Five Highlights From The Past Month

…I feel this it is. Are you ok with that? Do you mind me blathering on about all the pretty awesome things that I’ve managed to pack into my month? Maybe one time I’ll throw in a ‘Five Shit Things That Happened Recently’ post just to even everything out. I feel like it always compliments my monthly favourites video quite nicely – it sort of rounds everything up – an end of month review if you like. So today you’ll find an April Favourites video that I filmed a little earlier than usual (just so I could film in my swanky hotel room instead of my usual digs), have a scroll down to the bottom of this post to have a watch. It’s the usual mix of beauty, style and other random bits and bobs that have caught my eye and seeing as I haven’t been home that much over the past four weeks there’s a distinct whiff of travel about them all. Speaking of new adventures, I’ll crack on…

An Afternoon Tea for Four. Earlier in the month, it was my friend’s birthday so we headed out with our two other mates for afternoon tea at The Grand to celebrate. We’ve all known each other for yonks (I’ve known one of them for 25 years!), we all have matching tattoos (because we all thought we were so cool when we were 18) and whenever I hang out with them I just feel so lucky to have an amazing group of girls as a support network. We love our food and ended up eating two plates of sandwiches before we even got on to the sweet stuff. I’d highly recommend it for afternoon tea actually, as the room is a beaut and looks out over the seafront and we left the joint needing rolling home because we were all so full.

Karaoke Rules. Another mate-heavy evening that you would have seen in this vlog, happened towards the beginning of the month as Lily, Carrie, Reem, Jen, Zoe and I went to Lucky Voice and had THE BEST 90 minutes of the month as we sung our hearts out to Blu Cantrell and Spice Girls. Let me go on the record and say that ‘No Doubt – Don’t Speak’ is the ultimate karaoke song. I think I almost burst a lung trying to scream out the ‘Don’t…Don’t!‘ bits at the end. If you’ve never given karaoke a go, then I highly recommend. Just make sure that you get suitably tipsy before and are with a group of people that you don’t give a rat’s arse about embarrassing yourself in front of as there is nothing dignified about the event. Unless you’re Carrie and have the voice of an angel.

Making Mates at Coachella. Whenever I see someone who’s watched my Coachella Vlog, their first comment is always ‘You guys looked like you got on like a house on fire!‘ and – we did! I’d never met Helen or Jamie before, Fleur’s an old pal and they were all truly so fun to be around, and really lovely girls to spend a week with. We laughed loads, shared toilet-humour stories when we weren’t even drunk (a sign of true pals) and it actually felt really sad to say goodbye to them at the airport. Basically Coachella was awesome. Big love to Kiehl’s once again for the invite. I know that the festival as a whole doesn’t get a great rap on social media, but from the two times that I’ve attended, I bloomin’ love it. The weather is stunning, along with the surroundings, the sets from artists feel really special because the place is so pretty and the people watching is second to none. SO. MANY. BUTTS.

New York with Mark. New York is our special place. I still get a little misty eyed when I watch our vlog that we did there when we last visited, two years ago now. As this was my fourth visit there and Mark’s second, we’d done most of the touristy things and so instead tried our best to live like locals. We went to pilates classes (New York Pilates was amazing and I left wanting all the Outdoor Voices because that’s all everyone there wore), went shopping, I had my nails done (Paintbox was AWESOME), we wandered around the local neighbours and ate. Lots of eating. If you want to see what we got up to then check out my New York City Guide that I posted this week and my New York ‘Day in The Life’ Vlog.

Being Back on UK Soil. Whilst there is something magical about travel, being a homebody I can’t help but feel the same way about coming home after living out of a suitcase for two weeks. Although this trip was a little work, a little pleasure, as I was trying to film, edit and upload relevant content whilst I was away, it’s was getting a little tough to juggle emails, writing blog posts, editing videos, an exciting project that Lily and I are working (which hopefully we’ll be able to share soon!) and still find time to stop looking down at my phone and look up at the amazing skyline and making sure we didn’t miss out on any good doughnut shops (#Priorities). I don’t like to throw the word ‘stress’ around because I have a nice life, nothing to complain about and a bulging inbox isn’t exactly the end of the world, but I have been feeling a little stifled by my to-do list. So I ticked off as much as I could last week and have given myself an hour slot each day this Bank Holiday to chip away at it a little more. That way I can hopefully alleviate a bit of my workload, whilst still having time to mong on the sofa in pyjamas that I’ve worn for longer than I’d like to admit, whilst eating ice cream from the tub. BRING. IT. ON.

Photos by Lauren Shipley

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