Book Haul

There is one person (other than myself obviously) to blame for this post. She is the ultimate book enabler, Sanne aka booksandquills is the reason behind the majority of these books and I love her for it.

Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg must be one of the best selling books of 2014 for a reason, right? As a girl entering the workforce and figuring out where I fit into it, I think this book will be quite inspiring to be a strong independent working woman and I look forward to what should be a very interesting read if the reviews are true.

I've actually already read Attatchments by Rainbow Rowell, it's on my iPad and I loved it so much I wanted the physical copy on my shelf. Rowell is one of my favourite authors, both from her adult and young adult novels and I really adored this book when I read it. This also leads onto the other purchase which is unpictured because it arrived later but I just binge-read Landline, Rowell's latest book, and loved it just as much. I think Fangirl is my all time favourite of her novels but they're all spectacularly well written and have well developed interesting characters whom I adore.

An Object Of Beauty by Steve Martin was the impulse buy of this haul. Spotted in one of Sanne's book hauls I believe, this books art world aspect appealed the most to me. I love art in a lot of forms, I want to learn more about it and I just really liked the look of this book really. Very excited to read it but it's not first on the list right now.

Just One Day followed by Just One Year followed by Just One Night (ebook only) are a lovely trio (or really 2 and a half but that doesn't sound as nice) of books written by Gayle Forman. I read these quickly on my iPad and loved them so much that once I discovered Just One Night existed around 11pm, moments after finishing Just One Year, I made the very immature but at the time satisfying choice to stay up even later and finish that. If I miss sleep to read a book it's worthy of sitting on my shelf.

Trouble by Non Pratt was one I discovered on Goodreads and is really a book that I would have bought on my iPad if it was an iBook because it's not one I really needed to own. I read this whilst I was poorly (part of the reason for the lack of noise on this blog) and I liked it but didn't love it. Personally the goodreads reviews were a bit generous and the only really great thing with this book was the character Aaron who I adored, buying off bookdepository at least means I didn't throw too much money down the drain.

Estee (of Essiebutton) and Sanne are the reasons behind my purchase of We Were Liars by E Lockhart and I am so grateful! It's not the kind of book I'd pick up, I generally stick to the YA/Chick Lit genre because it's light and this novel is anything but. It's not a long read but it's a lovely one, with some more poetic aspects and very interesting medical conflict elements which I adored. It was $2.99 on iBooks on sale so it was a no brainer really.

Last but not least is Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson, a book which I found through #shelfie on tumblr, one of my favourite tags to peruse, when it kept on appearing in people's book collections. It's been highly rated on Goodreads from over 4000 ratings which is a good sign and I think it'll be a nice holiday read when I go away to the country next week.

Do I dare ask what other books I should check out? Tell me what you've been reading in the comments below.

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.

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.