What's In My Bag?

- University Edition - 

(From top right corner, moving clock-wise)

Bag // This little beauty is a Fat Face gem that I found at the start of term. It's sturdy, it's cute and it's so bloody practical. 10/10 from me!

Rebel Angels by Libba Bray // The Second in the Gemma Doyle trilogy and the third book in my Booktober which I'll be writing about at the end of the month. Who doesn't love a good YA fantasy novel to finish the day? Plus, waiting between lectures is suddenly MUCH more interesting. Every good book worm will always have a book on them for those dull moments in the day.

Phone // I'd be lying if I said I could live without my phone. Every since investing in this beauty in summer (and also investing in the cutest case EVER, I mean, Alice  IN a Van Gogh painting. Can it get any better!?) it hasn't let me down. 

A4 Notebook // Sort of like a student's bread and butter. The thought of going to a lecture or a seminar without this notebook fills me with terror. I couldn't cope without some good old-fashioned hand written notes to refer to at the end of the academic day.

Travel Mug // I actually have two of these, this one and one my parents bought me. I tend to chop and change between the two (pretty much because if I haven't done yesterday's washing up, I can still have a clean travel mug to stick my morning green tea in). I'm a big sleeper, so in the morning I don't usually have time to sit down with a mug of tea.  Instead I stick it in this and drink it en route to uni. 

Purse // This adorable purse was a panic buy from Accessorize back in Easter when I thought my bag and all of it's contents had been stolen. I got my bag back in the end but I'd completely attached myself to this little purse that it goes everywhere with me now.

The (Dreaded) Norton Anthology // The bane of my life (and probably the sole reason for my inevitable back problems when I'm older). This beauty comes in six volumes. This one is the one I'm using at the minute for my Renaissance module and typically, it's one of the biggest ones. At the end of each day, my exhaustion levels are through the roof. Who needs a gym membership when you have to walk two miles every day (one of which is up a bloody great big hill) with this thing in your bag?!

Pencil Case // Weirdly enough,  I'm in the minority by owning and using a pencil case at uni. Everyone else just seems to pull a random pen out of their bag and be done with it.  I, however, have a Mary Poppins bag and if I dropped a pen in there, the chances of me ever finding it again would be slim to none. 

How's school/college/university/work been going for you guys? As you can tell from my infrequency of posting, I'm finding the step from first year to second year pretty tough, work-load wise so it's taking me a bit of time to adjust! I will be back very soon with some life updates!

Until then,

lots of love,

New beginnings and Happiness

Hello, hello my wonderful friends! Lack of internet and lack of inspiration means I had a little bit of a break from here. I'm actually feeling really grateful that I had a few days without any internet because it allowed me to sort my head out. I got back into reading, I got myself a job (biggest achievement last week by far) and just managed to clear my thoughts and focus on what I wanted to gain from this next academic year.

As some of you may know I moved back to university a little of a week ago now. I started my second year of lectures today and something just feels different this year. I feel so much more focused and happy with myself. I've moved into a house with 3 fellow English students who also happen to be some of my absolute best friends. As you can imagine, that makes for a pretty lovely environment to live in. I have an adorable little attic room that I've decorated (within reason considering it's a rented property) and made it my own little slice of "me" that I can escape to and feel utterly at home.

*cue photo evidence of cute room and not-so-cute happy-as-larry me)



I think it's so important to create a space that you can escape to.  No matter how small the room that you're working with is (mine is very small as I live in the attic so 50% of my room is only accessible if I crawl) it's just incredible how much of a difference it makes to come home to a cosy area to work or relax in.

Happiness is a state of mind that, to some extent, can definitely be a choice. Since moving away from home this year, I've decided against dwelling on homesickness and instead focused on everything I can gain from this year. I want to challenge myself to do 8 things that scare me, whether they're big or small, to help myself grow and develop and also to attack my anxiety head on when I don't have anyone but myself there to tell me I can do it.  Having this little corner of my own in which I can control everything is so so valuable. I'm surrounded by photos of my loved ones, my favourite dvds and books, flowers and candles and lights. And I can confirm that having your own space can make you as happy as can be.

I hope you're all happy, in whatever you're doing in life! Expect to hear from me more often, in uplifting (hopefully) posts about life, books, recipes and lots more!

Until then, lots of love

Devon Adventure: Hill Forts and Mermaid-y Meandering

Welcome back my darlings!

Today I'm documenting my favourite day of the holiday last week. I think the best days are made up on spontaneous decisions and not following set plans. That way you're never disappointed with the places you find, and somehow you end up finding gems that you would've have even thought to look for.

Wednesday started off with a trip to Dawlish which wasn't half as nice as we were expecting and we ended up spending much less time there than planned. That meant our plans for the day were a little bit sparse, We headed to a National Trust property and then out for some cream tea to fill up the day until mid afternoon.

Next up, we decided to head over to Dartmouth Castle. This area was so so so beautiful. We ended up not paying to go into the castle, but instead we explored the surrounded area, which consisted of a hill fort, the castle's cove and a more hidden, more whimsical cove further down the coast. The rest of this post is going to be a little post card blog full of the beautiful things we saw that day.

I've also been thinking, I've sorta found myself a little lost with this whole blogging thing and I'm gonna try and go back to basics. I'll still be posting my little adventures, but I'm also going to be sharing my favourite recipes, some bits and pieces of advice and other life-style related things in an attempt to find myself again, so I hope that's alright with you guys!

p.s

I have no idea why there's so much white space under this post...

It won't let me delete it either..

Sorry!

x

Devon Adventure: Coastal Coves and Pretty Places

Hello and welcome back!

I've just returned from a week in Devon and I was going to daily blog each day like I did when I went to Scotland.  However, me being such a scatter-brained lady, I forgot to take my laptop away and therefore I had no way to document our adventures! So, instead I'm going to document a few days of activities per blog post to catch you all up on where I've been and what I've been up to!

Myself and my parents rented a beautiful coastal apartment for the week, overlooking the sea. We were in Bigbury-on-Sea which meant we could also see the lovely Burgh Island from our balcony too (so, naturally, I was singing Ben Howard songs all week).

We leaped straight into it and went exploring early in the morning of the day after we arrived. We found a beautiful cove called Ayrmer's Cove and my dad and I spent the morning clambering over seaweed covered rocks, finding rock pools and exploring.

However, this cove wasn't quite what we were looking for, so after an hour or two, we moved on to find somewhere else. That's when we fell across Hope Cove, another lovely little place that's well worth a visit.

Thankfully we were also blessed with the weather!

The following day we dud a bit of inland exploring and wandered into Totnes and then went on further to Dartmoor. This area of Devon is honestly the loveliest, everywhere we visited was beautiful!!

Somehow whenever I go somewhere and  I see flowers, they always end up in my hair. Dartmoor is covered in this beautiful purple heather and I just couldn't resist. This gorgeous rocky place was a little discovery we found en route to Hound Tor medieval village. We ended up never finding the village and we just spent the afternoon rock climbing and taking pretty pictures. It was an awful lot of fun!

Totnes is also definitely worth a visit. It's one of those towns with a real free spirit/hippie-ish vibe, wih organic food and outdoorsy shops everywhere. I was in heaven, I'd definitely recommend visiting there if you're in the area!

Well, that's today's update. Pop back tomorrow to read about my absolute favourite day of the holiday!

Until then,