All aboard the Margate train

All aboard the Margate train, whoop whoop. I only went for the day but next time I would get an Air B&B and look at staying for the weekend to fully appreciate this little slice of beachy heaven.

Location: Thanet, Kent

How to get there: On the train, from London Kings Cross, St Pancras its about £18 return.

Best for: A bit of beachy fun with friends and family.

1.    Dreamland

You can’t go to Margate and NOT visit the famous, Dreamland – to be honest it’s the only thing I have really heard about Margate including the quirky nature of the town. Dreamland has had huge investment in recent years with even more on the way. With attractions to suit every age including a Ferris Wheel, roller-coaster and even roller skating and funky food, such as Naughty Floss. This is truly a unique location which every inch is instagramable – you can even get married here.

TIP: Dreamland shuts at 6pm so make sure you go early to fit everything in.

2.    Ziggy’s Rooftop Bar

Head to Ziggyy’s Rooftop bar to catch those final rays of the day and watch the incredible sunsets whilst sipping cocktails.

3.    Fish & Chips

You can’t go to the seaside and not get Fish and Chips, we found a little place called ‘Peter’s Fish Factory Margate’ right by the pier, when we went the queue was HUGE but it’s worth the wait.

4.    Turner Contemporary Gallery

The Turner Contemporary Gallery stands in awe at the edge of the seaside and it is free to enter, which is always a bonus although places like this do survive on the kind donations from their visitors. The gallery has a rolling programme of exhibitions and is great to wonder around.

I was only there for a day so please note there are so many other things to see and do and I hope to be back soon.

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On-demand beauty with Missbeez

I don't know about you but there are never enough hours in the day, with a full time job and working as a full time blogger, I work pretty crazy hours. Beauty treatments like a hair treatment, waxing, manicures, pedicures and lashes are not only a luxury, they are maintenance for your body and sometimes rushing on your lunch hour or travelling home late after is not so luxurious! Well I have found the answer, not sure why I have not thought of this before but bring the beauty treatments to your home or office for on-demand beauty during lunch, after work or at the weekend. On-demand beauty is transforming the way busy woman consume beauty services and this all thanks to Missbeez.

Missbeez app is a simple way to book a beautician to your home or your office (or wherever you are!) and is currently available in specific locations in London’s zones one, two and three, which is fab as I live in Streatham which most people *cough* Deliveroo don't bother coming to!! If you do not live in these areas do not worry, Missbeez are looking to expand to Greater London in the next few months. 

I had a mani, pedi but you can also get hair removal, lashes and eyebrow shaping with make-up, spray tan and hair treatments to come shortly. On my toes I went for a lovely coral colour from Essie, which I think is tangerine. The amount of colours my beautician had was insane. After deciding on colours my job was done so I just relaxed with Sunday Morning Brunch in the background - because I am cool and like to think of food on Sunday mornings. For my hands I went for a more neutral gel polish that came out quite creamy with a tinge of pink which I am head over heels for.

It is nice change to turn your lounge into a bit of a spa for the morning and I can imagine this would be fun with a few friends, a few bottles of bubbly, candles and a few Missbeez beauty professionals on hand to deliver treatments.  

If you are a dab hand at beauty Missbeez are big advocates of empowering self-employed woman to grow their own business and reach financial independence, which is just the icing on the cake for me. It is nice when a brand is helping the overall industry and well as their own business.

As an added bonus, Missbeez offer £20 off your first treatment (use my link bit.ly/29VBoEw) meaning a gel manicure which normally costs £29, will only cost £9! With that price, you would be crazy to miss out! 

This post is sponsored but all opinions and my love for on-demand beauty and time saving luxuries are all ME. 

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How to start a blog

This is a blog dedicated to all my lovely readers who have been asking 'How do you go about starting a blog?' instead of a rambling email I thought I would ramble through a blog post. Now obviously this is just for starters there is lots more your can do but I am starting right from the beginning. If you want me to add any section please comment below.

When I started Time2Gossip I was a bit scared of being in the public eye and I did not want people to know it was me writing so I did not want to use the simple option of my own name. Thining about it now it would have been easier! After brainstorming for a while I went for a tongue n' cheek name of Time2Gossip, it is a little bit cheesy and maybe it is slightly an unprofessional name but Time2Gossip was born. 

TIP: Before you finalise your name check the core social media channels and that a URL is available. Sometimes using your actual name can be the easiest thing.

You have the name and if you are going to write blog and not just a YouTube channel or Instagram feed then there are two main options for a platform:
1. Blogger: I use blogger, it is simple to use and easy to setup. You can have a pretty looking blog in just a few clicks.
2. Wordpress: Now I do not know too much about Wordpress but over the past few months I have been thinking that it might be worth the big move. With more features and better SEO functions, it could be the better option for me. There are some downsides though it is a lot more complicated to function and with so many apps and add on's there is a lot more to choose from so added confusion.

There are so many different social media channels, it is hard to decide which one to go for...Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram and many more. It is important to choose the most important channels for your content I personally focus on Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat as my core channels.

TIP: It might be worth reserving your name in the majority of the channels, even if you are not going to use them straight away.

To start a blog you do not really need much, just a creative mind but I thought I would share the equipment I use just in case you are looking to take the next step.
Laptop:I upgraded my laptop situation in December when my brother gave me his old Laptop a MacBook Pro and it has really transformed the way I blog. It is a lot faster and iMovie has helped my develop my Youtube channel.
Notebook: I was given a Bullet Notebook and I LOVE it, I find it so useful to jot down all my ideas, keep track of my content etc
Camera: I am currently using an Olympus PEN E-PL7, you have probably seen a lot of bloggers posing with these because they are pretty, compact and amazing quality. I have two lens a 45 mm lens which makes me look so pretty and blurred in outfit shots and a 14-42 mm lens for more generic shots.
Phone: I upgraded in September last year to the iPhone 6s as the camera on the 5 was pretty pants.

The next bit of equipment I am thinking of investing in is some home studio lighting, when UK weather is a little bit pants.

So you have everything ready to go but what are you going to write about? Do you have a defined theme: beauty, travel, fashion, wedding or a little bit of everything.

I have a monthly content strategy that I plan around loosely but try and post about three times a week. When you have finished your post remember to label your post with relevant tags and add a relevant search description and add ALT text description to all of your images  (this all helps with SEO).

So you can either get images from PR agencies or there are free stock images websites but if you are going to take you own images you will need to do a bit of editing. I use a few different things on my phone FaceTune and VSCO are the main ones and I usually just brighten my images and sharpen them slightly. For my website banners I use Canva.

TIP: Make sure your photos are not HUGE best is to be 70-200kb.

So I have no idea how useful this is but hope it helps. Anything you need me to add just let me know.

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Six 2016 Goals

I have been thinking a lot about 2016 and what I want to achieve so I thought I would set myself some personal and professional goals that hopefully will be achievable. I have made resolutions in the past but they never work and usually include me losing 1000s pounds to make myself look like a bikini model – it never worked! Therefore setting goals might do the trick…and none of them include my weight J

1.       Travel A LOT More

Who wouldn’t want to travel around the world! My blog has taken me to some amazing places and my parents live in America so I have been to some lovely places but not enough and I also want to explore the UK more, I am so useless in exploring my own country. I blame not having car but that is a whole other goal. So I am setting myself a goal of travelling to 12 new places so I have been to Cabo, Mexico and have Austria next week which is not bad for the second week of January if I do say so myself. Then I have booked Jersey in February and Iceland in March so the year is already looking travel packed.

2.       Get Me Behind A Wheel

I really want a car; more precisely I really want the Fiat 500!!! Although I am not the best driver…let me rephrase that I want a car so Adam can drive me around. I don’t know about you but as I am getting older I feel you need one to explore more places (enter Goal number 1), see family more often and generally not have to lug groceries a mile down the road.

3.       Buy A Second House

So this goal is a long shot but best to aim for the sky and all that jazz. I have always been a tiny bit obsessed with buying a house, bit of a strange uni student saving instead of wasting my pennies on cheap alcohol. I have now owned my own home for two years and I am getting itchy feet again and think it might be fun/hard work to ‘Flip a House’ to quote Modern Family (another goal, should probably be to watch TV less. I think I am now on to my 100^th time watching Modern Family…. #sorrynotsorry)

4.       Raise My Social Media Game

Numbers are not everything but it does make me feel happy when I get a new follower on one of my channels as I love interacting with my readers. With this digital age social media stats is becoming far superior to blog ones. So my goal for the year is 15k on Twitter and 20k on Instagram, if I don’t make it I won’t cry but if you want to follow me I will love you forever, here are the links:

Twitter: www.twitter.com/time2gossip

Instagram: www.instagram.com/fionalouisekay

5.       Start A Shop

I have always wanted to own my own store, e-store even. I have been batting around several ideas for a few years now and the time has come to buckle down and just do it. My next step is to confirm the 5 products I will start with and get them made, simples. Sorry I can’t go into too much detail ATM but I don’t really know anything yet but hopefully more information will be with you soon.

6.       Actually Launch My YouTube Channel

I have been saying this for months so apologises, I keep creating them and I just don’t think they are good enough but now I have a Mac and IMovie there are no more excuses.

There you are my 6 goals for the year; they are not super crazy so hopefully each one is achievable. What are you hoping to achieve this year?

Fiona

XxX

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Review: Aura ADM Contact Lenses | #AuraChallenge

I have been set a challenge to try out Aura Lenses from VisionDirect and I am GAME. With not being able to see the TV, amongst many other things I wear glasses daily but I have never taken the plunge to wear contacts or put my finger in my eye – SCARY is the word associated with contact lenses for me. With my eyesight getting worse (sob) I thought this was a great chance to put some hydrogels in my eyes and review something a bit out of my comfort zone.

If you decide to try contact lenses make sure you go to the opticians first as sometimes the prescription will be different to your normal glasses prescription and they will help you try them out for the first time. So after having my eyes tested, they were in great condition by the way, both my eyes are the same prescription so easy peasy. I was told that my eyes were a little dry so the Aura ADM 1 Day lenses were a perfect match as they are high quality and the hydrogel is treated with a solution that ensures your eyes keep hydrated throughout the day as lenses can sometimes dry them out!

Vision Direct UK have a wide array of choices on their website and it is really easy to order with free next day delivery and the box fits though the letter box. After looking around, Vision Direct is considerably cheaper than buying lenses from a store and why would you want to when they get delivered, convenience forever! The Aura ADM 1 Day lenses are exclusive for Vision Direct and work out at £15.98 for 30 lenses for both eyes. There are lots of options out there for dailies or monthlies but dailies just sounded like the more hygienic option and you don’t need to worry about anything else.

As I am using contact lenses for the first time, it was quite a scary experience at the start when I finally got the courage to put them in I could not believe how normal it felt and the fact I could see – it was a full on OMG moment. Don’t listen to anyone that tells you that it will feel strange, it felt the same BUT I could actually see posters on the other side of the room – pretty incredible if I do say so myself! After wearing the lenses for a while all I can say is how normal is feels and the simplicity of the process they are simple to get in and out and the fact you can throw them away and pop a new one in the next day is again simple. They are super comfortable and really don’t feel like you have anything in your eye, which was what I was most afraid of, not feeling myself but that totally was not the case.

So I can safely say that although I am a first time contact lens wearer it definitely won’t be the last and with Aura ADM 1 day lenses being so comfortable and great value for money I can’t see why you would need anything else. So if you are a non-contact wearer give them ago you won’t be turning back.

In collaboration with Vision Direct 

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Review: Fleur de Force Eyelashes

Bloggers and Vloggers are bringing out products left, right and centre these days mainly with good old Superdrug - jealous much?!? Yes!!! If I got asked to bring out a beauty product it would definitely be a toss-up between nail polishes or eyelashes and Eyelure lashes are my go-to night out essential.

On to Fleur de Force with an enviable following, I mean hundreds of thousands and a fab YouTube channel I am sure her fans will be flocking to snap up her lashes with out anyone needing to review them. On first glance Fleur has used my favourite colour palette of pastels making the packaging very girly. On a more technical level Fleur's lashes feature 'stone-ground lash tips' which is new technology for Eylure, softening each lash tip for a more natural look. 

Simply Fleur: These are not really my style for lashes, a bit thin and fan out a bit too much, they look more of a day time lash if you don't want a style that is too thick.

Fleur & Fabulous: These are my faves adding VOLUME but not so much that I scream "too much makeup love"! I sometimes feel that with fake lashes they are two crazy at the side and make your eyes look two heavy and pretty ridiculous. I always trim fake eyelashes so they don't go too far off the eye. (Fleur & Fabulous are featured in the photos below)

Couture Fleur: This style lash are literally a life saver they will bring your lashes to life when they are looking a bit 'blah' and not look fake at all - you literally just need to add two or three to the edges of your eyes for a more voluminous look and Fleurs are great.

Eyelash Tip: Once you place the glue on the eyelash run it along your lash line and then re-apply glue to the lash. So when you attach the fake lash you have a guide and some tackiness for the lash to attach.  

The collection starts from £5.25

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