Penis straws are prohibited: Relaxed hen party ideas.

My eldest sister is getting married in May and anyone who knows her knows she is not the type to enjoy a 'normal' hen do. With this in mind, my other sister did a stellar job at organising a lovely hen weekend with strictly no penis straws!

Here are a few ideas (some that we did, some that I have come up with) for hen do activities that avoid strippers and penis straws - which can be added if you so wish!

A weekend away

Get away from the busy work life and take a trip to the country in a little cottage with your girlfriends. A short city break or maybe even a trip overseas could also be a slightly different approach to the cliché hen party. A trip to the beach on a sunny day with a detour into the arcade could be a great trip out also.

Baking and decorating

Why not release the domestic goddesses in the kitchen with some baking? Who can make the best cupcake? Or perhaps some cupcake/biscuit decorating. Underwear or naughty shaped biscuits could be good fun to decorate!

Crafting 

Dig out the paints and the sewing kits. Buy in a couple of canvases or a pack of plain undies. Get creative and let loose on the medium of your choice. This can be as naughty or nice as you like, set a theme for the decorations or let your imagination run wild

Fun and games

Whether it's board games or drinking games (or a combination of the two) a good game is always a good bet. We played Cards Against Humanity which is not for the faint hearted or easily offended but is always a great laugh! 

Pin the body part on the groom to be can be as innocent as you want it to be.

Why not ask your guests to write down some memories of the bride to be on slips of paper, fold them and place in a bowl. Let someone pick them out and read them to the group (the bride might recognise the writing), the bride has to pick the author of the memory (and tell the story!), if she gets it write the author drinks, if not then the bride drinks. Alcohol is optional, of course.

 

Outdoor activities

If you're the outdoors type you might enjoy a walk or a trip to a nice gardens. Why not try some archery or clay pigeon shooting? If you're in Oxfordshire there is a lovely shooting school that we visited with great packages for groups and very welcoming staff.

It's always a good laugh to try something no one has done before. Google local activities and see what is available to do in your area. Something like Go Ape or an outdoor pursuit centre could really set apart your party

Hopefully you may have picked up a couple of ideas for your own party planning, of course do check out Pinterest and Google and any other blogs for more ideas. Remember to have fun my little hens!

xo

Exeter Haul

My purchases from when I visited Kelly in Exeter

Satsuma hand cream - £3.50, The Body Shop
Satsuma shimmer - £2, The Body Shop

Jelly Belly lip balm - £1.50, Primark

We started off in The Body Shop, smelling their various body butters.

I received a selection of body butters for Christmas and was surprised to find that my favourite smell was the satsuma one. I was drawn to it again and purchased the hand cream and lip balm with a slight shimmer to it.

We then hit Primark and as a lip balm addict I had to buy more. I was also running out so I had to stock up!

Disney lip balms - £4, Primark

As a big Lip Smacker and Disney fan, I was instantly drawn to this cute set.

The three princess lip balms all have a slight shimmer to them and come in three different flavours: Calypso Berry (Ariel), Magical Glow Berry (Rapunzel) and Vanilla Sparkle (Cinderella).

I'm currently keeping all my new lip balms in the tin - it's a perfect size!

Toy Story t-shirt - £8, Primark

I spotted this t-shirt in the Men's section and fell in love with it, Kelly is a huge Toy Story fan and I knew she had to have it. I bought it for her as a Valentine's present.

Primark have lots of cute Disney tees in at the moment, including the collection of villians that I had purchased previously.

If you're a Disney fan I would recommend you keep checking in as they're always different ones in.

Puffin jumper - £1.99
Cardigan - £3.99

Once Kelly had left me for her lecture I had full reign of the charity shops. I found these two in different shops on my journey home. My mum actually has the puffin design on a t-shirt so I couldn't say no to the jumper (even if it is a little small).

Tapestry bag - £2.99

I've been needing a new small bag for when I go out just to put a few bits in. I was aiming for a plain black one but I couldn't resist this gorgeous one. I have a thing for tapestry and for floral patterns (the more vintage in style the better!). I used it the night I bought it and was very pleasantly surprised to find it had loads of little compartments and zipped bits to pull all your things in!

After I had been in every charity shop I could find I started to head home. That was when I spotted the Asian Supermarket, and the one over the road to it. I love oriental food, especially their sweets! And I'm always on the lookout for a Vietnamese Beef sauce that my mum got once and was amazing! I didn't find the sauce but I did find my favourite gummy sweets (the orange ones, although I do prefer them in grape flavour). I also grabbed the birthday cake flavoured oreos and peach mango lipton tea!

On the walk back to Kelly's house I passed an international food shop so stopped in and picked up the Udon noodles, Mango flavouring extract and some incense (although I could set off the fire alarm if I burnt it in my room at uni - it'll have to wait until I get home).

I also spotted this cheeky devil on sale in one of the supermarkets. There were a few bears and panda like creatures but I knew this was the one! I bought it for Kelly as a thank you for having me. It can double up as a money box and had chocolate straw things in it (which were very nice actually).

One of the last things I bought was of course, a bubble tea!

I'm always on the hunt for these as I just love them so much. I noticed the first supermarket I went into had the lid machine but when I asked they weren't doing them. The second one however, was doing them - they were waiting on a delivery though so I didn't have as much choice.

I chose the honeydew melon drink with mango and passion fruit popping bubbles (they didn't have enough mango for a full serving - I wasn't complaining).

It was super yummy and so refreshing after a long day of shopping!

Newcastle bound

A play by play look at my recent day trip to Newcastle where I was tattooed by Lauren Stephens at Cock a Snook Tattoo Parlour.

6:17
Waiting for my 6:31 train to Clapham Junction. Of course I'm years early but I was worried about picking up my tickets from the machine (which I'd never done before) and I just really hate being late - it freaks me the hell out.
I'm wearing a floaty skirt and my legs were rather chilly walking to the station, also had to ruin my outfit with a hoodie but I would have frozen in just a cardigan (and extra pockets are a must on a long journey).

7:42
Waiting for my platform number for the train to Newcastle. Discovered this skirt is not great for tube travel, I thought the wind wouldn't carry it, but it did.. Still cold, feeling a bit ill - have been the whole time really, hoping a bit of pokemon will take my mind off it when I actually get on the train. Forever plagued with a stomach ache. Okay I'm off to platform 1 now.

7:58
Sitting on the train waiting for it to leave King's Cross. Our driver is called September which I thought was an interesting name (but the best month as it holds my birthday). He kept going on about valid train tickets and I kept freaking out. I only booked my tickets last night as the whole organisation thing with this has been down the drain and I have been surprisingly chill about it (until the last 2 days). I bought a return ticket instead of two singles which isn't what I usually do, it was the cheapest option at £146.80 (I cried inside) so I just took it although I was worried about whether it limited my journey options. I'm on the train now and it's left now so I guess I'll just have to buy a new ticket if I have to. Due to arrive at 10:49.

8:32
Tickets checked and all is well. Downloaded a sudoku app and I am content (minus the constant pain from my tummy, sigh).

11:27
Here, waiting for my stencil sat in my elmo pj shorts looking like a tit. All for the sake of art!

1:45
Outline is pretty much done. The inside, outside and top of my thigh hurt the most. Just took a quick toilet break. Now back for a bit of shading with a million needles, looks good though.

4:27
I think the worst parts are done, we're on to the details and I don't think it will be that long til it's done. Feel a bit twitchy now though. Lauren has just said we're on the homeward stretch now. God knows what I'm going to do for an hour, see if I can get on an earlier train I guess. A woman came in and got her first tattoo on her foot - a quote. She was really scared but was really happy with the outcome and surprised that it wasn't as bad as she thought. She's got the bug now and wants another. Being in the chair for half an hour, I don't blame her. It's nothing on 4 hours. I'm being a bit of a wimp today though, I always want to be one of those people that sit like champs but I think that's just not going to happen. I kind of don't want it to end.. But I do. Internal conflict!

5:27
All finished and waiting for a taxi. So happy with it, also glad the pain has stopped! Everyone is so lovely here and so welcoming. I do wish it was closer! Glad to finish early so I can try and jump on an earlier train and get back. Feeling tired now!

6:11
All done, taxi driver was a really lovely guy and we happily chatted about tattoos for the journey. Traffic wasn't great but I'm on the platform now waiting for a train to London at half past which is half an hour earlier than planned. Hopefully I'll be in the house by midnight this way. Tired and it's sore to walk, have a bit of a limp. The wrap has fallen down a bit at the top but it should be okay. Forgot to mention before that sometimes the most painful part today was when she cleaned the excess ink away. It was extra pressure and stinging that I did not enjoy. As soon as it's over though it's the best thing ever. You completely forget about how much it hurt and you can't wait until the next one. That's how I feel anyway! And now I just want to go back to Lauren and to Cock a Snook because they were just so lovely. Curse them being so far away! Next time I'll make sure I book my tickets in advance as well!

6:42
On the Newcastle train. Feeling sleepy and bored but I can't be bothered to do anything like play pokemon or do my cross stitch so I'm just constantly checking social media instead. Feeling sorry for the lady sat next to me as I needed to charge my phone but she's next to the plug socket so the cable is draped over her lap. She was nice about it though, I'm just not looking forward to having to unplug it!

9:51
Tube number one, rocking a sexy limp at the moment. Who knew you actually used the muscles in your thigh! The wrap is slipping down and it's bothering me. I don't want it to get any germs from my skirts. Oh well, I'm sure it'll be fine. It's just annoying as I still have quite a bit of walking to do. Very much looking forward to getting home and having that feeling in the morning when you forget you've made an appearance change and then boom, you see it again. I used to have it all the time with my hair. I remember with my last tattoo I was a very happy bunny in the morning, woke up next to my boyfriend and just stared, smiling at my tattoo.

9:56
Just had to jump off the tube as I wasn't paying any attention and almost missed the fact that we were at my stop. Whoops.

11:29
Very happy to say I am home. The wrapping is pretty much off of its own accord. It was really rather painful walking home and I'm looking forward to washing it, letting it breathe and going to bed!

12:02
Showered and with a light covering of bepanthen, the tattoo is ready for bed and so am I! It's been a very long day, but a very good day. I can't thank Lauren enough.

Photo from the day after, washed and with cream on. It's bruised and swollen but looking good. Can't wait for it to heal though, shorts were a bit cold in the winter weather today. Looking forward to showing it off through tights.

I have no current ideas for my next tattoo, I just know I want another one - I find it so additive and I follow so many artists' work. It's also hard because I'm tempted to cover all of my legs but I still want to be professional. Although I would love not to have discrimination when it comes to tattoos and brightly coloured hair, I have to be realistic. I will end up in a hospital or practise that won't appreciate my appearance and I am preparing for that (being blonde for my placement year at uni). I really just wish I could do what I want with my appearance and people wouldn't care because it's my life and I'm not doing anything offensive.. that's the end of my rant. Tattoo updates may follow...

My trip to Exeter

It was a big relief when my exams finished on 29th January, it was an even nicer feeling to know that I had another week off before I started lectures. In that week I had planned a short trip to visit my best friend who is living and studying in Exeter.

I left Monday afternoon and enjoyed playing pokemon while on the train on my new pink 3DS - one of my best purchases of 2015 so far.

After negotiating the many stations of Exeter I arrived at St James' Park and was greeted by Kelly who lead me the short walk back to her house. Being a first year currently, I am looking to move into my own student house with a few other girls next year. I recently organised a house viewing (very exciting) and now have a particular interest in the houses of other students - that, and I'm just nosey!

Kelly's house is lovely, all the girls have their own double beds and it's cute and clean. All the girls themselves are also lovely, and I had a very sweet welcome. One thing I did notice was the cold though, and I can't say I'm looking forward to having to budget on heating!

To my absolute delight Kelly suggested we ate at Wagamamas that evening. I have been craving a Wagamamas recently and was very excited to be going. I am also just a big fan of Oriental food in general.

We both shared tori kara age, chilli squid and grilled pork bulgogi wraps. I had chicken and prawn Cha Han and Kelly had Yaki Udon. I also took them up on their free green tea.

The food was amazing as always and we even went on to pudding and I indulged myself with the passion fruit cheesecake and Kelly had the banana katsu. I also spotted (on the kids menu) a free frothy milk with chocolate powder on the top - a cococino, I hastily ordered this and was not disappointed - although I do wish it was a bit bigger!

To round of the evening we stopped off at Urban and got a round of cocktails. We took advantage of the 2-4-1 deal where you have to order two of the same cocktail but they make it in a tea pot and you get a glass to pour it in. I had a berry ice tea (cocktail, don't let it fool you) and Kelly had the Urban ice tea. We sat in a really cute cave-like alcove that was tucked away from the busy bar and chatted for a bit while we enjoyed our drinks.

Tuesday

We headed out mid morning to venture into Exeter centre for a bit of a shop. I, of course, spent much too much money and will write a haul post after this one. We wandered around and it really is a lovely city. For lunch we went to Tea on the Green just off the green of the Cathedral. I was parched and had to try not to gulp down my ice tea with passion fruit and mint (which was gorgeous) while I waited for my chicken, brie and chutney panini. Kelly also chose a panini, the sausage, cheddar and chutney one. We shared some chips with some persuasion from the waiter.

After a relaxing lunch Kelly left me for her 2-5pm lecture and I had full reign of the charity shops much to the pain of my bank account. I waddled back with my very full bags and managed to work out the way to her house on my own. When arriving back I enjoyed the bubble tea I purchased from an Asian supermarket and started writing the first half of this blog post.

She cooked dinner for the both of us, using a Mediterranean spice concoction that came on baking paper that you wrapped your chicken in, then pan fried. It was a new concept to me and it was really tasty - I'm looking forward to trying these out in the future!

We headed out to a friends' house for predrinks before we hit Cheesy Tuesday at Arena. I lost our game of Ring of Fire and had the pleasure of drinking the gross mixture of drinks in the middle.

Kelly persuaded me to wear a coat out on the way to Arena - something I had never done before (I always just grit my teeth and bare it, even at concerts) and we seemed to spend forever queuing for the cloak room.

Once we were inside and coatless we made a beeline for the bar where I had my first (and last) tequila shot, they had run out of lemon and salt which apparently makes it nicer?! We then spent the rest of the night dancing to some huge tunes including Mambo No 5, Breaking Free and Since You Been Gone. I had a great time, and it proved to me (as I was pretty sober) that the crowd you are with and the music that they play really do make the night - for me at least. I was more than happy just dancing with Kelly and screaming every word to every song. I much prefer dancing to songs I know and I am not a big fan of chart music nor the usual songs they play in clubs.

Wednesday

We headed out mid morning again and headed to Brody's for breakfast. I had unlimited English breakfast and pancakes. I am very much craving those pancakes now. I had never been out for breakfast before (I always wake up hungry and if I don't eat promptly I get bad stomach pains) but if I had a Brody's near me I fear I would be there a lot.

After eating our fill Kelly took me to the university campus and gave me a quick tour, including a walk up the dreaded cardiac hill. The campus really is gorgeous, with lots of really pretty buildings - and it of course features in the most recent series of Broadchurch, as pointed out by David Tennant enthusiast Kelly.

We stopped for a Costa before meeting a couple of her coursemates for presentation planning. It was quite nice to sit in and listen to them talking about their work and what they're learning about. 

The meeting was about an hour long and we headed back home to watch Monsters University, play some cards and have some snacks before I caught the train from St James' Park back home.

It was a really great trip away and I would definitely recommend Cheesy Tuesdays at Arena to everyone and anyone - I can't wait to go back again!

New year, new colour

I'll start by wishing you all a very happy new year! I hope you all had a lovely night last night and aren't feeling too rough today!

You may recall a few days ago I posted about bleach bathing my hair ready to put a new colour on my hair. That is just what I have done! I am now sporting dark purple hair, wowee!

Just a note, I didn't actually dye my hair to welcome in the new year. I'm planning to dye my hair every holiday when I come home from uni and see my hair dye specialist (that is a joke, she is no way a specialist, we make it up as we go along!).

This photo was taken before we started, the lighting makes my hair look more blonde than it was: there was a blue/green tone left in the middle of my hair - the healthiest and strongest part of my hair. Obviously apart from the freshly bleached roots.

We mixed up a directions cocktail of my left over flamingo pink, a whole tub of violet, plum and rubine (I think, I can't actually remember now).

We might have had to add some more plum, we're always worried about not having enough to cover my whole head. Now I have a little pot of extra that I could add to my conditioner if I wanted to add a little extra colour or could touch up any little patchy bits if necessary. Better to have too much than too little when you're making you're own concoction without measuring anything!

Kelly is not always the most tidy when dying my hair. She likes to try to be a professional hairdresser but usually ends up covering my entire face (as pictured). My ears are still purple but my good friend the nail varnish remover is helping me to rectify this.

We wrapped my hair in clingfilm to help trap the heat and I added a plastic bag on top as I didn't feel very secure.

I think I left the dye on for an hour or two while I dyed Kelly's hair.

I just washed out my hair, shampooed and conditioned and got purple water bloody everywhere. Left it to dry naturally and this is what I got. It looked darker when it wasn't in the light but I've washed it once since and it seems to be a tiny bit lighter. Obviously as it fades it will get lighter and hopefully the red tones from rubine (dark tulip?) will come through more. Pleased with how it's looking at the moment though :)

As I mentioned before, while I let the dye process on my hair, I dyed Kelly's hair. She's had a dip dye for around 3 years now and we usually do something funky with it in the holidays.

This time we were attempting a sort of feather effect, splitting her hair into three horizontal layers and then splitting those layers into sections to dye with varying colours.

Kelly had chosen green, blue, orange, red and pink for this hair adventure.

I cling filmed each section and we left them on for just under an hour.

Isn't she a little cutie?

The colour is more subtle because we forgot that we had planned to bleach bath her ends and had instead just put the dye straight on a faded blue base.

That considering, I think it came out well and looks great (her hair is always nice. Curse her). 

I'll probably update you on how my hair fades in the coming months so stay tuned if you care about the colour of my hair (I do not blame you if you could not give two shits).

Happy new year bitches
xo 

         

Bleach Baths

I'm just going to throw this out there: I am not a hairdresser, nor is my best friend. We have picked up our techniques and tricks from what we have learned from others on the world wide web and out and about. I don't pretend to know everything there is to know about hair and whatever the hell you're planning to do with it. I do what I want with my hair but I do my best to look after it as much as I colour and ruin it.

In July I bleached my brown hair and dyed it blue/green/turquoise/teal (whatever colour you want to call it). We dyed it once more at the beginning of September and since then I have let it do its own thing and fade as it wanted to. I then decided in November that I wanted to do something different with my hair when it got to the Christmas holidays and I saw my make shift hairdresser - my best friend, Kelly. I decided to try and speed up the fading process so used anti-dandruff shampoo, bicarb of soda and vitamin c tablets to help this. (I may do a more detailed post about these at another time).

I managed to get to a reasonably faded colour when it came to home time but I had decided that I wanted to get put as much of the green colour left as I could. I wanted a new colour and I had chosen purple. Putting purple on top of green was not going to go well in my eyes so I wanted rid of as much as possible with as little damage as I could manage. I decided on the bleach bath, a gentler way of stripping my colour out effectively by using bleach.

For my bleach bath I was using cheap shampoo from Tescos, 30 volume developer and blue powder bleach - both from Sally. We roughly measured 1:1 on bleach and developer. Then just a little less of shampoo after mixing the other two together.

Before

I had towel dried my wet hair and Kelly then applied it using the brushes we have. Afterwards we mixed up straight bleach and used it on my roots. I wrapped my head in tin foil and got on my day. I probably left it on to long but we had lunch and I have a habit of leaving these things on forever. I'm worried about damage but I want good results too. The diluted bleach was probably on for an hour.

I rinsed the bleach out before shampooing it. I then left on a hair mask/conditioner on the lengths and ends for a few hours, washing it out later that evening. My hair doesn't feel any more damaged than it already was. In fact, it feels rather lovely! I finished it off with Bleach London's Split Fix Serum on the ends and lengths when it was still wet. I'm not sure how good it is but I bought it so I'm going to use it, gosh darn it!

After

All in all I'm pretty pleased, it is funny when I put my hair in a bun as I have a blonde head/roots and a blue top knot. We haven't decided whether we'll bleach bath it again before we dye it but I'm pretty easy. It's slightly patchy but my hair always is, everyone always says how the like the different tones!

I try to let my hair breathe for a few days before I do anything else to it. Leaving this for 5 days before we dye it, just to give it some extra time to chill. And I'm also getting it cut to take the worst off the ends.

I'm sure I'll end up posting about my new hair colour as well. I'm getting into this blogging thing! I guess it's just because I'm doing things that are mildly interesting as it's the holidays! Oh well!


Merry Christmas and all that!
xo

Fee on Ice

Until a couple of weeks ago, I had never even been to an ice rink, let alone been out on one.

I finally had my first ice skating experience the other week with a few girls from my uni flat. It was a terrifying ordeal to say the least. Of course, as it came to leaving time, I was starting to gain confidence and had finally started to creep away from the edge. 

I was eager to get back to the ice to practise but the holidays were upon us before we could organise anything. However I have recently managed to get back on the ice but for something a bit different...

Quite a few years ago my sister used to go to a local ice rink and go curling with her sixth form. In the years since she has returned with varying people, and for her birthday this year she was heading back with a few friends and I managed to pick up an invite.

Off we went. After lots of tiny and windy country roads we found ourself at a farm, with a barn, with an ice rink in. It's quite wonderful really. Imagine having that conversation: 'you know what, darling? I think we need an ice rink in the barn.'

After a brief video we put on any extra layers, changed our shoes and stepped into the room with the rink in. Later I was told that the shoes had been changed last year: they used to have a bit called a kipper that you could take off so you had one slippy foot and one grippy foot. Now they were just grippy. My sister and a couple of others had previously used the other shoes but I was very grateful for the change, ice is not my best friend.

Our instructor lady talked us through the pushing off and sweeping technique. Being very uncoordinated, it took me a lot longer than everyone else. That said, all but two others had been at least one before and they were all at least 6 years older than I was!

 You're in a team of four for curling, and everyone gets two stones each. You're supposed to rotate as well, so everyone has a part to play and can get involved. Most of my stones just soared past everything and went out of play, I prefered the sweeping but it didn't half wear you out!

After a few tries just using the hack (the starting block looking things) to push off with our grippy shoes we were then introduced to the sliding technique..

There was a sort of paper/plastic sheet in an oval that acted as the kipper and was really rather slippy. You placed that under your foot that you lunged off with and the idea is that you slide your way across the ice with the stone until the thick red line, where you need to let go.

It's really blooming hard and I definitely fell flat on my bum on my first attempt. Thankfully however, I was not the only one. After people had practised for a little bit we started a new game and everyone but me adopted the new technique (sod that). By the end of it, most of them were able to slide relatively gracefully to the line and deliver a nice stone. I, however, still sucked. But also still enjoyed sweeping.

We had two hours on the ice in the end, and it was great fun. Although we won our first two games easily, we lost the next three. Not the best way to end but it was still a good trip out! I really hope I can go again some time and maybe practise with the kipper a bit more (but maybe not, I'm really not looking forward to seeing the bruise on my bum!).

I definitely recommend trying it out if you have the chance, it's such an underrated sport and is a great laugh - much better when you're all rubbish in my opinion (and that's only because I'm rubbish)!

For those in Kent or East Sussex the link to the website for this particular ice rink is here