So April has been a very busy month for me: a holiday, my 23rd birthday and a gig as well as the Easter weekend and my second trip to the hairdressers this year which again was not as traumatic as expected. My need to bake was fulfilled over Easter and my absolutely huge obsession with Masterchef has resulted in me trying so many new ingredients and recipes this month, clearly deluding myself into thinking that I am the greatest chef ever. My Game of Thrones obsession has reached new heights this month with the start of season 4 and I’m quite literally addicted to The Hunger Game series I started reading this month, it is so good! It has been a brilliant month but April usually is and now we say goodbye to my favourite month of the year and welcome May where I have a lot of gigs planned: McBusted 3 times [the first show I’m going to is 30th April, then 2 in May], Thumpers and Foxes, I’m equally excited for them all but I really don’t think I’m going to be able to handle the sheer excitement of McBusted and being in the same room as Matt Willis may genuinely be too much for me. I’ll see you for another round up at the end of May, if McBusted hasn’t killed me off via a heart attack before then. Have a good May and I hope you all had a good April.
Listening to:
Friendly Fires and The Asphodells absolutely brilliant collaboration tracks ‘Before Your Eyes’ and ‘Velo’ as well as new music from some of my favourites Foster The People, Paolo Nutini and Thumpers as well as a brilliant new track from Tangerine. New music wise this month Kwabs, Polkadodge and Keeva were some new discoveries through reading other blogs or Twitter interactions and I reviewed new EP’s from Such Sights [review] and Glory Glory [review]
The playlist this month sees a lot of the artists mentioned above as well as a couple of artists I’ve seen recently Fall Out Boy and William Beckett and a Busted tune thrown in there a) for good measure and b) because I’m seeing them very soon and I’m stupidly excited. I hope you enjoy this month’s playlist!
Watching:
Game of Thrones Season 4, Criminal Minds 200th episode, Masterchef.
Reading:
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins – I can not put this book down it is so good, May Edition of Company Magazine.
Cooking/Baking:
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Cooking wise, I made my first ever omelette and surprisingly it was a complete success so much so that I made another a couple of days after. The one pictured is my second omelette full of Quorn Ham, Quorn Steak Strips, Cherry Tomatoes and Onion served with my new favourite vegetable, kale. In terms of baking for Easter I attempted Dark Chocolate and Orange Hot Cross Buns [pictured above] and I made Creme Egg and Mini Egg Chocolate Brownies.
Eating:
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Lemon Curd and Raspberry Cupcake and Creme Egg Cupcake, both from Fancie.
Buying:
Topshop sale purchases – Check Dress £15, Maroon Hat £7 and Rimmel Salon Pro Nail Varnish in Happily Evie After
Bird and Cage Locket Style Ring from Mookau, £12
This super cute cat face bag is from George at Asda and only cost £8, bargain!
Palm Tree Print Boxy Crop Shirt from Matalan, £14
Primark Shoe Shopping Spree – Coral Open Flats, Red Pumps, Light Tan Sandals, Silver Jelly Sandals
Boots 3 for 2 drew me in as usual, this time I picked up: Maybelline Color Tattoo 24hr Cream Eyeshadow in Metallic Pomegranate, Rimmel Match Perfection Foundation in Light Porcelain, Models Own Speckled Nail Polish in Duck, Rimmel London 60 Seconds Nail Varnish in Breakfast In Bed from the Rita Ora range, Rimmel London Kate Moss Matte Lipstick in Kiss of Life and Rimmel London Kate Moss Lasting Finish Lipstick in Shade 20
Friendly Fires and The Asphodells 12′ vinyl single – ‘Before Your Eyes’/’Velo’
Another month and another book haul, this time including The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas [after the amazing TV series this was a must buy] and Paper Aeroplanes and Goose by Dawn O’Porter – Paper Aeroplanes has been on my wishlist for a long time so with buy 1 get 1 half price in Waterstones on these two I thought why not get both books in the series at once.
I didn’t buy these but I received these this month courtesy of Hodder Fiction @HodderFiction and a Twitter competition by them that I won. I’ve only heard of one of the authors before so it will be exciting to try out some different authors work and add some more new novels to my must read pile.
Loving: Lush bath bombs in Space Girl and Think Pink, Simple Revitalising Eye Roll On, Simple Moisture Boost Hydro Mist and Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water.
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Lush Bath Bombs: Literally my favourite thing in the world right now is taking a little bit of time out for me and that’s mainly in the form of a bath with a Lush bath bomb. Since we’ve moved house, our bathroom is bigger and warmer and therefore I don’t mind spending that bit longer in there having a bath, something I never did in our old house. I’m trying to make my way through trying as many Lush bath bombs as possible, this ‘Think Pink’ one and ‘Space Girl’ are my favourites so far.
Simple Revitalising Eye Roll On: The perfect pick me up for my eyes and something that I use pretty much every single morning without fail. With a recent combination of lack of sleep, too much alcohol from birthday celebrations, holiday and a gig and then picking up yet another cold that means my eyes have been a puffy, stingy mess a lot [attractive I know] but just applying this straight after I’ve woken up, and later in the day if necessary when I’m not wearing make up obviously, it’s the perfect antidote to better looking, unpuffy eyes.
Simple Moisture Boost Hydro Mist: lots of travelling and again lack of sleep and illness has resulted in me having duller skin than usual and plenty of travelling and air conditioning has dried out some of my face taking away the combination complexion I am used to dealing with. A quick 2 or 3 sprays of this on my face however and my face instantly feels refreshed and hydrated and it really does boost my complexion. Plus it can be used on your bare face or over make up too, bonus!
Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water: So I’ve heard all the Bioderma hype, then all the hype over this as a cheaper dupe and I was intrigued. I bought this over a month ago and use it only on days I wear make up, the first time I used it I used it as the sole thing to remove my make up which was a bad idea as I was left with a lot of make up still on and a horrible feeling on my face. The next time I used it I used my usual Simple Make Up Wipe and then followed that with this and I was impressed. I don’t wear a lot of make up but the wipe I always assumed removed all my make up, I was wrong, wiping the cotton pad with this over my face and I found a lot of foundation was still on my face clearly sunk into my pores through the day and this drew it out giving me clean and refreshed skin. As a make up remover/cleanser on it’s own it’s not brilliant unless you have an endless supply of cotton pads at your disposal but when used after another make up remover then it is really good at drawing out all the excess, the foundation that has sunk into pores and the stubborn eyeshadow/eyeliner/mascara. I wouldn’t go without it in my make up removal routine now that I’ve seen what it does and the clear benefits that has on my skin.
Seeing:
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The grand sights of Paris from the Eiffel Tower to the Sacre Couer via plenty of lovely food in between.
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Seeing William Beckett supporting The Summer Set at Corporation on 13th. It was a really good set and though I didn’t really know the songs what I heard was really good and I’m definitely checking out his solo stuff now. I was a huge fan of The Academy Is… but I never saw them live so it’s nice to be able to finally see one of the members live with his own solo material. As it was such a small show too me and my friends managed to meet him after his set, he was lovely and it was slightly surreal to meet someone you’ve been a fan of for such a long time in such a small venue.
Some great finds from the internet this month:
WORDSMITH2K – some wonderful writing in the form of modern day poetry/lyrics and great pictures all summed up on one page. It may only be in the beginning but what is there is promising. Check it out.
This brilliant post from Nouvelle Daily on how to stay motivated when you work from home. Perfect for me as I do in a way work from home, this blog is my full time profession along with being a writer for Yuppee. I don’t get paid for any of the work I do on here but it is my full time job and has been since I left uni. There is some brilliant tips here and I’m definitely planning on getting a desk in my room ASAP for a proper work space for me.
A great blog post about the Afterlight app from Zoe London’s blog. Literally as soon as I read this post, I bought the app [69p is an actual bargain] and have used it for my Instagram pics ever since. It’s so good and I can’t see me going back now, the pictures I can now create on my phone are of such good quality and though I’ve not messed about with everything on there I’m glad I bought it. Thanks for the recommendation Zoe! Also, I just want to draw your attention to Zoe’s blog and just how amazing it looks such the redesign and the content on there is even better than before. I seriously love her blog!
Mixtape Couture 