Photo Binge: October

What with Halloween Week at the end of October, I didn't get a chance to post my photo binge then so I'm popping it in at the beginning of November. By the way, I despise the term "photo binge" but I can't think of a different phrase to use. "Photo dump" is even worse. Does anybody have any suggestions for what I can name this series?

My first post in the series was photos from my iPod and, as this is the first post using photos from my phone, they go all the way back to the summer. From next month on, however, they'll just be from the past month.

You wouldn't believe how often I sit like this// I can't resist playing in Ikea!
I missed my eyelid// This is my trout face!

Yummy Alan Rickman-slash-Snape// My Jigglypuff costume
Crazy excited queuing-for-Pirates of the Caribbean-ride faces// Butterbeer moustache!

Wedding Butterbeer moustaches// Trust Jesus, guyz
Platform 9 3/4 selfie// The Dinosaur ride terrified me! (I'm in the rainbow dress)

The Little Mermaid ride is lovely!// Unicorn phone case
I am the Florida Manatee// Walt Disney World perfection!

How I would look if I was a super slim fashion blogger// Laura and I went back to uni
Shark face! Raar!// Swapping glasses with my mummy

5 tips for using Google Analytics

Often on Twitter, I see bloggers asking about Google Analytics. Most people know that the Blogger statistics are wildly inacurrate, so it's well worth installing Google Analytics for a more precise look at your stats. I'm by no means an Analytics expert, but I figured I could share the way I use it to help my blogging. Like many programs, there is a huge amount of information you can find out and it can be totally overwhelming. However, you don't need to know all of it. Instead, identify the things that are most important for you to know and don't worry about the rest. The following are the things I use and the items that seem to cause the most confusion for bloggers. 

The Greedy Book launch party

Every year, around September, I start compiling a list of everything I see that I like. I add all the links to a Word document and put it on our computer system. Rich uses the list as a guide for my Christmas presents, removes what he plans to buy and forwards the rest of the list to my mum. Although this works fairly well, it's not the most efficient of methods. It takes a long time and Rich once got confused and sent my mum the list of things he'd bought. However, I think this system is going to be a thing of the past because I have discovered The Greedy Book.

Of course, you're all used to reading bloggers gushing over brands but believe me when I say both myself and Rich are chuffed to bits with the launch of The Greedy Book. It's essentially the same concept as my Word Christmas list but online so any of my family and friends can access it. Once an item has been purchased, it's marked as bought so you don't end up with the same items. Anything can be added to the list, but you can also browse items on the site if you need a little inspiration.

I was very kindly invited to the launch party, which was held in a lovely bright space in Mayfair. The team were all absolutely lovely and made me feel very welcome, going out of their way to explain the process for me and chat away. 
The Greedy Book team had a fantastic competition concept: On one wall there were loads of colourful envelopes, each containing a piece of card and a sticker. All you had to do was write your name and email address on the card, then pop it back in the envelope and seal it with the sticker. After the party, they chose envelopes at random to determine the winners. Such a fun idea!


For me, the highlight of the event was the wrapping station. A bucket was filled with chocolate, from which you chose either milk, white or dark. On hand was a wrapping expert who helped package up the chocolates as a gift. 

 First, I popped the chocolate inside a brown card box, wrapped up in some star-print paper. 

I then wrapped my box in Cath Kidston fabric, securing it with double sided tape, and was given some fantastic tips from Simon, our wrapping expert. Rich will confirm that I am the worst present-wrapper in the world, but I ended up with a very fancy-looking gift for him!

Once my gift was all wrapped up, I picked a gift tag and the incredibly talented Keiko Shimoda wrote my message in her beautiful calligraphy. It's hard to believe that it was written by hand as the text is so precise and sharp. I still can't get over how wonderful her writing is. 

As well being a truly talented calligrapher, Keiko was absolutely lovely to talk to. She's inspired me to give calligraphy a go. I might have to add a starter kit to my Greedy Book!

Here is my finished product! I'm so happy with it and absolutely over the moon with how well I wrapped it. Rich was very happy too, needless to say!

Huge thanks to everybody at The Greedy Book, as well as Simon and Keiko. I had a wonderful time and we'll definitely be using the site this Christmas! 

101 in 1001 XXIII

Although I've had a really busy month, I haven't actually achieved many of my 101 in 100 goals. I've only got until April before my days are up and then I'll have a new list of goals! Exciting! 

#12 Attend a blogging event

The Lush Christmas reveal was amazing! So exciting to see all the festive products!

#32 Go to Thorpe Park again

Visiting Thorpe Park's Fright Night on Halloween was the most fun ever! 

#96 Read 75 books (81/75)

I'm pretty chuffed with myself this month having read 5 books! I wonder how many I'll have read by April?

Clubbing as a ghost

A couple of days ago, I wrote about my amazingly inventive, creative and labour-intensive ghost costume. Now that I've worn this look to a club, I never want to wear anything else again! Here are all the fantastic things about clubbing as a ghost.

• You look awesome
• People will laugh at you (in a good way)
• Dancing as a ghost is hilarious, especially if it's a song that requires a dance routine
• Nobody knows who you are so you can dance as badly as you like
• It's never been easier to avoid exes and people who hate you
• The sheets are surprisingly tiring on the arms. Hello muscles!
• Wear a cross-body bag under the sheet and it's completely safe from pickpockets
• It doubles up as a warm blanket once you get outside in the cold
• If you get tired, wiggle your arms around a bit and it looks like you're still dancing
• No more awkward lipsynching, pretending to know the lyrics 
• I wasn't asked for ID (I'm also 26 though, so this isn't a huge benefit)
• It's not clear if you're a man or a woman, so no creeps coming on to you
• No creeps approaching your friends either, since you might be a hench boxer under that sheet

Ok, so it was ridiculously hot, people kept stepping on me, the sheet constantly slipped so my eye holes were all over the place and, even when they were in place, I had tunnel vision but it was so much fun!

Everybody should dress as a ghost at least once in their lives. 

Thorpe Park Halloween Fright Night

Back in our teen years, Marie and I used to visit Thorpe Park all the time. Our friend Steph worked there so we pretty much had unlimited free entry and it was amazing! However, now we're adults and all, our visits have dwindled considerably. The last time we went for summer 2010, and that's just not acceptable. So we decided we'd make our grand return on Halloween, in costume and everything.


We both decided on gory make up effects but Marie went a little bit more extreme than me, with one side of her face completely ripped off. She looked amazing and, although there were hundreds of people in fancy dress, got a lot of attention, ranging from "Wow, that's awesome!" to "Your face is disgusting!" and even a couple of screams.



Knowing that Halloween would be insanely busy, not least because it's half term, we decided on splashing out for fast track tickets. We bought the Full Throttle package which included one fast track for Stealth, Saw, The Swarm, Colossus and Nemesis Inferno. Although we needed to queue up for over 90 minutes just to purchase the fast track, it was well worth it as that was the longest wait we had all day. With wait times up to 85 minutes for a single ride, it was definitely a wise choice on our parts. Within 3 and a half hours, we'd ridden all of the main rides and had the rest of the day to relax.




The Swarm was the ride that we were most excited about as we hadn't yet had a chance to ride it, having last visited before it opened. Being the thrillseekers that we are, we chose to ride backwards and it was incredible! Definitely the best ride in Thorpe Park by a long way. It's absolutely terrifying and the whole area surrounding the rollercoaster has been given a creepy apocalyptic theme. 




Once darkness had fallen, the park became very spooky! Since we'd been to Thorpe Park so many times in our youth, we know the layout well without the need for a map, but in the dark, it became very disorientating and I found it much harder to navigate. Suddenly there seemed to be many more costumed attendees, and scary live actors including a plague doctor.

Although I'm a complete wimp, we decided to brave one of the mazes and settled on The Blair Witch Project, which was given a scare rating of 2/5. Despite the broadcast wait time of 2 hours, we were actually only in line for half an hour before being unleashed into the wooded area, which is in complete darkness. To add to this terrifying experience, smoke effects and creepy sounds surrounded us. As we made our way along the path, actors jumped out and screamed at us with flashing torches. Although you're not allowed to touch them, the actors are allowed to come into contact with you and one of them even stroked my face! I was very proud of myself as I wasn't too scared, and actually found it easier to cope with if I screamed in the actors' faces. After 5 minutes, we'd made it out of the maze alive and feeling very smug! Not smug enough to brave the scarier ones though!

Since the queues for the rollercoasters were so large, there were barely any waits for the smaller rides such as Detonator and Rumba Rapids (which I will always call Rubber Dinghy Rapids). The rapids were terrifying in the dark as we were put in a raft without any other parties and there was very low lighting along the route. Floating through wooded areas and caves was especially creepy!
Just before we left, we decided to check out the wait time for The Swarm. It said 70 minutes but we figured we'd give it a go as the advertised times are almost always exaggerated. To our great surprise, we ended up walking straight onto the ride with no line at all! Since there were 10 minutes until the rides closed, we had time to go around three times in a row: Twice forwards and once backwards. Definitely the highlight of the night for me!

By the time we'd got out of the car park (20 minutes of waiting for someone to let us pull out and another 40 minutes stuck in the traffic to leave), we were both exhausted but very happy at having had such a great day. We loved it so much that we've made plans to visit Alton Towers' Scarefest next year, and I for one cannot wait! 

Sponsor Becky Bedbug in November

Ooh, things are getting exciting! It's nearly Bonfire Night and then it's just 7 weeks until Christmas! My favourite time of the year already. Can you believe it's come around so quickly?

Fireworks will be fizzing up all over the country soon, so if you want your November to start with a bang, consider sponsoring Becky Bedbug. (Too cheesy?) 

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:

• 1650+ on Bloglovin'
• 1290+ on GFC
• 3900+ 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.