Valentines Picnic in the Park - on a budget

This is the first year I have been in a relationship at Valentine's Day and I am super excited about it :) However, over the years my friends and I have always been each other's Valentines in a fun way and I didn't want to loose this tradition, so I decided to hold a little picnic in the park for us girls to enjoy :)

If you're looking for something to do this Valentines and are not sure what, why not have a picnic with your friends!! If you live in a cold climate and you can’t get outside, make it a tea party instead :) Throw some quilts on the floor and set the table just like on a picnic :)

It doesn’t take much to put something like this together, all you need is a handful of friends, some fun food and a bit of creativity.

Theme

Haha, well the theme of course was 'Valentines' but I wanted a bit of a mix for my look, it was to be pretty but not ‘old’ pretty, more a fun thrown together kind of look.  I went off to the Op-Shop/Thrift Shop and found some napkins, a bed sheet, an odd cushion and some flowers.

What I used

Lemon coloured bed sheet – thrifted $3.50

Pink and Lemon coloured napkins (damask) - .20c each x 8 - $1.60

Cushion - $2.00 plus some I already had

Blue Glass Water Bottle - $1.99 – Woolworths

Assorted china and glass plates – mum’s

Red check fabric – mum’s

Tablecloth – mum’s

Green Plastic plates for food – Woolworths $1.99

Glass bowls for food – mum’s

Flowers (artificial) – thrifted - $3.50

Lanterns (birthday gift) – hung by wrapping twine – already had

Throw quilts – mum’s

Bubble blowers - $1.00 each x 2 - $2.00 plus some I already had from my 18th

Old picnic basket – mum’s

Old net curtain – mum’s

Food

I asked everyone to bring something ‘pretty’ to eat (no chip bags, hahahaha)

I bought watermelon

Mini Macaroons

Cupcakes

Mini Marshmellows

Bottled drinks

Invites

I invited my friends over Facebook because it was really short notice, a nicer way would be to email designed invites or actually send paper ones!!!! :O haha

Location


We went to a local Park and found a ‘cabana’ over the water, the centre was covered so that if it rained we would be pretty safe. I threw quilts on the ground and some cushions and laid fabric etc on the wooden benches to use like a table. I hung lanterns in one opening of the cabana and the curtain in another opening. Fake flowers were thrown in various places and a scarf hung near the food to add a bit of interest.

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The picnic started around 10.00am and went for a couple of hours and it was a really nice way to spend time with my friends and a great way to celebrate Valentines Day. We had it a few days before Valentines so that those with partners could still have the actual ‘day’ with them.

The picnic was fun to do and everyone seemed to enjoy it :)

I hope you enjoyed this quick post and that it inspires you to do something with your friends :)

GLOSSYBOX Valentines Day Surprise!!!!!

Do you LOVE surprises? hehe I know I do so I've already ordered my February subscription of Glossybox which will be a very special edition, they are going to have a Valentine’s Day themed surprise – an extra gift that does not ordinarily come in a GLOSSYBOX and I'm excited to find out what it is :) Oh and of course for the beautiful bright PINK box it will come in just for Valentines ... hehehehe :D

Photo property of Glossybox :)

Nb:  If you're a guy and still wondering what you can get for your special lady for Valentines, why not get her a Glossybox or even a yearly subscription? I'm pretty sure it may put a smile on her face :D

January Sample Boxes - Australian

Photo property of Glossybox :)

LustHaveIt

Did not produce a sample box for January and notified all subscribers about this in December, they thought it would be better to let people recover from Christmas/New Year’s and will send the next box out in February. As I need to 'cull' my sample box buying each month, sadly I'm saying goodbye to 'LustHaveIt', not because there is anything wrong with it but I just feel the other boxes are more suited to my tastes :)

I Love This Box

January’s box brought with it five full sized products, as usual the box was packaged lovely and was all green and gold in honour of Australia Day, it arrived in the first half of the month in perfect condition complete with an Australian Flag love heart sticker  :D

What I received this time around:

‘I Love This Box’ Angular Eye Shadow Brush

Linden Leaves Shower Creme 85ml

Olive by Langlois Flavoured Lip Balm - Strawberry

Revlon Nail Polish – Jelly 210

Revlon Luxurious Colour Eyeliner – White

The brush looks ok, it works ok too, I've been using it on the outer corner even though it's meant for the inner corner, hahaha and can you really have too many brushes?  It’s a new addition to my brush collection. The shower cream with ginseng and orange blossom probably isn’t my kind of scent, I think the smell is for an older woman and it reminds me a bit of my Nanan and I probably wouldn’t buy it. The lip balm is nice, it works well and smells cute. I love the nail polish, the colour I got is lovely, it’s a deep pink called ‘Jelly’ and I really do love it. In fact as soon as I opened the box and saw it I put it on, hahahaha ... this is something different for me because I don’t really do my nails very often. I like the eyeliner too, I don’t really need another white eyeliner but then again I do tend to ‘misplace’ things so it may come in handy.

I love to save and re-use these boxes because they look clean and are nice and sturdy and the perfect size to sit on my shelves on top of each other :) I’ve filled them with ‘Nail Art’, ‘Camera Stuff’ and ‘Dress Jewelry’ so far and just by labeling the front I can find things easy :D

Bellabox

This box arrived in the middle of the month but strangely when I opened the outer box my Bellabox didn’t have a lid on it???? Hahaha ..... very strange me thinks :P It’s funny how many times you can look inside the packaging to see if the lid is there but it isn’t, yet I kept looking ... hehe

On first inspection there didn’t seem to be a lot this month, a few sachets and not a lot else .... but then I looked closer and was pleasantly surprised, apart from perhaps the sunscreen samples which I’ll probably throw in my bag, I hadn’t tried anything in the box before and hadn’t heard of these brands before either!!  :) Now to me that’s a pretty good sample box because you actually get to ‘sample’ new things :D There were eight different products this month, two of them were full size.

So here’s what was inside

First Aid Beauty (FAB) Ultra Repair Cream – luxurious emollient and skin hydrator – sachet

Pangea Organics Lip Balm –Egyptian Fennel with Grapefruit & Sweet Orange – full size

Soleo Sunscreen –All natural sunscreen – two sachets

Sparoma Organic Products – Pulse Point Aroma in Peppermint – works a little like aromatherapy – full size

Jesus Del Poza ‘Halloween Kiss’ – Perfume samples 2 x 1.5ml tubes

Violent Lips – Temporary Lip Applique – 1 sample

Herban Essentials Towlette– Lemon – For cleaning hands and killing germs

Qi Tea – Detox Green Tea and Green Tea & Ginkgo – 2 samples

I was happy with Bellabox once again, it’s nice to get perfume samples because it’s a great way to try scents that you may never think to try, this month they are nice but they don’t go ‘WOW’ to me.  The tea was a nice treat, I do like normal green tea so it was nice to sample some others. I know a lot of people don’t think of tea as a luxury sample but if it gets you to try something new then that’s pretty good. The Pulse Point Aroma will also be interesting to try, it’s supposed to help with clearing the head and relieving aches and pains so when and if that happens I’ll be ready!!! haha  :D

I can’t see myself using the lip appliqué in any hurry, I have seen them used on others, but I will keep it safe because you never know when you might need  red ‘fishnet lips’ right!! Hahahaha :D

Glossy Box

January’s Glossy box was actually gifted to me by Glossy Box which was really nice because I forgot to re-subscribe for January!!!! I generally use pre-paid visa cards for some of my subscriptions and online shopping but it ran out in December and with Christmas, New Year and my Birthday all happening I never got around to grabbing a new card :/

Nevertheless just because this box was gifted my opinions are still honest about the product and service.

Glossy Box has had a bit of a rough start here in Australia with a few bad reviews over the three months they’ve been running, remember they took over ‘Beauty Box’ back in October/November. I received the November box which I was very happy with, missed out on the December box like I stated before and now let's see what was in the January Glossy box.

Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair Synchronised Recovery Complex - 30ml (full size)
Nivea Rich Nourishing Body Moisturiser
Sheer Cover Nourishing Moisturiser
Sheer Cover Lip Gloss - Pink Praline (full size)
Mirenesse - Tight Liner Hydra Gel Eye Liner - Saphire Blue (full size)
Australia Day Temporary Tattoos (full size)

So I've been using the Estee Lauder Night Repair Complex over the past few days and I must say that I'm liking it, I use an Estee Lauder Moisturiser also so it must agree with my skin :) I haven't got to using the moisturisers yet so I can't really say much about them.

The Sheer Cover Lip Gloss is quite nice, it is very sheer so used over a lipstick is what I like to do, it's not very sticky so that's also good.

I really do like the Mirenesse Eye Liner, I've used it a couple of times now. I used it on Australia Day (which I'm pretty sure that's why we got Saphire Blue colour) along with the temporary Tattoos hahahah I put the Southern Cross on my cheekbone and put some of the other ones on my boyfriend for the day, great idea GlossyBox :D

I also like to save and re-use these boxes because they look clean and are nice and sturdy and sit on my shelves on top of each other :) I already used one to store larger ‘Dress Jewelry’ and I think I'll use this one for my extra ribbons when my vase has flowers in it :) Yeah, I put my ribbons in my tall vase when it's empty so that it looks all pretty :)