I'm still here...sort of

Hello lovelies, remember me? Probably not. It's been a while hasn't it? *cough* only about three months *cough* I can only apologize, which is all I seem to do on here anymore. Truthfully, I just haven't really been in the blogging mood for the last couple of months, which I think has been pretty evident from the lack of posts. I have tried, don't get me wrong, but I wasn't happy with what I was creating, resulting in a build up of drafts which will probably never see the light of day. Not only that but the more time that passed, the more I felt out of the blogging loop and the harder it was to get back into it. Has anyone else felt a bit like this lately?

I think a good place to start would be with what I've been up to the last few months: I started year 13 in September (my last year ever at school...what is going on?), I've seen London Grammar and Passenger live and I've sent off my UCAS application and received two conditional offers so far! I also attended The Hunger Games triple bill so watched the midnight showing of Mockingjay, which was amazing. How has your week been?

I want to try and post more so I will try my best but I am not making any promises, so watch this space and we will see what happens. Hope you all have a fab week!

Easy like Sunday Morning

"Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted."
-John Lennon

Festival Hair: Easy Halo Braid

Hello lovelies, hope you're all doing well. I was recently contacted by House of Fraser and asked if I wanted to take part in their competition named hairstyles that rock; the aim is to create a hairstyle that you would wear to a festival. My first couple of ideas were too complicated and not practical for a festival so I thought this beautiful halo braid would be perfect as it can be worn on your first day to create heat-free curls/waves for the next day or as a way to hide any greasy roots later on. The best bit? It looks great messy so you can sing and dance to your heart's content without having to worry about your hair and it literally works on any hair type so you can all channel your inner bohemian self.

If you would like to recreate this look all you have to do is create a dutch braid (a reverse french braid) starting above one of your ears then across the top of your head. Continue braiding around your head in a circle shape until you can no longer add any more hair so finish the braid like any other and secure with an elastic band. You'll probably look a bit strange at this point but don't worry, you'll be lookin' good in no time at all. Now take the tail of your braid and wrap it over the top of your head, tucking the ends under the existing braid and securing with bobby pins. To finish off, pull out some hair to give off a relaxed vibe, spray with some Aveda hairspray and you're good to go. Hopefully you like this look and if you have any questions, please leave them in the comments and I will get back to you asap.

Have you been/are you going to any festivals this year? What's your favourite festival look?

Easy 3 braid hairstyle

Hello lovelies, hope you are all doing well. Normally my hair just does it's own thing and goes wherever it wants to; regardless of what I actually want it to do so when I achieved this look, I just knew I had to share it with you lovely lot. This style would be perfect for anyone with a bit of texture in their hair (my hair is naturally a bird's nest curly) or someone who just wants to get all their hair off their face. The best bit? I did this without a mirror and it literally took me 10 minutes, if that. 

If you want to recreate this look, firstly separate a large section of hair on one side (I took all the hair in front of my ear on my right side) and tie it up out of the way. Half french-braid your remaining hair (just a normal french braid but you only add hair from one side, in this case from the nape of your neck, if that makes sense?) starting from your left ear. Once you've added all your hair, just finish your braid and tie off with an elastic band. Fold the 'tail' of your braid back on itself so it's sitting above the french braid and secure with bobby pins, tucking the end under the french braid. Untie the hair you separated out earlier and split it into 2 sections, tie one section out of the way. Create a dutch braid, secure with an elastic band and pin it across the back of your head, using bobby pins, and hide the end like before. Finally, with your last section, start by doing a dutch braid and and then create a fishtail braid, tie and secure the same way as before and you're done.

Hopefully that made sense but if you have any questions, please feel free to ask in the comments below. If you do have a go, I'd love to see how it turns out!

Just a hint of cuteness

Hello lovelies, hope you're all doing well. Last week my school hosted an enrichment week and one of the activities was going to a farm...not everybody's cup of tea but being the crazy animal lover that I am, I jumped at the chance to go and ended up having a really good day (minus the mucking out). I got to have cuddles with the most adorable little micropig, feed some crazy lambs, take a tractor ride-which was actually pretty scary and got to watch pigs racing. Now I just need to win the lottery so I can have my own little farm...

Small B&M Homeware Haul

CORKBOARD-£1.99 // BUDDHA HEAD-£1.99 // VINTAGE CUPCAKE TIN-£1.49 // PLANT POTS-99P EACH

Hello lovelies, hope you're all doing well. The other day I popped into B&M with my family to pick up some bargains and I didn't leave disappointed! For those of you that don't know, B&M is basically a discount store but they do sell some real gems, which I thought I'd share you all today.  I have been after a corkboard for so long but I really begrudge having to pay over £5 for something so basic (I'm such a cheapskate) so when I saw this one for £1.99, I snapped it up. Now I can spend hours trying to arrange things on it so that it looks pretty... I also picked up some small bits and bobs such as this amazing buddha head and vintage cupcake tin, although I have no idea where I'm going to put them. Finally I got these adorable plant pots and as I'm so indecisive, I couldn't decide on just one colour -like a normal person- so I had to buy all three. Are you a fan of B&M? What's your favourite homeware shop?

It's my birthday!

Hello lovelies, hope you're all doing well. Today I'm celebrating my 17th Birthday so I thought I'd quickly share some photos from today. I did plan on taking more but to be honest I forgot and I didn't really do anything interesting; it has just been another bog-standard day involving school and other daily affairs. Despite that I've had a lovely day. I got my first ever bunch of flowers, unfortunately not from some mystery admirer, but from my best friends who had them delivered to my house, which was very sweet of them. I've also got my first driving lesson tomorrow, whilst I'm excited, I'm also absolutely bricking it! How has your day been?

OOTD | Holding on to the cracks in our foundations

CAMI-PRIMARK // JEANS-NEW LOOK // CARDIGAN-TESCO // BROGUES- NEW LOOK (SALE)

Skincare on a budget

Hello lovelies, hope you're all doing well. Over the years I have accumulated my fair share of skincare products from various drugstores, some of which have worked wonders, others not so much...so I thought it would be helpful to share the products in my routine, especially for people on a budget like myself as the majority of the products are under a fiver. However, please bear in mind that my routine is not exhaustive as I don't use products such as toners and cream cleansers as I personally have never seen a difference when I have used them in the past.

EVERYDAY: When I wake up, I just wash my face with some water and then depending on how my skin feels I apply my Nivea Creme (review here, £3.39) or my superdrug skin oil (£2.99) and allow that to sink into my skin. I then apply my superdrug Vitamin E eye cream (£2.99) which makes my dark circles look so much brighter. In the evening, I will take off my makeup using the Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water (£3.32) and wash my face again with water.  Then I apply my nivea creme and/or a couple of drops of The Body Shop's Overnight Serum in oil (£12) and go to bed.

DURING THE WEEK:  Every 2/3 days I will use either my Botanics Purifying Face Scrub (£3.99) or my neutrogena Daily Scrub (£4.95), depending on if I'm having a bad skin day, to exfoliate my face. Both leave my face feeling really soft and looking a lot brighter. Once a week I will use Avon's Blackhead Clearing Mask (£3.50) to clean my pores.  

And that is pretty much it. Are you a drugstore or high-end skincare kinda-gal? What is your favourite drugstore product?

Different element codes for customising your blog

Hello lovelies, hope you're all doing well. Today I'm sharing different codes for styling specific elements in your design as I myself have had to search for codes for ages, so I thought it would be helpful just to have as many as possible in one place. I will be updating this post regularly when I find any new codes so be sure to check back. Feel free to ask any questions or leave any requests in the comments below.

NOTD | There's an empty horizon

Hello lovelies, hope you're all doing well. This is currently the look I'm sporting on my chubby little fingers; I love the daintiness of the flowers and the polka dots. I just wish I had more of a steady hand so that they wouldn't end up so messy. What is your favourite nail art? 

Obsessed with ugly shoes

T BAR SHOES-AMAZON // SANDALS-PRIMARK // LOAFERS-NEW LOOK

Hello lovelies, hope you're all doing well. And no your eyes are not deceiving you, I am actually posting two posts in two days; I am on a roll;D Anyway, I have a confession to make: I have a thing for ugly shoes. Now for some of you, these shoes might not even be that bad but these poor babies have been the butt of some some snide looks and cheeky remarks, mainly from my mum and sister who like to refer to them as "old granny shoes".  Ageism aside, I do really love them and find them really easy to style so I can definitely see my collection expanding. What do you think? Ugly shoes yay or nay?  

Current hair inspiration

IMAGES FROM TUMBLR & PINTEREST

Hello lovelies, hope you're all doing well. Today I thought I'd share my current hair colour inspiration; I think there is something about light golden hues that just scream summer. I've been wanting to go a lot lighter for so long now but I've always chickened out, maybe it's time just to bite the bullet. I guess we'll have to wait and see. Are you planning on doing anything with your hair this summer?

Please send help, exams are coming

Hello lovelies, hope you're all doing well. Just wanted to let you guys know that my exams are in less than a week so I hope you can understand why I am finding it hard to blog at the moment so I'm just going to take a little break until they're all done and dusted. If you have exams too: good luck! Speak to you all soon xx

Room snippets

VERY HEAVY PICTURE POST

My room is the place where I spend pretty much 98% of my time (the other 2% is spent either in school or in the kitchen- I live a very thrilling life) and it's took me a while to organise things and get it to be a space that represents me. When these shelves were first built, I hated them; I couldn't arrange things so they looked nice and it just always looked a mess. But after spending hours pouring over the internet at interiors for inspiration and finding cute little things to fill them up with, I began to like them and now I don't think I could be without them. Overall, I think my room is a mixture of vintage/shabby chic, floral, with a hint of pink and a dash of cosiness but with a quite minimalist touch? Does that even work? 

What's your room like? 

P.S. You can learn how to make my bunting here and if you want to know where anything is from, feel free to ask in the comments:)

Body Shop Vitamin E Moisture Cream Review

BODY SHOP VITAMIN E MOISTURE CREAM // £10

I don't enjoy saying negative things about a product as just because it didn't work for me, doesn't necessarily mean it won't work for others, but I personally feel really disappointed with this cream. Firstly, I think it's really expensive for a tiny 50ml pot- don't get me wrong, when compared to the price of some high-end moisturisers £10 is still relatively cheap, but for me it was still quite a lot. However, I had heard many good things about The Body Shop's Vitamin E range so I bit the bullet and bought it. At the end of the first day, my skin felt a bit funny but I just thought that it must be because it's a new product that my skin was not used to so I continued for about a week, hoping it would improve. I don't want to sound like I'm blowing my own trumpet but my skin was quite good and soft before I started using it and by the end of the week, my skin was really rough, quite tight and I had broken out. 

To its defence, it did sink into the skin quickly and it has a lovely smell but I do regret buying it as it did not benefit my skin (which is normal to dry) in the slightest. Have you ever used this cream? How did you get on with it?

OOTD | Running down to the riptide

 

 

 

 CAMI-PRIMARK | PATTERNED TROUSERS- H&M | LOAFERS- NEW LOOK (SALE) | NECKLACE-PRIMARK | RING- TOTNES MARKET

Hello lovelies, hope you're all doing well. Today's outfit is quite adventurous for little old me, patterned trousers and bright colour? The first breathes of spring air must be going straight to my head. I originally tried these trousers on last month but I put them back because they reminded me a bit of pyjama bottoms but a couple of weeks later and I was still thinking about them so yesterday I finally caved in and bought them. I'm still not 100% sure but I do like them, what do you think?

Bits & Bobs

 

Hello lovelies, hope you're all doing well. There is not really a set topic for this post today; it's all a bit random, but random is good every so often, right? This month I've really been into scrap-booking. I've always collected bits and bobs such as tickets, wristbands etc so instead of them all gathering dust in a box, I decided to make use of my them and my book from paperchase and arrange everything neatly so I can just flick through for a trip down memory lane.

I've also started to plot indoor plants around my room but I've killed about five flowering plants- I don't even know how I do it. I guess I've finally found my special talent;D As a last resort I decided to pick up a cactus. If this dies, then there really is no hope for me, but so far so good. Are any of you serial plant killers too?