27 things I learnt for my 27th birthday

I thought I would do something a little different on my blog today. I'm celebrating 27 years of life and I thought I would share some life changing lessons I learnt along the way.

1) Your health is important. Take care of yourself.

2) Happiness is everything.

3) Work smart and enjoy yourself.

4) You are not responsible for everyone else.

5) Say 'no' more.

6) Don't be afraid to speak your mind. And stand up for what you believe in!

7) When you're planning a wedding, you realise who is truly important.

8) Money isn't everything but it does make the world go round sadly.

9) You've only got one life, live it.

10) Travel as much as you can. Experience different cultures.

11) Exercise is key for your inner strength and ideas. You'd be amazed how many ideas come to me when I'm running.

12) Do what you love.

13) You are the only person who can change and improve yourself.

14) Read more.

15) It's the little things in life. A cup of tea, a smile at a stranger if they look upset, being nice to everyone you meet, and fish and chips. The simple things that bring so much joy. 

16) See family and friends more.

17) It's ok to not be ok.

18) Be nice to everyone you meet, we've all got shit to deal with. And, a friendly smile is something they just might need.

19) Don't be too hard on yourself.

20) If you don't like it, change it.

21) It's ok to be alone and have alone days.

22) Hate and jealously are wasted emotions. Throw any negativity out of your life and focus on the good.

23) Stop comparing yourself to others.

24) "I can't tell you the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." 

25) Honesty is the key to healthy relationships. And I guess is one of my strengths as a person. What can I say... I'm a Scorpio.

26) Stop putting other people before you, especially if they don't care about you.

27) Try not to worry, it'll work out in the end. It always does.

Ok, so there we have it! 27 life lessons. I hope you found this somewhat useful or interesting to read. If you've got any life lessons you'd like to share, please leave them in the comments below as I love reading your comments :).

Also, Joe made me read this blog post the other day, which I found really interesting and found myself nodding along to every thing he said. It's an article by Mark Manson on '3 Important Life Skills Nobody Ever Taught You' which is what inspired me to write this post in the first place.

As always, you can follow me on Instagram: @zoeyoliviablog or tweet me: @zoeyoliviablog. I'm forever responding and interacting on those platforms :).

Lush Halloween & Christmas Haul

I love Lush, and, I know I've only just recently done a Halloween haul, but, I couldn't help getting a few more from this year's Halloween and Christmas collections.

I picked up Shooting Stars, Northern Lights, Monsters' Ball, Pumpkin and a lip scrub, Mint Julips. I've only tried Northern Lights before, so I'm really excited to indulge in some new treats.

Shooting Stars. This one is actually part of the Christmas collection!
Lush describe it as... "Honey-scented sparkles of Brazilian orange and bergamot waltz with swirling, golden stars, creating a world of cobalt colour. A calming blanket of shimmering, midnight blue unfolds."

I'm so excited to use this one! From the video demo on Lush's website, it looks incredible!
I love that it has bergamot oils as well as coconut cream and cocoa butter which are all great moisturisers. I can't say I've ever heard of 'Brazilian orange' though - sounds fancy. Overall it smells great and I'm super excited to try this.

Northern Lights. I think I picked this up last year or the year before, but I don't remember it being this weird long shape. But, from what I remember it created the most beautiful bath.
And, of course is inspired by the infamous Northern Lights (which I'm still yet to experience - it's on my list of things I want to do before I die).

Lush say, "Bring the ecstatic beauty of the night sky into the bath. Trails of blue and yellow jettison from a purple casing and dance across the water in otherworldly streams. As they do, cheery ylang ylang bobs and weaves with sensual jasmine in the air to light up your spirits."

Monsters ball'. This guy looks so cute! But is it just me, or have Lush massively increased the price of their bath bombs? This one was really expensive, it was £4.25, which is more than the other ones I picked up...

Anyway, "This monster mash-up of lime and neroli oils is a sure fire way to get the party started, and leave you feelin' Franken-fine all night long."
The main ingredients are of course lime and neroli oils, but it also has cocoa butter and oilbanum oil (which I can't say I've heard of), which are great uplifting scents.

Pumpkin. This one smells quite spicy and different which I quite like. It's supposed to be a bath bomb version of a 'pumpkin pie' but I think it's a lot more spicier.

"Sweet, comforting vanilla absolute and spicy cinnamon evoke the rich, biscuity fragrance of home-baking and stacked desserts, ensuring that you feel toasty from top to toe."

It's main ingredients are pimento berry oil which is an antioxidant and vanilla absolute for the fragrance. I'm quite excited to give this one a go, I can imagine it being warm and comforting on a cold night.

Mint Julips. I was in desperate need of a new lip scrub. My 'Popcorn' one has gone a bit hard, but I have had it for way too long. Anyway, I was up for trying a new flavour. I've had bubblegum, popcorn and now this one.

When I was in store, I tested this one and loved the minty-ness to it. It's really satisfying and I just want to eat the whole thing to be honest with you.

Anyway, time for me to get off the interwebs and get back on wedding planning. I hope everyone is doing well, and have a great weekend!

Love, Zoey

As always, you can follow me on Instagram: @zoeyoliviablog or tweet me: @zoeyoliviablog. I'm forever responding and interacting on those platforms :). Or, leave me a comment below.

It's ok to not be ok...

It's really early in the morning and I can't sleep. I've got a lot on my mind that I'm just bursting to write about but I know I can't. What I will talk about is to remind everyone that it's ok to not be ok.

In this rollercoaster so-called life, we deal with many situations, some good, some bad. And sometimes health gets in the way and is a real pain in the ass. But what can we do? Ignore it. I try to... and have done for years. And, I tell you what, it's the biggest mistake I made.

Some of you may know I suffer with endometriosis, I think I've spoken about it once or twice on here. And some of you may also know I suffer with migraines and cluster headaches.

If you're unsure what any of those are, I'm not going to bore you with the details but feel free to google them.

Ok, so you may or may have not googled... As you can imagine, I deal with a lot of pain every single day of my life, and I put that aside because I don't like talking about it, it makes me severally upset. I mean, imagine wakeing up in pain every single day? To some extent where you can't move (endometriosis) or where you feel like banging your head against a wall until the migraine is physically removed from your head.

Well now I talk about something serious that happened to me... So, I was going through a very stressful period of my life, I had a wedding to plan (supposed to be the biggest life changing moment in your life), I had an extremely busy day job and I had my blog to run. And, I guess I was just under a huge amount of pressure, which I'm going to refrain from talking about for now.
And... well, I usually deal with work well. I'm a perfectionist and I work hard, I always have done. But it just all got too much.

I suppose you could say, I work hard so I don't have to think about my problems. Working hard and accomplishing things made me feel good about myself. But in reality it was taking a toll on my health. I was working 9 till 5:30 (sometimes later) with a thirty minute lunch break, I'd then quickly eat dinner then work till the late hours on my blog, freelance work or the wedding. And I'd work all day at the weekends. I didn't stop. I was like a machine. And look where that got me...

I booked an emergency doctors appointment and they took my blood pressure, I was 158! 158! At the time, I didn't think much of it. But my doctor looked at me in real concern. Boy was I in trouble... Anyway, there was no question about it, she signed me off straight away. But of course I refused at first... Not being able to work is my ideal of hell.

I then went home, googled 158 blood pressure... "140-160" Hypertension or something, on the verge of having a stroke or heart attack. I literally didn't know what to do. I stared at the screen thinking in my head, "are you actually serious lol." And then it hit me, if I carried on at the rate I was going, I could of died. I literally could of died. I know I'm being a bit dramatic here. But imagine how that feels like?

Since then, I have been resting, and I'm back on my old friend, Co-codomol... But there's only so much rest you can do when you're also planning a wedding.

I feel ok now but my heart rate still doesn't feel good.  And, I am dreading going back to the doctors incase she tells me off again for not looking after myself and taking it easy.

What I will say is, if you're going through something similar, stress headaches, migraines, cluster headaches or endometriosis, or maybe you're dealing with anxiety or depression. Please stay strong, you're not alone. There are people out there who will help you.
And, if you do experience your heart rate going a bit awol, please go and see a doctor. As they have your best interests at heart.

For me, the best way for me to deal with these happenings, is to write. Writing helps. It really does, it's therapeutic, and it gets off my chest. Also baths help, and exercise too.

So, I just want to say again, it's ok to not be ok. You are important and please look after yourselves. You're not alone. And please don't make the mistake that I did.

Love, Zoey

Anniversary Brunch at Thomas's

I can't quite get my head around the fact that Joe and I have been together for six years... It has flown by!

It hasn't always been rainbows and butterflies (as some of you may think), but we have a rare connection or so astrology (Scorpio and Pisces) tells me. He's my best friend and the only person that truly knows me... and he's soon to be my husband (very weird writing that).

For our sixth year anniversary, we kept it quite low-key as we have our wedding coming up pretty soon-ish. I treated Joe to brunch at Thomas Burberry's restaurant in London, Thomas's. It was incredible - the service, the food, the drinks... everything was perfect.

We had the whole floor to ourselves which was quite rare and lovely, it felt like we had our very own personal waiter. Every member of staff was super cheery and lovely. We even got treated to a glass of champagne on the house! 

The food was beautiful. I had a full english breakfast because why the hell not? You could really taste the quality of the food, and the toast was on another level - that was some seriously sexy bread I tell you. I also had a cup of tea, I can't remember the flavour, but it sounded fancy. 

Joe had some sort of fish pie with a side salad and pretty flowers that were edible. I had a cheeky bite and it was lovely too.

For dessert we shared the Millionaire's shortbread (my favourite) - wow this was heavenly. Every thing was perfection from the biscuit base to the dark chocolate coating. I need to go back and order about 10 of these!

After our lovely meal, we walked around Regent St. for a little bit and then headed home as we had work the next day, and didn't want to be out too late (oldies, I know). 

As always, feel free to follow me on Instagram: @zoeyoliviablog or tweet me: @zoeyoliviablog. I'm forever responding and interacting on those platforms :). Or, leave me a comment below if you've been to Thomas's or are thinking or going there soon.

Oh and, if you're interested in seeing what we got up to for our anniversary in previous years, check out my blog post/vlog from last year at Sketch, and check out our fourth anniversary at the Mad Hatters Tea Party at the Sanderson Hotel. You can also watch the vlog here.

Lush Halloween Haul

It's been a little while since I last paid a visit to Lush. I popped in to my local one at the weekend and they now have all their Halloween and Christmas collections in, which is rather exciting! I didn't purchase anything this time but I was gifted the lovely 'Relax' box, 'Guardian Of The Forest', 'Sex Bomb' and 'Blackberry' bath bombs by a lovely friend of mine.

I had already indulged and had two baths using 'Sex Bomb' and the 'Blackberry' one, hence they are not in the photo's. But I think I have spoken about those two before on my blog, or definitely posted a picture or two of them on my Instagram page. 

Anyway, starting to waffle... Let's start with Guardian Of The Forest - 'The Spirit of Nature'.
I think this is a fairly new one as I've never seen it before. On first impressions, it looks cool - almost has that dragon kind of look to it. And, it smells different to other Lush bath bombs, more of a fresh, garden-like scent.

Lush say, it's calming and toning with cypress oil,  an antiseptic with rosewood oil, uplifting and protecting with lime oil, and for the mossy fragrance, they've used 'Oakmoss absolute' which I can't say I've heard of before, but it smells lovely.

Relax - 'Find peace and quiet'. In this lovely little parcel were four items. You get 'A French Kiss' bubble bar (I've been wanting to try this forever!), Ceridwen's Cauldron bath melt (part of the Halloween range), Twilight shower gel and Butterball bath bomb (which I've had before and it's incredible). 

Sometimes, life does become incredibly busy and we can't stop. We have ginormous to-do lists every-day, busy day jobs, keeping up with social appearances, planning weddings (applicable to some), keeping up to date with blogs, writing content, the list is endless... We just need to slow down, take a step back and enjoy some quiet time. And this set does exactly that. The range has a mix of lavender, rosemary, cocoa butter and sandalwood oils, which are all super calming and moisturising. 

And last but not least, I have to say and huge thank you to Nicol who gifted me these gorgeous Lush goodies. I can't wait to use them all! And I shall report back on Instagram with the bombs and bubble bars in action.

As always, feel free to follow me on Instagram: @zoeyoliviablog or tweet me: @zoeyoliviablog. I'm forever responding and interacting on those platforms :).

Birthday Wishlist

Every year, Joe, my family and friends struggle to get me presents for my birthday as apparently I'm really difficult to buy for... so I've put together a little wish list for them.

This year has been really hard choosing things I want or need because I usually buy everything myself anyway, and the things I want are really expensive... and I don't expect my family and friends to purchase any of the above, apart from maybe the John Lewis dressing gown, chloe perfume and aesop face mask.

To be honest I would just be happy with a nice meal, afternoon tea or an array of Lush halloween and Christmas bath bombs (I have been eyeing up Pumpkin and Shooting Stars in particular ;)) or I'd be really content with Estee LaLonde's Bloom book to read on my upcoming holiday. My mind is more focused on our wedding at the moment and my birthday has just crept up out of no-where if I'm being honest!

As always, feel free to follow me on Instagram: @zoeyoliviablog or tweet me: @zoeyoliviablog. I'm forever responding and interacting on those platforms :).

October Primark Haul

It's been a little while since I last filmed a Primark haul, but I recently popped in and got a few bits and bobs that I thought I would share with you.

Also, I apologise in advance that the lighting is a bit off. I'm looking rather blue which I can assure you I am not lol.

Any who, I tend to prefer Primark's clothing during Autumn and Winter, so expect more Primark haul's on my channel in the upcoming months.

As always, feel free to follow me on Instagram: @zoeyoliviablog or tweet me: @zoeyoliviablog. I'm forever responding and interacting on those platforms :).