Accidental Haul!

Hey guys!

I nipped into town today just to run a few errands and when I got home I realised I actually had quite a few bags with me so I thought I'd do a post to show you all my purchases. The ironic thing is, the errands I needed to run were returning things, and I definitely bought way more stuff than I took back, whoops!

I do love a good haul picture!

My first stop was New Look. I bought a pair of trainers in the sale online last week, as a present for my cousins 13th birthday, but annoyingly with New Look you have to either pay, I think it's £5 for delivery, or spend £20 to get click and collect, and since my nearest store is only a few miles away I really didn't fancy paying for delivery! So I bought a couple of jackets to bump the price up for click and collect. In fairness I did take them home and try them on to see if I liked them! But I didn't, so I was taking those back and whilst in the store I picked up a new pair of their white 'plimsolls' as they call them.
What I love about these is they look sort of like Converse, and they're SO comfortable. I have another pair of these but I wore them to Parklife festival back in June and they got really muddy, most of the dirt did come off in the wash and they're perfectly acceptable to wear, but I decided it would be nice to have a pair that I didn't mind getting dirty and could take the dogs for a walk in, and then a nice pair that I would wear for shopping and other casual outings, they're only £9.99 and New Look do student discount so they're a bargain really!
Also in New Look, I picked up a pair of elasticated ballet pumps, they look brown in the picture but they're actually a dark red, like maroon I suppose. I find this style of shoe so comfortable because they almost mould and move with your feet, rather than just staying in one shape. This was definitely an impulse purchase, but I have forced myself to throw a few pairs of flats away this summer as I've had them for way too long and they looked pretty shabby, so I needed to replace them! These pumps are only £8.99 (less with student discount), so they're not going to break the bank, that's my excuse anyway!

A girl can never have too many shoes!

The second place I went into was a shop called Jojo Maman Bebe. I haven't seen many of these around but I know it's a chain, and it basically sells maternity and baby stuff, and clothes and toys for young children too. My mum asked me to get a few presents for some relatives that have just had a baby girl, and if you ask any of my family and friends they'll tell you I LOVE buying presents. Basically my goal in life is to make loads of money so that one day I can be that relative that always gets the most awesome gifts that people actually like receiving, haha!
So yeah, in this shop I bought this little set of bibs, and what I loved about them is that they're pointed, so when they're on they look like neckerchiefs, so cute! I just realised I actually always get these for people when they have a baby, whoops! They're such good presents though, you can never have too many bibs, babies are messy little things!

I then popped into clintons to get a card and some wrapping paper to go with this gift. I love Clintons, they're always my first stop for cards and wrapping paper for literally every occasion. Although I feel like Paperchase deserve a mention too because their stuff is also beautiful!
So yeah, I found a really cute card that said 'Bundle of Joy' on the front, as well as the most adorable wrapping paper!

Next I nipped into a place called Rutherfords, which is basically a department store, I'm not sure if they have them anywhere other than Morpeth, but they sell all sorts of wonderful things! Home accessories, clothes, make up (even Benefit!), shoes, kitchen accessories, everything!
Whilst in here I picked up another present for the baby, which was this adorable little soft rattle with an elephant on top, see below...

Adorable baby gifts!

Also in Rutherfords I bought this 'receipt tin'. I'd been looking for one of these for a while as I like to keep track of things I buy, but especially since finishing uni I've been working on a couple of interior design projects and my mum has advised me I need to keep track of what I'm spending on fuel and stationery supplies, for future tax reasons apparently, it's all French to me! But that's what the tin is for, and I love the 'Bright Side' products, they're always so fun, this tin in particular says 'Denial Tin' on the top, and 'for money I used to have' on the front!

I don't think it will take me long to fill this!

My last purchase of the day was a lovely little lavender plant. One of the great things about Morpeth is the amount of markets there are (apart from the nightmare of trying to find a parking space on market days) I love supporting local businesses, and will always try to buy something from a market trader rather than a store if I can help it.
I had been thinking about getting a plant in my room, even though I'm AWFUL at looking after them, so I'm not really expecting it to last long! My room is a mixture of purples, so I thought a lavender plant would be a really nice addition to my windowsill since they smell so nice! At the moment it doesn't have any flowers on it, and I deliberately picked that one because I feel like you get the longest life out of them, providing you look after them well enough haha!

My room already smells so good from this!

I mentioned earlier that I had some parcels waiting for me when I got home. Well the first of these was the film 'The Book Thief'. I didn't really buy this for any particular reason, other than I think it's a brilliant film, but I bought something else and and this film popped up at a really good price, so I popped it in the basket, so yes I fell prey to Amazon's advertising skills...

For those of you who haven't seen it, The Book Thief is set in Germany during the Second World War and follows the story of a little girl who has been evacuated, and shows her building relationships with her new family and neighbours. I don't want to ruin the plot, as it's such a lovely story, so I'll just say that it's a great film, and that if you like movies set during wartime, and don't mind it potentially making you cry, then definitely give it a go! But yeah, it's definitely a tearjerker...

Last but certainly not least is another package I received today, which was some neon face paint!
Don't worry, it's not some crazy new make up idea, I bought it for Leeds Festival!! Which I'm going to at the end of the month, so so SO excited!
I was watching T in the Park on the telly and saw a lot of people wearing it, and it looked so cool at night with all the UV lights, so I thought I would try it out myself! Although I'm in a bit of a dilemma now, because I wore glitter on my face at Parklife, and it looked really cute, so I may have to alternate between days!

Anyway, that's it for my accidental haul, I've got a few product posts coming up soon, so stay tuned!

Thanks for reading! xxx

Finishing University and Starting Life as a Proper Grown Up!

Hey guys! I've FINALLY finished university, almost two months after the rest of my course, and am feeling so freeeeee!

Don't get me wrong I'm already missing uni so much, I actually cried when it came to moving out of my lovely little flat in halls and saying goodbye to all my amazing friends, but I'm certainly not going to miss the constant pressure and stress of work and deadlines, I'm amazed I've come out of my final year without having a complete mental breakdown!

Standard Dissertation Selfie!

It has now been two weeks since I handed my last pieces of work in (my dissertation and portfolio, the two most stressful things ever!) and I've already had my results back. I ended up finishing with a 2:1, which is great! If I'm honest I was really really hoping for a First, but considering I missed the last part of the second year coping with my beloved grandmother being diagnosed with terminal cancer and the breakdown of a long term relationship, and then also missed the first half of my final year when my poor Grandma eventually lost her battle after a really horrible fight, I'd say I've done pretty well, since a year ago I was seriously considering not returning to uni and giving it up altogether!

So the last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of deciding what to do with myself. I've had so many ideas for things I've wanted to do after uni and things I haven't let myself do because I knew it would distract me from work, that I have just sort of thrown myself into doing all these things.
Aside from copious trips to the beach with the dogs, and shopping days in Newcastle with my mum, I started off by sticking my long dead kindle on charge and getting stuck into a good old book, something I've really missed being able to do, as I know once I get into a story I won't put it down! I've been reading 'The Help' by Kathryn Stockett, as I loved the film back in 2011 and wanted to see if there were any parts that had been missed out! I then realised that there was going to be a new book out by Harper Lee, author of the classic 'To Kill a Mockingbird', so got stuck into that in preparation for the sequel, which I now have and am waiting to read. As well as these two, I've also spent most of today reading Louise Pentland, or as she is better known Sprinkle of Glitter's new book, 'Life with a  Sprinkle of Glitter', which I absolutely LOVE. I'll do a few book review posts once I've finished them all too!

This actually brings me on to the next project I have thrown self into, which is my bedroom! Back in March me, my mum and our two cats moved out of our cosy little home down in Lechlade, in the Cotswolds and lugged all our stuff up to Morpeth in Northumberland (not far from Newcastle) to move in with her partner, his two sons and three dogs - it's quite manic to say the least! But we love it. So I now have a lovely blank canvas of a bedroom to work with which is perfect for my new life as a post-graduate-proper-grown-up-adult type! I've already had my mum's poor partner putting up a new light, shelves and a mirror for me, as well as helping me move furniture around many times until I was happy with it! I also spent last week tidying and sorting, since moving up the country and out of uni at the same time left me with a LOT of stuff that didn't have a place, safe to say it was a mess haha! One wall has now been painted and decorated and I'm trying to decide what to do with the rest of them, a new duvet cover and cushions have been bought for my bed, as well as a load of trinkets and picture frames that I'm going to paint various different colours and put photos of my favourite people in. I also have some artwork by the amazing Babe and Butter that I need to frame and get put up, as well as put together a few cute ideas that I picked up from Louise's book that I mentioned earlier, it's all very exciting! I'll put up a blog post and possibly a room tour if I'm brave enough to video myself when it's all finished!

Another thing I have loved since finishing uni is having nails again! For those of you who have been following my blog since the start you may remember I used to post a lot of nail related stuff, and was constantly obsessing over new nail polishes etc...
When I started university I annoyingly started participating in the habit of biting my nails - gross I know! I don't know how this started, I've never bit my nails in my life, not even as a kid, but for some reason the stress of having work made me do it, so there was no point posting pictures of my disgusting nails and to be honest I stopped buying nail polish because it ended up chipped and looking awful.
Well, in the last two weeks they've come back! I'm so happy, it's amazing how quickly they grow when you aren't constantly attacking them! So watch this space for some nail related posts very soon!
My make up is another thing that's suffered over the last three years, I used to take some much time and effort over doing my make up every day, but that sort of stopped when I went to uni. Don't get me wrong I couldn't leave the house without some make up on, no one at uni has seen me bare faced I can safely say that! But I certainly didn't bother with anything fancy, just a bit of foundation, eyeliner and mascara, shudder. So I'm back to my old ways of watching youtube tutorials and experimenting with this wonderful stuff again!

As much as this is all very exciting and sounds fairly productive, I should probably mention that I have also delved right back into the wonderful world that is netflix, and haven't even started job-hunting, naughty Rachael! (monkey covering his eyes emoji!) so I'm hoping to do that this week, and I've got so many exciting ideas for this blog now that I have time to do it again, so please keep checking back, hopefully it won't be too long! I'm hoping to get a few more written this week.
Please let me know if there is anything you'd like me to write about, maybe you need advice because you're just starting uni yourself, or you're also undertaking an interiors project and can offer me some advice! Anything at all, get in touch, I don't bite!

Thanks for reading! xxx