Rambling post #3: Dream big.

For as long as I can remember one of my biggest dreams has been to be a published author. When I was little I used to write short stories in this little book that I made, and I even illustrated the pages and designed my front cover. As a kid I was very imaginative and these stories would just erupt from my pen without even having to think about it.
Now i'm an adult, it gets harder. I still want to write a book one day, I just have absolutely no idea what to write about. I've seen interviews with some of my favourite authors like John Green and Michael Grant, and they all pretty much say the same thing.
"Write about what you know".
I've read book reviews where the critic has criticized the author for writing about something a little out of their depth. I think to be able to write about something, you need to fully understand it first, even if it takes extensive research.
I always loved how authors like J.K.Rowling, J.R.R.Tolkien, Michael Grant and Suzanne Collins created their own worlds like Panem and Middle Earth with their own rules and characters. This is the kind of book i'd love to write, I just can't think of an imaginative universe that I can create. Maybe one day I will be able to when I've experienced a little more of the world. But as of right now, I don't think this is the right path.
However, recently I sort of had a bit of a brain wave and came up with a main theme and possible name of a novel I could start writing. I'm not going to tell you what it will be about, because that would be too nice and a b it of a spoiler. It's still just an idea brewing in my mind, and if I become more and more sure that it will work, you will find things out.

𝕒𝕟𝕟𝕒𝕓𝕖𝕝

The Race For Life.

Before I was born, my Grandma passed away due to breast cancer, and when it happened, my Mum was the age I am at now. I can't imagine losing anyone that close to me at this young an age. 

I've always felt that it was unfair because I never got the chance to meet her, and everything my Mum has told me about her shows me how much of an amazing woman she was. One of my main objectives in life is to just make her proud, and the best way I can think of to do that is the Race For Life. 

For the past 2 years I have done the 5k at Temple Newsam. Even if I only raise £1, it's still a step closer to getting rid of this absolute bitch of a disease. 

 2013

My sister Emma, Me, Auntie Vicky, my cousin Harriet, Auntie Yats, my Mum Philippa, and on the floor: my cousin Tom came to cheer us on.

 2014

Here we are again! Emma, Harriet, Me, Auntie Yats, Auntie Vicky, my Mum.

Over the years i've lost other family members, including my Auntie Dot. She always wanted me to go to University, and after she passed away I finally got in, so I hope she's super proud of me for that one!

So this year, along with Harriet, Emma and Auntie Yats, we are going to take part in Pretty Muddy, which is The Race For Life, but with obstacles inspired by the likes of Total Warrior and Tough Mudder.

 All kitted out for 2015

T-Shirt, Group Leader badge, tattoos and my number!

There is a JustGiving link on the right hand side of my page, it would mean a lot to me and millions of others in the world if you could sponsor us, even just £1 makes a difference.

Soap & Glory haul!

Surprise surprise, I found myself wandering into Boots today and somehow ended up at the Soap and Glory stand, and if you've read my #1 Addiction post, you will know that I have a bit of a crazy obsession when it comes to Soap and Glory.

So today the craziness struck again and with 3 for 2 at Boots, I thought it would be rude not to!

Kick Ass Concealer, It's About Prime eyeshadow primer & Archery brow tint & shaper

I already have S&G's Kick Ass Concealer, but I dropped it and the container has broken so the make up just gets everywhere. I thought it would be a good idea to buy a new one, so I did. The lovely creaminess of the concealer covers up flaws perfectly, then the adorable little powder puff applies a light amount of the powder to get rid of the shininess.







Achieving perfect eyebrows is possibly one of the biggest beauty crazes at the moment and I've heard a lot of raving reviews about Archery so I felt like giving it a go. For a while now I've been using Benefit's Brow Zings, however I sometimes think that it applies very heavily and dark, making my eyebrows look very artificial.








And last but certainly not least, It's About Prime. One of the main problem's i've experienced with eyeshadow primers is the annoying creases they can leave after a while on your eyelid. However, It's About Prime promises no creases so i'm looking forward to giving it a go!









Out of the three of these i'm most excited to see how Archery turns out. I'll be using all 3 of these products over the weekend so I will be writing a follow up post to let you all know what I thought about them. I'd love to know what your favourite Soap & Glory products are!

Everyone loves a Bank Holiday.

To mark the first Bank Holiday of the year, my Mum decided it would be nice if my family went to Robin Hood's Bay and Whitby for the day. My Dad thought this was a horrific idea and spend 90% of Easter weekend complaining about the traffic and the fact that he would be driving.

On Monday morning my Mum suddenly had a change of heart and agreed with my Dad, just as my sister and I had packed a bag each to take with us, so we felt pretty let down. We had been looking forward to this little trip all weekend and we didn't just want to spend the day at home. 

In the end, we managed to persuade the parents with James' help, and by 11am, we were on our merry way to the coast.

Road trip selfies!

As Dad had expected, the traffic was pretty bad. A journey that should have taken 1.5 hours had instead stolen 3 and a half hours out of our day. We tried not to let this ruin the trip.

However, where I live had glorious sunshine all weekend, and when we arrived at the coast, it was freezing! We were all in shorts with sunglasses on and my Mum in flip flops. Luckily I had brought a pair of jeans and my Converse just in case, so I was pretty warm.
None of us had eaten all morning so our first stop was at a little hotel restaurant for some lovely warm baguettes, then we made our way to the beach.

The freakishly steep hill (it gets steeper!)

Once we had gotten down the massively steep hill to the beach, it began to warm up as the sun started to peek out of the clouds. I got my Canon 600D out, Emma had her Fujifilm and we had a go at some photography for 5 minutes whilst James, Mum and Dad went fossil hunting.

It was already pushing 4 o'clock so we decided it was time to make our way back to the car and move on to Whitby. Unfortunately, no one found any fossils (unless you count my Dad as one).

A few of snaps from Robin Hood's Bay.

A snap from the marina in Whitby.

I love visiting Whitby and smelling the fresh sea air. It reminds me of holidays and sunny days at the beach. After a quick walk around the shops, my Mum, Emma and I eventually gave into James and Dad's nagging and went to look for a Sky Sports pub so they could watch the Leeds vs. Wolverhampton game. Once we had all had a quick drink, us ladies left the guys in the pub to go to the amusements. I'm rubbish at the 2p machines but they're so addictive. My sister managed to win a little plastic Super Mario toy. After we had spent up, we went back to the pub for a few more drinks until the game finished.

On the way home we stopped off in a restaurant for some fish and chips (kind of compulsory when you visit the seaside). We got stuck in a little traffic on the way home but was no where near as bad as when we were going.

The Liebster Award.

Just recently I was nominated for the Liebster Award by the lovely Pinkie Prim. Thanks for the nomination! I love your blog and your photography is excellent.

The Liebster Award helps promote low-key bloggers with under 200 followers that you think deserve more recognition!

There are 4 rules:
1. Thank and link the person who nominated you.
2. Answer the nominator's 11 questions.
3. Nominate 11 blogs with less than 200 followers who you think deserve this award and include their links.
4. Create 11 questions for these nominees to answer, and notify them via social media/blogs.

Here are the questions that Pinkie Prim asked me:

1. How many times have you been abroad and which holiday was your favourite? I've been abroad at least 10 times to various countries. My favourite place i've visited so far is Mexico, but my favourite holiday is the one I go on every year with my family to Mallorca.
2. What are your 3 favourite make up products? Soap & Glory's Supercat liquid eyeliner in black, MAC's Rebel lipstick and Browzings by Benefit.
3. What is your favourite clothing shop? Topshop, i'm obsessed with their jeans.
4. Do you have any pets? I have a cat called Freddie. You can read about him here.
5. Which breed of dog is your favourite? I've always wanted a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel ever since I made one called Charlie on Nintendogs.
6. When did you start blogging and what do you like/dislike about it? I started this blog just over 2 years ago. I love that sometimes I can escape from the real world and be completely honest in my posts without feeling judged. I've always wanted to be a writer so creating things for people to read is very enjoyable. However, sometimes I get a bit of writers block and it can really bug me for a while. All I want to do is keep writing posts but on occasion I am out of ideas.
7. What make up products do you use on an everyday basis? Rimmel Match Perfection foundation in True Ivory, Rimmel Stay Matte powder in Transparent, Benefit Browzings in Dark, Soap & Glory Supercat liquid eyeliner in Black and Maybelline Colossal Go Extreme mascara in Leather Black.
8. Do you prefer the countryside or the city? I love living in the city. I couldn't imagine it any other way. However every now and again it's nice to take a little vacation in the countryside for some peace and quiet.
9. What is your favourite type & brand of chocolate? I can never get enough of Galaxy, but white chocolate has to be the best.
10. What is your favourite TV programme? The Vampire Diaries.
11. Who is your Celebrity crush? Zac Efron. 

I now nominate these 11 blogs to take part in the Liebster Award! Just click on their names to check their blogs out:

1. Pretend It's A Plan
2. Pretty Little Vibe
3. Abby McHale
4. Beauty From Within
5. http://Emma
6. Little Bit Of Everything
7. Jessica Victoria
8. Make Up, Music and Fashion
9. The Beauty Solution
10. Jenna Loves Beauty
11. Quirks and Queries

My 11 questions:

1. What's your number 1 dream?
2. 3 things that you couldn't live without?
3. If you could change 1 thing about the world, what would it be and why?
4. Why did you start blogging and what do you like about it?
5. 1 strange fact about yourself?
6. If you could be someone for a day, who would you be and what would you do?
7. Pepsi or Coke?
8. What music do you like to listen to?
9. If you could travel to 3 places in the world and go nowhere else ever, where would you go?
10. Who is your role model?
11. Dogs or cats?

Make sure you check out all of the blogs that are tagged in this post!

If you could...

1. Travel anywhere, where would it be? I can't choose, there are so many places I really want to visit. I guess it would probably be Thailand. I've read The Beach by Alex Garland and The Backpacker by John Harris and I loved learning about the culture and the backpacker atmosphere out there.
2. Meet anyone, who would it be? As crazy as she is, i'd love to spend the day with Miley Cyrus. I can imagine that a day with her would be pretty hard to forget!
3. Bring anyone dead back to life, who would it be? I'm a pretty big believer in 'everything happens for a reason' and if I had the choice of bringing someone back, I don't think I would. But if I had to choose, it would be my Grandma Anne, she died before I was born and I feel slightly cheated that I never got the chance to meet her.
4. Be anyone for a day, who would it be? I absolutely worship the ground Jennifer Lawrence walks on. She's such an inspirational and hilarious woman. It would be brilliant to be her for a day.
5. Get anything for free for the rest of your life, what would it be? Soap and Glory everything.
6. Change one thing about your life, what would it be? Sometimes I think it would have been cool to apply to University in America. Going by the movies they seem to have way more fun, but it might be different in real life. Hopefully I can do a semester abroad.
7. Have any superpower, what would it be? Ever since I was little I have always wanted to fly.
8. Be any animal for a day, which would you be? A dolphin, I love swimming.
9. Date anyone, who would it be? Zac Efron.
10. Change one thing about the world, what would it be? I'd eliminate either cancer or war.
11. Live in any fictional universe, which would you choose? Harry Potter. Without a doubt.
12. Eliminate one of your human needs, which one would you get rid of? Going to the toilet. It's just so boring and unnecessary.
13. Change one thing about your physical appearance, what would it be? Everyone who knows me knows my immediate answer to this question.
14. Change one of your personality traits, which would you choose? I suppose I wish I was less selfish. I'm, not massively selfish, but sometimes when someone is talking to me I just find myself getting bored with what they're saying. Maybe I just need to listen more.
15. Be talented at anything instantly, what would you choose? Cooking (i'm really bad).
16. Forget one event from your life, which would you choose? I wouldn't want to erase anything really. I don't have any regrets with things I have done in the past. "Don't regret the past, because at that moment in time, it's exactly what you wanted to do". I don't know who wrote that but remembering it time and time again makes me happier.
17. Erase an event from history, which would you choose? 911.
18. Change one law in your country, which would you change? Anyone who has been in the car with me whilst i've been behind the wheel knows about my road rage. It just really grinds my gears when people drive right up close to the back of my car, fail to indicate, drive incredibly slow on a fast road and hog lanes. And that's just the start of my driving pet hates. If I could, i'd make a law so that everyone has to re take their driving test every 10 years.
19. Have any job in the world, which would you choose? I'd love to be an actress.
20. Have anything appear in your pocket right now, what would it be? A plane ticket to travel the world.

If anyone else has or has had a go at this, send me a link below!