So, if you're a fan of Harry Potter you'll know that London is pretty much as close to Hogwarts as you're going to get.
Take a tour around the studio, visit platform 9¾ or even recreate that famous snake scene in London Zoo, there's countless magical spots around the city.
Well, that list just got a little longer, because House of Minalima, an exhibition and shop is showcasing all things Harry Potter.
A post shared by Miraphora Mina & Eduardo Lima (@minalimadesign) on
Located in London's Soho, the mini museum is home to four floors of 'distinctive' designs, including graphic art from the Harry Potter film series, as well as art from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
On floors one and two, visitors can browse through artwork, including the Marauder's Map, The Daily Prophet newspapers, as well as authentic film props, such as the all important Hogwarts letter.
On floor three, visitors will travel back in time to 1920's New York, where they can browse through, and purchase, limited edition reproduced prints.
Sometimes (especially in the morning) we love coffee more than we love our significant others.
It perks us up, warms our bodies and basically gets us ready for the day ahead.
Much like a romantic partner, don’t you think?
So, it makes total sense that scientists have found that drinking coffee can actually play a huge role in our relationships.
A study in the Journal of Family Psychology examined 68 newlyweds to find out the secret to relationship satisfaction.
During the research, couples were asked to speak about their interpersonal experiences (conflict, sex), relationship satisfaction and the amount of sleep they get each night.
The scientists discovered that the more sleep people got, the happier they were in their relationships.
And here is where the Convergent Coffee comes in. A lot of our physical and mental strength relies on sleep, and we all know how grumpy we can get if we have a sleepless night.
Therefore, coffee was found to give people “self-regulation” for when they didn’t catch their zzzs.
The experts said: “Caffeine moderates the relationship between sleep deprivation and depletion by replenishing self-regulatory resources (e.g. overcoming a fight with your partner).
Basically, if we have a sleepless night, we don’t make wise decisions, and coffee steps in as a temporary solution to make a balanced judgement.
Before you break your next to Starbucks, consider that it’s now possible to make your own top quality coffee from the comfort of your own home. All you need is some coffee making equipment and you’re ready. If you don’t have anything yet, visit https://coffeegeek.tv/ to read up on the best grinders and coffee for your at home coffee experience.
The six students who lives were tragically lost in the Berkeley balcony collapse of 2015 have been honoured in a special ceremony.
Niccolai ‘Nick’ Schuster, Eimear Walsh, Olivia Burke, Eoghan Culligan, Lorcán Miller and Ashley Donohoe were remembered at the service in California.
A memorial plaque was unveiled in their honour, which featured a quote from James Joyce: “They lived and laughed and loved and left.”
Amb @DanMulhall:”I would like to pay tribute to the first responders, medical staff and our wonderful Irish community who provided such fulsome support for everyone affected, especially the young people and the families directly involved”. 2/2 pic.twitter.com/VTE37noRgF
— Embassy of Ireland USA (@IrelandEmbUSA) July 21, 2018
The plaque reads:
“Berkeley, named after an Irish philosopher, will forever remember the six young adults from America and Ireland, guests in this city, who tragically died near this spot in a balcony collapse at 2020 Kittredge Street early in the morning of June 16, 2015.
“Here, the families of those who passed and the community of Berkeley have joined hands to establish a permanent memorial.”
The families of the six students attended the moving service. They recently marked the third anniversary of the horrifying accident on June 16.
Plaque to honour Irish students who died in Berkeley by @suzannelynch1. Speaking ahead of the unveiling, Amb @danMulhall recalled the deep sense of “grief, shock and sorrow” felt in the wake of the tragic event which had an “enormous effect on Ireland” https://t.co/OIeJiMxjC9pic.twitter.com/0rNRPYAVIE
— Embassy of Ireland USA (@IrelandEmbUSA) July 21, 2018
Speaking of the tragedy, Ireland’s Ambassador to the USA, Daniel Mulhall said: “The Berkeley balcony collapse of June 2015 was a terrible tragedy and one which had an enormous effect on Ireland. The depth of grief, shock and sorrow was immense – six young lives so tragically and prematurely ended and serious injury inflicted on so many.”
“I would like to pay tribute to the first responders, medical staff and our wonderful Irish community who provided such fulsome support for everyone affected, especially the young people and the families directly involved,” he added.
'Chief Flamingo Officer' may sound like a response you would get frona five year old if you asked them what they wanted to be when they grew up – but we s*it you not, it's a legit job title.
At this moment in time, Baha Bar in the Bahamas is looking for someone to fill this exact role.
The million-dollar resort in paradise is searching for someone to work on their flamingo sanctuary, which is an integral part of their resort experience.
As well as working at the Flamingo Mansion, you literally get to live in the Bahamas if you were lucky enough to land this job, so it's already the dream.
'The Chief Flamingo Officer will be responsible for the caretaking of Baha Mar's flock of flamingos, arriving to the resort destination this spring. Baha Mar's resident flamingos will inhabit the Baha Mar Flamingo Mansion, an expansive indoor, outdoor, aquatic and dry habitat designed to house the Bahamian birds,' reads the job description.
'The Chief Flamingo Officer will oversee the Flamingo Mansion, interacting with resort guests and designing interactive programming for Baha Mar's guests.'
The ideal candidate will have a degree in zoology or similar, and will have professional experience working with exotic birds.
They will also be well versed in ecology and studying the environment of these birds to tend to their needs correctly.
Frankly, we can't think of anything better than lying on the beach watching some flamingos do their thang right now.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have shared the sweetest photo of Prince George in honour of his fifth birthday.
Kensington Palace released the photograph on behalf of the parents last night.
They posted the cutest photo of George grinning like the Cheshire Cat- just look at that cheeky smile.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are very pleased to share a new photograph of Prince George to mark his fifth birthday – thank you everyone for your lovely messages
— Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) July 21, 2018
Isn’t he looking more and more like William as he grows up?
Kensington Palace tweeted: “The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are very pleased to share a new photograph of Prince George to mark his fifth birthday – thank you everyone for your lovely messages.”
The new photo of Prince George was taken by photographer Matt Porteous.
It is understood that the snap was taken shortly after Prince Louis’ christening in the garden of Clarence House.
The future king will certainly be celebrating his fifth birthday in style. Rumour has it Kate and William have whisked the children off to the Caribbean.
The family are said to be holidaying in the exclusive island of Mustique with Kate’s family, including younger sister Pippa and her husband James Matthews.
Their chosen destination is extremely private with a no-fly zone over the island, and only 100 villas.
Sundays are all fun and games until reality hits and you have to get yourself organised for another week of work. The Sunday night fear is something we all experience, but fear not, we have the perfect solution that is bound to lift your spirits tonight.
If anything is going to bring a smile to yourself tonight it’s a musical. Sometimes all you need is to curl up on the sofa and watch Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Amanda Seyfried sing and dance to ABBA’s greatest hits.
Forget about your 6am start and watch Donna and the Dynamos shimmy to Dancing Queen. Ignore the fact that you have a mountain of unwashed dishes in the sink and prance around your living room to Voulez Vous. Boost your ego by listening to Pierce Brosnan singing SOS (God loves a trier.)
RTÉ 1 are making our Sunday night a hell of a lot better by showing Mamma Mia at 9.30 pm tonight.
The movie is one of our all time favourites. We know it’s cheesy, but it’s the ultimate feel-good movie.
Mamma Mia is a musical/rom-com that will make your heart feel warm, leave your sides hurting from laughing and turn you into a blubbering mess all within the space of 109 minutes.
It follows the story of Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) who has grown up not knowing who her father was, but as her wedding day approaches, she wants her dad to be there to give her away.
She takes matters into her own hands and invites her mum's (Meryl Streep) three former lovers- Harry (Colin Firth), Bill (Stellan Skarsgard) and Sam (Pierce Brosnan)- to the wedding. One of the three men is her father, and Sophie believes if she gets to know them she’ll find out who her dad is.
Sailor uses her tutorials to help unfortunate singletons catch a man, using the bamboozlement and witchcraft that is makeup.
'I bought this brush from a woman at the mall,' she declares in GETTING A MAN 101, one of her popular videos.
'She had a wedding ring on, so clearly she knows what she's doing.'
Sailor also takes the absolute p*** out of the consistent insistence of males that makeup is 'false advertising.'
'A man is going to find me and think – 'Wow, a woman born with gold eyelids.'
Her most viewed video Contouring 101, has over 1.2 million views thanks to it's time on the trending page, and for good reason.
'If men find out we can rearrange the bones of our face, we're finished. We might as well pack our bags and go to the nunnery,' she proclaims, in full Sailor J persona.
'If the men find out we can shape shift, they're going to tell the church.'
While you might be familiar with clean beauty products, it might be time to consider alternative cleaning products as well.
Cheaper, non toxic, eco-friendly: there are only benefits to using natural ingredients to clean your house.
You can use this DIY natural detergent in the kitchen, bathroom, tiles and even wooden floor. You can also use it to clean the kettle. Make sure you rinse it properly so it doesn't leave white stains.
Also, it costs close to nothing.
Ingredients
1L water
1 tbsp baking soda
1 tbsp white vinegar
1 tbsp essential oil of your choice: lavender, rosemary, lemon or lime
Method
Place the baking soda, white vinegar and essential oil in a 1L container.
Add 1L hot water so all the ingredients can dissolve. Close the container and shake to mix everything together.
"Buffy’s coming back! Twenty-one years after the original, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” is getting a reboot, and Joss Whedon is on board to executive produce," they wrote alongside the photograph.
Talks for a new Buffy began last autumn, but ultimately the decision to begin the reboot was influenced by writer Monica Breen.
She was selected to take on the task of writing this new chapter of Buffy.
Although a script or director has yet to been chosen, along with casting the central role of Buffy.
Last year, Joss spoke to Hollywood Reporter about a possible reboot or reunion and the fear and pressure when reviving a beloved TV show.
"I see a little bit of what I call monkey's paw in these reboots. You bring something back, and even if it's exactly as good as it was, the experience can't be. You've already experienced it, and part of what was great was going through it for the first time. You have to meet expectations and adjust it for the climate, which is not easy," he explained.
"Luckily most of my actors still look wonderful, but I'm not worried about them being creaky. I'm more worried about me being creaky as a storyteller. You don't want that feeling that you should have left before the encore."
Shellac Luxe and the incredible people at CND have let me in on a new technique they have developed called the Wiggle.
The Wiggle gets those nails looking sharp and keeps them on point for two weeks.
It is a new way to paint nails and caps the nail properly to avoid chipping and breaks.
Samantha Sweet of Sweet Squaredspoke to SHEmazing about how the Wiggle was conceived with Shellac Luxe, which removes in just sixty seconds.
"Team CND obviously do a lot of training on application…rather than paint a nail traditionally from the cuticle up, they do this wiggle technique, where they are almost going backward on the tip of the nail first, it’s almost like you’re sealing the edge," she explained.
"The brush in this product is so awesome, that when you actually apply this wiggle technique, it just does this beautiful sweep, then they apply [the polish] normally."
After speaking to the nail goddess that is Marian Newman, she told me all about the way the Wiggle is changing the industry as we know it.
Marian has worked in every aspect of the nail industry, which includes over 50 British Vogue covers to her name and years of working on fashion shows for London and Paris Fashion Weeks – so she knows a thing or two about nails.
"I think the Wiggle technique is amazing," she said.
"With any nail coating, you do have to cap the free edge because the layers end there, so that is where they get the most damage, that's where water can seep and make the layers blow apart, so you do have to cap the free edge," she said.
"And a lot of people cap the free edge but they get polish underneath and if you get any underneath, traditional or gel polish you end up picking it out and then you have broken the seal.
"Everyone knows this is such a fine product [Shellac Luxe] – when I say fine, I mean sophisticated, it’s superior.
Marian went on to explain that with the Wiggle technique and using Luxe, you cap the tip of the nail without getting anything underneath, so you don't break the seal.
Marian also added that it's crucial for nail techs to get the wiggle technique down properly, so you get the best results.
"[Shellac Luxe] is thin and you don’t get the bulbous piece at the end, it's just an easy way for every nail professional to remember, what to do and get the best possible results because this is very technique sensitive.
"If you don’t put it on right, then you’re not going to get the best out of it."
Making the effort is worth it, as staring at beautiful nails all day makes us happy.
When asked why they want other nail technicians to lose bad habits, and to adopt the wiggle and Shellac Luxe; The answer was simple – "the integrity of a natural nail."
"We are in the beauty industry, we are not here to trash natural nails. The integrity of a natural nail should be the first priority of a nail technician, keeping those nails beautiful," explained Samantha.
"Now with traditional Shellac and Luxe, you don’t need to use an abrasive or a file on the natural nail, so already you haven't done anything to the nail to thin it or anything like that."
"If nail techs stop doing those type of things, and then you've got a product that comes off so easily, so the nail underneath shouldn't be harmed in any way, then you've got a better experience for the customers."
"Clients should not be going to a salon to get their nails trashed, and yet there are so many people that still do that."
September is coming and back to school time seems like a good opportunity to make good resolutions when it comes to our workday lunch.
Our advice: stay away for the chicken roll from the deli counter (unhealthy and pricey) and get used to bringing your lunch to work.
And why? Because you will be able to control exactly what you put in your box and you will save a bucket load of money.
To give you some inspiration to make your own lunch everyday, we have gathered our favourite foodie Instagram accounts that will make you drool and find motivation to stay away from the #SadDeskLunch.
