Bravissimo

Posts Tagged ‘Fun’

Festival Fun

Festivals are fashionable places, but they’re also muddy, crowded and the fact that you only get a shower if you’re lucky makes it difficult to look your best. The general festival look is funky bo-ho, the kind of look that seems easy but actually takes a fair amount of planning and with limited wardrobe space in your tent, multi-functional pieces for clever dressing are essential.

Thanks to the glorious British weather, most outdoor festivals will become muddy so be prepared for anything, from a little soft ground under foot to full on mud baths! That’s why footwear choices should be sensible, don’t take your favourite pair of sandals as they will inevitably get ruined. Wellies are a good idea especially for UK festivals; however, novelty wellies are out. Instead go for a plain black or green and that way more attention can be paid to your outfit!

What to take;

• Utility style shorts, stylish and practical especially if they have pockets!
• Plenty of vest/tee-shirt tops always come in handy. Vests and strappy tops with integral support are great as you won’t need to take lots of different bras with you.
• A couple of skirts/dresses/playsuits, dresses are an easy throw on outfit and will save space in you bag for other things
• Something warm, we don’t want to sound like your mother, but it does get cold when the sun goes down so a couple of warm layers are essential. Plus a waterproof jacket, light weight layers are usually best.
• A few funky accessories will dress up a casual outfit, the more bangles the better and festivals are great places to get away with more unusual accessories such as hats, head pieces and more eclectic jewellery so don’t be afraid to be bold and try something new!

What to avoid;

• We do love a maxi dress, but they’re just not practical. Great for the city or on the beach or in a park but not great for mud, struggling through crowds of people or frequenting the porter-loos.
• Don’t take anything too expensive, the festival look is somewhat cheap and cheerful so don’t risk loosing your designer sunglasses, I-pod or favourite piece of clothing!
• Try not to take too many clothes as you will probably stick to a couple of pieces of clothing for the majority of the time (that’s why accessories are great, they allow you to change the look of an outfit without changing the whole thing!

Festival must haves;

• Cleansing wipes
• Toilet roll/tissues
• Anti-bacterial hand gel (clever invention)
• Sun cream
• Sunglasses (the more outrageous the better)
• Paracetamol
• Back pack, hands free handbag, that’s what we’re talking about!
• Dry shampoo and hair accessories to disguise unwashed hair

Happy festivaling!!

As well as looking forward to having an extra couple of days off over Easter, we’re also excited to get the family together and enjoy some Easter fun (and food!). It’s a great time of year to get the family round and feast on some scrummy nosh. Not since Christmas have we had everyone round to eat drink and be merry, so its about time we got everyone together again.

As it’s almost spring, the weather is getting better/nights are getting lighter and there’s even more reason to celebrate! If you have young children or will be catering for young children around Easter then why not put together an Easter egg hunt. They’re great fun and will keep the kids entertained for hours (depending on how difficult you make it of course!).

If you’re planning a child free Easter, or your children have grown up, then you could always make the Easter egg hunt more of a challenge by creating cryptic clues and making the prize more interesting. We’re sure friends and family would be more keen to participate if they knew that there was a good bottle of wine at the end of the hunt! Easter is also good to test your baking skills.

With all the chocolate and sweet treats doing the rounds this time of year, no wonder it’s the busiest for home baking too! Cup cakes, buns, scones, hot cross buns there’s plenty to go at and you know what they say, practice makes perfect! Baking is also a fun activity for the whole family and is one of those past times that will always remind us of our own childhoods. Follow these links for recipe ideas and inspiration;

• Easter Recipes

• Easter Baking

Enjoy!

As we see the first snow fall of the festive season we should be enjoying every flake and making the most of the novelty

Let it snow!

of having snow at Christmas time. Instead though, we listen to severe weather warnings and the threat of ‘heavy snow fall’.  If we Brits call it heavy snow fall, then what on earth do the Canadians call it? Our heavy snow fall would barely make people from other such countries bat an eyelid. Surely we could learn a thing or two from our counter-parts in colder climates if they can cope with -40 degrees and snow blizzards?! When snow hits their towns and cities, things still work. Taxis still run, trains keep going and people just carry on as normal. So why is it that when it snows in England, we grind to a halt?  The favourite excuse is that we’re just not used to snow.  However, one thing we know for sure, when we do get heavy snow, the kids love it!

So are we hoping for a white Christmas? Yes, we just hope it doesn’t snow too much!

Fun with friends

To really get into the Christmas spirit why not get a group of your girl friends together and give ice-skating a go? You might not have been ice-skating since your teens, or may never have donned a pair of skates before but we assure you, there’s nothing better for getting into the festive mood.

You don’t have to be Torvill or Dean, or have been put through your paces on Dancing On Ice to enjoy this Christmas activity. Unfortunately, however there is always one show off at this kind of thing, you know the one that insists on skating as fast as they can around the rink and almost knocks us novices over in the process, so look out for them! But if all else fails you can hold on to the side rail or get a friend to pull you along! Plus a drop of mulled wine will help to cushion the blow if you do fall skates over head! And to warm up afterwards, we suggest going for a scrummy hot chocolate, with cream, marshmallows and chocolate flakes on top (yum) and as ice-skating is a great form of exercise, you can enjoy the extra toppings guilt-free!

There are city centre ice skating rinks popping up in most major cities now, to find your nearest rink just follow the link here : http://www.enjoyengland.com/attractions/events/calendar/december/ice-skating.aspx

And just remember to wrap up warm, don’t wear your best clothes, take a thick pair of socks and gloves but most of all, ENJOY!!