August Agenda

I absolutely cannot believe that today is 1st August! It is freaking me out how quickly this year is going, it's almost time to start thinking about Christmas again already! Too early to start compiling my Christmas Wishlist!? No, never! Just as well really, as I actually do have a bit of a mental one going on in my head already! 

Anyway, being the first of the month, it's time to dust off July's Agenda and see how I did with my little tasks, and also to set some new ones for the coming month.

So, here were the things I had hoped to achieve in the month of July:

1. Learn to do a fish-tail plait/braid.

Mission accomplished. I actually did this one on the same day as I put up the post. Check me out, being all organised and one step ahead. You'd think that boded well for the rest of the month, wouldn't you? Yeah.....

2. Bake Macaroons and Slutty Brownies.

Fail. And this one isn't even a chore! To be honest, I think the fact that my husband's family fed us so much cake when we went to stay with them kind of put me off a bit - I literally felt sick by the time we left to come home! And I've also been ill three times this month. Maybe next time!?

3. Save my pennies.

Well. Isn't that ironic. I did indeed save as many pennies as I possibly could this month.....and then, as many of you will already know, my car essentially died and cost me a LOT more than the pittence I had saved. So actually, it was like I took this task...and achieved the complete opposite. Yay. Oh well, not to worry -  apparently I (and most of the other #bbloggers on Twitter) have won a small fortune on the South African lottery without even playing it, so all our financial problems are soon to be a thing of the past! 

(Just in case anyone missed the sarcasm there....yeah, that's what it was).

4. Get away.

I don't think this one needs much of an explanation. It didn't happen!

5. Blog every day.

Huzzah- I'm going to give myself a gold star for this one, as even though I didn't technically blog every single day, the only exceptions were when I was ill and when I was having internet problems, and in spite of this I still finished the month on thirty five posts! Win!

6. Do something crafty.

Well. I cut up an old t-shirt I never wear and made it into something else I will never wear. Does that count?

In my defence, I have ordered some studs from Ebay, so expect to see everything I own, including my dog, covered in those very soon.

So, I scored a grand total of............................2 out of 6. How embarrassing. But do you know what? I'm not really all that bothered, as I feel that I've achieved a lot this month anyway. Blogging as consistently as I have was the most important challenge to me, and I have also managed to get some exercise most days and do some more work on my secret little venture, so I feel quite satisfied in spite of my score for the month!

August's Agenda will be as follows:

1. Plan looooads of extra activities for my classes in advance.

Some of you will know that I teach English as a foreign language, and lessons start again next week. I always try to plan lots of fun activities to keep my pupils' enthusiasm levels up, but often, they only last me until about half way through the term, and then I am desperately looking for more! So this time, I am going to make sure I have more than enough at the ready so that I don't have to stress about it later on.

2. Finish my secret project.

I'm afraid I can't really tell you much about this one until it's ready, but let's just say it is a new little business venture of mine. Hopefully, I will finally be ready to reveal all in next month's recap!

3. Keep up the daily exercise.

Self explanatory, really.

4. Have a nice day out with the hubby!

Again, this one is penny-permitting, but I'm including it anyway as I wish to start the month with optimism!

Just those four for this month I think, as the first two are going to be taking up a lot of my time!

(By the way, the photos in this post are just a couple of my favourite Instagram pics from the past month.)

What tasks and activities have you got planned for yourselves over the coming month? Do you find setting yourselves goals helpful?

xx

July Favourites

, I can´t BELIEVE it is already the  of July! This year is going ridiculously quickly, and I feel like I haven´t done half of the things I wanted to yet!
Anyway, one thing I have, of course, managed to do, is to buy and to use plenty of beauty products, so without further ado, here are my favourites for this month.

Bach´s Rescue Remedy

I haven´t really mentioned this before on my blog, and I´m not going to go on and on about it here, but for the last year or so I have been suffering from anxiety. It´s not the kind of thing where I feel nervous before a stressful event, or when in a difficult situation - of course, I do feel like that, but this is more of a physical thing where I feel permanently on edge and cannot relax, even when I have no reason to be feeling this way. It´s more a case of my body than my mind (although of course it is probably my mind that is causing it, one way or another), and so this Rescue Remedy, sprayed twice on the tongue whenever I am feeling it, really helps me to relax. It´s not a miracle worker, but knowing that I´ve got it to hand is reassuring. It contains Cherry Plum, Clematis, Rock Rose, Star of Bethlehem and Impatiens, which all have calming properties.

Do any of you study from stress of anxiety? If so, how do you deal with it? I´d love to know if you have any tips!

Caudalie Eau de Beaute Beauty Elixir

I don´t think this one needs much of an introduction, given it´s popularity within the blogosphere. I am quite sure that you will have read at least one post about this before, if not many more!

Anyway, I got my hands on this a couple of weeks ago and have been using it daily ever since. I generally have very good skin, but recently I seemed to have started getting some unexplained breakouts. I´ve found that this stuff has worked wonders in clearing them up, and my skin feels soft and looks radiant after using it. I usually use it after cleansing, morning and night, and find the menthol scent really soothing and invigorating. However, I haven´t had as much success using it as a ´refresher´on my makeup throughout the day, as many people have raved about in their reviews - for me, it doesn´t seem to make much of a difference!

Revlon Photoready Foundation

This has become my daily go-to foundarion and has been a real ´grower´, considering I was on the fence about it in the beginning. I reviewed this product a couple of weeks ago, so if you are interested in reading that then you can find it here.

Liz Earle Intensive Nourishing Treatment Mask

This is a product I´ve had for a while, and which, despite my general love for Liz Earle skincare, I wasn´t too impressed with. It´s a mask which is designed to be applied to the face in a thick layer and left for around fifteen minutes after cleansing, and to be honest, I never really noticed much of a difference in my skin after using it. However, recently, I was in need of a face mask as my skin was asking for some TLC, so I decided to try applying this at night and leaving it on while I slept. Well, I´ve got to say, using it like this has made all the difference. In the morning, there is no residue to rinse off as my skin drinks all the moisture up, and is left feeling lovely and baby soft.

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in Rendezvous

I´m going to be reviewing this one later in the week, so I won´t say too much now. But I must say, I absolutely love this shade and have been wearing it almost every day since I got it.

Benefit The Porefessional Primer

I wouldn´t say that I LOVE this or find it amazing, but I have been finding it quite useful when applied to my forehead, which can tend to get a bit oily, as this does a good job of mattifying it and creating a better base for my foundation. I also like to use it on my nose, to hide the obvious pores I have there. But I wouldn´t use this all over my face, as I much prefer a dewy, glowing finish.

Benefit Coralista and Benefit Dallas

I´m going to review both of these soon, so again, I´ll save my chatter for then. But I will say that hey have fast become favourites and go-to products in my daily routine, and when I use Dallas as a contour, together they are the dream combination for me.

So, that´s it for July. I have really been genuinely loving all of these products, and it hasn´t been like some months where it´s hard to choose anything that has really floated my boat. To be fair, it might be because I have ácquired´more products than usual. Not that I´m meant to be on a spending ban or anything. Ahem.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed having a little peek into my makeup bag and the like. Have you tried any of these products? What are your current favourites?

xx

July Agenda

- My beautiful home town -

At the end of last month, I set myself a few little goals and tasks to reach and complete, but I only allowed myself a week to do it. Being the busiest week of the year for me at work, this was probably a little bit foolish, and unsurprisingly, I didn't get very far towards achieving what I had hoped to!
So this time, I'm giving myself the whole month, which means I have absolutely no excuses for falling short, especially as I now have a couple of weeks off work with nothing much planned!

So what do I have planned for myself this month?

1. Learn to do a fishtail plait/braid.
It's just a small goal, but it's something I have been wanting to do for ages now and for some reason I never seem to find the time to figure out how to do it. Well, go me, I'm one step ahead on this one and have already successfully taught myself how!I did it about five minutes ago, but I don't see this as cheating, because I was already intending to include this little challenge on my list. It just so happened that I had a moment of motivation before sitting down to write this post, so I am off to a great start...start as you mean to go on, and all that!

2. Bake Macaroons and Slutty Brownies.
Baking was on last month's agenda, but alas, it wasn't to be. My oven is absolutely rubbish, as I mentioned before, and it takes all day to cook anything! But as I've got some free time, this shouldn't be an issue. I love baking, and it's not something new for me, but I haven't had the time to do it in an absolute age.

        

      - Not really relevant...but on the subject of baking/ food, here's the delicious dessert I had last week! -

3. Save my pennies.
This is an absolute must for this month, as I've got a lot of things coming up that are going to require funding! June was a complete nightmare for spending, and I really don't feel like I've got anything much to show for it, so throughout July, I shall endeavour to keep my disobedient little hands away from Ebay and my Paypal account, which seem to have been the biggest hindrances to my saving of late!

4. Get away.
Ok, so this is a complete and utter contradiction to number three, but given that I have time off work, and that the hubby and I haven't been anywhere nice together in ages, I'm going to make an exception and figure this into the old budget. It won't be anything too fancy, but a day and a night away is going to be just what we need to recharge after all that's been happening over the past few months.

5. Blog every day.
This is a general goal of mine anyway, and not something I see as a chore. I usually do manage to post on most days, but during July, I'm going to make the most of my free time and post more, and hopefully I'll have the chance to get lots of nice photos and put together some things I haven't had the time to do yet. I want to branch out a bit.

6. Do something crafty.
I don't know what yet. But something. I love being creative, and I've been really fidgety and restless recently because I really want to do something! If anyone has got any relatively simple craft ideas then please do let me know in the comments. Again, this was something I wanted to do last month, but didn't have the time!

And that's my lot! I am giving myself until 31st July to complete these,

Do you have any little goals or plans for the month?

xx