First Snow of the Year

So yesterday, we in England had our first snow fall of the year! It lasted around 1-2 hours and was then washed away by the rain. Always the best kind of snow if you ask me!

I don’t like it when it sticks to the roads as I really hate driving in it and everything seems to just grind to a halt! It seems that nobody really knows how to deal with snow here…

I spent this Christmas down in Bournemouth with Jakes family and being down south, the weather really wasn’t Christmassy in the slightest. We walked back from the pub at around midnight on the 23rd and it wasn’t even that cold! I had a blazer on and a scarf! No gloves, no earmuffs, no coat…its clear the weather was trying to lull us into a false sense of security as this week apparently its meant to be FREEZING!

On a plus note, being down south meant we were in the perfect place to spot Santa in his sleigh delivering all his presents! The International Space Station (ISS) just happened to be flying over our part of the country on Christmas Eve and so I got to go outside with my nephew and show him Santa The people in the house next door were also doing the same thing! I said to him “can you see Santa?” and his reply was “yes but I can’t see his reindeer” I swear kids are just so cute!

I’ll be posting more often again now as wedding planning is being kicked up a gear (5 months to go!) and now that I have my new laptop (my old one broke in November) so keep an eye out!

Spider Free Home!

As someone who is terrified of spiders, this summer/autumn has been absolutely horrible! The disturbing size of the monsters that have been occupying my house left me scared of being home alone in case one decided to make an appearance!

After 2 monsters in one night I decided enough was enough. 

I'd seen some reviews on a plug in spider repellant but at £25 I was a bit reluctant as I hate spending money unnecessarily. Especially on things that I'm sceptical about them working. 

I found someone on eBay with good feedback and they also offered a money back guarantee if your house wasn't spider free after 45 days. Win! It did warn that there could be increased activity in the first week or so as the spider vacate but I could cope with that if it meant I wouldn't see any again!

I plugged it in on the 5th October before I went to visit my mom and the image I had in my head when I got home was like the scene from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets where all the spiders are all in a conga line across the floor :') safe the say, that isn't what happened!

I think we had around 4 spiders (massive ones as well!) in the first week which was as expected but then we didn't see a single one after! It was only this week that I saw 2 small (and I mean tiny) ones lurking around. I am soooo happy!!

So the one I ended up getting is PestBye Advanced Spider Repeller and I got it through eBay. 

It has a variable frequency so it works on thing other than spiders but I've just put mine on a fixed one as we don't get anything else. 

If you don't want to spend £25 then other things I've heard work are conkers, peppermint, tee tree oil, lemon and certain plants all give off a smell that spiders don't like. I do have 2 conkers on my bedroom windowsill and they've been there longer than we've had the plug in and seemed to do the job but it could just be that there were more spiders downstairs than upstairs!

Let me know what you've tried as you can never be too prepared when it comes to spiders in my opinion!!

Top Tips for a Budget Wedding

Did you know that the average wedding costs around £18000!

I wanted to bust the myth that a wedding had to cost an arm and a leg and so far I'm proving it!

I think people have an image in their head about what a wedding should look like or include and it really is an all rules out of the window kind of event. Anything you want goes!

Pinterest is my best friend for inspiration, DIY ideas, decorations etc, and eBay is what makes a lot of them a reality! Did you know I got my wedding dress off eBay? It was brand new with tags in, never been worn and I got it for a quarter of the retail price! There are loads of bargains to be had if you keep your eyes peeled!

I also found 60 glass jars on eBay, all with pretty ribbon around the rim and got them for £12.75! These will all have candles in to give a romantic cosy feel to our reception venue. I've also got 100 organza favour bags for £3.95! I'm currently trying to do my own version of a 'Wedding Day Survival Pack' or a 'Hangover Survival Pack'.

I thought they were really cute and useful ideas rather than a bag of sugared almonds which usually get left on the table. I've currently got these working out to cost approximately 70p per person. I'll be doing the kids a different pack which will included a colouring book, pencils and maybe some bubbles and a toy. I'll do a full post on these once I have them done :)

There's loads of brill downloads from wedding ideas magazine that you can look at here which are really helpful. Their budget planner is by far my fav one that I found and have been updating the spread sheet constantly and trying to beat the original budgets that I set for everything!

Amazon is also a good website to check out as well as your local 'used' websites as a lot of people sell things like table decorations after getting married for much cheaper than they bought them for!

Let me know your tops tips for finding things on a budget! I'm always on the lookout for new sites and places!

Review: Angel Paris Marine Depth Spa Shampoo

So my Mom has been trying a brand of shampoo and conditioner called Angel Paris for a few weeks and has been telling me how good it is. She bought me some as a present so I decided to do a full review of the product. 

                           

As you know, I am trying to grow my hair as much as possible in time for the wedding and this shampoo has no SLS which is why I was really keen to try it.

 

1st wash - 17/09/2014

Immediately after getting out of the shower, I noticed my hair was much softer to comb through that it normally is. Since I normally shower in the evening, I let my hair dry overnight to help minimise heat usage. I woke up and didn't really notice much difference to my normal products apart from the ends felt slightly less dry.

The day after, my fringe was definitely greasier than normal and my ends had started to dry out a bit. I also felt like it was getting tangled quite a bit which made it quite hard to brush through before bed.

 

On the 20th I woke up with quite greasy hair but that was because I put some oil through the ends because they were just so dry!
 

2nd wash - 20/09/2014
 

I noticed that I had a LOT less fallout than usual so I was really really happy about that! The day after, I didn't really notice my hair too much as I clipped it away from my face so it wouldn't get in my way.

On the 22nd, I put it in a half up half down ponytail to keep it off my face for work. My hair looked and felt absolutely fine so I didn't feel the need to wash it that night and then next day I just put it up in a ponytail because I was being lazy. Again, it didn't really feel like it needed washing then either so on the 24th I decided to put it up in a messy bun.

3rd wash - 24/09/2014

I washed my hair about an hour before I went to bed. It could have gone another day but I didn't want to be sitting at my desk with dirty feeling hair! If it had fallen on a weekend, I would have definitely let it go that extra day!

It was much dryer than usual the day after but I'm not sure if it might just be an adjustment period? I put a little bit of argan oil on the ends when I got home and it didn't feel quite so bad when I woke up. The 26th looked a little bit limp but not necessarily greasy so I left it down and just clipped my fringe out of my face.

I went to an 80s themed birthday party that night so I used my babyliss deep waver to give it some texture. I did a quick post on the make up below if you want to check that out! Since I wasn't doing anything the day after I put it up in a bun. 

4th wash - 28/09/2014

 My head was quite itchy once it got to this point so I had no choice but to wash it! I put some argan oil in the ends to help with the dryness. I left it to air dry until it was almost completely dry but then blasted the rest of it witht he hairdryer.

The day after, the ends of my hair felt lovely and smooth and this continued on to the next day as well. I wore my hair in a ponytail pretty much the entire time so can't comment on greasiness but my ends felt sooooo much better!

5th wash - 02/10/2014

I only used half the amount of argan oil that I used previously to see if my ends were dry because of the shampoo or an adjustment period. My ends seem absolutely fine but I have noticed I have started to get flaky skin on my scalp. I'm not sure if this is because I'm washing it less therefore I'm not getting rid of the dead cells so I may start only leaving 2 days between washes instead of 3 and see how that goes.

6th wash - 05/10/2014

I only used the half amount of argan oil again as it seemed to be fine with just a small amount on the ends to help with the dryness. The rest of my hair is now pretty consistent across all washes.

7th wash - ???

8th wash - 09/10/2014

I have either managed to forget the date in between washes or I went 4 days despite saying on the 5th wash that I wasn't going to! I washed my hair on Thursday night in preparation for going down to Bournemouth to see Jakes family at the weekend. I had planned to let it go until I got back on the Sunday but that plan didn't work! My hair was very faded as it had been about 6-7 weeks since I last dyed it. Since I'm trying to grow my roots to find out what my natural colour is I decided to pick up a non permanent colour just to give it a boost.

9th wash - 11/10/2014

After washing the colour out my hair is now a pretty browny purple colour which is obviously only temporary. I'm pretty sure my roots will be an ashy brown. I didn't have my oil with me and boy did my ends suffer for it!

10th wash - 14/10/2014

Finally back at home which meant I had my argan oil! I may have gone a little bit overboard with it though as my hair feels slightly greasy and its only the day after!

Final Review

Unfortunately I cant use these on their own as they make my ends far too dry but as long as I use it with an oil of some sort I feel like my hair is healthier for using products without SLS. I can go longer in between washes with this than with my normal shampoo and it hasn't caused my scalp any problems apart from in wash 5. I only use 4 pumps of each bottle so despite the fact that they cost £10 (which in my eyes is expensive) they will last a good amount of time before you have to restock.
Overall, I would give these a very happy 8 out of 10.

The National Wedding Show

 

Warning: Picture Heavy Post

So this weekend me and mother bear went to the National Wedding Show!!!

It was very exciting and there was so much going on I didn't know where to look most of the time and ended up going down a few aisles twice because I'd missed some stands!

We actually ended up buying something from pretty much the first stand we went to. It was a teeth whitening stand and the lady was giving out "samples" to try. It was £40 and apparently has 120 treatments in the bottle and the whiteness lasts approximately 2 years. She said if you put the bottle in the fridge it should last 4-5 years so we would be able to a "second" lot of treatments. I am currently trying this out and will do a review once I've finished :)

I spotted my dress on one of the stands but it must have been a second hand stand because there was makeup on the inside of the dress, stains on the underarms and a pull across the middle of the netting. I know you can't do anything about the netting but you would have at least thought they would have got the dresses dry cleaned!!

 

We actually went there to find ideas for bridesmaid dresses and I was really disappointed with the lack of...well..anything!! There were probably 10 bridesmaid dresses in amongst the thousands of wedding dresses! Do they think we are all bridezillas and only think of ourselves?!

We watched a presentation on body shapes (I came to the conclusion I was a triangle SLASH hourglass. Yes, the woman emphasised the word slash as well :') Straight after that there was a fashion show/catwalk and we decided we would stay for some of it and ending up watching the whole thing! They had different themes such as Winter Wonderland, Blushing Brides, Purity, Country Roads, Highland Hills, Rustic Scenes etc..(disclaimer, those might not be the exact names lol I can't remember what they were!)

Here are a few snaps of the dresses in the show.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Which one was your favourite? :)

DIY Date Night Jar

I have a very sweet non wedding related DIY for you today! Since Jake and I have moved in together in January, we haven't really been on many date nights. So we decided that it would be good idea to have a jar of dates! :) When we want to go on a date, we just pick one and off we go!

I bought some multi coloured jumbo lollipop sticks off eBay for around £1, grabbed a Sharpie and a big cookie jar (stolen from my mom) and off I went!

I decided to colour code the "dates" into cost so we didn't end up picking out an expensive date of we didn't have a lot of spare cash. I used green as free, blue as £20, yellow as £40, orange as £60 and purple as £60+. The idea is that you can't spend any more than that colour allows.

                               

I sat down with my Sharpie and carefully (otherwise the ink would bleed) wrote on my ideas for each budget. The great thing about this DIY is that it's completely tailored to you as a couple. I put on things like, go dancing, go for a walk, road trip etc, but you might decide to put something like "go bungee jumping" which you wouldn't catch me doing if you paid me! It's completely up to you!

I had 2 things which I put for every colour. These were "bucket list" and "groupon". I have an app on my phone called '111 things' which is a bucket list, so if that gets pulled out we would just pick an item off the bucket list that falls within that budget. If we pull out "groupon" we would find a Groupon that is within the budget and do that! They offer a bit more surprise and variety than my imagination could :')

Hope you have fun doing this and let me know what dates you write down!

 

80s Make Up!

On a completely unweddingy topic, I went to an 80s themed birthday party last night. It took me a ridiculous amount of time to do my hair and make up but I absolutely loved it! I got up to get a drink half way through and when I came back I looked in the mirror and thought "you know what? I would totally wear this make up on a normal night!"

 

I wore false lashes which I never do! I am utterly hopeless at putting them on but luck was on my side last night and it only took 10 minutes ;)

 

I tried my best to get a picture which captured the proper colours but it doesn't really show just how bright they were :( The picture also doesn't show just how much blusher I'm wearing!

 

I originally put on a bright red lipstick but it looked a little bit odd so I switched it for more of a plummy one as I don't own a bright pink lipstick. I will have to add one to my collection!

Time for a trim!

So I finally decided it was about time to take some "serious" length off my hair. I have not had my hair cut by a professional for around 18 months! The horror! Haha, I am more than happy to trim my hair myself as my very first job was a Saturday girl in a hair dressers which made me relatively confident about the things I could get away with on my hair.

I trim my hair (and by trim I mean less than half an inch) once every 3-4 months or so but since I experimented with ombre I have noticed that my ends aren't in as good condition as before. So when I say "serious" I actually mean I only took around an inch off.

Let me tell you, to someone who is desperately trying to grow their hair to a deadline, this is A LOT! It killed me. But I had to tell myself it was for the best. After I cut it, I put some argon oil treatment in and whacked it up in a bun all ready for bed :) The argon oil left my hair a little greasy so I washed it and dried it and was very impressed with my straight cutting skills!

My hair now looks a lot thicker and I managed to get rid of pretty much all the split ends! I keep spotting a little one every now and then but I just snip it off with the nearest pair of scissors. Since I don't use too much heat on my hair I'm hoping to get away with 2 or 3 months till I next feel the need to trim it. I do want me hair to be in as good condition as possible until May to help it grow so I will be keeping a very close eye on it and giving it a lot more love and attention than I normally do!

Here is a pic showing my hair journey from when I got engaged (second picture) up until June this year :)

Weight Loss Check In

My weight loss journey started in May and so far I've lost 10lbs!

I want to lose another 11lbs for the wedding but since I have already bought my dress and it's at home, I will keep trying it on at regular intervals to make sure it still fits. If it looks like it will start to become too big for me then I will have to stop my weight loss. 

The biggest thing I have to credit for my weightloss is an app called MyFitnessPal.

I haven't necessarily been 'dieting' but MFP has made me more aware of how much I was eating and the number of calories in things! Did you know there are 405 calories in a tesco chocolate muffin!? I sure as hell didn''t!

I still have quite a lot of naughty things like Subway, McDonalds and takeaways but I have them less often and make better choices when I do.

It's also good to add friends on there as it's really encouraging when you've had a bad day and logging in to see peoples positive comments. If any would like to add me my username is: stacybee92

Here are a few motivational quotes for today :)

 

Blushing Budget Bride

So here's a quick update on the wedding so far. 

Me and Jake are getting married on the 30th May 2015. 

I have already got my dress, veil, shoes, chair covers and sashes, transport for me and the bridesmaids, church, reception venue, paid the honeymoon deposit, DJ, photographer, sent my save the dates and got a few bits and bobs for me to attempt some DIYs. How much have we spent so far? £1690.30! 

I want to bust the myth that a wedding has to cost a fortune. We have a modest budget (£5000 preferably including the honeymoon) but I don't want my wedding to feel in any way cheap or that it was done on such a small budget. 

Things we still have to sort? Food, drinks, invitations, bridesmaids dresses, shoes and accessories, groomsmen outfits, shoes and accessories, flowers, church and reception decorations, table centres, seating plans, hen and stag do and various other things I can't think of off the top of my head. 

One way we're trying to keep costs down is by DIYing as much as we can. 

Here is my first attempt at a DIY table centre:

I painted some glass bottles we had leftover and this is what I came up with! We have mirrored plates for them to stand on and miniature candles to be scattered around them but for a first attempt I think this came out brilliantly. Unfortunately, the flowers don't do this justice but they were the only ones I had lying around :')

I also have around 60 glass jars to do something with so I may very well end up going with those as centrepieces rather than the bottles as I think they will look more romantic. What do you think?

Pinterest is my absolute best friend at the moment as well as YouTube, Google and eBay!

I have my shoes and I have also bought some flatbacked pearls and craft glue. I will be attempting a DIY pearl shoe with (potentially) a jewelled 'I do' on the bottom :)

There'll be a post up soon on them as I have nearly finished pearling them so stay tuned!

 

Nice to meet you!

Well hello there! It's Stacy, by the way :)

I'm getting married in May 2015 and really loved the idea of documenting the entire process to give me some lovely memories a few years down the line. I am hoping to DIY as much as I can to help keep the cost down and make the day just that bit more personal. If I happen to help anybody else in the process then that's a bonus!

I will be posting all about my wedding - DIY's, budgeting tips, diet tips, hen night etc as well as the odd nail pic (I love doing my own nails!) and anything that may crop up.

Please feel free to leave me comments and any suggestions and I'll see what I can do!




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