whom I met whilst at Uni, just so happens to live there! I hadn't seen in her over a year (how time flies!!!) and so we arranged for me to stay the weekend and have a good old catch-up :) 

We did a bit of shopping when I arrived and I bought some fab shoes which I will later blog about as I simply love them!...

But of course when at the seaside you just have to visit the beach. So on Saturday we had a lovely beach day with her friend Erica along with 3 kids (relatives). It was rather windy but pleasant and not particularly cold, although I did wear my coat and jeans. We had a lot of difficulty putting up the windbreak on the beach (haha how I still laugh about our efforts, bashing a rock on the poles and what not) but we did half successfully put it up eventually!

There's a lovely water play area for children not too far from the beach too. I couldn't get any pictures as I thought it might be inappropriate with other children about but our 3 kids really enjoyed paddling and splashing about despite the not particularly warm weather. I can imagine it to be a very popular place when the sun's out though! 

Another unwritten rule whilst at the seaside: ice cream! I need no excuse to get a Mr Whippy let me tell you. They're one of my favourite treats. The strawberry sauce and flake simply topped it off :p yum yum! I have to say a big well done to Abi as she managed to resist a ice cream in aid of being healthy and sticking to her diet plan! Very proud! :)

Usually when I go to Skeg I would say there's also a law where you have to have fish and chips. Honestly fish and chips at its finest. However on this occasion Abi's mum made us the best roast dinner ever!! It was so nice! 

Saturday night Abi's friend invited us to play bingo at a local hall. I could tell she was worried I'd find it boring or something but I've always wanted to give bingo a go so I was more than up for it. I started the game really excited and convinced my numbers would come out...however sadly neither of us won anything haha. Nevertheless I really enjoyed playing and I definitely want to seek out a bingo place near me because I want to play again! :)

I had a fab weekend visiting Skeg and catching up with one of my loveliest friends! I'd definitely recommend giving it a visit if you've never been. It's always a fun trip out. 

As with any tourist place, there are loads of souvenir and gift shops. I usually like to treat myself to a sugar dummy or a keyring or something. However this time, after already purchasing my shoes from New Look, I bought a friend a cute little fridge magnet. The cool ice cream design really stood out and as she collects them, I couldn't resist!

Thanks to Abi for being a great host! I really had a brilliant weekend. 

What did you guys get up to?

X

OPI's Manicurist of Seville

Hello! I thought I'd do a quick post showing you my latest nail choice. Since September I've been having my nails done regularly with gel overlay to ensure my nails stay strong whilst I'm working in the classroom. 

Towards the end of the school year the underneath of my nails were pretty gross and stained from face paint! Joys of teaching lol. So I had my nails cut off and had tips applied instead- so no, I can't claim these to be my own nails!

Prior to this I had a bright lime colour (for the purpose of matching my super bright bikini). So I opted for a nice change with Opi's manicurist of Seville polish. 

I love the deep plum shading and with some clear varnish on top, my nails are really shiny. 

I've had several compliments on my nails already, and whilst I feel this would properly be a better winter colour I think it's nice regardless! :)

What do you think? 

Acne cure! My Roaccutane experience.

Hello. Ok so this wasn't an easy thing for me to post. Did I want to show everyone how horrid my skin was?...No. 

BUT I did want to show how the medication drug, Roacctune, got rid of my awful skin and transformed my life. So regardless of how embarrassed I feel about showing the most unflattering selfies ever, I am doing it in the hope that this post might help others currently suffering with spots or acne. 

I'm going to keep the write-up of this short and sweet as I have talked at length about my background and my findings of this drug over on my YouTube channel. If you wish to check that out then please do so here. 

If not, long story short, I was put on the prescription-only drug, Roaccutane (Isotretinoin). The drug is specifically for suffers of acne and other severe skin problems and does come with a warning of a fair few side effects. 

I failed to mention in my video about the dangers regarding depression. The drug has been linked to causing depression and in some cases suicide, however I don't believe any firm evidence of this has ever been recognised. 

I would say that I was possibly more depressed and feeling low when my skin was at its worse, rather than whilst taking this medication. But if you suffer with depression and anxiety etc then this may be something to consider and discuss with your doctor prior to taking the drug. 

Not surprisingly, I only ever took 2 photographs of my bare face whilst I was suffering with a form of cystic acne. These photographs show how sore and irritated my skin was and from this point on it only continued to develop and get worse. I didn't take a picture of my skin at its most extreme point but you can grasp the idea.

Everyday I would wake up to new yellow-headed monstrosities that would be sore and painful. They would explode, oozing out grossness, if I didn't pop them first! So my daily task was to squeeze out the liquid before going about soothing the essentially open wound. Then I would set on with job of concealing my face so the world wouldn't have to see the horrible sight I saw every day! 

It would take me roughly 20 minutes to conceal, foundation and powder my face. Luckily I got quite good at it and if I told people how bad my skin was they would say "no you're skin is fine, doesn't look bad at all". Little did they know. 

And ahhh the itching! Boy did it itch. It would drive me up the wall some days and I couldn't often scratch it anyway in fear of my makeup coming off!

And so along came... ROACCUTANE. 

Again, check out my video for more detail about my experience with the drug, but wow it worked well. 

I was taking Roaccutane for 6 months in total and having now been off the drug for 6 months, here is my skin today in the picture above. I must say I'm not a fan of these no-makeup-selfies but I wanted to show you what my skin was like today without any products. 

I'm so impressed with how the drug simply got rid of my itchy painful skin and I only encountered 3 side effects along the way. The latter 2 of which I loved!

1) Extremely dry lips. This is the most common side effect of Roacctune but very easy to manage with a good lip balm. I found the cherry Carmex worked a treat. 

2) Drier skin. I used a nice body moisturiser as normal and found no real issues. As for my face, I loved getting rid of my usually very oily skin. Again I just used a good moisturiser. 

3) Drier hair. Again not an issue. I could last up to 5 days without needing to wash my hair! It was brilliant. 

Main effect: GOODBYE ACNE. Winner. 

I hope you find this useful. Please don't hesitate to ask me any questions you might have about the medication or general skin related issues. 

X

I love this drink: Vita Coco

Hello just a quick post about a drink I am seriously enjoying at the minute! It's the Vita Coco coconut water. 

I've always been a massive fan of the milk you get out of a fresh coconut and stumbled across this drink at the NEC Clothes Show Live a few years ago. I tried and buyed as it were and enjoyed my purchase. But then I never saw the drink again to buy and forgot about it. 

When I saw this in my local Morrisons recently I had to retry it. I bought a 330ml size for £1.79. And yes I guess whilst that is pretty pricey I'd say the taste more than makes up for it. It's hard to describe but not only is it very much like fresh coconut milk it has a hydrating quality that I haven't experienced before. It's more refreshing than water. 

As you can see, nutritionally it isn't too bad. And based on the price (I think 1litre is currently on offer at Morrisons for £3) it's not a drink that you would consume masses off. 

I particularly like this drink as a nice refreshing treat or after a good workout to help put back in some energy without lots of sugar. 

Anyway if you happen to try this let me know what you think :) 

A spa afternoon at the Nottingham Belfry hotel

Yesterday me and my friend Lucy decided to check out the Nottingham Belfry spa. Having not long since returned from Center Parcs I love a good relaxing spa day, so when my mum's friend said she had a voucher she wasn't going to use I jumped at the chance! 

As this was a free gift to me, I'm unsure on pricing but I'm pretty certain a few web searches or a telephone call would provide you with this info. 

Upon ringing up to book my spa slot and day (we went for the 2-7 time rather than the 9-2 one) the guy on the phone informed me that we'd get a towel on arrival. Sure enough we did and lockers were the usual set up whereby you put in a £1 coin and receive it back at the end. 

Spoilt by Center Parcs and the Bannatyne spa, I did rather expect there to be an option of buying some spa type slippers, you know the white cloth spongey ones?! At Center Parcs they charged £1 for some. However we weren't told about any so assumed this wasn't an option. 

As for treatments, I was told on the phone when I booked the spa day that it was best to book them prior to arriving as they do go fast. Us being us we never got around to ringing up to book any, so when we arrived and asked if any were available they were all gone! To be honest I didn't think it would be that busy on a Monday but serves me right really for chancing it! I would have liked a massage but hey ho. 

We were kindly pointed in the right direction and headed for the changing rooms. These were really nice. Very clean and modern and had a station with a couple of hair dryers, which I later used. 

We had a quick look around and headed for the pool first. It was a fairly nice size and they had designed it so you could chat on one side or choose to swim on the longer side of the pool. I thought this was a nice touch because there's nothing worse than going to do some serious swimming to find people are messing around and in your way (this happened to me at my local pool last week and gosh was I annoyed).

Along with the pool there were two small rooms. On the left was a steam room and on the right a sauna. Next to these rooms were a shower, which my friend Lucy enjoyed using after being in the rooms to cool off. 

The steam room had a nice smell about it and was funnily enough very steamy! Haha. Funny that?! The seats were comfortable but I found it best to sit in the corners because I kept sliding off the middle seats. 

The sauna was possibly my favourite of the two. I like that dry heat smell and sort of taste, if you follow what I mean by that. Inside there was a sand timer which I thought was pretty cool so you could turn it to see how long you had been in there for. We generally couldn't hack anymore than 10 minutes. I was incredibly thirsty! Luckily there was a water fountain just outside. 

I was pleased to see that there was a jacuzzi. I'm not sure why but I just find them to be quite a novelty! The temperature was lovely and warm- they always remind me of baths :) In places the bubbles were quite vicious to say the least but in the right spot it could be relaxing. 

After spending a couple of hours enjoying chilling and relaxing we decided to get dry and go and get some food. We were starving! 

I ordered a mango and caramelised onion chicken wrap which was really delicious and the pot of coleslaw it came with was lovely. Lucy had a goats cheese and beetroot wrap which looked great and she too said it was really nice. We ordered a side of cheesy chips to share and this was a great choice. They were so tasty...could eat them right now actually :)

The prices weren't too bad, with our wraps and fizzy drinks coming to around £10 and the side was something like £4. So not extortionate at all and it was quality food too. 

Upon arrival we received a complimentary voucher enabling use to get a hot drink/cordial and a Danish pastry free (part of my mum's friend's voucher's deal I think). They had Costa drinks on site so I had a cappuccino and Lucy had a latte. These again were very nice and the pastries went down a treat too.

I should mention that they also had a gym however on this occasion I didn't check it out. I figured that because I essentially spend the majority of my time in one and had only just done a LBT class that morning, that I'd give my body a rest and go for a relaxing time instead!

All in all I had a great afternoon and would definitely recommend visiting here if you're looking for a nice chilled time at a place with clean facilities and nice food. 

Morning LBT in Nike Shorts

Good morning! Nothing better than to start off the week with a good workout! :)

So having just devoured my post-workout breakfast after a good LBT (legs, bums and tums) class, I thought I'd share with you my current favourite gym shorts. 

They're Nike branded and my particular ones are black with a stamp of bright coral. The colours are actually the first thing that stood out to me. Another cool feature is the Lycra material built into the shorts, so essentially shorts within shorts.

The Lycra means that putting the shorts on is uber soft, comfortable and they fit tight like a glove. I'm guessing this feature is designed to help with sweat control and chaffing, and I have to say I've never had any aggravation whilst wearing them. 

I also like the writing on the waistband that says 'just do it' ...I do like my fitness motos :)

I've worn them many a time now to different classes. I even wear them to boot camp which often involves a fair amount of running and they've still remained comfortable.

I have a feeling I paid a little more than £20 but you can get them here for that price. So, if you're looking into getting some new gym shorts, or thinking of being brave and actually buying your first pair of shorts to workout in, I'd recommend these with their great support system and comfort. 

I miss blogging!

                   

So please excuse the Tinkerbell hoodie, messy hair and non-makeup'd face...but I'm sat here thinking shall I go back to blogging/vlogging? 

Should I? Shan't I? 

Time? Job? Life? 

But I miss it! ... So here I am. Doing my first blog in over a year. Wow time really does fly! 

So what's been happening? Long story short, I survived my first year of primary teaching and actually enjoyed most of it! Sure there were days when I'd think is it actually worth all of this stress, but then one of my little cuties would say something adorable like "you're beautiful" or "I love you Miss Cooper". And then suddenly it'd all be worth it! :)

So school's out for the summer!

Of course the year has not been without a vast amount of make-up purchases and a heavy dose of exercising so I have lots of product reviews and tips etc coming up for you! 

I'm also going to re-enter the YouTube world, so keep an eye out for videos too!

Feel free to say hello and welcome me back to the beautiful blogging world! What have I missed?! Any holy grail products? ;)

X