March Favourites | 2016

I still cannot comprehend how we are already at the end of March. This year is going by so incredibly fast! My favourites this month are actually quite varied for once. Naturally, there is still a television programme because let's be honest it wouldn't be a true monthly favourites for me without a TV show mentioned at some point.  However, there is some food, beauty, books and music to be mentioned as well!

Beauty

I have three beauty favourites this month; a nail polish, bubble bar and a cream eye shadow (which might actually be a lipstick). The nail polish I have been absolutely loving is Marks & Spencer Top Shine Top Coat. This product is amazing, I put two coats of nail polish on and then this and my nail polish lasts on average 4 days without chipping! Not one single chip and I do a lot of work with my hands whether that be at actual work in a cafe or first aiding. I definitely recommend this product because nothing has made my nail polish stay as good for that long in the past. Another product I have been in love with this month is the Mr Brightside bubble bar from Lush. I always reach for the fresher scents in the Spring and Summer months and this bubble bar is as fresh as you can get. It gives off a huge citrus smell of oranges and lemons and when I use this in the bath, not only does the bath turn orange but it smells so clean and fresh, I just love this bubble bar, it is most definitely one of my favourite Lush products of all time.

My last beauty favourite is actually a slightly strange one because technically it is supposed to be a nude lipstick but I don't use it as a lipstick, I use it as a cream eye shadow. It's the NYC City Proof Twistable Intense Lip Colour in the colour Nolita Neutral. It is definitely more of a gold than a neutral because it has a bit of shimmer to it. I wouldn't use this product on my lips because for one it would not suit my skin colour as I am very pale and secondly, it looks amazing as a cream eye shadow. I have been pairing this product with either a dusky pink colour eye shadow to create a rose gold effect or with a warm brown to create a gold smokey eye and they both look very pretty and very Spring/Summer appropriate. 

Television

I actually started a new show this month; Thirteen. It is a BBC series and only has five episodes total. It follows the storyline of Ivy who disappeared when she was thirteen years old and resurfaces again thirteen years later having been held captive and escaped. This series is extremely gripping and will have you on the edge of your seat at least once in each episode. If you like crime, intense thrillers or drama programmes then this is definitely one for you to check out. As I mentioned, there are only five episodes to the entire programme series and they are all available to watch online at BBC iPlayer. This show was incredible, well written and for once I feel that the ending was just right, my mum certainly wouldn't agree but if all of her questions were answered then the series would be about 23 episodes long. 

Food

So I've had a lot of university assignments to do this month and naturally I have reached for the comfort food and (surprisingly) coffee. I never ever drank coffee because it just simply never appealed to me and I am sensitive to caffeine but this month I had been craving it so I bought a packet of decaf instant latte's and I love them. I liked them so much I buy a packet a week and have even tried the vanilla and coconut flavours too! To go with coffee, you need a sweet treat, it's just the perfect combination. Flipz is an American brand and my local Tesco happens to stock some overpriced American products. Normally everything is coated or dipped in chocolate but Flipz not only had chocolate covered pretzels but white fudge coated pretzels. These things are INCREDIBLE. Yes the capitals are needed. The pretzels are probably going to give be diabetes at the rate I am eating them but they are worth it, they are just so tasty. I have told everybody I know about these and my brother, mum and friends now all love them too. They are reasonably cheap as well, only £1.50 which is really good compared to the next American product I recently discovered. Payday is the only bar type treat I've found that has absolutely no chocolate in it. It is literally a caramel centre coated in peanuts, simple as that and it's delicious. A bit pricey at £1.20 a bar but for now I am willing to part with that money.

Music

I have always liked any music that Sia released into the charts, whether that be with another artist or on her own so I decided to buy her album. There are no words to describe how touching and beautiful the album is or how talented Sia is. She draws on personal experiences to write her songs and I love artists who do that. They are honest and people can often relate a lot to their music because of it. Her album, This is Acting is one of the albums I could listen to all day, every day and not get fed up with any song at all. I love every song on the album and have now bought some of Sia's older albums too. If you liked any Sia songs in the past then without a doubt invest in this album, you will 100% not regret it. My brother is already sick of the amount of times I have played it and unfortunately for him I won't be stopping any time soon!

Random

I have one random favourite this month and it is a book. A couple of weeks ago I had a couple of hours to spare between classes at uni so I wandered about the shops in Glasgow. One of the shops I tend to always go in is The Works which is basically a cheap book, art and random gadget shop. As I was having a nosey around, I noticed they had some deals on kids books so I thought I'd have a look. I ended up walking away with four books, two of which being boy and girl versions of Disney 365 Stories: A Story a Day. I just thought the concept was extremely cute and it made me think of my mum reading Disney books to my brother and I. Plus they were buy one get one free and reduced to only £5 and two massive books for £5 is a bargain to me. The next one I picked up was also reduced to £4 and on a buy one get one free deal; A Treasury of Five Classic Tales and contains shortened versions of Oliver Twist, Black Beauty, Alice in Wonderland, Heidi, The Wizard of Oz, The Wind in the Willows, The Secret Garden and Treasure Island, all of which I loved reading as a child. A Treasury of Five Minute Stories was the final purchase and is for sure my favourite. It contains absolutely every single story I adored as a child within it's gorgeous covers, even my three favourites; The Elves and the Shoemaker, The Emperor's New Clothes and Rumpelstiltskin which I was surprised to learn not many people actually knew the stories of. Reading through all these short stories with simplistic but nice illustrations brings back good memories of listening to audio cassette tapes on my cassette player and falling asleep to one of the stories. I cannot wait to share these stories and memories with my children in the future.

I hope you enjoyed reading my March Favourites and that maybe I have persuaded to you to watch Thirteen or try the white fudge coated pretzels or even use a lip product as an eye product! April is hopefully going to be a bit more relaxed for me since I have all the coursework for uni finished and submitted because I would love to put up more blog posts. However, my exams begin during the last week of April so I'll see what the month holds. Maybe I'll be organised for once and study a little each day, who knows?! April certainly begins well for me as my mum and I are going to yet another show and my little black labrador Millie turns 3 on April Fools Day! It only feels like we have had her for three minutes never mind three years! What did you love throughout March and do you have anything exciting coming up in April?

xxx

Goodnight Mr Tom: The Theatrical Performance

I mentioned in my Mothers Day blog post that the main gift I'd gotten for my mum was tickets to the theatrical performance of Goodnight Mr Tom in Glasgow's Theatre Royal. It has always been one of her favourite films so I knew she would be excited to go. The show time I had booked wasn't until the early evening so that way we could spend the afternoon together and that is exactly what we did.

My university lectures finished at 3pm that day so that is when our afternoon began. The first thing we did was have a wander around the shops on Sauchiehall Street; mainly Primark and Superdrug because mum was cold and wanted a cardigan and I needed new concealer. Naturally, we ended up getting quite a bit more than a cardigan in Primark but you can't really help in when it is Primark, plus, now that means I have another idea for a blog post and maybe even a video.

We went to Walkabout for dinner since it was close, convenient and is good value for money. My mum insisted on convenience especially because she decided to wear heeled boots that day. Walkabout is very close to my university and is often a popular option for lunches out. The food there is great and there is a good variety to pick from. We opted for a starter of onion rings and chicken strips since neither of us had any lunch prior, my mum decided on the Cheese Burger with regular chips and a side salad, I went for the Piri Piri Chicken with Sweet Potato Fries and a side salad and we both shared a dessert of Berry Pavlova. We barely finished all the food but everything was absolutely delicious, especially the Berry Pavlova. The only thing that disappointed us was that there was no sticky part in the meringue and that's the best bit!

A quick trip to Thornton's for some goodies before the show and we were ready to sit back and enjoy. The performance was as lighthearted as the cast and crew could make it considering the storyline. For those of you who are not aware of the plot line of Goodnight Mr Tom, it is set during WW2 and follows young William Beech, an abused boy as he is evacuated out of London to the countryside and placed with a grumpy, old man; Thomas Oakley. The pair soon form a close bond despite the never ending obstacles thrown in their way. 

Throughout the show, I learned that the boy playing William Beech and the boy playing his best friend Zach were only ten years old and both from London. I would never have even had the courage to ask a question in school never mind travelling around the country performing night after night in front of hundreds and hundreds of people! The boys were absolutely fantastic. Another performer that 100% stood out for me was the woman playing Sammy the dog. The cast did have a prototype of a sheepdog made but there was a woman making all the movements and sounds of the dog. She was absolutely incredible! If you closed your eyes, you would genuinely believe there was a real dog on stage as Sammy. The scenery was also done to a standard of perfection; all the wartime posters and furniture, the back drops of London during the war and of the peaceful countryside the evacuees retreated to and the costumes for all the children and adults. The portrayal of young William Beech's mother and her period of post-partum psychosis and his night terrors following the abuse at her hand was delicately done but at a high standard and was well portrayed and very accurate. 

My mum adored the show so much that she wanted to re-watch the film and re-read the book as soon as we got home that night! We did end up watching the film the following night. Out of all the performances we have seen so far (Legally Blonde: The Musical, Cinderella: The Ballet and Sister Act) this has been her favourite. It was a close debate between Goodnight Mister Tom and Legally Blonde: The Musical but her love for Goodnight Mister Tom swayed her. Neither her nor I can wait for the next show that we see, I wonder when that will be and I wonder which show we can add to our evergrowing list next.

xxx

Mothers Day | 2016

This year mothers day was on the 6th March, which also happened to be the same day as my Moving & Handling of Casualties update course. I was having to leave my house at 8.30am and wouldn't get back until around 5.30pm. So, unfortunately, I was missing out on most of mothers day this year. Nevertheless, I was determined to make it special for the short time that I was actually home.

My mum woke up to breakfast in bed, this is a standard thing each year but doesn't normally happen until much later in the morning. This year I got up at 7.00am to make her favourite; boiled egg on wholegrain toast with a cup of baby tea. I even chopped some Cantelope melon for her to have afterwards; another of her favourites. Even though she wakes up to breakfast in bed each year, it never fails to surprise her. She was all smiles whilst digging in. I only had about an hour to spend with her in the morning before I had to leave so I decided breakfast in bed, a small gift and her card was enough for the morning and I'd save her main present for when I got home later in the day.

My mum and I are very sentimental, we love photographs from over the years, home movies and souvenirs from various holidays. Recently, my mum has become rather fussy with being in photographs and which ones she actually likes. Luckily, there is a family picture taken early last year in one of our favourite places to go on holiday as a family; Kenmore. It's situated on the banks of Loch Tay and is about 45 minutes drive outside Perth. We absolutely love it there because the scenery is gorgeous, it's so relaxing and we can bring our dogs along too! We have gone each year for the last 8 years and don't intend to break tradition any time soon. I printed out the photograph of us all on nice photo paper and bought a 4"x 6" frame with a bit of a twist from New Look. The twist was that inside the frame was glitter and water so the frame was almost like a snow globe. My mum loves snow globes and has a little collection of them in her room so I thought this was the perfect sentimental gift and it was only £7.99!

With planning such a nice morning to Mothers Day, there had to be some kind of joke too! This is when the card came in. I was browsing Paper Chase a few days earlier and found the perfect card. It was a little bit offensive but I knew my mum would see the funny side of it, especially if I made the inside of the card all cute and pretty for her. So I couldn't resist.

The one thing my mum hates more than anything is catching her children swear, even though we are 18 and 21. Any minor swear words are fine, it's just the bigger ones she can't handle. Usually it's my brother she catches since he has a very short temper when it comes to playing his Xbox games so I thought the card was quite appropriate. My dad and brother definitely found the funny side. My mum was shocked at first, until she looked inside the card and realised I had made it all cute and pretty for her. She was very fond of the card after that.

My brother was in the process of cooking dinner for everybody when I arrived home that evening. His meal of choice was steak, vegetables and boiled potatoes; his specialty apparently. This meal was a compromise since mince and potatoes is my mums favourite meal but nobody else likes it. At dinner, we caught up about each others day and finding out what my brother had given to my mum; a book and DVD she wanted and flowers. Half way through dinner is when I thought I'd surprise her with my final gift. I told her that I'd bought tickets for us to go and see Goodnight Mister Tom in the Theatre on Thursday 10th March. Goodnight Mister Tom is her absolute favourite film so I knew she would absolutely love to see it in the theatres. The day she and I go to the theatre and out for dinner is when we will really celebrate mothers day.

Even though my mum moans at me, shouts at me, annoys me and never ever listens to me, I love seeing the look of feeling appreciated on her face. She doesn't always feel appreciated so I love to spoil her when I can and the theatre is something we only recently discovered we have a common interest in. This way we can spend more time with each other. She had a great day and I am so glad she loved all her presents. She hasn't stopped playing with the snow globe photograph since I gave it to her and she cannot wait to go to the theatre again! How did you all spend Mothers Day?

xxx