A very nice day out

I had the bestest cutest day out yesterday, which was so so lovely I wanted to write about it so I don't forget. My bestie Booth likes to go on various day trips so I thought I'd join her on my day off for a change, rather than just sitting on my laptop.

The day started with a trip to Topshop to buy some socks, 3 for £8 so there was no excuse not to really. They're all so cute and frilly and floral at the minute, and you can never have too many socks. We then went to Bideford, which I never really spend that much time in, but it was such a lovely sunny day and the river looked so pretty. We had a wander round all the little individual cute shops that sold trinkets and bikes and blankets and all sorts of unique goodies, and there was an independent music shop which was pretty cool. We then went into all the bargain shops, like Original Factory Company and Poundstretcher, to see if we could find anything cheap and random and great. I got a Vanilla scented candle for £1, some Simple cleanser for £2, and the best purchase of the day; some kids size 2 fluffy thick soled winter boots. The reason behind buying kids size is that my feet are a tiny size 3 anyway, and they were charging a whole £4 more for one size up, and the adults ones didn't have pompoms on. Outrageous. So I tried on the kids ones and they fit, which is both impressive and a little embarrassing. But they're the fluffiest comfiest boots ever so no shame here.

As it was such a lovely sunny day we decided to go to see the sea at Westward Ho! All the tourists have gone now so there was next to no one there, which is a lovely change from trying to get near the sea in the summer (not a pleasant experience). So, as you do at the seaside, we got some fish and chips and sat on the seafront.

 

 

 



As is unavoidable at the seaside, we went into an arcade and spent all out 2ps on the machines that you never ever win anything on, and I FOUND enough tickets to get myself a Vimto lollipop. Winner. Then it was just a bus ride home, tea and Great British Bake Off.

A few favourites

I've had a very very very good week this week, just a few down moments, but mostly very happy and that's good and yay! There's been quite a lot of small random items and products and events that have made it so good so I thought I'd just list them whilst I still remember them.

• Lip crayons

I purchased 3 different crayons last week from 3 different brands to try out and experiment with, because normal lipstick is just getting quite boring and I wanted something low maintenance. So I got Bourjois Color Boost in 03 Orange Punch, which I'd read reviews of on a few beauty blogs and thought I'd try it out. It's a really easy colour to wear in the day time, very pretty, and stays put for absolutely ages so I don't have to keep topping it up, and it's so easy to apply, and doesn't dry out my lips. So an overall winner. I also bought Barry M Lip Lacquer Crayon in No.5, and I can't remember what the colour was actually called, but it's a very light pink/purple shimmery colour. I have very dark lips so I had to lighten them with a tint or lipstick first before applying, but again it is so easy to apply. I found this wore off much easier though, and the colour isn't as solid as Bourjois, but it does look very very pretty for about 2 hours. The last one I was trying was from Max Factor and was my favourite, but I wore and took it out in town with my on Saturday night so it is now sadly lost. So I have no idea what shade I got or what it was called, but it was a very dark red that lasted so well, didn't smudge, didn't dry out my lips, and was such a nice shade. It was so perfect for going out and way easier to apply than a lipstick, so I may have to go and repurchase it, but it was pretty pricey, around £9 I think. Definitely worth it though.

• Sudocrem

I know this might sound weird but I love Sudocrem. I'm fully aware it's meant for baby's and rashes and things, but I read somewhere ages ago that it's good for the skin. I have a £1.99 tube from Superdrug and use a pea sized amount on my face every night and it just acts as a super intensive skin clearing moisturiser miracle worker. I don't really get on with many moisturisers, they all tend to be too greasy for my skin or to heavy, but Sudocrem works so so well for me, you wake up in the morning and your skin is literally as soft as a baby's.

• Blistex MedPlus for Lips

Possibly the best lip balm ever, it leaves my lips tingly and plump and so very soft and lasts all day, it's good to put on at night too. I get really dry lips so it's nice to have something that feels nice and works really well.

• Cereal

I'm sure I'm not the only one that does this, but I go through stages of never eating cereal and then eating it for every meal and as a midnight snack, and right now I'm in that stage. At the minute I'm literally obsessed with Honey Nut Shreddies, they're the best thing since Golden Nuggets. And that's quite a big statement.

• Friends

A couple of my friends from college dropped out of uni recently, which I know isn't really a good thing, but I guess it is if they weren't happy there and felt it wasn't for them. So they're back home now, and I'm very very happy because we can do fun things like watch Made In Chelsea and go out on Saturday and get shamelessly drunk and stop at kebab shops on the way home and cruise to Tesco listening to Fall Out Boy and buy all the chocolate. Yay.

Sorry this was long and random and rambly, but I had a very good week.

Bargains and happiness

Yesterday I purchased Look magazine, like I have every week for at least 3 years, and it came with a 25% off voucher code for the website shoeaholics.com. Normally if I haven't visited a shop or site before I don't use these vouchers, but the mood struck for new shoes so I had a cheeky look. And it's heaven. If like me you hadn't heard of it before, it's run by Kurt Geiger, and has CRAZY discounts on shoes that I could never in a million years afford to buy full price. It really does have something for everyone; flats, sandals, wedges, mega platforms, all from great brands and all at ridiculously good prices. So I went and purchased these bad boys. http://www.shoeaholics.com/link-black-leather-36-carvela-kurt-geiger-ladies-shoe.html

Now I know I haven't uploaded any photos or written about my preferred style very much yet, but these are SO me, like perfect. They just look so comfy and cool, and would go with literally anything in my wardrobe. The only downside I could find with the website is that there were only 2 delivery options; £5 standard delivery or £9 for 3 day delivery, a bit pricy and limited for my liking. But even with this I saved a huge £99, yes that is correct, from the original price as they were already discounted on top of the code I got with Look. So if you haven't checked it out yet I highly recommend you do. Also Look is great this week, some riveting stuff on boots.

Also just a quick note on happiness. Whilst buying things and the prospect of a delivery of shoes makes me happy, it's the little things every day that can make a big difference. At the minute music has a massive impact on my mood, and today I've had Tiptoe by Imagine Dragons stuck in my head which has made me ever so jolly and bouncy, and brought back some sweet memories from Reading festival 2013, so have a listen for a pick me up. It's just a little thing but it's made my day 10 times better.

Hair and Boohoo

Late Saturday night I ordered disco pants and an orange bag from Boohoo.com, with an expected delivery within 4-5 working days, so about Thursday. But I was extremely impressed when I got home from work today (Monday) to find a nice parcel, so thanks Boohoo! Also I'm so in love with my bag I may never stop using it.

I also ombre'd my hair today, which I know is about a million years after the trend kicked in, but decision making takes a long time for me. And I love it! Ideally it would be a bit lighter, but as my hair was really dark to start with I'm amazed at how blonde it went! The 4 long hours in the hairdressers, in disco pants (ouch), were definitely worth it! Really need to look up some proper care for my ends though, all I have at the minute is go blonder shampoo.

Just an observation about hairdressers; the mirrors. I swear it's one of the most brutal experiences having to sit and look at your face close up for an extended period of time, and the mirrors are designed to make your skin look its very worst, I'm 100% certain. But if you look around the room at all the other hairdressers and staff, their skin is literally flawless, and no one can be that good at maintaining their foundation all day. How do they do it?! Wearing makeup to make your skin look a little better at the hairdressers doesn't help either, because they wash literally all of it off in the shampooing process. I suppose it's just something in life that's unavoidable, but it does make me sad.

Handbags

In a Sarah Millican DVD I got for my birthday a few years ago she discusses the hilarious and embarrassing experiences to be had during shopping, such as asking the assistant for the next size up and getting stuck in clothes too small. Something that almost everyone goes through and dreads. But at the end she says how much she enjoys buying bags because "you're never too fat for a handbag", which has brightened my life so much today. Clothes shopping can be an extremely degrading experience, well I think so anyway, because almost everything I think will look bad on me or I'm too fat for. Especially online shopping, where you can't try it on and have a begrudging friend tell you "you look fabulous" or "it's quite flattering in the right light"

So whilst online shopping today I took a risk and bought some disco pants. For anyone that doesn't know what these are, they are skin tight high waisted shiny trouser legging type things, quite terrifying. And it took a lot of deliberation and negative thought bypassing to click add to basket. Therefore to make myself feel better about the purchase I also purchased a handbag, both from Boohoo.com. The bag was called Lara, and I got it in orange, bliss. Hopefully the bright orange will distract the eye from how bad the pants look. But the quote from Sarah Millican definitely made me 1000 times happier about the experience.

I have no idea how to even attempt to pull off disco pants, in both the literal and stylistic sense, or an orange bag, but they were both in the sale, and who could resist that. Someone take my bank card away from me. Please.

Buying presents

I don't know why, and I'm sure I'm not the only person in the world that thinks this, but I really really REALLY like buying things for other people. For myself too of course, but I get so excited to buy birthday presents and Christmas presents and any other occasion presents. It's just the process of thinking about your relationship with the person, picking out their favourite things, shopping and looking for inspiration, finding something you know is right up their street and thinking about the happy feeling you'll get when they open it and love it. And it shows how well you know them and value their friendship and listen to them to get an idea of what they'd like. I always think giving presents is so much more rewarding than getting them.

So I've had a very nice day today buying my best friend Katie's birthday present, because she's back from uni next week for the big day and I'm so so so excited to see her! She's such a good person to buy for too, one of those who you can see something and think "that's so Katie", which is great. So I got a dress from River Island which about a month ago she said she really liked, and it's a combination of our two styles; girly and a bit gothic. The floral version isn't available online, only the plain navy, so I really hope she still loves it. I'm so looking forward to her opening it and spending time with her on her birthday and it just being a cute time!

Another brilliant thing about presents is the wrapping. Like you can go all out and turn it into a genuine piece of art, or make it cutely haphazard with a homemade jumbled touch and make it really personal, which is always so so fun. I handmade the tag for her present, which looks awful, but cute, and massively oversized, but I think it just makes the whole experience a lot more fun and shows that you want to put a lot of effort into the gift, even if it looks a bit shit.

Yeah I don't know why, but present giving is up there with my favourite experiences.

Ways in which cookies can go wrong

This evening has resulted in an odd combination of being disgruntled and happy. And also very very full.

The main thing I learnt today is that I am by no stretch of the imagination a half decent baker, and it's safe to say neither were Beth and Felix my baking buddies. Sorry. But we did manage a fairly scrummy end result so it's not all bad. Putting Rocky Road Chok-a-Blok as well as a variety of other chocolate items in to the cookie mix spontaneously was an excellent idea, however upon reflection the mix could have been vastly improved by some giant dairy milk buttons, so must remember that for next time. After a pizza roll, McDonalds and several of said cookies I feel very full and fat, with a shameful amount of muffin (or cookie) top spilling over the top of my poorly chosen leather leggings. Sorry for that image but it's horribly true. So now I feel very bleurgh and a little sad about it.

The disgruntled part comes from the company, or rather the thoughts that went with it. It's true I had a very fun evening and greatly enjoyed hanging out with my remaining friends, but do you ever get that feeling like you know they'd rather be somewhere else with someone else 1000% more than they would like to be where they are? It's just quite obvious, understandable, but obvious. Which then triggers other thoughts, like how I'm in the same situation; missing someone so much, wanting to be with them more than be with you're friends, feeling horrible for thinking that, which kind of all puts a downer on the evening. Especially feeling second best, when the person I was first to isn't around any more, and the people that were first to your friends have gone. But that's all a bit sad and not worth thinking about. I should be focusing on happy things, like cookies. And being grateful for the friends I have here and elsewhere. So yay. COOKIES.

First Post

I don't really know how to start off one of these post things. I guess by saying hi? Hi.

So I just made a blog. It's not a very big deal, I know a lot of people do it for a lot of different reasons, and they are probably all a lot better than this, but I thought I'd give it a go anyway!

My name is Lara and I am 18 years old. I started this blog for a few reasons, the main one being that an awful lot of my friends have just gone to university and it's just a way that I can retain sanity. In the least gay way possible, I miss having daily conversations with my friends, both silly and serious, and just being able to ramble on about the thoughts that pop into my head. So instead of sharing my thoughts with them, I'm sharing them with the internet. Who probably cares more and will get significantly less bored with me. I hope. It's basically just me trying to avoid becoming a crazy lady who talks to herself and owns 34 cats.

I'm not really sure what kind of blog this will be. I'm hoping just to share snippets of my life, opinions about things, and thoughts and feelings and all that mushy stuff. None of which is relevant to anything or anyone particularly, but it may help my mental stability to have it all written down rather than in my head. I also think it'll be quite a nice way to remember the little things, like nice days with friends or something happy that happened, so if I'm having a bad day I can scroll through and feel a little less sad.

Not sure how long posts are supposed to be, but as a first one I feel this is sufficient. So if you're reading; sorry, and thanks, and I hope you enjoy my following posts!