A list of happiness.

Thought I'd write a little list of things I like to do to boost my happiness levels a bit when I'm feeling a bit poo, mainly to remind myself in the future. I currently have a god-awful cold so am definitely going to give some of these a go.

1. Run a really hot bath and use a bath bomb/bubble bar from Lush. I love
this one for relaxation because I find the scent so soothing. Also plus point, I've never had a bad reaction to a Lush product and I have the worlds most angry skin.

2. Have a nap. Having a quickly 30min-hour nap improves my mood 90% of the time. The world is always a little bit better after a nice sleep.

3. Make a fresh fruit smoothie. Piling in a load of fruit into a blender and whizzing it up takes seconds and makes me feel amazing. They're tasty and healthy and just makes my body feel happy.

4. Wash the bed sheets. There is nothing I love more than getting into bed with fresh sheets or even better a brand new duvet. This is one of the smallest things that makes a big difference to my mood.

5. Baking. Most of the time if I'm not feeling 100% I don't want to do anything but if I make myself get up and look for some new recipes I feel so much better. I finding baking really therapeutic and eating the results is even better.

6. Watching Youtube videos. I have to be careful with this one as I can find myself hours later still watching videos of people getting puppies for Christmas, but feel good videos always do the job. At the moment I'm really enjoying watching SacconeJoly's videos and find them to be a big mood lifter.

7. Buying and lighting a new candle. None of these £50 candles that no one can afford, just a nice smelling supermarket brand candle.

If anyone ever reads this I hope I've given you some happiness inspirations.

Until next time xx

CHRISTMAS! The snow's coming down. CHRISTMAS!

I adore Christmas. I'm so happy that December has finally rolled around and it's time for christmas coffees, decorations, shopping, gift wrapping, fairy lights and cosy evenings in.
Most importantly it's time for Christmas scented candles, and here's some I've been enjoying:

They are winter berry, apple and cinnamon and christmas spice scents. Yummy!

I get so excited now that we have our flat about putting up decorations. It's so nice trying to figure out my own Christmas style and going shopping for all the lovely little bits.
The tree is obviously the best bit. This is a fake one that we bought last year but I'd like to buy a real one, one day. We always have a real one in my family home and the smell is amazing.

I've even got so excited that I've wrapped up a few presents to put underneath the tree.

And here's just a few more festive bits and pieces from around the flat.

These fairy lights look great around the fire place, but would look even better if I wasn't too scared to switch it on.

The last thing I found while shopping that I couldn't resist buying was Christmassy sheets from Primark.

These are 100% cotton which I wasn't expecting and so comfy. I'm so impressed with Primark for their bedding. Going to go back and see what else they have soon.

And that's it for now, just a few bits that are making me feel festive. On Saturday I have my work Christmas party so I want to blog my outfit for that and hopefully stay regular with this in the next few weeks.

Speaking of work, I will leave you with the Gingerbread latte I created to sell at the cafe. It's the tastiest thing ever.

Thanks for reading xx

Summer Updates.

So I really let this thing get away from me. I thought about writing a post lots of times but it kind of felt like a chore, but now I'm doing it I remember how much I love it. SO time for a quick fire catch up of what I've been up to over the summer.

First of all in June I dip-dyed my hair purple. This went on to become a bit of a mistake but more on that later. I was about to head of to Glastonbury and have always wanted to dye my hair a bold colour so thought 'eff it' and I took the plunge.

After that I went to Glastonbury Festival and it was utterly amazing and exhausting. I had the best time but also died a little bit by the time I got home. Highlights include the incredible Sam Smith, Jake Bugg, Lily Allen, Ed Sheeran, Arcade Fire and Fat boy slim. Also all the food and drink and just general good times.

                                      

I would definitely recommend this experience to everyone! Even if like me you need two naps a day and aren't too keen on rain and mud. Just throw yourself in and do it!

Then in July, straight afterwards with not much time for rest Aaron and I whizzed off to London to meet up with some of our Uni friends as it was Jaz's birthday. We just mooched around and had a mini picnic which was lovely. Not forgetting having a big jug of Pimms on the south bank.

I miss these guys lots. Like a lot a lot.

Then brings us to August where every year my family go to Salcombe in Devon and stay in a lovely pink cottage. It was lovely to spend time with the family and I also turned twenty three on the 10th which wasn't so lovely. Definitely thought I'd have a lot more of my life figured out by now but I digress.

This photo of my sister and I shows the hair disaster in progress. After one wash my hair turned bright blue. Not a complete disaster but not the desired outcome. I decided to leave it for a while and it turned to green which can be seen above. No matter how many people telling me it looked fine I hated it and definitely needed it out as I had an important wedding coming up, but before that we went camping for Aarons Birthday.

Oooh actually I haven't mentioned that I passed my driving test on the 14th of July (yippee!) and bought a mint green vauxhall corsa with some savings. Look at it, it's beautiful!

Anyway having the car meant that I could drive to Worth Matravers where we were going camping even though I've come to realise that I am the most nervous driving in history of drivers. Literally I'm still up all night having anxiety dreams if I have to drive the next day. Even after having the car two whole months! Pathetic. Anyway I made it to worth after many panics and we camped and it was a beautiful place.

We drank lots of cider in a pub called The Square and Compass and it was a lovely night, my kinda weekend!

Right back to that wedding I mentioned before. August bank holiday weekend rolled around quickly and along came the wedding of one of Aaron's oldest friends Dom. Unsurprisingly Aaron was one of the best men so this was a very important affair, hence me deciding that green hair wasn't entirely appropriate. I washed and washed and washed with no luck so chose bleaching it out as the best option. I put the bleach on the ends of my hair and left it for half an hour, any more and I would be too scared of properly damaging my already dry hair. I washed out the bleach and NOTHING literally nothing. My hair was still green. I panicked and rang my hair dresser friend Emma and she told me that I can either dye it all over darker or leave it to wash/grow out. As a semi-permant dye I definitely got my monies worth. I've settled on no more dyeing (and lots of deep conditions) and waiting for it to hopefully fade in time. So for the wedding I decided to just have my hair up and try and hide as much of the green as I could. Here I am also wearing a BARGAIN Topshop dress that I managed to grab for £13.50 in the sale. It was little loose around the bust but for that price and after a few safety pins it was fine.

                                  

Amazing day and Aaron's speech was so good. I was so nervous for him but had no reason to be because he killed it! The food was yummy and Lymington is such a cute little town, I'll be back.

And that brings me to end of my summer and to now with not much to look forward to. Next week I begin my work experience in a primary school which I hope I enjoy. Otherwise it's back to the employment drawing board but I'm sure I'm going to like it. I'm currently doing a teachers assistant course at the same time and while it's very interesting, I'm finding it hard to get back into the swing of writing essays. This blog post might as well be an essay so maybe this will help.

So that's it, I realise this is long but I haven't written anything for an entire summer so hopefully you got all the way to this part. I am definitely going to make a conscious effort to stay more up to date this thing so hopefully I'll have some exciting things coming up that I can write about.

Hope you are well, bye for now xxx

Saturday Catch up.

Currently sitting in the middle of a mountain of boxes. Not sure if I've mentioned this already but at the end of the month I will be moving! Aaron and I are moving into his great aunties flat which she no longer needs. It's small and smells of old BUT we will be living there rent free which is going to be the BEST thing. I cannot wait to have money and be able to afford to have a bit of time off instead of working into the ground.
Speaking of that I have one day off tomorrow until I'm back at work for another 6 days so I want to wake up early and go for a nice breakfast with Aaron. We are going to a bed and breakfast down the road from us which specialises in american breakfasts. French toast, get in ma belleh.
Packing up my life yet again. Since leaving home aged 18 this is fifth time I've moved and I can't wait for my forever home. I really hope it's going to be the next house after this one.
I love this flat with all my heart. It's mine and Aaron's first home together and still holds all our excitement. I loved moving here and exploring with him. Discovering a short cut that makes the beach a mere 7 minute walk from here was a highlight. We've had our uni friends come and stay twice and both have been wonderful. Watching fireworks on the beach, going to watermarks, seeing mcbusted and lots of food and drink.
Going to miss it lots and lots but not going to miss the £600 it takes from my bank account every month.

Loving that the weather is getting better too, means actual 'Beth by the beach' time which would be fitting. Wish I could just quit my job and spend my life at the seaside. Oh I do like to be beside it.

The last little catch up is that I have my driving test in just over a week which I'm cacking myself about. Will update you after.

Bye! xx

Empty feelings.

Feeling a bit flat. That's the word to describe it I think. I've never really understood that phrase before, 'feeling flat' but now I think I do. I feel like a big ball of nothing that's going no where and it definitely needs to change.
I hate being a waitress and I hate having no money all the time. I hate getting paid, then paying rent/counciltax/gas/electricity/water/tvlicence/internet and having nothing left. Absolutely sick of it. I'm also sick of people saying that if you want something to change, change it. It's really hard.
Right enough moaning now. Moan moan moan, that's all I ever seem to bloody do these days. Enough.

Currently watching Philomena and it's lovely. Terribly heart achingly lovely.
I've just heard a line that I really like:
'You should be nice to the people on the way up because you might meet them again on the way down.'

I really like that. Everyone should definitely take note of that. Especially the rude woman at work today who has clearly never worked a hard day in her life. I'm going to think about that quote a lot.

I think this is good for me. I miss blogging like this, like a diary. This is just a place where I can ramble on about whatever's going on in my head and I think I need it. I don't think I'll read this back, I'll just let it go into the big wide world and come back and read it later.

Feeling a lot better now. Thanks internet, I'll get back to my film now.
x

Retail therapy.

As I am a girl and seem to adhere to the stereotypes of a typical girl I went shopping yesterday. I love nothing more than spending all my money on tat and then crying about how poor I am the next day. Despite the latter, the cycle never ends.
So yesterday I decided that it is officially spring. The sun was out, I wasn't wearing my big coat and my woolly jumpers went to the back of the drawer for another year. This of course means that I need to go shopping and buy some spring-y things, and that's exactly what I did.

So here it is, my first ever haul:

The first item I snapped up was this beautiful little satchel bag in this corally-orangey colour which I am loving. I need a new bag for that in-between of not wanting a big day handbag and not wanting a really small going out clutch. Just a nice summery bag for when I don't need to take too much out with me.

For £6 from Primark it's a barg and a half.

The next thing I bought was a shirt from New Look. I'm loving pretty shirts at the moment and this one is perfect. It's quite hard to see in this crappy photo I've taken but it's pale pink with a white heart pattern all over.

Here I'm also wearing a pair of grey skinny jeans that I also bought but they are boring so no need to describe them.

And the last thing I bought to update my spring life was this cute little tea light holder, also from Primark. I love candles but definitely think they are more of a winter thing but I think this holder feels very beachy so I can keep them burning through the summer months.

So there we are, just a few little items a picked up on my travels yesterday to bring me up to date on the seasons and get me looking forward to summer.
Bye for now xx

New beginnings.

Two years out of university with nothing to show for it, bored of the same monotonous days at work, and need something to do. Anything…

Enter BLOG.

Yup, so I've decided to start blogging. I've done Blogspot before (when I was about sixteen) and tumblr but how about something a bit more grown up. Who am I kidding I'm not a proper grown up I just pretend to be.
So I am obsessed, no literally obsessed with beauty/fashion channels on Youtube and have delved somewhat into beauty blogs but would definitely like to get more involved. While I'm not ready to show my big face on camera I can dabble with blogging and see how it goes. I will probably do a bit of 'What I'm into' 'What I've bought' 'What I'm wearing' type things, and then once I'm a bit more integrated into this whole blogging thing maybe a 'Who I'm reading'.
Maybe an introduction, yes, that would be appropriate.
Hello, my name is Beth, I am twenty two years old and I live in lovely Bournemouth. I decided to call this blog 'Beth by the beach' because that is exactly where I am. In june last year I packed up all belongings, jumped in a van and made the big move down to the county of Dorset with my lovely boyfriend. Previously I lived in my home county of Surrey and my uni town of High Wycombe but I've always wanted to live by the sea, so this was the perfect plan. So this is where I am now, in a little flat ten minutes walk away from the beautiful seaside so I will probably take some photos soon to show off how lovely it really is.
I work in a cafe/children's play centre which is fine. It's a job and it pays the rent and it's fine but that's it. Fine fine fine. I want something more. I don't quite know what that something more is but when I find out I'll let you know.
So I'll leave it there for now, but I did a bit of a shop today which was nice so I will post some of the things I bought tomorrow probably. Hopefully see you then x