Beauty in a bottle

As a bit of a health and beauty junkie, I was very excited to try out a new range of drinks for The Protein Drinks Co. named Collagen + Beauty Milk. They are marketed as a health and beauty drink containing hydrolysed collagen, green tea extract and other good-for-you vitamins. The drink also contains 'hunger fighting proteins' which are advertised to keep you fuller for longer.

Stash of my little beauties!

Coming from a scientific background I am naturally skeptical when it comes to claims that a drink can support skins firmness and elasticity and reduce fine lines and wrinkles. True, collagen is a constituent of skin and helps to maintain elasticity, but I saw no evidence on my own face that the drink had any effect.

However, I do not want to sound harsh on this drink as the bottom line is, firstly, it is YUMMY (it tastes like Strawberry Nesquik) and absolutely no chalky after-taste. Secondly, I did actually find my mid afternoon hunger grumbles were certainly sorted by this. So good job on that one.

This little number tastes goooooood!

Of course this drink doesn't make outrageous claims like it will make you look 10 years younger or will cure all known diseases, but it does encourage a positive healthy eating and lifestyle mantra of which I am in full support of. Plus a drink that gives you an extra boost of vitamins B, C, D and E as well as Green tea extract can only really be a good thing.

Although I didn't see any difference to lines or wrinkles (of course I was not expecting too) I think the biggest thing for me though was that it really did bridge the gap between lunch and dinner (as I am all too familiar with fridge raiding as soon as I get home from work). So I think these would make a good replacement of a naughty mid morning or mid afternoon snack.

In short therefore, these little drinks are a nice daily addition to a healthy diet. Is it youth in a bottle? of course not but anything that promotes a healthy lifestyle gets a thumbs up from me.


Collagen+ Beauty Milk is available here

Diet, beauty and the works

As I have already presented offerings of love and wedding planners I thought I might do a bit more of a 'girly' post and talk makeup, skincare and diet; not all on this post, probably spread out over a few blogs.

I have never been much of a girly girl myself, in fact my mother had to bribe me to change out of baggy jeans and football t-shirts into something more feminine. However, now I am happily wedged in my 30's I feel ready to embrace this new side of me.
Don't get me wrong I'm not entering this new phase blind, I am certainly quite an active sort of person and I have been wearing makeup for a good few years now. But as the faint lines around my eyes appear, and my tummy isn't pancake flat the morning after I've eaten my body weight in pasta, I feel I need to take some action.

I should say that I do not believe in diets in most cases, I believe in a healthy and sustainable lifestyle where as long as I'm eating the right things and being active I don't care that I have a few glasses of wine and a wedge of ripe brie.

So what have I been implementing?

Food habits
Since my fiance bought me a Rollie Eggmaster (you need to see it to believe it) a couple of eggs in the morning is pretty much my staple.
Lunch during the working week consists of mainly salad, fish or meat substitute, yoghurt and fruit
Dinner however is more of an event with the Dandy and I, but I still keep my carb intake to a minimum.
I also swear by Graze boxes as a mid morning snack. You can do cheaper equivalents by yourself, but I'm a bit lazy there.

Although....sometimes a salad is not an option

Exercise
I try to hit the gym a few times a week as well as horseriding and yoga once a week or fortnight.
I have been really trying of late to increase my cardio so I'm pushing myself to do 30 minutes instead of 20 minutes of interval training.

Playing on a bouncy castles is a form of exercise right?

Although I'm definitely not in the plump department I do feel I need a bit of toning up and although my wedding is more than a year away I don't feel it's too early to start......well that's what I keep telling myself

Wedding Planner

Although my wedding is over a year away I feel the intense need to get organised and the best way in my mind is to buy a planner or organiser.

I find having something physical to jot down notes, thoughts and inspirations on will ultimately mean I won't forget things and it also appeals to the slight OCD in me of having everything in neat compartments. Of course the downside to this is that too much preparation goes on and not enough actual "doing" (a'la Rimmer from Red Dwarf with his constant up-dates to revision planners!)

I trawled the internet and to be honest the range wasn't that great. I thought there would be loads.
To be fair though I was looking for planners in the £30 range, so the Smythson et al offerings, although absolutely gorgeous, were out of play for this particular task.

However, to my delight I found that my mothership, John Lewis, stock a range named K TWO which were not only practical, functional and ever so pretty, they were smack down in my price range.

The wedding planner

The planner is ring bound, about A5 in size and perfect for a day bag or large tote. It is extremely feminine but not in a sickening girly-pink way. Each page is a shade of beige with delicate gold prints incorporating hearts, flowers and birds. 

 

Examples of section beginnings and sample pages

What I love about this planner is that it is broken down into six sections: Getting Started, Guests and Stationary, Wardrobe, Wedding Day, Gifts and finally Contacts and Notes. Help is also provided in each section, such as in Getting Started there are entries for lists of names of those involved in the wedding, budget planner and a pull-out calendar. As I basically have no idea what I am doing right now in terms of actually sorting out this wedding, I found this very useful indeed. However, if you wanted page after page of blank space for scribing then this probably isn't the planner for you.

Named sections of the planner

Each section has it's own pocket at the front for loose notes and cuttings form other sources etc. There is also a plastic wallet at the back of a few sections too.

 

 Open section of the planner with pocket on the left

What I also love about this planner is how sturdy and robust it is, so I know I can throw it in my handbag and not worry about things getting damaged or pages getting dog-eared. Each page feels really rather special and of high quality and will make a lovely keepsake as part of the wedding memories.

In short I feel super organised. All I need to do now is start planning and booking!


K TWO wedding planner at John Lewis priced £20

Love story

Not wishing to make you feel sick dear reader but the story of myself and the Dandy is rather sweet and I would like to share it with you.

A few years ago I found myself as a singleton (don't worry I'm not going to go all Bridget Jones here) and after a little while I thought I would give the internet dating thing a go. Some of you may have some experience with online dating sites so when I say that some are like meat markets, I'm sure you won't disagree. However a few of my friends recommended eHarmony, as it is a bit more serious and a place where you are least likely to find a man who just wants to meet up to smell your shoes!! eHarmony prides itself on 'getting to know you' first before finding you matches, so after signing up I was faced with A LOT of questions to complete (for a good reason I must add), but after a few cups of tea it was done and all my potential suitors were being selected.

Now I should say at this point I was not looking for a boyfriend, I think my words were 'I think a few dates with a few nice chaps would be great fun, and you never know what might happen....' eHarmony are very hand-holding through the initial process of contacting your matches online. There is a 'wink' button and a series of ice breaker questions which you can skip if you want to start communication immediately.

One evening a picture of a very happy looking gentleman popped up in my matches and after a few emails the fate was sealed. Our first date was brilliant and on our second I don't think I laughed so much before. A few dates turned into something rather special and soon we had moved in together.

At the start of 2013 we had a little weekend break in Lyme Regis on the Dorset coastline (if you have never been here then you must, it's beautiful). On a rather chilly Sunday afternoon we did what all good tourists to the area do and went fossil hunting. During this hunt we discovered there had been a landslip which caused an old Victorian landfill site to plunge onto the beach where we were walking. Cue fossil and now treasure hunting to boot. The Dandy, being rather eagle-eyed, spotted some old battered and broken piece of pendant which had a pretty stone on it and, liking the shiny thing, put it in his pocket with the rest of the fossils.

So it turned out that this stone was actually a small sapphire dating back to 1830's which was rather a lovely find indeed.

Fast forward to Christmas 2013 and the Dandy and I decided a little pre-crimbo break was in order, so we packed our bags and headed to lovely London for a bit of sight seeing and festive merriment. The Dandy, being a most wonderful boyfriend, arranged a surprise dinner at Simpson's in the Strand, which was incredible. The roast beef was exquisite.

After dinner an evening stroll was suggested, so off we trotted down Embankment, across Westminster bridge, past the Houses of Parliament, past Downing Street, past the Cenotaph; we had been walking for over an hour and I was in silly heels so my feet were killing me! As we were walking down the Mall, I was starting to flag somewhat. However, with words of encouragement and 'we are nearly there' we ended up outside Buckingham Palace (one of my favourite places). After looking at the beautiful building, I turned to see the Dandy down on one knee with a box holding a ring! The ring in question had as its centre stone the sapphire he found on the beach in Lyme Regis. He said something at this point, but I was so overwhelmed I can't remember what it was; all I said was YES!

 The Dandy and I at the start of our 'engagement evening'

So thank you eHarmony for matching us up and thank you to Lyme Regis fossil folk for taking us that route and resulting in me having a rather special engagement ring . We will see you again in Spring 2015 when we get married down there.

Some important links here
Lyme Regis museum who arrange the fossil hunts http://www.lymeregismuseum.co.uk/whats-on/fossil-walks 

Not a bad place for dinner http://www.simpsonsinthestrand.co.uk

Evan, who made my perfectly beautiful engagement ring http://www.chic-bijoux.co.uk/

  My ultimate bling!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Firstly....

So this is my first post and part of me is wondering why I am doing this. Firstly, would anyone other than myself be interested in such a blog and secondly would this be too much of an undertaking alongside a full time job etc etc? Well, for the next couple of years there will be quite a few changes to my life and I thought it would be a good opportunity to keep a journal and see if anyone else would find my posts useful or as a life lesson in how not to do something!!


So what are these changes?


Firstly my boyfriend proposed over Christmas (I am still completely over the moon about this), however this does mean that we need to plan a wedding (#panic number one)


Secondly, we have had an offer accepted on a beautiful house in Suffolk. This is our first-time buy so there is huge amount of excitement mixed with "since when did I become this grown-up" and OMG when people say this is stressful they really do mean it (#panic number two).


In short I am aiming to make this blog a bit of a light hearted look into a couple of big time "firsts" in my life, I hope you enjoy the adventure (I am trying too)