Where I Find Inspiration For My Posts | Collab Post with Acorn Life and Fitness

Today’s post is a collab with the lovely Jess from Acorn Life and Fitness. Remember to go and check out her post on the following link: https://acornlifefitness.com/2016/06/15/where-i-find-inspiration-for-my-blog-post

I remember when I started blogging I had no idea how to find motivation to keep up with posting, let alone find inspiration to create a post. So here is how I have found inspiration for my blog posts recently.

1. Twitter. I love Twitter when it comes to everything blog related. Not only is Twitter amazing for advertising your blog, it is also a great way for you to connect with other bloggers and also your readers. I often run polls on Twitter and have people vote for which of the options they would prefer the next post to be about. This is definitely a great way to also know what your readers want to see on your blog.
2. Lists. I do lists a lot, especially for things that are blog related. Whether it’s a list of things I plan to give away or actual blog post ideas. I don’t usually write every post I list down, I usually choose three post ideas, run a poll on Twitter and whichever one is voted for the most is the one I will do.
3. Other bloggers. I often check out other blogs and find ideas that way and then change things a little so it has my own twist.
4. Beauty products. I have my days where I really struggle to decide what to write, either because I haven’t been on social media much to find inspiration enough or because I can’t put my thoughts into words. When this happens, I usually review beauty products. Beauty product reviews are highly requested by my readers so I know when I put a post out there, it isn’t just because it’s the easiest way out of a writer’s block. I usually sit down with the product and describe what I like and don’t like and then the next day I may have a better idea for a post so it isn’t always the same content.
5. Television. Now this is going to sound strange, I watch a lot of programs on TLC and a lot of them sometimes make me think or improvements or a nice dress I would like to talk about. I sometimes pick out my topics like this, even though I have tried to keep it as less personal as possible as the blog is just starting but later on I may even want to talk about something I saw and give my own raw opinion.

I hope this post helps you. Are you a blogger? How do you find inspiration for your posts? Feel free to comment and let me know, maybe I will start using some of your ways too.

Avon Wishlist- May 2016

You requested it and here is this month's Avon wishlist. I will be adding the prices along with each product for this post like I do with every product post, however, please note that Avon change prices all the time. I will be only writing down the 'normal' price Avon have on their catalog underneath the price is is this month. I hope you enjoy today's post.

Conditioning Eye Make Up Remover Lotion

I have heard so many good things about this make up removing lotion. I usually use the Nivea eye make up remover along with Johnson's baby lotion for the rest of my face and it works wonders. So, I want to try this one to see if it is sort of a combination of both but for just the eyes. This is normally £4 on the catalog.

Color Trend Rocker Glam Kohl Liner & Eye Shadow Duo

I have always wanted to try this, it looks super easy to apply over the lids. I haven't heard many negative comments on this product apart from if used along it does crease but I'm hoping it doesn't do that with eye shadow primer underneath. If I try it one day, I'll do the test. These are normally £4 on the catalog.

AVON Naturals 'Pink Daisy & Sicilian Lemon' Shower Gel

I love the smells that I have ordered before from the Avon Naturals collection, everything just smells so fresh. However, I have always ordered the body lotions, I have never given the shower gels a try. If the body lotions smell lush then I'm sure the shower gels won't disappoint me. I'm tempted to actually order one in the scent 'Pink Daisy & Sicilian Lemon' to give these a try. These are normally £2.70 on the catalog.

AVON Naturals Kids Body Wash & Bubble Bath 'Swirling Strawberry'

Yes, I am aware this body wash and bubble bath is intended for kids but my mom used to buy this when I was younger and I can still remember the amazing scents she used to get of these. I'm moving house soon with my partner so I'm super tempted to get a bunch of these for our bath room as soon as we move in. 'Swirling Strawberry' has to be my all-time favorite from the collection.  These are normally £2.50 each on the catalog. I need this!

AVON Bubble Bath 

I absolutley love the huge Avon bubble bath bottles. My mom used to also buy this a lot when I was younger so I am very familiar with the scents, and love them. My favorite scents have to be 'French Lilac', 'Soft Pink', and 'Sensitive Rose Petals'. Like I have said before, we are hopefully moving in the next 2 months or so into our first home so I would love to stock up on these for when we move in. I can just tell our bath room is going to be full of these to the top. These are normally £5 each on the catalog by Avon often have sales where you can buy one and get the other free.

AVON Senses Shower Gel

I know what you're thinking, you're thinking I'm going crazy with every Avon shower gel this month and that is pretty damn accurate. Have you smelled this? If you haven't then you seriously need to. This smell like pure summer. My favorite smells for these are 'Pure Oasis' and 'Citrus Zing', but they also have these scents for the hand wash so once again our bathroom will be full of these in no time. These are usually £2 each on the catalog.

Incandessence Glow Perfume

This perfume is brand new to Avon in this month's brochure and oh my God do I want it. The smell is absolutely lush and has to be the best scent in the brochure this month. I love it. Not to mention that the bottles for the Incandessence collection look super cute and unique. This product will normally be £11 but is currently at a starter price of £7 in brochure 10 so you still have time to order it cheaper.

So this month's Avon wishlist has come to an end. 

You guys requested this a lot on social networks so I will be making this a monthly post, pretty much whenever I get the new brochure every month so it may not have a specific day, but it will happen. 

My One Year In College

If you live in the UK you will know that in recent years, a new law came out to say that after you leave high school at the age of 16, you have to be in education until you turn 18. This can be college, sixth form, apprenticeship, and so on. I was months from turning 17 when I left high school (long story short, I didn't know any English when I came to the UK and they thought it was best to make me re-do a whole year to give me time to learn, 3 months into that year, I was fluent in English so hooray), this meant I would be able to do just one year of college instead of 2 years so I was pretty happy with that.

In the last few months of high school, I applied for over 80 apprenticeship positions per month in my town and surrounding areas, I had a few interviews here and there but never stayed. The apprenticeships I was applying for were mainly for reception, front of house, administration, sales, hairdressing and hotel management. If you live in the UK you will know this, but if you don't then let me quickly explain, colleges usually require you to apply for courses before September which is when the courses start. So, I had until September of that year to find an apprenticeship or I would have to go to college.

August came along and I just couldn't get into an apprenticeship, I was getting notifications to my email every day with the first line being ''you are the ideal candidate for this position, however, the position has already been filled at this time. We wish you good luck for the future''. It was driving me crazy. So I ended up looking on all the college websites in my area. I quickly decided there was no way I was going to a sixth form college so I limited my options a little. I had a look, I applied for a few hairdresser and beauty courses as I love all of that, and I also applied for business admininstration courses. Why did I apply for business administration courses? I really wanted an apprenticeship, that's what I have wanted for myself once I got out of high school ever since apprenticeships became this huge thing in the UK. Since administration fit with most of the apprenticeships opportunities I had been previously applying for, I decided that I would try this as a college course.

By this point it was now September and I got into the business administration course. The first few months of the course weren't too bad, everything was pretty organised and the coursework was easy to keep up with. But the last few months were hectic for me. I wasn't in a very good place with myself, I was having anxiety attacks almost daily and I simply couldn't focus on my coursework properly. In the last few months of the course, I did consider quitting just because I felt like I couldn't do it and I would rather quit something than end up with a bad grade or a fail to carry on my CV for the rest of my working life.

Good news though, I struggled but I didn't quit and I passed the course so everything was okay in the end. But it was super stressful and everything did drive me crazy towards the end, there was so much to do and so much to rush and I also had a hard time dealing with anxiety attacks at that point.

If I could go back and do it all over again for that course? Not really, I would have rather gone through all the stress for a course I would love to do as a job, like hairdressing or maybe even beauty. I feel like that would have been more worth my stress and struggle than a course I wanted to do thinking more of the money I could make in the future. I thought I would enjoy the course but I really didn't enjoy it in the last few months.

Top 5 Monthly Best Skin Care Products - April 2016

 Welcome to April's Top 5 Best Skin Care Products. I'm not usually one for taking great care of my skin and I know that is super bad. But since being pregnant, my skin has changed a lot and has become a combination instead of being just pure oily like before, so I find it definitely deserves some care now.

5. I started using this for my blackheads back in December, I believe. I was shopping in Savers, saw this for £1 on the side and thought I would give it a try.

I can't lie, I can actually see a huge change in my skin especially when I feel a bit ill or drained and don't feel like doing my skin care routine. You can really tell when I haven't used this on my face. I usually use this every morning and every night but I actually have absolutely no idea how often you're meant to do it so don't trust me on that one.

4. Would you actually consider this as skin care? I don't know, I'm unprofessional like that so lets just consider this skin care for now.

I use this on my skin to take make up off pretty much whenever I use it. This costs me roughly £5.50 online but I'm pretty sure you can get it cheaper in places like Savers.

I would highly recommend this. I have used other eye make up removers that were more up the high end and they were nowhere near as good as this one. This eye make up remover actually also leaves your skin silky smooth. Nice one, Nivea.

3. Okay, so I don't actually use coconut oil much at the moment because I'm too lazy to buy it online and it is way too expensive to buy in high street shops over here.

But what I can tell you is that you can get this one for about £8.50 on eBay and it will actually last you a long time. Whenever I have used this, I have used this on my skin before adding make up and after removing make up and I have also used it to treat my split ends because they get pretty hideous during this time of the year.

I would definitely recommend purchasing this, in fact, I need to follow my own advise and get some next month.

2. I don't usually use many high end products for my face or skin care because I find that most of the time you can find something that does the same for tons cheaper and I can't see anything wrong with saving some cash.

However, I got this in a Glossybox when I first subscribed and have fallen in love with it ever since. It leaves the skin silky smooth and smelling amazing for so long. You can put this on and then have a shower and your skin will still smell like this after your shower.

This product usually costs around £21 but you can sometimes get them brand new and for under £10 when bidding on eBay.

1. And finally this has to be my number one for this month. I haven't been using it for long but have already seen such a huge difference on my skin.

I have used this before adding make up to my face and it makes the face feel so much softer, once dried on the face it also works as a great skin primer and your foundation or bb cream will actually look a lot more natural on the face.

I believe this costs almost £13 but is it worth it?Yes, it is. Remember that Lush also have different facial moisturizers, different ones work better on different skin types so if you have a different skin type to me, this may not do a lot on you.

Baby Essentials List Challenge

Getting things ready for your baby's arrival can be so expensive and stressful. I have decided to do a Baby Essentials Challenge until I get everything for my baby's arrival. It's a fun way to keep track of what you have bought, what you have left to buy and at the end you can calculate how much money you have saved or how much money you have gone over budget. 

I will now post a list of things I need to get and the prices of the things I have seen which I want to get. When we finish getting everything together for our baby from the starter list, I will post that list here with prices in order to compare both lists, and also calculate how much we spend.

My baby essentials list

• Pram/pushchair ------ £322.99
• Baby car seat ------ £34.99
• Pushchair rain cover ------ £9.99
• Cosytoes ------ £14.99
• Moses basket ------ £54.99
• Nappy changing mat ------ £9.99
• Room thermometer ------ £9.99
• Chest of drawers ------ £79.99
• Bottle sterilizer ------ £19.99
• Bottle brush ------ £3.99
• Bottle warmer ------ £19.99
• Dummy set ------ £4.79
• Highchair ------ £49.99
• Baby bathtub/seat ------ £14.99
• Bath thermometer ------ £9.99
• Baby hairbrush/comb ------ £1.99
• Baby nail scissors ------ £1.99
• Safety gate ------ £19.99
• Socket covers ------ £5.49
• Baby proofing set ------ £6.79
• Baby towels ------ £19.99
• Set of bottles ------ £14.99
• Moses basket mattress ------ £9.99
• Baby changing bag ------ £30.00
• Baby walker ------ £39.99
• Baby bouncer ------ £29.99
• Baby play mat gym ------ £39.99
• Moses basket sheets ------ £16.99
• Maternity bag ------ £29.99
• Nipple shields ------ £4.49
• Maternity bra ------ £10.00
• Baby blanket ------ £8.00
• Muslin squares ------ £7.99
• Warm baby socks ------ £3.00
• Coming home outfit ------ £14.99
• Babygrows/undergarments ------ £10.50

               Total = £988.79

Images Therapies Eyebrow Wax Review

So, last week I decided I seriously needed my eyebrows fixed. They had been looking terrible for too long, being pregnant also means you probably can only have your eyebrows waxed at a salon after 3 months (which was my case).

I booked for an eyebrow wax and re-shape at the Images Therapies salon. Images is a part of a college, students doing beauty therapy courses get to work there on real clients. All the students are super great with the clients and the customer service is incredible.

I reported to reception and sat in the waiting area, the student then came to get me. I was given a box to put my things (bag and phone) and laid down on the bed, which was super comfy by the way. All the make up from my eyebrows was removed, a small part of the hot wax was put on my skin to test and then the real waxing begun.
   It didn't hurt whatsoever, the girl who did my eyebrows was super fast. She then tweezed my eyebrows for any little hairs the wax didn't get, lotioned my eyebrows... And done! The lotion smelled amazing.

I was super happy that the student managed to fix my eyebrows, considering last time I had them done it was an actual professional who messed them up. I would definitely recommend Images Therapies to anyone, I will be going back very soon.

Welcome To My Lifestyle Blog

Well, hello there.Welcome to my new lifestyle blog.

Even though I am already posting things. This blog will only be launched on 2nd April, very excited for it all.

What can you expect from this blog? Literally a little bit of everything. As a stay-at-home pregnant girl, I have a lot of time in my hands, and a lot of my day-time hours I will spend writing on here. You can expect some pregnancy and baby posts, a little bit of beauty, some life stories I feel like sharing, and  maybe even some shopping hauls and so much more.

I want to make this blog a little bit of you just like it will be a little bit of me.

Welcome.