After years of severe acne as a child I was still left with scarring and large pores as an adult. The best advice my mum gave me as a child was not to pick my spots if I leave them they’ll go away. Mother does know best but I had other ideas, every time a new spot appeared I had to pick it. Now as an adult in my mid twenties I still have large pores for picking my spots too much.
Awhile ago I discovered DermaSponge in the back of a magazine it is a sponge embedded with oxide aluminium crystals, the same ones found in the salon machines when you go for a microdermabrasion treatment.
How was my experience with DermaSponge?
Well they advise you to buff the skin in small circular motions for like two minutes or so but advise less time for sensitive skin, As I was very eager to try it I rubbed it really hard for two minutes, it was like rubbing sandpaper against my face. After my two minutes were up my face was red raw and really sensitive. I used the soothing gel that came with the sponges and it made my face burn even more so I just used baby Johnson’s. When I went to sleep at night I was in excruciating pain and my face kept sticking to the pillows. After a restless night of trying to sleep I awoke to find my skin peeling and really tight. I tried not to pick the dry skin as read somewhere that it could leave scars.
It’s now a few days later and after intense moisturising and facial saunas the results are fantastic! My skin is smoother and even, my scars are gone and my open pores are no more. I truly recommend this product as it has saved my potentially thousands of pounds worth of facials, chemical skin peels and laser surgery.
The starter pack contains four sponges so I have 3 more to go I will do it on a Friday so I can heal over the weekend as I found it rather embarrassing going to work with a scabby face, I will update as soon as I have used the next sponge.
Most people have a garden clearance once every few years but there are some of us out there that have to do it yearly if not a few times a year. Having a big garden and then re-landscaping, paving, planting etc means a lot of rubbish.
How do we get rid of bulky household waste?
Everyone says oh yes the council will get rid of that for you; the answer is the council doesn’t accept all the garden waste you have to get rid of. For example in Hertfordshire brown bins are used to collect garden waste it is collected every fortnight. If you cut down a few trees they won’t fit in the brown bin so you might have a pile of branches and tree trucks for months. The council also don’t recycle soil, burnt matter i.e. wood and cut trees or electrical items for free. Having cleared out my garden 3 times already this year I have tried various methods here I list the good points and the bad points.
Ways to clear rubbish
When we remodelled our house we took out the kitchen, bathroom and all the fixtures and fittings from all rooms like lighting, doors and radiators. We also had some junk from the garden like a brick built shed we knocked down and a greenhouse. We decided to call a waste collection company who would load up the van themselves and get rid of it legally. You are charged by how much space the rubbish takes up in the van 1/3, ½, ¾ or full the priced vary but it was no different to hiring a skip and this included their labour. The bricks were charged by the weight and the metal frame from the greenhouse would also be charged separately. Before they start the job they give you a quote and if you’re happy then they start if not they just go your no obliged to accept the quote when they come out.
After hiring the external waste company we still had bricks and metal to get rid of so we hired a hippo bag. They come in a few sizes and when you are ready you just call to arrange a collection. The hippo bags are quite strong and held over a tonne worth of just bricks but even after filling the bag we were still left with lots of garden rubbish it just wasn’t big enough.
This is when we went with the most common method to remove rubbish, hiring a skip. They come in various sizes to meet your requirements and they accept just about everything. Skip prices vary but I hired an 8 cubic yard skip for £192 keeping for two weeks. They wouldn’t accept fridges, freezers and asbestos prior to arranging this with them first for an additional cost. They took everything that was left in the garden to clear, concrete, bricks, wooden fence panels, metal from the greenhouse, glass and soil and trees.
We must’ve spent at least £7000 clearing our garden with the three methods of garden clearance hiring a skip, a hippo bag and hiring a waste removal company.
The best method I found was the skip, it took pretty much everything you have with a few exceptions like the fridge but then again the council will charge you for this any way. It probably took us 1 full day fill 8 cubic yard skip.
Having just recently done up my kitchen I chose to have lovely glossy black granite tiles, the only thing I dint think of was how hard it would be to clean. The granite tiles are expensive and hard wearing so by splashing out a bit extra you know that they will last for years to come. Because granite is naturally glossy they show up every speck of dirt and mess that will fall on it.
Cleaning granite tiles in kitchen
Having tried various different methods of cleaning I have found this way works best.
- Firstly remove all dust and loose dirt by vacuuming
- Then mix floor cleaner fluid as specified on bottle (I use flash floor cleaner) using hot water
- After mopping the granite tiles leave for 5 minutes
- Rinse mop and then mop area again
- After another 5 minute using a microfiber mop, mop the tiles until dry and smear free
It may sound like a long process but this ensures the high gloss finish and smear free marks that you wouldn’t get using a traditional mop it should take no longer than half an hour.
If you have any hints and tricks that have worked for you then please leave a comment.
Having just bought my winter wardrobe I convinced my husband I desperately needed boots to go shopping in Oxford Street. I wanted to look nice in my new clothes so went off to Faith to find some new boots. I didn’t want boots with a high heel as I would be walking all day so I narrowed the selection down to two. I tried each of them on but hubby wasn’t very helpful. My first choice was sort of like a biker style leather boot with a buckle around the ankle; it had no heel and was very comfortable. My other choice was a suede boot that was a bit pointy with a low heel; it was very nice and would look nice with a dress or jeans. They did pinch a bit I put this down to them being new. The biker boots were £110 and the suede boots were £60 I went with the suede boots as they were very pretty.
The next day I got ready for a long day shopping in the city of London I wore a jumper dress and my new suede boots from Faith. After walking around for a few hours my feet started to hurt, I left home at 10am and by 2pm in the afternoon my feet felt like they were bleeding. As I had tights on I couldn’t check the state of my feet so I just carried on. Eventually at 6pm I couldn’t walk anymore and hade to but new boots. I ended up in Barrats and found boots similar to my first choice in Faith they were only £50 but were real leather. I bought them and wore them out the shop.
On arriving home I took off my tights to find blisters all over my little toe. It has since been four days and they are still there, I can’t wear enclosed shoes and my blisters are very painful. I have tried everything to make my blisters go away but they are very stubborn. I should have listened to my instinct and gone for comfortable rather than pretty. It will be awhile yet before I will wear my boots again.
I would not advise buying boots from Faith they were ill fitting, uncomfortable and very painful!
I have two male kittens that are just over 6 months old, one is a stripy grey colour called Tiger Billy and the other is stripy with a white face, belly and legs called Jet Li. They both have different personalities; Tiger Billy is very greedy whilst Jet Li plays it cool. The other day I found what looked like diarrhoea in the kitchen, I cleaned it up and checked the boys but they seemed fine. Tiger Billy was acting very strange he was very quiet and withdrawn.
We made a little area for him on the sofa and he slept for a little while and even ignored me whilst I served his lunch which was very unusual for him. After a little while he jumped off the sofa let out a very load meow and run under the table. I went to see and it sounded like he was throwing up a hairball, when I looked he vomited all his cat biscuits he cried for in the morning.
After I cleaned up the mess I called the vet, she advised me that he was over eating on cat biscuits and this was very hard to digest as it gets absorbed by water so he had to vomit it out. We have limited how many biscuits we give him no matter how much he meows and he seems to be fine.
It’s just really hard to ignore when your cat cries for food all the time you feel like you have to give in. My mum only feeds her cats twice a day once in the morning and again in the evening whereas mine get fed 4 times a day. Whiskas advises you to feed little and often recommending two pouches of food a day in small portions. I feed a pouch of kitten food in the morning and the half a pouch for lunch and another half a pouch for dinner. Just before we go to bed we leave some biscuits out for them. I have heard of neighbours who only feed their cats once a day, so I suppose it’s a personal choice.
Even after doing this my kittens still cry for food, other cats seem to survive on less than this and are perfectly fit and healthy. My mum has the third kitten in the litter that mine came from, he eats less but is so chubby whereas mine are long and lean. My kittens look like fully grown cats as their brother looks like a chubby kitten.