Becky Bedbug: July 2014

Thursday

101 in 1001 XX

July has been an insanely busy month. I'm not complaining at all as it's been a great time to knock off a bunch of my 101 in 1001 goals.

#10 Get business cards printed

Kaelah designed my business cards in May 2013, but I still had a backlog of old ones to use up. This month, I've finally finished them and been able to get my pretty new ones printed.

#12 Attend a blogging event

From the Etsy Christmas Cafe to DotComGiftShop's Christmas in July Bloggers' Evening, the NARSissistxLilyAnna event and Lush Summer Skin event, this has been a jam packed month for events!

#17 Reach 1500 followers

I did it! I did it! Huge thanks to all of you wonderful Bloglovin' followers! As I type this, I'm at 1543. Next step: 5000!

#56 Buy an Art Pass

It was only after I'd booked tickets for exhibitions at the V&A that I realised my Art Pass had expired. Whoops! A quick repurchase sorted it out, and then I wasn't even asked to show it!

#96 Read 75 books (72/75)

Three very short books this month- A grand total of something in the region of 600 pages. Not great, I know but I have been a very busy bee!

#101 Watch all the films

I've watched A Clockwork Orange a few times in my lifetime but never really enjoyed it. I couldn't get past the melodrama. However, after re-reading the book, I tried the film again and, now I'm a bit older, I could really appreciate the beauty of the cinematography.

100 Happy Days: July

Day 47: Blogging in bed// Day 48: NARS event// Day 50: Making Lush face masks
Day 55: Photo pit at 2000Trees// Day 56: Beautiful view of London// Day 57: Last day of work!
Day 58: Hyper Japan with Marie// Day 59: Relaxing at Four Seasons spa// Day 60: Chilling with Myles

Wednesday

Day in the Life of Becky: Spa Edition

As you may have seen yesterday, I spent Monday at the Four Seasons Hampshire for a spa day and it was bliss! It seemed like the perfect opportunity for a relaxed, chilled-out Day in the Life post.

10am Putting on a light bit of make up for my journey.

11am On the train. Choo choo!

12pm I am obsessed with elderflower right now!

1-3pm No photos here because of my spa treatments.

4pm Relaxing by the poolside.

5pm More relaxing. It's a hard life!

6pm Getting ready to head home.

7pm #fbloggers time!

8pm I was a bit naughty!

9pm Washing all the chlorine out my hair before bed.

What a lovely day!

Tuesday

365 203-209

203 New stationery supplies from Viking Direct.

204 Sorting out my old, broken shoes.

205 My final commute until September!

206 Hyper Japan was a lot of fun!

207 Taking photos of my Hyper Japan goodies.

208 A wonderful day at the Four Seasons.

209 Finally sorting out the wedding invitations!

Four Seasons Hampshire Spa

If you've been reading my blog for a little while, you'll know that I've recently suffered with stress and other health problems, so it seemed like fate when Debenhams gave me the opportunity to experience a stress-busting day of relaxation at Four Seasons Hampshire Spa.

The grounds are absolutely beautiful, with sprawling green countryside everywhere you look.

This is the largest dovecote in Hampshire, dating back from when the estate was used as a private residence.

As for the spa itself, it's set in the 18th century stables and is absolutely huge! My experience of spas may be fairly limited, but I'm pretty sure they're not all this big and fancy.

Lockers are provided with a robe and towel, and there are also slippers at the end of each row. This was such a novelty for me, and I went everywhere in my robe which had convenient pockets for essentials like my locker key card (and phone!).

In each of the two huge changing rooms are dressing tables complete with everything you'll need. As well as the usual hairdryer and tissues, there are combs and brushes, hairspray and gel, deodorant, talcum powder, body lotion, cleanser, moisturiser and even a pot with cotton balls and buds!

I was booked in on the pamper day retreat, which included a two-course light lunch in the airy Cafe Sante.

After carefully scrutinising the menu, I settled on the vegetable spring rolls, which were delicious, followed by a chocolate muffin and washed down with some refreshing elderflower water.

Once I'd eaten, I had half an hour to wait before my treatments, so I headed out to the pool terrace and relaxed on a fluffy, cosy sun lounger. I'd forgotten my sun cream but, luckily, there was plenty on hand for guests to use.

Robin was my therapist and she began with a thorough consultation. She asked what I was looking to achieve from the experience (relaxation and destress), and allowed me to choose my own aromatherapy oils, toners and lighting in the therapy room. My treatment began with a salt and oil scrub which was perfect for scrubbing away all my dead skin. Afterwards, I rinsed off in The Most Amazing Shower I've Ever Experienced and prepared for my next treatment, a 90 minute back, face and scalp massage. It was wonderful! So relaxing and soothing- Just what I needed! Even though I was in the treatment room for 2 hours, it felt over in minutes. I didn't want it to end! I then went to lie down in the relaxation room that you can see above. I was alone in the dimly-lit room, so it was a completely chilled out experience.

Once I felt suitably relaxed, I grabbed my Floozie by Frost French bag and headed to the pool.

Let's take a look inside...

The tropical print beach towel is Butterfly Home by Matthew Williamson and my pineapple print bikini (which I am totally besotted with, by the way) is by Gorgeous. I also packed a hairbrush, deodorant and shower gel, although I didn't need them in the end since Four Seasons is so well stocked with luxurious ESTA shower gels. I also didn't need my Diet Coke as there were jugs of elderflower water constantly being replenished. However, I did use my lip balm, swimmer's ear plugs (since I'm not supposed to get my ears wet), my book, iPod and phone, and glasses. I was certainly prepared for all eventualities!

After a whopping 7 hours at the spa, which went by in the blink of an eye, it was time to head home. I quickly took full advantage of the facilities at hand before reluctantly leaving. It was such a wonderful day, and I've already told Rich he needs to come with me one day! Thank you for a great trip, Debenhams!

Monday

Wedding Plans: July

Ok, our Florida wedding is in 14 days and our England wedding is a month today. That's terrifying! I still have so much to do and it's starting to freak me out. Silly little oversights like hiring chairs and tablecloths. Who would have thought of that?

Anyway, there are a lot of things I have done, let's focus on that.

Ordered my wedding dress
After a bit of a panic (when I contacted the shop I was going to buy my skirt from, I got a very rude reply to tell me they couldn't make it in the timeframe), I eventually found the wonderfully helpful Dark Pony Designs, who rushed my order through. It hasn't arrived yet but tracking tells me it's currently at the LA sorting office waiting to be flown over so it will be with me shortly!

Bought my bouquet charm

I have grand ideas for my bouquet, which I should really put into action seeing as we fly out in just over a week. I've always known that I've wanted to include a bouquet charm, but you'll have to wait to see what goes inside!

Bought bridesmaid dresses

My three beautiful bridesmaids have chosen their dresses and they're all ready to be worn. I can't believe how perfect they look together and I can't wait to see the girls wearing them! Leona's is the blue, Marie's is the lilac and Laura's is the pink. They're going to look stunning!

Bought Rich's wedding ring

More panic ensued with Rich's ring this month. We went to the jeweller, ordered a lovely white gold band and, when it arrived 2 weeks later, it was yellow gold. It was too late to order a new one, so Rich visited another jeweller and luckily they were able to provide him with a ring in his size. Phew!

Bought invitations

Invitations are the bane of my life right now! I was very kindly sent these stunning invitations from VistaPrint (there will be a full post on them shortly), but I kept forgetting to post them out. We've finally done it (well, intend to do it this week), but since our English wedding is only a month away, I'm not sure if anyone will actually show up! Whoops!

Sponsor Becky Bedbug in August

This is it, guys. August is here and it's officially the month of my wedding. I am so excited, I can't even express it in words! Needless to say, this is going to be a very busy month for my blog. Not only am I having two weddings, but I'm also going to Reading Festival, Brighton and Edinburgh. Things are going to be pretty non-stop. August is always my busiest traffic month anyway, so I have a feeling this month will be pretty huge in terms of readership. If you've ever considered sponsoring, now is the perfect time!

Let's look at what you get:

An advert in my sidebar for 30 days
A shoutout on Twitter
With some options, you'll also get a mention in a sponsor post on Becky Bedbug

Let's take a peek at the stats:

1280+ on GFC
1500+ on Bloglovin'
3400+ on Twitter
12,000+ visitors a month

Advertisements start from £6 ($10), so there's an option for all budgets. If advertising's not your thing, there are other ways you can get involved, such as sponsored posts and PR reviews. For all the information, take a look at my sponsorship page here.

Sunday

The Great Shoe Purge 2014

I like shoes. A lot. Which isn't a problem until you consider that I can never throw a pair out, even if they're falling apart. This resulted in me owning 94 pairs of shoes, which is a sickening number, especially when I only wear about 10% of that number.

As you can see, my shoe storage was overflowing and it was becoming increasingly difficult to find the shoes I was looking for each morning. So I decided enough was enough, and set about throwing away all the old, dirty and broken pairs.

In the end, I became quite ruthless, which is very unlike me, and threw out a grand total of 26 pairs.

Look how beautiful that shelving is now! I'm so much happier with it, it makes finding shoes much easier and I have an excuse to buy 26 new pairs of shoes. Right?

Hyper Japan Street Style

Yesterday I visited Hyper Japan and had a fantastic time. One of the best things was the huge array of beautifully dressed people and the incredible cosplay. I took so many photos of the attendees that they deserved their own post. First, though, let's take a look at what I was wearing.