My Birthday Wish List

With my birthday just a week away I thought it was the perfect time to create a birthday wish list. That said; if you’re a close friend please ignore it. We’ve probably already talked about how much I need just plain tank tops and stuff to take to America and that’s all I need. Now if I wasn’t going on a very expensive holiday and if I didn’t need other (more important) things, this is what I would love.

River Island Purse – I am a big fan of RI purses. They have plenty of card storage which are good for all my discount cards and they last forever!

FiloFax – I’ve been a little bit obsessed with organizing lately and seeing as I’m moving into a new place with my boyfriend in about a month it’d be perfect to have one of these for the household organization.

Handbag – I’ve always liked the Native American style bags but I can’t ever seem to find the perfect one. The one in this picture is pretty close tho!

New Look Kimono – I absolutely love Kimonos but they seem to be something I can’t spend money on. I don’t know why it is, so it’d be great as a birthday present!

MAC Gift Card – We all know my obsession with lipsticks and make up.

Tablet – I know this is a long shot, but I’ve wanted a tablet for quite some time now and it’d be perfect to keep in touch while we’re in America.

About Time DVD – I loved this film when I watched it for the first time, I might even say it’s one of my favorite romantic comedies and it would look amazing on my new DVD shelf.

Flowers – What girl doesn’t like flowers on her birthday?!

So this is my birthday wish list. What would you like to have on your birthday? 

Adios amigas!

Moving tips - Setting up a new house can be cheap and easy!

Moving houses can be a love-hate feeling. I personally hate all the packing and the move itself but I absolutely love putting everything in place once I’m in the new place.

Unfortunately for me, I’ve had to do this process a few times now and I’m about to do it again in a month’s time (hopefully for the last time until I actually can afford to buy my own house).

After all these years of moving around I’ve learned a lot on how to save money and how to make a rental house homely so I thought I’d share some of my tips with you guys.

Two or three months before the move

• Start packing. Yes, I know it seems crazy to start packing a couple of months before the actual move but trust me, it’ll make things a hell of a lot easier when you’re stressing out on the very last week.
• Buy any furniture/appliances you might need. If you buy them gradually you won’t have to spend a lot of money in one chunk just before moving in. Jac and I started buying stuff for our new house before Christmas! 
• Think carefully about the things you want to take to your new house and what you don’t. 
• You don’t want it? Sell it. Car boots sales, ebay, secondhand shops, etc. They’re all good options to get rid of the stuff that you don’t longer need/want and they’ll give you quite a bit of money to buy things for your new home. If you're lucky enough to not have to think about money, give it to charity.
• Buy things for your new house with the money you get from selling your old stuff. I always get new kitchen utensils and new bedding. 
• Visit charity shops. You can find little treasures for your new home that even though someone has used them before, they’re brand new to you. 

A couple of weeks before the move

• Continue packing. By this time you’ve probably packed things that you don’t use daily, now start packing all your clothes, jewelery, shoes, etc. Leave out what you know for definite you’ll be using for the next couple of weeks.
• Arrange the move; car if you don’t have one, ask a friend or family to help you, or hire a van for the day if needed.
• Book time off work. Moving’s a very stressfull time and you need time to do it. Yes, you might be able to move all your stuff in just one day but putting everything in place can take you days and even weeks.
• Check with your landlord or agency (if rented) that everything will be definitely good to go and arrange a time to pick up your keys.
• Start checking out what companies have the best deals for internet, electricity, gas, light, etc. 
• Once you decide what internet/tv company you want, ring them up and set up an installation day (I recommend the day after the move).
• Check with your landlord if you’re allowed to paint the walls and if he says you are give him a big hug. Trust me, painting the walls will make your new house feel like it’s your home.

Day before the move

• Finish packing the essentials; toiletries, food that you might have left in the cupboards, make up, etc.
• Get your clothes for the next day ready so you don’t have to look through all the boxes to find something to wear.
• Go to Poundland or any very cheap shops and get cleaning stuff. You’ll need it.
• Move all your boxes as close to the front door as you can. In my case it’s my living room. Stack them all against the wall so you still have some space to move around.
• Get a take away and go to bed early. At this point you should’ve packed all the kitchen stuff so getting a take away seems like the simplest option. Then get a good night sleep, you have a few long days ahead of you.

Moving day

• Get up early. This is probably the most important thing, if you wake up at 2 in the afternoon you’ll have wasted half a day and you’ll have to rush for the rest of the day.
• Start putting all your boxes (or as many as you can) in the van/car.
• Pick up your new keys.
• If you have to do everything in one day, move all your stuff into the living room of your new home and again, stack it all against a wall.
• Go back to your old house, make sure you haven’t left anything behind and clean it. I know you don’t want to clean your old house, you want to go and play in your new home but it’s very important that you leave that place exactly the way it was when you first move in. It’ll give you good references in the future if you ever need them and you should get the full amount of your bond back.
• There is a lot of cleaning involved on the moving day. Go to your new house and scrub everything. Surely the landlord should’ve got the place professionally clean but I still like to clean it myself too, wouldn’t want to start a new life somewhere filthy! 
• By this time it is probably night and you haven’t even had time to unpack but no worries, as long as your bedding’s out and you can get a good night sleep everything will be fine.

Days after moving day

• Set up your council tax and other utility bills for the new house.
• Again, get up early and paint whatever walls you might want to paint. If you do room by room, by the time you finish the last one you’ll be able to unpack the stuff that goes in the first room you’ve painted.
• Set up all the new furniture and move it around a few times and decide where you like it best.
• Finish unpacking. It can take days to do that so take it slow and don’t stress too much. 
• It’s most likely that you’ll end up finding things that you didn’t want there so again, sell them or give them to charity.
• Make sure your house has all your little home comforts that will make it your own.
• And last but not least, enjoy your new decorated home. Sit back, relax, appreciate what you’ve been doing for the last few days and make the most of your new home!

Other useful tips

• Visit Pinterest for inspiration.
• Do as much DIY as you can to save money. (Again, Pinterest is amazing for DIY's)
• Buy cheap things to start with and when you can afford to get better things replace them slowly.

I hope some of these tips are helpfull and feel free to comment if you'd like to share some tips of your own!

Adios amigas!

SLIMMING WORLD - FIRST WEEK

So last week I told you all about my first Slimming World meeting, now I’m gonna tell you how I’ve done this week as I got weighted yesterday again.

As the week went by, I kept thinking ‘this is too easy; I must be doing something wrong’.  It genially seemed way too easy and it definitely did not feel like a diet at all so on my way to the meeting I was dreading going on the scales.

But, if you’d like to know how much I’ve lost…

DRUMROLL….

7lbs!!! I have somehow managed to lose half a stone on my first week!!! I ended up being ‘Slimmer of the week’ and I got my first award and sticker! I was well chuffed although I did not enjoy having to talk about it in front of the whole group as I’m not one to talk in front of people!

My Slimming World journey begins...

So I love food. I know; who doesn’t right? But no, seriously, I L O V E food. Any food, at any time. I’m one of those people that eat for pleasure and not because I’m hungry or because I need it. I can eat anybody under the table. I eat big portions and most of the time I could have seconds if there were so when I think about diets, I normally shake my head and try to think about something else.

That said, it’s no surprise that in the last few years I’ve put on so much weight and I can’t blame anybody but me. I’ve gone from a size 12 to a size 18 in the last four or five years and I must say, I’m starting to really dislike myself so I thought it’s about time to do something about it.

Last week I came across a Slimming World leaflet. I heard about it before but always thought that wasn’t for me. ‘Hello, my name is Montse and I’m a fat cow’.  The idea of going into a meeting alone and talk about my weight terrified me.

I did some research online and talked to a couple of people who still attending to meetings weekly and they convinced me. They told me it wasn’t anything like I thought it’d be and OMG they were right.

I was feeling a little bit sick when I first entered the building but a lovely woman asked me if I was new and when I said yes she asked me to join another four or five people that were starting at the same time as me. That calmed my nerves a little bit. We all sat down and were explained everything about Slimming World; The Free Food, Healthy Food, Syns, etc.

By the end of that chat I was 100% in. We then got given our new books, got weighted and wrote down our target weight. After that we moved on to the actual meeting and I am so glad I decided to start this journey! It was very relaxed, people talked about recipes, presents were given to people who’d done really well this week, etc.

I must say, if you’re planning on losing weight, do not be afraid of joining a club. I am so happy I’ve joined Slimming World and I can’t wait to get started!

So, I’m starting my new eating plan today. I will make sure to tell you how I’ve done next week after my second meeting!

Adiós amigas!

COACHELLA 2014 FASHION!

There are a couple of weekends a year where celebrities come out, play and party hard like the rest of us. Sure they’ve got VIP or backstage pass; they probably don’t have to pee in disgusting portable toilets and unlike the festivals I’ve been to, there surely won’t be a new poo outside their tent every morning.  

Indigo, California turns into a celebrity hot spot when Coachella Festival arrives and this year was no less.

Now that the festival is finish we can sit down and judge the Coachella fashion! :) 

Shay Mitchell - Does Shay ever looks bad!?

  

Alessandra Ambrosio - I absolutely love both looks but those cowboy boots OMG! I WANT THEM.

   

Vanessa Hudgens - I love all three looks, specially the skirt on the second photo. Simple and not over the top.

Rita Ora - What on earth is she wearing?! As much as you try to convince me, I'll never like the girl and I absolutely hate her fashion sense 90% of the time. 

 

Kylie and Kendall Jenner - I absolutely love Kylie's cowboy rock chick look but what's with the feathers (on the right)! As much as I love Kendall's hair, what she's wearing looks something Morticia would wear to a funeral. Not cool for a festival!

Paris Hilton - What the hell Paris. It's a festival, not a beach. 

Keisha - Ok Keisha, really pretty playsuit but what's going on with your hair!?

Hilary Duff - What am I gonna say about Hil? I love her and I always love what she wears and she hasn't dissapointed here. Very simple and fresh. Love it!

Selena Gomez - Oh no Selena! I love her but I really don't get what she's wearing. Take those curtains off and I'm sure your oufit will look awesome!

What do you think? In your opinion, what's the best and worst dressed? 

Adiós Amigas!

xxx

My favorite place in the world!

Hey guys!

Today I’m going to write about my favorite place in the whole world and no, believe it or not, it’s not my bed on the contrary of what people who know me well would think!

The place I want to tell you about is situated about two hours away from my birth place Barcelona and its called Calella de Palafrugell (not to confuse it with just Calella, a place not near enough as nice as this one).

I am a sucker for little towns and villages especially if they’re by the sea. Growing up in Barcelona I’ve been surrounded by water pretty much all my life and seeing the sea almost every day is something I miss dearly. Sure I can go to Cardiff Bay and see the sea any time here, but it’s just not the same. 

Right so this little fishermen’s village has no more than 2000 habitants and there’s only a few little shops and about ten restaurants. What I like the most about Calella de Palafrugell is the crystal clear water, you can literally see the fish swimming around your feet without having to wear goggles, it’s amazing!

I have lost the count on how many times I’ve been there and every single time I fall in love with the place all over again. Rainy and stormy or sunny and warm, it doesn’t matter, it’s absolutely beautiful both ways!

Something else that makes it stunning to me it’s the little boats at the beach. Yes, sometimes if it’s busy they can get a little bit annoying as they take quite a lot of space that you can’t use then to put your own towel down but hey, it’s so worth it! I don’t know what it is about the boats, it makes it very special and real.

So if you’re ever near Barcelona, especially if you’re around the Costa Brava (Girona) visiting Calella de Palafrugell is a MUST. If you like seafood order a Catalan ‘Fideuá’ (similar to Paella but sooooo much better!) and fried calamari and seat outside right in front of the beach. It will be a meal you’ll never forget! 

Have you ever been to Calella de Palafrugell? What's your favorite place in the whole world?

Adiós amigas!

Regrets

Sooner or later the day you realize there’s a lot of things that you can’t do anymore will come and no, I don’t mean Bungee Jumping, I know a woman who did it at 67 for the first time. Some things will be very hard or even impossible to do, but I will always want to remember that I’ve lived life the way I wanted and hopefully my purpose in life will be achieved by then. I never want to regret not having done some things when I’ve had the chance.

So here’s my list of things I believe we will regret when we’re old.

1.    Not travelling the world. To me, the further away the better, I’ll visit Tenby and Spain when I’m older.

2.    Staying in a bad relationship. Remember, if you decide to stay in a unhappy relationship, you’ve decided to be unhappy’. Believe me, every single person who comes out of a bad relationship says ‘I wish I had done it sooner’.

3.    Not protecting ourselves from the sun. I know I will definitely regret it when I get a lot of wrinkles, moles and other skin problems in the future.

4.    Missing the opportunity of seeing your favorite bands live. Some of them are impossible, for example, I love Skid Row but the real Skid Row are not together anymore so I have missed my chance on those ones, but I’m definitely trying to see every single of my favorite bands that are still together live.

5.    Being scared of doing things. We’ll always look back and think, why was I so scared of doing that?

6.    Not making exercise a priority. I am probably one of the laziest people on earth. I hate sports and I hate exercise and yet I’m already regretting not getting into it at a younger age.

7.    Staying in a job you hate. Sure, I get that we all have to pay bills and rent, but always try to find it doing something that you like. Sure as hell I’m not gonna be waitressing all my life.

8.    Not realizing how beautiful you are. Most of us spend hours, days and weeks feeling sorry for ourselves and wishing we’d look different. Look at yourself in the mirror and find the things that you do love about yourself. We’re all beautiful.

9.    Being scared of saying ‘I Love You’. I’ve been scared of those three words all my life and I am learning to become comfortable with them now and I assure you it feels great to say them out loud when you really feel them.

10.  Not listening to your parent’s advice. Sure, we all know when we’re young we don’t even want to listen to them but I am pretty sure when I grow up and they’re not around anymore I will miss them annoying me with their advice. And the best of all, we’ll realize it was all so true what they said.

11.  Caring too much of what people say about you. In twenty years I won’t even remember what some people may have said about me and how much I cared back then.

12.  Feeling hate or grudge for someone. It means someone lives in your head without paying rent. It’s not worth it. What’s the point on remembering something that hurt you in the past? Let it go, you’ll feel so much better.

13.  Not defending yourself. I know I’m one of those that always think, oh, I should’ve said this, I should’ve done that. No more.

14.  Not volunteering. Doing things for others feels great. You will never regret it.

15.  Not taking care of your teeth. When we’re old and we’re missing a few teeth we’ll regret not taking care of them earlier on.

16.  Not learning how to cook. Come on, it’s not too hard. Learn at least one dish that you can be proud of and cook it for other people. It will feel great when they tell you how tasty it is!

17.  Not finishing what you start. I am the queen of not finishing what I start, but this blog is a challenge for me and so far I’m doing great!

18.  Not taking risks, specially in love. Love someone, even if it feels like the biggest mistake of your life at some point, you will look back and think, well, at least I loved for real.

19.  Not making time for your friends. We all need friends, and we’ll need them even more when we’re old and everyone around us is moving on with their lives.

20.  Worrying too much about stuff. Like my dad always say, if it has a solution, why worry? If it doesn’t, why worry?

21.  Creating drama for no reason. What’s the point?! I surely don’t need it.

22.  Not appreciating the time you’re having. I sure do. The whole point of this post is to make people (and myself) realize that you have to live the moment, try to be a better person, enjoy every minute and not let the little things ruin what could be an amazing life.

What do you think? What’s something you hope you don’t regret when you’re old? What are you gonna try to change so this doesn’t happen? <3

Where do the dreams go?

This next one is a photography post. I've been doing photography for a long time now and I fancied some black and white shoots with plain white backdrop.

Featuring two of the most important people in my life;

Adiós! 

Girl Crushes

Let’s not lie. Celebrities. We all love them, we all hate them, we’re all jealous and we’d all like to be them or at least to look just like them. In my case, I accepted long time ago that I’d never remotely look like those super stars on TV. I realized that hating them didn’t really help and loving them is just so much easier.

This is just a little post with my own celebrity crushes. I do have about a hundred so I’ve had to select my top 8. Here they are:

Hilary Duff – Who doesn’t love Hilary Duff? I remember seeing her in Lizzie McGuire and she became my favorite Disney star by far. She’s beautiful and she just seems like such a nice girl. Kudos for her as well for updating her Instagram frequently.

Lucy Hale – She’s one of the beauties from one of my favorite TV shows Pretty Little Liars. She’s so petite and her style is just a-mazaaaang!

Shakira – Well, being a Latina myself I couldn’t let her out. She’s not just a pop/latin singer. I’ll let you know that she’s a producer, a songwriter, a philanthropist and she can speak 5 languages perfectly!  She wrote her first song at only four years old with her mum’s piano. I’ve been following her for years and can’t even describe how much I admire her.

Jennifer Lopez – Another Latina on the block. She’s just stunning, she has the best figure ever and I ALWAYS like her characters in whatever film she’s on. I also love her first ever album. 

Kat Von D – It’s no secret I love tattoos and I would have my whole body covered if I could and if I looked like her I’d dress in leather just like her, have very long rocky hair and just be awesome.

Leighton Meester – She’s a real natural beauty. Leighton is so simple and sophisticated. She always looks immaculate and so elegant.

Rachel McAdams – Well, all I need to say about her is that she’s the main character in my three favorite movies; The Notebook, The Vow and About Time. Of course I have a crush on her.

Sophia Bush – I don’t know what’s about her, she has the most beautiful eyes ever and she played Brooke, the best character on TV ever created. 

Do you agree with me about these beautiful ladies over here? Do you have a girl celebrity crush? Who are they and why?

Adiós Amigos!

The last seven years of my life - Personal Post

This post is a little bit of a personal one. You see, I woke up at 6am and I’m not sure why but the last seven years of my life came up to my head and I felt the urge to write about it. Is that weird? I don’t know, but anyway, the last seven years have been a very crazy rollercoaster. I’ve cried, I laughed and I’ve grown up a lot. I’ve learnt to be happy. I believe this is gonna be a rather long post, so if you like stories sit down and relax. Maybe grab a cup of tea and a couple of biscuits to make it a little bit more bearable. If on the contrary you don’t like reading about other people’s life I suggest you go and do something else. What I’m trying to do here is to show how I’ve coped with some stuff (specially love) I’ve had to deal with and hopefully I might be able to help someone in the same situation. Or just simply entertain.

2007 was a year of change. I just finished my degree in nursing and I was working as a nurse in a very busy hospital back in Spain. Everything was cool and easy, so I decided to make my life a little bit more complicated and move to the UK. Why? You may ask. Why would you leave sunny Spain to come to Britain? Why would you leave a perfect job, and the perfect situation of living at home with a family you get on perfectly and where you don’t have to pay any rent, bills or worry about laundry and food shopping? Well, I was bored. Back then, at only 19, easy was boring. I needed some excitement, something new. So the 13^th of January of that year I moved to London. It wasn’t great. I used to love London before I moved there. My friends and I had been there about 10 times before and it had always been a blast, but living there alone was a completely different story. I found myself feeling very lonely and it was very hard to make friends. Exactly at the same time, my best friend Marta moved to Cardiff so I came down to visit a couple of times while in London and I just loved it. I thought the people in Cardiff were a lot more welcoming than in London. After four months of being in the capital, I still hadn’t found any friends or a proper job so I decided to change my life again by moving to Wales and to be honest, that was the best decision of my life, and the reason I am the person I am today.

So the first year was so much fun. Living with your best friend is a lot better than living with people you don’t know in a very crowded city. We worked and went out a lot and I met some amazing people who I’m still friends with nowadays.  So yeh, 2007 was a pretty amazing year.

I was a bit of a poser back then.

In 2008 I met my first love.

Oh, the joys of being in love for the first time. That relationship was definitely crazy. Everything happened really fast and stupidly we ended up living together within three months. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS.  If you want an easy relationship you shouldn’t move in before you actually know the person very well and in my opinion, three months is not long enough to get to know someone properly. Now, I’m not saying that it can’t work. Of course, for some people might be different, but I believe 90% of time it’s not a good idea.

I cried a lot that year. The guy just didn’t treat me right. He cheated on me about a thousand times and me, being stupid as I was back then, I let him keep doing it because I loved him and I could not imagine my life without him. What a mistake. I didn’t know what love was at that point, I thought I did, but love should be easy. Love is being happy all the time and I clearly wasn’t. I made the mistake of concentrating on him and not on my friends, and that is something I will regret for the rest of my life.

I have a little bit of a love-hate relationship with 2009. That’s the year everything changed, again. After putting up with that relationship for about a year and half I realized I’ve had enough. The moment I finally woke up and thought ‘I deserve better’ was the best. The few months weren’t so great.

I couldn’t bear the thought of seeing him around, with of course another girl straight away, so I moved back to Spain for a few months to clear my head. It was probably the worst decision I’ve ever made and if you’re going through a break up, I definitely wouldn’t think of moving anywhere just because of him. He’s clearly hurt you enough; you don’t want him to take away the good things that you have where you live. I felt all the emotions you feel after a break up. I felt sad, angry, a little bit crazy even and the worst of all, I keep thinking, now what?

My friends in Spain helped me a lot to get back on track, and I’ll always be thankful to them for that. Something else that believe it or not helped a lot, was a book call ‘It’s called break up cuz’ it’s broken’ by Greg Behrendt. I highly recommend it and I will make sure I do a post about it cuz it really deserves five stars.

After four months I decided to come back to Cardiff and face my fears of seeing him. And oh I saw them everywhere. It seemed like we’d decide to go to the same places all the time, and I’m not saying just out clubbing, I’d even see him in the shop! It wasn’t great, but believe it or not, seeing him again made me stronger. Of course the first time was shocking and I probably spent the next three days crying but hey, it got better.

In 2010 I started a job in a very busy night club and to be honest, it was probably one of the most fun jobs ever. I met so many amazing people and I spent pretty much all year partying and getting over my first love. The new environment helped me a lot. Not much more to say about 2010 to be honest. Mostly partying, drinking and making friends.

In 2011 I started another relationship. This one was somehow different to the last one. It was easier, but in my eyes, lacked of passion. It was quite a long one too and at the time I enjoyed it. It wasn’t near as bad as my first one, in fact, it wasn’t bad at all, it was just plain. You see I’m a person who needs adventure, drive to do things and I need to get excited about something every day and that year I just didn’t feel excited about much.

I got to visit loads of places tho, including New York, which was fantastic!

In Times Square with dad <3

The relationship continued until mid 2012. After it ended I thought, oh, here we go again, back to the sad and rainy days I once lived, but to my surprise I realized that wasn’t the case. This break up was so much easier. I literally cried for a couple of days and moved on. I guess after the first heart breaking break-up I was not gonna let this one affect me that much. I also wasn’t as in love as I was the first time. 

In 2012 I also met the person who makes me the happiest right now. To be honest, the first time I met Jac I never thought we’d end up together. We got on so well straight away but he had a girlfriend back then and it was just something unthinkable. But I believe everything happens for a reason and we were meant to meet and that exact time.

One of the best years of my life was last year. 2013 was just amazing. January 2013 Jac and I met again and this time he was single and everything was so different.

Although he’s from Cardiff he was studying in Worcester so the beginning was a little bit of a long-distance relationship but looking back, I would not change a single thing. Sure it was hard. We didn’t have the typical honeymoon period when you spend hours and hours with that person constantly kissing but we surely did the most of the few days that we saw each other and it definitely made us stronger as a couple.

It’s 2014 now and we’re still perfectly in love. We’re moving in together in a couple of months and doing the amazing trip on the previous post.

I do believe I’ve found my soul mate and I hope I’m able to talk about our future wedding, kids and other adventures on here eventually. 

I don’t really know why I did this post, now looking at it, it’s a lot of rubbish, but it’s my rubbish. My life. My experiences. I just wanted to share them and I hope I haven’t bored you too much!

Adiós amigos!