By now we're way into September which means that almost everyone is back at school and we'll be returning to university very soon. Now I don't know about you but after having such a long time off, I find it really hard to get back into a steady routine and therefore don't really enjoy the changeover. "What could make the prospect of returning to school or uni more exciting?" I hear you ask. "Stationery" I reply. *everyone cheers* Yes I exaggerate but stationery is bae and all that jazz when you're a nerd at heart. I wear my bookworm badge with pride. Anyhoo, here are my top high street picks for back to school. I've seriously got my eye on the Gemma Correll pieces!
Last week I was lucky enough to spend four days at Hello! Fashion, a monthly magazine based in central London. It was a rush to say the least as I only received the offer four days before travelling but it was a fab experience that I'll now share with you! Luckily I have wonderful cousins who live near London so I was able to stay with them for the duration of my placement. However this meant catching several trains each morning to get to work which was uber stressful but here we go....
Whether it's your bedroom away from home, your uni/dorm room or even the spare room, it's important not to get too carried away with decorating and instead to shop for the space you've got.
We all have bad days and recently, I've been there. So whether it's that you have a tonne of work to do or that you didn't get your coffee this morning (I feel your pain), I think we can all agree bad days suck.
So at the end of a bad day, what could be better than curling up in bed with snacks and a good film? It works wonders for me, and soon enough I've forgotten what made the day so bad. Here are my top 5 suggestions to brighten up the day.
So... I joined the hype and bought a fitbit. Actually I think it was more that I gave into peer pressure, as everyone at my work has them, not that we're competitive or anything... (game on team)
At first I was a bit unsure of how they worked and the benefits they came with but I can honestly say, I've been so much more active since using my Alta.
It measures your daily movement, in steps and miles, your calories burnt and your active minutes (if you've been on your feet, moving about for more than 10 minutes.)
The Fitbit watch comes with an app, that you can connect to your phone via bluetooth which shows a more in-depth coverage of your goals and challenges, which you can share with your friends. You can log your food via the app too but I found it too tricky so use MyFitnessPal instead. Once connected via bluetooth the Alta displays text messages, reminders and calls too.
It has really come in handy keeping me motivated to reach a higher fitness goal. It's easy to connect with other apps too which I've been doing. I've connected Fitbit app with My Wellness (very handy for gym users!) and MyFitnessPal. They are quite on the pricey end but I can honestly say I think it's been worth every penny. I often sleep wearing my Fitbit and I find it so interesting as it measures your quality of sleep - mind boggling but very cool! Recently I've experimented with the silent alarm feature. I know it won't be for everyone, and it'll take some getting used to but basically, it slowly vibrates on your wrist waking you up softly, which can be nice change to aggressive alarm tunes. It's less expensive than the other trackers out there, and although I would have liked to have the heart-rate feature, I went with the prettiest looking one! To see what other fitness trackers there are out there, have a look at this post on Fashion North. I think the Alta looks quite cute and stylish, rather than the thicker ones on the market and you can get interchangeable bands too, however overpriced they may be ... so that might have to be a christmas buy!
This week marked the end of my 2nd year of study at university! I honestly can't believe how fast it's gone and that I'll be starting my final year in just a matter of months. So, last week was one big stress to say the least. The top two pictures on here really just sum it all up. Lots of naughty snacks and a whole lotta coffee. But hurrah I made it through all 8 exams including 3 NTCJs (journalism exams) which I think went well, but we'll see.
The picture on the left was taken on Friday afternoon, after we finished our last exam of the year. A few of the fashion journalism gals and I headed for cocktails to celebrate. Then on the right, (2nd one down) this is a sweet lil pic of me and my friends out partying on the weekend! Then the bottom right is my current sich: lazing about watching youtube videos whilst tidying my room and eating berries! This next month I've got a lot to look forward to. I'm getting back in the gym, putting in more hours at work and I will deffo be blogging more, so do be sure to pay my little blog another visit over the summer! This week has been fabulous - really, it's just been one big sigh of relief. The best part is a tie between celebrating with the girls on Friday and telling my 14 year old sister that we're going to see Beyoncé (she cried).
I know its been a while since I showed my face on here but let's just say these last few months have been quite hard on me. Uni work was piling up with many deadlines towards the end of semester, as well as that I had 8 exams to revise for! Eeek! But hurrah, hurrah, I have my last exam on Friday, which is my Public Affairs NCTJ. I'm looking forward to celebrating the end of our second year with my uni gals in the afternoon, then on Friday night it's a friend of mine's birthday so we're going out to celebrate.
I'm hoping to get back on the band wagon with blogging as recently my anxiety has been all over the place and I couldn't bring myself to think about it never mind ask someone to take my picture. But this summer I don't have many major plans, so I'm looking forward to just chilling out, getting back in the gym, earning that dolla, and working on my writing.
Wow how weird it is to write 20th birthday. I don't feel old but honestly I swear I'm still 16 at heart! My Mum decided to welcome me to my 20s with 'Welcome to the era of responsibility.' Eek! Thanks for that Mumma, that's not terrifying at all!
I had a fabulous birthday with thanks to my bestest friends. I went to uni in the morning for a workshop and our weekly Fashion North meeting, then I caught the bus to Leeds to meet my bestie for a night out there and a day of shopping to follow - yippee!
The cutest birthday cards!
Rebekah & I
Magical cocktails at Alchemist!
Bits I picked up shopping & a purse from my lil sis!
Leeds was beautiful. It's such a lovely city and I'm kicking myself for not taking more photos!
I apologise for my lack of posts recently. I have so many ideas for posts I keep meaning to do but I have been so stressed with work and uni recently I just haven't got round to it. But fingers crossed I'll be back to normal asap, just please bear with me!
Do you ever get that kind of happy rush when you have lots on? Well for me, that just sums me up. I thrive on having things on.
I was at work in the early week and I had a lot of work to do for university, so the productivity began quite early. Sadly our netball match was cancelled on Wednesday, and although disappointing, it gave me time to catch up on all the work I've been avoiding. If you didn't already know (Golly that sounds terrible!) Well, I'm deputy editor of a website, Fashion North and this week I'm proud to say that we planned fantastic posts on Thursday. I'm super excited about the International Women's Day content we have for March 8th. I'm writing a post about fictional heroines - exciting! So be sure to check it out next week when it goes live! I've caught up with shorthand, after injuring my hand making it physically impossible. I'm on track for French (finally) as I had mountains of work to get through and on top of that I had some fabulous news on Thursday - one of my best friends is coming back to university!
All in all, it's been a fab week. Sometimes you can just get caught up in the hustle and bustle of life and all the chores you 'need' to do, that you forget to take time for yourself. This is my downfall, but this week I changed that and I'm quite proud of myself for doing so.
I've been watching - The Brits
I've been listening to - Best Fake Smile by James Bay
I've been reading - The Dressmaker (Review to come soon!)
That's all for today's Sunday Musings lovelies. I hope you're enjoying this lil' series and if there's anything you want to see on here, let me know.
It's safe to say it's been a while but recently I just haven't felt like blogging and I don't feel comfortable publishing average content just for the sake of publishing.
I've been très très stressed recently. Uni really takes it out of you. Dealing with stress and anxiety can be tough and although common it's such a personal thing that's hard to escape, for the constant worry. Today I want to start a series here on Le Blog de Rosy: Sunday Musings of a Stressed Student, where I'll share bits and pieces from my week as well as content that, with hope, all you stressed students out there can appreciate and enjoy! The first of the series: How to feel better when you've been down. We all have bad days, sometimes a cuppa and a chocolate biscuit isn't enough, so here are a few things I've found productive that help cheer me up and help me relax. 1. Get a proper nights sleep. This can be hard with early starts and late night partying but it's important to get enough rest. Make sure you're getting at least 7 hours, more if you can. I try to give myself one day a week where I go to bed before 11pm, and just let myself wake up naturally - no alarms! 2. Take a shower. This may sound odd but I love a good shower. It really helps me relax. I also like to put some chilled music (The Devil Wears Prada soundtrack, if you must know!) and put on a facemask to cleanse my skin of impurities from all the nervous sweets I've been eating - oops! 3. Get some exercise. For me, this is the best stress relief. Busting out my worries with fitness training - it sounds terrible, but it's so tough I forget how stressed I am and enjoy the task at hand. Exercise releases positive endorphins, which make you feel better. Even if it's just a walk to the shop, or round the park, I promise you'll feel better afterwards. 4. Sit down with a good book and just read. I love a good book, don't you? If you're like me, always on your toes, with somewhere to be, it's likely that you don't get much time to read. I've found reading on public transport works wonders - on the metro and the bus! I always keep a book in my bag, just in case I have time to waste.
5. Go somewhere by yourself. It doesn't really matter what you do, whether it's going to the cinema, for a coffee, even to the library - it's nice to get some alone time without the worries of everyday life. E.g. being late for work, THAT essay, your german homework etc, etc. 6. Let it all out. If all else fails, sometimes you just need to let it all out and share your problems with someone else. Whether it's your Best Friend, your Mum, your Teacher or even a Doctor. You can moan and cry as much as you want and by letting off steam and sharing your worries with someone else, you'll feel ten times better than bottling it up and saving it until your kettle boils.
I hope you enjoyed this new little feature here on le blog de rosy. I am hoping to keep this as a regular series so do let me know what you think in the comments! To keep up to date with me don't forget to follow on Bloglovin' and Insta.
I think it's safe to say that 2016 has already been rather eventful for me. And sadly not in a good way, which regrettably has left blogging at the bottom of my never-ending to do list. I don't want to give you silly excuses but I have honestly just not been feeling up to blogging recently, even though I have some fab content lined up. But this month has just been one big stress already and we're only 20 days in - eek! Long story short I had a load of assignments due for the start of Jan, then I lost my purse with ALL of my cards in which I'm still in the process of replacing and on top of that I have a mountain of revision and shorthand to get through. So let's just say the first few weeks of January weren't too good to me, which caused that lovely friend of mine anxiety to reappear, which made me ill - not fun! This morning I wanted to start anew, so feeling fresh and energetic (I know) I made an effort, which really helped. (I even put on makeup which I haven't done in weeks.) Then I made a blogging schedule, which I fully intend to stick to. Here it is, each month I want to produce: - a Book Review (something I've been dabbling in doing) - 2 fashion posts, either an outfit or a trend piece - Either a favourites/beauty review post Thanks to all of you for sticking with me, they'll be more to see pretty soon on here along with the first book that I'll be reviewing: 'A Book for Her' by Bridget Christie, so keep an eye out for that!
You've probably seen this hashtag floating around the blogosphere quite a lot recently so I thought I'd jump on the band wagon and share my top 9 insta posts. I'll add in the links to each one so you can read the full post if you're interested too.
y so Left to right: 1. My fave lips of the year: the Bourjois Rouge Edition Velvet Liquid! 2. My gorgeous Olivia Burton watch that I got with my work bonus points - see post here! 3. This halloween, when I dressed up as Cruella De Vil - such fun! 4. From my Parisienne pour un jour post - oh how I love the french style. 5. A small insight as to how i spent the whole month of May - in bed watching Pretty Little Liars 6. In October I was lucky enough to win tickets to Stylist Live! 7. My OOTN before I saw Florence Welch live 8. A sneak peek of my outfit when I was in Prague 9. One of my favourite posts this year: The Vampy Lip Edit I hope you all had a lovely Christmas time! Do share your top 9 with me on Twitter or Instagram - I'm @leblogderosy on both!
I don't normally share my uni assignments on here, but this one was quite personal and I really enjoyed putting it together. It's a fashion memoir with an accompanying slideshow (also, in the brief) and sadly the only way to submit the video was to upload it to YouTube - eek! It's possible that I'll take it down before the end of the year but I'd like to share it with you first. Let me know what you think. Here goes . . .
Guess what I inherited from my family
gene pool? Not my Dad’s killer smile, or my Mum’s good looks but thanks to the
pair of them, I’m blind as a bat.
Wearing glasses can be a real hassle. I mean there are
pros, don’t get me wrong. I’ve got the Ann Robinson slide and wink, down to a T
and I have a guaranteed disguise for my alter ego. But they can be a real pain.
You see the elements are never in your favour. They’ll
steam up, they’ll be blown off and they’ll deprive you of a glorious suntan. And
people often take them just for a laugh. But even if you do look ridiculous, I
can’t share in the hilarity because I can’t see!
I
think I’ve always been very aware of the fact that I have these big chunky,
uncomfortable frames hanging from my ears, causing me to look like a real-life
Ugly Betty.
Looking
through old photos of me in various styles and frames one word comes to mind:
“CRINGE,” and shortly after “WHY MUM, WHY?”
I’ve
had a new pair of spectacles at least once a year for the last decade, unless I
was happy with the ones I had, where they’d leave me to wander aimlessly around
town until they had replaced the lenses.
But
on choosing new frames I was at a slight disadvantage, as I couldn’t actually
see without my prescription glasses. Therefore I had to rely on friends and
family to confirm they looked acceptable on my little pea-head.
I
mean I’ve had some cracking styles, (and by cracking I mean gut-wrenchingly
awful!) I had a thin, box-like pair from Red Or Dead. Need I say more? Let’s
just say they were too wide for my head: what a nightmare that was.
The
monochromatic Tommy Hilfiger pair came next with gems on the sides.Yeah, let’s just say all of those photos were
erased for a reason.
After
that I decided that bigger was better and chose some giant frames that totally
took over my face. Think Gretchen from Recess. With these you’re in luck as
there are plenty of photos of me sporting those frames as I made the decision
to keep them for a full three years because I was so fond of them (at the time!)
After
the monstrous frames from hell, I tried contact lenses, and thank the Lord they
hit the spot. I’ve worn them on and off for four years but full time for two,
and honestly I love it when someone says: “Gosh, I didn’t know you wore
glasses!”
Last
year I got some snazzy Gok Wan frames that I absolutely loved but sadly they
fell off the bathroom shelf and snapped. So now I have some burgundy and navy
specs that I only really wear when I’m working or tired, but I’ve come to terms
with wearing them.
Although
I will always feel like I’m being lazy when wearing them, I will continue to, because
they represent me, and my preppy personal style. Despite this, contacts are a
definite confidence booster so I prefer to wear them, but to others I probably
don’t look much different so really, it’s just all in my head.
~~~
I hope you don't mind this different kind of post. It's not often I's share my work on my blog, but since the video is up anyway, why shouldn't you see it?
If you enjoyed this kinda thing then check out Fashion North, where this will be published in the near future!
Once again, this week has been hectic and I'm finding it tricky to keep on top of it all.
Uni deadlines are creeping up and Thursday brought about our christmas drinks launch at work which was crazy busy. Although there are some fab christmas drinks on hand, so if you're out and about make sure you pick up a White Hot Chocolate - they're the bomb! Today is my first day off in a while where I have nothing planned, so I'm thinking a lazy day is my best bet. I'm currently watching Young Victoria, then I might pop out for afternoon tea later with the girls.
1-6 left to right: 1.Halloween! 2. We got our fun netball photo back! 3. Quick stop in Cafe Nero with Hello Fashion! 4. Two Pride&Prejudice badges I picked up the other day - so cute! 5. My Work shirt for christmas time! 6. Shorthand -something that I'm finally getting the hang of but have to constantly practice!
Sorry this hasn't been my usual kinda post, I've got a few planned for next week since I'm off wahoo! So do be sure to check back soon.
After such an extremely stressful time last week, I was super happy to be surprised with two tickets to Stylist Live in London.
You see, Stylist is by far my favourite magazine, but I'd already ruled the event out after my student budget couldn't reach that far, to get me a ticket and all the way to London. So a couple of weeks ago I entered a competition on their twitter page and magically, I won! My friend Lucy and I got the train from Newcastle in the early hours only to arrive in London with an hour and a half to spare, so we popped into Kings Cross so that I could get my 'Platform 9 3/4 picture,' which for some reason I'd never done before! Then after a lot of tube-hopping and google-mapping, we finally arrived at Islington Business centre ready for the day ahead! It was fabulous to say the least. We got VIP seats at the catwalk show where the ASOS styling team showcased next seasons trends: Sweet and Sour, Supercharged Tweed, 80s Glam, Décor Dressing, and my personal favourite: Period Dressing! We attended several talks and Q&As including one between Lucy Mangan and Bridget Christie, who even signed my book! We treated ourselves to a manicure and one three glasses of complementary bubbly, then ended the day with a Q&A with makeup artist, Lisa Eldridge. Honestly, it was so jam-packed and went by so quickly it's hard to believe that only two days ago I was in the capital. But I have the pictures to prove it, so it must have happened!
Just over a week ago I moved back to Sunderland for my second year of university and so far I think it's safe to say I've been thrown in at the deep end.
I saw this quote earlier today and thought it cool: 'Sometimes we need fantasy to escape reality.'
My timetable is, thankfully, much busier than last year and my modules already seem more intense. I'm happy for that though, as it's challenging so I'll be pushed to work harder, as last semester I was only in six hours a week.
Netball is just starting again; we're having our second round of trials tonight, which seem promising. I'm second team captain this year which is so exciting but also so nerve racking. The gals are all lovely as well so this year it'll be fabulous being back playing with them.
Today I pitched for a role on the Fashion North team which was TERRIFYING. I was shaking so much I'm surprising I didn't pass out. Let's just say public speaking is not my forte. BUT it's a fab site that I'd love to be more involved with. {Check it out here}
As for work, I started back at the coffee shop this weekend. Hopefully I'll get back into the routine of things pretty quickly, as it took me way too long to adjust last year!
I'm sorry if this post seemed a bit rambly. I've got a lot on my mind at the moment and I'm getting quite anxious about it all.
I have a few posts ideas such as: a tour of my new room (new house) and an little insight in my fashion journalism course that I might do soon. If you have any thing you'd like to see just let me know, as always, in the comments below.
