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Thursday 30 May 2013

Camden Town, May

Yesterday, I was a bit bored (what am I meant to do with myself now there's no revision to do?!) so a friend and I decided to pop up to Camden and see what was new there. Apparently not a lot has changed in the past six weeks since I was last there. However, my favourite stall in Camden Lock had some beautiful cushion covers in - pictured below - for only £2.50 I think. I regret not buying more because I love anything with this style of pattern on it and would love for my room to be themed like this.


We also went along to my favourite bookshop there, Black Gull Books, and I bought this book for £2.50. I'm really excited to start reading it because it's so different to most books I own. I think it's (semi-)autobiographical, about a woman who moves from Denmark to Africa. I'm not really sure what happens but I'll find out.


These two rings were only 69p each from said stall in Camden Lock which is such a bargain.



Sunday 26 May 2013

Tell me how to get back to summer paradise with you...

... and I'll be there in a heart beat.

I'm starting to feel so summery, part of which may be due to my new sun glasses. I've honestly been wearing them everywhere - inside the house, on the street at 7pm when the sun's gone in, in the bath. I think I'm in love and have been taking shameless selfies with them to entertain myself, and to send to my friends. They don't really reply...







These beauties are from Primark with a hefty price tag of £2. I thought well I might as well push the boat out because they're really nice and I love anything with a tortoise shell pattern. Even though it broke the bank, it was definitely worth it.


I dedicated my morning to painting my nails because they've been naked for about two weeks. Apparently if you keep nail varnish on all the time, it prevents the nails from being exposed to oxygen which is what turns them yellow, so I try to "air" them for a couple of weeks in between painting them. I used the two Bourjois colours I wrote about in my last post and did the Caggie Dunlop-inspired pattern.




Song of the day:

Summer Paradise - Simple Plan + Sean Paul


Bergerac, France 2012

This is my favourite photo from last summer, taken during one of the best weeks of my life. Looking at it makes me so happy and I'm ridiculously excited to make this summer even better.

Saturday 25 May 2013

Light up this city with our FREEDOM

I HAVE FINISHED MY EXAMS. I AM FREE.

Overall, I think they went okay. The English language paper was yesterday morning and it was the one I feel best about so far, praise da lawd! Just as well, because I think that's what I want to do at uni. But whatever, my new-found freedom still hasn't sunk in. This morning, I was like "oh it will be really nice to go shopping this afternoon, but I'd better make time for some revision". And then it was like, oh WAIT, I don't have to! My teachers should be elated though, that they've managed to instil this ridiculous, obsessive work ethic in me, so much so that I might go so far to say it's engrained. Mad.


So today I managed to go and make the most of Happy Hour in Starbucks (3 - 5pm!) with a half price Frappuccino (caramel cream topped with cream, if you're interested) whilst on my travels. My travels essentially were a walk to the bus stop, and a bus into town but it still counts since I practically haven't left the house in weeks. I had to pick up some birthday presents for my friend which was my main excuse for this excursion.


I bought her a pot of Essie nail polish in chubby cheeks and two pairs of socks from New Look (she asked for socks, I'm not a bad friend). It doesn't look like a lot but Essie is freaking expensive!



The second two pots are for me, both by Bourjois, in Adora-bleu and Abricot ouate so I'm looking forward to trying them. I also got Demi Lovato's new album because she's my girl crush and I'm totally in love with her (bit more than a crush really, I won't lie). Dabshwndikjnsdqw, she's amazing!



I also got some socks for myself because there was a pretty cute pair:



But what made my day was a book market in the middle of the high street which has definitely never been there before. I wish I'd got a photo of it but there were hundreds of books with everything from One Day to Huckleberry Finn. I got The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time (for 40p), and I Capture the Castle (for 50p). I've heard so much about CIDNT but I have to confess I've not got a clue as to what it's about so I can't wait to start it. I Capture the Castle was Jacqueline Wilson's favourite book as a teenager and I've wanted to read it since reading Wilson's autobiography but I just never got round to it. I have another of Dodie Smith's books called the New Moon with the Old which I absolutely loved so I think this one will be great too!



I'm still not really sure what to do with myself with all this time off. It's weeeeeird.


Song of the day:

Freedom - Paloma Faith

(oh, how perfect this is)

Monday 20 May 2013

Hold you by the frame, whisper your name

"I have a new room mate... she doesn't say much but I'm obsessed." - DDL.


When I was eight years old, we studied Elizabeth I's rule. We were shown portraits of her and, I know it sounds so pretentious, but I was immediately drawn to one: the Ditchley portrait (circa 1592) by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger. I kind of forgot about it for a bit but a couple of years ago I went to the National Portrait Gallery and it was there. I was surprised by how big it is, it's almost two and a half metres tall and it just looked so impressive. In the museum shop, you can get any portrait printed onto paper or canvas so I had it printed on canvas as a birthday present. I only had it framed a couple of weeks ago though but I love having her on my wall!






Apparently, the theme of the painting is forgiveness and there are three Latin inscriptions which mean "she can but does not take revenge", "she gives and does not expect", and "in giving back she increases [something]". The little frame with writing to the right of her is a fragmented sonnet which has had to be reconstructed to understand the meaning of it. Its primary subject is the sun which is the symbol of the monarch.


I also love the detail of her jewellery and the texture of her dress, and that you can clearly the gauntness of her face. I think she was such an incredible, powerful, beautiful ruler and this portrait depicts that.


Song of the day:

Velvet Elvis - Alex Winston
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-zZkbcF4fA

(Let's call this Velvet Elizabeth: I don't think any song could be more appropriate right now)

Thursday 16 May 2013

Hello summer, nice of you to join us

It's so sunny today! It seems that overnight all the daisies in our garden have sprung up and my favourite tree in the garden has started to blossom. My bedroom faces east which means every morning I'm woken by golden sunlight pouring in through the windows and everything is just bathed in the delicious warmth of sunshine. 




All the bluebells are out too, wahay! 



I've also been trawling youtube recently for old Taylor Swift songs. I think I prefer the material she wrote when she was like my age as opposed to what she releases now. I stumbled across a gem called "Till Brad Pitt Comes Along" which is unreleased but that I absolutely love! Speaking of Brad Pitt, I think (like every other female on the planet) that Angelina Jolie was so brave and just amazing for having the double mastectomy! I think she's definitely set a fantastic example for women everywhere to do the same and perhaps now the procedure will become more common, saving many lives. She's truly inspirational.


Song of the day:

Till Brad Pitt Comes Along - Taylor Swift

Wednesday 15 May 2013

Judgement day has passed

Yesterday, I had two exams: geography and history. I'd been dreading Tuesday 14th May since I received my exam timetable a few months ago. To kick off exam season, I had my two hardest ones on one day. Joy. I initially thought geography would be okay and history would go awfully, but it was the other way round. At least I can be comforted by the fact that everyone in our class found the geography paper difficult, so if that's representative of the whole country, the grade boundaries will be lowered. Hopefully. Fingers crossed, touch wood. Did anyone else do the GEOG1 paper? My torturous day yesterday went something like this:


6.00am - wake up, shower, get ready, last minute revision.
7.15am - arrive at school for early morning history revision.
8.45am - history exam.
10.00am - geography revision (interspersed with food munching and dance breaks)
1.45pm - geography exam.
3.45pm - weep at awful questions in geography paper.


Quite possibly the most stressful day of my life. I'm on "study" leave right now, so I'll probably get round to revision for my English lit exam on Friday at some stage. I should also tidy my room as it currently looks like this: (this was actually taken like three days ago so it's probably worse now.) I am ashamed.


Monday 13 May 2013

Bollywood night!

On Friday night, I went to a Bollywood-themed dinner party which was a lot of fun. Getting there was an adventure in itself as I'd never been to that town before, let alone going by myself in the dark. I can't even tell you how many hours I pored over Google maps for, planning my route to make sure I didn't get lost. Please tell me I'm not the only one who worries obsessively about getting lost, thus over-using Google maps. Please say you do it too.


So, for a Bollywood-themed night, of course curry will be served. But I wasn't expecting Indian style sweets for dessert or for my friend hosting to provide us with bindis bought from an actual sari shop (this town is really really multicultural with an extremely high population of people from India). Apparently I live in a "really white area" so I love going to places where there's more culture and different styles of shops and things. I digress.




(I would like to apologise for the extremely obvious placing of the alcohol bottles in this photo. I think the girl who took it subtly wanted to show her friends via facebook that we are cool enough to drink alcohol. I'm merely posting this here as it's the only photo of the food - which was beautifully presented. I'm sorry.)


The controversial Indian sweets which one appears to either love or hate. I love.


Outfit for Friday 10th May:

Jacket: TK Maxx, £15
Top: Dorothy Perkins, £4
Culottes: TopShop, £28 (can you tell I'm obsessed with them yet?)
Boots: Shoe Zone, £15



I went for a run the following morning which was horrific with a still full stomach from the curry but you always just feel so freaking good after exercise that it was worth it. This is my usual let's-exercise-and-look-like-we're-fit outfit but as I always get a double sausage and egg McMuffin after the run, I think it kind of defeats the point.


Song of the day:

Thinking - Against The Current NY

Saturday 11 May 2013

D A Y S O F M A Y part 2

As usual, I am writing this to avoid revision, good one Kate. This is me expressing my hate for history revision:


But I did happen to stumble across an absolute gem in my textbook which had me hysterically laughing for about ten minutes. I think all this work is making me delirious.



NAILS: (inspired by Caggie Dunlop from Made in Chelsea, series 3, episode 1)


Red: NYC nail polish, Spring Street.
Blue: 17, Mint Choc Chip.


DAWN FRENCH:

I'm not sure if I mentioned here but I met Dawn French with my Brownies about two months ago. Sorry if I'm repeating myself here! They filmed the Vicar of Dibley's Red Nose Day Special at the church where we have our Brownies each Friday so we got to meet her. I love her. I had to block out all the girls' faces because I could get done for paedophilia or something. I look like a bit of a loser (note my young leader uniform and be jealous) but Dawn is a babe.



MY SOUL MATE IN THE FORM OF CLOTHES:



I found these mega cute culottes on the TopShop website so I ordered them and fell in luuurve. I have nothing bad to say about them. They were £28 which is maybe a little overpriced but I've been looking for some for a while so it was worth it.


I think that's pretty much everything that has occurred in my life over the past month or so. I'll try to be more consistent with posting in the future!


Song of the day:

Piece by Piece - Orla Gartland

Orla (number one babe) has posted a free download link for this, do it do it do it!

Thursday 9 May 2013

D A Y S O F M A Y part 1

Woohoo for procrastination! My camera decided to work for me again again, yay, so I've had a bit of a photo-splurge because there's so much I've not been able to upload. I thought this post could kind of be a "favourites of April and May" thing, especially since I've recently been so absent from the beauty that is blogspot that I need to catch up.


AIRMAIL:



I came home today, and look what had arrived! A late birthday present from my real-life-friend-turned-pen-pal, Lily, who lives in Australia but lived here from when we were six to eight years old. We facebook every day and always send each other birthday presents so this was really lovely. She sent me a delicious smelling soap and a really cute card with a lot of writing in it. Lots of love to Lily.






THE END OF AN ERA:

I have left my football team. The end of the season came (we finished third out of nine teams in our league) and next year is Ladies' level football - soooo not happening. I won't lie, I cried when I came off from the pitch for the last time, and again when my manager made a speech for me. It's kind of funny because, even though I don't like him, he was my first football manager in the local Little League when I was eight years old. I didn't see him for about six years, and now, nine years later, he's my last manager. My football "career" is over! My lovely lovely friend on the team made me a card which was so cute:



And on another footballing note - our school team just won the Surrey Cup so I got a cheap-looking trophy for that but I am happy about it!



BIRTHDAY:

I said I would try to upload some birthday pressie pictures so here are some of my favourites:


Best revision music EVER. Youtube "Facing West - The Staves" for the best revising-to song in the world.

 


Paper Towns - John Green, Just One Day - Gayle Forman, and One Day - David Nichols. Reviews on these babies coming after my exams. These three books are all so beautiful and I could probably read them twenty times more and not be bored.


Incense is my love. My first true love. The ones pictured above are made by the company on the label below. Buy some of their stuff, it's fantastic quality and smells amazing!



Although Namaste's incense is naaaice, this Nag Champa stuff is the shiiiit. I'm not quite sure where you can buy it except for a little place in Camden Lock (which is where I stock up). It smells of vanilla and what I can only assume is the perfume of angels.



My friend, Izzie, bought me a beautiful Ted Baker makeup bag for my birthday too. I think it's so lovely and I love love love the patterns on it. I got a little speck of chocolate on it on the first day and almost cried. It's perfect.



This is just something really cute another friend, Alex, got me. It's a little coin purse and is pretty simple but I've been looking for something with the golden elephant style thingy on it for ages so she made a pretty great find!


To be continued in the next post.