Silk and Sapphire: Lifestyle

Showing posts with label Lifestyle. Show all posts

With the arrival of the start of spring, i've recently i've been getting into watching tv series. Some i've watched for a while and some of them are a recent discovery. I'm just finding myself watching funny series and having a good old chuckle at the moment, especially comedy because i'm feeling in a cheerful spring mood. I don't have a netflix account *cue gasp* which I will do at some point, but i'm making the most of sky tv with like 1000 channels but I only watch like 10 so i'm trying to make the most of them. So grab a blanket and a hot cuppa with me while I share with you what series i'm currently loving to watch at the moment.

1) Melissa and Joey

This show has only made a few seasons, but a very good few regardless. I used to watch Melissa in Sabrina the Teenage witch when I was younger on Disney Chanel or a similar channel. Even if you didn't, there are a lot of laughs in Melissa and Joey that should make you crack a smile or two. I've really been loving this show recently and their writers know how to do it. Some of the things that they think of is quite clever and funny and the story line is always a surprise. It's one of them shows where you want them to get together, you know it, the kids know it but they don't know it yet, oooh..

2) The Goldbergs

Taking place in the 80's decade, this family sitcom is a recent discovery of mine which i've got quite into. It involves anything to do with the 80's era, music, outfits, the craziness and the dancing! This show will have a have a reference to something that kind of takes you on a journey with them, but it's quite funny as well. The Goldbergs uses actual home video at the end of the show while making a modern recreation of it and it's quite funny, with the added craziness which makes you enjoy watching it.

3) Modern Family

Travelling a few years on from the 80's we've reached Modern Family which is just filled with a lot of funny characters and laughs as well. I think we're sensing a family theme over here, I didn't even mean for that to happen, haha. I like that it takes a different approach to family life and through the show they sit on the sofa and talk into the camera which makes it appear as if they're talking to you. The characters are quite funny and each episode never fails to make me laugh. Modern family has won awards as well and I can definitely see why.

4) Baby Daddy

A relatively new discovery of mine, I wasn't 100% sure about this show at first because I didn't get the characters or what was going on. Who was the daddy, who is everyone else? I hadn't seen this picture until writing this post otherwise that would have helped. It's actually got quite a bit of humour in it and ended up being better than I expected. It kind of reminds of like a grown up disney channel show with plenty of surprises. There's also a love triangle between the girl and two guys next to her, which makes it interesting to watch to see who will seal the deal.

5) The Big Bang Theory

The Big Bang Theory I saved for last because it my favourite comedy series to watch on a rainy day, or any day infact. I amdire the guy who created the show who also created two and a half men. He is just such a creative series producing genius and the way the show is written and produced. The characters play their roles incredibly well and the writers are just amazing. Do you have one of those programs that you will first look for when you put the television on, in the hope there a few consequtive episodes for you to watch. This is that program for me, I love this show.

What are some of your favourite tv series that you are loving at the moment?

Angie xo

I am thankful to be nominated for a leibster award by the lovely girls Kristina from A Lady Likes, ML from TheBeautyholicGirl and Maria from Lovefrommaira. This has made me feel really happy at the moment because I haven't posted as regularly as I have been and I thought are people even reading my blog? This makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside like you guys are still there or maybe you've come recently and I would like to say thank you to you girlies for nominating and for having faith in me and my blog and for everyone else who reads it. I love this aspect of the blogging community and spreading positivity which is amazing.

The rules for the Liebster Award are:

You have to mention and thank the blog that nominated you in a blog post.
You then have to answer the 11 questions which were asked by the blog that nominated you.
Then it's your turn to nominate 11 other new bloggers.
You lastly have to set 11 new questions for your nominees to answer.

Kristinas questions

1. If you could wear only one makeup product for a week what would it be? I would reach for foundation, a high coverage one so at least my face is one skin tone are ready to go. I hope I would have made the right choice haha

2. What three famous people (dead or alive), would you invite to your dinner party? Rita Ora because I think she'd be a lot of fun, James Cordon for the same reason and a famous chef who can make something tasty for us.

3. If you could live in a book, TV show or film what would it be? Harry Potter, i'd be a goblin and play pranks on Malfoy.

4. What movie did you last watch? Fast and Furious 7, the last one :( but at least there's 7 to rewatch so it's alright.

5. Smokey eye and nude lip OR soft eyes and red lip? This has got me thinking actually, nude is the colour I go for more but then red lips are like BAM! Can I choose nude in the morning and red at night?

6. What is your dream job? Something important like a CEO of a company, that would look good on the cv haha.

7. Describe your perfect day in a sentence. Chilled, relaxed, really sunny where you don't plan anything but it's just so fun, you stumble across a lake, you find a market with the best eat-as-much-as-you-want food, mmmm.

8. What did you last laugh about? After watching a recorded rudetube we had a few laughs at some of the funny videos.

9. What is something you hope to achieve this year? Getting my own domain and making my blog as peachy as possible :) well that's the aim anyway.

10. Who is your favourite Disney princess or character? Ariel because I wanted her mermaid life and a sidekick Sebastian and sing "under da seaaa "

11. Who were your childhood idols/ heroes? Mary Kate and Ashley, I watched them grow from two of a kind series to their movies and their fashion and I admire their work ethic and even though they're like bagiliionaires, they just don't stop.

( I had to put a picture in because there was so many questions, I needed something to break them up a bit)

ML's questions

1. What made you start blogging? I wanted to write and unleash my thoughts into something that didn't include boring old essays I needed to hand in soon.

2. Where do you look for inspiration when you're stuck on what to blog? Sometimes old blog posts, I think 'ah I should have wrote about that' then i'm like ooh maybe I could now.

3. What is your favourite makeup brand? L'Oreal, I have way too many of their products.

4. What's your favourite mascara and why? Would you kill me if I said L'Oreal million lashes mascara.

5. What sort of blog posts do you like reading and why? I like to read personal posts, opinions on things and life. This is because you get to see the personality of someone and I find those kind of posts interesting to read.

6. Do you enjoy travelling? If so, where have you been? We travel every Summer but when I was younger we drove from England to Bulgaria and stayed in the countries were in at night. I visited so many countries on that one trip but I would have rather done it now so I could take more pictures and enjoy it more because I was much younger.

7. Would you consider doing youtube? I have thought about it but I did a test video and heard my voice and I was like omg no way.

8. Name 4 of your favourite you tubers. I don't watch youtube as much as I used to but Smosh because they were one of the fist people I subscribed to and they're funny. Superwoman because her parents impersonation videos ae hilarious. Any funny cat video and lastly, Ray William Johnson before he left.

9. What's your favourite song at the moment? I really don't know actually, maybe Zara Lawson's new song.

10. Favourite lip colours? I'm liking light pink at the moment for spring.

Maria's questions

1. The last dream you remember, what was it about? Travelling, i'm not sure why I always have this dream recently but maybe it's a sign!

2. Where is your happy place? Either on holiday somewhere or somewhere more realistic, my bedroom because it has everything like bed, tv, laptop and cats haha.

3. What do you usually have for breakfast? I start my day with a bowl of either Weetabix or granola cereal.

4. If you could travel anywhere in the world, what's the first place you'd go to? California!

5. What are some things you like about yourself? My friendliness, like if we're friends I'm the nicest most caring person to you. I like to have a laugh, enjoy life and being there for people when they need me.

6. What's your favourite holiday? Bulgaria because it's like being on holiday but going home as well.

7. Would you describe yourself as messy or tidy? Tidy! I don't really like mess.

8. If you could live in any fictional world for a day, where would you want to go? Hogwarts, let's go?

9. Who is your inspiration? My mum because I admire her work ethic and how caring she is.

10. How did you come up wth your blog name? My name was taken and I kept suggesting names and the one for the most positive feedback, I'm still not 100% sure about it haha.

11. What is your favourite sweet and favourite savoury? Sweet- Skittles or galaxy chocolate. Savoury- Chicken or Chinese food, mm.

My nominations
(In no particular order, I have nominated people who I don't think have done it yet, of course I wanted to nominate all of you)

Anna - The Day In The Life Of Me
Madara- Look for Smile
Jodie - Jodietopia
Jemma - The Sweetpea Life
Shona - Shona Harding
Amanda - Bullet-ing

Vanessa - The Beauty Anecdote

Shannon - Sixth Skyline

Kathy - Along Came Kathy

Shiona - Life After Ldn

Jemima - Another Ranting Reader

My questions to you:

1. What star sign are you and what is one trait of your sign?

2. What one accessory, like a certain piece of jewellery do you always wear or can't live without?

3. Do you have any pets? If no, what pet would you like to have?
4. Is there a product you can't stop using at the moment?

5. Do you have anything planned for the Summer?

6. What is your favourite type of chocolate or sweet thing?

7. 5 things that you are loving right now? Like products, tv shows or even the weekend

8. We're having a girls day/night, what do we do?

9. What is your favourite thing about blogging?
10. What type of flowers do you think are the prettiest?

11. What is one thing about you that people may be surprised to know?

Let me know if you've done it :) and thank you again for the lovely nominations :)

Angie xo

I always find there is a different type of experience that you get physically shopping than from online browsing. Actually seeing the true colours and texture of the clothes, is something that you can't get while surfing the web. I sometimes find there are some things which we may experience when shopping in a clothing store, which may either add to a pleasant shopping trip, or make you wish you just shopped from the comfort of your bed.

- Trying to find a space (i'm usually the passenger) on busy shopping days and as you're looking for a space to park, someone behind you leaves a wide open space that you have no time to get to and the car behind quickly swipes in.

- Having to repeat "no thank you i'm just looking" in every store you approach and sometimes feeling their eyes monitoring your every moment.

- Then later on you're like "oh I do kind of need some help now but you're over there, oh, never mind"

- Walking past the window and going in specifically for that item and never actually seeing it apart from the window, is that it? I'm not sure, it looks different, maybe not.

- Having too many clothes for the changing room and just one extra bra isn't going to make any difference, plus i'm not really trying it on so does that only count as 6 items?

- Buying clothes you're not sure will fit just because you're wearing too many layers or your hair is actually on your side today and you don't want to ruin it, ah there's always returns right?

- Touching anything that feels nice, looks furry or has looks like touchable material. I have a bad habit of doing this but touching items increases the chance of buying them and I guess it kind of works sometimes.

- Making sure that when you buy underwear in a clothing store that the nicest ones are on top like yes I don't have snoozy sunday lounge pants behind those.

- Having a man serve you and scan your future underwear and kind of give you that raised eyebrow emoji look. Ah stop being creepy please. Oh, how did those lounge pants get in there?

- Looking through the whole of the sales rack and finding absolutely nothing but ripped jumpers and thin tops that aren't gonna keep you warm in this season.

- Or looking through the sales rack and finding something amazing, your size and it's half price, I hope there's nothing wrong with this!

- Having a drink leftover from your subway and standing outside to quickly down your drink because you can't take it in and you end up getting bloated with juice, I may need a bigger size now.

- When you're dressed up ready to face the day and everyone is hibernating and when it's a slouchy sweater day you end up seeing someone that you haven't spoken to in a while like "I don't always look like this I swear!"

- When the shops are closing and you have the debate of which shops are worthy enough to go into as the clock is ticking away.

- So is your parking ticket, did I have until half 5 or half 6? I could go and check but i'd be losing time, but if I don't go then the ticket man won't let me forget.

- My favourite is coming out a clothing store with a full bag of new essentials ready for you to take loads of snaps, which some sunny rays could help with that. For me though, it doesn't work out as expected! Haha

What are some of the thoughts and things you experience when you go shopping?

Angie xo

Living the life we desire may not be a far reach from our fingertips. Sometimes it just requires small changes to enable us to live our life to the full capacity. Some things of course may be out of our reach, but the things that are, we can use to our advantage and help us through this ever changing life. We all go through things, no matter how difficult it to see from the outside. It helps to find ways to mentally to prepare yourself for when those things happen. These are a few things I find our helpful to getting the most of our life and trying to live a more meaningful lifestyle.

Changing your mindset- Changing my perception was the number one thing that I had to change in order to live a happier lifestyle. When things went wrong it would literally knock my confidence to the ground, but because life will always surprise you and it's helpful to try and not allow it overcome you. Using positive thinking and reinforcement, you can override the negative thoughts with more positive ones. You can think you know what, i'm not gonna let this get to me and positively reinforce yourself that you can overcome the situation.

Be happy for the smaller things in life- When you don't expect much, you don't expect to gain much and therefore you're not as knocked down when things don't go in your direction, If for example you apply for a great job and you start thinking of working there and how amazing it will be, what you will buy with your staff discount, everything! Then if they don't realise what a great team member you'd be, oh, maybe I should I have said I was an astronaut on my cv. Then if you expect less, you may not be as knocked down and can focus your energy on something else.

Going outside- Notice the greenness of the grass, the various colours of the plants around you. Being online can help us in certain aspects, as well as talking to lovely people and watching funny animals. Although, taking a break from that really helps to keep you sane and not let myself get into the slump of over-internetting. Seeing the experience of nature isn't something we can get online, fresh oxygen, getting our blood rushing. It's always refreshing to just take a breather, or two.

Focus on your breathing- Focus on how you inhaling while breathing. Making sure as you inhale it reaches your stomach and not just your chest. Allow the air to fully awaken your senses and feel a wave of relaxation upon you. Sometimes feeling tense or stressed can simply be changed by monitoring how we breathe and taking a few moments out of the day to just take in some deep breaths. It's such a natural thing, but we often forget to really breathe the air through our body.

Do things for other people- The feeling of giving and making someone else happy can really put a smile on their face. You could surprise someone, give someone a compliment or volunteer somewhere. Acts of gratitude can really make a difference to someones day and it make you feel all warm inside. It doesn't have to be anything big, even small acts of kindness and lovely gestures can really bring someone a smile, especially if they're having a bad day.

Be happy in your own skin- There is only one you, so be the best version of it that you can be. Be happy with who you are. Appreciate your life, do things that make you feel good about yourself. Wait until everyone's out of the house and dance or do some yoga. I say when people are out because nothing puts me off more than when someone unexpectedly walks in while they are greeted by my butt in the air in an awkward position. Well I was trying to relax but after that awkward encounter, I guess my sessions over now.

I hope you can find little things that help to live a more meaningful lifestyle, what are some of the things you like to do?

Angie xo

As we've transitioned from the 90's to 2000+ our generation has experienced some of the most insane things. Of course, although the 90's era was a classic time of super mario and spice girls, there are a lot of things that I believe have actually changed for the better and make a dramatic difference in our lives. I am glad to be a part of this change in modernisation, even though some new inventions have been quite amusing like this dog muzzle in the shape of a ducks beak.

Photography: Oppo

Technology - Catching blocks of food while controlling your pixelated snake may have been the highlight of 'old skool' phones, but let's appreciate how far technology has come, to the point you can even get apps that monitor your sleep. You never know what new creations they have up their sleeve. I'd always wanted to live far enough in the future where you hold the phone in the palm of your hand and a little hologram person talks to you. If this could somehow be made..

Photographs - I remember going to the camera store with my mum after waiting a week for the photographs to be developed. There was the excitement of not knowing what they would come out like, not remembering what had been taken. Although that was a downfall sometimes because to my horror my thumb made an appearance in some of the best ones. At least we don't have to wind the camera back and we won't annoyingly run out of film thinking "ah, i've only got 5 photo's left, I have to make it count"

Hairstyles - Thank goodness you can go into boots or any other beauty store and generally find a product for any problem, any colour, any condition. The research that has gone into these products have improved to the point we can straighten our hair with a brush or curl our hair with a straightener. Even though the big hairstyle phase was slowly getting flatter by the 90's, do you remember those coloured, not even clip in, but spring in hair extensions. I'm surprised they didn't spring off our heads! Don't forget our added cute accessories, the more in your hair the better as well.

Super Mario - I can't say that I don't miss playing old school super mario, I loved the classic theme tune and when the mushroom would turn you into a giant mario. Although I guess now you don't need to worry about where the disk has gone, you can play games on your on your own portable console, your phone. Unless you had a nintendo DS then it would join you on your travels. You couldn't take your nintendo or ps1 on a train, or you couldn't play quick candy crushing type of games, so we've come quite far.

Movies - How annoying was it when you'd put in a tape and you hadn't rewound it so you'd have to spend ages rewinding it. While seeing the movie being played back in the process so you've pretty much seen it now anyway. Then they squished and flattened them down, just like they did with the chunky tv's, so we could use little disks. We could choose what scene we want to start on and if we were lucky the deleted scenes special DVD edition. What! Once we thought we couldn't get any better, Netflix came along where you don't need to worry if you accidentally stepped on your disk, oops!

Surfing the web - Finally, the one that has changed the world in ways we couldn't imagine is the wide world of web. We wouldn't have blogs, twitter and the sneezing panda on youtube. I wouldn't even know what I'd do if I was lost and couldn't check where I was and keep an account of where I'm going. Sure you could try asking someone, but I always have to do the dreaded thing of asking someone, i'm still lost and then have to ask someone else. Now, I can just open up my google maps and let it do it's thing, when it sometimes works.

These are just a few things that have changed since the 90's, what do you think has changed?

Angie xo

You know how when you're going through the dreaded adolescent stage of just recently starting to develop and not knowing who are, where you fit into and what style of clothing you should wear. I feel like my blog is currently at that stage, y'know, in terms of it's identity. I have all of these ideas in the hope they will maybe in some way, improve my blog but then I'm not sure which one of them to use and so then i'm left with this rainbow blog.

If you're not entirely sure what it is i'm referring to, a few posts ago I tried experimenting with the colours I used, so for example:

Test subtitle:

Test subtitle:

Then In another post I thought i'd get a little creative and try to do something like:

Trying a little too much here and why did I do this

So after attempting to come up with a colour theme, I seemed to misplaced the fact that it was just too much. I think I may have had a different colour theme on two maybe three blog posts in a row. Oh dear, someone give me their hand so I can face palm myself. I just wasn't sure what theme to go with and I thought 'oh, no one has done that before' okay, there's probably a reason why. I guess I was just trying to be creative and kind of bring out my personality in my posts, but I think I brought it out a little too much and you may have been thinking what is going on?!

I'm usually quite specific when it comes to colours and sticking with a theme. I remember in class when we had to put a powerpoint together, I was always assigned to design the theme, adding 'cool' things to and make it look interesting to stare at for five minutes. Especially after everyone had already seen multiple of powerpoints already. Being particular with the colours and what was done to one slide was done to all. I tweaked it until we presented and didn't actually have much information actually on the slides, but at least we had colourful slides to look at I guess.

I recently got hit with an unexpected turn in my life and I feel like the way I was feeling inside was kind of projected onto my blog, a bit all over the place. Although, when one door closes another one definitely opens and it came quicker than I thought so I just feel back to myself, having a clear head and I will still use the same energy for my blog posts. Ultimately what i'm going to do is figure out a theme and to have on my posts and stick with it on every post, and maybe without too much colour.

Some posts are set out differently, like the way a beauty review would be set out different to like, a post like this. So not every post can look exactly the same in the way it is structured. However, I'm definitely going to find a theme for my posts, stick with it and make each post the same and get off this coloured canal.

Thank you for reading this far as it wasn't like my usual type of posts and thank you for sticking through my weird coloured blog posts. I really appreciate it and the all your lovely comments, it means so much to me.

Angie xo

Did you know that the London Underground wasn't meant to accommodate that many people? No wonder why it's so packed! There are quite a variety of different people that you come across on your journey into London. You may not find all of them all in one day, or may come across these types of people on a daily occurrence. However, this is in no way insulting these people and they don't actually drive me that insane, although if I travelled as much into London as I used to, let me tell you, it did get a little tediuous at times.

The 'one more won't hurt' type of people- It's a busy morning journey. We're all stuck like sardines and then someone with the biggest backpack will try to wedge themselves in, without event taking it off. We're already almost stuck together, then there's the man with the backpack which makes him look like a turtle because it's just so massive, like, what is even there?!

People with suitcases- Commuting on some mornings feels like you're at the airport with all of these suitcases around town! I understand, I've been there after a flight, making a sleepless jet lagged journey. I understand how you feel, but could you at least stand on the correct side of the escalator, especially when theres signs as well. That way we don't have to drift like obstacles around you, at least not until my next coffee so I have the energy to dodge around you.

The 'I'm in too much of a hurry people' - These people are too in so much if a hurry that you're existence feels kind of imaginary. Although some people are lovely and have manners, some are like I haven't got time for waiting *insert the famous ' aint no body got time for that quote' * and sometimes even trying to give you a little push onto the tube when at peak times they usually come every 1-2 minutes. The tube comes so often that I'm sure two minutes of your time isn't going to delay you that much, and you just stepped on my bag. Thanks!

The daredevil people- Sometimes you have enough time to quickly make the tube when it closes and it feels amazing when you do. Although, some people can see the doors closing and try to run for their life through the doors, leading to their bag getting trapped or even themselves! Thankfully I've never seen anything that bad, just once a guy ran through and kind of twirled in through the swift closing doors, kind of like a ballet ninja move onto the tube. I was actually scared for him, but he literally just managed to get on just literally a second before doors closed.

The conversationalists- After I've finished my tube travels, more often than not, i'll have to get an overground train afterwards as well. They may have more carriages, but it still gets quite packed at the busiest times.You'd think people wouldn't speak so loud, or even have arguments on the train full of tired commuters. There was a woman on the train who was having an argument with someone on the phone and kept saying "no that's nonsense" "i'm not doing that, I just got on the train!" As much as the fact that it did give me a bit of entertainment on my journey. I couldn't help but think does she just not care that this packed carriage can hear her argument? Maybe whisper the argument or something?

Friendly people- It's not all terrible, you do come across friendly people who wait for you to get on first and people who smile at you for waiting when they get off. One day, I heard someone say excuse me and we've all done that thing where you look round and they're not even talking to you, awkward! So I just carried on walking, it's not happening this time! Then a woman ran up to me and gave me my oyster card which I dropped. I was over the moon! She could have just walked past it and just left it, especially after saying excusing me and there I am just walking off, thinking she's not talking to me. So there are always lovely people that you come across as well, one's that you don't need a boost of coffee for!

Angie xo

things a smart phone user will understand

One of the greatest things that has occurred from this generation is probably the substaintial smartphone's introduction. We have definitely come along way from chunky flip phones that you could dramatically flip down after a call, like a business man. We have all become accustomed to their involvement in our everyday lives and I couldn't exactly imagine life without using all the facilities they have to offer. I probably sound like a smart phone addict, but with the complexity of them, we can do so much with them from tracking our water intake, exercise and even play soothing melodies to relax to. There are a few things that you may understand as an avid smartphone user too.

1. If your phone is pretty much the first thing you check in the morning and the last thing that gazes your eyes then I don't think you're alone with that, at all. How can we not? We can read things before we sleep, kind of like relaxing with a book, only with more radiation. Oh gosh, when you put it like that..

2. When you rely on your phone as map to take you the route you need to walk but it takes you the completely opposite direction. Thanks google maps! Strangely though it seems to work fine in the car when we end up on the wrong pathway, it just doesn't help you when you're alone and lost in the suburbs of London.

3. The panicked "where's my phone?" feeling you get when that's it, it's definitely gone, I must have left it on the train and the newspaper man must have found it. Oh.. don't worry found it guys.

4. Losing your phone and someone glistens with the idea of calling it, but it's either on silent, too quiet to hear or in a completely different location. I once tracked my phone on find my iPhone, but it showed me a completely different location so I was convinced someone was already in the Cash 4 Phonez kind of shop. Luckily I found it, unsold!

5. Using it for music to accompany the shower. Even though I'm still waiting for my update, I probably shouldn't really do this.

6. Scrolling through your phone on bloglovin' or twitter and your thumb just can't take it. Too.. much.. scrolling!

7. That 'not enough storage' sign that pops up more often than it should. I had to depart with some of my apps that i'll probably never use again anyway and still no space?! What's happening?

8. Your battery needing some fuel when you really need it the most. Especially when you're in costa, with plug sockets and you have all the other necessary equipment, apart from the main essential item.

9. Zooming up the stairs to charge it when it's got 1% left and feeling awesome for making it on time. Me: 1 Phone: 0

10. Dropping your phone and of course, landing just like the buttered side of bread, face down! You do that "please be fine, please be fine" chant in the hope that your communication device is okay. I can say sometimes this has worked for me, but I have also been subject to the slide-out-of-pocket-without-buying-a-case-smash. Definitely lived an learned from this, after a few times!

Thank you for stopping by, these are a few things that we may experience with our phones, I may also make a part two to this. Do you have anything else you could add?

Angie xo

We may enter each year with our tall champagne flutes placed in our hands and an optimistic expectation of the amazing year that is yet to come. Chanting phrases like "this year is going to be the year"or "my best year yet" and then what happens when the year doesn't live up to those expectations? Well, they seem a lot worse because we're picking out all of the things that appear to make it the year from 'hell' because we started the year with really high expectations. Getting hit with an unexpected knock down may not what have been envisioned, but we can get past these situations and not let them defeat us.

We don't have to start the year with an view that isn't an optimistic one of the upcoming months, although a neutral approach may have been better to not give the year such high expectations. So when something doesn't go the way you plan, we imediately begin to focus just on the negatives that have occurred because they're so different from our positive reconstruction of what we had imagined the year to be.

Now something has gone wrong and those things are so apparent to us, like a fox's tail is when it's hiding from a crow. We can feel a kind of uncertainty or unhappiness when our actual expectation of something is different from what our perceived image of that situation is. That's why you may feel like you're having a bad day or a bad year because theres a contrast from what you expected it to be. Putting the notion across that your week isn't going so well, you may then start to notice only the negative things, kind of like a self-fulling prophecy.

Trying not to put such unrealistic expectation on life may allow us to experience the negative things without them being such a burden. Like for example, you're having a cheeky browse in your favourite store, you've got 10 minutes until the train and hey if I miss it I guess i'll have to just stay in here and browse some more. If you find a good deal that attracts your attention and you're onto a winner, whatever life throws at you that day you can say hey, life, I didn't really expect much from today but I picked up a snazzy new jumper that I'm not even sure what i'm going to wear it with, or even why I got it, but today's a good day.

You can find a better way of perceiving life in other situations which can give you that extra push to get you through your day and overcoming them may not be as hard as we thought. When life doesn't go in the way expected, bring yourself to climb on top of it and be stronger than those fallbacks that are part of life. Unrealistic images of life such as Disney movies made us believe that everything is just luscious smelling roses. Of course we know that just like the easter bunny and the big bearded guy, it wasn't exactly a true reality. However, one thing we did learn from those movies is just when a bad situation arises, there was always a way to fix and recover from it.

Realising that when life isn't always the way planned for it to unfold when something arises that we don't like, we can get over it and to not let that wave knock us down, we've still got the rest of the year to enjoy and for good things to come. Appreciating and cherishing when they do, makes us realise that obstacles were put in place in order for us to climb and to be driven to overcome them.

"We have to embrace obstacles to reach the next stage of joy"- Goldie Hawn

Angie xo

Relaxation is an important function for our bodies as the effects of every day life sometimes catches up with our body, leaving us feeling the need for some relaxation. I generally find this in occurs more in the colder weather where I generally feel the tiredness creeps up with me a little more, often feeling like another cup of our favourite caffeinated beverage to perk me up. Sometimes we just need to treat ourselves to some 'us time' where we just chill out, relax and do little things for ourselves to get us through winter until we approach the sweet spring.

Paint your nails your favourite colour after trimming, filing and buffing them to your desire. Fill up a small bowl of water with a few drops of essential oils to really bring some moisture back into your hands. Smooth soft hands always feel lovely, compared to dryer hands that occur in the winter.

Plan a day out with someone or ask if they have some ideas for amazing day out. You can find good deals with wowcher for days out/dining or other local deal site if you're not looking to overly spend. You can find really good ones in places you'd already go to like 40% off your final bill in Pizza Express which I always seem to forget to use.

Invite people over or someone close to share your new or favourite recipes that you can impress them with. You could host your own wine n' dine meal, or minus the wine depending on your preference. Heart warming food in the colder months is always a great way to have a good time, while making something delicious for everyone to enjoy.

Spend some time offline, with everything being online I don't usually just sit there and read a magazine but I feel relaxed when I flick through it, even if most of the pages are just perfume adverts. Sometimes having time out from the web of internet means you can enjoy other things and even notice the things around you that may not have before.

Spend a day just relaxing with movies, get super comfy with your fluffiest blankets and furry slippers. Pop a bag of microwave popcorn and without worrying about calories because popcorn is sweetcorn and sweetcorn is healthy right? So it's all good.

Spritz sense inducing scents around your home or the room that you're mostly in, so every now and again you get a whiff of sweet aromas. You could even get an automatic one that plugs into the wall and sprays an amazing scent every half an hour, or how long you set it to.

You can also add a soothing candle to burn which will replace some of that long lost light we lose earlier in the day in winter, while the flickering flame in the background can add a soothing ambience.

After you've relaxed with soothing scents you can treat your body to some love and care with your favourite pampering products, you can dedicate the day to a spa like day so it feels more special pampering treat, rather than a usual routine.

Most importantly just relax your body, think positive thoughts and enjoy the little moments in life. We're not that far away from spring which means that we've done well battling through winter and the grass will be literally greener on the other side, because spring means a bit more sunshine will head our way, hopefully!

What are some of the ways you relax?

Angie xo

Oh cats, cats everywhere, online, on your laps or roaming around outside. There's something loveable about those button nosed cuties. Although, there are some things that are associated with being a cat owner. Despite these things though, without trying to sound like a crazy cat lady I just think these little furries are so sweet sometimes when they're being loveable, but not when the claws come out!

Fur everywhere:This has got to be the number one sign of living in a house with furry felines in. When the warmer seasons approach, their fur moults like crazy but I found that a regular brushing routine helps to an extent with the furry flyaways. Plus, this makes a luxurious experience for your cat because if they're anything like my cats, they absolutely love it.

Tasty treats: Another thing that my cats absolutely love is munching treat like crazy. 'Whiskas' cats treats with the box in the shape of a cat head are their favourite ones. Although, you can get so many different forms of catnip or tasty treats that they go crazy for and then they are your best friends forever. I don't know what's in them, or if it's like their alternative to cookies but they could probably just eat these if they could. They're kind of like children sometimes where you say have to say no sometimes because, there is actual food other than treats haha.

Crazy mode:I'm not entirely sure where they get this energy from, probably sleeping all day long, but they get this crazy hour where they just zoom around the house. They're pouncing and climbing up things that they probably shouldn't be able to but manage to somehow. It's quite funny sometimes but other times I just kind of want them to chill because using the room as a jungle isn't relaxing to be in, haha.

Munch too much: I don't know about you, but my cats are just always hungry. Like, whenever someone goes into the kitchen they soon follow, glaring with those big eyes and eventually meowing for something to munch. This is when they've just shared half a can of tuna beforehand. They're also really fussy eaters, like if they haven't seen you put the food down they won't eat it sometimes because they don't think its fresh. I don't know where they've got such an equistic taste from haha

Claws, ouch!:So, redoing the walls due to the cats getting their nifty little claws into it and pulling at it, gradually tearing pieces off wasn't part of the plan! If they haven't ruined any of your furniture/carpet then you are very lucky that your cats don't use their claws. I even presented them with a brand new scratching post to get their daily claw thing they do. Needless to say, the wallpaper was a more enjoyable claw sharping tool for them. So an upgrade from wallpaper to walls is a must. Those claws are like daggers managing to get their way in things. Have you felt the claws in your leg when they are sitting on you, oof ouch!

Cuddle up:One of the best things about having a cat when they're not chilling out and sleeping is the times when they appreciate you and want you to stroke them. I find quite nice when my cat sits on my lap, for a while anyway, until my legs go numb. Or even when she's laying next to me, the purring is quite a soothing background ambience haha.

What are some of the things crazy or funny things your cats do?

Angie xo

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Hey i'm Angie :)

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