My favourite blog

I love reading blogs, they’ve taught me so much, pushed me to do things I would have never thought of before, and introduced me to some amazing people. I was recently asked to think about what my favourite blog is and I thought straight away I knew the answer, and then another blog popped into my head, and then another, and then I opened up my bloglovin and saw another 10 I could have as my favourite blog. I’ve posted before about my top blogs for different genres including food, healthy living, and fitness and I’m always on the search for new blogs to read which might become my favourite.

After thinking long and hard about my favourite blog I finally came up with my number one that I check every day – Keeping Healthy Getting Stylish.

Laura’s was the first UK healthy living blogger I discovered, and I’ve been following her journey for three or four years now I think. I think Laura’s blog has become my favourite because she always seems so honest about her life and isn’t afraid to share the not so good bits as well as the great bits. After reading so many blogs it’s easy to edit your life and only show the good bits and reading you can get lulled into a false sense of reality, but I admire that Laura never does that and it makes me enjoy reading her blog even more, making me feel more normal about some of the things I think and feel!

There’s also loads of great recipes on Laura’s blog, and I’ve tried quite a few with plenty of success and a happy full belly by the end!  I think Laura also posts loads of great healthy living tips and tricks on her blog, many of which I’ve taken on myself, and I think if Laura can do it, I should be able to too! Laura also always comments back on blog posts, particularly if you ask questions, and she’s so helpful when you tweet her or comment on instagram – a bit of a superstar really!

I’m really excited to read the next stage in Laura’s journey, as she recently got pregnant and I’m looking forward to reading more about her and her family and future successes. So, if you haven’t checked out Keeping Healthy Getting Stylish, what’s stopping you?

**I was asked to write a blog about my favourite blog in return for being entered to a competition run by Currys. I have not been compensated for this post, however I chose to write about it because I think it’s important to celebrate other bloggers. I see so much negativity on twitter and in blog forums, I think sharing other bloggers and appreciating their work shouldn’t be over looked!**

PS – Awesome photo, eh! Original source can be found here.

Bloggers do Hogwarts

On Sunday I travelled up the M25 for a long awaited trip to the Warner Brothers studios for the Harry Potter tour. Jenny very kindly organised the trip (thanks J!), and a big thanks to the people at Warner Brothers for their generosity with tickets and awesome, unexpected goody bags!

When I got to the studios I met up with some of my blogging faves Bess (Thoroughly English), Alice (The cup and saucer), and Jenny (Sunny sweet pea), and met some other lovely bloggers and tweeters, Charlotte (The tea drinking English rose), Sara (of sounds), Sarah (@sarangacomics), Sophie (Sophie in the sticks), Hazel (Hazel’s world of joy), and Beth (@missbw1505). Once we’d queued up for our tickets were were taken into a holding room, which left a few of us feeling like cattle!, and then into a cinema to watch an introduction to the tour. When the tour finished, the screen went up, and you were taken into the great hall – great touch Warner Brothers!

There were a couple of things that struck me as I made my way round the tour. Firstly I was surprised by the size of it, I imagined the great hall to be vast, but in reality it wasn’t too much longer than my school hall, and the size of Dumbledore and Umbridge’s offices were smaller than I expected too. I’m surprised they could fit so many people, and equipment into some of the spaces and make it look spacious.

I was also struck by how much detail went into every part of the film sets, with oil paintings being done by hand, frescos in the great hall that have now faded and couldn’t be seen in the films, emblems in fireplaces unseen in films, thousands of wand boxes done by hand, the matching of characters costumes and their props, and so much more. I guess I completely underestimated just how much goes into making eight huge films, and getting continuity between all of them.

We visited on an #animalactors day which meant that some of the animals from the films were there. It was fun to see Crookshanks, Hedwig, Fang, and Scabbers. I was a bit too scared to see the spiders and snake, they give me the heebiejeebies.

Every which way you looked there was something to see, and then when I looked up above eye level there was even more to see! When you combine that with nine other blogging Harry Potter fans chatting away it didn’t feel like long before we were half way round, and queuing up for some Butterbeer. Bess and I both decided that we had to try some Butterbeer, because it has to be done, right? I was really looking forward to it, and I have to say, I didn’t enjoy it! Despite having probably one of the sweetest tooth out there, it was just too sweet and sickly for me, and I couldn’t get over it when combined with being cold and a bit fizzy. A few of us agreed it would probably have tasted a whole lot nicer if it had been warmed up.

Outside we got to see some more of the sets, including the Knight bus, Privet Drive, and meet Hedwig! Very cool.

Inside the second hanger we got to see some more of the behind the scenes things, like the masks, and some of the most incredible sketch drawings. I could not get over the level of detail that went into designing and thinking about every part of the films, it was insane!

My favourite part was walking through Diagon Alley, it was narrower than I imagined, but it was full of so many things to see, I wish it was a real street!

By the end my head was swarming with more Harry Potter bits than I thought possible, so I thought it was lovely to reflect overlooking a model of Hogwarts, which changed in the lighting. The model reminded me a lot of an exhibition I saw whilst I was in Berlin a couple of years ago, of an ancient city and you walked round in a spiral, watching it change time of day. Very cool.

Then, it was time for the shop! We’d already been generously treated to some goodies by the kind folks at Warner Brothers, but I couldn’t resist without leaving with a couple of extra bits. I treated myself to two mugs, because they look like my coffee could go on forever in them, and a little ornament for my Mum’s Christmas tree.

Overall it was a pretty perfect Sunday. A huge thanks to Jenny for organising for everyone, and a massive thanks to Warner Brothers for their generosity, it was a fantastic experience and I’d definitely recommend to anyone who’s in the South East for a day out, or who’s a massive Harry Potter fan!

Lemon cream

I’ve succumbed to probably one of the ultimate blogging stereotypes and crazes of late. I now own an expensive scented candle.

I’ve had scented candles in the past and to be honest I’ve never really noticed the smell of them unless you give them a good sniff up close when it’s unlit. This one seems different though. My Mum treated me to it when we were out shopping for Christmas and I immediately liked the scent unlit. A good start.

However when it’s burning I can still smell it, a definite sign of a good scented candle in my eyes, especially compared to any other candle I’ve ever tried! The smell reminds me of lemon tart and lemon curd and lemon cake. It’s a sweet lemon, not a tangy lemon if that makes sense? And since lemon is one of my favourite flavours, that’s ok with me.

I’ve been burning it every night whilst I’ve been at home for the last couple of weeks and it’s so relaxing.

I’m not sure I’m going to become a Yankee obsessive and buy hundreds of them, but when this one runs out I’d like to replace it, and I would consider buying another Yankee candle if it was ever on offer and didn’t smell like a cleaned toilet. Not that there’s anything wrong with a cleaned toilet, far from it, I just don’t understand why a lot of candles smell like that? Just me?

So there you have it, I’ve succumbed and now own an expensive candle and I’ve blogged about it. Oh what a stereotype I’ve become! (Mum, can you pick up some more next time your in that shop? Ta!)

Blogging Love Survey

(Taken from faithhopeandcharityshopping.blogspot.com on this pin)

I’ve seen this tag over the blogging world and thought I’d join in with my blogging love! I’ve been blogging on and off since 2009-ish, and I’ve had this blog in one shape or form since the end of 2011. Before Stripes and Snapshots my blog was called La Mia Vita Sana, before that it was Coming Up Easy and before that I can’t remember it’s name! Anyway, enough of my rambling…

5 reasons I love blogging

1 – I love being nosey. I love knowing what other people get up to, what interests them, what they’re eating, what they’re wearing, what they’re doing with the hair and what they think of certain things.

2 – It inspires me. Blogging got me into running, into hot yoga, different recipes,trying different make up and so much more. When I’m not feeling motivated to get my sweat on, or if I’m feeling a little bored with what I’m wearing I turn to blogs and get out there and change things up.

3 – It gives me a creative outlet. When I was younger I always wanted to be an author and I used to write short stories for my family to read. Blogging lets me relive my love for writing, and I could jabber on all day to you all about the thoughts going on in my head!

4 – I get to have an online record of my memories. Very often I used to take hundreds of photos from days out, I’d upload them and stick a few on Facebook and that would be the end of it. With my blog now I can share my photos with you all and write some of my memories of that time, and then in time hopefully I can look over them and the photos will have a bit more meaning.

5 – I feel like I belong. I have posted before about how a year ago I moved to a new town for a new job without knowing anyone. A year later and my friendship circle is still very small, and so blogging and reading blogs lets me feel like I’m part of a community of friends who I can chat to about mutual interests. All my friends have different interests, and that’s what makes them great, but it’s great to feel like you belong to a group of like-minded people when you’re so far from your other friends.

My blogging aims

1 – Get a design layout I’m really happy with. I don’t know if you can tell but my header was made using Paint – haha! I’d love to learn a bit more about web design to get my blog looking a bit smarter and more professional.

2 – Try to get to know more of the lovely blogging ladies out there. I read blogs everyday but it’s not all that often I find myself commenting on people’s blogs or joining in with the twitter chats people have. This is something I want to work on, and show people I enjoy what they’ve written.

3 – Continue to have variety within my posts. When I first started blogging I kind of thought all your posts had to lie within the parameters of one set theme or topic, which honestly I found a bit stifling. Now I’ve come to release that it’s my blog, and I can post about whatever I like! Bloggers who post about all sorts of different things are my favourite to read, so that’s what I hope to continue.

My top blogging tip

Blog because you enjoy it and you’d read it. So often on twitter I see people who say I’m only ‘xxx’ amount of followers away from xxx. Tome it shouldn’t be about followers. You shouldn’t blog because you want to get freebies or make money from it. Yes, those are all great perks and I’d love to know a lot of people enjoy my ramblings. But, I only blog about things that I’d enjoy reading on someone else’s blog and if I’m not feeling it I simply won’t post that day.

A blogger who has inspired me along the way

This is easy. Without a shadow of a doubt one of the main bloggers who has inspired me and continues to do so is Laura from Keeping Healthy Getting Stylish. I first got into US Healthy Living Blogs and then through comments and twitter and online snooping I eventually found Laura’s blog. Her outlook on life is so refreshing and honest. Laura admits when things arn’t going quite as she liked, what she has learnt about herself and shares some amazing food and ideas. I love her posts about her life in general and I’m super excited to follow the journey she is starting with her own business. Oh, and Lauraloves stripes too!

If you’ve filled out this tag pop a link below, I’d love to read about why you love blogging!

Obsessions – Tea

Recently I wrote about my obsession with Chocolate. I am a true Chocoholic. My obsessive nature doesn’t just stop with chocolate, however. Tea holds a special place in my heart.

Until I moved to Italy and subsequently met Ryan I wasn’t much of a tea drinker. The past two years that has changed. There is nothing I love more than a hot cup of tea. Unfortunately due to some funny tummy troubles at the moment I’ve laid off the traditional tea and milk combo. That hasn’t stopped me experimenting with some awesome new teas!

Just check out my current selection!

 

Traditional tea for Ryan

Calming Teas for before bed

Make Us a Brew "Big Chill" for the mornings

Pukka Vanilla Chai 

Fresh and Fruity for a change

Peppermint for when I’ve overindulged or need something for my tummy

Lemon and Ginger for when my tummy’s feeling funny

 

My office drawer has a selection of all these teas and a box of green tea with lemon which I absolutely love and could drink all day long!

Do you love tea? What types of tea am I missing out on?