Instagram love!

I love Instagram and would probably say it's my favourite social media to casually browse as there's such a wide range of people and pictures to look through!

I thought I would share some of my favourite Instagrammers with you today and show you how pretty their photos are! I love how professional their photos always look while still giving a small glimpse into the finer and fancier details of their lives!

nicholerapuano

agirlastyle

collegeprepster

sarahkjp

wishwishwish

passingwhimsies

katespadeny

amy_stone

stylewithinreach

Hope you guys enjoyed looking through these as I do!
Jess xx

Instagram snapshots #1.

I don't use instagram as much as most people and only really put one or two pictures up a week, if that. As I've been doing stuff though, I've actually been using it quite a bit over the last week or so as it's been close to Christmas so I thought I would share some of my photos that haven't already featured here!

Essie's Muchi Muchi

Off to college!

Homemade meringue!
(Shaped this one myself, I was so proud!)

Chocolate mousse and salted caramel bauble!

Passed my theory! 1 step closer to driving!

I found vintage Ferragamo shoes in an antiques shop for £8.50! So sad that they were too thin for my feet :(

I hope you guys enjoyed this, I might keep doing these when I've posted more on instagram! 

You can follow me here. 

Jess xx

2013 vs 2014.

I know my Blogger challenge post is meant to be a substitution for resolutions/goals, but I find that it's always nice to have them written down somewhere so I thought I'd share mine from last year (2013 resolutions) and come up with some new ones!

2013

Revise work from the beginning - I sucked at this last year and it hasn't really changed if I'm honest. I just need to revise earlier.

Read more - Time is a problem for me. I work a lot and spend the rest of my time blogging. I did manage to read a few books just for the fun of it this year and I loved them all! I also read a few books surrounding my subjects which were good!

Take more photos - I fulfilled this when I went to Sicily with college but apart from that, I didn't get many chances to just take photos with friends. I've taken lots more photos for my blog though if that counts!

Don't get as easily distracted - I've been getting better at forcing myself to work but when I'm not motivated, I'm in trouble.

Be confident in myself - I'm so much happier than I was last year about the way I look and just myself in general. I feel like I know my style and what suits me better now so bring on 2014!

Talk to people more - I've spoken to some more people and made some good friends so I think I accomplished this!

Make an effort with friends - I met up with my friends quite a bit this year but still not as much as I would have liked. However, to get decent grades and get into Uni, work comes first (which they know) so I'm quite happy with the amount I did see people!

Blog more! - I blogged more because I had a full year instead of five months of blogging this year, but I added up the number of posts, and I did the exact same amount August - December which I find really creepy!

2014

Revise earlier - As I said above, I need to start revising earlier. Last year I assumed that I could fit all of my revision into less than a month which ended pretty badly. This year I'm going to start revising much earlier so I have time to revise it all more than once (I hope!) or at least have a firm understanding in what I've done.

Take better control over my health - I've mentioned before that I'm diabetic and sometimes it seems to become completely out of control. I also think that I need to start being more healthy so this year, I'm going to try and keep record of my diabetes and eat better and possibly try and exercise more when I get time. 

Be more organised - I bought a weekly planner last year and even though it was great to start with, I neglected it a bit in the last months of using it which is rubbish because it helped me keep on top of work and I even wrote blog ideas down! It was seriously useful and as my life is set to only get busier, I think it will be great to start organising my time and sticking to my plans using it. I also need to make sure all of my work is organised so I can fin everything I need to revise easier. 

Improve my blogging - My blogging has been so patchy but as I now have more followers and viewers than I've ever had, I really want to try and improve my blogging pattern, style and just generally how and what I blog about! I'll obviously still do the same sorts of posts because I love writing about nearly everything, but I'm going to try and be more organised, maybe write a post every other day or so? I'll have to try things out and see how they go! I'll also need to see how I can fit blogging in between my homework and revision too. 

Focus - Even if it means forcing myself to sit at a desk and write or read anything, I need to focus on my work more, no matter how much motivation I'm lacking. This year will be the most important for me so slacking really isn't an option. 

I feel like 2013 has gone by so fast and I'm sad to see it go as it's been amazing - I've made better friendships with some people, found confidence (or at least the start of it) in myself and been much happier than other years. Hopefully 2014 will be just as good to me and I'm excited for it to start!

Jess xx

New Years Inspiration

This is the first post of the 2014 Blogger Challenge and it's a great topic to start off with! 

Instead of writing new years resolutions on your blog, share a quote or a picture that inspires you and you think will inspire others in the New Year.

I find quotes and pictures that inspire me every day so I thought I'd share a few inspirational things rather than just one!

I hope you all have a fantastic year and some of these quotes inspire you or at least make you smile!

Jess xx

Polyvore.

As you many have realised over the last few days, I have a new internet obsession...Polyvore. It's a website where you can create collages based on fashion, beauty, interior design or art. It's really quick and simple to make loads of collages which is quite dangerous for me as it's also quite addictive! I really love creating different outfits - mostly ones that I would love to own myself but could never afford! 

It might not seem like your thing but you should try it out, it's actually a lot of fun! 

Jess xx

A Day out in London

Mark came up to see me straight after I got back from Sicily and we went to London for the day which was amazing! He stayed over 3 nights which was lovely! We just stayed in on Thursday which was nice and relaxed `very good after walking around for a week straight!)
On Friday we decided to go in to London which was super exciting because I haven't been for ages! I love London so it was really nice to go to loads of different places (thank you travel card!) and see parts of London I haven't properly seen before. We went to Covent Garden first and looked around a few shops which was nice; I really like it there and I really want to go back again! I finally got to go to a Kate Spade shop! It was honestly so amazing. The shop was so cute and quirky and the displays were adorable! I'll do an extra blog about it with pictures of the shop because it was so amazing! I found an absolutely gorgeous top down from £105 to £42 and Mark was just incredible and bought it for me because he's completely perfect! It has stripes and bows on it; two of my favourite things so how could I resist?!
We then went to Portobello road/Notting Hill to have a look at the market and it was so nice! It wasn't too busy so we got to look around the stalls properly! We also stumbled across the Hummingbird bakery, which I'd heard about before from Carrie Hope Fletcher (ItsWayPastMyBedTime on YouTube!) so it made me really happy to be able to try them! I got a red velvet cupcake because I've heard so much about them! The cakes were quite expensive but so worth it, mine was really tasty! It was a really pretty shop and the cakes were pretty too!

How cute are these cupcakes?!

I loved this picture on the wall!

We returned to Covent Garden because we had seen all of the market and we stumbled across a sweet shop called SugarSin that was the cutest thing ever! We got some little pots of sweets that are really nice! I got fruit chews, got my brother berry chews and Mark got Banoffee jelly beans! I'll put the pictures on the same blog post as the Kate Spade shop pictures because it was equally cute!

Kate Spade top, Hummingbird bakery cupcakes (red velvet and chocolate caramel),
Fruit sweets from SugarSin and a Hummingbird bakery brownie
- from Instagram

Jess xx

Sun, Sea and Sand in Sicily!

I've just come back from a week long trip to Sicily with my college - doing Ancient history and Classics = good trips to hot places! I haven't been on many plane journeys and I only remember one (yay Durham....) so it was quite exciting and scary to be going on a trip that was longer than an hour. It wasn't as bad as I had expected because everyone on the trip was sitting together so it was fun as we could talk to each other without annoying other passengers! On the way there, there was a 2 year old that wouldn't stop crying and screaming which was in the row in front of me. It was the single most annoying thing I've ever had to put up with.
The one thing I do love about flying is the duty free. You can buy things for cheaper so stuff that's a bit pricey is actually more affordable! After having my Benefit 'Laugh with me LeeLee' perfume for a while, I was super excited to see a benefit stall at duty free and I ended up searching through all of the different products until I found one that I fell in love with completely.

Cutest palette ever with the nicest colours!
The design is adorable!

The 3 eyeshadows are nice and subtle colours, very wearable!
Very handy mirror too! 

The kit contains 3 eyeshadows, creaseless cream eyeshadow,
bo-ing concealer, eye bright, bad gal lash mascara and 3 types of brush.

It also comes with a how-to booklet with added tricks!
It's so helpful and makes it easier to use!

Being someone who doesn't wear a lot of make up, this palette is perfect because it's subtle but looks amazing! The amount of powders and creams in the pack is overwhelming at the start but once you get your head around what goes where, it's so simple! I love it so much, it's really easy to apply and the booklet is super handy.

In Sicily, we visited lots of temples,  amphitheatres, a Roman town and other ancient buildings. We also went to the beach a lot which isn't usually my sort of thing, but it was nice to just relax at the beach after a long day of walking! Annoyingly nearly all of my pictures are still on my camera so I'll do an extra picture post when I put them on to my computer eventually! I have a couple of pictures from my phone of some of the beaches though!

This was taken from a beachside restaurant with the nicest pizza ever!

I didn't go on the beach here because it was too hot but the view was amazing! 

The weather was so nice out in Sicily, it was really hot but it was a different heat than it is in England so now I'm back it doesn't feel too hot!
On the last day, we got to look around Catania, a really nice town that looked how you would imagine Italy. We saw another amphitheatre that was right in the centre of the town and then we went shopping! United Colors (they spell it like that...it still annoys me...) of Benetton had a massive sale on so me and a couple of friends went for a browse and I found a really gorgeous top!

I have a weakness for stripes but at €21, how could I resist?!

I also have an addiction with spots...so at the airport back to England, I bought a spotty red scarf! It was €12.50 so it was amazing! It's such a nice, light material and it's actually really big when fully stretched out! I'm reminded of Minnie Mouse; it's a shame that the weather isn't cold enough to wear it at the moment though!

Minnie mouse scarf!

It was a really great trip and I got to spend time with some of my favourite people from college and get closer to others so it's been a great start to summer so far! 

Jess xx