Summer has sure thrown some hot days at us over the past few weeks and the last couple of rainy days have brought great relief. I love summer but as I can’t spend every day at the beach unfortunately, so I am always looking for ways to make coping with the heat a little easier. Here are some of my favourite finds that have helped me survive the heat wave.
DRY FINISH SUNSCREEN
At the beginning of summer Miss WW spent a couple of weekends away at the beach and scored herself some pretty bad sunburn. I keep reminding her to apply ALL the sunscreen ALL the time to protect her beautiful skin, it easy to get caught up in all the fun and forgetting to reapply regularly has not been happening. I tried to get her to use good old zinke stick especially on her nose, but most sunscreens tend to make her break out and she hates that.
After checking out all the sunscreens on the shelf these two have proved to be real winners in our house. Dry touch sunscreen is the bomb! That heavy and sticky feeling that is often experienced with normal sunscreen is no more. Both of these only take a couple of minutes to ‘set’ and you don’t even feel as though you have sunscreen on. Miss WW is happy to reapply regularly and neither of them caused her to breakout. That’s a major win in my books as life in Queensland without sunscreen is just not on.
COOL COTTON FOR HOT DAYS
Wearing long sleeves in summer for sun protection is a great idea, but ahhhh no, its too hot for that! I was invited to a picnic in the park on the banks of the Brisbane river and rain was forecast for that evening and I thought it might get a bit cool once the clouds rolled in.
This super light, 100% cotton long sleeved top from the Portobello range by Vivid International (gifted) turned out to be a perfect choice and was so cool to wear in the hot afternoon. The best thing about this top is it comes all rolled up and when you wash it you roll it up again and its crinkled look does not require ironing.
Just love the colours in this one!
KEEPING DRINKS SUPER COOL
Hot weather requires cold drinks and tiny little ice blocks that melt in a flash don’t help the cause.
Giant ice blocks are the answer and this awesome ice cube tray was one of my fav finds from Kmart and cost a whole $1.50 each. Buy a few and store them in a large plastic container so you always have plenty on hand.
Freezing coffee in these and adding one to a glass of milk makes a very yummy iced coffee too!
RELAX WITH A GOOD READ
Just before Christmas my mum went to a charity market and bought three books for $1.00. She liked the look of the covers and thought they would be a good romance novel read. Had she read the back and saw the words such as warlocks and vampires she would have put them back in a flash. I am so grateful she didn’t.
So not have I only devoured the three part The Infernal Devices book series, I am on the 6th and final installment of The Mortal Instruments. Miss WW has been a big fan of these for a few years and I showed zero interest in reading them. They are thrilling reads will lots of plot twists and I won’t mention that they are listed as ‘Young Adult’ reading….because I am way past that stage of life and just love reading them. This is one of new habits that I have been working on to go with my word of the year ‘Joy’.
The only other thing I need to find is a mascara that will not give me panda eyes when the heat is on. I have tried so many and not one of them has done what it promised! Any suggestions?
Have you found any great things this summer to help you keep cool?….and moving to the Southern States is not an option as I hate winter, even our pretty mild Brisbane version.
Sharing for #LLL at Write In The Middle.com
I’ve never seen that dry touch sunscreen before, but am going to keep an eye out for it. Thanks! #TeamLovinLife
You will love it!
Vivid International has some beautiful clothes doesn’t it? And it’s nice to see you discovering some new YA Fantasy – I’m a big fan of the genre because they’re always fun and easy to read.
I honestly never would have given those books a second glance…..but thankfully I did.
Love the sound of the dry touch sunscreen as well as the giant iceblocks! Also love a clothing item that doesn’t need ironing and protects from the sun – win, win! BTW – I have read the entire Mortal Instruments Series – loved them! #TeamLovinLife
I have now started on the next trilogy….Lady Midnight is on my bedside table. 🙂
I’m starting my days with a cold black coffee. Just basically pouring hot coffee over a large class of ice. Freezing coffee the night before is a brilliant idea.
In Queensland you have to find all the ways to keep a drink cold for more than 30 seconds!
I love my spray on dry touch sunscreen. My son has one in his school bag too. We like Neutrogena in the pale blue can.
I also like to read Young Adult fiction. Why not!
Okay, you got me at GIANT ice cubes! I have ice cubes in my red wine in summer and very much like the idea of 1 big one rather than a few which melt at varying speeds.
And thanks for the heads-up re sunscreen. I noticed recently ALL of mine were out of date and I really need to get something new but wasn’t sure where to start given the myriad of claims you hear. #teamlovinlife
The giant ice cubes are just the best!