A DAY AT SCULPTURE BY THE LAKES IN DORSET

Saturday

*Press Visit - all opinions are my own.
I recently went for a day out at Sculpture by the Lakes in Dorset with my friend Kitty, which was organised by Bournemouth Bloggers and Darren Northeast PR. This was actually my first event with Bournemouth Bloggers and I'm looking forward to attending more with them.

Face Sculpture

Sculpture by the Lakes is a beautiful sculpture park near Dorchester. It was really easy to find with a satnav and as we arrived we were greeted by friendly staff. They have social distancing measures in place to make sure the park is safe for everyone, tickets must also be bought in advance from their website.

It should be around a 45 minute drive from Bournemouth, however, I was travelling from my home in Wiltshire and it only took me an hour and 3 minutes to get there.

Near the entrance, there was a cafe doing takeaway food and drinks. They also had an art gallery and a little bit where they kept rescue dogs. There was a spaced out seating area to eat lunch near the entrance. However, there are lots of quiet seating areas dotted about the whole park.

Children under 14 and dogs are unfortunately not allowed to attend, due to the depth of the lakes.

Quote at Sculpture by the Lakes
Lauren at Sculpture by the lakes
Sculpture

We spent about 3 hours at Sculpture by the lakes. Any time we thought we were nearly finished walking round, we would discover a new path with more sculptures. It is such a photogenic place as you will see from my pictures.

It was so much fun looking at the sculptures and due to all the lovely seating areas, we were able to sit right by the lake and have a nice catch up as well. There were a couple of huge fish that would flop out of the lake from time to time. We also saw some sort of water snake swimming along the top of the lake, which is something I'd never seen before.

Sculpture head
Birds

There are really pretty places to hire here for parties too, for when big parties will be able to go ahead again. 

I would definitely recommend visiting Sculpture by the Lakes to see some wonderful art and nature. It is such a peaceful place and allows you to walk but also take breaks and sit down, to take in the scenery. I know lots of people have been doing a lot of walking lately, and this is the perfect chance to see something different as you can walk but also stop to look at the sculptures and take pictures.

Bird Sculpture
Lauren on swing

Where is your favourite outdoor place to go? Let me know in the comments.

If you are looking for playlist inspiration for the car journey for a a day out, check out my 20 Songs to Chill Out to post.

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HOW BLOGGERS PRACTICE SELF CARE

Friday

I love to practice self care and am always interested to see how others practice self care. This week, I am sharing how some of my favourite bloggers practice self care. Make sure you check out their blogs. If you'd like to see how I like to look after myself, I have written a guide to self care over on Amber's blog at The Unpredicted Page.

Self Care Isn't Selfish

Luci Barker
I’m Luci from www.lucibarker.co.uk which is a little bit of everything blog. I write about Beauty, Lifestyle, Travel, Fashion and Blogger Help posts too.

During the last few months I have been taking some time to practice self care because in my day to day life I don’t make enough time to do it. Some of the ways I practice self care is have a bit of a pamper. I have a warm bath with some ESPA Baths Oil, my favourite one is the fitness one. It relaxes the muscles and smells amazing too. Hair masks and face masks are so simple to do but make me feel a million dollars. I usually put my diffuser on with my lavender essential oil and put on of my audible books on to chill out.

Other ways I practice self care is doing a workout or some yoga, I usually have a massage at least once a month (I do work in a salon so this is very easy and also very tempting for me to have one when I’m giving them all day everyday.) I’m also trying to be a lot more positive and manifesting and I’ve noticed such a positive change in my way of thinking. Quotes are also a fab way to do this.

The Black Princess Diaries
Self care is so important! I believe that people need to learn to practice it more…including myself. I’m not the best at consistently practicing self care, but I try every so often to take some time out of my day to show myself some self love. It’s especially important now with all of the chaos in the world. Here are a few of my favorite ways that I love to practice self care!

Mini Spa. I love to almost have like a mini spa. I take a nice hot shower where I’ll wash my hair if need be, shave, etc. It feels so good to when I come out the shower all smooth and with clean hair. After the shower, I’ll put on a face mask. I love to use the Aztec clay mask. It works really well for me. I also put it on my hair sometimes. While my mask is setting, I’ll moisturize my body so my skin is nice and soft. Once my mask is done, I’ll moisturize my face and put on some lip balm. Lastly, I’ll do my nails and toes. Once done, I feel so refreshed and like a new woman!

Binging YouTube and TV. Another favorite way I like to practice self care is to step away from work for a bit and to just catch up on episodes I’ve missed or YouTube videos. Right now I haven’t been at my job since Covid, but typically I’m working there as well as working on my blog. My blog alone takes most of my days, so both really keep me exhausted and busy. Planning time to just relax and binge watch shows and video really help me to calm my brain and relax for a little bit.

Hanging with friends. For me, hanging with my friends is a form of self care because it gets me out of my house and because my friends always make me laugh so hard. We’re just so silly together and I forget anything I may be dealing with for that moment. Unfortunately, because of Corona, I have been unable to hang with my friends, which is why you have to supervise. Now, we talk in group chats to check up and maybe one day we’ll even do zoom calls or Skype calls.

About the Author:
Deandra is a blogger and podcaster. She is a lifestyle blogger with topics such as beauty, poetry, open discussion, and lifestyle in general. If you’d like to keep up with Deandra and read more of her work, check out her links below!

Self-care is something that I absolutely love doing, whether it’s something super small or a full-on self-care day. If I had to choose one form of self-care as my number one, I think it would have to be listening to music. 
 
Music is such a huge part of my life and it’s something that I do every day. Usually I’ll listen to music as a background for whatever activity I’m doing, whether it’s writing a blog post, going for a run or while I’m cooking. But I think there’s something about actively listening to music (and not doing anything else at the same time) that’s so good for the soul. I love putting on a really chilled ambient playlist and listening through headphones in the evening. It’s so calming! Other times I’ll whack on an ‘old skool’ 00s hits playlist and have a dance. I just love how versatile music is, there’s something for every mood. It’s the ultimate form of self-care for me.  

Faye | Female Original

Vinyl


One of my favourite ways to practice self-care is to take breaks from the outside world and take time to myself. I love disconnecting from my phone and my blog every now and then and have time to myself to work on myself. This is the best way to work on your work-life balance. I take time away from work, from my blog and from social media means so that I can focus on myself. I normally do things like read my current book or go for a walk and get a bit of fresh air and just take a break from anything that would have been stressing me out. It gives me time to think things over and just breathe.


Tia’s Paige 

To some people putting on a face mask and having a bath is all the self-care they need but I believe we need to do more than this to truly take care of ourselves. Don’t get me wrong though, I do appreciate a good relaxing bath to melt away the stress of the week. Other external care that helps me feel better is my skin care routine. I have recently grown my skin care as it is something I am passionate about, and so love I researching it. Having some sort of routine in the morning and evening can be very calming whether like me it is skin care or for some working out or practising a hobby. However, more importantly, we need to take care of ourselves from the inside. Eating healthy and working out could be a start but we also need to have a positive mental attitude towards ourselves. Getting rid of any negativity in our lives is so important, including friends that drain you. I found reciting positive things about myself, to myself really helps. These little mantras, if said regularly, can really change your thought patterns. For more self-care tips that I have found helpful, look at my self-love blog.


Inside the Voyage

Self-care is vital for each and every one of us as we often need reminding how important we are. There’s a variety of ways you can focus on loving yourself however, one of my favourite ways at the moment is waking up early. When I was at University I had a tendency of going to sleep around 7am and waking up at 5pm, constantly repeating the cycle all because them £1 a drink student nights reeled me in. Therefore, changing this bad habit will allow us to become much more productive, focused and motivated in our daily routines. Currently I wake around 6/6:30am, I lay in bed for a little while and DO NOT touch my phone until at least 7:30am. It’s said that jumping straight onto your phone interferes with your ability to prioritise tasks, thus you become easily distracted throughout your day and unable to attack certain tasks with the amount of productivity we would have if we didn’t go on our phone in the morning. Waking earlier actually improves your sense of concentration, memory abilities, provides you with more energy and reduces your stress levels. See how else I practice self care.

Alisha | Inside The Voyage


Mind the Gap Graduates

My favourite way to practice self-care, especially during lockdown, is to journal. I used to be terrible at keeping a diary, and never lasted more than doing it for probably four days in a row, but I absolutely fell in love with the concept of bullet journaling. I find that being creative is a great outlet for me, so when I’m feeling overwhelmed by things it’s great to pick up a journal and draw, scribble and get things off my chest in that little book.


Since leaving university, my head is always filled with ideas of what I want my career to be, how much money I should or shouldn’t be spending and so much more. It’s great to use a journal as a way of getting lots of thoughts out of your brain at once and onto a more manageable place; on paper. During the last few months, too, I’ve had so many plans for my blog and have still been working five days a week, so it’s fair to say my brain has been in overdrive!


For anyone that needs to have a little place to vent, plan, motivate – whatever – don’t be afraid to try journaling! You don’t have to be creative at all, just make it your own and enjoy having those pages to explore your mind and life. I’ve got more self-care tips over on my blog dedicated to graduates, students and young adults trying to navigate the world!


Exquisitely

When it comes to self-care, you're doing things for your own benefit. It's not being selfish, you're ensuring your psychological wellbeing is being taken care of before going back out to the world. My favorite form of self-care involves putting my devices on do not disturb mode, and going through a list of things I've been meaning to do (for myself), but haven't. This includes doing my nails (you can also go out to the salon), organizing my things, journaling, painting, doing a face mask, etc. The most important part is to not treat self-care like a chore. It's meant to be a relaxing activity.

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8 FREE APPS YOU SHOULD START USING

Saturday

I have seen lots of people writing about which apps they use for blogging, so I thought I would share my most used apps with you. I am an iPhone user so I will be talking about apps from the Apple app store. Read on to see my most used free apps, not just for blogging, but also for general life too.

iPhone apps
*Note - I am not an affiliate for any of these apps, I just find them useful and think they would be beneficial for you.

Apps for blogging 

1.  Pinterest. I can't stress enough how much I love Pinterest! It is so important to have as a blogger because it can drive so much traffic to your blog. Even if you are not a blogger, inspiration for anything you can think of can be found on Pinterest. Follow me on Pinterest.

2. Feedr. This is a free app where you can preview the photos that you want to upload to Instagram and see how they will look on your grid. I always used to do the awkward quick post and delete, but with Feedr, you don't have to do that.

3. Buffer. I use Buffer to schedule my blog posts on Twitter. You can get paid plans for Buffer if you will be scheduling a lot of posts across social media. If you just want to schedule tweets sometimes like I do, you can use the basic version of Buffer for free.

4. Canva. This is probably my favourite of them all. It's a site/app where you can create any form of graphic. You can create so much on Canva for free, from Pinterest Pins, to CVs and infographics. This is useful to use even if you aren't a blogger because there are so many things you can create on there. 

Apps for Lifestyle

5. My Fitness Pal. On here, you can record your calorie intake for the day and your exercise. You can also put in your goal weight and it will help you with how many calories you should be eating to get to that goal. They also have recipes and workouts on there for you to try.

6. Duolingo. If you want to brush up on your language skills, then Duolingo is for you. You can choose a language on here and then do as much or as little learning as you like. Before travelling anywhere, I like to use Duolingo just so that I know some basics. By using Duolingo, I was able to order food in Germany when I went to the Christmas Markets, and I'm able to keep up the Spanish that I learnt at school.

7. Letterboxd. This is a bit of a different one. On here, you can list every film you have ever watched (or try to). You can rate films, create watchlists and follow friends too! I love following people to see what films they have seen and what's in their watchlist so let me know if you download it so we can follow each other. For watchlist inspiration, check my Netflix and Disney+ recommendations. I am currently on over 800 films! (I was on below 700 before lockdown)

8. Lucky Trip. If you love travelling but can't decide where to go then definitely download Lucky Trip! You can set your budget and then it will randomly generate a holiday for you. If you don't like the look of it, you can just keep clicking Lucky until the right one for you comes up. I just find it so fun to see what's out there! If you are looking for more travel inspo, read my Travel Bucket List.

Let me know what if you have tried any of these and what you think. I'd also love to know apps you swear by that aren't on the list. 

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Wool of the King

20 FACTS ABOUT ME

Wednesday

Since I have been blogging regularly and putting a lot more effort into my blog, I have gotten a lot of new readers. A lot of these readers might not actually know a lot about me, aside from what's on my social media accounts, so I thought it would be a good idea to share some facts about me. This way, you can get to know me a little better and I would love to get to know you guys better too!

Girl sat on Stonehenge chair

1. I am studying BA Communication and Media at Bournemouth University. I will start my third year in September (and I still have no idea what I want to do when I graduate).

2. Since last August, I have been working as a marketing intern for an organisation that provides foster care, homes for children, specialist education, therapy, and more to children. Our university course allowed for a placement year, so this is what I chose to do and I will be finishing this internship in early August.

3. I was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire. I have lived around Salisbury for all of my life, apart from when I'm living at university. Fun fact - I live within walking distance of Stonehenge. If you are ever planning to visit the Salisbury area, check out my favourite places to eat in and around Salisbury before you go.

4. This blog is actually 4 years old! Wool of the King turned 4 in May. It was mainly an on and off thing until I decided to make regular posts a few months ago.

5. I have a pet Shih Tzu called Hollie. She's 11 and is the best dog in the world, I love her the most!

6. I worked at Pret a Manger for 4 years while at college and university. I didn't have the best time working there, it was just more to get money while studying.

7. I have a boyfriend called Joe. We have been together for just over 2 years now and we will be living together in September along with some friends when we move back to university.

8. I am really interested in World War II history and the Holocaust, just because it's so shocking and so many awful things happened. I have been to Auschwitz-Birkenau and the Anne Frank House so far and both were unforgettable experiences.

9. I am also really interested in Philosophy. I studied philosophy at A level and actually wanted to do a degree in philosophy too. However, I decided to study communication and media as I saw more job opportunities at the end of it.

10. I am a huge fan of Lana Del Rey. Lana Del Rey actually means wool of the king in Spanish, hence the name of my blog. (I made it over 4 years ago and can't be bothered to change my domain name). Other artists I love include, Kehlani, Jhene Aiko, Beyonce, Arctic Monkeys, Ariana Grande ... There are too many to name!

11. I have been lucky enough to visit 17 different countries across 3 different continents. There are still so many places on my travel bucket list though.

12. Anywhere I go I always have to take lip balm with me and I can't go 20 minutes without putting it on. I am addicted!

13. RuPaul's Drag Race is my favourite thing on TV, I am obsessed and would definitely recommend watching it! Definitely season 4 onward though. Here's what else I'm watching.

14. When I was 8/9 I broke my arm so badly that I had to have a metal bar inside it for 6 months to straighten it out.

15. Last year, I adopted a panda through WWF and have been loving getting postcards of her through my letterbox.

16. A lot of people know me as quite the cheese connoisseur. I am forever getting tagged in those cheese memes on Facebook where people grate it directly into their mouth (just to confirm, I have never actually done that).

17.  I can't ride a bike. Yes, I'm 21 and can't ride a bike but I've never really had the desire to learn. Also, I can drive a car now and that is way cooler!

18. I really love Disney - all of the films are just so good and I hope I can go to Disneyworld Florida one day in the not too distant future. I have been to Disneyland Paris and loved it.

19. I am a really fussy eater.

20. My top 3 cocktails are Brambles, Aperol Spritz and Porntar Martinis. See how to make them here.

Let me know in the comments one fact about you that you think is interesting. I would love to get to know my readers more! Thank you to everyone who reads my blogs or has subscribed.

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Wool of the King