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

One Lovely Blog Award

(note: to see my Liebster Award from last month, click here :3)

Maya from ohemgeeitsmaya nominated me for One Lovely Award (whoop whoop!), so yeah, here I am. Thank you Maya! :)

Rules

1. Thank the person who nominated you and include a link to their      blog.

2. List the rules and display the award.

3. Add 7 facts about yourself.

4. Nominate 15 other bloggers. 

5. Follow on Blogger the person who nominated you. 

7 Facts About Me

• I am really bad at talking about myself because I just confuse myself sometimes and most of my life is composed of embarrassing moments that are too awful to share on the internet or with people I don't fully know.

• Most of the time, my best friends call me Luaj (along with plenty of other absurd names) based on an awkward moment in Year 7 in which my book fell on the floor, my teacher picked it up and read my name out terribly wrong in front of the entire class. *cringe* Thanks to my wonderful friends, I have not been able to get over that moment since!

• My surname is really weird and you wouldn't be able to read it if I wrote it down for you. I am incredibly happy when people say it right, because most of the time people just call me "Macaroni" or just some other weird version of my name. 

• My favourite subjects in school are English and Drama, and one day I would like to become a writer or an actress (or, if possible, both!). 

• My goldfish is called Sheila, but I don't know whether he/she is a boy or a girl. I have tried googling "how to tell if your goldfish is a boy or a girl" many times, but I am still not sure. If Sheila was a boy I would still probably call him/her Sheila simply because I like the name, so I've stopped trying to investigate. 

• My favourite smell in the world would be vanilla or a perfume called Wonderstruck Enchanted by Taylor Swift - I have two bottles of it (that's not weird, right..?)!!

• I am half English and half Irish, although sometimes people tell me I sound really English - or, more often, they tell me I sound really posh (in the words of Dan Howell: I'm not posh, I'm articulate). Also I am really bad at doing an Irish accent unless I am saying the words "Irish", "leprechaun" or "three". 

This is the part where I struggle to think of people to tag. I definitely won't reach 15! If I have nominated you and you don't want to do it for whatever reason, that's fine. I just think it's a fun thing to do :)

Here it goes.... 

The nominees are (sorry if you have done this before!):

• LoveTaraBabii♡
• Brunette Wavez
• Cloudy Dreams
• hello, Cathy
• Kimchi Cakes

I would have more, but I always forget to follow blogs I like after I discover them so I cannot really think of any, and many of the blogs I do follow have already been recently tagged. I also kind of feel like I am bothering people if I tag them and do not know them very well, so there a few I was kind of shy to tag in this.

Sorry for the limited amount of blogs tagged, I am kind of 10 blogs short!! :/

So that gives you an insight to my life :) 

Those of you who have been tagged can leave the link to their blog post in the comments!

Speak to you soon,

Lucy x

BUSY life update (ft. plaits and shopping)

Happy holidays! :)

*hides so that no one will have a go at me for not posting in 8 DAYS*

Actually, to be honest, I don't really expect anyone to really take notice of how often I post blog entries - I just really hate it when I get into the habit of simply not posting. But, as you can tell from the title of this blog post, I have been very occupied for the past week, mostly by coursework that I have been catching up on and stuff. I really hate falling behind with work as it makes me feel really powerless and trapped in an awful cycle of having-too-much-to-do-and-not-enough-time-to-do-it. In the end, I decided to bring some work to do over the holidays, which is hardly ideal, but I really have no other option. I don't really mind though, as it is only Media Studies, a subject that I find very interesting, and not anything particularly tedious.

Apart from that, starting from Friday evening, I have just been enjoying the freedom of the holidays. Friday evening was spent in my Pikachu onesie, watching a kiddy movie with my brother and eating (probably a bit too many) Haribos. I then spent most of Saturday sleeping before staying the night at my friend's house, along with another one of of my friends who was also staying the night. There's not really much to talk about as we didn't really get up to much (apart from eating and just talking - we do a lot of talking!). One thing that I do want to share with you though is the AWESOME Elsa-from-Frozen type plait my friend did on me. Take a look for yourself:

The pictures aren't fantastic because a) they were taken a long time after my friend actually plaited my hair and b) I took them myself!

The only problem with people doing hairstyles like this on me is that I REALLY like them and then make the frustrating discovery that I cannot do them on myself.

Oh well, at least I managed to take a few pictures before it all falls apart! I already had to fix it once and I doubt I could do it again. 

Another thing that happened at my friend's house is that we played Rock Band on her XBox. The result of this was me failing disastrously to sing "That's What You Get" by Paramore, which was an awful idea because I was on microphone and although I definitely knew all of the words, I definitely cannot sing to pop punk music - I feel like writing a personal apology to Hayley Williams for ruining the band's song... My drumming certainly wasn't any better, though I will not even try to describe my flailing mess to you.

Having spent a week not posting, I have come to the conclusion that I would like to write more advice-style blog posts. I'm not sure exactly what to write yet, but I have a few ideas that I could try to put together for a blog post. 

Another thing I have also been meaning to post is the results of the shopping trip I went on last week with my friend and my sister. Sooo yeah, voilà:

My new jumper (H&M) which I think is awesome and actually makes me feel a lot like Tris Prior when she is wearing Tobias's jumper in Divergent (it is darker in real life than in the picture)

And, of course, Baby Lips... seriously, I think I am developing an addiction!! (ft. awkward desk lamp lighting)

The green Baby Lips may look really odd, but is doesn't actually show up as green and is actually clear and smells amazingly of mint. I think it is one of my favourites (obviously I cannot pick one favourite, there are just TOO MANY). 

This is what I have been reduced to, people. Seriously.

Tomorrow is my mum's birthday and, randomly enough, the release date for Taylor Swift's new album, 1989 (totally pre-ordered it).

I find it so odd that people have been going mad over the whole "IF YOU LEAK 1989 YOU ARE NOT A TRUE SWIFTIE" thing. Can't people just wait a few days for the album to be released?? I understand the temptation to listen to the album before anyone else (I SERIOUSLY DO), but really? I don't understand people sometimes.

So that is my life at the moment :) Hopefully I will bring a more structured blog entry to you soon (again, I really hope it is an advice post!).

Speak to you soon, 

Lucy x

Planning for Halloween and stuff

I haven't posted in a while, and that's because I have been SO BUSY. I have had next to no time to do anything these days, and the free time I have is spent with my friends - because as Charlie from the Perks Of Being a Wallflower would say "I have been trying to participate". Also, some stuff has been going on in school which has been stressing me out as it is probably the most anyone from school has talked about me EVER, and I kind of feel like I was dragged into the situation. Luckily, the holidays are coming soon, and by the time everyone goes back to school they will have (hopefully) forgotten all about it. 

I'm really looking forward to the holidays as I have not really had any free time in ages. I was off sick for two days last week, but there's not really anything you can do while you're off sick apart from watching movies and writing. For now though, I will have to settle for the weekend - which is not entirely a bad thing. 

I am going shopping today to get a few things that I will probably make a post about tomorrow, including some of the Zoella Beauty range, though I'm not sure what to buy yet. One of my friends bought some of her stuff and I remember it smelling really nice - it's going to be so hard to choose! I would also like to add to my Halloween outfit...

Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you what I am being for Halloween! Halloween is my favourite holiday EVER and I always get really excited for it - I don't think I will ever grow out of it!
I am being... *drumroll*
A VAMPIRE CHEERLEADER!!
I thought I may as well use my cheerleader outfit from an American high-school themed drama performance I did last year, and I think it would be a really original costume to create. It was either going to be a vampire or a zombie, but one of my friends is already being a zombie, so I think I will stick to a vampire. I will definitely make sure to do a Halloween blog post soon :) 
Some things I still need to buy for my costume are dark red lipstick and maybe some pale make-up, as well as anything else that catches my eye that I think would look cool. 
I didn't bother with Halloween last year, which only makes me more excited for this year. The year before that I went to a Halloween party as a werewolf with a creepy mask, ripped jeans and fake blood, which was fun to create. 

What are you being for Halloween? Tell me in the comments :)

Speak to you soon, 
Lucy x

Putting YouTube on hold, #DontPanicButton and... um... stuff!

Today has kind of been an uneventful day, but I think I have enough to talk about (because I just generally have a lot to talk about anyway). 

I have decided to put YouTube on hold because (as I stated in my last blog entry) I am finding it really hard and it is stressing me out a bit. The feeling of sitting there in front of a camera seems really unnatural and daunting to me, like when I have to do public speaking or something. I have shot videos before, but I rarely feel like this. I am hoping that this feeling will fade sooner or later, hopefully when I feel I have enough time for such a time-consuming hobby in my life. 
Until then, I am going to carry on with blogging as I have really grown to love it over the past few months and it is something that I feel comes naturally to me :)

Another thing that has caught my attention over the last few days is Zoella (a blogger/YouTuber) and her #DontPanicButton campaign (part of her role as an ambassador of Mind, a mental health charity). The aim is that as many people as possible wear a red button on them in some form (e.g. a badge or bracelet) to show support for those who suffer from anxiety and/or panic attacks.

 

In case you have not been reading my blog recently, I have talked a bit about suffering from social anxiety, although I have not yet mentioned that I also suffer occasionally suffer from panic attacks too (it is something that I do not particularly want to describe in depth). I am planning to take part in the #DontPanicButton campaign, but I sadly cannot get hold of any red buttons at the moment (doh!). I'll make a post out of it when I can find some! :)
I have always admired Zoe's ease when it comes to talking about anxiety and panic attacks both on her blog and in her videos, as it takes bravery to discuss in depth your own mental health disorder - mainly because it is quite a personal (and therefore scary) thing to talk about and also because it is so taboo. This is partly due to the fact that others can be quite disrespectful towards those who are open about mental health disorders - some people even see it as attention seeking!!

Due to this, Zoe tweeted (about some comments on a few of her vlogs):
Doesn’t make me want to share it. Saying that my anxiety is an excuse to be lazy? Urgh. I’d had this for TEN YEARS! Over and out.

and

Comments like those are the exact reason i’m choosing to work with a mental health charity. Ignorance is very ugly.

I definitely think we need more people like Zoella to help people set the record straight when it comes to what these mental health disorders really are. Once society does begin to understand them in more depth, hopefully anxiety and panic attacks (as well as many other mental health disorders) will no longer be taboo. 

In other news, today I managed to hoover up a certain family member's underwear (by accident). I experience of having to admit this to my family member was quite surreal, and I was laughing quite hysterically (even if that family member wasn't)... This is why I should never be given the opportunity to live alone. Ever. I worry for my future-self sometimes!
After watching The Maze Runner with my friend yesterday, I have started reading the first book, and it is quite cool so far :) I may or may not update you on that when I am further on in the story.

Speak to you later,
Lucy x