I'll be the first to admit that the house that me and my partner rent is bare. When we moved in we were intent on using our money to buy furniture. Then Christmas rolled around. Then a big holiday. Now, ten months in we're finally starting to get there. We've put some wall art up that's been hanging around in the basement since day 1. We've taken some rugs off of the floor that just weren't working for us (we've been ignoring it in the hope that it just ebbs away for months now).
I've been so intent on the idea that we need big, expensive things to make this house a home that I've overlooked the little things we could be changing. I'm obsessed with the idea of having lots of mirrors and real plants and decluttering our possessions, but we haven't had the time or money to sort any of this out.
But, it turns out that Homesense totally has my back. I always find that when I head in I either hate every single product I see, or find hundreds of things that I 'need'.
You see, I found a leftover Christmas voucher (yaaaaaas) and decided to actually spruce up our home with some little things to make a big difference. This haul has made me so inspired to switch things up in our house to make it more homely.
Candles
I love candles. To an almost unhealthy extent. I've got a big ol wicker toiletries basket of them, and if I'm sat down at my desk to do some work I usually have one or two lit up in my office. Burning candles has been something that has helped me concentrate on my work for years, and I actually always used to have one going when I was doing my homework.
I must have sniffed at least 50 candles in Homesense, until I found three that looked beautiful and smelt incredible.
Sand and Fog's simple glass candle with a patterned lid is only made better by the fact that it's strawberry mimosa scented. For real. I've never had a strawberry mimosa before, but I need to try one now. This is sweet and delicate and I cannot wait to burn it.
I couldn't resist DW Home's lavender chamomile candle either. I'm a BIG fan of lavender. But, so many lavender candles I smelt were either too bitter, too faint or just a bit musty. This is a fresh, sweet lavender scent and I love the fact that it's hand poured, so has that extra bit of love.
The last candle I picked is one that I want to burn whilst doing yoga. I've never had an aromatherapy candle before and the 'breathe' one from Mindful Earth smells incredible. It's a mix of citrus and herbs and freshness, and is the strangest smelling candle I've ever come across. But I love it. Plus, have you seen how pretty the jar is? It reminds me of an old-fashioned medicine bottle.
Plants
I really want a home filled with lots of plants. Real, fake, big, small, whatever. I want to breathe in their goodness and break up the stale white walls of our home. At the moment I have one solitary plant indoors. It's a red demon chili plant, and I'm SO proud of having grown it from little seedlings. BUT, the chilis are so strong that I can't handle eating any of them, ffs.
This cute lavender pot plant is exactly what I had in mind in terms of plants. I would LOVE a real lavender plant, and I'll get one someday. I really wanted a plant (or two) to pop in the bathroom, but there's no ventilation system in our one and I just know that any plant wouldn't thrive there. This fake lavender fits perfectly on our bathroom shelves and just adds a splash of colour to the room.
Beauty
Does anyone actually head into Homesense without coming home with a brand new strange beauty product? It's like hunting through a treasure chest to find a speck of beauty gold that 1.) isn't just pure shite and 2.) actually suits your needs.
I'm just about starting to get into the whole sheet mask trend. It took me a while to find ones that actually worked for my skin, and I'm really hoping these ones do too! I got a four pack of sheet masks from Beauty Concepts: two are tea tree and claim to repair your skin, and the other two are charcoal masks and claim to purify it. I honestly canNOT wait to give these a go as my skin is in serious need of being both repaired and purified.
Food
I always get drawn in to the weird and wonderful herbs and spices at HomeSense. Himalayan pink salt IMO is the way forward over regular table salt. It's a lot better for you, and although it's a little more expensive, I got this massive bag of it for £2.99 so I can keep my salt pot topped up.
So there we go: my little HomeSense haul which has totally inspired me to focus on changing the little things in our home to get a better overall image.
Follow me on Bloglovin | Twitter | Instagram | Youtube | Facebook
Laziness is one of my biggest flaws, and one that I'm definitely trying to work on. I used to be that blogger that wouldn't even bother proofreading her posts before they went up, because cba, but in the last five months I've turned that around. However, in terms of most other things, laziness still wins. I enjoy wearing comfy no-effort clothes, I clean when I have to, and thinking that I can get away with the bare minimum for everything is kind of my own personal agenda.
Visiting Walt Disney World completely changed my perspective on all of this. I've always thought that it's the big things that matter: furniture is what decorates a house, plain flatlays are the way forward and so on. I could never quite put my finger on what wasn't right. Until I saw the level of effort that designers and architects had gone into at Disney World. The whole place was a thousand times more magical because of the little things.
I literally gasped as I strolled around the parks at the tiniest of things. The bird houses in Animal Kingdom (the top photo) were practically palaces; a sight to behold on their own, even without the magnificent birds surrounding them. At night time they switched on lanterns just like the ones in Tangled in a little courtyard and I was mesmerised. Hell, even the wooden boards blocking off a new construction were painted beautifully.
As each day at the parks went by, I began to notice how every single tiny little detail in Disney World had been considered, carefully planned, and created to culminate in a one of a kind experience. When I got home, I realised how bare our house is. Now, I don't mean that it's missing that bit of Disney pizazz, but that I've overlooked all the details in our home, whilst focusing on the big things. Despite having lived here for six months now, we've only got one thing hanging up on a wall in the house. All of the 'temporary' moving storage is still in place. We've even still got a couple of unpacked boxes. But I'd convinced myself that it doesn't matter, and that our house is a home without these things. Now I'm starting to see differently.
Since coming back, we've re-installed a canvas painting we bought last summer onto our dining room wall. I've created a collage wall in my office space. I've even got back into the habit of buying flowers for my desk and lighting candles whilst I'm working. It feels amazing. I've convinced my boyfriend to unpack a couple of the boxes he's been ignoring for months. All these little details are starting to make this house carry more of our personalities. I'm so, so much happier with how it looks now in comparison to how it looks a month ago.
My photography is (hopefully) starting to improve a little bit because of it as well now. I've finally begun to really look at other people's flatlays and realise just how much more effort they put into them in comparison to the effort I put in. I've started to notice how much white space is left in my images, and research different ways to build texture and create interesting flatlays without them looking cluttered. I've by no means become some kind of photography expert overnight, but I can feel a difference in my style, and I hope you'll all be able to see it in upcoming posts too.
Have you ever been inspired by something like this?
Follow me on Bloglovin | Twitter | Instagram | Youtube | Facebook
1.) A smoky, coppery makeup look
2.) How your Instagram theme changes with the seasons
3.) Daily Autumn skincare regime
4.) An ASOS/Primark Autumn and Winter wear haul
5.) OOTD with chunky knits and ankle boots (of course)
6.) 10 favourite things to do in Autumn
7.) 10 things to do on a rainy day
8.) Tips on keeping your mood up when everything gets a bit gloomy
9.) A perfect Friday night in
10.) A LUSH Halloween/Christmas collection haul
11.) Starting/going back to uni/school/college: your experience
12.) A comfort food recipe, e.g. stew, pie, etc.
13.) A Bake Off inspired bake
14.) Current Netflix/TV favourites
15.) What to pack for an Autumn/Winter holiday
16.) Halloween house tour
17.) Pumpkin carving ideas
18.) A photo collection of nature's seasonal changes as we go into Autumn
19.) Updated hair care routine
20.) How to avoid lip and face chapping as the weather gets colder
21.) Autumn accessories. Think cute mittens, bobble hats and whatever you fancy!
22.) Top 5 Autumn lipsticks
23.) A Halloween makeup look/outfit
24.) Home style: how to update your decor for the colder months
25.) How to keep up with an exercise routine when the weather is rubbish
I really hope you found this post useful! What would you add?
Follow me on Bloglovin | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Youtube
Who watches actual TV anymore? Seriously though, I only rarely switch mine on, and usually it's (shamefully) to catch up on the latest Gogglebox and Hawaii Five-0. So, here's my picks of TV shows on Netflix at the moment that I can't get enough of:
1.) Gossip Girl. Duh. I'm pretty much in love with Blair and Serena's friendship. The highs and lows of the Upper East Side became my obsession this winter and I honestly felt like there was a small hole in my life when I finished all the series'. Plus, well, there's always Chuck Bass *swoons*.
2.) Pretty Little Liars. I only started watching this about a month ago and have already hit half way through Season 4, whoops! NO ONE TELL ME WHO A IS.
3.) The Vampire Diaries. I know a lot of people think this is pretty lame, but hey, I like watching this in the evening to wind down.
4.) Miranda. Who doesn't love this goofy, adorable lady? I do.
5.) Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Cop shows are life, and a comedy cop show is even better.
Anyhow, as you can tell I'm pretty knackered as I write this, so I'll be heading off to pop on my bunny slippers and snuggle down to watch a film and have a good ol' fruit salad and chill session.
What are your current picks?
I've taken the plunge that sends all beauty bloggers into a whirl of love: buying my first MAC lipstick. This was probably the most thought I've ever put into buying a product ever. For starters, at £15.50 a pop these lippies aren't the cheapest things in the world, and secondly I wanted to get my collection off to a good start with some sass-filled blogger favourites.
Naturally I had to pick up a classic red lip, so I went for Russian Red. I would describe this shade as a bold red lip with pink undertones. This has been my go-to for days when I want to feel that little bit extra confident, or when I'm going to an event and has replaced my previous Kiko shade.
My other choice was a wild card. As I've mentioned before, I haven't fully gotten rid of my emo heritage and so a dark vampy look is something that makes me all *heart-eye emoji*. For this reason, and because ever since one of my favourite bloggers, Annie Writes Beauty had spoken about her love for it I've been lusting after it, I had to pick Sin up.
Sin has easily become my favourite shade of lipstick ever. It's a deep almost burgundy shade with hints of blue and red. It fills me with oodles of confidence and is something that everyone comments on when I wear. I think it suits my pasty pale skin to a 'T' and adds a little something sexy to a makeup look.
What are your favourite MAC lipsticks?
If you've been catching up with my latest stationary post, you'll know that I've been on the hunt for some pretty blog props for Instagram posts and to improve my blogging photo game. To my joy I've discovered New Look's home range amongst the depths of my local store. I was pretty much Aladdin in the Cave of Wonders, gazing around at all the beautiful treasure surrounding me.
So, after a lengthy decision making time (much to the despair of my boyfriend who was so done with being forced to sniff every candle in the store), and a realisation that my budget didn't stretch to buy everything that smelled or looked pretty, these were what I settled on as necessary to improving my life, obvs:
Prosecco and elder flower tealights.
These smell INSANE. I'm a bit of a candle addict, and my house is a bit of a Yankee candle/pretty tealight treasure trove, but this is possibly the best smelling candle I've ever come across. And that includes candy cane AND vanilla cupcake ones. Elder flower and prosecco are some of my favourite things anyway, and this combination is subtle, floral and a little sweet. I cannot get enough!
Butterfly Lantern
What use are tealights without a pretty holder? This is such an awesome blog prop, and fits perfectly in the back of my white-themed Instagram photos.
Mini Poster Pack
I have spent SO long trying to find these on their website to no avail (literally tried everything, kill me). Inspirational posters are something I really need to keep me motivated at the moment, and I can't wait to use these in a college over my actual desk when I move house in June *squeals*.
Pure Colour Blue Hairbrush (similar here)
Okay so this isn't exactly home ware, but I bought it in my home ware haul and I'm far too excited about it to leave it out of this post. I've been debating about getting a tangle teaser for SO LONG, but they always seem overpriced for basically a handle-less hairbrush. This one was really affordable and pretty - I haven't turned back since buying it and there'll be a whole post about why I've fallen in love with it soon!
Have you bought anything from their home ware section recently?
Everybody loves a little bit of festive decoration (unless you're some kind of year-long festive Scrooge!), so I've compiled a collation of my favourite decor items this year.
Yankee Candles are pretty much the best decorative item in my house - they're so interchangeable, perfect as gifts and transform the entire scent and atmosphere of my home. I decided to order candy corn, witches brew and their spider web votive holder to make my home that little bit more spooky.
I made my first foray into halloween baking this year as well - with the help of a much more artistically inclined housemate for the decorations on top! A Tiger store has just opened in my home town and I think I've fallen a tiny bit in love. I managed to grab these awesome cupcake holders, flags and fake spiders for a teensy price. Plus, a tube of orange and black gel food colouring made a perfect topping for these red velvet cupcakes!
How are you decorating for halloween this year?
