The Things I Did This Year

My last post of 2014!!! Looking at a list I published of ten things I wanted to do this year, as the year is coming to an end I wanted to see which ones I actually did and what other things I did too.

I ate healthy all of spring, summer and autumn... Christmas hasn't be so good...

I've actually managed to do a little bit of yoga on the odd day where I have a bit of extra time.

I've been pretty good in terms of socializing! Well I think I have anyways! I spent most of summer hanging out with friends and made a BFF at uni that I like hanging out with in between classes, instead of going on the computer.

Since the summer I've been drinking a minimum of around 2 liters a day! Which is amazing! It makes me feel so much better, I haven't really been braking out and I've been much less bloated! 

I've started learning Spanish which is really exciting! Hola!

This year I went to Paris, Malta, Italy and Las Vegas. This was also my first time in America. Seeing the world has been the BEST! I would recommend saving for a holiday over clothes to anyone! Seriously. Malta was so beautiful, I went: snorkeling and saw fish, on a cruise, jumped off the cruise ship, ate shark and emerged myself in another culture! I also got my hair braided for the first time! I wasn't allowed to as a child... 

I've been doing things that make me happy by leaving things (and people) that make me unhappy. I was inspired by a video made by Tyrese Gibson and you can watch it here!

I dyed my hair bright red, which I was a little scared of but thought, fuck it, and  I LOVED it!

I got a job! Watch my interview tips I filmed! I really wanted a job this year to fund travelling, clothes,
meals and just to enjoy myself without being dependent on anyone.

You guys decided to read my blog over 20,000 times! WHAT is this?!
~ it's so nice to know that people are actually reading what I'm writing.

I went to a festival, it wasn't anything massive but it was called Zoo Project in Leicester (somewhere in Britain) and it was the first festival I have ever been too! I won two tickets from a raffle at my uni which was free to enter so I thought, why not? I went with my boyfriend and we really enjoyed it. Although, we are both hygiene freaks so hated not being able to shower. We really wanted to go camping and we love to party, but we got a bit bored during the day, so we drove over to Nottingham for a little day trip (I went there for a cheer comp before and loved it).

I tried fro-yo for the first time! It was AMAZING!

I threw a non-birthday party for my boyfriend Arun, including presents, a party and cake... Because, why not?! Arun and I discovered our favourite restaurant Joe's Southern Kitchen in Covent Garden, Their specials and the coq of the week are always ones to look out for!


 

Love O

x

5 Ways To Save The Planet This Christmas

1) Re-gift.

Instead of throwing your presents away, think about whether it could serve someone else well. Remember, one mans trash is another mans treasure! Otherwise just pop over to your local charity shop, they'll definitely be grateful for it!

2) Ditch Iceland 

Instead of getting your turkey and all your other festive dishes from the supermarket, try to get locally sourced food. This is good for your local economy and farmers, and is also good because it reduces food miles and your carbon footprint.

3) Plant a Tree

Instead of buying a fake Christmas tree or cutting one down, which are both bad for the environment, why don't you plant one? If you plant a special Christmas tree with your family in a little pot, you can keep it for years to come. When it grows out of the pot, you can plant it in your garden and watch it continue to grow. You could also make natural decorations for your tree, for example, pine cones look and smell great.

4) Turn the lights off

Don't leave your Christmas lights on 24/7. Simply turn them off when you leave the room or only turn them on when you have guests over, to save electricity. 

5) Waste not Want not

Never throw away you left over Christmas food! Turkey and stuffing makes a great sandwich (check out my recipe here) and you could use the vegetables and potatoes to make a shepherds pie! If you have a pet, I'm sure they'd appreciate a bit of nice meat for a change, otherwise put it in the compost and it'll do wonders for your plants.

Love O

x 

COOK: Turkey, Stuffing, Brie & Cranberry Sauce

This is by far my favourite Christmas lunch at the moment, I've been having it before work and I love it! What best is that it's so quick and easy to make, and not to mention cost friendly!

What you'll need:

Turkey/ham slices

Stuffing slices

Brie Cheese

Strawberry Jam (as a substitute for cranberry sauce, it literally tastes the same!)

Bread - I used wholemeal 

I was lucky because I found a pack of turkey, ham and stuffing slices in a pack all together, for like kids lunch, so I got that! But basically all you do is layer your slices of turkey and stuffing, cut chunks of cheese and put that on top and then spread your jam on the bread. Put it in a toastie maker and voila: 

Love O

x

Vlogmas Day 1-3

HAUL: My Favourite Things Bought From Las Vegas

Here are my favourite things from from Vegas that I bought. I'm a big fan of lots of little things instead of big things. I'm not sure why, but I always have. I'm obsessed with all these cute little things that I bought and use pretty much daily! I think the socks are adorable and this is the first Wet n Wild eye trio I have tried, but oh my god I can't get enough! The Victoria secret eau de parfum's are amazing too!! Oh and my favourite Bath & Body works hand santizer is snow man pop. It is literally a tub of Christmas! They frickin need to bring it to the UK.

I bought so much more and a couple of other things that I LOVE, but you shall have to wait for the Vlog to see those.  Mwahaha! ;) 

Where everything shown is from:

Socks: Forever 21

Perfumes: Victoria's Secret

Nail varnish: Sally Hansen

The Simpsons eyeshadow palette (Marge's Extra Ingredient's Quad): Mac

3 smaller eyeshadow palettes: Wet n Wild

Hand Sanitzers: Bath & Body Works

Baby lips: Maybelline

Purse: Guess

Love O

x

Zoella Ghostwriter: The Girl Behind The 'Girl Online'

I'm sure all of you know Zoella, I'm also sure nearly all of you have heard of the success of her new book but what many people don't know- and until today neither did I- is that her book was actually ghost-written.

First and fore-mostly, I feel like I need to say this before the little zoe-minions call me jealous and what-not, but I am one million percent not an ounce jealous of Zoella or of her success. I think what she has done is incredible and I'm all for girl power, so knowing a girl has the amount of power and influence she has, is crazy! Yet, the news that she didn't pen her story herself has really disappointed me and here I will explain why.

Zoella, or Zoe Sugg, isn't the first person to use a ghost writer, yet it bugs me that she claimed to have been working on the book for a couple of years- Working on what? You didn't write it? And while she insists she invented the characters and story line, I can't help but think that, anyone with a basic grasp of English (or a shot of Vodka) can do that. I used to write little stories in scrap books when I was a child, but that didn't make me an author. 

I also feel like Sugg has been a little sly in that, unlike Katie Price, she didn't openly say she used ghost writers. She lead her viewers on, into believing not only did she write it but that she put a lot of hard work into it, without ever mentioning or praising the true writers behind her novel.

What makes this really disappointing is that her book is the fastest selling in history since records began, beating women like J.K.Rowling who really worked for her novel to sell the amount of copies it did. How is that fair on amazing authors who don't have fame and an abundance of followers, who will buy any product with their name slapped on it, but deserve it so much more?

It also demotivates us writers who put 110% into our work but feel like 'what's the point', if someone else who's famous can just emblazon their name across it whilst putting little talent into it, and it sell a record breaking number of copies just because of the amount of followers they have on the internet. 

Books should be about how well an author writes, not a popularity contest. 

Finally, I feel sorry for her fans, who invested both their time and money into this product, to only find out it isn't really from her.

I'm Sorry if this opinion post was a little negative! What do you guys think?

Love O

x

The Liebster Award Questions Answered

Heya,
I've been nominated for quite a lot of these, so if you search it in the search bar, you could see the bloggers I have nominated. Anyhoo, I thought I'd answer the questions from the two blogs that tagged me! :)

Questions 1

1. What is your blogging style? Do you schedule blog posts in advance or just write when you have inspiration? Why?

I think I'm quite informal and write as I talk. I rarely schedule blog posts because I'm always way too busy but when I have inspiration I'll write loads of drafts and then edit them when I want to.
2. Your favourite affordable lipstick brand and your favourite 'splash out' lipstick brand?

I love Sleek lipsticks. They're affordable but feel like a treat because they're amazing.
3. A blogger you would love to meet and why?

Russell Brand vlogs, so does he count? Otherwise Tanya Burr because she seems quite lovely.
4. Instagram, Twitter or Facebook? 

Facebook. I explain why here!
5. What made you decide to start blogging? 

I just wanted a space to write, and as an aspiring journalist, a blog seemed a good place to start.
6. Describe yourself in three words. 

Bubbly, Geeky and Creative
7. Are you more of a fan of Vlogs or Blogs? Why do you think that? 

I used to prefer blogs but I'm loving vlogging at the moment and I'm going to be doing much more over on Youtube over the christmas. I just think it's a lot easier to be yourself and also interact with others. But otherwise I love to read or watch both, depending on my mood that day!
8. Your favourite season to blog about and why? 

Summer because it gets me in the going out mood which leads to lots of fun posts and OOTD's.
9. Where do you see yourself in two years in terms of where your blogging will take you?

I will have just finished my degree *Cry relentlessly*. So blogging and being as creative as possible! I want to be doing daily blogs and vlogs and make it a kind of 9-5 job.
10. When are you most productive during the day? 

From 11 until around 3. I have a really rubbish attention spam, so I get bored after 3 and just want to play around but I find it really hard to concentrate early in the morning.

1. What do you like best about your blog/ what makes it different/ unique? 
I like that on the top right hand side of my blog where my about me should I have a little instagram box that shows all my latest photos one by one as it shows you what I've been getting up to lately. I also like at the very bottom of my blog it shows you what was popular this month. My blog is unique because it's not all about fashion and beauty, it me talking frankly about many other life issues such as love. I'm also really honest and just say it how it is.

2. What do you want to improve about your blog? 
I want to blog soooo much more and put more time into my posts, but it's impossible at the moment because of work and uni scedules being so hectic!

3. What is your dream job and is it linked with blogging? 
My dream job would be in broadcast journalism such as TV or documentary presenting. I love geography so presenting something like the discovery channel would be amazing!! Blogging/Vlogging would be a wonderful job too.

4. Where in the world do you want to go above anywhere else?
Thailand! This was really hard because I think the world is so amazing and there's so many amazing places I want to see but I just love Thai food and culture and think it would be surreal to actually see. I also really want to go to Bali, New York and Tokyo.

5. If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life what would it be and way? 
Salad! I eat salad EVERY day! Literally! I think it tastes amazing, it's one of my favourite foods, along with seafood and lasagna, and it's just so versatile! You could add a different dressing everyday, or different vegetables! The possibilities are endless!

6. Link to one blog post you are particularly proud of and explain why. 
This was quite hard because there are a few, but probably my Younique lash one because it's the first time I was ever sponsored to do a post and the lady was all the way from America and posted it down for me to review. It was just really cool! I also really liked writing this post even though it's quite an old one.

7. What are you hoping to find under the tree this Christmas or best gift you have ever received? 
Some really warm fluffy socks (I have a sock obsession!) and a lovely pyjama set! I'm quite easily pleased to be honest! haha but a Sony DSLR would also be nice ;) 

8. What is your favourite book?
Ohhhhh I'm a giant bookworm! I've read probably close to a hundred books so this is so hard for me! I loved Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella, A place called here and Thank You for the memories, both by Cecelia Ahern, The Beautiful creatures and Harry Potter series are also my favourites and finally The Lovely Bones was beautiful.

9. Do you read magazines and if so which ones and why? 
Yes, I have a collection! I Used to only read Elle so I have a lot of them, but I'm more into reading the actual feature articles now than looking at the fashion photos so my favourites are now cosmo and marie claire. I'm not actually a massive vogue fan... Shock horror! 

10. What feature do you like most about yourself?
I only really like my eyes, because they are mermaid eyes, I have dark blue on the outside, light blue on the inside and yellow around the pupil, so I get a lot of comments on them. 

I hope this has somewhat got you to know me a little better? If you have any questions comment below! :) 
Love O
x