another life update, and Anna and the French Kiss!

Hello.
I know.
I am such an inconsistent blogger.
However, there are such reasoning's behind my lack of posting and preparation.
I am moving! Yay!
I'm not going to post too much at the moment, as I have a post about it coming soon, but it means my life is currently being packed up in boxes, and I spend all my time packing those boxes. I have lived in my house since I was 3 so it's quite strange, and I've really come to realise how much of my stuff I don't need. Oops.

Anyway. Due to being a busy bee, I haven't been able to do much reading, which makes me sad.
I received a copy of Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins from Usborne not that long ago, after winning it in a Goodreads giveaway (yay!). Due to being so busy, I haven't been able to read much of it yet, but I saw it in the bookshop today, and once this post is up, I'm off to finish it!. Let me know if you've read/are currently reading it, and what your thoughts are!

I thought it was so cute that it came with a little hot chocolate sachet, yum yum! That reminds me, the kettle's just boiled, so I'm off to make a brew, and enjoy this little gem!

What are you reading right now?

Anything to recommend? 

Let me know!

popping into Lush...

As part of a college project, my class is working with a museum in Oxford. On Monday, we had to get the bus into Oxford, but before hand we had about an hour and a half to do what we liked. While everyone went and did their own thing, getting food, me and my friend Ruby decided to hit up Lush.

Now seriously, I love Lush. We spent so long in there just smelling things and finding what to buy, and the lady that helped us was so lovely! I had to buy something because I'm down to the bottom of my Snow Fairy bottle and I need some Lush in my life. To be honest, I didn't have that much cash on me, so I was restricted in what I could get, but I'm definitely investing in more when pay day comes around!

I got the Charity Pot, the Sugar Scrub and the Green Bubbleroon. It took me ages to decide what to buy but the Sugar Scrub and the Bubbleroon scents reminded me so much of summer that I had to.
I had wanted to pick up the Rub Rub Rub but I didn't have the cash on me at the time. Sigh.

I love all of these products. I was quite sad that the Bubbleroon had already fallen apart by the time I had got home, but I used one half of it straight away and loved how conditioning it was. The Sugar Scrub is quite tough and is meant for areas with cellulite, but it works very well. The lady behind the counter also told me that if you break it up and drizzle shower gel on top it makes it softer, which I am yet to try, but think is definitely a good idea!

What are your favourite Lush products?

Have you made any sneaky purchases recently? 

Let me know below!

New Years Resolutions? psht.

We've got a week left of January. Is your New Years Resolution still in tact? From what I'm hearing, if it is, you're in the minority. My 'NYR' was to blog more, which I am doing, just not very consistently.. oops.

Lots of people I know made resolutions to lose weight or go to the gym more yadda yadda. Yawn.
This month, I have really learned to accept myself and have more body confidence. One of my favourite bloggers is Georgina, and from browsing around her blog and twitter, I've discovered some great 'plus-size' bloggers (hate that word so much though.) This has made me so much more confident seeing these ladies being so confident and comfortable with themselves, and really rocking their outfits!

I always felt embarrassed that the majority of the time, I had to shop in different places to where all my friends shop, and had to buy most of my clothes online. I now realise that I have absolutely no reason to feel ashamed of my body. Yes, I am bigger than a lot of my friends, but you know what? I. Love. Food. And not in an, 'I eat 200 calories then work out for 2 hours' I love food way. If I want to eat a pasta salad, then cool. But if I want to eat a chinese takeaway, I'm going to eat my takeaway and not feel guilty. If I suddenly feel like I want to get more active (not too likely..) then I will, but not to lose weight. I aim to be healthy most of the time, but I've just decided to go with what feels right at the time to me. I am a lot more confident in my body, and right now, big Bridget Jones pants are my new best friend ;-)

What did you make your New Years Resolution?

Do you find it hard to be body confident? 

Let me know!

book swaps!

I have always been interested in the idea of book swaps. I don't really get on with libraries in the sense that I feel pressured to read lots of books at once (I always seemed to take out 5 at a time...) and I am also really terrible with remembering what date to take my books back. So, my library membership didn't last very long.

My very good friend Louisa and I meet up once a month for a good chinwag and normally go for something to eat, and we decided that we would each bring a book for the other to read over the next month. The main reason I like this idea so much is that I think our taste in books is relatively similar, but we both have a couple of quite quirky books that the other might not think to pick out - and also, whenever I finish a good book I just want to run out into the street and tell everyone I meet to read it, so it kills two birds with one stone. 

This month is the first month we've decided properly to stick to it, but I was unsure as to whether Louisa would like the book I chose for her, so I just sort of shovelled 2 into her hand and said 'read them both!'

The first book I gave her was Divergent by Veronica Roth. The Divergent series is becoming evermore popular as we get closer to the release date of the film. The second was Kite Spirit by Sita Brahmachari. I bought it about 6 weeks ago and it looked really good, but I haven't got round to reading it - however, Louisa has told me, without any spoilers, that I will love it.

This is the book that Louisa gave to me. It's called Hector and the Search for Happiness by François Lelord. 

The blurb reads:

"Hector is a successful young psychiatrist. He's very good at treating patients in real need of help. But many people he sees are just deeply dissatisfied with their lives. Hector can't do much for them, and it's beginning to depress him.

  So when a patient tells him he looks in need of a holiday, Hector decides to set off round the world to find out what makes people everywhere happy (and sad), and whether there is such a thing as the secret of true happiness..."

From what I have read so far, I am really enjoying it. I shall keep you posted with a review of the whole book once I'm finished! 

Sorry that this post was a long one, phew.

Do you have something similar with one of your friends?

What are you reading at the moment?

Let me know below, and give Louisa's blog a look at!

My one stop shop for book recommendations

Recently, I've started reading so many books but I'm not progressing into any of them very much. That's my own personal flaw - I like to read the first couple of chapters of books to get a feel for them, and if I can't get into them, I tend to not touch them again for about 3 years. Not very good on my part, I know.

Now, I have loved books ever since I was a child, but none of my friends were ever really into books, and my mum isn't a big reader, so I only ever found new books in the bookshop/library when I was younger, and in recent years have used things like Tumblr, and the suggestions on Amazon. However, in October last year, I stumbled across Goodreads. If you're an internet user who loves books, you've probably come into contact with Goodreads, but I can't believe that until the end part of last year I had no idea what it was! I follow a couple of good book blogs but two of my favourites have to be Chrissi Reads and Me, Bookshelf and I - both have which have links to Goodreads every now and then, which is how I discovered it.

Since I've put into my Goodreads most of the books I've read, it comes up with pretty accurate recommendations for me and books it thinks I'll like. When I went into Waterstones the other day, I saw a book on my to-read list and had to buy it there and then, and so far I'm enjoying it so much, it's so me!

If you don't have an account yet, I'd definitely recommend you sign up, however you have to review 25 books (I think) before you can get any recommendations. Once you're there, feel free to add me as a friend.

Where do you go for book recommendations? What was the last book you really enjoyed?

Let me know!

N

xxxx

bad posting + update.

Yes. I said blogging more would be my New Years Resolution. No, I haven't written a blog post in 2014 yet. I seriously need a slap on the back of m' wrists.

HOWEVER.

I have a couple of posts lined up that I'm (probably) not gonna post all at once, don't want to send anyone into shock. So yes, I'm still alive. I am currently poor, waiting for payday on Thursday, but have snuck some sneaky shopping. I popped into Boots after college on Friday and bought myself some more concealer and powder. The trusty Collection 'Lasting Perfection' concealer and Rimmel 'Stay Matte' Powder both in the lightest shades (sob). I also spent over £20 on the Yankee Candle website and £15 on a skirt from Topshop (but it was reduced from £42 so that obviously justifies it.. right?) Apart from that, I've not done a lot apart from be really boring; I hope everyone has had a good start to 2014!