GlOSSYBOX a little rainy day treat

In the post arrived my little box of treats from Glossybox, which is run by Harrods. I have just subscribed to this – for £12.95 a month you receive a little box of treats, cosmetics and fragrance some which are full sizes and is a nice way to give yourself a little gift each month without breaking the bank.

As I have only just signed up this little treat was a generic April box but going forward I will receive treats geared to my skin type, my colouring and my fav fragrance types.

This little box arrived beautifully gift wrapped and is like getting a birthday treat once a month.

Aprils Glossybox was about everything natural and has 5 beauty products to try:

 Figs and Rouge Lip Balm – this is a cute little pot perfect for your handbag, beach bag  or gym bag and really gives long lasting nourishment it looks really cool to in its retro packaging.

Caudalie Serum – this I applied over my regular moisturiser to really give my skin a boost of nourishment, it was really lightweight and not at all sticky, and my foundation went on really smoothly.

Monu collagen cream– this is a good size tube and I used this after a face mask last night, really lovely feel and a fresh fragrance.

Inka Eye liner – really soft eye pencil and as this is a small size great to stick in the smallest of bags on a night out.

Burt’s bees Milk and Honey body lotion – as usual this product is really gorgeous and a little goes a long way to leave you feeling really silky soft and rehydrated.

All in all this little box of treats was perfect for a rainy Saturday pick me up!

If you would like to try Glossybox for yourself go to: www.GLOSSYBOX.co.uk

Love Row x

Study Techniques!

for some reason I had this really good idea last year that I needed to do more studying which is how I come to find myself studying Politics at Birkbeck university - every Thursday night from now until July 5th. Why oh why did I think this would enhance my learning, Liberalism, Conservatism and Ideology..... what I have realised is that in a lot of years we don't seem to have covered much ground with this political malarkey!!

I find studying really great..........it means I suddenly have very clean rooms, my ironing is all done (yes even the summer clothes under the bed have been ironed) bags need to be made and a car that is the cleanest it's ever been anything to get out of homework and studying, and for gods sake this is my choice no-one has said I have to do this so why have a reverted back to my student habits!!

I am sure that once I get going on my first assignment, a presentation on a topic to be chosen - I can't decide on Devolution or Woman in Politcs, I am counting on my lovely friend H in Scotland to come up with some ideas on the devolution idea and then I can research a special woman in politics (and no it won't be Maggie!) and make what I hope will be an informed choice (the easiest one) for my presentation.

If you are studying out there let me know how your doing and your secrets to being focused on your assignments, now I have to go to clean the skirting boards.......


Love Row x

Summer Glow

As an ex Clinique consultant I know that the key to a glowing healthy looking fake tan is exfoliation which will get your summer glow off to a good start.


I am using the Boots Botanical Enlivening Body Polish range at the moment it has a subtle fresh fragrance and the exfoliating grains leave your skin feeling silky soft and a body that feels and looks glossy and smooth and most importantly dry skin free so your self tan does not streak or look patchy.



Then apply your summer self tan, I am using a Garnier Summerbody moisturiser at the moment but as the summer progresses I will go for the Boots self tan range in fair to medium skin tone, being fair skinned.


For special occasions I go to my lovely local salon – Boniface –   and have a spray tan. As an ex beauty therapist I don’t ever use a sun bed as they are not only damaging to your skin but there is the added skin cancer risks as well, plus the sunbed is like a too prolonged time in the sun it will really age you, and wrinkly rhino skin is not a good look on the beach!!

Love Row x

BAGS OF FUN!

Well the bags are being made for the May 4 Barboot fair in Crouch End, only another 9 to go. I am going to make some bespoke cushions and heart shaped wall decorations, come along to the Haberdashery and look at my wares!! A little taster below

Daisy Daisy

Rhapsody

 

 My friend Nicky will also be there with her Vintage Jewellery collection, check out her website Curiosities of London, its gorgeous and full of original vintage jewellery, if you need something a little different you will find it here: http://www.curiositiesoflondon.com/

Love Row x

Train Manners!

Ok now I am going to have a moan,  I commute to London and travel a lot with my job, in fact I am on the way to Worcester today for a meeting.

So my question is to the male popultation....... why do you feel it is ok NOT to have good personal hygiene in the mornings - at what point did you think not cleaning your teeth and washing was a good idea! AND why do you think it is ok to sit with your legs open so you are rubbing my leg, and I don't believe for one moment it is because your balls are so big you can't put your legs together!!! AND why is it ok to stick your newspaper across my book!!!! KEEP in your personal space and please wash and even brush your hair, it's radical I know but so much nicer to look at. Like the Hugo Boss man (not really, but he looks like he has just stepped out of a Hugo Boss advert) now there is a guy who knows how to groom, it could be because he also has a fabulously gorgeous girlfriend so she keeps in him his good habits!

it's not only you guys who like a bit of eye candy in the morning you know so next time you are about to leave the house check your teeth, brush your hair and give your yourself a spritz with after shave you may get some suprising results.


let me know if you have any travel moans about bad manners on your trains!!

Love Row x

Whitstable's Weekend Wonders

Saturday was a trip to Whitstable to buy some fabric for some more bags, a mooch around the shops and a little Charity shop bargain hunting then onto lunch at the Harbour Gardens tea room, which is a lovely open air space near the Harbour which serves fabulous lunches and even supplies lovely shawls in case the sea air is a little too brisk for you. I had a fish finger sandwich with home made chips, very generous salad garnish and the best ever coffee.

Then it was off for more browsing and a sit on the bench overlooking the sea a swift glass of wine in the Pearsons Arms – the gorgeous cosy pub near the beach.

We did not stop at the fish and chip shop this time but V.C. Jones is the most famous chippie with gorgeous fish and chips, in the summer the queues can span right back along the street. If you go to Whitstable you really need to visit Jones then sit on the beach with your fish and chips and watch the sun go down.

lots of love

Row x

Bringing out my inner Essex Girl

This blog is a little late it has been a very crazy week at work... I won't bore you with the details, just suffice to say technology again conspired against me and has made every task I do take ten times as long as it should!

I visited my friend and her twins last saturday which was fab, she lives in Loughton so I was hobnobbing it with the best of Essex.

We went into Jessica's little lingerie shop which was filled with some gorgeous and very cute bikinis and some pretty saucy undies to. Next stop was Lydia's shop Bella Sorrella wow some very very gorgeous clothes in there and her mum was signing autographs and having photos taken it is such a weird phenomemon this Essex thing!! The town was filled with very gorgeous and tanned people, there are no two ways about it there are some amazing looking people here.

I had lunch with L,J and T and then headed back to what seem like quite drab Kent in comparison to the flamboyant Loughton!

I am off to buy some fake tan definitely need to have a summer look.

I will be back soon with my findings for the best on the summer glow, spending the weekend with my godmum going down the coast and other some news on the bags -  21 made only 9 more to go!

Love

Row x

Woohoo it's the weekend

Phew made it through another week, and here it is Friday already and I am heading off to meet Jessie-Lou at the gym, well I have to start the weekend with good intentions! There will be a big glass of wine consumed tonight preferably a very smooth red while I sketch out some more bag designs........... 18 bags made another 12 to go before the Barboot sale at Crouch End.

This weekend I am catching up with a friend who had twin boys in January, they are too gorgeous for words and I can't wait for my cuddle with them, and the great bit is I get to give them back, ha ha wait until the teenage years is all I say!!

I am meeting other friends at a country pub for Sunday lunch for another of the kids birthdays, they are all back from uni now for the hols so we are having plenty of time to catch up on all the university shenanigans!!

I may even make it down to my favorite Seaside town, Whitstable is only a 20 minute drive from us and it is gorgeous especially the sunsets we get across the water, sitting on the beach watching the sun go down is one of my favorite passtimes. You can see why from my photo:

Then it is back to the bags and getting ready for my working week ahead. I am travelling a bit next week but only short distances and looking forward to some Culture in Cambridge and the Marvels of Maidstone! And I am back to Birkbeck University for the start of my Politics Module, that should keep me out of mischief! I had completely forgotten that my next module started in April, well that was until last week when my course reading thudded onto the doormat, just a little light reading for me on Political Ideology, Political Change....I thought this would be a good idea at the time but now I am having some serious doubts about it all. If I get stuck I will eat Maltesers they got me through my Business Studies module! 

Anyway have a good Friday night enjoy it with style, don't fall down in the street and stay safe.

Love

Row x x

No Snow in Guernsey!

I had the choice last week of a meeting in Glasgow or a meeting in Guernsey, I am so glad that the Guernsey meeting was the priority! So yesterday after a very successful meeting I was able to take in the spectacular views from the terrace  of the Bon Port Hotel in the sun rather than in the snow as I would have been had I gone to Scotland, no thermals for me today! 
www.bonport.com

Did you know Guernsey is only 7 miles long and 4 miles wide, but so enchantingly pretty, a little like the Cotswold's with French road signs, a great place for a meeting that felt like a mini holiday.... I am usually trekking to North Yorkshire or Staffordshire which on our rail system at times is not like a mini holiday but a full blown adventure.

Back in Kent now to deal with the pile of emails that need attention, meetings to set up and data to collect, reports to write just a usual day in my office. ........Well that was the plan until technology conspired against me and I could not log onto the office through Citrix, it locked me out shut me down and in the end there was nothing to do but go and make coffee and eat cake.......... luckily it was my daughter Jessie-Lou's  birthday last week so I have a plentiful supply of cake and goodies to eat while the IT team sort out the error. By 10.00 it was all sorted and I am feeling sick from all that cake!

I talked to my lovely friend and colleague in Scotland who has not held it against me that I sloped off to Guernsey instead of going to Stirling with her. I caught up on all her news, she has a new puppy so lots of ah factor. Then it was back to to tackle the backlog of emails that happens when I have a day away.

Now the work day is over it is onto my next job, and the one I love the most, making my bags, Crouch End have a fabulous market on the first Friday of the month and I am going to be selling my bags there, I have a target of 30 bags to make for the Barboot sale on the 4 May, so in between travelling to meetings I am sewing like a mad woman, I am the crazy lady on the train/coach/plane sewing on sequins say hi if you see me!!

Well I must sign off now sequins to sew, designs to make, and soon it's the weekend and a party to look forward to, drinks and dinner with 'the crowd', we have been friends since we were 18 and now our kids are friends to, so we have amazing get togethers in fact we have bought a marquee so that in the summer we have some real rave parties, you are never too old to dance like crazy people.

Love

Row x