Matti May Hardie

Last weekend, my Dad and I decided to surprise my girlfriend and take her on a weekend away to the coast. It’s only about a 3-hour drive away from where my Dad lives so it’s do-able for a weekend.

After many setbacks (mostly to do with my washing not being dry), we finally left at about 10-ish on the Saturday morning, and drove to Lit-et-Mixe, a small seaside town about half an hour away from Mimizan, to show us around before the new surfing season so we’d have our bearings if we decided to give surfing a go next spring. My Dad has always been big on water sports and passed it along to my brother when he was my age and is now working on passing it along to me also.

We arrived at around 1 pm so given that I was about to bite someone's head off with hanger, we went to a restaurant that I totally forgot to document and had the best chicken burger I’ve possibly ever had.

We then strolled down to the beach (the walk up and down the hill that leads to the beach nearly winded/killed me, though). We had a stroll down the beach and played with the dog and collected seashells (Ayden filled an entire sock with seashells with I'll never understand), before exploring a quieter part of the beach.

The check-ins at the hotel we were staying at was around 5.30pm so we headed down there (and obviously took a long way round). We stayed at the Single Fin Hotel and Lodge in Mimizan which, if you’re staying in or around that area, I would seriously recommend. I think it came to about 100€ for one night in the family room which had 3 beds (a double and two singles), but if it’s only for two people it’s seriously affordable.

I didn’t get chance to take a decent photo of the room but it was pretty simple but perfect for one night, though all three of us noted that it was a tad small for a room that could house 4 people (I’d say it was about 10m squared including the bathroom?). I didn't really get a chance to explore and really take in the hotel but the staff were insanely patient and helpful and always willing to make sure everything was perfect, and they also speak English which I think is always important to know in a hotel. Also, there was exceptionally good free Wifi.

The breakfasts were 5,60€ per person extra but there was a really nice spread. It was a typical continental breakfast with cereal, bread, endless amounts of coffee and tea and hot chocolate and Nutella and honey and jam and cake and I wish I had that every day.

Despite the room being a bit small, it’s a super trendy hotel that’s about a 10-minute walk from the center and a 5-minute walk to the beach.

Even though the hotel was serving dinner, we preferred to go out for some food instead. We went for some drinks at a bar called ‘The Pit’ (I had a lemonade that tasted like heaven). One thing that I noticed everywhere in Mimizan is that it was all so hipster-y and well decorated, it makes things very pleasing to look at. In the end, we decided on tapas for dinner and went to a bar called ‘The Orchestra’. We had saucisson and chorizo, ham croquettes, patatas bravas, ink calamari, and tortilla, and it was all extremely delicious.

On the Sunday we took it pretty easy, mooched down to the beach again to walk the dog, then went into the center for a spot of shopping where both Ayden and I got treated to a dress each (technically mine's not a dress but a very loose playsuit that it disguised as a dress). Then we went for some food at a really cute Asian restaurant called 'Little Asia' that did loads of different kinds of noodles and ramen-type meals. I went for the Nasi Goreng (I kinda have a love affair going with him), Ayden, a Chicken Mixao and my Dad had a Pad Thai.

I really enjoyed Mimizan, because it’s the kind of sized town that doesn’t make you feel overwhelmed when you get there, but still big enough to have a fair share of bars, restaurants, and shops to keep you occupied. The beach is everywhere and I think it would be ideal for a longer holiday, or just a long weekend break. All in all, I'm really looking forward to going back to Mimizan as soon as humanly possible!

Hit me up with your favorite holiday destinations, I'm looking for ideas for this summer.

M x

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Okay. Hold the phone. I'm actually wearing make-up again. I know. I can't believe it either.

And it's actually got effort gone into it. I KNOW. So I wanted to share what I'm currently wearing. There are various make-up looks that I've been doing, so I’ve decided to make it a bit different and do two different looks, so there’s going to be two different eye looks, one for the morning and one for the nighttime, but that could potentially be a daytime look, too, I guess?

Anyway! I hope you guys enjoy this make-up overload.

Prep

First things first, I like to put some moisturiser on, I use the Nivea 'Soft' Face and Body moisturiser. Even though I will have already put some on at the start of the day I like to give it a little drink before putting my make-up on, and I feel like my make-up goes on better than if I didn’t. Next I spray on some MAC ‘Lightful Softening Lotion Spray’ (which they don't sell anymore) which I don’t really understand the use of, I just like to put it on because it smells nice and my skins always just feels nicer after I’ve sprayed some on. Then I’ll put some Elisabeth Arden ‘8 Hour Lip Balm’ on so everything feels nice and moisturised.

Eyes (Day)

I do eyes first now because I’ve had too much fall out ruining my base for one lifetime. I’m going to do daytime first, and it’s basically my go-to make-up because it’s perfect for blue eyes.

I’m using, shocker, the TooFaced ‘The Chocolatier’ palette because I mean, what am idea? Changing make-up? Madness!

I’m going to start by using ‘Honey Dip’ on most of my eye, then I’m going to put ‘Butterscotch’ and put it in my crease and then just blend as if my life depended on it. Then I’m going to just do a teeny tiny eyeliner. I tend to use a wet eyeliner brush and some black eyeshadow and that allows me to do eyeliner without having a mental breakdown, which is fun. Then I’ll put ‘Butterscotch’ again on my waterline.

I’m also going to highlight the inner corner of my eye with ‘Dessert’s On Me’.

For my mascara I’m using my new favorite, which is the Bourjois ‘Push Up Volume Glamour’
waterproof mascara.

Eyes (Night)

Right, for this night and/or day look, I’m going to be using a mix of a Sleek 'I-Divine' palette and the TooFaced palette. So for the base I’m using ‘Cake Batter’ on most of my lid, and the red sparkly one from the sleek palette and really build up the pigment to make it nice and shiny. Again, I’m going to do a little eyeliner, just to make my eyes stand out, then do mascara like the daytime look and also highlight the inner corner as well.

Base

I still don’t have any concealer or foundation (I don’t bother with foundation because of my freckles), but I do put some Nivea ‘Cellular Éclat’ which basically smooths and adds some oomf to your under eyes, then put some Sephora ‘Matte Perfection’ powder foundation (though it has literally no coverage so I just use it as a powder) to matify everything.

For the daytime look I’m going to be using the Soap and Glory ‘Love At First Blush’ blusher, and for the nighttime I’m going to use the blush in the TooFaced palette called ‘Chocolate Covered Strawberries’.

For contouring I’m just going to contour my cheeks and my jawline (and very slightly my forehead for the nighttime look) with the bronzer in the TooFaced Palette yet again.

Highlighter-wise I’m going to be using the highlight in the TooFaced palette.

Brows

To fill in my brows I’m going to use the shade ‘Toffee Crunch’, and then use an unnamed brow gel which I find a shame that it’s unnamed because it’s bloody good but there you are. It’s actually a shade darker than what I would use but I really like it because with having bright red hair now it looks better when I have slightly darker brows.

I’ll highlight my brow bone with ‘Glaze’.

Lips

I don’t actually do all that much for lips when it’s hot. Though I do re-apply some 8 hour lip balm and then put some highlighter in the middle to give it a shimmery effect which I find rather cool.

What's your go-to make-up at the moment?
Mx

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I'm trying my hand at showing you guys recipes since I've been getting a lot more into cooking (oh hey boyfriend who can make pasta and only pasta) and god I love food, yet breakfast is a mystery I'm have yet to crack since for me it's still pretty much toast and cereal. In any case these two 'recipes' are ridiculously easy given that I'm not going to be making a 4 course meal at 7am. I want easy and quick, and these two take roughly under ten minutes to make.

I swear, if I were at home all week, this is what I'd make for breakfast EVERY. DAMN. MORNING. It's filling, but not heavy, but I can eat this at 7am and I'm not hungry until about 11 or 12am, which is impressive because normally if I have just toast then I'll be hungry by 10.

So the first one I'm going to show you is my personal favorite, the breakfast quesadilla of dreams. I'm going to show you guys what I put in it because I feel it's easier said than done to get the right ingredients to make sure they all compliment each other right.

Then I'm going to be showing you my fool-proof technique of how to make poached eggs so they're just right (because to be honest I wouldn't be capable of making poached eggs the normal way). It's really easy and if I can do it then so can you.

Quesadilla

For the quesadilla you will need:

1 wrap
1 egg
1 slice of cold cut meat (I like roast turkey or ham)
Cheese
Mayonaise
Sriracha or salsa (or tomatoe based sauce though avoid ketchup, with or without spice)

I know that sriracha and mayo may sound like a pretty unusual combo but I think the two paired go really nicely. Also for the meat, you don't have to if you want to make a veggie option (I didn't include a vegan option because as much as I want to be inclusive I couldn't quite figure out how to make it vegan but I'm going to work on some vegan-friendly stuff)

It's ridiculously basic but all you need to do is to fry the egg and the meat, then put on the mayonaise, the egg, meat, cheese and then sriracha. Knowing myself I'd probably add more mayo on top after but each to their own. Also add salt and pepper which I totally forgot, though if you forget it I don't personally think it's the end of the world.

You then fry in a pan that's been lightly lubricated with coconut oil and fry. I like mine to be nice and crispy so I let it burn slightly but since everything has already been cooked it's not really a big deal.

It takes about 10 minutes tops with all the prep and even though it's not necessarily the healthiest thing in the world it's so tasty and really quick. However I'd avoid anything too liquidy because it can make the wrap soggy which is no fun for anyone. You can mix up the ingredients and put anything you like which I find great as you can just dig around in your fridge and use any leftovers.

Poached Eggs on Toast

I'm aware that this is an incredibly Pinterest breakfast, but yanno, it tastes good and takes about 20 seconds to make.

For the poached eggs you will need:

2 eggs
2 pieces of bread
Salt and pepper
Paprika
Cayenne pepper
Olive oil

You take some cling film, spread some olive oil on it, crack the egg on it, then add salt, pepper, paprika and a little bit of cayenne pepper. Make a little package out of the cling film and secure with a clip. Boil some water in a pan and once it's boiling turn it down a smidge and pop your package in. Leave for 4 to 5 minutes (I'm a bit funny with eggs so I prefer 5 minutes) then take it. Toast the bread while the eggs are cooking. Then just put them on the toast and there you have it! Ridiculously easy poached eggs.

I like adding the paprika and cayenne pepper because I feel like it adds a little bit of oomf to the eggs which I feel like they can be fairly dull otherwise.

If you don't have any cling film to hand, you can use a small-ish sized ziplock bag, you can do both at once (which is what I'm doing today).

If you guys would like to see more food-related posts let me know as I quite enjoyed making this once!

M x

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I’ve been blabbering on about this holiday for the past two blog posts but finally! It’s finally happened.

For those who don’t know what I’m on about, last week I went to Blanes (Spain) for a week with my Dad and boyfriend. We went in my Dad’s caravan, which given, isn’t the most glamorous of places to stay but it allowed us to do our own thing whenever (also my Dad is addicted to camping and refuses to stay in a hotel). We stay at the campsite ‘El Pinar’ which is the campsite we used to go to when I was small, so it was nice to have a little blast from the past, and also to introduce Ayden to it.

I’ve always had a soft spot for Blanes, not just because it’s familiar (even though I pretty much rediscovered it this time haha!), but also because it’s so sweet. There’s a promenade that you can walk or cycle down and you can see all down the coast, there are loads of shops and stalls you can buy stuff from, as well as having mini-markets dotted around in case you need to buy anything. As would be expected from Spain, you can’t walk three meters before encountering a tapas restaurant or a bar (which I did not complain about), but it’s also a really pretty and classically Spanish town. It’s about an hour away from Barcelona (parking is about 12-20€ in the center), and you can take the train in (12€ there and back per person which I find more than reasonable).

You can actually go through most campsites and they’ll reserve everything for you which is very cool and makes everything far easier (they can even reserve a parking space for you which I found endlessly cool).

El Pinar is about 20 minutes, half an hour from the center, but you can walk down the promenade which makes things a lot more direct. It’s a seafront site so if you get lucky with your space you’ll have a view on the Mediterranean (which was actually fairly rough when we went there). There’s also a pool and a kid’s pool with a green space to sunbathe.

The temperature is around 30 degrees, which, if you’re by the sea, varying between sunbathing and swimming, then it’s fine (I’d suggest factor 50 is you’re as pale as me, both Ayden and I got sunburnt), but if you’re cycling/walking into town, prepare yourself to sweat. It also has live music and a disco once a week, and the campsite has a bar/restaurant, a shop (which I find has a lot of variation) and a rotisserie.

We, totally unknowingly, found ourselves coming during the week of the Festa Major (22nd to the 26th of July) which from what I’ve gathered is the Costa Brava’s International Competition of Fireworks. It basically means that from the Monday to the Thursday night there’s a firework display that you can watch on the beach with a glass of wine and it’s bloody glorious.

One thing I like about coming to Spain is that even though it’s fairly touristy (mind the tourist traps on the promenade), it’s not too expensive, so there’s no need to save up for a age and a half to come. We went to a bar called ‘Els Terrassans’ for tapas and it came to about 10 or 15 euros per person including drinks which I found totally reasonable for the quality and the price (though obviously that depends on how much you get).

We pretty much just spent the week sunbathing and cycling around the center. In the evenings we mostly ate out simply because there is so much to note down that I honestly don’t think a week is long enough. We had paella on Friday night and it was something else, the restaurant was called ‘Santi’ and it’s overlooking the sea (there are about 3 or 4 restaurants down the promenade that overlook the sea and it’s honestly the most peaceful thing), the waiters are lovely and the decor is the most instagrammable thing in the world (I’m absolutely here for the pink flowers).

We also went to a bar on Monday that I can’t find the name of FOR THE LIFE OF ME, but I know it was also on the promenade and I had the biggest glass of sangria of my life, it was easily bigger than my head and it had pieces of lemon and apple and orange and ouuuh it’s great. They also do insane amounts of ice cream flavours (we had cheesecake which was nice but nothing exceptional).

We went to have a drink in a square that marks the start of the old town a few times and it was lovely, as was the sangria, and yes, as you may have noticed, I drank my body weight in sangria during that week and I have no regrets.

Saying all this, I would very much recommend coming towards the end of the season. I think it was a mistake to go in the middle of the season, there were way too many people, even in town, and having gone there at the end of August, I much prefer it.

M x

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Oh hey, you pretty people, how are you all doing? Today's post is a chatty one so get yourself a beverage of whatever form you choose and tuck in!

I've missed blogging, so I figured any excuse was a good one to get typing again. I mean, technically I still want to write stuff, I still want to talk about the things I've been wearing, the make-up I've been loving, and sharing all the things I've been sharing for 4 years now. But it's just not working. I don't know if it's because my brain isn't at it's best at the moment or if it's because I've just run out of ideas, but I sit down to write a blog post and every week I find myself staring at a blank page.

I mean, I know what posts work and what posts I enjoy writing, but I've found myself getting into a rut of monthly favourites, make-up menu, haul (if you're lucky), other, every single month and I'm sure you're all as sick of ready the same content over and over as I am writing it. I'm desperately looking for something fresh, something new to perk things up, but all my ideas are same-y and there's nothing original to it. And that's always been something I promised myself I wouldn't let myself lose. The originality.

The truth is that I sound bored, my posts are getting shorter and shorter and nothing works. So I find myself absent for the longest time and it's not what I want. I adored posting weekly, engaging with you guys, it was a part of my routine that was sacred to me.I'm going to try and get some stuff up that have been works in progresses for a while, and just generally put more stuff up.

Has anyone been watching/watched Suits recently? I've become totally obsessed with it, I think I very much go in for power play, strategies and backstabbing (and wearing nice dresses, suits and heels for work!).
Though despite that, I'm still in mourning of Gilmore Girls - HOW COULD RORY BREAK UP WITH LOGAN? HOW CAN THEY LEAVE IT LIKE THAT?!
I've also gotten Ayden into Game of Thrones and we're both plowing through it and I'm now in love once again.

Anyway, Ayden and I are having a little stay-cation together at my friend's house as we're house-sitting. We're staying in the center of town, in an absolutely gorgeous house. I wanted to make a blog post about it but I'm worried it has a certain lack of photos but I'll see how things go. We've been enjoying sunbathing, drinks and doing nothing (drinks and doing nothing was my favourite), I had easily the best coffee and the best mojito ever in the same day and I felt rich, it was great.

I'm going on a sporadic holiday with my Dad and Ayden next week, and I'm definitely going to be putting a post up about it. I'm hoping to travel more this summer, even if it's just in France. If anyone has any ideas I'm all ears!

Let me know what you guys have been up to in the comments!

M x

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I know a lot of people who get really squeamish when it comes to talking about periods, which always confuses me. What? Do you change your protection with your eyes closed? It's your own blood, why are you grossed out by that?

Of course I’m not expert and I’m in no way a professionnel but I figured it was the least I could do, so here is a lot of things about periods (in the form of a list, because it’s been a while since I’ve done a good list). However, pre-warning, these are things that I personally have experienced/noticed. It's not necessarily going to happen to you, everyone is different.

1/ Some symptoms won’t necessarily come straight away. At first, literally nothing happened. I would just bleed out of my vagina and that was that. It’s only as it went on that I started getting cramps, mood swings, and all those fun things. It’s fairly unstabilising to FEEL EVERYTHING all of a sudden.

2/ Ibuprofene is your new boo. Stomach cramps happen because your womb is simulating birth. Yeah. Fun. Stomach cramps are actually mini contractions. and since ibuprofene is an anti-inflammatory, it calms your womb and helps the pain subside better than if you were using paracetamol or other.

3/ Even if you’re like set like a clock it can come early/late. Sometimes I get surprises (always when I’m wearing my best underwear!) though I must say that the period tracker that I’ve been using for ages now really helps. I’d never been very good with tracking my period, and I would always forget to do it, but with Clue I’ve really tried to stick with it and I can definitely see it paying off. The more info you put in the better it can predict when your period is going to be and gives you loads of information that I don’t understand half of to be honest, but it's still pretty interesting.

5/ Protection is key and you don’t immediately find the right one for you. there are tons of different period products out there and generally you find your preferred one through trial and error. there are pads and tampons, but there’s also moon cups which are just amazing apparently (i’m meaning to try but i must admit i’m a bit scared of them). oh and tampons don’t always fit. if you’ve never had penetrative sex with a penis or other, then you may struggle a bit.

6/ Period sex is weird. people make it out to be dirty, or this amazing experience. but you don’t have to do it. some people are into it and other people aren’t.

7/ You’re going to have to deal with mood swings. you’ll find yourself crying for the slightest thing. I once started crying because I’d said something that sounded sad. oh and wanting to kill everyone for breathing is a frequent one for me too. i have yet to find a solution to this to be honest.

8/ The pill is not your enemy. it’s not the best alternative, but a lot of people will make it sound like it’s the devil’s working. granted, putting artificial hormones and chemicals into your body isn’t the greatest idea, but if you find absolutely no other solution, then don’t stop yourself if you know it can genuinely help you.

9/ Underwear. oh my lovely lingerie. how many nice knickers and even trousers have been ruined because of lady nature. i heavily recommend keeping a pad or a tampon in your bag for safety at all times. trust me, tried and tested, you can thank me later.

10/ Cravings and bloating is going to happen, all my ed humans out there, it’s going to be okay. there are loads of pro-ana and pro-mia techniques out there, but please, don’t go in for it. just breath, and remember that it’s temporary and that it will pass. and if you’re in the midst of an eating disorder, please, get help. there are loads of different charities and organisations that can help you and give you the support and advice that you need. (also my instagram messaging is open if ever anyone needs to talk)

If you have any tips feel free to leave them in the comments.

M x

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