H is for Happy week 12

Hello there lovely readers! I hope this post finds you all well. As I type this I'm attempting not to rub my eyes as I have developed hay fever recently and have a bunch of pretty flowers in my room (oops) so the pollen is driving me a little bit insane. I should probably take a hay fever tablet really...oh well I'll do that later!

This week's H is for Happy is a bit more special for me as I've been needing to focus on the little things to cheer me up having spent last week clearing through things at my grandma's old house. The worst/best was easily her bedroom as it was her clothes and jewellery, it was also where I used to sneak in and look at said jewellery like the little magpie I was when I was a little girl. Not much has changed on the magpie front!

So, rambling introduction out of the way let us delve into this week's H is for Happy...

Half price goodies: GU soufflés were about half price when I did a food shop on bank holiday Monday and were promptly snapped up.

Getting (and reading) a new book; my loan came through late last week so I treated myself to a couple of new books. My mum was reading one when I noticed she'd bent the cover all the way back and I was filled with some kind of book lover/OCD dread. "Don't bend the cover all the way back mum! You'll make it have an ugly crease." Promptly left my mouth and, lovingly humouring my eccentricity my mum did unbend the cover. Phew.

Summer shopping: in short; student + loan + summer = £££. I've treated myself a bit this week and one purchase has been this rather gorgeous white button down shirt (and I totally blame Michelle for this buy as I told her over BBM) from New Look for a bargainous £10(ish) with a 20% discount. I promptly teamed it with a black skirt, coloured tights, red cardigan and headband in a Hermione Granger meets Blair Waldorf way.

Finding old letters: something I got to take back with me from my grandma's house were some of the letters we found (and there were loads). Among the ones I took were ones from my mum when I was little and a few from my granddad. He died when I was seven so I don't really have many memories of him so it's amazing to have letters that he wrote to my grandma.

The image explains it all really. This happened to me with one essay and has given me an extra week or so to do it, which eased a burden over the Easter holidays. I'm back into the full swing of uni work now though but it was nice to relax a bit.

And that's it for this week's H is for Happy.

H is for Happy week 5

Well here's this week's H is for Happy. It's been an extremely rubbish week so this week these things have been particularly special to me:

Surprise hugs: the first beautiful thing happened Tuesday during my only lesson at uni. I'd taken Monday off after getting some bad family news and got upset during uni the next day (Tuesday now, keep up readers!) so at the end of the lesson one of my friends gave me a hug. During this hug another friend jumped on my back to join in.

Baking: I took Wednesday off after Tuesday's moment and caught up on the sleep I'd been severely missing out on. I also used this to get through the eggs I had leftover which were to be out of date today. Cue twelve cupcakes, a big cake and a giant toad in the hole. When I bake, I bake in style.

Pokémon: I'd brought my old gameboy advance back to uni with me along with pokémon blue and yellow for an alternate distraction on the trains last week. I had a bit of a session last night and got thoroughly frustrated with how many Zubats you come across in Mt Moon!

Crumpets: om nom nom! These were mentioned during a quiz I took part in over the weekend (guess the basket price) and I'd been craving them ever since. Finally got round to having some today and I'd forgotten how amazing they were. Crumpets all around!

Instant Star: Finally, this week stumbled upon my favourite TV show online available to download...kinda. I managed to get most of the first season but can't find the second season where it's available to those outside the U.K. Anyway, the show is Instant Star and it was big in America and Canada mostly so it's fine there but difficult to get hold of here (online or on dvd) and I desperately want it on my laptop. Anyone who can help I'll be thrilled! I've enjoyed watching this between baking spurts yesterday and reliving the big they-should-but-won't-yet romance of Jude and Tommy (the two people in the picture) and rediscovering my love for the soundtrack.

All images sourced via ♥

A Sweet Tweet of a Top

Hello lovelies! Long time, no blog I know. However - uni work permitting - I should be back more regularly now.

That aside, you may remember the top from this outfit idea post that I fell rather in lust with:

Well, while I was away I managed to acquire said top...in navy. Turns out there are two colours for this top and they didn't have it in cream at the branch I went in. Still, 20% student discount and love of the print swayed me (plus I suit darker colours better I think) so I indulged and managed to snag it at £12ish with my discount. Hurrah!

Which colour do you prefer this top in?

Cream and navy bird print tops: Dorothy Perkins, £15

Home Sweet Home

I'm writing this on the train waiting to go home for reading week.I officially love reading week.I get to spend the next 10 and a half days with some of my favourite people,some of whom I haven't seen since I left for uni.

I've kept it quiet that I'm coming back.Partly because I wanted to surprise people and partly because I wanted time to kick back,relax and do some work without having people demand my time.The main people who I want to know that I'll be back know.I told my boyfriend first, followed by two of my best friends,then my parents and my brother. Family, best friends and the boyfriend. The most important people know the important stuff first and I get to arrange to see them as and when I want before people who haven't bothered with me feel the need to insist we meet up.

Admittedly I was back last weekend but it was for Chellington so I was only home for about two hours and only saw my mum and my niece. The week hasn't been too bad, work wise. It's gone fairly quickly, something which I'm thankful for because I've been looking forward to the 11 days I'm at home since I booked the tickets.

I'm entering a bit of a stand-off with the fashion editor for the e-zine I contribute to. She hasn't published my article. Fair enough I thought, I'll email her and ask why. That was three days ago. No published article and no reply to my email. Common courtesy would insinuate that I'd at least get an email explaining what's going on if she thought my article was rubbish. I'll still submit to the music section as and when I have stuff to write but no fashion articles of mine will be submitted until this is dealt with :)

I received feed back on my first assessed piece of writing in a workshop today. The workshop leader and module leader had both marked it, which is a big deal as they're both journalists, so I was really nervous going to my workshop leader for my feedback. I sat down and, to my very pleasant surprise, my piece had been marked as a first! I think I may have been the only one in my workshop to receive a first. Most people got 2:1s. I was so happy with that grade. I've only been at uni and I'm getting work marked at a grade 1! My workshop leader said it was obvious I'd come to uni already knowing how to write really well.Thank you Mrs Jewitt! She was my English teacher for five years so I may email her and thank her for all the time she told me my work was naff as it obviously worked. Legend!

I'm not even back yet and I've got stuff planned back home. It's my best friend's birthday next weekend (22nd) so I've got her present in my suitcase ready to be wrapped and presented to her. I think we're doing something just us as well as going for drinks at our local Wetherspoons with a bunch of people. Then on the 23rd I'm going to see Taylor Swift with my friend and her little sister.I'm mega excited as it's at Wembley stadium - the last time I went to see her it was at Shepherd's Bush arena, which is much smaller and thus limited the staging she could do. I've seen clips of her touring in America so I'm hoping for similar stage sets and performances. It should be mega :)

Work,work,work (and a little play)

I'm two months into the uni experience and work has only just recently gotten hectic. I finalised my 1500 word essay on the progression of women's magazines and their portrayal of women today.I have to admit it was pretty interesting.I first chose it because I thought that,what with it being about women's magazines which I read a lot of,it'd be pretty easy.It wasn't as simple as I thought it would be but it was really interesting.I loved researching the history side of it,even if my main source was restricted by lack of library resources. Boo them.

I've got my MAC 189 article to do for Friday.Working on a uni beat."Does the student party lifestyle impact their education experience?" Got to give credit to Piers for that one.The inspiration conversation went a little like this:

Me: I don't know what I'm going to focus on for my uni based article!

Piers: well think,what do uni students do?

Me: get drunk a lot?

Piers: there you go then!

Legend boyfriend :')

General source fail for a while though.Only one of the alcohol charities I contacted got back to me,and the campus bar staff sucked when I spoke to them earlier.So I'm gonna use the alcohol charity,a lecturer and interview a student.Genius?Maybe,maybe not but it's a decent idea so I'm happy.

Shorthand is going really well,strangely enough because I was looking forward to that module the least having just finished seven years worth of German lessons.However I genuinely enjoy it.I'm pretty good at it,if I do say so myself.

Aha I sound like such a geek :')

I just did my shorthand homework in about 5 minutes.I've reached official uni geek times!

Plus on top of all my actual uni work there's the added work the e-zine (injournalism/detour) creates.In the past two weeks I've done a review of Paramore's album "Brand New Eyes",a feature on autumn coats (they were pretty,I wanted to put my window/online shopping to good use considering I have a perfectly good, albeit a little muddy, coat here with me) and I've written an article on Body Shop's "Anita's favourites" collection.Waiting for the coat one to go up before I put the Body Shop one up.Could also possibly be receiving some samples/products from said collection from press office.If I do I'm so reviewing them!

I got my ticket for clothes show live on Sunday as well!I was home (via Chellington with Straight Up as per the last five years) for the weekend and my mum put the ticket on her card as they wouldn't accept mine.The fashion team from the e-zine are going.I'm mega excited as the platinum ticket I got includes a goody bag,fast tracking for the show and a guarantee of a seat and not just entry.Love love love!

Which reminds me.This time in two weeks I shall have seen Taylor Swift in concert for the second time.(Hence the picture at the beginning.That was the first time in a smaller London venue.This upcoming time its at Wembley baby!)I celebrated this fact on Monday by buying her first album,only just released over here,in Asda for £5.High School Musical 3 may have also found its way into my bag of Asda goods but hey,good memories of the film and cinema trip around it so I'm allowed methinks.

I'm gonna stop geeking about work now and go read a magazine.

All in the name of research of course ;~)