10 things #3

10 things that have made me happy this week:

1. HANDING IN EVERYTHING FOR UNI!
2. Cooking brownies and eating them all.
3. Popping corn - cheap and reasonable healthy snack.
4. Getting a lovely fortune with a shit Chinese.

brownies - fortune cookie - popcorn

5. Interpretive dancing to the radio.
6. Getting drunk with the course mates.
7. Once again, Snap Chat. So much fun.
8. Prison Break! Why have I not watched this before...?
9. Cauliflower cheese on Thursday night after choir (& the new conductor, he's hilarious).
10. Being home. It's snowy and warm, the food is lovely and so are the cats.

packing - on the train - tiger todd

On a sad note, I didn't like leaving Manchester.

skin care routine #2

After buying the No. 7 Hot Cloth Cleanser I decided to buy a new moisturiser too. As a massive advocate of Nivea Skincare I bought one of their latest products; Nivea Daily Essentials, Express Hydration Primer. The word 'hydration' stuck out for me massively as it's something that I look for in a moisturiser, I don't want something that's just going to sit on top of my skin looking oily. I also use it as a primer which at first I thought wouldn't work, but boy was I wrong. My skin feels nice and smoothed out and my foundation stays put all day. 

I decided to go for the normal-combination skin moisturiser as although I do have very dry areas under my eyes and on my chin, my nose and T-Zone is still a little oily. 

The consistency is reasonably water and the application is very easy, a very small amount goes a very long way. The packaging is lovely, a small glass container, and you get 50ml of product which is reasonable amount. The product is currently on sale at Superdrug at the moment for £3.99 so if you're thinking of something new they I'd definitely try this!  

skin care routine #1

When I was 16/17 I started to get acne. At first I wasn't bothered because I had always been prone to blemishes but it began to get me very down and I wouldn't go out. My mum got a bit concerned and I was put on a number of medications and told to use several creams but nothing worked. In the end my reluctant doctor put me on a contraceptive pill called 'Yasmin' which isn't often prescribed as it's very expensive. Since then I get the odd spot here and there but I happily go around my business without any face make up on and don't worry what my skin looks like. 

Since being at uni my skin has changed due to the amount of crap I am eating and alcohol I am drinking. I began to notice my skin change and where I had come in a little inebriated and taken my make up off with a baby wipe it was beginning to become very dry as well as reasonably blemish-y. A week ago I decided to change my skin care routine and the difference is already massive. (The following pictures are of my naked face, please be kind).

The first thing I did was pick up a new cleanser. I had read some impressive reviews on the No. 7 Beautiful Skin Hot Cloth Cleanser so decided to go for it. It's suitable for all skin types but I have read some reviews saying it's really good for dry skin, especially if you wipe away excess cleanser with hot water and the muslin cloth they supply in the box. The cleanser retails at £9.95 which I say is reasonable for 200ml and the muslin cloth you get. I managed to pick mine up for £4.95 as i had a £5 off No. 7 skin care voucher. I've only been using it twice a day for only about a week but I already feel like its something I could repurchase  in the future, although with the amount you get it seems as if it will never run out! 

10 things #2

10 things that have made me happy this week;

1. Rebecca (she blog-raped me and put this in) Amelia has also made me happy.
2. Seeing my mum and dad yesterday, they drove all the way to Manchester (8 hour round trip) for only an hour - thanks for the food and toilet roll, mum! 
3. Baking. I made triple chocolate cookies based around Anna's recipe. click here.
4. Handing in another two assignments, only one more to go and an exam and then it's back home for Easter!
5. Seeing the house again, it's just made me what it so much more - fingers and toes crossed!
6. Playing with play mobile in lectures. We had too much fun, especially Maddy.

cookie dough * they were gone pretty quickly * child study was finally over * a 23 year old playing with kids toys

7. Reading lots of blogs and getting a lot of ideas for posts in the future. 
8. Curry with Amelia's parents - so nice to see them and have hilarious conversations.
9. Snap chat. I am getting way too much amusement out of an app. 
10. Booking out flights for skiing at Christmas. 

our new house

We're currently going through the process of buying a house and my parents came up from London today to measure up the rooms. It's making me oh so excited to move in and make the house our own, painting and decorating it etc. 

I've been looking at things to buy online and in shops around Manchester and here are a few things I have found;

1. kettle 2. rose jars 3. cake tins
4. measuring spoons 5. utensils 6. oven glove

1. wash bin 2. fairy lights 3. throw
4. note board 5. bedding 6. lamp shade

1. throw 2. candles 3. dvd storage
4. love seat 5. cushion 6. poster

These are just a few ideas but I am so so excited to move in with my best friends and have our own house for the next (at least) 2 years.

10 things: Childhood

1. My teddy of Bert from Sesame Street that I loved.

2. I was born 3 months early but developed language and motor skills faster than the majority of my class mates.

3. Having a baby brother was always fun, till he bit me in the bath.

4. My childminder, Sue, who I went to till I was 11 was a huge part of my life. She's basically my second mum.

5. Reading we're going on a bear hunt, over and over again.

6. Charlie and I making 'bonfires' of all our clothes and mud pies in the garden.

7. Easter egg hunts with my cousins.

8. Going to see S Club 7 with my Aunt at Wembley Arena

9. Rollerblading and eating pancakes in America

10. Holidays to Sennen Cove, Cornwall.



What are your favourite childhood memories?

dresses for a 21st

So I have been invited to a 21st birthday in April and I need a new dress. I could go with something that I already have but i'd feel out of place seeing as the majority of people going are going to be wearing some lavish designer label which costs more than the dinner itself, oh the perks of living where I do. 

Harry's parents always put on the most amazing parties so there is no doubt that this will be dull. I want to wear something that is pretty and feminine but also quite structures. Definitely a dress, definitely no body con and definitely above the knee. Is that too much for a girl to ask? 

As I mentioned in a previous post, I despise shopping so this is where I turn to my trusty laptop and have a little look online. I have decided not to buy a dress until the beginning of April, so two weeks from now, mainly because healthy eating has already changed my body shape and if I keep it up I have no idea what shape or size will be best for me! I don't particularly want to spend a lot of money as being a jobless student I can't afford it.

Here are a few that I've found already.

1. Rare @ASOS 2. Floral Lipsy Dress 3. Love @ ASOS
4. Lace Topshop Dress 5. Floral ASOS Dress 6. Lace Dorothy Perkins 

My personal favourite (and hopefully the one I will purchase) is Number 3, the Digital Print dress by Love. I don't know what it is about this dress but I am just so in love with it. I think it will be perfect for the dinner as well as going out in the summer. It's so pretty! 

Hopefully I'll do a post about what I wear on the night, i'm so excited!

10 things #1

10 things that have made me happy this week;

1. Handing in my coursework a day early and knuckling down with my other three pieces
2. Finding bulgar wheat in the whole food shop next to where we live so I can replicate my mum's recipe.
3. Clean eating and working out (plus cheat day on Saturday).
4. The nicest walk around Manchester with Becca, 13 degrees!
5. Mum sent me some new tops and my enrapture encode totem stylers arrived!

6. Amelia
7. The new video by 'Bad Lip Reading' on YouTube.
8. Listening to Bastille (although Play have failed to deliver our pre-order of Bad Blood, not so happy)

bastille I overjoyed (accapella)

9. Meeting new people and staying up till 6am with the boys.
10. Sending my Mum a Mother's Day card. She really is my best friend. 

Hope everyone has had a lovely week and Happy Mother's Day! 

we're not on a diet, we're on a health kick.

I have tried countless times to lose weight since being at uni but the motivation has never really been there. I haven't put on the 'freshman 10' that everyone talks about, i've stayed a pretty similar weight to when i've arrived but I have never been happy with that that weight anyway. 

On saturday, after eating our body weight in Chocolate, my flatmate Becca and I decided to go on a health kick. I'm choosing not to call it a diet as my psychology teacher at school once said 

'you shouldn't call it a diet 'till you're at least 35' 

and to be honest she's right. I went through a very scary period of my life where I dieted constantly and got down to a very low weight, but I still wan't happy. In the end my parents sat me down and told me it needed to stop. Since then I have tried healthy eating but never really stuck to is, there was always too much temptation, especially when I started earning money and could buy my own food. 

When I started drinking alcohol there was also a slight affect, which occurs at Uni too. You drink in excess on a night out, you get home and want food or take away and then the next day you're feeling hungover and ill and all you want is mcdonalds. 

When I was travelling in SE Asia I thought I would lose weight and eat really healthy but even though I was eating a lot of Asian food and not snacking/eating much junk, I still put on weight (again, probably down to the alcohol and 7/11 toasties).

(l-r) kelly osbourne, lauren conrad, ashley tisdale
http://www.shape.com/

My body shape is a very boyish figure at the moment but i know that when i tone up my waist it can be quite hourglass. I think my number 1 inspiration right now (it changes everyday) is Lauren Conrad, but I know that I can't get the same shape as a celebrity. They have personal trainers and diet plans. I have no money. 

I've been eating healthily for 5 days now. It's not a long time, I know, but I haven't wanted anything bad at all. I bought some chocolate on Sunday evening but it's still in the fridge. I haven't been tempted by the canteen at Uni. \I've been drinking three cups of green tea a day and I have been exercising in my room and at the gym daily. It helps that I have Becca to do it with me, I would be rubbish on my own and cave in when the girls are eating something that looks nice!

It's hard at uni, but a little self control goes a long way.  

nailed it.

I just want to start by saying - I AM NOT A NAIL EXPERT 
I love doing my nails, I just find it so ridiculously therapeutic. I love looking on websites and blogs for new ideas and when i'm chilling in the evenings after Uni I just sit there and do my nails - pretty sure I am drugged up from all the bad things in nail polish/remover.
I found this idea on Pintrest (can't find the link at the moment but when I do i'll hopefully put it on here) and all you need it 
- white nail polish
- coloured nail polish
- plastic bag

The first thing you do it paint your nails with the white polish and let it dry completely. 
Once dry, add the different colours on each nail in little splodges - it doesn't matter how messy it is, in fact sometimes the messier the better. 

Then quickly push a small square of plastic bag on top of the wet varnish and then pull off gently. 
This is the end result you get but I personally like to add a bit of matte top coat over the top to give it a cool floral effect. 

Got any more nail ideas? Would love to hear them!

love it or hate it?

Strange post on marmite (or the student equivalent, yeast extract) here. 

I was reading one of my recent favourite blogs, ciderwithrosiebee , and she mentioned in her '10 things that made me happy this week' post that she had eaten marmite spaghetti. I was curious and being a marmite lover (i can't fight it) I decided to delve into the world of cooking with marmite.
Like Rosie, I decided to cook marmite and spaghetti but add a few fried onions and some strips of chicken. 
I honestly had no idea how much marmite to put in, it was a bit of a guessing game and so for one portion i put just over a teaspoon into the pasta and heated it gently. I would say it was a nice flavour but maybe a little less marmite next time would be perfect. 

marmite chicken with fried mushrooms and spaghetti

It's definitely something i'll try again and as a student meal it's quick, cheap and very very easy.

welcome to march

Oh dear, January and February seem to have slipped by a little too fast. Last week I turned 20 years old (how scary is that?!?) and my oldest friend in the entire world, Charlie who was featured in my gap year post, sent me a card which at the bottom read;

'This is probably the decade that you will get married and have kids - if anyone will have you'

My first thought was she's a massive bitch (but I love her) but my second was holy shit, I need to grow up. At uni I seem to spend half my time in lectures and half my time in bed, a typical student thing to do i'm sure, but now I am panicking. I'm not bothered enough to panic about not having a boyfriend and being alone forever (yet) but I am panicking about the future. I have so much work due in for the next three weeks, I have 5 exams and another placement after Easter, I don't have any money, I need a job, I have no time for a job... the list goes on.

However, I did do something incredibly grown up and scary this week. I signed for a student mortgage. 

Yup, I am getting a house. A real, brick house. In my name (well the banks until I pay them back). Shit. This has been the plan for a long time and my parents have always talked about it. As my brother is in University in Chichester it would be too expensive for him to buy a house down there, so we looked around in Manchester and we found a perfect one in the heart of Fallowfield (student central). I'll be living with my two favourite people, Amelia and Becca who I live with at the moment and they'll be paying me rent so I can gradually pay off the mortgage. 

I've had some very mixed reviews about this idea and at first, I wasn't sure I wanted to be 20 with a mortgage and a whole lot of debt. However, Dad and I calculated the numbers and, fingers crossed, it should work. I can't wait to move into the house over the Summer and decorate it and make it look all pretty... just means spending more money. 

So March for me means growing up and knuckling down... and it's only day 1!