Sunday, 22 December 2013

Christmas door wreaths

Hello, 

It's not long till Christmas now, so I've been making the house look a little Christmas. It all starts on the welcome into the house so something on the door is a must!
This year I wanted a traditional door wreath, however as I never make one just for myself I had three to make. 
For my Nan's front door.

Mine, a touch of red and gold. 

And I haven't got a photo of the last one, but it was for my neighbour. 

I like making these as they are pretty extra to add a touch of Christmas.

Love Lolly
xoxo


Tuesday, 3 December 2013

A few new books

Hey,

 I just wanted to share with you some new books that I picked up from a charity shop while I was Christmas shopping. I had done well getting many Christmas presents so with three of these books priced at £1 each and one at £1.50 I knew I could treat myself with these.

They are all by well known authors and ones I would of brought anyway, so these are a great bargain!! I already have a few books by these authors so looking forward to reading these.

I'll let you know my reviews of them when I get a chance to read them soon.

Love Lolly
xoxo

Sunday, 1 December 2013

Homemade bath bombs

Hey,

I've been busy getting stuff ready for Christmas which includes making Christmas presents this year! I've been searching many different ideas for my friends when I came across bath bomb recipe's so I thought I'd give them a go. 

You will need:
1/2 cup powered Citric Acid 
1 cup of Baking Soda
3/4 cup of Cornstarch
1/4 cup of Cane Sugar
Food colouring
Essential Oils
Water 

Large bowl
Muffin tin (or any molds, can be different shapes) 
Spray bottle 

Step one
Mix in a large bowl, powered Citric acid, Baking soda, and cornstarch.

Step two
When mixed well, add in the Cane Sugar and mix well.

Step three
Mix the your choice of food colouring with your choice of Essential oils and add a little water into a spray bottle. Add bit by bit to the mixture. Mix well as you add, the mixture should start to come together. I found the best way was to use my hands to make sure the mixture stick together. The mixture should be lightly wet so it molds together but not fizzing or you will have to start again. 

Step four
When the mixture starts to stick together add to your molds, use a lot of pressure to compact the mixture, to prevent cracking. 

Step five
Leave the mixture in the molds for up to 24 hours until the mixture as set in the shape. It's best to do this in a dry place. Then carefully remove from the mold and store in an air tight container.


Here's a picture of mine that I made:
I brought the cute little jars from a pound shop and added Christmas ribbon. 
Over all I think this makes a pretty present! 

Now I must warn you the first time I tried to make these I added too much water and food colouring to the mixture so it started to fizz, so when I added it to the mold sit just kept fizzing. I thought it might settle down, so I left it lover night.... However it turned out to be a bigger mess and just fizzed everywhere!!! 
Therefore the second time I didn't add as much water and food colouring, so they were still powdery, over night they still didn't set, so I put it all back in a bowl and added more water and food colouring slowly. In the end I had the perfect mix, this does take some trial and errors to get the right mix. Just give it a go.

Enjoy,

Love Lolly
xoxo





Saturday, 30 November 2013

Homemade Christmas gift tags

Hello,

Yep, I'm still busy getting everything together for chistmas, I though I'd share with you the gift tags I've made to add to all my presents I'm giving out.

I got some plain luggage tags from a stationary shop, there was 20 in a pack. 
I added different Christmas paper to fit each tag, stamping on "To" and "From" so names can be written, and added a Christmas sticker. 
I thought these were something different to add to all my presents. They were cheap and quick to make, but make a great addition to the presents I am giving. 

Love Lolly
xoxo





Thursday, 28 November 2013

Living with eczema

Dear Reader,

This is a subject I've wanted to share with the world for a while, so please take your time to read my story. 

Ever since I can remember I have had trouble dealing with my skin, it becomes dry and flaky, hurting and making me want to scratch it, which makes it become red and bleed. I have trouble all year round with it, mostly in the winter. I've had plenty of creams to try and help it. I'm sure they have given me everything they can find, but it only last for so long. I'm unsure what causes it to flare up and if i knew hopefully it would help.
Looking up the definition of Eczema on line:

Eczema (from the Greek ēkzema "to boil over") also known as atopic dermatitis is a form of chronic inflammation of the skin. 
The term eczema is broadly applied to a range of persistent skin conditions. These include dryness and recurring skin rashes that are characterized by one or more of these symptoms: redness, skin edema (swelling), itching and dryness, crusting, flaking, blisterning, cracking, oozing or bleeding. Areas of temporary skin discoloration may appear and are sometimes due to healed injuries. Scratching open a healing lesion may result in scarring and may enlarge the rash. 

This gives you some idea of the condition i was born with, many young children do grow out of the condition before they grow into adults, but for others it does reoccur. Through out my teenage years it was unnoticeable, in the winter i would get a small amount appear on my arms. This is main due to the change in temperatures, from the cold outside, to a warm heated room. However over the last year i have really suffered with my skin, it has been very painful, causing me to be unable to sleep, which has affected me during my days at work but also my every day life. It has caused me pain throughout the day, making me cry and feeling really down... I've been to the doctor about it all, and was given more creams plus send to a specialist who said i needed patch testing to find out if it was a allergy effecting most of my eczema. So far I'm still waiting.

I've got it over most of my body, my face is where I'm most self conscious, i stopped wearing foundation back in February to see if this has any effect, the only time i have worn it is when I'm on a night out or special occasions (this has save me a little bit of money). But by having eczema on my face has made me very self conscious and made me hide behind my hair too. I feel very red in the face, with dry skin appearing. This really doesn't help when you work with the public daily. All i want to do on a bad day is hide in my room, but instead I add cream to my skin and put on brave face with help from a little blusher, mascara and make sure my hair looks wonderful!!

Overall I'm not happy with my skin, i do try my best with it, making sure I used my creams at least twice a day. Hopefully I will get some more answers when I have some tests done. I do know that there is no cure for Eczema but any help i can get keeping it under control is what I want.

I'll let you know how I'm getting on in future posts.

Love Lolly
x

Thursday, 14 November 2013

A quick hello

Hellooooo,

I just wanted to say thank you to all the people who visit my little blog, I had over 150 people visit yesterday... Errr hello! That's the most I've every had, I though 60 last week was a big number!

I just wanted to write a little post to let you know I'm keeping track on all my views and thinking up many new post for you all, some based around Christmas as the days are now counting down. We've already got advent calendars at work, I'm waiting to open the first door so I can have some chocolate yummy! 

At the mo I've got my head back into a book, that I will share with you when I've finished. But I'm busy in my life, which I love! 

I hope the week treats you well, you've all only got Friday left till the weekend. 

Love Lolly
xoxo

New Boots (New look)

Hey all,

I went shopping at the weekend... Yeah I know, I love shopping. As the cold autumn days have arrived I decided I need some new Boots to get me through the winter. At this time of year I always think its best to keep my feet warm, with some nice warm socks too.
They are suede with like leather straps, The wooden heel is nice and strong. I think I could last all day in these boots, running around getting all my jobs done in time for Christmas. 

Enjoy your week,

Love Lolly
xoxo