Link Loving

I love being introduced to new things on the internet, being able to share something that others would have never even known existed is one of the best aspects of social media. So what better way to share what I've been loving than in tidy little post.

Music

Passenger launched his video for Hearts On Fire and it's one of the most beautiful music videos I've ever had the pleasure of viewing. Filmed by my absolute talent crush Jarrad Seng, this video is stunning and one I think everyone should see.

Kina Grannis is one of the best cover artists that youtube has to offer and is one of my personal favourites. I find American musicians a lot harder to love than British for a reason I can't pinpoint but she is one I adore and her cover of The Moon Song by Karen O from the "Her" soundtrack is flawless. One of the best covers she has ever done and I've heard the majority of them.

YouTube

Hank Green, one half of the vlogbrothers, recently did a video called "What Boys Look For In Girls", a title that makes me want to be violently ill sometimes on the insane amount of videos which have made what Hank calls a "genre" on youtube. He then goes on to educate you on the cultural differences around the world for women and men do to make them seem more attractive, my favourite being in England men wear tiny pants. It's entertaining and educational, what more could you want?

Paris Snapshots by Will Darbyshire is a stunning compilation of moments of his trip to Paris with girlfriend and fellow youtuber Alexa Losey. It's really amazing with a perfect soundtrack and makes me all gooey at it's beauty. A brief but joyful watch.

Tumblr

I am an animal gif person to the point where I have a bookmarks folder called 'happy' filled with them to make me chuckle. My favourites of recent have been cat vs puppies and Natalie Tran and cat.

Tumblr is also a haven for quotes and I'm usually prone to liking the gushy slightly pretentious lovey dovey ones for instance this one by Charles Bukowski "Nobody can save you but yourself and you're worth saving. It's a war not easily won but if anything is worth saving then this is it."

My other favourite quote from the month is something I wrote and am quite proud of. It's a very romantic view on the life I want to live but at the same time I was so proud of it's simplicity. You can read it on my tumblr here.

Writing

Charly Cox wrote a post titled Classroom Clashes which is so unbelievably relatable to my own schooling experience that I'd describe it as my thoughts but better worded. If you've finished school, are finishing school or are still trapped in the school yard then I recommend you read it. There is something wonderful about finishing reading something and thinking "Yes! Exactly!".

A wonderful post on Rookie Magazine popped up in my exploration of the website entitled How To Be Alone and I adore it! I love being alone, I think I'm rather good at it as well and it extends to more than just being home alone. I love exploring the city alone, reading a book in a coffee shop alone and going out to take photos alone. Because as is perfectly written in the second last paragraph "the thing about being alone is that it's doesn't have to include feeling lonely".

Let me know in the comments what links you've been loving this month from cat gifs to quotes, I want to see them.

May Madness

Back in February I posted a mood board type thing to summarise my month. Well I soon discovered that aiming to post that every month was a bit much because I don't get up to that much in the space of four weeks. So instead this post is going to be quarterly and more in depth.

The Products

The Naked 2 Palette has been on my list for a while and I'm going to be putting away a little bit of money each week when I get paid to buy not just the number 2 but the number 1 as well. My eyeshadow collection is a bit abysmal, mainly dominated by budget bronze shades but I'm excited to have more to work with. However this will be it for eyeshadows for a while for me, I'll be banning myself from buying any more other than the basics palette eventually.

Chapped lips never bothered me that much until I started wearing lipstick and now they are the biggest nuisance. With the change in the weather to windy, cooler days my lips have suffered so I set out to find the best of the bunch to save them. I have a whole post on my results which you can read here.

Rimmel Moisture Renew lipsticks dropped in Australia not long ago and I'm in love. The formula is great and Nottinghill Nude lightly blended over the lip is the nude lip colour for the girl who isn't big on nude lips. I picked up In Love With Ginger as well but I am yet to be brave enough to wear it out.

Lifestyle

Autumn is here and I am a happy chappy! My wardrobe is far more equipped for the cooler months so I feel like a fashion queen right now with my monochrome choices. I love nothing more than being rugged up on a rainy day in bed and I've been able to do that for the first time in over six months. I bought my first ever blazer recently and I'm working with it to make it a casual piece for winter, my favourite choice so far is rolling up the sleeves and throwing it over my Lewis Watson t-shirt which you can pick up here.

I have never been much of a handbag girl, preferring small cross body bags to lugging around a big thing until I found a love for canvas bags. Mine has the slogan 'Girls Just Wanna Have Funds' (which you can see on my instagram post here) and is a practical and casual way to carry things around. It's big enough to hold my laptop which is the best bonus because that was the worst thing about not having a large bag in my collection and a green bag from the supermarket isn't exactly stylish. They're cheap, washable and have the tick of approval from none other than Alexa Chung in her book 'It'.

I love getting so into a book that I'll stay up until 2am to finish it because going to sleep and finishing it the next day is not an option. I've recently finished 'Attachments' by Rainbow Rowell, 'The One Plus One' by Jojo Moyes and 'The Rosie Project' by Graeme Simsion, all of which I loved and would recommend to anyway. 'Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close' by Jonathan Safran Foer and 'Someday, Someday, Maybe' by Lauren Graham are next on my list.

I never thoughts I'd love ripped denim jeans but since customising my own I can't get enough. I had a pair of light wash denim super skinny jeans which I was bored of so I hacked into them and had some fun. I'm going to make a post on how I did this so keep an eye out on my blog soon as well as eventually updating them with a bit of a lace detail to make them a bit different.

The OC is a show I've always intended to watch mainly because of Adam Brody's beautiful face if I'm completely honest. It's a trashy, early 2000's American high school comedy/drama and I love it. The clothes (did anyone wear bras 10 years ago??) and the make up (brown lipliner anyone?) are hilarious so I'd watch it for just those but I'm in love with Seth Cohen which helps too.

This year seems to be the year for new music amongst the artists I listen to. Passenger, Lewis Watson, Stu Larsen, Ed Sheeran, Hudson Taylor and probably a bunch more people who I've forgotten about are all releasing new material and I know I'm going to be in heaven/broke by the time it's all released. I've been in such a music funk however that it'll be so worth it. I'm considering doing a whole post about what I've been listening to so let me know in the comments if you'd be interested in that.

There is a reason why the products list is so short in this post and that's because I am trying my hardest to save as much as possible. I'm a materialistic person so this is hard for me and with my mum's birthday, easter, mothers day, my dad's birthday and my brother's birthday all falling in the past few weeks and next few months, I have to try and be tight and spend wisely so all my hard work doesn't go to waste. The biggest down side is the constant feeling of being broke because I can't touch any of the money in my savings account.

I've been awful with sleep of recent and my schedule has gone out the window. At the moment I've been going to sleep at midnight and waking up at 10am far too frequently which is really not practical if I want to get anything done in the day. I'm now going to make a conscious effort to get a normal pattern back, even if it involves early alarms so by the end of the day I'm actually tired.

Writing is something I love but I've recently started to put it off and I'm not sure why. I've started procrastinating doing the thing that was usually what I did when I was procrastinating. In attempt to keep myself writing and becoming better, I am going to write something every day. Even if it's just three sentences, it's better than nothing. I'm going to make sure I have a pad and pen everywhere I go as well in case inspiration strikes.


Let me know in the comments what you've been listening to as of recent and the most exciting thing happening in the next few months for you.

The Eyes Of The Beholder.

Sometimes in life we have reflective moments to really think about ourselves and the world around us. Often these moments are associated with life changing events but others, well they just sneak up on you without you realising.


It was a standard shift at work, nothing interesting, until this little girl came by with her parents and saw me, immediately shouting "Barbie!".

This isn't the first time this has happened, I have had a life time of being compared to Barbie from when I was young and refused to brush my light blonde hair so it eventually had the texture and appearance of a well loved Barbie doll's to just last year and I got labelled the same way by a group of Taiwanese backpackers who were rightfully unfamiliar to a girl being 6 foot tall.

At first I saw it as a compliment and I understood the association, I have blonde hair and a long slender frame but then I really thought about it.

As a woman I feel pressure about my appearance all too frequently, primarily about my weight (i.e always intending to lose a little bit of it) and my height (which is often called freakish because adding an 'ish' to a word apparently makes it a socially acceptable adjective).

But then I realised this is just the beginning for this little girl. She has a lifetime ahead of unrealistic ideas of beauty being forced onto her wherever possible and exposure to photoshopped women in media that none of us are ever going to look like. I am sickened at the thought of this life only just starting on a girl who couldn't have been more than five years-old. At some point, she is going to realise she doesn't look like barbie (because none of us do) and she'll be aware that this doll who she sees as the epitome of beauty isn't going to be what she grows up to be.

But there is a reality that isn't found in the plastic walls of the beloved Barbie doll, there is beauty outside of that very small definition that we're exposed to from youth. Because Barbie doesn't tell the story of having curves, or having a different skin colour, or even having a different hair colour.

Barbie doesn't tell the story of variation that makes women beautiful and unique, and she doesn't define beauty, but how is a five year old supposed to know that?

Give me open windows and exposed brick walls. Give me big cities that sleep less than I do. Give me chipped nail polish and oversized t-shirts. I don’t need the world, just my own very small part of it.

SOS Lip Secret

Chapped lips are one of the biggest nuisances on my face, I haven't had acne since I was a child (weird, I know but infantile acne is a thing) and dark circles are a foreign concept in my world but my lips are particularly difficult to keep moisturised. The Australian climate has a bit to do with this with often harsh winds and disgustingly hot temperatures damaging my lips, not to mention the sun.

I've made a point to put more effort into looking after my lips as personally I feel like they are one of my best features and there is not much worse that flaky dry lips. The four products I tested vary from cult status to standard products with the Nuxe Reve de Miel lip balm, Burt's Bees refreshing lip balm with pink grapefruit (the best smelling of the lot), good ol' Vaseline and the internationally lesser known Lucas's Papaw Ointment.

Starting off the with the Nuxe Reve de Miel lip balm; it was an impulse purchase and one I only don't regret purely because I know I won't buy it again. People lust after this product but I don't understand the hype, it's good but not great and not worth the money you have to fork over for a small pot. Also the smell is a bit off putting, especially for an expensive product which is applied right under your nose.

Next up is from Burt's Bees, a budget lip balm that smells heavenly. The application is the easiest of the four.. no fingers needed which is definitely a bonus from the hygiene freak within me. For maintaining moisture this is just fine and if you don't get really bad chapped lips I'd say it would cut it but I don't find it is moisturising enough to bring my lips back to life.

Vaseline is an oldy but a goody and something most would have lying around the house. This wasn't so much for it's moisturising qualities as to why it's included but for it's exfoliating potential. A beauty hack was recommended to me by using vaseline and a soft toothbrush and brushing it over your lips to get rid of the dead skin. Maybe my toothbrush was too soft but it really didn't do much for me and I couldn't get over the yuck factor of it, I'll be sticking with the brown sugar and coconut oil lip scrub Essie Button posted about here. Still something to keep around though and I'll definitely have this out in flu season as the 'vaseline nose' becomes all the rage when I'm going through a box of tissues per day.

The aforementioned SOS Lip Secret for which this post is titled after is the Lucas' Papaw Ointment, an Australian product which advertises itself as a "local topical application for boils, burns, chafing, cuts, cracked skin, gravel rash, splinters, open wounds, insect bites and nappy rash". I've grown up with my mum using this liberally on her terrible eczema and so the smell has this unfortunate association for whenever her skin was playing up but moving past the smell, the product is unbelievably nourishing. It saddens me to say that it took it's feature on Man Repeller's website for me to give it a go and I now use it constantly, already purchasing a new tube so I am never without. It's available from supermarkets around Australia quite cheaply and it can be found online on ebay for others who are curious.

What is your holy grail lip saviour? Have you tried any of the ones I've mentioned above and how have they worked for you?

Speckled Nail Art

I love a bit of nail art but often it's a bit of a faff to do for something that only lasts a couple of days. That's why when I saw the L'Oreal Color Riche top coat effect in confettis I was very intrigued and alongside the low price point I bought it and gave it a try.

Being a top coat effect you of course need a base colour, I used a simple cheap white nail polish for a statement but I think a grey (Essie's Master Plan is my favourite) or even perhaps a red would work nicely. The white polish did hide the white speckles but I love monochrome contrast so that didn't matter to me. I found it was an easier adjustment into the white-out nail polish trend with the addition of speckles to break it up a little and make it look more polished.

Removal was the worst part but it was only mildly traumatic and only makes me slightly hesitant to do it again. One hand at a time wrap half a cotton pad that has been soaked in an acetone based nail polish remover around the nail. Over the top of that cover the finger in foil and leave for a few minutes before taking off the foil and wiping away the polish. This will get the majority of the speckles off but you'll need to go back to get the cling-ons. Lily Pebbles explains this process much better in her post but you get the gist.

What do you think of the speckled nail effect? Will you be tempted to try this soon?

A Date With My Book

Reading is something that I've always loved but never really prioritised. It always tends to be a pre sleep activity to settle my mind before I turn out the lights. It's never the first thing I think of when I have some time to myself but today I made an effort for it to be hence; A Date With My Book.

I went to my favourite cafe which boasts a beautiful frangipani tree shaded courtyard creating unintentional patterns from the sun peaking through the leaves and is filled with an eclectic mix of verge collected furniture and decorations. With my book in hand, Sleeping At Last in my ears, the breeze in my hair and an iced coffee on the table I sat there for over an hour and read 100 pages.

My book of choice was Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan and I had to conceal my laughter through some parts which was the only drawback because I am sure I looked like a loon smiling to myself. I'm not quite at the end yet but so far, so good!

Dining alone is not something I've ever really experienced or been too keen to try but after this morning I have realised that a book and some soft music in my ears is the only company I need. It was a perfect morning and one I'll definitely be making a weekly occurrence because I left very calm and relaxed, ready to enjoy the rest of my day.

Let me know in the comments if you can dine alone and what is the latest book you've read and loved.