Hey all!
We have finally reached the end of another year, and it has been a super busy one at that. We've both had our own personal highs and lows but the blog has progressed over the year and we're hoping to take it even further in 2018.
So put the kettle on, grab a brew and have a read of our recap of everything we've had the pleasure of covering in 2017!
Locally we've visited many eateries for new openings and revamps and we've had so much fun. These events are always a favourite of ours, we are lucky enough to try some amazing food and of course get to meet new people from the blogging/journalist world and have a catch up with friends we've already made. We enjoy going to them very much and as self confessed food addicts we are well known within our friendship groups for being people 'in the know' when it comes to somewhere new to eat! We can't wait to see what new places Cardiff will have to offer in 2018.
The Stable is always one of those places we love to go for good comforting food at decent prices. We also love to go for their cider tasting boards, i.e. 5 1/3 pints of cider that you can choose yourself or have the options of the week and find some new drinks to love.
Beer tasting in Zero Degrees was a different experience, especially as I have never found a beer that I've liked before! But learning more about the processes and flavourings was really interesting, and it's a fun event for anyone who likes beer!
The opening of The Brass Beetle also stands out as we adore pizza anyway, but the variety of toppings available was really impressive. They even have vegan options which we really loved and would love to go back and try more, including their cocktails which we can also vouch for!
We've previously tried the food at Porro's Llandaff restaurant but our first visit to Porro Wellfield Road was to taste their new menu. It didn't disappoint and we have been back since, think Italian bistro style food all of great quality. Fully recommend!
We also visited the Blanche Bakery just before it opened to see the store and meet the owners. They are both so lovely and the place is really great, we can't wait to revisit in future to try out the new vegan offerings, we expect Cardiff will love having a new vegan cafe!
Aside from the event invites we have visited many other eateries which we fully recommend. I've covered a few of them in my post called the Cardiff Food Round Up but we have also been to Cocorico Patisserie Afternoon Tea, Grey's Bottomless Prosecco Lunch, and Falafel Kitchen
We have finally reached the end of another year, and it has been a super busy one at that. We've both had our own personal highs and lows but the blog has progressed over the year and we're hoping to take it even further in 2018.
So put the kettle on, grab a brew and have a read of our recap of everything we've had the pleasure of covering in 2017!
Locally we've visited many eateries for new openings and revamps and we've had so much fun. These events are always a favourite of ours, we are lucky enough to try some amazing food and of course get to meet new people from the blogging/journalist world and have a catch up with friends we've already made. We enjoy going to them very much and as self confessed food addicts we are well known within our friendship groups for being people 'in the know' when it comes to somewhere new to eat! We can't wait to see what new places Cardiff will have to offer in 2018.
The Stable is always one of those places we love to go for good comforting food at decent prices. We also love to go for their cider tasting boards, i.e. 5 1/3 pints of cider that you can choose yourself or have the options of the week and find some new drinks to love.
Beer tasting in Zero Degrees was a different experience, especially as I have never found a beer that I've liked before! But learning more about the processes and flavourings was really interesting, and it's a fun event for anyone who likes beer!
The opening of The Brass Beetle also stands out as we adore pizza anyway, but the variety of toppings available was really impressive. They even have vegan options which we really loved and would love to go back and try more, including their cocktails which we can also vouch for!
We've previously tried the food at Porro's Llandaff restaurant but our first visit to Porro Wellfield Road was to taste their new menu. It didn't disappoint and we have been back since, think Italian bistro style food all of great quality. Fully recommend!
Most recently in December we went to The Potted Pig to try out their menu as they are now open on Monday evenings as well (hooray!). The food is outstanding and perfect for a celebratory meal, the gins are also really impressive and the team knew exactly what to pair with each one. Definitely one for an occasion.
We also visited the Blanche Bakery just before it opened to see the store and meet the owners. They are both so lovely and the place is really great, we can't wait to revisit in future to try out the new vegan offerings, we expect Cardiff will love having a new vegan cafe!
Aside from the event invites we have visited many other eateries which we fully recommend. I've covered a few of them in my post called the Cardiff Food Round Up but we have also been to Cocorico Patisserie Afternoon Tea, Grey's Bottomless Prosecco Lunch, and Falafel Kitchen
Celtic Manor is a place we both love to visit whenever possible for the variety of food, afternoon tea and spa treatments they have available. It is the one stop place for relaxation an indulgence and we have been so lucky to be invited there this year. We have experienced the Summer Berry Afternoon Tea which was so fruity and light, as well as their new Champagne and Beauty Bar for all of your beauty needs in style.
I'm sure you know by now that whilst we love food, we also love to have a drink too! We love finding new drinks menus to work our way through and one of our favourites is Dirty Martini. We've visited on a number of nights out this year but special mention goes to the Dirty Martini Choctails at Easter time. These were desserts in liquid form and we really hope they bring these back again in 2018!
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Cardiff is getting to be a vibrant city full of new places to go, especially on the beauty scene.
We finally got the New Lush Spa in Cardiff which we were very excited about. We'd visited the Oxford Street Spa when we went to London in March so we had an idea what it would be like but the Cardiff spa really doesn't disappoint! It really is completely soundproof so you can leave your worries at the door and lose yourself in your treatments.
We also went to Laguna Health Spa in the Park Plaza hotel which is our favourite spa in the city centre. We were both treated to different treatments from their new range with Espa which is totally cruelty free and so was a winner for us! We tried the Body Wrap and the Proskin Facial and can fully recommend.
We also had arrivals of some new beauty counters in Debenhams including Kat von D and Too Faced so we were really excited about these knowing they are both cruelty free.
Lastly we went to an amazing Spectrum Collections Event where we had the pleasure of meeting the fabulous ladies behind Spectrum Brushes and watching a live makeover. We both relate to these ladies a lot as we have so much in common with them. Their designs are taking the beauty world by storm and we can't wait to see what they come up with in 2018!
As well as this we were super lucky and were treated by Salon Success by being a member of their Styling Society in 2017. We had the amazing opportunity to try out some cruelty free brands such as Marula Oil, Kenra and Paul Mitchell and still cannot believe how beautiful the Paul Mitchell 3 in 1 Rose Gold Styling Tool is!
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Numbers wise we have managed to get our views back up to where they were previously and to an amount we're happy with. We can always hope for more in future but sometimes maintaining this is half the battle!
Twitter followers increased over the year and now we're just short of 4k.
Instagram followers increased from 470 to 1400 so we couldn't be happier with this after all of the hassle with the changes on the app. Fingers crossed the future of Instagram won't involve the super boring follow/unfollow game as people strive for quantity of followers over quality of posts.
We also started a Pinterest account and have been so pleased to go from 0 to just under 2k on there in a year! We absolutely love pictures and hope to continue learning more about this app in future.
This may all be small to some people and it's not about numbers at all but we are so happy with the way things have progressed over such a busy year for the two of us. There's now around 8000 of you following us across various platforms so we're extremely grateful for all of the support.
We wouldn't have got anywhere without the amazing companies and brands we have been lucky enough to work with and the invites we have received from so many local companies and we hope we can continue to support them in 2018 too.
Thanks to everyone for your support and we hope 2018 brings you all you want! We will be celebrating together in M's new house with lots of glitter, bubbles and gin!
Happy new year!
L and M xxx
We've had such a fantastic time being part of it and are so pleased we have been invited back for a second year. Stay tuned for some amazing new products in the new year.
Numbers wise we have managed to get our views back up to where they were previously and to an amount we're happy with. We can always hope for more in future but sometimes maintaining this is half the battle!
Twitter followers increased over the year and now we're just short of 4k.
Instagram followers increased from 470 to 1400 so we couldn't be happier with this after all of the hassle with the changes on the app. Fingers crossed the future of Instagram won't involve the super boring follow/unfollow game as people strive for quantity of followers over quality of posts.
We also started a Pinterest account and have been so pleased to go from 0 to just under 2k on there in a year! We absolutely love pictures and hope to continue learning more about this app in future.
This may all be small to some people and it's not about numbers at all but we are so happy with the way things have progressed over such a busy year for the two of us. There's now around 8000 of you following us across various platforms so we're extremely grateful for all of the support.
We wouldn't have got anywhere without the amazing companies and brands we have been lucky enough to work with and the invites we have received from so many local companies and we hope we can continue to support them in 2018 too.
Thanks to everyone for your support and we hope 2018 brings you all you want! We will be celebrating together in M's new house with lots of glitter, bubbles and gin!
Happy new year!
L and M xxx
