Create your own necklace with J&S Jewellery

When given an opportunity to create my own necklace with charms, life got a little bit interesting.  I absolutely love my Pandora and Thomas Sabo charm bracelets, but a necklace is a whole new ball game. Based in Norwich J & S Jewellery have an amazing tool that gives you the opportunity to create something unique, something very you and something that would make an amazing gift.

Why buy off-the-peg jewellery when you can customise your own personalised pendant necklaces online without a hefty price tag? At J&S, our mission is to make it easy for you to express your style and individuality with bespoke charm jewellery.

I have just created my very own necklace which is personal to me and I found it so easy to do and a little bit obsessive and you can see my creation and how I did it throughout this post. Get started by selecting your choice of plating - silver, gold or rose gold. Next pick your chain; choose satellite (a delicate chain with evenly spaced silver plain beads between chain lengths) or trace (a simple, dainty chain with uniform links).

Now the really fun part, time to design that necklace with some simple dragging and dropping motions of the charms to the position of your choice. It is at this point that I am sure you will click and drag every single charm across, delete them, re-add them and so on and so forth until you reach a combination that you like. I found it much easier to start with a centre charm, of which there are 11 to choose from, then try a few other combinations with birthstones, chunky lettering and symbols, before adding more centre charms and then removing, re-ordering their place on the chain and then switching between different necklace plating before finally deciding on the 'one'

For me choosing the centre charm and the first charm I didn't hesitate with is the Heart Key Charm and more because of its meaning - "Symbolising awakening, knowledge, curiosity, new beginnings and opportunity, the key reminds us to learn from the past when unlocking doors to a better future. It can also be of romantic significance: key to my heart".

So the other charms that I choose include two letters R and S which could either stand for my initials or the first name initials of myself and the mister.  Then I chose the birthstone option and Ruby a I was born in July and I have absolutely nothing with Ruby in or on it. Sat in the centre of the necklace is the Tree of Life symbol which I was drawn too for its design and the final charm is the Rainbow Crystal disc which stood out to me with the colour of the stones.  Here is my necklace in all its glory.

The reason that I chose these charms is so I can chop and change them as I see fit, I sometimes like to change my charms around on everything else, so it is nice to have the option to do just that with this necklace and it cost just £30 in total. I am also impressed with how well made the chain is and how nice it sits.

If all of that isn't enough, there is a final finishing touch which allows you to add a gift card for free and there is a variety of options to choose from and these are just some of them.

I am really so overly impressed with J and S jewellery from the concept, being able to design my own necklace to the actual product, it was such a fun experience and definitely something I would love to do again because they make such a perfect gift.

If you would like to make your own necklace then I have a discount code for you. For 25% discount on all purchases until the end of December use the code BEAUTYQUEEN16

*this post contains PR samples unless indicated otherwise

Fleur de Force Eylure Petit Fleur & Fully Fleur Lashes

Eyelashes are one of those beauty items that you either love or hate I think.  I love them but hate applying them and at times can be heard to mutter rather a feq obscentities until I get them right.  Eylure are one of those brands I really really like, their products are easy to apply and they come in all different types, textures and styles.

A few weeks ago I had an amazing delivery which I did share on instragram from Eylure featuring two brand new lashes from a collaboration with Fleur de Force and they are just absolutely stunning.  They also came with a handwritten note and a beautiful bunch of flowers too, which was such a lovely touch.

Petit Fleur’ is described as being a sweet and subtle textured ¾ length lash with a light kick at the corner. The lash is designed to add a secret lift to your lashes and features softly-tapered tips. 

Fully Fleur is described as being a full & fluttery lash with a kick-out corner and naturally-tapered ends, perfect from desk to dancefloor.

Both sets of eyelashes come with the lash glue adhesive and I love that the packaging is just so pretty with pastel shades working with a grey, black & white tone backgroound.

Fleur de Force Eylure Petit Fleur Lashes are £5.25 and the Fully Fleur Eylure Lashes are £5.95. Find them HERE and are currently on a three for two offer!

*this post contains PR samples unless indicated otherwise

A little bit of Pampering with Bookyourlifestyle.com

So Christmas is finally upon us. The Coco Cola advert has proudly annouced that the holidays are coming, Black Friday and Cyber Monday have been and gone and now all that is left to do is wait for gifts to arrive, wrap them, post them to Santa and then run to the supermarket and buy everything you can get your hands on because there might be a zombie apocalpyse and you might just need all that bread as the shops shut for just that one day, well almost all of those shops!

With all the crazy rushing around, sometimes you have to just stop what you are doing and take some time out before you get trolley rage! If you haven't heard of them before, let me introduce you to BookYourlifestyle, a site which was founded in January 2015 by David Smith and Chris Houry of HostelBookers fame. They grew HostelBookers from 0-$100million in 10 years and as good as eradicated the financial burden of cancellations and no shows. So designed to make booking easy, Bookyourlifestyle is a 24/7 application which aims to make booking easy so whether you want a blow dry, massage, manicure, pedicure or all of the above!

The lovely people over at BookYourLifestyle very kindly sent me a gift so that I could treatment myself to a treatment at this busy time of the year.  The booking system is incredibly easy to use.  You can either narrow your treatment down by salon choice - so waxing, nail or hair or example and from there you can further narrow down your search by choosing the treatment you want.  So I decided that I would book myself in for a pedicure because having done a lot of walking over the last month (49miles in total at EuroDisney alone) I thought my feet could do with a little treat and I decided to do this at Cucumba.

The whole booking system took me less than three minutes to complete from start to finish and I was then sent a text message confirmation and an email confirmation to confirm my booking.

So off I went for my appointment and I arrived to a warm and friendly welcome and was introduced to my pedicurist who made me feel very welcome and I was sat into my chair ready to go.  Now I hate feet, not something new to anyone who reads my blog and I am not a fan of anyone touching them, but the pedicure I had was just totally and utterely divine.  It started with the removal of nail polish and then my feet went into a bubbling pot of warm water - totally heaven!  As my feet soaked, I was given a full pedicure which included my toenails being cut, shaped and filed and then the skin all over the underneath was buffed and gosh this was amazing, not a sign of any dry or dead skin now thank you very much! After buffing came a foot scrub and again, absolute heaven.

Once both feet had been scrubbed and buffed, moisturising cream was added and my feet were inserted into some warm boots (i need these at home) and I was left to sit and relax for ten minutes whilst the cream was absorbed.  Once the time was up, each foot was then massaged with further cream and this is always for me, the one part I am always apprehensive about, but it was just so totally amazing that I could have sat there all day! The final part of my pedicure was to have my toe nails painted and I chose Essie Berry Naughty which is quite a nice Berry colour and quite festive.

The whole treatment lasted around an hour and it was just so lovely.  Cucumba is one of those salons you might never come across unless you read about it and now you have, look it up and go and visit because they have a whole host of treatments on offer and it is one of those places I am looking forward to going back too.

Don't forget that Bookyourlifestyle have an online interactive advent calendar (see this post) from which you can win a prize every single day!

*I was given a voucher for this treatment but all words are my own

6 Types of Men You Should Never Date

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Before you finally land a husband, you go through the series of dates with different men. It’s clear that you have your ideal husband in mind and every time you go out with a new guy you secretly hope that he’ll turn out to be the one. But very often, already on a first date, you realize that person is not your dream man. Although it’s usually recommended to have a second date in order to get to know the man better, some types of men simply don’t deserve your time. Dating experts from primedating.com compiled a list of guys you should not waste your time with.

The insolvent one

The way a person reacts to different life situations can say much about his or her personality. Watch your date’s attitude to other people and you’ll realize what kind of person he is. There are many things that make us angry but we can control our emotions. If you see that your date talks back to a waiter who is late with the order or overhear him talking down to his colleague, run away from this guy. He will treat you in the same way soon.

The one just out of a relationship

He is back in the game but he hasn’t completely moved on after his recent unsuccessful relationship. People need some time after a breakup to get over it. This pause is necessary to analyze the relationship, make conclusions, and let it go. If you find out that your date was in a relationship and very little time has passed after a breakup, he might not be ready for a new relationship yet.

The workaholic

It’s difficult to deal with the person whose interests are tied only to his job. You’re probably looking for a versatile person because if a man is focused only on making money and thinks that it makes him an interesting personality, you’ll be bored and disappointed soon. A good boyfriend and a potential husband should have his passions and hobbies and have the life outside his office.

The player

You go out on dates because you want to find a future partner and he just finds it entertaining. He doesn’t plan anything serious because he’s totally absorbed in the dating game. If you want to figure the player out already on a first date, ask him something family-related, such as whether he plans to settle down one day and have kids. Watch his reaction to understand his true intentions.

The one with zero ambitions

It’s essential for any man to have a purpose in his life. This is what makes him the real man. If a guy doesn’t want to improve, lacks motivation, and doesn’t know what he wants, run away from him. He is already poisoning his own life so don’t let him ruin yours.

The one addicted to his family

Loving one’s family is a natural thing but if it’s an unhealthy dependency (either financial or emotional), it will have a disastrous effect on one’s future relationship. A family-dependent guy is looking not for a partner but for a mother or maid. It’s obvious that you want to be his number-one priority but he’ll always prioritize his family. So, avoid this kind of men as well as mother’s darlings who report everything to their moms.

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