Everybody needs some yellow sandals.

As mentioned in a previous post, I am transferring my blog posts from the last year (they were on a different site) so here is number 6 of 9! Enjoy!

This was originally posted on 24/06/2017.

As much as I love shoes, I'm usually the 'play it safe' kind of girl. For example, on my 17th birthday I got these really cute ankle boots... which I then went on to wear almost every day (every.single.day) for the next year and a half. I find a cute pair of shoes and then kind of forget about all the others I own until that pair breaks. It's not a good situation. So, that being said this year I have been trying to wear more than one pair of shoes, as well as looking into new styles and using shoes to add a pop of colour to an outfit (a trend that I am a big fan of by the way!) And then these came along.

In all honesty, I don't think I would have purchased these shoes if I came across them in the shop. Mainly because they were a little out my fashion comfort zone, but also because of the stretchy back which isn't really a style I wear in shoes. However, it was actually my Grandma who gave these to me! My Grandma has style. She actually got these for herself then gave them to be because they didn't fit her. Like I said, my Grandma has style. I honestly think these are the perfect summer sandal. In fact, I plan on wearing these to my Grandmas birthday party.

Not only do I love the colour and style, but they are so comfy and the stretchy back (which I wasn't too fond of at first) makes them super easy to slip on and off. All in all, I'd say these shoes are a win! I believe these were £19.50 from M&S for anybody interested. 

What do you think? Would you wear these? 

Check out the pics below!

I hope you are having a lovely day and I will speak to you very soon!

Holly Xx

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Disneyland Paris.

As mentioned in a previous post, I am transferring my blog posts from the last year (they were on a different site) so here is number 5 of 9! Enjoy!

This was originally posted on 23/06/2017.

It's no secret that I love Disney. The songs. The stories. The films. I love it all. It's all just so magical to me. So when my friend Hannah and I decided we wanted to go to Paris, we both agreed that we absolutely HAD to go to Disneyland. Hannah is also a big fan of Disney. In fact, her Disney knowledge puts my Disney knowledge to shame (as much as I try). So it probably goes without saying that we were beyond excited. 

When booking and planning our trip (only 6 weeks before we left!) we discovered that there was a '3 days for the price of 2' deal at Disneyland which worked out perfectly. Having experienced Disneyland Paris, I can definitely say that 2 days would not have been long enough. I mean, I could have stayed a week and not got bored, but that would have been hella expensive. So yes, we had 3 days to spend at the park. We stayed in air B&Bs our entire trip and during this Disneyland portion, we stayed in a beautiful area called 'Serris' (Blog post here!). We were really close to Disneyland so we were able to walk there and back, even if the walk home made me feel like my feet were about to fall off (after walking around Disney all day!) 

So for those of you that didn't know, there are two parks at Disneyland Paris. The first is the Disneyland Park. This park was bigger and had lots of areas to explore. The great thing about Disneyland is that even if you're not a roller coaster fan, there is still so much to do! Although I had seen a ton of photos and even been there before (although I was too young to remember it really,) I was blown away with the dedication to everything. Everywhere you go is themed and you really feel like you're in the movie. 

The second park is Walt Disney Studios. Now I love Disney and was so so excited to go to Disneyland but when I discovered this second park, my excitement reached a whole new level. Something people may not know about me is that I love movies. I don't mean just watching movies, although I do love that too, but everything that goes into movies. The behind the scenes, the videography, the acting, the storytelling, just the entire process! I am so deeply fascinated by it all. So this park being based around this kind of concept was amazing to me. You walked around feeling like you were on a film set and you got to see just how Disney came about and what goes into making these films. It was honestly such a cool experience and has just made me love movies even more!

There is so much more I could say about Disneyland Paris and my entire experience, but we would be here all day! However, if you are interested in hearing more, you could always check out my vlog (Check out my Youtube channel!)

So yes, it really was an amazing experience and I cannot wait to go back already. I've included a few pics from Disney before so feel free to have a little look. Unfortunately, I didn't actually take that many pics at Disney because whenever there was a free moment to take out the camera, I ended up filming for the vlog. 

I hope you are having a lovely day and I will speak to you very soon!

Holly Xx

Fashion Museum | Bath

This summer is (hopefully) my last summer before I am off to uni and so I am trying super hard to make the most of it. However, between my lack of money and the busy schedules of my friends, it is proving a little more challenging than expected. That being said, it has definietely encouraged me to explore more local areas and so came about a little outing the other week with the lovely Emma, a friend from school and a fellow blogger too!

We hopped on a train to Bath and walked on up to the Waterstones cafe. Good compant, books and coffee... what more could you want?! We had a spot of lunch, I had a mocha and we had a good long natter. Somehow I managed to leave without spending all my money on books (are you proud?) and we headed off to the fashion museum. Walking around Bath is always so lovely and there is always such a good vibe. Then just to make it even better, the weather was gorgeous! So, we mooched on over.

We managed to get the student price for the entrance fee which wasn't too shabby (my purse was very thankful) and the staff were so lovely. We walked around and took in all the beautiful clothes and interesting history behind them. I couldn't believe that I had never been before, considering how close it is to where I live. Finally, towards the end of the museum we reached the dressing up section. Now I loved dressing up as a child and I think I love it even more now! My family take our fancy dress very seriously and love a good costume party, so this was right up my street. We tried on a couple different items but the dresses were my favourite, even if it was a little big. I felt just like I could just go walk onto a movie set, it was amazing!

Once we had gathered ourselves and said goodbye to the dresses, we soon came to the end of the museum. We had a litte mosey around the gift shop and headed off. I am a sucker for any museum, gallery, e.t.c and it was the most wonderful day. I really want to visit more museums this summer and the Bath Fashion Museum was the perfect one to start it all off. A day full of sun, books, girly chats, coffee and fashion, it really was the perfect summers day.

I always forget to document little outings like this and it's something I really want to improve on. Having these little travel posts to look back on is so so nice and the more posts the merrier. 

Have you ever been to the Bath Fashion Museum? What's the best gallery/ museum you've been to? I would love to know so I can add it to my list!

Thanks so much for reading and I will speak to you soon,

Holly X

Nip + Fab Serum Shot Review.

As mentioned in a previous post, I am transferring my blog posts from the last year (they were on a different site) so here is number 4 of 9! Enjoy!

This was originally posted on 22/06/2017.

Over the last year or so my skin has been the worst it has ever been. I think its down to a couple of factors. First, there is my age. I am only 19 so having bad skin isn't all too uncommon. I've never had particularly great skin but this last year or two has been an all time worst for me. Secondly, there is skincare products. I've always taken my skincare routine pretty seriously but sometimes these products can actually make your skin worse as appose to better. Unfortunately everybody's skin is different so what works for one person doesn't necessarily work for the next. New products can irritate your skin and sometimes even those old go-to products just don't work for you anymore. You skin changes throughout your life so sometimes it's time to try something else. Finally, and I think the main culprit for my skin issues, is detoxing. I got sick 2 years ago and starting last September, I was on a 7 month natural protocol to treat my disease. ALOT of this protocol is based on detoxing so it only makes sense for my skin to reflect that. My skin was at it's very worst last October and has left me with some rather unwanted acne scars. A final note to make would be that stress can be shown through the skin as well. For me, this troubled skin period happened when I got sick. I.e- the most stressful time of my life. 

So it goes without saying that problem skin can be down to a huge number of factors including genetics too. It's because of this that I found it particularly difficult to get my skin under control. When there are so many different factors that play into it, how do you know what to change? My skin is still pretty troubled but its getting a lot better finally (anybody interested in a skincare favourites?), and having recently purchased these two products, I noticed an almost immediate difference in the overall look and feel of my skin. So of course I had to dedicate a blog post to them!

So here we have two of the 'Nip + Fab Serum Shot's'. I was shopping online for some new skincare as I was running rather low and wanted to try out some new products in hopes of improving my skin, then I came across the Nip + Fab range. I had seen this brand before but never really thought to try it. However, there was an amazing offer on and the more I looked into it the more I liked the sound of these products. So I figured why not, and I got them. There are quite a few different products in their range and even a good selection of these 'shot's'. I decided to go for the shot's as I liked the idea of adding them to my moisturiser and making them last longer. Serums are also a go-to for me at the moment as I have found them so much nicer on my skin. I also thought they looked really cute! What wasn't to love? 

Okay so I have waffled on enough. Let's get on with the review!

'DRAGON'S BLOOD FIX HYALURONIC SHOT'

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First up we have the 'Dragon's blood'. This shot contains...

- Dragons blood (a sap found in the Croton Lechleri tree in the Amazon) : 

Prevents environmental damage to the skin

Motivates skin cell regeneration

Inhibits inflammation 

Reduces redness

-Hyaluronic acid: 

Maintains skin plumpness

Super-hydrating

Helps to reduce fine lines/wrinkles

Soften/smooth skin for a radiant complexion

Sounds pretty amazing right? I have been doing some more skin research lately and came to the conclusion that my skin care must haves had to be something good for cell regeneration, reducing redness as I have rather red skin and plumping the skin. All of these would just help my skin to look and feel healthier. I couldn't believe when I read this and discovered that this product had my must have qualities as well as more! But did it live up to these expectations?

I am glad to say that it has! I add two drops of this to my daily moisturiser every morning and noticed a difference almost immediately. After using this my skin looks brighter, plumper and smoother, giving my skin a much healthier glow. With regards to the acne, I have only been using these products for about a week so it's still too early to say. Although I have noticed that any blemishes have reduced in size and redness, and my skin is starting to clear up. However, this could also be down to the next product which is...

'GLYCOLIC FIX RADIANCE SHOT' 

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The second shot I have been using is the 'Glycolic fix'. This shot contains...

- Glycolic acid: 

Retextures/resurfaces the skin

Smoother, softer and radiant skin.

-Fruit acids: 

Stimulates skin cell renewal

Skin appears younger and fresher

- Amino acid derivatives: 

Reduces the appearance of pigmentation

The main thing that drew me to this product was the Glycolic acid. During my research I discovered that Glycolic acid is really good for acne scars and giving you smoother skin. With my skin, I feel like acne scars and the texture of my skin are half (if not more) of the problem. So when I read this I was super excited to give it a go. I use two drops of this product every evening in my night cream. 

I feel like with this type of product, you have to give it a few weeks to really see if it's working. Acne scars are not going to disappear over night after all. However, despite saying that, I feel like I am already seeing improvements. My skin looks a lot smoother and any blemishes are quickly dissolved as I mentioned before. It will be interesting to see if/how my skin continues to improve. Maybe I could do a little skin care update in a few weeks to see if it has improved? 

This product also helps with cell renewal and giving more radiant skin, two of my skincare must-have features. All in all, I am super impressed with these products so far and I can't wait to see if they continue to amaze me (I hope they do!).

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Having tried these products for no more that a week, I am thoroughly impressed so far. My skin already appears to look brighter, smoother and all around healthier. They are very easy to use and you only need a small amount of product each time. Price wise they were definitely a little more expensive than my usual price, especially for a serum. That being said, having received the product I think it is a very reasonable price. The products themselves were bigger than I was expecting and you only need the smallest amount per use. The results have been very encouraging and I would definitely repurchase again, even without the 'up to 50% off' sale I found them in. 

All in all, I am really impressed with these products. Hopefully they continue to impress me over the next few weeks.

What are you skin-care must have features? 

Thanks for reading!

Holly Xx

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Being sick for 2 years... and how it nearly destroyed me.

As mentioned in a previous post, I am transferring my blog posts from the last year (they were on a different site) so here is number 3 of 9! Enjoy!

This was originally posted on 20/06/2017.

Destroy'

verb

End the existence of (something) by damaging or attacking it.

1. 1.1 Ruin (someone) emotionally or spiritually.
2. 1.2 Defeat (someone) utterly.
3. 1.3 Kill (a sick, savage, or unwanted animal) by humane means.

May 2017 marked the two year anniversary of me getting Lyme disease. Two whole years. That's 730 crazy long Lyme disease fighting days... and I didn't even get a card! I joke, I joke. This isn't the kind of anniversary you feel like celebrating. 

I've always tried to be pretty open with my battle against Lyme disease as it was and still is a massively significant part of my life. I would probably go as far as to say that it was one of, if not the hardest thing I have had to deal with. Even now, when physical health wise I am doing the best I have since this all began, it effects my daily life and I think that it always will. 

For some reason, I always try to play my illness down. But you know what? It was hard. In fact it was really hard. It was long and scary and it sucked. You don't go through something as significant and traumatising as that and come through unscathed. And I was no exception. 

Before I jump into this story, let's just talk about the word 'destroy' real quick. I was very hesitant to use this word in my post. It's quite a harsh word. Destroy. It's not a word I use often and it's definitely not a word I would typically use to talk about myself and my battle with Lyme... and yet I did. I do. The word 'destroy' sounds violent and extreme. It sounds dramatic. In fact that is one of the main reason I was so hesitant to use that word. I don't want to come across as some dramatic blogger begging for sympathy, because that really not my intention. But my battle with Lyme disease over the last two years has been detrimental in every sense. Not only did my physical body suffer a lot, but mentally it has drained me. I spent 2 years in a cloud of worry, fear and isolation. Not only in the physical sense (I spent an unhealthy amount of time in bed ... not by choice) but also mentally. I have the most amazing family and a good few solid friendships too, but I had never felt so alone in my life, and nothing could have changed that. Nothing that anybody could have said or done would have changed that. And as if that wasn't enough, my social life suffered. All my relationships with people suffered. Every single aspect of my life suffered in one way or another. Directly or indirectly. It suffered. I suffered. So I don't use the word 'destroy' easily. And I don't use it for sympathy. I use it because in a case like this, I think that maybe it can be justified. 

And now onto the meaty part of this post ...

I've been thinking about the topic of this post a lot over the last few days. I like to think that I am a very 'self-aware' kind of person. I often look at my actions and thoughts and feelings. I am always trying to work on myself and be a better person. I think it's in my personality. So, being the self-aware being that I am, I began to notice something about myself. Something which to you may seem like an unbelievably obvious thing but to me was hidden under some scary camouflage blanket in a dark corner of my room covered in cobwebs. So it was not so obvious to me. And here is what I discovered. 

I am not the same person I was before all of this illness shenanigans. 

(Meaning I am not the same person I was 2 years ago... Shocker.)

I told you it would seem obvious. See this is kind of how it went down.  I got sick May 2015. I thought it was the flu and I thought it would end in a couple of days, a week tops. But it did not. I thought 'wow I have got a real bad strain of flu! Give it a couple of weeks, it will be out of my system by then'. But it was not. I thought 'Oh the doctors will sort this out. In a week or two I will be back on my feet". But I was not. Are you starting to see a pattern here? I spent the entirety of my illness sitting and waiting for the storm to pass. I sat there hugging my knees as the wind whistled by and the thunder roared and the rain came hammering down. I sat there waiting for the storm to pass. I sat there hugging my knees, paralysed by this storm that only seemed to fall on me. Everyone around me got up and got on with their life. They made progress and had success and failure and kept moving forward anyway because that is how life works. All the while I hadn't moved an inch, because I couldn't. The storm hadn't passed. I sat there paralysed as I watched everyone around me get up and move on. Not move away, because they were always there supporting me as best they could, but moving on. As they should have by the way. I am not naive enough to think the entire would should come to a halt when my life appears to. I am only saying this to give you an insight as to how it felt. 

So I sat there and waited out the storm. I held tight and I waited it out. (Editing note: Scratch that. I fought it out. I fought real hard to get to where I am health wise and I should give my self credit for that. Ok. Proceed previous Holly...). Yet in my head, I thought when the storm had passed, I would just get up and everything would be the exact same. I thought I would feel the same. I thought everything around me would look the same. I thought I would be the same. I think subconsciously I thought that because I had put pause on my life, that life would just pause. Which it obviously didn't because life is real inconsiderate like that.... I'm joking. Kind of. Anyway, fast forward two years and the storm has almost passed. It's not quite gone. There is a still a drizzle and it's pretty gusty. but I can stand and I can see and I don't feel paralysed by the storm anymore. Let it be noted at this point that this was a very slow process of the storm passing and it didn't happen all at once because that is not how life works. But yes, I got up and I looked around. I thought I would see things exactly as I had left them and I thought I would see myself exactly as I was before. Yet that did not happen. I looked down to see a body full of bruises and battle scars. I looked weak. I looked around to see that I was not where I was before. I was in a completely unknown location, with no idea of how I go there, in a body that felt weak. I felt as if I had been abducted by aliens and then dropped back down to some crazy unknown planet. Pretty terrifying stuff.

I know I just threw out some pretty crazy metaphors, but I don't really know how else to explain it. So if you managed to understand anything that I just said, then congrats to you! 

So yes, I survived the storm. Now it goes without saying that my body is a bit of a mess. It just spent 2 years fighting every single day and quite frankly its exhausted. It will take a while before it's back to full health because it needs time to rest and repair and slowly build things back to the way they were before. But I kind of expected that. I mean, I was kind of hoping that one day I'd wake up full of energy and feeling great, but I know that health doesn't work like that. I fully expected my physical body to be feeling a little worn out after being unwell for so long. However, that wasn't what nearly destroyed me. I mean it sucked and it almost ruined my life, but I wouldn't use the word 'destroy'. No, what almost destroyed me was how I completely lost my 18th year of life. I spent my entire year of being 18 (as well as half my 17th year and half my 19th year) waiting out the storm. So when I finally came around, I was older but I had had none of those life experiences that make you feel older. I had missed the train. What almost destroyed me was how lost and alone I felt both during and after the storm. It wasn't the physical illness that almost destroyed me, but it was everything else.

"It wasn't the physical illness that almost destroyed me, but it was everything else"

Did you notice how I used the word 'almost'?

'almost'

Adverb

Not quite; very nearly.

Lyme disease has been a real pain in the butt. It flipped my world upside, shook it around a little (or a lot) and lobbed it into a brick wall. It did some real damage. Every single aspect of my life has suffered and it very nearly destroyed me. But it didn't. I got up, put one foot in front of the other and kept going forwards. It often feels like I'm walking in quick sand or some kind of thick mud, but I keep moving anyway. Its not easy and its not over, but it will be someday. Im almost cringing writing this because it just sounds so dramatic. But who knows maybe somebody needs to hear this. Maybe somebody needs to be told to stand up, put one foot in front of the other and keep moving forward. Small steps are bigger than no steps. Then one day you will realise that the quick sand became grass and you'll look back and notice that the storm is so far behind you that you can't even see it anymore. Just stand up, put one foot in front of the other and keep moving forward. You can scream and cry and take a minute to rest if you need it. But then you get right back up and you keep moving forward. You don't look around to see where everyone else is. You focus on yourself and you keep. moving. forward.

... and breathe.  

That was pretty deep. I feel like I've just revealed part of my soul, haha! Sometimes I feel like writing about pizza and sometimes I feel like writing about my deepest darkest feelings and I guess today it was the latter. I hope this didn't sound too crazy and that my jumble of words and feeling came out as coherent sentences. I felt it was time for a way too personal and vulnerable post, it had been a while.

If anybody wants to share some equally scary and vulnerable stuff in the comments, I would highly encourage that. I always love having a natter in the comments. 

"Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change" - Brene Brown 

And on that note it is time for me to love you and leave you. I have waffled on for too long and in all honesty, I'm not entirely sure what I have just written. Anyway, I hope you are having a wonderful day and I will speak to you very soon! 

Holly Xx

P.s- You should totally subscribe to my emailing list if you want to be notified when I upload a new blog post!

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Serris, Paris.

As mentioned in a previous post, I am transferring my blog posts from the last year (they were on a different site) so here is number 2 of 9! Enjoy!
This was originally posted on 12/04/2017.

On the 20th March 2017 I had the pleasure of going to Paris on the Eurostar. I have always wanted to travel and finally after 18 months of being chronically ill, I was able to. My friend Hannah and I planned started planning the trip about 6 weeks before we left so it was fairly last minute and we had the whole trip planned and booked within days. We didn't intend for the trip to be so soon (although we were obviously very happy about not having to wait too long to go) but there was an offer on Disneyland tickets that ended at the end of March so we figured, why not!

The trip was 10 days long. We spent three days at Disneyland and then a week in central Paris. However, it goes without saying that Disneyland is expensive. We got the tickets at a decent price because of the offer. However, there was no way we could afford to actually stay at Disneyland so we decided to rent an Air B&B (Use my code- www.airbnb.co.uk/c/hollys7175) in Serris, the area just outside Disney. The Air B&B we chose was kind of between two metro stations (the only form of transport we used) so our host came and met us to walk us to the apartment. This was super helpful, especially considering this is the first real alone trip we had both done so it was all a bit overwhelming at times. Anyway, our host was THE nicest host you could have asked for (Shoutout to Calvin!) and met us at the metro, walked us to the apartment telling us about the local area as we walked and really went out of his way to accommodate us. He was the best.

Okay, there was one floor to Calvin... he walked SO FAST. I used to be a relatively fast walker but since being sick I have got really out of shape, meaning I no longer walk fast. Especially while lugging a suitcase with a broken wheel and a marry Poppins handbag. Hannah also happens to be a super speedy walker so trying to keep up with them both was a workout. I was sweating... a lot. It even got to the point where I just gave up chasing after them and took my time strolling through the shopping centre we had to walk through, window shopping all of the shops. Occasionally when they had realised I was wayyyy behind, you would just see a little Calvin pop around the corner waving at me. It was quite hilarious. 

So that's my little story for this post!  Now the area we stayed in, Serris, was absolutely beautiful. All of the buildings were stunning and there was this gorgeous lake you could watch the sunset over as we walked home from Disney. Everything about the area was just gorgeous so I thought I would share some of my favourite pics we took from the area. Enjoy!

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So there we have some of my fav pics from Serris and a funny little story too! I have a ton more Paris Pics to share and a load more funny stories so stay tuned if you want to see those. I also filmed a lot of the trip so check out my Youtube channel for the vlogs.

Thank you so much for reading,

Have a lovely day and I will speak to you very soon,

Holly X