new year resolutions

I don't usually do new year resolutions, or at least I won't make a list. Usually I'm just like 'this year I'll lose weight!' or 'this year I'll be more organised!' but this year I wanna write them all down and actually make a good attempt at sticking to them. It took me a while to decide on 5, but here they are.

1. Be healthier. Ahhh yes, the usual diet/fitness one. I'm usually ok with my weight, but this year I have put on enough to make me start to feel unhappy. Ironically, this comes from being happy, mainly with my boyfriend. Since being with him I eat a lot more food than I used to, with going out for meals, takeaways and cinema trips (Ben + Jerrys is my biggest weakness!)

This year I want to lose the weight I have put on, do more exercise and eat healthier.

2. Remember how lucky I am. It's so easy to look at other people and want what they've got, but it's important to realise how lucky you actually are. I have a great family, I'm healthy, and I have an amazing boyfriend, who I often take for granted.

This year I want to remember this when I'm in a 'the whole worlds out to get me, nothing ever goes right for me' kind of mood.

3. Work hard. I am a very ambitious person, however sometimes I find it hard to get motivated. If I'm given something to do, then I will do it, and to the best of my abilities. but where I go wrong is in the extra things I could, and should be doing. No-one else can make my dreams happen.

 This year I want to work hard in getting where I want to in life, whilst making the most of every moment.

4. Play hard. I also want to remember this year for good reasons. I want good memories to look back on, good stories to tell. I don't want to have wasted a year, and I'm the only one who can create these memories.

 This year I want many small adventures.

All image credit to weheartit.com

these are the days

It's been a while! Think I underestimated how busy I'd be haha, literally had no time to blog, been going between my mums, dads, grandmas + boyfriends all week.

How was everyones Christmas? Mine was amazing, I'm so sad it's all over now. Pretty overdue, but here's what I got!

 

A mixture of bath stuff from lush + the body shop, boots, bag, owl necklace, purse, tights, makeup and perfume. I also got loads of chocolate (it'll last me til next Christmas!), clothes which have been worn and are now in the wash, and some money! Overall I'm really pleased :)

I literally cannot believe that it's 2011 so soon. This year has gone so fast!

Time to catch up on some blogs now, I not read any in ages!

Dan xxx

twas the night before Christmas

Merry Christmas! For tomorrow anyway. Goshh I can't believe its Christmas Eve.  I'm off out for a lunch with my boyfriends family in a minute, excited!

This is a bit of a mish mash of posts really cos I'm not sure when I'll be posting again. Probs gonna be the day after Boxing day!

First of all I attempted to do Christmas tree's on my thumbs! They're pretty crap to be honest, but Im keeping them anyway. I used the glittery green Barry M (not sure what its called theres no sticker on the bottle, sorry!) with a missquided nude underneath, then a matte topcoat, although I think I preffered them shiny. Oh well, heres a picture anyway!

Anddddd heres what I'm wearing! Shorts are from Ark, Top and cardi are from Topshop and tights are from Marks and Spencers :)

Finally I joined Style Journals. I've seen a few of my favourite blogs on there so thought why not. The links at the side if you wanna check it out, I've found some new blogs from it, it's a really good idea!

Right I hope everyone has a really great Christmas, I plan to stuff my face tomorrow!

Dan xxx

and I am a material girl

Walking through Manchester the other day I witnessed a girl around the age of 12/13 having a major strop because she couldn't have a new laptop for Christmas. Her parents replied that she already has a perfectly fine laptop, and was there nothing a bit smaller that she would like, but no, she continued to complain about how she never gets anything.

Now this got me thinking. We live in a world where there's always something that you want, but don't have.  Most of the time these are material things. Things that are not needed, but still desired. This includes myself, of course. Shorts. Dresses. Makeup. There's a lot I want right now, and sometimes I get frustrated when I don't have the money to buy them, but this makes me sad. I never thought of myself as materialistic, but I suppose to a certain extent, everyone is.

Now I'm not saying it's wrong to spend money on material things, but urging everyone to think about what they already have this Christmas. Family, friends, health, happiness. All things that don't cost a penny, and are often overlooked. Christmas is about spending time with the people you love, and not about presents, so this year show the people who mean the most to you just how much you appreciate them, and I hope it'll feel better than recieving the latest gadget.

Dan xxx

*both pictures from weheartit.com

smile like you mean it take 6

Hmmkay so in my previous post I mentioned going to my boyfriends cottage for a few days. That didn't happen, thanks to the weather. Oh well it's not going anywhere! Anyway, 3 reasons for smiling.

1. Buffet tea. Last night my boys mum made a buffet for tea, which I love! We had pizza, quiche, carrot sticks + humous and more, then homemade scones with cream and jam for tea. So good!

2. Pantomimes. I mentioned I was going to a panto in my other post as well, and it was so good! When I went I had no idea what it was going to be, and it ended up being Cinderella put on by my local amateurs. It was so funny, with hilarious ungly step sisters, but had a modern theme with songs such as I've gotta feeling included (+ they sang everything and some of them had amazing voices!)

3. 3 days! You know what I'm talking about ;). Being pretty repetitive here with the whole Christmas thing, but hey I love it!

ps. just realised most of these posts mention food..you think I should be worried haha?

he's behind you

Im off to a pantomime tonight! Gotta love a good panto :) I'm not sure what it is and it's only a little one at a local high school, but I'm excited! Then tomorrow I'm off to my boyfriend cottage in Northumberland until wednesday, so due to lack of internet there may not be any posts until then,unless I manage to do a cheeky scheduled one ;)
Just a quick post of my current nails. I took this picture before I tidied them up, so sorry for the mess! I used Barry M in mushroom which I had one for a few days, then before going out to a party Friday night I decided to put Barry M instant effects over half of the nail  on a slant. Here it is anyway, I'm not great at describing!

Back in a few days!

PS. 6 days :)

one week and counting

Sorry for the awkward angle! This is my new hair for anyone that asked to see a picture of it :) It was so hard to get a picture which shows how the colour actually looks! This is the best one I took.
Only a week til Christmas now! I am so excited! I think I'm pretty much sorted now, I just need to nip to a local beauty place to pick up a voucher for my mum.

Im spending today just chilling out with my boyfriend watching films. I really wanna watch Home Alone 3 but I can't find my dvd anywhere, so we had to settle for Four Christmas' which someones sky +'d while I've been at uni. So funny! Would definately recommend it, especially if you like Vince Vaughan as much as I do.

How's everyone spending the weekend?

John Frieda Precision Foam Colour - Review

From recent pictures I decided that my hair seriously needed colouring again, and despite still debating whether to blonde, I ended up going for yet another dark brown. I've used so many different brands of DIY colours, and after hearing about John Frieda's new foamy version decided to give it a go!

The colour I went for is medium chocolate brown.

First of all I was very confused with how it all works! You add the colour like normal, but are then told not to shake, but to simply tip upside down a few times. Very strange! Then, I was expecting it to be all foamy, but inside the bottle its just a runny liquid. You get it out by squeezing the bottle, where the dye then turns to foam like magic haha. I found it a lot easier than usual dyes. The foam made it a lot easier to handle, and not drip all over the place. I also found the smell quite nice, which is also a bonus!

However the leaflet which tells you how to apply the dye was very misleading. It includes a picture of someone who looks like she has shampoo on her hair, which basicly says your hair should look like that. Mine did not. At all. Once on my hair there was no foam at all, it just looked like a normal dye. This didn't change anything though, and the colour came out perfectly.

The colour. I think as colours go it came out nice, my hair was all shiny and didn't feel dried out or damaged at all, but I wouldn't really call it 'medium chocolate brown'. Infact, when I arrived home today my mum said 'oh you've dyed your hair red!'. So yeah, slight hint of red. I'll try and get a picture of the colour, I did try today but none of them looked like the real colour at all.

Overall I like it! A lot easier than all the other ones I've used in the past.

I still want to go blonde though..I'm quite pale and think dark colours can make me look worse. What does everybody think? I know there's not many pictures of me on here for you to look at and think how it would look, but opinions would be appreciated!

Hope everyone's good :)

smile like you mean it take 5

1. End of semester one. Today was my last seminar until January! All my other modules finished last week, but for some reason this one didn't, so it doesn't susprise me that there was only 5 people there! We had a mock exam, so I'm glad I went as I know a bit better what to expect in January.

2. Pancakes. Yesterday me and the boy decided to make pancakes. I really wish I had more willpower haha! I usually just have lemon and sugar on them, but we bought marshmallows and decided to melt chocolate on them. They were so good!

3. Christmas lights. When my boyfriend arrived in Leeds on Saturday he brough Christmas lights with him! I loveee them, and have some white ones round my bed at home, but he brought me multi coloured ones to pretty up my room here :)

Whats making everyone smile today?

where are you now

Monday again! The weekends go so fast! Only one more seminar then I'm done for Christmas though :)

How was everyones weekend?

My boys up for the week so we had a proper chilled out day yesterday, catching up on tv shows then watching x factor. We also may have had a cheeky takeaway ;) So much for my healthy eating! I do well when I'm on my own, then as soon as I'm with him it goes straight out of the window. Moral of the story: get more willpower.

Just a quick one today as I'm off into Leeds for some dinner and to finish of Christmas shopping!

Student protests

I'm sure that by now that everyone's heard about the disaster surrounding the recent tuition fee rise and student protests, and I feel I have to give my view on the subject.

For the first time I'm completely split by whats happened. I started off completely against the rise. The debt I'm going to come out with as things stand now is bad enough, I really feel for those who'll have to pay the new rates. So, I went to the first protest. Leeds Met put on a coach and around 800 students from Leeds went down to do our bit. I was completely disgusted by the way a small amount (and yes, it was a small amount) of students acted. It was completely out of order, and possibly the worst way to plead the case that we are educated people, and that this education needs to continue.

However, some of the comment I saw from people who have no idea what went on there really annoyed me. There were comment such as 'its about time the government stopped paying for students to go out partying every night of the week'. Now I know this is what some people do, but not everyone. I take my course seriously, and do not like the fact that certain people are arrogant enough to lump all students into one category.

And then it got worse. The government showed no chance on budging, which result in yesterdays charade, and once again giving all students a bad name. Some of the behaviour I've read about was absolutely disgusting. By both sides. As students, we were supposed to be protesting to show they were making a mistake by cutting the education budget. That students are the people to keep our country improving and becoming a better place. Instead they disgraced themselves by ransacking innocent people cars and defacing statues that stand for something extremely important. Great job.

This type of behaviour, however, wasn't only demonstrated by students, but also by the police. The people we ring when in danger. I fully believe there is no excuse for violence, and this case is no different. Again, innocent people who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time got injured, and several incidents resulted in hospital visits.

The point I'm trying to make, however, is that both sides have made mistakes. We cannot make statements like 'all students have no respect' or 'all police used violence unjustly.' Because it wasn't all of them. It was a minority. Neither side can take the high ground in this, I just hope the people who acted badly recognize it and feel bad for what they've done, otherwise I dread to think who else will get hurt.

What do you think?

how can you say I go about things the wrong way

Newsflash! I, the girl who never ever wears a coat, has only gone and bought....that's right, a coat!

I always envy people who look great in coats, and I really don't think I do! I blame this paranoia on my rather large 'lady lumps', aka boobs. I have serious issues with a lot of clothing which goes straight down, and I think they make me look a lot larger than I actually am, but in particular coats. Plus I always end up feeling too hot a bothered when I wear them for longer than about 10 minutes!

All this means I was very suprised to find one I actually like when strolling around Asda with my mum at weekend, and for £30 I had to have it! Ive got to say, I'm quite liking rocking the coat! Also it made my boyfriends mum very happy as she's always going on about me not wearing one.

In other news, I did my presentation today! It actually went quite well, I'm so glad it's over with now though. Pretty stressed at the amount of work to be done over Christmas but oh well, gotta be done!

Hope everyone's had a good day.

smile like you mean it take 4

1. Tomorrow. After tomorrow I'll have finished the assignment that's been hanging over me for weeks! It's basically a presentation and 2000 word report where we have to plan a PR campaign from start to finish. Tomorrows the presentation and I really can't wait to get it over and done with! There's been a load of problems with group members not pulling their weight, and I feel like me and my friend have put so much work into it. I really hope it goes well!

2. Gossip Girl. Lovinggggg this at the minute! Well I always love it, but especially this series. I've just finished watching last weeks episode, and can't wait to see tonights. I have a serious girl crush on Leighton Meester, she really is beautiful.

3. Christmas. I know I've said it all before, but serious excitement for Christmas! I really can't wait to go home now, and spend time with family doing the old family traditions. Christmas Eve we have a buffet tea in the living room and watch a film, what does everyone else do?

Daily dose of Christmas

The Grinch! Only the best Christmas film everrrrr!

oh christmas lights

Monday already! The weeks/weekends are going so quickly at the minute. I can't believe its almost 2011, and I've been at Uni for nearly a whole semester! Seriously, where is time going?

I've spent a full day in the library today doing uni work. I've got 2 presentations to do, one thats being presented Wednesday and one that's just an audio presentation to be submitted on line. The one for Wednesday has been taking up so much time! I even dreamt about it the other day ha! Ill be very glad next Wednesday when I can chill out for a bit.

Hows everyones uni/school/work going?

Daily dose of Christmas

This morning on my way to the train station with my mum, I heard that Coldplay have done a Christmas song, called Christmas Lights. On first listen I wasn't sure, but after listening again I quite like it. Love the piano! Have a listen :)

It would seem I have no idea how to embedd videos! If anyone would like to explain, feel free, but until then I've had to link to the video. Let me know what you think if you've heard it.

shock you like you wont believe

Morninggggg!  Hows everyones weekend going?

My Friday night consisted of making gingerbread men then playing out in the snow at around 10 o'clock with my boy. After a hefty snowball fight which I obv won we started to make a snowman, until I had the great idea of building a huge snow wall infront of my front door, so that when my mum opened it she'd just see snow. We thought we were so funny!

Yesterday I attempted a day of christmas shopping, but was reminded why I never go shopping in Manchester on a saturday! So busy, it stresses me out when its like that. So we just went to Yum Yums buffet in the printworks mmm.

Today Im having a Santa Claus movie marathon! Gotta try and get back to leeds tomorrow, hope trains are all fine.

Hope everyones having a lovely weekend!

The wall in progress!

just take it easy

So I finally made it home today! So much stress over trying to get home. Not a single taxi company in Leeds would take me to the train station yesterday, and this was at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Oh well im here now!

Right I love Christmas. Like really really love Christmas. The first thing I did when I got home today was dig out the old Christmas compilation cd, then put it on repeat through tea. My family are gonna be so glad for me to go back to leeds! Anyway I've decided that everyday until Christmas I'm gonna do a 'Daily Dose of Christmas' feature, as well as usual content. So if you dont like Christmas very much then I recommend staying clear of this blog for a few weeks. (BTW I know someone who hates Christmas..like actually full on hates it. Rants about its materialism and all sorts of other things every year. Needless to say we dont get on very well...)

So here we go! For today I decide to just do a couple of pictures of shop window displays, because I love them! I love how some shops go all out and seeing them makes me feel really Christmassy. The 2 are my favourites in Leeds, the first one is Harvey Nicks and the second one is a shop in one of the arcades that I cant remember the name of, sorry!

PS. I think I definately win the award for getting the word 'Christmas' into one post the most times!

smile like you mean it take 3

1. Weekend. Im so looking forward to this weekend! Planning on having a dead Christmassy one. Going out for lunch with my mum on Friday, making christmas biscuits and watching christmas films all day saturday, then hopefully getting all my christmas shopping done and visiting the markets in Manchester sunday!

2. Curry and pancakes night. Last night me and my flatmates made curry and pancakes! I've got serious love for pancakes, nice and simple with sugar and lemon. Yummm. (They're also this post comes today and not last night, ended up taking longer than I thought!)

3. December. Now its December I can get properly excited about Christmas without being told its too early! Also love advent calenders (Im such a child). 25 daysssss!