What a wonderful week!

So last week was a good week! I got made permanent at my job, my team and I extended our winning streak in football and I got to go out for dinner and drinks with some friends I haven’t seen in a while so I’m one happy English American!

First I thought I’d tell you about my love for Starbucks! I started drinking coffee while I was at Uni, like many other people I expect, and my love for coffee is ever-growing and here to stay. Now I know there are lots of coffee ‘joints’ out there that sell fantastic tasting coffee but Starbucks definitely is my favourite and this is why.

1) Their limited edition flavours are wacky but wonderful!

2) Their marketing tactics are just perfection (some people probably don’t like Starbucks because of this but being a marketer myself, I applaud them)

3) And finally, it made me realise how un-selfish and loving my husband is. In one of our first times hanging out together, we decided to get a Starbucks because his Aunt had sent him a gift card for his birthday. When we got there, they had two Limited Edition Frappuccino’s on their menu; a Caramel Ripple one and a Mocha Cookie Crumble one. I went for the Caramel so my hubby (well boyfriend at the time) went for the Mocha Cookie Crumble. Mine came first and boy was it good, but then came the Mocha Cookie Crumble and it was just something else. So chocolatey, creamy and full of cookie pieces, what more could you want. You can probably guess where this is going. So after I gave him the cute ‘please can I have your drink’ and the ‘how much do you love me’ eyes he kindly swapped his frappe with mine…at this point I knew I had a keeper!

Anyway let’s go back to point number 2) which was about how awesome the Starbucks marketing tactics are! Over a year ago I downloaded the Starbucks app but after finding out that you had to pre-load money onto it I decided I didn’t like this idea much so never used it. However, after moving jobs and only being 30 seconds away from a Starbucks, I decided to give it another look. So although having to pre-load money is a little annoying, I’ve come to the conclusion that every now and then I am going to treat myself to a Starbucks so my money won’t be wasted. A great feature also is that every time you order something at Starbucks, you gain a star and once you get to 15 stars you get a free drink! This however isn’t the only perk as I found out this week. I received an email explaining that their ‘mobile ordering’ system was ready and that it’s only available for their Starbucks Rewards members. So while on my way to coaching my little kids team at the weekend, I decided to give it a go and ordered my drink from my mobile, meaning I could skip the queue! When I got there and went to get my mobile out the barista went ‘is it Danni?’ to which I replied very smugly with ‘yeah that’s me’ and grabbed my hazelnut latte while others just stared at me confused. I walked away feeling like a boss!

Also I got to try another Starbucks exclusive last week, again because I am a Starbucks Rewards member. They sent an email to their members explaining that there are two new items available but they are not yet on the menu; one a Burnt Caramel Latte and the other a Rose & Pistachio Mocha. The latter just sounded too weird and wonderful for me not to try so I decided to risk it. It was good, a little odd but somehow chocolate, rose and pistachio works! The only thing I wasn’t keen on were the Pistachio crumbs that were on top so next time I would just get it without these and it would be perfecto!

Next I wanted to talk about the Forever Living products that I got to try out! My friend is selling them and needed some honest feedback on some products so I said I’d help her out. I got to try out the Teeth Whitening gel, the Moisturising Lotion, and the Heat Lotion along with a couple others but these were my favs. Although I only used the Teeth Whitening gel for a few days I could definitely see a difference in the brightness of my teeth, I think next payday I will be purchasing a tube of this. The Aloe Vera Moisturising Lotion was amazing also, it made my skin feel super soft and smooth and rubbed in nice and easy, leaving no greasiness once dry. The label attached to it also said it could be used as a make-up primer, so I gave it a go and it worked wonderfully. My face didn’t feel heavy or greasy at all for the entire day which was great and another product I am definitely considering buying. The final product I want to tell you about is the Heat Lotion which was similar to the popular brand Deep Heat muscle rub. It smelt the same, looked the same however it actually worked and made my muscles feel great while working out. I’ve had a pain deep in my glute recently and I had absolutely no pain when I used the lotion, which was fantastic! If you want to check out any of these products, or others in the range visit my friends page here.

One last thing I want to tell you about was an amazing drink that I had at the weekend. It was called a Baby Godzilla which was a blend of rum, passion fruit puree, Midori, pink grapefruit, mint and lime, very green! The drink even came topped with a tiny dinosaur toy on top of my mint leaves, which was just too cute. Oh and the drink tasted incredible and all cocktails are on 2 for £10 until a certain time in the night…winner!

Phew, a long one this week but I hope you enjoyed reading about my week of trying new things and the wonders of Starbucks! Peace out for now!