A Guide To Making Your Home Look Quirky (Not Tacky!)

*guest post

There’s a fine line between a quirky looking home, and one that’s a little on the tacky side. Making sure your home looks unique and quirky rather than tacky can take some work, but here we have some advice that can help just about anybody to get it right. Take a look - you don’t need to be a decor expert to nail the quirky decor look in your home! 

1. Don’t Add Too Much Visual Clutter

No matter how stylish the accessories and accents you choose, too much visual clutter will make your home look messy and tacky. This is why you need to pick your accessories and accents wisely, and only incorporate those that you really love. Some people try to fill a smaller space with small accessories, but this only adds to the visual clutter. It’s ok to use large accessories in a small space if you are being smart with them. 

5 Benefits of Stand Up Pouches for Food Product Packaging

Finding the right packaging for your food product can be a challenging process. There are many concerns about freshness and reliability that simply don’t exist for some other products. Fortunately, there is one solution that can be an answer for a broad range of foods: custom stand up pouches. The following are five benefits of choosing this packaging option.

Desenio: An Honest Review

Hey Owlets,

I am so excited to bring you this review today. If you’ve been anywhere on the homewares/fashion blogger internet circle then you’ve probably heard of Desenio. It feels as if they just popped up out of nowhere one day and every single blogger I followed had Desenio artwork in their homes. I can’t lie, I’m quite easily influenced if a blogger I really like is talking about something, and having seen so many people mention Desenio I desperately wanted some of their prints. At the time as a 15 year old girl with only pocket money in my bank it wasn’t a priority purchase but I still loved going through the website just because I enjoyed looking at pretty pieces. Fast forward almost a decade and, having just moved into my first home, I was so excited to finally be able to shop on Desenio and fill my walls with the beautiful artwork that I’d been staring at for years!

Travel Mishaps: Part 2

Hey Owlets,

A while ago I wrote an article called “Travel Mishaps: Everything that Happened” and in that I mentioned that I could’ve gone on for days about other stupid mistakes I’d made. However, not everything that’s happened while travelling was avoidable - either due to lack of experience, lack of knowledge or it was just one of those things. With that in mind, I wanted to make a part two to that article, but this time I want to focus on the things that have gone wrong, so you can have a laugh at my expense but also hopefully learn from them.

My Christmas Wishlist

Hey Owlets,

2020 has thrown a lot our way, and personally it's made life as a blogger pretty difficult. If you follow me on Instagram you'll already know but, in case you missed it, I announced I wouldn't be doing my usual gift guide. There's a lot of different reasons for this, but it wasn't an easy decision and I've really missed writing about my favourite products. I've decided to get in the spirit of 2020 and do things differently. I can't afford to buy all of the products to review in my gift guide, so instead I thought it might be interesting for you to see what's on my wish list. Hopefully if you're wondering what to get someone you care about, or you're looking to treat yourself after a hard year, then this might provide some inspiration. You're going to have to bear with me for the first few items - I did say this was an ultimate wish list, so while there are some more affordable items on here, there's also a few things that I can't necessarily afford but would absolutely love!!

Ultimate Black Friday & Christmas Shopping Guide: My Top Picks

Hey Owlets,

I will freely admit, I'm not usually Black Friday obsessed despite being on the internet for the last four years to witness the hype. Having said that, something about being at home for almost the entirety of this year has resulted in somewhat of an addiction to online shopping so this year I am completely sold! I've been planning Christmas gifts since August out of sheer boredom, so I have a list of things ready to buy (both for myself and my family) so I can fully take advantage of the best deals. I've already done way too much research on this for myself so I thought I could justify the time I spent scrolling by sharing the best Black Friday deals with you. I imagine this blog post is going to be quite a long one so I've split them into categories, and I've tried to include something for every budget from high street to high end; if you're looking for the perfect present for yourself or your family then I've absolutely got you covered with this list!

Heads up: This post contains affiliate links and some paid-for content, but my opinions are my own as always!

Goodbye Marco Polo

Hey Owlets,

Marco Polo sailed out of Avonmouth last night. Out of context that statement seems a little mundane - why would anyone care about a ship doing what it’s meant to do? - but for me watching this elderly cruise liner sail away hurt in a way that I didn’t expect it to.

In case you’re new here, Marco Polo was one of the first ships I ever went on and my first taste of small ship cruising. One day I was bored and started scrolling through a cruise booking website - I wasn’t looking to book a cruise but it’s just something you do if you love travel, like scrolling through Instagram on the bus. During my mindless scrolling I came across a Christmas cruise for £123 sailing from Bristol on a line I'd never heard of (Cruise and Maritime Voyages) - I love Christmas, it was the cheapest cruise I’d ever seen & it was sailing from 10 minutes down the road so I couldn’t say no, out of curiosity if nothing else! When we boarded a month later we were subject to a cabin that broke, the worst night at sea I’ve ever had (even now nothing comes close!) and the cheesiest entertainment I’ve ever seen on a ship - but I loved it. 

How to Deal with Feeling Overwhelmed

Hey Owlets,

With the Prime Minister’s most recent announcement about the second wave, lockdown 2.0 and all the new rules it’s totally understandable for your head to be spinning - I know mine is! However, having worked from home since before the pandemic I’m no stranger to the feeling of being totally overwhelmed and not knowing where to start, whether it’s about work, friends or general life. Having had some experience in dealing with overwhelm pre-pandemic I wanted to share my tips to hopefully help you to calm down and feel a little more grounded.