Weekend Reads: 1

Happy New Year! And welcome back to Weekend Reads. Remember I used to do this series all the time where I shared some of my favourite articles from around the blogosphere, competitions, stuff I’ve found and loved and a little life update? I don’t remember why it dwindled away but I’m determined to bring it back.

I’m feeling all sorts of New Year positivity at the moment. You know when you’re just really excited about things like new projects and planning holidays. I’m even weirdly excited about a new health and fitness regime and giving the house a spring clean. I've got to admit that the house cleaning is pretty far down the to-do list but at least it's on the list.

Life is getting back to normal now - both after the Christmas festiveness and having Joseph. I feel like we've settled into life as a family of four and things just feel 'right'. I'm so excited to start travelling with both of my little guys and the first trip away is booked for a few weeks time! I'm aiming for a trip a month as part of the #Take12Trips challenge so I've still got some planning to do...

 

 

200 ways to make 2017 your best travel year yet – Travelettes

Number 13 – it’s on my list 😉 Yes, yes and yes to ALL of the things on this list

 

How to visit the Seychelles on a Budget – On the Luce

I love it when people manage to completely change your perception of a place. I always imagined that you couldn’t visit the Seychelles unless you spent a small fortune and stayed in a 5* resort but Lucy has proved me wrong.

 

The 10 best books of 2016 – Vulture

I might be a whole year behind what the cool kids are reading but at least I’m spending more time reading and less time watching January’s diet TV shows.

 

The 5 best countries to travel to lose weight – Vicky Flip Flop

If your New Year’s resolution was to travel more AND lose weight….well you’ll probably still want to give these places a miss. I love the way Vicky talks about all the things most travellers pretend never happened!

 

Make ahead smoothers – The Londoner

Another one here for those healthy resolutions. This is one of those ‘life hacks’ that’s so simple you wonder why you’d never thought of it before. Freezing all the ingredients for a delicious smoothie so they’re ready to go each morning? Genious!

 

What’s the top travel blog for women in 2016? – Travel Fashion Girl

I’m so excited to be included on this list because there are so many awesome bloggers on it. It also has a lot of credibility because they asked each blogger on the list to submit a screenshot of their Google Analytics (the tool bloggers use to measure our readership) so this list really is pretty accurate. The Travel Hack comes in at number 11 and we’re the top British blog on the list! Yey!

 

Sweat with Kayla App

If you haven’t heard of Kayla Istines, where have you been? She’s a fitness superstar and I first discovered her through Instagram where she has a whopping six million followers. She has an app out called Sweat with Kayla which I recently downloaded and I’m LOVING.

This app is for anyone who wants to get fit and healthy but can’t really be bothered. I like to eat healthily and like to do a bit of exercise but I basically want to be told what to do and when to do it and what to eat and how to cook. I want to be spoon fed a diet and exercise plan like a fussy toddler – and that’s exactly what this app does. I’m currently signed up to the free 30 day trial but I already know I’ll continue with it when I need to start paying.

 

Win an Instagram internship, £3,000 and 3 cruises with Royal Caribbean

I know this is just a marketing campaign for Royal Caribbean but it does sound pretty flipping amazing. Check this out if you’re good with a camera, love Instagram and fancy bagging yourself 3 cruises this year. Btw – if you think cruises are just for old people, they’re really not. I’ve been on 4 cruises and I really like them.

 

The Mama Hack – Instagram

Last year I hinted at a new project I’m working on and that was going to be a whole new blog called The Mama Hack. I’ve actually decided to curb this idea for a while – who am I kidding. I already have one busy blog, I travel a lot, I have a newborn baby AND a toddler and I just about manage to hold together a social life – I don’t have time to launch another blog! So instead I’m using Instagram as a microblog to document my life as a mama. I was dreaming about being a mummy blogging superstar but Instagram will have to do for now. If you’re interested, hop on over to Instagram where I’ll be sharing photos from my life when I’m not travelling.

 

What else have you been reading this week?