College Gift Box

Hello everyone,

Today's post is gonna be a bit more of a personal one but you may still enjoy it because it contains lots of stationary pieces that I like.

So I'm at the stage in my life right now where I'm going into my final 2 years of education. I'm staying at the school I'm currently in to study my a-levels but Kayleigh is going off to college. Now, it hasn't properly hit me yet that she is going somewhere else, but I think it will when I go back and she's not there.
For those of you who don't know, Kayleigh is my best friend and she's been mentioned in posts before, so this is a pretty big change for us.

I wanted to do something nice for her and I didn't think a letter would be quite enough to say Good Luck & See You Soon, so after a long time of brainstorming some ideas I thought of something I really liked and I have finished preparing it now.

What I've decided to do is to put together a box of pieces of stationary that Kayleigh can take to college with her, just some essentials that I thought she may need.

So this is the inside of the box, it's just a plain white box that I bought from Ikea (and constructed myself, might I add.)

I am happy with the way it's come together, it's better than I imagined...I didn't really have an idea in my head what it would be like to be honest.

I bought this notebook which I think she will like. It's quite a good size so it should fit whatever size bag she is going to take. I thought that maybe she won't use school exercise books any more so she can take notes for her subjects in here. 

Then I bought some pens. Now, we have a black, blue, red & green biro and then we have some that are a bit more exciting. There's a light blue, pink, light green & purple. I thought these would be good for colour coding things instead of going crazy with vibrant highlighters, which I know she likes to do.....it bothers me....sorry Kayleigh...

And also some pink/purple pencils - I'm going to say pink because pink & green ended up being my colour scheme.

Then some other essential pieces of stationary. Sticking to my colour scheme, a pink rubber, a green flexible ruler, a green stapler - which is an absolute nuisance because it keeps being temperamental and popping open. There's also a sharpener and a correction pen because we all need them in our lives. 

I also found some of these mini highlighters featuring a questionable purple one....I would imagine that would be to dark to highlight something but anyway, I thought these would be a good size to fit in her pencil case or whatever she decides to use.

Lastly, some post-it notes. Aren't these cute, I think she will be quite impressed with these speech bubbles, I was impressed anyway and I like that they're different sizes too.

So that's all that I've included in my box, I need to get this too her before I upload this so I don't spoil it. I hope she likes it and most importantly I hope it is all useful for her, except that bloody stapler that's useful for no-one! I've also included a letter but that's not going to be shared.

Kayleigh, if you're reading this - which I presume you will do - I hope you have an amazing time in college and you achieve everything you want and are happy and successful in everything you do. Unfortunately, you haven't got rid of me completely, I'll still be here, you just wont have to deal with me everyday. I wish you the best of luck and lots of love.

See You Soon

Aoife

Current Playlist

Hey everyone,

So I thought I'd share some songs that I've been loving lately. I usually over play songs and just listen to albums but lately I've introduced myself to some new music and as I have a Samsung phone, I've explored the music on the play store to find some songs to listen to.

I haven't done these in any particular order, just in the order I wrote them down in my phone. I love most of these songs and I feel like it's going to be a regular thing throughout this post for me to say "I love this song" so just prepared yourself for that.

All About That Bass - Meghan Trainor

This song was released in June this year and it is her debut single. I have discovered it 2 months later and I LOVE IT. I love her voice, I love the beat of the song & I love how sassy the lyrics are. Also, how amazing is that single cover. 

It's a really fun, feel good song and it has a great message.

If I Go - Ella Eyre

This was released in July this year so it is still a fairly new song. I have heard it before on the radio but I've never properly listened to it so I thought I would, yet again, another brilliant decision, well done Aoife.

I love her voice and how powerful she sounds. I feel like it's one of those songs that I can sing and release my inner popstar and just go for it.

Bang Bang - Jessie J, Ariana Grande & Nicki Minaj

So when I first heard this song I was a bit unimpressed so I let the hype calm down a bit and I thought okay, I'll give this a chance. Now I like it. Nicki Minaj's part is my favourite, if I'm honest, I think I'm put of by how screechy it is, Jessie J and Ariana Grande both have quite high pitched, screechy voices and my ears don't like that. Nonetheless, it's been on my current playlist.

I'm Not The Only One - Sam Smith

Mr Smith has done it again, released yet another amazing single.

I am a big Sam Smith fan, I wouldn't usually consider myself I big fan but when I think about it, I do love his voice and his songs and I've watched interviews and videos of him so I think I'm a secret fan. 

Anyway, this is a lovely chill out, slow song and I recommend you give it a listen or a download. 

Before I move on, can we just discuss how this was released in the USA before it is in the UK even though Sam Smith himself is from the UK. You American lot get everything first!!!! 

Good Thing - Sam Smith

Oh look at that, another Sam Smith song.

This is another slow one and I like the message behind it too, it's sad one but the songs a good 'un. Give it a listen. In fact, probably just listen to the whole album. 

I'm doing it, I'm going to recommend the whole album.

In The Lonely Hour - Sam Smith's debut studio album, go and listen to it, buy it, download it, I don't care what you do, you won't regret it. We all know 'Stay With Me' & 'Money On My Mind' and how successful they were, go and see the rest. See..? Listen.

Cool Kids - Echosmith

This song is so good, I have the normal version and the acoustic version.

It's not new, it was released last year, but I still love it and no doubt you will too. I don't have a preferred version, listen to either, or both. 

It has quite a timeless message about wanting to be like the cool kids and fit and one that can be quite relatable to some people.

Tonight (We Live Forever) - Union J

I'm not a Union J fan but everytime they bring a single out I always love it. and this one, I LOVE. I love feel good songs with good beats and this is one of them.

The videos a good 'un too, I like it a lot.

Glow - Ella Henderson

I love Ella Henderson's voice. I think she is so amazing. 

Glow is her second single but hasn't yet been released, although the video has so you can go and watch that on youtube.

I absolutely loved Ghost when that was released and I still do but I loved it so much that I was mildly disappointed by Glow, I do still like it and recommend that you listen to it but for me, it doesn't compare to Ghost.

Only Love Can Hurt Like This - Paloma Faith

Oh how I love Paloma Faith. This song was released in May this year and I've listened to it a few times but never actually downloaded it, so I did, and I have no regrets, she lives up to the expectations and I love this song a lot.

If you haven't heard it yet then go and listen to it, or watch the video, and then you'll see what I mean.

Young Volcanoes - Connor Ball (cover)

So Connor from The Vamps covered Fall Out Boy's 'Young Volcanoes' while over in America. I forgot about this song until I rediscovered it when Connor covered it (that rhymed) and I remembered how much I loved it. I've played this song about 5 times everyday since Wednesday.

It's one of them songs that you can't help but sing & dance to and I love Connor's acoustic version of it. If you want to watch/listen to this cover you can do so on The Vamps' Youtube Channel or by clicking here.

So there you go! 10 songs that make up my Current Playlist.
It feels like this has taken me forever to finish writing - let's pretend I didn't play each song as I wrote about it and got carried away dancing and singing instead of writing....

I've have really enjoyed writing today's post and I hope you've enjoyed reading it, maybe I'll do more things like this in the future, we'll see.

Thanks for reading and if you listen to any of my song choices, enjoy 'em & you're welcome.

See you soon

Aoife

Meet Gladys

Hey Everyone,

Finally I can introduce you to Gladys. I bought her 3 weeks ago and vowed to make her beautiful, I think I did a damn good job because she is. It's taken some time and a lot of work but I love her so much and I'm so happy to share her with you.

 Don't panic! If you looked at these photos and thought "That doesn't look very good..."

That's how she looked when I bought her. These are the 'Before' pictures if you like...

And this is her now! How cute is she!!!!

She's now a lovely cream colour and all the rust has gone!

I managed to save some of the vintage stickers on the frame which I think are amazing because they are Japanese.

There's also some old Japanese graffiti on the mud guard of the front wheel which I wanted to keep because I like the way that looks too.

There's also this really cool light on the front which is a dynamo light, this means that it powers the light as you pedal it which doesn't require any batteries and has an unlimited amount of power which is great.

I hope you love her as much as I do too, I've been waiting for some dry weather to photograph her and get this post up and it finally came!

Hope you've enjoyed looking at her!

See you soon

Aoife

A Day Trip to Wales

Oooh Good Evening everybody!

I'm writing this little post tonight from my day today. I was invited to go to Wales for the day with Kayleigh and I wasn't really sure what the plans were but it turned out to be a really nice day despite the rain.

We visited a waterfall called Swallow Falls in Conwy, Wales and it was such a beautiful place so I wanted to share some of the photos I took today.

The two above pictures are from the bottom of the waterfall where it began to get calmer. 

Here's the top of the waterfall which looks so pretty, the water was so fast and rough and powerful but it was to amazing to watch. 

Make a wish.

This part of the bottom of the waterfall was fairly still and peaceful and it was where people had thrown coins into the water to make a wish.

During our travels around Wales we also saw this Rhino filled with bottle tops. This was part of an organisation to protect the Rhinos from having their tusks cut of and taken to make money by people who hunt them, it was such a lovely idea and I think it will look amazing when it's fully filled up with different coloured bottle tops.

I thought this directions sign looked really nice and it was interesting to see how far some of the places where and which direction they were in from where I was standing.

Niagara Falls 7229km how crazy is that!

Hope you have enjoyed that little mid-week post. All these photos were taken with my Samsung Galaxy S5 phone camera which I love, it is 16 megapixels and I'm really impressed with the quality of the photos it takes, good job Samsung.

See you soon

Aoife

3 Easy Summer Hair Ideas

Hello everybody!

So while the English weather still grants us rain, it is August and it is Summer. We are beginning to see more of the sun now and then but as it may be sunny already where you are, I have a summer based post for you today.

I have fairly short hair now and although it's become a lot easier to leave it and not worry about it too much, when I want to do something with it, I can never do it because of the length. As I have curly hair, it can become quite frizzy and very hot.

I have put together some Summer Hair Ideas that are easy to do and they might give you some ideas for different things to do with your hair in Summer.

So this is a cute kind of twisted/rolled hairstyle. 

What I did was really simple.

First, part you hair centrally or however you want it, then take a small piece from each side and clip it back. Then I decided to backcomb a piece of hair from the back to give the top a bit more volume. Next you just take a bobble/hair band and tie all of your hair together into a low ponytail. Now you have to loosen the ponytail a little bit by digging your fingers behind the bobble and pulling it out making a hole, then, tuck your ponytail into the hole and make it even across the bottom of your head. To secure it and stop it from coming back out, stick two bobby pins/hair grips into the top of the roll.

I like this because it keeps my hair off my neck and stops it from making me hot when it is humid or sticky.

I think it's a nice, easy, casual look and I think it could look good with a flower crown but I don't one of them.

This next look may depend on whether you have layers in your hair or not, in which case plaits mightn't work for you, but if not this is a nice hair idea to go for.

I never wear plaits and I never thought I would once I'd had my hair cut but I really like how this looks. 

I also really like that this keeps my hair off my neck and my hat keeps me cool. It would also be a useful idea in the sun because while it's keeping you cool, the hat is also protecting your face and neck from the sun.

This last one is my hair straightened! I never wear my hair straight, it only ever gets straightened when I go to the hairdressers to get it cut.

It's surprisingly really easy to manage because there is a lot less frizz and curls and I think if you didn't normally wear your hair straight, with a bit of getting used to and a lot of heat protection spray, it could be a good hair idea.

I have chosen to do a half-up-half-down style because I like that my hair is off my face but it still looks like I've made a bit of an effort with it because it's down.

This is pretty self-explanatory but if  you haven't done it yourself before, just take the top piece of your hair and tie it like a ponytail and leave the bottom half down for the length.

I hope this has been a nice post to read with lotsa pictures to look at. I wanna give a little shoutout and a thanks to my friend Sarah for helping me with these looks and giving me advice for different things to try, much appreciated!

I hope this has given you some inspiration for some easy, cool, summer hair looks and you may want to try some of these.

See you soon

Aoife

July Favourites

Hey everyone,

So this Saturday fell on the perfect day to do a July Favourites as we've just welcomed August. I've never done a favourites post before and I was really excited, except the things I wanted to talk about were fairly new and hadn't been used and loved enough (so expect an August Favourites).

I did however remember a few things that I still love that I bought at the beginning of the month or have entered my life during the month.

(I'm not sure how my hand has appeared considerably darker on this photo than the rest.)

My first favourite this month is this moisturiser. It's the SkinSystem Young Skin moisturiser that I picked up when I was in Asda at the beginning of the month.

I particularly love this because it is matt, I have quite oily skin and I find that when I use other moisturisers, I just look really shiny and greasy. I've also tried the Young Skin Foaming Facial Scrub and I wasn't highly impressed but I am going to pick up the Foaming Face Wash and give that a try.

Mr George Ezra, you did good! I have been waiting to share this album for a good few weeks now but I thought no, save it for the July Favourites. 

This is George Ezra's 'Wanted on Voyage' debut album and I love it. He has one of those voices that doesn't match his face....if that makes sense to you. You just wouldn't expect him to sound the way he does.

If you've heard his music before, you may know him from his debut single 'Budapest'.

I thought, right, I can't just say the album's great, go and listen to it, I have to recommend some songs that are personal favourites so you can share the love for George Ezra too.

So the 5 songs I am going to recommend to you are:

- Blame It On Me

- Listen To The Man

- Song 6

- Blind Man In Amsterdam 

- Da Vinci Riot Police

So they're only a few songs that I love the sound of. Obviously your taste in music might be different to mine and you may really love a different song I haven't mentioned so if they don't appeal to you, have a listen to the other songs too.

This next favourite is a programme. Mayday aired in the UK on BBC as a TV mini-series in 2013. I enjoyed it so much that I got the dvd. It is a murder mystery about the death of the 'May Queen' on the celebration of Mayday but a lot of stories unfold in the process of finding the killer.

This is only series 1 and in my opinion there were too many unanswered questions so I'm praying for a second series and I did hear a rumour that they may make a second series, however, there is mixed opinions on whether the story has been told and you have to just get what you're given. 

Well worth a watch if you're interested and I would suggest that you do incase they make series 2 and then you will understand what has happened/ is happening.

And finally, another programme. Friday Night Dinner. It is a British comedy sitcom and it's about what happens at their house every Friday Night. 

I heard about this a while ago and I wanted to watch it but never really did, so last Friday it was on and I thought I'd see what it was like. Best decision I ever made! I absolutely LOVE it. They're already on their 3rd series so I spent the whole of last weekend watching series 1 & 2 and what I had missed of 3.

I love Simon Bird anyway (bottom left), I think he's really funny and I loved him in The Inbetweeners. It's a similar kind of humour but not as rude because it based around the family, strong language nevertheless. 

I hope you've enjoyed that and it's given you a few ideas if you want to watch something new or listen to some new music etc. I have enjoyed it and no doubt I'll be doing a favourites post for August.

See you soon

Aoife