20 Pretty Pointless Facts About Me

So hello, time for me to jump on the bandwagon! I thought this would be a quick introduction and mid-week post.
1. I am 18 years old on May 18th and I'm feeling a mixture of excited and nervous! I can legally do new things but I'll be an adult.. hello responsibility!

2. I am currently studying A2 levels and will be going to either DeMontfort University or Leeds Trinity University in September (Grades depending!) to study Education.

3. As you may of noticed from my last post, I love to colour code everything!

4. Leading on from point three, I adore buying stationary (it's totally my guilty pleasure!), I physically cannot go into town without buying something from Rymans!

5. I danced for 11 years before quitting due to stress and a terrible self esteem.

6. Over the past 2 years I have lost a total of 2.5 stone.

7. I have been in a long distance relationship for a year an a half (2 years in July) and currently, my boyfriend studies in Leeds.

Old photo's but I thought they were quite funny. (I wasn't drunk... much!)

8. I have always wanted to be a primary teacher (Hence, choosing to do a degree in education!)

9. My favourite colour is plum.

10. My favourite tv programme has got to be 'Miranda' as most of the time, she reminds me of myself!

11. I have major phobias of Moths, Birds and Boats. (Yeah, I'm so weird....)

12. I love a good bargain, but hate looking through sale racks with mardy women elbowing me in the ribs!

13. I have never had an 'official' job, but for the past year and a half, I have been cleaning my grandmas house on a weekly basis and getting £25 a week for it!

14. My A level subjects are Psychology, Biology, Literature and Maths - but I dropped that last year!

15. I cannot play any musical instruments, but wish I could

16. My favourite hot drink is tea. [Milk, fairly strong, no sugar, if you were wondering ;)]

17. I rarely get my hair cut at the hairdresser, I know, it's terrible, shame on me! I love going, but I have to go a specific hair dressers (because I only trust one woman cutting my hair!) but it's so expensive!

18. I am ridiculously bad at staying up late, it gets to 10pm and I'm shattered! Doesn't help that I'm up at 7am every day though...

19. I hate it when people don't use their manners or chew with their mouth open. Bleugh.

20. I didn't start wearing make up until I was about 15, unlike every other girl in the entire world, I didn't like it and felt it was a 'waste of time' until then! How wrong I was, I now can't look at any photos until about last year because I look so terrible!

Well, there you go, as the title says, this post was very pointless but I thought I'd join everyone else :)
Leave some facts about you below, and I will always reply to your comments.

Organisational Skills for Education

Hey everyone, sorry it's been a while, I've been super busy, but I shan't use that as an excuse and I'll try to be more consistent in the future, even if I only post small posts.
So, I know a lot of people my age struggle with organising their work and I feel like I pretty much have my organisation down so thought I would write a few tips for people!

1. Keep a Diary

Colourful diary that was bought cheaply from Tesco!

I ALWAYS keep a diary and literally cannot live without it in my bag, it pretty much has my whole schedule in and without it with me, I'm totally lost! I include any social events, no matter how big or small in here and when receiving homework or assignments at sixth form, I make sure to write every detail down. Don't think that you'll remember all the information, it's very unlikely that you will, so just write everything down, it doesn't take long!

I also colour code the diary so different aspects of my life and different deadlines are clear when flicking through. This helps you not only organise, but to be quick when looking for a specific event or deadline.

2. Typing up class/lecture notes

This is actually something that my boyfriend introduced to me. (Thank you Jack :3) I've loved the technique and it really does help the information sink in. As I'm a neat freak, not only does it make my notes look lovely, but while typing the up, you're going over information and therefore you will notice any issues and you can iron them out a long time before your exam, rather than having a last minute panic! And again, I love to colour code my notes to make them easier to read... can you sense a pattern too?! ehehe

3. When working, create a nice environment.

I love to grab a huge mug of tea, sit on my bed with my work laid out, put on a film/tv show/music and relax while I'm working or revising. I can't work in silence, silence creeps me out, aha. Remember to keep hydrated because (and here's the fact everyone tells you...) your brain is about 70-80% water, it needs it to function! Plus, if you have a lovely warm drink, or a crisp cool drink to keep slurping while you're working, you're bound to be more relaxed and in the right 'working' mood. On the topic of keeping your body hydrated, you also need a good amount of sleep! If you feel tired, you simply won't want to work and will keep putting it off until it's too late. Plus, who doesn't love sleeping?! ehehehe

4. Set yourself goals -but don't beat yourself up!

I like to set myself small goals on either a daily, weekly, monthly or even yearly basis just so I know I always have something, whether small or not, to work towards. These don't all have to be work related goals, they could be health/fitness related, or even to do with your own personality or attitudes. If you set small goals, at regular intervals, then you always have something to work towards, and you are completing them on a regular basis which is a great confidence boost. Most importantly, don't beat yourself up if you don't complete a goal in the time which you assumed it would take. Priorities change all the time and things will come above others in your list and that's just part of life. Embrace that you've completed something else, rather than focusing on the negatives!

5. Treat yourself!
I am a firm believer that you shouldn't work yourself stupid without rewarding yourself once in a while. Your self esteem needs this. It doesn't matter if it's a day off working/revising, buying a new lipstick, buying a new top, spending special time with a sibling or friend... it doesn't matter what it is, just keep your happiness and nice memories up and your negativity down!



And that concludes my top tips for organising and I hope they've been helpful! I know this is a very different post to my others, but I felt like writing this and if it helps just one person, then I shall be happy. Let me know if you want more posts like this, as I enjoyed writing this and would like to do something similar again.

I promise to have another post up this week. But in other news, I finally got my first follower, yay!
See you later on this week!

New Buys #1

So I finally paid off my £300 debt with my grandma (she kindly leant me the money to buy an iPad, so I have been paying her back for months) and now I'm getting money on a weekly basis, I can't stop spending!
As always, I went straight to Superdrug to browse and buy some makeup products that I'd seen other bbloggers, particularly Stef and Sara who are my absolute favourites. I suggest you check them out, Sarah also has a YouTube channel which is where I learnt skills to fine tune my makeup routine!

So the first product I saw Stef using which caught my eye, is an eyebrow pencil with a comb on the lid by Rimmel.

The shade I bought was "002 Hazel" but there are shades to suit everyone's shade of hair. The retail price was only £2.99 which I feel is an absolute bargain, particularly for me as I needed a comb and a pencil to help make the tail of my brows more precise and Rimmel have created this handy all-in-one.

The second product I bought is something I came across on the Superdrug website when I was having a browse for a new eye shadow palette as I'm yet to find one that I love. I have recently been lusting after the Naked palette (isn't everyone?!) but I simply cannot afford it at the minute so I was looking for something of a similar style and I think I have found it and for just a fraction of the price! The reviews on the Superdrug website featured people saying the colours were similar to the Naked palette and for £4 (yes, £4!) I thought I had nothing to lose.

I present the MUA 'undressed' palette.

Some colours are shimmery where others are matte which I love as I'm fed up of wearing shimmery colours everyday and on occasion, fancy something more nude. I tried this palette for the first time today and am really impressed. The colours are pretty pigmented and the different shades are a wonderful change to my previous everyday eye shadows. I used this video by Sara to do my makeup today, she uses the Naked palette so I used the colours I thought were most similar and the finished makeup looked almost the same, but still looked lovely (I thought so anyway!) and obviously people wouldn't know that I hadn't used the Naked palette, eheh! So as you can tell, I'm really loving this product and would recommend it to anyone, plus it's so cheap that even people on a limited budget can afford it and create so many great eye looks.

In addition to the MUA palette, I bought a single pressed eyeshadow, a deeper matter brown which didn't feature in the palette; for just £1. 

Again, this shade is a good addition to the 'Undressed' palette and for only £1, you can't go wrong!

Last, but certainly not least, a lipstick from Barry M. I've been after a bright red lipstick for a while and after buying a few that looked red on the packaging but were more pink when applied to the lips, I have finally found the right shade! Hurrah! Ideally, I would buy a MAC lipstick, but due to a budget at the minute, I shopped around for a cheaper alternative and good old Barry M sorted me out with the shade 'Pillarbox Red'. 

The lipsticks from Barry M are very pigmented which I love and smooth onto the lips very easily. Unfortunately if you have dry or cracked lips, any imperfections show up where the lipstick hasn't got into the cracks, but as long as you keep you lips soft using Vaseline or other lip balm, then these lipsticks are great. I always feel that the swatches on the stand are very accurate to what the actual product looks like and for only £4.49 they are good value for money. 

So, that concludes the products I bought the other day and I hope you found my reviews useful. Please have a look at the girls blogs I mentioned above as they are two that I check for updates on a daily basis, and love the content they post! 

Please become a member of my blog (You can do this on the right) and feel free to comment if you have used any of these products, recommend any other products or even feedback on what content I post; I would really appreciate it. (You can even comment anonymously if you wish.)

I have also made a new twitter account specifically for this blog: @bonjourkatie_, follow me to be updated with everything to do this blog and give suggestions on what to post.

Thank you to the people who view my blog, and I hope you'll continue reading.

Wish List #1

Here is my wish list of Rimmel London products:

One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six

The cost of all the items equals: £29.14 which was calculated using the prices from the links to the products on the Superdrug website.

10% student discount (Only at Superdrug) reduced: Approx. £26.23 

I, personally, buy most of my makeup and beauty products from Superdrug simply because of the reduction of 10% student discount. This is usually the case unless I want a Boots own product like ''17" makeup. 

Which products do you like from the Rimmel London range? I'm up for trying new things. 

Winter Wonderland

So if you live in the UK, I'm sure you have been enjoying the snow we have been having over the past couple of days, but particularly today. I just thought I'd write a post which is on topic, about what I like to do when I have a 'snow day', or when it's winter time in general. 

|| Chilly chilly weather || Cosying up in bed with a cup of tea and a good book || Enjoying a healthy breakfast (granola) with a book || Snow in England! || Walking in a Winter Wonderland || being a loser and throwing snow over myself, all for the cause of a good picture! ||

Another thing I did is trying hot chocolate for about the 20th time in my life as I have never liked it. And I actually liked it and now feel normal as everyone seemed to like it but me! It's now my new yummy drink, of course second to tea. Tea is always my first choice. Ehehe. 

I'm so glad my exams are over and now I have more time for me and to spend time doing what I want, which means a lot more blogging.
Let me know what you want to see and let me know what you love to do in the wintery weather. 

Week One

So, we have entered into 2013 and it's been over a week already! Here's a generic post which everyone seems to have done...

| New Years Eve | Messing around with my friends DSLR | Tipsy New Years Eve Times | Happy New Year! | Sparklers on the dual carriageway | Revision took over my Christmas holidays and my life | Shopping trip pout | Goodbyes before my boy goes back to university | boyfriend bought me revision incentives |

It's been an okay week - ups and downs! Things will improve drastically when my exams are over (duh!) and I'll have much more time which I can't wait for. I have to say, this post contains mainly photos from New Year's Eve, basically because I haven't really done anything since then, except hours of revision!

I'll definitely do this again, partly because it was nice to relook through photos but also to show that I do actually have a life, this is just an odd couple of weeks. ehehe.

OOTD #1

My 'Lazy Day' Go-To Outfit:

A good ol' pair of leggings or in this case, my disco pants, and a baggy top or blouse is usually what I go for when I want to look nice but don't want anything tight fitting or uncomfortable for when I'm in lessons or doing exams.
This top was from Republic about a year ago (!) and I love that it gives a twist on, what could be, a boring white 'chiffon' type blouse with the birds.

The only thing I'd possibly say I dislike about this particular blouse is the horizontal stripes which yea, do give the blouse a 'less boring' feel, but I don't feel horizontal stripes suit me personally and perhaps make me look a little wider than I am. Just my opinion on my own body though, horizontal stripes do look good for most people.

Today I wore this outfit with some 'tan' leather boots and a hoodie (again, because I couldn't be bothered!) but didn't really wear the hoodie when indoors as it didn't look great but kept me warm while outside!

As you can tell, when it comes to wearing clothes for sixth form, I can't really be bothered because it's not a nice occasion and simply because at 7am, I don't feel like getting dressed up! But I still feel I should look presentable and I think this type of outfit is good for this.