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Friday 29 August 2014

August catch up

I feel like I haven't blogged properly in ages. I'm going to blame it on stressing about uni. I don't know why I'm freaking out so much about it because usually I'm a pretty relaxed person but oh my god, not right now. I don't know what to pack, what my course is going to be like, how I'll make friends, how I'll have enough money. Everything. I feel so under-prepared and it's kind of getting me down a bit.


I did find out where I'm going to be living though. I'll be in a house with five other girls. My bedroom is upstairs which is nice, and we're in a little cul de sac of fourteen houses, all of which are owned by the uni. So there's going to be 83 other students in our little close and hopefully lots of house parties! I bought some cute little fairy lights for my room there today, and I'm taking loads of sequinned cushions and India-inspired bed throws to jazz it all up a bit.


I'm moving up there in 4 weeks and two days and that terrifies me. My best friend starts her course in just over two weeks and my full time bestie/ part time boyf starts his in three weeks. It's all creeping up so fast and sometimes I feel like crying because I love my life down here so much and I don't want to move 200 miles away to live with people I don't know and to cook my own meals and not have my dad wake me up every morning and not bitch to my mum about annoying people. I really hope I love it more when I get up there. I don't want to be one of those people who drops out in the first few weeks. Or ever, actually. 


Wow, this post got depressing quickly! Not so much an "August catch up" as a "Friday evening cry fest". On a brighter note, I had my first coffee frappuchino from Starbucks today and I freaking loved it! Speaking of frappes, I did an extra shift at work on Wednesday and I was put on drive thru drinks, meaning I had to make everything drinky. Frappes, smoothies, fizzies, milkshakes, coffees - you name it, I made it. And then disaster struck: I broke the milkshake machine. I mean, I broke it to the extent where customers waiting for milkshakes had to be refunded and anyone wanting to order one was told that they couldn't. Something about not pulling the levers properly bla bla, I'm not too sure, but I do know I probably won't be entrusted with making the drinks again!


I hope you're all having a swell week and that if you're getting ready for uni, you're not freaking out too much!


Song of the day:


Monday 25 August 2014

Dream House pt. 3

Dream House pt. 3



Here I am, still having fun with my dream home! This shower curtain is so jazzy and I love the wall colour too. Basically, I need to win the lottery and build my own house from scratch. Well, I wouldn't be doing any of the building so much as hiring some actual builders to do it for me. Hope y'all are having a sweeeeet day!

Friday 22 August 2014

Dream House pt. 2

Dream House pt. 2

So, continuing with my dream home (this is becoming a bit of an obsession!) I've done the bedroom. There's a bit of a situation going on with the lamp not reaching the ceiling but aside from that, I'm so happs with it. Lots of books, lots of colour, and a burger at the foot of the bed for a midnight snack. What more could you want?!
If you guys love designing your future homes too, let me know because I'd love to see them. I think it's so interesting how people's tastes are different, especially for home decor because I think your home is such a huge part of who you are.

Dream House pt. 1

Dream House pt. 1


I've been thinking a lot about home decor lately - perhaps as I'm moving out soon!!!! - and I thought it might be fun to do different polyvore sets of various rooms in my ideal home. This one is looking like a bit of a living room area but I'll be doing lots of other bits and pieces, probably more for my own entertainment than yours, because this is bloody fun!

Sunday 17 August 2014

Here's to Gen Y

As an employee of the fabulous McDonald's, I have access to the staff website and there's a little section on there with messages from satisfied customers. I was having a little peruse to see if there was anything nice about me (lol, never) when I came across this:


"Just to say that this was the most tidy and well organised McDonald’s I have ever used. I was in there from 10.20 to 13.15, Helen and Linda kept the tables floors, and everything else in very good order at all times without fuss and intrusion. They had the right attitude and did it with a smile on their faces, better than some fine dining restaurants. Some of our youngsters could learn something from this."


Some of our youngsters could learn something from this.

Some of our youngsters could learn something from this.

Some of our youngsters could learn something from this.


My first reaction was just mate fuck off, and I don't even like to swear that much. There was a photo attached of aforementioned Helen and Linda and they're two ladies in their forties or fifties. Okay sweet, this customer took the time to compliment them on their dedication to their job whatever, bla bla, but the bit that really got me (in case you can't tell from all my bolding and underlining of text) is the TOTALLY UNNECESSARY criticism of young people.


Unless you have ever observed a young person working at McDonald's in such detail as this customer has apparently observed Helen and Linda, you definitely cannot make this comparison. I don't know if I would get so worked up about this whole thing if young people hadn't had such a bad press lately. All these middle aged reporters write things about young convicts and rising teen pregnancy rates and poor exam results, but you rarely hear anything good about anyone from this generation.


What about the fact that 90% of people of my age who I know have part time jobs to save money for university? What about students doing World Challenge to help build wells in African villages? Or what about all the local charity work that has been carried out by young people in the past year? Because, let me tell you, that's getting pretty popular. I don't mean that in a snide or critical way, but so many young people are involved in schemes like this and you hear next to nothing about it.


In my job, I've come into contact with many people over the past year. I get shouted at and complained at and made to feel like shit a lot, and I've even been driven to tears by a customer (lol), but I'm sitting here racking my brains trying to think of an occasion where a person under the age of thirty has done any of these things. And I can't. Of course, there will be "youngsters" who do treat people like crap but, in my experience, they seem to treat you indifferently. Not nice, but certainly not horrible. And similarly, of course not all older people will be nasty to you. It's just a small group of people who I've met.


So yes, the older generations can sit here and slate younger people and brand us as rude and lazy and call us parasites, but at the end of the day and, as cliche as it sounds, we are the future and YOU RAISED US. There's nothing wrong with the youth of today. We'll turn out just fine, and we don't need to be constantly criticised for that to happen. Here's to Gen Y!

Thursday 14 August 2014

THE FIRST DAY OF THE REST OF MY LIFE

Results day 2014, holla!!!!!!


I've had a bit of a horrible time with my A2 studies this year and I was kind of dreading this day. But at 8.00am today, I was met with a beautiful sight:



Receiving ABB when you think you're going to get BBC is a wonderful thing. So wonderful that I looked into last-minute-applying to a better university than Chester. But I really did fall in love with both the city and the uni itself when I went to visit, plus I couldn't ask for better course content. So, come next month, I'll officially be a student at The University of Chester!!!! maifadvknajskcn!!!!


I hit up McDonald's for a sausage and egg McMuffin with my friends after we picked up the fated brown envelopes and since then, I've been laying around at home almost unable to believe that two years of intensely hard work in condensed into exactly what you see in the above photo. A few numbers and three letters. This probably isn't the right time to go into how much I hate the British education system, so I'll leave you with a song that I've had on repeat today:



I hope all your A levels have gone well and that you've made it into your top uni, or the apprenticeship, or the job you want. Whatever it is you're doing next, I hope today hasn't been too stressful! xo

Monday 11 August 2014

The Unavoidable Sun

The Unavoidable Sun


Motel sleeve dress
$59 - motelrocks.com


Motel grunge babydoll dress
$59 - motelrocks.com


Vintage black dress
yoyomelody.com


Dr. Martens navy shoes
$185 - styletread.com.au




Essie pink nail polish
$18 - austique.co.uk


Essie blue nail polish
$13 - boots.com



I've just bought this dress from Motel and I absolutely love it but I was feeling far too lazy to try it on for a post, so here's a polyvore set instead. I'm planning to do pink and blue nails over the next few days hence the Essies, and I've finally jumped on that black choker necklace bandwagon. Evidently embracing my inner hipster.




Wednesday 6 August 2014

Mid summer hauling: clothes

I know we're way past Midsummer's Day but I feel like we're actually mid-way through the summer season now, hence the post title. I've been doing a bit of shopping lately and have a few bits and pieces I wanted to post about on here. Tragically, I put up photos of pretty much every single new item of clothing I get, so if you read the majority of my posts, then you've probably seen my whole wardrobe!


I'll start with what I bought at Latitude:



My first purchase was this cheesy tshirt but I couldn't help myself. I loved the blue and green colours and the way they fade into each other. It's also a really nice reminder of one of the best weekends ever, and when I get bored (often yo) I can sit down and read the back of it to reminisce about seeing my favourite artists live.




Also at Latitude, I popped into the Oxfam tent where they had hundreds of "vintage" bits and bobs. I think anything "vintage" is such a rip off (it's just old clothes!!!) but they had tons of denim shirts for just £6 each. I've been after one for a while and I love this classic denim colour; none of that acid wash bleach stained distressed mumbo jumbo. (Apparently I'm really good at doing serious faces in these photos, hahaha). This shirt is such a staple in my wardrobe now, it's so versatile.


A few days after I got back from Latitude, I popped up to Covent Garden with Jess for one of our retail therapy sessions. H&M have some absolute gems in right now so I decided to splurge a bit and buy two (shock, horror!!!) dresses.



This is 100% my favourite thing in this post. I'm so tempted to go back and buy it in the mint green colour too! I think this would flatter just about anybody given that it nips it at the waist and then goes out again to skim over any bulges one might have on one's stomach (me, but who would know with this dress on?!?! haha). The lacy cutout bits are so cute too. No really, everyone should go and buy this dress and it's such a steal being only £10. All praise H&M.




The second dress is this baby. I'll say it, it's not the most flattering thing I own but it's kind of a bit of a smock dress, and when do they ever accentuate your figure? Like, never. But it's comfy and wearable and I really love it. The aztec-style print is also really cute so it's a win-win dress, really.


The last bits I deemed nice enough to honour with a spot on this prestigious post were also bought on my day out with Jess, this time in TK Maxx:



I did it, I gave in. I jumped on that kimono bandwagon. I could help myself, not when a PAISLEY kimono presented itself to me. I will go for just about anything if it's got a bit of paisley print on it, especially if the colours are as gorgeous as they are on this one. From here, it looks a bit like it's got some polka dots, but they're actually very tiny strawberries, which is so adorable! I love it.



And finally, these. I'd been looking for a pair of nudey coloured shoes for a while and wowee, I love suede booties too. I saw them and said to Jess "oh my god, I really want them". And then I was like "oh Jess I hope they don't fit me, then I won't be tempted". But you know what, they did fit me and I was tempted and I did buy them. And I freaakin love them. I had a slight scare when I wore them out to lunch at Honest Burgers and it started pouring down with rain, because that would have ruined them - but some angels made it stop raining just in time for me to run back to the car! Hallelujah.


Song(s) of the day:


Tuesday 5 August 2014

UPDATE #1: Summer to-do list

About a month ago, I wrote a summer to-do list for the 2014 Blogger Challenge. So here we are, with only 26 days to go until my summer is over and I've ticked off a scarily low number of things on the list (and all of them appear to have been fulfilled at Latitude!).


1. Pull at least three all nighters.
I did two at Latitude, so just one more to go. I'm making excellent progress on this point.

Taken on All Nighter Number One 19/07/2014

2. Become best friends with someone I want to be.
I'm going to have to change this one to "become friends" because "best friends" is a bit of a tall order. I met such a rad girl at Latitude called Lily. She's seventeen, from York, and works in an ice cream van. She's so carefree and hippie and cool, and we spent the whole weekend together. I will be forever thanking the god that, in a field of 20,000 tents, she somehow pitched hers next to mine.

Rad Lily on the far left, and me on the far right


3. Lose my voice from singing too much, too loud.
Check check check check. Four nights at Latitude allowed for this to happen multiple times. God bless festivals.

With my right eye closed, treating everyone to a pre-Haim singsong session


5. Not be sick from copious amounts of drinking.
Again, four nights at a festival usually means lots of drinking but guuuurl knows her limits and wasn't sick at all.

Sweaty but happy


8. Stay in touch with new friends.
I'm definitely doing this. Facebook group chats are a lifesaver when it comes to casual, bantery chit chat with more than one person.

Another Kate on the far right, the person from Latitude I speak to the most now


13. Improve my henna tattoo skills.
My henna skills are poor. But rad Lily showed me how to do cute designs at Latitude and I like to think I'm improving a bit. I tragically don't have any photos of this but I'll hopefully get some before the summer's over.


So actually, I've completed (nearly) six things on the list, which is almost half. I'm tidying my room tomorrow though, so that will mean that number 11 is completed. How riveting this must sound to you (not)! I hope you're all having a fabulous summer too. xo

About Time

2014 Blogger Challenge - post 14


I know I'm not alone in saying that About Time is my current favourite film. It's another romantic masterpiece by the genius that is Richard Curtis, yet it's not only love which drives the plot forward. I'm not really too sure which genre it falls into; romance, drama, comedy, and sci-fi all work. The ever-flawless Rachel McAdams plays a babe of a love interest for the slightly awkward yet totally relatable Tim, portrayed by a fabulously ginger Domhnall Gleeson.


I'm keeping this post relatively short and sweet but what I will say is that while you'll shed a tear or two, it leaves you with such a great feeling and absolutely loving life. It might also change your attitude to life, if only for a few days. I know it did for me. I love that, despite the sci-fi parts of the premise, it seems so real. All the relationships and friendships and interactions are so plausible that you feel time travel is almost something which could happen to you.


I'm not really doing this beauty justice with these words so I'll stop here but I 100% recommend you go and watch it if you haven't already (it appears I was a bit late on the About Time bandwagon!). You will love it, I promise.