It is no secret that I like to read; when I was younger I possibly read every single book in the children's section of my library... except the goosebump series, I couldn't handle those. Since the age of eight I have been the biggest Harry Potter fan; I have vivid memories of reading the first four books in quick succession and then waiting avidly for the next to be released. Yes I was one of those that pre-ordered at Waterstones and then couldn't put it down until I finished. So it won't surprise you that this has been the best email I have received in a LONG LONG LONG time;
ALL of the Harry Potter books on my kindle for £39.99?!?! Christmas PLEASE come sooner!!!!
For those of you who are not familiar with Pottermore, it's like an online reading experience created by J.K Rowling where you can unlock read excerpts and chapters that weren't included in the book. You also get sorted into a house and get a wand but that would only excite nerds such as myself :P Ravenclaw with Pear wood & unicorn hair wand for those who would like to know hahaha. It's open to the public in April so all you HP addicts better get signed up! Lucky for me I was an unemployed layabout for the summer of 2011 so I managed to be of the million that got granted early access in September ;)
Tomorrow also marks THREE WEEKS until the Harry Potter Studio Tour! skjfsaioncusanmxckniw!!!!!!
I honestly don't know what I'd do without my kindle now, I know I always rave about it but having that much literature at my fingertips is just ridiculously exciting! Without it I would never have got through the whole Hunger Games trilogy in less than a week :D Which brings me to today's epiphany
Hunger Games is THE best thing since Harry Potter.
The books were soooo captivating that I didn't put them down, not even to sleep while I was on placement! Today I saw the film and now the whole thing just seems complete. Me and Sammy were welling up right from the word go! They couldn't have done a better job, it was amazing! Even those of you who haven't read the books, go right now and see it!!
I am currently reading 'When God was a Rabbit' by Sarah Winman. Got to say... one of the strangest things I have read recently but still very intriguing. Not too sure where she is going with it but I am sure to stick with it and find out :)
Does anyone have any amazing book recommendations that I could add to my 'read next' list? :)
Dear Jessica Stroup I want your hair to get on my head.
I am very bored of my grown out crop now. I have waited patiently for 9 months for the short side to reach my chin. It's nearly time to have nice hair again WAHOO!
I was a bit of a pleb this morning and cycled all the way to Uni to use the library, only to discover that the library isn't open until 2pm... duh, why did I not check the internet? Then after I had ventured all the way home again I realised moodle (our Uni website thing with loads of important documents) was down for maintenance. I took this to mean that God was sending me a sign and that I should have a day off :D
It's sunny and I had a free day so I decided to make Mug Cakes with my house mates. Mug Cakes? I hear you say. It is literally cake that you make in a mug, so simple!
STEP ONE:Find your favourite mug and add all the dry ingredients so it looks a bit like this...
STEP TWO: Melt your butter in a pan and then add it to the mug with the rest of your liquid ingredients so it looks bloomin' disgusting like so...
STEP THREE: Momentarily think that you have the muscle power of Hulk and stir like crazy. After 10 seconds, whinge about your poor biceps and then spend ages mixing to make it look like actual cake mix...
STEP FOUR: Bang it in the microwave. We did it for three minutes but it was a tad dry/stodgy so maybe 2 minutes and 30 secs would be better?
ENJOY :)
& then lie on the floor moaning that it was too big and you shouldn't have eaten it all and that your oesophagus is going to divorce your stomach and so on ;)
Well the looming deadlines and increasingly stressful primary education cohort finally made me feel the pressure to actually crack on with some work this week :'( boo! However I have this awful habit of being terribly nice to myself and when I honestly am not in the mood to do work I give myself mini breaks ALL THE TIME. These teeny snippets of time are not wasted though! As I am now a strong believer that time doing something that makes you happy is not time wasted at all :)
So in between making a giant paper magnet and writing possibly THE longest set of appendices ever for my English assignment, what has been making me happy?
Drinking Tea... and erm.. looking at pictures of tea?
My housemates always laugh at me because I drink a lot of tea, especially when I am working on super hard assignments; I have had to cut down to one sugar because I genuinely fear my teeth will drop out. Now that I have Pinterest I am starting to see tea related stuff everywhere which I obviously think is really cool when it's really not :D
Laugh at the ridiculous things that Innocent Smoothies and This Water post on Facebook
I have come to the conclusion that my Facebook wall is pretty much consumed by all the silly things I've liked rather than posts by my actual friends. I'm not going to complain though because when I am scrolling aimlessly very quickly checking Facebook, I find all this stuff that only I would think is hilarious.
Wishing I could make animals out of my food
Yes I am still a five year old girl inside.
There are still some really lovely people on the earth
I discovered this website called Folksy which I can only describe as a cross between ebay and Etsy. It's a place for British crafters to sell their products basically but they have some really cute stuff on there. I found this shop called It was meant to bee that sells lots of hand made iphone cases and kindle cases and I found the most AMAZING elephant print case but unfortunately it was for an iphone not a kindle, sob sob sob :'( BUT I decided to ask the seller if there was a kindle case available in this print. She was sooooo lovely and offered to make me a custom kindle case! As I am typing my kindle case has been cut, sewn and posted to me :) brilliant!
Lamb loving with Leah
This is just awesome :) If you don't laugh or awh at this video then you are most definitely broken!
So instead of actually getting on with my assignments like a good student this weekend, I have done everything I possibly can to avoid it. I know I will regret it when it comes to deadline week but that is a whooole 11 days away yet :)
Who would want to trade a really clean house, home-made muffins and hours of entertainment looking at baby animals and other random rubbish for finished assignments? Probably quite a lot of people now that I've actually thought about it! I will eventually get round to doing some work this afternoon... probably... but at least I have this plate of gorgeousness to keep me company....
Yes I spent most of the day so far making not one, but two different types of muffins. I made fudge, apple and cinnamon and then apple with a hint of ginger. You can find the recipes at these links if you want to give them a go :)
Pear and Toffee Muffins - I adapted this slightly because I was scared the toffee would cool and be too hard and I swapped pears for apples because I have looooooads of apples. I'm not into these complex substitutions; someone did use rolos though which sounded pretty cool.
Fluffy Apple Muffins - These are just so sweet and yummy, I added extra ginger in mine to what the recipe says but each to their own :)
Now if that isn't enough to keep me working through my giant to do list, I can always take a quick break and have a look at some of these Mother's Day inspired cute animal photos from National Geographic
N'aw how adorable? I definitely want to be a koala in my next life, he looks like he is having an awesome time! I reckon koalas don't have any marsupial type assignments to worry about, they just spend their days chilling in the eucalyptus. Ah if only :)
Why is it that Wednesday is always one of those bitty days where you kind of have plans and then you fill the gaps with mundane tasks that just have to be done? I am currently in one of those in-betweeny moments; aching from carrying my food shopping, eating Mexican three bean soup and contemplating what I should wear to my meeting for voluntary maths club.
So the theme of today's post is going to be free time :)
Today is a special today for those of us that had some free time this morning (not me unfortunately!) because Starbucks have been super cute and given away free lattes in exchange for your name. I think it's lovely that Starbucks are making their service more personal, not that I thought it was bad anyway, and I am upset that I had to miss out :( even if I am more of a Macchiato girl!
I was really really reeeeeeally excited on Monday because I finally got to have a night out in York! I have been working really hard with placement and my upcoming assignments so it was great to have a night out and let loose a bit. I even made the Wii game, Just Dance into a drinking game.. you lose, you shot! Perfect for getting a girly night started :D
Now everybody knows I'm an internet trawler, I love having a gander at pinterest, stumble upon and etsy when I have a bit of free time. I've been wanting to share this etsy store with you for AGES but I've not had chance to.
Parada Creations sells some beautiful prints and posters that are all hand designed. I wish I could buy them all if I'm honest!
I am delighted to see that Spring is finally in the air; the daffodils have bloomed and I have heard there are baby lambs in the world! Sam King you should definitely be blogging about this, City dwellers such as myself don't usually get to hear about this first hand! My bicycle has come out of hibernation along with the animals and my Spring resolution is to ride it to Uni as often as possible, I am ridiculously unfit after cosying up for Winter so the five minute ride to Uni usually gets me out of puff, however by Easter I am determined for this to be a thing of the past :) some nicely toned legs wouldn't go amiss either!
Now this back to basics post was inspired by the fact I'm back in Wolverhampton for the first time since Christmas, even if it is only for two days. As much as I enjoy living in York, it is always nice to sleep in your old bed and then eat absolutely everything that your parents have in the fridge :D Now I popped into town today because I had spied a rather nice skirt on the River Island website for only £10! They hadn't got it in the teeny tiny York store so I had everything crossed that Wolverhampton would have it in stock. Alas, they didn't :( but I managed to bag a bargain in Republic and got a gorgeous aztec style skirt in the sale at £8 instead! I will be wearing this on Monday for my first night out in York since the dawn of time, wahooo!
River Island
£10
I recommend that you all go into Republic if you have started stocking up for your Summer wardrobe because they have some gorgeous pieces in there. I got an amazing play-suit ready for my Summer trip to Lanzarote and I was eyeing up loads of the lovely dresses and tops in there as well. Now if the clothes aren't enough to persuade you, Republic are also offering 20% off when you sign up to receive emails. Obviously the student inside me jumped at the chance for some discount so now I have loads of little 20% off tokens that I can use in store or online, bargain!
Miso Playsuit
That I own, oooooh yeah! So excited to soak up the sun in this beautiful playsuit. I love the patterns and the colours and it even has a ruffle that doesn't make me look top heavy... perfect!
£26
£20.80 with 20% off
Miso Dipped Hem Maxi
This has the potential to be my next buy! I know some people aren't too keen on the dipped hems but I am willing to make an exception for this one.
£26
£20.80 with 20% off
I used to be a huge fan of River Island and Topshop during my 6th form days and it pains me to say that I am really disappointed in what they are offering lately. There are so many other high street stores that are much more student friendly and I think they offer much better value for money.
Shopping Tip: If you like something in River Island, check out ASOS first because they have selected stock from River Island but they offer 10% off for NUS card holders ;) sneaky!
Seaweed Product Review
My regular readers will remember about 3 weeks ago I purchased this Seaweed facial mini kit from Body Shop. I was really excited to start using the products because the read-up sounded exactly like what I needed for my skin, however I have to admit I was a little disappointed. The reviews on the website were raving about the Seaweed saying that it was perfect for people that have combination skin but find the tea tree range too drying for their skin. I have previously used the tea tree and indeed had this problem but I found the seaweed did the exact same thing. I did clear my pores and keep my skin matte which is what I wanted from the product but the side effects of this was to deal with the tight feeling, dry skin afterwards :( sorry Body Shop but this one just isn't for me!
I will be returning to my much preferred Simple skincare range, why did I ever leave it in the first place? Who will ever know!
Before I leave you, after yet another essay of a blog post, I know this such a 'jump on the bandwagon' song but who else is ridiculously addicted? Me and my housemate saw it about a month ago and I literally can't watch the video without being weirdly transfixed!
I'd like to thank everyone so much for reading my blog!
I know it's just made up of random rubbish that I pull from all the corners of my mind and that's why it's so extra special that people actually click the links I post and read what I write :) You absolute weirdos haha :P
I am now going to celebrate by posting even more pictures of balloons :D OH YEAH!
Why the heavens have decided to open over York on the one weekend where I have no plans is beyond me. I have enjoyed the time to myself though to catch up on all those little things that I have neglected over placement. Now my last few posts have been very teacher related and I feel my blog needs dragging back to it's usual direction so I'm dedicating this post to what has been ticking over in my brain this weekend :)
1. Serious furniture envy
I love reading the Lovely Undergrad blog; she is funny and creative and the posts are always a good read. Have you ever watched a TV programme and wondered how they get their rooms decorated so nicely? Well wonder no more! Lovely Undergrad has plenty of posts where she breaks down the colour scheme of the room and creates beautiful mood boards that can help you create the same vibe in your room. My favourite is Penny's Apartment from the Big Bang Theory, I will definitely be channelling her decor when I move into my new house in September!
Here is another of her amazing finds, if I manage to find a chair like this in my lifetime I will be very happy!
2. Pinterest
I had heard a few things about this website but I was never really sure what it was until earlier this week when Sammy showed it to me. From what I can gather you sort of create pinboards of your different interests; for example I have a want list and a YUM board that I pin recipes to. When you first sign up you click on the topics that interest you and then loads of things pop up on the pinterest homepage for you to share on your pinboards. There is looooooads of cool stuff to be honest like recipes, photography, home decor and style. For some reason it is invite only by people who already have pinterest so find someone who has it and get involved!
3.I have forgotten how to relax
Yesterday was my first day off where I didn't actually have anything important to do but I still did my washing, hoovered and cleaned my room, cooked my breakfast and Skyped my family all before 10am! I just can't sit still, even when I was waiting for my dinner to cook I was hula hooping in the living room. This did take it's toll though seen as I face planted my kindle at around 4pm and had a teeny nap which I NEVER do! Today I am determined to do nothing but slob around watching tv and eating but we will see how long that lasts!
4. I really want some new dresses ready for Spring/Summer
Am I the only one that is fed up with boring dark winter clothes? I am wishing for days when I can don my flouncy dresses and sandals and merrily skip to Uni. I have found a few dresses from Forever21 that I really quite like and they are not too expensive for a student budget unlike other shops (Yes I'm talking about you Topshop!). If you have never heard of Forever21 go have a look here. I know they have a store in Birmingham but I'm not sure where else but nevermind because they offer free delivery deals most of the time!
5. People going to V Fest are going to have an awesome time
Weston Park is close to where I live so I'm pretty much used to lots of people I know getting tickets but this year there is a lot of people from Uni that managed to get tickets too! I know I can't afford it this year on my student budget but I'm gutted I'm going to miss out on Snow Patrol headlining! I know that everyone who got tickets will have an amazing time!!!
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