I'm on the move!

Both physically and in the blogging world, I've decided it's time to get going...
I've continuously blogged lots of random things here at Drops of Brandy, but never really found my niché. My life ambition has always been to travel, as there isn't a job that I am extra desperate for that requires me to stay in one place and I just want to be adventurous and see what's out there, and use my photography endlessly!

Which is why I have come to the end of Drops of Brandy.
You served me well, little blog, but it's time to move on...

Come May 15th, I'll be off on my first backpacking adventure around Europe and I feel like blogging about travelling is something I can definitely give more on!

I have, instead, created myself a Travel Blog!
Come follow me over at The Little Blonde Backpacker!

We bought our train tickets with Interrail and are so excited to get going... and as we're leaving before the 16th May, we get 15% off!

We used the Interrail Planner to organise our trip; starting with the Eurostar into Belgium from London. Then to Amsterdam > Berlin > Prague > Krakow > Budapest > Zagreb > Split > Vienna > Venice > Zurich and finally, Paris before we head home on the Eurostar again. 

I'm super, super, super duper excited to go on my first trip around Europe - who knows where it will lead me!

Please, head over and follow my new story at The Little Blonde Backpacker for my new travel adventure!

I've also created a Twitter, an Instagram, a Bloglovin' and a Pinterest account; all travel themed!!

I look forward to having you follow my adventure with me,

And thanks for staying tuned for the past two years with Drops of Brandy,

Adios, Amigos! 

I'm off on my travel adventure, 

See you there xxx

Silent Sunday Instagram: Brussels, Belgium

[ Instagram: @superchinois801 ]

[ Instagram: @angelozottele ]

[ Instagram: @happyischic ] 

[ Instagram: @kurtkarbon ]

[ Instagram: @chiyonoguchi ]

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

As with all occasions, St. Patrick's Day bought out the nail artist in me for my nail blog and I quickly whipped out these cream and green bad boys for the celebrations of Irish-ness and Guinness...

I'm not going to lie, I have absolutely no idea what St. Patrick's Day is even about, but I just know that the English and Americans go crazy for it - apparently more so than the Irish themselves!

Head over to my nail blog, The Nailphile, to see more of my art and FOLLOW if you can, I update with new nails 2-3 times a week! I'm also on Instagram: @thenailphileUK.

Speaking of instagram, here are a few of my favourite #stpatricksday photos!

  

                       [ @thedandiaries ]                              [ @allthingspuggy ]                                    [ @rodcmlz ]

How's your St. Patrick's Day Been?
I might go have a bailey's now...

Love, May x

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Top 5 Comfort Travel Trainers

"Give a girl the right shoes and she can conquer the world"
- Marilyn Monroe

Sensible footwear was one of the first things that popped into my head while writing my 'to-buy' list for my Europe trip and I went straight online in my search to find comfy, supportive footwear to wear on my travels; let's face it - we're not going to be doing it in Louboutins!


     1. Adidas Originals

My brother was the one who recommended Adidas trainers to me and said they were the comfiest he owns; as he is a trainer fanatic and has over 20 pairs I thought I should take his word for it.
I've been looking for black or neutral colours so that my trainers match my outfits, and these Rita Ora French Bulldog Print ZX Flux Trainers from ASOS are perfect.
At £72.00, they're still affordable and you know that they'll be comfy and support your feet, as well as having super cute puppies on them!


     2. Nike Cherry Blossom

Nike Cherry Blossom are a new beautiful range of trainers by Nike which make clumpy trainers feminine and girly. They have used this Cherry Blossom print on all of their classic trainer shapes, but my favourites are the Air Max Thea White University Blue Cherry Blossom pair. At £94.99 from Office, these are quite expensive but unique and they will definitely be comfortable for hours on end on your feet.

     3. Converse All Star's

The Classy Classics. I absolutely adore converse and mine have always been so comfortable and they last ages. Apart from their lack of support, there's not much to say that's bad about them! They're also only £45 and readily available in most sports stores - which is great!

     4. ASOS Dynasty Lace Up Trainers

If you're on a budget for new trainers, ASOS own brand trainers are perfect. They are styled to look like the main brands but on a much cheaper and affordable platform. These are only £25, which is way over half price of most of the shoes in the more popular shoe brands and just as comfortable.

     5. New Balance Originals

New Balance are a new brand for me and haven't been in fashion very long here in the UK despite the fact that the company has been around for over one hundred years. At first I thought they were a bit dorky and weird ... but then I tried them on.

They are the most comfortable pair of shoes I have ever had the honour of wearing and I knew I needed a pair straight away. 

These are the pair, the ones, and I will be wearing them non-stop for 1 month ...

and I am thrilled about it.

Especially on sale at £59.00 instead of £65.00 on the New Balance Website!

What do you all think of these trainers,

Any other brand suggestions?

Love, May x

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Rucksack's at the Ready...

I get it... I suck at blogging about my life and all the boring things in it like the cake I baked last week or the healthy meal I forced myself to eat and all the things that everyone else blogs about so I thought I had to blog about myself, but now I have something that I feel is worth writing about and will be personal and relateable at the same time...
I HAVE FINALLY BOOKED MY INTERRAIL TICKETS!
I cannot even explain in words how excited I am...

Come the 15th May, Hollie and I will be off on our travels for one month with our Interrail tickets in our hands and our rucksacks on our backs.
We bought our tickets today through the Interrail.eu website, and even got 15% off as we're travelling before the 16th May!
Definitely worth looking in to if you're considering backpacking around Europe...
We also opted to insure the tickets for £10, which will be worth it as it will cost a hell of a lot more if they are lost or stolen along the way!

The Interrail Planner is an extremely useful app that I recommend you all to use (although it could do with a bit of tweaking) and we have used it online to plan our journey...
and it's great for my terrible geography skills too!
It also means we can share our journey with you if you click here and you can use it for inspiration and edit your own trip around it too!

{London  >  Brussels  >  Amsterdam  >  Berlin  >  Prague  >  Kraków  >  Budapest  >  Zagreb  >  Split  >  Vienna  >  Venice  >  Zürich  >  Paris  >  London}

So, that's my little starter to get me back into blogging about GOOD things and you know there will be much more to come...

I'm so so excited to share it all with you!

What are your travel plans for this summer?

Love, May x

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Reasons Why I Love The Shoebox Appeal

As per usual, I'm delayed on my christmas boxes due to laryngitis striking.. AGAIN!
I had forgotten about my shoeboxes while I was feeling sorry for myself until my Great Aunt, Joan, reminded me that before she had her stroke she would do between 80 and 100 for underpriviledged children. Samaritan's Purse definitely loved her.
I thought I better get my act together and get some boxes going...

The thing I enjoy the most the shoebox appeal (Operation Christmas Child) is that it really gets you appreciating what you have, and what everyone around you has.
These children as so happy to receive toys which to us are so cheap and small - it's a show of perspective.

Last year I did two boxes, a boy and a girl aged 10 - 14.
This year I have done four boxes; a boy and a girl aged 10 - 14 (this is the least popular year group) and a boy and girl aged 5 - 9.
Next year I'm aiming for all six!

I didn't go as mad as I did last year money wise, and watched how I spent my shoebox funds going in shops such as poundland, wilkinsons and primark. If I had of thought about it sooner I would have also ordered things from eBay as many places abroad sell toys for very cheap.

Girl and Boy; Aged 5 - 9

I actually think that ages 5 - 9 are a huge gap and I found this box very hard to fill! 

There are items in the box that a 5 year old would love but maybe a 9 year old... not so much.

It was originally intended to be for the age gap of 2 - 4 but as it was last minute shopping I couldn't find suitable and inexpensive gifts for younger children that weren't a hazardous swallowing risk.

I included things like colouring books, a stuffed toy, musical instruments and balls to play with which I think are suitable for all ages within this category.

Girl and Boy; Aged 10 - 14

Ages 10 - 14 are the least packaged group probably because as they are older it's harder to find suitable things. I headed to poundland for their boxes and found stuffed toys, dominos and a small foosball table that I thought an older child would love.  They also got a yo-yo each as they would be able to grasp it better than a younger child. I also thought plasticine would be fun as they can be creative with it.

Each child got a toothbrush and toothpaste, a flannel and a bar of soap and socks & gloves. 

This is something that I enjoy doing as it gives children some happiness and I feel good about doing it too, as Joey says; "There is no such thing as a truly selfless good deed".

The thing is, Christmas is the time of giving, and the shoebox appeal really does show that.


Did anyone else do the Shoebox Appeal this year?


May x

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On The 2nd Day of #Fitmas My Mother Gave To Me...

... a huge bag of fruit and veg from Aldi including every single thing I can't stand normally and will refuse to eat...
I guess I just ruined the fun of that Christmas Carol.
But it's time to embrace the healthy food.

Yesterday I joined the #FITMAS army in our mission to get healthy before Christmas.
Corinne has organised Fitmas, and you can go over to her blog to find out all about it!
{Just want to say a big thanks to you, Corinne, for getting us all inspired}

I have started in full swing with a kick up the butt from a three day detox.
Up until I started Uni I was SO fussy with my eating.. I still am fussy now just nowhere near as bad.
I wouldn't have touched any of this 'healthy shit' but by putting it into a juice it makes it nicer to eat and is a great way to get some healthy-ness into your body.

I've made it through 2 days now but my god is it hard! I'm glad I didn't chose to do 5 or 7 days!
I'm sitting here dreaming of a Miller and Carter steak...

These are my fruit and veg for the day!

I had a smoothie and a juice; 'Turbo with a Kick!' and 'Minty Sunshine'

Both of which are Jason Vale recipes, I've blogged about him before but if you're into all this healthy food loving stuff, apparently he's some kind of healthy guru...

Minty Sunshine

2 Oranges, 3 Carrots, 4 Sprigs of Mint and 2 slices of Ginger

I doubled this to make enough for the whole day,

Just whizz it through the juicer!

Turbo... with a Kick!

2 Apples, 1/2 Celery Stick, 2 Handfuls Spinach, 2-3cm Cucumber,

1/2 Peeled Lime, 1/4 Pineapple, 1 slice Ginger and 1/4 Avocado.

Juice everything accept the avocado and then blend that in separately.

I doubled this too as you have 2 smoothies and 2 juices a day.

Both of these drinks were lovely, the minty sunshine has always been a personal favourite...
although I have to say I am missing solid food!
Roll on Thursday, I've never been excited for porridge before.

And I had cute New Look cups to get me through! 

I also bought 9 BAR's and Nākd. bars as a push through the times when I get hungry.

Amazingly I haven't needed them yet, I'll give a review when I try them!

For today's exercise I started the Couch to 5K programme unfortunately in the rain - you can download the 'Get Running' app on iTunes.
It slowly builds you up from interval training to running 5K in 9 weeks, which is too long for Fitmas but at least I'm starting now and hopefully come January I will be able to do it.

I wore my new running trainers, which I bought from the Missguided 'Active' range as I wanted something more supportive than my tatty old converse I used to do exercise in and I thought I'd try them out before I spent more money on more expensive ones.
Missguided sell these Active trainers in two different colours; Grey Contrast and Neon Pink Contrast.
Both are priced at £20.

As an honest review, they didn't hurt my feet and supported them well but they let in so much water my feet were absolutely drenched and soggy - that's not cool and didn't make the experience very enjoyable.
They also didn't look as nice as more expensive brands of trainers as they didn't fit the ends of my feet properly and were slightly baggy!
I am going to continue using them so I can decide if I like them more, only time will tell if they were worth trying...


Are you trying Fitmas?


May x

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