May Favourites 2015

Well hello! If you’re still at school I hope you’re feeling refreshed from this rather odd weathered half term. My family and I went away ‘up North’, and had such a good time! Today we have my May Favourites, enjoy!

My first favourite are these beautiful carnations from Aldi. I know, total granny putting flowers in my favourites! But these are so pretty and were only £2. And they’ve lasted over a week, brilliant!

My next favourite is my Soul Survivor Youth Bible. I’ve had this for about 6 months now and I love it so much! I was never brought up going to Church apart from Christmas Eve and really only became a Christian 3 years ago, even though I was Christened as a baby. But this Bible really breaks everything down for beginners and teaches you everything you need, in a language you’ll understand!  I’d really recommend this Bible.

 My Forever Sunlips has been an absolute LIFE SAVER when we went ‘up North’ because it also protects your lips against wind as well as sun, so when you’re hiking through hills this really helps! It’s soothing and leaves this tingly peppermint feel on your lips after you’ve used it, and is oh so moisturising!

Music ♪

Señorita – Justin Timberlake (here)

Our Own House – Misterwives (here)

Stolen Dance – Milky Chance (here)

If you were to squash down everything pink, cute and perfect and mould into a blog, you’d get Dizzybrunette3. I haven’t met Corrie but she sounds like a genuinely lovely and funny person to be around, and can we discuss how much I love her stationery obsession? YES. Her photography is very professional and I love her composistion. Here’s the links to her blog, Youtube and Twitter.

And that is my May Favourites! I hope you enjoyed this post and let me know what YOUR favourites are this month! Have a good week!

Lots of Love,

Lottie ♥

 Twitter – Instagram – Facebook – Bloglovin – Spotify

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Music ♪

5 Free Blogging Resources

Hello everyone! So today I thought I’d do a bit of a blogging tips post. I was a bit unsure about doing this type of post as I am in no way a professional blogger at all. But if you’re just starting out then I thought I would help you with a few of my favourite free blogging resources. Enjoy!

1. The Wonder Forest

Dana is the QUEEN of blogging tips and cheat sheets. Her advice is very useful and she also offers blog makeovers and blog templates. I found her through Zoella’s blog design. Dana explains everything in a way you understand but you still receive the right amount of information.

2. WordPress.com

This is where I host my blog. I was told that this is the best for beginner bloggers, and you can transfer over to .org when you’re ready. I love the security I have on here, I know there aren’t going to be any dodgy comments and hacking. I’m thinking of buy the whole domain name (without the .wordpress.com bit) but for £17 I don’t know if I can justify it. I bought my domain from GoDaddy (or something like that) but didn’t know you had to buy it on the actual WordPress website. You are a bit stuck with your creativity of themes and plugins but it’s great for beginners.

3. Hootsuite

This is how I get all my tweets out to promote my new posts. It’s really easy, you just space them throughout the week. A tip is to use the blogging RT’ers (?!) so more people see your posts. For example I could tweet: ‘NEW Post…. @UKBlog_RT’ and UKBlog_RT would retweet to their followers. It’s a really good system!

4. bit.ly

I used to use bit.ly ALL THE TIME until I found out I could shorten the link in WordPress. You basically insert your link and it shortens it, meaning, for example, you wanted to tweet about your new blog post but the link takes up so much space you can’t tweet the actual title of the post! This is very useful for Blogger users as well as I don’t believe you can shorten links on that platform.

5. Twitter

Twitter is my main source of views, I’m not even going to deny it. It’s such a great way to promote your blog, you’ve just to schedule at the right time of day! On the day of publishing I usually tweet 3/4/5 times the a couple times each day for the next week. Then I’ll promote it a week later, then a month so if people missed it then they can find my post. There are loads of tips posts around on what time to schedule, so check those out as well.

And that’s it folks! Hope you found this post useful, and let me know if you’d like to see more posts like this.

What are your favourite blogging resources? Or are you thinking of starting a blog?

Lots of Love,

Lottie ♥

Twitter – Instagram – lotsoflovelottie – Facebook – Bloglovin – Spotify

Spring/Summer Playlist 2015 + How to Find New Music

I loooooove music. I love listening to it, making it and playing it (piano, guitar and ukulele if y’all was wondering) and finding new stuff to listen to. So as the festival season is starting (helloooo Coachella) I thought I’d put together a playlist for you guys. I’m going to list all the songs below but I will also put together a playlist on my Spotify (lotsoflovelottie). I’ll also list some tips for finding new music because let’s be honest, there’s only so many times you can listen to Lips are Movin’. Enjoy, little ones.

You Got The Love – Florence and the Machine

Next Year (RAC mix) – Two Door Cinema Club

You’re On – Madeon

Sun – Two Door Cinema Club

Attracting Flies – Aluna George

Reflections – Misterwives

Superlove – Charli XCX

Ship to Wreck – Florence and the Machine

Ce Jeu – Yelle

Riptide – Vance Joy

Ain’t Nobody – Jasmine Thompson

Been There Before (Shook Remix) – Ghost Beach

Swept Away (Original Mix) – Para for Cuva and Anna Naklab

Comfortable (Lightwaves Remix) – The Knocks and The Ambassadors

Hotel California – Eagles

Cool Kids/Riptide – The Queen and King ft. Less Is More

Billie Jean – The Civil Wars

Stolen Dance – Milky Chance

L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N – Noah And The Whale

Forget – Marina and the Diamonds

Say My Name – ODESZA ft. Zyra

Oceans – Coasts

California – Delta Spirit

COOL – LE YOUTH

Shake, Shake Shake – Bronze Radio Return

Heartbeat (Lightwaves Remix) – VÉRITÉ

CLICK HERE for this playlist on Spotify

TIPS FOR FINDING NEW MUSIC

– Spotify WILL be your best friend. Go on to the ‘Browse’ section and see what they’re suggesting!

– Is it just me that gets annoyed when Youtubers don’t list songs in the description box? That’s what Shazam was made for! Or if that doesn’t work, try Googling some of the song lyrics.

– Listen to different radio stations.

– Look at other country’s charts. Or even the charts from 10 years ago!

– Try different genres, such as Indie or Jazz (or K-Pop…)

Hope you enjoyed that! I’ve never done a post focused on music before, it was really fun!

What are your favourite songs and artists? I’d love to try some new music!

Lots of Love,

Lottie ♥

 Twitter – Instagram – lotsoflovelottie – Facebook – Bloglovin – Spotify