A 2014 overview!

Last year was pretty amazing overall. There were obviously some ups and downs as there always are but the good definitely outweighed the bad. 

This year I...

- I passed my driving test (March)

- I turned 18 (March)

- Met Lewis Watson (July)

- I passed my exams (August)

- I got into University (August) 

- Saw Medea in the theatre (August)

- I got my first job (September)

- I got a boyfriend who is completely amazing (November)

I hope this year goes just as well because I already have some amazing things lined up! 

Jess xx

Instagram snapshots #6

I haven't done one of these since April so there are quite a few photos! 

I'm trying to get back into blogging as much as possible and I hope people start to come back to reading posts as well, I liked chatting to everyone in the comments! I'm hoping to do more of my old series posts like these snapshots and the favourites posts I sometimes did, I enjoy finding pieces for those posts!

Great day out today!

Jane Eyre revision and a rice krispies cake!

Prettiest early Easter egg ever!

I love Easter chocolate!

A bit of relaxation before going back to revision!

Cute little post it note I found on the wall in college!

First ice cream from the van of the year!

Definitely a good way to revise...

So bored of revision, I still have 6 exams to go!

Mini doughnuts from Sainsbury's are my weakness...

Such a cute message!

In love with Playdate by Ciate! Such a pretty colour!

Hope you guys enjoyed!

Jess xx

Instagram snapshots #5

I'M FREE!

I finally finished my exams on Wednesday and I couldn't be happier! I actually think most of my exams went pretty well so I'm hoping that it shows in my grades!

It's a weird feeling that I'm completely finished with school/college now and that I'm hopefully moving on to a whole new stage of life in October where I get to be much more independent. I'm so happy I don't have to revise anymore too!

I have so much planned for this week which is exciting - I went round my friend Katie's for a sleepover yesterday/today and I'm going to London tomorrow, then on Wednesday I'm going to my old school's prom which will be exciting! I love actually having time to do things, I have loads to read and do over the next few months.

I've been collecting loads of post ideas over the last month, including reviews, tags, wish lists, the blogger challenges I've missed and a few other little bits and pieces! 

I've really missed blogging so expect quite a few posts when I'm not out!

Jess xx

1 down, 7 to go!

I've just come home from my first exam of the year which went quite well so I decided to do a quick blog post! 

- I hit 200 bloglovin' followers the other day which I'm so happy about, such a nice thing to have happen - I love that people are still reading my blog! 

- I've been quite ill for the last three days, pyjamas and flat lemonade have been my best friends.

- The only thought that has been getting me through revision is my plan to go to London the day after my exams finish...hurry up 18th June! 

- I bought a ticket to my secondary school's year 13 prom that I get to go to with my old friends and I'm so excited! My dress is so pretty and in the post! I should be getting it in the next couple of weeks so look out for that!

- I will be posting all of my 2014 Blogger Challenge posts that I've missed after exams, I'm going to try and make them extra special instead of rushing them and not really doing anything for them! 

- I haven't painted my nails for ages and it feels so weird. I just don't have the time to paint them at the moment sadly! 

Hope you guys enjoyed this little post, I hope to do a couple more as the month goes by - only 1 month and 2 days left until my exams are finished! 

Jess xx

An interval.

Sorry I've been absent for the last week and a bit! As it's exam time and these are my final exams that will hopefully get me into University, I hope you guys will understand that I can't post nearly as much as I would like due to spending nearly every waking hour revising! I will post maybe once every week with quick little updates but I have loads of ideas for the end of June when my exams will be over and done with!

I hope you guys understand and will stick around for the next month and a bit, it'll go by in a flash!

You can always follow me via Instagram and Twitter (links in the side bar) where I can post slightly more regularly as I only need a minute or so to update them!

Jess xx

Stress.

I have an incredibly bad case of over stressing about nearly everything. I worry about work, friends, family, money, my future, my appearance, my health and about a million other things all at once. Sometimes, it isn't so bad, but when I really think about what I have to do, it completely overwhelms me and I get really panicked. 

I didn't get good grades at AS so I have to do 3 extra exams in June which means I have to start revising earlier and a lot more. Now my UCAS is being processed by my chosen Universities, I'm worrying whether I will get any offers because my predicted grades I have been given aren't particularly good and one of my back ups changed their grades to be slightly higher, meaning my favourite University is actually my lowest grade so I have no back up choice. I've been a given an interview next month so I'm also worrying about that, just incase I'm not good enough for them or if I say the wrong thing. 

I feel like I'm running out of time and like I don't have enough time to fit in all of my homework and coursework while fitting in the books I need to read from my personal statement from my interview and I just feel completely overwhelmed with the amount of things I need to do, all with equal importance so nothing can be prioritised apart from by due date. 

I already spoke of being diabetic and I'm scared that if I end up stressing too much, my blood sugar will start to get out of control and I'll end up with unwanted health problems. I've also gained a bit of weight in the last few months which is also bad because it means my lack of exercise is actually making a difference and I feel like I'm being generally unhealthy but I can't do anything about it because I only have time for homework and the occasional blog post when things get too much. I know I need to change my ways but I just can't seem to fit anything into my schedule. 

I don't get to see my friends outside of college apart from the very occasional party so I feel like I'm drifting away from them which is terrifying as most of them have been my friends since I was 11 so I cant bear to think of losing them because I don't have time to fit them in at the moment. 

I also know that I need a job to fund anywhere I do end up going with people as it will inevitably cost money but I don't have time to get a job and wherever I do apply, they never even interview me, let alone offer me the job as I have no experience whatsoever. It worries me that I'll never be able to get experience so I won't be able to get a job in Summer when I will need to be saving up money for University.

The only things that are keeping me sane at the moment are this blog and talking to a new friend on Tumblr as it's nice to get to know new people (hi Jake, if you're reading). 

I seem to be crying a lot and feeling really moody because of this lately but I don't really know any ways of de-stressing. 

If anyone has any tips for not stressing out completely and having a breakdown, I'd very much appreciate it right now.

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

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

The Dress

I was browsing twitter a few months or so ago and I stumbled upon a link to a website called Polka dot polly. I had a browse through and I instantly fell in love.
It's a Mother/Daughter company based in the UK who make custom made 50s style dresses, skirts and now blouses in a wide variety of styles and fabrics. They're absolutely amazing and when I found the website, I found myself searching through for potential patterns and styles of dress. After pestering mum to have a look at the website, we eventually found a pattern and style that we both liked and bought it!
It took about 3 weeks to get here and by that time I was revising for my exams so it was such a nice mid-exam present to arrive!
The dress is such a good quality and is made amazingly well, and considering the dresses are custom made, they are a really good price!!!
I've worn it a few times now but because of lovely typical British weather, I haven't been able to as much as I would like. It's so comfortable, and the length (I got the skirt to be 23", the shortest length) is perfect at just above the knee. I also chose a full circle skirt which is super cute.

Picture from the Polkadotpolly facebook page - how gorgeous is this?! I love it so much!

I've been wanting a swing dress for so long and now I actually have one, it's so perfect and better than I imagined! I'm in love with it because it's so amazing an I'm definitely going to save up and buy another at some point in the future!
Jess xx

General crap

Ever since exams, I've been failing at blogging so much! I really need to get back into it again!
This last week has been pretty good! I saw The Great Gatsby last Thursday and even though I didn't like the book much, the film ended up being really good! It was really weird seeing Spiderman not swinging about the buildings of New York but working there instead!
I went to Exeter Uni open day on Tuesday which was really nice. I've fallen in love with it; it's the same feeling I got when looking around the college I'm at so I know it'll be good, plus the course is completely perfect and it all seems so friendly! The accommodation is lovely and the rooms are pretty big compared to what I thought they would be! Exeter itself is so pretty and green and very hilly which will keep me fit! The shops are pretty good and have everything I could want or need, including a Waterstones and Starbucks (I'm not going to get through my exams without it!) so I'm sorted! It also has the usual shops for clothes and food so I'll be fine! The brass band they had playing at the open day day also made it even more awesome because they played so many film theme tunes including How to Train your Dragon, Shrek and Pirates of the Caribbean! Definitely sealed Exeter as one of my favourite choices! I have a few more Unis to look at over the next two weeks so that will be fun! I can't wait to see what the others are like!
I went to Bristol museum yesterday too to learn about the Pharaohs of Egypt and it was amazing! I learnt so much and I also got to look around the museum, including the stores in the basement which were incredible! It's so amazing being able to see things that not everyone who visits the museum will see! It's a shame because it was all incredible and really interesting!
After the museum, I spotted a Forbidden Planet which is such a cool shop full of nerdy things - it was the best thing ever! It had loads of nerdy shirts from tv, films and games which was awesome, and there were figures and things like bags, key rings, mugs and loads of other awesome things! Shame I couldn't afford any of it though!
I'll hopefully do some more updates later on as more things happen so talk later!
Jess xx

EXAMS ARE FINISHED!...for this year!

It's all over until next year! I'm so happy that I get to just stay calm and relax now, I'm not going to be stressing out and panicking every other day! (This weekend was NOT fun having to revise biology...but more of that below!) I'm feeling guilty for not revising and working so I'm doing the second best thing; writing this post that is well overdue!
I can't believe that my first year of A levels (and college) is over! It feels like I just started yesterday! It's actually been a good year and I'm really happy that I moved because my lessons and teachers have been great! I've already started some of my subjects' A2 courses and it's so interesting but there are so many books that I need just over the courses, let alone the books I've been told to get as extra reading! I have 8 books to get, and that's not even for the whole of next year! I'm so excited, but also sad that I won't get time over the Summer to read any books just for fun as I have to read the Iliad and Herodotus - The Histories (I'm going to imagine it's called Hogwarts - A History from now on...it will make it oh so entertaining) before September!
All of my exams were over before half term apart from biology so after my weekend free where I spend time with my friend (I haven't seen him for about a year and a half so that was really nice!), I ended up with 5 days of solid revision. Up until then, the revision, although it had been hard, was nothing compared to this! With the added problem of not really knowing much of the syllabus because it's all pretty confusing and detailed, I started to panic which meant that I couldn't concentrate at all, just adding fuel to an already growing fire. NOT a good thing to happen 2 days before the hardest and last exam of this year. But it ended up being okay and I got through the exam without thinking I failed too badly so hopefully it all pays off!
I've been spending a lot of my time looking at Universities in the lead up to all the open days that are coming this month and I'm getting so excited! I'm going to Exeter next Tuesday which is going to be awesome, it's such a pretty place and the course looks amazing! With the archaeology side of my degree, I might have the opportunity to go on a placement in South Dakota, excavating a Plains Indian village! It makes me so excited because I learnt about them at GCSE and I find it all so fascinating to see how America developed so it will be so amazing if I actually get to go! It's actually one of the main reasons why Exeter is my first choice now! (It was a toss up between Exeter and UCL but Exeter wins out from prettiness and awesome opportunities!) It'll be fun having a look around the place with mum and finding out more about the uni, there is only so much a prospectus and website can tell you, actually going there is a whole other story because then you can see how the words and pictures on the page fit together to make this place that so many people seem to fall in love with and want to spend 3 very important years studying at! It's quite a scary thought that in a year my A2 exams will just be starting and I will be heading off to one of these places; be it Exeter or somewhere else. Either way it's going to be a lot of fun and so much more different to what I'm used to which will be great!
Jess xx

I'M BACK!

It's been an entire month since I blogged last time but happily I only have one exam left right at the beginning of June so I can start blogging properly again hopefully! I've missed it so much, my life has been overrun by work, I've had literally no social life up until now! I finished my last exam this side of half term today so I decided to hop on a train after college and travel to Reading where I bought some new nail polish! I bought three bottles of Essie nail polish and let me tell you, it was SO worth it. I bought Tart Deco, Tea and Crumpets and Turquoise et Caicos. They're all such gorgeous colour that are so perfect for summer, whenever it turns up... either way, I love them to pieces. Im currently wearing Tart Deco and it's just amazing! It's a light solid peach colour and I love it! It was so quick to dry and it was really easy to apply with a really small amount of it going on the edge of my fingers which I'm really happy about! I'll definitely be buying more, totally worth the extra few pounds and the colours are amazing!

From Instagram - Tart Deco, Tea & Crumpets (left on right pic) and Turquoise & Caicos (middle on right pic).
How cute are they?!

I also treated myself to a Krispy Kreme doughnut to have on the train home today which was awesome, I had one that had what looks like little pieces of oreo cookie on the top and it's so nice! I've also been meaning to start The Paris Wife for over 6 months now but I've been so busy with college work that I haven't had time! I'm glad to be able to finally have time to be able to read a book that isn't related to college or Ancient Romans/Greeks though! It's a nice change! I've missed reading and I've ended up having to use every spare moment, be that a train journey or 5 minutes before bed, to do a little reading of something completely different from my courses. Over the last month or two, I've been reading The Great Gatsby off my kindle app on my phone and to be honest, I didn't really think it was that great. It might have been because I was having to read it in so many little dispersed bursts that the plot line was lost on me, but I don't really understand why it gets such high praise. It didn't really seem to go anywhere for me and the so-called big secret and mystery of Mr. Gatsby and who he is was quite dull frankly. Maybe I need to re-read it all in one go so it flows better or maybe it just isn't a book that I enjoy. There are plenty of other books out there though so I can live with not liking one!

Yummy doughnut and The Paris Wife; excited to get into it!

Apart from today, nothing interesting has happened in my life in the last month! My exams have been pretty good and I've also had minimal breakdowns which is always a bonus so all in all, it's been an alright month!! I can't wait for exams to be over though so I can get back to doing things I enjoy like blogging!
Talk soon! I have lots of ideas for posts!
Jess xx

hmm...

You know you just get the days where all you want to do is curl up in bed with hot chocolate and a good book, then forget the world for a bit? Yeah, having one right now :/
The problem is that I really don't have a specific idea why so it's even more annoying and confusing!
I guess it's just a mix of stress about exams coming up and missing Simon again. Plus the fact that I'm sure I've failed the biology end of topic test today too, probably doesn't help :( I hate days like this, it makes everything so difficult.
I'm always so positive about everything so the bad days are hard to deal with, they're few and far between these days luckily. Just wish I could snap out of it easier :(
Sorry about the lack of blogging recently though, I've been doing loads of work and I haven't had time to blog at all, but if I've had any ideas over the last few days, I've written them down so I can make a super awesome post sometime in the near future hopefully! :)
I've also got a new thing for wearing skirts and dresses; they're so comfortable and are actually really warm! Plus they always look prettier than jeans. Well, most of the time, anyway!
Ugh, I can feel a headache coming on...it really isn't my day :(
But yeah, Classics essay plan to do for tomorrow which will be interesting....
Jess xx