We got up in the morning and made some sandwiches to take in a lunchbox with us, just like a cute little family picnic! The train station is pretty close to where I live, so we only had a short walk down the hill and there we were! Since I have a railcard (if you live in the UK and get the train regularly, I would seriously recommend getting one of these! 30% off on all of your journeys!), the tickets weren't very expensive at all and before long we were off on our little adventure! I always love getting the train, as it was never a regular occurrence as I was growing up on my little island, so it's a pretty big novelty for me! Plus, the English countryside is just gorgeous.

Once we arrived, we quickly made our way to the seafront (only getting lost once!) and, luckily for us, the sun decided to come out from behind the clouds, which made for quite a pretty picture!

Hey everybody!

So I've got something a bit different lined up for you today - it's my flatmate's birthday tomorrow and, as a college student, I'm pretty short on cash so I decided to put on my artsy hat and get crafty! At uni we call it a "crafternoon"... Anyway, I've seen these melted crayon canvases a lot on Pinterest and Tumblr and I made one for myself a couple of years ago and it turned out pretty well, so I thought I'd give it a go again so that my flatmate would have a funky new piece of room decor! So, without further ado, here's my DIY guide to making a melted crayon canvas!

You will need...

• A canvas, any size you want! You can get them pretty cheap on Amazon.
• A pack of wax crayons
• A hairdryer
• Either superglue or double sided tape

My messy work station!

I know I'm way behind the crowd but I've been super busy recently! Anyway, I set aside this evening for a lazy night lounging around in my dorm room eating Doritos and watching TV (I know right, I'm such a cool student staying in on a Saturday night) and finally caught myself up on Glee.

I'm totally bummed that this is going to be the last season. I've grown up watching this show since I was twelve years old and only just starting high school and now here I am, an official adult in college. I've been really excited about this final season though since all the promos look great and I'm in love with the entire original cast, so it's great that they're finally bringing them all back to McKinley! So, without further ado, here's my ridiculously over-excited review of season 6, episodes 1-3! I'm going to go ahead and assume that if you're reading this, you're also a major Glee fan and have therefore seen these episodes so don't need the entire plot explaining! However, if you're a major Glee fan but haven't yet seen the episodes then I advise you look away now just in case I ruin anything for you!

eonline.com

Loser Like Me

So when this episode starts, pretty much everything is falling apart for Rachel - her TV show was a bust, she's forced to move back home, her parents are getting divorced and her life seems to have no direction anymore! While I must admit that it started to seem as if nothing more could go wrong, which is a pretty frustrating situation to be in when watching one of your favourite characters, Glee turned it all around with an AWESOME rendition of one of my favourite show tunes, Suddenly Seymour from Little Shop of Horrors. If you haven't already watched this, check it out now because Darren Criss and Lea Michele are just... perfection.

Aside from this insane level of perfection, the Dalton Warblers continue to be an insanely talented group (although I must admit I'm missing a little bit of Sebastian in there somewhere!) However, the presence of Chris Colfer and Chord Overstreet as main cast make up for this loss, plus the return of DAVE KAROFSKY, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! I won't go into major detail as to why Dave's back but talk about a plot twist and a half! I'm loving it though and I can see that Glee's mixing it up a little bit this season while also staying true to its roots. In terms of the episode as a whole, I really can't complain. Cast = great. Songs = great. Script = great. Glee is back baby!

Homecoming

Jagged Little Tapestry

cartermatt.com

As most of you probably know (I've said it enough times!), I moved to a new city last year to start university, which meant I got a brand new dorm room! Now, I don't know about you, but I'm all for bedroom decor and making a place your own, so naturally I got ridiculously over-excited at the prospect of having a new room to decorate! The thing with dorm rooms is that they're very small, and your university may well have rules as to what you are and aren't allowed to do with your room, as well as there already being furniture/wall paint/curtains! This can leave you with limited options in terms of decor, but today I decided to show you a few little things that I've done here and there to spruce up my dorm room and make it feel a little bit more like home. Enjoy!


Make it your own

The easiest option in terms of low-maintenance decorating is the wall! Tack up some photos and posters of all the things you love and your room will start to feel homelier in no time. For me, I've got more than one home in more than one country, plus I absolutely adore travelling, so I bought a world map at the university poster sale and pinned up photos of my various homes and holiday destinations around the map! I got the polaroid prints from a website called Instabear - they'll take your chosen photos directly from Instagram and print them as polaroids for you! No hassle whatsoever!




Add a bit of botany

I've always found that plants tend to make a place feel much more homely - not sure why, they just do! I invested in this cute little cactus as there was a plant sale going on at my university! Pretty convenient really. I'm terrible at looking after plants so a cactus is absolutely perfect for me, plus those little pink flowers on top are apparently "everlasting"!

Storage spaces

Since university rooms have pretty limited space, you have to make the most of what you've got. Storage is essential, but that doesn't mean it can't be cute! I've invested in a few lovely storage pieces that keep lots of my stuff together neat and tidy and even add to the decor of the room! This first piece is from WH Smith and I got it in a "buy one get one free" sale, so my flatmate and I got one each! It's great to store all kinds of things in, such as pens and stationery and even big notebooks.


I found this second piece at a charity shop - I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be a makeup or jewellery box because of the mirror on the inside of the lid, but I'm far more into stationery! The little compartments are perfect for storing fiddly things like paper clips, staples and drawing pins.


These boxes from Wilkinson's are just great for general use. At the moment, I've got one box with stationery stuff, one box with saved cards, cinema tickets and mementos of the like and one box with sweets, chocolate and all of my unhealthy snacks! The great thing about these boxes is that they fold down to be flat if you're not using them!


Finally, pen pots are essential, but that doesn't mean you should just grab any random cup! I'm in love with both of these pots. The first is from Wilkinson's and says "Let your imagination run wild" on an ancient-looking piece of fabric with a little string bow tied around it, and the second is from an independent shop. I love elephants and the colours on this pen pot are absolutely gorgeous!


Cushions and blankets for extra cosiness...

An easy way to make your dorm room feel more homely and cosy is to buy a couple of cute cushions or blankets! I was in love with this owl cushion from an independent boutique for a good few months before I actually saved up the money to buy it! The blanket, however, was incredibly cheap (still wonderful and warm!) and from Primark. Both fit wonderfully into my pink/blue/green colour scheme, which you may or may not have yet noticed...!


Bits and bobs

Finally, I have a few bits and bobs just floating around; it's lovely to have things that are just truly yours. In this photo, you can see a set of vanilla fragrance sticks from Primark (we're not allowed to have candles in our dorm rooms so I had to settle for these to create a nice aroma instead), various jewellery holders (the earring holder was my mum's and the necklace and bracelet holder I found in the corner of the pound shop! Talk about a bargain!), some cute fake flowers (see back to my paragraph on botany), a bowl of potpourri (a present from my boyfriend and, again, helping with the nice aroma) and finally a set of adorable little Russian dolls that I bought at a Christmas market this year! I had Russian dolls when I was a child so just couldn't resist when I found this little set.

These are little voice memos that Taylor has added on to the end of the deluxe edition of the CD, giving us all a little insight into how she goes about her songwriting process! It's really interesting to see how her different tracks have evolved from the very beginning.

tumblr.com

So now that those mini reviews are over and done with, let me talk about the album itself! Taylor has been really clever with this one because, inside each album, she includes 13 polaroid pictures with handwritten lyrics on them! Such a great idea to convince people to buy the actual CD instead of downloading all of the songs off the internet. I'm a big fan of polaroids (as is pretty much every teenage girl), so this went down a treat with me, as did all of the album artwork. Love. It.

Good job, Taylor! Long may it continue...

At university, there are so many opportunities available to you that it can all become a little overwhelming at times. You're constantly bombarded by societies, careers opportunities, volunteering, and of course everything that you have to do on your course. So much to do and so little time!

I've tried my very best to throw myself into every opportunity that comes my way, because I've always been told that the university experience is what you make it. If you sit in your room all day then you're obviously going to have less fun than the person who is grabbing every opportunity that is thrust upon them with both hands. So I've been trying really hard to be that second person.

I've signed up to lots of societies, volunteering opportunities and even applied for different positions - some of which have been successful and some of which haven't. I will admit that it can be a bit disheartening when you don't succeed in what you are aiming for, but that's mainly what I want to think about today.

After a particular "failure" this weekend, when I didn't quite achieve something that I wanted to (I'll spare you the details so I don't have to embarrass myself), I was feeling rather downtrodden. I felt like a failure, like I should never try anything again because what's the point? It's not like I would ever succeed. These thoughts went round my head for quite a while, until I realised that I was actually being pretty pathetic.

So what if you fail? So what if you don't quite get where you wanted to be? So what if you make the biggest fool of yourself in front of every single person that you know? I can guarantee that you're still miles ahead of every single person who didn't even bother to try. By having the effort and the will to try, you are already one step closer to your goal. It's important not to look at mistakes and failures in such a negative light; all they really are are opportunities to learn. Better luck next time, really! Next time, you will be more prepared and will have learned from your mistakes to ensure that you don't make the same ones again.

femaleentrepreneurassociation.com

impawards.com

Anyway, moving on to the actual film! It's quite a predictable storyline to be honest; two best friends grow up together, the whole audience knows from the word go that they're meant to be together but it takes 102 minutes, a ton of mishaps and a whole load of tears for them to actually realise it themselves. The cinematography is quite different to your average rom-com though; quite up-close-and-personal with lots and lots of close ups, as well as a few indie-looking shots with sunshine silhouettes and faded filters. The camera wobbles a bit every now and then which was a bit distracting for me, but it's something you would get used to. Plus, the soundtrack is incredible!

Aside from the predictable plot, it is wonderfully acted by Lily Collins and Sam Claflin (who is rather beautiful by the way). Collins did a fantastic job in making me want to be her; she looks wonderful in every shot, even when she's tired and blubbery. She captured the character of Rosie perfectly. Claflin was obviously the right choice for the role of Alex; he has a wonderful charm that keeps the audience rooting for him throughout the entire film, even as he endures a ton of verbal abuse from both Rosie and her slimy husband Greg. The chemistry between the two of them actually gave me goosebumps, and enough willpower to sustain myself throughout the huge amount of missed opportunities between the two of them. And, as far as casting is concerned, a special shout out to Jaime Winstone as Rosie's best friend Ruby who provided a huge amount of comic relief throughout the many emotional moments.

themortalinstrumentssource.files.wordpress.com

Speaking of emotional moments... This film is definitely a bit of a sob-fest! Although it has a happy ending (don't worry), it takes you on an emotional roller coaster that will leave you feeling DRAINED. Just as you think that everything is going okay, BAM! Something unexpected and terrible will hit you right in the chest. I'm not saying that the end result isn't worth the journey, but I am saying: be prepared for the journey.

All in all, a really nice rom-com for your Sunday afternoon; a little bit different to the ones I've seen before but, at the same time, nice and comfortable too. I wouldn't say that it was the best film in the world but it is certainly one that I would watch again (and a few more times after that!) If you get the chance, check it out! Here's the trailer.

Hope you all had a nice and relaxing Sunday x