I feel like we're just storming through this year already! I don't know about you but I'm actually having a lovely time. These past two months have bought with them some payoff for a lot of hard work (my autumn term essay results back: two 2:1s and a first so very happy with that.) I've been exercising discipline in terms of healthy eating and exercising and, as a result, have lost half a stone! A way to go before I'm in a healthy weight range but I'm very proud of my progress and am determined to keep being good to myself.
I've also been being a lot more social. Recently a group of people on my course, a few I was already friends with but most of whom I'd only vaguely known by sight/ name all went out for drinks together and we got on really well, we've since been out a few times and I'm having a really lovely time with them. I'd missed having a proper 'gang' of friends since being at university. I love the girls I live with but it's great to have other mates to go out and have fun with as well.
So since this year has started off so well, I'm really hoping to keep the momentum going through March and thought I'd set myself a few mini goals for the month to keep myself focused:
01. Work Hard and Ace my Assessed Essays.
I did pretty well with last term's essays so I want to keep the momentum going. I have three more essays and a creative writing piece (all of 1800 - 2000 words each. Eek!) in for the 21st of March so I need to get cracking with those. It's strange how it seems like I have ages and ages to get it all done, but when I think of the amount of research and reading needed for each essay I really don't have enough time at all!
02. Step up my Healthy Habits Routine.
My current routine amounts to one gym session a week, maybe two and sticking to sensible meals and snacking only on fruit. It's working well, but I'd like to take it up a notch. I want to make it to the gym twice a week regularly and maybe even get it to three times if I can. I know lots of people hate the gym but I love the feeling of having pushed myself in both body and mind and it really does make a difference in terms of seeing results. Food wise I just want to keep going, but maybe start to increase my vegetable portions and cut down a little bit on the carbohydrate front, particularly if I've got no evening plans and nowhere to use up the energy I'm taking in. Once I've reached my first stone goal I might do a post about enjoying the gym and sticking to a routine.
03. Sleep properly!
This made it to my New Years Resolutions post back in January. I'm a serious 'night person' to the point where my natural body rhythm would have me wake up at 11am and not sleep until 3am. I've actually been to see doctors who've told me that there's nothing actually wrong with me, I simply operate best at night. Unfortunately the rest of the world operates on a 9-5 schedule and I've found myself slipping and missing classes and doing things with friends simply because I've been asleep! It's ridiculous! So I'm trying to discipline myself to be in bed with the lights out at 12:30 every day that I don't go out for the whole of this month. (and with these essays due soon I won't be making going out a habit by any means.) Hopefully I'll be able to sort myself out and get back into a 'normal human being' sleeping pattern... rather than that of a cat!
So those are my mini goals for March 2014. They aren't very exciting or fancy but this month is about being productive and making the next 31 days ones to look back on and feel proud of myself.
Let me know what your plans are for March. What goals are you setting for yourself?
I don't really do individual book reviews, I tend to wait until I've read a selection and then choose a few that have covers that will look nice together in the photos. Here for example. The major issue with this is that at University I do so much 'required reading' for classes and researching essays that I don't get much of a chance to really read proper books... which to me seems like it defeats the object of an English degree if I'm completely honest, or is that just me?
This is actually a book I read last term for a Nineteenth Century Novel module which I enjoyed. I found that I liked a lot of the books but none of them quite touched my heart like this one, so I thought I'd share one of the few books I read on this course that I genuinely loved.
North and South is, in a nutshell, the story of Margaret Hale. She's a young middle class woman who moves with her parents from a very comfortable environment in the South of England to live in the industrial town of Milton where she develops a passionate sense of social justice and a complicated relationship with mill owner John Thornton.
For anyone interested in Classic Literature, or who likes reading but can't find a classic that they like I would highly recommend this, particularly if your usual lurking area of bookstores is the 'Chick-Lit' section. It's sweet and girly but with dramatic, heartbreaking moments, a wonderfully complex cast of characters and really powerful commentary on Victorian class culture. Margaret Hale in particular is a brilliant character. She's not perfect by any means, what interesting character is? She's haughty and proud but is at the same time incredibly kind hearted and refuses to back down from what she believes.
A lot of people shy away from classic literature because they worry that the language will be too complex and "ye olde" for them, but honestly I read this with little to no problems at all, there were moments where I didn't quite understand a bit of grammar or didn't understand a reference but I just glossed over them and at no point felt like I'd missed anything important.
The romantic thread that runs through the plot is often compared to that of Lizzie Bennet and Mr Darcy's story in Pride and Prejudice. I may be committing literary heresy to some of you, but I think this is actually better. Lizzie and Darcy jar simply because they don't like each other and are both too stubborn to back down. The romantic interests in North and South clash on important social issues and it's the passionate debates that the two engage in that create heat and tension between the couple as they try and push each other into their way of thinking. For me this is far more entertaining and makes the romance far more fiery and exciting.
I think I've gushed enough. Go read this book! Not only is it a beautiful story with strong characters and a breathtaking plot, but you can sit next to people who are reading Nicholas Sparks and whatever '50 Shades style garbage' has been churned out recently on the train, and feel smug that you're reading and enjoying a piece of fine English literature. No downside!
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Another LUSH review! (yay!) I'm back at uni now (boo! work!) and as such have had to give up my luxurious bubbly baths in favour of frugal, water saving quickie showers, which is what happens when you and 6 other people share a water bill. I knew this was coming, and that it would be another month at least until I got to visit home and pamper myself properly again. Therefore, the night before I left for uni, after I'd packed and gotten all my stuff sorted, I had the mother of all bubble baths with this baby.
The comforter bubble bar is one of my favourite LUSH products, definitely in my top five (Blog post idea anyone?) It smells like fruity, juicy berries and turns the water a luxurious magenta colour. It's also HUGE, meaning that it can easily be cut in half and used twice, with each half producing plenty of bubbles. While I do that most of the time, I decided to go all out and actually crumbled the whole thing into the tub before sinking into the mountainous peaks of pink foam. Heaven. I also really do feel that my skin benefits from this particular bubble bar, though that could just be because I enjoy using it so much, but I definitely find my skin feeling softer and moisturised which is great.
For me this is the perfect wind down after a string of stressful days, as the scent isn't too sugary or citrus based, it isn't 'energizing' (who on earth takes energizing baths I ask you?) and gets you all relaxed and ready to slip into your 'fresh from the tumble dryer' jammies and settle down to a good film or book for the evening. My overall impression of this product therefore: Buy it! Buy it now!
The comforter bubble bar is one of my favourite LUSH products, definitely in my top five (Blog post idea anyone?) It smells like fruity, juicy berries and turns the water a luxurious magenta colour. It's also HUGE, meaning that it can easily be cut in half and used twice, with each half producing plenty of bubbles. While I do that most of the time, I decided to go all out and actually crumbled the whole thing into the tub before sinking into the mountainous peaks of pink foam. Heaven. I also really do feel that my skin benefits from this particular bubble bar, though that could just be because I enjoy using it so much, but I definitely find my skin feeling softer and moisturised which is great.
For me this is the perfect wind down after a string of stressful days, as the scent isn't too sugary or citrus based, it isn't 'energizing' (who on earth takes energizing baths I ask you?) and gets you all relaxed and ready to slip into your 'fresh from the tumble dryer' jammies and settle down to a good film or book for the evening. My overall impression of this product therefore: Buy it! Buy it now!
Thankyou for reading!
This amazing DIY bracelet tutorial. Takes some effort but imagine accepting compliments with a gracious "Oh thanks, I made it myself actually!"
This incredible swimming pool. With slides!! This is definitely a feature in my fantasy home.
This Smaug embossed moleskine... and yes I have already bought this.
Clean Bandit's latest offering, Rather Be. Gorgeous song and really getting noticed. Quite right too.
This BAMF Juana Galan, who, at twenty years old, essentially led the women of her village to defend themselves against Napoleon's army in 1808. And yes, she's usually pictured with that big stick.
This recipe for cheesy onion baked salmon. NOM.
A really interesting piece by Margaret Atwood on writing about 'badly behaved' female characters in literature.
The Instagrammed adventures of two Dads and their incredibly cute kids!
This brilliant article on Not Giving A Fuck. I recommend bookmarking... or printing and sticking to your fridge.
Blogs I've Loved:
Hey look it's a new feature! I spend a lot of time tramping about on the internet and often come across some pretty interesting stuff, so I thought in the same vein as Things I Love Thursdays and Wednesday Wishlists etc, I would start putting out a weekly offering of fun, interesting or exciting things I've come across during my many hours of
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.Essie - No More Film . OPI - Lucky Lucky Lavender . A-England - Galahad.
Predictably since my return to University life my blogging has taken a nosedive, but I thought I'd get back on the bandwagon with a little post about some of my favourite nail polishes of the moment, they're all lovely quality, really flattering shades that make regular appearances on my ever changing polish rotation and, I believe, examples of colours every nail polish wearer should have in their arsenal.
Essie's No More Film looks, at first glance, like your classic staple navy blue, but it leans ever so slightly purple which makes it a wonderfully rich, deep shade and the formula is a dream and dries very glossy. Lucky Lucky Lavender is a brilliant, versatile pink-toned lavender (funny that). Demure enough for an occasion in which you want to be taken seriously, but still show a little femininity without it becoming too sugary sweet. A must for any pink lover looking for a 'grown up' option.
Lastly, I firmly believe that there is an aqua/turquoise for everyone, and if you haven't found it yet, you haven't been looking hard enough. I find a lot of people go straight for very whited out, pastel shades. A-England's offering Galahad is much more interesting and, I think, flattering. A creamy, glossy shade that makes me think of mermaid lagoons. The formula is flawless, often a one-coater, and I can't think of an occasion or outfit that this beautiful shade wouldn't suit.
Well there we go, hopefully if you're in the market for a new polish you'll consider these beauties. I should be back within the week with another post (I've got a few drafts up and ready to go so I won't be trying to bash a post out on the hoof.) Hope you're all having a lovely week., let me know your current favourite polishes, I'm always on the hunt for more!
Thankyou for reading.
One of the many resolutions I've made for 2014 is to indulge in a little more self pampering, particularly when I'm stressed or feeling a bit down so I've treated myself to a few LUSH bits to keep handy for whenever I need to just take a moment, slow down and have a bit of me-time to get things in perspective.
The other night I decided to break into the stash and enjoy a trusted favourite, the Creamy Candy Bubble Bar. This sugary pink treat is a real LUSH classic and one that a lot of people would class as their favourite. I know some people say that these can be broken into pieces and enjoyed multiple times, but I'm not one for frequent baths so I prefer with the smaller bars such as this, to just chuck the whole thing in and revel in the swirly pink bubbly goodness. The smell is divine and definitely one that will be enjoyed by those of us with a sweet tooth. Alhough I didn't feel it stayed on the skin for very long after I had drained the water and dried off, I will say in my eyes that's not such a bad point: much as I love bathing in clouds of candy floss bubbles, there's only so long I can go around smelling like Pick 'n' Mix.
Creamy Candy is also full of cocoa butter and lovely oils to help soften the skin and generally give it a bit of a pamper, although honestly I didn't feel like there was any huge improvement in my skin's condition and still found myself wanting to use a body butter afterwards but I wasn't expecting huge things in that department so I'm not too let down about that.
I think all in all this is a lovely treat. It's really more of a superficial product, lending a lovely scent, colour and of course bubbles to your bath but not necessarily having any real benefits for your skin, but at £2.50 it's hardly bank breaking and if you are going to have an evening pamper session once in a while you may as well go all out!
Let me know your thoughts if you've tried out Creamy Candy, as well as any other LUSH products you'd recommend, I'm really getting back into them!
The other night I decided to break into the stash and enjoy a trusted favourite, the Creamy Candy Bubble Bar. This sugary pink treat is a real LUSH classic and one that a lot of people would class as their favourite. I know some people say that these can be broken into pieces and enjoyed multiple times, but I'm not one for frequent baths so I prefer with the smaller bars such as this, to just chuck the whole thing in and revel in the swirly pink bubbly goodness. The smell is divine and definitely one that will be enjoyed by those of us with a sweet tooth. Alhough I didn't feel it stayed on the skin for very long after I had drained the water and dried off, I will say in my eyes that's not such a bad point: much as I love bathing in clouds of candy floss bubbles, there's only so long I can go around smelling like Pick 'n' Mix.
Creamy Candy is also full of cocoa butter and lovely oils to help soften the skin and generally give it a bit of a pamper, although honestly I didn't feel like there was any huge improvement in my skin's condition and still found myself wanting to use a body butter afterwards but I wasn't expecting huge things in that department so I'm not too let down about that.
I think all in all this is a lovely treat. It's really more of a superficial product, lending a lovely scent, colour and of course bubbles to your bath but not necessarily having any real benefits for your skin, but at £2.50 it's hardly bank breaking and if you are going to have an evening pamper session once in a while you may as well go all out!
Let me know your thoughts if you've tried out Creamy Candy, as well as any other LUSH products you'd recommend, I'm really getting back into them!
I'm back at University! And that means more hoisting myself out of bed at 7:30am and trekking the half an hour to lectures... ugh the things I do for career prospects. Jumpers, comfy jeans and boots are essentially my uniform of choice for lectures, I'll never understand the people who really dress up, heels, fancy dresses the lot, just to sit in a hall and be talked to a for an hour, but at the same time I really don't like the idea of turning up looking a mess so that combination for me is the perfect balance of comfy and well put together and a colour palette of blues, greys and browns is hard to go wrong by. The bag is lovely as well, pretty and big enough to shove all my gear in. Particularly if I need to take my enormous Norton Shakespeare Anthology with me.
I will be honest. If I'm at home, I am in my pyjamas. Quite frankly if you don't get home and immediately change into jammies or 'lounge wear' there is something wrong with you. As such I have an alarmingly large collection of pyjamas and this little set from Elle Macpherson just caught my eye, it is £110 so I think it will exist only in my mental wardrobe (it can go just next to all the Christian Louboutins) but I love the mix of silky luxurious nightwear and cozy snuggly socks and am always on the hunt for more.
Let me know what's on your wishlist at the moment! Thankyou for reading.
I will be honest. If I'm at home, I am in my pyjamas. Quite frankly if you don't get home and immediately change into jammies or 'lounge wear' there is something wrong with you. As such I have an alarmingly large collection of pyjamas and this little set from Elle Macpherson just caught my eye, it is £110 so I think it will exist only in my mental wardrobe (it can go just next to all the Christian Louboutins) but I love the mix of silky luxurious nightwear and cozy snuggly socks and am always on the hunt for more.
Let me know what's on your wishlist at the moment! Thankyou for reading.
It's 2014! I hope you all had an absolutely lovely New Years and are ready for a fresh start. I certainly am. 2013's been okay, but I feel like I've found myself a little stagnant and am ready to move up to a new level in life. I know some people are against making resolutions but I personally love the feeling of goals to accomplish and the opportunity to reevaluate what I think is truly important in life. 2013 for me was a year of self discovery, very much an introspective year in which I re-considered a lot about my life and decided who I want to be and what I want to do with my life. 2014, I hope, is the year that I begin to put these things into practice...
Read 52 Books - I know averaging a book a week is going to be difficult but I really want to get ahead on my reading this year. I explained in this post how since starting University my reading-for-pleasure has taken a nose dive and shared a few books I plan to get through this year.
More 'Creative Time' - All I want to do for a living is to be a writer, preferably of novels and possibly screenplays. Ultimately I want to be able to support myself doing what I love, and I want to start doing that as soon as possible. I watched a great talk by John Cleese on YouTube about creativity and putting yourself in the best possible environment to let it flourish. Part of his talk was about regularly scheduling time for yourself to seclude yourself and just play around with ideas in your mind relating to whatever project you're working on, creativity breeds creativity, I find often once I start thinking of a few ideas the ball gets rolling and after half an hour I have pages of scribbled notes and doodles ready to be turned into something useful, which leads me onto my next point.
Finish A First Draft - One of my worst problems is my tendency to get easily distracted. I'll be merrily working away on a fantasy novel draft and then one day my mind will wander and I'll decide I want to try out writing a sitcom script instead. Que aforementioned novel slung to the side and a whole new notebook being filled up with new ideas. The issue is that this happens all the time, so I have a pile of notebooks and folders on my computer full of a few chapters/scenes/outline points from at least ten different ideas. I love having the ideas, and the excitement of working on a new project but I am far too easily distracted. I have decided I will put all other projects aside (only allowing myself to scribble down any sudden inspiration by hand to be put aside for another day) and work solely on finishing one thing. I've never finished anything longer than a short story, and they were for creative writing deadlines! This will be the year folks!
Keep up with Regular Gym Visits - For the last few months of 2013 I actually signed up for a gym membership and was doing really well, going at least twice a week. It fell by the wayside for the last two weeks of term when I was forgoing sleep to write essays and I'm only enrolled at my local gym at Uni so having come home I haven't been able to pick it back up but I'm still proud of the effort I put in during those months and I definitely want to keep up the good work into the new year.
Develop a Better Sleeping Pattern - 3am to 11pm is not a good habit to be in. Enough said really.
Stick to a Cleaning Schedule - Instead of having to physically and mentally force myself to do any type of cleaning and tidying at all, and only when it direly needs doing, I want to start sticking to a routine, that will hopefully turn into a habit. If regular household maintenance is just part of an everyday routine I can just do it on autopilot, allowing me to focus my brainpower on other things! Also noone calls me messy - Win Win!
Be More Grateful - I take a lot of things for granted and I find that not noticing the little things in life is leading me to become quite negative and I don't want a life of unpleasant thoughts. Therefore I'm going to make the effort to realise what a lucky person I am. To have such amazing opportunities, a loving family, good friends, to live in the area I do, to have access to fresh water, food, shelter... the internet. Just to be alive at all, and to stop feeling upset about things that don't actually matter.
Do More for Others - Similar to the last one. I resolve, this year, to do more to make other people happy, whether it's giving my spare change to a charity collector, offering to lend a hand to someone with a heavy case or just telling my friend when I think they look particularly fine-as-hell one day. I'm very introverted and often don't do nice things, simply because I'm too shy to reach out to others. But I shall be brave, and in doing so hopefully make the world a better place.
Keep on Top of Work - I promised myself I wasn't going to let myself fall behind last term, and to be fair I did okay, I my research reading well in advance and stuck (mostly) to a good work schedule. I was still up at 2am finishing my last essay the day before they were all due in however. I'm hoping this year I can do better and actually have all my work finished the day before they have to be handed in. That would be nice.
Ace my 2nd Year of University - I am aiming for a first. This will be a challenge. I am cursed in that I am pretty clever and perfectly capable, but also appallingly lazy. With my resolve to keep on top of my work however I'm pretty confident I can do well this year. Wish me luck!
Blog more Regularly and be a More Active Part of the Community - With all my above resolutions to take time to be creative, take time to go to the gym, take time to read and of course work hard at University, one thing I am probably going to be short on is time. However I am really really going to make an effort to keep up blogging when I go back to university in a week or so. I miss being part of the community and I feel like whenever I take a break I get left behind a little and have to play catch up again. I can't make any major commitments, but I want to try and average once a week during term time and to take a few hours maybe twice a week to read, comment and find new blogs, just to keep me in the loop, more when I'm on holiday and have free time.
So that's it, those are my resolutions for 2014. I know there are a lot but I honestly feel ready to meet this challenge and am actually quite excited for it! I feel like it'd be fun to keep maybe a monthly log just to see how I'm doing with all of these. Things like cleaning may get a little mundane, but I reckon my artistic struggle for the elusive first draft could make for fun reading.
Anyway I have rambled away at you for long enough, if you made it this far well done you trooper!
Thankyou for reading!
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I bought books! Since having started my English Literature course at university last year I've really found my reading slowing down. I know that might sound counter-intuitive, but the downside of a literature course for book lovers is that instead of reading books for enjoyment at your own pace, you have to read them in a limited time frame and read them with a critical eye which often takes from the enjoyment. In addition you begin to associate reading and books with deadlines and essays which is just the worst.
But in 2014 I want to begin to take up reading as a past time again, and get through some really good works of literature. No YA or 'holiday reads' for me at the moment, I'm going to keep it all high brow for the time being until I get burned out and have to delve into something a bit more relaxed. All but one of these was picked up in my local charity shop so I've made quite the saving as well.
The Books I Bought -
Slaughterhouse 5 ~ Kurt Vonnegut
Metamorphosis and Other Stories ~ Franz Kafka
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius ~ Dave Eggers
The Hobbit ~ JRR Tolkein
The Monk: A Romance ~ Matthew Gregory Lewis
Oryx and Crake ~ Margaret Atwood
So quite the selection. I'll definitely be doing reviews of these and some other books I've accumulated recently, maybe in threes as I get through them. I'm really looking forward to punctuating the masses of renaissance literature (that, don't get me wrong, I really love) by dipping into the fantasy lands created by Tolkein, revelling in the bleak lucid writing style of Kafka and navigating the twisted, unhinged creations of Lewis and Atwood.
Let me know if you've read any of these books and what you thought! I'm really excited to get some personal reading under my belt this year. What are you looking forward to reading in 2014?
Hello all! It's been a little while since I've shown myself round these parts but part of my routine, compulsory News Year's resolutions is to be a little more regular with blogging. I've really missed being part of this community and I hate leaving my little blog neglected. So to make some time for blogging I'll need to start keeping myself organised, and what better way to do it than in style with the coveted Frankie Diary 2014 edition! I wanted one of these last year but they had sold out by the time I got round to it. I wasn't having any of that this year, I bought it myself at the beginning of December and had Mama pay me back for it and put it in my Christmas box for when I came home from Uni.
It is absolutely gorgeous, all floral prints and soft watercolour palettes and it's really well put together. It begins with a 'calendar' style layout page for each month and then a few pages giving a little space dedicated to every day, with each month getting an individual design. Then there are pages for birthdays, budgeting, extra notes and a few pages of stickers and lists and other fun bits and pieces so I'm really really happy with it. It retails at about £20 including shipping from it's native Australia.
I've already started to fill mine in, too impatient to wait for the New Year to kick in! I'm hoping to use it as a planner and organiser, as opposed to filling it in retrospectively, diary style. I could use my phone, but there's something so satisfying about having plans and deadlines written down by hand, I'm far more likely to remember them too! So if part of your New Years resolutions include being more organised definitely consider nabbing one of these for yourself.
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You can buy them here at the Frankie Press website. They were still in stock but selling fast when I last checked so get yourself one if you don't want to miss out!
I'm hopefully going to be much more organised with my time in 2014 which will mean better blogging! Though of course a return for me means a return for Cat photo-bombing my pictures while she whines meows for food/cuddles/food. The joys of pet ownership eh?
Thankyou for reading and I will hopefully talk to you again soon.
Thankyou for reading and I will hopefully talk to you again soon.
Been a while hasn't it? I started back at University at the beginning of October and so have been pretty much absent from the blogosphere while I've gotten back into the swing of things. If you're a fresher this year definitely have a look at my homesickness post from a few weeks ago. I'm having a good time, though the work's actually starting now so there's no days spent in bed watching rubbish on Netflicks (probably a good thing)
These are a few books I've read over the last year that I never got round to reviewing for whatever reason, so I thought I'd throw the reviews together in a post, as they were three really unusual reads for me and I definitely feel they're worth reviewing and sharing with you.
Have Mercy - Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett
Based in a fictional world where mechanical dragons fueled by magic are used in warfare, Havemercy tells the story of four men living in the capital city of Volstov as it nears victory from it's long war with neighbours the Ke-Han. This was a book I'd heard very little about going into and therefore really didn't have any expectations either way. In the end while this book had some amazing plot points and really interesting, conflicting main characters, it lacked a certain something. One relationship seems to develop far too quickly, and reads a little like fanfiction of some other book, while another takes forever and is never fully formed before the book ends, leaving on something of an unsatisfactory note. I definitely enjoyed it, and would recommend as a fun, adventurous read with some really sweet romantic bits if you don't want anything too heavy. I just wish that it had maybe a little more depth and time taken to explore the characters. However this is the first installment in a quartet and so I'm hoping when I get round to reading the second which I fully intend to, due to my love of the world created and it's characters, we might get a little more depth and expansion. After all, the Darren Shan series had a really shaky debut novel and became one of my most beloved childhood series.
Spindle's End - Robin McKinley
First off can we just take a second to appreciate the loveliness of that cover... and the crappy rendition my camera has decided to give me. Sad day. Anyhoo, Spindle's End is a retelling of the tale of Sleeping Beauty. Sleeping Beauty was one of my favourite childhood stories and my Dad still knows all the words to the 'Once Upon A Dream' song because I made him watch it with me so many times so I was really excited to give this a try.
The story itself was charming and full of lovely characters and really interesting plotlines. It's only downfall for me was the twisty-turny, often contrived and very overdone narrative style. Obviously world building requires a lot of explaining and description, but I believe the phrase 'Show don't Tell' would have been useful here. Far too often we'd be engrossed in the story, watching the scenes play out and it would be like someone had pressed pause and stood in front of the characters and started to explain all of these different bits of backstory and 'world' information, going off on tangents, using odd confusing phrases and generally being slow and a bit annoying. By the time they got out of the way I'd lost track of the story and, particularly during more action-y scenes, felt that the pace had been completely thrown off by this big chunk of boring-ness.
It's actually quite disappointing because the plot was a really lovely refreshing take on the fairy tale (The heroine in this is far more complex and pro-active without being the worst trait of all: 'feisty' *shudder*) and the story is really beautiful, but if you like pacey novels and witty dialogue this might not be your cup of tea.
How to Be a Woman - Caitlin Moran
Last one! I read this one very slowly over a long time, dipping in and out of it between reading other books, but that's not to say I didn't absolutely love it. I am a feminist. Not a flag waving, man are evil and women are better feminist, just someone who would like to promote the radical notion that women are people too.
There's a lot of feminist literature out there, much of it angry and dramatic and emotive with good reason, these are women who've been subject to great prejudice. However Moran takes a different view: she, in a lighthearted manner, takes us through some of the issues that women deal with, from being overlooked in the workplace to the pressure to be entirely hairless from the lower eyelids downwards, all of the time. There is no great anger, no preaching, just a woman throwing her hands up and going "remind me why this is ok again?" Some of her best chapters tackle strip clubs, and the 'horror' that is being fat. It puts in a really articulate but chatty way feeling's I've had for a long time, just not known how to express and opened my eyes to other ways in which both men and women are constricted and trapped by patriarchal ideals. I really enjoyed this and would definitely urge anyone who is confused about feminism or doesn't think it necessary anymore to have a flick through and just consider the ideas being presented, if it doesn't change your mind that's fine, but we'll both know at least you've considered another point of view.
Let me know your recent reads, or if you've tried any of these books tell me what you thought!
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01. Put on a pair of freshly washed jammies, preferably still warm from the dryer/ radiator.
02. Buy yourself lovely fresh flowers and brighten up your rooms with them.
03. Re-organise your room. Maybe look up some Feng Sui tips online (even if you think it's a load of poop)
04. Snuggle up with your pet. If you lack a pet, the nearest person will do!
05. Watch reruns of ancient comedies on GOLD.
06. Find a hilarious meme from a fandom you and a friend both love, and tweet it to them!
07. Dress up real fancy, do your hair and makeup beautifully and just take a quick stroll to buy some bread!
08. Write down your hopes and dreams, and stick them somewhere you'll see them every day.
09. Blend a pear, 2 kiwis, half a melon, natural yoghurt and ice for the most refreshing, yummy, healthy smoothie ever.
10. List down the weirdest celebrity crushes you've ever had. Get someone else to do this with you and laugh at each other.
11. Go on Kukee.co.uk and feel smug as you buy three pieces of lovely jewellery for a tenner!
12. Snoop around in other people's blog recommendations and find some new reads.
13. Spend a day wrapped in a duvet watching a whole series of a sweet girly feel-good anime.
14. Have a facebook cull. Delete those people who moan or plaster their drama everywhere, or are just boring.
15. Clear out your wardrobe and donate your unwanted clothes to charity, where they'll do some good.
16. Gather whoever you can and go on a spontaneous adventure to a park or the seaside.
17. Get some paper and colouring pens/ pencils and draw a really beautiful mandala. It's so theraputic and at the end you have amazing, personal art.
18. Purchase a really expensive makeup product. I've got my eye on a Chanel cream blush when I next feel the need. .
19. Write down a list of things you're grateful for. Often we get so wrapped up in our difficulties that we forget all the things we're lucky to have in our lives.
20. If all else fails, just have a good giggle at the following pictures.
all pictures found on Pinterest
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