Journeys Are My Diary

Life, Adventures, Entertainment and more - A little bit of everything blog!

5 THINGS TO DO TO HAVE A GREAT VAPE EXPERIENCE

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Here are five tactics to ensure that you always have a great vape experience;

1. PROOF IS IN THE JUICE

Flavour is the heart of your vape experience. Most vapers try new ones for the absolute novelty and term it their favourite part of vaping. Also, the delicious taste is one of the main reasons why they keep on vaping. There are hobbyists known as flavour chasers, who are continuously looking for the best tricks and equipment to come up with strong DIY e-liquids they want to experience. These vapers would try a clear majority of e-juices, and experiment with them to come up with new customised flavours tailored to their specific needs to the core.

Before investing in e-liquids you need to find beneficial suppliers whom truly care about their consumers, wanting them to have the best vaping experience possible. Discounts and offers on vaping products is something you should be on the lookout for. One well-loved example is www.vaperswarehouse.co.uk who have some unbeatable offers on. They have hundreds of different flavours featured on their site from top industry leading brands to lesser-known ones which you can experiment with.  

Vapers love experimenting with flavours because whether you have an addictive sweet tooth or savoury taste buds, you can find e liquid that can flip open a party in your throat arena. Today, backed by the power of PG, VG, flavouring, and nicotine, vape juice manufacturers are racing to come up with new flavours to inhale a puff of your sweet vapour money. Therefore, despite loving a flavour to its core, it is admissible to change your taste and use a range of e-liquids to expand your vape experience and avoid the vaper’s tongue.

2. UPGRADE YOUR VAPE SET UP

A proven way to enhance your vape experience is by upgrading your hardware. Often, you do not realise how long you’ve been using a mod or a tank until your friends start calling you an artefact because you have gotten too comfortable with the archaic equipment. A simple Google search would display a wide array of products from starter kits to mechanical mods, and from tanks to RDAs.

With an RDA (Rebuildable Dripping Atomizer) the vape is in your hands, depending on the coils you may create. You insert a wick in your coil and saturate it with e-juice. After that the top cap mounts, and you are vaping. A postmodern option is the Aeronaut RDA, which is designed by a UK based aeronautical engineer, who apart from being a vaping aficionado wanted to create a better vaping experience.

3. LEARN VAPE TRICKS

Learning and exhibiting innovative vape tricks have become a popular subculture in the vaping stratosphere. Here are two of the most common vape tricks;

O-Rings

Blowing vapour out in the form of a massive ring is a standard practice among vapers. Admittedly, O-rings were common with smokers from ages but vaping just made it much hipper since it tastes better, looks better, and does not hurt your throat. Here is how you can do it;

  • Take a healthy hit of vapour from your e-cig.
  • Purse your mouth into an O shape with your lips tightly clenched rather than jutting outwards.
  • Mildly attempt a cough, or at least a coughing motion.
  • If all is in the order, you should be blowing o-rings with your vapour with a little practice.

The Ghost (French Inhale)

  • Take a long, satisfying hit of vapour from your e-cig.
  • Gradually lower your bottom jaw, and softly blow out a bit of vapour.
  • Immediately, inhale that vapour through your nose.
  • Of course, it is harder than it appears.

4. AVOID VAPER’S TONGUE

Your tongue has got a covering of 2,000 to 10,000 taste buds (medically known as gustatory calyculi), and the term vaper’s tongue (also called vaper’s fatigue) signifies a broad range of taste related ailments. It is a condition where going off an individual flavour of your liking to losing the taste for all things edible. While the first condition is a common occurrence, the second one is possibly more severe, with causes including vitamin deficiency, dehydration, and illness.

In the majority of cases though, the condition is a temporal affair and soon takes care of itself. However, the following remedies are recommended to cure a vaper’s tongue;

1.    Change the vape flavour.

2.    Use a stronger e-liquid.

3.    Drink water to avoid dehydration.

4.    Slurp on a fresh lime or lemon.

5.    Use mouthwash.

6.    Using steeped juices.

7.    Avoid dual vaping.

8.    Use unflavoured vape juice for a while.

5. REPLACEMENT COILS ARE YOUR FRIEND

A vape novice is forgiven for underestimating the power of replacement coils. The coil is responsible for heating the e-juice, which enables it to turn into a vapour. Replacement coils (also known as atomiser coils) are offered in either single-coil with one heating element, or dual-coil, whereby two heating elements are vaporising the vape juice at the same time.

Specifically, multiple factors such as your daily vape consumption, the power level of your vape hardware, and the acidity of your e-juice are all reasons that can lead to an extended or shortened lifespan of your replacement coil.

9 expert tips to make sure you get the best out of Orlando

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There’s a staggering degree of choice in Orlando. However, if you are visiting this Florida city yourself, you could have so many options right in front of you that you overlook alternatives that are more concealed but also, ultimately, better. Here are tips for avoiding such oversights.

Book your ticket for Universal Studios Florida in advance

This theme park is undoubtedly among the city’s biggest attractions. However, don’t buy your ticket at the gate; TIME‘s Money website advises that you can save money by instead paying for that ticket through the Universal Studios Florida website.

Spend a day less at Universal than you had initially planned

Buy a pass that lets you visit Universal for one fewer day. You can spend that day buying food that is less expensive than what is available in the theme park.

Consider buying passes strictly for the water park

This is because Universal charges much less for a pass just to its Volcano Bay water park than for a ticket to any of its other Orlando parks.

Have food sent to your accommodation

Amazon can provide this service for you – and it can save you money compared to buying food from a resort restaurant instead. However, first check that this service would be allowed at your accommodation.

Use rideshares, not rental cars

Parking can be expensive, but you can avoid potentially heavy costs by having yourself transported around Orlando through lifts provided by Lyft or Uber instead of renting a car to drive yourself.

Reconsider buying souvenirs from Universal

Many souvenirs sold at Universal Studios Florida might be available from outlets outside the park – and, if it is, one of those outlets might offer the souvenir you want at a cheaper price.

Consider visiting Fun Spot for family fun

Fun Spot is an attraction recommended on the Independent.ie website. It’s got bumper boats, a wooden rollercoaster and more – and you are unlikely to have the problem of big queues.

Try some indoor skydiving at iFLY

This company offers a base for indoor skydiving near Universal Studios – and even kids can safely try it. This certainly provides something a bit different to the more stereotypical Florida attractions.

Plan ahead with booking accommodation

You can get good deals by doing this. Ocean Florida is currently offering enticing accommodation across a pleasing variety of locations for Orlando holidays in 2018, so don’t needlessly delay booking.

Our Summer Holidays so far!

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The kids have now been off for two full weeks (and a couple of days) so I thought I would update with what we’ve been up to so far – especially since I’m not keeping up with my monthly updates at the moment.

The school holidays couldn’t really have been off to a worse start, than a weather forecast like this ^^ However, I am grateful to work from home and so no matter what the weather, at least I get to spend time with the kids! As they broke up on the Wednesday, we had a couple of extra days that week, to fit in some fun. Thursday was one of my favourite days actually as we went to see Despicable Me 3 (which was average in my opinion), then went to Chimichanga for dinner (which we had never been to before) and finally we went to our local park – Hartsholme – for a lovely walk around the lake.

On the Friday, the girls made a video of themselves doing the Beanboozled challenge and I really must remember to upload it, plus we seemed to watch a ton of movies over the first few days including; Definitely Maybe, 10 Things I Hate About You, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Phantom of the Opera and Save the Last Dance. We also got an invite to my mum’s on Sunday for a roast dinner and that was amazing.

The following week was the first full week and for the first four days we had visitors in the form of Amy and Liv. The girls were at their dad’s on the Monday so Amy and I just spent time catching up, then in the evening Chris, Amy and I had chinese takeaway and watched Game of Thrones. The other days were mostly spent sewing, though Amy and I did manage to go fabric shopping too.

The weather was fairly rubbish all week, starting off raining and ending up sunny or vice versa. After dropping Amy and Liv at the station though, the girls and I took a trip to Norton Disney (a place we had joked about visiting for a while) and luckily the sun stayed out for some pics.

That weekend, we went to LFCC (which is London Film and Comic Con). I had been once before and really enjoyed it, but this time was a flying visit really – all so I could meet Wil Wheaton. Chris was working until 4.30pm Saturday so we headed off down to London after that and stayed at a Travelodge near Heathrow. In the morning we drove to North Ealing station, parked there and caught the train to Earl’s Court and then walked to London Olympia. Grabbing a virtual ticket for Wil Wheaton’s queue was first priority but after that we did some shopping and wandered around stalls. We ate lunch and shopped some more until finally we could meet Wil Wheaton. I had taken a blank Flux card with me for signing and had decided a CREEPER would be best. These are cards that if laid in front of you in the game, means you can’t win. Since Wil is pretty notorious for not winning on his YouTube show “Tabletop”, I thought this would be perfect. He seemed to agree and wrote “IT SUCKS TO BE YOU” and then signed it. Sadly as he was passing it back, he smudged the card but I didn’t mind as I still knew what it was. He said “Now it really sucks to be you!” which made us all laugh.

As I’m writing this post, I realise this all happened almost a week ago (it was Sunday and today is Friday) but it honestly only feels like yesterday! Anyway the next day the girls were with their dad and went to a National Park and built a den. They have a video of that too which I hope to upload soon. The rest of this week has really just been spent at home. I had a lot of work to catch up on after Amy’s visit and so the girls have really just entertained themselves on Minecraft, Slime Rancher, Theme Hospital etc. Yesterday though they started a jigsaw with my mum and once my work was done I joined in too. Then mum left and I couldn’t bear to leave the jigsaw unfinished so we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening making sure it got done!

That pretty much sums up the last two weeks and I’m so glad its been a combination of lots and nothing. I always think its important to have plenty of down days during the holidays so you don’t feel completely knackered, but you also need days were you do things together, or else you end the holidays feeling like you didn’t do anything! Hopefully I’ll update again soon with whatever else we get up to!

Having a child is costly business!

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At almost 40, I’m glad to say, I’m pretty sure my baby days are over. I’m guessing that the next time I have any sort of a responsibility for a baby, will be when I’m a grandparent (if I’m a grandparent). My daughters are 12 and 9, and instead of thinking about nappies and baby food, I have to worry about expensive school uniform, endless school trips and eventually maybe even university. In the last year, Megan has been offered several school trips from her school, some as much as £400 each. Plus, with tuition fees still high (there weren’t any when I went to university), having a child can be a pretty costly business.

I came across this infograph the other day, which details the average cost of a baby’s first year and it’s actually pretty mind blowing. While breastfeeding obviously helps to keep feeding costs down, not everyone can manage that or continue long term. Formula milk feeds can work out at almost £800 for the year would you believe? And nappies? Well that’s a huge cost – coming in at around £400 for disposables, but even reusables can end up costly with the price of washing being added in. Plus there is the pram, the car seat, the baby bouncer, the cot and goodness knows what else. If you actually added up everything you spent on a child over the first year, you’d probably faint. So by the time your kids are getting to 18, I can only imagine how much you might have spent. To be honest I would rather not imagine at all!

The infograph has been put together by Busy Bees and you can visit Huntingdon Nursery or one of their many other branches, to check out their services. If like me, you’re done with the baby days for now, sit back and relax until the services you’re checking out come with thousands of pounds in tuition fees!

 

Quick Life Update!

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I’ve been very AWOL recently, owing to selling the house, moving house, finding a new house etc. However we are now moved and settled, most boxes unpacked and I hope to be back to updating shortly. I have quite a few things I would like to get posting about, so fingers crossed I will be able to make some time. Thanks for sticking with me – hopefully normal service will resume later this week!

Harry Potter turns 20!

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Can you believe that on June 26th 2017, JK Rowling’s “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” has been publish for 20 years?! It seems no time at all, since I discovered my love for Harry Potter and his Wizarding World but despite being 38 years old this weekend and having gotten both my daughters to love Harry Potter too, I find it hard to believe that it really has been twenty years since the start of my favourite book series.

That said, I wasn’t one of the first people to jump aboard the Harry Potter band wagon. In fact, when both my mum and dad were raving about the books, I was actually wondering what the hell was going on with all these adults loving a “kids book”. It wasn’t until 1999 (Philosopher’s Stone was 1997), not long after Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was published, that I finally caved to peer pressure and borrowed my parent’s copy of the first book. In typical “child” fashion, I hated to admit when my parents were right, but oh my god I loved the first book. So much so that it was read within a few days, despite working full time. Book two was then devoured within days, followed by book three. It was official, I was hooked. I was desperate for the fourth book… and I suppose that was when I truly became a Harry Potter fan.

Book Four – Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, was pre-ordered. When it arrived, I couldn’t wait to get reading and I literally didn’t put it down until I was done. This became the same for all the other books, Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince and finally The Deathly Hallows. I have never before, or since, been so hooked on a book series. And it didn’t end with just the books either. I went to see every movie that was released, if not on the very first day, within very few days of released. The Deathly Hallows Part 1 was released not long after my ex and I split up and having no one who was immediately free to go to the cinema with, I ventured for the first time by myself to see a movie – rather than wait too long and go with someone else. When the final movie was released, myself and fifteen other friends, all gathered for a party of sorts. We all went to the first midnight showing of the movie and some of us even got Deathly Hallows tattoos to remember the occasion – this was my first ever tattoo.

This week I have been to London and of course a visit to the Platform 9 3/4 shop is an essential part of that trip. Not only that, but as I mentioned earlier – I turn 38 at the end of this week and guess what I’m doing for my birthday? A trip to Watford and the Harry Potter Studios (it will be my third time!). I’m really a huge Harry Potter geek and I don’t care if I should be too old for it or whatever. I have loved Harry Potter for (almost) twenty years and I will continue to do so for at least twenty more. I have loved sharing the stories with my children and hope they will continue to share the books with their own children too. This weekend we are also attending MCM London Comic Con and they have pre-releases of the 20th Anniversary “house” editions of the Philosopher’s Stone and I’m so tempted to get one (or all of them…)! Harry Potter books are the one and only set of books I would never be parted with, over all the books I own.

As a final thought and conclusion to my post, I wanted to share this infograph, put together by Cartridge Save. It has loads of fun facts about most used words and phrases, along with how many copies have been sold and how many words are in each book etc. If you’re yet to read Harry Potter, no matter what the reason, I honestly recommend you give it a try! You have nothing to lose and a whole lot of love to gain!

Escape the Room

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Back in March it was Chris’ birthday and we never really know what to do for it as he’s one of those “I’m not really bothered” people. However I love to throw a party so I always want to try and do something. Over the time we’ve been together, we’ve had an Alice in Wonderland murder mystery, a board games night and also just going out for dinner with a group of friends. However this year we had tossed around the idea of an “Escape the Room” (sometimes called Exit Room). Having looked into it locally, to see what was available, we decided it was definitely something we could do, if enough of our friends were interested. Obviously there would be Chris and I, so that was already two and most rooms only allow for five/six people (some do go higher but it’s not common and some are even just five – which is awkward when you’re in couples!). We asked my friend Nat and her partner Dan, who Chris gets on well with, along with Chris’ friend Jon and his partner Becka. We also asked my brother and his partner, but they weren’t able to make it – which in the end turned out better with us only being able to accommodate six players. We did however decide to go out for dinner at Frankie and Benny’s beforehand and my brother (who is also Chris) and his partner Erika, came along to join us for that.

Before I get too ahead of myself, for those of you who are wondering “what is an escape room?” well the answer is fairly simple and pretty much as it sounds. You are placed in a room – and you need to escape. There are always varying scenarios, whereby you’re trapped, locked in etc and you need to find the way out. It’s not as simple as just finding the door, or a key etc. it’s supposed to last up to an hour and so it’s a series of clues and puzzles. Usually, the game is timed and you have 60 minutes – the concept being that you get locked in for good if you can’t escape in that time. However of course, they have to let you out so they can continue to let other people play – but it’s fun to pretend and I guess you walk away as either a winner for managing it or a loser for not managing it.

So given where we live, the best choices for us were Lincoln, Doncaster and Scunthorpe for the Escape Rooms. Lincoln however, has very “Lincoln” themed rooms – with themes like the Magna Carta, Lancaster Bomber, Time Machine (Tank related), and Lincoln Imp. None of these themes really appealed to us, so we narrowed it down to Scunthorpe and Doncaster fairly easily. Doncaster had Clueless Detective Agency, Ward 13 (Asylum), and Hostage. They have a new one called The Heist coming but that hasn’t opened yet. Scunthorpe only had two options, Sherwood and Prison. Since there wasn’t an awful lot of information or way to tell which would be best, we went for Scunthorpe as it was marginally nearer and since the Prison one had a higher difficulty rating, we went for that. In truth I think that Chris might have preferred to do Ward 13 but having never done anything like this before, I was a bit of a baby – wondering if there would be live action actors in there and then I’d get freaked out!

On the night of Chris’ birthday, after we’d had dinner, we all headed off to “Open the Door” in Scunthorpe. When we arrived, we had to read these information sheets about what we were or weren’t allowed to do, then we had to store all our coats, bags and especially phones, inside a locker. Next we had to split into two groups (though I think this was specific to this scenario). We were then blind folded and lead into the room, in the two separate groups. When we took off the blind folds, you could see why we had to break into two groups – because three of us were locked in one cell and three were locked in the other. Typically we had split into girls versus boys and I’m glad we did cos often boys annoy you when their methods are different to yours! The three of us girls worked well together too, so it all worked out.

First we had to figure out what was in the cell. There was writing on the wall, a tool box under the bed and a sink. We could also hear the boys, but not see them, as their cell was right next door to us. We could see out into the main part of the jail too – where a desk, mirror and lockers could be seen. While I don’t want to spoil the actual plot and clues for anyone who goes here, I will give you a rough idea of what we had to do – starting with the fact the boys found a torch in their sink pipe, so we thought to look in ours too and found one as well. We weren’t really against each other either, so it was nice to throw about ideas between the boys and the girls. The things on the wall lead us to believe we had to figure out some number combinations as we had two lots of combination locks in our cell. The boys had something handing from the ceiling they couldn’t reach and it turned out that one of our combination locks, opened a box that allowed a string to be lowered and they could reach the box! Anyway, we had to do multiple things in our cells, which eventually lead to finding a remote control car under the lockers out of the cell, which when driven to the cell, had keys in that meant we could unlock ourselves. Once in the main room, there were so many things we had to do, including get inside two lockers, figure out how the desk drawer unlocked, see if the telephone did anything, why the mirror was hinged etc. There was a jigsaw type puzzle, as well as some number/letter puzzles and it was really a lot of fun. In the end we made our way through to a secret room, where there was map and coordinated, a little laptop and a safe. We had so much fun and no one got mad and shouted at any point.

We made it out in 52 minutes, when the deadline is 60, so we were all pretty pleased with that. I will admit we did have a little help from the “admin” as they give you a walkie talkie and occasionally point you in the right direction. For our first experience though, it was a definite thumbs up and we all agreed it was something we would love to do again. After discussing it with the kids the next day, it also sounds like something they would like to do, so we hope to do another, maybe with the girls and even my mum. All in all, I loved the idea of the puzzles and a scenario where you need to escape. It wasn’t too hard but just the right amount of adrenaline pumping, in order to get you excited. From a specific perspective, the Open the Door rooms in Scunthorpe were actually easy to miss on the street and when we had mentioned them to the waitress at Frankie and Benny’s, she didn’t even know they existed. However the service we got was fantastic and friendly, we rated them 5 stars on facebook when we got back and I would be happy to recommend their rooms to anyone. As someone who loves to throw Murder Mystery parties, I have seen they now do at home Escape the Room games and I would definitely be up for trying that too.

Have you ever done an Escape Room?

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat

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Recently I’ve been finding it hard to make time for blogging. In the day time I work and due to not being fully recovered from this horrible illness, by evening my mind is a mess and there is no hope in hell for concentration. I have a list of so many things I want to catch up on, but every time I turn my laptop on, I just can’t be bothered – and that’s a horrible feeling. However, this morning we have an electrician round to check our electrics – all part of completing the sale on our house. He has taken over the dining table which is where I usually work and so I’m a bit lost for what to do. Then it hit me, that I could actually use that time to go on my laptop and blog – until of course, I realised that he’d turned off multiple plug sockets, including the one the router is in! So I’m sat here, typing this into notepad, hoping that I may still find time to place it on my blog later. After all, I’m going away for a few days tomorrow and if I don’t do it today, it may never get done!


Anyway, I’ve completely side-tracked from the post I was going to make… and that was about the musical “Joseph and the amazing technicolour dreamcoat”. Theatre has always been a massive passion of mine, especially musicals but really all genres. Ever since I was old enough, I bought a programme from every show I ever saw and I still have them all to this day. Wicked and Phantom of the Opera are my favourites, having seen Wicked three times and Phantom twice. I also love Starlight Express which I have seen three times too. I won’t spend forever listing all the theatre shows I’ve seen but needless to say I was really excited to hear that Lily’s school were going to tackle Joseph for their Y3/4 play this year. When Lily was cast as the Pharaoh I was even more thrilled. In the end, I made the technicolour dreamcoat for school and Lily’s pharaoh costume. Neither were anything special but school seemed pleased with them and the play was pretty good too.

Since Lily took such an interest in the play (she watched the DVD I bought her three times, before doing the performance) and loved all the songs, I decided I would look to see if Joseph was still touring, as I knew it had been last year. Sure enough, it was doing a new tour for 2017 and Joe McElderry was still playing Joseph. Funny enough, we had nearly gone to see the play last year, because my mum likes Joe McElderry so much but in the end we had decided not to book. Anyway, there were a few options to book, one before Lily’s play and a couple afterwards. A part of us wanted to watch it before, because she felt that would help her act it better, but I also knew the school play would be nothing like the real version so instead she could just continue the enjoyment afterwards. In the end we booked for Easter Weekend in Skegness, which fell about two weeks after Lily’s play.

When we got to the theatre, I bought a programme – it was only £4. We found our seats and they were pretty great to be honest. Lily ended up almost centre of the stage, with a good clear view. The play itself was really enjoyable. Lily sang along and danced in her seat and my enjoyment definitely came from seeing her enjoy it. I have seen Joseph three times before, so this was my fourth. I’m a little sad to say, that it was probably the “poorest” version I have seen, but unfortunately you often find that with touring shows as they have to keep a budget, make it easy to travel etc. That said, the cast was great and if you forget about the fact that people play multiple characters, it wasn’t really that bad. Lily loved it and that was definitely the most important part.


Though we had traveled in my mum’s car for the most part, we had driven to my mum’s in my car and so as soon as we were back in my car – the Joseph CD went on (Lily had convinced me to buy it at the intermission) and we sang along all the way home. When we got back, Lily asked for the CD and headed to her room to keep on listening, while lying on her bed and playing on her iPad. Once the Easter holidays ended, we put the CD back in the car and now listen to it most drives to and from school. All in all, Joseph was a great success but I do hope that it becomes a West End fixture again at some point as I would love for Lily to see the full quality version.

Do you like the theatre? What’s your favourite show?

Simple Tips For Making Your Bathroom Look More Expensive

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After the kitchen, the bathroom is probably the most expensive room in the home to fix up. A quick look online will show you exactly how much some people pay for their bathrooms, and there are some scary looking figures on display.

But the honest truth is that you don’t need to splash out on marble stone tiles and a rain shower to make your bathroom look the part. With a little creative thinking – and a lot of hard work – you can turn the tiniest of dingy bathrooms into a beautiful place to relax.

Take our bathroom, as the perfect example – it looked awful when we moved in, but I think we managed to do a pretty good job in the end. Here’s a few tips that helped us improve our bathroom’s look by a significant amount.

Storage and Containers

You never see a plush, expensive bathroom full of clutter. So the first step is to ensure you have plenty of containers and cupboard space to put everything away when it isn’t in use. You could even go down the traditional route of keeping things in large glass jars or ceramic jugs rather than plastics – just keep them well out of the way of the kids!

A beautiful bathmat

You don’t have to spend a lot on bathmats – when they are brand new, they always look great. But let’s face it, in a busy household they tend to get pretty unkempt very quickly – and it has a serious impact on your bathroom. So, lose the Terry cloths and look for something a little more long-lasting. Turkish or Persian rugs are a great substitute, and you don’t have to go too wild on size, and you will still benefit from a more sophisticated look.

Swap out your taps

I think a lot of people would love to splurge on something like a freestanding bath. But the reality for most households is that they are far too expensive to justify, and most bathrooms don’t have the room anyway. But you can make the most of your current tub by switching out the bath taps – and you can do the same for your sink, too. It makes such a difference to the style of the bathroom and is such a cheap way of getting an instant improvement.

Go big on mirrors and artwork

There are some spectacular and beautifully framed mirrors out there which you should invest in – they will give your bathroom and instant lift, no matter how dull or boring your tiles are. You can also hang artwork or pictures – just make sure they are framed nice and tightly, so they don’t suffer from moisture leaking in. It adds a little personalisation to the bathroom, too, which, ultimately, is what separates a great bathroom from a standard one.

Improve the lighting

One final, easy fix for you – improve your bathroom lighting. Try using spotlights in the bathroom, and you can even pick up chandeliers these days for a reasonable price – or create one yourself. Set up some dimmer switches so that you can dim the lights for a nice, relaxing bath and you will enjoy your bathroom even more. Any thoughts to add? Let me know in the comments section!

Monthly Round-up – March

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Watching: Given that it’s mid-April before I write this, I have very little recollection of what I watched, other than what I made a note of in my phone. I watched several Netflix series including; The OA, Friends with Better Lives,
Don’t Trust the B in Apartment 23, and Iron Fist but I don’t remember which others. I watched the newest Annie movie. I also re-watched Cinderella and Guardians of the Galaxy. As well as keeping up with Bones, Holby City, Casualty, Riverdale, Grimm, New Girl etc. I saw Beauty and the Beast at the cinema.
Sewing & Making (for Closet Geek): March was pretty crazy for orders, always seeming like I had a few more than I could cope with. However I managed to get through them and that’s what counts! I announced a Wonderland Giveaway for the monthly box, plus made LOADS of ears and bows, along with a Belle dress, two Briar Rose dresses, a Boys Woody top and waistcoat and a girls Woody dress. There was also a huge wave of orders for Infinity scarves after Roisin from Disneyfind, shared the scarf I sent her. I think I made 15 in one week and since then the orders dribble in still! Of course there was a technicolour dreamcoat and a pharaoh costume too which you can read more about below! Finally with the upcoming 25th Anniversary for DLP, I designed some ears which have proved very popular too!

And in other news…
– One of the first things that happened this month was Lily’s birthday, when she turned 9. We had a very calm day, making lego in the morning, Pizza Hut for lunch and then chilling out when we got home until bedtime.
– World Book Day was also at the beginning of this month and since last year Lily had gone as Harley Quinn, before it was super popular to be Harley Quinn, this year she went as Dr Harleen Quinzel. She looked absolutely fabulous. Megan didn’t get to dress up now she’s at secondary school, which is sad!


– Megan broke up with her boyfriend – her choice. It wasn’t especially dramatic but she did feel pretty bad afterwards so us three girls went shopping and I taught the girls about retail therapy ;)
– One of the most life changing things that happened this month is that we finally got an offer on the house. March 13th. After having the house on the market for almost a year, and after living here for almost 4 years when we only intended it to be 1 or 2. Fingers crossed it’s all proceeding well as we have accepted the offer since then, the “sold” sign went up on 20th, we had the survey done and started to complete the forms. More info to follow!
– Lily and I went on her school trip, to Cadbury World near Birmingham. It’s always really nice to share school trips with the girls but this time it was especially nice as Lily and I even sat together on the coach. It was a long and tiring day, especially as Lily was full of cold but we both enjoyed ourselves.
– Amy and Liv came to visit for the weekend and although we didn’t do a lot, we seemed to keep busy. We didn’t pick them up till fairly late on Friday so all we did was drink and catch up, but then Saturday we saw Beauty and the Beast, plus went to Meadowhall and had Five Guys. On Sunday we just hung out while I got some work done, until eventually I took them back to the station.
– Chris’ birthday was the 20th and it was nice to spend the day together, even though the girls weren’t around to enjoy it at all. We went into Lincoln in the morning to do some shopping but it threw it down with rain all day so we cut it short and came home. In the evening we met with friends and went to Frankie and Benny’s for dinner and then did an “Escape the Room” game which was amazing. Hopefully I will post about that soon!
– Not really a big fan of Red Nose Day (or Children in Need for that matter) but always happy to donate £1 to non-uniform and a red nose etc. However I did love that there was a “Red Nose Day Actually” short, like an update to Love Actually – and I cried and found it amazing too.
– Then came Mother’s Day. The girls made a mistake with my gift and ended up upset but it really didn’t matter as it was lovely to spend the day with them and then with my own mum too at lunch time. We went out to a restaurant called Meat Inc. that does amazing burgers and I was really hoping to review but completely forgot to take pics! Maybe next time we visit I will remember.
– I can’t remember if I mentioned this last month or not but Lily was given the part of Pharaoh in her school play – Joseph and his technicolour dreamcoat. She was really excited (and nervous) as it was a big part but I knew she would be amazing (AND SHE WAS!). I offered to make the technicolour dreamcoat for school and Lily’s Pharaoh costume too. I was the last of the family to see her play (with everyone else seeing it Monday and Tuesday, and Megan and I waiting till Wednesday) but it was pretty decent. I got embarrassed at the end however as I got given a bunch of flowers and a very public thank you, for helping with the costumes.
– One of the last things we did in March was have some friends around for socialising. We played Jackbox all night and it was a lot of fun. I’m really glad we’re finding more time to do that, although I do wonder if moving will effect these nights!

Looking forward to in April:
– Easter Holidays! I love love LOVE having the girls off school – not just for having them around, but also for saving myself three hours in a car for the school run. We don’t have too much planned but you never know!
– We have tickets to see Joseph and his technicolour dreamcoat at Skegness on Easter Weekend. After it was announced that Lily’s school would be doing the play, she took such an interest that I suggested booking tickets. I’m so glad I did as she was then given a great part and really loved the play. I can’t wait for her to see it done on a big stage.
– Mum’s birthday is in April. We probably won’t do much but I’ve already bought her present and no doubt we’ll all go out for lunch.