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! 

Personalised Christmas Ornaments

Hello lovelies,

I have really been trying to hold off on Christmas posts, at least until December, but seeing everything and everyone getting into the Christmas spirit I just couldn't hold off any longer. Now I know a lot of you won't even be thinking about Christmas yet but there is no harm in getting ideas now is there! Today I have a little craft project that would be a great activity to do with kids (over the holidays) or you can make them more sophisticated and use them on your christmas tree or even personalise them to gift to friends and family. Salt dough christmas tree ornaments, fun, easy and cheap to make.

For the salt dough you will need:

200g Plain Flour
100g Table Salt
And about 150ml of Cold Water ( you may not use all of the water.)

Simple Salt Dough Recipe

To make the dough it is very simple. All you have to do is combine the salt and the flour and then slowly work in the cold water until it starts to hold together and you can form it into a ball.

Simple Salt Dough Recipe

Next you will want to turn your oven on to the lowest heat setting it has, for me this is 50C.

Take your dough and using a rolling pin roll it out to about half a centimetre thick. Once it is rolled out you can cut out your shapes. I am using paper templates that I made. If your not that great at drawing you could print some templates of your computer or alternatively use some fun shaped cookie cutters.

Finally make a small hole at the top of each shape. This will be where you attach a ribbon or string for hanging.

Salt Dough Decorations

TOP TIP: Use a small amount of water on your finger and run it around the edges of your shapes to smooth them out and give them a polished finish.

Line a baking tray with tin foil and carefully transfer your shapes. Bake on a low heat for 2-3 hours. Baking them slowly will help prevent them from rising. The aim of the game is to slowly draw out all the moisture until they are rock hard.

Baked Salt Dough Decorations.

Once they have baked set them aside to completely cool down.

To decorate I will be using:

PVA Glue
Acrylic Paint
Glitter Glue
Twine

(You can really use whatever you want to decorate with, you can paint them or embellish them however you want to. Anything goes.)

To start with I applied a couple of coats of watered down PVA glue to my shapes, this acts as a sealant so that your paint won't get drawn into your dough. The mixture I used was an even amount of glue to water.

Once that was completely dry I then went and applied a white base coat of paint to front, back and sides of my shapes. I knew that I wasn't going to be decorating the backs of them so I wanted to make sure they still looked neat.

Base Coat on Salt Dough Decorations

After this, its really up to you how you choose to decorate. You could use fabric or paper, paint or sequins. It really depends on whatever look you re going for.

For mine I used acrylic paint in different colours and added some glitter by using some cheap glitter glue.... In hindsight I should have gone with loose glitter and used PVA to get it to stick because the glitter glue was no where near as pigmented as I had hoped.

Customised Christmas Tree Decoration

The last thing you will want to do is thread some string, twine or ribbon through the holes that we made at the top of each decoration and tie the ends so that you have somewhere to hang them from.

And here they are. I made myself, Jacob and Red personalised cartoon versions of ourselves to hang on our tree (when we go to get one) and a couple of more traditional christmas themed decorations to go with them.

I am really excited to hang these on my tree this year. They are so cute and individual I can't get enough of how fun these turned out !

If you like christmas themed DIY's let us know by following us on google+ at +A Life Compendium or follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/alifecompendium?ref=hl for updates on posts, projects and some extra goodies.

Winter Handbag Essentials!

Autumn/Winter is my absolute favourite time of year all the crisp mornings, twinkly lights and most importantly Christmas! So having finally caved and purchased my first Christmas present yesterday I thought it was time to do my winter handbag essentials.

I don't know about anyone else but in the winter I always get really dry, chapped hands. So, I always carry a pair of gloves in the bottom of my bag, the ones in the picture above are a purple leather pair I got for Christmas a few years ago. They are from Suzy Smith but I'm not sure how expensive they are.

I try to always carry a hand cream in my bag be it winter or summer, but this one from Hand Therapy is great for the winter as it is aimed towards dry and chapped hands. You only need a small amount to make your hands feel super soft but really any hand cream at this time of year is a handbag essential. 

This one is less of a winter essential and more of an Abigail-loves-winged-liner essential. My go-to winter look is a winged liner and strong lip combo, and when the sharp winds are constantly making my eyes water here on the South coast I feel it essential to have my liquid liner close at hand. This is my all time favourite liquid liner, it works like a pen and I just find it so easy to use!

Again, an indulgence rather than an essential. But this is my go to lipstick for winter and carry it with me almost everywhere, it actually took me a while to find it for this post because it was in the bottom of my handbag! I always have a lip brush close at hand too to make sure my lipstick stays perfect all day.

This is also the lipstick from my review a few weeks back.

This is my ultimate essential for winter, no one likes dry lips and especially when trying to put on lipstick, dry lips are a nightmare! I've been using this chap stick for a while now and it really is a great product. It is not sticky at all and is great as a base for lipstick without making the colour slide off.

So there are my winter handbag essentials. What are yours? 

Saturday Hike

Now that the weather is turning and we are getting more grey, wet and windy days, it's getting harder to enjoy the beautiful place that we live in. Getting up in the morning on Saturday it was gorgeous and not knowing how long it would be dry for, we decided to go for a hike.

Taken by Abigail, edited by Paris

We have some fantastic walks in Falmouth and some really quite special views out over the sea. Our hike started out as a short stroll through Falmouth town towards Swanpool Beach.

From there we picked up the costal path and headed towards Maenporth Beach.

Taken by Abigail, edited by Paris

This is the view just as you leave Swanpool going toward Maenporth. You can see the houses that line the beaches and to the very right, you can just about see Pendennis Castle perching on top of it's cliff.

Taken  by Abigail, edited by Paris

I love this walk so much, it has a little bit of everything along the way including some more wooded areas.

Taken and edited by Paris

I really find hiking a brilliant stress reliever. It gets you out of the house, into the fresh air and you can just let your mind wander to wherever it wants to. Plus I get the best nights sleep after I have spent the day hiking!

Taken and edited by Paris

 Nearing the end of the route before we decided to turn around and head back towards town, over the trees and the shrubs, you can just about see the houses that surround Maenporth appearing!

Taken and edited by Paris

 Arriving at Maenporth, we take a sit down and enjoy the view some before we tried to beat the rain back to town. Bonus image of our trusty fido friend, Red who came along on the hike with us!

There and back we walked around about 5 miles and at a leisurely pace I think we were gone about 3 hours in total. At this time of year the paths can get a little bit muddy so get your hiking boots on or your wells to keep your feet dry and comfortable! Make sure to take water for yourself and your four legged friend, a couple of snacks and wear lots of light layers. For those uphill stretches your going to want to take a few off but when you get back down to the beaches the wind gets chilly pretty quickly.

Most of all enjoy the beautiful sights and the new things you might find along the way!