creativity and positivity

"THINK PINK" BATH BOMB REVIEW!

May 31, 2017
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My second year of university has almost reached its conclusion, minus exams and assignments that is, and I thought I'd make this small post to reflect on how I've felt over the last nine or some months and document some of the wonderful and important events that have happened to me over the course of these two semesters.

Second year is a lot harder, much more so than I had anticipated. I enjoyed my first year immensely, every single aspect fascinated and captivated me and moulded me into what I felt was a better version of myself. That is not to say that I didn't have a lot of fun this year, I did, but the pressure was a lot greater and the workload a lot larger. I can't count how many hours I've wasted away doing independent study and research, even managing to enter the adult world and detach myself from the virtual, social media world that I've been so engrossed in throughout my teenage life. With that being said, I am extremely proud of how well I've done thus far, with just a few essays standing between me and entering final year, I've passed every module, except one, with first class marks. What makes me even more ecstatic about this achievement is that I've worked a ridiculous amount of hours at my dream job and suffered a real deterioration in my mental health since the beginning of the school year. My dad and mum even admitted to me that they didn't think I was going to do as well as I did last year because of all of these things and I'm really happy to have proved them, and myself wrong. I finally feel like I'm becoming an adult. Studying hard, working hard, living semi-independently and no longer relying on the validation of strangers online to make me feel good about how I present myself. Everything I do, I do it for myself and I can honestly say I never imagined I could get to this point.

I've also learnt that living away from home is tough, and living with a lot of students is even harder. I've always considered myself a somewhat outgoing, but kind of introverted person. Sometimes I do really well in social groups, but most of the time I prefer my own company, and trust me, you don't get too much of that when you live with seven other people. I was also really nervous about living away from my family because we're so close, particularly my dad, brother and I. Although I do travel home every weekend, I have learnt that I can do it on my own too. I can now cook for myself, like actual meals as well as packet pasta, I can work a washing machine and a dryer, and I LOVE to clean and grocery shop, and I know that probably doesn't amount to much in the eyes of some of you readers, but I'm one of those spoilt kids who's been mollycoddled all my life and who thought that they'd be living at home until they turned 25. But I also think that this has possibly contributed to my slight relapse mentally. When there's tension between housemates its impossible to avoid getting caught in the crossfire and sometimes it's over the pettiest thing. If I hadn't have been living with my boyfriend anyway I can guarantee I would have moved out long ago. I don't know if I would ever do it again.

With that being said, I've loved living at the coast. I've always felt an affinity with the beach and the seaside. I've discovered a lot of gorgeous cafes, visited beautiful natural locations and loved nothing more than taking long drives and walks. That's definitely one advantage of going to university in a rural location. Amongst that, I've been involved on campus more so than last year. I was a part of a writing mentor group, treasurer for my english and poetry society, helped organise the formal and I even won prom queen! I've been surrounded by a lot of wonderful people this year and I'm very grateful for that.

All in all, I feel like I'm now better prepared for final year. My boyfriend and I are going to be moving in together by ourselves, the hard work at university is finally going to begin and I'm choosing some really awesome modules to study that will actually count towards my degree. The prospect of writing a dissertation is really scary, especially considering that I have no idea what I want to do it on. I can only hope that I manage to improve on myself over the summer and hopefully that will lead to a more peaceful, relaxed and easier worked through third year.

Rachel x

May 10, 2017
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LUSH EASTER RANGE HAUL!

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April 12, 2017
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20 FACTS ABOUT ME!

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Now that I'm finally off for Easter, I'm starting to make a conscious effort to get more content out there for you all to see. I'm taking my time with planning some really personal writing posts, but of course there will still be my usual fashion content and lots and lots of haul posts. I have a better quality camera now, so towards the summer expect more of a "professional" approach to my posts, as I'll by trying my best with this blog before my dissertation in third year takes over my life. If there's any other content you'd like me to see or talk about specifically, let me know and I'll be more than happy to oblige! Until they're all ready, what better way to slowly prepare you all than with a fun personal post, that doesn't require a lot of thinking on my part, nor a lot of reading on your part. Yes, it's the inevitable "20 Facts About Me" post!

1. I've kept a diary since I was 11 years old, and when I was younger I wrote in it every single day. Regardless of how meaningless the detail or how boring the day, I noted down everything. Now that I'm a bit old and I don't have much time on my hands, a post maybe once a month (or when something important happens) is enough for me! But that also means, there are a lot of empty notebooks lying around my room.

2. I didn't have a proper job until I was 19, and even then it wasn't really a proper job. At the weekends I worked in a cafe washing dishes and cleaning tables, then I was promoted to a waitress, then a cashier, and then I was fired - all in the space of six weeks! I now work at Lush as a sales assistant and I've been there for 7 months.

3. I've always been interested in fashion, but I don't have any one area of inspiration. Most of the clothes I like are well out of my budget, but if I could I would look like a glittery rainbow princess every day.

4. My music taste is really eclectic and ranges from Slipknot to Nicki Minaj. Some of my favourite artists are Nirvana, Lana Del Rey, Kate Bush, David Bowie, Fall Out Boy, Crystal Castles, No Doubt, Blondie, Lorde, Kasabian, Hole, Alanis Morissette, Childish Gambino and The Smashing Pumpkins.

5. I have 13 cacti! I also used to own six succulents but I really suck at keeping them alive.

6. When I was younger I wanted to go down a vast array of career paths; vet, gnome, mermaid, journalist, writer. Now I'm toying between the idea of being an English teacher or an editor for a publishing company. I love to tutor others and help them learn knew things, but I also like helping people correct things and learn something from that. Basically, I'm all about learning.

7. I've been using various social media platforms since I was 11. It all started with Stardoll, (if you don't remember it, you missed out) before eventually progressing to Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter and then Instagram. It pains me to think about how much of my life I've wasted online but on the positive side, I've made some wonderful friendships that have lasted an eternity.

8. I currently study English and I'm in my second year of university. I'm particularly interested in feminist literary theory, contemporary novels, Irish literature and I'm starting to warm to Gothic tradition as well. When I was in high school I also loved history and modern languages.

9. I can't remember a time where cartoons weren't in my life. I love Adventure Time in particular, but I also like Digimon, We Bare Bears and Over the Garden Wall.

10. Spicy food is my absolute weakness, I could eat it in any form.

11. I have zero tattoos and piercings. I've had my ears pierced twice in my life, but both times they got infected and closed over. The last time, one fell out in my sleep and I was desperately trying to put it back into my ear the morning before an exam. I failed, and kept the other one in for about three weeks before I decided to just take it out. I would potentially get them done again in the future and I would love a couple of small tattoos.

12. Paramore were the first band I saw live. Since then, I've seen The Blackout, Young Guns, Olly Murs, Kasabian, Slipknot, Avenged Sevenfold, Fall Out Boy and Red Hot Chilli Peppers.

13. I was an Irish dancer when I was younger. I never won trophies, or came higher than fourth place, but I have a lot of medals hidden away in my roof space. I was also into netball and sewing. Nowadays, I don't have many hobbies that aren't university related.

14. If I were to describe myself, I would say that I'm half "the mom friend", half the "weird" friend. I admire anyone who can put up with some of the strange, and quite concerning, things I say on a regular basis. But I always do my best to put people before myself and make sure everything is going smoothly.

15. I'm a Sagittarius, so by that logic I should constantly be suffering from an acute case of wanderlust. But I'm the least adventurous winter baby I know. I would love to travel to places like Japan, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark, but I know that I can't last longer than a week away from home. I enjoy my creature comforts far too much!

16. I collect Funko pop figures, perfume, plants, seashells and pens! I've also kept every birthday card I've ever received.

17. I really hate wearing socks, unless I absolutely have to. I'm mostly barefoot, which also leads into the fact that I permanently have the coldest feet ever.

18. I can't drive, and I don't really have any intentions of learning how to! Don't ask me why, because I don't even know why myself.

19. I studied French and German in high school, and I also took a twelve week Japanese course, but I didn't keep up with them!

20. I'm only 5'1. I always wear high heels in outfit pictures because I feel like they make the outfit look a lot better.

And there you have it, 20 rather mundane facts about me! I hope you enjoyed this little filler post, and that you'll come back to read more of my posts soon.

Rachel

April 06, 2017
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"THINK PINK" BATH BOMB REVIEW!

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