July on my mind

Some months are like a whirlwind; you just get swept away with the energy and activity of it and just hope that your feet will touch the ground at some point - that's what July's been like, both for good and for bad. I've been very busy focusing a lot on my training, to the extent that I even forgot to celebrate the 1 year birthday of Makeup by Candlelight on July 8 - so I'll just have to say thank you so much to everyone for all your support now instead, and wish for another amazing year!!! Lately I spend more and more time away in London and other places which is so exciting, but my body has definitely taken a beating from it, so I've really had to be nice to myself. Not in the superficial way I would usually be nice to myself before, e.g. by buying something new that I wanted, but in the "real" sense of looking after myself properly through healthy eating (but still with the occasional treat of course), mindfulness and maintaining a healthy balance of things. Since Him Indoors already spends most of the week traveling somewhere, this month has meant that we've not had that much every day life together but when we've finally managed to be in the same place at the same time, we've certainly made up for it by painting London red or enjoying some quiet time in the garden, playing silly games and BBQing while relaxing over a glass or two of bubbly - it's been like a mini holiday. More than anything though July has really been a month of family time since we first had my parents over from Sweden for a while, and then it was time for the Scottish clan to descend on us for a few days and our visitors have taken us all over the South & South East of England on different adventures, which has been so much fun. While it's always nice to get back into the routine again, it's a bitter sweetness since the house all of a sudden is so quiet as soon as the family leaves and it takes a few days to adjust, which I think only the cat enjoys. Last but not least we have finally booked a holiday for the end of August, to keep us going for another month which I think we're going to need since I don't see this whirlwind slowing down any time soon, in fact it'll be quite the opposite. I know this vortex is going to pick up speed even more in a few days time, so I just need to hold on to my hat, let myself be swept away and relax knowing that we have some sunny and adventurous days to look forward to - 29 in fact, but who's counting...

Out and about: Dipley Mill, a garden lover's dream

Last week we had a royal visit from Sweden, well almost.. - my parents came to visit for a few days which was so lovely since I unfortunately don't get to see them more than a few times a year so I like to treat them as royalty when they are here. We were extremely lucky with the weather, basking in almost 30C and since we wanted to do as much as possible outdoors we ended up going on a few mini trips to see our surroundings, and on one of the days we went to the incredible Dipley Mills, to have a look at the famous gardens. I come from a long line of gardeners with fingers greener than that of the Green Giant and my family can look at a plant and all of a sudden it bursts into bloom. Somehow mysteriously I have none of those genes and with me it's quite the opposite - I can merely glance at a plastic flower and it withers and dies...  but I still certainly appreciate beautiful gardens and it's always an opportunity for Happy Snapper, so I hope you'll enjoy these pictures from our visit.

Dipley Mills is one of the beautiful places that you can visit as part of the National Garden Scheme (NGS) and I would recommend that you keep an eye out for the next open day, since it's a stunning and inspiring place even for those of us that don't exactly have green fingers.  

Out and about: Hinton Ampner in Hampshire

I'm a creature of habit and must confess that I have certain routines that I follow, especially at weekends when you've got all the time in the world: long morning workout, Starbucks, a bit of shopping etc. But as much as I like that routine, I'm always up for a day trip out somewhere - it's something different, you'll discover new places and things to do, a great opportunity to do some photography and it's almost like having a mini holiday. It doesn't even have to be great weather but of course it's a welcome bonus when it is, and when we went to Hinton Ampner a few weeks ago, the sun was out and it was a beautiful early summer day - so out with the sandals and show off those colorful, gem covered toe nails. Hinton Ampner is a beautiful manor in the rolling Hampshire countryside with lush colorful and romantic gardens, like something straight out of a Jane Austen novel. You can have a look inside the elegant and tasteful house, picture yourself snuggled up in front one of the gorgeous fireplaces or have a wander through the park or gardens before either heading for the tea room (yep, that's me) or enjoy a picnic looking out over the country side and then finish off with buying some locally made delicacies - cider, wine, jams, relishes and biscuits, everything you need for an evening snack. Needless to say Happy Snapper in me came out and took some photos that I'm showing today and I really hope you like them!

It's a lovely place that I highly recommend for a relaxing few hours out and about, and if like me you enjoy discovering places like this, you might want to invest in a National Trust Membership which gives you "free" (not counting the membership fee) access to more than 500 gorgeous mansion, parks and gardens in the UK, of which a lot of them have been used as filming locations and there are usually lots of interesting activities going on too.

May on my mind

This May has been a great month for living in the UK; we've had fabulous warm, sunny days that could easily fool you into thinking it's August already, and we've had two long weekends to enjoy because of the bank holidays - I could get used to this. Everyone in favor of this continuing every month that's left of the year raise their hands... Although summer doesn't officially start for another few weeks I'm already in the summer mindset and everything from my overall pace to clothes and makeup is more relaxed and zen. Maybe that's why we didn't have anything specific planned for the bank holiday weekends but we still managed to fill the time. For a long time I had wanted to go to Arundel (how elvish!), which is a very pretty, quaint medieval town with lots of great restaurants and boutiques to see the amazing castle, so we spent a gorgeous summer day there and although I also really wanted to visit the cathedral, we decided to stay in the beautiful gardens chilling out with a nice picnic, that the cheeky pheasants did their very best to steal. It was so lovely to take some time and just hangout in the sunshine since I often get caught up in things and forget to take a bit of a break from it all. This month I definitely needed to take a pause since May has been a fairly busy month with lots of things going on, and I've also had to spend a lot of time working out and studying, which you may have seen if you follow me on Instagram, and some days it's been a challenge to get my brain back into study mode and to retain other information than just which nail polish shade I must remember to buy next week... All jokes aside learning new things is always great, even if it is learning to take it easy! Hope you've all had a wonderful month, and don't forget to check in again tomorrow for a fun and very appropriate TAG to nail the start of June.

The InstaWeek that was #3

Strictly speaking this little summary of photos I've shared on my Instagram, will definitely cover a bit more than a week, but you're going to have to allow me a little bit of artistic license on this one. When I started doing these posts a while back I had every intention of doing them weekly, however I also know that they're not for everyone - but when I got some really lovely feedback and comments asking that I do them more often I decided that I'm going to do a few every month, since I think it's a nice way to share some more personal things about what's going on in my life, I quite like to read these posts myself, and some of you seem to like them so I really hope that this will be a good compromise.The InstaWeek that was:

Him Indoors has finally come home from one of his trips bearing gifts - ok, I forgive you for being away so often... // Enjoying an amazing sunny day at Hinton Ampner in beautiful Hampshire, a gorgeous mansion and park to visit // A little break from some of my intense studying and as we all know latte's do wonderful things for your anatomy and for your focus (and if noone sees you there are no calories) // The amazing box of goodies that I got from my beautiful friend Shubha from Blue Velvet Addict - thank you so much my sweet! // Cat - The Queen of Everything, thinking I'm unworthy to even take her photo // In honor of the Eurovision song contest I made a Swedish delicacy: Smörgåstårta, which is a layered sandwich cake with whatever fillings you prefer and this particular one has chilli tuna, egg mayo and prawns topped with smoked salmon, caviar, cucumber and lemon... yum yum, I don't need to eat for a month now! // Care package with Scandinavian food goodies, courtesy of Scandinavian Kitchen in London // Who doesn't love Crab Cakes? //Kicking off the BBQ season

Highlights this week:

- Gorgeous warm sunny days reminding me of the wonderful small things in life

- First BBQ of the year

   - Getting more than 2000 followers on Bloglovin' - absolutely incredible and thank you so VERY much for all the fantastic support and as a thank you I've got an international giveaway of £30 gift vouchers from ASOS. running until May 20, so don't forget to enter!

Enjoy what's left of the weekend, and don't forget to check in tomorrow for something new from my extensive nail polish collection! Xx

April on my mind

April was a month of indulgence in so many ways. First of all we've been spoiled silly in the south of England with beautiful sunny and warm days made for lounging on the grass or having a picnic and I don't think that the long awaited bikini days are far away now. I also might have done some accidental shopping, oops... like some new clothes for the season and since I've attended a few beauty sessions with Dior, Clinique and Estée Lauder I also picked up a few odds and sods that I'll show you very soon. I can't remember when I last had this many treats of amazing food and cake, but I completely refuse to feel guilty about it and instead I'll quote Marie Antoinette: "Let them (me) eat cake!". Then of course we had Easter, which for me always signifies the beginning of something new and this year I was so looking forward to Easter since it's the first proper break we've had since Christmas and for one could certainly feel it. While we were away in Suffolk we definitely indulged in all of the above, but in in double dose and getting away for a few days was a well needed break to recharge the batteries. For me April was also a month of appreciating the small things in life like spending time with friends, seeing new places and snuggling up on the sofa with Him Indoors and Cat watching a great film. Maybe it doesn't sound like much but I've enjoyed every second of it and have tried to bottle up this calmness and harmony since I have a lot on for the next few months, and I have a feeling the tempo will be anything but slow and I'll definitely need to tap into some of the the energy I've got stored up now, so come on May - I'm ready for you!

Sun, sea and seals in Suffolk

I don't know about you but it seems to me as if this year has flown by at the speed of light and although we've just celebrated Easter, it feels as if Christmas was just last week. Even though I don't really celebrate Easter very much; I might send a few cards and of course prepare a traditional Swedish Easter buffet with smoked salmon, grav lax, pickled herring, boiled eggs and different salads, for me it's still a time of reflection and also of new beginnings. So Easter is a great time to go and explore new beautiful places and to catch up with friends which is exactly what we did, when we headed to Suffolk for a few days. I'd never been to Suffolk before and I went with a fully charged camera battery and an empty memory card with lots of GB space in case the Happy Snapper in me decided to come out to play. The weather was fantastic and sunny and since we were lucky enough to be close to the sea, forest and countryside - all at the same time, we got to explore picturesque fishing villages, go for long forest walks, have sunset drinks with a seal and visit a medieval festival at Framlingham Castle - I felt like I had wandered straight into the movie set of Ivanhoe... where's my armor?! We had an amazing relaxing time, almost like a mini holiday and I really hope you'll enjoy the photos I took of our lazy days. 

Speaking of new beginnings, I'm about to start something new and exciting which I can't tell you much about at the moment, but it means that I unfortunately have to temporarily change my blog schedule, so as of today I will be posting on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for the next little while. I ask you to please be patient with me until I can get back up and post on a daily basis again, and I really hope you'll continue to visit and thank you in advance for your amazing support! Have a nice day everyone! Xx