Summer blogging fail

Hey guys,
as we can all see my 'summer blogging' took an epic and awful turn and well, didn't happen!
I ended up being extremely busy this summer much to my surprise and I basically forgot to blog. To make things even worse I'm even more of a poor student after buying my first car, so I haven't been able to afford much lately and have lacked any decent ideas for blogging...

But with a new year at college approaching and a determined Lucy, I'm going to persevere through this broke-ness and give myself motivation because blogging is something I enjoy a LOT!
So, starting off with 1 post a week, I will get better at this, and can't wait to share some new posts with everyone...If there's any of you left!

Hope you all had a fab summer and aren't dreading a new school/college/uni year too much.

See you next week!
Lucy
xx

P.S. I've started a YouTube channel with my bestie Rachel, so it'd be great if you could check it out!

Blogilates Review

For about two years now I've regularly attended Pilates class, and I love it. So when my friend told me about Blogilates Youtube channel and app, I knew I had to get it.

The way the app works is that you choose what point of your body you would like to work on and use the videos surrounding this. At my Pilates class we never use music, so the POP Pilates series of workouts are super different and really good as I find it's easier to repeat the Pilates moves to a familiar song. The way Cassey explains and shows the moves is very helpful and not over-complicated.

The thing I've always loved about Pilates is how inexpensive and simple it is, but how much it works your body, and I was super happy to find that the case, the only thing you need for some workouts are weights (or as Cassey says, a heavy piece of fruit or bottle of water will do). These workouts are definitely more difficult than a lot of the stuff we do at our local fitness centre so it's a great way to tone your muscles if you can't afford a gym membership (the app is actually free, with access to a monthly calender costing 0.99p/month)

Another dynamic that I love about this app is the forums. You can login and read through posts with other Pilate's fans before and after shots, recipe ideas and just tips to keep you motivated. I've found it's a great way to find a sense of community in an otherwise solitary app. All of the Before and Afters are so so inspiring and give you such a push and remind you to keep going with it.

Finally, another great feature of this app as opposed to just Casseys YouTube videos is the recipes section. With things as simple as detox water to healthy breakfasts and desserts, the app does give you an all round kick into healthy eating.

Overall this is one of my favourite things to use when I'm trying to up my fitness, the workouts can take from 5-20 minutes, work you really hard and are super easy to fit into your day. I'd recommend this to anyone who's trying to tone up and get fitter for summer!

If you have any tips for easy healthy eating/exercise I'd love to hear them c:

Thankyou for reading! 

Until next time,

Lucy 

xx

Life Update/Hiatus

Hi lovelies, 

I know I haven't updated in a while, sadly this is gonna be a short post to update you on why this has been the case. 

As I've mentioned before, I'm in my first year of college. It's getting to exam season, and exam season for me means a lot of stress. As well as all of that I've been trying to juggle learning to drive and working 15 hours + a week, which means I have minimal amounts of spare time. 

I love blogging and I've really enjoyed taking it up as a hobby this year, but I'll be honest - posting regularly takes a lot of time and effort, especially when I'm as picky as I am. At the moment, I'm really struggling to find that effort, especially when all my free time is spent trying to chill out or revise. I mean, I know I could throw together a few crappy, rushed posts about things I really don't care about but I really like spending my time and creating something I'm proud of. 

So, to cut a long story short, I will rarely be posting on here until end of June- beginning of July when I have more time, which really sucks. However, I think I've gotta have my priorities and unfortunately blogging has to stay in the background for now.

I hope you all understand and stick around until I can resume posting regularly again, have a fantastic few months.

Until next time,

Lucy

xxx

Brighton Trip

So, I've written this post about 10 times, but today I am finally going to finish it. On February 19th (I know, this is super late) I went to Brighton, a place that I've fallen in love with over the past few months, as it's so cute I thought I'd share my day with you!

The first stop on our trip was the beloved bric-a-brac shop that's hidden in the lanes. It's one of my favourite places, purely because they sell everything from suits of armour to fur coats to vintage Dalek's and amazing suitcases. The shop itself is huge and made up of tons of different individual sellers displays, it's such a quirky layout and gives the impression of an 'organised mess'. I love how different one corner is from the next- oh and upstairs they have incredible vintage and hand made clothing that is so beautiful (and super expensive, oh the downside of being a poor teenager).

  

Image source

Our next stop was the incredible West Cornwall Pasty Co. . Now, when I found out we were going to Brighton again, I was super excited to find a cute cafe that sold pretty little sandwiches and cakes, not once did I think about Pasties. My god am I glad we did though. They are so tasty, they range from your bog standard (but delicious) cheese & onion, to the slightly more unusual Chicken & Spicy Chorizo (also delicious). and seeing as they cost around £4 and are super filling, it was definitely a good choice!

Just across the road from the pasty shop, there is the cutest little vintage book shop. I adore reading and book stores are one of the few places that help me relax and unwind. So of course, I was in my element here. After like half an hour of marvelling at the awesome selection, we finally picked up a couple of books, I bought a collection of Hans Andersens fairytales that was published in around 1929 and is super pretty.


Whilst on the conversation of literature, Brighton is full of comic book stores, it made our forbidden planet in Southampton look totally inadequate. We found around 3 in walking distance of each other and of course, we then spent ages freaking out                                                   over all the merch and fantastic comics! Oh to be                                                 near a comic book store, the things I could buy...

Red Velvet cupcake from my IG

Before I show you all what I spent all my money on I feel you should all know about the incredible yummy-ness that Angel Food Bakery. It's a gem hidden in the lanes that we found kind of hard to get to, but the cakes make it so worth it! I went there first in October on recommendation from a friend and it was incredible. The cakes are so so delicious, and the icing isn't overly sweet which is fab because it's the thing I hate when it comes to cupcake shops. And the fact that they're like £2 is incredible, but fair warning they are so so moreish.

And last but not least, time to talk about the mini haul that I came back with from the day. 

I think it comes as no surprise to you all that I visited Lush, I'd try to cover and say I only bought like two bath bombs, but I actually bought around six. The Brighton Lush shop is super cute and all of the bath bits looked extra good! In the end I came home with Dreamtime, Ceridwen's Cauldron, Lord Of Misrule (Limited Edition so no link to the site!), Avobath, Blackberry Bath Bomb and Honey Bee. Thank god for budgeting and friends stopping impulse buys, otherwise I'd have come home with only Lush products!

I finally got around to purchasing a new powder. Rimmel Stay Matte Powder is fantastic and so much better then my Maybelline Fit Me powder. As a congratulations for finally moving away from that horrible product, I thought I'd also buy myself a Real Techniques Powder Brush, I can safely say it's flawless. The bristles are super soft and it evenly distributes the powder to give my skin an amazing finish. Since Brighton I may have encouraged a Real Techniques obsession as I've bought two since - but that's for another day...

We somehow ended up near a Debenhams, which is never a good thing because Debenhams means Urban Decay, and Urban Decay means I spend all my money. I've had my eye on the Naked Flushed Palette for a while now and as it was triple points on beauty products, I just had to buy it. I actually wrote a bit about it in my February Favourites Post.

Finally I picked up a couple bargain every day clothing pieces. On the left of the picture you can see the flannel shirt. I absolutely adore it and I wear it quite often with a black skater dress just to give me an extra something to keep a look casual, and for £5 I can't complain. It's super comfortable and is a Mens fit, so super baggy! And then I just picked up a baggy jumper for casual wear, once again for £5. It's nothing special but it's super comfortable and will be perfect for days when I can't really be bothered with my outfit!

I hope you enjoyed this post, sorry if it was a bit long? 

Idk it was hard to write!

Lucy 

xx

Staying Positive

Hey everyone I'm back! I thought today I'd share with you a few ways that I try and stay positive giving the difficulties that have popped up lately.

Unfortunately, I tend to be rather pessimistic and so I have to try my hardest to stay positive, especially when things aren't so easy. Over the years I've discovered ways in which I can stay optimistic, and I thought I'd share a couple here!

Writing
Whenever I feel like I'm struggling in some aspect of my life, I grab my journal and I write. It's never anything structured or grammatically correct, just what I'm feeling. I always feel that once it's down and on paper my feelings are easier to control as I can analyse and figure out what has caused the issues and how I can fix them.
I feel writing is a quite important thing to help me stay optimistic as I can literally read my problems on a tiny piece of paper. That makes them a lot easier to manage than swimming around in my head.

Looking back at memories.
As much as I hate to say it (for the worry of sounding spoilt and selfish) I have days where I feel like I have nothing and I do nothing and just generally feel inadequate. That's when I run to my memory box and pick out the items and albums (like this one). In a busy college/work life it's very easy to forget all you've experienced, so collecting images and little pieces from all the wonderful places you've visited really reminds you of all you have. Not only that but looking back on past photos just brings back the happy memories and puts me in a wonderful mood.

 Reading
I've always been quite a book-ish person and so whenever I feel stressed or upset my first reaction is to grab a book. When I read I tend to go into a completely different zone and immerse myself into the world I'm reading about. I find this a major help to keep me optimistic as after a few hours of reading I feel relaxed, refreshed and ready to take on any problems I've been having. Obviously, If you don't particularly enjoy reading, there's always watching films and youtubers or listening to your favourite music. All of those seem to have a similar effect, reading is just the preferred for me!

Writing Lists
This is one I tend to use when I'm stressed over deadlines more than anything else. When you have multiple jobs that need finishing, it can become overwhelming and scary to begin them all. I've found that writing lists of the things I have to do (from eating lunch to writing an essay) gives me a lot more motivation as being able to tick the boxes and see the jobs decreasing takes a lot of the stress away!
On the topic of multiple jobs that need doing, I try to start with the most difficult so that later on in the day I'm not facing the tough challenges.

I hope you enjoyed reading this and that it's helped in some way (especially with AS Level exams coming up in a few months!)

I'd love to hear how you unwind and stay positive, feel free to comment with some tips!

Until next time

Lucy 

xxx

Goodbyes

Just a quick one today, need to do some explaining to y'all. 

This week I've had to say goodbye to someone who's been like a sister to me for two years (without getting into it a lot she's leaving the UK) and it's been a very emotional week for various reasons surrounding that circumstance.

As it's all I've really been focusing on, every time I've sat down to write a new blog post I can't bring myself to write something good. I mean I probably could have written half decent posts about all the things I wanted to write about on my week off, but it wouldn't be great.

So I decided on Monday I was going to leave my blog alone this week and go back to normal either this Sunday or next Wednesday.

Basically, I apologise for the lack of posts but bear with me and all will be back to normal next week!

Lucy

xx

5 Ways To Spend Valentines Day When You're Single

As February 14th gets closer and closer, Valentines day can be a day of dread for some people. Whether you're single by choice or not, sitting in your room watching stupidly romantic Rom Coms can be pretty depressing. So for this year, I thought I'd come up with 5 ways to spend your valentines day if you're not with a romantic partner!

1) Pamper yourself

Cue embarrassing picture of friends and I at some point last year! 

Whether by yourself or with a group of friends, putting on a face mask or giving yourself a manicure is a great way to spend the day. Give your skin some care and take a gorgeous lush bath or treat yourself to a luxurious hair mask. 

I don't know about you but for me, there's nothing more relaxing than spending a day doing your nails, pampering your hair and just spending the day not doing much.

2) Have a movie day with your besties.

camp takota (which you should definitely pre-order!)

This is actually the plan for my valentines day. Inviting a few friends over for a movie day can help you to distract yourself, especially if you're single for the first time in a few years! We're gonna watch camp takota (AH HOW EXCITING IT'S ACTUALLY HAPPENING DJFHG) and a lot of other cheesy RomComs that will ~probably~ leave us all sobbing. 

3) Spend the day shopping

There's nothing better than a little retail therapy, so why not visit your local shopping centre and treat yourself to an amazing new outfit or buy those gorgeous shoes you've been staring at for the past three months. 

4) Take a family member out for lunch

Whether it's a family member you see daily, or someone you haven't seen in months. I always find going for lunch with my Mum or Step-Grandmother is such a nice treat. You can catch up on all the family gossip or just spend a nice few hours talking about life. Plus, I guess you're spending Valentines day with a loved one (unless you don't get on with your family, then maybe this one isn't for you)

5) DO NOTHING!

And by do nothing, I mean pretend it's just a normal day. If you're extremely anti-valentines day then the perfect way to spend it is to forget it exists, start your spring cleaning, spend all day on tumblr, go to work or spend all day vegging about doing absolutely nothing! Just generally go about your day to day life (maybe with some added extra chocolate). 

After all it is only Valentines Day, if you don't get the day off it can't be that important, right?

If you liked this kind of post, please let me know. (its my first one, I'm fairly new to all this)

Thanks for reading!

Lucy 

xx

Birthday? Birthday.

On the 31st January I turned 17, which in itself is completely insane. I'm not entirely sure where the past years have gone, my 10th birthday seemed like it was 2 years ago, not 7!
I've always thought of 17 as a very practical year, learning to drive and all that. So I didn't expect any physical 'gifts' from anyone, just driving lessons. Turns out I was spoilt rotten by friends and family members, not only did I get 10 driving lessons, I got some pretty amazing gifts. This isn't a post to brag, just to express my gratitude for people and how caring they are.

This is the main bulk of my gifts from friends and family, minus a few things. They got me some pretty special gifts, from music to films to tv shows to lush, they all know me so well. If any of you read this, thank you so much, you're awesome!

Until around 7:30pm the night before my birthday, I wasn't expecting to do anything! It was gonna be a stay at home and watch films with the family kind of birthday. My friend Hayley sent me a text asking me to keep the night of my birthday free. It was so nice to know that I was actually going to see her, as two of my best friends go to a different college, we rarely meet up.

It was so nice to spend an evening with them, gossiping and catching up with each others lives. In a way not seeing them constantly makes it even better when we do all see each other. 

It's funny because one of my other close friends, Alex, has the same birthday as me. So to celebrate his, the next day we all went over for pizza and movies. Alex is essentially a 70 year old man (not sure if you can tell by the dressing gown) which is the funniest thing when 17 year olds are there making your house messy. It was so relaxing to get a big group of us together and just mess about, even if we did argue about pizza for around 30 minutes! I much preferred it to a party in which you rarely speak to the people you want to. 

So basically, I had an amazing birthday and my friends are great! 

Thank you for reading, I hope you all have fab birthdays this year

Lucy

xx

Hogwarts In The Snow

As most of my friends and family know, I always have and probably always will love Harry Potter with all my heart. In fact, I think it was the first series of books I read at the eager age of Seven! So when the Warner Brothers Studio Tour was announced two (?) years ago, I knew I had to go. It was as magical and perfect as I thought it would be, but nothing could have prepared me for the announcement of Hogwarts In The Snow!

 We actually visited the Studio Tour on January 6th, so this post is a tad late. I hope you don't mind as I really wanted to show you all how magical and christmassy they had made it. Luckily for us, we managed to see the last day of the Christmas set up in the great hall, before it just transitioned into Hogwarts In The Snow (which is in fact still featured until February 2nd!) I was overwhelmed enough by being in the great hall the first time round, so seeing it all festive made my inner 7 year old squeal with excitement.

The decorations were just perfect, all of the place settings had matching house Christmas crackers, surrounded by ceramic and real (much to my surprise) seasonal food, with all of the trees colour co-ordinated to the right houses. It was just incredible to see how much detail the set designers went to in order to give it that festive feel - it was 'snowing' outside the windows, and to make the Christmas Trees just that bit more magical, they had flying witches circling the top!


One of my favourite things about Harry Potter is the costume and hair variations, so seeing all the wigs and prosthetics that they used in the films was wonderful. To know that Evanna Lynch's hair wasn't that long or flowing or perfect, it was  a wig, made my envy of her just slightly reduce! I'm fascinated by how makeup and hair and costume can change a character completely so seeing all the sketches and costume ideas is one of my favourite things about this tour.

I have to say, my favourite costumes of the whole film are definitely the Malfoys collection. They're so dark and plain, yet so iconic and powerful. It's funny how you can just glance at their costumes and know which characters they belong to, yet another awesome thing that the HP crew managed to achieve.






One of the cool things about this tour is that they've left the Privet Drive set so you can visit the street and take pictures, something I've actually always wanted to see. I didn't actually realise it wasn't a real street until I visited the tours...

I have to say my all time favourite set from the whole tour is the potions room. The fact that all the bottles surrounding the walls featured hand written labels, or that the potions books were hand written show just how much care and intricacy have gone into the whole film. Even the minor details are treated as if they are a key part of the scene. All the cauldrons in this set have stirring spoons moving constantly to make it feel like you're actually in Hogwarts yourself!

Now back to the Christmas side! The Gryffindor boys dormitory was surrounded with tinsel EVERYWHERE. Wrapped around all the boys individual beds (you can suss out who's is who due to the things on their bedside tables) and taped to the walls. If you got a chance to go and look closely, you would have seen that on every table their featured various hand made Christmas cards from student's, all with magical themes. I like the fact that the decorations are homely and juvenile, it meant they fit in perfectly with Harry's idea of hogwarts being his home.

Last but definitely not least, the Hogwarts castle. Fun fact for you all, the first time I went, the castle actually made me shed a tear. It's actually quite overwhelming to see something so spectacular and close to your heart. 

This time was no different, in fact, it was better. The entire castle is covered in snow, with snowmen and footprints everywhere.  The picture really doesn't do justice to how festive this makes you feel. And this, for me, was the thing that showed me how much care and effort was put into these films. The castle has all individual windows, turrets, doors and gateways and it features every part of the Hogwarts grounds - from Hagrids Hut to the Boat House in which snape died (*crys*). It's bigger than I had imagined it to be, and to truly take in all of the detail, I imagine you'd be there for hours!

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!

Lucy 

xx

All photos taken by my friend, Elysha Richards