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My Quarantine Favourites 🌼

Hello everyone! 🌼

I hope you are all doing alright as we are still in lock down. The past few weeks have been incredibly tough for me and I haven't had the energy to even think about making a blog post so to ease me back into it today's post is going to be a simple collection of my favourite things I have been loving in lock down.


Disclaimer: I understand these are by no means essential items and I do not urge you to go out seeking them or making extra trips for them as I want everyone to remain safe and to consider the social distancing measures. Most of these things I ordered online or found when having a clear out so again, I in no way am urging you to go out and actively try to find these items and possibly risk endangering yourself or anyone else! I must also add, yes I am trying to be eco friendly and most of the items in this are recycled, reused, or are sustainable purchases I know will last me a long time.


Anyway, I hope you like the post, I'll leave links to some of the items down under the "Sources" and as always stay smiling! 🌼


🌼Succulent Scents - After Christmas I decided that I was going to give in to the want and finally get a Himalayan salt lamp. Everyone in my family has one and constantly seeing how gorgeous they are simply just overtook all of my senses and so I got myself one. I managed to get mine in a Sainsburys sale, and I know what your thinking "That doesn't sound like an essential" You're right. However mine has a little diffuser pot in the top for essential oils and it was purchased in early January this year.

Now the salt lamp isn't necessarily the prime favourite of mine, but I do love the orange glow it gives and being able to use the essential oils has helped keep me so calm in this time and together they make the room smell and look beautiful. I have two scents from Pound land - I know, Pound land, who knew they sold essential oils. One is apple & cinnamon and the other is a vanilla musk.


I know essential oils are not the most eco friendly purchase to make, but I have a use for the bottles after and am only burning small amounts every few nights, so I'm still trying to be as eco friendly as possible. I also use some orange peel in a little amount of water and that seems to give off the most amazing smell that really freshens up a room.


🌼 Kicking The Habit - Anyone who knows me knows how much I struggle with biting my fingernails. For me it is one of those habit's that no matter how long I stop biting them for, I will always go back to biting them in the end! But for almost the whole of this lock down I have resisted all of my urges and let them grow! As a consequence of constantly biting them, when they grow through they seem incredibly flexible, which to me sounds horrible. I have been regularly painting them and using an amazing product that was actually handed to me from a family friend, which is always a bargain in my eyes because I didn't have to spend anything to get some incredible results!


Once my nails are completely clean and prepared for painting I go in with the AVON nail experts peeling and brittleness solver. Although this doesn't state it strengthens nails it really has helped to make mine feel stronger and definitely more healthy. I then go in with an AVON nail varnish; I have an abundance of these as they were all passed down to me, and then for top coat I have always found that AVON's top coats just don't stay put for me so I use an L.A. Colors nail treatment rapid dry topcoat and this keeps my nail varnish so flawless and scratch free for days, and you definitely need a good top coat if you'll be trying out my next favourite!


🌼 Something that didn't quite go to plan - In my house when you try something new, or try to take a short cut, for some reason it doesn't always go to plan! However, we are always great at resolving issues and papering over cracks, which is what I did.

I had been craving fudge so much recently, don't ask me why, I blame it on quarantine hormones! So I found a recipe that made two ingredient fudge and I had both ingredients, which is rare. I have put the link to the recipe below!


Now I made the fudge exact to the recipe, but after it had been refrigerated for probably 18 hours, had it set? Heck NO! If you have ever had this happen though, have no fear it is not a waste. I simply took two teaspoons and rolled fudge balls in icing sugar and made the cutest little ...What I like to call "DIY Truffles" and they taste great, but please be careful how much icing sugar you put on because they are incredibly sweet! These actually ended up being a huge hit in my household, my Nan's, and my boyfriends! So really it was a job very well done.



🌼 Another absolute favourite was some dandelion jelly my sister had made, don't worry we are in quarantine together and it was so delicious . This unfortunately falls under the "Something that didn't quite go to plan" because I know whilst making it she had a few little annoyances she overcame and let me tell you, when it was finished it was amazing, so lovely to eat. I will link her YouTube video of it's creation below. Any and all support on her channel and on my blog is so welcomed, especially during quarantine as any kind comments really help brighten a day!


🌼 A Little Growth - Yes I mean my hips, waist and thighs, but also - plants! I have always loved planting up seeds and hanging baskets and love flowers so much, but over the past couple of years I've fell out of love with a lot of plants and flowers, due to my hay-fever constantly bombarding me with itchy eyes and a runny nose! This year, it doesn't seem so bad, so I have been propagating like mad and I honestly love my little plant collection. Having responsibility over a few plants, needing to water them and keep them healthy seems really easy, but it's my little corner of life that I've really loved taking care of. A lot of my plants came from plants family members or friends already had and let me take, which are honestly the best kind of plants!


Getting them from someone who no longer wants them or is happy to give them away is such a kind thing to do as its bringing more life into my room and allowing me to feel a story within them. Propagation is also an amazing way of splitting life and forming new plants, I personally just went ahead and cut my plants wherever I felt was right, but I do follow an amazing Youtube channel "Pick Up Limes" and they have a great tutorial on plant propagation and some on plant care.


🌼 Combating The Strain - I have been seeing blue light glasses all over the internet for the past few months and been debating on whether getting a pair. Since being in lock down I have been using my laptop more and more, leading to a horrible red vein demon spreading across my right eye after only 10 minutes of being on my laptop! So no more, I bought some. I will link the ones I got below because my lord, I could not believe the difference! I have only had them for 3 days now? And honestly, no eye strain, no red demon, no more headaches.


Ofcorse I'm not expecting them to completely protect my eyes against any damage and I am not using them instead of a prescription pair of glasses, but whilst in lock down they seem to be doing an amazing job. Quick disclaimer, I do intend to get my eyes checked once we are out of a complete quarantine and I am only using the glasses when on the laptop and long periods of time on my phone as for now I think they will do a better job than nothing, but it does not mean if you have them you can stay on your device for hours longer, brakes are still needed!


Anyway, my glasses were a little more expensive at £23, but they did come with a case, cleaner, tester card and blue light to test them with. I'm really glad I got them because it means now me and my partner can watch a film together, through the laptop, without my eyes becoming too sore to finish! Which takes me on to my next point!


🌼 Viewing Material - What would we all do without Netflix, eh? Well, believe it or not, I've not been watching much Netflix recently, instead when me and my partner are setting down to watch a movie we've been heading over to Disney Plus. If you know me, you know I didn't pay for it, but I am so grateful that my partner did because oh my. Two words my friends. Toy Story! So heart wrenching, so painful, so wholesome and Pixar, so brutal!


Now before quarantine I had only ever seen snippets of Toy story and never all of the films, admittedly we have just finished Toy Story 3, but we both agreed the emotional stress that could come with the 4th film requires us to be in the same room. I never expected to get so crushed by these films! No wonder there is more depression and anxiety in my generation, Pixar inflicted paranoia and anxiety on us from the beginning! Now this isn't going to be a review because frankly I can't watch it again for a long time, but wow. Disney and Pixar when they get it right. They get it right!


As for other viewing material, I may have said I hadn't watched as much Netflix as normal, but I meant new releases on Netflix! If you haven't done another binge of Stranger Things in lock down, dude what have you done?


Disney Plus and Netflix are seriously doing amazing things at the moment, offering households that sign up a free week or month, especially at this time with money so tight, these are great services that really help ease the boredom, and if you have kids and need a break, I highly recommend banging on that Disney Plus! #Not Sponsored!


🌼 Health - It is really easy at this time to forget about health, appearance and generally taking care of ourselves, I suck at personal care. This quarantine I went a whole week without doing my skincare routine because I just felt "Why?" But, honestly I regret not doing it because my skin is suffering now and genuinely getting me down even more. I neglected drinking water, focusing on fizzy drinks, hot chocolate and coffee, which are like the worst combinations of drinks!


I mostly don't indulge in alcoholic drinks, but every now and again I do have the occasional fruity cider and by over consuming these it has made my skin so much more dry on my face and my scalp has been so inflamed you would not believe! But I have started to take some oil supplements and they really seem to be helping. If any of you read my "How things are going so far" You will know I have a few disabilities I contend with in life and my left foot has been so stiff lately, and incredibly tight since my cast came off.


However I have been taking cod liver oil capsules every morning and honestly it seems to be helping! It's not fixed the stiffness or pain, but it seems to help it not feel quite as painful or stuck. I am also taking primrose oil at night to help with my skin as I suffer badly from rosacea and some light acne on my cheeks, the primrose oil has really helped to even out my dryness and is taking some of my inflammation down. I got mine from my local Wilko store and they are relatively affordable!


That is it for my few little favourites I have really found love for during this quarantine, of course there are always more things I'd love to share with you but this would turn into a 3 hour long read!


As always, thank you for reading - I hope you enjoyed! Feel free to leave a comment, like or reach me on social media!


I hope you all have a lovely day,

🍁 Stay smiling


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