Turning your University Room into a Home

It's that time of year when students all across the country are heading off to university, moving into student accommodation and enjoying their new life.
One big part of moving into halls of residence is turning it into a cosy, happy place where you will enjoy spending time for one year at least.
Here are a few things that I would consider essentials when it comes to creating that perfect spot for relaxing and working.

Candles:
Nothing creates a soft, homely feel in quite the same way as candles.
I find that if I'm stressed, fed up or want to relax, then I always want to start off by lighting a few scented candles to help me find my happy place. I like to go for sweet smells such as vanilla, but my total favourite is Yankee Candle Fireside Treats.

Fun, quirky stationery and work spots:
By filling your study space with fun, pretty things, you make it much more appealing. Lets face it, if you're going to be spending a lot of time studying, then you want it be doing it in a pleasant environment. Cute notebooks, stickers and a well laid out but visually appealing planner are perfect for keeping things positive and organised at the same time.

House plants:
Good for the mind, the air, and also very pretty, a house plant or two will brighten up the room perfectly.
I really like seeing plants grow so we have plenty dotted around our little home. Cacti and succulents are a good choice for dorm rooms because they're small and need little attention. Peace Lilies are another good choice because they are one of the top 5 air purifying plants, don't need much sun light and are near impossible to kill, meaning that even inattentive owners should manage to maintain one.

High quality bedding:
Nothing makes a bedroom feel more special that luxury bedding that feels amazing when you climb in after a long day, or can enjoy a long lie in. Companies such as Parachute offer beautiful luxury bedding that looks lovely and lasts a long time. Parachute also have a scheme in place where $10 from every sale of their Venice set is used to fund malaria nets in developing countries which I think is a lovely gesture.

What would you say are the university room essentials? What will you be taking?

Annie xx

A little Shopping Trip

Sunday already, where does time go?
Yesterday I went shopping with my lovely mummy and did a little late sales shopping. Now that it's getting towards the end of January, the sales have really taken it up a notch so it's worth having a little look around for some good bargains.

We took a trip to the Swindon Designer Outlet where I picked up these goodies.
Now, I have been sending pleading emails to The Body Shop for a long time now, begging them to bring back the lychee blossom range properly to all of the stores but with no success, so I was really excited to find that they had the shower gel in the outlet shop and grabbed a couple. They also had a multi item discount on which meant that I only paid £4.10 for them both :)
I manage to be pretty restrained in the Yankee Candle Outlet and just picked up these two Christmas Cookie tarts for 45p a piece. I was hoping to find a small jar of Candy Cane Lane whilst they were only £2.99 but clearly everyone else had the same idea because they were sold out already.
I've never been a tea drinker despite being overly British in a lot of ways, however, I really enjoy the Whittard's fruit teas. I hadn't tried this flavour until seeing it sampled in the shop. It is delicious! Mango and lychee are two of my favourite flavours and this is like a match made in heaven. Light, fruity and uplifting. I think it will be great cold in the summer too with lots of ice and fruit :)
Finally, Thorntons! Two 490g boxes of Continentals for £10 so we got one each to satisfy the chocolate cravings ;)

I also picked up a pretty floral dress for work and a lovely soft black jumper sporting a gold and purple fox from French Connection and a pair of black ankle boots from M&S. I have to say a big thank you to mum for the boots and the dress as she spoilt me with those.

My final buy, I am embarrassed to admit, was an Ian Somerhalder 2015 calender...I feel like such a fan girl but he's just so pretty that I couldn't resist :P Please tell me I'm not the only one?!?

So that's my little haul from this weekend. Have you been sales shopping? What have you bought? Do you also have a rather guilty crush on Ian Somerhalder?!?...it can't just be me!

Annie xx

The Yankee Candle Christmas Style App

I spend way too much time on facebook...way too much.
Today I stumbled upon a cute little app that was added to the Yankee Candle Company page by the Yankee Candle elves to help you get to know their Christmas collection and suggest the fragrances that you might enjoy.

The app works by asking you simple multiple choice questions to determine what best fits in with your idea of a perfect Christmas (one question asks you to select your favourite Christmas film. It has to be Home Alone, right?!)

It then uses the answers you give to generate an answer as to whether you are more of a Christmas Past or Christmas Present type of style and tells you a little bit about some of the fragrances from the lovely new Festive Range that would be likely to appeal the most to you.

As a little extra incentive to give the app a play and spread the word, for fans of the Yankee Candle Company Facebook page who share the app with their friends either on Facebook or Twitter, there is also the chance to win one of 50 large jar sets of the new Spring 2015 range which I have heard tell smell beautiful.

You can find the Yankee Candle app *here* if you fancy giving it a go. I thought it was just a sweet and fun way to show people the winter collection and you guys already know how much I love Yankee Candles so I just had to share with you :)

Let me know whether you are Christmas Present or Christmas Past!

Annie xx

Costumes, Candles, Cake and Cold

I love autumn. I think it's probably my favourite time of year, especially around November because there's so much excitement in the air, the evenings are dark and cold and warm hats, coats and scarves are brought out.
There's been lots going on here in Bath lately. I really feel at the moment like I am living a truly great life :)

For Halloween I visited a wonderful friend in his cabin in the woods for a cosy gathering with pumpkin pie, dress up, The Nightmare Before Christmas, drinking and dancing and it was magical. The fake blood took a while to remove but it was so worth it ;) I think this is possibly the only decent photo of me though as it was taken before the amaretto came into play hehe

Now the evenings are dark once again, there is nothing more relaxing to me than snuggling up under a blanket or duvet with my beloved Yankee candles burning away, Christmas Cookie has always been a favourite. Its warm vanilla and sugar scent fills the house with the smell of freshly baked biscuits and when burnt with Merry Marshmallow which has a gooey melted marshmallow scent, it smells like memories of childhood Christmases. Nothing makes me happier than that!

Another reason I've been feeling festive! On Friday I spent the day with my mum baking our Christmas Cake and Christmas Puddings. I love this day with my mum every year. We get sticky, over excited and put too much brandy in everything and yet everything always turns out perfectly. Next stop is cake decoration day :D

I took this photo at around 9.30 this morning on my way to assist one of our courses for work. It shows Pultney Wier which is right in the middle of Bath, yet on this cold Monday morning there was no one about. Bah is such a beautiful place and I will never get bored of living here, but it's times like this one when it feels extra special,

Finally, taking up a lot of my time at the moment (outside of working full time and working on my college course) are the rehearsals for Snow White, which are in full swing ready for the how to begin in December. We had the photo shoot recently and that apple was so red and shiny that it didn't make it to the end of the afternoon before me giving in and taking a bite...followed by a few more... ;)

So that pretty much sums up my life recently. I have so much going on t the moment that I don't get regular chances to post but I have got some bits and pieces lined up, including more candles, decor, beauty and a couple of DIY Christmas posts.

Catch you later,
Annie xx


PS: for lots more photos of candles, cats, makeup, picturesque places, cookery and pretty stuff, find me on instagram @threelittlebuhos

Yankee White Chocolate Bunnies Candle

Now Christmas and Valentines Day are out of the way, focus is moving onto spring, warmer weather and Easter. Yankee Candle have recently released two scents for Valentines Day; Bunny Cake which is returning from last year and White Chocolate Bunnies which is a sweet new scent for 2014.

As you can probably guess, White Chocolate Bunnies has an amazing white chocolate aroma that fills the room with a smell similar to that of melted milky bar chocolate. The scent is lovely and strong without smacking you in the face and being too sickly. The jar is also super cute! I love all things cute and the soft, creamy colouring fits right in with my girly decor although I think it would look at home in most places.

To top off my jar I've been using my new Whiskers on Kittens Illuma Lid which was released as part of the My Favourite Things collection. Don't those kittens look smug about their big, bold whiskers! For those who may not know, the purpose of an Illuma Lid is to reduce the effect of draughts on the flame which helps to give a more even burn.

This is a beautiful candle and would make a lovely gift for a Yankee Candle fan, or a treat for yourself if you're after a little something to spoil yourself with. It's only available as a large jar, but you can pick up White Chocolate Bunnies for £19.99 *here*

Annie xx

A Valentines Beauty Swap

Happy V Day lovelies.
I'll be honest, to me it's just another day but it did give a good excuse to do a beauty box swap with one of the ladies on the Facebook community Beauty Box Swaps!
My swap was actually with the same lovely lady as last Valentines Day. We set our budget at £25 and tried to stick to a pink, white and red theme and I was more than excited when this box full of delights arrived!

My box was full to the brim with pretty, yummy and beautifully scented things and I love it all. Where to begin?

Valentines Day wouldn't be complete without a sprinkle of sugar so it was nice to find lots of sweet treats nestled among the other goodies in my box. I may have eaten a couple of the Maoam sticks before even taking the photos ;)

I'm in love with Yankee candles so felt totally spoilt to find that there were 9 scents in my box that I hadn't tried before and not one that I don't like the smell of. I'm looking forward to trying the sweet strawberry in particular.

As well as 9 new scents, there were also two of my all time favourite scents in there. Fireside treats is definitely in my top three Yankee Candle fragrances so this will be stashed away for when I'm running low.

On to the beauty bits, there were some Sugar Crush products from Soap and Glory; two travel sized tubs of the body scrub and a lovely big tub of the body buttercream. I love the zesty scent of the Sugar Crush range, the mix of brown sugar and lime juice just leaves me feeling so refreshed. There was also a tube of Philosophy Cranberry Medley body lotion which has been popped straight in my hand bag. I'm a big fan of Philosophy so I'm looking forward to having this at my disposal :)

How cute is this L'Occitane set? This pretty pink flowery pouch contained travel sizes of the Rose Aurore body milk, Rose 4 Reines bath and shower gel and Spring Cherry shower gel and is perfect for packing up to take on holiday. As it is, I've actually taken the bottles out and used the pouch to store some of the candles. There was a mini floral hand cream stashed away in the pouch too that smells completely gorgeous. I can slather my hands in floral hand cream and then pop on the Elizabeth Arden moisture gloves that I got and let the skin really draw in the moisturiser. Bliss right?

There were also a few little random beauties in my box including the most amazing pair of slipper socks I have ever owned. Oh goodness they keep my feet warm! I'm not sure where these are from but I own thermal socks that don't work as well at keeping my toes toasty! The cute little button badge says "love is..." ans then lists adjectives to describe the emotion. Last but not least is the adorable writing set from Cath Kidston. I'm a sucker for cute stationery so this will definitely be put to good use very soon.

A huge thanks to Jemma for my lovely Valentines gift, I hope you like yours :)
And I hope everyone has had a great V day!

Annie xx

Feeling Cosy with Yankee Candle

So, I am currently pretty much bed bound with some horrible flu like bug hence the lack of beauty posts, but when you feel like poop there are some things that just lift you and make you feel that bit better. With me, it's lighting a few beautifully scented candles, snuggling down under a blanket and watching a film or reading a book.
(I apologise now for the Instragram low resolutions photos, I just haven't had the energy to take better the last few days!)

There's something so therapeutic about the soft glow of candles and  I am totally hooked. My favourite scents have always been the sweeter, foody smells like the Christmas Cupcake and Merry Marshmallow offerings above. Although, until recently I stuck to offerings from the likes of Ikea and Primark which gave off very little scent.

However, I am now a Yankee Candle convert. I picked up a large jar of Fireside Treats when I was recovering from my tonsillectomy and the long burn time and the strong, room filling delicious scent was enough to leave me wanting more.
Since then I've picked up quite a few others, including Butter Cream, Whoopie Pie, Gingerbread Cookie, and my very favourite; Christmas Cookie.

I am so in love with the scent of Christmas Cookie! Described by Yankee as smelling like "buttery rich, vanilla scented holiday cookies" I'd say that it's pretty much true to its word although the reason I rank it above other cookie scents from Yankee is that it doesn't have that weird, artificial biscuit smell that some do, its just pure vanilla, buttery goodness.
At the moment I'm also eagerly awaiting White Chocolate Bunnies from the Spring collection, a Candy Cane Cottage swirl and a Moon Pie swirl so I'm pretty excited.

I'm thinking about adding a few more lifestyle posts to my blog between the beauty posts to break things up a bit. Would that be something you'd enjoy seeing? I'm thinking decor, recipes, organisation, books and more Yankee candles. Let me know :)

Annie xx