I've been trying to think of lots of ways to do things at home to try and create new memories during this crazy time, you may have seen my Ibiza party post here. Following on from that, I wanted to do little at home afternoon tea for my mum's birthday which was last weekend. Like with the Ibiza party I brought some decorations from Ginger Ray. (My new favourite website for party decorations.) I think when having an at home party it's really nice to decorate to give your home the right setting...especially when going out is limited at the moment.
If you know me well you will know how much I love cocktails, so I couldn't have an afternoon tea without some. At the moment I'm loving following small local businesses on Instagram, I've recently discovered Dotty Mares which is a North-West London based cocktail horse box bar for special events. They have started doing cocktail at home deliveries on selected weekends, which is amazing! It feels like such a treat to have a cocktail made by someone else and delivered to your doorstep. I got some Expresso Martinis and Porn Star Martinis. They make the cocktails on the morning of delivery and put them in a jar, then they can be kept in the fridge for up to 48 hours. The cocktails were delicious and I will be ordering from them again. My friend and I were saying the other day how much we are enjoying just sitting in the garden having drinks instead of going out all the time to bars for drinks.
Instead of pre-ordering an afternoon tea from a company or supermarket (I've seen looks of places doing this) I decided to buy the individual products myself as this way it makes it more personal as you can buy all of your favourite things. This is also a much cheaper option as most of the afternoon tea's I've seen online are £40+. I picked up some unicorn cupcakes from ASDA, I just fell in love with the decorations on these. Sandwiches and scones from M&S. I also managed to pick up an afternoon tea stand from a local household store near me for £9 and I had seen a few of these online for a lot more money. So it's worth looking around before you make a purchase. And now I've got this I can make afternoon teas more of a habit at home!
Once life goes totally back to normal, I think I will still continue to do more things like this at home as I've really enjoyed it. I'd be posting any more at home parties I do in the future.
I hope you enjoyed this post
Love
Nicole
xx
7 comments
'You can't pour from an empty cup, take care of yourself first.'
Self care is such an important part of looking after our mental, physical and emotional wellbeing. Life gets so busy and we are always on to the next thing whether that is going out to the fancy new cocktail bar or working super long hours to try and progress in our careers. It's so hard now to find the time to fit in self care yet it is something that is so important. Lockdown has made me realise that a slower pace of life is actually a good thing and it's really important to make some time for yourself. I've done this a lot over the last three months and I'm going to try my hardest to continue when life gets back to normal. So here are my 12 tips on ways to practice self care at home.
1. Long Baths
Make a little at home spa set up. Buy yourself some face/eye masks and your favourite lush bath bomb. Light some candles and completely relax. One thing I find really nice is to just sit in the bath and do nothing. Often I find myself setting up my laptop to watch something on Youtube or reading a book while in the bath. But there is a lot of joy in simply laying down and not putting pressure on yourself to do anything!
2. At home nails
For two years straight up until the beginning of this year I got gel nails done every couple of weeks. It's taken months but my nails are finally starting to look healthy again, and now I'm not looking back! I don't want to get gels again unless its a super special occasion. I've treated myself to some new nails inc polishes (TKMax have a good online sale at the moment!) and I've been enjoying switching up the colours of my nails every week. Top tip try to get good quality products that will last longer. Nails inc can last up to a week without chipping!
3. Fitness
Staying motivated with fitness is hard, but once I find a good routine I do tend to stick to it. I've been loving Zoe's zoom classes (she does them on a Tuesday and Friday morning for more info check out here instagram here.) You can also check out my blog post interview with her all about fitness here.
4. Gratitude
Writing down three things you are grateful for everyday. Doing this first thing in the morning or last thing at night before you go to bed. This will help you not to forget the important things that make you happy.
5. Treat yourself to a take away coffee
Now that coffee shops are open for takeaways, treat yourself to your favourite drink and go for a walk or sit in your local park. I did this with my friend the other day and it makes your day feel a little bit more normal.
6. Baking
I've turned into the baking queen since the beginning of lockdown and I'm loving it so far. I've got most of my recipes from Jane Patisserie here. I've actually got the NYC cookies baking in the oven right now as I'm writing this.
7. Keep track of your accomplishments
I was talking about this to someone the other day, we live in a world where we are always thinking about what we need to achieve next rather than be happy for what we have already achieved.
8. Edit your Social Media
Go through your social media feeds and mute or unfollow any accounts that no longer bring you joy! I do this every 6 months or so and it means when I'm scrolling through my instagram feed I'm enjoying most of the content I am seeing rather than spending so long scrolling through things you don't want to see or don't make you happy.
9. Spend quality time with people who make you happy
Make sure you make time to spend with and see people who make you feel happy. Now that lockdown is being eased you can plan after work walks with your friends or going for a picnic. I always love it when you spend time with people and you leave with a smile on your face.
10. Listen to a podcasts
I love podcasts and may do a future post about my favourite ones. I enjoy listening to them when I'm cleaning or going for a walk by myself. Lily and Anna have just re-launched their podcast and I'm really enjoying it at the moment you can check it out here. It's just like listening to myself and my friends chatting.
11. Read a self help book
My favourite is Good Vibes, Good Life by Vex King. I would also recommend following him on instagram. This book talks all about how to look at the positives in your life. And really makes you think about how you can easily change your mindset to have a happier life.
12. Make yourself breakfast and then have it in bed
I love breakfast in bed...but who said you need to wait for someone to do it for you! Make yourself some yummy breakfast then get back into bed watch something on your laptop/TV and have a chilled start to your day.
I hope you enjoyed this post! Let me know if you have any other self care ideas.
Love
Nicole
xx
Writing down three things you are grateful for everyday. Doing this first thing in the morning or last thing at night before you go to bed. This will help you not to forget the important things that make you happy.
5. Treat yourself to a take away coffee
Now that coffee shops are open for takeaways, treat yourself to your favourite drink and go for a walk or sit in your local park. I did this with my friend the other day and it makes your day feel a little bit more normal.
6. Baking
I've turned into the baking queen since the beginning of lockdown and I'm loving it so far. I've got most of my recipes from Jane Patisserie here. I've actually got the NYC cookies baking in the oven right now as I'm writing this.
7. Keep track of your accomplishments
I was talking about this to someone the other day, we live in a world where we are always thinking about what we need to achieve next rather than be happy for what we have already achieved.
8. Edit your Social Media
Go through your social media feeds and mute or unfollow any accounts that no longer bring you joy! I do this every 6 months or so and it means when I'm scrolling through my instagram feed I'm enjoying most of the content I am seeing rather than spending so long scrolling through things you don't want to see or don't make you happy.
9. Spend quality time with people who make you happy
Make sure you make time to spend with and see people who make you feel happy. Now that lockdown is being eased you can plan after work walks with your friends or going for a picnic. I always love it when you spend time with people and you leave with a smile on your face.
10. Listen to a podcasts
I love podcasts and may do a future post about my favourite ones. I enjoy listening to them when I'm cleaning or going for a walk by myself. Lily and Anna have just re-launched their podcast and I'm really enjoying it at the moment you can check it out here. It's just like listening to myself and my friends chatting.
11. Read a self help book
My favourite is Good Vibes, Good Life by Vex King. I would also recommend following him on instagram. This book talks all about how to look at the positives in your life. And really makes you think about how you can easily change your mindset to have a happier life.
12. Make yourself breakfast and then have it in bed
I love breakfast in bed...but who said you need to wait for someone to do it for you! Make yourself some yummy breakfast then get back into bed watch something on your laptop/TV and have a chilled start to your day.
I hope you enjoyed this post! Let me know if you have any other self care ideas.
Love
Nicole
xx
'Make the most out of every situation'
I think it's so important to make the most out of every situation that life throws at you. This week I should be in Ibiza living my best life, but for obvious reasons that isn't happening. I wanted to do something to make a new memory for what should have been a full on party week. As we are allowed up to 6 people in our gardens now I decided to create a little at home garden party (Ibiza style of course) from myself and my best friend Charlotte.
If you know me well when it comes to planning things I always put 110% effort in. If I didn't work in fashion I think I'd love to be in events planning.
Here are 5 ways you can transform your garden for an Ibiza party
1. Decide on an area in your garden you want to focus on. For me I wanted this to be our decking area. I moved some of our garden furniture from the decking to other areas of the garden so I could create a little dance floor. (The space needed to be large enough for dancing 2 metres apart of course!) I then set up a little drinks table and had two chairs for us to sit down on at the end of the decking.
2. Pick your colour theme. For me this had to be pink and silver, this was pretty easy to pick as those are my favourite colours! Once you have picked your colour theme you can then look for decorations to fit in with your theme.
3. Set yourself a budget of how much you want to spend on decorations. I think this is super important because it's otherwise really easy to just add loads of stuff to your basket that looks pretty but the total ends up being £££s. I set myself a £50 budget.
4. I searched online for a good website to buy some decorations, I can across Ginger Ray (Which I have fallen in love with and have since made another online order for my mum's birthday at the end of the month) I wanted some ballon's to give an 'instagram' affect. I loved the PARTY ballon...this was the first thing I found on the website which I added to my basket. Then from there I found the other little touches like the straws, napkins and cups.
I love adding personal touches to things so wanted a banner with a photograph added. I got this from Party Pieces. And again I made sure this fitted in with my colour scheme and Ibiza vibes.
5. Get yourself ready! I sent Charlotte a text telling her what time and date to come to my house and told her to get dressed up as if we are going on an Ibiza night out. It was so much fun getting dressed up! I had brought some new clothes for this holiday so it was nice to be able to wear them and feel as if I was going out somewhere.
This day was so much fun and made me realise even in tough times we can think outside of the box and still make happy memories to look back on.
I hope you all enjoyed this post.
Love
Nicole
xx
If you know me well when it comes to planning things I always put 110% effort in. If I didn't work in fashion I think I'd love to be in events planning.
Here are 5 ways you can transform your garden for an Ibiza party
1. Decide on an area in your garden you want to focus on. For me I wanted this to be our decking area. I moved some of our garden furniture from the decking to other areas of the garden so I could create a little dance floor. (The space needed to be large enough for dancing 2 metres apart of course!) I then set up a little drinks table and had two chairs for us to sit down on at the end of the decking.
2. Pick your colour theme. For me this had to be pink and silver, this was pretty easy to pick as those are my favourite colours! Once you have picked your colour theme you can then look for decorations to fit in with your theme.
3. Set yourself a budget of how much you want to spend on decorations. I think this is super important because it's otherwise really easy to just add loads of stuff to your basket that looks pretty but the total ends up being £££s. I set myself a £50 budget.
4. I searched online for a good website to buy some decorations, I can across Ginger Ray (Which I have fallen in love with and have since made another online order for my mum's birthday at the end of the month) I wanted some ballon's to give an 'instagram' affect. I loved the PARTY ballon...this was the first thing I found on the website which I added to my basket. Then from there I found the other little touches like the straws, napkins and cups.
I love adding personal touches to things so wanted a banner with a photograph added. I got this from Party Pieces. And again I made sure this fitted in with my colour scheme and Ibiza vibes.
5. Get yourself ready! I sent Charlotte a text telling her what time and date to come to my house and told her to get dressed up as if we are going on an Ibiza night out. It was so much fun getting dressed up! I had brought some new clothes for this holiday so it was nice to be able to wear them and feel as if I was going out somewhere.
This day was so much fun and made me realise even in tough times we can think outside of the box and still make happy memories to look back on.
I hope you all enjoyed this post.
Love
Nicole
xx
I love positive quotes it's amazing how a few words can really lift your mood and change your whole mindset. After I published my interview blog post with Mary-Anne here, (all about HeartyNotes) I decided to ask my followers over on instagram what their favourite quotes are. So here they are along with some of my favourites added to the mix. This could be a good post to screenshoot on your phone and look back over every now and again when you need to see some positive words.
1. It's impossible to feel bad if you think good thoughts
2. I am in charge of how I feel today and today I choose happiness
3. Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud
4. Be fearless in the pursuit of what sets your soul on fire
5. Strive for progress not perfection
6. Difficult roads lead to beautiful destinations
7. Your mind is your only limit
8. Happiness often sneaks through doors you didn't know you left open
9. Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change
10. Don't compare yourself to others. There is no comparison between the Sun and Moon they shine when it is their own time
11. Today I will not stress over things I can not control
12. Be a pineapple; stand tall, wear a crown and be sweet on the inside
13. She needed a hero, so a hero is what she became
14. Be yourself, everyone else is taken
15. Real Queen's fix each others crowns
16. It's ok if the only thing you did today was breath
17. You are so much stronger than you think
18. There are so many beautiful reasons to be happy
19. Somewhere there is a past you looking over with so much pride at how far you have come
20. Spread love and kindness
Hope you are all having a lovely weekend! I'd love to know what your favourite quote is, let me know in the comments below. You can also check out my positive words board on Pinterest here.
Love
Nicole
xx
Train your mind to see the good in every situation
We are living in a time with much uncertainty and negativity. However one thing I've learnt recently is that you need to see the good in every situation. Last week I got told that I will be going on furlough. And you know what, thats ok! I'm healthy so I'm lucky right now. In order to turn this negative situation into a positive one, I've come up with a list of 5 positive things to do during lockdown.
1. Have A Project To Work On
After a phone call with my God Mother who gave me some really good advice it got me thinking about all the things I an do with my time now I'm not working. (Remember we probably will never have time like this again.) She said to me in future interviews they will want to know what you did during this time when in isolation, so set yourself some projects to work on. This can be big things or super small things but something to give yourself purpose during this time.
For me my main project is my blog, I love blogging but have put it to one side over the years because my mind has been focused on other things. But now I'm ready to spend more time on it and get creative again. To help me to do I've joined Grow & Glow. I've done this as I want to learn more about social media and blogging in order to improve my own channels and bring you the best content I can.
2. Check In On Yourself
This morning before writing this post, I was watching Alfie Deyes Vlog here. (I'm loving his videos at the moment!) he was talking about something I found really interesting and that is checking in on yourself. He explained that it's good to every 6 months/year take a couple of days out to check in on yourself. To do this take time to stop and look at your life and what you're doing both inside and outside of work making sure you are on the right track to your main goals. Also making sure you're spending your time with the right people who are good in your life. Most of us have the time to do this right now. And I think it's important before life goes back to normal to reassess your normal and what parts of your normal life you want to carry on with and what parts you need to change.
3. Spend More Time Reading
One thing I always put to one side is reading, however when I do read I love self-help books. Recently I finished reading Vex King's book Good Vibes, Good Life. Here is one of my favourite quotes from his book, 'Being thankful is one of the simplest, and yet most powerful, habits you can cultivate. By counting your blessings daily, you can begin to condition your mind to look for the good in everything around you.' Vex talks about how to turn your negative thoughts into more positive ones by talking about different life experiences most of us go through. When reading this book I also felt so much more grateful for things I normally take for granted. This week I'm going to go back over this book and highlight key quotes I love so when I need to I can flick through the book and easily see the main quotes that inspire me.
4. Do Some At Home Workouts
I'm loving seeing so many people do at home workouts at the moment! I think it's amazing and something that I'm trying to do as much as I can. If you're a friend of mine you will know I LOVE Kobox, as the boxing club is closed a the moment they have been posting live workouts on their instagram page here. I love doing live workouts because it's the next best thing to going to a class, it's great to get involved in the comments and most classes follow a playlist on Spotify that you can download.
5. Take Part In Online Workshops
Brands/Influencers have been getting so creative over the last few weeks. I'd highly recommend checking out your favourites to see what they have been doing to see if you can get any inspiration of things to do. On Sunday I watched a live workshop on Marguerite London's page with Zeena Shah. The workshop was called mindful marbling, all about how to use Nail polishes and paints to create a marble effect on paper/other items of your choice. This was such a simple thing to do with items that I already had in my house yet was so therapeutic and I ended up making a really pretty heart painting that I will buy a frame for and hang up in my bedroom.
Picture from Pintereset
Let me know any positive things you have been doing in the comments, I hope you are all staying safe and well.
Love
Nicole
xx
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)