G o o d b y e . 2 0 1 2 .

Last day of the year, woohoo! I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, this has absolutely been the best year of my life... so far! Roll on 2013 (so lame!). I've spent my day on omegle chatting to this hot guy and his cat:

I've also watched a ton of videos on youtube and drunk a ridiculous amount of coffee. Then, I managed to trick my friend into thinking I'd shaved the side of my head with these carefully angled photos:

As you can see, I've had an exceptionally productive day! Uh oh, I have to go and hop in the bath now because my brother is about to use up all the hot water. And then I need to decide what I'm wearing tonight. My friends are going really dressy with heels and stuff and have decided to pretend we're sophisticated by going out for "pre-drinks" before tonight's party. So I need to leave for that in about two hours to get there on time and am currently still in my pyjamas and have not washed. So. I have to gooooo!


And thank you, wonderful readers, for taking the time to read my posts this year. I know it sounds really lame and cheesy, but it means a lot to me and I hope I can continue to (attempt to) entertain you in 2013!


Song of the day:

30 Minute Love Affair - Paloma Faith
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0O2DfNRxv4

(This is exactly what me and the hot guy from omegle had - a great little half hour chat, but "sometimes it's better just to let it go". We will never speak again...)


Lots and lots of love xo!


twitter: https://twitter.com/kategreen38
tumblr: http://smilingismyfavouritest.tumblr.com/

Christmas 2012

I'm back! Not that you necessarily noticed my absence.. I could have simply been too busy stuffing my face with turkey and neglecting blogspot. As it turns out, I was stuffing my face with turkey but I did so at my grandparents' house and didn't have access to the computer. For a whole six days, waaah! But I had the greatest Christmas ever! I don't know if I said before - I probably did actually - but my uncle, aunt, and two cousins came over from America. I hadn't seen them in nearly three years so it was so good that they were here again. I was squeezed into a tiny room with my cousin Brittany. She's seventeen and we're both really messy and completely overpacked so our room was a total mess.

My grandparents' house is my favourite place in the entire world. It's so warm and comfortable and the food is always great. I especially love it at Christmas. I've never had a Christmas not at this house and I don't know if I'd really want to. This is their wonderful tree:

And a cheeky little mince pie and sherry left out for Father Christmas by the fireplace. We didn't have any carrots this year though, so I guess Rudolph went hungry...

This year, I got the best present haul I've had since I was eight years old. That year, I got a ton of Sylvanian Families characters, furniture for them and the mansion house which they all lived in. I didn't really think anything could top that but hey, eight years later, it has! My favourite present this year, by far, is the Cambridge satchel I've been ogling for months. Thank you A LOT, Grandad and Grandma!

Some of my other favourite presents were a Pandora ring, a silk scarf, books, Clinique foundation, and Anais Anais perfume by Cacharel.

Also, one of my wonderful wonderful friends made me a bracelet entirely out of ringpulls off cans. With some elastic, obviously.. it's so great. I haven't actually gone a day without wearing it since she gave it to me.

So, I think that's everything I wanted to say. I hope you all had a great Christmas too!


Song of the day:

King - Lauren Aquilina
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Q_6Rw1R7kg

5

Five days until Christmas, woohoo! Today at school, we had a movie character themed dress up day. So, naturally, I went as Hermione. She's my go-to-gal. This post is going to most be photos, sorry!

For a party I went to in the summer, I dressed as Hermione too. So for that, I bought a special Gryffindor tie which came in handy today. My friend came as Professor Trelawney and she looked so amazing! 

Tomorrow, for our last day of term, we have a hippie themed dress up day. So so so excited for this. I found an amazing dress in a charity shop for like £4 which is so 70s. In case I try anything on tomorrow morning and realise it looks awful, I did a little trial run just now, haha. I'm making this sound like a very serious project. I guess, in a way, it is though! I think it probably belonged to an old lady first though.

Oh, also, if you're looking for Christmas cards, just pop to Poundland, I'm being serious! I got these cute cards for umm.. about a pound, I think... There's twenty in a box and they're actually quite good quality for the price.

Song of the day:

Somebody That I Used to Know - Gotye (Sam Tsui cover)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS73nYl0o6s

Pretty sure I've posted this before but this cover is so beautiful, it gives me shivers!

I'll always belong in the sky.

This is my new favourite quotation. I've always loved watching the sky, the stars, the clouds, the rain. I think everyone does, actually. It can make you feel so insignificant and unimportant, yet so infinite. It's amazing to think that the sky just goes on for ever and ever and ever, and, no matter how much you stare, you're never going to see the end of it. The Northern Lights just blow my mind. They have this wonderfully captivating, unearthly beauty. It looks like magic. To see them in person must be so incredible. For now, I'll make do with sunsets, sunrises, shooting stars, and golden wisps of clouds, but, one day, I will see them.

Tomorrow, we're releasing the school magazine. Hello. I got to take a copy to drool over tonight which is exactly what I've been doing. I feel like a parent of a beautiful baby. I took some photos of this wonder-child.

I am one very proud sub-editor right now. I'll be sleeping with this under my pillow tonight. I also made some bracelets for my friends today. We're all super stingy and we don't want to spend a lot on each other this Christmas so we decided to make a pact - only homemade presents. I don't have any Christmas cards though, I might have to make those too!

Song of the day:

Buy the Stars - Marina and the Diamonds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysckmplDbmA

8

Yesterday, we had a semi final against Crystal Palace, needless to say we lost. 5-1 to be precise. Our managers were getting all hyped up for the game but it was awful because we all knew we'd lose. Anyway, I really hate one of the managers so I think I'm gonna leave soon. Eurgh, and we had to wear our yellow shirts yesterday because the other team had predominantly blue ones too. So gross! It doesn't even match...

In other footballing news, remember I said the team we played for the school team may get disqualified because they had a huge amount of academy players? Well, they've been disqualified. This is terrible because we're going to lose against Reading - they're cray good! However, it's a bonus because we can say we got down to the last four teams in the entire country in the national cup! Woohoo!


Outfit for Monday 17th December:

Jumper: my dad's from the 80s, haha. (does this make it vintage?)
Skirt: the usuaaal. I wear this far too much!


Song of the day:

Euphoria - Loreen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcnWysA9gxo

Love this song so much, I'm a total sucker for Eurovison and Europop, haha.


Tumblr: www.smilingismyfavouritest.tumblr.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kategreen38

The soundtrack to my life

Opening credits: Day Tripper - The Beatles


Waking up: Lost in the Post - The Wombats

Falling in love: Happiness - Alexis Jordan

Fight song: The Constant - I Blame Coco

Breaking up: Happily Ever After - He is We

Life’s okay: Neighbourhood Girls - Suzanne Vega

Getting back together: Unbroken - Demi Lovato

Wedding song: Love Isn't Easy - ABBA

Birth of child: Tim McGraw - Taylor Swift

Final battle: Big Girls Don't Cry - Fergie

Death scene: Heartbeat - Scouting For Girls

Funeral song: I Have a Dream - ABBA

End credits: All of This - The Naked and Famous


Saw this on tumblr (yep, I joined the tumblr wave - www.smilingismyfavouritest.tumblr.com) so I felt like it would be a cool thing to do. All of the songs are surprisingly appropriate for each of the points actually, haha. Maybe I'll put the links in for each of the songs later.

Take that leap of faith if you want to

My He is We CD arrived yesterday! I cannot explain how happy I was to get it. I've asked for this for every birthday and Christmas since 2010 but it's never been in stock or my Grandma only thought to look in HMV, haha. So I ordered it off Amazon about a week ago and I've had it on non-stop repeat since it came.

Also, at Explorers yesterday (yes, yes, I still go!) we did a silhouette performance behind draped sheets with spotlights. Our group's was completely awful - we just acted out Taylor Swift songs - but we got voted as winners. Now, I wouldn't usually be writing about this except that we got a great prize. A little make your own snowman or Santa kit. So great! So that's what I spent my morning doing. Nailed it.

Today, I also found some hairslides or hairgrippy things that my grandparents gave me for Christmas two years ago. They'd been buried in my room but they decided to make a reappearance today whilst I was tidying all my crap up off the floor. They're from Pia so they were probably quite expensive, but it's cool because they also look classy... I think?! I've been wearing them around the house all day, haha.

Song of the day:

Prove You Wrong - He is We
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMEre9gEs-U
Been stuck in my head all day!


On a terribly sad note, no words can describe how tragic the Connecticut shooting yesterday was. Still is. My heart goes out to the families affected. I can't really imagine anything worse than twenty beautiful young lives lost. I think gun regulations over there definitely need to be tightened. Watching the coverage on the news not only made me think how much I appreciate my own family, but how much more I need to show it. I love them all so much and I need to be telling them every day and not take for granted the fact that they're there for me all the time. It also makes all our own petty problems seem so inconsequential and unimportant. In the scheme of things, they're nothing. Absolutely nothing compared to tragedies like this. I can't imagine what those poor families there are going through, my thoughts are with them.

A wonderful lady named Elise Lieberth wrote a song called 'Coming Home' which she relates to the Connecticut families and it's so beautiful. http://www.reverbnation.com/eliselieberth/song/15496205-coming-home

Six names!

I saw this on someone's blog today and because I'm bored out of my mind, I thought I'd do it.



1. Your real name: Kate Green
2. Your detective name (favourite colour and favourite animal): Orange Pug
3. Your soap opera name (middle name and street you live on): Emma Queens
4. Your Star Wars name (first three letters of last name, first two of middle name, first two of first, last three of last): Greemkaeen
5. Your superhero name (colour of your shirt, first item to your immediate left): Navy Glass
5. Your superhero name (colour of your shirt, first item to your immediate left): Navy Glass

6. Your goth name (black and one of your pets): Black Jasper.

Jasper was an albino goldfish we had in our pond a couple of years ago but all the fish got a horrible disease and they died. We haven't had any pets since but I'm still waiting for that pug...

12/12/12

Today is a special day. It is 12/12/12. This is the last repetitive date I will experience in my life - unless I live to be 104, nearly 105 and make it to 1st January 2101. Probably not. So, what do you do when you get a date like this? Um, well if you're secretly little weirdo dreamers like me and my friends, you probably make a wish at a certain time. Like, it was 12.12pm today, 11.11am and 11.11pm last year. That was the highlight of my day.

It was in a free period so we all stopped work at 12.12pm and sat there for a minute in silence, wishing away. So lame, I know. I wish for practically the same thing every single year. Last year, on 11/11/11 at 11.11am, I was in a history lesson writing up controlled assessment - a 2500 word essay on Northern Ireland's troubles (about which I remember nothing). My friend and I stopped writing and, again, just sat there saying nothing. Lame lame lame, I know. I hate history so much.

Today has actually been bloody boring. Having chicken bake for dinner though which is my favourite meal EVER. I might put a recipe up or something, later. The book I'm currently reading is Siren by Tricia Rayburn. I think it's in my top twenty books of all time but it's pretty hard to decide because there are so many. It's about a girl called Vanessa and her life after her sister, Justine, dies. Justine was thought to have jumped off a cliff after an argument with their parents but Vanessa doesn't agree. God, I'm so crap at writing reviews, it's unreal. Basically, there are some sirens - evil mermaid-type things - who do some evil things and Vanessa has to overcome that with the help of this hot guy, Simon. It's not your typical chick flick - much more mystery and suspense-y stuff than that. Anyway, it's so amazing and there are two sequels, Undercurrent and Dark Water, which you should also definitely read. Pretty sure there's an extra one too called Pulse, but I'm not really sure where in the storyline it fits in.

Shit, I hate people who...

pull out the low blows.

look down on people for being educated and well spoken.

hate everything mainstream because they think they're hipster.

hate anything just on principal.

are rude for no reason.

walk slowly in a crowded place.

don't watch where they're going.

show off about every freaking little thing.

pretend to be cultured.

pretend to be mature.

bitch about you and deny it.

lie about little things.

get possessive over other people. 

shut you out suddenly.

"forgive but don't forget". This one gets me so much.

use your secrets against you.

were supportive of squatters' rights.

automatically think they're cooler than you.

think they're clever and always spell things wrongly.

look down on you for liking to read.

post hundreds of photos on facebook about their weekend.

think they're a photographer when they just take photos of the sunset.

won't buy clothes from charity shops.

believe they're really attractive and beautiful and tell you you're not.

cut their nose off in spite of their face.

attention seek.

fish for compliments.

refuse to be realistic about anything.

deny having secret ambitions.

do things to deliberately get back at you.

take take take and never give.

Choozday

I think I'm just having a bad week or something. I'm swamped with school work and nothing seems to be going right. I like to think I'm not pessimistic but I seem to be proving that theory incorrect. Everyone is seriously annoying me - I don't know if people have become more annoying or I've become more bad tempered and less tolerant. Probably the latter. To vent my grumpiness, I think I'm going to do an "I hate..." post in a bit.


I went to a party on Saturday night which was fun and I met lots of new, naaaice people. The girl whose party it was is from my Guides. She comes from a really good background and all her family are so great. Oh, and the house was freaking huge. Every single person at this party was either from her grammar school or from her orchestra. I felt a bit like a pauper there, haha, but everyone was super duper naaaice. My outfit was nothing special and my camera has run out of battery so there's no photos to post here!


I'm sososo excited for Christmas. It's only fourteen days away. That's two weeks exactly! Phjvbdjhbviahbsi! Oh, I don't know if I said on here but I had a careers interview a couple of weeks ago because I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I still don't, really. But the lady basically said to choose subjects I love and do a course with them. Obviously, lol. I want to do English language with human geography which is a pretty obscure one but she found a place that does it! Wooohooo, Keele University! It's a pretty good uni too and places high-ish on the rankings for both English and geography. So I'm deffo applying for that one. It looks really nice too, and has the largest on-campus student residence which is a massive bonus.

Song of the day:

Hot Problems - Double Take
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__HeE6NWmDE

This song gives me the biggest lols ever.

He is We

He is We are truly the best band ever. They're kind of indie pop or something like that. I first starting listening to them like two years ago and have just fallen in love with them all over again! They're so great. But they recently broke up - Trevor left the band! I'm not really sure if it will be the same without him since it was just Rachel and Trevor, so I just like to think that he's still here and will continue to pretend he is.

This is Trevor and he is amazing. Just look at that flawless face!

And here's Rachel. She's a babe too! Her voice is amazing and both of their song writing skills are cray cray.

And this is my favourite ever picture of them. Sorry it's a bit grainy. Call me sad but I have about six copies of this stuck up around my room and one on the front of my diary. Secret diary, oooh. I love them loooots.

Rachel Taylor + Trevor Kelly

Gonna grow up, be someone. Draw a map, find a path, take a breath AND RUN.

We all have a story to tell.

Take my hand, I'll teach you to dance. I'll spin you around, won't let you fall down.

I still get those stupid butterflies.

How many hits can a good girl take?

Forever is a long time but I wouldn't mind spending it by your side.

Pessimistic, so realistic, you get the picture.

You're the boy with a real nice smile but a broken heart inside.

Pardon me for my lack of excitement but I'm not entirely thrilled.

Author of the moment, can you tell me - do I end up happy?

Does she get the same big rush when you go in for a hug and your cheeks brush?

Yes sir, you came and you took my breath. My head is feeling a little light. All right, I hope that you feel it too.

Let me riddle you a ditty, it's just an itty bitty little thing on my mind.

You can learn to fly; just call his name.

Inhale, breathe steady, exhale, like you're ready if you're ready or not.

I can be that part of you. I'll try my best.

Did I say something way too honest, made you run and hide?

Bleh bleh bleh. Everything is so boring right now! I'm having such a downer day. I have done for the last couple of days. I'll get over myself sooooon, lol. We played the quarter finals for the national cup on Tuesday but we lost... 16-0. It's so crazy! However, you're only allowed three "academy players" on a school team - like girls who play for Chelsea Youth or something. We have two academy girls on our team. Buuut, every single one of the girls on the other team is  an academy player. Our coach found their team sheet on the side of the pitch with their names, dates of birth, and teams they play for. He's taken it and is going to submit it as evidence to the ESFA or something like that. They might get disqualified, uh oh. Scandalous! I don't really mind either way because we'll just lose the semis too, haha.


It snowed yesterday which looked pretty.. Christmas has arrived! I just hope it's not snowing on the 22nd when we go up to my grandparents' place. Lalala, sorry for this incredibly boring post. I think I'm just posting for the sake of it. I'd like to get up to 100 posts by the end of the year but I don't think it will really happen. Today we had a cake sale but I forgot to get photos of my cakes, boohoo. We held it to raise money for the printing of our magazine and we got like £70 or something from this bake sale. The headteacher gave us a budget of £200 for it and printing on proper magazine paper is £260 so we can afford it, yay!


Song of the day:

Ho Hey - Caitlin Hart and Jake Coco cover
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vg1yBq8sb8&feature=g-all-lik

Almost as good as the original, woohoo!

19

Adorkable - Sarra Manning
The Sky is Everywhere - Jandy Nelson
Siren - Tricia Rayburn
The Summer I Turned Pretty - Jenny Han
August - Bernard Beckett
The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky
PS I Love You - Cecelia Ahern

Simply radiant

I'm missing you so much, I'll say you died tonight

Just so I can get to you before the sun will rise

I know these times are hard and I feel this too

None of that ever seems to matter when I'm holding you

And I'm wasting away, away from you

And I'm wasting away, away from you

What have I gotten into this time around

I know that I had sworn I'd never trust anyone again but I didn't have to

You had me at hello.

I've never seen a smile that can light the room like yours

It's simply radiant, I see it more with everyday that goes by

I watch the clock to make my timing just right

Would it be okay, 

Would it be okay if I took your breath away?

And I'm wasting away, away from you

And I'm wasting away, away from you
_remember/you_had_me_at_hello.html ]
What have I gotten into this time around

I know that I had sworn I'd never trust anyone again but I didn't have to

You had me at hello.

You gave me butterflies at the mailbox

You gave me butterflies at the mailbox

You gave me butterflies at the mailbox

You gave me butterflies

You gave me butterflies 

At the mailbox

You gave me butterflies

At the mailbox 

You had me at hello.

You gave me butterflies 

At the mailbox 

You gave me butterflies

At the mailbox 

What have I gotten into this time around

I know that I had sworn I'd never trust anyone again but I didn't have to

You had me at hello

You had me at hello

You had me at hello

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ye0XhDdbFs4

I love this song so much. It's by A Day to Remember and its lyrics are something which pretty much everybody can relate to. So great.

23

Twenty three days left! Yayayayaya! The trees have gone up - Christmas has arrived, children.

The photo's a bit blurry but my camera is messing up and won't take any more! #firstworldproblems. Joking, I hate hashtags anywhere but Twitter. This is our "tacky" tree (as my mum calls it) for the kitchen which my brother, dad and I decorate every year.

This is my mum's "classy" tree which we're not allowed to touch. It's in the living room and has a colour theme every year. My mum really gets into this decorating thing. #eagerbeaver


Song of the day:

Stay - Lisa Loeb
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ka9mCmx9Jhs

She's so amazing, I wish wish wish she was still making music!

24

Twenty four days until Christmas! So freaking excited! We got our Advent calendars today and the tree is going up tomorrow, dsvjkdndasvnjdn!

The calendar on the left is my brother's and mine is on the right. I feel like such a child when we get these out but I just get so happy when I see them. I don't really have anything interesting to write today but I was such a beautiful morning. This was the garden with a pretty morning sky but it's all gone a bit downhill now and looks like it's about to pour with rain.

Also, you know when you find a piece of clothing you totally forgot you had? It's such a great feeling! I found my Ramones top yesterday and it's burgundy which goes with a lot of other colours, so that's pretty cooool.

Song of the day:

I'm not Gonna Teach your Boyfriend how to Dance with You - Black Kids
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRo_I_WeYfI

Friends

I've been thinking recently about my friends. Like, thinking in depth about what I like about them. Or mainly, what I dislike about them. I've realised I like almost nothing about most of them. We just kind of fell into a friendship group together. Most of them I'm only friends with by association, not choice. Like, we'd have a lesson together and then just end up eating lunch together. It kind of became a habit. That's basically what school friendships are, isn't it? Just something, just a habit, to make it all a little less boring, people to pass the time with. Not anyone you're really going to stay in touch with and make godparents to your children. 


I only know one, maybe two, friends with whom I actually would like to maintain a friendship. And it just kind of makes me sad because they all seem so genuine, and for all their faults, do actually want to stay in touch. I probably have a ton of faults too. I know I do. So it's funny that some of them probably feel the same way about me, and about the others, too.


And it just makes me sad because I had my first holiday with three of them this summer. I mentioned it here but didn't really talk about it. I totes should have. It was a summer like you read in books, it really was. It was at one of the girl's house in France. It was baking hot weather outside but cool inside. We swam in her pool everyday and always had French bread and cheeses and iced tea for lunch. We camped out in a tent next to the pool and went for midnight swims. Had camp fires at two in the morning and roasted marshmallows. Sang songs and counted all the shooting stars. Made a billion wishes. Cycled during the day to beautiful gardens and got served in little French bars. Bought pizza from the van next to the skate park on Fridays.


Oh I don't even know why I'm writing this. It just depresses me! Anyway, it was a really good week-and-a-bit. skljfahvuihnuiqnc, I don't really know how to end this post now. I've just put myself in a bad mood...

Ap ap ap ap Apollo Theatre style!

I went to the Apollo Theatre last night to see Wicked! It was so so so amazing. I've wanted to see it for about four years now, so to finally go was so great. I've definitely over-used the word "so" right there. Oops.

I felt like such a tourist taking photos of the outside of the theatre but it was all lit up beautifully and looked so wonderful. They're on my phone though, so I can't get them on here, waah. The performance itself was amazing too. I will never understand how people can sing that well and run around and dance and still hold the note. So crazy! The staging was beautiful and the costumes - and pretty much everything about the performance - were lovely! 'Defying Gravity' has always been a song I lovelovelove. To hear it live was actually a dream come true. So lame, I know. But you know when you get shivers when you hear a fantastic piece of music or your favourite song? I had shivers to the point of spasms for about five minutes straight while the actress was singing it. 

I went with my friend Jo - we always go to the theatre together. It's like a mini tradition now. Last year it was The Woman in Black, and the year before Love Never Dies. And before that, I think it was Phantom of the Opera, and before that, Fantasia. I think that was what it was called..! Anyway, for Wicked, we sat in the very back row. Tickets were only £15 and you could see everything. Why pay like £50 for front row seats when being at the back is fine?!

This was my ap ap ap ap Apollo Theatre syle! Love for Psy. 

Dress: TopShop, £20

Cardigan: New Look, £10

Scarf: H&M, £13

Boots: Shoe Zone, £15

Song of the day:

Boyfriend - Big Time Rush

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUOdO5dqPeU

Such a guilty pleasure, love it!