My Summer 2015 Travel Plans

Hello! I mentioned previously that I had booked a quick holiday to Florence this June. Well I made a very spontaneous booking to America! So I decided to put together a plan of all the travels this Summer, mainly for me to get excited!!! :D

12th-14th June. Wedding in Athlone, Ireland

My cousin is getting married in June in Athlone and I cannot wait! This will be the first wedding I have been to since I was about 10 years old so I don't know what to expect. But one things for sure, my family is huge and when we get together we always have the best time!

24th-29th June. Piza, Italy

This is really my parents holiday and I just hopped on the band wagon. They're going for a couple of weeks with friends and when they offered if I wanted to come I couldn't say no! I genuinely don't know where exactly Im staying, all I know is we are going on a day trip to Florence and I have wanted to go to Florence ever since I was a teenager. They're will be so many photos taken of old buildings that nobody cares about haha.

7th-14th July. New York, USA

I'll only be back a week and then I'm off again! My sister and I are going to visit my cousin who lives in New York! I went to New York last year at the end of my Summer and I did not make the most of it :( I didn't go to any museums, I didn't see a Broadway show and I just didn't enjoy it as much as I should have. I'm going to make up for that this year because I know my sister will be just as enthusiastic as me.

15th-22nd July. Orlando, USA

Now if were enthusiastic in New York, we are going to be downright crazy in Orlando! My sister has never been to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Universal Studios and i haven't been there since they extended it to Islands of Adventure. We are Ultimate Harry Potter fans! I could spend he entire week in Harry Potter World! But of course were going to go to the rest of Universal Studios, Walt Disney World and shopping!!! Just need to find all that money I don't have... haha

23rd July-12th August. Island Hopping in Greece

Im cutting it very close with the timing of this holiday. I arrive back to Ireland from Orlando on the morning of the 22nd July. Then on the afternoon of the 23rd July I'm hopping on another flight with all my friends to Athens. Were having a girls holiday, island hopping in Greece. We haven't had a girls holiday since we were 18 so Im really looking forward to this one. Were going to Athens, Mykonos, Santorini, Ios and Crete. I can't handle drinking more than two days in a row so well see how this holiday goes!

11th-14th September. Berlin, Germany

I have a little bit of time to chill at home before I head off on my final trip. In September Im going to Lollapalooza Music Festival in Berlin with a few friends. We're going a day early to see a bit of Berlin before we dance the weekend away. Fatboy Slim, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis and Kygo are some of the acts I'm really excited for!

So there it is, one of the busiest Summers of my life. Ever since I graduated from college I feel like I should do everything I wanna do before its too late and I have to be a grown up. Thats why I'm spending every euro I have on travelling and music and clothes. Next year I can start paying bills! Is anyone else heading to Lollapalooza this year? You'll find me dancing like a lunatic in the corner. See ya there! Talk soon.

Uiscebawn x

Dealing with Contact Dermatitis

The Problem

I've mentioned before that I started working as bar staff in a pub in October. Mixing cocktails, using harsh cleaning supplies and constantly washing my hands caused me to get contact dermatitis on my hands. It started about 2 weeks after my first day. In the beginning it was just a bit of dry skin on a couple of my fingers. I've seen this before so I put some hydrocortisone cream on the affected areas. This usually helps, but this time I wasn't so lucky. Hydrocortisone is for temporary use so I stopped applying it after a week. This is when my hands got really bad. They became infuriatingly itchy. I would scratch uncontrollably in my sleep. They were red raw and cracked, I couldn't bend my fingers without experiencing a lot of pain. After a few weeks it spread to all my fingers and the entire palm of my hand down as far as my wrist. Simple actions, like driving my car, became a painful effort. Not only was it painful, it was ugly as hell! Small spots started to appear on my hands. My confidence was destroyed. I constantly gripped my hands closed so no one would see my hands. The photos below were taken after the worst stage of the dermatitis but you can still see the redness, spots and raw spots.

I went to my local doctor and he was useless. He told me I should just quit my job. He didn't educate me on contact dermatitis at all and just told me to moisturize and charged me €55! I've recently changed to a different doctors and I'm delighted with it. She examined my hands in such detail, she went through all the different things I could do and gave me the names of her favourite dermatologists if my hands got any worse.

Finding a solution

I started to pin point what made my hands worse. Unfortunately, there were some things I could not control. The cold weather and the indoor heating were not helping. I simply had to wait for warmer weather to solve that problem. However, there were some things I could control. I stopped applying any makeup with my hands and would use sponges for bb cream and cotton pads for moisturizers. I cut out wine altogether. That had a huge effect. If I drank wine, the morning after my hands would feel like they were on fire! I would only get my hands wet when necessary (for washing hands/showers etc.) Finally I would wear cotton gloves in bed at night in the hopes that it stopped me from scratching.

My second step was to find the right creams. I went through prescriptions creams such as elocon and protopic. These are basically stronger versions of cortisone. I tried silcocks base, e45, La Roche Posay repair cream, Neutrogenia and Cocoa Butter hand cream. 

7 months later, I have finally found what works for me! 

Elocon

This is a prescription ointment I get from my doctor but its really just a more powerful hydrocortisone so I'm sure that would work too. I use elocon when my hands get really bad. I mean so bad I can't bend my fingers and I've open wounds all over the palms of my hands (gross, I know, but sadly it happens.) I use Elocon once a day for a week and no longer because it thins out the skin.

Dermalex

I talked about this in my favorites of the month post. It's my miracle cream! I use this three times a day and I find it works a lot better if I use it right after I've washed my hands. It provides so much relief (temporary and long term) to all the discomfort from this contact dermatitis. 

Aveeno hand cream

I use Aveeno body lotion and shower gel so when I was recommended the hand cream I didn't have any doubts. Aveeno is a great brand for people who suffer from skin problems such as excema, psoriasis and dermatitis. I use Aveeno handcream all day everyday! Whenever my hands get wet, after my hands have been out in the cold, whenever! It's got a great smell too it, dries in quick and actually works unlike some hand creams I've used. 

Elave hand wash

Most hand washes were terrible for my dermatitis. They washed away the moisture in my skin. I got elave hand wash because I know Elave products are good for eczema sufferers. I keep it in the bathroom with a label on it so no one uses it haha I also keep some in my bag in a travel bottle. This way I don't have to use the soap in the public bathrooms and in work. 

My hands are so much better but not fully healed. I have my good days and my bad days. I am waiting patiently for Summer and the vitamin D that my skin needs so badly. Hopefully, the warm weather combined with my routine will make this problem go away.  Has anyone ever had any similar skin issues and have any advice? I also hope this helps anyone who has the same problem as me. Talk soon! 

Uiscebawn x

Favourites of the Month: April

Another month gone and its officially Summer! I've got some new favourites this month and here they are :)

Entertainment: Tom Fletcher Youtube Channel

For anyone that doesn't know, Tom Fletcher is part of the band McFly and has some viral videos on Youtube including the Wedding Speech video and this other gem! I was a crazy McFly fan as a teenager and Tom Fletcher was my favourite member of the band. So obviously I had to subscribe to his Youtube channel when he started vlogging! What I love about his Youtube videos is that one video could be about touring with his friends and the next he's just chilling at home with his baby and wife. This month he came out with another viral and I've watched it 10 million times (literally)! Check out the cuteness overload! Buzz and the Dandelions.

Entertainment: The Fall

Some darker entertainment I got obsessed with this month was BBC's 'The Fall.' It was on my list of shows to watch and I was on Jamie Dornan high after seeing Fifty Shades of Grey so I thought there was no better time to start it. Now I'll warn you, its dark and sometimes its slow paced, but its amazing television. Its very different to all the shows out there at the moment. I binged watched it all in about a week and I am dying for the 3rd season to air!

Health: Dry Brushing

This is definitely my favourite of the favourites this month! I will be posting a full review about dry brushing soon, with some comparison photos if I'm feeling brave. I have been seeing pins on Pinterest about dry brushing so I figured if it didn't work, I wasn't losing much. Dry brushing is exactly what it says on the tin. You brush your skin with a natural bristled brush before a shower or just once a day and it exfoliates and firms your skin. It works! I noticed a change after the third use! I'm gonna keep it up and see if it makes a major difference to my cellulite. This is the Summer! My cellulite is going down!

Food: Massaman Curry

My favourite restaurant is Siam, a Thai restaurant near where I live. I'm not a fan of spice, I think it takes away from the flavour of a meal so I aallllllways get a Yellow Curry, its amazing! Its got just the right amount of spice without it being overwhelming. But I went to Siam the other day at lunch time for my sisters 18th birthday and they didn't have yellow curry on the menu :( So I took a chance and got Massaman curry with out the peanuts (allergy.) I'd go as far as saying it was just as good as the yellow curry, if not better! I'll be mixing it up from now on and ordering other things in Siam.

So there you have it! I haven't posted in weeks because I am still doing my internship while working my part time job at the same time so I honestly just didn't have the energy. But the weather is getting better everyday and so is my mood! Summer is coming and I am so excited. I now have more Summer plans :D I booked a two week holiday with my sister to New York and Orlando! This is gonna be the best Summer ever! I'll be posting all my travel stories here so watch this space! Talk soon!

Uiscebawn x

My Favourites of the Month: March

So its nearly still as cold and wet as December but March is just about over. We are one month nearer to Summer! I've picked a few of things that stood out to me in the last month. Here it goes:

Beauty: Maybelline BB Eye Cream

After a few days of my Internship, I quickly realised makeup is not an option for me at 7.30am. I'm too tired in the morning to put makeup on but I also look so tired without makeup that I could possibly scare people if they looked at me. This is why Maybelline BB Eye Cream is my miracle this month! It rolls on so easily and it gives my skins a refreshing boost in the morning, something I don't get with thick layers of makeup. I pair this with Maybelline BB cream on my face, mascara and depending how tired I am, bronzer and eyebrow mascara.

Health: Dermalex

When I started my bar staff job back in October, I got contact dermatitis on my hands. In the beginning it was really awful. The skin on my hands was cracked and raw. I was in a lot of pain and no creams were working. I even had super strength prescription creams and they weren't doing a thing. I went to the pharmacy to get a gentle hand wash for sensitive skin (Elave Handwash) and the pharmacist took one look at my hands and recommended a new cream, Dermalex. Its not like the steroid creams that thin your skin out. It creates a barrier in the skin to stop moisture leaving the skin. I noticed a difference within a couple of days! I had a gross stage of scaly skin but after that it was fresh skin. Now I'm not fully healed, I still get a few cuts and raw areas and the palms of my hands are very red but Dermalex literally saved me from so much agony! I'm recommending it to all my friends who have a similar problem from working in bars.

Food: Fruit/Seed/Yoghurt Lunch

I bring in a snack to work with me everyday and I wanted it to be healthy. This lunch is perfect. It's basically soya yoghurt, flaxseed, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, any other seeds in the press and any berries we have in the fridge, usually grapes, strawberries and blueberries, mixed together in a lunch box. It doesn't sound nice but believe me it is! Plus it really fills me up and gives me energy for the rest of the work day. I really notice the difference in my work performance depending on what I eat. We got pizza in work one Friday and I combined that with a strawberry milkshake. Bad Idea! Within half an hour, I had a headache, I was so tired and I couldn't concentrate at all. Health food all the way!

Entertainment: Parks and Recreation

I havent gotten obsessed with a new TV show in a while so its about time a new one came along. My cousin, Hannah, told me to watch Parks and Recreation about two years ago. She said it was definitely my kinda funny and I'd love it. I watched a couple of episodes and it didn't do anything for me so I left it. I was bored a few months ago and started it again. OH MY GOD it is hilarious! If I had just given it a couple more episodes I would have known how amazing it is! Amy Poehler is one of the funniest women alive! Chris Pratt comes out with some 'one liners' that have me on the floor laughing. The relationships between all the characters is believable. They have long running jokes but don't over use them at the same time. Its just brilliant. I finished the final season last week and now I don't know what to do with life... so I'm rewatching all the seasons again :) If you want a taster of it, heres one of my personal favourite scenes were they go to a club promoting a new kind of drink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fyEarGbpXM

So they're my favourites of this month. Talk soon!

Uiscebawn x

Fitbit Flex Review

Like nearly everyone after Christmas, I set a goal to get fit and healthy for the Summer. I had been keeping up with yoga but I wasn't getting much more exercise than that and the food situation was not a good one. Plenty of takeaways, drink on work nights out and snacking on lots of chocolate meant I was getting a bit pudgy. I was in the local pharmacy and saw the Fitbit flex on sale for €79. It was an impulse buy but I was hoping it would help motivate me. I'm going to review the Fitbit Flex and the Fitbit app on my iPhone. 

Fitbit Wristband

The Fitbit comes in a several colours. I got it in navy and regret it so much! haha There were much nicer colours. But apart from the colour its perfect. I barely notice its on my wrist and no one has ever commented on it so I'm guessing other people don't notice it either. The actual tracker inside the wristband has a battery life long enough to last at least a week so you don't have to take it off every night to charge.

iPhone App

You need to download a free app to track all the information from the wristband. It uses bluetooth to connect to the phone. My advice is to turn off your bluetooth when you're not on the phone because it eats up battery life! My battery went twice as fast as usual when the bluetooth was on. On the app, there are different topics for you to track how much you're exercising, how far you've walked, how you've slept etc. Its easy enough to navigate through and it starts tracking your movements right away. You can change the settings to suit your body such as gender, height and what wrist your band is on. You can also put your weight in and your target weight. This way the app can calculate how many calories you need to eat and burn to get to your target weight.

Steps, calories and distance tracker 

Steps taken, calories exerted and distance walked are the top three options on the app. You can set a personal daily goal for all three. I find the Steps Tracker the most useful because I think it makes me get up and stop being lazy. If I still have a couple of thousand steps to go before the day end it forces me to bring my dog on a walk or do some home exercises. I think its also more accurate than the calorie tracker. I usually get my full 10,000 steps in a couple of hours of working at the bar and the wristband vibrates to let you know you've reached your goal. It's nice just to have this little achievement everyday.

Exercise tracking

Before I had the Fitbit, I used the Nike Running App to track my runs (my very infrequent runs.) I definitely recommend that if you don't have a Fitbit. But if you do have a Fitbit, the exercise tracker in the Fitbit App is just as good. It tracks running, walking and hiking. It's really handy for timing and tracking my location. I'm waiting for the weather to get nicer but I can't wait to try the hiking section out! Steps, calories and distance are still tracked while using this and it adds time to your active minutes. 

Calorie input and output

I have mixed feelings about the calorie section of this app. The positive aspect of it is, when I actually started keeping track of my calories, I lost weight quite quickly. I knew how many calories I had left for the day so I could evenly spread them out through out the day. The bad thing I found by counting calories is the constant thought in the back of my mind about what I'm eating. I've never agreed with being obsessive about what I'm putting in my mouth. When I want to eat healthy, I simply try to cut out the unnecessary crap and eat mostly healthy; good carbohydrates, protein, fruit and veg. So calories aren't my main concern and I don't think I'll stick with the calorie counting section of this app.

Sleep and water

I like the sleep and water tracker. The sleep tracker tells you when you were restless or awake during the night. Don't ask me how it does it, I haven't a clue! haha It doesn't particularly help in terms of weight loss but its just interesting. The water tracker was very useful. I did't realise I had only been drinking about a quarter the amount of water I should have been drinking so its great to keep track of it. 

Overall Thoughts

I don't think I have had the Fitbit long enough to really say whether I like it or not but I have found when I monitor the results of the app I am more motivated to be active, I'm drinking more water and I am not really eating out of boredom anymore. I have lost 2 or 3 pounds so far in the week I have kept it up, so that's a good sign! It just takes a lot of effort to keep it up which I suppose is what staying fit and healthy is! I would recommend it if you have the money to spare. If you have a Fitbit or are going to get one, let me know what you think of them :) Talk soon!

Uiscebawn x

My River Island Must Haves

Anybody who knows me, knows River Island is 90% of my wardrobe. This shop can do no wrong! I rarely leave the house without having at least one River Island item on so I decided to list out my River Island must haves! You'll notice most of my favourites are basic items that you can wear to a variety of places. Here I go :)

Button up jeans Lana Jeans

These jeans are probably my most worn item of clothing in my wardrobe. I bought these jeans for a special offer price a year ago and it was the best €25 ever spent! Once I bought them, I never saw them in the shop again. I loved them so much I even wanted to buy a second pair but they weren't stocked after that :( I think they are lana jeans with limited edition buttons rather than a zip. They basically go with everything, are comfy as jeans can be and they haven't worn or stretched at all in the year I've been wearing them. 

Molly Jeggings

I own a lot of Molly Jeggings but my black Molly Jeggings are my favourite. They are appropriate for my bartending job, my office job and when I'm heading out as well. Unfortunately my old pair finally gave up on me and a hole wore into them. So I bought a new pair of black Mollys. These are my first pair of Mollys since they improved the quality and the quality is amazing! It genuinely feels like Im wearing a fluffy pillow and they're a lot thicker but still stretchy and easy to move around in them. I'm already planning on buying many more pairs in different colours.

White Playsuit

I bought this playsuit yearrrsssss ago for my 19th birthday party but I haven't been able to say goodbye because I find its just perfect when I'm going somewhere special and I don't want to wear something boring. Its so comfortable, I don't have to be conscious all night that I'm showing too much boob or bum cause it covers just enough. I'm using a photo from the Summer cause Winter has not been kind and I'm far too pale at the moment for it :(

Red Shirt

My red shirt is my go to top if I'm having a lazy day but I don't want to look like a complete hobo. Its a pretty thick material so its warm enough to wear on its own. Theres not much to say about it, my wardrobe isn't too complicated. Its a classic red checked shirt, I feel comfortable in it and as an added bonus it doesn't crease easy :)

So there ya have it. My River Island Staples! Hope this inspires everyone to go buy a hundred pairs of Molly jeggings because they're the best jeans in the world! Talk soon!

Uiscebawn x

My J1 experience in Chicago

I spent my Summer of 2014 living and working in Chicago. I stayed with some great friends, made amazing new ones and had the best time of my life. If you are in college at the moment and are on the fence about going on a J1, I could not recommend it enough! You grow so much as a person, gain independence and have an amazing time! This is my J1 experience. It starts off with one bad experience that I think everyone should be aware of and then I'll talk about the fun stuff. Hopefully it'll help anyone going to the US or Chicago :)

Accommodation

We had a slight problem with our accommodation before we got to Chicago. By slight problem, I mean hundreds of other Irish students and I were conned out of their money by Amir Attaie and his company 'J1 Summer Living.' We were all saved by the hero of J1 Students in Chicago, Daniel O'Donnell. He paid for our apartments and didn't expect anything from us in return. He really saved our Summer! 
Now I've gotten the bad stuff out of the way, heres the fun stuff. We stayed in 777 South State Street in the South Loop of Chicago. We couldn't have chosen a better location. We were one street over from Michigan Avenue and Grant Park. It took a twenty minute walk to get to the very centre of town and a train station was just outside our building. the apartment was fully furnished, with wifi, tv and cable, a sundeck, laundry room and a gym! If you have to funds to pay for accommodation in full before you go, I highly recommend 777. It also means one less stress during the Summer because you aren't worrying about saving for rent.

Work

I got my job through a company called Hop the Pond. They organise jobs, trips and accommodation for J1 students. They are a great, friendly company and Kev Egan, who started up Hop the Pond, went above and beyond to make mine and my friends Summer the best it could be! It wasn't necessary to get a job before I went but it was just another thing checked off the list so I could concentrate on having a great Summer. I worked as a server in Lizzie McNeill's Irish Pub. There were about 12 other Irish working there and they were all lovely! Thats us below having a group hug on our work night out. The wage is terrible in America but tips are amazing and they certainly are enough to keep you going for three months.

The Lizzies Crew

Lollapalooza

If you are going to Chicago in the Summer, GO TO LOLLAPALOOZA! Ireland do not do music festivals like America. It was in Grant Park, literally a five minute walk away from our apartment. We would go to an act and run back to grab lunch before another act. It had a brilliant lineup including Eminem, Kings of Leon, Lorde, Arctic Monkeys, Rudimental, Kodaline and Hozier. My favourite was tied between Duke Dumont and Kings of Leon. Duke Dumont because it was a couple of hours of dancing like no one was watching with the sun beaming down on us (and probably the perfect level of alcohol in me as well ) Kings of Leon were amazing! The talent they had playing live was unbelievable and they really knew how to put on a light show. Lollapalooza really was the highlight of the Summer. My friends and I loved it so much, as soon as we heard it was coming to Europe, we booked our flights to Berlin.

Nightlife

I don't know about other cities in America, but Chicago was prepared for the Irish. They had an Irish students night nearly every night of the week in different pubs and clubs. Some of them are terrible, but some we they best nights out of the Summer. Tuesday night was reserved for Joe's on Weed Street. $2 pitchers. Do I need to say more? My friends and I also took a liking to a blues club called Kingston Mines. It didn't have an Irish night but it was so different from the other clubs playing the chart songs. 

Being Tourists

Spending a whole Summer there, we got to feel like locals. But we still wanted to see every bit of Chicago that we could. If I listed everywhere we went in detail I would be typing for days so I'll try keep this brief. Firstly, we bought the CityPass. This was a booklet that got us entry to five of Chicago's attractions including Shedd Aquarium, Skydeck, the Field Museum, Museum of Science and Industry and Adler Planetarium. You save over 50% so I would definitely recommend it. Lincoln Park Zoo is a must see as well. Its free entry and probably even bigger and better than Dublin Zoo. I even got a selfie with a Rhino standing no more than ten feet away from me. There are so many festivals, like Taste of Chicago, and attractions around every corner in Chicago, there is always something to do.

Me with my Rhino friend

To summarize, I had the best Summer of my life, I don't know anyone who didn't fall in love with the city of Chicago and anyone thinking of going on a J1 should consider Chicago. I luckily didn't get in any fights with my roommates, well one fight with the boyfriend at the time but that was bound to happen. But living with the six friends I went with made us grow closer and I don't regret a second of it! Talk soon!

Uiscebawn x

Bonus Photo!

If I could describe my Summer with one photo, it would be the one below. I've always loved this photo, as awful as I look. After work or a night out, we would get pizza, eat too much and literally pass out from a food coma on the couch. Shout out to Bebhinn who came home from work and found me on the couch like this!