A Quick Message

I just wanted to write a quick post today as a thank you for helping me reach 100 followers on BlogLovin'!

I never imagined reaching that many followers, especially as I've only been blogging since mid-November.

As a new year is approaching fast, I hope to blog more regularly and interact more with other bloggers :)

I hope everyone has had a good Christmas break and are enjoying some time for relaxation!

     Christmas Selfie                                                            Christmas Dinner Selfie with my Step-Dad                                An End to Christmas: Tired & Full

:)

Come With Me And You'll Be In A World Of Pure Imagination...

This weekend was the one I'd been waiting for. A girly catchup - long overdue - with two of my college friends and an outing to the theatre.

We had planned to visit Harrods and Winter Wonderland, but due to unforeseen circumstances it didn't happen!

Not that I minded too much. If we had have done all that in one day I'm pretty sure I would have snoozed my way through Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

However, we did pop by the Southbank market on our way to Drury Lane Theatre.

It seems I didn't get any actual pictures of the market itself, I was too engrossed with the pretty lighting! Whoops!

Now onto Charlie. What. A. Show.

The set was amaaaaaaazing. As were the cast!

Have to admit it, a little tear sprung to my eye when they sang Pure Imagination (the only song from the original film they included!)

I was a little disappointed that I missed out on buying Wonka bars! But it was a lovely evening and not as busy as I thought it was going to be on a Friday night - and pretty cheap too!!

Also, I have to mention a big thank you to the staff at the theatre for helping me through a bit of a panic at the beginning! We were originally on the balcony and I didn't expect it to be that high up or that cramped. But they graciously moved all three of us to the stalls at the back which was perrrrfect.

I would definitely recommend going to see this show and am eagerly looking out for any other shows I can go and see!

Have you been to see anything brilliant lately? I would love to know any of your recommendations.

:)

Getting Into The Christmas Spirit

Last weekend, I went back to my hometown as my hair was in desperate need of doing and I wanted to help my mum put the decorations up (I told her not to do them without me!)

St Pancras International looking stunning!

I'd been thinking for a while that I wanted a change from blonde (to give my poor hair a rest from bleach) and finally worked up the courage to try brunette.

Before

After

I also decided as I'd been working so hard recently to have a kind of pamper day and did my nails too as I hadn't done them in ages.

After Friday's pampering, Saturday arrived and it was decoration time! :)

Here are a few snaps I took of my favourite decorations:

The tree at different stages.

Okay, so maybe a bit more than a few. Must have got carried away, whoops.

Ah well. Only have one week left of uni and then hopefully I can blog more than once a week. Have so many things I want to write about!

What are your favourite decorations?

:)

Liebster Award

I was nominated for the Liebster Award a few days ago by Natalia Vergara - thank you :)

'For those of you who haven't heard of this, new bloggers with less than 200 followers can participate. You just need to:

• provide 11 fun facts about yourself
• answer the questions below
• and nominate 11 bloggers of your choice (just be sure they have less than 200 followers). '

11 facts about myself:

1. I was born on St. Patrick's day

2. I've been colouring my hair since I was about 14

3. I have a butterfly tattoo on my right wrist

4. I love red lipstick

5. I've only been to three concerts; My Chemical Romance, Take That and Taylor Swift. (Bit of a mix!)

6. I love the rain

7. I'm not a fan of summer

8. I don't drink

9. I'm in my last year of University at UEL, studying Photography with Creative and Professional Writing

10. I'm scared of flying

11. I have emetophobia (fear of sick)



1) Where were you born?
Kettering, Northamptonshire, UK.

2) Describe yourself in 3 words
Quiet, organised & an over-thinker

3) What is your guilty pleasure?
Buffy the Vampire Slayer :)

4) What quality do you appreciate most in others?
Kindness

5) What do you hope to accomplish some day?
To publish a novel

6) Three things you cannot live without?
My collection of DVDs, my camera and my mac

7) Who are your favourite bloggers?
Zoella, What Olivia Did... and The Londoner

8) Why did you start blogging?
I'd started looking through Zoella's blog and youtube videos and I thought it would be interesting to start my own blog as I love writing :)

9) If I could live anywhere on Earth, where would it be?
Middle-Earth? Ha ha, um... I don't know. I thought I wanted to live in London but now I've been here for 3 years I'm not so sure. Maybe Kent.

10) What would be the first thing you would do if you won the lottery?
Squeal and re-check my numbers multiple times.

11) What did you want to be when you grew up?
I remember I wanted to be an artist at one point, and a tattooer at some other time. I also wanted to be a photographer in the past few years but have since changed my mind and want to be a novel writer :)

I nominate:

Beauty Bottega

Juicy Woocy Beauty

The Two Twenty Somethings

Love Like Buy

Evelyn Talks

Twenty Two Feels

Classic White Milkshake

A Parka For Your Thoughts

Victoria En Vogue

Call Me S

Fashion On My Back

:)

Study Soundtrack

It's been such a hectic week with the amount of work we've been given this year that I haven't had much of a chance to blog. So, I thought it would be a good idea to post a personal soundtrack I like to use when studying as I've been doing a lot of it recently.

I tend to prefer music with no lyrics, film scores if you like, or something relaxing and quiet. They're all from my favourite films, obviously, which I do find can tempt me into watching them, every single time. Yet, I have managed to avoid them and get a lot more work done than I would if I had listened to something upbeat.

Obviously, I don't get through all of the albums below, but I like to mix and match depending on what I feel like listening to.

Number 1 - 

The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King (Soundtrack from the Motion Picture). 

The scores to these movies are amazing, I absolutely love them and I cannot wait to buy The Hobbit soundtracks too! One of my favourite tracks though, which I hadn't realised was even a soundtrack to the film, is Annie Lennox's Into The West.

Number 2 - 

Pirates of the Caribbean - At World's End (Soundtrack from the Motion Picture). 

Again, I just love the soundtracks to this series - I can picture the scenes to specific bits of music perfectly, although quite distracting especially with Johnny Depp in my head! My favourite bit is definitely when Will & Elizabeth get married on the ship; the accompanying track I Don't Think Now is the Right Time is perfect.

Number 3 - 

Harry Potter (Mask Plays Music from the Motion Picture). 

Some of the tracks on this album are a little scary, even without the connecting images (although Harry Potter in itself is not scary, the scenes with the Dementor's and Lord Voldemort in Philosopher's Stone are quite terrifying!), but I love it nevertheless. The Christmas tracks are my favourites by far.

Number 4 - 

P.S. I Love You Soundtrack. 

This just makes me want to go to Ireland and explore and fall in love all over again. It's so relaxing.

Number 5 - 

Twilight Soundtrack. 

I know there's a lot of controversy about this film in general, and I agree that it's not the best vampire film out there (Underworld!!!), but it's soundtrack is beautiful. I love the piano melodies especially, even if Robert Pattinson is not actually playing them.

Also, similarly to LOTR, I didn't realise Robert Pattinson actually had a song in the film. Although it is not the soundtrack piece it's still worth a listen (Let Me Sign).

And finally - 

A recent purchase, is Gabrielle Aplin's album, English Rain. 

Even though this is an album with lyrics, I find I can still concentrate enough to get work done. It's a stunning album and is very calming. I especially love the track The Power of Love as we are in the lead up to Christmas.

I hope you try some of these albums out, I know they're probably not to a lot of people's tastes but they're worth a listen!

What albums/sounds help you to study?

:)

Obviously none of these images are mine, they are the original artworks for the albums.

A Trip to London Zoo

Yesterday - after months and months of wanting to go - I finally went to the zoo! Yaaaaaaay! As my Dad lives in Camden it seems silly to not have been more often. Am definitely thinking about getting a membership.

I know it's November and it's not the normal time of year to go to the zoo and it was chucking it down all day, but it was honestly a lot more fun that it probably would have been in the sweltering heat with tonnes and tonnes of people.

I felt like such a kid again, getting excited by all the animals and Christmas decorations. As soon as our tickets were bought, we headed straight for the penguins!

The butterfly enclosure was next which was very warm, but so cool with all the butterflies flying around overhead.

Although some of the enclosures were being 'done up' and I didn't get to see a few of the animals that I wanted to (Giraffes!) and we'd gotten up incredibly early, the day was still really really good. Was totally worth getting up at a silly time for. Plus, as I'm obsessed with how many steps I do each day, I think I broke my own personal record with over 17,000 steps!

Here are a few more photos of some of the animals we saw:

Tigers - love this sign, reminds me of Madagascar.

The reptile house, where a scene in Harry Potter 1 was filmed! It's fair to say I got super excited and kept a look out for the snake.

A selection from the 'Outback', 'Nighttime Creatures' and others. I was obsessed with those lights, they're stunning! Also, the reindeer was smaller than I'd imagined it would be. How would such a small animal pull Santa's sleigh?! Ha ha.

Meerkats! These are so adorable, skittering about and digging. Couldn't help but hear Bill Nighy in my head narrating their every move. The otters were nearby too, and equally adorable, but sadly I couldn't get any photos as they were all in their beds snuggling together.

Ants! What incredible little things. We watched them take all these little bits of leaves up and up and up in their enclosure. Must've felt like walking to Australia! 

And then the Jellyfish - just loved the electric blue of them!

We popped back to see the penguins getting fed along with a talk on them. Apparently, you can add one of the rockhopper penguins on Facebook and if you were 'lucky' enough to get pooped on by a seagull, you could get a sticker with a neat little rhyme on. Too bad, I didn't get pooped on, ey?

We finally headed off to the shop - no purchases, success! - and the exit.

I would definitely recommend going to the zoo - or any other 'summer' activity - in the winter. It's a lot less hectic and cheaper too!

Hope everyone has had a good weekend and enjoys the rest of their Sunday

:)