I can't believe it's the last day of blogmas! Although I haven't been posting daily, I've really enjoyed posting lots of festive posts throughout December, and of course reading them! As it's Christmas Eve I thought I'd share some memories of Christmas past and some of the family traditions that I still love at 19.

These are only Christmassy because cinnamon always makes me think of Christmas for whatever reason, but of course these are delicious all year round - who doesn't love cookies?! They're handy for having in a tin for unexpected visitors over Christmas, especially as they're vegan if you use dairy free 'butter' and can be made gluten free easily so lots of allergens are covered for. The recipe is really easy and quick, so perfect for when you're busy leading up to Christmas but still want to make some sweet treats.

Lots of people are recommending their favourite Christmassy films to cuddle up under a blanket to watch, however I'm all about the books so here are two of my festive book recommendations.

For Christmas Day I want my makeup to be easy and quick, but still look very pretty and easy to maintain throughout the day. For this reason a golden eye and nude lip is the look I've gone for. Bold lips are pretty and I love them at this time of year, but eating, drinking and kiss people thank you on the cheek means something simple is going to be much easier to keep up without going patchy.

A while back I wrote my gratitude list, a list of things I'm grateful for and I thought I'd do a little festive version as there's so much for me to be thankful for this Christmas.

It's hardly a secret that I love me a nude lip, however having recently branched out to bolder looks I thought I'd share my favourite red lip combination and make up look for the festive season.

I'm back with another blomas post! After reading the Christmas tag here I thought it was such a cute little tag and the perfect post for getting me in the festive mood, especially as we're a week into December!

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A couple of weeks ago I went back to my family home for the weekend and it made me so nostalgic for my childhood and memories associated with growing up. It's a strange thing childhood and teenage years, or it is for me, because I always felt like I'd want to be at home more than anything for my whole entire life - I'd never lived anywhere else so it was natural I suppose, but moving away has made me see things differently but with a whole load of nostalgia.

The view from my bedroom window that I always took for granted

Am I doing blogmas? Kind of.

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Winter is fast approaching, it's probably technically already started but I like to hold on to Autumn for as long as possible. Cold weather always batters my skin, and so I have some handy products to keep my skin soft, moisturised and supple over the winter months.

I finally caved and bought something from Mac. I'd often swatch nearly everything wishing I could justify a purchase, and finally I thought of a reason. Kind of. For a more every day look I like to use a powder foundation, I'm lucky in that I tend to have quite good skin, I just like to even out the skin tone and make it look more polished and refined. I'd been using one from Clinique for quite some time, and whilst I still absolutely adore it, I thought I'd give Mac studio fix powder a go.

I've never done a monthly favourites post before, but they're always my favourite posts and videos to watch on YouTube so I thought I'd give it a go this month. Especially as October is probably one of my favourite months of the year - I love autumn, the cooler days, crunchy leaves and golden colours.

I have several favourites this month, some new and some old that I keep going back to every Autumn.

My blog photos aren't the best quality and that's because I've always used my iPhone to take pictures. It's been so convenient to use, especially as I didn't have a camera that matched or bettered the quality. I was treated and spoilt by my lovely boyfriend who brought me the Nikon Coolpix S9900 as an anniversary and early Christmas gift, knowing it's the camera I've wanted for a really long time. I'm so grateful to him for treating me to it, and the camera itself certainly hasn't disappointed.

Last week was my boyfriend's birthday and our anniversary so we wanted to do something special to mark the occasion. For a surprise I bought him tickets for the London Eye, all I told him was that we needed to be in London on October 17th and he decided to make a weekend trip of it and book us into a hotel for the night. Hope you enjoy looking through some photos of the weekend, naturally as politics students there are about a million of the Houses of Parliament! Also I was lucky enough to be treated to a camera which I plan on doing a post about soon, so hopefully there'll be a difference in image quality.

Getting back into the university study routine can be a bit of a challenge, even more so if you're just starting out at university. Even if you're in college or school, these are tips that have helped me since doing GCSEs so they are tried and tested!

For me September is all about new starts, and October is about sticking to them! To help me with that I thought I'd post my goals for October, and hopefully that'll make me stick to them a little more than usual.

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I've been in a bit of a blogging funk recently, as well as being tremendously busy, but here are five things I've been loving this week.

I love food, if you follow me on Instagram you're probably aware of that! But as a student I love food that's quick and easy to prepare and cook but still delicious and healthy. I thought I'd start up a little mini series sharing some of my favourite meals that are budget friendly, healthy and fast. First in the series is gnocchi with pesto, spinach and baby tomatoes. It's filling, healthy and so easy to make and of course within a budget.

Staying organised at the best of times can be challenging, and to be honest it's not something I've always been that good at. However with my growing love for stationery I decided that I should actually organise myself, not only as an excuse to buy lots of pretty notebooks and pens, but also to help me balance uni, blogging, free time and a social life.

It's the start of a new academic year, meaning a new university house and another bedroom to decorate and make homely. I thought I'd share some times on how I like to decorate my room and where I buy things from. Of course even if you're not at university or college but just want to spruce up your room at home then hopefully this post will be helpful.

I've never really been one to change up my makeup, I tend to always stick to the same looks and products all year round. The majority of last Autumn for me was spent lusting over beautiful berry toned lips but being too nervous to try out something so different for myself. This year I made an effort to try out new products and looks continually, and I've really enjoyed it. I've discovered so many products that I love and through trying out different looks I've really found that there are so many different makeup looks and styles that actually suit me so much more.

This neutral eyes and berry lipped look has been a 'go to' look for me, it's such a simple look that's bold enough to be something a little different from my nude summery makeup, but still easy to pull off everyday. Plus when I've worn this makeup I've had so many lovely compliments on the lip colour, which is definitely encouraging me to try new looks more often!

I'm back with another set of five things I've been loving this week. For quite a while I was loving using the same things, but recently I went shopping and picked up a few new bits and bobs so I had to really narrow it down to just five this week!

I actually don't mind Monday's, I like the start of a new week and planning what I've got to do that week. I find that I need the motivation on a Wednesday, when it's the middle of the week and the weekend seems like a distant memory. I've put together a few quotes, tips and ideas that help to motivate me until the weekend.

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I'm only 19, so I guess to some I'm still quite young. But I feel like I've learnt a lot over the past few years, especially this last one, that I really wish I'd know when I was younger.

I must admit for a long time I liked the idea of breakfast more than the actual eating of breakfast. However more recently I've started to enjoy breakfast and finding new recipes that are quick and easy as well as healthy and tasty. Here I'm going to be sharing my two favourite breakfasts that I make time and time again.

I absolutely love Autumn - the weather, the clothes, the colours. My skin however does not, and I find that disappointingly quickly I've gone from a healthy summery glow to just pale dull skin. For me, there's only so much concealer and an illuminating foundation can do, and turn to skincare to try and add a little something back into lacklustre skin. These products are items I've tried and tested, and for me they work wonders, however everyone's skin is going to have different 'tastes' and opinions. Hopefully they'll give you a few ideas on how to brighten up dull skin fast.

After my friend tweeted about how much she loved Am I Normal Yet?  I knew that I'd have to give it a read. A powerful and emotive read following a girl called Evie on a 'quest' if you like, to become a 'normal' teenager. Made up recovery diary snippets and the trials of boys, friends and parties, Am I Normal Yet? brilliant first novel in a trilogy surrounding the same characters and their feminist group.

When I was in school lots of girls took their entire make up bags with them - complete with bright eyeshadow palettes and glitter liner that clearly weren't going to be used at all. I narrowed my beauty essentials down to just a few bits and pieces that look up minimal space and could stay in my bag all the time so I'd never forget them.

Gratitude - noun 
       The quality of being thankful ; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness

Who doesn't love cupcakes? I know I love them, so when I found out that I had to go dairy free I thought I'd never eat one again. Then I found this recipe which is not only dairy free, but also gluten free so it's suitable for my dad who is coeliac. Of course you could make these with normal flour and margarine if you want. These cupcakes are so light and fluffy with a delicious almondy flavour, a perfect cake with a cup of tea.

So the hard work has paid off and after months of studying and exams you're off to uni. This can be a really daunting experience, I know I was terrified when I started last year, but it doesn't have to be. Freshers week is a such a good week to meet new people, party, find out more about where you're going to be studying and have loads of fun. I've got five tips to share with you that proved helpful to me, and some that I wished I'd known before I started!

I love reading. For me there's nothing better than diving into a book and being taken away to another fictional world for a few hours. With various visionary problems I have, that's a hell of a lot more difficult, but thanks to kindle and being able to make the text size so much bigger I've been able to read more than I otherwise would've been able to - if a lot slower than I'd like! I thought I'd share some books that I read whilst I was on holiday, two fictions and one non-fiction.

I recently went on a family holiday to the French/Swiss Alps. We stayed in a French alpine village called Chatel, although literally a few metres behind us was the Swiss border and we spent time exploring local towns and villages both in France and Switzerland. It was such an amazing holiday, we'd been three times before as a friend has a chalet there and they kindly let us stay in it, and it was so nice to remember all the little things of holidays that get forgotten temporarily or unphotographed.

Sometimes I try really hard to think positive, and I'll have a productive day and keep myself busy - I'll even feel like I'm actually happy. And then the enemy comes out to play and that's the end of that.

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Seventeen Va Va Voom waterproof volume mascara is available at Boots here

I picked this mascara up at the airport before I went on holiday, my Bourjois mascara had completely dried up and as much as I was hoping to get an exact replacement, the Boots there didn't have a wide range of make up. I went for the Seventeen Va Va Voom waterproof formula having not really heard anything about it.

I feel like I haven't blogged for quite a while, but I kind of needed a little break to get back on track. I was thinking too critically about my blog and if people like it or not, and I sort of wound myself up to thinking that I wasn't good enough because I don't really understand code and I'm just using my iPhone camera for pictures. During my little break I realised that none of those things actually matter, and I need to focus more on just enjoying myself and making more friends through the blogging community. I changed my URL to make it seem less formal, to me there's something a little too formal about calling something I simply want to enjoy by my full name. I'm still going to be posting on Monday's and Friday's with the occasional Sunday post thrown in, but I don't want to blogging to turn into a chore. So what if I miss a day uploading a new post?  I want to make my blog something that I'm proud of, something I can enjoy and something other people can enjoy. So that's what I'm doing. changing things up a little to continue loving blogging.


More new posts to follow soon


Em x

I'm sure we all have them, a selection of things that our handbags are incomplete without. These handbag essentials aren't things like my phone and keys, those are pretty key to anyone, but things that during the day I'll be pleased I remember to grab that morning.

When you don't know how to deal with your feelings other than hurting yourself, it can feel like you're the one in control, after all you're making all the choices right? Wrong. It may feel like that at first, but it becomes an addiction that often spirals out of control until it feels like there is no alternative. I've come up with a list of 15 alternatives that have helped and continue to help me avoid harming myself, they are really good at controlling and letting go of emotions without hurting yourself.

It's no lie that I love a nude eye make up combined with nude lips, but I've recently discovered some new combinations that I think look really pretty and are subtle enough for everyday, but can be made more smoky for nights out.

I'm back with another Friday Favourites post to share five things I've been loving this week.

Last week I went on a fairly spontaneous trip to Ibiza with my friend Meg. When I say spontaneous, I mean that week booked it a couple of weeks before because we both fancied a little beach get away, and Ibiza was the cheapest. We both loved the trip; gorgeous beaches with the most beautifully clear water and sunshine all day long - what's not to like?! The hotel we stayed in was in San Antonio Bay, on the West Coast of the island. Because I loved it so much, I thought I'd share a few holiday snaps.

Anxiety is a difficult thing to deal with, mostly because it can be difficult to know how to talk to people about it, and also because to help anxiety going into anxiety inducing situations can be the best thing.

On Monday I setted off for a little 'mini break' holiday in Ibiza, and I thought I'd share what make up supplies I brought with me. Whilst I don't think I'll be wearing much more than just a touch of mascara and my eyebrows filled in, I brought some extras for the evenings. We're only taking hand luggage so obviously I'm slightly limited on what liquids I can take, however I think for a relaxing holiday with my friend this is the perfect amount.

Everyone loves a little pamper time, at towards the end of last year I loved watching the Me Time tag videos that were floating around YouTube, and thought why not use the same questions in a blog post. I think it was Essie Button who came up with the idea behind the tag and the questions, and I'm seriously in love with her videos! So here's my me time tag, ahead of some serious Sunday pampering!

I love painting my nails all year round, but I love the summer and changing between pastel and brighter colours.

I haven't technically been tagged to this, but I can still do it right...? I saw the tag on this blog and thought it would be a fun little post to write. Plus I love reading and watching tags because I'm so darn nosey!

These pancakes of course aren't limited to brunch, but who doesn't love a pancake based brunch? In fact who doesn't love brunch? Be it a weekday or the weekend, brunch is my favourite meal and more often than not, pancakes are a go to of mine. These American style fluffy pancakes are delicious, easy to make and the batter lasts for a couple of days in the fridge so you can have pancake mix at the ready!

Ever since I was little, I've always wanted to go to university. It wasn't that my parents were pressuring me because they'd got degrees and thought that you can't succeed without one, it was purely my choice. In fact neither of my parents went to university, and through school they would want me to just focus on one stage at a time. For me university was just the obvious choice, and only choice. When it came to actually really needing to think about going to university or finding work, there was nothing that I wanted to do more than leave home and study for a degree

Whilst there is nothing nicer than opening a brand new book for the first time, I find it equally satisfying buying books from second hand sales and charity shops. Also with charity shops, I buy books that I may have otherwise overlooked shopping online. I've been searching through plenty of charity shops recently and thought I'd share a little book haul with you.

This essentially is just going to be five things that I have been loving over the past week. I may or may not do these every Friday - it all depends on what products I've been using and of course if any of the non-beauty related things have changed over the week.

Staying positive in a negative situation  can be difficult, but then again sometimes it's difficult to see the good things in average days.Trying our best to stay positive is good for a mental health, and also general well being, the happier you feel the more likely you are to perform better in what you're doing and do more socially stimulating activities.

Being positive is all about thought processes, and learning how to take a positive note from a negative situation. It all starts with you, and how you find it easiest to be positive is going to help you best, but here's an idea that I use all the time.

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