School Catch-Up

Hello to you!

So first i'd like to apologise for not writing a blog post in so long, but i've been VERY busy recently so I thought i'd give you a little bit more insight into my life rather than making this a beauty post.

As you may already know, i'm in my last year of high school so this year i've had to really start thinking about what I want to do in the future and what kind of A-levels or qualifications I want to take. I am very excited to start college and stuff but this year will be a lot of hard work to get to where I need to be! This isn't going to be an in-depth post about this as i'll write more about this another time, but I just wanted to let you guys know what's been going on with mocks and looking at college courses so far.

2 weeks ago we had mocks week, and we got most of our results back today! These were my results:

Maths - B

History - B

Chemistry - B

World Issues (R.E.) - A*

Overall I think i'm doing really well at the moment! Today I went to a college open evening, and I have been thinking a lot about the difference course I want to take but I have settled on the following A-levels:

English Literature

Human Biology

Psychology 

Film Studies

These are what I am sticking to at the moment, but we'll see how things go!

Hope everything is good with all of you and I hope i'll be able to do a christmassy post soon.

xo

The Best Friend Tag!

Hello to you!

So sorry I haven't written a proper blog post in a while, i've been so busy! I have a few wintery ones planned which I will get round to doing in the next few weeks. Hope you've all been well! I thought i'd share my latest video with you:

I finally got round to filming the best friend tag with Mabel! It was very fun to film and I hope you enjoy watching it, it was very funny to go back and edit it but unfortunately I had to delete some of the bloopers because I didn't have enough memory space on my phone! Anyway, hope you like :)

Hopefully I will be back and posting at least once a week soon, but at the moment I am very busy as mock week is coming up and i'm in my final year of school now! I'll keep  you guys updated with what's going on but I hope this video will make up for the lack of blog posts recently. 

xo

Vidspoon Gathering 2013!

Hello to you!

So last Saturday I went to a youtube gathering in Northampton. The whole day was amazing but I won't give you all the details because I will be talking about it in a future video and it would take too long to type out!

So the day started with us leaving the house by 8 as it was a 200 mile journey to Northampton from where I live. Once we got there, there was a queue of people hanging around and after about 20 minutes or so, Bethan (musicbethan),Dean (dean dobbs from omfgitsjackanddean) and Gary C turned up! I think we all went into shock mode a bit as they were the first youtubers there so it didn't feel real, and that's when the day started...

Dean is quite short in real life! He was lovely, seemed really nice and it was great to meet him! He was really sweet with everyone there, and he seemed really down to earth.

Bethan is just as gorgeous in real life, it was so weird meeting her because I started watching her a few years ago before I really got into youtube, and rediscovered her last year so it felt very surreal! She was so nice to us, and later on in the day we had a proper conversation with her and she was so down to earth and lovely.

Next I met Gary C who was a sweetheart, there was a very orderly queue waiting to meet him! We ended up taking 3 selfies because in the first picture he moved his hair out of his face so his whole hand had covered his face! It was so nice to meet him, and he gives great hugs!

Then Cherry arrived and she had a crowd around her, I don't know if you guys know this but she followed me on twitter for a month and we spoke quite a bit! When we were in the crowd, she pointed at me and said "Lottie" and I was quite surprised that she remembered me! She was so sweet, and she gave me a little signed card with her logo on it. We went to speak to her again later on, she was so friendly!

This was our second picture with Bethan, we were talking to her for ages before we realised there was a queue forming so we got a quick picture before we went! She is so down to earth and easy to get along with, I could imagine being good friends with her because we had a really lovely conversation and it just felt so real and laid back!

Then Jason/Patty/Luke arrived and everyone went slightly crazy, I managed to end up behind Jason while they were walking up the field and I touched his hair! He turned around and said hi, and later on I got this picture with him - he gives really good hugs!

We got a silly picture too - later on in the day when everyone was more chilled out, I ended up speaking to Jason for ages and he was so friendly! Right before we left at the end I asked for another hug before I left and he spun around and gave me a huge hug, he was really sweet. 

After I got the original pictures with Jason, I went to see Luke and this was probably my highlight of the whole day. I stepped forward to hug him and so he gave me a big hug, and when you would normally pull away from a hug I just hugged him even tighter and he didn't try to pull away or anything he just hugged me back as well and the crowd around us aww'ed! It was the cutest moment ever, he was so sweet and it just made me the happiest person ever. It was such a long perfect hug and I think he just knew how much it meant to me, it was amazing <333

After I met Luke I went to meet Patty who was adorable, he gave me a big hug before we took this selfie (youtubers all seem to be so good at giving hugs) and then I got a video of him saying hi to my friend Phoebe & he was so lovely, saying he was sorry she couldn't be there and stuff and then the crowd aww'ed again after that! He was such a cutie, and he hugged me again before we went to meet the others. He's so sweet!

Then we met Tom Law who was so friendly with all of us, he was just hanging out and chatting with a little group of us and he was so sweet! A girl gave him a box of presents because it was his birthday last week and he shared the chocolate with us, he seemed so caring and it was great to meet him!

Slightly later on I met Dodie who was so sweet, I remember she wore the most amazing shoes! I went over to her to say hi, she gave me a hug and we chatted for a little while and took this selfie before I went to meet some of the others - later on in the day Dodie and Tom started playing music and singing songs and everyone was clapping along, it was such a lovely moment!

Then I spotted LittleRowan who I had tweeted that day already, I only found out she was going a few hours before we got there! She was so sweet and we had a conversation about hair dye and such, it was really nice to meet her as it was rather unexpected!

Then I met Marina Joyce, I had been looking out for her and I saw her with some of her friends who were there so I felt a little bit too awkward to go up and say hi, but then one of the guys realised I was there and she came over and she was like "hi i'm so sorry!" and I said it was absolutely fine, she gave me a hug and she was so sweet! We took a selfie facing the sun until we were both like "wow that was bright" so we took another one, and afterwards she said "you're so pretty!" and in my head I was like WHAT because she was gorgeous in real life too, I just said to her "aw thank you so are you!" She was so sweet, I wasn't sure what to expect when I met her but she was so cute! Later on in the day I saw her again so I went over and congratulated her on 100K subscribers and we chatted for a little while, she was so kind. Today I went on my twitter and she had actually DM'd me twice! The messages she sent were:

SUPER LOVELY MEETING YOU <3!

You're so beautiful btw omg D; not fair.

She was so lovely honestly, I know that some people don't like her and I was quite intimidated when I first saw her but she is the sweetest person! 

Right near the end of the day I spent about half an hour just chatting to Jason and he was so sweet, then just before I left I went to say goodbye to Luke and this girl there put him on the phone to her girlfriend and he spoke to her before pretending to be Jason, Patty, Alfie, Caspar and Marcus! It was the funniest thing. By this point I had 1% battery left so we managed to get a super quick selfie before my phone ran out of charge! Luke is the sweetest person, I had such an amazing day :)

The day after Vidspoon, someone tweeted me this picture saying they had accidentally taking it while I was hugging Luke! I think this picture is perfect, I love it so much. I smile every time I see this!

I hope you enjoyed reading about my experience at my first ever youtube gathering, it was one of the best days of my life! I didn't include pictures of me and people from twitter but they are in my latest youtube video if you would like to see them. I was quite surprised at how many people knew me from twitter, some were already my friends and some were people who followed me and came over to get a picture and to say hi! They were all so lovely, and it felt like a day where I was hanging out with a huge group of friends. It could not have been more perfect.

xo

If you would like to see the video filled with clips and pictures I took at Vidspoon, watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcJZ-J5qiT8

Summery Snaps

Hello to you!

So as it's quickly approaching winter I thought I would share with you some of my favourite pictures I took over the summer holidays. They bring back memories and I thought it would be nice for you guys to take a little look into my life! It's always nice to look through old pictures, so I enjoy making posts like these. Hope you like it!

Me & my best friend Mabel :)

Me & my cousin Jack at Keri's 18th birthday!

Me & my best friend/wife Kayleigh at the Respect Festival. We go to this every year, I love it!

L to R: Me, Emily, Jule, Kayleigh, Mabel - we all had moustache tattoos on our fingers!

Me & Emily - I love this picture, brings back memories of such a good day :)

Me & Kayleigh, she is one for taking selfies ;)

Me, Faye & Kayleigh at the fair! We were on the waltzers when we took this picture ;)

Me & Faye at a vintage fair - it was EXTREMELY cold on the day, but there was some fab stuff there! You can probably tell by the picture, Faye is very tall so she was crouching down.

Me & my newer friend Amy on work experience, here we were about to go on the wards - we did our work experience in the hospital, it was actually really interesting! Had a really good week!

L to R - Emily, Faye, Me, Kayleigh, Mabel, Jule, Ellen - this was at Mabel's birthday weekend, we camped here a few years back and it was really good so we did it again! It was great except for our car almost setting on fire while driving down to the beach ;)

L to R - Ellen, Emily, Jule, Kayleigh, Me, Mabel, Thea, Faye *we were stranded here*

L to R: Jule, Me, Mabel, Kayleigh, Thea - this was on the first day!

...I definitely was not good at putting up tents.

This was taken at Tolpuddle Martyrs festival, which is supposed to be like some union event or whatever but we basically spent a lot of time dancing and playing catch, and on the last day we went around collection 2 bags of free stuff! It was a great time. (In this picture: Avi, James, Mabel, Avi's brother)

This was a very blurry picture taken at Dance Camp in August - I had a fab time, and yes I had dyed my hair pink by then!!

Me and Mabel, I really like this picture!

L to R: Avi, Mabel, Kayleigh, Me...We look all happy and smiley but trying to get this picture taken was very difficult ;)

Anyway I hope you enjoyed seeing some of the pictures I have taken over summer, I really love looking back at these! Sorry I haven't posted in a while, going back to school has been a lot of hard work so far! I'll try to keep you guys update a bit more often :) Thanks for reading!

xo

Back to school: homework/coursework

Hello to you!

So recently I feel like I have fallen behind with my blogging recently because as you already know from the title, I have just gone back to school. I am in my second week of year 11 now and i'm not used to suddenly getting back on track with deadlines and juggling lots of homeworks at the same time! While I was finishing some of my art coursework earlier I was inspired to write a post about keeping up with work as I figured writing it down can help me and maybe it will help you too if you also procrastinate a lot! I think I may have written a post like this in the past, but I don't remember.

So I am in my last year of secondary school now so it is very important I keep up with revision as well as my homework and coursework. I'm going to try and sum everything up in 5 bullet points which you can note down yourself! Hope this helps you a bit, and let me know in the comments if you have any useful tips of your own!

1. Keep track of time. Believe me, I know too well how easy it is to get sucked into youtube or tumblr for a good few hours and to completely forget about your homework until it is too late to do. This normally end up with it being scribbled down during tutor time, which means it gets handed in looking a bit crappy! When you know you have homework to do, it is hard to relax because it is like a weight on your shoulders so it's best to just get it out of the way. Obviously I don't do this, so I would suggest setting an alarm that will remind you to do your homework and actually make sure you do it once the alarm has gone off!

2. Organise. If it looks like you have a pile of homework, break it up into different sections and work out how to do a little bit of each piece every day. This is what I do and it really helps because if I have a lot of homework I will feel like it is too much and my brain will just shut down and I end up doing nothing at all. If you do it a bit at a time, it is so much easier to keep on top of! And if you really feel overwhelmed with homework you can always ask your teacher for an extension on the deadline. Then make sure you get on with the work you have been set!

3. Try to do a little bit of work when you have free time. What I have done in the past few days is start doing my work whenever i'm bored, because it means I have something to do (other than raiding the fridge) and I'm actually doing something productive. This one is easier than you think!

4. Don't leave it all to the last minute. This is similiar to number 1 because it is no fun staying up late the night before your work is due and trying to complete a mountain of stuff all at once! Try to start your homework on the day it's been set - you don't necessarily have to complete it all in one day, but if you start it off then you will be slightly more motiated to actually finish it. I feel like deep down everyone has a need to complete the things they start so even if you only do one question, it WILL be easier to finish.

5. Don't freak out! Yes homework/coursework can be boring and deadlines are horrible, but don't panic if you think you have way too much stuff to do. Work through it bit by bit, and eventually you WILL get through it! You will feel accomplished if you finish a piece of work and it's like a weight gets taken off your shoulders. If you really think you are getting too much, talk to your teachers about cutting back on the homework a bit or ask if you can get extra time to complete it. As silly as it sounds, teachers are there to help you and they should have your best interests at heart whether you think so or not! Well, at least most teachers do. (I can think of a few of my teachers who are exceptions to that statement, but I won't name and shame them). They don't want you to feel like you are being overworked so if you have a legitimate reason to why you think there should be less work given out there shouldn't be a problem!

I hope this post helped you a little bit if you are a procrastinator like me, and I might be posting a few more back to school posts like this soon! If you are reading this and you know you have a piece of homework/coursework to finish, then go and start it now...if you start it you will be able to finish it, so what's the worst that could happen? Good luck!

xo

How to build up your makeup collection!

Hello to you!

So before I start this post properly I just want to say I know I don't have a massive makeup collection but I have gathered probably a little more makeup than I really need in the past few weeks. I don't have anywhere near as much as the big beauty gurus like Tanya Burr but I do have quite a little collection growing now, so I thought I would share some tips if you are thinking about building up your own makeup collection!

1. Make a wishlist, and keep it updated!

If you are starting your makeup collection or you already have some makeup but want to build it up, make sure you keep a list of products you want to eventually own so whenever you go into town you can cross things off your list. Keeping it updated is important so make sure once you have bought something on your list, you cross it off! You can change your wishlist as much as you like, as it's up to you and you can decide whether you really want a product or not. :)

2. Stay organised.

This may seem obvious but if you are one of those people who loses their makeup a lot or lives with separated parents, it's very important! You don't want your makeup to be sprawled across your desk or on the floor so make sure you keep it together. And if you DO live with both your parents after they have separated, I would suggest that the first thing you do before you start building your makeup collection is to buy a decent makeup bag to travel with!

3. Don't overdo it - only buy products you know you are going to use.

I would be lying if I said I have never bought a product for the sake of it, but if you want a good makeup collection you have your favourite products and things you know you are going to use! Even if it is a little more expensive, it is worth buying if you are going to use it. Don't buy things just to get your collection bigger, next time you go shopping say to yourself: do I really need the same brand of blusher in 14 different shades? The answer is NO you definitely do not! Buy things worthwhile instead :)

4. Make sure you have somewhere to store your makeup.

Now recently I did a post about my makeup collection and storage as I am building mine up a bit more at the moment, and if you want a decent sized makeup collection you should have a little area in your room with a box or dressing table where you can store all of your lovely new makeup! One of my favourite things to do after I go shopping is to come home and sort through all my makeup, it is very satisfying when you add a product to your collection.

The last piece of advice I can give you is don't go absolutely crazy when building up your collection, try not to spend all your money at once - I know buying makeup is addicting, believe me I know that feeling of wanting to buy more and more too well! Just remember you don't need to buy everything all at once, and it is more fun when you can build up your collection gradually anyway...it means you can clear out your old stuff and replace it with new stuff which is great! (Especially if you're like me and you have a slightly younger sister - you can give her all your old unwanted makeup and she'll probably love it!)

Anyway I hope you liked this post, I will be posting my updated makeup collection very soon and I will also be making a video when it is complete! I know I haven't been posting as regularly in the past month but now school is starting again and it's going to be a year of exams, I will still try to keep posting at least once a week! Thanks for reading, let me know if you like this sort of post and I will do more like this in the future :)

xo

Follow me on bloglovin! http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/5518685/lottie

A Day Out

Hello to you!

It's not often I have a day out in my city unless i'm shopping. I think we often forget to look at the surroundings around us a lot of the time, and I live in a really nice place but I don't often take pictures of it because I just take it for granted. Often I don't like taking pictures of scenery but some of these pictures were really nice to look back at. Next time you get a chance, take some snaps of your city and different places you go to throughout the day so you can remember the quieter days out! 

xo

My Summer Reading List!

Hello to you!

Recently I have not been reading as much because I read everything online now, and I have missed sitting down and reading a good book. I actually went shopping again today (haul post coming up soon) and I went into a bookshop and bought 2 books. Normally my mum buys all my books for me online and I don't think I have ever gone into a bookshop and bought a book with my own money before! Anyway, I forgot how much I loved reading so it inspired me to make this list. Some of these books I have read before and some I am waiting to read, but overall I think this is a list that could be enjoyed by anyone.

1. The Fault in Our Stars (By John Green) - I don't even know where to start with this book. The first time I read it I saw down and completely finished it in one go, I couldn't put it down! It is heartbreaking but funny at the same time, and it is my favourite book at the moment. I L-O-V-E this book and I think everyone needs to read it! I bought my own copy of it today, and I think I am emotionally prepared to re-live the story. 

2. The Perks of being a Wallflower (By Stephen Chbosky) - I have only just finished reading this book, and it was a really great read and it was not how I expected it would be at all! I've heard a lot about this story before and although I think it is a great book and an interesting story, I do think it is a bit overrated. I don't know if I was a bit young for it and I didn't fully understand the meaning behind it (this could be a possibility), but it was a really nice laid-back type of book to read so I will definitely be re-reading this one in the future!

3. The Bower Bird (By Ann Kelly) - I got this book from my gran at Christmas age 12, and I think it was a book for slightly older teens but I loved this book a lot and it remained my favourite books for a good few years. (I would just like to mention that I was always that one child who read books meant for older readers, and in year 4 I had a 'reading age' of 16! Crazy stuff hey.) - I definitely need to re-read this as I haven't read it in a while but it's absolutely brilliant and I am so glad I read it!

4. 13 Reasons Why (By Jay Asher) - My best friend gave me a copy of this book to read ages ago, and I have a copy for myself now as I really enjoyed reading it! I feel like it is definitely one of those books you need to re-read to fully understand the plot line but it is written really interestingly and I enjoyed it a lot! I also need to re-read this book again because I haven't read it in a while, but it is always one of my favourite books to recommend to people. Thanks for lending me a copy of it Mabel! I wouldn't have discovered it otherwise! :D

5. King Dork (By Frank Portman) - One of my favourite youtubers Carrie Fletcher (itswaypastmybedtime) recommended this in one of her latest videos and it sounds like a really good book! I looked for it today but they had ran out of copies unfortunately. It sounds like a great read, so I will definitely try to find a copy of it somewhere and save it for a read on the train. I'll keep you updated on what I think of it!

I was going to include a few more books but I feel 5 would be a good start. Let me know in the comments if any of you guys have read these books, and what do you think about them? I'll probably do another post like this in a few months time, and it is different from my regular type of posts so I hope you guys liked it. Let me know if you will be giving any of these a read, i'd love to hear what you think! 

xo

p.s I have a haul post coming up very soon, so look forward to that! :D

Boots/Superdrug Haul!

Hello to you!

So I have no self control when it comes to shopping, so me + wages is a VERY bad mix! I spent around £50 in less than an hour today, and I figured I would show you what I bought. I also bought some shoes from peacocks so I thought I would include them in this too.

Superdrug purchases - Left to Right: Aussie 3 Minute Miracle Deep Conditioner, Garnier Mineral Anti-perspirant, NYC HD Colour Quatro Eyeshadow Palette, Sleek i-Divine Storm Palette, Cosmopolitan Eyeshadow Brush. 

Boota purchases - Left to Right: Soap & Glory Sugar Crush Body Wash, Glad Hair Day Shampoo & Conditioner, Simple Refreshing Facial Wash Gel, Maybelline Falsies Mascara, Carmex Moisture Plus, 17 Doll'd Up Mascara. 

So it looks like I bought a lot but my excuse is my dad is moving house and I need to buy some more things for the house! Obviously this is a terrible excuse but I needed something.

I went to Peacocks a few weeks ago and I saw these shoes and fell in love with them, and I saw them again when I went last week so today I said if I went there and they were still half price (£12), I would buy them. WHOOPS! I like them, but I can't walk in them for more than about 10 minutes;)

I am very happy I bought all these products, if you would like to see any of these reviewed then let me know and i'll get round to it ASAP! :)

Hope you enjoyed reading this haul post, do you guys have any of these products? What do you think about them? Let me know in the comments, and thanks for reading!

xo

Makeup Collection and Storage - Before!

Hello to you!

So I am currently trying to fill up my makeup drawers and I thought I would do before/after posts so you guys can see how I get on! I will do a youtube video for my 'after' showing if you guys want to see that. Anyway, let me tell you what I have so far! I am not going to include the names of all these products but if you would like me to go into a bit of detail on a particular drawer then let me know so I can list all the products for you. :)

In the top left drawer, I keep all my lip products in here. I am trying to keep the drawers organised but I am gradually collecting more and more lip products so I have to keep on sorting through and chucking the ones I don't use! 

This is the top middle drawer, and I keep my mascaras/eyeliners and eyeshadow pots in here. I normally stick to eyeshadow palettes so I need to buy some more individual eyeshadow colours really!

The top right drawer is my 'tools' drawer and I am waiting to build up a big brush collection (my other brushes are at my mum's house) so I can keep them separate from these drawers! I've misplaced my eyelash curlers but normally they would be in here.

This is my 'palette' drawer and I want to get every single one of the MUA eyeshadow palettes, and i'm planning on collecting the Sleek palettes too!

This is my 'skin' drawer with all my basic face products. I really hope to buy a few more of these little Sleek blushes as they are only £4.49 and they are so pigmented and lovely!

This is basically my miscellaneous drawer, and this is where I keep all the stuff that doesn't fit under makeup/beauty stuff! I'll run through this drawer quickly because it's not really beauty products. In here I have makeup wipes, a face mask, a little box of notes, hairbands, travel sized sun screen, candles, roll-on spot thingy (don't know what to call it), hand sanitizer, and a list of products from a local company that use all natural ingredients as I was going to mention a few of these products on here!

So I am going to do a blog post in a few months time when I have (hopefully) filled up these drawers a little more, then I will make a video with more detail about the products!

Hope you enjoyed taking a little peek into my current makeup collection, if you want me to give you any more detail on any of these drawers then let me know! If you recognise a product and you want to see it reviewed, let me know and i'll get round to it soon :) thanks for reading!  

xo