Tips on Packing Light

Hi all!

So this Monday I will be travelling home to celebrate Christmas with my family. The last time that I went home was about 2 years ago! So I am really looking forward to seeing old friends and of course family.

I will be there for about a week, so I don't have too much to take with me. However it is hard to pack light when you have presents to get home too. I have a few tips on how to pack light and get organised to reduce the load that you will have to carry around with you on your journey back home.

1) Make a list of all of the days and what you will be doing on those days. This will help you plan outfits for each day, meaning you won't have to take your whole wardrobe with you just in case. Mine looks a little something like this:

MONDAY- Travelling all day, then dinner with mum.
TUESDAY- Catching up with friends.
WEDNESDAY- Catching up with friends in the evening.
THURSDAY- CHRISTMAS DAY over auntie Jo's.
FRIDAY- try and see everyone you didn't have time to.
SATURDAY- Travelling all day back to Falmouth.

Travelling outfit. Yoga pants are a must for me.

2) Using this list think about outfits for each day. Think about if you need it to transition to day to night, whether it is a casual day or a more dressed up day. I have packed almost completely dresses. They are perfect for packing light as they are almost your whole outfit in one item. I then pack tights and a couple of layers like cardigans that I can mix and match to keep me cosy.

Dresses are a life saver if you want to save space in your case.

3) Try to pick a couple of pairs of shoes that will go with everything you have planned outfit wise. Where your comfy plan on the days you are travelling. Then you only have one pair to fit in your case.

4) Roll your clothes up. Sounds strange but trust me it saves a lot of room.

Make sure you don't forget things like toiletries and makeup. Select your makeup based on your list, plan what you can use and will need. Remember you can always buy toiletries when you arrive. If you are only going to be there for a short time and don't want to have to bring full sized products with you, you can by travel sizes.

In total, for one week away I have a small suitcase with my clothes, makeup and toiletries and all of the presents I need to take back with me... And yes it does close :) I also have a second bag with everything I will need on the train, my laptop, chargers, phone, purse, tickets, headphones snacks etc.

So thats how I pack light for a trip home. I hope that there are some tips in here that will help you next time you have a trip planned. 

See you next time x

Christmas Tradition

In my house we have a few Christmas traditions that are a little bit unusual, but I just think it makes Christmas that much more special. Every year on Christmas Eve each member of the family receives a book and a tree ornament, when my brother and I were younger our parents would take us out for the evening to a local village and when we came back these presents from 'Father Christmas' would be there waiting for us.

So each year we add our new ornament to the tree on Christmas Eve, I think the books started out as a way to get us to actually go to bed so that our parents could actually put the presents under the tree. Now that my brother has moved out he has taken his decorations with him to start his own tree and I'll do the same when I move out. Every decoration has a memory attached and I actually cannot wait to get mine this year! 

My first tree decoration.

The whole house is looking festive now as me and Mom went slightly Christmas mad while decorating so there is something festive in every room.

Jasper enjoying the decorating!

Lots of love and Merry Christmas! -A

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

Come and get Christmasy with me. Get snuggled, press play, and lets get decorating!

This weekend the mission for myself and Jacob was to get the Christmas Tree! We're only two weeks away from Christmas and it has taken us this long to get round to it. It took us a while to decide on what type of tree we were going to get. Did we want real? Did we want fake? Which would be safer for the dog to be around?

In the end we went with a fake tree as the place we were looking at was out of the size trees we were looking for. They only had the amazingly tall and expensive real ones left. So we settled on this one which only cost us £15. It's branches aren't the fullest, but this is mine and Jacobs first Christmas tree together and I have to say now that it is decorated with all of our personalised and homemade ornaments I think it's looking rather lovely.

We had all of the decorations already, some were gifts from last year and this year, some we already had and some we made. The lights we used were a strand of LED star lights that I already had running along the bookcase. The brighter fox and dear decorations were a gift from Abigail last year and the fox in the photo above was actually made for me by her mum this year (big thanks Jan, it has taken pride of place at the top of the tree!). I already had some small glass baubles that I had been using to decorate a houseplant that we have in our bedroom and lastly I made some personalised ornaments of myself, Jacob and RED a couple of weeks ago. 

If you would like to read how I made my own ornaments please go check out:

http://alifecompendium.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/personalised-christmas-ornaments.html

I have even managed to start wrapping some presents up and getting stockings ready! The paper, tags and ribbons are all from Wilkos and were really inexpensive. In total around £4 for everything and as I don't have a super huge amount of people to by for, this should do the majority, if not all of the presents.

Getting the tree and decorations up has really got me excited for Christmas now. It has given the front room such a nice homely warm feel to it that makes me so happy!

Now all I have to do is keep my fingers crossed that my mischievous pooch doesn't get into any "accidents" with the tree and that it will last until I am back from visiting family and celebrating a belated Christmas with my little family here in Falmouth.

Full Review- The Body Shop All in One Face Base

Hi all!

So for the first time that we started A Life Compendium, I failed to get a blog post up on Sunday! I have to admit it was just one of those things that I had completely forgotten to think about it that week, with it being my last and possibly busyness week at uni before Christmas.

But I plan to make it up to you with a review and then on this Sunday coming I will hopefully be getting up a post about getting the Christmas tree for myself, Jacob and RED's flat! That's right your going to get two posts this week to make up for my lack of blogging last week.

First of all lets talk about the product. It's by the Body Shop, which is fantastic because you know that  it has not been tested on animals and you also know that it is going to be a very nice looking product, which this definitely is. On the website it is sold for £14 which for me, someone who is always on a budget, is a bit much for me. In general for my everyday foundation I spend between £6- 8.

The Body Shop All In One Face Base

They also state on the website that you can 'Use dry for a light matte finish, or wet for high coverage.'

The Body Shop All In One Face Base

When I first applied it, I used it on a big brush on bare moisturised skin to see how it would handle taking away some shine. I have to say at first it felt very dry on my skin, but as I wore it, this did disappear somewhat. It did take away the shine however didn't leave me with much if any coverage.

The Body Shop All In One Face Base

After this I then tried applying it dry with the sponge inside of the compact. I did achieve some coverage with the sponge however I would still describe it as light. On the site next to the product they have a video showing you how you can apply this with a damp sponge to get the high coverage. I ran the sponge under the tap and then rang it out so the it was barely damp. I then took the product from the compact and applied it to my face. 

It caked up on my face, on the sponge and in the pan almost immediately. Whilst the coverage on my skin was much higher it looked cakey and chalky. And oh my life did it feel dry. I had noticed how drying it was when I was just dusting it on my face but with so much on I could feel it sucking every once of moisture out of my skin. I was not a fan! 

So here is my overall run down of the product. I tried to colour match online and this is always tricky however I do feel that when it arrived it was much lighter than the swatch on the website. I purchased shade 06 and it was much too light for my complexion. The price was a little bit of a spend for me and I would not be likely to spend that much again on an everyday foundation. I think it works well as a mattifying powder and does take away shine nicely, so if I were to purchase it again it would be to use as a powder over the top of a liquid foundation. If you are looking for a high coverage matte powder foundation, I would not recommend. I could not get it to apply nicely to my skin, you would have to use ALOT of product to do your whole face. I think it would be very drying if you were to use it like this every day. Lastly I would like to point out that I have been using this product 4/7 days a week for maybe about 3 months, never in a very heavy application,  and I have already HIT PAN! That really does not impress me. My go to liquid foundation that I will probably go back to last twice this amount of time easily.

For me this product is a no go. I will definitely be checking out some other products from the Body Shop as I am relatively new to their products but for me this one is definitely not going to be repurchased.

Hope some of you found this helpful, if you have any recommendations for product for me to try please leave them on our Facebook page, Google + or leave us a comment below.

Love as always!