Music | Shimmy In The Shower - DBPOWER Waterproof Bluetooth Speaker

Hello!

Told you I'd be back soon. I may be here to solve the problem of what to get the music-loving teenager in your life, I am here to rave in excitement about this product:

The DBPOWER IPX5 Waterproof Bluetooth V4.0 Speaker*. I love technology. I'm not very good at it, I never understand it, but I do love it. I recently welcomed this nifty little piece of kit into my life and now I can dance and sing in the shower – properly. Until now I just had my own brain for entertainment and that usually involves a verse and a chorus of various songs here and there when I'm not concentrating too much on washing, not passing out or gender politics. Back in the day I'd bring my little CD player into the bathroom and blare out my pop punk when in the bath. We never had a working shower - now we do and I can include music in that and actually hear it properly! Woohoo!

I was so confused about how a speaker – something full of holes, could be waterproof, I am just pleasantly surprised that it is. It really is. I first used it in the shower, positioned like so:

...and it survived! I had music in the shower to shimmy on down to. The sound was really clear and could've gone louder than I needed it. Very impressed. The music did sound a little muffled and muted at one point, which panicked me, thinking I'd broken it. Turns out the speaker bit of... the speaker? - the bit where the sound actually comes out, was almost covered in water because it had fallen from its propped-up position to a horizontal one. Phew. I poured the water off and it the sound was amazing again. Happy Lisa. I am so, so happy with this. It's magical.

From now on my showers can look like this! Rather than the boring affair they usually are - especially if I'm bothering to shave my legs, zzzz. It will also make the long process of rinsing henna dye out of my hair more fun when I finally brave dying my hair. The notorious effort of rinsing it out has put me off for ages, but this seems to be the solution to that!

The speaker is advertised as great for outdoor use and while I haven't tried this yet, I think it would work really well. I shall definitely be volunteering it for use at parties and during the summer in the pub garden at work. As it has a 12 hour playtime, it'll be great to add background music to any situation.

It's such a powerful little thing, performs really well, and is well and truly waterproof! It's easy to use - just charge it via USB, chuck some music and/or audiobooks onto your phone and Bluetooth it up! A play/ pause/ on/ off button, and buttons to change track or adjust the volume if you hold them down are found on the side of the device. You can insert an SD card of audio files into it and use it like an MP3 player, or as a hands-free kit as it has a built-in microphone. Instructions are included, of course. 

You can find out more here, and if you want to buy one you can get 10% off with this magical code: CP9KRB7A. Just pop it in at the checkout where it says "Gift cards & promotional codes" and click "Apply". 

Do you have any pieces of tech that add a little bit of magic and joy into your life? If any of them involve transforming my time in the kitchen do let me know!

*DISCLAIMER: This post contains PR sample but my views are 100% honest. (I'm a rubbish liar).

Life | Where Have I Been?

Heyyyy,

I'm still alive, look:

Sorry I've been so absent from blogging! I've been so fatigued from the painting + housework + work combination that was October that writing has been too hard for my brain to achieve! I covered this briefly in my last update but will go into more detail in the future... if I ever get the energy to finish that blog post!

Basically, I was doing far more than I should for a few weeks, then didn't have any real time to recover, so booked some holiday from work to rest. Like the dufus I am I booked this the week before Wimbledon Zine Fair, which meant lots of copying and folding zines. I also thought I should take advantage of time off to visit my boyfriend in Exeter for a few days. In my head, I'd go and chill lots, but ended up going out for food and drinks and needing to shop and all sorts of life things and not resting an awful lot. I didn't rest an awful lot at all during my time off. That was dumb. So, naturally, I'm exhausted.

I have, however, been working on a few blog posts and have plenty of ideas and have lots of things I'm excited about to share with you all (like the lip product in the picture! It's Strawberry Bombshell from Lush and is great for an effortless lip colour to fake healthy!). For the next month or so though, posts may be a little sporadic. I am sure after some rest, however, and more structure in my life again (currently job hunting as I am not getting enough hours at my current job - uggggh) posts will be regular here, again, and everything bloggy will be hunky-dory. I have set myself deadlines so you definitely be seeing posts this month and next!

Hope you are all enjoying the run up to Christmas. I started on the Christmas music today ^-^ .. is it too early? When do you start delving into festive fun?

A Sober Halloween!

Hey there, ghosts and ghouls!

Hope you've all had a fantabulous Halloween - I've been loving seeing everyone's costumes! I really, really didn't want to go out and get drunk with a bunch of acquaintances this year - it feels a bit overdone. Now I have friends who actually bother with me and don't need to drink to have fun,  I decided to harass them. Luckily, we all wanted to stay in, carve pumpkins, watch spooky films and greet trick or treaters. Yay!

Xena* and I decided to carve some pumpkins the day before Halloween as, well, we both had time and PUMPKINS! While I had already purchased pumpkins a week before, they were far too heavy to cart around so we headed to the shops to get more. There were only two little ones and one larger, yucky one left in Co-op. Definitely getting them earlier next year!

The two we found were lovely, though.

Naturally I had to bring an air of immaturity to the whole event.

This is the first pumpkin I have carved in so long I can't even remember! Now I want to carve them all. For those less accustomed to Pokémon, it is the face of Gengar, one of the ghost types.

Here he is with Xena's bat all lit up! How rad do they look?! I'm so proud of myself.  We ate the bits we cut out and phwoarrr, pumpkin!

This was followed by another fruitless pumpkin hunt and late night stroll along the beach with Argo. 

After deciding whose house to use on Halloween, I got into my costume. After years of zombifying myself up because I'm so damn punk-rock, I thought it was time for a change.

Having just finished I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett and his last book being published this year, and it being a Tiffany Aching book - I thought it quite apt to dress as the young witch I love so much.

It just so happens that the only minty-green dress I have is the one that is part of my weight loss saga. I think it's safe to say it fits now, so hurrah for that!

A frying pan was clearly needed for the photos. 

I even got myself a hare necklace! 

As I'd managed to cart my pumpkins over, Xena's daughter joined in with the carving (not that we didn't let her the day before, she just wasn't there). 

Really, really well, I might add. It's not Halloween without the pumpkin king! I did a cyberman and creeped myself out.

Then she creeped us all out!

 Best windowsill is Purbeck!

Though there were only three of us, it was definitely a party, and what's a party without cake? I decided to try the Betty Crocker Devil's Food Mix + can of coke trick and to no surprise at all - it worked.

I did add food colouring to make it all gross and Halloweny-looking when it was in the tin, but then forgot to line the tin. This meant the top turned into the bottom and the cake was stuck together with icing. 

It's a really good. cake.

Once the trick or treaters had stopped coming, and the pumpkins were carved, we played Wii Party. It never sounds like much but it is so much fun and I thoroughly enjoyed this Halloween completely sober! We didn't watch any films but Wii Party's Board Game Island was way more fun. 

What did you do for Halloween? And more importantly; what did you wear?! 

Big love,

*Name has been changed.