A is for Aviemore!

Loch Morlich throughout the years (aged 4-23)

I'm really pleased that the first post in my A-Z of me series is such a special one. The letter A has to stand for Aviemore, a village in the Highlands of Scotland which feels like a home from home to me. Until the age of about thirteen, I visited Aviemore with my parents and brother twice, sometimes even three times a year, and there is nowhere else in the world that means as much to me as it does.

Up at the Cairngorms, and at the Wildlife Park (about fifteen years apart!)

From the little village main street to the very top of the Cairngorm mountains, there isn't a place here that doesn't have lovely memories for me. My two favourite places in the entire world are here - the Highland Wildlife Park, and Loch Morlich (both photographed multiple times above). There are literally so many photographs of my brother and me here throughout our entire childhood, and (while I doubt he'd be happy with me uploading any that include him - hoping I can get away with the couple of snaps at Loch Morlich above!)it's so lovely to have my entire life documented in photos from this part of the world. Every year we would go to the Wildlife Park and the Landmark Centre (another amazing park in the forest), go for long walks in the gorgeous woodland and spend hours at a time skimming stones at the lochs. There was even a place called... wait for it... Santa Claus Land! It was, as you can imagine, paradise when we were kids.

Visiting in all seasons!

As you can probably see, we visited in every season, in every type of weather, from the coldest winters and freak spring snow blizzards to hot (by UK standards anyway) summers and beautiful, crisp autumns. Going back in my late teens and then again last autumn made me realise how much I miss being there regularly, and how calm and peaceful I feel standing at the side of the loch, or one of the rivers. I feel so lucky to have this place in my life, and have spent so much time there with my family. Looking back, they were such idyllic holidays and I can honestly say that I can't imagine that trips abroad would have brought me half as much joy as a child as packing up the car twice a year and driving the two hours (which, as kids, felt like an eternity!) north to spend a few days at a time in such a beautiful part of Scotland.

Clockwise - Throwing coins in the Wildlife Park wishing well with my mum (aged 1), at the Wildlife Park (aged 17), sitting by the river (aged 17), and having a walk in the forest (aged 23).

So thanks so much to my mum and dad for choosing such a perfect location for a home from home. I'm sure it won't be too long before we are back there again <3

YouTube Life/Channel Update :)

Hi guys!

I did a little life and channel update over on YouTube and thought I would post it here for any of you who don't follow me over there - I will be doing a blogpost soon on going back to uni but if you're interested, I've made this video in the meantime!

Hope you're all well, thanks for reading/watching :)

Favourites of the Week #17

It's Sunday again and I thought I'd do another weekly favourites!

Track of the Week
Bastille - We Can't Stop (Radio One Live Lounge cover)

I am not exactly what you would call a Miley fan - the less said about that in this post, the better I think. Anyway, when I saw that one of my current favourite bands covered her song ''We Can't Stop'' last week I had to have a listen, and I have had it on repeat ever since. Love the cheeky little reference to her relationship with her dad with the wee bit of Achy Breaky Heart they included!



Album of the Week
Ellie Goulding - Halcyon

I've had this album for ages and it's appeared here before, but I keep finding myself putting it on when I'm in the car, or out with my iPod on. I just love the variety of sounds on it from proper dance anthems to really chilled out tracks.



TV Show of the Week
The Vampire Diaries

I'm currently devouring season four of The Vampire Diaries, and whoever it was who told me this season wasn't as good as the previous ones lied! It's just as good, just as intense and with just as many twists and turns. I just filmed a The Vampire Diaries tag for my YouTube channel, so I'll link the video here once it's uploaded!

Film of the Week
About Time

Emma and I went to see About Time this week and absolutely loved it. We both cried bucketloads, so be sure to take some tissues with you if you're going to see it - I cried into my scarf because I neglected to do so! Richard Curtis has really outdone himself with this one. Bill Nighy and Rachel McAdams are both brilliant as always, and I thought Domhnall Gleeson was fantastic in the lead role. This is a nice, philosophical sort of film and while it's romantic, I wouldn't really say romance is the main theme. It's very much about family, making the most of the time you have with them and living each day to the full - it really gets you thinking!

Beauty Product of the Week
Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer

A product everyone knows about and I have repurchased I don't know how many times, I've been very grateful for my Lasting Perfection Concealer this week since my skin hasn't quite been blemish free - it's a life saver for a bad skin day!

Book of the Week
Snow White Must Die by Nele Neuhaus

I read the back of this book in WHSmith a couple of weeks ago and was instantly intrigued. When I looked it up on my kindle and saw that it was under £3 (I think it was about £2.65) I decided to give it a shot, and I'm glad I did. I'm not too far through it yet but it's really good so far, quietly building suspense and giving us access to quite a few characters.

YouTuber of the Week
Nikki Phillippi

I really like Nikki's themed months on her YouTube channel, and think her Change it up Spetember theme is a great idea. It's really easy to get stuck in a rut, and deliberately challenging yourself to try new things or make a change in your life whether it's as big as moving house or going back to univerity - the latter of which I am on doing Thursday, ahhhh! - or as small as changing your regular lipstick colour, making changes can make a big difference to your life.

Website of the Week
Itison

I get daily emails from Itison but rarely bother to spend any time checking out the deals - this week however, I've found a couple of amazing offers and will definitely make the time to read these emails more thoroughly in future!

Style Icon of the Week
Dianna Agron

source

Okay, so I'm cheating a wee bit here, but this shoot actress Dianna Agron did for US Beauty website Byrdie is so stunning I couldn't ignore it. This is more of a makeup icon than style, but I love the colours used in this shoot so much that I'm letting that slide. Check out the full shoot here at http://www.byrdie.com/the-dark-side-of-dianna-agron/

What have some of your favourite things been this week? Let me know in the comments! :)

Thanks for reading!

New Series - The A-Z of Me!

Casually posing with my Chinese Zodiac Sign statue in Hong Kong...

Over the past year or so a couple of my favourite bloggers (including the lovely Kirsty from Indigo Buttons) have done a series of posts along the lines of the ''The A-Z of Me''. I've always really enjoyed these posts and have often thought of doing the series myself... so no more thinking about it, I'm biting the bullet and going for it!

I'm going to aim to put up a new letter every Wednesday, starting next week! I've already got my first post planned, I just need to get a few old photos scanned in, I'm quite excited about it!

Hope you enjoy this new series, and hope you're all well! Is an A-Z series something you have done, or would like to do? Let me know in the comments!

Vita Liberata Event - September 2013

On the third of September I headed along to one of the loveliest events I have attended in quite a while! Luxury tanning brand Vita Liberata invited some of us Scottish bloggers to an evening at the Scotsman Hotel Spa in Edinburgh, to talk a bit about their ever expanding range of products, and even give some of us a spray tan!

Despite having been around for ten years, I only started hearing about Vita Liberata last year, round about the time of the X-Factor. With celebrity fans including Kelly Brook (who has her own kit within the range), Laura Whitmore, Khloe Kardashian and Alexandra Burke, the range has really taken off over the past twelve months. With an organic, odourless formula (no more of that unwanted biscuit smell!), the Vita Liberata range has grown to include some really love skin illumintors as well as the tans themselves. When the brand hit the stands in European Sephora stores, it became their number one tanning product in just a few weeks.

The event itself lasted about three hours, and was a great opportunity to catch up with fellow bloggers and learn more about the brand. We enjoyed some prosecco and lounged around in the comfort of the relaxation room in the spa - the perfect location! Kirstie and Iona even got a tan on the night! Jade and I were tempted, but there wasn't time on the night - we are, however, very tempted to go back and get one some other time!

Photo from the Vita Liberata facebook page!

Also on offer on the night were the Vita Liberata tantoos, which were a huge hit at this year's V Festival. It's a pretty straightforward, but effective concept - a stencil filled in with their tan, with a glitter finish. Jade decided to give it a go!

We were sent home with a lovely goodie bag which included three of the brand's products for us to test out! We took home the pHenomenal 2-3 Week Tan in Medium, the Deep Face Untinted Self Tan Gel in Light and Capture the Light Illuminating Skin Finish (mine in in Gold).

What Vita Liberata say:

''pHenomenal is the World’s first 2-3 week* tan. Using a special combination of natural, nourishing extracts and the unique pHenO2 technology, this tan will last up to 4 times longer than your normal tan.''

''Deep for Face is a superb untinted moisturiser that develops a natural sunkissed tan within 4 – 8 hours. Can be used in place of your normal moisturiser. It is the perfect partner for all of our untinted body tans.''

''The Capture the Light Collection comprises illuminating skin finishers with Opaque or Translucent coverage which can be used as stand-alone skin perfectors, or alongside the Vita Liberata tanning range to accentuate a natural bronze tan.
Capture the Light Opaque illuminating skin finishers are considered by beauty experts to be “better than a BB Cream for the Body”. Translucent illuminating skin finishers offer exceptional iridescence without the coverage.''

I have to say, I can't wait to try out some of these products now! I've always been a bit scared of fake tanning after a disastrous attempt in my teens, but I think this range might manage to get me past that! Thank you so much to everyone at Vita Liberata and the Scotsman Spa for your hospitality - we had such a lovely evening!

If you're intrigued to find out more about this range, check out their website at http://www.vitaliberata.co.uk.

Back to School Wishlist

So, it's that time of year again - the students are all heading back (or have already gone back) to school/college/uni after the summer break. I thought it was an apt time to do a little wishlisting...

Okay, I know I'm 24, but I'm still allowed to love this little fox rucksack, right? I'm fighting the urge to go and look at this in the shop... (£32.00 - Accessorize)

Also from Accessorize, I love this pheasant feather print scarf (£22.00 - Accessorize). I have to admit, I love being able to start wearing my scarves again when the weather starts to turn autumnal (as it has been for the past few days here in Scotland!).

I'm also quite fond of a printed rain jacket, and I particularly like this little number I found in the New Look online sale... (£12.00 - New Look)

I've always wanted one of these Dodo Acad-Pad Diaries (£11.00 - Waterstones). One of my friends in first year had one and I thought it was brilliant. I do love my cute notebooks and diaries.

Who could resist a USB memory stick in the shape of a wee frog? Just look at my blog header and you'll know that I certainly can't! (£9.59 - YooUSB)

And finally, I was forever highlighting passages in my readings and lecture notes at uni, and these little panda highlighters (£3.00 - Paperchase) are too cute. And they're mini too so they won't take up too much room in your bag... yeah. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it ;)

And, in other university related news *drumroll please*... a certain someone might be heading back to uni in the very near future. As in next week soon. Nothing is set in stone just yet, but I will certainly keep you posted!

Hope you enjoyed that little wishlist! What are some of your back to school/uni must haves?! Let me know in the comments below!

Thanks for reading!

Pinterest Places...

Once again, I found myself caught up browsing Pinterest - this time, looking at ''beautiful places'' (if you fancy searching the same term!). A few images in particular caught my eye, and what better place to share them than here on my blog :)

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There really are some stunning places in the world!! :)

Hope you liked this random little post - leave me links to any of your favourite pinterest boards in the comments below!