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