Books I Read in August 2020

31 Aug 2020

New month, new reads! This was a bit of a slower month which as I just started a new job is to be expected. I had a bit of a rough start as I was trying to get through some arcs that really just weren't doing it for me but then I finished the month off with a bit of a fantasy binge which put me right back on track! All in all, I made my way through seven books which for my busy schedule I'm happy with! Here's the whole selection including a brief synopsis in case you're unfamiliar with the book and a few thoughts from yours truly.

Staycation in Port Sunlight

22 Aug 2020

I'm a traveller by nature. I've been travelling to other countries ever since I was a baby and exploring new places has always just been a part of my summer for as long as I can remember (Check out my travel diaries from 1998-2009 and 2010-2020 here). So with COVID derailing any dreams of travelling abroad this summer, we decided to stay a little closer to home.

How To: Super Simple Watercolour Nails

14 Aug 2020

*THIS POST CONTAINS GIFTED ITEMS*

I'm not an artist, so much so that if my life depended on me doing something arty I would probably just end up dying. I'm always so in awe of anyone who can paint or draw because I can't do either truly my childhood attempts at craft were NOT good!  That being said, I'm heading away on a bit of a staycation so I wanted to do my nails (which are normally just white or a dusty pink) and I decided to snazz them up a little and this is so easy that even I couldn't mess it up.


I used five products and decided on a pastel theme for this look but feel free to use whatever colours you want, you really can't go wrong! (These are also all OPI products but I swear I'm not always this brand loyal)


First I applied the base coat which is OPI Start to Finish. This strengthens your nails and ensures an even coverage.


Then I applied a colour for my base and I settled for a white in the form of OPI 'Let's Be Friends'. This one is from the Hello Kitty collection and I picked it up from TK Maxx. I then did another layer of this colour just to solidify it. You could also use a light nude for this as it would definitely allow the colours to pop.


It was then onto the design. I knew I wanted to do something cute and pastel for summer so I settled on three pastel shades, All OPI shades in 'Met A Boy Cute As Can Be' which is a pastel yellow from the Grease collection,  'How Does Your Zen Garden Grow'* which is a pretty sage green colour which I LOVE, and 'Rice, Rice Baby'*, a dusty pink shade both this shade and the green are from the Tokyo Collection which was gifted to me last year. As I mentioned these are just the colours I used but you can replicate this design with any colours.


Now all you need to do is using a single brush stroke apply your colour of choice to each nail to create a little watercolour style stripe. and Voila! You are done! Easy right?


If you try this make sure to let me know how you get on!

My One Hundredth Blog Post

9 Aug 2020

I've been in a little bit of a posting rut as of late but I just logged onto my blog again and realised that I had made 99 blog posts which means that this little post right here is post number 100! I created this blog back in the summer of 2016 as a way to document my university experience but it's grown into so much more and after four years I thought it would be fun to do a little round-up of my top 10 favourite posts that I've made over that time.


I have so many posts that I love that I'm not even sure if these are my favourites but all ten of these posts hold special memories for me so without further ado, let's jump right in!