Before I left for the City of Lights with my best friend on the 12th November I had a clear image in my mind of how this blog post was going to be; lots of photos including the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame and Disneyland Paris with plenty of content proclaiming my love for the city of Paris.

Sadly, on Friday 13th November the city we were staying in fell victim to a vicious terror attack where over a hundred people lost their lives. Luckily, we'd spent the day at Disneyland Paris and as we left the park at around 8'o'clock we changed our minds about finding somewhere for dinner back in Paris and stayed in the park to eat instead. As soon as we were off the train and back in our hotel our phones went mad with text messages from friends and family back at home and at first we shrugged it off. We'd heard nothing and the trains were running as normal back from Disney. It wasn't until we were in our hotel room that we discovered the extent of what was happening, just ten minutes down the road from our little hotel.

In the run up to the tragic event that left us glued to the news in our hotel room for the rest of the night I'd fallen head over heels for a city I'd spent only 36 hours in and can't wait to return to as soon as possible. I documented our little explorations in a series of photos that I'd love to share with you all.

I hope you enjoyed these few snapshots of the city of Paris. My post about our day in Disneyland will be up soon! 

MID-WEEK RETREAT IN CENTER PARCS ELVEDEN FOREST

Back in October I was lucky to spend five days at the beautiful Center Parcs Elveden Forest location with my family. We've visited Elveden a few times before now and each time I fall in love a little more with the outdoors and a little less with my phone and the internet while I'm there which can be incredibly refreshing and thought-provoking. Look at me getting all deep!

If you've never been to Center Parcs before then let me give you a little insight. There are now five locations set in the most gorgeous of forest around England and each are like their own little village with a town centre, huge indoor leisure pool and a small collection of shops and restaurants. The best thing about Center Parcs for me is the no-car rule. Everyone hires bikes to ride around on and you won't see a car on the road except for check in and check out days and there are plenty of paths and trails to ride on. The atmosphere is so relaxed that I rarely wear make-up or change out of sweatpants and a hoodie during the whole stay, I also indulged in some activities that I'd never normally get stuck into this year like archery and a lot of badminton each day.

We stayed in a stunning four-bedroom villa in the Ash area of the village which was set back in the forest with a private hot tub, sauna and steam room which we definitely made the most of. There's an abundance of wildlife to witness when you're staying in the forest and while we played pool in the games room each morning we had the odd visitor or two!

Have you visited Center Parcs in the UK or Europe? Let me know in the comments below what you love most about the villages.

Homesense Haul

How have I never been to Homesense before?! This is what I asked myself again and again as I lugged a wheely-basket around the Farnborough branch today. After visiting - and falling in love with -  Ikea for the first time last weekend to kit my room out with new furniture, I now needed somewhere a little closer to home to pick up a few accessories and finishing touches. So, here's my Homesense haul!











The first piece I fell in love with is the framed pin-board. I have been thinking so long and hard about which inspiring quotes I want to feature on my bedroom wall and 'she believed she could, so she did' is one of my all time favourites. When I noticed this quote was featured on this adorable, gold-framed board I just had to have it.

Next up is the white, vintage-looking 'L'. If you ever watched MTV's The Hills all those years ago then you might remember how Lauren Conrad had an 'L' and an 'A' up on her wall in her apartment and ever since then I've wanted one. This one was a bargain at £9.99.

Since buying a new, bigger make-up/work space for my bedroom I needed something to organise everything. I think I actually may have squealed with excitement when I saw the section in Homesense which housed a whole wall of these cosmetic trays/drawers so I went ahead and nabbed three - picking one up in the sale. They ranged from £9.99 up to £14.99 and came in all shapes and sizes.

Finally, I picked up this adorable weekly planner. I work a full time job along with blogging in the evenings and at weekends, so it's really important for me to be organised all of the time as I rarely have any time to plan and shoot last-minute blog posts. This weekly planner comes with little sections Monday-Sunday, post-it notes in various sizes and an envelope section where I can store any little notes that I might make throughout the day. The weekly planner cost £4.99.