It’s the Little Things

It’s the Little Things

Wednesday 20 December 2017

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I’ll hold my hands up and admit that this post may have been inspired by/ be a complete rip off of Stylist’s Little Pleasures podcast - which I’m listening to as I write this post, and you should be too, listen to it here - but it got me thinking about the small things that just make me smile, life’s little luxuries that make my day. Obviously, I absolutely needed to share these things with you.

Rediscovering a song that I’ve forgetten that I love

I’m a huge music lover, I can't emphasise this enough. My iTunes library is home to hundreds of thousands of songs. I think at this point I could comfortably fill a 60gb iPod Classic - remember those? They were great! I still have one somewhere - with little room to spare. With that much music it’s really hard to keep track of it all, and that isn’t including my vinyl collection, or the list of music to download I have on my phone. So occasionally I’ll put my phone on shuffle, or listen to the radio, and a song that I’ve forgotten I love will come on and it’s just the best feeling! I love it.

Drinking a mug of tea while it’s still hot

I’m notorious for doing this. I LOVE tea! Love it! So much so that it is mentioned in my twitter and instagram profiles. But it is very rare for me to finish a mug while it’s hot. It never happens

Kat Von D Everlasting Liquid Lipstick in Nahz Fur Atoo and Mother

AKA the best liquid lipsticks to ever grace my lips. Ever! I am so obsessed with them! Mother is my favourite, because is is so low maintenance. It’s a berry pink that is quite statement but also very wearable. It might be *whisper it* my favourite lipstick ever. If not ever then certainly from recent times.

Sadly, and I’m not joking, I lost Mother - the lipstick, not my actual mum, thank God! - at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, while dancing with a performer in Harambe. True story, I also lost my MAC Soar lipliner and my Elemis Calm rollerball (sob!) but it was a lot of fun!

Nahz Fur Atoo is another favourite. It's a seriously vampy, wine red shade that I’m just obsessed with. I’ve worn it so much, including right now.  Both have formulations that I can only describe as heavenly! They’re easy to apply, totally comfortable to wear and have fabulous longevity! They’re also vegan and cruelty-free. 

Nice stationery

I’m not 100 percent convinced that my love of writing isn’t just an extension of my love of really good pens and notebooks. I also really love nice postcards and have done since I was a tiny little thing. Just nothing beats the feeling of a fresh notebook and the potential it has. Nine times out of 10 I’ll just fill it with random witterings or use it as a bullet journal, but the idea that I could fill a fresh notebook with something really great, is intoxicating! It would need to be written with a nice pen, one that makes my handwriting look good, because obviously! 

Getting through my skincare routine early

I have a fairly complex night time skincare routine. It’s no 10-step Korean skincare routine, but it does have a good 5 - 6 steps and it takes a good 20-30 minutes. If I don’t do it as soon as I get home then I’m pretty much guaranteed to have a late night because I’ll put it off until suddenly it’s way past my bedtime and I have 20 minutes of moisturising to do. The days when I’ve got my make up off and have slathered a painfully expensive facial oil into my chops before 10 pm are few and far between but they’re the best. 

Hawkins Middle AV Club Sweatshirt

I haven’t even had this that long, a couple of weeks at the most, but the sheer joy this frankly ridiculous sweatshirt brings me is incredible. The minute I get home from anything it goes on. It’s warm and cosy and portrays my undying love of Stranger Things. Winner! 

December Goals

December Goals

Wednesday 13 December 2017

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It’s December, which means Christmas! And also that I’m losing my shit at how quickly this year has gone. Luckily I’m not alone, and the rest of the blogging community is at it too!  - Seriously, though, how is it December already?! - As it’s December, and the last month of 2017, I’ve only got a couple of weeks left to make it count. Consider this my last ditch attempt at making myself a better person before all the  new year, new me goal setting commences.

Stop apologising for myself 

Recently I’ve become aware of the fact that I apologise constantly, and that’s not even an exaggeration. It is constant. It’s like a verbal tick, Sorry prefaces every sentence that comes out of my mouth. And it’s about time it stopped. 

Spend some time away from my phone 

I’d hold my hands up and admit that my phone is constantly glued to my hand, but, ironically, I’m writing this on my phone and would probably drop it. I spend way too much time on my phone, and staring at screens in general, but I’m at the point now that if my phone isn’t in my hand I panic. I’ve realised - after seeing some godawful photos of me where I was too engrossed in my phone to notice that they were being taken - that I need a break from it. Honestly, constantly being inundated with everything -Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc - isn’t good for me. For one thing it’s exhausting. For another it gobbles up all my time. Now I have no idea how I’m gonna go about this but I think a digital detox is definitely in order. 

Get some sleep

This goes hand in hand with my previous goal. Being on my phone all the time is seriously eating into my sleeping time, and wreaking havoc with my sleeping pattern. I miss the days when I had a bedtime. Life was simpler when I was in bed by eight, although I was still awake until two... I’ve always been a rubbish sleeper. Anyway I’m exhausted. The last month has been hectic and I haven’t managed to get myself back into any kind of routine, so I’m up all night and exhausted all day. I’m really looking forward to having a break over Christmas and getting some much needed shut eye! 

Make a decision about whether to watch Breaking Bad and stick to it

I just can’t decide whether to watch Breaking Bad or not. I’ve tried watching it a couple of times before and I just seem to lose interest. But I do still want to watch it, and see what all the fuss is about. This has been going on for at least two years. At this point I either need to binge it all in one go and get it out of the way, or just accept that I’m not going to watch it and delete it from my Netflix queue. 

Make my blog priority 

This year has been awesome! I’ve travelled all over the world, I’ve seen three of my favourite bands and have launched my YouTube channel. It has been an incredible year, but with such a massive demand on my time, my blog has suffered immensely for it. It’s been difficult to prioritise my blog and I’ve been a rubbish blogger. Before this year ends I’m going to recommit to my blog and make it a priority, becajse I don’t ever want to get to the stage where I’m not blogging at all.

What are your goals this month? 

November Highlights

November Highlights

Wednesday 6 December 2017

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I hate to say it, but November is a really boring month. It's just a cold, grey waste land between Halloween and Christmas, when it's too early to get excited (or so I am told) for all the exciting Christmas stuff,  I'm not allowed to watch The Grinch yet, and  I no longer have Halloween as an excuse to cannonball an entire pack of Fruitella Duo Stix in one sitting. However, there is an exception to every rule, and this November was that exception. It was incredible! I had the best month. I've just had a little scroll through my instagram feed to remind myself of all the crazy amazing things I've got up to  and I, honestly, can't quite believe it. So I thought I'd share some of my highlights with you.  

Fireworks - Firework Night, or to give it its proper name/names Bonfire Night or Guy Fawkes Night, isn't a thing outside the UK, and I have to say you guys (ie. the rest of the world) are really missing out, because it's awesome. Normally my sister and I take my niece and nephew to a local display but this year I was actually invited to a fireworks party at my best friend's mum's house, and we had such a good night, with some amazing food - including a home made toffee apple cheesecake which was so good I haven't actually stopped thinking about it - beautiful fireworks, a roaring bonfire and good company. I told you, all you non-UK based readers are really missing out.

Seeing Biffy Clyro at the Roundhouse - Way back at the beginning of November my beloved Biffy played an acoustic set at the Roundhouse for MTV Unplugged, and I went with my festival bestie, my festie-bestie if you will, Charlotte. We had, and I cannot emphasise this enough, the best time. It was incredible! I cried... a lot, if you've seen my Download vlog then you'll already know how much I love them, so this won't be a surprise. I sobbed, whilst singing, from start to finish. It was such a beautiful set, I don't think I've ever been so moved by a live performance, ever. It was gorgeous. And the best part, aside from the fact that I was three people away from Simon Neil and may have even made eye contact... I'm getting all giggly just thinking about it, is that it was recorded for MTV so I'll be able to relive it. Another reason it was so special was that I'd tried, desperately, to get tickets when they first went on sale in October and I couldn't get them, they sold out in seconds. I was so upset, way more than I should have been, I admit it was ridiculous, and I had to make myself get over it. Then *plot twist* I got an email the day before saying that more tickets were being released and I managed to get some, which was amazing because I'd made my peace with the fact that I wasn't going and then I got to go! Also, and I cannot stress this enough, but the Roundhouse in Camden is an amazing venue. It's absolutely stunning, so if you ever get the chance to see someone play there you have to take it. 

Florida - Mid-November saw me packing my bags and heading to Orlando for a week for work. It was actually the second time I've been this year, having gone back in June, which was also for work.  This time I went to a theme park convention, which was honestly as fun as it sounds. I didn't mean for that to sound sarcastic, it actually was amazing. I got to do some really cool stuff. Obviously, I can't go into too much detail because it was work related, but I did have a great time. I worked really, really hard but I had a lot of fun doing it. I was also surprised to learn how cold Florida is at night in November... seriously, who knew? 

Seeing The Killers at the O2 - I ended the month the same way I started it, by seeing a band I adore with one of my absolute favourite people. Last week me and my bff Jade went to see The Killers at The O2. We had the worst seats, seriously we were right up in the nosebleeds, three rows from the back of the actual arena, but none of that mattered once The Killers came out. We had an incredible time. It was a wonderful show. I've wanted to see The Killers for a really, really long time, like 10 years maybe, and they didn't disappoint. It was amazing. You will be unsurprised to know that I cried.  I also vlogged our night, so you guys will be seeing it as soon as I get myself and my youtube channel organised, which will be soon... I promise/hope.