Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from 2017

An Opportunity to Reflect and Say Thank You

Since starting A2, time has been rather limited, hence the lack of blog posts recently. With Christmas and New Year fast approaching, I thought I would take a moment to reflect on 2017 and summarise some of the best moments of the year. My time at home is quickly coming to an end; in September, all being well, I'll be off to university. I didn't realise until quite recently how much I take for granted while I am living at home. This year has been a year of change and a year to grow up, turning 18 has made me realise just how soon independence is going to come. Perhaps it is this growing independence that has caused 2017 to be the busiest and most eventful year to date. It's been a year of exams and planning and looking around universities and opportunities. Yet it's also been a year in which I feel as though I've appreciated the incredible friends around me. Without further ado, here are just a few highlights of 2017. Skegness  This trip seems like a lifeti

The Books That Made Me

I'm a bookworm and proud. Before I made my YouTube channel private, I made a video defending the Twilight books (or rather all books) using the collection to argue my case that if a book gets someone to read, don't shame them for reading it. I stick by that absolutely. Any reading is beneficial to a person's development, especially when that person is a child. I've been putting off writing this post for a while because quite frankly choosing my favourite books through the years is like choosing a favourite child and it's far too difficult. Therefore, please note that not all of my favourite books will be in here. So maybe you're looking for some holiday reading material, inspiration for books to read to younger children or just fancy reading a nice, wholesome blog post. Here is my life through books. 0-4 Years (1999-2004)   My parents and grandparents always made sure that I read or was read to every day once or twice minimum and some of my favourite memo

Sixth Form Tips

Hi everyone! If you're in the UK you might be preparing for GCSE results day (good luck) and there's a good chance you'll be planning on starting sixth form in September - you may have already had an induction day or week. A few of you have messaged me on Instagram asking for tips about how to approach Sixth Form so I figured it was a concern for a reasonable amount of readers. Beginning P16 can be quite daunting and I wasn't really sure what to expect so I've put together this post to give you some tips that I've discovered over my time studying A Levels. First up, a little bit of (school) background on me just in case you're new here: I'm a 17 nearly 18 year old about to start Y13 in September at a Sixth Form in a school in North East Derbyshire (although for arguments sake we'll just say near Sheffield). I have been at the school since Y7 however the Sixth Form is quite separate from the rest of the school and so nobody walks in to A Levels

Lessons from Auschwitz

This isn't quite like my usual post, however, this year, a one day visit to Poland has made me want to tell as many people as possible about what I have experienced and explored. In March, I was selected after a process of interviews to represent my school on a trip to Oświęcim, funded by the Holocaust Educational Trust. The day long trip saw us fly to Krakow and then travel by bus to the infamous concentration camp: Auschwitz - Birkenau. I've now written about my experience numerous times. In my monthly column for the local magazine; in a lesson in which I taught Year 7 students studying The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and in the essays I had to write for the Lessons from Auschwitz project once I had visited the site. Despite this, however, I am still unable to put my feelings entirely in to words, nor write enough to cover everything that I saw and felt both prior, during and post my visit. It is a strange thing to stand in a place where millions have died and feel the s

'Lads' Trip to Skeggy - Travel Tips for Teens

This post is a little late in the writing but as summer is coming up and many teenagers will have some free time and be considering a mini break with their friends, I thought this might be useful. During February half term, my friends and I (4 in total) took the train and visited Skegness for 2 nights and three days. Here I thought I would give you a brief outline of our trip and some tips and tricks to make everything run smoothly and not break the bank! We chose to use Booking.com to compare hotels and ended up choosing the North Parade B&B, we got two twin rooms, both of which had ensuites. After reading the reviews, it seemed to have friendly staff and was in the perfect location: a 10 minute walk from the train station and right on the sea front so easy to access everything, which is something to consider if you don't drive. Another thing I would definitely recommend is calling the hotel you choose to stay in if you're under 18 or even 21, some of the places we look

Hoola Lite and Dandelion Twinkle

If you're a regular visitor to this blog, you'll know what a fan of Benefit products I am. Recently, Benefit seem to have been expanding their most successful Box o Powders in to their own lines; last year we saw 'Dew the Hoola' and 'Dandelion Dew' amongst others and this year these two have graced the shelves of Benefit counters. If you haven't noticed, I'm incredibly pale and have to consider this when applying my make up; therefore when I saw these, I couldn't wait to try them - Dandelion Twinkle is a light pink powder highlighter while Hoola Lite is (quite obviously) a lighter, cooler toned version of their popular matte bronzer/contouring powder Hoola. Both of these sounded perfect for paler skin or a minimal makeup look. I did try to swatch these but as they are both quite light, it was too difficult to give an accurate representation - although this isn't a negative, it just means that they blend well. Hoola Lite First u

Bold and Bright: Summer Lipsticks for the Sunshine

Summer is finally here in the UK, we've had some beautiful, sunny days. One of my favourite things to do in the summer is to play with bright and beautiful lip colours and so I thought I would compile a short list some of my favourite, affordable lipsticks to brighten your days over the coming months. PS - my camera wasn't showing the colour of the swatches very well so I had to use my iPad to take picture swatches so the quality isn't great. PPS - the pictures were taken after 12 hrs of make up wearing so it's not looking great but my eye make up is a combination of Trick, Liar and Factory from the Urban Decay Naked 3 palette combined with the Too Faced Better than Sex mascara. I could've picked so many but I tried to pick a small representation so it's not too overwhelming: From left: NYX Cosmic Metals Speed of Light, Colorpop Poppin', Revlon Lip Butter 'Tutti Frutti', Avon 'Rapid Rose', NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream 'Sydney'  

Just a note to say hi again

I'm back! Life (more specifically school) has taken over for the past few months and I've been unable to get much out. I'm not at school for a couple of weeks as my exams have finished and then it's all go applying for uni so we'll try and keep this up for as long as possible. You might've noticed I've revamped the blog a little, I'm still not 100% happy, I want some more colour but it's getting there 😊 I've got a few posts lined up that should be up soon so keep your eyes peeled! Elle x

How To Get A Job

Hello! It's been a while - I've had mock exams and just general busy-ness! Today I thought I'd share some of my experience on something I get asked a lot - how to get a part time job as a teenager. Please note, this is just my experience and other people will undoubtedly have had differing opportunities etc. however, I do understand how frustrating it is when you want to get a weekend job/ a job to go alongside your studies but don't know where to start! So, if you're new, a little info about me. I'm 17 years old in full time education studying A Levels. I have been doing some form of working/ volunteering since I was 12, generally at the weekends. For me, doing some form of work has been great for building confidence, independence, people skills and (in the long run) helping to form an impressive CV, something that is great when applying for your first job, uni, college and so on and so forth. In addition, particularly over the past couple of years, havin