Monthly Motivation : Find a Moment

I've been to exhausted to write this occasionally I find pure moments of madness where I get a rush of energy and become really productive. 

But for the most part I find myself sucked into the black hole that is YouTube and Netflix until I fall asleep. 

Shift work can take its toll there are rarely two days the same I go from lates to earlier at the drop of a hat. Days could be 4 hours to 12 hours long and I've only had one day of a week since June. 

All this can be taxing on your body in those few moments that you actually get for yourself. Can become to easily wasted.  or thrown onto housework, or trying to keep your social life somewhat intact.  

But sometimes you have to be selfish and take a moment to focus on yourself. Run a bath, put on a face mask, get a book and relax. Hell go to the gym if thats what you need. 

Find a moment. One thats all for you. Because otherwise you will drive yourself crazy. 

Now for August...

Take a Break : Creative Lunch

Costa recently opened in the town where I work, not a lot of big chains have made it out our way, and it's been really handy to grab a coffee, hot chocolate or frappuchino on the go. I've been meaning to actually sit in, there's not many places like this around where I live and with free wifi I knew it come in handy at some point. 

A few days ago between going to the gym and work I had sometime to kill, so opted to have a late lunch in Costa, laptop in hand footage to edit, trusty notebook to write Ideas in and Kate Hudsons Pretty Happy to flick through if I had spare time, I got myself a wrap and treated myself to a hot chocolate with whip cream and choose a seat in the back and plugged myself in. 

I no longer have the fear of being in places alone, I'm totally content in sitting and having lunch with myself, especially when I'm keeping busy, I know that this is something that can bother a lot of people but once your try out a few things you really get in to the swing of things and getting comfortable with your own company is a really good life skill to have... I'd start with going to the cinema yourself before progressing to lunch out. 

Being in the coffee shop is totally different from being at home and I felt way more productive, I wasn't as easily distracted... and I'm very easily distracted... and I got things done. Though sometimes its easy to be in a familiar environment, this meant that normally wasted time was put to better use so I think this will definitely become a thing that I do when I have time before work.  

On top of having time to work on blog an vlog stuff it also was a little TLC time, a moment to check in with me, treat myself to a genuinely gorgeous pulled pork wrap and a dessert like hot chocolate.  Treat myself and have a moment to sit down and gather my thoughts. 

Anyway take a moment to have a creative lunch to yourself... or just have a lunch. Treat yourself and take a break.  

Take A Break : Family Time

Family time its not something I often have time for, yes I see my parents regularly, but outwith that my family are a little spread out and I rarely see any of them. My grandparent, as well as my Uncle and his family live an hour away (the rest of my family are in England, New Zealand and America) and since I started my job, going over for lunch on the occasionally Saturday just became non-exsistant.

I think we all go through a phase in our lives where family does hold as high a priority as it should, so many other things come first, and to be honest I think we all understand, the important thing is to make time now and again for your family.

So on my day off, I arranged to go into town with my Mum and meet my Gran w

ho is looking after my little cousin whilst the schools are off and have lunch.

We had a lovely afternoon, there's 11 years between me and my cousin so I spent a lot of the afternoon spelling out words to the story I was helping her write or giving her ideas on what to draw next. She had been to the Disney Store and bought herself a notebook with Birthday Money, so was excited to be using it over lunch.

We also had a wander round some of the shops as well, and I found out your never to old to get treated by your Gran, when she got my a pintrest-esque milk bottle from Paperchase.

A part of me wasn't overly excited about the afternoon, but I forget how nice it is to spend some quality family time, to just be able to spend some time together uninterrupted quality time and make some memories.

So if your able to, take a break out of your life and spend some time with the family.

Take a Break: Hot Chocolate

There's a lot that I love about christmas but shopping is not one of them. I tend to like to do most of it online where I can be in the comfort of my own home and get in delivered without the hassle of queues, leaving the house and the high possibility of getting soaked from the rain.  

All of which happened to me as I found that I actually needed to enter shops to get presents this year. So off to town I trudged. 

And of course I took a moment for myself so as well as treating myself to a gorgeous Urban Decay Nude Matte Lipstick I stopped off at my favourite place in the world Starbucks.  

Starbucks do this amazing thing during the holiday season they introduce there festive flavours and I fell in love with the Honey and Almond Hot Chocolate last year when I tried it on a whim not totally sold with the fact it said Almond, cause I always find that things like that can be a hit or a miss. But luckily this was a hit.  

Any who I took a moment out of my torturous trip at the shops to have a seat and a lovely hot chocolate. The almond and honey make it sweeter and just way more amazing and I was eagerly anticipating winter so I could have it again. My first trip into town at the beginning of December saw me rushing to the Starbucks at the train station to get a Red Cup of this amazingness. 

So treat yourself before this festive fave leaves us for another year or try the Egg Nog Latte another one of my absolute favourites. 

Take a Break: Skin Care

Being a little strapped for cash with it being the festive season I was left sort-of neglecting buying my cleanser and just using face wipes. Which do serve a purpose they just don't do an amazing job.

So after my face decided to have a bit go a major breakout I decided I just had to go and get some and have a little TLC time with my skin.

I have combination skin normal and oily. Have suffered from spots since I was about 10 and have when through many different brands, creams, cleanses. Some made my skin breakout in not
only spots but rashes. Irritating my already irritated skin. Some came in at too hefty a price, some just didn't seem to do much at all.  Skin care is all about what works for the person, and of course not breaking the bank trying to find it.

I started using No7 Beautiful Skin Normal/Oily products at the beginning of the year and have used them on and off again as I am terrible at keeping up with skin care routines. My mind often goes to a place where I think my skin is terrible so why try. Which is the worst attitude to have because then it gets worse and days like these need to happen.

My Face TLC routine:

I first use a face wipe to remove most of my make-up. I wear a full face most days as thats my preference and how I feel most comfortable. Though I know its not necessary whats best for my skin. Then I use the Cleansing Water to properly rid my face of any remaining make-up and then I use the cleansing foam to help refresh my face and make it feel less dry, which I sometimes feel the Cleansing water does.

I then exfoliate both my skin with the No7 exfoliator. And my lips with the amazing Bubblegum lip scrub from Lush, which leaves my lips feeling amazing, especially in the winter when my lips dry up and go a bit chapped.

I then do a combo mask putting the Pore vacuum mask on my T-zone are and the Purifying mask on the rest of my skin. My favourite thing about the purifying mask is that it heats up as you rub it into your skin. Then I leave that whilst I have an relaxing bath, because how else would you complete a pamper session.

Once I take the masks off, the worlds most satisfying feeling I think is removing the Pore Vacuum mask as you peel it. Then take the Purifing mask off with just water.  I once again  using the cleansing water to make sure my skin is fresh and clean and then moisturese.

I can literally hear my skin thanking me as yes I can sometimes be found going to bed without removing my make-up which I know is such a huge faux-pas.