Favourite Things-July Edition

Hello Everyone...

When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I am feeling sad. I simply remember my favourite things and then I don't feel so bad-! July Edition 

It is the end of the month again and so I thought I would share with you my favourite things from July. Here we go!

Favourite Book: Water for Elephants  

Out of the books that I have read over July, Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen has been my favourite. The Flight of the Falcon by Daphne Du Maurier is a close second, but I read them both over my holiday and Water for Elephants was easier to read and the storyline was a little simpler. And so it wins! 

Water for Elephants Review

Before I Die Review

The Flight of the Falcon Review

Favourite Place Visited: Segovia 

I feel like after doing all those reviews on places I had seen in Spain, I had to choose my favourite place. Segovia wins by a mile! It is a beautiful city and I saw so many amazing things there. And it is also surrounded by mountains and I love the mountains so you know. 

Check out my review here 

And also...Plaza de Toros and Botanical Gardens

Favourite YouTube Channel: BuzzFeed 

BuzzFeed have several different channels dealing with different areas, for instance BuzzFeedBlue deals with more scientific stuff and DIYs videos, BuzzFeedYellow deals with society-orientated issues, like sexuality and more issues that I can't think of right now, BuzzFeedViolet is a lot of really relatable, awkward situations that you find yourself in, like 'Why am I always late?' and 'What people do when they are home-alone?' and BuzzFeedVideo is just a combination of nerdy, weird, funny things. And the videos are all quite short so you can watch them really easily, without wasting loads of time, and you learn some stuff so it's great.

BuzzFeedVideo 

BuzzFeedBlue

BuzzFeedYellow

BuzzFeedViolet  

Favourite Videos

YouTuber Rumours? 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TitLRNH2WKc 

Surprising my brother on his birthday 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRXhWRq5EI8

The Definition of 'Sexy' around the World 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzlFh3DZF8g

The Christian Holocaust 

http://youtu.be/gJM-NSMjyKg  

Favourite Film: Inception

This film is incredible, to say the least. It was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won four of them for special effects and stuff. Inception is a film about dreams and dreams within dreams. An extractor, someone who can take information out of people's dreams, (Leonardo DiCaprio) has to plant an idea in the dream of the son of a very successful businessman to try and get him to divide his empire. The first ten minutes have you completely confused and most people have to watch it a few times in order to fully understand but it isn't frustrating if you don't get the whole story first time. On the contrary. It is fascinating. Christopher Nolan has done an amazing job at directing it and it has action sequences and it is really thrilling. Leonardo DiCaprio plays in it with Ellen Page and Tom Hardy and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I really recommend you see it if you haven't already. 

Favourite Fact of July

When you are in water and the skin on your fingers and toes goes all crinkly, it is to improve your grip on wet and submerged objects and is an old adaptation that we no longer need because we don't live in water anymore.

Favourite Songs 

Super Trouper by ABBA

Voulez-Vous by ABBA

Waterloo by ABBA

I Don't Care, I Love It by Icona Pop

Angel with a Shotgun by The Cab

Try by P!nk

Elastic Heart by Sia 

A few little beauty/fashion items...

Sandals

I bought these from Marks and Spencer because my old ones had a sole that was wearing very thin and I kept slipping in them. These cost about £29.00, I think, but they are really comfortable. I did a lot of walking in them and I didn't get any blisters or anything. They are really sturdy as well, a reason why I don't like flip-flops very much because they are really flimsy sometimes. These sandals do give you some strange tan lines but that is the only complaint. 

Palmer's Coconut Oil Formula Leave In Conditioner 

I have nothing but praise to give this. As I think I have mentioned before, I am cursed with having really thin frizzy hair which is horrible. Especially after being in the water, (in the sea or swimming pool) and the humidity, (in England or Spain), my hair gains about five centimeters of frizz that just grows and grows. I don't even know where it comes from because I don't have a lot of hair. But this conditioner doesn't make it feel greasy or oil and all of the tangles brush out really easily and it smells divine. I also have a really difficult time brushing my hair when it is dry and usually have to comb it because using a brush is sort of a death wish and this really helps calm it. 

Mango Body Butter

This, I have mixed feelings about. Sometimes, I love it but sometimes, not so much. However, I have been using it a lot during July so I thought that it deserved a mention. This is the Body Shop's Body Butter in the scent Mango. I have their Body Mist in Grapefruit but the Grapefruit Body Butter smells really weird, I thought, so I went for mango instead. On the one hand, this is really moisturizing and its scent stays on the skin for a long time but on the other hand, you have to be careful with how much you put on because it can leave your skin feeling very oily and uncomfortable. So you have to find a balance.  

And there you have it! Favourites from July, done and dusted! As always, I hope you enjoyed it. 

Clare

Favourite Things- June edition

Hello everyone...
When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I am feeling sad. I simply remember my favourite things and then I don't feel so bad! June edition!
Okay, I know mostly these are done as fashion or makeup tags but I've taken my favourite things from everywhere as a memorial to June 2015. Enjoy! 

Favourite book: MERCY 

I have decided that when choosing my favourite book I am going to choose from the list of those that I have already reviewed in that month so that you can go back and check them out in the reviews and buy them if you want to (there are direct links to Amazon). So Mercy is my favourite this month because it is one of Jodi Picoult's and it was so interesting to read about what is illegal but what might be moral depending on you moral compass. Still Alice is a close runner up. They are both incredible books though and well worth reading. Take them on holiday or something. :) 
Mercy Review
Still Alice Review
Purple Hibiscus Review

                                          MOLESKINE NOTEBOOKS 

These are my favourite notebooks of all time. Don't worry! They are not real moleskin! I use them for my diaries and I have a new one every year. Recently, I discovered a green one for 2015 (see picture) but in previous years, I have had black only. They have a little pocket at the back of them, where I keep little souvenirs from the year and a ribbon to mark your spot and an elastic band to keep it closed.  I would prefer it if they had bigger spaces between the lines because my handwriting is huge but it doesn't really matter because you needn't be constricted by the lines and you can write on every other line or something, (as I do) 
.

NOTE CARDS AND HIGHLIGHTERS AND FINELINERS
So, at the beginning of June, I had my exams and obviously, revision was high on my list of priorities during that time. I find that colour coding notes really helps me to remember the stuff particularly when similar pieces of information are written in similar colours. Highlighting the most important bits or the bits that I keep forgetting makes them really stand out as well and the crazier the colours of the highlighters,the better. I study history and there was so much to learn for the three exams and therefore, I found that writing dates or timelines out on little pieces of card and learning those as well as my full set of detailed notes helped to absorb it all. So maybe, if you have difficulty with absorbing huge amounts of information write the key details/dates/names of specialist cells on little cards and it really helps. They can be bought at any stationary shop, like WHSmith or anything similiar. 

YOUCOLLAGE

YOUCAM 

YOUCAM and YOUCOLLAGE 
These are my two favourite apps for this month. I think that they are available on Apple but I have an Android phone so I am not 100% sure. 
YOUCAM is an app where you can take pictures with a variety of settings and filters and then you can make all different types of collages and edit them in a variety of ways. There is also a beauty forum, (which I don't use) but you can chat to people who like the same beauty and fashion things that you do and share your pictures. 
YOUCOLLAGE is in case you just want to make collages without any settings or fancy design. They are really convenient when you have a group of pictures that you want to put together in one place. 


THATCHERJOE YOUTUBE CHANNEL

My favourite YouTube channel of this month is that of ThatcherJoe. His videos are hilarious, especially his prank videos and his vlogs are really fun to watch as well. I'll link his channel below so that you can watch his videos. 
https://m.youtube.com/user/ThatcherJoe 

FAVOURITES VIDEOS  

Science vs Philosophy 
https://youtu.be/i0Z6z2UaGiA

Romantic meal with ThatcherJoe 
https://youtu.be/qECL-sFIH6Y

Dare Joe 
https://youtu.be/hwGv98Ef2HI

Documentary on Stephen Hawking 
https://youtu.be/hi8jMRMsEJo

Honey Badgers by Vlogbrothers 
Watch the video here

THE IMITATION GAME

I firmly agree that Eddie Redmayne should have won the Oscar for Best Actor this year but I watched The Imitation Game recently and it was amazing! For some reason, Benedict Cumberbatch's portrayal of Alan Turing, especially when he didn't understand a joke or why it was important that people liked him, reminded me of Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory. It is a really serious film, I mean, on the really serious topics of the war and the illegality of homosexuality but it also is surprisingly amusing at times. Keira Knightley is also one of my favourite actresses of all time and she is also in the film. I know that I am behind in watching that film but I missed it in the cinema and have not had a lot of time to watch films recently. But my sister and I bought it for our dad for Father's Day and so now we have the DVD. Yay! 

FERRERO ROCHER
When people ask me what my favourite chocolate is, I always say I don't know because I love all chocolate. But, recently, I have been thinking about it and I don't like Aero, becuase I don't really like mint or bubbly chocolate but I love Ferrero Rocher.  My favourite are the original and not the dark chocolate or white chocolate/coconut ones. For those that might not know, they are balls of wafer that are coated in a mixture of hazelnut and chocolate and inside there is a whole hazelnut and something that tastes like Nutella. (It is a lot tastier than I have just described that.)

FAVOURITE FACT OF JUNE

I got this from my chemistry textbook when revising for my exam so I don't know how accurate it is because you know, education system and all that but anyway 

Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) is used in soap making and if you put it on your skin, your skin will feel soapy. That is because it is reacting with the fats in your skin and, in essence, turning you into soap!!!

FAVOURITE SONGS

Young and Beautiful by Lana Del Ray 
Summertime Sadness by Lana Del Ray 

Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler 

Diamonds by Rihanna 

The Winner takes it all by Abba 

Lucky by Britney Spears

Superluv by Shane Dawson 

As seen by this list, I don't really have a favourite genre but my favourite singers are, and will be for all time, Florence and the Machine and Sia and some little bands, like Imagine Dragons and One Republic. But these were the most played on my 'most played' list and I think Young and Beautiful was at the top. It is such an awesome song. (I was going to say beautiful,but that is in the title.) It is so peaceful and soothing and the lyrics actually mean something so that is great. By the way, I am really bad at listening to music because I over listen to too many songs which means that after a few weeks, I do not like them anymore. So this list will change dramatically over time. 



Okay, now I am just going to jump on the band wagon and do my favourite things that are hair/makeup/clothing related. But it is only a few! :) 

COW GIRL HAIRSTYLE 
I am not exactly sure what the name of this hairstyle is but 'Cow Girl' has stuck. Now, I watched a video a while back by Youtuber Zoella and she was showing people how to do this hairstyle. But Zoella has beautiful, long, straight hair and I have curly and extremely puffy/curly hair. So I didn't think that it would work for my hair. But then I saw another YouTuber PyschoSoprano doing it in her hair and hers is more similar to mine and so I tried it and it worked! The bad thing is that it makes my small head look even smaller but it looks really cute...well, I think so, at least. I don't know how to describe it really, except that it involves an Alice band and bobby pins and shoving all of your hair into the back of the Alice band. However, I'll put both video links here so that you can watch both of them. 
Watch Zoella's video here
Watch PyschoSoprano's video here

CONVERSES
These are my favourite shoes. I am really not a fan of fancy shoes, like high heels because they really hurt my feet and after a day of walking around in them, my back really starts to hurt. (I have a pretty poor spine.) And these converses are really comfortable and I have worn them so much that they know the shape of my foot so it feels like a hug. From a shoe. They are quite old now, I think but I got them in Sports Direct for £2.00 or something reduced from £8.99 like that because the store was closing down and there was a sale so they were really cheap. And they have lasted for ages. They are not the real deal but they look like it so who cares? I have had to wear a lot of uncomfortable shoes recently so it is really nice to just wear them again now that I am on holiday. 

GREEN EYELINER  

BLACK KOHL PENCIL

These are my favourite two 'eye' pencils. I use it under my eye rather than over my eye because I personally think it looks a lot nicer, as long as you properly smudge and don't have a really thick line. The green is by Rimmel and the black is by Bourjois Paris and they are both available at Superdrug. I also have not quite mastered the straight line on the eyelid and because I wear big glasses, all mistakes are magnified. So...I'm working on that. 

THIS IS WHAT AWESOME LOOKS LIKE T-shirt 

At the end of every one of my blog posts, I write 'Be Awesome' because Awesome is my favourite word in the English language. I say that because there are words in other languages that I prefer the sound of but anyway...getting away from the point. So, when I saw this shirt in Primark, I thought YES! I don't care how much it is. I have to have that shirt. Also, it is really comfortable to wear in the summer because it is light and quite baggy (although I am a tiny person so maybe that is just me) and it covers your shoulders and neck really well so that you don't get too badly burned. And look at the Snoopy Dog! So cute.  

Anyway, that is it for this post. I really hope you enjoyed it and it made you smile a bit or something :). I think the next post will be a book review. I am going on holiday to Spain on Monday so it won't be for a while but I will probably do two or three when I come back.

Clare 
:)