Sunday Favourites

Here's all the little things making me smile in this week that has been full of stressful dissertation writing...

Planning and shopping for my holiday! I got this awesome polka dot bikini and I can't wait to wear it on the beach (although I've never been on a beach holiday and so never worn a bikini before, so feeling a little self-conscious..) We don't often go out shopping and buy things as we are on a budget so it has been lovely to go out just once and say, 'hey, I'M BUYING THAT!'

Catching up on all the newer books from the last year or so I never got round to reading.

Getting my sewing machine out and making this super cute sleeveless tie shirt. I've got all my pattern pieces ready and I've started sewing - I'm a bit baffled by the instructions at the moment though (I picked what I thought was the simplest shirt pattern!), but hopefully I'll finish it before my holiday. If you're a genius at deciphering mysterious sewing patterns, do let me know in the comments!

My Lucky Dip Club box arrival, which you can read about here.

Bringing home more of my favourite Strawberry and Kiwi fruit infusion from work - I ran out ages ago and have missed it! Tea time <3

Let me know all your Sunday favourites below! If you haven't already, it would be great if you could follow via Bloglovin'. You can also now follow me on Twitter (yes, I do that now!). See buttons on the right :)

Lucky Dip Club Box - Tutti Frutti

So today my first Lucky Dip Club box arrived! I didn't think it would come over the weekend so I was surprised to find it waiting for me on my way to work this afternoon. I took it with me to open at work, I was too excited to wait till I got back home. Here's what I found inside.. (If you haven't received yours yet and want it to be a surprise, look away now!)

It was lovely to find a little handwritten note inside from Leona, who puts together the boxes. I was very impressed with all the little personal touches included. The goodies included an 'A-OK' apple coaster and a bright cherry keyring, as well as a watermelon postcard...

 ...a vintage apple patch to add to a shirt, super cute post-it notes, an 'Enjoy Today' badge and my favourite - a personalised pineapple necklace! As I'm off on my holidays next week I'll be wearing this <3

This is my first Lucky Dip Club box and I was really impressed with it. I had previously subscribed to Crafty Creatives boxes, but when it stopped including lots of little things in favour of one large craft kit, plus increased in price, I couldn't really justify accumulating stuff I'd never use. This box satisfies my want of lots of little cute bits and pieces and is well thought out and a lovely surprise through the door - who doesn't like happy mail days?!

Described as 'personalised packages filled with surprises', and including vintage and handmade items, it costs £15 (but no extra postage charge, yay!), and you can get next month's box here from the 1st of July - The theme will be Pet Parade, sounds perfect for me!

Sunday Favourites

Things making me smile on this sunny Sunday...

The beginnings of our colourful gallery wall. My boyfriend and I are both adding to it - I seem to add a lot of bird prints, he adds a lot of colourful abstract prints. It's a bit of both of us :)

...And I'll soon be adding this bright vintage advertising sign to it. My parents found it for me. I'd love a whole collection of them, and especially a Cadbury's one, but they sell for so much money!

I've also been adding to my 'cute postcard' stash. I can't resist buying them every time I pass Paperchase.

...Even my boyfriend has got in the habit of feeding my postcard-obsession. Isn't he good?! 

                           

And of course little Pancake, and his sheer joy of chasing anything that moves, also makes me happy! Just look at that smile :)

Happy Sunday!

Facemask Friday

I used to have a favourite Lush fresh face mask, called Oatifix, but as much as I love Lush products, they are pretty pricey and are only an occasional treat. However, a while ago I received this book as a gift, Carla Oates' Feeding Your Skin, a collection of DIY natural chemical-free recipes for every type of  beauty product possible, from masks and scrubs to the more unexpected hair dyes and nail polish, using things in your kitchen cupboards.

Being on a budget at the moment, I decided to forgo the expensive Lush products for my poor dry skin, and instead raided the cupboards to see what I could make myself. As it turned out, I had everything I needed for the Lemon Tea Mask recipe.. 

Whittards finest English Breakfast, some might say, is a bit too fancy for slapping on your face, but as I've worked there for years it seems I have acquired a lot of loose leaf tea in my house that doesn't get used nearly often enough, so a use might as well be found for it. The book actually uses tea in a lot of the recipes - there's a black tea and apple cider vinegar tint for dark hair I'm keen to try out! Oats, as it happens, weren't actually in the mask recipe above, but in the name of experimentation and trying to replicate my Lush favourite, I chucked a handful in anyway. It actually made the rather sloppy mixture much thicker and easier to use as a mask. 

What I effectively ended up with was a sort of tea-and-lemon-flavoured porridge mix. On the face it went, and it wasn't a half bad replica actually - after 20 minutes my dry skin is looking a bit less hopeless. I'd love to share a picture of the mask in action, but unfortunately -  in the style of Mrs Doubtfire - great lumps kept falling off if I dared to move. I think this could be rectified by perhaps more milk powder or oats to thicken it up, but I think the recipe, and others in the book, are a great starting point to adapt and add to. I'll certainly be making up batches of my own products regularly and testing them out! 

Any great facemask recipes I should try out?