Winter Essentials

It's almost the end of November, and it is seriously freezing over here in the UK! Definitely prepping for Winter (although I already started shopping for winter clothes around October haha). The most important thing for me during Winter is to keep warm, as I get cold so easily! So below are some Winter essentials I think would come in handy:

Image source: Keblog

1. Heated blanket

This is good for keeping warm when you're snuggling on the couch or when you're sleeping - who else has difficulty sleeping when it's cold? Well this will keep you warm throughout the night!

Image source: Pinterest

2. Fluffy slippers/slipper boots

I absolutely love wearing my fluffy slippers around the house during the Winter, it just feels so snug! 

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8 Tips On How To Be Your Own Boss

Being your own boss can be really exciting - you can finally do what you want and be who you want to be, but at the same time it can be very stressful as you have to juggle so many different things at once! Here are some tips on how you can be more productive and successful running your own business coming from my own experience as I am currently working towards that goal too, so I try to incorporate the following things in my daily life:

1. Set a schedule:

It is so important to set a schedule and stick to it, and make each day a specific type of day. For example, Mondays could be meetings with clients, Tuesdays could be photoshoot day and Wednesdays could be editing day. This helps to structure your week and makes it easier to plan tasks.

2. Work smarter, not harder

If you also have another job or are at uni whilst you're trying to start something new such as a blog or your own business, the key is not to work harder, but to work smarter. So on days when you have time to blog, make sure you prepare multiple blog posts and schedule them to post, so that you don't have to keep writing blog posts everyday. If you're having a photoshoot, make sure to plan ahead and take lots of photos in one go that you can store away on your computer and use for later, which may come in handy for a future blog post. This will help to avoid shooting photos last minute or on the day that you want to publish.

3. Plan ahead

For any business, you'll make your life so much easier if you just plan ahead. It will save you the stress of doing or creating something last minute, and your potential clients will also thank you for it too.

4. Prioritise your work

It can help to write a to-do list of all the things you want to do, and then prioritise which are the most important tasks. It can be to do with work, up-coming trips, socials - this can ensure that you get everything done in the order that it needs to be done.

5. Wake up earlier

For many of you, you may be like me and feel more productive at night than in the mornings, and feel inclined to wake up around noon and work till 2am, especially if you're working from home. But honestly, if you want to be professional, it's best to wake up earlier and start work at the same time as a normal office person as most people will send you emails and call you during the day. So you don't want to be replying to them 6 hours later as they might not take you seriously.

6. Go to sleep earlier

This goes without saying - as I mentioned above, if you're going to wake up earlier, you're going to need to go to bed earlier! Not only so that you can get up in the morning, but sleep is really important for your body and mind to rest and re-charge, so aim to get your 7-8 hours sleep every night.

7. Save money

Being your own boss comes with its own risks, and there may be times when you won't get paid  - so be prepared. A lot of companies don't always pay on time, or if your business is experiencing a slump, then it definitely helps to save money along the way in case this ever happens, so you have something to fall back on and aren't left in a frenzy. Don't let this put you off from being your own boss though, as it does come with it's own perks too!

8. It's okay to say 'No'

You might be at the stage where people are reaching out to work with you, but their goals might not align with yours, or may be unrealistic for you to achieve, or you don't really have any interest in working with them, then it's okay to reject them - remember you don't have to please everyone! It's better to be honest about it as you could actually let them down more if you said yes you'd do something but failed to deliver or come through on your promises.

So those are my 8 tips on how to be your own boss, I hope this helped you in some way, whether you're thinking of starting your own business or have already started! These tips definitely helped me with starting my own blog, so if you enjoyed this post please subscribe to see more! :) I'd also love to hear what you guys think, so feel free to leave a comment below!

Until next time,

Carissa xxx

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Rose Latte - AIDA Shoreditch

Not gonna lie, we came here just so we could try their rose latte, which by the way, looks so beautiful (I think you’ll agree). The café, called AIDA, is actually a clothes shop but also serves coffee and other beverages. I’ve never been in a half-café-half-shop before so this was pretty cool.

It was about a 20 minute walk from Bethnal Green station to Shoreditch high street, and it wasn’t too hard to spot. The interior looked very cosy and warm surrounded by dark brick walls, large wooden tables and chairs to sip your coffees upon, and at the back was the main shop with clothes and accessories.

We ordered our rose lattes and took our time sipping it as we didn’t want to ruin the pretty coffee art! It was actually really pink and had a strong rosey taste that was really nice and it wasn’t over-powering. The little rose petals on the top just adds the finishing touch (and no it’s not edible, tried and tested by us already XD) There were other coffee on the menu that were really tempting too, such as the matcha latte, sunshine latte (yellow) and fresh chai latte.

After taking a million photos of our coffee, we browsed the shop, which has an upstairs and downstairs. There were some vintage and quirky clothing and accessories, but I didn’t purchase anything as they were too colourful (my wardrobe is predominantly black, white and grey haha).

I definitely recommend giving this place a visit (more so for their coffee) if you’re visiting London, and Shoreditch high street is a great place for shopping and there’s usually market stalls around too if you’re into that kind of thing.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed reading my post!

Carissa xxx

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Charcoal Ice Cream - Soft Serve Society

I didn't even know this place existed until I saw pictures of it on Instagram, and then I thought I HAD to go there and try it for myself! I'd showed it to my boyfriend before and he thought it looked like poop -.- come on, it looks cute though right? XD Anyway, so my friend and I decided to go there one day - we headed down the street in London Shoreditch following our trusty google maps and we found it amongst a long line of shops called BoxPark (that were very cute and quirky too). After getting over the shock of not getting lost for once, we headed inside the Soft-Serve Society ice cream shop...

We both ordered a charcoal and coconut ice cream with marshmallow - there was a lot of choice on the menu, from freakshakes to soft-serve sundaes with candyfloss and candy! But they seriously give you a lot of ice-cream, so I'd recommend going with a large group of people if you want to try lots of different ice cream :P The shop itself is tiny though, so it can be quite crowded.

Soft serve ice cream is basically ice cream that's softer than regular ice cream due to putting air into it during freezing, and it gives it a smoother texture. The ice cream we tried was very smooth, and it tasted good aswell! The charcoal-coconut combination was really nice as I could taste the charcoal flavour but it was sweetened by the coconut, so was not bitter at all surprisingly. We spotted a couple doing a vlog of their freakshakes, and who would blame them, it looked amazing! Their freakshake was so crazy we just had to take a picture of it:

It was definitely worth visiting and we would want to visit it again to try their other funky ice cream!

Hope you enjoyed this post :) To see more foodie reviews like these, click here.

Carissa xxx

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GAZA London: Korean Dessert Review

I love trying new dessert places, especially if they're Korean desserts like Patbingsu! (shaved ice with fruit and cream). On a casual day out in London, my boyfriend and I decided to visit a new dessert place called GAZA in Soho, London, which we had heard a lot of good reviews for! They had some quirky desserts on the menu so we decided to check it out.

We ordered a mixed fruit patbingsu that had strawberries, mango and blueberries, honey butter bread and an iced matcha frappuccino to share. The actual café was quite small but there was some seating downstairs with a little shopping area. The café was Korean themed (with kpop songs playing in the background) and I liked the minimalist décor.

This matcha frappuccino was really good!

Overall, although the desserts were certainly eye-catching, beautifully displayed and Instagram-worthy, they didn't really meet our expectations - the mixed fruit patbingsu was so icy it was as if it had just come out of the freezer! The ice is supposed to be soft and fluffy (that's why it's called shaved ice) but it wasn't, and the fruit was hard aswell. So not great! The honey butter bread was even worse... it had so much chocolate sauce on it that it should've been called chocolate bread instead! There was no honey taste to it and the bread was so difficult to cut through. So 10/10 for food display, but we wouldn't recommend going here as it was a let down :(

But why waste the pretty photos? So I've decided to include it in my blog anyway so we can appreciate the aesthetics (even though we'll have to use our imagination when it comes to the taste) and to give an honest review about it! Sorry to burst your bubble ><

There were other interesting food on the menu like Korean rice burgers, but we didn't fancy it. Maybe another time, in another café! XD

Thanks for reading this post, I hope you enjoyed it (promise there'll be good café reviews too!). To see more food reviews, click here.

Carissa xxx

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