When Fraser said he was coming to Mexico for a month I immediatly started thinking about where to take him outside of the city. After making a list of places, looking at activities at each place and wanting all of them, I ended up deciding on San Miguel de Allende. I knew that if we didn't go I'd end up regretting it as it's one of the essential places to visit in Mexico and I finalised the decision by visiting San Miguel a couple of months before and fell completely in love with it again.

 San Miguel is one of the most charming little towns I’ve been to, keeping its historic, pebbled and very mexican charm intact even through all the tourism and americans that have found a home there. It helped that Fraser and I stayed in the loveliest AirBnB; a little villa-like flat where we managed to chill quite a lot when we got tired of walking around.

Walking. One of the wonderful things about the holiday was being able to walk virtually everywhere, which is useful given we found ourselves forgetting things constantly and having to walk back to the flat.

 On to the most interesting thing, what we did there. We quickly settled into a routine; breakfast out in a coffee shop, walk around, chill at the flat, lunch out, chill again, walk, rooftop bar, dinner, home, repeat (little too long for that). I think my favourite part was the rooftop bars. They are all wonderfully charming, atop old buildings or modern hotels that blend into the landscape with beautiful views and chilled atmospheres, be it at the Mama Mia restaurant, the Matilda or the Rosewood hotels (the latter has one of the best views of San Miguel you’ll ever see).

That’s not to say I wasn’t happy with everything else, hidden or not hidden there’s some wonderful food places and little coffee shops; we even found a coffee shop that somehow led into a fashion store, a gallery and the coolest little food market.

 Walking around that place with great company, sipping on cocktails and special beers, eating pizza and mexican food made it one of the best escapes from the city I’ve had in a while. I’d definitely recommend if you live in Mexico or are around some day, it’s not that far from the city and the coaches there are actually pretty good!

Lots of love,

Natalia xx

PS: During this trip we also started creating the range of clothing for the new company Fraser's building with me, MEXI.CLOTHING. We're importing clothes and accessories from Mexico to the UK and Europe. It's really exciting! you can check it out here, join us and get a discount when we launch: mexi.clothing

So...it finally happened, the moment an avid gig-goer dreads. Friend(s) pull out at the last minute and suddenly, unable to replace them, you find yourself watching one of your favourite bands on your own.

And yet...

Despite the fact that you've paid twice as much as everyone else and despite the fact you've wasted 25 minutes outside trying to tout your ticket whilst being laughed at by the venue staff, it's still worth it. The support act are surprisingly good, the overpriced budget brand lager tastes fine and, most importantly, your favourite band are every bit as special as you hoped.

P.S. I'm launching a clothing company - really appreciate it if you check out my site :) There's a special offer if you sign-up www.mexi.clothing

Hi there, 

I've been thinking about being someone who worries. Constantly. I even worry about worrying. Here's a brief list of things that worry me every day:

1. What other people think.

2. What I think about other people.

3. Losing something that matters.

4. Not doing anything with my life.

5. The future.

6. University; work, grades, everything.

7. Having to leave my house and not doing anything important. 

8. Savings.

9. Time management

10. Do I worry too much? 

Somehow, through all of those, it's the last one that I normally go to bed with. The fact that I worry about being worried. Everyone always tells you to destress, to stop and breathe, that worrying is bad for your health. After many years of being a worrier I'm actually here to tell you that it's okay. 

Having concerns is only human and I've found worrying about all these things makes me a better person. Caring about what others think is okay if it pushes you to be nicer, kinder or careful. First impressions of people will stick with you and that's good if it makes you believe you can break it. Having anguish over losing something that matters to you usually will drive you into actually doing things to keep it with you. Basically, every single worry will normally push you into acting to stop whatever it is from happening, it will make you better. 

What makes us worry is the unknown, and the unknown is amazing, it's so much better than the granted. Stop the stigma that worrying makes everything worse, stop the idea that being concerned makes you innactive: you can make it active. 

It means you care, it means you'll work for things. Contrary to popular belief, anguish is not always bad, worry does not make you sick; it makes you human. All the best ideas, all the best creations start by one common thing: wanting to solve a problem. That problem is your worry, that worry is the best thing that's happened to you. That unknown is going to drive you to be the absolute best version of yourself you can be. Don't be afraid to be concerned. 

Talk to you soon, 

Natalia xx 

Screenshot of Will Darbyshire's 'Distance'

I think we all enjoy a fair bit of baking when it comes to Christmas, I definitely do. I love baking anyway but there's something special about using all the lovely holiday spices. Today, I decided to bake Christmas cookies. They would make perfect little additions to a Christmas dinner or, if you can wrap them nicely, even stocking fillers.

 I've based my recipie on CupcakeJemma's, I don't have enough confidence in myself to make my own recipies yet. So, let's get started! First I like to set all my ingredients and quantities together in order to not get confused while doing the actual baking so: 

For the cookies

You will need

• 2 1/2 cups of plain flour
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground pepper
• Ground ginger, cinnamon and cloves (the quantity is really up to you, I had 1/2 tsp of each but it just depends on how spiced you want your cookies, I wouldn't do more than a teaspoon). 
• 100 grams of unsalted butter (most butters have the grams in the packaging so you can measure it!) 
• 1/2 tsp of baking powder with a pinch of salt
• 2/3 of a cup of brown sugar
• 4 tbsp syrup
• 2 medium to large eggs

For equipment:

• A food processor (recommended) or an electric whisk 
• Cookie cutters of your choice
• A rolling pin

If you want to convert these quantities from cups to grams, you can go here, it's very useful. 

Time to get baking! 

1. Get your food processor (If you don't have one you'll be okay with an electric whisk, just make sure to be paying attention to the process of the dough) and put in your dry ingredients: flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, baking powder, salt and brown sugar and mix until combined - it takes about 10 seconds -. 
2. Throw in the unsalted butter, I recommend it being at room temperature but it's not completely necessary, and mix that in as well until it starts forming little clumps everything is well mixed.
3. Mix your eggs and your syrup in a bowl and slowly add it into the mixture in the food processor, add a little bit at a time and whisk until it all clumps together.
4. Now that your dough is done, you can take it out of the processor. What I did was work with one half at a time. Sprinkle flour on your surface and on a rolling pin, then you're set to roll your dough until it's about half a centimeter thick (or less). 
5. Cut out shapes with your cookie cutters and get rid of the excess dough, which you can roll again if you want and make more shapes. I made 12 cookies with this recipie, but you can make a lot more or less depending on how many times you roll the dough and how thick you want your cookies to be. 
6. Put your cut out shapes on an oven tray with grease proof paper on it and bake at 170° C (338° F) for about 20 minutes or until brown on top. 

For the icing

I like to do my icing as I wait for the cookies to cool down. I used the CK Royal Icing mix, you can always make royal icing from scratch and for that I can recomment the person whose recipie this is based on, CupcakeJemma's royal icing video is great if you want to do your own. 

I used CK's mix in red and green (festive colours, yay!) which meant I didn't need any food colouring but if you have plain white icing and want some pops of colour you can use any food colours you want. According to their packaging, you have to use 1 tbsp of water per every 1/2 cup of CK's powder mix, but I found this to be way too liquid for a piping bag so I added about 1/2 cup more powder. 

I popped my mixture into a piping bag and when the cookies cooled I got to decorating. I must say, I'm not a proffessional, these cookies are just about having some fun with Christmas spirit. 

I hope you enjoyed this post! I'll talk to you very soon,

Natalia xx 

Hello!

Not only is this a very nice thing that happened, it's also the first tag we've done on this blog, so that's exciting! Imalittlepeanut nominated/tagged us for the Liebster Awards, you should check out her blog, it's really cool.

 This tag was basically made for new blogs to get an audience so here are the rules:
 • Write 11 facts about yourself
 • Answer the 11 questions asked by the person(s) who nominated you
 • Nominate 11 other blogs and ask them 11 questions
 • Put a link to their blog and tell them you nominated them
 • Tell the person who nominated you that you did the tag

 Here we go.

 11 facts about yourself 

 Natalia 

1.  The most relevant thing for this, I suppose, is that I started this blog with Fraser because we wanted to write and have something to do as a hobby.
2. I lived in London for 4 months last year and it was one of the best experiences in my short life. 
3. I was born and raised in Mexico City. 
4. I study communications, my main goal is to be a screenwriter but I've realized how much I enjoy other things to do with media. 
5. I am in a long distance relationship with Fraser, co-writer of this blog. 
6. Before backpacking through Europe last year I had never left the continent, I'd never gone beyond the USA.
7. I have a tendency to be very passionate about things and people. I love TV Shows, books and films. The characters and aesthetics in both are something I can go on about for hours, especially if I find someone who likes them as much as I do.
8. I've started noticing that I tend to buy things with inspirational quotes or cool typographies. 
9. I've practiced photoshop for a long time, one of my first internet experiences was in graphic design forums where I learned a lot and entered competitions. 
10. I own a guinea pig and a dog and I love both of them very dearly.
11. I really enjoy watching cooking and baking videos. 

 Fraser 

1. I study Government and Economics at LSE and I’m heading into my final year.
2.  I'm in a long distance relationship with Natalia. 
3. I like going to live music gigs, as you've probably seen in the blog.
4. I own a few vinyls and a very cheap turntable to play them on. 
5. Football is another big passion of mine and I'm a big Fulham FC fan. 
6. I enjoy a good night out in London - favourite cheap places are Book Club, Queen of Hoxton and Roxy 
7. I want to work in venture capital as I'm interested in entrepreneurship. I dream about guiding a startup to success. 
8. Made in Chealsea is my guilty pleasure. Sad / proud to say I've watched from the start. 
9.  I like to try new technologies and gadgets. Walking the fine line between having things first and spending money is the challenge. 
10. I’m into clothes and stuff like that, although I still mainly end up getting things at Topman.
11.  I love to travel and see new places, which I’ve been lucky enough to do a lot of already in my life. I find the buzz of exploring places and meeting new people addictive. 

 11 questions 

 If you had to relive a day forever, which one would you choose? 

Natalia: This is a really hard question, I'm sure I've had many good days. What came to the top of my head was one of the days I spent with my friends in Europe, possibly when we went to London.

Fraser: I'm lucky enough to have had many great experiences in my life so to pick just one is too difficult.

 What’s your favorite thing to do when you’re bored? 

Natalia: I usually just put on Netflix or watch videos. I used to read so much while I was bored but somehow this year I've turned to films and TV more, it comes and goes.

Fraser: Listen to a vinyl, watch football and read about politics

 What’s your favorite song at the moment? 

 Natalia: Hm, well, this changes a lot. Possibly something by Halsey at the moment, maybe 'Hold Me Down'

Fraser: Don’t know if I’ll ever have a single favourite song - but Runaway by Young Kato is one I’m enjoying at the moment.

 If you could go back in time, which historical period would you choose to go to?

 Natalia: I'm always very curious about Ancient Greece. If I could be an adult man, I'd go to Ancient Greece. If I had to be a woman then maybe something more recent, like the 70's, just dressing in very stylish and colourful dresses (I'm so boring).

Fraser: I'd like to see ancient Rome.

 What’s your favorite book and why? 

 Natalia: This answer is really boring from me since it's quite a typical one, but I'm going to say On the Road by Jack Kerouac. I think it has something to do with the first time I read it and where I was in my life. It opened my eyes to many ways to view and live your life, not that I'd want to live it like Jack and the rest of the beat generation but it meant a lot to me.
In terms of a more recent book that I generally go back to when I think about a page turner that I think is brilliant I'd say Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (there's a Steven Spielberg film adaptation coming so if you don't read it keep your eye out for that) or The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson.

Fraser: Fever Pitch and High Fidelity by Nick Hornby (the books not films) because they're about my two main passions: football and music.

 What was your dream when you were little?

 Natalia: I think I wanted to sing or dance. Two things I very much would not want to do for a living now. I remember putting on shows for my parents, but whenever I was asked for a dream job I would say a vet (typical for a kid). I rarely thought about the future when I was a kid, I just wanted to stay a small.

Fraser: I just wanted to be like James Bond.

 What’s the funniest thing that happened to you? 

Natalia: Ever? I have no idea. I've been lucky enough in my life to have a lot of laughter. I can't pinpoint the funniest thing that's ever happened.

Fraser: I'm going to have to agree with Natalia on this one.

 Name 5 things that you liked about your day

Natalia: Seeing new places in the city; two gorgeous libraries. Skyping with Fraser, that's always fun. Having a very nice portobello burger for lunch. Getting to wear a new top. Having my mum and sister make dinner for me.

Fraser: I got two lovely presents from Natalia, a card and a pint glass. Also, going for a coffee in Shoreditch, enjoying the last few days in my flat here before I move out.

 Shuffle the music on your phone, tell me what song ends up playing and what’s your favorite lyrics from it 

 Natalia: Riptide by Vance Joy "I love you when you're singing that song, and I got a lump in my throat cause you're gonna sing the words wrong" I just think that's such a cute image.

Fraser: The Luck Has Gone by Circa Waves Not the best song lyrically but, “I got no time on my hands but I got a lot on my plate” is a pretty depressing observation about modern life.

 Tell me something you’ve never told anyone before 

Natalia: When I was a kid I used to hide under my duvet covers for hours during the night pretending my toys were moving around. Blame Toy Story, I think.

Fraser: Pretty sure Natalia knows everything about me...

 Tell me random small things that make you happy 

 Natalia: Nice spaces in houses, interior design magazines or websites, nice people on the street, talking to Fraser, giving hugs, candles, the smell of Christmas, coffee, naps, pubs.

Fraser: Bottled beers, drinks after work/studying, coffee shops, walking around London, the sound of an away goal at a football match, seeing nice cars in the street.

 Nominations

 We are both awful and don't know any small blogs to nominate that haven't already been nomiated, but if you know of any let us know and we'll add them to nominations, or if you're a small blog and would like to be nominated also let us know and you can just do it :)

 Questions:
1. What's your favourite TV show at the moment?
 2. What's the best time of the year and why?
 3. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
 4. What do you study and why did you choose it? And if you're not at university yet, what would you like to study?
 5. Why do you enjoy writing?
 6. Recommend us three books from your favourites list
 7. What are your favourite sweets?
 8. Tea or coffee?
 9. If you were granted the wish to meet anyone (alive) tomorrow, who would it be?
10. Is there anything you regret?
11. What's your favourite blog to go on?

 Thanks to Celia (imalittlepeanut) for nominating us again!
 Talk to you soon, Fraser and Natalia xx

Being a youtuber has been a fast-growing profession in the past few years, particularly for young creatives. A lot of people enjoy watching youtubers, but I’ve noticed everyone’s watching pretty much the same things. Bigger youtubers, who are all already attatched to talent agencies, such as ThatcherJoe, Jenna Marbles, Zoella, Grace Helbig, Pointlessblog, Tyler Oakley or PewDiePie (who is still the most subscribed to Youtube channel, even above any VEVO) can be great, they’re clearly likeable and do a good job.

However, watching the same people closes doors to smaller youtubers that are very good. So here’s a few of those I found, my only two rules:

1.  Less tan 500K subscribers
2. Good content

These are some people I already had in my subscription box, some others I looked into for the purpose of this post.

Will Darbyshire

Will graduated from film school and his videos really show it.  How they’re colour corrected, how they’re shot, even how he talks and scripts them show a lot more expertise than any normal youtuber. He doesn’t upload every week but I promise the quality of his content is worth it. He numbers all his videos according to the themes he's filming.

CupcakeJemma

Jemma works in her own cupcake shop, Crumbs & Doilies, in London and basically does baking recipies. I love watching her videos, we all enjoy watching food being baked, and her recipies have been my favourite to follow while baking by miles.

NikiNSammy

Niki and Sammy are basically there to make you laugh. They can make the most ridiculous videos ever (like The Fridge Tag) and somehow they’re hilarious. 

SamKingftw

Sam is very YouTube, if you don’t know what that means, it means he does challenges, Q&A’s, chatty videos and even favourite videos. So if you enjoy that kind of thing, he’s quite funny and very relatable.

ChewingSand

Hazel Hayes, otherwise known as ChewingSand, is mostly known for her very funny “Tipsy Talks”, where she basically drinks with a friend and chats to the camera. She also has her ongoing series “Time of the Month”, where she sums up her month in one long vlog video. 

Hannah Witton

Similar to “Tipsy Talks”, my favourite thing about Hannah’s channel is when she does her “Drunk Advice” series. She gets asked for advice on twitter and answers it while drinking with friends, making for some great content. Not to say she doesn’t make other good videos, she’s actually very well known for making informative sex videos, which I would recommend given she’s very respectful and pretty good about it.

PS: Jack Howard is cool too, check him out. 

PeruseProject

Raegan, or PeruseProject, is a booktuber.

Booktube is this lovely corner of YouTube where people just talk about the books they’ve been reading, if anyone is reading this and wants more booktube recommendations I could definitely make a post about that.

Raegan’s recommendations are amazing. She makes videos every booktuber makes: monthly reads, monthly TBR’s, book tags, book unboxings, and chatting about certain book topics. If you like reading subscribe, you won’t regret having new recommendations pretty much every week.

Sophie Foster

Sophie is one of my most recent finds. She’s 17 so possibly the youngest in this list, what did it for me on Sophie is how nice she is to watch. She does quite chatty videos, which I know some people really like, and she generally uploads twice a week. Her content is good, she has good ideas and you can tell she spends a long time making her videos, which is very  nice. 

Bonus, her boyfriend (Tom Bristow) is also a new youtuber and he’s very nice so you should check him out.

Daniela Pires

Daniela’s channel is mostly beauty and has the particular thing of her being Portuguese. I feel like most youtubers people watch are either from the UK or the US, so this is a good one to start watching some international ones. She is a very excitable, very sweet girl who’s just starting out.

Thanks for reading,
Natalia xo