My daily skin care routine

 

Taking care of your skin is important but as you grow older I think you start to understand the benefits of taking care of your skin while you're young.

I was always a lover of face wipes and don't get me wrong I still use them but these days I understand what's good and what's not so good for my skin!

My daily routine is to cleanse, tone and moisturise with the simple range. Iv tried high end products before but the simple range seems to be best suited to my complexion - leaving my skin feeling fresh, glowy and deep cleansed. I do this once in the morning before applying my make up and again in the evening. I also use the No7 Protect and Perfect Night cream - it leaves my face feeling tight and protects your skin against the first signs of ageing.

My Top Tips for Healthy Looking Skin!

• Drink plenty of water! It's recommended that you drink at least 8 pints of water per day. I'm not much of a water drinker so this has always been hard for me. I would challenge yourself to start drinking more water than you usually do. Whether it's 4 glasses or 8 pints, it's key to keeping your skin hydrated and glowy.

• Cleanse tone and moisturise twice daily!  Wash away the days dirt and grime plus any left over makeup - after all no one likes waking up to yesterday's mascara on the pillow.

• Know when to use a face wipe. Face wipes are great for coming home after a night out or a weekend trip away when you just can't take three big bottles to CTM, but make sure you return to Cleanse tone and moisturise twice daily as soon as you can. A tip is also to use face wipes to make any corrections after applying mascara - they're a quick and easy way to wipe away any excess mascara.

• Have makeup free days. The recent 'go barefaced for charity' campaign was not only successful in raising money for Cancer but it also increased people's confidence in stepping out with no makeup up on. Especially now were coming into summer - go barefaced to get a sun kissed glow (the lobster look is not good so make sure you apply a SPF)

I hope you found this blog post helpful. I've suffered in the past from acne (around the age of 25) which is when I learnt how important it is to do everything you can to keep your skin clean and looking fresh.

Easter Baking!

The best part of the day... breakfast!!!

It's our first Easter in our new home so wanted to make a big thing of Easter this year. So much so that I've been making Easter nests now since about February!!

Shops seem to sell such lovely Easter decorations these days and I just couldn't resist buying this cute little Easter chicken from John Lewis - it's perfect for sitting on the dresser in our kitchen!  I'm hoping to pick some more decorations in the sale or even have a go at making some!

John Lewis Easter Chicken!

We started off our morning today with Easter breakfast! A great excuse to use some of the lovely Kitchen bits we've been buying over the past few months. I'd love to say I made the hot cross buns but that would be a lie - these ones were pre baked from Tesco and delicious! I did make the Easter nests from scratch though (ok, so they're easy to make, but at least I did it!).

I thought I'd share the recipe too. I know at Easter time we can often be left with loads of half eaten chocolate eggs, so these are a great way to finish off the left overs!!

What you'll need

- 200g of any chocolate of your choice
- 85g of shredded wheat
- 2 large spoon fulls of golden syrup
- Decorations of your choice (I chose Milky Bar Mini eggs)
- Cupcake Cases

How to make the Easter nests

- Break the chocolate into pieces and melt over a pan of boiling water
- Break the shredded wheat into a bowl, adding the two large spoon fulls of golden syrup
- Once the chocolate has fully melted, all you need to do is stir in into the shredded wheat!
- Then the easy part, spooning your mixture into cupcake cases
- Decorate to finish!

Simple Spring Easter Nests!

You'll find loads more Easter ideas in Pippa Middleton's Celebrate book

And it's as easy as that.I also made a helpful video below - mostly because I wanted to try out a new app I have for making videos!

With Love
Charlotte

It was a Good Friday!!

 

It was a Good Friday!

Easter - My second favourite time of the year (my first of course, is Christmas)! Partly because these are the only times of the year where it's acceptable to eat chocolate for breakfast - but also because the weekend is always filled with fun, friends and family!

This Easter will be no different and Good Friday was spent with family in Holkham. For those who've not been to Holkham, it's situated in North Norfolk and is a great day out for a walk along the beach followed by a pub lunch or Mr Whippy! It was also the location for Cold Plays video Yellow!

I thought I'd share a few photos from the day - apologies for the poor picture quality - these were taken on my phone!!


North Norfolk

Our family dog Madge, with the wind in her fur

 

After along walk on the beach we headed off to Thornham for lunch. One of my favourite places to eat in Norfolk is The Orange Tree. They offer a restaurant and bar menu - it's good quality food in a beautiful setting. It's dog friendly in the bar and Madge enjoyed something from the canine menu! Super cute!! I chose the burger - and as always it was de-lisssshious!

The Orange Tree at Thornham! Deeeee-lish!

Another thing I love about Spring are the flowers and in particular Cherry blossom! I couldn't end this post with out sharing this beautiful blossom which I came across. We've just bought one for the garden but at the moment is more of a twig!!

The prettiest pinkest blossom!

You'll notice the serve lack of photos of me from my blog posts since I started! I'm currently doing what every girl dreads - growing my eyebrows ready for a reshape!!! I'm having them threaded next week but in the meantime, I don't think my blog is quite ready for a mono brow!! Only kidding- it's not quite got to that point yet!!!

Love Charlotte 

An evening with Emma Bridgewater

Emma Bridgewater Toast Marmalade and other stories

Yesterday evening I went along to Jarrolds Norwich for an evening with Emma Bridgewater. For those of you who haven't heard of Emma and her husband Matthew I can only hope this post inspires you to go in search of their beautifully modern pottery creations.

The evening was presented beautifully by Jarrolds and on arrival we received a glass of elderflower (wine was on offer but after a dry spell of drinking I thought best not to start the night with a wine!) Jarrolds were offering 20% off Emma Bridgewater for the evening which was great for those wanting to buy.

From the moment Emma and Matthew walked into the room I felt immediately drawn to them. Not least because I've been a lover of their pottery for the last 4 years but because they have such a strong family presence about them. It was this engagement with the audience which continued into the evening that made the whole experience enjoyable.

Classic Black Toast Tea, Coffee and Sugar holders and the inspiration for my whole kitchen!

Emma spoke early on about her inspiration to get into the world of pottery. It was her Mothers birthday and she wanted to buy her two teacups and saucers. Emma had the design in mind and after scouring local shops was unable to find anything suitable. It was then that she decided to make contact with a potter who commissioned four pieces for her. Emma's frustration was that she'd designed the pottery from scratch but had been unable to hand craft the pottery herself.

It takes a strong minded person to set about removing a frustration by starting a business from scratch and this is just what Emma did. By 1985 Emma had opened the Bridgewater factory in Stoke and the rest is history as they say!

Well not quite. To this day all of the designs are created by Emma and Matthew and they spoke of the deliberations they go through when choosing a design. They're creativity comes from their family, their experiences and their hearts. This was very apparent throughout the evening, as was her love for English heritage and rebuilding life and energy into what was a run down factory in Stoke.

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to meet Emma at the end of her evening to sign a copy of her new book 'toast marmalade and other stories'.  She asked for my name and she looked up and said 'the same as my mothers, iv written you a special message in this book and you'll understand it when you read certain parts of the book'.

Iv since read the chapter titled 'to the memory of Charlotte' to which it reads 'to this day, all of my work has been to the memory of Charlotte'.

This smells sooo good!! Available online or from M&S

I came away with such an incredible insight into the Bridgewater family life and am in awe of what a strong independent lady and mother she is.

I hope you enjoyed this post. It's different to what I'll usually be posting but I couldn't let such a beautiful evening pass without blogging about it. My Emma Bridgwater collection can be found throughout this post and this weekend only there is 15% off www.emmabridgewater.co.uk. This post is not sponsered.

Love Charlotte

Spring at Accessorize

Rio Ultimate Necklace £22 

Spring has definitely sprung in the world of high street!

Whilst it's still not quite warm enough to be wearing summary dresses and flip flops, I've been looking at ways to add some colour to my wardrobe.

As always Accessorize has such a beautiful Spring collection - filled with brightly coloured statement necklaces, silk scarfs and an amazing range of jewelled bags. Whilst there I picked up a couple of their statement necklaces. They're the perfect way to add detail to a simple outfit. They're also a great if you need an outfit suitable for the afternoon into the early evening.

My absolute favourite is the Rio Ultimate necklace. The colours are on trend for Spring and bring any outfit to life. This would look great with a white t-shirt or cami in the Summer.

I also managed to pick up a beautiful turquoise necklace - I saw it and fell in love!! Turquoise looks great in the summer and the woven thread detail and teardrop stones give it a tribal edge. I'd been looking for something like this since last summer so I just had to buy it!

Maya Pretty Teardrop Statement Necklace £19



I couldn't end this post before showing you the new range of clutch bags. These are similar to 'The Petal' range from Burberry but are a steal at just £19. They're defiantly on my wish list!

Accessorize Daisy Cutout Across Body £19



Burberry 'The Petal' £995

Available from Accessorize in Turquoise, Yellow and White

 

Happy Shopping!!

With love

Charlotte

A little bit about flutterbydott.

Over the past 3 years i've spent countless hours reading through blogs. I've started my own blog on many occasion, always letting technology get the better of me!

Like many other 27 year olds I love to shop. There's something about walking into a shop full of neatly folded clothes and brightly coloured accessorise that brings an excitement over me.. I find myself longing for things I don't need, making impulse purchases and taking them to the till to be neatly packaged (ahh the packaging, tissue paper, brightly coloured paper bags and ribboned bows). From Small boutiques to department stores, I love them all!!!

So when your feet are aching from shopping all day (that reminds me, I must buy that pedicure set I've seen - I do need it! Honestly!) there's nothing like opening your carefully packed shopping bags, remembering all that you've bought. It's the excitement all over again!!

So this blog, the little bit of space in the world for flutterbydott, shall be the place I share my thoughts, beauty and fashion tips..

This blogging is all new to me so I'm off to find out how to start following some of you lovely people!! If you have a blog which you think I'll love, please comment below and I'll visit your page!!

With love

Charlotte