Lifestyle Archives - Page 37 of 49

Katie Lifestyle

Beating Stress with essential oils

Hello Lovelies,

About 2 weeks ago, I put a shout out on Twitter for recommendations for treating and beating stress. Whether it was treatments, products or relaxation methods, I wanted it all as I have seriously been struggling with stress of late. Both day job hassle, business work and personal life. Usually I am ok at dealing with any of those things in insolation, combined, it makes a triquetra of bitch ache!

Julia Lawless, owner of Aqua Oleum provided a great insight in to using essential oils. Read on!

Turn Negative to Positive With Essential Oils!

Being negative can not only be stressful to our mind, body and soul, but can make any situation seem much worse than it actually is.

Julia Lawless, Artisan Aromatherapist, Author and owner of Aqua Oleum, advises how you can stay happy all year round by using pure essential oils to turn a negative experience into a positive one.

“If you have had a negative experience and want to change the way you feel about the situation, one of the most effective ways to alter your mood is through the use of aromatic oils: this is because our sense of smell connects directly to the part of our brain which processes our emotions.

Recent research has shown how different scents can alter our brain wave patterns, regulate the systems within our body and influence our behaviour.

One of the quickest and most pleasurable ways to effect this transformation is to relax in a bath fragranced with a few drops of natural essential oils: petitgain & bergamot are uplifting; lavender & chamomile soothe our entire nervous system; jasmine & neroli are both excellent oils for creating a feeling of optimism; while rose oil is renowned for its comforting and heart-warming qualities.

All these oils can also be used as a simple perfume, a room fragrance or in a massage/body oil – in this case by adding 6-7 drops of your chosen essential oil to a tablespoon of jojoba or sweet almond oil. Scent can help us to reconnect with our emotional interior and to transform it, with truly remarkable and effective results

How do you manage stress. Do you use aromatherapy? Any recommendations?

Katie Food

Eat in or eat out?

Hello Lovelies,

Eat in or eat out?

More couples now fine dining at home

Fine dining at home has been on the rise for the last four to five years. In fact, it can be linked really to the economic problems we have all been facing. With job security a worry and the ever increasing prices of food, utilities, insurance and just living in general means people have not had the same amount of free cash in their pockets each month.

The future of restaurants
Restaurants offering good value or ones that are seen as destination restaurants are still doing well but there has undeniably been a massive rise in the number of people simply diverting their cash from eating out to eating at home, having great food and drinking fine wine thanks to the fact is costs a third of what you would pay in a restaurant.

Supermarkets are cashing in on the trend

All the evidence is there. The premium supermarkets have been offering the dine in for £10 offers, giving couples access to good quality, easy to cook meals with wine and dessert for less than the cost of one starter at many restaurants. Many supermarkets have also been seeing a rise in the sales of other fine dining classics – scallops, panna cotta, casserole beef, whole ducks – all the food normally associated with wanting to create a premium eating experience. And with that comes the desire to ‘sit up’ and not eat off a tray in front of the TV. Couples have been searching out for a new range of cutlery sets here in the sales in order to create a fine dining experience – but just one at home rather than in a restaurant.

Supermarkets have also been reporting a further shift in some consumer buying patterns with some people trading up to more premium cuts of meat or products now that they are staying in. Higher quality wines such as Chateaunuef-du-Pape and Chablis are seeing huge increases and these are not the types of wine that you quaff on a Wednesday night but normally associated with food.

For anyone with a knowledge or interest in the food industry, you’ll know that restaurants of course charge a high premium for their food and with a little practice you can replicate your favourite recipes at home for a fraction of the cost. So you can in theory ‘eat out’ at home a lot more often, which when everyone is skint, it’s a great weekly treat!

It is not only the big chain supermarkets that seem to be winning with the increased business. Smaller, independent stores are also reporting an increase in sales. With cheese, charcutierie and olives high on the list of most often bought products we may be witnessing a fine dining revolution at home but it is still a relaxed, less formal affair.

The food and wine may well be premium in quality but the atmosphere being created is far more relaxed than the dinner parties of yesteryear. The two of you are as likely to eat up at the kitchen island (though it is probably made of solid walnut or beautiful granite) than to tuck in at a dining table these days. A sharing dish such as a fantastic whole baked Vacherin cheese into which you can dive with sour dough sticks or warm new potatoes is more likely to be your starter. Relaxed, informal and comfortable are the buzzwords of dining at home. After a hard and most probably very long day at work coupled with the ubiquitous commute home many couples just want to relax and eat some decent food together.

As I was a chef while studying, I have a true love for food, as you can probably tell from my waist line eh! I take great pleasure in serving restaurant quality food in my own home, whether it is a snack platter for lunch, a family meal or Come Dine With Me style dinner with friends. I find the key to giving your food a restaurant, luxe feel is with the right crockery. Trust me, you can eat beans on toast or a take away from really nice plates and it increases your enjoyment. The same way a gourmet feast served on paper plates would kill the vibe!

John Lewis have a great selection of kitchenware and it’s quite often the first place I look if I am after an interesting dinner service, quality cutlery or an unusual serving platter. With a great range of prices, and celebrity design ranges such as Jamie Oliver, Cath Kidston and Emma Bridgewater, you are spoiled for choice.

Here are a few of my favourites from the current selection on offer at John Lewis

JamieOliver Dips + Bits – Great for decanting store bought or home made dips or serving olives and small nibbles

JamieOliver Big Dog Bowl – I love the name of this one, great for putting in the middle of the table for a help yourself casual meal or just a big bowl of popcorn in front of the TV having a budget cinema night!

RobertWelch Cutlery set – I personally have a set of ‘every day’ cutlery that gets slung in the dishwasher without a second thought, then for special occasions, I was gifted a very high quality cutlery canteen which again, I feel if you can stretch your budget to it, really makes the difference when enjoying a posh meal in the house! A good cutlery canteen will last for most of your life time so consider it an investment, like a good set of pans!

Do you prefer dining in now or are you still a fan of eating out? Let me know!

Katie Lifestyle

Recycling Clothes for Cash

Hello Lovelies,

Every year I stock up on armfuls of capsule items to see me through the hotter months. I say this every year but it’s usually as I’m packing my holiday case I discover all of last years favourites too. My summer (and winter, and spring, and autumn) wardrobe choices are fit to burst and I need to take this in hand!

Locally, we have clothing drive initiatives that enable you to bag up all your clean, decent but unwanted clothing and sell them on to the company, by weight, who then re-appropriates them in many other, better ways. My Mam recently took about 30 bags of my Dads old clothes to the place and got a whopping £60. It was hard work though lugging all those bin bags in and out of the car and in to the place.

I have a spare bedroom full of stuff to get rid of and dreaded the thought of taking it all out in the car in several trips to the clothes recycling place.

This is when I discovered musicMagpie.co.uk, the place famous for recycling your unwanted CDs, now also deals in recycling clothing. Fantastic eh!

Not only does musicMagpie give you a fair and decent price for each item rather than by weight, they also offer couriered collection which is just what I need. No hassle of lugging bags around which is ideal if you don’t have a car! I know where I shall be sending all my clothes for recycling now and I don’t even need to leave the comfort of my own home – PERFECT.

Well done musicMagpie.

Now…. All I need is for someone to help me come and scan all 1,000 CDs I have to get rid of. Any takers? Please??? No? Damn!

Katie Lifestyle

Techno bling with We Love Poppys

Hello Lovelies,

I sometimes struggle to incorporate femininity and whimsy in to my working world. As it’s were I spend 90% of my time, this is a big deal. Working between IT and motorsport, I’d never be taken seriously if I turned up with my tech covered completely in pink. So no pink laptops, ipad covers or phone cases for me – BOOO!

Lately I have been sporting a cute, understated bit of girly bling on my phone and ipad to cheer myself up!

Poppys are small luxury accessory that fit in to the headphone jack on your tech, be it an ipod (as seen in my pics) a phone, ipad or even an older gen Kindle, if it has a headphone socket, you can rock a Poppy.

Spoiled for choice with designs, my favourites would be the black heart and the skull – girly yet ungirly eh!

Priced between £12.95 and £14.95, covered entirely in Swarovski crystals you will find the Poppys are of high quality and sturdy construction. This is reassuring when you think how many knocks a phone takes in a bag.

The Poppys arrive through your letterbox wrapped up in a dinky little pink velvety pouch.

Poppys, a German brand, has been attracting press hype and popularity in its native country and now is the time to branch out.

You can buy your own gorgeous Poppy from their nifty website www.welovepoppys.co.uk

Do you have anything cute on your gadgets? Tell me!

Katie Fashion

Man Man Manly Man

Hello Lovelies,

Ok, so I might be channelling the Two & a half men theme tune but today I wanted to talk to you about men. Everyones favourite subject right?

Yesterday saw an interesting article posted on the Daily Mail (Daily Fail) about John Lewis’s newest menswear model – Johnny Harrington. On clicking in to the article I was presented with a manly looking male model, unlike nothing you’d imagine selling high end highstreet clothes. Johnny intrigued me, pulled me in. Piqued my interests if you will.

I was thoroughly impressed that this strapping, manly, rugged looking chap was selling clothes that my husband, a 30yr old ‘manly man’ would want to wear, based on the fact that a rough and tough looking fella was modelling them rather than an 18yr old stereotypical male model. Yes, we all know the type I mean.

I polled Mr Tramp and a few friends, varying from the rugged of rugged to the preened of the preened and there was a VERY strong divide on opinions on Johnny. The more ‘manly’ men of the group all favoured Johnny’s campaign with quotes such as

“He looks like he has a story to tell”

“He’s wordly wise looking”

“Check out that f&%$^& beard, I WANT ONE!!!”

while the more high fashion super groomed folks thought he looked dishevelled and made the clothes unappealing.

I can see it from both side. No one wants to buy in to the clothing ideal, to be wanting an outfit worn by someone they cannot identify with but I absolutely commend John Lewis for bringing in a new flavour to their male models.

Manly?

What does astound me is some of the rude, unpleasant and just down right ludicrous comments I have seen made about the advert and about Johnny himself. So he has a beard and long hair, that makes him any less of a person how? Exactly. Just because he isn’t covered in St Tropez with eyebrows plucked to within an inch of their life, doesn’t mean he CAN’T be a male model. Think of all the unconventionally beautiful female models out there! Just because someone has a beard and long hair, does that automatically mean they don’t care about grooming? Er no.

Hats off to John Lewis and to Johnny for breaking the mold and I truly hope this sees an increase in the diversity of the male modelling world. More manly men please!!!

And just for my own personal benefit…. Here are my 2 favourite bearded hotties…..

Aaron Kaufman and Richard Rawlings.

Yes so I’m slightly biased, cars & hotties… I wonder how much flights to Texas are?…..

VIVA LA MANLY MAN!

What do you think of the new John Lewis campaign? Are you a fan of a manly man? Let me know!