Procrastination,

I'm becoming increasingly aware of the fact that I'm yet to show my face on this blog and I feel like I'm not a very good blogger because of it. I started out on this blog with every intention of posting ootd's and other such things, all involving photographs of myself.

However i've now come to realise that I don't particularly like taking photographs of myself, and I'm never happy enough with how they come out to put them on here - believe me I've tried numerous times.

I'm getting there though.
Hey blogger here I am

If you hadn't noticed I'm procrastinating massively and cannot for the life of me come up with any ideas of posts with any substance, does anyone have any ideas on what I should post?

£50 Boohoo Fashion Voucher blogger challenge,

Fashion Vouchers has come up with an exciting competition directed towards the avid fashion blogger with a keen eye for saving money and that competition is the £50 Boohoo challenge.
The competition states that an entire outfit must be created by surfing the Boohoo website, picking and choosing elements of the outfit as you go. However the catch is that the outfit you create cannot exceed a price of £50 - this is without the use of student discounts etc.

I personally thing this is a fantastic idea for a competition as it really brings out the saver in all of us.

Admittedly I've never actually been onto the Boohoo website before, let alone bought anything from there so I found it good fun searching through the clothes and picking out my outfit for £50.
In the end I chose the above items which in total added up to the exact amount of money I was allowed. I absolutely love the blouse, I'm really into these at the moment and I love the two tone colours of it, the skater skirt is also a staple item of any girls wardrobe and I feel it would go beautifully with the blouse (with perhaps a thin belt?) both the brogues and the clutch bag are both reasonably basic items that could go with pretty much anything and everything which is mostly why I chose them - as if I bought this outfit I'd be able to wear/use those things with other outfits rather than just this one.
I'd feel comfortable wearing this outfit out in the evening, perhaps to a nice meal when dressed up with accessories - which sadly I couldn't accommodate into my £50 budget - and heels or with the brogues in the day time, along with an oversize studded hand bag rather than the clutch.

Overall this competition has been a voyage of discovery for me as I would never have ventured onto the Boohoo website were it not for this reason, and now unfortunately for my student loan I don't seem to be able to click off of it.

Anyway, sorry about spamming you all with two posts today, but I really wanted to give this competition a go and I think that you all should too - the prize is a £50 voucher to spend on Boohoo.com so why not! It's totally worth a shot!

P.s - Entries are allowed up until the 30th September so get a move on! 

Sweater weather is better weather,

Now then, despite the fact that the past few weeks I've seen the best weather since I went to Malia on holiday this summer, the weather is finally beginning to act its season - and that season is Autumn/Winter. 

Given the fact that my accommodation is not on campus I've got to walk to my lectures, and with recent weather I've been more than thankful for my absolute plethora of chunky knit sweaters - which for some reason I appear to be the queen of I just have so many! 

Jumpers are my favourite thing about winter, there's nothing better than snuggling into a cosy jumper and sitting under your duvet with a cup of tea and a good book/movie and the good thing about chunky knit sweaters like these is that they can pretty much go with whatever - be it jeans or leggings (if they're long enough for you to wear them with leggins) 

However not all my jumpers are the chunky type, I love these thinner more slouchy sweaters just as much - if not more - and will wear them none stop throughout the coming months.
Personally I feel that every girl should have one staple winter jumper, or in my case millions.

What do you think about jumpers? Do you have any favourites? 

Review - Benefit Total Moisture facial cream,

Recently whilst out and about I spotted this pot of Benefit Total Moisture facial cream for just £1 (its only a 0.3 oz pot so definitely worth £1) the packaging stated that it was the perfect product for 'normal to dry skin' and considering the fact that the skin on my face is constantly dry no matter what product I desperately throw all over it I decided that for just £1 this was worth a shot.

I can say that after using the product for only 3 days (every time I get out of the shower and again when I take off my makeup before bed) I've seen a world of change. My usual peeling skin are now thoroughly hydrated and generally softer to the touch which to me is a completely new feeling and something I'm extremely happy and excited about. 

I'm extremely happy with this product and thankful for what it's done to my skin and I can assure you that even after only a few days of usage my skin felt both hydrated and fresh - I was even complimented by one of my flat mates on how nice my skin was looking which was rather unexpected but lovely.

I'll definitely be purchasing the larger 1.7oz tub when this one eventually runs out despite its somewhat high price of £26.50 but hey if it works, it works.

Do you know of any good moisturisers or tips on how to keep skin hydrated and refreshed?

ps. can you believe I have 80 followers? I cant! Thank you so much!

My obsession,

This post was inspired by the wonderful Abbi's post about her Cath Kidston collection.
Now I've long been a fan of Cath Kidston and so I decided to make my own collection post - regrettably, once I decided on this post I realised that the majority of the Cath Kidston things I own are still at my home in Southport as it was pretty much impossible to bring it all to university with me, instead I simply bought a few notebooks/journals and brought those with me instead as well as my trusty bag!

Top row - Left: 3 small notepads Middle: Wash bag Right: Address book

Bottom row - Left: Pad of post its, journal and notepad Middle: Small mirror and a ticket holder (for my oyster card)

My prized possession.

I cannot explain just how upset I am that I forgot my favorite mug! I'll definitely be bringing that back with me after visiting home, along with a few of my other fave items. 

Have you got any obsessions/collections? Big or small let me know! 

Formal attire,

One thing I think everyone needs to know about uni before they arrive is what clothes you should really take, there's a couple of categories I can group them into: Comfy, clubbing and 'formal'. Realisticaly all you're going to need really are comfy clothes and ones you feel comfortable going out dancing/drinking in because the number of formal events each term are very few, however they do come along once in a while.

Take today for example, our entire university headed off to Kempton races for the afternoon and we were expected to 'dress to impress' now before I'd come to uni I was completely unaware that any formal events such as this would be taking place - as were basically all my flat mates - so we weren't really sure what exactly we should be wearing.

Here are a few dresses i've had my eye on for a while that would have been perfect today at the races where  the general trend was, simple dress paired with a statement blazer/jacket and a pair of plain heels.

& here are a couple of photos from our day at the races

Hello uni,

So I'm officially moved in, finally living in London and so far completely loving it! The weather is so unbelievably brilliant, I'm definitely not used to this kind of heat in September in the North West - there are actually girls walking round in nothing but shorts and vest tops...in September! Madness I know!


Since I only moved in yesterday I'm still not completely unpacked and I've not got my bearings at all (I was late for my first departmental meeting this morning oops!) however I'm sure i'll figure it all out eventually. The first night was utter madness, I live in a flat with 9 other people (6 girls and 3 boys) and so far we're all getting on really well. We had a few predrinks then headed out to the bar to meet everyone else, got pretty bored of that eventually though and instead invited everyone - and i literally mean everyone - that was in the bar back to our flat and had the best house party I've ever been too seriously it was mad. One of the guys in our flat even managed to get the professional DJ from the bar to pack up and come DJ our house party instead. Needless to say so far I'm really enjoying myself.

I miss everyone at home like crazy but I've spoken to all the important people more than enough to stop me feeling homesick. I've also realised that some people who I thought cared about me actually clearly do not as they've barely spoken to me at all. Interesting.

Anyway, we're all off for a family trip to Asda so that we'll actually be able to feed ourselves, its going to be exciting! My posts will be a little irregular for a while until I'm completely settled in but I'll be back on form asap with my student budget fashion ideas etc. etc. etc.

My last week at home pt. II

1. A picture of me and all of my best friends // 2. Last ever Nandos with the wolfpack // 3. Chris and Simon looking sad and cold at 6am in McDonald after a night out // 4. Drunkenly asking Sophie where the taxi is before our last night out in Southport // 5. Buying Antony some goodbye Capris // 6. Me & Sophie 

I'm so upset at the moment, that and confused. I don't really know how to leave things with people before I move away tomorrow morning. Hmmm.

Uni Clothes Wishlist,

1. Cami top - River Island // Jeans - Topshop // Bag - River Island // Shoes - New Look

2. Jumper - Topshop // Jeans - H&M // Bag - Topshop

I've been trying to work out what i'm going to be taking to uni with me for the past couple of days and its dawned on me that I have NO CLOTHES! well that is a lie i actually have quite a few clothes but I've been surfing the web and there's so many clothes I simply adore. I've been trying to figure out some simple uni outfits, something that can just be thrown on before a lecture but still looks quite nice.

I absolutely adore that Topshop bag it's so unfair :(

I've also caved and bought the River Island cami and the H&M jeans - oh well it's payday!

Whats your essential uni/college outfit?

My last week at home pt. I

1. Recreating a 7 year old photo with my two best friends 2. My niece being a Hells Angel 3. Cuddles with Sophie 4. Alfie and Scarlett being best friends 5. The Red Arrows flying over Southport Pier this weekend at work 6. My fave natural yogurt bar in the village

I don't know what I'm going to do when I leave this weekend, i'm going to miss everything so much!

The Camo,

Now, I know that the 'camo' jacket has been massive this past summer/month and without sounding like I'm jumping on the bandwagon too much I completely love it. Not just the style of jacket, but the colour - khaki green is like my perfect colour, going just about perfectly with my skin tone and hair colour so you can see how I'd be thrilled at this sudden influx of army inspired clothing. However my bank balance and the whole saving for uni thing has not yet allowed me to hop onto this bandwagon and cruise out of the station just yet, but I am definitely going to invest in a camo jacket asap, possibly one of these which are all around the region of £48 (pricey but hopefully worth it)

What are your thoughts on this sudden trend of army inspired clothing? Love it or loathe it?

God bless you Royal Mail,

Now i'm aware I only actually ordered my Vivienne Westwood bracelet around 3 or 4 days ago but I already found myself becoming impatient waiting for it to arrive, and so when I checked the mail this morning I was pleasantly surprised to be greeted by a package.
I'm so happy with the bracelet, the fact that it was so much cheaper than it was meant to be, I honestly don't know why whoever the previous owner was wasn't satisfied with it, the only thing I can think of is that it is quite small and although it isn't tight on my wrist I can understand that it may be on some peoples. However it fits me perfectly and I'm absolutely in love with it!

As well as my wonderful VW package I also received two things I'd completely forgotten I'd ordered (I'm stocking up on uni clothes at the moment, so with each pay cheque that comes along I order a few more things) I couldn't resist the blouse because it's just so sweet and looks absolutely lovely tucked into a pair of black skinny jeans, its great as a casual top or I think it could be just as easily dressed up to make it a little more formal for a meal out or something similar. The jumper is probably the comfiest thing I've ever tried on, I wasn't sure if I was going to like it at first but I ordered it just in case (you can always send things back afterall) and it turns out I adore it, despite the flashes of hot pink - a colour that my skin tone and hair colour usually do not agree with - it looks really nice on and I think it'll be a really easy thing to just throw on before a lecture, and hopefully wont leave me looking like another lazy student who's just rolled out of bed.

Jumper: Miss Selfridge

Blouse: Dorothy Perkins

So what do we think? Is there anything you simply couldn't leave for uni without? I'm hoping to cover all the staple things before I leave for LDN next weekend - exciting!

Pastels in winter,

I'm a firm believer that anything and everything pastel coloured is 100% okay and completely fabulous all the time. Pastels were massive this summer but I personally love pastels in winter just as much.

top, scarf, belt, shoes, bag = topshop
skirt, tights = miss selfridge

I really love this outfit and i'm currently scouring the land for a new chunky knit scarf which I think is a winter essential - and despite the wonderful weather we've been experiencing completely out of season this week I'm so excited to start snuggling up into comfortable warm clothes and digging out my mittens.

finally,

I think I've pretty much got everything on my blog just how I want it, I'm so happy with the way it looks and everything about it so far. I'm extremely excited to start blogging more frequently about whats going on with me and my new life in London.
If you want to grab one of my buttons for my blog then the links are on the bottom right, I'll be adding other peoples buttons within the next few hours.



                                                                                                                         

bargain,

Ebay is without a doubt one of the greatest websites on earth, so many wonderful items to be had and all at reasonable prices! I have a few saved searches on Ebay which i'll check every couple of weeks and I'm so thankful that I did because yesterday I picked up one of the best bargains ever.

I got this gorgeous VW bracelet for just £15.00 and considering the RRP is £85.00 I'm extremely proud of myself.

Just got to wait for it to arrive in the post now - exciting! What bargains have you picked up recently?
xo

preparation

These past few weeks have been none stop preparation for university and the big move to London. Don't get me wrong I am beyond excited to move away and start uni, I can't wait to meet the new people and for the general experience of living away from my parents and in the countries capital - but I can't help but realise how much I'm going to miss everything from back home when I'm gone.
Mums pretty much bought everything and anything I may possibly need when I move out, and I'm so unbelievably thankful to her for doing all that she has, seriously I am so set for uni its unreal - if you need anything and you haven't got it, I suggest you come to me cause chances are i'm the girl for you. Fully equipped and completely ready to go!

I cant really begin to explain how much I'm going to miss my home, my family and my friends it's going to be so strange to leave it all behind but I know everything will be perfect when I come home at Christmas and see them all again.

                                                      Anyway here's some recent photos

 my oyster card finally arrived!

Annie sat on her new sofa in her new flat