Road Trip: South of the UK

Hello there you lovely lot!

I hope your having a wonderful week! The sunshine has been incredible this week, its a shame it will only last that long too, as it seems to brighten everyones mood. Travelling to work has been a tricky one though, with temperatures rising to 35 degrees and with no air to breathe. I cant complain about it as its much better than trying to keep out of the wind a rain, especially when you decide to go on a road trip around the UK, this is the kind of weather I was wishing for but weren't quite so lucky to get.

You might have seen one of my previous posts where I was giving you some ideas of what to do on a lazy weekend. Going on a little road trip was one of them and so me and Nick hired a little car and headed down to the south coast of the UK for a long weekend.

The image above shows the flat we stayed in on our little trip. It was a quaint little place in the heart of Graffham, West Sussex and situated on a little plot of land on the hosts property, surrounded by fields and horses. It was really quiet compared to London which I loved as I felt I could really relax in my happy place. The only issue was that there was no signal or wifi but that ended up being a god send as it felt that no one could contact us, and we could just spend some quality time together without getting disturbed.

The host, Penny and her husband were really lovely. They give you everything you need including some fresh walnut bread and eggs from their chickens. This made for a wonderful breakfast and topped with some homemade jam, I couldn't have asked for anything better. Just look at that view!

While we didnt have a very good experience with Europcar as we had to wait hours to pick it up as they had made a massive balls up with their service, we did manage to make the most of our time away even though half of our first day was spent sorting out that mess.

We visited Portsmouth and New Forest which were both lovely but accompanied by some wet and windy weather. New Forest was by far our favourite place and we plan to visit again some time, maybe for a weekend of camping. Its surrounded by fields and has lots of little villages tucked away in it for a spot of shopping. You can by fresh produce and the locals are always on hand to help if your looking for something in particular.

We ate lots of good food and filled my cravings of Nachos and talked about life, the world and what we want to do next. I think its really important to take time out of your stressful lives and spend it with the people that mean the most to you, as it can give you a new perspective on things.

Life can be hard and a lot to deal with at the best of times but if you remind yourself or what you have and things you have achieved no matter how big or small than it can seem that little bit better. Remember to be kind and to not compare yourself to others and life can be full of sunshine, even when you do live in London and it does rain 80% of the time.

We had a really lovely time away. Its always great to appreciate the country you live in and make the most of what you have around you without spending a fortune. The next stop is going to be Scotland as I've always wanted to go there but this time in a cold climate so I can snuggle up in a log cabin somewhere.

I hope you have enjoyed this little post.
Let me know if you have been anywhere nice lately?

Love Khrissie x

Jewellery: Dolly Box

Happy bank holiday weekend everyone! Spring has well and truly sprung and so I thought I would treat myself to a Dolly Box. This is a one off box subscription curated by Kate Murnane of 'Dolly Bow Bow' on YouTube, consisting of 4 everyday pieces of jewellery and one statement necklace. After seeing how beautiful the pieces are from her shop and the great taste she has in fashion, I just had to give it a go. 

This spring the box was inspired by Paris which I didn't know until I received the box. I was really happy as I have wonderful memories of Paris and so wearing pieces that represent the wonderful city of love is just wonderful. The package comes in a black box (pictured above) with the cutest bow around it. Once opened the pieces are neatly displayed in sweet little pink bags. 

The first piece I opened up was this adorable rose gold necklace of the Paris skyline. Rose gold is my new favourite colour of metal so I was really pleased with this. 

I then opened up the cutest little silver earrings. They are inspired by the lovelock bridge and would look cute on any earlobes, the only problem you have is deciding what ear you put them on.

Next up was this beautiful rose gold heart ring, which you can wear with the necklace for a love inspired themed outfit. Its so dainty, it would look gorgeous layered with some other simple rings.

Last of the pink pouches was this yellow-gold bracelet with the French phrase 'je t'aime' which means 'I love you', how sweet. The only problem is that I have the smallest wrists in the world and its miles too big for me. I'm going to keep it non the less and see if theres some way of changing the chain to something I can alter.

I was really happy with all the pieces I received, not remembering there was another surprise awaiting my eyes. Behind the pale pink tissue paper a dainty chain was poking out. I lifted the paper to realise the most gorgeous statement necklace was waiting for me! I mean... look at this!

Light rose gold with flowers in the most amazing soft pink hues, its just too pretty! Perfect for pairing with a cute cream day dress to add some sparkle on a picnic date with your loved on by the eiffel tower! (breathe) It just makes me dream of wonderful memories with my favourite person! <3

The box is sold at £26.99 but as it included the statement necklace and as your getting another 4 pieces of hand selected jewellery on top of that, I feel like its a pretty good price. I was really happy with the selected items anyway and now that Kate has redesigned her website and business cards, I'm sure its going to be an even more exciting box to receive.

Thanks Kate for an amazing box. I look forward to the future subscriptions to come out. In the meantime check out her shop as there are some amazing pieces on there and I've just noticed a home where section which I need to grab a few pieces from quick!

I hope your enjoying your weekend and you enjoyed this post.
Let me know if there is anything you would like to see from me as I want to start getting back into
blogging again as I have missed it! I've just had other things I've had to deal with first :)

Love Khrissie x

Travelling the UK: The Lakes

Happy New Year everyone!

I'm glad to be back. Christmas was wonderful with all the family, catching up with friends, over eating and playing board games. It came and went so quickly that it was New Year before I could say 2015. For the New Year I went up North with my partner to see his family who I had not seen in months. We travelled up on the Mega Bus on New Years eve and enjoyed a takeaway, played more games and set off our own fireworks into the new year, it was wonderful. The next few days were spent seeing the rest of the family until it got to the 3rd Jan.

On the 4th of Jan it was mine and Nicks 5 year anniversary of being together (if you want to here how we met etc let me know) and so we thought we would celebrate it in a different way. My New Years resolution is to be happy and part of that is doing more of what I love. Travelling and seeing new places is one of them so we thought we would head to The Lakes for the day with his parents. I've always wanted to travel back to The Lakes since I visited it as a kid and fell in love with it.

Kendal, UK

Kendel, UK

We left Wakefield at 8:30am and headed for Skipton, a quaint little town in the heart of the countryside. It was the perfect place to stop for a cup of tea and a tea cake before we carried on the rest of the journey. Next stop was Kendel, this was another small market town, full of cute shops and beautiful limestone houses. One of those places you could imagine spending your days when you were a little older. It was lovely to just walk around and take in the beauty of the place. After a quick stop at Costa and a cream cake (my favourite) we headed on our journey up to the lakes. 

If you follow me on social media you would have heard I got a new camera from the boyfriend at Christmas, he really spoilt me and I am so grateful for it. I've been wanting to learn how to use a camera properly for years so this was a perfect way for me to learn. He got me the Nikon D3300 which is a lovely size and looks quite simple to use with some practice. I thought this trip would be the perfect time to test the camera out to see how it compared to my little canon camera. All photos shown in this post are the results I got from it. On first impressions I'm quite impressed. So I spent a lot of my time just looking around and trying to spot opportunities where I could take a snap and practice my composition and instinct in finding beauty in the most simple of things.

After a short drive we arrived in Windermere, which took my breath away as the view of the lake came into site. It really is a beautiful place, tucked up in the heart of the Peak District just waiting for you to discover it. If you ever have a chance to explore the UK you should definitely pay a visit. I am sure you will not be disappointed.

We spent a good while here just looking out onto the distant hills and feeding the swans and ducks which seem to populate most of the area. It was lovely to be somewhere away from our usual surroundings of London and discovering how beautiful our country can really be.

Our last stop was a 15 minute drive to the other end of the lake in Ambleside. Not much different to the other towns we have visited but beautiful all the same. There were a lot of B&Bs in this town so the perfect place to stay if you want to visit the Peak District for a few days. I was thinking how nice it would be a to have your own little B&B in that area. It would be a lovely business to have if you did not like the hustle and bustle of the overcrowded cities.

The sun set around 4:15pm that day so as it got dark we decided to head back home. We were lucky enough to see the sun set behind the hills of the lakes which was stunning. My first sunset of 2015! It was a wonderful day and I'm really pleased we decided to go. It made for a wonderful start to the New Year as it kept me super busy, just enjoying the simplicities of life with some of my favourite people. Definitely make the most of each day you have, even if it is something simple and never put too much pressure on yourself to do anything as it will just make you feel terrible.

Plan a trip around where you live, its a lot cheaper than going on holiday abroad and you can still have as much fun. There might not be the hot sun to lay around in but who wants to spend all their days getting sunburnt when there are all the places in the world which you have never seen before.

Are there any places you want to visit this year?
I've decided I want to go to Scotland for my birthday this year as I have never been before and I cant wait to spend more time doing more of what I love! I'm going to leave you with this beautiful picture I managed to get of the sunset as we are heading home. Life is beautiful so live the adventure!

Love Khrissie xx

KhrissieLoves: Nics Picks

Real Techniques: 'Nic's Collection' £29.99

Ive been loving make up brushes for quite a while now. I find it crazy that I never used to use them back in the day, mainly because they weren't very good. The bristles came out onto my face as soon as they touched my skin and a flawless finish seemed a thing of mystery.

Real Techiques were the first brand I tried that really amazed me, firstly because of how soft they were. This was back when bloggers such as Llymlrs and Zoella were bragging about them in most of their videos, making me head straight to Boots as soon as I had the chance to pick them up myself. My first brush I brought was actually the stippling brush as I wanted to test one of them first before I invested in more, which ended in a loving friendship and from then on my collection grew.

I've seen Nic's Picks collection around for a while now but never thought about actually buying them for some reason. I was on Feel Unique one day, in a spendy mood and decided to go for it! I received them in their lovely packaging a few days later to be wowed with how soft they were. As soon as I had the chance, I put them to the test as I couldn't wait to see what the results would be. Not to my surprise, they were amazing!

I love how in this collection you get three brushes for your eyes and two for your face which works out really cost effective as those mac blending brushes can be quite costly on their own and these do just as good a job.

Sam and Nic are so amazing at makeup and I love their beauty channel! If you haven't seen them in action, go check them out, your going to be addicted. You can buy Nics Picks here and all their other brushes which are available here

Hope you have had a lovely weekend
Love Khrissie x