christmas '12

This is what Christmas looks like in our household - unfortunately it was a rather subdued affair this year, though we tried our best to keep our spirits up, it's hard sometimes when a loved one is quite ill. My grandma was taken into hospital a couple of days before Christmas and is still there, so none of us were really in the Christmas spirit. Anyway, I just wanted to say thank-you to anyone who sent me nice messages on Twitter, there were a few of you who cheered me up quite a lot, so thank you, you are very lovely. 

Maybe I'll post a few pictures later in the week and show you what I've been up to since and what I received in the way of gifts, but I have so much work to do and have managed to avoid it all spectacularly over Christmas - which just sucks haha. It's probably a good thing that I have zero New Years' Eve plans apart from working, so I crack on with it without a hangover! 

I hope you all had a good Christmas, and it was much more enjoyable than mine. Best wishes for 2013!

frosty (the snowman)

Wow, I haven't posted in months! The other day I was catching up on some blogs and I realised I really missed blogging - university has very much taken over, and I assume the hectic pace and stress will resume in the New Year.. Anyway, I'm sat here on Christmas Eve, painting my nails a sparkly Christmas red in preparation for tomorrow and I thought I would take a minute to catch up with you guys! As you probably know it's been raining like mad the last week, but these photos are from a few days ago when it was all beautiful and frosty outside - I went for a little walk around the local park and it was so beautiful - they seemed appropriately Christmassy! Anyway, I just wanted to wish you all a happy christmas and I hope you're all spending it with your family and friends. 

Happy Christmas!

beachy times

Two or three weekends ago I was victim of a vicious assault... well, I fell over when I was drunk. I did my ankle in pretty badly, and it's kind of insulting that I wasn't even wearing heels. Anyway, feeling quite sorry for myself, I phoned my dad and he lovingly came and picked me up and took me home, I couldn't even drive myself! I felt pretty sorry for myself. Me and my mother were supposed to go out to Brighton for the day, but as I could barely walk, my dad offered to take us somewhere. I had this urge to go to the coast, so my dad drove us to Hayling Island and it was such beautiful weather, perfect for sitting in the sun with a jumper and scarf. Me and my mum had a little wander along the sand, and then sat and ate our lunch whilst looking for shells and pretty rocks. I ended up filling a jar with lovely coloured stones, and it made me feel so much better. I've been feeling pretty stressed with a lot of things recently, and looking at pictures and memories like these makes me a lot happier, so I thought I would share them here to maybe cheer up someone else. 

I know I'm still quite absent, but some changes have happened that I know I'll need to get used too, and trying to do all this with uni stress bearing down is challenging, but I'm doing alright. I've started to lose a few followers in my absence, but I hope a few of you loyal ones will stick with me until I'm back to normal! 

busy bee lifestyle

Firstly, I have to apologise for a distinct lack of posts this last week (apart from a sneaky scheduled one I did weeks ago and forgot all about!). I got really into blogging this summer - and really got out of doing work. Unfortunately, uni started again with a bit of a crash down to earth and it kind of hit me how much work I'll be doing this year! On a terrified scale of 1-10, I'm comfortable sitting around an eight or nine, with tens in the not so distant future. 

This is my roundabout way of saying that I won't be around too much in the coming weeks, particularly around dreaded hand-ins and dissertation deadlines, but I'll still try and post when I can - mostly when I feel inspired to at the weekends and such, but much less frequently than I have been this summer. Sometimes getting out of my uni-town and doing unexpected things is really lovely, and I think this blog will be a bit of a welcome relief, like a day trip or a sneaky dinner and a film. 

I hope you are all well, and I'll still be updating you with whiny, pathetic tweets over at my twitter, don't you worry! I'll also be updating my website with my current work, so feel free to check this out if that's your thing. 

Goodbye for now, but not for long.. 

(The picture above really has nothing to do with this post, unless you can think of some kind of metaphor for my university career and the open ocean... I can't right now. Answers on a postcard, etc.)

origins eye doctor review

Origins Eye Doctor, £26

I bought this a while back, and I had been meaning to do a review on it for about as long.. It was only when I started preparing the review-post for its replacement that I felt I should give you my opinion on this little pot!
I got this around my birthday.. basically I hit 22 and felt like I should be using an eye-cream. Sort of like a mid-early-twenties crisis, if you will. Or something like that. Anyway, I wanted to start using something on my eyes because even though I wasn't getting lines, per se, the skin around my eyes was starting to feel quite tired and not as 'fresh' when I woke up in the mornings. So I thought I would invest in this.
My initial impressions were good, it smells lovely. Like cucumbers or avocados? It's very soothing, and if you keep it somewhere cool, it's so refreshing on tired eyes. It's a nice, creamy consistency. Not too runny, not too thick. Nice to pat into the eyes and then let sink-ink, but not for too long. However, after using it for a little while, I felt like it wasn't doing that much to my skin. Then it ran out and I got another one, and realised just how much I loved it - you don't know what you got until it's gone could not be a more apt phrase!

Price: 2/5 - It is expensive for what it is! However, I get a sneaky £6.50 in John Lewis, so I can't complain too much!
Packaging: 5/5 - I really love the little blue pot.
Product: 5/5
Overall: 4/5
Would I repurchase this product?: Yes, yes, yes. 

What do you think of Origins eye-creams, have you tried them? Have you hit a mid-early-twenties crisis or are you still young and fresh-faced?!