Life Lately #2

Hi guys and welcome back to the second installment my 'Life Lately' series. If any of you read my first one all the way back in July, you would know that I used to do a lot of Instagram updates but too often I found that I never had enough photos to share. So, instead, I have decided to just do the occasional update when I feel that I have some fun things to share with all of you. Of course, if you would like to keep updated between these posts, feel free to give me a follow on Instagram here! Anyway, here's what I have been up to lately...

1. This photo is with my friend Yasmin when we were out for a friends birthday. Unfortunately, I didn't get any clear photos of my make-up after I got ready but I went for a classic grey shimmery eye with plenty of lashes and glowy skin!

2. Me and the girls have been making a concious effort to get together on a more regular basis. At this age, I've found that we are all so busy that sometimes it's hard to get everybody together on the same day. However, we have been going to our favourite breakfast cafe a lot lately in order to catch up and enjoy some yummy food whilst we're at it!

3. One lazy Saturday afternoon, Kieran (my boyfriend) and I decided to make some brownies as a treat. We wanted to make them even more exciting and decadent, so we added Rolos into the mixture. As you can imagine, they were deliciously gooey and the caramel from the Rolos made them soooo good!

4. This photo is before another night out with my fellow blondies, Yasmin and Sarah. We went to our local indie/alternative club and had the best night, followed by a sleepover at my house.

5. Obviously I am a huge Lush fan all year round but of course, now that winter is upon us I'm having even more baths than usual. This time, I used the Intergalactic bath bomb which is full of the most crazy colours and glitter. I loved it so much that I had to take a photo!

6. This is a photo of Kieran's family's new kitten called Esmée. She is an adorable grey tabby cat! I manged to get this cute photograph of her whilst she was napping just in time, before she woke up and started playing with all of her toys again!

7. If you have been reading my blog for a long time, you will know that I have suffered with anxiety since I was about 10 years old. After being in counselling for the last few years, I have conquered one of my biggest fears which is eating out in restaurants. I always knew that this fear was irrational and I am so glad that I am getting better at it. This was actually mine and Kieran's first sit down lunch in public and I'm so glad that I could share my accomplishment with him!

8. Me and my friend Lucy went out for Halloween and it was a really lovely night. I had so much fun experimenting with my makeup look for this and I opted for a super dark MAC lipstick and a smokey cat eye. I went as a stereotypical black cat and Lucy went as a skeleton.

9. This week I got my first Christmas Costa drink of the festive season! I opted for a Caramel Fudge hot chocolate and it was so tasty. I love the themed cups at this time of year, so I just had to take a snap of my first one of the year!

So, that's it for the second of my 'Life Lately' posts. I hope you enjoyed seeing what I have gotten up to since the last post. Be sure to check back soon for another new installment!

Life Lately #1

Last year, I started doing a monthly Instagram update but I soon decided to end the series as the posts were not very popular. However, after putting in so much time and effort into developing my blog over the past 2 years or so, I realised that it's not all about the view counts and comments! My blog is a place for me to express myself, as well as talk about beauty & fashion. As I do not own a diary that I write in, I thought that it would be a nice idea to occasionally share my favourite photos with you all and talk about my life every now and again! If you would like to keep up-to-date inbetween these new 'Life Lately' posts, feel free to my follow me on Instagram here. Anyway, here's what I have been up to in the last two months!

1. One of my best friends got engaged!!! Chloe and Jake have been together since they were 15 years old and they are the most cute & loved-up couple ever. At the end of May, they had a lovely engagement party in a local hall that even had a really fun photo booth complete with hilarious props!

2. My friend Charlotte had a Disney themed birthday party and I went as Alice in Wonderland. I managed to get this adorable outfit off of eBay for just £9.99! I paired it with a pair of white frilly socks and my Primark flatforms.

3. On the 28th of May, I turned 21! My parents, my boyfriend Kieran and I decided to have a fun day out at Colchester Zoo (which I blogged about here.) I had a really lovely and relaxed day walking around and seeing all of the different animals. A few of my favourites were the penguins and the red pandas.

4. Here are some of the wonderful birthday presents that I received. I felt like the luckiest girl in the world! My gifts included a Pandora ring, some NARS make-up, a new hair curler, some Lush goodies, new underwear and the first two seasons of Pretty Little Liars on DVD.

5. At the beginning of July, it was my friend Harriet's birthday - whom I have knownfor most of my life! We all had a lovely evening drinking cocktails and taking numerous selfies before heading out to ASK Italian for a yummy meal.

6. As I am at home a lot of the time, I am always looking after my dog Sasha so I just had to throw a photo of her into the mix! She is almost 8 years old and she is the most gorgeous Husky-Labrador cross ever!

7. As we have had some lovely weather here lately (ignoring the past week or so,) me and Kieran have been making the most of it! We have visited our local beer garden a couple of times and it is so gorgeous there. I normally order a Malibu & Coke but this time I ordered a summery cocktail - a strawberry daiquiri.

8. On the 11th, it was also Kieran's 21st birthday! We didn't make any major plans as he was due to fly out to Ibiza with his friends later that evening but we did go out for a delicious brunch with his family at a local tea room.

9. Last but not least, I treated myself to a night on the town with my friend Sarah a week or so again. We had so much fun getting ready together and we spent absolutely yonks on our make-up; contouring, smokey eyes... the lot! We danced the night away and had a really great evening, which is exactly what I needed as I was missing my boyfriend who was still in Ibiza.

So, that is my 'life lately.' I hope you enjoyed having a little catch-up with and seeing what I have been up to between the months of May to July. Be sure to check back soon for the next update!

DIY: My Bedroom Photo Board

Hi guys. Today, I thought that I would show you something a little bit different here on my blog. I love DIY projects that enable me to explore my creative side and I also love making my bedroom feel more cosy and personal to me, so a few years ago I created a photo board to have on the wall above my bed. As I have recently renewed my board with some up-to-date pictures, I thought that I would share it with all of you and hopefully this post may inspire you to create your own board full of your favourite memories.

Creating the board is very simple as all you need is; a notice board, an electric drill, a spirit level, push pins and your favourite photos. To get the board onto my bedroom wall, my Dad aka the DIY master helped me out to make sure that everything was done correctly. We simply positioned the board in the centre of my wall and used a spirit level to make sure that it was straight before drilling it into the wall. The notice board that I bought was from Homebase (see here) already had fixing hooks attached to it which made this process very simple.

After the board is secure, all you have to do is decorate it! I simply positioned my photos sporadically and fastened them to the board using various coloured push pins to make it even more decorative. As well as photographs of my friends and family, I also decided to add other items that fueled specific memories on to my board such as gig tickets and wristbands. After this, I still had a few gaps so I routed around my room for a few more random items to complete the board. I found a pretty dream catcher, some stickers and some cute note cards etc.

I am so pleased with the end result and I especially love being able to look at all of my favourite photos and people in one place if I'm ever feeling down. I hope you have all enjoyed this little DIY post as it is obviously something a little different for my blog. I think that a photo board like this one is a great way of personalising your bedroom and letting your creative juices flow at the same time. Plus, it's an inexpensive way of bringing some more excitement into your decor! Also, I would love to know what some of your favourite DIY projects are for decorating your bedrooms and get some more inspiration, so please leave a comment below. Thank you!

My Month Via Instagram - September 2013

It's that time of the month again where I give all of you, my lovely readers, an update of what I have gotten up to over the past month. As always, I cannot believe that another month has been and gone since I wrote one of these types of posts last - time really does fly! Before we know it, it will be Halloween and then Christmas and that is a really daunting prospect! On that note, here's what I have been up to throughout September!

1. I have been a fan of The 1975 for a while now. So, the day that their debut album was released  I rushed straight to my local Sainsbury's to pick up a copy! This CD has been in my car ever since and I absolutely love it. My favourite tracks off the album are 'Chocolate,' 'Sex,' 'Settle Down' and 'Girls.' I really recommend that you give this band a listen if you haven't already!

2. This month, the 11th September to be precise, was my Mum and Dad's 20th anniversary and like the lovely daughter I am, I made them a cake to celebrate. Baking is one of my favourite things to do and so I made them a red velvet cake complete with really cute, little marzipan roses too. It was delicious! It's so crazy that they have been together for such a long time, almost as long as I have been alive (I was conceived around the same time as the wedding, aww!) 

3. As a lot of you may know, it's very hard to see your friends at times due to how busy everyone's schedules are nowadays. So, the other week I decided to host a girls night at my house. I was really excited and pulled out all the stops; I bought some snacks and made my own rocky road bites, as well as making some fun games to play and so on. I had a lovely time catching up with everybody and I am definitely going to try and make this a more regular thing from here on out!

4. I've been quite stressed out recently and so I have had multiple pamper nights this month. I love taking an evening to myself, running a bath and using all of my favourite products. Recently, I have been using the Soap & Glory range an awful lot. I think that their entire product range feels so luxurious on the skin, plus they all smell amazing! My favourites from the range are 'The Righteous Butter' and 'Heel Genius.'

5. The other day I had to say goodbye to one of my best friends, Charlotte, as she has moved to London for university after doing a foundation course in art last year. On the day of her move, I decided to go and say goodbye and buy her a little card too. It was rather sad as we have grown a lot closer lately but as London is not very far away, I'm sure we will still be able to see each other quite often! 

6. Lastly, me and friend Sarah had a night out clubbing this weekend just gone. We decided to go all out with our outfits and make-up, this meant wearing our highest heels and our fanciest clothes. Between us we have so many dresses but what makes me laugh is that we ended up wearing each others! We had pre-drinks at my house and I even found some cocktail umbrellas to put in our drink (hence the photograph.) This is now one of my favourite photos we have together!

I hope that you have enjoyed reading about what I have been up during the month of September. Stayed tuned to my blog as I have a lot of content planned for October! Thank you :)

My Month Via Instagram - August 2013

Hi guys, I literally cannot believe that August is over already. it only feels like yesterday that I was sitting at my desk writing about what I was up to during July! Knowing that we are now nine months into 2013 is crazy, the next thing we know it will be Christmas! This month hasn't really been too busy or interesting for me in terms of activities, my life is a little samey at the moment but I still wanted to write this post regardless, as I have been doing so every month since I first started this blog and I can't go breaking tradition now can I?! So,without any further ado, here is what I have been up to throughout the month of August.

1. This is a little bit of a random post but I am proud to say that I have finally found all three variations of Coke bottles with my name on them. When Coca Cola first started doing this advertising technique, they only release the top 100 most popular names in the UK, and my name sadly didn't make the cut as it isn't that popular here. However, they have recently added over 100 more new names and mine was luckily included. Have any of you guys found your names yet? Let me know :)

2. Secondly this month, I went to one of my favourite nightclubs with my friend Sarah. I think it's safe to say that we had a really good time and had a good drink (or several drinks!) Apart from the actual night out itself, one of my favourite things is the process getting ready beforehand. I really loved my outfit this night (I borrowed the bralet from my friend Laura,) as it made me feel really confident. I am definitely an extreme girly-girl who loves spending their time doing their make-up and so on for a night on the town!

3. I recently bought this stunning dress from H&M and I had to share it with you all, as I love it so much. Not only is the dress a bargain, coming in at £14.99, but it's cut-out details are so gorgeous. The cut-outs are both at the side of the dress and atthe front at the top of the stomach area, as you can see in the photo above. It is an extremely flattering dress. They also do the dress in a lovely green colour if that's more up you're alley! 

4. I posted this photo on Instagram last weekend as a throwback from 2010 when me and my friend Laura went to Reading Festival for a day. We saw acts such as the likes of Blink 182, Paramore, You Me At Six and many more. Seeing a lot of my friends go to the festival this year made me definitely want to go next year. I spent a lot of my weekend watching the live streams and wishing I was there, sad I know! I hope that I can save up some money and go next year, otherwise I will be very upset! (P.S - I cannot believe how bright and red my hair was back in the day!)

5. This is just a picture I took on a day that me and my Mum went on a girly day out shopping. We spent some mother and daughter time browsing through all of our favourite shops and we found some lovely bits and bobs! We don't often get manyopportunities to spend the whole day together due to my Mums's strange working hours and so I was really happy to spend such a lovely day with her.

6. Last but not least, I spent a really nice day at my friend Sydney's house. As she completed a nail course last year, whenever we hang out she tends to do my nails for me. This time around I went for a gold, glittery Shellac polish and I love it. I hate how often normal nail varnish chips and so Shellac is perfect for me. I haven't posted a picture of my nails to Instagram yet but I am sure I will, so keep your eyes peeled! Afterwards, seeing as it was beautiful sunshine, we decided to do a spot of sunbathing in Sydney's garden. I also think that I made a new friend in her gorgeous dog, Ossie. Isn't he just adorable! 

I hope that you have enjoyed reading about what I have been up to this month. Please stay tuned to my blog as I have a lot of content ready to post in the next few weeks. Thank you :) 

My Month Via Instagram - July 2013

Hi guys, I cannot believe that another month has flown by already - 2013 is going so quickly! This month has been particularly lovely due to England finally getting some hot and sunny weather, which means that I have been out enjoying the sunshine whilst it lasts! This month has also been pretty exciting as yet again I have had quite a few nights out. So, without anymore rambling, let's begin talking about what I have been up to all throughout July.

1. First of all this month, to kick off our spell of nice weather, me and my friend Sarah spent an entire weekend together laying in the sun and eating a ton of yummy barbecue food. One Saturday afternoon, we decided to drive to one of our local parks for a change of scenery as opposed to my back garden. Little did we know that there was a huge event going on in the park and the entrance to the park had this really cute rainbow inflatable and I just had to get a photograph! Inside the event was a charity stall for Lukemia & Lymphoma, which me and Sarah both donated money to and got a free key-ring - that was our good deed for the day complete :)

2. My friend Sydney completed a nail course last year and recently she has been doing my nails for me. This time around, I decided to go for a natural polish as opposed to Shellac or acrylics as my nails are quite weak and damaged at the moment. I chose a lovely aqua blue colour and then went on to pick one of OPI's limited edition James Bond glitter polishes for an accent on my ring fingers. The combination of these two polishes really reminded me of mermaids on the ocean, the end result was so pretty!

3. My friends Danielle, Sarah and I were invited to a house party and this is a photograph that we took before we went. We all decided to get ready together at Sarah's house and do a little bit of pre-drinking too. The outfit I chose to wear was a denim Topshop bralet, which you can kind of see in the photo, teamed with a plain black skater skirt and sandals to keep me cool in the hot weather (it was even too hot to bother wearing heels!) The night was so much fun and I don't think that I stopped laughing all night!

4. This photo is from a a day where I simply stayed at home all day and worked on my tan. As you can see, this year I have tanned pretty well (especially for a fair-skinned blonde, blue eyed girl,) however, I accidentally chose an Instagram filter that made my skin look incredibly orange - oops! I took this quick snap because I thought it was really cute how my dog Sasha decided to come and lie right by me and enjoy the sun too!

5. I took this photo to show my outfit before an impromptu night out with my friend Charlotte. I managed to convince her to come out on a bit of a whim and I put this outfit together last minute. It's pretty simple, seeing as it just a black crop top and some high-waisted denim shorts, but I threw on some accessories and some fake eyelashes and I was ready to go. We went to a a club in my hometown that plays rock and alternative music, which is right up my alley! I love spontaneous nights out as they always turn out to be much better than planned ones and this night was definitely a random and eventful one!

6. Last but not least, and probably my favourite part of the month, is the fact that my best friend and fellow blogger Laura finally came home from Germany. She had been over in Dusseldorf for four months as part of an Erasmus for her university course and obviously, I miss her terribly. To surprise Laura upon her return, me and a few others decorated the front of Laura's house with lots of welcome home banners and balloons. We also wrote her a card and got her a few little gifts too. When Laura turned up and we welcomed her on her door step, it was really funny because me and Laura were wearing the same exact dress from H&M and so we decided to take a picture! I'm so happy that my best friend is home and I am excited for all of the fun we will have for the rest of the summer! 

That's all for this months update! I hope that you have enjoyed reading about my antics all throughout out July. Please stay tuned to my blog as I have lots of posts planned over the next few weeks. Thank you :) 

My Guest Post For Beauty Becky

Hi guys. I recently wrote a post for one of my favourite blogs that I follow, Beauty Becky. As Becky is currently on holiday, she hand selected a few fellow bloggers to write a post for her which have been scheduled whilst she is away. The topic I chose to write about is 'My Top 5 Beauty Buys For Under £5.' As mentioned in the post, I am a firm believer that many high street brands can be just as good, if not better, than some higher end products. The products that I have selected for this post are so effective and are great for those on a budget. 

Furthermore, I would really appreciate it if you all clicked here to hop over to Becky's page and give the full article a read. Also, I really recommend that you all follow Becky as her blog is amazing, so I will leave all of her social networking links below. Thank you for reading and keep your eyes peeled for more posts very soon!

Beauty Becky's Links
Blog - Twitter - YouTube - Facebook - Bloglovin' - Instagram

My Month Via Instagram - June 2013

Hi guys! It's come to that time of the month again where I share what I have been up to during the month of June with all of you. This month has been pretty mellow for me as I am focusing on getting my life together and consequently, I have signed up to do some voluntary work at a local ante-natal clinic. With that being said, whilst being busy going through that process, I have had a pretty busy month when it comes to nights out. So, without further a do, here's what I have been up to!

1. My first night out of the month was with my friend Lucy. We decided to go to a nightclub in our hometown that plays alternative music (which is right up my alley as rock is my favourite genre of music.) I was also excited to wear my new dress as pictured above. This really cute tie-dye cut-out dress is from a range in New Look called Cameo Rose and I am obsessed with it. When I wear it, I feel really confident and that is always a good thing! To view the dress on New Look's website, click here.

2. Shortly after, I went on another night out with my friend Danielle. We went to a club about a twenty minutes drive away from where I live which requires you to be a little more dressed up. Danielle came round mine for a few pre-drinks and I ended up doing her entire make-up look complete with some lovely false eyelashes. We both had a really great night and danced the night away, despite the fact that my feet were killing me in my heels. The sacrifices us girls make for fashion, eh?

3. This is just a little snap I took of my gorgeous dog, Sasha. She is a labrador-husky cross and I swear that 50% of my Instagram photos are just of her looking adorable. In this particular shot, she was begging me for food (as per usual) in my kitchen. 

4. This month, my parents went away to Suffolk for the week and so I was left in charge of the house. I am normally quite lazy when it comes to tidying up after myself but I turned into a bit of a domestic goddess throughout the week. Cleaning, cooking, hoovering - you name it, I did it. On one particular afternoon I was feeling a little creative and I ended up making some delicious Devil's Food cupcakes. As you can see from the picture above, they turned out pretty well. I especially love the leopard print cases which I bought in Tesco's, I am a sucker for leopard print items! They tasted divine and I ended up scoffing the whole lot - oops!

5. This is a little bit of a random photo to include but whilst in town on a sunny afternoon the other week, I decided to nip in to Costa and buy a drink to cool me down. I ordered a cranberry & raspberry iced lemonade and it's safe to say, I'm now addicted. Since that day, I have bought another two and they are so good. I highly recommend that you get one if you are passing by!

6. Last but not least is my final night out for this month with my friends Lucy, Harriet and Charlotte (from left to right.) Again, we gathered at my house for some pre-drinks and a gossip before heading out. We also had a bit of a 'glamming up' session where I curled the girls' hair and so on. As you can see, I wore my trusty tie-dye dress once again as I literally cannot get enough of it. This was my favourite night out of the month as me and the girls are rarely all free at the same time to go clubbing all together, especially as Harriet is usually away at university. However, I paid the price for the extremely drunken night the following day, where I was very ill and hungover which was not very pleasant at all!

So, that's it for this month! I hope you all enjoyed reading about what I have gotten up to over the past four weeks. As always, I always appreciate and love reading your comments so please do not hesitate to leave your thoughts below. 

My Month Via Instagram - May 2013

Hi guys! I am sorry that this post is a little late seeing as it is now June (I cannot believe we are almost half way through 2013 already,) however, my Internet has been down ever since my birthday. I was seriously starting to have Blogger withdrawal symptoms so I am happy I am back! Here is what I have been up to all throughout the month of May...

1. At the beginning of this month, my best friend Laura (who is currently living in Germany doing a semester over there) came back to celebrate her birthday in England. I was very excited to have her back in Essex and on this particular day, we did a bit of retail therapy in our local town. This picture was taken in the Topshop changing rooms - I fell in love with this dress. To view the dress on Topshop's website, click here. Unfortunately I still haven't gotten around to buying this dress but it is definitely on my wish list!

2. As part of Laura's birthday present, I asked my extremely talented friend Corbin to draw a picture of me and Laura so that I could frame it for her. The picture is ridiculously life-like and I love it so much that I even photocopied a copy for myself.

3. I took this photo purely because I have fallen back in love with my black and white polka dot shirt. I have nothing else like this in my wardrobe and teamed with a simple pair of denim shorts and tights, I think this outfit is really cute. I also took quite a lot of time doing my hair and make-up on this day too, as I was seeing a friend in the evening. 

4. The weather has been really nice in England lately (what a shocker!) One sunny Sunday, me and my Mum decided to make lots of cocktail pitchers and soak up the sun. We even finished off our cocktails with cute umbrellas, as you can see in my Mum's hair in the picture above! I rarely spend an entire day away from technology but me and my family, including my Nan, spent the whole day together in the garden and we even had a delicious  BBQ!

5. Again, I took this picture of my dog Sasha on yet another sunny day in my garden. We had been playing with her rope and she looked so happy and smiley, so I decided to grab my phone and take this adorable picture. I think that I have an obsession of uploading photographs to Instagram of my dog!

6. Last but not least, I have purchased yet another John Green book. As you can all probably tell from some of my previous posts, I have become a huge John Green over the past few months and 'Paper Towns' is no exception to this. I am halfway through this book at the moment and once again, I am hooked. I find John Green's style of writing so captivating and after finishing Paper Towns, I am hoping to read 'An Abundance Of Katherines' next.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing what I have got up to over the past month and now that my Internet is back up and running, I will be back to doing regular posts once again!

My Month Via Instagram - April 2013

Hi guys! Seeing as it is pretty much the end of the month now, I thought I would do a little post showing what I have been up to all throughout April.

1. This month, I have decided to go on a major health kick. I made a super healthy Caesar salad and it was amazing! I have a really terrible immune system and am constantly ill, so I feel like changing my diet may help me a great deal. Plus, now we are approaching the summer months, it cannot hurt to tone up a little bit too. I have started doing aerobics and Pilates a few days a week too. Sometimes I fall off of the wagon and eat junk or get a little lazy, but overall I am quite happy with my progress.

2. This month, I finally had to say goodbye to my first car (who I named Clive the Clio.) There was no way that it would have passed it's MOT at the end of the month, so sadly I had to say au revoir! I part-exchanged this car with my new car (see below.) It was really strange because on my last drive in Clive, I felt incredibly sad. Sure it had a lot of problems, but it was my first car so I will always love it!

3. Even with what I said above, I absolutely love my new car! Of course, I have carried on  the tradition by naming my new car Clifford. I decided upon this name purely because of it's colour, and yes, I am referencing Clifford The Big Red Dog. Some people think that naming your car is silly, and I guess in a way it is, but it's a tradition that I will probably continue throughout my life!

4. As mentioned in a previous post, I finally purchased John Green's book 'Looking For Alaska.' after hearing many rave reviews from friends and seeing a lot of quotations from it on Tumblr, I thought I must read it. I can happily say that it lived up to my expectations and I read the entire book in under 48 hours. I think it's safe to say that I was hooked!

5. In a nutshell, my Mum has been very stressed out lately and has been working a lot over the past couple of weeks. So, on my way home from visiting a friend one day, I decided to pop in to the florist and buy her some flowers to cheer her up a little :) I picked up this particular bouquet because the colours were extremely vibrant and I thought that they would brighten up our living room.

6. These past few days have felt a lot more like spring/summer. Whenever the sun rears its head in rainy England, everybody makes the most of it. As I haven't had a lot on over the past few days, I took the opportunity to do a bit of sunbathing. With just two afternoons in my garden, I actually have a nice little tan developing. As you can see in the photo above, I was wearing these cute little shorts from Primark. They only cost £4 and are part of their beachwear range. I absolutely love the floral and butterfly print, plus they were an absolute bargain!

I hope you have enjoyed this post and please let me know if you think I should make this a monthly thing, explaining what I have been up to and so on :)