Self Love

Hannah Drake is a lifestyle and travel blog based out of Birmingham, England. Hannah started this blog in January of 2017 to document life in her native Colorado. Since then, she has moved abroad and gotten married and this space has grown too. Come for the photos of beautiful England and home decor tips, stay for the honest take on life and marriage, the good, the bad, and the not-so-Instagram-worthy. Read more about Hannah here.

FEATURED POSTS

Featured

8 Game of Thrones Locations to Add to Your Bucket List

Apr 17, 2019

8 Game of Thrones Locations to Add to Your Bucket List

Apr 17, 2019

Read More →

Apr 17, 2019

Self Care Is... Building A Life You Don't Want to Escape

Apr 10, 2019

Self Care Is... Building A Life You Don't Want to Escape

Apr 10, 2019

Read More →

Apr 10, 2019

Cardamom Coconut Gin Fizz

Apr 8, 2019

Cardamom Coconut Gin Fizz

Apr 8, 2019

Read More →

Apr 8, 2019

Why I'm Done Travelling for Instagram

Apr 3, 2019

Why I'm Done Travelling for Instagram

Apr 3, 2019

Read More →

Apr 3, 2019

Amalfi Coast Boat Tour

Mar 29, 2019

Amalfi Coast Boat Tour

Mar 29, 2019

Read More →

Mar 29, 2019

How to Throw A Game of Thrones Viewing Party

Mar 25, 2019

How to Throw A Game of Thrones Viewing Party

Mar 25, 2019

Read More →

Mar 25, 2019

FEATURED PRODUCTS

Persist 16x24

Persist 16x24

5.00

Yes 16x24

Yes 16x24

8.00

Mighty 8x8

Mighty 8x8

10.00

THE GRAM

#ad @thebodyshop #thebodyshopUK

The Easter bunny managed to find us in Scotland and just happened to leave me some carrots among all these goodies! I’m loving the new carrot face cleanser & face moisturizer for a number of reasons, but one of the main ones is that they’re made from wonky, UK-grown carrots! 🥕

We seriously waste a lot of produce because it’s not “pretty” enough when it’s still perfectly edible, so I’m really glad to see these wonky carrots are getting a second life! And as always, no bunnies were harmed in making these products! 🐰

Peep the gin too! 👀 What did you get in your Easter basket?

PS We mainly did Easter baskets this year because Luke has never had one before! Yay for the American commercialization of every major holiday!

#thebodyshopbirminghambullring #24carrotglow #thebodyshop

#joy42 #joy42selflove #ethicalproducts #ethicalbeauty #crueltyfreebeauty #easterweekend #easterbasket

Want to hear about one of my most embarrassing moments?

About a year ago, I went down to London on the coach to see all the spring flowers and seasonal shop façades. Luke dropped me off at the coach station before he went into work, so it was e a r l y. I was wearing this dress and a jean jacket and was carrying a backpack.

I spent the day wandering around the city, seeing all of London in its prime. A few hours in, I took off my jacket and folded it into my backpack because it was quite warm. I sent Luke a selfie. I toured the most picturesque neighborhoods.

Toward the end of my day, I happened to run into the designer of this particular dress, @galmeetsglam while she was there shooting for her next collection. I was completely star struck outside of The Ivy Chelsea Garden where we bumped into each other on the street.

Later, when I was on the coach home, my neck was itchy and suddenly, I realized my dress was half zipped!

I had been walking around London all day with my dress half zipped! I had met the designer of my dress with it half zipped!

I was so embarrassed and that moment still haunts me to this day! 🙈🙈🙈🙈🙈 I figured maybe if I shared this story (finally) paired with one of my dresses prime moments (the morning after our wedding), it wouldn’t haunt me so much. 📷: @briannehaagensonphoto

#joy42 #drakesacrossthepond #gmgonme #thisisbham #birmingham #seeyourcity #gglocalgems

The most photographed street in Scotland. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 The inspiration for Diagon Alley. ⚡️ #joy42 #joy42travels #thisisscotland #visitscotland #edinburgh #visitedinburgh #easterweekend #harrypotter

Really excited for this holiday weekend because, sure it’s nice to get away and take a break, but vacation inevitably means ice cream every day and plenty of time to read. Which I need because I’m reading Michelle Obama’s Becoming and I love her. 🍦📚 Speaking of holidays, did you see my #GameOfThrones filming locations post yesterday? Luke and I are seriously considering a Northern Ireland roadtrip to start seeing them all! (These photos are a #TBT from our trip from Naples to Rome that I just discovered this morning.) #joy42 #joy42travels #rome #easterweekend #gelato #crazyrichasians #becoming

Another day, another cocktail. Meet the Cardamom Coconut Gin Fizz.

It’s not feeling so springy outside anymore (we were joking we had spring the last week in March), but that won’t stop me from enjoying this delicious cocktail with refreshing flavours. I first made it a while ago to complement one of our favourite dishes: masala lamb chops. It was a match made in heaven.

But even if you’re not into curries or Indian flavours, you gotta try this one. It’s perfect for a warm spring--or summer--evening and I cannot wait to whip up a batch of them for our first evening in the garden this year.

Check out the recipe on my blog. CHEERS!

#joy42 #happyhour #mixology #cocktailrecipe #ginfizz #cocktailofthemonth

“Italy has been a huge wake up call for me in so many ways. Even since our trip, I’ve found myself pinning blog posts titled “The Best Instagram Spots in Paris” or “The Most Instagrammable Cafes in London” and I’ve got to stop. It’s no secret that Instagram promotes a picture-perfect, care-free life and I’m literally exhausted from contributing to that. I’ve moved to a new country that’s rich in history, with buildings that are older that America, that provides easy access to a whole other continent full of the same. I want to live my life and experience those things wholly rather than choosing where we go on holiday because of a trip I saw an influencer take through a handful of squares on an app. I want to learn about other cultures, other cuisines, other languages rather than use foreign countries for a photoshoot backdrop. I’m really lucky that Luke and I both get so much paid annual leave and have the means to travel and it would be such a shame if I look back on my life and see that I did it all for the ‘Gram and not for myself or for my family.” Today I’m sharing a blog post about how focusing more on social media nearly ruined our honeymoon for me last year. It took about six months for me to start appreciating our trip, specially our time on the ever-Instagrammable Amalfi Coast and stop feeling so guilty and bitter about it. It’s been a strange journey and I fully recognise my privilege to be bitter about honeymooning on the Amalfi Coast (I know, I need to get over myself) and I fully recognise the irony of sharing this post--with this photo, no less--on this app.

It’s been a journey getting to the point where I even want to look at the photos from Italy, let alone share them and it’s all because of the unrealistic expectations I put on myself because of this little app here.

Check out the full post through the link in my bio.

#joy42 #joy42travels #positano #amalficoast #gmgonme #openmyworld

#ad @thebodyshop

Today I whipped up (literally) some DIY beauty products from the 100% shea butter from Ghana. It was a lot of fun to be able to create my own stuff and something I’ve been wanting to try for a while. And it was really cool to use shea butter sustainably sourced from the Tungteiya Women’s Association in Ghana and also local lavender oil from the Cotswolds. I made a sunburn relief cream because Luke got some colour at work this week and then a hand and body lotion.

If you want to make your own lotion, here’s what I did:

2 parts 100% shea butter
1 part olive oil
1 part coconut oil
20 drops lavender oil

Mix with a hand mixer until smooth and creamy, about 8-10 minutes. It will appear yellow-ish at first, but it will return to white as it’s whipped.

#thebodyshopUK #thebodyshopbirminghambullring #thebodyshop #carewithshea

Whoops! I didn’t meant to go most of March without posting, but whatever. Instagram has kind of felt like a chore lately and my mom can tell you just how much I hate chores!

Anywhere, here’s an obligatory it’s spring post that’s actually from 2016. We still have another nine days before Daylight Saving in the UK and I can’t wait for more light in the evening and hopefully more warm weather! (By the way, before I moved here, I didn’t know any other countries did Daylight Saving. 🤷🏻‍♀️) Also, this spring is looking like it’s going to be really fun between a couple of short trips, a few causes for celebration, and of course Game of Thrones and Avengers: Endgame coming out next month.

In the meantime, we’ve been bingeing Survivor. We watched season 36 and now we’ve decided to start from the beginning so we’re currently watching the very first episode. Any other Survivor fans out there?

Or more importantly, who else is counting down the days until Game of Thrones and/or Avengers?

Yesterday was actually the first time I’ve looked at any of the photos I took during our day on Capri last September. Going through all the photos from our trip to Italy has felt so daunting and has given me quite a bit of anxiety. I guess I was afraid I would only be reminded of the dumb travel mistakes we made, my ridiculous mindset on our trip*, or severely overpaying for a subpar lunch on this particular day.

When I actually started looking through them, all I could think about was how beautiful that island is and how freaking lucky we are that we got to visit it. You can’t see from the photos that we were frustrated that day. We’re just smiling honeymooners in an incredible place. It makes me feel a lot better about going through the photos from the rest of our Italy trip. And it definitely makes me miss those pizza every day days.

Check out the blog post about Capri through the link in my bio. *I was going to write about my mindset--so to speak--throughout the whole trip in this Instagram caption today, but it turned out to be about 5x longer than the character limit, so I think I’m going to turn it into a blog post coming in the next couple of weeks instead. Forgive me for “teasing” it, which I usually don’t like to do.

THE CAMERA

Panasonic DMC-G7MEB-K Lumix G 4K Compact System Camera

FIND WHAT YOU'RE LOOKING FOR...