🍁It’s Autumn YALL 🍁

I love Autumn, it’s defiantly one of my favourite seasons. As you may know by now I love a list and I therefor wanted to list all my favourite things about Autumn! There are so many things I love about Autumn but I’m going to give you my top 10!

1. Pumpkin spiced Latte’s – OMG they are actually the dream! If you haven’t one get you need to go get one 😍 ( I would recommend Starbucks)

2. Cosy Blankets – I’ve already bought a grey fluffy throw for this Autumn from Asda ☺️

3. Fluffy socks – it’s the perfect season to snuggle up with fluffy socks. I bought some greats bed socks from next ✨

4. Leaves falling off the tree – I love how the streets look filled with crispy orange leaves.🍂

5. Boots – I love when it’s time to get the boots out to keep your toes warm👢

6. Rainy movie days – such a great excuse to stay in and be cosy when it’s a cold rainy Autumn day 🌧

6. Cold morning with the sun beaming – I love the contrast of the morning being cooler but the sun still shining 🌞

7. Halloween – I love planning Halloween, I literally get so excited to dress up and watch YouTube tutorials on Halloween make up 🎃

8. Spicy Candles – I love that all the spiced candles start to come out in the shop! I haven’t bought any yet but will defiantly go to the Yankee candle shop🕯

9. Darker shades of Lipsticks – So I can whip out my Mac Captive and my darker reds! 💋

10. Chunky knits – Jumpers and Cardigans! They are just soooo cosy!👚

Question time with Imali 👀

Today I am catching up with Imali who is a sixteen year old blogger, College student and Virtual Assistant from the UK.  Imali likes to blog about all things teen, studies, beauty and lifestyle. She love all things science!

I asked Imali a couple of questions, to try and find out what style she reads in:

“What is your favourite children’s book of all time?”

Great question!  I’d probably have to say ‘The magic of the faraway tree’ by Enid Blyton.   This book is definitely an oldie but a goodie!  I used to love reading about the main characters, Jo, Bessie and Frank and the exciting adventures they’d get up to at the top of the Faraway tree!  I think my favourite land was ‘the-land-of-take-what-you-want’! ‘The land of toys’ was a close second though!

“Who is your favourite childhood author?”

My favourite childhood author was Enid Blyton.  From the ages of around 8-12 years old I read and re-read her books constantly.  Some of my favourites from this author  were ‘The naughtiest girl series’ and ‘The famous five’.  I loved the way she wrote and how she really made you feel as if you were going on adventures with the children.  Reading her stories really set me up with my love of books.  I’ve come a long way with reading since then, but her work is still among some of my favourites to date.  She also really encouraged my love of ‘ginger pop’!!

“What is your favourite genre of book?”

These days my favourite genre of book is “Dystopian romance”.   I know that’s a whole lot different from the days of Enid Blyton – but I like to be different!

“Who is your favourite author?”

Hmm… I think John Green is my favourite author.   My bookshelf is full of his work,  my favourite being ‘The fault in our stars’.   I love how he writes to teach you something, one thing you can always be assured of with his books is that you’ll come away at the end with not only a love of the characters he introduced you to, but a real sense of what they were going through and the emotions they felt.    You’ll also pick up some great quotes!

“Have you ever met a Author? If so what did you think of them?

”

I have, but not intentionally!  I was on holiday this summer and I decided to pop into a bookshop near where I was staying.  When I walked in a lady asked me to come over to here… She explained she was a dutch author and that she was visiting this bookshop to talk about her new book.  I feel really bad by saying I don’t actually what her name was !   She was a lovely lady though and her book looked good!

“If you could be a fictional character from a book, who would you be and why?”

Oh!  This is a hard question…  I think I’d be ‘Tris’ From the Divergent series.  I like how Tris is very relatable and quite down to earth in the books.  I also admire her courage and like how she was prepared to join Dauntless and do whatever it took to pass initiation, even though the odds were against her!  Although I don’t think the books were as good as others I’ve read, I think her character (and Fours!) really stood out to me and I enjoyed reading about them all the way through.

“How do you find time to read?”

Well, I’m a very busy person – juggling college, work, my blog, family life, seeing my friends.  Finding time to read can be struggle and I admit that sometimes I don’t read for days at a time. However, my aim to read a chapter a day, usually in the evening with a  cup of tea!   I always enjoy reading and find it relaxing, so there really isn’t an excuse for me not to!

“Do you think Reading has an influence on your life?”

Yes, I think reading first of all does wonders for your English literature skills! Growing up I’ve always been a reader and when you are, you take in small details like punctuation and spelling,  by doing so, it helps you in class!    I think reading has also taught me remember to take time to chill out. I know its good for my brain just to stop sometimes and do something quiet!

If you would like to follow Pumkins:

Twitter – @virtuallyhuman_.

Instagram @pumpkinsandplanners_imali

blog www.pumpkinsandplanners.co.uk.

Work it girl!

I always find it difficult on where is best to buy my work clothes from. I am an estate agent and always need to look smart at work.

The bases of most of my outfits is to have a couple of pencil skirts and smart trousers and alternate between tops / Shirts and blaisers. I also like to wear work dresses, usually a skater style dress with tights. I swap a change between wearing dolly shoes and work heels. In the winter I always wear heeled boots.

I have put together a couple of outfits that I wear to work:

Dorothy Perkins – Polka dot, Skater dress with white collar

I love this little dress, I wear this with black tights and black heels! I got lots of compliments wearing this dress. It’s very flattering for my figure type.

Boohoo.com – grey long sleeved Peplum Top in their basic range

This cute grey top is super cheap and is in the basic boo hoo Range. It can be slightly see though but I wear a strap too under neath. I match this top with either a black pencil skirt or black smart trousers. For shoes I will either wear black dolly shoes or black heels. So simple and super comfy.

Light knit blue dress from H&M ( Bought last year)

This dress is perfect for all seasons, it’s light enough to wear in summer without tights but also great in the winter with tights.

Striped peplum from Primark

This striped peplum is super cute and again flattering for my figure type! I wear this usually with a black pencil skirt or trousers!

Floral 3/4 length sleeved top from Matalan

This top is really girly and looks really smart. My mum loved this top so much she bought herself one. It looks smart with or without a blaiser.

I hope you enjoy this post! I would love to hear your favourite places to buy work clothes!

DL 💋

Boutique of Molly

I discovered Boutique of Molly on Twitter, after noticing lots of of people following the account.

I had a look at their website and fell in love with there dresses and handbags! The clothes are not your usual clothes. They are unusual and fashionable. You feel like you have discovered something that only important people order from. What’s more, the prices are reasonable.

I was approached by the company and asked to pick and try an outfit. I would like to point out at this stage that opinions are my own and this is not a paid ad.

To start start sure I found it difficult to choose, just one outfit that I liked. I finally decided on the “Evie Dress”.

The dress came next day delivery and arrived in the cutest pink packaging!!!

You can feel straight away that the material is good quality. I love the colours, and even though they are different shades of grey.. you can see the contrast between each grey shade.

I defiantly feel I could wear this dress for a smart / Casual occasion. It would be great to wear this for a dinner occasion with a pair of little black heels.

I cannot wait to place my next order! I am loving the handbags and think this may be next order! I perticular like this grey handbag!

I would defiantly recommend having a look, the process from ordering on the pink website, the pink packaging and beautiful clothing makes online shopping a girly treat.

Thank you for reading my review, and I would like to offer you a discount code: DL20

https://www.boutiqueofmolly.com

DL 💋

Mask Monday – Thermal Detox Mask

Today’s Mask Monday is a thermal Clay Mask by sanctuary spa. This mask is part of their Cleanse Range. It is supposed to remove make up and daily grime and impurities with out drying your skin. The mask is self heating which opens up your pores and the charcoal and Kaolin Clay helps draws our impurities under the skin. All of this, aims to removes excess oil and leave you skin feeling cleansed and fresh.

I’ve used quite a few products by this brand much Favourite moisture facial scrub, it lightly exfoliates my skin as well as moisturising. I also use their gentle polish body scrub which does a similar thing but for my body. Both products are really refreshing for the skin and smell Devine!

I bought a pouch of this product for £2.99 in Boots. You can buy a full size in boots for £10.

The first step of using this product is to wash face and leave damp. The product was easy to put on and was slightly messy. I could literally feel the Mask heat up immediately after putting in on my face. It took less then 5 mins to put on. You only leave this mask on for 5 mins, as it can be used a few times a week as your normal skin care routine. The mask does cool down after 1 min of being on your skin. To wash this face mask off, I used a flannel to pull it off. The mask was still a gooey texture and doesn’t dry like most facemasks. My skin After was very red ( so defo so use this mask If you have somewhere to be after). My skin feels very soft and moisturised. I didn’t get the wow factor fresh feeling that I usually get after using a face mask, which was a little disappointing.

I personally wouldn’t invest in the big bottle but I would possible my a pouch again and use it randomly.

I would give this product a *** out of *****.

DL 💋

Wedding Guest

Being a wedding guest is actually so stressful! Especially when it’s in a different town. I mean not only have I got plan what to wear, how to do my hair and what shoes to wear; I have to also plan accommodation and transport. Thank goodness, I am not the bride .. I would be a major Bridezilla.

So I’m attending a wedding Mid August as my cousin is getting married. The church ceremony is in Reading and the reception is a half hour drive away in a fancy hotel.

The outfit

Okay, so being a female my first thought is what to I wear. Actually this thought also guided me to another thought, I probably should loose some weight? It’s defiantly helps having a goal, for weight loss. Now I’ve lost the initial weight, I was ready to order my dress 3 weeks before the wedding. I trolled through website after website, I looked in Next, Missguided and New look. Do I go extra, so I go sophisticated, do I go summery.. what if it rains. Eventually ( 2 weeks into looking) I found a light lilac, off the shoulder, sweat heart cut midi dress that I thought could be the one. I ordered it from Boohoo.com and had it delivered the next day. I loved the colour when I opened it, and I tried it on and it fit great! It was maybe even a little to big for me ( which is good because I always order the same dress size on boohoo.com)

The Nails

I had my nails done a few days before the Wedding. I had Almond shaped weddings, with purple Sheelac and Chrome over the top.

The Hair

So the day before the Wedding! I have visit Pretty Please in Hove ( where I get all my blow drys done) They have washed my hair, and pinned it up! I’m to sleep with the pins in, for my hair to bed ready for the BIG day ( My cousins Big day, I’m sound like its mine)

The Accommodation

This was complicated! So the wedding ceremony is in Wedding but the Reception is in a different town. So I have booked the Premier inn, in Reading by the oracle (£52 a night) for the Friday. Then on Saturday, I’ve book The Bird Hand Inn which is where the reception is! ( so I can get drunk and stumble back to me hotel) and finally I’ve booked the Premier Inn ( again) so that I’m back in Reading as my family live around the corner! NIGHTMARE! But I do think this is the easiest way to do it!

Pre Wedding Eve

It’s the day before the Wedding! Today so far I’ve worked until 1pm, had my hair done and it’s now 3pm. I’m almost finished packing but I’ve taken up 2/3 of the suitcase because I couldn’t decide what make up to bring, so I’ve brought all my pallets! ( not sure where my boyfriend stuff is going to go woooops) I’m waiting for Tony to finish work, so we can get on the road!

On Our Way

4:30pm and we are on our way! There is lots of of traffic, so we are taking the country roads! It takes us a while to get there and we arrive at 6:30pm at the Premier inn by the Oracle in Reading. Time to get ready for some dinner in the hotel, I’m looking a bit crazy with my pinned up hair.

Wedding Day

It’s the Big day ( For Sam and Ashley). We woke up at 8am, and got changed into some comfy clothes for breakfast in the hotel. The breakfast wasn’t that nice, as it was a little greasy for my liking. I enjoyed a Costa Cappuccino and a glass of fresh Orange juice.

Once our bellys were full, it was time for a hot shower and a hour and half to do my make up. For my make up I used my Huda Beauty Rose gold edition for my eye shadow, my Revolution baked bronzing Pallet and my usual make up. I actually did my eye shadow first, as I knew it was going to be quite heavy. Then cleansed my face , before doing the rest of my make up. Once, finished I unpinned my hair and I was ready to go.

My Dress is from Boohoo.com, and it’s a Sweet Heath cut, midi dress. I wore my black scrappy block heels from Primark and my Envelope clutch from New Look.

Once, I was ready ( and took a few selfies) we got in the car to pick up my Auntie Lizzy before driving to the church.

Church Ceremony

The wedding Ceremony started late ( which is typical for a wedding) The Church was beautiful with Tall stained Glass Windows. The church was were my nanny and Grandad for married many many years ago. The Ceremony was lovely and the priest made lots of jokes keeping us entertained throughout.

The Hotel

We checked into the bird in hand Hotel after the Ceremony and freshened up. My dad went in a separate car and managed to sneak KFC into our room! We were all greeted with Pimms and sat outside in the Sunshine. The Hotel was super cute!!!

The Food

Unlike most weddings, the sit down meal was a BBQ!! I Had a hot dog, a burger and lots of salad. I also discovered that the American mustard I had smothered my food in was actually spicy French mustard. The puddings were a miniature selection and were very delicious.

The Toast

I must of been tipsy at this stage because I kept joking that they were going to give us roast, rather then us doing a roast. I realised this wasn’t the case when we were all handed a glass of wine. Lucky my dad and Tony didn’t like there’s, so after I drank there’s too.

The Party

Our tummies were full, our livers were saturated with alcohol and we were ready to boogie. There was lots of R&B tunes for me to dance too.

Bars Closed

At 11pm it was last orders but we were not ready to go to sleep yet. We decided to have an after party. It was the Bride, The Groom, my cousin, their friend, Tony and myself that carried on through. The Hotel told us off for drinking downstairs, so we drank our champaign in the car park. ( classy but fun)

It was safe to say we were all pretty drunk at the wedding. I had consumed Gin, wine and champagne ( I won’t even tell you about my hangover) I thought it was a good idea, to tell everyone to go for a family breakfast at 9am the next day. When i woke up, it didn’t think it was such a good idea.

Overall

It was a great Wedding! So lovely to see my family old ( 13 years I haven’t seen some of them for) that had travelled from America. It was amazing to drink with my cousins, and I’ve actually invited them for a night out in Brighton.

I’m Traveling Along by Samuel Bjork

Traveling Alone is a German book, and in my case I read the version that was translated into English. It is set in Germany is a crime novel about a police drama with some horrific and sinister crimes.

Although I may not of been able to pronounce all of the characters name or all of the towns that they lived in; I felt as if I entered a fascinating and cultured world.

The style of which this book was written in, was very similar to Paul's Hawkins books. In the sense, that there are lots of different characters; all with their own story and link to the bigger picture.

Some characters I found it difficult to love or hate, but in the end it's clear the motives of the characters.

I was interested throughout, not knowing weather each page would bring my closer to the links or to the horrific crimes.

I found this book a longer book then normal and sometimes I loose interest when it's a long read but I was hooked all the way through. It was one of those books that when you put it down, you are left thinking about it.. why did she do that? What was that persons motives?

If your looking for a police novel, that's linked with chilling and unusual crimes, then this book is defo of interest for you!

It's was recommended to me, and now I am recommending it to you!

*****

DL 💋

Brighton Pride 2017

I love Brighton Pride! It’s not just celebrating the wonderful LGBT community; it’s also about celebrating diversity and how beautiful Brighton is as a city! Pride starts with a fabulous parade, which leads to the main event in Preston Park. There is also a two day Street party on St. James’s street. I attended this last year and can’t wait to attend again this year!

Pre- Pride preparation

Five weeks to go
We bought our tickets five weeks before the event. We bought early bird ticket which cost around £12. I’m going with a big group this year and most of us for early bird tickets.

4 weeks to go
The first thing I ordered was a rainbow highlighter off Amazon! I am sooooo excited to is this. I also ordered Huda Beauty strobe light lipgloss!

Two weeks to go
Me and the girls have booked in to have our hair done at gorgeous hair Boutique in Hove. We are having space buns covered in glitter!

1 week to go
Trying to decide on a outfit took a few weeks! With less then one week to go me and my boyfriend bought matching tie dye tops, literally love him for being such a good sport! That’s only one day outfit so I need another one! Ahhh!

5 days to go
My friend ordered 5 grams of glitter, and now I feel I don’t have enough so I have ordered another pot! I also bought eyelashes for both days! Vaseline for my glitter to stick too! I’ve also purchased some different colour jelly and shot glasses because I’m making VODKA SHOTS!

Pride eve
My vodka jelly shots are setting!! I’m soooo excited for tomorrow! We are having a bozzy picnic before we go the St James street.. so we have bought cup cakes, crisps, wine and Cider!

Pride Pride Pride
My dad made me a toasted cheese and bacon baguette for breakfast to line my tummy for pride. I showered and washed my hair ready to go to gorgeous hair boutique, to have my hair done! I had two French platts, and space buns with glitter roots! I thought she done an amazing job and I loved my hair!

We had our picnic at the green on the level, opposite St James street. We did a few shots and I managed to drink my bottle of wine and it was safe to say I was tipsy going into St James street. There wasn’t as many acts on this year but it was still an amazing atmosphere. Everyone dressed up uniquely and Dancing in the street. It was great that Tesco was open as it allowed us to buy cheaper drinks. There where more toilets this year, but also more people. It was really good, I felt like I got home at 3am but actually it was only 10pm! (Maybe because I went to cheeky chicken and it was packed)

Sunday Pride Pride Pride

Sunday is always my favourite day at Pride! It’s like a massive rave in the street, with dancers on stilts and dancing on the scaffold on R Bar / Revolution! This time we started our day having lunch and cocktails in yates! Lunch to get rid of our hangovers. Cocktails to ease us back into alcohol. We got to St James street around 5pm, which was later then planned. The second we got there my hangover disappeared and I was ready to dance the night away. Revenge bar really pulled it out the bag with their dancers on stilts and fire breathers! Plus there alcohol stall accepted card! Literally spend 4-5 hours dancing in this area! The atmosphere was just amazing, when I stopped dancing for a second and looked around I felt so proud to live in an amazing city! Feeling the love for Brighton right now. Shortly after the street party closed, fire works went of at the Brighton pier! They were amazing and better then some of the paid display I have been to before. It’s felt like the perfect way to end a amazing weekend, BUT I didn’t stop there we danced for a little longer at Charles Street bar, it was crazy packed but it was still had the fun atmosphere from the street and party! I left there at quarter to one in the morning!

The Morning from the night before
All I want to do today is eat and sleep! I’m glad I took the day off to recover! I spent half an hour in the shower trying to take the glitter out of my hair! I’m also feeling achey from dancing for two days and not sitting down! It was worth every ache and pain I’m in today!

I cannot wait for pride next year, if I could book now I would!

DL 💋< img src=”https://dominiquelennon.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/img_2565.jpg”&gt;

Mask Monday

Monday is the most important day of your week! You should Start the week off with a fresh mind, just as you mean to go on.

This Monday I am pampering myself in the evening with a …. Tea Tree Clay mask from the body shop costing £11. I'm also relaxing with a lush bath bomb costing £3.90

First impressions

I love the packaging it's cute and it's simple.
It Smells AMAZING, smells minty!

Apply

It's a light texture and really easy to put on, a little goes a long way. At first it tingles on my skin It dries fairly quickly, within 15 mins. It feels like it "dried thinner" and my skin feels fresh while it's drying.

Wash off
It was slightly difficult to wash off, despite the reviews saying it was easy. I chose to firstly attempt with water and then to us cotton pads. Once I used cotton pads, it was fine to get off.

After

My skin feels amazing! It feels light and refreshed! My pores feel minimised and my skin feels fresh. My skin feels moisturised and tight, but doesn't feel like it has dried it.

Recommend
It reccomend a using this product twice a week for full effect. I am defiantly going to try this as I love it so far!

4/5 ****

DL 💋

Road Trip

I love exploring! Especially after exploring Thailand, I discovered how fun it is to try new places and new things. This weekend me and My partner decided to go on a Road trip!

Friday – Reading
Friday we headed down to Reading, we have been here many times and usually is a straight run that takes less then two hours. Today being the first Friday of the summer holidays it took 3 hours and 45 mins! Night mare, we eventually got to Reading around 2pm. We drove straight to my nan and grandads for a catch up and then to my aunties were we would be staying the night. We went for dinner with my Aunties to TGI Fridays and it was lovely food! The TGI in Reading was not as busy as the one in Brighton but was still fairly busy. We then went to Beach bar, which is soooo random. It's a bar with swings and fake sand, was all fun and games until it rained and we were standing outside with our cocktails! We soon retreated to Yates for a few more drinks and I met with one of my childhood friends for a drink. Which was amazing as we haven't seen each other in years and it felt like nothing had changed. Saturday morning my auntie made us all bacon sandwiches, which I think we all needed!

Saturday – Basingstoke
Saturday lunch time, we drove to Basingstoke for shopping and lunch. We of course went to Nando's for our lunch! Shopping was great we both got loads of hits we needed! I defiantly recommend festival place for food and shopping.The car park was a little confusing.. we defiantly lost out car for twenty mins haha!

Saturday night hotel disaster
Our original hotel was booked in Hook. They called us Thursday night to tell us they where going refurbishments to the hotel and some of the rooms were not ready. The rooms we booked happened to be the ones not ready. They said they would book us in to a hotel down the Road. On Saturday, 4pm we checked into the new hotel. We walked to our room to find it hadn't been cleaned from the people that slept there before, there was dirty sheets and dirty towels in the room. After complaining, they showed us to another room but even though this room had been cleaned, it was so small, black stained carpet and was to a poor standard for £70 I had paid. We managed to get a refund and decided to stay at the Hilton in Bracknell which was a 20 min drive

Hilton bracknell
What a lovely hotel! We checked in at 6:30pm. Our room was nice and tidy, had an amazing double jet shower. It was super busy but we managed to book a table for 8pm for dinner. I felt so refreshed after a shower and got ready with a glass of bubbly. Dinner was a 3 course buffet; I had patte on toast, curry and rice and sponge cake for desert. Me and my partner for the first time in our life shared a bottle of wine ( now I know he likes it.. we can drink wine every date night! YAASS) I had a good night sleep and had a great
breakfast in the morning!

Winchester – science centre
Sunday morning we drove to Winchester to play at the science centre! Great fun for all ages from testing how high you can jump, to learning about your organs to watching a film about the galaxy!
We spend around 3 hours here!

Portsmouth pier
After playing at the science centre, we were not ready for our adventure to end yet. We made a diversion on the way home to Portsmouth pier, we played in the Arcade, had a burger from Browns, went on rides and played mini golf! I really loved Portsmouth and want to play a weekend to come back!

Home
6pm, we arrived home tired from our day of fun! Just in time to change into pjs and watch Monana ( which is now on sky yay)

DL 💋