Current Candle Favourites

Nothing can stop me from burning candles, not even the warm weather we have in England!  When I get home from a stressful day at work, I treat myself by burning a candle. I find this a lot better than treating myself to a bar of chocolate! 

I am currently loving the White Chocolate Mint candle. When I first lit the candle, I found that the smell wasn't strong enough, but eventually the scent got stronger. I also love the the jar - it looks so much better than the typical Yankee candle jars! This would make a lovely gift in my opinion. The one below costs £10.

I am going to keep the jar when the candle runs out to store cotton wool or cotton buds!

I also love the Beach Flowers candle. My father loves the scent of this - and believe me, he rarely compliments my candles lol! This is the perfect scent for Spring and Summer. I also love candles with two or three wicks - they just look better.. and more romantic too! This candle cost £15! The candles in the jars last for ages - sometimes even 6 months, so they are good value for money.

The downside of burning candles in my room are the stains - mainly from using matches! This is why I am so happy to have a candle lighter - which is designed to light up deep jars!

You may have seen these gorgeous little wax tarts features on my instagram. I am obsessed about them! They cost a little over a pound and the scent is so strong! My favourite one at the moment is Margarita Time - it smells so tropical - ideal for the summer months! I have yet to burn Cranberry pear and black plum blossom. 

All of these can be purchased from The Scented Candle Shop (link!). I find this website great because they have a wide variety of candles, wax tarts and accessories, and the website is cheaper than the official Yankee website. They also do a price match scheme which is awesome!

Cape Verde

A few weeks ago, I entered paradise - in the form of Cape Verde. A lot of people haven't heard of Cape Verde - it's an island near Africa. It's full of beautiful white beaches which have talcum powder like sand and stunning turquoise waters.

If you want to relax by the beach, sipping cocktails (or mocktails in my case), then Cape Verde is the ideal destination for you. There's not much to do in terms of sight seeing, although we did go quad biking for four hours (we drove on the sand dunes and on the beach), which was pretty awesome!

We stayed at the Riu Touareg hotel, situated in Boa Vista. It was a beautiful hotel. I love all-inclusive hotels - it gives you that time off from cooking :) The hotel did lack a bit of choice for vegetarians, but most places do anyway!

Here are some photos of the hotel:

yup that's me

 Have you been/ are you going on holiday?

Travel Organisation +

I love anything to do with organisation. Anything that makes my life easier is very desirable to me.

Here is how I pack my bag (beware of a photo heavy post!):

I like using travel cubes to organise my clothing. I purchased the blue ones from Amazon and the pink ones from Ikea. The travel cubes from Ikea were only £5 for a set of four and the quality is so much better! Travel cubes keep everything separated in your luggage. I actually enjoy packing now thanks to these! I have decided not to show what's in every single cube, otherwise this post will go on forever!

I used about nine travel cubes to pack for a two week holiday. If I go away for the weekend, I normally just use three packing cubes.

One of my favourite things to do whilst on holiday is to curl up on the deck chair and read. I love self help books - they're so inspiring :)

Back to the packing cubes - you'll be surprised at how much stuff you can pack in a cube! I ended up putting tops in one bag....

......as well as my workout clothes and swimming costumes in another cube. Yes I am taking my workout gear on holiday - I seriously do not want to put on weight - I have a major event coming up which means I have to stay disciplined in an all-inclusive resort (wish me luck)

What I love about this particular travel cube is that it is double sided - so you can use it to put your dirty clothing in to separate it! Perfect!

I managed to pack seven dresses in this cube! Not bad!

I packed three pairs of shoes in this travel cube

I pack my toiletries using this bag (featured in this post)

My makeup and jewellery fit neatly in this bag from Amazon.. I absolutely love it!

This is all the makeup I am taking. Normally on holiday, I wear no makeup during the day, and then I dress up for dinner ;) This handy little bag also stores my makeup brushes!

I also packed my jewellery on the other side. I don't particularly wear much jewellery as you can see.

I also purchased this cute little zipper bag from Cath Kidston to store my leads. I tied up the leads using these gear ties from Amazon :)

Are you going on holiday this year?