Life in letters tag!

All the way back in February, I was tagged by Amy from Blending Beauty to do this tag! I didn't have time to do it as work started piling up around the time I was tagged so now I have time, I'm doing it! 

A - Archaeology. I'm hopefully studying this subject at University come September/October and it's so interesting!

B - Books. I'm an avid reader and spend quite a lot of my spare time reading when I'm not blogging!

C - Clothes. I love fashion and always try to look my best when I leave the house no matter where I am!

D - Diabetic. I have diabetes and have lived with it since I was 11. It's pretty much become a part of every day life now instead of a big problem but I still hope they find a cure eventually as it can be really annoying and hard to deal with at some points!

E - Eyes. My favourite part of my body. They're a really lovely bright green that sometimes look different depending on lighting which is awesome!

F - Food. I'm such a big eater and I love food, not always the healthy options either! I hope to improve what I eat once I get to Uni though!

G - Greek. I want to learn Ancient Greek when I'm at Uni and I've already started trying to get familiar with the alphabet!

H - History. My favourite subject of all time. Ancient History is easily my favourite and I'm hoping to study it as a joint degree with Archaeology next year!

I - Inspiration. I find it everywhere in quotes, books, nature, people around me and loads of other things I see!

J - Jessica. My name! 

K - Kip. I struggled the most with this one...I do love a good nap though! Got to love British slang for creating words like kip!

L - Lipstick. I have a huge collection (over 50...) and I love them all! I love the way a bold colour can bring life to an outfit and add something special to it. I wrote about how I feel about lipstick here!

M - Music. I honestly couldn't live without music. It's such a great way for people to connect and concerts bring people together because of their shared love for a band/artist which I find amazing!

N - Nail Polish. Another thing I have tonnes of. I love the look of nail polish and I find that it's actually a good way to relax as you can't have a shaking hand at all when you are applying - it was a really good calming technique for me during exams!

O - Optimist. I try to be positive and look at things in a good light for the most part!

P - Piano. I played since I was about 6 up until 2 years ago when GCSEs forced me to quit. I hope I can take it back up again some day as I loved it!

Q - Quizzes. I'm obsessed with doing the online quizzes that come up on Facebook!

R - Reading. The University I'm hopefully going to next year!

S - Sweets. I have such a sweet tooth and love to try sweets from different places! English with probably always be my favourite, though the Haribo options in different countries are amazing and always so good, it makes me jealous!

T - Travelling. I love going to new places and I hope that choosing a career in Archaeology leads to visiting lots of historical sights all around the country and world!

U - University. Where I hope to be going in September. I really want to go and I honestly have no idea what I'm going to do if I don't get in - I'll know on 14th August which is terrifying!

V - Volkswagen Up. My car! I passed my test on 5th March and I love driving it!

W - Winter. One of my favourite seasons apart from Autumn!

X - Xmas. There aren't many X words that I like...but Christmas is one of my favourite times of the year!

Y - YouTube. I love being able to find whatever song I want and then be able to watch a stupid cat video 2 seconds later if I feel like it, Youtube is great!

Z - Zodiac. I love looking at astrology stuff as I find it really interesting. I don't believe it, I just like seeing what sort of things the websites say about each different sign and why!

I don't think I'm going to tag anyone in particular this time, but if you want to do this for fun then I say go for it and I tag you! Hope you have fun doing your own!
Jess xx

Food, glorious food!

For this time round, our topic for the Blogger Challenge is food!

As I don't have a lot of spare time on my hands, I don't get the opportunity to cook much but when I get the chance, I love it! I'm actually not bad either which is always a good sign with Uni and having to cook for myself looming over my head!

As I wasn't really sure what to do for this post, I've decided to find links to recipes of sweet food/snacks I would like to try and make at some point in the future!

White Chocolate Candy Corn Popcorn

I was obviously going to include this - an improvement on my current favourite treat!

Pull Apart Cinnamon Roll

I love cinnamon and this looks so nice! I can't wait to make this one day!

Pink Lemonade Doughnuts

You may have realised I have a bit of a sweet tooth...these sound amazing and I assume they can be made with any fruit juice!

If you guys try any of these, tell me how they go!
Jess xx

Challenge post five.

Instagram snapshots #3

Happy Valentine's Day guys! I hope you all had a great day either with loved ones or doing something you love!

I've been spending most of my time working over the last few weeks, hence the lack of posts, but I have been taking quite a few photos on Instagram so I haven't been completely dead on the Internet! I actually had more photos than I expected so this will be a bit of a long post!

This English coursework will be the death of me.

Hot chocolate, whipped cream, chocolate shavings and marshmallows!

Prettiest and yummiest chocolates I've had for a while!

What happens when me & mum go to the American sweet shop...

I wish essays were easier.

Caramel eclair and two peach and raspberry macaroons, yum!

Finally!!

Bought myself a treat for finishing my essay early!

Finally sorted it all out!

I love having morning frees.

Perfect boyfriend? I think so.

I could have split this into two posts but I thought it would be nice to put them all up from where I left off, plus I especially wanted the last photo on today's post for obvious reasons! Most of you won't know this but I've been in a relationship with a guy called Chris for a little while now which is pretty amazing if I'm going to be honest! He goes to my college so it's really great as I get to see him nearly every day which is completely new for me! It's also great that we share a lot of friends so yeah...I'm pretty happy at the moment! 

Jess xx

Instagram snapshots #1

Instagram snapshots #2

Thursday thoughts.

Despite handing my English coursework in last Monday, life has still been trundling along at quite a relaxed pace with not a lot going on. I've figured out that going into college for first lesson and doing my homework there takes away a lot of unnecessary stress so I have time to read and do outside research and work for my subjects which is really great!

A few things that are/have been happening or running through my head recently: 

- Just over a month until my birthday - I'm so excited but scared to turn 18!

- I can't wait to start Uni; I drive past Reading in my lessons so it's just out of reach taunting me!

- I get to go to the British Museum with my Classics class after half term and I can't wait!

- I had to go to the hospital for a diabetic check up yesterday and they told me I have the option to see a psychologist for my needle phobia which might be a good thing, I haven't decided yet. 

- I've decided that when I get to Uni, I want flowers in my room. I don't have any in my room now and I think they're really pretty so I want some when I have a space that is 100% my own. 

- I've finally got a proper, close group of friends and I couldn't be happier! I always feel a bit detached from friendship groups so it's nice to be able to get this now.

- My love for American sweets has been rekindled, I can't believe I forgot how good they are! 

- My driving test is 4 weeks yesterday which is rather scary! I think I'm doing pretty well though and I hope I pass first time! 

- I have to go back to Cardiff and Birmingham Unis within the next two months and I'm excited because I get to look around them again! It will be difficult to choose between them.

- I still haven't heard back from Exeter Uni which is really annoying...I don't want to go there and I have to wait for them to reply which is stopping me from being able to do anything with the rest of my choices! Even if I wanted to go there, I would be put off by now purely because they're being so long with choosing! 

Hope you guys enjoyed reading this! It's nice to just put down my thoughts sometimes! 

Jess xx

Essay motivation trip!

I actually love going to places by myself. You can go where you want, spend as long or as little time as you want in each place and go home when you feel like it.

Yesterday I went to Guildford for a mini shopping trip to get some sweets for motivation to write my English essay that I planned yesterday morning and Friday. Even though it's fun, I really shouldn't be allowed in the American sweet shop by myself.

Best sweets ever!

As it's nearing Halloween, I couldn't resist having a look at what goodies they had, and I wasn't disappointed. They had Candy Corn (one of my all time favourites) and some things called Mellocremes which are made by the same company and taste quite similar but are different Halloween shapes like pumpkins and cats! No one else in my family likes them which means they're all for me! 

I also had to get some of my usuals and I've found out that Jolly Rancher do a Passion mix with all flavours I like which makes me happy. There's even a Peach flavour which is the best thing ever! Berries Sour Patch Kids are also amazing - the flavours are the best; I'm a berry and citrus girl so these packets are the best things! I also really don't like Watermelon so I successfully avoided it in both packets!

These should last me a good long while as I don't want to open them all at once or waste them by eating tonnes at a time!

If you've never tried these, find somewhere that does them and BUY THEM. I know I have an unhealthy addiction, especially for a Diabetic, but I love them so so much.

Jess xx

Pompeii and Wimborne

If you haven't already realised, I've been absent for the last 6 days! I was with my boyfriend down in Dorchester which was a lot of fun! I have also been super busy back home for the last two days (One day included the Emergency bag kit) so I shall do a blog post on that soon!

I finally got to visit the Pompeii exhibition at The British Museum in London and it was fantastic. It was really eye opening to see real everyday objects from an event that happened so long ago. You don't get to see what Roman life was like for poorer people as much as the rich so Pompeii and Herculaneum are rare chances to actually look into this world from a perspective other than the rich of that world. I found some of the exhibits fascinating but heart-breaking too. The were moulds of people that were found and you could see the looks on their faces which was haunting. Unfortunately, you weren't allowed to take photos and the book with the pictures and explanations in was £25 so I don't have any pictures to show you. This exhibition was absolutely fascinating though so please please please go and visit while it's still there, it's completely worth it and 16-18 year olds and Students get in for only £12.50! It is pretty much a once in a lifetime opportunity so I really suggest you see this part of History that hasn't been properly seen before. 

The day after, we went to Wimborne. It's such a pretty place and it also had some great shops which is always good! Being me, I took a trip to the Superdrug and bought a new lip gloss/cream which is amazing, but I'll do a separate blog on that sometime later on! All I'm saying is that it smells gorgeous and looks really lovely! There was also an old fashioned sweet shop so I bought quite a few sweets! Orange and passionfruit hard boiled sweets are some of my favourites now.

Thursday was a lazy day because the windows were being replaced in the house so we ended up watching films all day! I've finally seen Sherlock Holmes 2: A Game of Shadows so I'm super happy about that! Even though I love the BBC Sherlock, Robert Downey Junior and Jude Law play Sherlock and John perfectly and I laughed so much through both of the Sherlock Holmes films! 

I left Mark's house the next day but before, he bought me Marie Claire magazine to read on the 4 hour (lots of waiting between trains) journey back to my house. It contained a little tester of a perfume called Intense by Dolce & Gabanna and it smells so good! It has the cutest packaging too, if you pull up the tab, it turns into a little cardboard bottle that you squeeze and it sprays the perfume! It's amazing! The website says that the perfume has "subtle hints of Neroli and Green Mandarin, creamy and enveloping qualities of Orange Flower plays alongside the deep voracious trail of Tuberose, giving an intense full-bodied feminine signature to the fragrance, that turns heads and intrigues and the warm resinous Sandal Wood and the sensual Musky notes that blend irresistibly with the creamy addiction of the Guimauve, defining a powerful presence of captivating sensuality." It sounds so funny like that, but it's honestly such a nice scent. It's stronger so it's more of a going out, nighttime perfume but I love it. 

Jess xx

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

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!

Sweet obsession

As I'm diabetic, it's probably not so good that I have a major sweet obsession. We went to John Lewis today and me and my brother were let loose in the sweet section...it was a really bad idea because we got quite a few!

Big bag of 'retro' sweets! 

Jelly beans! 

These are only a few of the sweets we got but they're probably my favourites.
I haven't had any of the sweets in the bag for ages but love hearts and candy necklaces are the best sweets ever so this pack makes me happy!
I also haven't had proper jelly beans for a really long time so this makes me very happy. I love the booklet you get with it because it gives you really cool combinations and flavours to make! My favourite flavours are probably lemon, orange, cherry, blueberry, lemon & lime and grape!
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

A week in the life of Jess

Well this week has been rather hectic to say the least...I'm just glad to be back blogging again! I've missed it!
I've had a crazy amount of work, with exams looming, it's only destined to get worse sadly!
So...as I said on Monday, Friday and Saturday I actually went and did stuff!!
On Friday I went to the Classics open day at Oxford which was amazing! I met up with some friends by accident and ended up spending half of the day with them until I went for a quick tour around the Ashmolean museum. It was completely amazing!! The other people at the open day were so smart though, one guy read Ancient Greek backwards off a gem on display! It was amazing but scary that he could be a potential rival in getting a place at Oxford...
I lost my friends after the museum tour and I hung around with a girl that I met on the tour! Obviously being me, we ended up in the sweet shop!
I went to a lecture about Hercules and how he can be related to various colonies popping up and some events in history and stuff. It was actually pretty cool! And I felt quite proud that I recognised some of the authors of sources and knew something about them!
Oxford is absolutely breathtaking though, the buildings are gorgeous and they have all the shops anyone could ever need! The colleges are spread out over the whole city which is good because you have to actually walk to get to places so you get to see more of Oxford as you move around which is great!
It just looks crazily hard to get in to, and seeing the people I'm up against, it seems my chances of getting in there are dwindling by the second.
On Saturday I had a few girl friends round and I had a movie day/party for my birthday which is on Wednesday!! It was great seeing all of my old school friends again because it's been ages. I love how it always feels like it's only been a day or two since we last saw each other when we meet up, I love them so much! It was nice to see my college friend and outside any school friend got on with the others super well though! Always makes things easier! They got me some fantastic presents too, they know me so well!

The Dan & Phil top is amazing; Katie, you're fantastic!
The Colin the Caterpillar and Percy Pig sweets are from my friend Phoebe,
a reminder of our awesome GCSE Geography lessons!
The Exploding TARDIS mug, mini malteaster bunnies and stickers are from Julia
 who definitely summed me up in 3 presents!!
I love these girls!

My mum's dog walking friends also got me a gorgeous Roman bird pendant and it's just amazing and beautiful and I love it!

How gorgeous is this?!

I got a free today instead of Extended project and my presentation (YAY!) so I went to Boots and took advantage of their 'Buy 2 Barry m nail polishes, get £1 off' deal and bought these beauties! I ended up spending £10.96 which isn't a lot for 4 nail polishes for a fairly decent brand! I'm currently wearing the Gelly nail paint (far right on the pic) and its super shiny and it's gone on pretty well! They're all great colours for when Spring/Summer finally show up so I feel super prepared for then with regards to my nail colours!

I love these, from left to right: Berry, Mint Green, Blue Moon, Prickly Pear

I'm beyond excited that it's my birthday in 2 days, this week feels like it's going to be good; I've already got an A on my last Ancient History essay which I'm super proud of! I think I'm getting the hang of my subjects now!

Anyway, I'm tired so I'm off! Hopefully I'll blog again soon, I've missed this crazy amounts!
Jess xx

Bon bons and sherbet dip!

It's always a market on Thursdays in town where I go to college and there's always a really awesome sweet stall! Nearly every week, I buy a bag of blue raspberry bon bons because they're my favourite and they're just amazing! They're one of my favourite non-American sweets! Those and Alphabet sweets and Rosy Apples...so good!
I also had a sherbet fountain today! I haven't had one in so long and they're still so good!!! I miss all of the awesome old sweets, they used to be the best!
I've got ANOTHER sore throat/cold so I feel a bit cruddy...early night I think!
Jess xx

IT'S CHRISTMAS!!!

I hope you guys all have a fantastic day and got what you wanted!!

I'm honestly so happy, today has been so good! I love my presents and the food has been amazing, it's so nice to just spend time with the family! We're going to play games in a bit, everyone is stuffed full! I'm writing my first blog post from my brand new laptop/tablet which is really exciting and awesome!! It'd so good!! It doesn't have iTunes but it's so good because now I can use the proper windows to do my work with instead of the mac windows which doesn't have the proper referencing tools. Now I have the right stuff for college so I can do work in Starbucks now too! It's so so good!

I also got these adorable slippers from Santa! They're fluffy inside too, I love them :)

 

My cute slippers!!

I also got given season 2 of Sherlock!!! I'm so happy, now I have both seasons! I have one of Regina Spektor's albums and a mixed album of Ingrid Michaelson's, it's 2 and a bit albums in one!
My family know me so well though, I've been given so much chocolate and sweets, it's great!
Another awesome thing is that my Auntie gave me a Starbucks mug and another gift card! :) I'm slowly growing a mug collection now! My friend also got me an Edward Monkton mug and a Baker street sticker! My friends know me so well. I also got moustache cookie cutters which is so cool :D and Santa got me stick on moustaches too so I'm going to have a bit of fun with them! :P
I won't go on though, I'm just so happy with all of my presents because they're all so awesome and me! I know they're all going to get good usage out of all of them :3
I'm such a 5 year old at Christmas, it's so exciting, I looooove it!

On a totally different note, I've finally heard the songs from A Very Potter Senior Year, it's amazing1 I can't wait until the actual production is put up on YouTube next year, it sounds like it's going to be fantastic! I need to find the script on the internet somewhere soon! :D
 Doctor who tonight as well! I'm so excited! I just hope it's happier than Merlin was last night! I was so close to crying! Merlin has been a part of my life for 5 years now, I've watched it right from the beginning and now it's finished for good! :( But it was a really good end, so well done and the actors were fantastic, I just wish it had gone on for longer because I'm going to miss it; now I have to buy the box sets for all of the series and just watch them back! :P
It's also Danisnotonfire and AmazingPhil's Christmas radio show on Radio1 tonight too, I'm so excited, I love them so so much :D
Anyway, I should go, not right to be away from the family on Christmas! I hope you all have a fantastic rest of the day, I know I will!
Jess xxx

Decembrrrrrr

It's been so cold recently! It's definitely almost Christmas! I'm so excited!

On Friday, it was the late night shopping where I live. The high street looked so pretty with all of the

Christmas lights and stalls! The shops were all lit up and some were even playing Christmas music! I saw some of my old friends too which was fantastic, I've missed them all so much! When you've been away from people that you spent what have been (so far) the most important years of your life, you realise how close you are with them when it's like you never left them after not seeing them for months! It really makes you appreciate true friends and they'll always have their own little space in my heart, no matter where I go and who I meet. I love you guys! 

I also got a gorgeous scarf from one of the shops for only £8!! It's so nice! I can't wait to see what I can match it with! I've got a nice collection of scarves now, but I didn't have a floral one like this so I was over the moon when I found it! 

My pretty scarf I bought for only £8!!

Yesterday, my grandma gave me a little box of chocolates from Fortnum & Mason, it's adorable! It's a teeny box with 6 squares of chocolate in them, each a different flavour! There's Ginger, Mint, Cinnamon, Milk, Coffee and Orange. I can't wait to try them, Fortnum & Mason always do the best food!

The teeny box of chocolates!

I also went to Longacres for the first time in about 3 months which is awesome because it sells loads of american food! I have a slight obsession so if you read this regularly you would know that this makes me incredibly happy, especially when mum buys me stuff! :D Grape Fanta, everlasting Gobstoppers and laffy taffy makes me happy :) 

2 litres of grape Fanta and Wonka's everlasting Gobstoppers!
(Laffy taffy was eaten by the time I did this picture...but I had grape and strawberry!)

I'll be back later with a more Christmassy themed post!

Jess xx

There's no business like snow business!

It snowed today! First snow of this year! Yay! It's officially christmas time!
I've been struggling recently with concentrating on my work so yesterday I tried something new...turning off the internet. Shock horror! And funnily enough, it actually worked!!! :D I managed to do my Classics essay in under 2 hours because of that! But to work properly, I always have to be comfortable. In college today, we were talking about this and I've come up with a few ideas to figure out my best working conditions.
So here we go; Jess's ultimate working tips!

1. Turn off the internet/social networking sites. If you still have to use the internet, try to do as much work at school where you can't access any distracting websites, I've only just realised this, but they're blocked for a reason. If you can't do work at school, restrain yourself from going on Facebook; set yourself a time period that you will work in without going off topic, and if you do this, give yourself a little break to check your timeline! Or get your parents to block social networking sites until you've finished the work! It can be annoying at the beginning but it's actually very useful!
2. Clear your workspace of any distractions. Trust me, when you're procrastinating, ANYTHING can distract you. Make sure you only have what you need around you. Have anything that will motivate you to work around, just make sure you don't have fun things around! It'll help in the long run!
3. Make sure you're relaxed and your head is clear. Trying to work when you're stressed and distracted by other thoughts is possibly one of the hardest things to do like, ever. If you need to, just watch a bit of TV or read before you start work. Just get relaxed and motivated to work, focus on it and concentrate. 
4. Get a drink and snacks to keep you going throughout the work period. Make sure you keep hydrated when you're working or your mind will drift and you won't concentrate or work to you fullest potential. Set yourself mini goals and when you complete one, have a little snack! Be it sweets or a biscuit or an apple, anything you enjoy and will want to work towards! It's actually quite a good way to stay on track of work because you actually want to work to get the treat at the end of the section you're doing!
5. Wear something comfortable. Tight or annoying clothes will stop you focussing on your work fully. I always change in to my lounge trousers/jogging bottoms when I do work at my desk because they're super soft, warm and baggy so I can sit any way I want to without them being tight and awkward. My thoughts are basically the slobbier the better! Baggy and comfortable is the best thing because you don't have awkward buttons or zips digging in to your sides or tummy when you're working! 
6. Make a plan/to do list. For the last week or so, I've been making to do lists for each day. It makes it easy to organise and see what needs to be done each day, plus it gives you an extra bit of satisfaction when you cross something off! If you have to write an essay, make a plan. Honestly, over the last week or so, I've been set 3 essays and every time I've written an essay plan for it. It makes it easier to decide what to write as you can set out your main points, write out the quotes you want to use so you don't have to search for them (MASSIVE time saver!) and you can also move points around before you start writing it so it makes more sense! So much simpler! If you've never done it, try it. It will make such a difference to the amount of time you spend writing essays. It also allows you to basically write your essay in note form, get it checked by the teacher and only have to add in a few extra words to make it in to proper sentences! It doesn't have to be super detailed, but it also doesn't have to be sparse and barely any use at all! Writing out your main points, the quotes and the basic outline to the analysis makes essays so much easier. But remember, you don't have to stick fully to the plan, so if you come up with an awesome idea, don't forget to add it in! 
7. Give yourself little, manageable targets to work towards. If you set tasks for you to do, it can make it easier to organise your revision/work. Cutting a mountain of work in to bite size chunks will help massively. Maybe you have a huge essay to do or a lot of research? Say that you'll write 2 paragraphs/points and then have a break, or find out 5 pieces of information then get a snack? YOu can tailor it to you, it's your work!
8. Finally, DO WHAT'S BEST FOR YOU. If you already have a good way of working, ignore me and carry on! If you don't and like me, you get severely distracted a lot of the time, take note and try a few of these ideas out! They won't all work for everyone, some will work better and others will fail miserably. But if you don't try, you'll never know what works and what doesn't!

Hope this has been a massive help to anyone that's struggling with their work/revision skills :)

My perfect work set: Gingerbread latte, a few sweets and an essay plan!

Baggy lounge trousers and my cute dog slippers; how adorable are they?!

Jess xx