Helen’s Fashion, Beauty & Lifestyle Blog: These are a few of my favourite things #15

Books:

The A-Z of Mindfulness by Anna Barnes

This is a small coffee table book going through the benefits of mindfulness using each letter in the alphabet. I’m a big fan of Anna Barnes, and she’s done a whole series of mental health books I’m making my way through. There are a few interactive pages in this, one of my favourites include drawing your own imaginary tree, letting new roots grow each day. Some of the topics she covers include walking, nature, kindness and health. It’s a feel-good book that can be read in one sitting.

Protect the Planet by Jess French

This book is one of the world book day releases, they are concise books given out on this special event to encourage new readers. I’ve read a couple now, and would say the content has been great overall. Protect the planet is an introduction to learning about the environment, and the impact humans are having on the earth. I liked that they touched on fast fashion, as well as buying with kindness and other relevant topics.

Life Lessons from the Ocean by Richard Harrington

This book describes itself as ‘soothing wisdom from the sea’, written by a marine biologist who takes his knowledge of the ocean to educate and inspire. He has included all sorts of creatures I’ve never heard of, and describes why they are so great, as well as emphasizing the importance of sea life and biodiversity.

Create Your Own Happy by Becky Goddard-Hill

After reading create your own calm by the same author, I decided to give this one a go and ended up quite enjoying it. The idea behind it is to provide tools for children (and adults) to learn what makes you feel happy and guide you to build on some appropriate skills. I would recommend this book to anyone seven years or above.

Make Anything Happen by Carrie Lindsey

I was excited to read this one, after giving it as a gift to myself for Christmas. The book covers vision board ideas, goal setting, and a pep talk to help discover what you want to achieve. The ideas on how to create a mood board included specific styling advice as well as showing examples the author had made.

The book is beautifully presented, and I found the layout inspiring. The author delves into her own dreams, and talks the reader through what things worked for her. I love light memoirs, and I felt this is what it was in parts. I enjoyed hearing about her stationery business and her love for horses.

Circuit-Breaker #5 by McCarthy

This was the finale of the comic series; I enjoyed it, and it’s cast of unusual characters. I liked how the writers played with the idea of how humans view artificial intelligence/robots and the story was something different for me. I appreciated the illustrations and colour palette too. Overall, there was some imaginative writing and character design. This was one of the series that got me into comics.

The Adventures of Luna the Vampire #1

This comic includes short, humorous stories about Luna, a very peculiar vampire. I would say the target audience is adults, as children might just not get where the author is going with this.

It’s not something I would normally pick up, but I found I was enjoying it, and can see myself reading the next in the series. I liked the modern illustrations, and the way the makers of the comic broke the mould a little.

Films:

Lucky Christmas

‘A single mother is devastated when her car is stolen with a winning lottery ticket inside. When she suddenly meets a charming man, her luck may have returned.’

I’ve been on a bit of a Christmas chick flick kick, and wanted to finish with this one. I didn’t realise until later that the main actress originally stared in Saved by The Bell if you can remember that TV Programme. Lucky Christmas is really wholesome, and one of my favourite festive films I watched last year.

Gravity

‘Dr Ryan Stone and Matt Kowalsky are stranded in space with no way to contact Earth after their shuttle is destroyed in the midst of a routine space walk.’

To some this film up in one word, I would say wow! Sandra Bullock does a great job of acting as an astronaut stuck in space and there were some exhilarating moments. One of my favourite films of last year.