I've Been Watching... #2

It's time for another update on what I've been watching recently! Netflix is a wonderful, wonderful thing...

First, let's talk about Fargo. It started on channel 4 a few weeks ago now (we're now 7 episodes in) and it is phenomenally good. Insane, but phenomenal. I usually don't have the patience to watch a TV show as it airs - I am useless, and hate waiting a week between episodes - but I've been managing to keep up with Fargo pretty well. I've never actually seen the original Coen brothers' film, but having heard such good things about it, and being a massive Martin Freeman fan I was intrigued to see what the TV show would be like. The cast is absolutely outstanding - Freeman and Billy Bob Thornton are both superb, as are Allison Tolman and Colin Hanks. My mum mentioned to me that this is the first major role Tolman has landed, which is hard to believe because she is absolutely excellent. Thus far, the show has focused on the unravelling of Lester Nygaard's (Freeman) life following an encounter with a stranger going by the name of Lorne Malvo (Thornton), and the attempts of Deputy Molly Solverson (Tolman) and officer Gus Grimly (Hanks) to solve a series of crimes they believe Malvo is connected to (it is so difficult to summarise what has happened so far without giving anything away!!).

You can catch the show on Sunday night (9pm) on channel 4, or catch up on 4OD (but I'm pretty sure by now the first two or three episodes will be unavailable), otherwise I've been informed by a friend that it is showing on Norwegian Netflix!


Next up we have season one of MTV's teen dramedy Awkward. I watched this entire series over the course of my one month free trial of Amazon Prime Instant Video. I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about this show, but as a lover of all teen television I was willing to give it a shot, and I'm really glad I did. Is it a little bit predictable? Yes. However, there are some genuinely interesting and well developed characters here that kept my attention through the whole series. It is funny without being too over the top, and explores high school in what feels like a pretty up front way. This isn't your Gossip Girl-esque Upper East Side party zone (which, incidentally, I thoroughly enjoy too), nor is it the opposite extreme which usually depicts teens in pretty dire situations. The only issue for me was main character Jenna's parents - believability sort of went out the window there, and it felt like a sort of awkward (pardon the pun) stereotype of "young parents". That aside, I couldn't wait to get stuck into season two, but to my horror it wasn't available. I'm sure I'll catch it somewhere eventually though!


I FINALLY started watching The Office (the US version) a couple of months back - just when I had lots of uni work to do, of course! It really is as good as everyone told me it was. I am, unsurprisingly, full on obsessed with Jim and Pam. John Krasinski is now, pretty much, my ideal man! I've been a fan of Steve Carell for ages, and he is just brilliant as Michael Scott, he is guaranteed to make me laugh in every single episode. I'm halfway through season four at the moment, so I still have lots to watch, and that pleases me - I love having something familiar to tune in to.


And last but not least for this little update, we have a typically cheesy, rom-com style film called Stuck in Love. As a fan of the majority of the cast of this little movie, I had almost bought it in Asda for £5 a couple of months back, but in an attempt to save some pennies I put it back! This was a wise move, as it appeared on Netflix a couple of weeks later. Starring Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Connelly, Lily Collins, Logan Lerman, Kristen Bell and Nat Wolff, for a rom-com there are a couple of darker storylines running through the usual romantic stuff here. Much like Awkward, is it a little predictable? Yes, but I genuinely really enjoyed this film, so much so that I got home from a night out the day after I watched it, and put it on again. Any scenes between Lily Collins and Logan Lerman were fantastic - I'm pretty sure I tweeted that they were metaphorically making my heart swell they were so cute, and that's always a hit with me. Is it life changing? Probably not. But I'd definitely say it's worth a watch if rom-coms are your thing!

This is not an exhaustive list of what I've watched over the past couple of months, but just a few words on some things I've been really enjoying! Hope you enjoyed this, and let me know what your favourite films/tv shows of the moment are!

Thanks for reading!

30 Day Snap #3

Cheeky little instagram number today - I spent most of the day on the train, but was in London with my mum and took this wee snap at Liverpool Street Station. I've been on the go since quarter to six this morning and I'm absolutely shattered, so I'm now off to watch a bit of something on netflix and fall asleep! Hope you've had a good day!

Thanks for reading!

30 Day Snap #2

Today's post is pretty self-explanatory! I had my dissertation induction today - turns out writing a Masters dissertation is even more intense than I had thought! As the photo itself is somewhat uninteresting, I popped a little filter over it to fancy it up a bit ;) In addition to the induction, I found out who my advisor is and the ball is well and truly rolling! This felt like a really productive day, and I caught up with my uni pals, some of whom I hadn't seen over the past three weeks or so, so that was lovely.

Hope you all had a lovely day :)

Thanks for reading!

30 Day Snap #1

Today was a typically lazy Sunday, and I actually didn't even leave the house. I had been out for dinner and drinks the past couple of nights as a sort of ''I've passed all my assessments" celebration, so today I just caught up on some blogging and social media stuff, and did a bit of pampering. Today's photo is a wee snap of the skincare stuff that I just used - Shu Uemura cleanser, Granny Sally's Soap Kitchen Toner, Lush Mask of Magnaminty mask, Hydraluron and Origins Drink Up Intensive Overnight Mask. My skin's feeling better already!

Hope you all enjoyed the first day of June, and check in tomorrow to see what day two of the 30 Day Snap will bring!

Thanks for reading!

My New Phone Case!

Afternoon all :) A few weeks ago I was contacted by the lovely folks at Mr Nutcase to tell me a little bit about their range of cute, personalised phone-cases. As someone who constantly drops their phone, yet has managed to leave my iPhone uncovered since I got it back in December, I was instantly intrigued and popped over to the site to take a look! Cut to a few days later and I was proudly clicking my phone into this snazzy new case!*

You have the option to personalise the case with your own photos (like I did!), which can be arranged in a variety of collages, or choose from one of their original designs. There is a wide choice of themes in the collection, from abstract and floral, to street art and vintage! There are also a variety of styles of case, from a slimline cover to an executive flip leather style case - these range in price, but the flip case I went with is currently priced at £19.95. For the quality of the product and the images (and the mere fact it is protecting what is probably a super-expensive phone!), I reckon that is a pretty good deal. The cases are also available for a huge number of handsets - this isn't an iPhone only affair!

I got stuck in and uploaded eight photos, ranging from drinks with friends to some of my favourite places in the world. What do you think? I was really thrilled with how it turned out!

The guys at Mr Nutcase also gave me a little discount code to give out to you lovely lot :) If you fancy purchasing a case of your own, you can get 10% off by using the discount code - Thanku10

Thank you so much for reading!


*I was very kindly gifted this lovely phone-case for review purposes, but all opinions are my own.

30 Day Snap 2014

As some of you might recall, last June I took part in Sprinkle of Glitter's 30 Day Snap challenge - to upload one photo on the old blog every day for a whole month! I cannot believe that that was a year ago - time seriously flies! So much has happened since then, and yet it feels like just a couple of months ago that I set out to take on this wee challenge.

Final collage from my last 30 Day Snap

When I realised June was approaching I decided I would do it again! I've been getting so much better at remembering to use instagram lately (@lynseymac1 on there if you want to check it out!) and I'm loving documenting all the little things that brighten up my day - so, as of today, let the challenge commence! I'll be uploading my posts in the evening, y'know, to give myself the opportunity to have something really exciting happen. Don't want to rush in and post a photo of my lunchtime cup of tea as a highlight when I might bump into a handsome celebrity later that day and be whisked off for dinner (that could happen...)

Thanks so much for reading, and let me know if you decide to take on this challenge too!

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!