Weekend in Nice

This weekend I went to Nice to watch the Cardiff Blues take on Toulon in the Heineken Cup, and although we lost (thanks to the ref *ahem*) it was still a good weekend. I've been to the south of France before to Toulouse and Marseilles, but Nice was definitely my favourite city out of the three. 

The weather was just perfect, for January it was a lovely surprise. It was warm enough to go out in a t shirt and light jacket, the locals were even swimming and snorkeling in the sea.

The Promenade des Anglais (Promenade of the English) along the Baie des Anges (Bay of the Angels) made for a refreshing walk on Sunday morning before heading back to the airport. It was such a wonderful place to people watch, it was packed with people walking small dogs, families rollerblading, people jogging and young couples pushing prams.

I thought I'd include one rugby photo, this was taken during the warm up. We had fantastic seats in the stadium, the Toulon fans are really entertaining to be around, they make so much more noise than British rugby fans.

Nice is definitely a place I'd like to visit again in the future, I could have done with an extra day to see the sights and sit outside a cafe or two watching the world go by.

Getting into the swing of things

1. Started reading this earlier in the week, it's Pride and Prejudice from the point of view of the servants. 2. Taquitos at Heathrow, good for airport food. 3. Getting ready to push back at Heathrow en route to Nice. 4. There was a Sephora opposite my hotel! 5. Airport snacks. 6. Flying over France back to grey and cloudy Britain.

I think it's fair to say that 2014 is into the swing of things now, everyone is back in work after the Christmas break which lead to me being shattered most nights after work. To get the new year off I went to Nice on Friday to watch the Cardiff Blues take on Toulon, more about that tomorrow but needless to say I'd love to go back to the south of France in the future.

Hope everyone has had a good week and if you were back in work it went by as gently as possible.

E.L.F Blusher: This isn't a makeup review...

I don't do make up reviews, I'm not a beauty blogger and my make up knowledge is limited. However, I had to share this with you. 

Back last year E.L.F opened a store here in Cardiff, just after Christmas I popped into it to buy a few things. Their Tickled Pink blusher was something I'd seen on their website and knew I wanted to try it, it has good reviews with four out of five stars and some women gushing about how much they love it. 

However, when I got it home and used it for the first time I was slighty shocked at the fallout from it. I've taken two photos of it, one before I've used a blush brush to pick up the colour and one after.  

You can see that after maybe two or three uses the case is already messy.

Now, like I said, my makeup knowledge is limited but even I know this isn't right. I typically use NARS blush and there is zero fallout from it. Yes, NARS is much more expensive but after reading the reviews of this blush this wasn't what I was expecting.

This isn't a review but I will say that I wouldn't buy another E.L.F blush again, even though I like how the colour looks on my cheeks and at £3.75 the price is great but I cannot deal with the mess it causes when I use it. I have white bedroom furniture and this goes all over it in the morning.

Am I using it wrong - is there a way of stopping this? Has anyone else experienced this? Let me know if you have any tips!

No January blues here

1. Right after I took this photo of a very quiet winter wonderland it absolutely emptied down, I could have walked into a lake to have got the same effect. By the time I got back to my car I was drenched. 2. Three Costa hot chocolates over two days. I was easing myself back into work with treats. 3. One of the three Ollie & Nic bags I purchased in the space of a week. 4. I'm going to try and use a paper diary this year, this was given to me as a Christmas present by a friend and it's doing the job. 5. Tea at the Juno Lounge. 6. Tapas and gossip followed the tea. 7. I had my second sports massage at Tiger Health Spa yesterday, the knots in my shoulders may never go but anything to help them ache less. 8. I ventured out in the horrid weather today to buy more cushions for my bed, it's a girly retreat. 9. I did eight hour pulled pork tonight, leftovers tomorrow! I've roughly worked out that each portion of the whole meal costs about £2.10.

I've already been back at work for two days as has become my tradition, good luck to everyone going back tomorrow. I can highly recommend making things better with a hot chocolate.

Some of my favourite Christmas gifts

Now that Christmas is over and most people are back in work, no longer is it ok to take a mid afternoon nap or eat chocolate almost continually. Twinkling fairy lights are no longer on the outside of houses, everything is dark, wet, and if you live where I do - a bit windy. 

To remedy the cold, dark days I thought I'd share with you some of my favourite Christmas gifts given to me by my parents Father Christmas. I consider myself incredibly lucky as I loved each and every one of the gifts I received, it was a very good Christmas.

This Eve Victoria candle smells wonderful, so clean and fresh. I've decided to burn it tonight for the first time, the room now smells lovely. I really like that Eve Victoria are a Welsh company, it feels good to support a company just up the road from me.

I was so excited to unwrap this on Christmas morning. I've been wanting to try this for quite a while, it's now kept next to my bed for me to use every night.

These earrings were actually given to me by my aunt, they belonged to her but she wanted me to have them. I've never owned a pair of diamond earrings before, I wore them with pride on Christmas day.

I've had quite the wishlist from ELF for a while, since Christmas I've been using these eye shadows (which is a bit of a treat for me as I don't tend to wear it everyday normally) and so far I've had a good experience with them.

 

 

Gorgeous pajama bottoms from Monsoon, I also had a pair from Joules. It's lovely to wear pretty things to bed.

This last gift is from my brother and his girlfriend, it's potentially my absolute favourite. I was shocked when my mum showed it to me (it was a joint gift between us), I've always wanted to go to the spa at the Celtic Manor. I'm going to be beyond excited when we go!

I hope everyone else had a good Christmas, here's to a happy 2014.

Trip to the Brecon Beacons

On Sunday my parents and I decided to head up to the Brecon Beacons National Park for the day. We headed straight to Talybont on Usk for a pub lunch and then up to some nearby waterfalls for a stroll. I thought I'd share the photos I took during the day.