Travel: Cosy Under Canvas Review

Hey All

I've been meaning to write this for a while as C and I absolutely loved our glamping experience and I knew I had to share it. We had decided in late Sept/ early Oct we'd go away. We'd originally planned to go somewhere abroad but dates weren't working out so we decided to look for places to stay in Geodomes as friends of ours had stayed in some in Scotland and loved it. C and I have camped quite a few times since we've been together and loved it but this was a different holiday for us and we wanted a little bit more luxury. After googling we found Cosy under Canvas and we were instantly sold. We went towards the end of the Season and the Holly Dome was the last one available to book.

Cosy under Canvas is located near to Hay-On-Wye, and is a totally off grid site. We loved this as when you arrive you lose phone signal. A short walk up to the main house there is wifi you can use if you need to contact someone but we loved being totally switched off. There are gas hobs in the kitchen area, solar powered lights, composting toilets and wood-fired showers, how amazing is that!! There are 7 domes across the site which can sleep between 4-6 people. I love that it's been kept so small as you don't feel cramped in and have some privacy. Each Dome also comes with a wood fired hot tub and it's own toilet.

On arrival we were instantly wowed, nestled in between woodlands were these amazing domes. They are impressively spacious and looked great. No domes point towards each other as the front is see through so even though it's open you feel like you have privacy. We stayed in the Holly Dome which can sleep up to six people.

How amazing is it inside. Each dome comes with a bed. futons, bean bags, sheep skin rugs, torches, candles and holders and more. Ours even had a little hammock seat. We loved how cosy it was. It was cold as we went so late in the year but the wood burner inside heated it up and little touches like hot water bottles meant it was comfortable at night. We loved the homely feel to it!

We felt so chilled out here it was amazing. Above is the kitchen with a large dining table. There is also a chalk board with what's going on in the local area. Each dome also has a storage and freezer box in the kitchen to store food in. We ended up accidentally ordering a hello fresh box (you can see my review on them here) and it ended up being great as we had everything we needed to make tasty meals easily. The wooden seating is on the decking outside the dome as there are fire pits around the dome which can be used to cook on with tripods and pots also provided. We loved how secluded it all was and getting back to nature but chopping wood for fires and to cook! 

The hot tub was something we loved. On a cold day nothing beats sitting in a lovely warm hot tub. We did have a few issues getting ours lit but Emma came down to help us and got it sorted. We loved how welcoming they were and helpful. Follow the instructions as these do heat up and stay warm. We were concerned it would cool down so left it going too long and it ended up staying way to hot one evening. We also shoved extra logs on it before bed so we could use it in the mornings!

If you need anymore convicing here is the amazing sky views from Cosy Under Canvas!! It's so peaceful at night and we were treated to amazing clear skies.

We definitely want to go back. Have you considered glamping? For more info and some current discount codes check out cosyundercanvas.co.uk.

Love M

xxx

Book Review: Harry Potter Illustrated Book

Hello there! 

I don't know about you but me and M are both super Harry Potter fans, we absolutely love it and can't get enough. We love the books, the films, and have been known to attend Harry Potter parties...nerds!

I also love books in general, and bookshelves and I need to do everything I can to fill mine with the prettiest books in existence. You have probably seen the most recent adaptation to come out but I couldn't resist sharing as it is just so beautiful.

Meet the illustrated edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone: 

Don't panic, I won't be showing you all the pages as I would hate to ruin the surprise of how beautiful they are! But I have taken a few snaps to make you understand how perfect it is and how you need it in your collection!

I thought this would be another book with a few images in it, beautiful images but just a couple here and there.
I have to say I was extremely impressed that every page has either a scene, a character or just general doodles around the text to bring it to life.



Each of the chapters has a really detailed doodle to introduce them and it just makes me want to draw my own and colour it all in!

Even if you are not as much of a fan as we are, you cannot deny that the book is gorgeous and is a great gift for children and adults.

I cannot wait for the next book to come out and all the rest so that I can complete this collection too!

The RRP of the book is £30 but I believe that you can buy this from Amazon for £14 - which let's face it is a wonderful bargain.

What do you think of Harry Potter? Do you love books like me?

It's my absolute dream to have a display of books that makes it onto Pinterest!

L xxx

Travel: New Years Even in Copenhagen and Tivoli Gardens

Hey All

So this is my last post on Copenhagen, you can find where we stayed, what we ate and what we did too. When we arrived we didn't really have plans for NYE and asked for suggestions at the hotel reception. They had tickets for sale for Tivoli and as we had planned to go at some point we decided to spend NYE there. It was around £10 for entry into the gardens which seemed pretty reasonable.

Tivoli Gardens are the second oldest operating amusement park. I didn't really know what to expect going in, was it going to be more Disney or Alton Towers but I was wrong. I'd heard it was beautiful here but it really did feel magical (how over dramatic do I sound!).

So this is the entrance to Tivoli Gardens. It looks so pretty with the fairy lights and Christmas trees after. There was even a sprinkling of fake snow over the trees! Everything was decorated with fairy lights and there were cute little shops making it feel like a Christmas Market and lots of Gluhwein being sold. One thing you notice straight away is how clean it is too which we realised was due to a clever concept. All drinks were served in reusable plastic glasses in which there were recycling points around. When recycled the machine gave you around 50p back so even if they were discarded someone else would return them for the money!

After visiting a supermarket the night before we ended up all wearing novelty hats for the evening too!

There was also a large selection of restuarants including a pirate ship!!! But unfortunately they were all fully booked so if you're spending NYE there book in advance. There were food stalls to eat from around though and we had some amazing fish and chips!

If you're going to go on rides I'd fully recommend the wrist band option. It's around £20 and offers unlimited rides. We opted for single tickets thinking we wouldn't go on many rides but didn't realise some rides required more than 1 ticket so we ended up spending what a wrist band would cost anyway. They have a large selection of rides including full roller costers and gorgeous traditional Carousals like the one above!

At 10pm there was an amazing firework display. I believe Tivoli has fireworks all over Christmas period. These were amazing. They did the display at 10pm so families could leave if they wanted to. After the fireworks part of the park did close but the smaller rides stayed open and we wondered around till midnight, when we grabbed some drinks. At midnight fireworks seemed to go off from all around so we had so many to look at!

Tivoli Gardens really felt like a magical place and we all loved it there! If you're visiting Copenhagen it's definitely worth a visit even if it's just to stroll around.

Love M

xxx

Lush Spring Collection

Hey All

Last week L and I headed to Lush Cardiff to see what treats they have in store this year for spring. We were excited to head down and stock up on our favourite shower gel from last year Yummy Mummy (here's our review from last year of it. It still has the same scent but is now a shower cream and slightly shimmery).

So onto this years treats. As soon as I saw the Happy Mother's Day set I had to get it for my mum. It's an amazing tin which comes with paper impregnated with seeds which you grow in the tin after. What a great idea to use the packaging. It also has a great mix of products including the amazing sunflower bubble bar below which smells like sherbet lemons (I think this one is an exclusive but rumour is it may appear in the kitchen. I'll be snapping it up if it does!). Definitely a great treat for mum's or yourself.

Another amazingly packaged item is the Good Egg! How cute is he, I want it for myself. It also includes the amazing humpty dumpty bath bomb that L and I instantly fell in love with and had to buy. It lasts for 3 baths. This one contains a great mix of bubble bars and bath bombs.

Along with Humpty Dumpty I had to buy Golden Egg. Look at the glitter on this bad boy!! Golden Egg is a bath bomb melt. It has a luxurious coating packed full of cocoa butter to soften the skin and then has a bath bomb inside. It smells amazing like sweet toffee and cocoa butter too. It's amazing!!

Ultraviolet is a new bubble bar added to the mix. Check out that blue shimmer and amazing colour. The girls get the most amazing amount of bubbles. We got given a little tip which was to buy a cheap sieve crumble the bath bomb and then run it under the hot tap to get the best bubbles and smell released. Ultraviolet joins the bubble bars below to create and amazing set.

This little guy the Ladybird bubble bar was a big hit with L (she used him last night so expect a full review soon) and I. L couldn't resist buying one and I'll be popping in to grab one soon. He smells like peppermint and produces an amazing red bath.

Somewhere over the rainbow was a instant hit with L and she was very pleased it was in her goodie bag as she was debating buying it but resisted at the last minute. It's soooo pretty. We weighed it to see how much the whole thing would cost but unfortunately couldn't leave with it. Apparently this is a great one to clean you're make up brushes with too.

This is bouncing bunny how cute is this little guy!! He's a bath jelly which I'm still trying to get used too I currently have one and spend a lot of a shower chasing it round the tub. This one smells amazing though like chocolate orange so I'm excited to try it. I'm going to pop it in the freezer as apparently that makes for a great treat post exercise aching muscles!

And last but by no means least L and I's favourite item. We've both bought one so far but will be back for more it's Yummy Mummy. This is my all time favourite shower gel. It has an amazing sweet almost strawberry scent but it's not cheap or sickly smelling as you'd expect. The scent also lasts on your skin so long!!! If you've not tried it I'd definitely recommend getting one.

Expect lots of lush over the next few weeks as L and I couldn't resist buying lots of the collection whilst we were there! Have you grabbed anything yet?

Love M 

xxx