Friday 31 January 2014

Cool Things #3

I had my first placement phone interview the other day and I have another one at the end of february, how exciting! Things are looking up, however I am getting so fed up with writing out application forms now. We have also been house hunting this week so if I manage to get a placement in Leeds, I have somewhere to live...

I love photography, I got an A* at GCSE and A at A Level, in the back of my mind I kinda wish I went into it instead of accounting. This incredible work is by Nicolas Bruno, who is actually the same age as me - bit depressing. He uses his sleep paralysis dreams for his inspiration and creates fantastic surreal photographs. I'm definitely going to try and get some more film photography done in Feb, might even use my dreams as inspiration... I think they might be a bit too crazy to photography though. I actually dreamt of kittens the other night and actually squealed out loud, I terrified David and I was woken up by him shaking me, hil-arrrrr-ious.

Bit strange? Yes, but totally cool. Pregnancy/birth is such a magical experience and this is such a rare occasion, I think its incredible that the baby didn't even know it had been born! Amazing. Definitely reading the source!

Tehe, these dolphins are so clever! I actually saw this as a gif first, they just look like they are having so much fun!

Oh god, this is hilarious. Have you seen any performances from the Grammys yet? Well I watched Taylor's performance before I saw this version and I was like she wasn't attacked!?! Then I watched the video hahahah, it really does look like is she is having some sort of stroke or something. Beyonce and Jay-Z's performance was so raunchy too.

Saturday 25 January 2014

Road trip to Manchester

It's taken me like 2 weeks to finally finish this post, I've just not wanted to finish it and I don't know why... I submitted my essay the other week and I thought I'd finally see what all the fuss is about with Breaking Bad, and so far I am loving it, I will rport back once I've watexperience or tre. I'v lost my Ted Baker purse SOMEHOW in the house. If you don't follow me on Twitter, then you won't know, but I'm going out my mind. I think I've actually accidentally binned it and I'm so angry with myself. 
Lucy and I pretending to be Disney Princess' in ASDA

I should probably tell you why we went to Manchester, well Lucy got 4 tickets to go and see The Jeremy Kyle Show, so we decided to make it a full trip! The drive to Manchester from our home is just over a 2 hours journey, but instead we thought we'd make it an extra hour longer and take a detour to the Peak District. A lovely pit stop to see the views, rocks and to have walk around. The Peak District is beautiful and is located in northern Derbyshire, it's full of hills, wildlife and the views are breathtaking. I'm so jealous of Lucy and her boyfriend who are going in the next month or so for a couple days, definitely want to go again, and this time bring my camera!


Lucy managed to find a great deal for an apartment in Manchester city centre, at Blue Rainbow Apartments for the night. In a two bedroom apartment with kitchen and living room, altogether it cost us about £50 for the night. Perfect location right near Deansgate Lock which is a 10 minute walk to the town centre. The only down side is they never told us that on arrival you had to place a £100 deposit for the room incase you drank any of the alcohol they conveniently left in the fridge. Luckily for us the card machine wasn't working so we didn't have to pay the deposit, which meant more spending money ehehehe.
How cute are the roses they left around the apartment
       

We got to Manchester about 3pm, checked in, dropped off our bags and got our bearings around the city. I  tasted my first ever Taco Bell, wandered around Manchester and the Arndale for a couple of hours and then spent the rest of the night in the flat. Ordered a chinese later on and watched We're the Millers! Which was such a good film, very heartwarming and hilarious, definitely buying it for my DVD collection.
We woke up nice and early on the Thursday, after an amazing nights sleep, to do some retail therapy before we saw Jeremy. We went a little mad, David bought a telescope, I got a cute pale green phone bumper from HMV, 59p reduced from £14.99 (crazy savings, I know) and I finally bought a pink boyfriend coat from Miss Selfridge - it is gorgeous, my OOTD is here!
We then got some pub grub and rushed back to the hotel to grab the car and drive to Mediacityuk. We literally had no time to have a look around, we were told to get there for 14:15 and arrived bang on time so we had a couple of minutes to relax until we were called in. We didn't even get chance to get a picture with the daleks *sobs*.
When we were called in, we waited in the reception for an hour, so boring, then the team explained what was going to happen and ran through some likely reactions - lots of BOOOOOO, awwwwh and cheering! Obviously the better we were the more exciting the show is.
We then went through to the studio, walked behind the back of the scenes (where you see everyone storming off), the four of us were placed smack bang in the middle, third row up, which is where they place the family members, so we were switched about in each story. Unfortunately we were totally forbidden to take any pictures of the studio, it basically looks exactly the same as it does on the telly, however it seems so much more smaller in 3D!
The floor manager was absolutely hilarious, telling us everything that was going to happen with his cheeky jokes. We had a test run, while we were waiting for Jeremy to finish getting ready with some of the audience members.
We had three stories, all went really quick, we were in there for about 2 hours! They literally were one after another, and when Jeremy introduced the break it was silent for about a minute and then the show started again, so bizarre.
The stories where actually really tame, I won't go into detail but it should be shown on the telly in about 4 weeks! I'll give you a heads up when its going to be on! I definitely recommend you get applying for some tickets to see the show, I can just describe it as hilarious and an experience - hopefully you'll have more crazy story lines. If you cant get tickets (took us a couple months) you can always go to media city when they are recording and queue as they let a couple people in to fill up the spare no show priroty seats.

Tuesday 21 January 2014

Miss Selfridge Boyfriend Coat

                
Shirt: Vintage
Collar clip: My grandmas
Leggings: New Look
Shoes: Tesco (£3 bargain!)
Huge apologies these pictures are terrible, David refused to take the OOTD with my DSLR because he couldn't be bothered to faff about with the settings and demanded he used my phone instead.
How amazing is this coat? I fell in love with it in Manchester - post to follow - and I just needed it. I've been after a boyfriend/cocoon coat for ages now, I even made a shopcade list of my favourites, but when I saw this, I knew I had found the one I wanted.
On Friday night (delayed post I know) me and David went for some food before I went back to Leeds. We just popped around the corner from my house to a pub called The Farmhouse, I'd not been in for years but recently they have had a change of chef and we'd both heard good things. We ordered a sharing starter which turned out to be huge, I was so full after eating it all, I literally barely touched my main. Luckily we both went for a light flat bread and a panini so it wasn't too bad, I did manage to eat a lot of delicious sweet potato fries, yummm!
Tigs rocking David's vest...

Friday 17 January 2014

Happy Birthday Blog!

The blog is one today! I can't believe it's been a whole year since I wrote my first blog post. Looking back at my three simple resolutions and I only achieved a mere 1.5 out of 3 of them and this year I have 40! However I'm more determined to stick to them this year, I've decided to design a poster with them all on, print it out and stick it on my uni wall!

I just want to say a big thank you to everyone that reads, comments and contributes to my blog. I can't wait to blog more content this year, it was very sporadic this first year and I refuse to let it be like that this year! I'm planning on getting a new look for the blog in a couple of weeks if I get my design head on and attempt it.
I've thoroughly enjoyed my first year of blogging, I've worked with some great companies this year such as Shopcade, Baking Mad and Sugar + Style and hopefully a lot more in this year to come.

Tuesday 14 January 2014

Cool things #2

Okay, I already broke one of my resolutions, however I have had an essay due today so I've been busy doing that for a couple of days. But now its all over till the start of semester 2 in february!
Anyway, as promised, things i've found pretty cool this week

Pentatonix is a 5 man acapella group, who are just incredible. If you have no idea what acapella is, then just wow, it is when music is made without instruments and it's just amazing what these guys can do with just their mouths and voice boxes! 

I think my heart actually melted when I saw this picture. IT'S SO FREAKING ADORABLE!

David actually sent me this video and after I watched it, I said 'I hope I can dance like that at that age'. He then laughed at me a lot and said they aren't "elderly" ....... Easy mistake, right? Either way their dancing is awesome!

I've taken up knitting and thought that this idea was so cute. Look at the little penguins ehehhehehe. I would love to knit a jumper for a penguin however I don't I'll be at that skill level anytime soon. To be honest, the first comment on this article is actually kind of true at the fact the wool might not help them at all and could make matter worse...

Annika is my new favourite blogger! I really enjoy everything she writes about, her fashion sense is awesome and I love this DIY of a Circle Dress she made from second hand bedsheets! My plan is to follow the tutorial and hopefully make it as perfect as hers when I get back to uni.

Me and David have booked our tickets for Bilbao BBK Live 2014 in July which is so exciting, the plan is to travel around Spain after so we were looking for cultural festivals and events that we could attend while are there. This is what we found, crazy Spaniards. This is a picture from their Human Tower Competition Tradition they hold every 2 years, these pictures of the event are incredible, check out the source to see them in more detail!

Of course another Beyonce related video. With the release of her surprise Visual Album - which is so fucking amazing - she has release a part 5 documentary of behind the scenes making the album and the videos. I've watched each part a couple times now and I'm just so much more in love with her. Definitely worth watching all parts, as they all reveal details of the song meanings and how she wrote/sung them. She is just so cool.

Tuesday 7 January 2014

Real Techniques from iHerb.com

I introduce to you, iHerb. I would like to thank Lily Melrose for introducing me to the site, unfortunately I can not find her post to show you! I had been meaning to get my hands on some Real Techniques for months now, and just hadn't got round to ordering them. iHerb is an American website which sells nutritional supplements and lots of other healthy products.
Hayley and I chipped in together for the shipping as we both treat ourselves to some new brushes. I ordered the Core Collection set and the Stippling Brush, whereas Hayley ordered the Blush Brush and the Setting Brush. This came to a total of $39.96 including $4.00 shipping costs.
A friend told us to be weary of shipping from America as they do spot checks on parcels which charges about £30 a pop, an inconvenience but a price me and Hayley were prepared to pay if it got checked. Mainly because we were getting the brushes so cheap anyway!

$39.96 works out about £24.33, and for 7 Real Techniques brushes, that is just crazy cheap.
The shipping was only £2.44 and between the two of us it was pittance. We ordered end of November and received our parcel on 19th December, so it took about 20 days for our order to arrive. You can pay more, I think its $8.00 to get it delivered to you earlier, but we saw no point.
We'd rather wait 20 days and pay £24.33 for the brushes rather than walking in to Boots, freely and paying £52.96 for the same thing!
The brushes are just the same quality and fortunately they didn't arrive damaged, which is always a risk. iHerb also emailed me a couple days before arrival asking if our parcel had arrived yet and if not to let them to know when and if there is any problems. Which reassured me that they were there to help if there was a delivery problem.

I actually haven't looked properly on the site for anything else other than the Real Techniques, however I do plan to see what their skincare and makeup section is like, see if I can any more bargains!

Have you ever used iHerb before?

Sunday 5 January 2014

2014 goals


I hate the term 'resolutions', it's almost like we make them to break them. I've come up with a couple of things that I would love to have achieved by the end of the year. Kind of like Becky Bedbug's 101 in 1001, however I don't think I could possibly think of 1001 things!

Blogging Goals:
1. A blog post a week with my 'cool things' feature
2. Blog more about baking
3. Go to a blogger event
4. Meet a blogger in "real life"
5. Read everyone's beautiful blogs more often
6. Write more reviews on products
7. Be more consistent at writing posts

Career Goals:
8. Focus more on university work - well I am paying 9k for it.
9. Pass second year - would be most ideal
10. Get a placement - ideally in Leeds, ideally with a good company. However I am NOT being picky, i'm just applying everywhere and anywhere. (If you have any/know of any Accounting internships, hit me up - I'm the best)
11. Be more confident in myself, I always doubt if i'm right or not, and I think especially with my work this is a big weakness of mine
12. Move in a nice flat or somewhere nice for my placement
13. Get supervisory role at O2

Personal Goals:
14. Lose my uni weight - you either can't afford to eat or you eat too much crap...
15. Watch a shit load of Disney films
16. Go to see Charl, Tori and Alice in Spain at least once every 2 months... Hopefully if I can afford it, they are all leaving me for a semester in the sun, boo!
17. Go on holiday with David for the first time
18. Find the perfect skin care routine for me
19. Read the book David got me for Christmas 2012
20. Watch everything on my TV series list
21. See the fireworks on New Year in London
22. Explore Leeds more - I've lived here over a year now, why haven't I yet?
24. Go for a bike ride in Leeds
25. Go to an outdoor cinema
26. Visit friend's from uni in their home town
27. See BeyoncĂ© live again - without paying more than £100 for a ticket
28. Be more like Beyoncé!!?

Creative Goals:
29. Have a creative night at least once every 2 weeks with Hayley
30. Make a smock dress with the help of Annika Victoria's blog DIY DIY 
31. Make some clothes with the patterns I bought
32. Make a scrapbook of first and second year of uni
33. Get a new lens
34. Shoot more in film! I love film photography
35. Photograph my soon to be step-sister's wedding
36. Keep a 'Good things jar 2014'
37. Learn Spanish
38. Learn how to knit
39. Knit something substantial
40. Use pinterest more


Here's to a good year!

Saturday 4 January 2014

Cool things #1

Merry New Year! I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas. Mine has been hectic, travelling to and from Leeds, home and Sheffield. I spent Christmas with my dad in Sheffield, which was lovely, although I had to go back to Leeds for work on Boxing day. Which to be honest wasn't such a bad shift 9.30pm - 5.30am, I got £15 in tips (yess), I took top take of the night and won a flatpack aeroplane which I conveniently left in Leeds. I had 2 glasses of Baileys at 5.30am, which was a perfect way to end the shift.

I've been thinking of some 2014 goals which I will share with you once I have thought of a reasonable amount! One of them is to do a weekly post of pictures/things/quotes or whatever that have made me think 'wow, thats pretty dam cool'. David and I raided reddit last night (which is why the sources aren't great) but here's the outcome.

An artists work, using a projector, glass and a wall! So beautifully clever. 

This is hilarious. I love everything about this, Jay-z face and Beyonce's reaction!

This is from a blogger I found, Annika who writes The Pineneedle Collective which is a Fashion, DIY and Science blog. Which I think is super cool. I actually tweeted her saying how much I enjoyed her blog and that me and David were going to try and make some DNA ourselves! She replied with 'If you manage to *MAKE* DNA you could probably get a Nobel prize - you can extract it, though ;)' ...  I felt so silly! However I am going to attempt to extract some!

Just oh my!

This is a tomato which has grown in a metal fence feature. I just think this incredible how its grown!

'SkyCycle' this is just a proposal, I'm assuming, but I think this is a really cool idea. Following the train routes around London with an above cycle track. This would lower the carbon footprint of the UK by not using cars, trains and tubes getting in, out and around London. How futuristic does it look! However I honestly don't think this would happen, it would cost a hell of a lot and would 12,000 people per hour actually use it?