Building up to Christmas!!!!!

As you may be able tell by the amount of exclamation marks included in the title of this blog post, I am quite hyped for Christmas around now - the title actually resembles a writing assessment I did in Year 6 in which I was told off for adding about 10 exclamation marks in one sentence (oops). 

Anyway, back on topic...
CHRISTMAS IS NEARLY HERE! We broke up from school two days ago and I am really feeling the freedom. For once, I might actually have a week without any assessments in.
I have been working on an English assessment for quite a while and finally I have finished - it was hard work, but I think it will be worth it (or I hope it will at least!). I think in the end I wrote about 12 pages, and I have quite small handwriting. It's not the most anyone in the class had written, but I know I put quite a lot of thought into mine. Comparing poems isn't exactly my forte (I prefer story writing), so I doubt I will get anywhere near the score I got on the short story I wrote last term, but I can always hope. 

Today has been a particularly festive day for me, as I have decided to put up my mini Christmas tree that lives in my room every December-February (I am never bothered to take it down, it may as well be a permanent feature). I think I should just keep the tree up all year round and style it differently every season - for instance, I could have Easter chicks on it in spring and cauldrons and sweets on it in Halloween... it would be a lot easier than taking off all the baubles and packing it back into the box at the end of December, anyway.
Here is a picture of my marvelous creation:

I rather stupidly didn't realise before I finished the tree that it looks like Michael Clifford is trying to eat the baubles... I regret nothing.

I don't actually have a fairy or star to hang on top of the tree, so this year I am using a cute wooden key-ring I got from Evolution :)

I'm trying to think up of a name for her, but I haven't got one just yet.

I always seem to run out of places to hang baubles because I have so many, so this time I decided to take advantage of the extras...

I think this is a massive improvement on my 5SOS poster.

Judging by their faces, I am guessing that this is probably the most beautiful Michael and Luke have ever felt!

I didn't expect this blog post to have two 5SOS appearances, but there you go!

Today was a relaxing day, which was great, as I feel like I haven't had one of those in ages. After school on Friday, I went out with some friends for a meal and got back at 9:15, as we ended up surrounded by tipsy teenagers who were about to go clubbing. Security actually asked for an I.D, as apparently we were not allowed to enter a certain part of the building to find the toilets (what). 

Y'know, maybe I have been wrong all along - maybe I shouldn't be allowed to pee until I'm 18(!!).

So yeah, that was weird. At least I'll know next time not to hang around the building for too long!

(Calling the people we saw on Friday "tipsy teenagers" now feels incredibly odd considering I am a teenager, and I cannot imagine myself in that state! Oh well, I suppose I'll get used to that)

Yesterday was also a busy day, as I went to my grandparents' house for a mini-Christmas dinner before the real one - today I just really needed a lie-in! I am one of those people who stays up late and then sleeps until lunch, annoyingly enough. I really wish I was a morning person!!

What are you most looking forward to in the holidays? I just need sleep and time for me to write - those are my priorities :)

Best wishes, 

Lucy x

A little update :)

Over the past month I have been trying to focus on my exams - primarily my case study - so I apologise for how rare my posts have become. I haven't really been coping well with the pressure of all the work and I haven't been getting much sleep either, so I have not really been in a good enough state to spend my spare time writing. This, however, is the first lazy day I have had in a long time, and it feels good :)

One thing I wanted to mention quickly in this blog post is how I went to see Mockingjay on Friday, and I'm not really sure how to put the experience into words, but I will try... 
First of all, JENNIFER LAWRENCE'S SINGING?!
Soooo cool!! You always hear her talking about how rubbish her singing is in interviews, but it's really not. I had heard already about how good her singing was from people on twitter who had gone to the premier or midnight screening, yet I was far from disappointed. Jennifer may not approve of her singing, but I would definitely buy her album!!
My only criticism of the movie was that there was a lack of Peeta Mellark, though I suppose that was the point... Still, it made me quite sad. Peeta is always my favourite part of the books and movies. 
However limited Peeta's appearances were, Josh Hutcherson still managed to move the audience with each one - especially the end... OH GOD NO LET'S NOT GO INTO THIS.
By the end of the movie, my winged eyeliner was ruined (why on Earth did I think winged eyeliner would be a good idea??!) and I was kind of a mess!

The only thing I would change about my experience (not including the eyeliner incident) would be to switch our seats due to the people in front of us in the cinema.
They were SO ANNOYING. They kept speaking over all the characters and throwing popcorn at each other and giggling at all the wrong times.... and let's not even start on their commentary as Peeta's wrecked face was revealed near the end of the movie. Nopenopenopenope.

Moving on...
Yesterday I went into town with three of my friends, and what was meant to be a Christmas shop turned into just buying tons of random stuff (e.g. a mega pack of mentos???). One thing I am particularly happy about is the fact that I finally managed to find some purple lipstick. The thing with me and purple lipstick is that I am obsessed with it, but it's not the kind of thing I would wear in public very often. I have just wanted it for ages because I thought it would be very fun, especially since I stole my friend's purple liptick on Halloween!
Anyway, I finally managed to get hold of Collection Gothic Glam Scorned 2, which, for the record, makes me feel very much like Lorde (which I suppose is always a good thing!). I have attached a link to the Superdrug website because I don't really have time to take a picture. It is definitely not the kind of thing I would wear to school, as we are only allowed natural looking makeup and I am not entirely sure that would stop the kids at school calling me a goth, haha :P
Other purchases I made include Maybelline Superstay Better Skin Foundation and Rimmel Clear Complexion Powder Transparent.
It was really fun to have a day out with my friends, as I haven't had one of those in a while with exams and all. It was also especially funny when the bus driver suggested that since we are under 16, we get a family day rider (?), I'm not sure I will ever understand how these things work... 

I am still doing exams now, so I am not sure when my next blog post will be (hopefully soon). For now though, I am writing an essay type thing on The Merchant of Venice and planning a Media Studies assessment. Wish me luck :)
Speak to you soon(ish), 
Lucy x

I, like, never take selfies (I don't really find them that entertaining), but just for you guys... 

(looking back on this post, I realise how vain that sounds. In case it wasn't that obvious, I was kidding when I was saying that... sorry!)

Harry Potter World

Hey guys :)
I am having a lazy day today, so there isn't much to write about other than my OBSESSION with hot chocolate that has been taking over my life recently (SO UNHEALTHY). However, I thought I would bring to you some pictures I took at Harry Potter World in London during a training day (basically a day off school for those of you who are unfamiliar with the term) we had at my school a few months ago. I will not upload all the pictures, as a lot of them include my friends, and I don't know how they would react to me putting their faces out on the internet, and also because there are JUST SO MANY. 
For these two reasons, I will just show you the pictures from the room with the massive Hogwarts model. 
Here they are:

From the moment we entered the room, I fell in love with this tiny paper model of Hogwarts - it is just SO CUTE!! The picture at the top is my favourite :)

(I would show you a picture of my friend's face next to the model just to show you how small the model is in comparison, but my friend just happens to be pulling a face like a turtle, so I won't do that, haha)

These are all the pictures I can really show you. I chose this room because I have been to Harry Potter World twice now - once recently and once when I was twelve - and this room has been my favourite both times. I am always amazed by how much detail has been put into that model!! It's completely insane. 

Before leaving, I bought a Hufflepuff house badge from the gift shop - I definitely would have bought more if I could as the gift shop is wonderful, although it is also very expensive - which is still hanging around in my bag somewhere. 

Speaking of my badge, I think I am going to search for that now :)

Speak to you later,

Lucy x

Happy (late) Halloween!!

Happy Halloween (sort of!). I didn't write a Halloween blog post yesterday, so I thought I would write a (mini) one now. The pictures at the top are of me last night after I had spent AGES messing around with my makeup at my friend's house before we left to go to a Halloween party. 

I am wearing a glee-style cheerleader outfit and I filled under my eyes and up to my brows with brown eye-shadow. My lids were covered in purple also and I rimmed my eyes with red eye-shadow as well as black eyeliner. I am also wearing really dark purple lipstick.

I absolutely loved the party. My friend and I turned up as vampire cheerleaders and one of my other friends did this cool vampire-bite effect on my neck.

It was cool seeing loads of people from school, and although the holidays have only lasted a week, it feels like they have been much longer. It was also very interesting to see other people's creative costumes as quite a few of my friends are really into art and are really imaginative, making me really envious of their spooky makeup.

The only downside to the evening was that it took AGES to wash off all the pale foundation and the dark eye-shadow afterwards. I also used gray eye-shadow to colour in my cheekbones, and I did not realise how much I had put on until I was forced to scrub it off afterwards!!

Either way, the memory of the party last night is definitely one that is going to stick in my mind when I think back to Year 10 - along with twirling about in a cheerleader skirt, dancing terribly and eating way too much chocolate! 

I hope everyone had an awesome day :)

Speak to you soon, 

Lucy x

General Knowledge and Lipstick Names

Hey there :)

I kind of feel bad that I haven't posted in a few days. This is because I have been...

(pause for effect)

SOCIALISING *gasp* 
I know, it sounds scary to me too. 

On Friday after school I went to a quiz with a few of my friends and WE WON, which was weird, because I was on the team. I'm definitely not complaining though, as I got a tub of Celebrations for it. I kind of felt useless as I only answered 3 questions in the 3 hours we were there, as it turns out that I am not the best when it comes to general knowledge. I was quite proud of myself for identifying the music that plays at the beginning of Grease though, so y'know, I guess I did help to some extent. General knowledge is weird, as you are rewarded for the kind of useless stuff that you wouldn't really think of as useful at all. 
I do tend to acquire tiny bits of useless knowledge throughout my life, though these tend to be tiny insignificant facts (e.g. Taylor Swift lyrics and every single event that occurs in The Hunger Games books - although both are very significant to me), as opposed to geographical facts or the names of television presenters.

Yesterday, just to add to the illusion that I am actually quite a social person, I went shopping with some other friends. I didn't actually go into any clothes shops as we didn't really feel like it, though we did wander round a few shops such as Pylones (oh my gosh, everything in there is so cool!) and Tiger (which is always just generally awesome). 
One particular aspect of yesterday I also enjoyed was going to Boots and looking around at the makeup. Have you ever been looking round at makeup and realised how weird some of the product names are? I have never really thought of this before, though I recently discovered some particularly amazing names. My friends and I actually managed to turn it into a game of "who can find the weirdest name for a lipstick". I think I won with the name "Gentlemen Prefer Me"!!! I find the best names are the ones that have absolutely nothing to do with the product itself (e.g. "Seductive Pink", with tells you absolutely nothing about the shade of pink whatsoever) or just the weirdly pretentious ones. 
Oh, the fun people at big makeup companies must have...

Also, in case you were wondering (not that I really expect you to), I did actually buy some stuff at Boots. In fact, the Baby Lips had a 3 for 2 offer, so I picked up the only ones on the shelf that I didn't already have. Maybelline just keep releasing more!

Left to right: Oh! Orange!, Berry Bomb, Peach Kiss

Sooo yeah, that has been my weekend. Tell me how yours has been down in the comments, I love reading them :)

Speak to you soon,

Lucy x

Why am I laughing?!

Heeey :3 
In today's blog post I wanted to talk about a bad habit that I have and think I have always had: laughing in awkward situations. 

This tends to annoy quite a few people as no one else tends to laugh at the time. Here is a recent example of this when I COULD HAVE DIED...

(okay, maybe that's a slight over-exaggeration. Either way, here's the story:)

Earlier on this week I went to a drive-through zoo type thingy with my friend (for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, we were basically driving through animal enclosures). 
We had only been in the zoo for around 10 minutes and had already passed the rhinos and some animals that looked like deer when we entered the bear enclosure.

 

You may or may not see where this story is going at the moment. 
We had just come into what appeared to be the centre of the bear enclosure when the car shuddered to a halt, just ONE METRE AWAY FROM A SLEEPING BEAR!! 
My mum's car broke down just a few weeks ago, so I knew what was going on. 
Oh-my-gosh-oh-my-gosh-oh-my-gosh-oh-my-gosh, I kept thinking, though I was maintaining a straight face as my friend is pretty scared of bears and I didn't want to make her more panicky than she already was. If I was freaking out on the inside, what must have been through her head at that moment?
We established that we had broken down and my friend was in a bad state. I'm not really sure what was going through my head... I just know that I was laughing. 
"Oh my gosh haHAHAH this is a terrible place to break down! Why couldn't we have broken down somewhere else... HAHAHAHA"

I DON'T KNOW WHY I REACTED LIKE THAT. It wasn't funny! 
(Well, it sounds slightly more funny now I look back on the situation... but that's not the point!) 
I just really didn't want to have abandon the car and be left in the middle of the enclosure.
In the end, almost miraculously, the car started again (YAY!!!). We then continued to make our way through the rest of the animal enclosures, clinging to the hope that we would not make an unexpected stop in the tiger, lion or rhino enclosures (I wouldn't have minded the giraffes!). 

Cue sexy giraffe shots:

Sorry, I got a bit distracted there - where was I..?
Oh yeah, I was still confused about the way I'd reacted.

I do this all the time, mostly in awkward silences when people are particularly angry, upset or moody (or all three).
For instance; recently I was at the park with my friend when she randomly fell off the swing and went flying. She fell quite badly (though she was alright in the end).
I suppose she expected me to be sympathetic, and I did try to be, though it didn't really have the desired effect as I was talking to her through giggles - needless to say, my reaction was unsatisfactory. 

In other words, although I am not the friend that will film you falling down the stairs, I will laugh an annoying amount before I help you up (even if I don't find it funny!). I think my friends have got used to my habit now, luckily.

Does anyone else have this problem? Or maybe you have another annoying habit that gets on yours and/or other people's nerves? Tell me down in the comments :)

The rest of the day was pretty awesome. I discovered that I was destined to become a sea lion and that they are my soul-animals (I LOVE THEM SO MUCH). The penguins were also quite cool. 

Speak to you soon, 
Lucy x

I couldn't think of anywhere to put this but it looks pretty cool

SASSY TIGER

(#sweg)

New York!

Heeey :D

I have finally awoken from the deep slumber that is my jetlag to bring you guys a blog post!
One of the things that you will notice first is that the theme for my blog has changed. I'm not very experienced with sorting out computer-y stuff, but I managed to turn my background from orange to turquoise without getting yet another computer virus or making my laptop explode... This is a big achievement for me. Tell me what you think of the new theme :3

Mooooving on.... Today I wanted to share with you some of the photos from New York that I took, as you have already heard about California in my last blog post. If you haven't read that blog entry yet, you can do so by clicking here. 

Madame Tussauds

We went to Madame Tussauds the day we arrived in New York, which was cool, although we were absolutely exhausted. By the end of the day, I was dizzy with tiredness, as I mentioned in my Jetlag blog entry. I'm not really sure why I decided to wear my 5SOS t-shirt; I wore it to travel in and I didn't see why not to wear it to Madame Tussauds as well. I usually wear fandom t-shirts around the house and don't wear them to go out very often. 

Just outside Madame Tussauds, where people are lining up to buy tickets, there is a Spider Man up on the wall. I don't know - I just really like Spider Man and I thought this was quite cool :)

When you first enter the actual place with the waxworks and everything, the room is really fancy. You can't see it very well in the picture, but I was standing on a massive staircase leading down to the waxworks and I thought this was quite a nice view of the room. Next to the pillar on the right are Kim Kardashian and Robert Pattinson. 

Tyra Banks

(I am pouting ironically, I don't usually pout in pictures as I tend to look really weird)

Will and Kate

I'm not really sure why I decided to take a picture with Will and Kate. I suppose I may as well have, seeing as my loud English accent must have made me stand out anyway, haha ;)

There are other photos of Madame Tussauds, but I didn't want to show them as they included family members that I didn't think would be overjoyed if I featured their faces on my blog. 

My overall opinion of Madame Tussauds is that if you can actually manage to get a turn with your favourite celebrities and historical figures without waiting in a REALLY long line, it is an awesome experience. Although there are some waxworks that look slightly wrong in some way or another (e.g. the nose isn't quite right), a lot of them are really cool and detailed. I would ever have the patience to make something as intricate as those waxworks. 

Central Park

Being someone who really hates big cities (which is weird, because I really enjoyed lots of aspects of New York), it was great that we were able to go somewhere as beautiful and calm as Central Park to have a breather. I absolutely loved Central Park. 

There are loads of massive rocks in Central Park that my siblings and I enjoyed climbing up. They give you a great view of the park and many people go there to read (as I did at one point) and I even saw a few people taking naps there. I don't really know why you'd decide to sleep on the rocks - it didn't look very comfortable. 

 Meee :3

There was a carousel in Central Park, but I didn't manage to get a very good picture of it. Instead, here is a mini-carousel that was outside the real one. It's very cute!

Boat rides

While we were in New York, we went on two boat rides around the island. Here are the pictures I took while on the boats:

      

Views of Manhattan 

The Statue of Liberty

The Empire State Building

Although I was extremely grateful for the fact that there were lifts at all (the building is SO TALL) they were definitely scary to travel in, especially as I really hate being in lifts. They go so fast - it makes your heart plummet in your chest - eurgh!

Here are some pictures I took at the top - you had to stick your camera out the bars to get a good view of the streets below:

  

The High Line

I've only just realised how hardcore the name of this place is now - haha. It's not as dangerous as it sounds, it's actually really relaxing and pleasant. Basically, the High Line is a park that was built on the grounds of a disused railway line. I thought it was a great idea, as it is good for the environment and it is a wonderful place to just sit around and relax, knowing that all the stress and atmosphere of the city is below you. Despite this, it does offer a great view of the city! There are benches everywhere if you get tired of standing and looking around, I stopped for a while to read. I love how when they converted it they kept in the train tracks to remind people of what it once was, so the transformation does not destroy the evidence of the railway line. 

    

Ta-da! I think that's about it. Sorry I couldn't write about this sooner, I have been so tired, once again (thanks jetlag...). 

Before I end this blog entry, I just wanted to mention a few more things. 

First of all, I now have an account on bloglovin! If you are a fellow blogger with an account on bloglovin or just use it to read all kinds of cool blogs (many of which I have found so far using the website) then click here to follow my blog with Bloglovin! You can also find me on different social media sites using the new "Contact me" label at the top of the page :)

The last thing that I would like to run by you is my idea for book reviews on my blog. I have absolutely loved reading some of the books I have read so far during my summer holiday, and thought maybe I could review one of them.

Honestly though, I have no idea what kind of "genre" my blog should be classified as. It's quite random. I kind of like the sound of doing some fashion-based blog entries, though I'm not sure I could ever classify myself as a beauty blogger, and I am definitely not exciting enough to be considered a lifestyle blogger, haha!

Much of what I have written about so far has been based on mental health. Despite the fact that I find topics such as the ones I have written about interesting and enjoy sharing my views and advice with people, but I would also like my blog to be based more around my life. The thing is: I love helping people, but there is more to my life than what I have written so far.

Anyway... please tell me what you think I should consider for future blog entries, I would love to hear your opinion! Comment on this blog entry or use the "Contact me" label. Remember to follow my blog!

Speak to you soon,

Lucy x

A picture of me on a carousel in California