Leatherface - Film Review

I love horror films, especially the classics such as Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Friday the 13^th etc. So when I saw they were releasing another Texas Chainsaw Massacre I couldn’t wait!
Although Leatherface isn’t a sequel or a remake, it’s actually a prequel based on him growing up and how he became the serial killer we know him as.

I’m just going to start by saying I thought it was brilliant! I read a few reviews which didn’t rate it as highly but I thought there was just the right amount of gore and suspense required to make a good horror film. The whole cast, which includes Stephen Dorf and Lili Taylor, were great, each character was played really well and kept the suspense going right until the very end.

If you're a fan of the classics I'd definitely recommend.

So a brief description of the film….Four teens escape a mental asylum taking a nurse who they have kidnapped with them. They embark on a murderous road trip with the Sherriff of the town pursuing them along the way. One of the teens in particular is a disturbed youngster and the events that take place during the rampage mould him into the infamous serial killer we know him to be today, Leatherface.

Let me know if you have seen this film and your thoughts.
Also with Halloween just around the corner, which films do you like to watch around this spooky holiday?

Maxine x

(I do not own the image used in this blog post, no copyright intended) 

Wedding Post #2 Saying Yes To The Dress!

Of course we all know your wedding day is about the commitment between you and your soon to be husband/wife but we also know another huge thing about the day is THE DRESS!

The wedding dress is the first thing you think of when planning your big day (I'm not speaking for everyone but it's got to be 99%!)
Those memories you have of being a little girl and pretending to be wearing a wedding dress is finally happening, you probably already know the style, colour, shape you want to go for.
It's one of the biggest, if not the biggest, decision and purchase you'll make. Not just because of the price but it's something you will always remember wearing and be reminded of wearing when you look back at your happy day.

Wedding dress shopping for me was exciting but also quite overwhelming.
I tried on so many styles and if there's one thing I have noticed from shopping for myself and also speaking to others, it's that the style you think you're going to like and will suit you the most isn't what you end up falling in love with!

I wanted to share with you some tips and things to think about when picking your dream dress to help you also have that amazing experience and hopefully not be too overwhelming!

Budget

The main thing you need to consider when you start looking for your dress is the budget.
You need to be realistic and also remember just because it's £10,000 doesn't mean it's the best and most expensive looking!
The dress I chose was the least expensive of the ones I tried on and it actually looks more expensive than some of the ones which were nearly £1,000 more!
(Once the wedding has taken place, I'll post photo's and reveal the price!)
When discussing your budget also take into consideration any alterations which may be required, depending on the alterations these can be anything between £50 - £300 (possibly more) so if you have a budget of say £2000 and the dress you fall in love with is £2100 you may think it's only £100 more but you may require £200 of alterations.
It really is a personal choice and how much you are wanting to spend, as I say just because someone has spent £10,000 doesn't mean it's the best dress!

Style/Shape
Princess? Fishtail? A-Line? Short?
There are so many styles and shapes of dresses. You probably already know which style you are wanting to go for whether it be the big Princess ballgown or a simple fitted A Line dress.
If I had any tips I would suggest you also try other styles, even the ones you thought you wouldn't like or you thought wouldn't suit you. You might be surprised and end up falling in love with one you wouldn't in a million years think you would!
Make the most of your appointment and remember you're the bride to be and also the customer so any dress you see try it, see what it's like and if you don't like it you just move on to the next one.

Colour
Now you are probably thinking 'Why are you even talking about the colour? White obviously!'
Yes, most brides will choose either White or Ivory.
However, it's becoming quite popular to go for a different colour. Brides are now steering towards the 'non traditional' aspect (myself included!) and not choosing the white or ivory dresses.
The most popular colour when not choosing white/ivory is blush!
Blush is a lovely subtle romantic colour which is fast becoming a popular choice amongst bride to be's.
When shopping for a dress I also saw red, ice blue, peach, gold and quite a few others.
So if you are wanting to choose another colour, don't worry there are quite a few options out there!
Also if you find a dress you like and it's white/ivory in the shop, ask the bridal consultant whether it does come in any other colour, you will more than likely find they have the white/ivory in for trying on but it does come in different colours.

EntourageIf you are currently planning your big day you more than likely have seen the popular TV show 'Say Yes To The Dress' (I love it!) and you see them take about 600 people with them and surprise surprise they don't impress everyone!
Keep your group small when going to try on dresses, only take the people who's opinions matter and not just because Auntie Joyce will be so upset if you don't take her with you.
At the end of the day the final decision is yours but it's always nice to have someone with you who can let you know whether they are blown away or doesn't think it's the right style.
People have different opinions and so if you take too many people you'll never please everyone and therefore you'll never make a decision. Remember -  IT'S ALL ABOUT YOU!!

Finally....

The last things I can think are, don't rush into a decision and don't feel pressured into making a quick decision. 

You are in control, if you aren't sure then you can have time to think. Whether that be popping for a quick coffee to discuss the dresses you've tried or even leaving it a week or two and then returning.
I had been to two different bridal shops in one day and after 3 hours of trying dresses I just felt defeated, I had tried on pretty much every style and shape. I decided to come away and go back the following week, this helped so much! As I realised there were two dresses I really liked and going back to just try those two on again was so much easier than trying and comparing to around 30 others!


If you are currently planning your wedding, Congratulations!
I hope some or all of the above help to make your wedding dress shopping a little less overwhelming.

Let me know in the comments below if your wedding is coming up.

                                                                           Maxine x 

Wedding Post #1 - Everything About The Big Day So Far...

When I came back to blogging I knew I wanted to do Wedding posts!
Not just to share with everyone our big day but also to look back on in years to come at the highs and lows of planning your big day.
In the posts I want to share my plans, well maybe not EVERYTHING but as much as possible and also post any tips I can to help plan your special day.

So this first post I'm just going to through what we have planned so far.

The Date

Our big day is going to be Saturday 5th May 2018 (8 months to go!)

Venue

We are having our whole day in one venue! This is something we definitely wanted to do to save having multiple trips and just for ease.
Our venue is a very nice Doubletree by Hilton hotel, it has a separate ceremony room and we have gone for the biggest room for the Wedding Breakfast (first meal as a married couple) and evening reception.
We have someone coming to decorate the rooms for us, this post will be going up after the wedding with details of who is doing this for us and also a review with lots of photos!

Dress
I'm obviously not going to go into too much detail with this one but I ordered my dress last November! I will definitely be doing a post on wedding dress shopping, I found it extremely overwhelming and I can imagine I'm not the only Bride to Be who has felt this.
My fitting is January....I know!! Flipping January, straight after Christmas! To be honest I was going to be having a no crap eating Christmas this year anyway but this just makes me not want to eat junk at all over the festive period....I just keep reminding myself 'It's only this Christmas!' Needless to say I will still be having the odd tipple.
I have to say a special thank you here (I'll obviously also be doing something more nearer the time) to my lovely mum who is buying my wedding dress, I didn't know this until I said 'Yes to the dress' !

Photographer

After looking online and going to wedding fayres we finally decided on a photographer who we think is going to brill, this will be another post after the wedding of the photographer, a review and photos.

Cake

It's obviously way too early to have a cake yet but we already know what we're having....cupcakes!
I just thought cakes are not cheap and I've been to so many weddings and they have the cake cut up for people to take and it hardly gets touched!

So we're having cupcakes made by my lovely mother in law to be who is fab at baking and then we're going to have cupcake boxes made so everyone can take them home.

Suits & Rings

We are hiring suits and these are going to be a light grey colour - love it!

I've never seen Richard in a suit (and we've been together 11 and a half years! so I'm not going with him for the fitting as I want to save this for the day. The rings are the next thing on the list to get, we've seen a few we like when walking past jewelers but need to go in and have a proper look and try on. 

Transport

I searched and searched on the internet for a wedding car, now my absolute dream wedding car would be the 1967 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 'Eleanor' I did actually find someone who has this as a chauffeur car however at around £300-£400 an hour I wasn't prepared to spend that much! Especially as it's only the one trip and it's only approx. 20 minutes!

Therefore I found a local wedding car hire company who has done me a fantastic deal, it's one guy who only has the one car so for no extra cost he's picking up my mum and the bridesmaids and taken them to the venue first at no extra cost.

I think for now I'm going to leave the post here, don't worry I'll be covering everything in posts every other Wednesday (as much as I can!) leading up to the big day including our Disneymoon and also the Hen Weekend!!

Don't forget to follow me over on Twitter and Instagram.

If you have your big day planned and coming up let me know in the comments.

Also if you are also posting about your wedding and sharing tips, let me know and I'll check it out!

Maxine x

I'm Back!

Well hellooooo there! I am back!
This feels kinda surreal writing a post and exciting too! I've had somewhat of a break from the 'blog scene' and I'm back and ready to take my blog to the next level.

I wanted my first post to let you know why I stepped away and what has made me come back.
So, when I look at the time I started blogging I can see where it went wrong! If you look at my first posts you'll see I had intentions of being a beauty blogger and I was going to write about new products and reviews, however when I really think about it, I'm not a beauty blogger and I felt like I was being false. Although I do wear make up, I don't have a make up routine and wear highlighters and contour, I literally wear a foundation and mascara when I'm going to work and when going out I'll use my Urban Decay Smokey Palette (That I DO obsess over!) and I have 'nicer' products but still nothing that requires technique! (I do wish I could make my make up look as flawless as those who are amazing with the skills!) I know beauty doesn't just cover make up so don't get me wrong I may from to time feature a product whether it be a new mascara or body lotion or a face cream etc but as the main point of my blog I started in the complete wrong direction and I don't mind being honest about it, I think it was mainly because there is a lot of amazing beauty bloggers and so I thought maybe that's what people prefer when reading blogs. However in the time I haven't been posting I've still been reading different blogs and different styles and it hit me that actually your blog is YOUR blog, it doesn't matter if the most popular ones are beauty inspired it's about YOU.
Which brings me to why I wanted to give it another go and this time I'm really determind to have a blog that I'm proud of and can look at and be like 'Yep, that's me'
So as I say yes I may include a few posts of beauty products but my main style of blog I will have is a Lifestyle, as the name tells you I am a chatterbox! So the idea of having more chatty posts is something I look forward to.
Also I love movies and mainly horror! Therefore I'm currently thinking of ways I can incorporate this into my blog, I think the main thing will be maybe reviews of horror movies I watch, whether it be new releases or something I come across on Netflix etc
To be honest I am a huge movie fan in general.
One of my main loves that I am hoping to include is Disney - yes I see you rolling your eyes and thinking 'Really?! but Disney is for kids!' Bish, I am going to Disney World next year for my Honeymoon!
This also brings to me another topic I will be featuring and that's Wedding's! I am marrying my best friend May 2018 and I couldn't be more excited! So I'll be posting an update of our plans and also any tips I can share to help other future brides! (This one I really look forward to)
I'm also hoping to do a few travel style posts, mainly things to do in Nottingham and places to visit especially the Christmas Market!
I just have so much planned and I look forward to sharing it with you.


So yeah, without making this post too long I just wanted to give an idea of where I am hoping my blog to go and see what happens! I'm very excited but also a little nervous, I know there are a lot of amazing bloggers out there and I am a tiny little fish in a great big blogging ocean but I'm excited to get back into the scene properly and meet more lovely people. I have to say that's another reason I wanted to get back into blogging - the lovely people you get to meet.


I'd just like to say a huge thank you to Amy (AlohaAmy) for making my blog header, it's absolutely amazing and I love it!
Go give Amy a follow on Twitter @alohaamyg and check out her amazing blog www.alohaamy.co.uk

Don't forget to follow me on Twitter (@Chatterboxmax) and Instagram (maxinefrancis89) although to be honest I think people are a bit fed of Instagram at the moment, including me! But I still post on there and I'm using the Instastories more now too.

Come say Hi over on Twitter or leave a comment below.
I'm also on Bloglovin' so give that button to the right a click to make sure you see when I next post.

Maxine x