Saturday 31 August 2013

Emergency bag kit

Whenever I go out, I always end up needing something that I didn't bring with me or wasn't provided (public toilets and toilet paper anyone?) so I've decided to try and make a kit to hopefully stop this problem from happening as much.
I've been meaning to create one of these kits for quite a while but haven't had the right sort of purse or enthusiasm so when my parents and I went to John Lewis today and I found this make up bag, I finally decided to create this much needed kit!

The Kit

Catseye comic woman large cosmetics bag - £12.50
W 20cm x H 14cm


The contents of my kit! 
This bag is quite large but this means that it will be easy to find in my bag and also easy to move between my handbags! I also carry around quite large handbags so this shouldn't be a problem to fit in to them! It's a really cute style and is plastic inside and out so if anything spills or opens, it won't damage the lining as it can be wiped clean again. 
I've put what I think I'm most likely going to need but forget when I'm out in this kit. This includes: 
  • A pack of tissues
  • Plasters
  • Paracetamol
  • Hayfever/allergy tablets
  • Mints
  • Lip balm (strawberry and 2 Burt's bees tinted balms...more to store than as an emergency thing!)
  • Nail file
  • Headphones
  • Pens (1 blue, 1 black)
  • Andrex toilet tissue wipes (as I said, public toilets.) 
  • Neutral lipstick
  • Hair ties (the blue springy things - they're meant to not damage your hair!) 
  • Train travel card for college
I'm not 100% sure if it will all stay in my kit, for example, my travel card doesn't fit in my purse with its awesome cover so I need to find it a new home that's easy to get to in my bag! 
Do any of you have a kit similar and what have you got in it that's different to mine?
Jess xx

Monday 26 August 2013

Travels and adventures.

I went to London with my brother on Friday and we went to so many different places! 
First, we went of an adventure to find a shop where Ben could get some running shoes. We ended up going over the wrong bridge and ended up in boots first. When I went to Reading last time (about a week ago), I bought a L'oreal caresse lipstick from Boots in Sweet Berry (suggestion from MissBudgetBeauty). I absolutely love this lipstick and it's by far the best that I've used. It's shiny, non-sticky and the brand has such a good range of colours! The colour also lasts a good few hours which is a nice change from usual! I got a double points voucher and L'oreal have a 2 for £14 offer so I went back and bought 2 more lipsticks! I got Lovely Rose and Tempting Lilac which are both pretty pinks. All 3 colours look similar when on but are very different in the swatches (below). Lovely Rose is a light pink while Sweet Berry is a burgundy colour. Tempting Lilac is somewhere in between (a slightly darker pink). I really love these and I will probably end up buying more when I have more money! 

Top to Bottom: Lovely Rose, Tempting Lilac, Sweet Berry. They don't actually look this similar on! 
Swatches and the packaging, it looks more expensive than other drugstore brands!
We looked around various other shops and I had a look in some charity shops, I was very close to buying a yellow vintage Christian Dior jumper but decided against it eventually!
Just before getting the train back, we stopped off in Kate Spade to have a look at their new collection (it's so cute and gorgeous! Majorly jealous of people that can afford to buy any of it!) and I finally caved and bought the skinny mini bow ring that I've been wanting for months! It's honestly the most perfect ring EVER. I usually don't like gold jewellery but the gold looked so much better than the silver and I've been wearing it every day since buying it! It also fits perfectly which is great because I don't usually wear rings because I'm always scared that I'll lose them or never get them off again! It's only a little thin ring so it's not much but I think it's gorgeous and sophisticated but chic too, I think it looks good with a plain outfit to give it an extra pop. I am completely in love with it and I think it's going to be a staple piece of jewellery from now on! 
The ring is gorgeous and the packaging is too! Such a sweet little box that I intend to keep!
I also painted my nails the day before this trip! I used Rimmel's I heart lasting finish in Tangy Tangerine, my first time using this nail polish range. I'm not as impressed as I thought I would be which is a shame because it's currently on offer in Boots at £1.99 instead of £2.99. Most of the nails were fine when applying the polish, only taking 2 coats but others took several and eventually became so thick that I had to re do them again. This was mainly on my thumb nails so I assume that this is because of the brush shape not being big enough to cover the nail fully and therefore having to do it in parts which makes it uneven. Once on, the polish is actually quite good. It's shiny and mostly smooth but some nails have little smudges and lumps from where I had to go over it again because of uneven colour. These are pretty unnoticeable though so it isn't much of a problem. Overall, I'm not sure if I would buy any more colours from this range but I'll see how the other colours are on my nails, it might be a product that is different depending on the colours!

If anyone has any opinions on any of the products, let me know down below! 
Jess xx

P.S. My URL doesn't work as http://theadorabledork.co.uk so I've changed it back to http://theadorabledork.blogspot.co.uk 

Thursday 22 August 2013

Bloggers rant.

I was looking through people who share the same interests as me today in hope of finding some new blogs to follow but instead, I end up looking through at least 20 different blogs by different people that had maybe one or two posts on it from 2009/2010!
Each of the posts said something along the lines of 'I'm excited to start blogging, I have so many great ideas!' and then nothing! I don't understand how someone with enthusiasm for writing a blog can just forget about it and leave it unattended for three or four years without even thinking about it once! I know I feel guilty any time I leave my blog for a large amount of time (more like 2 days!) so I don't really understand how they can abandon it. Some of them had pretty interesting names as well which is disappointing! I suppose if like me they do quite hard subjects and they have to work a lot for them, then don't have much time for anything else so the blog is forgotten eventually. It's still a shame to see how many times this happens, especially as I wasn't looking through any type of blog, just people with the same sort of interests so it doesn't seem to be an uncommon thing found in only one type of blog! 

On that note, I'm going to share some links of my favourite regular bloggers! 
  • The College Prepster - Based in US, guaranteed at least one post a day and they're always really interesting, Carly gives regular suggestions for music, clothes, stationary etc! This blog is one of the first things I read in the morning to get me awake because I know it will always be there. (thank you time differences!) She also does an email every Sunday which is an extra little thing that I just love to read come Monday morning!
  • MissBudgetBeauty - Based in UK, guaranteed at least one post a day, but get two or three most days! Mikhila gives really good suggestions and reviews for beauty products widely available in drugstores (Boots and Superdrug) and online! I've bought a few products based off her recommendations and I haven't been disappointed yet! 
  • Kerralina - Based in UK, Kerry isn't as frequent with posts as she used to be, but when she does post they're always amazing and make you envy her life! I usually get some good laughs out of reading her funny little life stories and sometimes she has good advice and suggestions for products to try! 
  • Someone Like You - Based in US, there is nearly always a daily post. Lauren has pictures of her outfit each day at the top of the post and she has some really nice outfits that are pretty simple to imitate if you have staple items! She is an avid thrifter and sometimes gives really good tips for shopping and for going to Uni which is helpful at my age! 
  • Sophee - Based in UK, there are posts maybe once a month but when she posts it's always something interesting, be that a product or a day out she had! 
  • Classy Girls Wear Pearls - Based in US, also a non-regular blogger but Sarah's posts are always filled with her and her friend's outfits and days that look so perfect and are really fun to look through every now and again. I'm majorly jealous of her and her boyfriend's lifestyle! 
  • Smilingismyfavourite - Based in UK, Kate posts quite regularly and is really lovely! She does posts about her life, products she's used and little reviews about various things! We also started our blogs at roughly the same time and she's now a real life friend (if you regularly read you will know this!) so it would be nice to give her some extra views!
Hope you guys enjoy my little rant and suggestion for blogs to look out for, I really love all of them! 
Jess xx

Tuesday 20 August 2013

Goodreads

I signed up to Goodreads the other day and it's so addictive it's unreal. It's a website dedicated purely to books which lets you rate books and read other people's reviews. You sort the books in to different 'shelves', including 'Read', 'Currently Reading' and 'Want To Read'. You can also add other bookshelves so you can have different sections instead! The 'Currently Reading' section is really handy because you can add the page number you are at which then gives you a progress bar. Once you've read a book, you can give each book a star rating and you can also see the average rating from anyone else and and written reviews on the books. I've also been using it as a way to research books that I've been interested in, the reviews are pretty helpful! There are little explanations of the books which are usually different from the blurb, giving you a little more of the plot!
If you like reading, I recommend it to you because it's a lot of fun and useful too!
Jess xx

Saturday 17 August 2013

Personality quiz!

For the people who were interested in the personality quiz I was telling you about a few weeks ago, the link just showed up on another website! 
Go and try it yourself here.
Jess xx

A new coat of paint!

If you look at my blog regularly, you might notice a few little changes to my blog. It's going to be weird to get used to it because I've had the same format since I began my blog but I really like this font and layout!
I've added a translate button, a search bar and an option to follow by email instead so it makes it easier! I also added a list of links to my Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest so people can look at other things! My favourite new addition is the Popular posts of the month - I've added it so people can find the most poplar 10 posts over the last 30 days easily; it's also fun to see which posts people are liking the most currently!
Let me know what you think of the new layout!
Jess xx
P.S. I've also changed my URL from http://theadorabledork.blogspot.co.uk to just http://theadorabledork.co.uk!

Friday 16 August 2013

Lille

Me & my family were going to go to the Globe theatre in London to see Macbeth today but Dad got ill so we ended up staying at home. Instead, me and my brother went to Guildford! As per usual, I bought some stuff!
Jolly rancher sweets £2.99, Berry nerds rope £1.10, Toffee, Apple and Cinnamon popcorn 99p
 and Sugarpova gummy sweets £3.99
I couldn't go to Guildford without visiting the American sweet shop! It's like a tradition now! The Jolly rancher sweets are hard boiled sweets and I found a pack with Strawberry, Raspberry, Orange, Peach and Fruit punch! I love all these flavours which is so good because watermelon is usually included which I hate! I also love the berry nerds rope, the nerds flavours on it are so good! When I walked into the shop, there was a display of loads of different flavours of 'Sugarpova' sweets. I decided on the 'chic' ones, mainly because the shapes were sunglasses, bags and heels, but the other ones looked so good! They had gummy worms, sours, gum shaped like tennis balls and so many other awesome flavours and shapes! I found out afterwards that a proportion of the profits from the sweets go towards a charity run by Maria Sharipova (hence the name) so at least it's going towards a good cause (as well as my happiness and sugar cravings)! They always have a pretty good lot of sweets in the clearance section so I bought a bag of Toffee, apple and cinnamon popcorn for 99p! It's so nice and it actually smells of christmas!

Rimmel lasting finish in Double Decker Red and Marshmallow Heaven - currently £1.99
The rimmel nail polishes were on offer with £1 of so I took advantage (and the fact that I had a double points voucher) and bought a couple of pretty nail colours! I don't have a solid red colour so I'm happy with this one! The names are also so cute, I love them! I haven't tried them yet but I'll let you know how I get on with them when I do try them!
Weekly desk planner from Paperchase - £8
How pretty are these post it notes?!
I figured that I really need to organise myself better and up my game next school year so I went to paperchase and bought a weekly desk planner! It has specific boxes for each day of the week, a to do list, notes, and a grid. There are also post it notes and the bottom of each page doubles up as a ruler which I find awesome because I always lose my rulers. I love London so this design is amazing, plus the post it notes are just the most adorable thing! You can't see very well on the pictures, but the notes section also has faint writing on it which looks really pretty. The pages seem quite good quality and not too thin so hopefully it ends up working and making me good at organising revision, reading and work next year so I improve my grades!

I have also found a new singer in the last few days called Lisa Hannigan. She is an Irish singer and I just love her. I've heard quite a few of her songs (I've gone through every song on her Youtube...) and I love every single one. My two favourites are I Don't Know and Lille - check her out! The music videos for these two songs are also my favourites for any songs of all time, they're so clever and gorgeous and I love them so much!
Jess xx

Thursday 15 August 2013

Results and disappointments

I got my AS results back today and to be honest I was pretty upset and disappointed when I found out my grades. I got BCCCC which I wasn't expecting at all. I was expecting an A in extended project (my B) and I really wanted Bs in Ancient History and Classics so I was quite disappointed and confused about what I'd done wrong. I expected a C in English lit so that was okay. The only result I'm actually happy with is Biology because I was expecting much lower. I'm still dropping it though so yeah...not a good day for me really. It also makes me quite worried that I can't do A level exams properly and that I won't get any offers from my Uni choices or get into the ones I do get offers from because my grades won't be good enough (if I get some). I'm having to re-think my uni choices at the moment to make sure I have myself covered if I do mess up next year too.
I guess the only things that I can do are revise earlier and make sure I understand everything. I will have to get more help with exams from my teachers so yeah.
I have to re take at least one module in Classics to try and get it up to an A but I'm not sure if I'm going to re sit anything else yet, I'll have to talk to my teachers.
I guess my problem is that I've always been quite smart so to now get rubbish results when they actually matter, it's not good!
It can only get better next year I suppose!
Jess xx

Friday 9 August 2013

Blog's first birthday!

It's been a year since I wrote my first blog post (I was the ultimate cringe, forgive me!) and what better way to spend it than with my one and only friend made from blogging, Kate! We went to Guildford and did quite a bit of shopping which was loads of fun!
A year has gone by stupidly fast and even though I only have 10 followers, I appreciate every single one and anyone who reads my blog for that matter! Every page view makes me happy! -virtual hug-

Getting in to Guildford was rather stressful - my train decided that it would be delayed for 20 minutes before showing up and Kate also had train problems so yeah....that was a good start! We ended up wandering around for a bit and then decided to go to New Look where we ended up buying the same skirt! Luckily we don't see each other often enough for it to matter, just another thing to show our similar tastes! I've been looking for a floral skirt that I like for ages and this one is perfect; I have lots of nice tops that have pinks, reds and white in them so they'll go perfectly with it! The skirt is made of a really light and soft material and is really swishy (if that's even an adjective...) so it looks really pretty!
I love it so much!
I love the pattern so much! 


It wasn't a true trip to Guildford without a visit to the American sweet shop. I haven't bought any for ages so I think I was well restrained! That, and the fact that the stock they had wasn't terribly good. I got my usual favourites and also picked up a box of berry flavour sour patch kids which are really good!  


I've heard countless bloggers rave on about these tinted lip balms for months now, but they've only been available in UK shops since the beginning of the week. There's a 3 for 2 on Maybelline at Boots so instead of just getting the 2 colours I wanted, I also got a 3rd free of charge! 
Baby Lips are supposedly super moisturising and make your lips softer and I can tell you, the hype was definitely worth it because these are the best lip balms I've ever had (either equal to or better than my tinted Burt's bees lip balms but yeah, still really good!). Their claims are pretty big but they're definitely up to scratch; I've been wearing one for an hour and a half or so now and my lips already feel softer. Quite a few lip products are quite sticky but these aren't at all, they feel light and you barely notice them! It takes a couple of goings over to get a really strong/bright colour but it also means that you get a choice with the strength of the colour you decide to make your lips which I find really good!  
From left to right: Pink Punch, Cherry Me, Peach Kiss
How cute is the packaging?!


They each have a smell corresponding to their names (Pink Punch is just fruity) and they're just fantastic! I think overall Peach Kiss is my favourite because the colour is more wearable every day as it matches my lips almost exactly and I'm a sucker for anything peach so it's perfect! Cherry Me is also a lovely smell but it takes longer to get it to an equal colour over all of my lips so it isn't as good for me. I really like Pink Punch but I have a feeling I'd need to be in the right mood to wear it because it is pretty bright. The colour and smell are still nice though! 

We went to H&M because there are usually pretty good deals in the sales and boy did I find one! This deep orange jumper was originally £7 in the sale but it had 2 holes in (one on the shoulder, one on the left of the jumper on the pic) so I managed to get the price down to £5 because they were pretty bad! Luckily my grandma is a dab hand at sewing and sewed the holes back up so now it looks brand new and I got a big discount from it! It's quite baggy but still looks good, plus it has a really cute neck too! I can't wait to wear it through autumn with some leggings and my brown boots, hopefully it'll look good!  


As I said earlier, I'm a sucker for anything peach and when I was at Sicily, the only alcohol I liked was Bellini (Prosecco and Peach puree). I came home from my trip today and mum had bought me this! It's a non-alcoholic version of Bellini but it tastes almost identical, even keeping the slightly sharp/bitter aftertaste and fizziness of the Prosecco! It's also amazing because it apparently has 1 of your 5 a day so it's even healthy!


All in all, I think today was a pretty brilliant way of celebrating my blog anniversary, thanks to everyone who's been a part of this so far! I hope you keep reading! 
Jess xx

P.S. You know I said I'd keep you updated on the Barry M nail polish? Yeah...it hasn't worked out so great! 

Left hand
Right hand











As you can see, they haven't lasted very well! I haven't used a top coat because I don't own any but they had already chipped a little bit the night after I had put the nail polish on which doesn't bode well. The nail polish also stops looking as shiny and nice quite quickly and now looks dull and smudged even though I didn't touch it at all while it was drying (I left my nails for about half an hour before checking them). I'm quite glad that it's only cheap because it wouldn't be worth any more sadly! It's a shame because the colours are amazing! I might just have to invest in a top coat so my Barry M nail polish isn't a waste!

Thursday 8 August 2013

At World's End

I went to the cinema with some of my best friends from my secondary school to watch At World's End today.....weirdest film I've probably ever seen. It was one of those films that were so bad it was good, but one that you would only watch if there was nothing else on and it was free or as a freebee off one of the Christmas apps where you get free unpopular films and games. 
It started off as a normal film but got about half way and just had a plot twist that I'm still not quite sure could be thought up by any sane person. The ending was also rather strange and unexpected too. If it didn't have the funny lines and the crappy slapstick violence, I would have hated the film completely, and even though I enjoyed those parts, I still wouldn't go to see it again because it wasn't worth the money. 
See it if you like silly films that make you speechless from stupidity and look like they were thought up on a pub crawl like the (original) one in the film, feel free! However, if you more enjoy big-budget films with lots of well done CGI and other special effects, don't waste your money and use it as a boredom buster when it comes out on TV...if you're desperate. 
Jess xx

Wednesday 7 August 2013

Barry M gelly - Pomegranate

I love those days where you don't go out anywhere and just relax. Today, all I've done is get into my comfy lounge trousers and captain america jumper then watched TV (old re runs of Nickelodeon shows anyone?).
My nails have been boring for the last three weeks or so with all of my travelling making it impossible for me to have a spare minute to sit down and paint them and the fact that I just spent a week digging doesn't really give me any opportunity to have a nice nail colour and keep it on for too long! I'm happy that I've been able to just take an hour or so out and paint them today, they always look so much nicer with a fresh coat of colour on them! The colour I used was part of the Barry M gelly hi shine range in the colour Pomegranate which is a darker but bright pinky-red. I also have Prickly Pear from this range which is a really cute lilac colour. Barry M do the nicest range of colours and for quite a cheap price (£3.99 for the gelly paints, £2.99 for the regulars), I was pleasantly surprised! The brush is the perfect width and the colour went on really well without any problems! For someone who usually has to re-do at least one nail, this is pretty impressive! After only one coat, the colour on my nails looks like the bottle colour which I've never had before! It dried really quickly and is so shiny too but you would expect that from a range that call the line 'gelly hi-shine'!


How pretty is this colour?! I think I have a new love

I'm going out tomorrow and Friday so I'll report back for how it fares later on! I'm impressed so far though, it's been on for a good few hours now and it looks perfect!
Jess xx

Monday 5 August 2013

Camping

I've spent the last week camping and working on an archaeological dig near to me called Silchester, just outside of Reading. The dig is run by Reading Uni and I've been volunteering there for the last 3 years. Reading uni is one of my choices for uni so helping out at their dig is really useful to see what a whole other aspect of their archaeology degree is like! I also got to spend half a day at the university for some lectures and the buildings and teachers were really lovely! I also met some really great people and saw some others that I haven't seen for a long time which was really great! The one thing that isn't so good about the dig is the camping. I woke up every day without fail at 4.30 or 5 am.....it really isn't good when you have to be up at 8 and working in a hot trench all day by 9!
Before last week, I made some scheduled posts to go up throughout the week so I didn't have a bit gap between posts! I've never used them before so I was quite happy that they went up when I wanted them to!
I have quite a lot happening this week so I shall keep you updated!
Jess xx

Saturday 3 August 2013

Personality

I'm a bit of a sucker for personality quizzes. I like to see how close they get to the truth. I found one the other day that asks you questions and gets you to answer by choosing a picture. I was really interesting because the result at the end was the most accurate and detailed result that I've ever had.

"You're a culture vulture - Sophisticated and inquisitive, you have a real passion for art and culture. You pride yourself on being in the know when it comes to the latest music and films and you always like to have a good book on the go. You believe in immersing yourself in interesting experiences that make you look at people, places and opportunities from now angles, Being sensitive and creative you want to feel connected to the world around you and seek out opportunities to explore it. It's all about broadening your horizons and living life to the full. Anything else would not fulfil your curious nature. 
Open minded and inquisitive, you're the sort of person that likes to tackle problems head on, and you are not afraid to get your hands dirty in the process. You enjoy being really involved from the ground up, and love the sense of satisfaction that you get from seeing something through to completion. 
Asking about the latest book you've got on the go is probably the best way to get you talking. You like to lose yourself in another world or lifetime, as each page is turned you become more involved with the plot and characters and increasingly enjoy the sensation of fuelling your imagination and knowledge. 
You love the fast-paced city life. You are open to be inspired by vibrant urban culture so when you have some spare time on holiday, the lure of the bright lights is irresistible. You love to try new things. After all, holiday time is precious, so it's important not to waste too much time just lounging around! 
When all is said and done, you are a true optimist at heart. You like to laugh at all life's little calamities. Better to see the funny side and ride the ups and downs with a smile on your face."

Annoyingly, I can't find the link for the quiz but it was so good! I remember it was an advert but that's about it!
Jess xx