Beauty, Bargains and Beyond

Lockdown seems to have gone on forever but there may be light at the end of the tunnel fingers crossed.  I thought I would do a quick catch up on what I've been doing throughout lockdown.  I subscribed to Disney+ recently and watched On Pointe which is about the School of American Ballet in New York City.  I find shows like this fascinating and really enjoyed watching it.  I hope there will be another season soon.   I have also been watching New Amsterdam on Amazon Prime which if you were a fan of ER or watch Grey's Anatomy you will probably enjoy it.  It follows Dr Max Goodwin as the Medical Director of New Amsterdam which is a Public Hospital and all the trials and tribulations that come with trying to provide patients with the best care regardless of whether they can afford it or not which if you know anything about American hospitals is not how most of them work and makes you thankful for the NHS. I'm also trying to re watch all my old DVDs which rarely see the light of

I have recently made my first few purchases on Etsy and I wanted to show you what I purchased. I am loving the idea of supporting small businesses and Etsy is a great way of doing just that. My first purchase was a couple of face masks and I decided to purchase from FlowerLouCreations because they had some Disney prints that I wanted (the Epcot Spaceship Earth pattern and the purple wall at Magic Kingdom).  They also offered a deal where you could get a face mask and hair accessory (I chose a scrunchie) in the same print for £9 (individually the face mask is £7 and the scrunchie is £3). The deal included any hair accessory from a choice of 3.  Delivery  was free.  It was easy to set up an account on Etsy and pay with Paypal. Delivery was fast and the products that I ordered were just what I wanted.  I definitely recommend this seller.  Next I was looking for some Liquorice Allsorts for a Mothers Day present and I chose SpoonfulOfSweetsUK because they had special Mothers Day packaging

Another step in being more sustainable is moving to reusable straws.  I wouldn't say I use straws loads as I wouldn't use a straw for a hot drink and I usually drink from cans but I should try to use them more as I want to try and protect my teeth from damage as I do drink a lot of Pepsi Max (but that's a whole other story).   I saw these stainless steel and glass reusable straws at Poundland for £1 each (obviously) and thought they were worth a try. The stainless steel ones are all identical with the bend at the top.   They come in packs of 4 and they can be used with hot or cold drinks and a cleaning brush is included.  Cleaning them is easy, you just hand wash them using the cleaning brush which takes a couple of minutes max.  They are hand wash only so can't be put in the dishwasher.  It does advise you to take care using it with hot drinks as the straw may become hot but as I mentioned before I don't really see the need to use them with hot drinks and in all fa

  *I received these products for free but the opinions are my own. With Mothers Day coming up I have been wondering what to get my mum this year.  Usually we book a day at the Spa but sadly that's not on the cards at the moment but fingers crossed that will happen some time this year if we are lucky.   I was sent Daisy The Dachshund Planter* to review and I thought this would be a great gift for mums out there who have green fingers and want a little bit of greenery around the house.   Daisy is a mini leak-proof ceramic planter which you can put on your desk or anywhere around the home.  Daisy is so cute and will look great with some small plants in.   Daisy is available for £16  here . A useful gift alongside Daisy is the Industrial Plant Mister* which is a handy way to water the plants inside your home.  It's small but holds 350ml of water and is great to make sure that your household plants are watered on a regular basis.     Both of these products are from Kikkerland  but u