Bonfire Night Tradition

Remember, remember the 5^th of November has been drummed into us since we were little and is a big tradition in our family. We’ve always attended displays but in recent years (we’d say the last 4) we’ve started hosting a bonfire night party at our house. 

For those of you who do not know what Bonfire night is (shout out to our non UK readers!) we’ve summarized it briefly below:

In the 1600s a man named Guy Fawkes attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London. Although he failed it has gone down in history and thus began Bonfire Night. We as a country create big fires in remembrance and some people (yes we’re those wierdos) make a fake Guy to go on the fire. 

Bit satanic but whatever. 

Having said this, the main reason we all do it is firstly because its tradition and has been going on for years. 

Secondly, it’s a reason to partyyy – wrap up warm, meet-up with friends and family, get drunk plus there’s always sparklers present and firework displays.

REASONS WE LOVE GUY FAWKES:

FAMILY

We love any excuse to get the family and close friends round (furry family members too!)

Amy calming Evie whilst the fireworks were going off

BOOZY

Our night is notorious for getting everyone w a s t e d yes parents included. Starts with normal spirits/beers then mum likes to finish the night with alcoholic hot chocolates 

(she swears she’s not trying to kill us) 

FOOD

We always make cheesy jackets, sausages, buns, beans nommm proper winter nosh

Plus its an excuse to eat marshmallows and toffee apples to our hearts content

NOVEMBER = BORING

November is a bit of a dead month fun activities wise (just had Halloween and limbo till Christmas) so bonfire night livens up the month

PYROMANIACS

We are low-key pyromaniacs

TRADITION! 

We’ve been attending bonfire displays since we were babies so this will always remain a special night in our lives to be celebrated!

FIREWORKS

The displays are beautiful and we like the thrill of running away from the stray ones haha 

Random moments from the past few years: 

Both of us performing Nicki Minaj super bass dance and all in front of the bonfire therefore in front of our family and friends *shakes head*

Pretty Little Thing and Missugided OOTD

We are complete and utter online shopping fiends and can't think of the last time we actually ventured into town to mill about the shops. Couldn't possibly pick our favourite and frequently cheat on both Missguided and Pretty Little Thing with each other.

Today we've decided to share a few outfits (mainly night out) that we've worn and love from both brands. Links to some of the items below.

PRETTY LITTLE THING

Amy

Boys Lie Slogan Mesh Thong Bodysuit  Colour: Deep Peach

White Trousers - own

Heels - own

Lorraine

White Mesh Mini Dress - no longer in stock!

We've put a link to a similar dress in black:

Black High Neck Mesh Bodycon Dress

Amy

Lucille Black Lace Bodysuit

Khaki Studded Block Heels

Snakeskin Skirt - own

Choker - eBay

MISSGUIDED

Lorraine

Khaki Slinky Gathered Midi Dress

Diamante Choker - Topshop

xxx

7 considerations when booking holiday accommodation

Over the past two years we've booked ourselves into roughly 10 hotels/apartments - whether it be for festivals, holidays or city breaks; we'd like to think we've got this down to a T. Soooo decided to do a blog post breaking down the considerations we take into account before pressing that oh so beautiful 'BOOK' button.

Hotel vs Apartment

Firstly you have to determine which which type of accommodation will work best for you. We find the easiest way of doing this is to weigh up the pros and cons. 

Examples of pros could include: 

• An apartment offers a fridge (aka cool beverages) plus facilities to cook 
• Whereas a massive plus of a hotel is that there will be room cleaning every day. 

The positives will vary depending on city and also depends on the type of holiday you want! In Malta we preferred a hotel as we got to meet other festival goers before event whereas in Manchester for Lorraine’s birthday we wanted an apartment for space and privacy.

Still crushing over the MCR apartment *sighs*

Location

Yes pretty décor is a mahoosive plus in deciding on accommodation BUT location is one of the most important factors to consider; both practically and financially. 

Will the airport transfer cost an arm and a leg? Is there a supermarket nearby? These are both pretty high on our list. 

The supermarket point more so because need a few litre bottles of water in our room wherever we stay (don’t do tap) so if we’re not physically going to be able to carry them to the room, that hotel gets a solid no.

Transport links

We always ensure we book a hotel that is within walking distance to a tube/metro stop or main train station. If buses or taxis are your preferred mode of transport we recommend researching the estimate cost from your hotel to locations in the city you plan on visiting. 

WiFi 

Unless you’re going on some kind of yoga retreat or social media detox… a strong, consistent Wi-Fi connection will most likely be essential. Hotels differ quite a bit in relation to internet access; some will offer: 

• Free Wi-Fi in your room (may be weak so check reviews)
• Free Wi-Fi in lobby
• Wi-Fi in your room on a pay per day basis. 

So make sure to review the options provided before booking!

Reviews

We always read the reviews and decide if the negative and low marked feedback would actually bother us if in that situation. Majority of the time it wouldn’t and we think people are over-reacting eg. Not enough towels or receptionist didn’t smile. But it doesn’t hurt to check! 

We primarily check using booking.com and TripAdvisor.

Amenities

Whether it’s a decent gym, pool or parking; you need to decide which amenities in a hotel are absolute necessities for you and ensure you chose accommodation that offers this. 

Our personal must haves are: breakfast included, parking (if UK), air-con and room with balcony (if available). 

Purely so we can re-enact photos like this haha

Double check price elsewhere

Once you’ve chosen your hotel check if it’s cheaper elsewhere – 80% of the time we use booking.com because Lorraine is a premium member and gets discounts BUT sometimes it the same hotel can be cheaper on competitor sites eg. Lasminute.com or even the official hotel website itself! 

xxx

List of things that made us happy this month - October

 Like every other month this year, October has absolutely flown by.. At the moment we’re really trying to be grateful for all the little things so decided to do a post on the moments we’re appreciative for this month.

• Seeing our nana – it was her birthday earlier in the month so we took her out for lunch
• Booked our first holiday of 2018
• Sam Smith released new music
• We’ve been quite tame this month when it comes to night outs so we’ve saved £
• Mum cooked an authentic Kenyan dish (she rarely does so when we get some it’s a massive treat)
• We’ve posted more regularly yaaas
• Bought tickets to see Sam Smith on tour April 2018

• Evie (Amy’s fave dog) is pregnant so we’ll be getting puppies soon!
• Found £90 worth of coins around the house (still undecided on how we’re spending it - thinking cocktails!)
• Road trip to Bristol + saw MK again (3rd time this year)
• 4 festivals we’ll be attending in 2018 are completely paid for
• Lorraine’s car got a bit of TLC (new rims + bumper – don’t ask lol)
• DVSN released new album! 
• Watched the puppies experience Autumn (C + L were born in December and Hugo in April so this is the first time they’ve played in fallen leaves – too cute!) 

Cocoa blending in with the season <3

• The second series of Stranger Things came out on Netflix yaas – we’ve been pacing ourselves but only got 3 episodes left
• We each did a wardrobe clear-out and found lots of forgotten garms
• Went to Ikea (bloody love this place)
• Dominoes just opened a shop literally 5 minutes’ walk from our house
• Sorted out/bought tickets for New Year’s Day
• Hosting Bonfire Night at our house this weekend

xxx

Halloween Makeup: PART 2

As promised here are our second Halloween Makeup Looks! This time...

A – Zombie (Death by shooting)

L – She-Devil

Products used:

A 

NYX Jumbo milk eye pencil, Makeup Gallery Pro Liquid Eyeliner, NC45 Studio Fix foundation and setting powder, Liquid Latex and Fake Blood both from eBay, tissue paper, eyebrow tweezers, Morphe Palette 35P, LA Girl Pro Conceal - Light Ivory,Rimmel 1000 Kisses Lipliner Red Dynamite 21, Revolution Ultimate Colour Chaos palette – red, Mac Blush shade: Raizin Lashes: Tatti 

L

Red Contact Lenses – £7.99 for one day lenses (www.colouryoureyes.com), NYX Jumbo milk eye pencil, MAC setting powder - (Dark), NC43 Studio Fix foundation and setting powder, Makeup Gallery Pro Liquid Eyeliner, LA Girl Pro Conceal – Creamy Beige, Morphe 25A Copper Spice Palette, fake blood from eBay, Rimmel 1000 Kisses Lipliner Red Dynamite 21, Maybelline Colour Drama – Fab Orange, Revolution Ultimate Colour Chaos palette – red, Mac Blush shade: Raizin, Lashes: Tatti 

Time taken: Took us both about an hour. 

Inspiration: Pinterest and Instagram – #zombiemakeup #devilmakeup #halloweenmakeup #halloweenlooks

How we’d wear it: 

A: Black dress or white dress with blood stains 

L: Red dress or red jumpsuit

There’s less than a week left but we’d really like to try and create one more look each. Again if any of you have any suggestions please let us know!!

xxx

AMP Lost & Found Festival 2018 - Our top tips

UPDATE: we now have a youtube video providing our top tips 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwJHxkr7po4&t=413s

Annie Mac #queen recently announced the line-up for her festival AMP Lost and Found Festival 2018! We’re not gonna lie we are HYPED. Seeing as pre-sale sold out today and general sale tickets are released tomorrow, we thought it was perfect timing to do a blog post on our top tips for those of you considering going. You’re mad if you’re not...

Dress naked 

We weren’t sure how warm it would actually be considering it was April but it was hot even at night – only really wore our jackets when walking back to hotel in the morning. 

This year the festival is being held in May so imagine it’ll be even hotter yaaas

Transfer tokens with your card 

AMP uses tokens as a method of payment instead of cash (euros). We found the exchange rate was better when using our card – first day we exchanged with notes but then later on in holiday used card and got more for our money

Boat Party and Castle Rave

We were g u t t e d to miss out on the castle rave tickets especially, sold-out same day they came out! We recommend buying tickets immediately after release if you do plan on going lovelies

Airport transfers 

https://www.holidaytaxis.com/en/ 
Cannot recommend them enough! For just under £30 we got a private car that picked us up and dropped us off at the festival. The drivers were so lovely too, especially the gent that picked us up – recommended loads of restaurants and beaches to go visit; like a little travel guide. 

We didn’t have the heart to tell him our lives were going to revolve around being drunk shaking our bums in the Maltese sun to sexy DJs for the 4 days. 

Stay in Qawra

The number of hotels will be limited however this is hands down the better location. Our reasoning for this is because it’s close to Café del Mar (CDM). All the pool parties are held here and the shuttle buses to Uno (night location) depart from Café Del Mar. 

Qawra is quite a small area of Malta so no matter where you stay you’ll only be a short walk to CDM. There are a lot of hotels/apartments in Bugibba so if you do decide to stay there instead just be prepared to walk the strip (30mins) or get taxis – can always split it with other festival goers. 

Pre-Party 

Make sure you attend the pre-party night before – we found out the location because it was posted on the AMP Twitter and Instagram – was absolutely heaving! Proper set the tone for the holiday as well as we met so many people that we continued to see during the festival. 

Book your return flight 2 days after festival finishes

We made the error of booking our flight the morning after the final festival date. We forgot to incorporate the fact the festival will actually finish at 5am the following day. 

We were still dancing our hearts out to MK at 4.30am and our taxi was coming to collect us from the hotel at 7am same day – as you can imagine the mad dash (not even close to sober) to get the shuttle, walk to hotel, pack, shower and check-out…was MADNESS. It’s made a hilarious memory but we never plan on doing it again! 

Hangover cure

McDonalds in Bugibba centre is so boujiee and perfect for when hungover lol It’s got an actual café downstairs and upstairs there is a really pretty balcony made of decking with tables to sit on – perfect for people watching as well because it overlooks Buggiba Square

Book Shuttle Bus Pass 

Costs £50 But totally worth it. It comes as a wristband and you get unlimited use throughout the 4 days. There’s always a bus to pick up or drop off – literally no waiting time (unlike Hideout where we waited hours) and if you’re staying close to Café Del Mar even more perfect! 


We didn’t need to use taxis but quite a few people used to get the shuttle at night from Uno to Café del Mar then get a taxi to Bugibba (10 min car ride). We’re not sure if taxis were dear or not but found the shuttle system super easy to use so would 100% do it again. 

If anyone has any questions or wants more tips for the festival please reach out!

xxx

10 Things you probably don’t know about us

We're quite cagey when it comes to people 'knowing' us buuuut this is all part and parcel of having a blog so we're going out of comfort zone and letting you all know a few little facts we're pretty sure you wouldn't otherwise know!

1. Our Race. 

We are proudly mixed race (mama is Kenyan and dad English) We think it’s quite clear to tell - especially when we were little and had cute lil afros but we’ve been mistaken for lots of different nationalities over the years; Polynesian, Ethiopian and Hispanic just to name a few! (Really funny story involving Lorraine being mistaken for Latina - we’ll tell another time)

2. Lived abroad

Ghana and Indonesia plus got to spend summers in Vietnam and St. Lucia – we'd travelled to over 15 countries each before we turned 10. Our dad was a Civil Engineer and we were super blessed to have the opportunity to move as a family or spend summers wherever dad was working. 

3. Both work in Clinical Research 

Yes sometimes we adult

4. Amy is learning Japanese. 

Not just a pretty face folks but don’t get too excited she refuses to let anyone, apart from her class, hear her speak it aloud. 

5. We have 4 dogs

3 of which are puppies! All of our babies are German Shepherd breed so as you can imagine no-one really likes to venture past the gate, @@ delivery boys  

6. Combined we’ve been to 10 festivals 

I mean you can probably guess by all the ‘review/guide’ posts but still we’re not joking when we say we’re addicted! 

7. We have different accents. 

Amy’s accent is majority Southern with a few Northern words whilst Lorraine has a lot stronger Northern accent (we moved down when she was 18 so it’s to be expected lol) Having said this, when we’re drunk or experiencing extreme emotions eg. Anger or excitement we revert back to Northern

8. Our dream cars

Amy cream Bentley, Lorraine matte black Audi R8 

GO BIG OR GO HOME 

9. We’ve eaten Alligator, Zebra and Ostrich. 

In the capital of Kenya; Nairobi there is an amazing open air restaurant called Carnivore which basically follows it’s namesake and caters for all the meat eaters. Carnivore have various kinds of meat ranging from the norm like steak all the way to Alligator and they’ll come over to your table and serve whatever takes your fancy! Cocktails are lush here and it also turns into a club on certain nights.

10. Favourite cocktails

Amy - Strawberry Daiquiri, Lorraine - Bramble
This is subject to change...

xxx