stratford-upon-avon is known for its history of literature and plays written by william shakespeare. as well as this it also has a vast number of coffee shops. they seem to be the only businesses that thrive and survive here! it has independent coffee shops as well as international corporations such as starbucks so the choice really is endless. i thought i'd share some of my favourite smaller businesses that i think deserve lots of love and visits. 

stalls lifestyle – http://www.stallslifestyle.co.uk/

my mum showed me this little hidden gem that had been revealed to her by a friend. it’s in the middle of the countryside surrounded by fields and sheep and is the best setting to have a coffee and a cake. it has a relaxing summer house vibe which i love. it also has a shop attached to it that sells little knick-knacks and pretty items (my favourite kind of shop!). after going with my mum i couldn’t wait to tell more people about it and take them there with me so it gets the love and attention it deserves! (p.s you will need a car as it's a bit of a drive out of the town centre). 

orange mabel - https://www.facebook.com/orangestratford/

this place is a relatively new one to the town. it's old fashion design and sit down restaurant service makes it unique to any of the other coffee shops in stratford. the staff are so lovely, the food is great and is reasonably priced too. i recommend the cake shakes where they let you pick which piece of cake from their large and ever-changing selection you want on top of your milkshake. very yummy. 

boston tea party – http://www.bostonteaparty.co.uk/our_cafes/stratford.php

this one's more of a well known and grown business than all the others but i'll still include it. i love coming here for breakfasts with friends. they have so much choice for brunch food but i always end up with the pancakes with yoghurt and fruit as i'm not much of a full english breakfast girl. i tried their white chocolate milkshake last time i went and can confirm it was a good one. they also allow dogs! 

hoorays – http://hooraysgelato.com/

this place is actually an ice cream parlour but it also does coffee, cakes and warm light lunches too so i think it counts! i have been here endless amounts of times for ice cream, waffles and crepes. their flavours of ice cream are so exciting and unique and they change with the seasons which means there are always new ones to try. the picture below is of one of their craft shakes that i definitely wasn't able to finish by myself! 100% a place to go if you're as much of an ice cream fan as i am.

the other place – https://www.rsc.org.uk/restaurant-cafes-bars/susies-cafe-bar

last but not least, the place i'm currently sat writing this. my absolute favourite place to come and do work and probably the reason i passed my a-levels. this cafe is run by the rsc and is one of their performance venues but the cafe that's attached to it is such a nice quiet place to sit and do work. i'll continue to come here and buy a hot chocolate to sit and drink while i do work either with friends or on my own. the sweet potato fries are also incredible. and they allow dogs here too!

'today's good mood is sponsored by coffee'

being at university and having loud, drunken teenagers shouting outside at all hours of the morning and music being played until late in the evening has meant that sleep can sometimes be a struggle. not only that but a bed that isn’t as good as the one at home and a sometimes messed up sleep schedule have all impacted the quality of sleep i get. here’s some things i do to try and deal with it.

lush sleepy – this body lotion is a life saver when i’m struggling to fall asleep. i’d been recommended it by many sources, and seeing as twilight is my favourite lush bath bomb (which is the same scent as sleepy) i was 100% on board to try it. it’s lavender scent and smooth consistency is warmly relaxing and always helps me to calm down when i feel frustrated about still being awake in the early hours of the morning. a little goes a long way.
https://uk.lush.com/products/lavender/sleepy

bodyshop lavender oil – this has been one of my greatest discoveries when trying to solve any sleeping problems i’ve had. i simply put a few drips of this onto the corner of my mattress and the smell fills the room and gets into my system and sends me off to sleep. a word of warning would be that using too much can cause a strong smell that has before made me feel slightly sick. another trick with this that i love is that you can drop this into your bath before bed to start the relaxing bedtime routine off early.
https://www.thebodyshop.com/en-gb/fragrance/home-fragrance-oils/lavender-home-fragrance-oil/

an eye-mask – this has absolutely saved my life whilst being at university. having to sleep in a room where the blinds don’t prevent the light from coming in at all used to be a big problem for me. i’d wake up way too early and not be able to fall back asleep or not be able to get to sleep at all (daytime naps were especially a struggle!). but now at a small expense of less than £2 i can enjoy darkness whilst i regain my energy and have noticed my sleep quality improve. my eye-mask also has a gel cooling pad inside it which is great for headaches.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B075V9GWB4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

reading – everyone’s heard it a million times before… if you want to sleep better you should read before bed instead of going on your phone or watching tv. i find this enjoyable anyway as i read in my spare time and i do find the nights i read before bed i fall asleep much quicker. i also read a few chapters of a book if i’m unable to get to sleep throughout the night which usually works a treat at helping me nod off. even a non-fiction book will do the trick.

happy snoozing.

‘let’s start by taking a smallish nap or two...’ winnie the pooh

after spending (and wasting) too much money over the years buying skincare products that i haven’t liked or ended up not using, i thought it may be useful to share some products that haven’t let me down. (and even better they’re all cruelty-free!).

superdrug vitamin e oatmeal face scrub – potentially one of the best facial scrubs i’ve ever used and at an extremely reasonable price. i love many products from this skincare range but this one has to be my favourite. the scrub is so gentle but also full of a huge amount of exfoliating ingredients that feel natural and soft on the skin. (nothing like those scrubs you get that are more like a facial cleanser with a few tiny bits in them). i love the smoothness of my face after using this product and i will continue to repurchase it. it’s also made my skin clear up a lot.

https://www.superdrug.com/Skin/Face/Face-Scrubs/Superdrug-Vitamin-E-Facial-Scrub-100ml/p/282600

mario badescu rose water spray – when i first got this product i wasn’t convinced about it. i started out by using it as a toner water when i had no makeup on. after some time i decided i wasn’t a big of a fan of it for that purpose and it went back in my cupboard for a while. one day i was doing my makeup and a pinterest tutorial advised me to use a setting spray to make my glitter eyeshadow apply better and then to set my whole face of makeup afterwards. i read the back of this product and found it can be used for this purpose and now it’s an essential in my makeup routine. my glitter eyeshadow now looks even more pigmented and my makeup lasts even longer than it once did.

https://www.beautybay.com/skincare/mariobadescu/facialspraywithaloeherbsandrosewater/

lush grease lightning – i’m never against trying a lush product i haven’t used before. i was looking for a product that i could apply to individual spots when particularly bad ones appeared. i put this product on overnight when i find that i need its assistance and it brings the redness and swelling of the spot down to a manageable level. i don't use this product as frequently as the others but when it’s needed it does its job brilliantly.

https://uk.lush.com/products/spot-treatment/grease-lightning

‘be good to your skin. you’ll wear it every day for the rest of your life.’ 

reading is one of my favourite things to do. in august 2017 i decided that i wanted to move away from the books i was reading most at the time which was young adult and chick lit books and move onto books that were largely renown and recommended worldwide. and seeing as it was world book day yesterday, here’s four of my favourite books that i would tell everyone to read at some point in their life.

the handmaid’s tale by maragret atwood. 

before i properly started reading this i did a bit of research about it as from the first chapter i was a bit confused because it was one of the first dystopian novels i’d read. after that i understood what was happening so if you struggle at first with this i recommend doing that! this book is dark and can be very disturbing to read in parts but that only adds to the message it’s trying to give. although this book is by no means new, the points it makes about gender inequality and women’s oppression are still just as valid today. i’d highly recommend this book if you enjoy books with feminist themes in them.

‘better never means better for everyone. it always means worse, for some.’ commander fred

the diary of a young girl by anne frank.

this book was written in such a way that it’s hard to believe it’s a true story. when reading this i occasionally had to take a moment to process that what i was reading was by no means fiction and that anne frank was real and all her feelings she documented were actually felt. the idea of her, her family and her family friends being in hiding for as long as they were still blows my mind and it broke my heart to read how it ended. even as a fiction book it would be upsetting to read but as a true story, it’s even more devastating. however, no matter how sad, i think it’s important for people to read this to be able to understand just a small amount of how much suffering families involved in world war two felt.

'i’ve found that there is always some beauty left- in nature, sunshine, freedom, in yourself; these can all help you.’ anne frank

to kill a mockingbird by harper lee. 

i studied this book for my gcse english literature exam and honestly at the time it felt like a drag and i didn’t enjoy it that much. however, going back to it now being older and dare i say wiser it’s really grown on me and i can now appreciate the deeper themes of racism and inequality. scout’s naivety about the world creates a heart-warming way to narrate a story full of such dark issues from 1950’s american society. reading her journey of growing up and understanding how cruel the world is can be very bittersweet but also moving and i think everyone should experience it.

‘watch carefully, the magic occurs, when you give a person just enough comfort to be themselves.’ atticus finch.

murder on the orient express by agatha christie. 

i never thought i’d be one to read and actually enjoy an agatha christie book as the idea never really appealed to me before. my grandad wanted to buy me a book and the tesco i was at had limited choice but i saw the book and decided i may as well give it a try. i ended up loving it and hardly put it down until i’d finished it. as it’s a murder mystery there’s constantly twists and turns which made it so easy to want to keep reading. the number of characters included was a bit overwhelming to start with but eventually, i got used to it and started making my own predictions of who the murderer was.  

‘if you confront anyone who has lied with the truth, he will usually admit it – often out of sheer surprise.’ hercule poirot