Being Happy

There are rare moments in life when you notice how completely and utterly happy you are. I think we live life at such a pace these days that we don't really bother to notice the truly good things in our lives, because we're just going through the motions. We're so much more likely to talk to someone about the bad things (which makes sense - venting is healthy), rather than take time out to appreciate good moments.

I don't think I ever mentioned this in my Australia vlogs or blog posts, but I decided to dedicate an entire post to it, because I think it might be one of the most significant moments of my life (dramatic, yes?!). I read the above quote recently, which really got me thinking about how important it is to embrace the good. I've heard so much sad news lately, both in my own little bubble of life and in the news, that this quote totally struck a chord.

The night I flew from Cairns to Melbourne came after a bit of a blur of a day. I'd got packed up and organised in the morning and Lynsey and her boyfriend had driven me from Port Douglas down to Cairns airport. The week had been amazing - catching up with one of your closest friends in what is essentially paradise is a pretty big deal. The drive was over an hour and then I had a bit of a wait at the airport, but finally I was on the plane. My flight was only three hours and I settled down to read my book and relax.

As the plane started to descend into Melbourne Tullamarine airport, the sun was streaming in through my window and I got hit with this huge wave of total contentment. It was the most bizarre thing, and it feels weird even typing this, but it's true. I was, for the first time, heading to a city to explore on my own for a few days, at the opposite side of the world from my loved ones, and part of me was completely terrified. I felt completely and utterly in the moment, which I think we rarely actually manage to achieve - we are (or I certainly am) always so fixated on the future, whether it's the immediate future of "am I organised for work/uni/school/my errands tomorrow", or the distant future of "ahh what if I never get a good job/fall in love/have a family/have money to buy a house etc etc". I actually noticed how happy and excited I was, and how proud I was of myself for jumping in and doing something that frightened me, and the thrill of being able to go home and tell all of my friends and family all about it. It's a moment I revisit in my head on a fairly regular basis because it stuck with me.

These moments don't come along all that often - those really significant ones. But happy moments with friends and family or doing the things you love do, if you make time for them. So my plan, from here on out, is to do just that. To stop panicking that I spent a fortune over the weekend and focus on what a brilliant time I had. Or notice the ridiculous laughs I have with my friends over private jokes and reminiscing about the past. Just pushing myself to be aware of the happy moments in every day, because they're there. No matter how rubbish things around you might seem, there are always little moments of hope and joy to be found in the things and the people you love.

Soppy nonsense over for now.

Thank you for reading! And if you're as obsessed with quotes as I am, pop over and check out my Quotes for 2014 Pinterest board - I'm updating it every day at the moment!

Radio One Big Weekend!

Last Monday I had just finished with a meeting sorting out some things for the GCU Fashion Show, and was having a quick stroll round the shops when a text arrived from my pal Gill. She asked what I was doing on Saturday and Sunday, and since I knew she was headed to Radio One Big Weekend I'd be lying if I said I didn't instantly get overexcited. A text or two later and I was set to see some of my favourite people in the world perform in Glasgow in just a few days time!!

The entire weekend was just amazing! We got there bright and early on the Saturday (well, at 12 when the gates opened!), having enjoyed a cheeky little Starbucks and planned out who we wanted to see.

Opening the day on the main stage was One Direction. If I learnt anything this weekend, it's that I know the words to far more One Direction songs than I realised...

Up next was the band I was probably most excited about seeing - my beloved Bastille. The guys were absolutely fantastic, and they really got the crowd going over the course of their set. They finished up with Pompeii of course, but Flaws and Of the Night went down a storm too. Sidenote: marry me Dan.

Next we headed off to the Introducing stage to hear a band Gill recently discovered called Saint Raymond. They were brilliant, and I predict big things (Radio One should probably hire me...)

An obligatory pit stop for chips was then on the cards and we sat on the grass and listened to Lily Allen, awaiting my next favourite person - Ed Sheeran. I've always wanted to see him live; the fact that it's just him, his guitar and a loop pedal up there on the stage just blows my mind. All the other acts have so much going on with their bands, and he just stands there on his own and kills it.

After Ed the weather took a turn for the worse and the rain came on. Calvin Harris started his set and I'm not sure if it was a combination of the rain and the fact that so many of his fans were past the point of tipsy and flailing around us by that point, but we gave up about twenty five minutes in. We headed to the tent to see Example, and I was actually pretty impressed. Neither of these guys are people I've been all that interested in seeing before, but for me, Example was a million times better!

By this point it was quarter to 10 and poor Gill just wanted to go home - someone, however, was determined to see at least a couple of Coldplay songs before running for the train, so she waited with me, like a trooper! It was almost as if Chris Martin himself knew that we needed to leave to make our trains home, and they played Yellow fourth in the set - that was me a happy girl, and we went home for a much needed sleep!

Sunday morning arrived, and with it came a torrential downpour! We had planned to see Chvrches at 1pm, but there was no-one else we were too bothered about seeing until after 5. When we got stuck in a huge queue at the gate and missed half of Chvrches set, we abandoned that plan and headed to the pub for a drink and some lunch, escaping the crazy weather!

We arrived back at around 5 in time for me to see another current favourite, The 1975. They kept two of their biggest tracks Chocolate and Sex till last, and everyone went crazy for them.

We popped into the tent again at this point to catch You Me at Six - I was a fan when I was about nineteen, but in all honesty I haven't listened to any of their stuff since then! They were great though, and the lighting on their set was incredible.

Back to the main stage we went then to wait for Paolo Nutini, who was absolutely amazing! Obviously the Glasgow connection made him a hugely popular act, and while I don't know much of his new stuff yet, I've definitely been convinced to get the album after his performance. He looked and sounded fantastic!

And finally, after two brilliant days, I got to see Katy Perry live. Having not got tickets for her Glasgow tour dates and then regretting it, this made up for it a little bit. She was phenomenal! Costume changes and set changes galore in her hour long slot, and an amazing set list - everything from I Kissed a Girl right through to Dark Horse and Roar, finished up with Firework. And some amazing fireworks to go along side. She was just amazing and I think I might love her even more now than I already did!

So that concludes my Big Weekend!! If any of you were there I'd love to hear who some of your highlights were :)

Thanks so much for reading (and thanks again to Gill for taking me with you!!) <3

That Night I Went To See McBusted (Glasgow 16/05/14)

In a recent post I talked through my teenage playlist. That covered my entire teens, from the start of high school to (let's face it) bands I still listen to now at the age of 24 (soon to be 25, eeeeeeek)!

Two hugely important bands from my early teens, however, were Busted and McFly. I was pretty much in love with Charlie (who Emma fully blames for the demise of Busted), and Harry, and the CDs were on repeat in my house for I have no idea how long. I went to see Busted in concert twice, possibly three times now that I think about it, and one of the times McFly was the support act!

You can imagine my excitement then when I heard that the bands were pairing up for a UK wide tour as McBusted! The moment tickets went on sale I phoned Emma and we agreed that it was a no brainer - we were going. I was pleased as punch when I then got a message from some my lovely blogger girls saying they were buying tickets too.

It feels like so long ago that I booked those tickets, and suddenly, last week, the day had arrived! It turned into a really lovely day overall - the beautiful new Lush store on Buchanan Street was having a launch that evening, so we wandered along to that to mingle and check out the lovely products.

After that, we popped into Princes Square to have dinner in the NY American Grill, which just opened up a couple of weeks ago. Our food did take quite a while to arrive, but when it did it was lovely. I went for the Big Cheese cheeseburger, which came with some really good fries, and a Carolina Candy cocktail, which comes with a side of candyfloss - super sweet, but lovely.

And, on to the main event - the gig itself.

I can honestly say I can't remember having that much fun in ages. To anyone who ever gets the chance to see their teenage obsession in concert as an adult, I urge you to do it. I danced and sang and generally just had a ball. It's amazing the feeling you get when all those songs you had on repeat in the past start coming back to you!

The boys put their all into the show and it was amazing - such high energy and you could tell they were just having the best time. Harry looked spectacularly lovely, of course, and much to the delight of the majority of the audience (okay, me) he lost his shirt somewhere towards the end of the show and didn't bother putting it back on. Bonus ;)

I got quite instagram happy over the course of the night!

I thought I'd post a few of my favourite ever Busted and McFly songs here as a mini playlist and tribute to the concert. It was brilliant and I'd go back again in a heartbeat.

Busted

What I Go to School For
You Said No
When the Day Turns Into Night
Without You
Thunderbirds
Crashed the Wedding
Meet You There

McFly

The Heart Never Lies
Room on the Third Floor
Shine a Light
Obviously
Five Colours in her Hair
Saturday Night


Thanks for reading! Let me know if you've had the chance to see any of your favourite bands lately :)

Event: Boots, Fort Kinnaird, Edinburgh

This week Kirsty, Jade and I popped along to an event at the Boots store at Fort Kinnaird in Edinburgh. As a Glasgow gal this was a store I had never visited before, and I was excited to finally be heading along to a blogging event after two months of having to say no to the odd invite that came my way! It was smashing to catch up with the girls, who I hadn't seen in weeks, and who doesn't love a wee evening of beauty-centric chat?!

We were greeted at the door by the lovely Carolyn, who introduced us to some of the staff from their wide range of beauty counters. With everything from Ojon and Bumble and Bumble hair care (who treated us to an amazing head massage courtesy of Sarah!) to Bare Minerals and everything in between, we spent a really nice couple of hours perusing the counters and chatting with the friendly staff. Kirsty even had her makeup done at the Bare Minerals counter, and we talked new product launches and must have makeup items at Benefit.

All in all it was a really lovely evening, and if you live in the Edinburgh area and are looking to pick up some new makeup I would definitely recommend popping in to this branch of Boots - it's a lovely, spacious store with a wide range of high end counters, in addition to all of the usual brands Boots carries (Revlon, 17, Bourjois etc). The staff aim to cater their service to each individual customer's needs, whether you're in a mad rush to grab something and go, or if you've got some time to spare and fancy a chat.

I took lots of photos on the night and they're all so colourful I decided to include most of them. At the bottom, however, is a sneak peek in the AMAZING goodie bag we left with that night. The girls and I felt so spoilt, so thank you so much to everyone at Boots for that!

All the info on Fort Kinnaird Boots can be found here!

Thanks for reading!

Summer Wish List 2014 #1

Happy Wednesday everyone - it is now a full week since I finished my last exam and I am feeling good!

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day and it almost felt like summer! It inspired me to do a bit of online window shopping and pick out a few of my favourite items from the high street this summer. Sadly I'm not booked to go off on some tropical holiday and drink cocktails on the beach for a week *cries* but fingers crossed we'll get some nice weather here and I can wander round Glasgow in that summery parrot print skater dress... we'll see.

Kelly Brook Navy Heart Print Bikini - New Look - Top £16.99 and Bottom £10.99

Yellow Embellished Playsuit - River Island - £25.00

Blue Mottled Denim Hotpants - New Look - £19.99

Satchel Bag With Scallop Flap And Slot Through Straps - ASOS - £25.00

Fairy Leather Sandals - ASOS - £18.00

Plastic Disc Necklace - Topshop - £14.50

Floral Print Shorts - H&M - £5.99

Red Crochet Hem Cami - New Look - £12.99

Blue Parrot Print Skater Dress - New Look - £14.99


What are some of your summer 2014 must haves?!

Thanks for reading!

Back to the Blog

Well hello there blog land!

It has been a very, very long time since I last posted, and that makes me so sad. I love having this little space to ramble away on, but the past two months of my life have been hectic to say the least! I had practically moved into the library at uni there for a while, spending every waking hour working on my assessments. However, as of four days ago I have free time in my life once again! Its bizarre and amazing.

In order to get back into the blogging swing of things, I decided the easiest sort of post to do would be a life update courtesy of instagram.

So, from left to right, and top to bottom, here is what I've been doing lately (a very condensed version, of course)...

1. I discovered an app that let me change my hair colour back in April. And so commenced hours of fun imagining my life with turquoise or raspberry hair. I will admit I also used this app to see what I'd look like with blue eyes (so, so strange).

2. I FINALLY went to Bread Meats Bread after months of longing, and it was just as good as I'd hoped. My friend Aimie and I popped in after a long day of studying and enjoyed some amazing burgers and wine, and all for really reasonable prices. Will definitely be taking a trip back there soon!

3. One of my best friends Lynsey came home for a visit from Autralia! Unluckily her three week trip fell right in the midst of my hectic assessment period, but we still got to catch up multiple times, and one night headed to the Hillhead Book Club in the West End of Glasgow for some dinner and a good old fashioned gossip. It was lovely, and Emma and I are so gutted she has already headed back to Aus!

4. I think this one is pretty self-explanatory - I bought a t-shirt with a cat wearing a jumper and glasses on it. I love it a bit too much. (I checked the New Look website and sadly it doesn't appear to be available any more!).

5. Easter came and went in a bit of a blur as most of that weekend was spent huddled over a computer in the library, but tea and chocolate were always there to help me through <3

6. One night I got home from an extraordinarily long day of report writing and just felt completely and utterly rubbish - you know those days when you just feel so drained (#firstworldproblems if ever I heard it). Anyway, I did what I quite often do to cheer myself up - I threw a whole lot of makeup at my face and, despite the fact it was 10pm and I was in my pyjamas, I really loved the way it turned out. So, while I don't often indulge in a selfy, I did on this occasion. I will admit I actually really like this picture, but will also admit that it looks pretty much nothing like me (the magic of a photo filter eh?).

7. Lynsey had her leaving night for heading back to Australia last week and I headed to Boots to pick up some new foundation and a new eyeliner, and of course, Boots had their 3 for 2 still on. I grabbed this super bright yellow nail polish from the Bourjois 1 Seconde range (I absolutely LOVE these nail polishes), and I think this colour is amazing for spring/summer time!

8. Tuesday evening was an exciting time - it was just one day till my last hand in and last exam. So of course, I instagrammed my notes. Who wouldn't.

9. And that brings us to today - I filmed my first video in about three months and I'm currently uploading it! It's just a rambly, chatty life update, but I'm so happy to have time to film and blog again!


So that's it for now! I hope you are all doing really well - leave me a wee comment if you like letting me know what you've been up to lately, or if you've been working like crazy at uni/school/college/work let me know how that's going!

Thanks so much for reading!