Autumn Beauty, Fashion, and Homeware Favourites 2015

Hello everybody! 

I have been so excited to publish this blog post. It's probably my favourite one ever. Ever, ever. It's my Autumn Favourites 2015, and I'm just going to put this out there - I LOVE AUTUMN. I love the tones of the crunchy orange and brown leaves, I love the comfortable weather. I love that fashion changes from bright summery clothes, to muted mustard, rust, and latte shades. I adore the fact that I can wear rich wine coloured lipsticks every day, and hats, and my favourite boots. I love the seasonal Pumpkin Spice Latte in Starbucks. I love that I can have candles and tart burners aglow in my living room constantly, fragrancing my entire flat with the smell of freshly baked gingerbread, or cinnamon, or citrus and spices. Oh, and my favourite thing... Is that I can FINALLY start Christmas Shopping! 

Pumpkin Spice Latte - not to mention the Starbucks Autumn cups are adorable. 

Autumnal Nails! These are not mine, they're my friend Cat's, and I'm incredibly jealous. And her engagement ring is stunning. 

Statement Earrings - I bought these in Superdrug for £3. The faux emerald is so pigmented, I think they're such a beautiful pair for a total bargain price. Plus, they'll stay in season through the Winter/Christmas season, too.

Autumnal Fashion - These are my favourite Autumnal looks so far. The model pictured first, I think could be wearing a very Anna Kendrick inspired outfit, I could totally see her wearing that coat. The model in the centre is flawless, and that outfit could really be good for any season, but I love how fresh and understated it is for Autumn. And of course, Cara's bodycon burgundy minidress and leather jacket combination is absolutely beautiful. 

Hats! Mine is a super cute latte coloured felt hat I got in New Look for £14.99. I know it's not to everyone's taste but I really love it, and I think it looks really immaculate against blonde or brown hair (my hair is recently a blonde ombré and I really like how this latte coloured hat complements it).

Wine Lipstick - Rimmel by Kate Moss in the shade 107 is amazing. Deep, red wine. So beautiful. I also really like Tanya Burr's Berry Picking Lipgloss.

Yankee Candle Wax Tarts - I got mine in the new 2015 scent Gingerbread Maple, and oh my goodness it makes my entire flat smell of gingerbread! I absolutely adore gingerbread, I eat through bags and bags of it in Autumn and Winter so it's safe to say I will definitely be repurchasing this candle! I bought the Small Jar on Amazon for £6.98. I also got the scent Fluffy Towels because it's so clean and comforting. I like Gingerbread Maple in my living room as it's a really warming homely scent, and Fluffy Towels in my bedroom as it's really fresh and clean and comforting. And it makes my bed sheets smell nice... (Just saying)...

Last but not least, Heinz Cream of Tomato Soup. I don't know a single person who doesn't like it. I've not been very well recently, and have also been super busy, and I have been so reliant on these soups it's probably not even healthy. It's an unhealthy, dark, infatuated obsession. Kind of like 50 Shades. But soup form.

So that is it guys! My Autumn Favourites, I highly recommend them all, and I really hope you enjoyed this post!

Lots of Love,

Sam x

Toddler Boy Clothes Haul

Hello everybody! 

So today I did yet another haul - but not for myself! Today I went clothes shopping for my son. It was his first day of nursery and while he was there I browsed the local shops along the high street, and found myself in the toddler and baby section of Debenhams! 

I love the toddler section of Debenhams, everything is so lovely! I really like the Ted Baker baby clothes as well, they're so adorable! While I was there I did buy quite a lot of things actually... However, I just want to say also that is specifically for Christmas, he will be in the 18 months toddler/baby clothes by then so pretty much everything is in that size, and they're also all from the BlueZoo range. They were also all in the sale so I didn't actually spend as much as it looks! 

At the very back is a green rain mac with blue stripes going horizontally across it. It's got a lovely fleecy blue lining which is soft and warm, and on the hood it has blue little dinosaur spikes coming up which looks super cute! This was a steal at only £13 and I have to say it's probably my favourite out of everything I bought, I absolutely love it! 

I also got him two pairs of shoes. I was in Clarks earlier and was debating whether to buy him a £24 pair of trainers, but I'm so glad I didn't. These were both size 5 which will also be his next size up, the brown pair are actually trainer/brogues and were £7, and the navy pair were only £4. I also got him three pair of Christmas socks for £3.50 (I was so excited to see they had these out already!) and two pairs of gloves for £3.

I also bought Rhys two t-shirts. Peppa and George Pig are his absolute favourite, so I bought him the George Pig t shirt for £5, and the Superman one was £3.30. I bought the Santas Little Helper long sleeve t shirt for him to wear on Christmas Day, and that was £6, and the green long sleeve jumper at the end was £8. 

I also bought him the little bubble gun and bubble mixture for (I think) £4.50 together, and that was everything I got from Debenhams! 

The pair of jeans were £4 in Tesco, and I also bought him a little pyjama set with a boat print on them for £4 too. There is a George Pig pyjama set just underneath which I bought him for another £4 from B&M. 

I then traipsed down to Waterstones as well, as I've been wanting to get Rhys some books for Christmas too. I found the Charlie and Lola book set, which is five thin hardback books, with an audio CD, for £12, which I know he will absolutely love because he loves Charlie and Lola! And that is everything I bought for him today!

I absolutely love everything I've bought for him. I've also been saving this lovely traditional wicker hamper as well which I've filled with his new clothes, as I was given it initially as a gift filled with baby clothes from my friends when I was pregnant! So I think it's really lovely to be able to reuse something sentimental. 

Now, I think I'm mostly done with Rhys's Christmas shopping. I don't want to spend too much, and I've got a lot of people to buy for, so I think I'm just going to buy Rhys a pair of wellies (for when it snows - which it will, we live in Scotland!), another pair of jeans, some Peppa Pig DVD's and a George Pig dinosaur toy, and as his main present, a toddler trampoline. He loves jumping on the bed (he's really cheeky!) so to save the springs I reckon a toddler trampoline might be better! 

Have you started your Christmas shopping yet? We're only fifteen weeks away! I know thats plenty of time but I was so unprepared last year, I really want to have completely finished my Christmas shopping by the end of November (which, at this rate, I'll have finished long before then!)

Lots of love,

Sam x

Mini Hair Product Haul

Hello everybody! So, as the weather is now getting colder, and nights are getting darker, it is gradually becoming my favourite season - Autumn! Isn't Autumn such a lovely word? It makes me think of baggy jumpers, cosy hats, berry lipsticks, cinnamon and vanilla scented candles, and Starbucks gingerbread lattes. Not to mention the gorgeous tones of orange and brown leaves falling to the ground, just ready to be crunched! 

Today, I did a mini hair product haul - hair is so not my thing. I love makeup but with hair, I do tend to get quite lazy and let it do it's own thing, but I really don't like how it looks as it tend to get quite unkempt and almost Russell-Brand like (sooo not a good look!) so I bought a few products to make my hair look nicer and also to maintain it. 

I bought the Loreal Feria Extreme Ombré hair kit, which I am trying tonight! I am super excited because I have wanted ombré hair for years and now I'm finally doing it! I came across this Hair Inspo pic recently and absolutely loved it, it looks young, fun, my hair is that kind of length anyway and I just thought it would be such lovely hair for autumn (and probably, the rest of my life). 

I also bought some Batiste Dry Shampoo in the Cherry scent, because let's face it, who can live without dry shampoo?! Such a godsend when you're a busy mother of an almost two year old! I also bought the Batiste XXL Plumping Powder. I find that this works really well with the dry shampoo, and makes your hair look clean, fresh, and really boosts your roots to make your hair look healthier and thicker! I like to turn my head upside down, massage the products into my roots and then flip my hair back. It makes it so much more voluminous!

I also bought Superdrug's own Root Boosting Spray, and Blow Dry Straightening Creme. I'm going to use these on freshly washed hair just before I blow dry it, to protect it and keep it healthy. I reckon it will also help with the frizz, which my hair is pretty prone to, especially during hat season! 

P.s. This is how my own hair turned out! Not amazing, but not too bad for a first attempt at cutting layers into my own hair and applying ombré. Let's also bear in mind I AM NOT A HAIRDRESSER!!! Personally I really like it, and for all of £7 (on the ombré kit) it will be so nice for Autumn! Now, to find a nice hat to wear with it...

I hope you've enjoyed this post! 

Sam x

Tanya Burr Cosmetics Review

So, recently Tanya Burr relaunched her Cosmetics line. Might I just mention here, the way the products are presented is beautiful - the products tend to be in clear packaging to give you an accurate representation of the colour, and the lids tend to be coloured gold. I'm so happy she decided to relaunch it as the products now look such higher quality, which is brilliant because the products are so lovely!

Last week I made a trip to Derby to visit my boyfriend (note: he lives in Derby, and I live in Scotland) and while I was there I made visits to all the shops we don't have where I live, Primark, Lush, and Wagamamas, to name a few! I wanted to stock up on some basics in Primark and also get my son a new outfit for the barbecue my boyfriend's parents were hosting, and I had been dying to get some makeup from Lush! Anyway, while I was there I also popped in to the Superdrug store there. It was a much bigger Superdrug than the one in my home town of Dumfries (the Dumfries store doesn't sell ANY Tanya Burr products, which is dissapointing). So when I was finally able to get my hands on the Tanya Burr products, I decided to stock up and get a few different things to try! 

I picked up a lipgloss in the colour Berry Picking, the Perfect Brows palette, and a nail polish in the shade Fairy Godmother. I apologise for the products looking a little grubby, I took the photo on the way back home while we were in the car (my boyfriend was driving, don't worry!) but it doesn't affect the use of the products, so I'm not overly bothered by it. The brow palette was the last one on the shelves and I was going to have it!

The shades of the lipgloss and nail polish are so gorgeous! I chose the shade Berry Picking as a lip colour because since we're now in September, it will be Autumn soon enough and I ADORE berry tones in Autumn. I'm already wearing it now! As much as I don't really like taking selfies, I'm going to include one here to give you an accurate representation of the colour. I haven't edited the picture at all or applied any filters, so what you see is what you get. I only applied one layer of the lipgloss so as you can see it's pretty pigmented! As for the texture of the lipgloss, I really like it, it's not sticky or gloopy at all, it's just really smooth. I will definitely be buying this lipgloss again, I genuinely really rate it!

(Disclaimer: I'm aware a face like mine needs a filter, however to give you a true likeness of the products I'm not going to filter it. Also, I don't know WHAT my fringe thinks it's doing.)

As for the Perfect Brows palette, I'm also wearing that now in the shade Pebble. As an honest review, I do really like the brow set, however in the palette there is a highlighter, a blonde shade, a medium brown shade, and a dark brown shade. In all honesty the darker shades are obviously useless to me because I'm not going to paint thick dark brows on to my light eyebrows, so if there was one product improvement I would suggest it would be to do the brow sets in separate shades. Personally, I don't really want to spend £8 on four colours, two of which I can't use. 

That being said, I do really like the blonde shade, it's accurate, slightly ashy, and works really well on me. I do really like the highlighter (Fairy Cake) as well. This is what the brow palette looks like inside. I've found the tweezers and the brow brush are actually really good! It could do with a brow spoolie just to be able to brush your brows into place after though.

As for the nail polish, I chose Fairy Godmother as my nail polish because it was my favourite from the options available in store. It's a pale bluey-lilac and is BEAUTIFUL. I'm not currently going to review it as my nails really need redoing and I don't want to waste the polish on my nails when they're not looking as nice as they could! However I will be sorting them out next week and hopefully painting them with this polish then! 

I do really like the Tanya Burr Cosmetics that I have. I really hope I don't offend anyone. I wanted to give you all an honest review of the products and I mean none of what I say negatively, I mean it constructively! I personally think her products are beautiful, she's worked very hard on it and should be very proud of herself because it's a really great range, very good quality, and good value for money. I do like that the prices are also very reasonable, I have a lot of respect for Tanya because of that. She knows a lot of her fan base are of school age and didn't make the prices of her products extortionate or unaffordable. What an honest, admirable woman. 

I really hope you enjoyed my review!

Sam x

Blackberry Picking!

So, today my boyfriend, my son, and I, went out on a country walk along a local railway path, to pick some blackberries. I noticed them on my walk last week and knew that they'd be ripe enough for fruit picking by now, so we did! We got absolutely loads! It was so much fun as the weather was so beautiful and hot. Along the railway path there is also a nice lady who has ducks and chickens and let's them roam free during the day, and she leaves corn out for them. She's the only person I will buy eggs from as you can see the ducks and chickens are perfectly happy and healthy. She was also selling bags of potatoes today so we picked those up too. 

We were out for around two hours, and only spent £2.50 total on the eggs and potatoes. The blackberry picketing was free as it was a public local footpath! 

Today was such a good day and I really enjoyed it! 

Hope you guys have had an equally amazing day!

Sam x

Trip to Derby/Lush, Tanya Burr Cosmetics, & Primark Haul

Hello Everybody! I'm really sorry I haven't blogged this past week. My son Rhys, and I, have been visiting my boyfriend in Derby this past week. As some of you may or may not know, we are in a long distance relationship - as I currently live in Scotland! I say 'Long distance' but it's only really four hours, which isn't too bad. Anyway, so we've only been together for a couple of months but we decided it was time I met his parents, so we drove up and had a long weekend there. In that time, his parents hosted a barbecue, and everyone there made vegan food for me to eat, which I thought was very sweet. We also took Rhys to West Midlands Safari Park for a day out, which was amazing, there were wild Gazelles, Deer, and Camels that would walk up to the car for petting, and Rhys absolutely loved it, it was so much fun! There were also lions, hippos, giraffes, buffalo, and so many more animals! We also went to Wagamamas for a meal out, my boyfriend and Rhys both got the Chicken Katsu Curry, and I got the vegan Yasai which I must say was absolutely delicious, I would love to go again but the nearest Wagamama to mine is in Glasgow which is 70 miles away! For those of you who don't know, it's an oriental restaurant that serves noodles and rice and is really popular in London, and for good reason - it's such good value and is really lovely. I also managed to squeeze in a trip to the Westfields Shopping Centre in Derby, which is called Intu, and got to do a sneaky Primark and Lush haul as there were things I wanted in both places, but again, the nearest Primark and Lush are also in Glasgow! I also FINALLY got to buy a few products from the Tanya Burr Cosmetics range. I have been wanting to make some purchases since she bought out her initial line, but I'm so pleased I managed to get some products since her relaunch. Might I just mention, the packaging is bee-yoo-tiful. I'm going to upload my pictures here to show you guys everything. Hope you like it! 

Here are a few pictures from the Safari Park...

I loved the safari, it was such a blast! Here's what I picked up in my shopping haul...

From Lush, I bought the SkinDrink Facial Moisturiser, the Jackie Oates Colour Supplement (it's basically foundation), the It Started With A Kiss Lip Tint, and the Eyes Right Mascara. I have been DYING to get my hands on these Lush products - Cruelty Free, Vegetarian (and mostly Vegan) friendly... I adore Lush! I also picked up the Ickle Baby Bot bath ballistic which I used to run Rhys a bath. It fizzes up and smells of dreamy lavender. Everyone commented on how good he smelt at the barbecue!

When I got to Superdrug I was very pleased to see that it was such a big store! I found the Tanya Burr Cosmetics section with ease. I picked up the Perfect Brows Kit, the Lipgloss in the shade Berry Picking, and a nail polish in the shade Fairy Godmother. I will be doing a review soon so keep your eyes peeled!

So, the last place I went to on my Derby shopping trip was Primark. Here I picked up some really pretty pyjamas for myself. I also got Rhys a pair of slippers, two pairs of shoes, a denim shirt, a little t shirt, and a pair of jeans - I wanted to get him a new outfit for the barbecue. I forgot to take a picture of the clothes I got for him but I promise you he looked adorable! As consolation, here are the pyjamas I got for myself... 

One last thing - Wagamamas Vegan Yasai! It was so delicious, I honestly highly recommend it. It's the most delicious vegan food I've had yet, it was perfect. 

So, that was our trip to Derby! It was really lovely, and we are now back home! I hope you guys have all had a lovely week!

Sam x

The Best Hummus In The World Ever! (100% Vegan!)

Never in my life have I ever been a 'hummus person'. I've never liked shop bought hummus. Years ago, when one of my cousins went vegan, she ate carrot sticks and celery with hummus like it was going out of fashion. She would have them as a side with practically everything. I would watch in awe as she would easily chow down a whole tub of hummus, a whole bag of carrots, and she'd STILL be hungry. Let's also gain the perspective that she was skinny as a twig, and I often had to contemplate where it all went... It literally was not fair that she could eat so much and still be so skinny! (Let's be honest, it's every girls dream). 

As you know, I recently went vegan. I'm going to let you in on a little secret here. It's the answer to everything! My skin looks better, I feel healthier, I'm far less bloated, and I get to eat absolutely loads. Plus, it's obviously much kinder on animals and the environment, so it really has been awesome for me.

In today's post, I wanted to share with you my hummus recipe. For someone who didn't like hummus, this has changed everything. I make it up at least weekly now, and eat it with anything savoury. I personally really like it hot, with vegan pitta breads, olives, and sundried tomatoes. 

This was today's lunch. I'm going away tomorrow so I'm lacking a lot of food in my house! There was no point in doing a food shop so I decided that I would just eat whatever was in the cupboards. Usually I'd put it with so many other things so I'm sorry that today it's a bit basic! 

My hummus is a little bit spicy, warming and full of flavour. I like to eat it when it's freshly cooked, and at it's best.

Hummus Recipe

Ingredients

Can of chickpeas

Olive oil

Ginger garlic (you can get this in a jar in the world food section at any supermarket)

Paprika powder

A sprinkle of chilli flakes

Cracked black pepper

Salt

Lime juice

Sesame seeds

Firstly, cook the chickpeas in water in a saucepan until they are cooked (this will be when the skin starts to come away). Then drain the chickpea water away and then put the chickpeas in a blender. Add about half a cup of olive oil, half a cup of sesame seeds, and about a teaspoon each of ginger garlic, paprika powder, and chilli flakes. Sprinkle a little salt and pepper, and add a dash of lime juice. Blend it up to your liking, and eat while hot or cold! 

Hope you guys enjoyed this post! 

Sam x