DIY Tree Decorations

I love decorating the tree for Christmas, its one of the best parts of Christmas. What am I saying? All parts of Christmas are the best! Anyway I love making decoration and my favourite to make is so simple and overall cheaper than buying decorations. It also makes your tree more personal and they would even make a great gift.

To make this you'll need;
Small polystyrene ball
Sequins of different colours
Short metal or plastic pins
A thin piece of ribbon 

I got all of my things from Hobbycraft, everything definitely came to under £10.

They are so easy to make, the pictures are self explanatory but i'll tell you anyway!

Basically you can do this in 2 ways. Either decide which part of the ball you want to be the top and use a pin to pin a loop of ribbon onto the ball. You can do this part last if it is easier. I always leave a gap and do it last so I don't have a bit of ribbon flopping around while I'm doing the rest. You can also make a cross over the ball with ribbon to separate different sections which is what I have done.

(Please excuse my thumb!)

Decide on a pattern and start to put the pins through the middle of the sequins and push them into the ball. I told you it was simple!

You can also use polystyrene stars or any shapes you wish and be as creative as you like. I have been making these decorations for a couple of years and think the look lovely on the tree. I will include some pictures of some of the ones I have previously made in a later post (when I find them in the decoration box).

I'd love to know what you think of this and if you've made any Christmas decorations this year!

Megan xx

Blurb Photo books

I personally think that photo books make the most amazing presents. They are personal and although they're not expensive they are one of the best presents someone will receive. I have got my mum a photo book 2 years in a row and she loves them. They are so much easier and cheaper to make than a photo album.

As we train guide dog puppies, last year my mums photo book was dedicated to our first puppy and I put around 30 photos of him in it. This year I decided to include all sorts of pictures from our year. I buy my photo books from Blurb as I find their photo book programme really easy to use. They have 3 methods of making the photo book so no matter how techy you are, you will be able to make one using one of the methods. 

(Please excuse the bad quality image, I didn't want to remove the plastic which keeps it clean)

Blurb photo books are really high quality and prices start at around £10 which for such a special present is really cheap. You can make your photo book square or rectangular as well as selecting from about 3 sizes. All books use standard paper or you can pay a bit extra for glossy or semi matte paper. This time I went for glossy and am super happy with the outcome of it. You can also choose what the cover of the book is like. You can have a soft cover, hard cover dust jacket and hard cover image wrap the latter of which I went for. 

I really cannot fault the quality of either of the photo books I have created with Blurb. Another great thing is if you want to add more pages then you just pay for the extra pages you want. Some other photo book companies only allow you to add an extra 10 pages and don't allow for individual pages to be added. The delivery from Blurb is also excellent, I ordered last week and was told it would come before the 9th December and it arrived on 27th November although I expect they may get busier over the coming weeks.

I think photo books make amazing gifts for any occasion. Maybe you want to put all of your holiday photos in one or even wedding pictures. I highly recommend Blurb and after using them twice I wouldn't buy from anywhere else.

Blurb have a website which is really easy to navigate and have a secure checkout.

Are you buying anyone a photo book for Christmas?

P.S I haven't been paid to say good things about Blurb, I just really love the quality and value of their products.

Nanshy Eye Brush Set

Today is 1st December, the fist day of Blogmas and it is now officially okay to get excited about Christmas (like I wasn't already though). Basically I am going to do 25 Christmas related posts for the next 25 days which will include gift ideas, festive food ideas and home items to make your house more festive. 

Today's post is a review of the eye brush set from Nanshy. I think this would make a perfect gift for anyone whether they are just starting out with makeup or already have enough make up to last 100 years. 

The first thing I would like to say about Nanshy products are they are made with antibacterial, synthetic vegan bristles. They are a cruelty free company and have the bunny logo on the box of the brush set. The brush set contains 7 eye brushes and each brush can be used in multiple ways. The handles of the brushes are pearl coated which makes them look elegant and they are a bit different to the standard black handles of most make up brushes.

The precise bent eyeliner brush in my opinion is the most unique brush in this set. Its not the type of brush that I have seen before and I only own straight eyeliner brushes. The bristles are quite firm on this brush and they go into a point at the top so it makes eyeliner application really easy. I do really like this brush however it isn't in my top 3 from this set.

The flat definer brush is a great brush to apply eyeshadow on the lower lash line and under the eye as the bristles are in such a thin line. The bristles are really dense and I personally find the brush good for applying concealer in precise places such as around the nose. This is the only brush from Nanshy which I have used and experienced shedding, however it isn't that bad that I have stopped using the brush. 

The large shader brush is one of my favourite brushes in the set. It is amazing at packing on colour all over the lid which is something I have found difficult to do with natural hair make up brushes. The brush is really dense but still really soft to use which I love. 

The blending eyeshadow brush is a great blending brush however I prefer to use it to blend out the top of my eyeshadow instead of the crease colour as it is quite a large brush. The bristles are fairly flimsy which makes it more effective for blending.

The tapered crease brush is similar to my favourite eye brush from japonesque. The point at the top makes it really easy to apply a colour to the crease before blending. The bristles are quite dense which helps with precise application of colour. Its also great for applying eyeshadow to the inner corner of the eye.

The eye crease brush is basically a massive fluffy brush. I love it! I've been using it for under eye concealer as well as for blending eyeshadow in the crease. The bristles are long and slightly domed at the top which really gives it that fluffy feel. This is definitely one of my favourite brushes in the set.  

The angled detailer brush is the perfect eyebrow brush. I haven't had an angled brush like this before and normally just use the tiny one that came with my HD Brows palette. I have also used it to apply eyeshadow along the lashline to create definition and it really is precise and easy to work with.

I love this brush set and since I got it I haven't used any other eye brushes, I think im converted. The set costs £29.95 on Amazon which works out at around £4 per brush which is really good value for such high quality brushes. 

What beauty gifts are on your wishlist this year?

Megan xx

Natural Balance Foods

Natural Balance Foods are the company who make my favourite healthy snack, Nakd bars. Until recently though this was all I knew that they made. When I found out the Natural Balance Foods actually make Trek protein bars I knew I had to try them. I have been snacking loads lately (I think it's because it's so cold!) so decided to try the cocoa brownie bar from Trek. First of all let me tell you that it was yummy and definitely didn't taste like a healthy snack, more of an indulgent treat. It was quite sweet but I don't think that they taste was as strong as the Nakd bars that I have tried, it's not far off though. There is 11-12g of protein in each bar which while i'm not very knowledgeable about these things, I think is a beneficial amount for refueling after exercise or just to have as breakfast on the go!

Another great thing about the Trek protein bars are that practically anyone can eat them. They don't contain dairy or wheat and are also vegan and kosher approved. As well as this they don't contain any artificial ingredients and are one of your 5 a day!

Another thing that I wanted to mention is that on the Natural Balance website there are accessories from Nakd bars. The only accessory that is available so far is a drawstring backpack which while I think is practical, doesn't really appeal to me. However Nakd are bringing out a new accessory which I got a little bit too excited about. A carry cup which is super cute, it's white and green with a little bumble bee on each side. One side also has the Nakd logo on it while the other side says 'Hey hot stuff' which I really love. Ever since starting sixth form I have become addicted to hot drinks so I think this carry cup will come in really handy for me. Let me know what you think of the carry cup in the comments. 

Have you tried any of the foods that Natural Balance make? 

Megan xx

Gousto

Until earlier this year I hadn't heard of Gousto or any other other food boxes. Gousto is basically a food box delivery service. This means you pay a set price and you get the ingredients for 3 meals a week. On the website when you order your meals for the week ahead you have a choice of about 10 meals, some of which are vegetarian. You can choose to have a box for a couple or a family which is for 4-5 people. When I was offered the chance to try 2 days worth of meals I was super excited. I love cooking and also feel like ingredient boxes like these are a great way to eat clean.

On the menu, each meal has a preparation time and a country of origin as well as a difficulty level. Another great thing about Gousto is although you get all of the ingredients you can decide not to add all of something of may choose to miss out an ingredient completely. 

The meals I chose were;

PARMESAN-SAGE CRUSTED PORK MEDALLIONS WITH SAVOY CABBAGE

You get an instruction sheet for every meal that you get. They are very easy to follow although make sure you read it through before hand so that everything is completely clear. 


You get everything that you needed even down to the egg for the coating of the pork. The only things you needed to add were simple things like seasoning, oil and flour.

The meal was super easy to make and was my favourite out of the 2. It was my first time having savoy cabbage and loved it, its definitely not a bland tasting vegetable. The prep time for this was around 40 minutes and the difficulty level was 2 out of 3 although I don't personally think it was difficult at all as long as you follow the instructions.

CHICKEN CASHEW STIR FRY

The chicken stir fry had a few ingredients that we didn't put in such as the spring onion and peppers due to allergy but they were used at a later date by other family members so no ingredients went to waste. Everything again is included even a tiny stock cube. Again this was a 2 out of 3 difficulty but I found this easier to make than the pork dish. Even though the plates look rather empty the meal was very filling and was definitely enough. It would have bulked up a bit more if I had included the pepper too.

I would definitely recommend Gousto. If you want to find out more about the service which includes free delivery you can check out there website here.

Have you tried a food box like Gousto?

Megan x