Ciara O'Doherty (Tea Time With Ciara)

Before Christmas I went to the Hilton Hotel to try the Festive Afternoon Tea for the Bournemouth Blogger Meetup. It was such a fun afternoon and to finish the afternoon, Emma, a blogger who runs Bournemouth Bloggers, gave us all a little Christmas present. It was so sweet of her and also very unexpected, but I opened the present and out came a little hand cream.

This hand cream is from the A…

A little goal of mine this year is to read more books. I have this goal every year, however I’m not very good at completing this! However, at the end of December I decided that I was going to use my Christmas break wisely and take a break and relax by reading a book. I picked On the Other Side by Carrie Hope Fletcher as I have been meaning to read this book for ages, but have never got round to…

Now if you are one of my friends reading this then you are probably laughing right now due to the title. If you are a new reader of this blog you are probably thinking ‘How the hell is “Sketching” funny?’ Well my dear readers that is because I can’t and I don’t draw. However, I have been inspired to buy a sketchbook and pick up my pencils and start drawing again. I was inspired by one of my best…

My Breakfast Smoothie #smoothie #recipie #healthy

So like the majority of us I have recently got on to the smoothie train. So I went down to the Range and bought the Breville Blend Active VBL062. This is a blender specifically designed to make these smoothies and it’s for people like me who are on the go a lot as it comes with two bottles and tops so as soon as you have whipped up your smoothie all you have to do is just change the lid from the…

The Versatile Blogger Award!!! THANK YOU!

Today has been a good day. I found out I was nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award. This is my first ever nomination for something like this, so thank you to the wonderful Natalie’s Beauty Base for nominating me! THANK YOU! There are some rules for the versatile Award Thank the person who gave you this award. That’s common courtesy. Include a link to their blog. That’s also common courtesy –…

Remakes of the original bear

Last week I went with my Mum to go and visit the Winnie the Pooh: Exploring a Classic exhibition at the V&A Museum in London. I saw this pop up on a few vloggers that I watch on YouTube and I knew that I had to go and visit it at some point. I have been a massive fan of Winnie the Pooh (both the books and the Disney stuff) ever since I can remember. I’ve said many…

Before I went on all my summer holidays last year I knew that I needed a really good setting spray as I was off to Disney and I needed my makeup to last all day in fairly warm weather. There was no way that at the time I could’ve afforded some of the high end ones! I saw that Rimmel had brought out a brand new range called #Insta. As part of this collection they brought out the Rimmel London…

Ever since I’ve had a blog, I’ve always written a post about my new year resolutions, however, this year, I don’t really have any resolutions as I see resolutions as something I need to learn from the previous year. It’s normally because something went wrong the year before, but like I’ve said numerous times, 2017 was an incredible year for me, therefore there are no life changing lessons that I…

Happy New Year! I guess we all start the year with saying, gosh its weird to say 2018 and I can’t believe how quickly 2017 went, and occasionally we say that the previous year was a brilliant year and for me that is what 2017 was! It was brilliant!

I did so much and everything seemed to be incredible! Yes there have been some lows this year (especially December) however, 2017 will be saved in my…

I’m so excited for this next year! In fact I can’t wait! There is so much stuff that I am doing next year that I don’t think I’m going to be able to fit it into one blog post 😂.

LA ar in the first week of March I am heading to LA for the first time! I’m soooo excited! I’ve had this planned for like a year and a half! I’m going with my college as part of my film course. We are going to loads of…

Thanks for reading a long on this blogmas journey I have taken! I hope you have a Merry Christmas!

Love,

I have had a very busy yet very productive day today! I have baked cakes, been to church AND went to see some Christmas lights! I have had such a lovely day spending it with family and friends! It’s been lovely to enjoy some time with them!

Now I am sat with a cup of white hot chocolate about to finish wrapping my presents for the big day tomorrow!

Hope you have had a lovely Christmas Eve!

Snow fell as they played ‘White Christmas’ This was one of the best moments of the night as he walked down the aisle that we were sat on to open the show. I think this made my Grandma and her best friend Viv’s year! The girls of the Orchestra dressed up as traditional Dutch girls and danced a traditional Dutch dance. Cheeky shot of him before he goes on 😂

Yesterday, I headed up to London with my…

I recently did a little bit of food shopping with my Mum in M&S. We got to the tills and my eyes immediately spotted this book on Paddington, which is one of my favourite little bears, therefore, it went straight in my basket and at £3, I thought it was a bargain!

This children’s book is based on this years M&S Christmas Advert (which can I point out, is one of my favourite Christmas adverts of…

On Tuesday I was kindly invited to the Bournemouth Bloggers Christmas Meet-up at the Level 8ight Sky bar at the Hilton Hotel in Bournemouth. We were given the festive afternoon tea and spoiler alert, it was yummy! The Festive Afternoon Tea has loads to offer and something for everyone with plenty of different sandwiches and different sweet treats.

Incase you are unsure of how an afternoon tea…

On Sunday, I was invited to the Dorset Bloggers Christmas Party at the Trouville Hotel. I thought I would write a post so I could have a written memory of the night, almost like a diary entry with photos.

On arrival we all got a cocktail that tasted like strawberries! I’m still not sure what it was, but it was pretty yummy!

As soon as we sat down at our table, the food came rushing over! I had…

Craig Revel Horwood, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Mayflower Theatre.

Craig Revel Horwood, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Mayflower Theatre.

The cast features the strictly fab-u-lous Craig Revel Horwood and the hilarious Chuckle Brothers (my childhood summed up in two words!). There are references to both Strictly and Chuckle Vision throughout the show and it was honestly hilarious, whenever the the famous brothers, Paul and Barry, came on the theme tune to Chuckle Vision played, which was a real throwback! The brothers did all their classic jokes from to me to you!, to their classic way of saying Hello! Similarly, anytime the Queen (Craig Revel Horwood) came out the strictly theme music would play and he would constantly refer to different dances mainly the Cha Cha Cha!

Flawless were also part of the cast. Now don’t get me wrong, there dancing is flawless and I certainly could not dance like that, however I don’t feel like they really added anything to the show. I mean the 2 dances they did were incredible, but the show would not have been any less without them, but don’t let that put you off!

This panto is like no other that I have ever seen! Honestly, the opening  number is all about Southampton. I’ve never seen a show that have put so much thought into an area. The dancers even had the Southampton football club (commonly known as the Saints) scarf’s and used them in the dance sequence! They even used the song ‘When the Saints go Marching’ in as part of the music. I feel like lots of thought and research went into the opening song that if you were from Southampton (or knew the area well) you would understand and get. It also made me quite proud to live near Southampton!

It always amazes me how the theatre uses modern technology in their shows and this panto was no exception! At one point a dragon flew across the audience and I’m not even kidding it looked so real! I’ve not seen anything like this in a pantomime before and I was truly amazed! Not only did it fly once, but it flew twice! Once in the first act and once in the second! Another use of technology was the magic mirror. This was like a giant screen that whenever called upon would come out of the ground and an ogre like face would pop up and talk to the audience. It was incredible and again, nothing like I had ever seen in a panto before. I’m still in shock over it!

I’d like to mention Craig Revel Horwood again as I was COMPLETELY SHOCKED! HE CAN SING! Oh my, his rendition of ‘My Way’ was incredible, I could not believe that these beautiful sounds came out of his mouth! I was seriously impressed and he had some stunning costumes. To be honest, I think he had the best costumes of the lot! There was so much glitz and glam to his costumes! They were great!

Snow White (played by Charlotte Haines) was also an amazing singer and I think perfect for the role of the Princess. She was super sweet which is just like Snow!

I’d also like to mention the Chuckle Brothers again, as their comedy was perfect! Paul and Barry were honestly hilarious! They were throwing pies into the audiences faces, throwing crisps at us, water pistols and even attempted some magic along the way. I honestly think the funniest part of the show was when they tested out how sharp the sword was, it was so funny that I don’t think Paul could stop himself from giggling!

I’d also like to mention that Prince Harry from Hampshire (Oliver Savile) had a gorgeous body and I am very grateful to Queen Lucretia (Craig Revel Horwood) for ripping his shirt off in one of the songs in the first half! Sadly, I don’t have a photo of this 😂

As you can probably guess from my raving review, this pantomime is the best panto I’ve ever seen. I might even persuade my Mum if we can go see it again and this time I’d love to take my niece and nephew to see it as I think they will love it!

Whether you are from Southampton, or can get there easily, this pantomime is a must see! You can book tickets here, I couldn’t recommend the show enough!

A massive thank you to the Mayflower for the complementary tickets and photos! Thank you to Southampton Bloggers for the invitation.