I'm Still Here!

Hello everyone!
Just a quick note to say I am still here! I'm currently finishing off my third year of my English and American Literature degree, so I'm also finishing off my dissertation. Which so far has been the best part of 12,000 words of serious hard work. 

I'm not going to make any empty promises about when I'll be back, but I will be back (in the least Schwarzenegger way possible). I have two more essays due in before the 23rd of April and then I'll be finished with my degree, so I'll back properly around then I hope.

I have also just applied to study an MA in English Studies, so if you could all keep your fingers and toes crossed for me I'd really appreciate it!

Thank you all for staying around :)

I'll be back soon
xxx

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hello everyone!

I hope you've all had a lovely day :) Reece surprised me with a delivery of roses to my house in Manchester as I don't get to see him until Saturday. For someone who is rarely romantic, Reece really does know how to surprise me! I was floored. They are beautiful.

This is my very first Valentine's Day with someone so it's been a lovely change! Reece and I exchange gifts on Saturday, so I can't wait for that.

Hope you're all well,

Love and kisses to you all xxx

I'm Back!

Hello everyone! After almost a month I have decided to start blogging again. All assignments are in, and I have just submitted a first draft of the first part of my dissertation, so I have a little bit of extra time.

I can't promise I'll be blogging as regularly as before, as I have the other two parts of my dissertation to crack on with, but I will try to post whenever I can :)

Here's what I've been up to:

Online shopping as a coping mechanism, Final essay for the worst module ever, New tattoo #1

My boys, New tattoo #2, Payday treats,

Nandos and cinema date, Clean sheets, The beginnings of my dissertation.

I've been spending a lot of time with my boyfriend recently, as I haven't been in work and he's had some weekends off so we've mainly been lounging about in bed and eating a lot of crap. I've also been working hard at uni, I had deadlines right after Christmas and have pushed myself to complete the first 3,000 words of my dissertation.

As you can see I was also tattooed twice this month, once by the lovely Gre Hale from Rain City in Manchester, who did my lady in the moon. This one was a spur of the moment tattoo, Reece was getting a tattoo from Jemma Jones and Gre had some free space, so instead of waiting until March to get tattooed by him, I jumped at the chance. My mandala was done by Hexa from Precious Tattoo in Finland when he came to Manchester. After a bit of warped logic, I decided that getting tattooed by him whilst he was here and skinting myself for a bit, was a lot cheaper than a flight to Finland. I did say it was warped logic.

That is pretty much all I've been up to! I've been with my friends for food and drinks too, but most of the time I've been sat glued to my laptop with Uni work.

Thank you for sticking around so long! xxx

Adventure Time (featuring boyfriend).

This week is my reading week from university (read: half term - no classes) so Reece came to stay for a couple of days. He arrived at my house at 10am on Monday, after spending over an hour travelling due to shitty rail replacement coaches, and spent the day in bed as he came straight from work (he works nights and finishes at 7.30am).

It's safe to say Monday was spent watching copious amounts of South Park, eating pasta and ordering an obscene amount of pizza. Possibly over £50 worth of pizza.

On Tuesday we got up early, for us 10am is early, and spent the day in town. 

I showed Reece around the Northern Quarter, my personal favourite area of the city centre - it has the nicest cafes and shops, but it is slightly more expensive. It also has a Carhartt store (which Reece loves), so we spent a good 20 minutes in there poring over the ridiculously overpriced clothing. I kind of fell in love with a tote bag in there, but at £55 it certainly didn't make it's way home with me.

Just a note: Urban Outfitters is a bad place to go when you have been paid a healthy wage and slightly expensive taste. Safe to say a lot of money was spent (not by me, I'm skint), however I was treated to a jumper - it was on sale! Although, I am ridiculously jealous of the Herschel rucksack he bought.

On the way to finding Rain City Tattoo - Reece has an appointment next week, we took a wrong turning due to my pants map-reading skills, and found a traditional sweet shop, selling everything from American cereal and confectionery (helloo mint M&M's) to good, old, proper sweets. It was ace. And expensive, like £6.50 for a box of Lucky Charms expensive. 

Before entering Reece said 'Don't take me in here, I always spend too much money'. He did.

We found Rain City Tattoo - eventually - and then went home. I had a go at making chicken noodle soup; it wasn't horrendous. Definitely not a 'proper' chicken noodle soup, but it was tasty and took about 40 minutes to make. I may post the recipe on here soon.

Today was home time for the both of us. It was horrific. The Autumn rain finally hit Manchester, we had a bus driver with serious anger management issues, and had to catch a (delayed) train and then a rail replacement coach home.

The journey from Manchester to Huddersfield takes 30 minutes by train, an hour including getting the bus from my house to the station. Today we left my house at 3.20pm and didn't arrive back in Huddersfield until 7.15pm. On the upside, I did read the first 100 pages of MAUS  (amazing) which I have to read for a class Monday. 

I also took a creeper photo of Reece sleeping, where he looks so cute, but I promised I wouldn't post it anywhere. Spoilsport. 

It's been a lovely couple of days, and to be a bit soppy, I couldn't be much happier right now.

I hope your week is going wonderfully so far.
Thanks for reading xxx

My Work Experience - Publishing

So I am currently sat at my desk at my work experience placement taking a break (ahem) from doing a bit of events promotion, so I thought I would write a quick post about my time here.

I am working at a small independent publishing house, called Comma Press, located in the Northern Quarter in Manchester. This particular publishing house specialises in publishing collections and anthologies of short stories. I've known for a couple of years that working in publishing is something I wanted to do after I left university, but had little knowledge of the industry. After looking around and applying for a handful of internships in London, I decided to try contacting independent publishers back up north.

I mailed around, with a concise covering letter and my CV attached, explaining what I wanted to gain from a work experience placement with each publisher. Comma were extremely friendly and helpful and arranged a start date for me.

I have been working here since the beginning of September, mainly helping with events promotion (using social networking - Twitter, Facebook etc) and sending out email invitations.

I have also been proof-reading material for upcoming publications. This may sound dull, but it is my favourite part of the job! 

I am overjoyed to be a part of Comma, as they have been extremely accommodating and flexible. I currently work here one day a week.

Tips when looking for work experience:

• If/when emailing a company you want to work for be clear and concise. No waffling (a bit rich coming from me, I know). State your case and availability.
• Have a decent CV ready to send out - I highly doubt my CV is anywhere near as good as it should be, but it has all the necessities on there. Also explain in your email why a placement at the particular company would be beneficial to you - tailor each email to each particular company - make it personal and professional.
• Be flexible - I know this can sometimes be tough, but the company has no obligation to offer you any placement, so if possible, work when is best for the company. I am extremely lucky that my current placement is very flexible and take into account the fact I am a third year student, and therefore cannot work as often as I would like.
• Be persistent. I emailed a different publishing house in February looking for work experience, however, they were booked up until the end of July. Instead of accepting this, I emailed again in June and got myself a few days work experience in November.

I hope this has been interesting/informative (if not I have a couple of beauty posts due later this week so keep an eye out for them!)

Thanks for reading x

Most Read Blogs - Take 1

1. Lips So Facto

Meg's blog has been a firm favourite for a while now; I found her originally via youtube (her channel here) and then discovered her blog. Her posts are mainly beauty, which are very clear and precise. It's because of her I bought Stella by Stella McCartney perfume! I also love her sense of style, and fully appreciate the fact she is an English Literature graduate. I always find it inspiring when I discover others who study/have studied English. Not entirely sure why. Meg is just the kind of person I'd like to have as a friend and chat to about eyeliner and books. She also likes Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath, which are signs of a winner in my book.

2. Essiebutton 

I again discovered Estee through youtube (channel linked here). Like Meg, her posts are mainly beauty related. I love Estee's blog because her writing style is so distinctive; if you've watched her on youtube, she writes exactly the way she speaks, which is refreshing as sometimes beauty blogs can be a bit clinical. She has a complete personal touch.

3. A Little Bird Fashion

Jen's blog is one of the first blogs I truly started reading. If I find a blog I really, truly love I tend to sit down and read every single post right back to the beginning. That reads as 100% creepy written down, but it's true. Jen's personal style is fantastic, classy and stylish (and she manages to pull off yellow, I always admire someone who can wear yellow). The photography is always lovely too. With Jen's blog you can tell a lot of time and effort has been lovingly put in. Each new post is a pleasure to read.

4. Neon/Bible

Aimee is a fashion student from London, and I basically love every single piece of clothing she posts about. Her style is everything I want mine to be: using basics to create lovely, simple looks. I adore the layout of her blog, it is so clean and not at all fussy. Her haircut is amazing also, completely stunning.


5. A Little Lipstick

The last blog I'm going to mention in this post is Jade's. The thing about Jade's blog is that it is completely honest, and completely 'Jade'. She's a lovely girl and therefore her blog is lovely too. The writing is exquisite (yet again another former English student) and always a pleasure to read. I suppose Jade's blog would fall into the category of 'lifestyle', with posts about her various goings on. I find A Little Lipstick to be a wonderful read, and provides a real insight. I'm not entirely sure how to go on about Jade's blog without sounding like a creep, so I'm going to stop. Basically, go read it. Now. She may not post often, but each post is exquisite, with a lot of time and thought behind it. 

A little bit of a different post from me, but I thought I'd show you the blogs I read often. These five ladies are by no means the only blogs I read daily - I'm sure there'll be plenty more of these posts, but these five are the ones that popped into my head first.

I hope you all give them a read, if you haven't done so already.

Thanks for reading x

All images belong to the bloggers mentioned.

'Slut Shaming' - Call Me A Slut!

Now, I'm just going to blurt it out: I recognise myself as a feminist. Not so controversial, right? 

However, a phrase that has been thrown around the internet quite a lot recently is 'slut shaming' (click for a definition of some kind). 
I spend (quite a lot of) time on Tumblr and this little alliterated coupling has been popping up all over the shop; it took me a while to fully get my head around the concept, and by no means am I calling myself well-read on the topic, quite the opposite in fact. 


What I understand by 'slut shaming' (calling girls sluts/slags/any other negative term regarding their sexual behaviour) is that it further serves to highlight the hypocrisy of society (in my opinion, anyway), and simply put: a female's  sexual activities are no more my business, than it is anybody else's, and therefore, we have no right to comment on it. It does not matter if a girl has slept with 1 man, 5, or 100. It is none of our business. 
Sure, personally I find a girl my age (20) sleeping with many different people (I know of people who have slept with 50+) slightly unsavoury, and not what I would personally do, but it doesn't make me think any less of them as a person. 

If sexual behaviour is healthy and safe, and not hurting a third party, we have no right to an opinion. A woman is not a 'slut' if she chooses to sleep around; in the same way that woman is not 'asking' to be raped by wearing a revealing outfit. The integral part to me here is choice. We all have a choice, and should not judge people on their free choices. 

Click here for an excellently worded post about slut-shaming and gender politics (not as dull as it sounds, I promise) It's a very entertaining read.


You must have been living under a rock in the recent months if you haven't heard of Kristen Stewart cheating on Robert Pattinson; I know this example has been done to death, but it is the most recent 'scandal' in the media, so there we go. Kristen Stewart chose to have an affair (the length of which has been much disputed, I believe) with a married man, Rupert Sanders, a choice that, of course, is wrong. However, it is only Kristen's career that has been affected. She has dropped out of numerous film projects that she was involved in. Now, I am not saying that infidelity (of any kind) is acceptable. In my humble opinion, cheating is completely unacceptable, I take an extremely black and white few on it: if you feel the need to cheat you cannot be truly happy in your relationship. I may be wrong, but that is my view. 

There are men who cheat whose careers have not suffered. Take Rupert Sanders - his career, as far as I am aware, hasn't suffered one bit; he is even back with his wife! 
There are also Premiership footballers who have cheated numerous times (lookin' at you Ashley Cole, John Terry- who is a despicable human being in general imo, Wayne Rooney) and their careers are still going strong. 
I was talking about this with my boyfriend and he rightly said 'but their personal lives shouldn't affect their careers. They are good footballers at the end of the day'. 

If that is the case for Premiership footballers, then why do successful women in the public eye suffer a lot more? You can judge Kristen's acting, but there is no denying she is successful. 

I think that 'slut-shaming' has become a slightly over-used term, but there are certainly points to ponder over.

What do you think? I for one am still a bit overwhelmed by its sudden surge on the internet, it can appear extremely defensive, but it is definitely interesting.

Thanks for reading x

image not mine - from The Sun (via Google)

August

Jumper, Shoes, Disco Pant dupes, Bikini top and bottoms - all River Island

For this month's post I thought I'd post my picks from River Island. I'm having a bit of a love affair with the shop at the moment, after years of disregarding it because of its gaudy, sequin adorned clothing, but it has really upped its game over the past year or so.

I (may) have already bought the trousers after lusting over the disco pants for months. I wasn't sold on the shininess of the disco pants, and at 5ft 1, they would almost definitely be too long. I tried these on and it was love. They're thick, but not suffocatingly so and are really comfortable. I feel like Sandy at the end of Grease in them.

Anyway, onto the other stuff. I saw these shoes when I was shopping and had to prise myself away from them, same with the jumper. I tried it on and it's a really lovely loose knit, so it wouldn't be too warm in this summer (ha!) weather we haven't been having, but will also be lovely in winter with a vest underneath. 

I may be going on holiday in May for a week, and love anything blue and white striped. The hinge detail on this bikini makes it a bit different. Although, a white bikini may not be the wisest move ever.

Playlist for July has been:

A Toast to the future kids! - Emarosa

The Past Should Stay Dead - Emarosa

Reputations - We Sunk Atlantis

Raise Hell - Kids in Glass Houses

Short Hair Is Okay Too.

I've been wanting to make this post for ages after Gemma left a comment saying that there weren't many other short haired bloggers about. It inspired me. So here I am, finally getting around to it. 

It's a post all about hair - short hair - my hair to be specific.

I cut mine off (well a hairdresser did) about 4 years ago now, the summer before I started Sixth Form. I'd thought about doing it for years, and I was sat in the chair and couldn't think of anything else, so it got cut off. I went from shoulder length hair straight to the hair style I have now.

I still love it. Surprisingly only two people (both male might I add) have asked me 'when are you growing it out?' My answer to that is: Not anytime soon. Not drastically anyway. It's simple really; I feel much more comfortable with short hair, it suits my face better, and I get lots of compliments on it - whether it be the cut or the colour.

I love short hair, whether it be super gamine like Mia Farrow, or soft like Carey Mulligan, I seem to gravitate towards ladies with shorter hair. Don't get me wrong, in another life I'd probably adore having long, luscious curly locks, but it just isn't my lot in life. My crop makes me different. It stands out - probably due to the fact my hair is also dyed bright red!

My two favourite 'hairspirations' are Carey Mulligan and Michelle Williams.

I've taken numerous photos of both stunning women to the hairdressers for inspiration, and whilst I can't pull off the above the brow fringe (bangs) I adore the softness and femininity of their hair styles. The one thing I worried about when I chopped my hair off was whether I'd still feel girly. Simple answer? I do. And guys still like it (not that that really matters).

For me, the argument 'short hair makes you look like a boy' is immature and just plain wrong. I've never been insulted because of my hair, nothing springs to mind anyway. I mean how can you look at all the beautiful women who have short hair and argue that they look manly. You can't.

I have flirted with the idea of growing out my hair into a short, jaw-length bob, but I can't bear to part with my cropped hair just yet.

Speaking of which, I should be off to bed as I'm up early for work and then a visit to the hairdressers.

Five of my favourite shorter-haired blogging ladies:

Gemma

Vicky

Meg

Fritha

Lisa

Thanks for reading x

July

image source: Tumblr

Dress, Bracelet, Shoes, Rucksack

A little bit different for this month's post - I was inspired by Meg to choose my highstreet picks. I got paid yesterday, so I've made a set on Polyvore of an outfit I want to put together. I wanted this dress the first time it was in stock, but missed it; I tried it on yesterday but it was too big and they didn't have the smaller size in stock. I will try it! The other item I really want is a rucksack/backpack, not necessarily this particular one, but something similar, so if you know of anything similar let me know! I've also been tempted by the American Apparel shawl cardigan, but we shall see!

June has been somewhat of a lacklustre month, what with it being a dreaded five-weeker (my bank balance cried with joy on payday though). A few personal things also happened which weren't the best, so lets hope July is better - and warmer! I want to wear sandals and not worry about getting frostbite or trenchfoot.

Playlist for June has been:

Wow, I Can Get Sexual Too - Say Anything

You Won't Know - Brand New

Feel the Love - Rudimental ft. John Newman

The Sea is a Good Place to Think of the Future - Los Campesinos!

Bruises - Chairlift

Electric Twist - A Fine Frenzy

Here's to a sunnier, warmer June! x

Wardrobe Organisation

After reading this post on The Average Brunette (seriously gorgeous blog) I was inspired to show you guys how I organise my wardrobe. Especially as I had just finished cleaning and sorting out my room from top to bottom.


I share my room with my twin sister, so we don't have a lot of wardrobe space. We have three wardrobes - one each and then one for coats/jackets to share.

This is my wardrobe. I can fit quite a lot of stuff in quite a narrow space. The top rail houses any dresses, tops and nice jackets that I don't want to get creased. Underneath the rail I have four baskets which slide in and out. The wardrobes, drawers, rail and separators are all from Ikea.

I have hooks on the door which I hang my scarves/jewellery on. I don't own much so the door still shuts comfortably.

The top drawer holds all of my beauty stuff - make up etc. The front box doesn't really belong in there, it's from my house at uni, but it fits in there quite nicely for the time being, until I move back to Manchester in September. Behind that is a box which holds nail polishes and my daily make up bag. Behind that, in the two smaller boxes, there are little personal nick nacks that won't fit anywhere else in my room. Things like old gig tickets etc. To the right of the basket is my skin care bag (at the front) and a bag which holds the rest of my make up I don't wear as often. I don't own a lot of make up/skin care. The little separators are really handy and help keep everything organised - really cheap too.

The next three drawers are all full of clothing. This is just one, which holds my tops and skirts. The one beneath that holds trousers and shorts, and the one below that has my underwear in it.


It's a bit of a squeeze in there, but everything (just about) fits, and when I keep it organised, everything is easy to find. I'm pretty happy with it.
I store my shoes in a row under my bed. I'm not a shoe girl, so don't own many.


I now must stop procrastinating and get reading for something I'm working on for Aesthetic Magazine!


Thanks for reading x

Severe lack of people skills.

image source - google

I want to apologise for not posting much this week. In stark contrast to my previous post (oh the irony) this isn't going to be an overly happy one. My week has been crap, and I want to write about it.


The beginning of the week wasn't too bad really, but it has gone downhill. Yesterday I found out that I have been removed from the magazine team I was working on. Now, this would not be an issue if I had personally done anything wrong, but I haven't so I am, understandably, annoyed and hurt.


The issue is that the (now ex) editor has apparently decided to leave the magazine, but didn't tell anyone and has not been responding to emails, which is slightly immature and unfair on the team to say the least. However, he also helped me get some work experience at romania-insider, where I have been writing articles for the past few weeks. The founder of the magazine was not happy with this fact as he felt that he did not want any further connection to the (ex) editor. I was stuck in the middle, although I explained I do not have contact with the (ex) editor when working at romania-insider, and even if I did, I would not compromise the magazine in any way, shape or form and it has no relevance to anything at the website. He tried to make me choose between working at the magazine and continuing my work experience at romania-insider. Now, I would have an issue stopping my work experience, however it has proven to be extremely valuable experience to me and I hope to continue working there until I start back at university in September.


Unhappy with the fact I would not choose between the two, the founder of the magazine decided it would be best for me to leave. Even though I have done absolutely nothing wrong. I got caught in the middle. The founder continued to call the (ex) editor a 'shady character', which, in my opinion, is over dramatic, he just behaved unfairly, so I understand why the founder is angry.


But like I said, I have done nothing wrong in this situation. Many angry emails were sent by me and all I got was the same response - a ramble about what the editor did, nothing about my own personal actions.


I feel I was treated appallingly, and have had to miss out on what could be a wonderful project to be a part of. I wish the rest of the team well and hope it is successful, but if the creator carries on treating people the way he has been, because he doesn't like the way they work/express themselves, especially when, like me, they did nothing wrong, I can only predict a bleak future.


I do apologise for the rant, it has been a tough week and I am still upset. Please let me know what you think, even if you think I'm overreacting. I am still angry and extremely upset.


I hope your weeks are a bit better than mine, I promise to resume normal posting soon!


Thanks for reading x

Tattoo Session Number 1 (and a few tips)

I've been posting about it for the past couple of weeks, but today I finally had my first session on my latest tattoo. I now have four in total, with this one being my biggest.


When I had my consultation and booked in, I gave my tattooist the brief of a lighthouse with crashing, Japanese-style water, which was to be in the middle of my upper back (no tramp stamps here). 
He has done one of my previous tattoos, and I wouldn't go anywhere else, so I fully trusted him with the design.


He came up with this:

This is obviously the basic outline, overall I was ridiculously pleased with it. I'd looked online at lighthouse tattoos, and obviously it's difficult to come up with one that is totally unique, but I think that the little details Gazz has added have really made it a bit different. I love it.

I was initially want a quote running along the bottom of the design, but for now I think I'll leave it as it is.

I had my first two hour session, and this is the tattoo so far:

excuse the back fat/bra

The first hour was the most painful, as the outlining is definitely the most painful part of any tattoo. For me, getting tattooed isn't really overly painful, it's more like an itch I can't scratch, but the lining, especially near my spine did hurt. The shading felt like nothing in comparison - more like being tickled, it was pretty relaxing actually!

I am so pleased with it, it's going to be about 6 weeks until I can get it coloured, unless a cancellation comes up, I really can't wait. I find lighthouses beautiful, whenever I told people what I was getting, they looked at me like I was a bit mad, but there really isn't any other reason than I wanted it because I find lighthouses beautiful. Simple.

I'll do another post once it has been finished.

A few tips (from my own experience):

• Look around different shops before settling on a tattooist. Look on websites at portfolios etc to see if the style is what you are going for. 
• Don't always go for the cheapest or quickest option. It is worth paying that little bit extra, and being on a waiting list a little bit longer in order to get a decent quality tattoo. They have to stand the test of time, after all.
• Listen when it comes to design advice. Understandably, you want a tattoo that you;re going to love, but tattooists really know their stuff. Tattoos are made to fit the contours of the body, so if you take in a design and the tattooist doesn't think it will work, listen to them and see if you can adjust it so it will. In my opinion, custom tattoos are worth the effort, if there is something you don't like in a design just tell your tattooist. Some may look tough, but they don't bite!
• Listen when it comes to healing advice. There are many different ways to heal a tattoo; I personally leave my tattoo to air out ant apply savlon or bepanthen cream. Some people don't use creams at all and dry heal, others apply creams and then wrap up the tattoo. Bodies work in different ways, so listen to advice. Also, if it scabs, don't pick at it.
• GO TO A PROFESSIONAL! It sounds almost silly, but tattoo machines and kits are easy to buy online nowadays. There are people who tattoo out of their homes, which is just ridiculous and unsafe. Go to a professional. Please. Just do.

My tattooist is Gazz Hunter and he tattoos at The Integrity Tattoo Lounge in Ossett, West Yorkshire. I may be biased, but he's brilliant, so if you're up this end, check him out.

Links: shop website and Facebook

If you'd like me to do a post about my tattoos let me know and I'd be more than happy to :)

I hope this has been helpful!

Thanks for reading x

June

image source: Tumblr

I am still shocked by how quickly this year is flying by. It is insane. 
May has been a lovely month, after a wet March and April, the sun came out to play which definitely lifted my mood!


I'm finally beginning to feel summery - cue Essie's 'Cute as a Button'

June promises to be a good month, apart from the fact I'm working the Bank Holiday (ugh)
Tomorrow is tattoo day (ahhhhh!), and at the weekend I'm popping back to Manchester to celebrate my housemate's 20th birthday. 


My playlist for May has been:
The Temptations - My Girl
Rilo Kiley - Portions for Foxes
Rilo Kiley - Teenage Love Song
Kids In Glass Houses - Church Tongue
Big Mountain - Baby, I Love Your Way
Otis Redding - Wonderful World
Bob Marley - Redemption Song


Have a lovely June! x

In the Heat of Summer Sunshine

I think everybody in the UK is amazed by the gorgeous weather we've been having! It's definitely been a welcome change from the grey and drizzle of the past few weeks. I had planned to do a couple of OOTDs and a book post or two this week, but the weather put a hold on that, so I'll just give you a little update as to what I've been up to instead.

The past couple of days I have literally spent as much time outdoors as possible! Tuesday Colette came home so we took the dogs for a walk (the first four photos - apologies for my messy room/instagram snaps). I had work experience that morning too, which went well, I just feel that I'm not getting the experience I wanted, I want to be included in editing and learning how to edit, instead I am being given short pieces to write. I guess you have to learn to write in order to be able to edit though.

Yesterday I sacked off work experience after waking up feeling ill, so I had a lie in and took the dogs out again. We live about 10 minutes walk away from Oakwell Hall which is a lovely little country park, and is always filled with young children whenever the sun shows its face.

Today I had a driving lesson which went well. I just need to book my theory test and pass that now. I went for a walk and bought some ice creams; Colette and Abbey picked me up and we went to Oakwell and sunbathed. I say sunbathed, I was covered in Factor 30 (I usually wear 50, so I have burnt a bit, boo). All my freckles are coming out to play again. I know some people hate their freckles, I love mine, and my pale skin. That ice cream was delicious too. We then drove around and visited a few shops. 

I've been listening to a lot of Say Anything and Kids in Glass Houses to get in a lovely, summery mood!

I'm going to try and get a book post up tomorrow, and take advantage of having Colette around and take some outfit pictures today, seeing as my Asos order arrived today!

How have you been spending the sunny days?
My evening includes reading, eating a prawn sandwich and then tackling my mess of a room :(
I hope you're week has been good so far, it's back to normality  and work for me tomorrow.


Thanks for reading x


p.s. sorry about the cheesy Corrs reference in the title!

May

May is officially here, it's absolutely terrifying that we're almost half way through the year already. April was a busy month, as it meant the end of second year. I am no longer 'in a state of near-constant meltdown' as I handed in my final essay on Monday! I am free of work! Although I will miss living in Manchester over summer. When I go back in September I am resolute to find a job (preferably in a book shop, I can dream) so I can stay in the city and not have to slave at Ikea back home every weekend.

Anyway, that was a tangent. May means summer, if the weather behaves itself. Summer means freedom to do what I want, which means working a lot of hours in the blue box and saving for a(nother) tattoo. I almost know what I want and where I want it, it's going to cost a pretty penny though.


I also really want these trousers, but I'm trying to curb my spending:

I've seen them pop up on a few blogs lately and I love them. My sister has the navy with black spots version and after initially hating them, they've grown on me.

I'll keep this short and sweet.

All through April I was listening to:

Childish Gambino

Brand New

The RENT Soundtrack

Coheed and Cambria

And reading:

Wicked - The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire

Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh

I hope your months were lovely, apart from the hideous weather. Fingers crossed May is better!

Thanks for reading x

Random Ramble: Decisions, Decisions.

Tonight I've made a decision about the direction I want my blog to go in (pretty sure this post is a bit anti-climatic. I apologise.)

I've been uhmming and ahhing about where I want my focus to lie, be it beauty, fashion, books, lifestyle. I've decided that I'm never going to be a 'fashion blogger' as I don't have the time, nor can I really be arsed to take daily OOTD photos. Although I do want to include a few in the future. If my sister will take my photos for me (Colette, if you're reading this...)

I've decided, upon reading Blair's blog that I want to focus a lot more on literature. I'm an English student, so reading is a huge part of my life. I'm really loving reading again at the moment, so I want to include it a lot more.

Basically, my blog isn't going to have one focus, there will be bits and pieces (hopefully) of all of the above, but I definitely want to focus much more on the literature/lifestyle posts. I want to start taking more photos (currently thinking of buying a load of disposables for summer, opinions please?!) and documenting things a bit more.

Obviously, when I buy new things/find a new product I like/wear an outfit I like, I'll post about it. I'm not an OOTD girl, I hate having my photo taken, nor am I knowledgable enough about beauty to be a beauty blog.
I'm a new blogger and want to share snippets of my life with all you lovely lot who read my rambles.

What do you think? Is this mish-mash a good idea, would you want to read more of my crap? (ha!)

I guess I'll just see where this takes me :)

Thanks for reading x

Shopping as a Pick-Me-Up

With my student loan arriving in my back account yesterday, and me feeling a bit glum I've done a bit of shopping. Well, a few things I bought during the week with a few spare pennies I had in my purse. There really isn't any excuse other than I felt a bit crap and wanted new things. I am definitely an emotional shopper.

Mary Angelou - I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

Jon Ronson - The Psychopath Test

Nostradamus - Mario Reading

I bought the Mary Angelou book in Tesco (seriously one of the best places to pick up books on the cheap, RRP on this is £8.99 and I got it for just under £4). I haven't heard much about her, apart from the fact that she's mentioned in 'La Vie Boheme', a song from the musical, Rent. After I bought this I did a quick Wiki search and she seems like a pretty interesting character to say the least!

This is the first part in her autobiography (I believe there's six in total) and if I enjoy it I'll be buying the next installment.

This Jon Ronson novel was an impulse buy. I wandered into WH Smiths on my lunch break on Tuesday and ended up buying it. I hate WH Smiths, it's so overpriced and doesn't always have a wide selection of novels, so I don't know why I ended up in there. I usually buy books online for the cheapest price I can find so paying £9 for this nearly gave me a minor heart attack. Especially when I saw it in Tesco a few days later for £4. Nevertheless, the synopsis made it sound really interesting so I'm excited to read it.

The last book I bought was Nostradamus. This was a true bargain. I found it in a little book shop in Whitby and paid £4.99 for it (RRP £16.99). The book is hardback and comes with its own sleeve. It's a book of the 'Top 100 Prophecies', now when I first looked read that I was dubious, because to me, quite frankly, that sounds a bit daft, but when I opened it and saw the illustrations and the list of contents I was sold. Looking at the contents, I wouldn't call the tales inside 'prophecies', myths seems more appropriate. It is a truly beautiful book, and I'm a sucker for a beautiful book.

I may review these once I've read them. Let me know what you think.

Real Techniques Core Collection £21.99

I've watched Pixiwoo videos for quite a while now, and you'd have to be blind to not notice her brushes popping up all over different blogs, so I wanted to get my hands on some. I wandered into Boots this morning with the intention of buying the Stippling Brush from Samantha Chapman's collection of brushes. However, the stippling brush retails at £11.99, and the Core Collection retails at £21.99, so to me, it was a no-brainer to buy the core collection, where you get 3 extra brushes for a tenner extra. Bargain. I haven't used these yet, but I may pop up a review post, or do an 'Everyday Make-Up' post featuring these. 


I've also placed and order for this jacket after seeing it on Jade's blog (and may debut it in my first OOTD?!). I'm justifying it to myself with the fact it seems nice and light for the warmer months, and I only own my leather jacket and hoodies, so this is also a bit smarter. Other than these purchases I'm seriously restricting my spending - not putting myself on a spending ban, because that wouldn't work. But most of my loan (other than rent and bills) is going into my new savings account. I'm trying to be responsible. I even downloaded a money management app to help me keep track of my spending. Go me.


Have you tried the RT brushes or read any of the books? What did you think? 


I hope you're having a lovely weekend, I have an essay to start, but instead I'm going to read the last 75 pages of Wicked and have some dinner before going to work.


Thanks for reading x

Blogging Targets

image source: Google

I've already done a post about some personal targets I've set for myself here, and I've mentioned in a few posts that I want to introduce some new content into the blog. I've spoken a lot about what I do during the week and what uni has been like for me so far, which I've enjoyed, but now I'm pretty much done with uni for the year, I'm struggling to come up with new content.

I wouldn't class myself as a 'beauty blogger' or a 'fashion' blogger, but my first target is:

• blog about a new beauty product/favourite beauty product at least once a month.

I'll be the first to admit I don't know too much about make-up or skin care, but I love reading beauty blogs and watching youtube videos.

My next target is:

• blog more, but make each post different. So if I've already done a 'what I've been up to' type post that week, I won't do another.

I want to mix up content to include reviews (beauty, books or others), and other things. I'm a bit hesitant to do 'outfit of the day' type posts, because whilst I love reading them, I don't particularly like blogs that are just outfits. I like a mixture, and particularly like the way Jen writes her posts - there's a range of topics with excellent photography and they're just fun to read. I may do one or two OOTDs in the near future to test the waters (if I can get my sister to take my photos).

What do you think? What would you like to read? Any suggestions would be really helpful!

Thanks for reading x