Saturday 24 September 2011

universityyy!


Hello! I've been quite busy over the last few days so have SO many blogs to catch up on! So I got to uni yesterday, eeeeeek. It hasn't been anywhere as bad as I expected haha. My dad got a big car from work so I drove up with my parents & brother, then they stayed in a hotel nearby overnight. It was a bit of a shock when I got here as I ticked the box for single sex accommodation, and the first person I met was a boy ha! So it turns out I'm living with two other girls and five boys, luckily everyone's really nice! Five of us went out last night and tackled the big hill down to hill and back up, you should see my feet now - blisters everywhere! Wasn't fussed on my bedroom when I first saw it, but now I've unpacked all my stuff it just seems like home. I've been calling it home already, how weird.

Not sure what we'll be doing tonight, we're thinking either bond over alcohol in the flat or go on a pub crawl or something. Seriously don't know how I'm going to survive freshers week, it's hard work! Posting may be a bit sporadic as I'm never normally this busy hah. This is a bit of a pointless post really but I just felt like updating you all, well done to anyone that actually bothered reading it!

How's everyone else finding university? 
What was your university experience like?

Tuesday 20 September 2011

prison clothes

top: asos
skirt: boohoo
tights: idk.

The clothes I wore today. Didn't even go anywhere but I just had one of those days when you fancy getting dressed. Always feel a bit nervous about wearing black and white stripy clothes since people could make jokes referring to prison clothes hah.

Forget how much I like this skirt; had it absolutely ages but only worn it like twice. Must remember to wear it more often! Anyone else have something like that? That you rarely wear but actually looks rather nice on you. 

Watching the episode of Eastenders from earlier on at the moment, very emotional! Poor Jody :(

Monday 19 September 2011

monday

 jumper: urban outfitters
jeans: asos
necklace: topshop

My first ever Urban Outfitters purchase! I've never ordered offline as the selection just overwhelmed me, and I've never been in the Cardiff shop before as I tend to stick to Queen Street and the arcades for shopping so I'd just never came across it. This time, I made a point of finding out from friends where it was, and also asked the woman working in Leia. I felt like she owed me it since my mother and I had just paid over £90 on bras! 

Anyway, it's a really nice shop. It's the only Urban Outfitters in Wales and it's apparently one of the biggest  in the UK? My mother hated me by the time we left though! Wore this outfit up my boyfriend's house last night for a chinese & x-factor, anyone else watch it? I don't really have a favourite person that stands out at the minute, but that'll probably change after bootcamp. Who's your favourite?

Been to the dentist today so I'm super miserable right now! I'm usually terrified of the dentist and cry the whole way through *cringe* but I've figured out that it doesn't even hurt that much when I have to have a filling, it's just the fear of it. So I managed to keep calm and avoid turning on the water works, though my poor mother's hand is now crushed from me squeezing it the whole time hah.

Anyone fancy linking to their posts in the comments? I feel like I miss out on loads as I'm too lazy to scroll through the dashboard!
Have a good week :)

Saturday 17 September 2011

my first blog award

Thanks to the lovely Alice from Pretty Wonderful who gave me my first blog award!


The rules
- Thank and link back to the person who awarded you
- Write 7 random things about yourself
- Spread the love to 15 other bloggers

Already done the first one so I'll get cracking with my seven things..

1. I've wanted a dog for as long as I can remember but I'm basically allergic to everything with fur :( My Bampy's dog is the loveliest dog ever and I sort of consider her mine since I named her, walk her, and grew up with her, but it's not the same! I'd love any dog & constantly think about what I'd name my dog & where I'd walk it, sad I know haha. I really want a Puggle (cross between a Pug and a Beagle) named Puddle :) Anyone else have stupid allergies?
2. I've worked for an anti-smoking charity for about 4 years now. I won't try and convince you to quit and bombard you with facts if we ever meet, hah. It's just something that's quite close to home for me as a lot of my family members have been affected by smoking related diseases.
3. I chose my GCSE and A Level subjects based on what my best friends were taking and ended up not doing anywhere near as well as I should've, being completely clueless about what I want to do in uni and just doing the first thing that came to mind. Would do almost anything to be able to go back to my GCSEs and pick differently!
4. Really simple things make me happy. Like the  way that 'vevo' bounces up and down on youtube videos when you hover your cursor over it, I've had hours of amusement over that one haha!
5. I'm quite a weird mix of a person! What I mean is I like a weird mixture of stuff. I like reading philosophical stuff as much as I like reading blogs, I like Kerry Katona as much as I like Richard Dawkins, and I enjoy watching Question Time and Parliament just as much as I like Big Brother, Gossip Girl, Desperate Housewives etc haha. 
6. I'm a huge fan of Harry Potter and genuinely don't understand how people can not like it! Same goes for marmite haha. Prisoner of Azkaban is my favourite because Harry gets Sirius (forever annoyed at J.K.Rowling for killing off Sirius). My Pottermore username is WatchFirebolt94, feel free to add me!
7. I don't remember the last time I ate fruit, unless you count the pineapple that was just on my pizza! It's not that I don't like fruit, I just tend to reach for biscuits & crisps haha. Very bad habit!

Spreading the love:

The bloggers I chose were people whose blogs I read on a regular basis & who tend to comment back, just basically nice people! If I didn't include you then I am sorry, it was just really hard trying to narrow down the hundreds of blogs I follow to fifteen! 

Friday 16 September 2011

e.l.f nail polish


Out of all the e.l.f products I've tried so far, their nail polish is my least favourite. This is in shade 'Plum'. It didn't dry as quickly as I would've liked and the colour is so flat without a top coat! I think they tried going for a dupe of OPI Lincoln Park After Dark, but they just didn't manage to get the same wow factor. I used my Models Own top coat, which usually does the job rather well, but I think you'd need a really awesome top coat to turn this into one of those "wow" polishes.

Also...the staying power. It is awful! Actually awful. I painted my nails at about 3pm (on Tuesday) and it had chipped quite badly by nighttime. I didn't even do anything to chip them! Damn it.

Have you tried any e.l.f polishes? What did you make of them?

You can buy it here for £1.50.

Thursday 15 September 2011

wishlist wednesday on a thursday

Meant to post about this yesterday but lazy me spent the day in bed watching films hah. By the way, this is another university related post :).

So I'm not too worried about storage space in uni as I have a decent sized cupboard, a rather large desk & some shelves aaand I think there's storage space under the beds too. If you go to this page, there's a video of where I'll be living. The one thing I am a bit concerned about is DVD space. The shelves are probably going to house all my textbooks & the cupboard will be for my clothes, obviously. I'm not even sure if I'll be watching DVDs often when I get there but I'd rather have them with me than not, because I am a total film geek. I'm considering a DVD stand and maybe some DVD boxes too (I have a lot of DVDs).

Something like this, though to me it looks more like a CD stand?


And then something like these

Both from Ikea. I bloody love Ikea.
I'd probably spruce them up a bit but white seems a good starting point :)
Everyone ready for uni now? Think I've got basically everything but I just don't feel ready to leave home! Going to miss certain people so much!

P.S. if you haven't already heard it, check out Jon Mclaughlin's new album. It's on Spotify and you should be able to find it elsewhere too :). His songs Human, Beautiful disaster and Love have been favourites of mine for years! He's a bit soppy but I love him anyway!

Tuesday 13 September 2011

ins and outs

Ins:

1. Lazy breakfasts. I'm making the most of my last weeks at home, spending the majority of the morning cuddled up on the settee with old films. Watching Marnie at the moment (Alfred Hitchcock film with Tippi Hedren and Sean Connery, very good) and I've polished off crumpets with butter and jam, yum. What's your favourite breakfast?

2. Winter clothing. I've bought a new pair of plain black wedges for day to day wear in winter, and I'm already thinking about what winter coat to get. What will you be buying this winter?

3. E.l.f lip products. I've tried five so far and they're all really good quality. Been meaning to review them but I'm too lazy.

Outs:
1. Skin infections, blegh. They don't really affect me in any way, they just look ugly.

2. The realisation that there is no Lush or H&M in Aberystwyth. HOW WILL I LIVE. What shops do you need nearby?

3. Being behind on all my favourite blogs, there just isn't enough time in the day to keep up to date! How do you manage to keep up to date with your favourite blogs?

What are your ins and outs?

Monday 12 September 2011

the breakfast club

The title has nothing whatsoever to do with the post; it just happens to be one of my favourite films and I'm watching it at the moment. Anyone else like it? Personally, I'm all for '80s teen films!

I'm sure everyone that reads this blog is aware of Batiste and needs no introduction, but it is one of my few absolutely essential products so it seems about time I posted about it. Also, not everyone will have tried this scent.  I'm not all that fussed on the smell of it, it smells like cheap perfume to me. But my mother always whinges about the smell when I use the regular Batiste and this version doesn't seem to bother her. It doesn't smell that bad, it's actually alright from afar but it can be a bit strong when you're using it. I'm weirdly sensitive to smells though so this may not bother other people so much! This is the 200ml version so it's ideal for me as the normal sized bottles run out stupidly quickly. I think it set me back £2.99 from Tesco, it was definitely less than £3 anyway.

The main reason I use dry shampoo is for my full fringe. Not because it's greasy all the time, but because it tends to split. I know there are other products out there that are specifically designed to hold hair in place and blah blah blah but Batiste is the only thing that works on my fringe. It makes it look cleaner, gives it just the right amount of volume, works better than any hairspray I've ever used, and is very affordable!

What are your absolutely essential products?
Are you a fan of dry shampoo or do you think we should stop being so lazy and actually wash our hair?

P.S. ran 3 miles earlier. Usually that's fine, not so much when you have a cough and your asthma's playing up though. Don't try this at home, kids!

Sunday 11 September 2011

sporadic summary - happy sunday

top: dorothy perkins
bag: next
belt: h&m
shorts: my trusty republic ones
tights: next i think

1. Woke up at 4am on Thursday with either a ridiculously bad cold or a mild flu type thing, and it's stuck around since then. I feel really out of the blogging loop since I just haven't had the energy or the inclination to blog, but hopefully that'll be different this week! It also made me feel quite down in the dumps because my Bampy is ill so I'm not allowed to see him when I have germs, so I was missing him. Sad I know hah. Oh, just to let you know - I'm not a hypochondriac, I just have a crappy immune system and quite bad luck!

2. Found out my university accommodation this week! I got into my fourth choice out of fourteen, and my fourth choice was one that a lot of people wanted, so I can't complain! I was a bit miffed at first because I reaaaally wanted an en suite and it turns out I'm not going to get one, but then I found out that the only person I know in real life who's going to Aberystwyth is in the same accommodation as me :D. So he has been warned that if people aren't nice to me in Freshers, I will be stalking him. 

3. MY POTTERMORE EMAIL CAME. And I may have stayed up until about 3am exploring it, don't judge me. I got stupidly excited over my wand as well, just wish it was real *sigh*. I got sorted into Hufflepuff, obvz something went wrong since I clearly belong in Gryffindor. Feel free to add me, my username is WatchFirebolt94

4. Jedward should have won CBB and I already want Mark to win BB. And strictly is back, woo!

Hope everyone has a lovely lazy Sunday!

Wednesday 7 September 2011

wishlist wednesday ish

I went in Debenhams for the first time in ages today, so I am now in love with everything in the H! by Henry Holland collection. This jumper is my favourite; seriously, how cute is that?! I've tried getting a picture up but it just won't work, sorry! It's also a lot nicer in real life. I want basically every jumper & cardigan that there is, here's a link to the jumpers & cardigans section. Sorry I didn't manage to get any pictures! Topshop also have a lot of nice things in at the moment.

Today's been a really good day. I went Cardiff shopping with my friend (managed to restrain myself) and there was a man in the middle of the street handing out free bars of Galaxy chocolate! We assumed it was some new chocolate and this was sort of a promotion, but it was a normal bar & apparently it was just to brighten up a miserable day. Another reason to love Galaxy, yes?


Took my friend in Lush for the first time as she's never been in there! She was so cute, she couldn't get over how pretty & nice smelling everything was haha. I managed to come away with just a new bar of The Comforter - had a bubble bath tonight, this weather is totally bubble bath weather! - and a free sample of The Godmother, which I'm yet to try. The people that work in Lush are so lovely! 

What brightened up your day today?
What's your favourite Lush product?

Tuesday 6 September 2011

e.l.f lengthening & volumising mascara

I was a bit unsure how to spell "volumising"; e.l.f spell it with a 'z' on the product and with an 's' on the receipt type thing, and my Safari thinks they're both wrong haha. I got it in the bank holiday sale for £1.75 (my order finally came yesterday, woohoo!), usual price £3.50. 

my wimpy bare lashes before being curled

one coat on top lashes, after being curled

two on top, one on bottom

two on top, one on bottom

I do my mascara before the rest of my make-up, so if my skin looks diseased or anything then that's why. Also, sorry if anyone gets creeped out by eyes! 

This held up pretty well today. I walked to the train station in the wind & cried (at a film) and it stayed on for the most part. E.l.f say it "lasts all day with no smudging and no flaking". I didn't notice any flaking, of course it smudged from me crying but it never claimed to be waterproof! It dried quickly too. All in all, I think this is a very good day-to-day mascara. 

One thing I wasn't happy about was the size of it! Before I opened it, I thought that the wand side was the amount of product you get. Though I probably shouldn't have expected so much when it's only £3.50!


Sorry for the flash & the fact that it's posed on top of Little Women, it only just occurred to me to take a picture and the book just happened to be next to me. 

Anyone else loving the weather we're having lately? I'm such an A/W girl!
 And was anyone else an absolute wreck after One Tree Hill last night? 

Monday 5 September 2011

bad blogger

Hello! How are you on this lovely grey Monday? I haven't read any blogs over the weekend, so if you've posted something I haven't commented on then feel free to leave a link in the comments!

shirt: h&m
necklace: topshop
bag: next
jeggings - tesco I think.

Sorry for the way it looks slutty in the close-up picture, it's just because of the angle & the flash! Only included the picture because it shows the necklace & bag better. Didn't really want to wear this shirt but the skin on my arms is playing up & this was the only long-sleeved thing that would go with the shoes, and I was determined to wear my babies! I couldn't fit them into the picture, but this is them..(well, one of them)

next

Wore this outfit to the cinemas yesterday. It probably wasn't weather appropriate but I've been dying to wear the shoes since I got them! I went with my boyfriend to see Friends With Benefits, anyone else seen it? What did you think of it if you have? I absolutely loved it! Although I do fancy the pants off Justin Timberlake and have a rather large girl crush on Mila Kunis, but it was a good film anyway. It is a rom-com, but it's not as much of a chick-flick as I expected so you shouldn't feel guilty about dragging your boyfriend to see it! Not that I forced my boyfriend to watch it or anything.. 

Also, my parents went back to work today and my brother goes back to school tomorrow. I managed to resist the (strong) urge to kill them! Oh, and my e.l.f order came today! So I am a very happy bunny :) Hope you all had a lovely weekend!

Saturday 3 September 2011

mardi gras

Good morning! Sorry if the pictures are off today, the outfit I have on just won't photograph well. I'm wearing my trusty black cardigan over the top. It looks nice enough in real life but looks so frumpy in photos! 



 top & bag - primark
jeggings - h&m

No, that's not a 101 Dalmatians towel in the background. Honestly. 


Anyway, I'm off to work down the Mardi Gras later. When I say "later" I mean at 12, supposed to have been. But my friend has already made us miss one train, hence why I was able to take blog photos and actually blog before leaving. Gah, I hate it when people are late! 


Oooh, she's ready now! Have a lovely day :) 

Friday 2 September 2011

lush dream cream

I'm trying to post on the new blogger for the first time ever, so please bare with me if it looks a bit off hah.  


 So a girl in Lush recommended this for me a while back, specifically for my eczema. Apparently it's one of their best sellers. You get 240g and it costs £10.75, which I was unhappy about (because I am a cheapskate).

The first thing that hit me about this was the smell. I HATE IT. I'm not sure what it is, there's lavender in there so it could be that. But seriously, I have to hold my breath when I use it. Blergh. Does anyone else have this and feel differently about the smell? 

I wouldn't really recommend this for eczema. I can imagine it being brilliant for dry skin, but if you actually have genuine eczema then it isn't particularly good. Don't get me wrong, it's not bad, it just isn't all that amazing. I've only been using it when I'm running low on my favourite moisturiser and need sometime to tide me over until I can get more. I haven't even attempted using it on my face, I think the smell being that close to my nose would actually make me sick haha. 

The one thing I really like about this product is that it isn't greasy & it soaks in quite quickly. 


What's your favourite Lush product?
Have a lovely weekend!