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Sunday 30 November 2014

Style icon: Jamie Chung

Style icon: Jamie Chung


ONLY snap shirt
$36 - nelly.com


Yumi lace skirt
$31 - houseoffraser.co.uk




O Neill handbag
$43 - theiconic.com.au


Astley clarke jewelry
$430 - selfridges.com


Chan luu bracelet
net-a-porter.com


Merry Philmas

One of my housemates is obsessed with Eastenders and so, naturally, has a lot of love for Phil Mitchell. From day one of uni, Phil has been a big part of our house with little pictures of him stuck all over the place. It seemed only fitting that he was also involved in our Christmas plans this year, which is why he's had the honour of being placed on top of our Christmas tree.



We popped down to B&M today to pick up a 6 foot tree for just £10. Amazing. All hail B&M!!! Four bits of tinsel for £3 is also a godsend and is pretty much all we needed to jazz it up, student style.




Also, to get properly into the Christmas spirit, my other housemate Emily and I made a countdown chart for the wall. Two and a half hours of intense colouring-in later and it looks glorious:



Only 25 days to go, I can't actually wait!

Friday 21 November 2014

A BIG DAY



Today I signed the contract for my new house, lease beginning next August. I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I am!!!! All going to plan, we're going to be living there until we graduate... until 2017!!!! That's so crazy. By "we", I mean me, four of my closest uni friends, and one guy who I'm sure I'll actually get to know properly over the two years we're living in the same house. I've only met him twice as of right now, lol.


We all went to view the house on Monday and decided it was absolutely perfect for the six of us. Six bedrooms, three bathrooms, a kitchen, living room, and a garden. Could it get any better? There was a bit of a battle over who would get the single room, given that the other five bedrooms all have double beds. Living it large, yo. I'm going to be in room number 5. (Smelly boys downstairs, upstairs is girl city.)



I feel like a proper adult, signing leases and all. Ahhhh!!! Man, it's going to be so great.



Song of the day:




Thursday 20 November 2014

Things which are happening

1. I'm loving uni a whole lot more now. Like, wholeheartedly, you could say.
2. I've got a good group of friends who I love a lot.
3. We're signing the contract for our house next year tomorrow.
4. My mum is coming up again to visit in eight days.
5. I'm going home for Christmas in exactly one month today.
6. I get to see my fab boyf in 32 days.
7. I'm appreciating my best friend from home more every single day.
8. I'm staying on top of my workload, praise da lawd!
9. A mini Christmas tree is sat on my windowsill.
10. We got new curtains fitted yesterday!!!!!


All in all, I'm pretty darn happy. I've been discovering drunk selfies on my webcam photos which I seem to take when I get home in the early hours of the morning. I actually have no recollection of taking these, but I do remember making toast as a post-clubbing snack.




(PS: those are my old manky curtains which are now gone!!!!)


Song of the day:


Thursday 13 November 2014

Life Notes 1

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Like a lot of people, when I'm out and about and I hear or see something I want to look up properly later, I make a note of it on my phone. But I always seem to forget that it's there, or can never be bothered to Google it (epitome of laziness) so I've got far too many things in a little list on there. Last night, I got the idea to turn it all into a series of blog posts because I think a lot of it is kind of interesting and I'd like to document it here. I think I'll do it all ten at a time because you can never really go wrong with a list of ten, can you?


1) John William Inchbold. I was in a gallery a couple of years ago and saw his work which I absolutely loved the style of. I think he always uses beautiful colours and I really like that his pieces look almost photograph like.

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2) Shashank Joshi. This guy writes really well about politics and I always find his articles interesting. He has taught at different universities, has degrees from both Harvard and Cambridge and he's a researcher for RUSI. What a cool guy. I love his blog too.

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3) Harvey and Rabbit. I loved this advert when it first came out and I still do now.



4) Hatfield College, Durham. When I was looking at university prospectuses in year 11 (keen bean), I stumbled across Durham's and was particularly interested in Hatfield College. Even though I ended up not going to the uni, let alone joining the college, I've always loved their motto: 

Vel Primus Vel Cum Primis

It translates to "either the first or with the first" but within the college, they've colloquialised it as "be the best you can be". I think that's something to live by.


5) My brother: "Your face looks like something you'd find up Satan's arse" - 18th August 2011, Lindau Strandtbad. We were on holiday in Germany and my brother was twelve years old. This was the first time he'd said anything remotely sassy or rude to me, and I just cried with laughter. Not sure how appropriate this is for this otherwise pleasant post but it's been sitting in my phone notes for over three years now.


6) Candy Girl - New Edition. How can this song not make you want to get up and dance?!



7) Mamihlapinatapai. I remember watching Life in a Day and being fascinated by this girl's video clip in it. I've never forgotten this word because I love what it means.



8) Eurovision 2012. I LOVE Eurovision. I watch it religiously every single year, and every time, I write down which songs were my favourites. Is that sad? No? Good. These countries had the ones I loved the most:


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9) Graffiti in Amsterdam. When I went to Amsterdam last year I saw loads of street art; words, pictures, colours, everything. One that particularly grabbed me, though, was just huge black letters across some wooden boards blocking off a building site. It said:

I feel like a mutant emerging from the Hudson River.

I thought maybe it was a song lyric, or something from a book, or would have some kind of relevance. I Googled it and nothing came up. I guess it only means something to the person who did it but I'd be so interested to know what they were thinking.


10) Take my hand, I'll show you the wild side. I love Kesha and I love this song. 



I feel a lot better for having written all this down. I feel like these are little parts of my life and I'm so happy I've finally got them in one place to look back on when I feel like it.

Wednesday 12 November 2014

First semester hauling: clothes

I know students are meant to be poor and not buy any luxuries (like clothes and makeup and anything fun) but I kind of couldn't resist when I saw these bits and pieces in town. I heard this girl the other day say "Primark has an amazing collection in right now"... Collection might be of a, um, extravagant word for it but they do have some great things at the moment. Two examples of this are these beauties:




They're made of a really thin, sheer-ish material but have little velvet swirly patterns. I think they're so wearable and only £8 each which is such a bargain. I've been pairing them with high waisted jeans but they could also look great with a dark skirt or something. I'll have to experiment.


My next purchase was also from Primark, this time a white boxy tshirt. Is boxy the right word for it? It's definitely a box shape and isn't actually at all flattering, but I loved the pattern. I haven't actually worn this out yet but you can't really go wrong with jeans, can you?


Wow, that really doesn't look too good. I kind of like it though... #hatersgonnahate.


Two days ago, I headed into town for what was supposed to be a cup of coffee in Central Perk (more on that later!) and to buy a loaf of bread. It actually turned into a full blown shopping trip and I picked up these babies from H&M. I honestly treat them like they're my actual children, I love them that much.



They really don't look it, but they're actually hella high and consequently a bit difficult to walk in. I'm sure I'll get better at it. I hope so, anyway! Ah, my babies.


I also headed into New Look. The only non-push-up, non-strapless bra in my size happened to be in the sale, and also happened to be really cute. It was only £3 too, so I can't argue with that:



And finally, I managed to fulfill one of my lifelong ambitions which was buying a university jumper. Don't even ask me why I've always wanted one - I can't tell you because I don't actually know. The students union shop was having a clear out sale so I got a tenner off this lovely hoody:



All in all, I'm lovin da uni life. The work is getting harder day by day, but at least I'm getting my money's worth. £9,000 my arse. I'm trying to do a bit more blogging because I kind of do have a lot of spare time. I just spend it all watching Glue (omg, what an ending?!!??!) and The Great Interior Design Challenge (there's another five episodes waiting for me on iPlayer). Here's a little look at my £88 per week student digs:



I'm also queen quarter pounder maker at the biggest McDonalds in town:



Hope you're all having a sweeeeet November! xo

Sunday 2 November 2014

Exactly one year ago...

I know exactly what I was doing one year ago today. I was sat at my grandparents' house with them, and my parents, brother, and uncle. We were just having a chilled Saturday, pootling round the house. We had a lovely roast dinner and watched some TV together and played cards. Outwardly, I probably seemed fine to them but November last year was the one time in my life where I've actually felt sad for more than one day. Like, I felt down for about a month. I remember sitting down on my grandparents' sofa last year on Saturday 2nd November and writing an anonymous submission for a blog about life stories:


"If there’s one word to describe how I feel, it’s stupid. Or shit. Either of those. I’m an upbeat kind of girl usually, so this is all a bit alien to me. I don’t really know what’s going on but I’m pretty sure it’s a case of “you always want what you can’t have”. Right now, I’m 99% sure it’s an impossibility.

I had it and I threw it away. I hope someone sees this and understands and I’m kind of hoping they’ll know it was me. Someone, anyone. I feel like I’m drowning. Maybe I’ve been in the ocean for a long time but I’ve managed to keep my head above the water. Lately though, I’ve been starting to slip under.


I’ve never really understood depression but now, well, now I think I do. You slip further and further into the water and eventually you’re so far down that no one can pull you out. Perhaps it gets to a stage where you don’t want to be rescued. I don’t want that to happen and I’m determined not to let it.


I’m not going to cry either. Some people say tears are a sign of strength, or show that you’ve been strong for too long, but I don’t think so. For me, it’s going to show I’ve cracked. And I’m not going to crack. Because I’m strong and I’m not done yet."



You know you get downer days? I think I just had a string of downer days for several weeks and I felt so crap about it. It makes me sad now thinking that this is a constant state for some people, that they never stop having downer days, and that it can spiral into depression. I'm so so sorry if you feel that way. I hope it gets better for you. It will get better.


On this day last November, my school work was piling up, I hadn't written my personal statement, things were a bit strained with this guy I was (or was not, actually) seeing, and I couldn't go to an amazing house party because I was 150 miles away seeing my grandparents. I know those factors all sound a bit trivial, but team them with a bad mood and a month's worth of bad days, and it felt awful.


Things have changed so much in these 365 days though. I powered through year 13 and got good exam results, so I'm now livin it up at uni. That personal statement seems so insignificant now! The aforementioned guy is now the boyf and has been for some time. It's going gr8. 2014 has been an amazing year so far and there's still nearly two months left.


I'm so thankful and so grateful for how far I've come in this year and for how much in my life has changed for the better. A lot can happen in a year.