Driving home for Christmas featuring

A couple of years ago, on Christmas Eve I was cleaning tables in work when I caught a glance out the window, it was snowing. I work in the middle of no where so when we see snow we panic, everyone panics, staff and guests. I had a few more hours left on my shift so I put it to the back of my mind. Four hours later I said goodbye to everyone and left the restaurant with one of the girls, the snow was deep and I was slipping and sliding everywhere in my flat shoes. I got in the car anyway and started her up, slowly pulling out of the car park into the road, the snow was still coming down pretty heavy and I realised that this could have been an incredibly silly mistake, but hey, who wants to sleep at work?
I started slowly down the road headed home, I'm glad there was no one else on the road as I don't know what was going on underneath me which got me thinking about my tyres. I'm rubbish at car care, right now the red oil button is flashing on my dashboard, my battery button is also flashing and I'm missing two front wheel trims. Perhaps a new years resolution for me could be to improve my car care.

About halfway down the road I was unable to see out of the windscreen, wanting to just get home my passenger stuck her head out of the window and we somehow made it home in one piece. I'm crossing my fingers I won't have to go through a similar experience this year.

4 Tyre Safety Tips

If you've got new tyres then think about running your tyres in, to do this drive your first 150 to 200 miles at medium speed on dry roads.
It is also important that you check your tyre tread regularly, the bigger the tyre tread the more grip you have on the road.
Another thing to keep in mind is tyre pressure as air escapes regularly from the tyres it is important to check on them regularly. 

Point S have some excellent advice for tyre safety and other useful articles about changing a tyre if you could check it out.

Check out the Point S website has a wide variety of car tyres in all sizes and from all the top brands available at the best prices, so that the buyers can check them out and book car tyres online along with tyre fitting appointment at a time of their convenience from their nearest Point S depot.

How to decorate your bedroom for Christmas

Decorating the bedroom ready for Christmas*

Christmas is on it’s way and everyone’s starting to put their trees and decorations up in their homes. We always make sure to decorate the downstairs but what about the upstairs? What about your bedroom? Let’s not neglect our special rooms.

Here are my top 5 tips for decorating your bedroom!

1. Windows
Windows are one of the easiest things to decorate in your bedroom, every Christmas I get some stick on snow and cover my windows, it looks fantastic (and will disguise any dirt you haven’t been bothered to clean off) you can do this in all rooms in your house but personally I like waking up in the morning and being reminded christmas is almost here waking up with (fake) snow on my window. You can also think about swapping curtains to something a little more christmassy I would recommend checking out Yorkshire Linen.

2. Windowsill

Windowsills can also be decorated in the lead up to Christmas, if you’re religious you could use some small ornaments to create a Nativity scene, or if you’re looking for something different there are lots of Santa, reindeer and north pole ornaments out there where you could create your own little north pole scene, stock up on cotton wool. This was my attempt last year, however I'm hoping to be a little more creative this year!

3. Bed
I love my bed, I love buying new duvet covers and do so every couple of months when I fancy a change, some of my favourite purchases have been from the George at Home range however when I’m looking for something a little more festive I turn to Yorkshire Linen who have a wide variety of festive duvet covers at fantastic prices starting at £9.99!

4. Pillows

Now I’m not talking about your average pillows, I’m talking about the ‘feature’ cushions we put on or bed to make it look pretty. A festive duvet set will not look it’s best without a couple of beautiful festive feature cushions, not only are they uber comfy to lean on when you’re watching TV but they make your bed Instagram ready.

5. Candles

And finally is there anything more cosy than a candle burning whilst you watch a Christmas movie, cuddled up in bed with your cat. One of the most popular scents used in our household at this time of year is apple and cinnamon. What’s yours?  

Remember not to leave lit candles unattended! I once the mistake of doing this and came back into the room to watch my cat sit on one, cat on fire is not my favourite scent. 

How To Share A Bed*

I don’t know about you but my bed is my sacred place, a place to nap, gather my thoughts, eat my weight in food behind closed doors, cuddle with my cat and binge on Netflix when I should be revising for exams. Now why would I want to share any of those things with another person? Why would anyone want to share those things with another person? Apparently you do…

SleepyPeople.com recently surveyed 2,000 Brits and asked them to share their number 1 pet peeve when sharing a bed with a partner. Apparently 6% of the nation find their partner's desire to 'cuddle whilst sleeping' an annoyance? Similarly, that only 21% find 'stealing the duvet' to be their top pet hate.
And to my surprise those at SleepyPeople.com shared with me that there are an increasing number of happy couples are deciding to sleep separately? Something I was unaware of.

I love sleep and therefore was interested when I found this infographic on How To Share A Bed, not currently sharing a bed with anyone I have logged this for future reference, take a little look, you may be surprised.

What are your pet peeves for sharing a bed with someone?

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#OOTD || Strolling on the beach feat. Shoezone

I got to choose a beautiful pair of shoes from Shoe Zone, these Lilley Women's Black Reptile Print Gladiator Sandals. I decided to take them for a test drive to Swansea Bay with my mum where we took some photographs of me throwing myself around.

You can view and purchase them here.

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ANNOUNCEMENT || New Job!

Life has been extremely busy lately, especially for me my days have been filled with preparing for university which you can read all about here, and also applying relentlessly for new jobs. As most of you are aware I've been a waitress for three years which is plenty of time to decide if that's what I want to do with the rest of my life....it isn't. I enjoyed the job, I enjoyed working alongside the people I worked with and I loved getting to know new customers, however I was just too comfortable.

Now some people are happy to live their lives doing the same routine every day, the same job, the same people and the same responsibilities. I on the other hand prefer a new challenge everyday, new people, I like being out of my comfort zone, solving problems. I have a five year plan and part of it was to try and find a different position to test me, and that's what this post is all about...I have finally found a job I think is going to suit me.

I am now a general assistant at Parkwood Outdoors Dolygaer, you can check out their website here. I have many different responsibilities as a general assistant, I get to do a bit of everything from reception, cleaning, sales and hospitality. After a meeting on last Tuesday (my second day, eeek) I also got given the task of managing our twitter page (here) and of writing a weekly blog for the website. 

I'm very excited to get stuck in to my role at Parkwood Outdoors Dolygaer and I hope to see you guys supporting us by 'liking' our Facebook page here, and following us on Twitter here. We have great deals on at the moment a 2 for 1, and on our Facebook there's a competition to win a weeks stay at our beautiful cottage, with runner up prizes of free activities from canoeing to rock climbing, check it out!

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ANNOUNCEMENT || University!

I have so many announcement for you guys at the moment but I thought we'd begin with what I think is a pretty big achievement in my life so far. I am extremely proud to announce I got a place at Swansea University which was my first choice to study Business Management and Human Resource Management. I'll be living at home whilst studying in Swansea, I have a couple of adjustments to make to my bedroom and my office is in desperate need of a makeover!
Fresher's has already started, I'm sad to say I won't be attending many events this year due to other commitments. I'm extremely excited to have succeeded where so many thought I wouldn't, bring on the next leg of this journey.

Are you starting university this year too?

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The Valley Mill || Soap Review*

Hello and welcome back to A South Wales Blog! It's been awhile since I updated you on what I've been using. I'm coming at you today with a natural soap review from a local business Valley Mill. I'm all about supporting local businesses so I'm excited to give my opinions.

I've never tried natural soaps, I've always been a Shield soap person thanks to my mother.

First of all I tried Bergamot & Basil which looks a little strange, this wasn't my favourite scent, for me it was a little too strong but it coated my skin making it feel soft wet and after I'd dried it. I was impressed by the consistency and how well it cleaned me. It wasn't what I was expecting.

Now Tea Tree and Witch Hazel was a different story scent wise. This was my kind of scent! I really liked this soap, it was the same consistency as the other, softened the skin whilst wet and dry. It smelled good, felt good and made my skin seem better. Spots on my back started disappearing and any weird odours were gone.

I was sent this soap by a local business to review however all reviews are, as always, my own.*

If you're into natural products then I'd encourage you to give Valley Hill a try. As well as soaps Valley Hill also do Slate House Signs, Soy Candles and Personalised Gifts.

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Camp America || New York

Here's some snaps from the day I explored some of New York City and got lost in Central Park!

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