The 'Retail Feet' Fixer-Upper

Unless you’ve worked retail at Christmas you’ll never know real emotional and physical exhaustion.  Okay, maybe that’s a touch dramatic (how unlike me) but if you’ve worked a retail orientated Christmas, then you know I’m not far off. The average person walks approximately four miles per day. The average person does not work in retail. 

^The amazing Lush Southampton lot, at our Christmas Staff Meal. One week before Christmas, we're trying not to look so mental.

It’s the aching feet-legs-arms-back and the feeling of being so tired that even your hair hurts. You’ve been smiling at Christmas Shoppers for the last 8 (9, 10, 11…) hours and you never want to smile again, let alone help someone who has no idea what they’re talking about, but is convinced that they do. 

I understand I’m not selling working in retail over the seasonal period very well, but there are upsides. Last year for example, a lady came into Lush with a Christmas list that her daughter had given her. But it wasn’t just your regular list, there were no product names; she’d drawn all the products she wanted and coloured them in the right colours and everything - for a seven year old, she did very well. 

Anyway - seeing as I work for Lush all year round, not just at Christmas, I’m fully aware of what retail feet feel like which is why I’ve planned out the perfect Lush based foot-fixer-upper for anyone who needs it. 

I would suggest doing this once you’ve completed your week and you don’t need to worry about getting things ready for your next day at work. 

1. Tidy up your room a little, I know this is a strange step in a foot-fixer-upper but I’m telling you - you’ll feel much better relaxing in a relatively tidy room than you will a messy one. Change your sheets as well, because climbing into fresh sheets after this routine will be the cherry on the top of a wonderful, wonderful cake. 
2. Grab yourself your warm beverage of choice; coffee, tea, hot chocolate, warm squash (or maybe something stronger, dependant on how hellish your week has been) and slip into your home clothes otherwise known as baggies, slouchies, tracks or pyjamas.
   
3. Foot Soak & Fancy Free, foot soak from Lush. Pop the whole crumbly circle into a bowl of hot-to-warm water and soak your feet in the water. The epsom salts in the water, along with the tagetes will help to soothe your aching feet, take down any hot swelling and soften the skin around your toes and heels. Irish Moss Powder is a magic ingredient when it comes to revitalising tired feet. Foot Soak also contains lavender and chamomile is not only calming and soothing for your feet, the scents will also help to chill you out, settle your mind and help you drift off to sleep tonight. You can do this for as long as you like, I like to do it until all the salt has dissolved or until the water is room temperature; stick Netflix on - you deserve to take your time!
   
4. Once you’re done with your soak, put your water aside for a minute, and reach for your Pumice Power bar. Zesty Orange Oils and pumice will help to boost circulation in your feet, as well as refresh and cleanse the skin. Whilst your feet are still wet, work the Pumice Power in gentle circles around your heels and the balls of your feet - the soak will have helped to soften all that tough skin caused by standing on your feet all day and the Pumice Power will help to slough some of it away. Once you’re done, rinse your feet in your left over Foot Soak Water.
   
5. Once you’ve soothed, softened and scrubbed your feet it’s time to really bring them back to life. Lightly dry them on a clean, fluffy towel and then it’s time for Christingle. Christingle is new to the Lush Winter collection this year and whilst it’s getting many a mixed review, I can’t help but gush about it. Everything from the colour, to the scent, to the… well, tingle! Christingle is a body conditioner, similar to the super moisturising qualities of Ro’s Argan or African Paradise but a bit more festive! Packed full of peppermint and spearmint oils, with a healthy dose of menthol crystals, not to mention a generous helping of grapefruit oils this conditioner is invigorating, reviving and stimulating; perfect for zombie feet. Slather it on and leave for a few minutes; as long as you want really, but I’d say somewhere between 5-10 minutes before rinsing again.
   
6. So, now you have revitalised feet and a clear mind. Pop all your pamper bits to one side and slide into bed (assuming that you’ve already brushed your teeth and washed your face!) I’m sure you wont need any help drifting off, but if you do I can’t recommend Sigur Ros or Helios more for the perfect falling asleep playlist. Check them out on Spotify and drift off into a cloudy, sleepy heaven.
   
   Hopefully we’ll all wake up in the morning feeling a bit more chipper and after a few (well-earned) days off feel ready to tackle another week of mayhem or January Sales. 

For all of those out in the retail world during this end of the year - I feel you. But it’s almost over and I can just about see the non-Christmas lights and the end of the seasonal tunnel of hell. 

See you on the other side - Happy Christmas. 

Handmade Gifts are Better

My first year out of education I was never going to be able to afford gifts for everyone who deserved them in my life, so I decided that this was going to be the year that I would properly commit to hand making little gifts so people would know I was thinking about them over the holiday period. Granted, some may see my efforts as a little pre-school but it’s the thought that counts and the careful time taken over making someone else smile. 

I knew I wanted to do something with oranges but I wasn’t sure what. After trawling Pinterest, youtube and various blogs I was thoroughly disheartened by my lack of creative know-how, so I decided to cobble together something entirely of my own creation. I finally came to the conclusion that I could make hanging tree decorations; most people I know have a tree up in their house and if they don’t they could always hang something on a cupboard door knob, or on a mantlepiece. 

I picked out some large oranges from Sainsburies, sliced them finely and laid them out on some kitchen roll for about half an hour - they were extra juicy and in any other instance this would have made for perfect oranges but I needed them less juicy.
After drying as much juice out of them as I could, I placed them all on a baking tray and left in them in the oven for about three hours at 90 degrees. I really didn’t think it was going to take this long, but it really did. I went down to check multiple times, but they were only just done when I finally took them out. 

After they were out of the oven and cool, I left them overnight to dry out that last little bit and be really ready to craft with. 

I’d bought 5 meters of the ribbon I liked, and it was fairly cheap, but this was by far the most fiddly bit of the whole christmas-craft-fest. I tied the ribbon into many little bows and once I was happy with the shape of the bow, I ran a couple of stitches through the main knot to stop it coming undone. 

I can’t really sew at all, but because I used thread that matched the ribbon it didn’t really matter that much. Once I’d made around 15 bows, I picked out the best looking 15 oranges and matched them up. A little drop of craft glue on the back of each bow secured it to the orange. I was originally going to sew the bows to the oranges, but I was a little worried about the oranges stability, after all they are just oranges. 

So, now I had 15 dried oranges with cute bows glued on. These were cute as they were, but I wanted to make them at least slightly functional, so this is where the jute twine and luggage tags come into action. 

I removed the original string from the tags and went about cutting about a fingers length of the jute twine off the roll. I looped it and stuck it down onto the back of the tag with some regular sellotape. 

Now I had 15 slightly kitsch hanging tags. 

Mounting the oranges in the same way that I did the bows, I fixed each orange to the upper end of the card leaving some space at the bottom. I didn’t really have much faith in the glue, but it actually worked wonders. It was a fairly cheap ‘Tacky Glue’ from a local Fabric Land. If I were to buy it again however, I would definitely opt for the clear-dry glue as opposed to the one I bought which dried white. It wasn’t a major spanner in the works it just meant that I had to work a little neater than I really had time to. 

Whilst I was trying to make them look perfect and really take lots of care and attention, I needed to get them finished in a short period of time. That’s the one problem about Christmas-crafting, I always come up with designs and delusions of grandeur with absolutely no funding or time to execute them. This years handmade gifts were quite cheap which helped. 

Once the oranges had set onto the tags enough, I left this until the next day, I wrote names on the opposite ends. I thought this was a cute addition because it personalised the gift nicely and (hopefully) showed that I put a little thought into my efforts. 

Once the ink on that was dry, we all know how gel pens smudge, I individually wrapped each tag in red or green tissue paper adorned with even more Paperchase stickers* and a To…/From… note. 

Overall, I was really pleased with the way the tags turned out, I made them in the hope that people might hang them on their trees and I know having given some out early to people at work that most of them made it onto their trees. Success! 

Although it may take a little extra forethought and effort, I really think handmade gifts are a lot nicer to receive. It shows the effort gone into it and it’s always nice to know that the person who made it cares enough for you to make something for you, or to spend time on you (not just necessarily money.) 

Hope you’re all having a wonderful Christmas holiday period. 

*If you don’t get this reference, it’s because I wrote a post recently about wrapping up my gifts and showering them all with really cute Christmas stickers from Paperchase. We know I love Paperchase.

The Need For Good Underwear.

It is a need, after all, not a want. I really do need to wear nice underwear and mainly for no one aside for myself. Cora Harrington from The Lingerie Addict agrees that women who want to wear wonderful lingerie can be doing it for themselves and don’t necessarily have to be doing it to impress a man even though every other article online reads “Buying the right underwear to impress your man…”

“Everyone who wants it deserves gorgeous lingerie” - Cora Harrington, The Lingerie Addict. 

One of the many reasons I love nice underwear is that it’s almost like a little sexy-secret that only you know about (unless you choose to show someone else you saucy minxes) You might be hiding in your work uniform, but underneath you’re rocking a badass matching set. One of my favourite blogs/ Instagrams at the moment is The Lingerie Files - check them out for beautiful, beautiful pictures of amazing lingerie that make you want to give your whole wardrobe an overhaul. I love The Lingerie Files because they believe that underwear can (sometimes) be outerwear and that lingerie is all about making you feel more confident and sexy in yourself.
When you wake up on the wrong side of bed and you have to be somewhere in an hour, a good selection of underwear can make the day a whole lot better. If you feel happy and sexy, hopefully it’ll shine through.

Nothing feels less sexy than your ancient bra strap finally giving up the ghost and snapping. Or the elastic in your favourite panties giving out so much that you can barely keep them up; throw them out, invest in something amazing. As useful as the handful of Primark pants for £5 is, they're sure as hell not going to make you happy in the long run. I'm not saying cheap isn't good, but some pieces of lingerie deserve to be treated like the fashion items they are. 

The Lingerie Files also has this cute image explaining ‘lingerie terms’ for those who are just figuring out what they like. 

This image belongs to The Lingerie Files. 

When I was younger and I started wearing real underwear, as opposed to days-of-the-week pants, I shopped in New Look, Tammy Girl (way back then) and M&Co - remember them? After that came the La Senza phase, and to this day, two of my favourite bras that I own are from La Senza but over the last few years everything I’ve seen in La Senza has become a little too neon-and-leopard print for me. 

Victoria’s Secret has recently opened in my local shopping centre, which is West Quay in Southampton, and reminded me how much I loved the brand. I shopped at VS when I was in NYC and then again when I was reunited in Las Vegas; since then VS have branched out in the UK and seem to be popping up everywhere.
My favourite slip/babydoll that I own is black (obviously) and silky - that was a Vegas VS purchase and now that they’re open so close by I can see myself spending a little too much in their VS/Pink store. 

My next purchase is going to have to be a satin Kimono from VS as I get too hot in a full blown dressing gowns and the one I’ve got my eye on is nicely balanced between sexy and simple. 

With the more decadent lingerie, there’s an air of putting on a costume that I quite like - meaning you can be whoever you want to be, and your tastes might change from costume to costume. At the same time, because ‘underwear’ is such a vast term, you can really explore things you’ve never worn before and find out what you really like, especially before you start buying underwear to impress someone else… 

Of course I’m not damning the idea of buying underwear with someone else in mind, I’m just saying it’s important to make yourself feel special first. Good underwear is emotionally good for you; it makes you feel happy, sexy and strong. To all those people out there who are buying lingerie for their significant others this Christmas, good luck and happy shopping. Buying someone else underwear without them knowing takes balls, and I’m so glad that you’re doing it. 

Brown Paper Packages (Tied Up With String)

Christmas can be a tricky time for some of us for one reason or another, but when it’s dialled down and stripped back, Christmas is all about spending time with your family; to me, anyway. When I say ‘family’, I mean whatever shape your family takes on; friends, families and those in between. Whoever make up your most important people - get together with them this holiday season and remind yourselves how lucky we are to be surrounded by people we love. 

I’ve really been struggling to get into the Christmas spirit this season and I think that’s down to retail. Retail is such a horror show at Christmas, it’s hard to do anything when you get home, let alone get excited about something. I can’t imagine working in a store that I didn’t love at Christmas - I couldn’t do it. 

Today was the first day that I really forced myself to get up and get into the Christmas spirit. Being the first of three days off, I decided I would go out and collect up some wrapping-paper bits from town and see what all the other stores were doing for Christmas. I know John Lewis’ Gold/Glass/Feather decorations have been very popular online (and I did actually pick up one to give my Mum) and Paperchase are doing a really cute ‘Santa around The World’ kind of theme, which I really love. 

I spent my evening writing cards (working my way down a list longer than both my arms) and wrapping gifts. I’ve been watching various Vlogmas’ and getting excited about not only our Christmas Work Party this week, but also Christmas as a whole. 

I always find myself getting a little down that I can’t afford to get everyone the things I’d like to have some really great gift ideas that would be perfect for some of my friends, but I just can’t afford to execute them in the way I’d like to. I think we’re all in the same boat on that one. 

After all, I’m trying to remind myself about dialling the christmas consumerism down, it’s the thought that counts and the people that you spend your time off with this holiday. 

I always like to buy my christmas cards from Paperchase because they do really awesome designs AND donate a portion of the funds to certain charities. Last year, some of the money I spent on cards Paperchase gave to The Terrance Higgins Trust (which is a charity I often donate to) and this year, my christmas cards are supporting Water Aid and Cystic Fibrosis Support. 

Whilst on the subject of Paperchase, I’m now a proud of owner of one of their ‘treat me’ cards and a handful of their cutest Christmas stickers. I had some left over from last year and this year these will adorn my handwritten tags on my hand tied packages. 

The Paperchase stickers I’d chosen centered around a sort of Christmas-In-London theme, which makes me happy and reminds me of home, and they also match a set of my cards very well. 

From a very young age, I can remember that my Mum has had the strictest themed Christmasses imaginable. I feel this is rubbing off on me, given that when I was shopping today I found myself loitering near the red-and-white ribbons, looking for matching accessories to go with my rustic brown paper packages. 

I seem to have come away from shopping with two Yankee Candles to burn during my christmas decoration and preparation; Cinnamon Stick and Spiced Orange to bring that really ‘christmassy’ scent to my room. 

However you spend your Christmas this year, have a good one.
Sending seasonal-love from me and mine to you and yours.
Happy Christmas. 

5 TV Series You Need to Binge Watch, RN.

5 Series That You Really Need To Binge Watch, RN: 

I’ve had Netflix for a good few years now, but even before that I had an addiction to good television dramas. 

I’ve decided to list just five of my top favourites, because otherwise I’ll start watching something new and in all honesty I don’t have the mental capacity to start caring about a whole new batch of characters just for all of them to start sleeping with the wrong people, or get shot up by a rogue gun-man. 

These aren’t my tip-top 5 favourites, these are just the first five I thought of that I happen to be seriously impressed with.
Also, as a side note, I have finished all of these series. I’m caught up with as much of each show that has been made; I understand that, when added up, that counts as a lot of hours of my life watching television, but what else was I meant to do at University?

Prison Break

Brothers, Lincoln Burrows and Michael Schofield, navigate the American Justice System with the help of friends, family and other prison inmates. It’s not just a TV show on a singular prison break-out, but on the long run that the brothers have from the law, their past and toward their tentative future.
I love this show mainly because of how well it’s written, more specifically how Michael Schofield is written. As a character, he is of course flawed, but every decision he makes is so calculated and smart. Falling into a slight stereotype, Michael is the brains and Lincoln the muscle but they are truly complex characters surrounded by supporting characters that you learn to care about almost as much as the brothers.
I found myself getting so overly invested in the welfare of the characters that I would feel like I was right there with them when the rotten pipe’s been replaced by a 12” steel pipe, or when Michael receives a burn worse than the pain he felt. 

Lie To Me

Lie To Me is a fantastic series, that follows Cal Lightman, the founder of The Lightman Group, as he works with the FBI, the local Police and the CIA studying micro expressions as one of the world’s foremost deception experts. The series is all about the cases The Lightman Group deals with as well as relationships in Cal’s personal life; his daughter Emily plays a prominent role in the show as do Cal’s colleagues, his business partner Dr. Gillian Foster, Rea Torres and Eli Loker.
What’s it like to work with someone who knows as soon as you’re even thinking about lying?
Worse still, what’s it like for that person to be your father?

As Cal defends his science throughout the series, viewers get insight on the American Justice System, whether it’s through Zoe Landau (Cal’s ex-wife and local prosecutor) or Ben Reynolds (Cal’s ‘man with a gun’ on loan from the FBI). It’s interesting to see the relationships between each federal/non-federal company and how they deal with overlapping jurisdictions especially when it comes to dealing with cases including the The Lightman Group. 

Gotham

Gotham follows Jim Gordon through his career in the police whilst Bruce Wayne is still a child. We meet a very young, steampunk Selina Kyle as well as an annoying-as-hell, snivelling Penguin, badass Fish Mooney played by none other than Jada Pinkett-Smith.
After Bruce Wayne’s parents are killed, Jim Gordon takes on the case to many other officer’s warning and with the help of Bruce and Selina (who seem to form some kind of crime-fighting duo, at least for a while) makes headway into the case.
We also meet a very British Alfred, which obviously stays true to the one true Alfred (otherwise known as Michael Caine) but aside from that similarity this series couldn’t be more different to the Batman films that we know.
As a fan of the Christopher Nolan/Christian Bale Batman films, I am a fan of Gotham; I think they share a certain darkness which is familiar, but it’s important to remember that they are two separate ideas. The Netflix series does not try to be in the same world that Christopher Nolan created, the characters are merely fragments of each other’s ‘could have been’.

The Mentalist

Simon Baker, oh my God.
Aside from my sheer love of Simon Baker and his fantastic accent, The Mentalist is actually a really great series. Similar to the previously mentioned Lie To Me, Simon Baker plays a Patrick Jane who reads minds/bodies to help the California Bureau of Investigation lead by Robin Tunney who plays Agent Lisbon. Whilst the team find his talent somewhat annoying and impractical, they quickly learn that Patrick Jane is an invaluable member of the team even if he does have a slightly non-PC way of going about things.
Patrick Jane isn’t just in it for the money though, he has his own past that weaves throughout the seasons and is revealed little by little and helps to explain who Patrick is and why he does what he does.

Whilst he does have a dark past and a lot of the CBI cases are somewhat dramatic, I wouldn’t count this police-procedural as dark as CSI for example, but it is definitely darker in content matter than Lie To Me.

Whilst Simon Baker is charming and charismatic, Agent Lisbon is the chalk to his cheese and there is a constant will they-wont they, which as frustrating as it is enjoyable.

If you like CSI or Lie To Me, I would definitely say you’d like The Mentalist. If you like The Mentalist, you’ll definitely like Lie To Me; whilst they’re not peas from the same pod, they are leaves from the same tree.

Grey’s Anatomy

If you haven’t seen any Grey’s Anatomy, or at least heard of certain storylines, then you must have been living under a rock. I know people say that all the time, but Grey’s Anatomy is Shonda Rhimes’ first kick-ass series that was the first step in her getting the entirety of Thursday night prime time TV slots. (She now has three shows, that are scheduled one after the other, every Thursday night on US TV.) Something that has aided Shonda Rhimes’ success is that she has the ability to react to reality within the lives of her television shows, she is also renowned for supporting women and writing strong female characters, as well as providing Viola Davis with the vehicle (How To Get Away With Murder) to be the first black female win an Emmy.

Grey’s Anatomy follows Meredith Grey through her surgical internship at Seattle Grace Hospital all the way through to her residency and being a board member of the Grey Sloane Memorial Hospital. The show reflects a lot of the issues that have become a real part of America’s day-to-day living; gun violence, natural disasters and more. Shonda Rhimes is known for her cut-throat season finales so the end of every season  is bound to have you on the edge of your seat/bed/netflix-and-chill vehicle.

Whilst I want to scream about how good Grey’s Anatomy is, I also don’t want to spoil things for people who may not have seen it. The soundtrack, the storylines, Rhimes’ inability to care about the poor-poor viewers hearts and the fact that twelve (I think?) series later, I fully believe I could perform open heart surgery or at the very lest an appendectomy. (Something, something, invert the stump into the secum, pull up on the purse strings, and be careful not to… *sigh* break them.) 

(Disclaimer: I own nothing, all pictures were sourced from Google Images and rights belong to their respective owners)