New Year's Resolutions for 2015

Hello to you!

Recently I have really been trying to become a better version of myself, & since it's a new year I decided the best way to do this is by listing some of the things I want to try & improve on for 2015. If you haven't made any resolutions yet, give it a try! A new year is a clean slate where you have an opportunity to decide what you want to accomplish and do with that time. Here are my new year's resolutions & the reasons why I want to do them.

1) Be a good student. I am doing this because I am determined to get good AS-level grades this year, so I want to put in the effort to get the grades & results I deserve! I know I will do well if I try my hardest, so that's what I'm going to do.

2) Keep striving towards a healthy lifestyle. The reason I use the words "keep striving" instead of just  saying"be healthier" because everyone has bad days where they eat entire bars of chocolate without leaving the house, and I know there will be a number of times where I want to give up with trying to be healthy. Even if I have bad days, I'm going to keep trying again and strive toward a goal of having a healthier lifestyle. By setting a more realistic goal like this, I know I will be more capable of sticking to it. Remember, it doesn't matter how many times you slip up as long as you keep trying!

3) Attempt to learn some yoga. I want to try this because I am quite a naturally anxious/panicky person and I feel that if I can learn methods that will help me be calmer and more relaxed/in tune with my life, it's definitely worth a try! (Bonus point: if I get good at it I can be super flexible again, olympics here I come!)  

4) Learn to accept when I've made mistakes. I am a very proud person and I find it incredibly hard to back down or apologise in an argument, so this one will be a challenge. My star sign is scorpio and so one of my natural traits is being proud, so if I can at least try to be more accepting of my personal faults it will be a huge achievement! I think personal growth is really important, and as I'm getting older I'm realising that I'm not always going to get my way and I'm not always necessarily right about things. If I can try to be more open-minded to other people's point of view I think it will really help me understand my friends & family better, and strengthen my relationships with them.

5) Keep thinking positive! This year I have definitely improved at looking on the bright side of any situation which has been a real struggle at times but I think it is helping me to be a naturally more positive person. I'm hoping to continue this throughout 2015, and really step up my game - try to spread more positivity around other people too!!

No one is perfect, and just because it's the new year it doesn't mean life is going to change drastically. I can't alter my personality but I can alter my attitude towards life and how I live it, and I am determined to make the most of the year! Recently I've become extremely aware of how fast time passes, and I'm determined to make the most of the time I have on this planet. 

I hope this inspired you to think of your own resolutions! Just remember to keep them realistic and don't give up :) I hope you have an amazing 2015! Make it a year to remember.

xo

Xmas & New Year!

Hello to you!

I hope you all had a WONDERFUL xmas & boxing day, mine was lovely!! I'll do a post very soon about some of my favourite presents when I get time as I got some really great stuff & it was great to see some of my long-distance family members after such a long time :)

As I have a very big family, it is hard to see everyone at once. Tomorrow I am going up to Yorkshire until the 31st to see my lovely cousins & spend a few days up north. My cousin Chloe has just got back from doing some journalism work in Iraq, and I'm really looking forward to hearing some of her stories. On the 31st, I'll be travelling from Yorkshire to Huddersfield to stay with some twitter friends until January 3rd! I'm so excited to see everyone, especially as it will be the first time I meet one of my bestest friends. 

Christmas is always a super busy time for me, and trying to juggle coursework and revision and my job around seeing family & friends has proved to be a challenge indeed! Around this time of year I always feel incredibly grateful, as life isn't always easy but I know I always have my friends & family as well as a lovely home. Presents are a bonus too of course, but as I get older I am starting to appreciate the less material things in life! (That being said, I still appreciate the material things a lot - they just become less important than the memories & experiences I have grown up with).

I'll do a christmas haul post as soon as I get my presents a bit more organised, hopefully it should be up within the next few weeks! What did you get for christmas this year? Does it feel any different to you as you get older? Let me know in the comments!

xo

Fashion - Mermaid Leggings!

Hello to you!

So today's post is going to be a fashion post, and seeing as it is my birthday soon my good friend Neve (@amazingneve on twitter) sent me this gorgeous pair of mermaid-scale leggings! If you know me at ALL you will know I completely love love love mermaids, and these are an absolute treat!! I have wanted a pair of these for ages so I'm very chuffed to have them!!

I posted this picture on instagram hence the editing here. (Cheeky self promo, follow me on there!!)

What do you guys think of printed leggings? Do you love them or are they too outgoing for your taste? What kind of legging prints are your favourite? Let me know in the comment below!!

xo

Mini Boots Haul!

Hello to you!!

So if you read my blog regularly you will know that recently I got a job! Finally having a job is great because now I can be more independent with my money & it's given more of an idea of "the real world", and of course - having more money on me is always a bonus, although I don't always spend it wisely!

I didn't buy many things from Boots as I focused on buying clothes more than makeup, but I did get a few things that I thought I should share with you!!

L to R: L'Oreal Glam Bronze Bronzer in shade 06, Rimmel Wake Me Up Concealer, Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer (an old favourite of mine), Rimmel Lasting Finish Colour Rush Intense Colour Balm in shade 'Drive Me Nude', Real Techniques Shading Brush, Simple Light Moisturiser.

I already have so many half empty concealers lying around but I can't resist buying more, & my obsession with bronzers is slowly growing!! I hope you liked taking a peek at my most recently bought products, and I'll do a review of one of these products next month if I really like it!!

Hope you enjoyed this post, let me know in the comments if you have any of these products already & what you think of them!! Do you have any recommendations for what I should buy next?

xo

College is Overwhelming

Hello to you!

So this isn't going to be a happy post talking about the holidays or makeup today, this is going to be my stressed-out rambling post where I try to sort things out in my mind.

First of all, my results day was yesterday and I was very happy with my results! I got 5 A's (in English Literature, English Language, Biology, History and Drama), 4 B's (Maths, Chemistry, Physics, Religious Studies) and 2 C's (French & Art)!! I got into all the courses I wanted to do, and today was my enrolment - where the stress began. 

I don't know if this is the same with every college across the country, but at my college they give us "flying start" work which is basically projects for each subject to do BEFORE college that you bring in on day 1, just so they can see the kind of work you will produce throughout the year etc. It's meant to help with the step-up from GCSE to A-Level work. Anyway, just now I went on the website & downloaded the PDF files for each of my subjects (English Lit, Biology, Psychology & Film Studies) and when I started making notes on all the work I had to do, I started panicking. I know there is a lot more work to do at A-Level, but honestly I don't think anyone could've prepared me for the transition. I was surprised by the heavy workload I was given straightaway for one subject alone, and by the time I had reached my fourth subject's "flying start" work I was reduced to tears because I've got to a point where I don't feel I can physically get all of this done by my first day. As well as completing 4 big projects for each subject, I still have to go and work 6-8 hour shifts at my job, buy all my college supplies, buy new clothes for college, organise and de-clutter my room, and make a schedule all before I go to Cornwall next week!! I don't know where to begin with this, and suddenly I feel overwhelmed with things I have to get done before college.

I'm going to try and make a checklist of stuff to do and complete one day at a time so it is bearable, but at the moment I am definitely struggling. No matter how much you wish you could deal with everything life throws at you, sometimes you need to be able to say when things are getting a little too much to handle!!

I hope all of you are well, and if you are stressed out for the same reasons as I am please let me know in the comments how you plan to deal with your stress and some tips on being able to organise your day-to-day life!!

Sorry this wasn't a very happy post, I just needed to write some things down to get them clear in my head. Thankyou for reading. (I haven't proof read this post or anything, so I'm really sorry if some parts of it don't make sense. I'll be back with a happier post next week.)

xo

A Healthy Pledge

Hello to you!

So you may know that I am constantly in a battle with myself to keep healthy, and when I am determined I am very driven but when it comes to being healthy I always seem to fail!

So now I have decided to make a pledge to myself of some simple rules to stick to, so I can make myself healthier in simple ways! Here is my healthy pledge:

1. Drink at LEAST one bottle of water every day (preferably 2 bottles, but usually I don't drink out of bottles so this will be hard to measure accurately).

2. Eat slightly smaller portions. Even if it means using smaller plates, there is no need to eat a huge plateful of food if you are feeling full but we have a tendency to want to finish EVERYTHING on our plate rather than waste it. Instead of doing this, if I have eaten enough I will put the rest of it in the fridge to save it to eat later if I get hungry or maybe use it as an ingredient in a meal the next day!

3. Swap chocolate & crisps for some fruit. Now I do love my twixes or salt & vinegar crisps, but recently I have been swapping them with tinned peaches which has been really lovely! Tinned peaches is now my go-to snack, and now as we are getting nearer to summer I hope to be buying some more great tasting fruit like raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, cherries, etc!

4. Do 20 minutes of yoga a day. Yoga is a really simple form of exercise which helps your flexibility and calms your mind, as well as being a good way of doing some simple exercise! I have a daily yoga app which I plan on using every day over summer as I think it is really useful.

5. Do a 10 minute workout every day. 10 minutes may not seem much but it is enough time to get you sweating if you're working hard enough! Whether this is a short run or a proper workout using an app, as long as i'm getting 10 minutes of cardiovascular exercise a day that's good enough for me. (Obviously for some people that sounds like nothing, but for me even leaving the house is a chore on some days!)

So there you have it. These are the 5 rules I would like to stick to for the foreseeable future so I can create good habits, & maybe one day in the future I will look back at this post & see how well I stuck to it!!

Are any of you trying to create some healthy habits? Do you want to get healthier & fitter before summer so you can get that perfect bikini body, or are you looking to make healthier changes for life? I'd be really interested to hear from you, let me know what you think about this in the comments!!

xo

Reflection on 2014 so far

Hello to you!

So I have a little bit of free time in between all my revision at the moment and it's been quite a while since my last blog post. It is now June, so we are officially halfway through the year! I thought I would use this as an opportunity to show you some pictures from this year and see how I think I've changed as a person and some of my new interests.

Back in October, my dad moved to a city near my hometown where we stay at every weekend and it's really beautiful. This year I have found myself appreciating living in such a gorgeous area, and it's making me want to actually leave the house to go on walks and such more! Living next to the beach is really lovely, although I'm not looking forward to the hot weather as it will be packed 24/7!!

For my sister's birthday a couple months ago, we went to an under 18's night club & I took this slightly cringey mirror selfie as I think this year I have embraced a slightly girlier look and I am hoping to buy a lot more skirts & dresses this year as I got tired of wearing jeans all the time!! This picture reminds me of how much I like getting ready for a night out with friends, so hopefully this year i'll be going to more parties and gatherings because i'd really like to meet new people and make more friends as I start college this year!!

This is a picture my mum actually took of the garden (although yes, I did edit it and put a white frame on it. Oops.) and I think this is a really artistic, cute outlook onto our garden and it's quite summer! I love the wisteria growing in our garden, it is really nice to sit outside by it.

Before you say anything, I am aware of the fact I have stickers on my face! I took this picture just before going to the orthodontist for my last appointment before getting braces, which I thought was quite a significant part of the year as until the end of 2015, I will be a brace face. At least i'll end up with some straight pearly whites at the end of it!

Several weeks ago I developed an interest in American Horror Story as everyone seemed to be talking about it, and I don't know about you but I am AWFUL at watching anything scary as I have a very overactive imagination!! Luckily for me, Evan Peters plays a characters in every single season so as well as loving the plot line I also get to stare at a VERY attractive character through each episodes. If you've never seen American Horror Story before I definitely think you should watch an episode or two and see what you think!! Season 1 (Murder House) is probably the scariest, but I am a complete wimp and I LOVED it. Click HERE for a link to where you can watch all 3 seasons (without an account needed or any annoying pop-ups! I love the internet.)

It seems most of this blog post has been made up of selfies, and 2 out of 3 of these pictures have been bad mirror selfies. I am using this picture because this year I plan to get healthier and hopefully more toned. I look like I have a flat stomach in this picture (yes I was sucking in my stomach, you're probably lying to yourself if you say you don't do that in pictures) but I would like to try and get a bit toned & hopefully continue getting healthier! I finish year 11 this year and there is a 3 month gap between my last day & the first day of college, so hopefully I will use that time to my advantage and start getting healthier!

I took this picture while doing English revision at Costa with one of my best friends. I felt I needed to include a picture to do with school because the biggest change in this year will be leaving high school! At college, you have so much more freedom and independence but that also means more responsibility. Although I am really looking forward to experiencing what college is like, I am also sad to be leaving high school as I have been there since I was 11 years old! Some of the biggest changed happen in life when you're a teenager, and my life is DEFINITELY not what I expected it would be like when I was 11 years old thinking about the future. Although not all of my memories from school are happy, I will definitely miss it a lot!!

I don't have a picture for this but I also thought I would tell you guys I now have a job working at WHSmiths! It may not be the most glamorous job but I am really excited about working for my own money and getting real, hand-on experience in the working world. Also, it means I will be buying more makeup & beauty products so I shall be writing more blog posts about them over summer!!

I hope you enjoyed reading this post as I haven't done a nice, old-fashioned blog post like this for a while. I only have 1 week of exams left and then I am completely done with school, and my last official day is June 27th! Hopefully this will mean I have more time to work on improving my blog and writing more posts. Have you thought about what is changing in your life this year? Do you have any plans over the summer? Let me know in the comments, i'd love to hear what you've been up to recently!

xo

Things to look forward to

Hello to you!!

So...it's been a while! I'm sorry for my extremely long absence but i've been so busy with exams and stuff I haven't had the time to write a proper post! I wanted to do a quick update talking about something I think everyone should have: a list of things to look forward to! Of course it's good to live in the present but sometimes if you're in a negative place or not feeling too great it's nice to see what things there are to look forward to where you know you will be feeling a lot happier. This is my current list!

- Meeting Bert in July! I'm finally going to be meeting my twitter best friend and she's going to be staying at mine for a few days, i'm so so so excited!!

- SitC! Summer in the City is a huge youtube gathering and I can't wait, i'll be meeting so many of my friends/mutuals/followers there and it's going to be unforgettable.

- Dance Camp! I went to a festival last year with one of my best friends, my brother, my aunt & my cousin! We made so many friends there and i'm really looking forward to seeing everyone again this year :)

- College! It sounds silly but i'm really looking forward to experiencing college, yes it will be a lot of work but I can't wait for more freedom and meeting new people!!

- Ed Sheeran! I went to see Ed live in 2012 with my best fridnd and in October we are going to see him again! It's still pretty far away now but it's going to be amazing!

Another thing that is coming up soon is prom, but I want to dedicate a whole blog post to my prom so I won't discuss that now :)

So that's my current list! It may not be that long yet but there are so many other things i'm excited for this year, yet these things I have written about above are going to be the highlight :) do any of you have a list like this? If you make one, what will you write on it? Let me know in the comments!

xo

Life Ramble

Hello to you?

So...it's been a while hasn't it? This won't be a proper post because I haven't planned anything and haven't really got any time to write it now, but I wanted to do a little update. I will probably post a haul post soon because I have got a lot of money leftover from christmas but I need to save some of that for prom, so we'll see how that goes! This year is my important year, and my teachers has strongly urged us to start our serious revision now rather than wait for revision leave, which is exactly what I'm trying to do.

I know I have been awful at keeping up with my blog recently but I will be able to start properly blogging again near the end of June when all my proper exams are done! I'll still update you guys now and again because I do want to pursue this blog. I will try to write a proper blog post once every 2 weeks if I can - I wish I had more time to focus on things like my blog, but I really don't at the moment. 

Hopefully you will stick with me this year and see how I get on with school and life itself! 

A few goals for this year:

Get a saturday/part time job

Pass all my GCSE's, preferably with A's and B's if I can

Revise hard, keep working

Get into the courses I want to do in college

Become happier (I may have to do another blog post on this sometime)

Buy some new clothes for college

Change up my hair more often!

Okay, that's all I have to say for now. Also, the Fault in Our Stars trailer came out today and i'm SO excited for it! I can't wait to see the finished film, I adore the book and I adore John Green. If you haven't read the Fault in Our Stars yet, I would highly recommend it. (Prepare for tears though!!)

xo

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

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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