Animal Kingdom, Fitness, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Nature, Weekend Friday Favourites

Weekend Friday Favourites

by natjtanLeave a Comment on Weekend Friday Favourites

I hope you’re having a great weekend! I can’t believe that we’re half way through November! While I’m in a puffer jacket and only just started layering in the evenings a jumper underneath out, the cold hasn’t started here yet. In fact it’s still a little warmer than usual. November’s usually around 16C in BCN with this year midday temps 19-20C. I’m still running in shorts!

Mid autumn fall light

Anyway this week’s Weekend Friday Favourites, things that have made me smile or caught my eye recently. 

Light

One thing I do like and perhaps the only thing I like about the chiller shorter days is the light. If you’re wrapped up warm the light’s magical.

Halloween Eve Blue Hunter Full Moon Rise

Birds Song

Catalunya from 06.00 Friday to 06.00 Monday has placed municipal weekend confinements to slow the pace of Covid-19. We’re only allowed to leave said towns and villages for work, medical, essential shopping if we can’t get in it in the said town or village, exceptional travel reasons. However we can walk, run, cycle across municipals. Stores are still open. It’s actually in effect from Thursdays 22.00 as Spain is under a nation wide curfew from 23.00-06.00 with regions able to change it an hour each side. It’s a pain at the weekends more so as the Zoo reopened this weekend and I can’t go. I can cycle around it, not visit. Monday I can! Anyway a bonus is before traffic picks up Sunday mornings you can hear birds singing. 

Hanhan Official Scrunchies

A new store opened in the centre selling Miin Cosmetics. A new Miin store I didn’t know about?! It’s in fact Miin’s sister opening her own shop, Hanhan Official selling contemporary Asian costume jewellery and accessories as well a selection of Miin Cosmetics. The large jar of scrunchies at check out caught my eye. I needed to replace mine and was after ones that wouldn’t snag my hair. The material has to be smooth enough to do so without getting tangled up and pulling out hair. These looked perfect and they were. So much so I went back and got 2 more before they sold out! 

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Beauty and Skin Care, Lifestyle, Recycle Less

Beauty Finds: Bar Body Soaps

by natjtan2 Comments on Beauty Finds: Bar Body Soaps

Welcome to another Beauty Finds! This edition is soap. More specifically body soap. One of the first things I switched out when I started wanting to use less plastic was shower gel. Its alternative being soap. An old fashioned bar of soap which I think now is having a huge comeback as people leave plastic bottles behind.

And not just any soap! Firstly it has to be cruelty free, plastic packaging free, palm oil and it’s derivatives free and petrochemical and it’s derivatives free along with being free of a host of other nasty ingredients. With most of my beauty products I try to think about the environment after products have been washed or flushed down the drain. Just like all my other beauty products, in addition to being cruelty free, palm oil and petrochemical and their derives free (I might allow 4th or 5th generation petrochemical) I do my best to avoid parabens, phthalates, SLS, PEGS and a load of other nasty ingredients. I choose to avoid palm oil as I prefer orangutans. Its alias like petroleum can be tricky. I try if possible not to go coconut oil as it’s crops can be just as bad as palm oil crops. If I can I prefer to use sustainable palm and coconut oil. With skincare it’s bit more tricky so I go for cruelty free and try to avoid some nasty ingredients. My skin type is oily, sensitive, acne and now those wrinkles! Body skin type dry. 

Outlaw Soaps Home On the Range Soap 

I was sad when I finished using this as I know I won’t be able to get it again. It was a USA find earlier this year on holiday from Wholefoods. Blackberry scented but not if you get me. It’s a little more musky than I go for but I liked it nonetheless. It didn’t irritate my skin, it left my skin hydrated, I liked it’s creamy texture and it didn’t leave scum marks in the shower that are a bugger to clean off. It’s scent so strong that between uses it lingered in and around the bathroom. Even the packaging I saved to write it up still has its scent. As for the packaging, I like it for what it is. Undyed cardboard to fit its rustic feel. The only cons I have are: the colourings as it what they are, is it vegetable colouring, is it natural, is it environmental friendly and the fragrance oil: what is it in case of reactions. Would I repurchase? Yes if I could get it in Europe. 

The soap swirls are cool! Mona Lisa here
Dog or cat here.
The surprises inside the packaging added to the soap! The horse reminds me of ballon horses!

Sappo Hill Almond Soap

Another USA find I was sad to finish. I found this in a weird organic, super health food shop in Oahu. An expensive health food shop. But it is on an island with prices higher due to import. There’s nothing fancy about Sappo Hill’s packaging. Only plastic the price sticker. It comes in a display box which you select from. It was also the cheapest cruelty free soap I found in the USA and for now in Europe that’s plastic packaging free.

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Food, Lifestyle

Nat Makes No Bake Muesli

by natjtan1 Comment on Nat Makes No Bake Muesli

My second breakfast or mid morning snack is usually muesli, fruit and soya yoghurt or 2 blondies muffins and a cup of green tea. I don’t do smoothies so it’s a great way to get in extra fruit. 

I prefer uncooked muesli and P was amazed at how much it costs. Being the chef he is, he was you can make it yourself for cheaper! Initially hesitant, I was game as long as I didn’t have to cook it.

After hearing how easy it is, no cooking involved I was in. Initial shop of ingredients perhaps it isn’t cheaper, in the long run it is. Bonus you can put what you want in and know what you’re putting in. Currently my muesli mix consists of oats, barley oats, puffed spelt and raisins. Yummy! Depending on where you buy the ingredientes it can save on plastic packaging as you’ll be getting through the ingredients slower than one individual bag of muesli. If you can get the ingredients in bulk bin places using cotton produce bags no plastic involved your end.

It’s so easy to make. Select what you want to put in to the quantities you want to include. Select a container with a lid, shake it up and voila your own muesli! Easy peasy! 

Do you prefer baked or non bakes muesli? I prefer non baked as it contains no added sugar otherwise I’d eat it like a bag of crisps/chips/sweets/candy.

Animal Kingdom, Animals, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Nature, Photography, Travel

City Wildlife #1

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It’s no surprise on Instagram most accounts I follow are nature based. Lots of animals, rescue centres, shelters and organisations, landscapes, the seas and oceans. I get a little envious of golden misty foggy wood scenes as I grew up in the countryside. However I equally get envious, maybe more of beautiful seas and oceans waves and shorelines. 

Get that itch! Heron

This year when out, more so at the zoo I tried to take less non zoo resident photos otherwise my photos are almost the same repeat each week. I look for the light, parrots, ducks at the park, birds flying, trees, nature cityscapes while trying to avoid taking photos of humans. Sometimes I don’t mind humans in them. If I can I like the focus on nature. She’s the star of this planet. Anyways, wildlife from July at the Barcelona Zoo, at the park: Parc de la Ciutadella , in the city.

Wrong camera speed. Wherever Mama duck went, they went. It was so cute when they started diving with their bums sticking up out the water
I think a crane nesting above an enclosure
I watched him/her land on the leaf and as soon as I said thank you silently for letting me take their photo, it flew away
Ducks at dusk
Zoo cat
Zoo cat

This summer I saw so many butterflies! Colourful ones at the zoo. White ones while running along with dragonflies. A few moths too and hardly any mosquitos!!! I think mosquitos only bite me when they’re desperate however this year the apartment was almost free of them. That doesn’t mean I didn’t escape not being bit by bugs this summer. It’s almost as if the mosquitoes knew and let the other bug have its go. On holiday I got bite by a tick which got infected, ending up in ER as it wasn’t clearing up. The night before going in the skin around it started to swell up. The doctors were closed and I didn’t want to chance it over the weekend. A course of antibiotics cleared it up and I’ll be left once the redness has gone down another white patch of non pigmented skin to join the other assorted bites and cuts white patches.

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Animal Kingdom, Lifestyle, Nature, Weekend Friday Favourites

Weekend Friday Favourites

by natjtanLeave a Comment on Weekend Friday Favourites

Happy November!

I hope you’re having great weekend and welcome back to another Weekend Friday Favourites! Spain declared last week another state of alarm to combat covid-19’s 2nd wave and is in place for 6 months. Unlike back in March it’s not a total confinement. For now a nationwide curfew from 23.00-06.00. Regional governments can alter an hour each way. Catalunya had already closed all bars and restaurants for 2 weeks unless providing takeaway with group meetings to a maximum of 6 people. Regions can also stop cross region travel however Spanish borders will remain open. In addition this week the Catalan Government set the curfew 22.00-06.00 with further measures this week of weekend municipal confinements from 06.00 Friday to Monday 06.00. We’re allowed to cross town borders to exercise but not shop unless for essentials not close by. All shopping centres/malls, gyms, the zoo, cinemas are closed for initially 2 weeks apart from supermarkets with other shops limited to retail size and people capacity. Bars and restaurants unless takeaway remain closed. I’m happy it’s not a total confinement like last time. I think I’ll crazy for sure if it was. 

Anyways, Weekend Friday Favourites, things that have made me smile or caught my eye recently. 

Jigsaw Puzzles

I used to do jigsaw puzzles as a kid and really enjoyed them. My Dad helped although he only did a few pieces before his patience and boredom set in. I’m hoping they’ll break up screen time in the evenings. I spend way too long on my phone particularly YouTube when I get back. Ironically it was YouTube video which gave me the idea. They’re not something I can find easily in the shops! My local supermarket has tiny selection* so it’ll be online for more. This one took me 5 days to complete. What I thought was 10 minutes was 30 minutes or more! I didn’t get much done 2 weekends ago as I was too busy ‘wasting’ time on it. But it’s a good wasting time as I’m using my brain. I felt a little proud when I completed it! I have 2 more already to start (* thank you Christmas toys board games in stock in that local supermarket). This one came with optional glue mix to keep it complete but I’m looking forward to trying it again to see if it’ll be easier, if I recognise pieces and places. Yep. Nerdy.

Crescent Moon Necklace

This is what happens when you watch Hotel Luna on Netflix. A fantasy Kdrama about an hotel that’s for ghosts, souls to rest, resolve grudges before moving onto the afterlife. Only ghosts can see it save the one human employee who helps the owner. The owner each episode wears at least one moon inspired price of jewellery and that’s how I ended up on Etsy looking at moon necklaces. I won’t lie, last week when the moon was a waning crescent to half moon I felt like I was twinning with it.

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