#SWBXmas event

 

On Sunday afternoon, quite hungover may I add, I went along to the South West Bloggers Christmas event in the centre of Bristol. When I heard about the event, hosted by Gina, Hayley and Lyzi, I was determined to go as it was a chance to meet fellow bloggers all in the place that I live! I missed out on tickets first time round but luckily for me a few people couldn't attend so I managed to get a last minute ticket and headed down into the streets of Bristol.

This was the first event, or such like, that I'd been to so naturally I was pretty nervous and felt like everyone knew each other a part from me. Luckily the atmosphere was extremely chilled and everyone was welcoming and chatty. I met Jess and Amy who were both lovely as well as Bonny who strangely did some work for the company I work for before I started! Small world.
We were served with yummy cake, tea and champagne in the cutest tea cups - which I avoided due to the alcohol consumption the night before - and each blogger had a little Christmas present.

The event was held in a teashop come vintage paradise called The Birdcage (follow them on Twitter if you live in the area @Birdcagebristol), I'd never heard of the place before but so glad that I got an opportunity to go there it was beautiful and I kept saying that it was my dream to own something as sweet as it one day. The lamp shade lights were quirky and it had a huge Christmas tree in the corner making it feel very festive.

It was a lovely afternoon, thank you girls, I'm pleased I got to meet some ladies who I've spoken with on Twitter and new ones I look forward to meeting again at further events. We all also received a lovely vintage scarf from The Birdcage to go home with, which I cannot wait to wear!

I hope you're all well, will any of you be at the Birmingham meet up in January? I'm pretty excited about that one, shopping and food my two favourites things!

Happy Birthday!

 Yes, it was my birthday last Friday. As I get older it becomes less exciting and a little more daunting to be honest, I get all that worry about turning another year older and, as I am now 24, I start to think should I be doing something with my life?! However I tried to put this as the back of my mind and look forward to the day I had planned.

Before I go into what I did on the day I wanted to share some of the main presents I received from family.

Enrapture Extremity Head Rollers - I've wanted heated rollers for about 6 months now and knew these were one of the best but the price was too much for me to just buy on my own. After watching Corrie's youtube video I fell in love with them again and the urge to buy them kept creeping back! When Enrapture tweeted to say they were currently on offer I knew I had to ask my mum to buy them! I'm so glad she did, they are wonderful! I'll do a proper post on them soon though.

DKNY bag - Whilst in America my boyfriend asked if I'd like a bag or purse for my birthday as he knew I loved the bag my sister, brother and I bought my mum last year for her 50th. They had like 40% off and were probably last seasons but I love it! I have a big thing for tan which I can't seem to get rid of and it just looks very luxurious with it's gold chains and fastener. It's slightly too small for my purse so that's the only downside to it.

Pandora charm - My mum and dad got me a Pandora bracelet for my graduation in July and since then it has grown massively!  My brother and sister kindly bought me a cute heart charm with a key on a chain. It's not something I would really think to ask for which I like as I don't like knowing and asking for everything, surprises are welcome!

No7 Cleansing Water - My cleansing water was sadly running out so my boyfriends mum got me a replacement, yippee  I wasn't sure on the cleansing water to begin with, I quite liked the foaming cleanser but I actually do prefer it. It makes it really feel like your skin is being cleaner whereas the foaming cleanser didn't feel like it was getting into your pores and doing anything special.

Batitse Blush - It seems my family know me very well and luckily mine had literally ran out that morning!! This is the 400ml bottle so is huge. My favourite is tropical but Blush is very girly and does exactly the same thing really.

Chocolates - What girl could live without chocolate? I hardly every get bought chocolate, or flowers for that matter, so was pleasantly surprised when I had chocolate from almost every person that bought me a present! It's quite nice having your birthday at this time of year because you start to eat a bit more anyway in the Christmas run up. 

I'm so grateful and pleased with what I had on my birthday, and the day was made even more special by what we did...

I've been wanting to go to Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studios since I heard it was opening. I thought about booking it for the opening month but realised it was just too close to the end of Uni so put it off and put it off and then thought when am I going to go?! My boyfriend and I decided we'd go on my birthday, luckily he is also a Potter fan! What a catch. I've seen so many of my friends post pictures on Facebook but have avoided looking because I didn't want to spoil the surprise on the day - I sound so cheesy!! Anyway we went and it was a-mazing! I would recommend it to anyone who likes HP, even if you've just seen a few films but aren't avid fans. It was just overwhelming the amount of effort put into it. I won't spoil it for people who haven't yet gone but here is my fave pic of the day!

Hope you're all doing okay! Don't forget about my giveaway x

Batiste XXL

I love bigger hair. My hair, although is kind of thick, looks so flat after a day or even less! So when I saw the new Batiste XXL volume dry shampoo I thought it would be a-mazing! I love Batiste, I own up to using it almost every day, it's became one of those products I just have to have or I'll shove my hair up.

I sprayed the usual amount of Batiste on my hair a day or so after buying it and followed the instructions, rubbing into my hair and really did see the difference. So off I went to work with bouncier, bigger hair - feeling a bit more glam. When I went to brush my fingers through my hair though I couldn't! It was the worst feeling, my hair felt really sticky and matted. I hadn't done anything different apart from use Batiste so I wasn't impressed.

I gave it another chance though, I never get put off a product just through one failed attempt. It could have been something I did after all....yeah right! It still couldn't do anything with my hair it was so frustrating! It also made it feel really dry and like I wanted to just go home and wash it. Normally with the ordinary dry shampoo's my hair just feels the same except more refreshed.

I would not recommend using this for a normal day. There will be loads of people out there though who love having big hair and wouldn't mind about not being able to touch it. I may even use it on an evening out if I want big hair which I can then forget about for the night. But I'm quite disappointed.

Have you used it? Do you use any other volume products?