Beauty and Bentley

It's a new month and time for a new set of blog post ideas, this time it's February so there's going to be a definite Valentines theme to a lot of these post ideas with a selection of other ideas thrown in to help you feel inspired.

1. Valentine's recipe - This could be homecooked meal ideas for your loved one or dessert ideas/heart shaped cookies etc.

2. Valentine's gift ideas for her.

3. Valentines's gift ideas for him.

4. Date Night Ideas for Valentine's Day.

5. Things to do on Valentine's Day if you're single.

6. Do a Q+A with your partner/Talk about what you've learned from previous relationships.

7. Share your favourite date night make-up/hair looks.

8. Share your top ten romantic films.

9. Create an update on the goals you set in January/Goal Check-In

10. Movie/book review.

11. Celebrate Love Your Pet Day (February 20th)  - Review a pet product, share photos/stories about your pet or offer advice to those looking to buy a new pet.

12. Share all your favourite products for the month.

13. Share ten ways to boost your confidence or improve your mood.

14. Share your travel wishlist/top ten travel destinations.

15. Review a beauty product.

16. Share how you care for your hair in winter.

17. Share your favourite scented candles/home fragrance products.

18. Create a helpful how-to post - Such as, how to wake up early or how to get a good nights sleep.

19. Share your favourite beauty tip or hack.

20. Share your favourite ways to freshen up the look of your home/Ideas for decorating on a budget.

I hope you enjoyed this post and got some good ideas for blog posts in February!

Life is full of distractions, noise and stress and sometimes things get on top of us but it doesn't need to be that way, you can take simple steps to simplify your life and improve your wellbeing. 

1. Create a morning routine.

Your morning routine sets the tone for the rest of your day, if you can start your day right you'll find yourself being more productive. The morning is also a really great time to set new healthy habits like drinking more water, eating a healthy breakfast or being more organised. 

2. Set weekly/monthly goals.

This could be part of your morning routine to make a daily to-do list but I suggest also setting weekly, monthly and yearly goals to help you understand better where you want to be in life and the steps you need to take to get you there, if you want more advice on setting and achieving goals I have a full blog post here.

3. Remove toxic people from your life.

This is a life lesson I've definitely learnt in the last few years if someone doesn't bring anything positive to your life then why keep them around? When I've removed toxic people from my life I've noticed a big difference, nobody needs drama! It can sometimes be difficult but I really recommend regularly assessing the people you keep closest to you in life.

4. Reduce the amount of time spent on your phone/social media.

Look around any bus, restaurant or supermarket and you're almost guaranteed to see at least one person glued to their phone and no wonder, they can do so much and social media is addictive but sometimes it can have a detrimental effect on your mental health and even your physical health when I look at a screen for extended periods of time I definitely get headaches. Reducing the amount of time spent on your phone really helps you to be more present and enjoy the real world.

5. Declutter your home/wardrobe.

This is an easy one when we have too much stuff in life it actually adds stress, it also means we need to spend more time cleaning and putting things away. Decluttering your space is a really good way to clear your mind and live a simpler life.

6. Create a meal plan

Creating a meal plan at the start of the week with a shopping list really helps you to get organised especially if you want to change your lifestyle and eat a more healthy balanced diet. Additionally, this is a great idea if you want to save money or stick to a budget as it stops you picking up items you don't need when food shopping and reduces food waste. You can pick up your own food planner from my Etsy shop here.

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7. Have a cleaning routine and tidy as you go.

We all have times when we get home from work or a long day and the last thing we want to do is tidy up or put our clothes/bag/shoes away but I really recommend spending the extra couple of minutes to tidy as you go to stop things building up and save yourself the extra work down the line. It's also a good idea to create a cleaning routine and decide on daily/weekly tasks, this really helps to simplify things and gives you more free time to focus on more important things.

8. Unsubscribe from junk emails/services you don't use.

A lot of the emails we get are junk or promotional, it's a good idea to set aside some time to go through and delete old emails and unsubscribe from any mailing lists that don't benefit you in some way, I also recommend doing this with other subscriptions, maybe you signed up to some service that started with one month's free trial and just never got round to cancelling it, if you don't use it take the time to remove it! This is a good way to save some extra cash and stop you being tempted into buying new items, it also limits the number of emails you are getting every day.

9. Only buy what you actually need.

This ties in with some of the other suggestions in this list, in particular, decluttering. Buying things you don't need only wastes money and adds clutter to your home and life. This is a good strategy if you're also looking to save money, ask yourself each time you buy something, do I need this? It's also a good idea to write down or take a picture or each thing you really want to treat yourself to and wait 30 days then revisit it and see if it's still important to you.

10. Pack your bag/set out clothing the night before.
Each night before you go to bed think about what you need to do the next day, lay out your clothes and pack your bag to start the day more organised and save you time in the morning. You can take this a step further and prepare your lunch etc. the more you can get done the night before the better your day will run, it's very much like the first tip, your morning really impacts the rest of your day.

Thanks for taking the time to read this post, hope you all have a great day and enjoyed these 10 ways to simplify your life!

I decided I wanted to pick up a smoothie blender recently in an attempt to be a little healthier, I've really made an effort in the last year or so to cook more healthy meals and try more food so picking up a blender seemed like the next step to take to continue changing up my lifestyle. 

Now I should mention that I'm pretty fussy, as a child I was a very fussy eater and when it comes to smoothies I need them to be smooth.....like really smooth. I hate 'bits' in smoothies so I was a little worried about picking a blender that wouldn't be powerful enough to blitz everything up to a liquidy consistency so naturally I went straight online and started doing research and reading reviews. Immediately I thought of the NutriBullet as I know how popular they are but I didn't want to spend £60 (it is January after all) so I continued shopping around and seen a number of different options but none seemed quite right they were either too expensive or not powerful enough so I put the idea to one side. Fast forward a few days and I'm out doing some shopping and stop into Wilko, this is when the clouds part and angels sing......I spot a blender....it's reasonably priced......it seems powerful enough.....is it too good to be true, let's find out!

Okay, so I picked up the Power Blender Plus which costs £35.00, it has a 0.8-litre capacity and a 2-year guarantee. The blender comes with two cups in different sizes, a stay fresh screw lid and an on-the-go sip lid and then there's the number one reason I picked up this blender, it's got 1000 watts. This blender is affordable and it's more powerful than a lot of the other blenders in this style, for example, the NutriBullet that I checked out that costs £60.00 is 600 watt. 

Okay so I've tested out this blender a few times now and I'm in love, I've made smoothies three times now (and an iced coffee), using different fruits, vegetables, seeds and ice and it's broken everything down and created a lovely smooth consistency smoothie that's very easy to drink. I'm really impressed at how quickly and easy it pulverises everything, it is fairly noisy but I doubt it's any louder than most other blenders. It's also really easy to clean if you do it quickly, the blades are completely removed from the cup meaning you can wash this portion immediately and drink your smoothie straight from the cup you made it in, so fewer dishes yaay! The blender itself is a little chunky but it doesn't take up too much counter space and it looks sleeker than your traditional jug blenders. Overall, I love this blender, it's very powerful and does a great job for such an affordable price and it comes with a 2-year guarantee which makes me feel a little more secure in my purchase! I'm excited to try out lot's of different recipes so I may be sharing those with you in the future but for now, I'll leave you with one of the first recipes I tried out which is a healthy green smoothie.

Green Detox Smoothie

3/4 Banana

1 Apple

1/2 Lemon (Juice)

1 Inch Piece of Ginger

1/4 Cucumber

Handful of Spinach

Cup of Water 

Ice

Pop everything in blender, blend and go! Super Simple!

Thanks for reading guys!

It's the beginning of the year and this is the time most people really take their goals seriously but often we lose motivation pretty quickly and our goals go unachieved so today I'm talking about strategies to set and actually achieve your goals.

Okay, so the first thing you need to do is set aside some time to sit down and really think about what your goals are, I suggest sitting down in a quiet space when your feeling motivated and writing down your long-term goals that maybe you want to achieve in the next 5-10 years then get more specific and pick up to 5 goals that you want to achieve in the next 12 months. 

Don't try to do too much at once. It's great to think big and have lots of things you want to achieve and I fully encourage people to dream big but I don't think you should be actively working on trying to achieve too many things at one time as you're more likely to get overwhelmed. 

Next, take each of your goals and break them down. Create five actionable steps for each goal that will bring you closer to making that dream a reality, you can then break these steps down further into daily/weekly tasks. I think it's a great idea to do one thing every day that brings you closer to your end goal, it can be something super small like doing some research, sending some emails, signing up for an online course.....anything!

It's important to find ways to keep yourself motivated, I love a vision board, which you can physically make or create on Pinterest. You can also watch videos/listen to podcasts, read success stories or practice gratitude and visualisation techniques.

Another great motivation idea is to set yourself rewards for any time you achieve your goals, these don't always need to be big expensive rewards but it's important to acknowledge when you've put in the work and you're starting to see results.

It's a great idea to track your progress, this helps you to stay motivated as well as show how far you've come. A goal planner is an amazing tool that makes both setting and tracking your goals so much easier and I just happen to have created my own Goal Planner that you can purchase from my Etsy shop!

Finally, don't be too hard on yourself when you encounter setbacks and remember to take time for yourself to relax and unwind. Life gets in the way sometimes and it can be difficult to pick yourself up and keep going when things don't work out exactly as you had planned but don't stop until your proud!

Okay, so this post is coming a little later in the month than I had planned but today I'm sharing 22 blog post ideas for January. If you are a blogger then you'll know how difficult it can be at times to always be coming up with new ideas for content and I know when I'm struggling I love to read these kinds of posts with lists of ideas especially when they are specific to a month. This is something I want to start doing every month ideally I will post it on the first of each month and I hope you all enjoy it and feel more inspired to create new content!

1. Share a healthy recipe.

2. Set your goals for the new year and review last years goals.

3. Share your favourite way to budget and save money.

4. Create a how-to post.

5. Share an organisation post - how to organise your home/wardrobe/life etc.

6. Share your current skincare routine.

7. Share your January beauty empties.

8. How to get in shape - share your favourite workouts, review fitness products, create a workout plan.

9. Plan with me - how I organise my day/week/month

10. Create a 30-day challenge and participate in it.

11. Create a list of budget/winter date night ideas.

12. Share your blogging space/ways to stay motivated while blogging.

13. Review your favourite Christmas gift.

14. Create a new year wish list.

15. Give a life update/Q&A

16. Introduce your new plans for your blog in 2019/a new series your starting/how you're going to re-brand your blog.

17. Reading list for the year/review a book.

18. Share everything you've learned in the last year.

19. Share your January playlist with all your current favourite songs.

20. Share your January favourites.

21. Share your favourite blogging props.

Share your favourite cleaning products/current cleaning routine.

22. How I organise and plan my diary.

Thanks for reading, I hope you found this helpful!

If you are looking for ways to organise your time check out my Etsy shop with lots of digital prints and planner printables!

It's officially 2019! Happy New Year!

Time to sit down and think about what I want to achieve during the next twelve months, I did the same thing the year before, which you can read about here. In this post I'm going to start by looking back at the goals I made for 2018 and if I was able to achieve any of them before setting my new goals for the year ahead, I think this is a really good way to check in with yourself and see if life is going in the direction that you want it to.

Goals for 2018

Life Goals

Move Out - The number one thing I wanted to achieve in 2018 was to finally move out of my family home and get my own place with my boyfriend annnnd.....we did it! We currently rent a two-bedroom house and although we weren't able to buy our dream home (yet) I still absolutely love having my own space.

Improve My Cooking Skills  - Over the last few years I've really made an effort to start cooking healthier meals and trying new things and I wanted to continue with this in 2018, I think I did pretty well with this goal too, I've continued to try out new recipes and although I don't always eat the healthiest I eat far better than I ever did in my teens.

Save, Save, Save - Okay so I didn't really do so great with this goal, I started off okay but with us finally moving out there was a lot of expenses and new things to pay for then just as we were settling in Christmas popped up. I'm not going to be too hard on myself for not saving as much as I would have liked to as I did manage to hold onto some of my savings during the whole moving process and I'm ready to get back on track in the new year. 

Blogging Goals

Upgrade Equipment - I really wanted to start upping my game in 2018 in regards to my blogging so I bought myself a new camera, this was a pretty big purchase at roughly £400 so it's definitely an investment but I love it and I do think it was a good decision. I would also like to pick up a lens to go along with my camera but I didn't get round to that in 2018 so maybe that can be a new goal for this year along with eventually upgrading my laptop.

Create a Dedicated Blogging Space - This was a goal that was very much linked to the whole moving out process and I'm happy to report that thanks to us getting a two bedroom house I do have a dedicated blogging/make-up space, it definitely needs some work and some new furniture to make it more homely and inviting but it has the essentials to be a functional room for now.

Start Earning an Income -  Technically, I did make a small amount of money this year from blogging and was gifted some lovely items to review but I'm definitely not as far along as I would like to be in terms of making some more regular income but I'm okay with that, I knew that this was going to be a slow process and I have started up a new venture right at the very end of 2018 which I'm excited to expand upon this year and try to grow. If you didn't know already I've started up an Etsy shop (click here for the link) selling digital downloads! These are also available on my blog in the Shop tab.


Goals for 2019!

Life Goals

Start Travelling- I have wanted to start going on holidays and travelling for years but there's always been something else that took priority so this year now that we're finally moved out I want travelling to become the priority. My boyfriend surprised me on Christmas day with the news that we will be travelling to Greece in October so we've already got a bit of a head start on this goal but I definitely want to book another trip for earlier in the year possibly around May. The funny thing is we don't actually have passports yet so that's the first thing on our list as soon as we get paid in January

Read More Books  - I have always enjoyed reading and it's something I usually go through phases with but this year I want to make an effort to read consistently and perhaps expand on the genres that I read because I almost exclusively read psychological thrillers and I would like to try and include more books that can teach me things and improve my life.

Save, Save, Save - I'm putting this goal back in for 2019 as I didn't do as well as I had hoped with it last year and I do think it's important to always be trying to improve your finances and save as much as you can. I also have a long-term goal of owning my own home so if I want to make that happen I need to get my deposit together now.


Blogging Goals

Start Earning an Income - This is another goal I'm adding back in for 2019 as I didn't quite achieve it last year. As I mentioned earlier I have just set up an Etsy shop and this is something I really want to grow and be able to earn a passive income from, I will, of course, continue to blog and work on expanding that whilst always being on the lookout for potential opportunities to increase my income. I currently work part-time in a retail job and I would love to make enough extra income from 'side hustles' to provide me with a full-time wage.

Expand and Improve - I wanted to include another two blogging related goals to match what I did last year but I think overall I just want to improve and expand everything to do with my blog. I want to always be coming up with new ideas and amazing content, I want to improve my writing and create a brand for myself. I want to learn as much as I can to give a professional look to everything I do and always be discovering new things! Finally, I would love to grow the confidence I have in Beauty and Bentley and be more comfortable opening up about it and sharing it with others.

I hope you all have an amazing year and achieve all the goals you set yourself, feel free to share with me your 2019 goals!