Congratulations to me

Yes the blog title is a little big headed, but its not everyday that you gain a 2:1 degree, and yesterday was that day. Although I haven’t actually had my graduation, knowing what I am going to be graduating with is such a great feeling. I had been waiting for the result of my dissertation for about two weeks; the last result I needed, and received it yesterday, so was able to figure out my degree class. I had hoped that I would receive a first in my dissertation, and I was so close, but it wasn’t to be. But like everyone keeps saying a 2:1 is still an acceptable mark to gain. 

When I finished work today I came home to a Pandora bag from my Mum and her partner, and every girl gets excited when you see a Pandora bag! I opened the parcel and was over the moon to receive this gorgeous charm for my bracelet. I love the little mortar board and think its the perfect present for my graduation, and great addition to my bracelet. I am getting more and more excited for my Graduation ceremony with each day. I have my dress, but still need to get some shoes and figure out my accessories, but I think the dress is the biggest task, so atleast I have that sorted.

From my previous post you will know that I started my new job yesterday, and although I’ve only finished my second day, I am really enjoying it, I have loads and loads to do, and it’s going to be a big challenge, but I ready to tackle it head on. Although I never realised how tiring working 9 to 5 can be, I come home very tired and ready for my bed! 

I hope my followers who have received their results gained the grade they wanted, let me know!

A Day in the rain| OOTD

Playsuit- NewLook

Cardigan- H&M

Belt-H&M

I’ve had a very busy weekend of moving my belongings back to the nest. Yes I have moved back in with my mum, as I start my new job on Monday, which is conveniently located 3 miles away. Thankfully I’m a lucky girl and my lovely mum had completely cleaned out my brothers old room and had reorganised and redecorated for my arrival. So what was once a smelly pit inhabited by a teenage boy, is now my cute and cosy bedroom. 

Since I now live at my mothers, I am now located in the country and the beautiful Lake District, I’m about 5 miles away from Lake Windermere. So seems its my first of many lazy weekends with my boy we decided to go for lunch at Bowness-on-Windermere. Little did we know it would be completely chucking it down! Thankfully I was wearing my boots, so didn’t get too wet. The boyfriend however decided a hoodie and canvas pumps were suitable attire; so he did get wet.

We went to a little country pub, and had ice-cream at the lakeside for dessert, as its tradition in our family to get English Lakes Ice-cream whenever we are at Bowness-on-Windermere, come rain or shine! Due to all the rain the Lake was looking very full and there is a lot of flooding in Cumbria, thankfully I live on a hill so won’t be affected.

I chose a playsuit to wear as know it goes well with my boots. I bought it from NewLook to be worn on sunnier days as it is backless, but I have been wearing it with a vest underneath and a cardigan over the top seems the weather hasn’t been the best.

I have also received a lot of new followers recently, so hi to you all; old and new. I hope everyone has a lovely weekend despite the rain. I plan on spending the rest of it relaxing and blogging.

Fitness Fridays| Fitspiration not Thinspiration

Just a quick Fitness Friday post for you girls; motivation for both you and I. I am a big advocator of being fit not thin, and much prefer to see girls aiming for health not starvation, hence the  name of my blog.

I use images such as those above to keep my motivation up. Pictures of girls working out, healthy fruit and salads, and motivational sayings really help, especially on days such as today when the last thing you want to do is go out for a run, or go to gym; much rather snuggle up on the couch with a cup of tea.

One of the most inspirational sayings for me is; ‘Forget about getting skinny, Eat well and exercise, and the weight will take care of itself.’ This couldn’t be anymore true. Far too often we worry about losing weight quickly and seeing results immediately, when this is not where our focus should be. Its about making small healthier choices everyday, and over time our results will come.

Always make atleast one healthy choice a day, don’t let a bad start determine a bad finish to the day. Today my choices are to walk my dog for 45 minutes twice today (despite the rain) and to have a healthy salad for my dinner.

What are your healthy choices today? Are you going to work out? Or have a healthy lunch and dinner? Or resist that afternoon treat of a drink or cake? Let me know!

*Images are not my own and are taken from tumblr.

Fashion over Food| Haul

I’ve actually had this post lined up for a while, as these are the clothes which I purchased for my holiday, so I bought them about three weeks ago. I literally got paid and then went straight into Newcastle city centre and spend half of my wage in about two hours…whoops! It felt amazing at the time… huge feeling of retail theropy, but within the next few days after bills started to come in I did regret it a little bit. But like I said to my boyfriend, I can’t go on holiday naked…I needed new clothes!

As I went on holiday to Finland and Lapland, I found shopping for holiday clothes more difficult than usual, and a little bit more boring, as some of the clothes were for activities such a hiking and rafting, not pretty bikinis for posing by the pool.. my normal holiday attire.

The three tank tops, hoodie and shorts that I bought were worn for hiking, so they were more practical buys than fashionable, but I still wanted to look a little bit cute. The bras were completely necessary! I swear these Wonderbras are the best bra you will ever buy. They are strapless but completely supportive, comfortable and give an amazing cleavage.

The more interesting buys were the denim dress, which is from H&M, it cost me about £20, so was cheap and can be worn with anything, dressed up and down. The pink dress was from River Island and was £25, it is quite low cut so I kept it for nights out in Helsinki, as its a bit more dressy, but you could dress it down with a cardigan and flats. The striped dress was from H&M again and is great for just throwing on with a cardigan, very comfortable and easy to style. Finally the white shirt was from Primark and was about £10, I actually wore it as a cardigan over the top of casual dresses, which made the outfit look more dressed up.

Overall I am impressed with the Spring and Summer collections in store at the moment. I was especially surprised at Primark, as normally I walk out of there empty handed.

Which stores are you loving at the moment? Have you bought you holiday clothes yet?

Sexy sandals from Stylist Pick

Hello ladies, I am back from my travels, and straight back to blogging. I had the most amazing time while I was away, and did so many wonderful things, but I will dedicated a post to my trip later. I firstly want to share with you my sexy new sandals from Stylist Pick. As followers of my blog will know I love Stylist Pick! Not only their products but the service they deliver, it is truly top notch, and I am all about high quality customer service.

Stylist Pick is a monthly subscription service of £39.95 (if I remember correctly), for which you receive a new pair of shoes of your choice each month. No girl can complain about getting new shoes each month! I ordered two pairs this month, as I didn’t buy any last month. I ordered them on the 1st of the month and they came right after the bank holiday… super quick!

I decided on a pair of wedges, as I currently don’t own a pair, and know they are a style staple every summer, so decided on a silver colour so I could wear them with pretty much anything. I haven’t worn them out the house yet, but from wandering around my house they are comfortable so far.

The flats I fell in love with. I love sandals and adore the bright colour jewels on the front of these, I think it makes them really stand out and makes them something special. These I took on my travels, and wore them a lot! They go with many different outfits due to the colour range on the sandal, and are comfortable. I admit you can’t trek for miles in them, but for lazy wanders around cities and the beach they are perfect.

I am going to spend the rest of my day packing up my house ready to move home, and catching up on blogs.

Which pair are your favourite? Have any of you bought anything from Stylist Pick? What do you think of these subscription services?

Montagne Jeunesse| The summer sun in my bathroom

As like many other bloggers out there I was contacted by Montagne Jeunesse and asked whether I would be interested in reviewing some of their new products, and like others I jumped at the chance. I have previously posted many times about older Montagne Jeunesse products as I am a loyal customer to the brand and have grown up using their many face-masks; admiring their dedication to natural products and their friendliness to animals,  however as always this review is not biased and my honest opinion.

On to the product. I received the Travel Pamper Pack which contains 5 different products in 6 separate sachets, in a handy little pack. Montagne Jeaunesse describe the product as follows;

‘Treat yourself on the go naturally! Whether you’re jetting off for a weekend city break, a hen night abroad or a last minute get away, this is the ultimate little pampering luxury that fits cosily in your hand luggage. An infusion of natural goodies, packed full of the most invigorating and refreshing ingredients for a perfect top to toe pamper treat.’

I chose to dedicate a night to relaxing and trying each of the products, and my review of each follows.

Passion Peel Off Masque- I loved the smell of this product, it was very fruity and delicious. I am not the biggest fan of peel off masks as I don’t feel them working on my skin unlike mud masks, however when applying this product I could feel it tingling which pleased me. I did find it very thick when applying and it did take a while to dry. An ok product but not my cup of tea.

Skin Smoother- This product can be used on face and body, I chose to use it mainly on my face, but also my elbows and knees, and I was thoroughly impressed. I love St Ives Apricot scrub and have never found a product that competes with this, until now. This scrub was amazing! The little beads of apricot were tough but did not aggrivate my skin, just got right into the little nooks around my nose etc. When washed off, my blackheads were a lot smoother and reduced in appearance, and my skin was as soft as a babies bum. I will definitely be buying this product again.

Body Wash- Wow this was like the summer in my shower. The orangey smell was divine, very strong, so if you don’t like citrus smells then this is not for you. The shower gel sachet would do at least two washes, as there is plenty of product, and it lathered up incredibly well. I did enjoy this product and see it as a good treat.

Foot Cooler- This was a strange little product. It claimed to clean and refresh tired feet by rubbing the gel into your feet and leaving it the change into a powder. The product did exactly as it described; my feet have never felt so refreshed, so much so they tingled for about 10 minutes afterwards. I would thoroughly enjoy this product while on holiday as it left me feeling really refreshed, however in cooler weather it made them feel cold. 

Intensive Spa Hair Masque- I’m not the biggest user of hair masks, as my hair is in pretty good condition so find that they don’t actually leave my hair in any better condition than if I use a conditioner. What I enjoyed from this product was the smell, yet again it was like summer.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed my pamper pack! It made me feel very summery as all the product smelt amazing. I think the whole concept is great. As it mentions if you are going away for the weekend it has everything you need instead of taking a whole cosmetic bag, and for girls like me who need all the space you can get for shoes and clothes this product is perfect.

You can find out more details about the product and purchase it from here.

A walk in the park| OOTD

Dress- Asda

Cardigan- Tesco

Belt- H&M

Shoes- Primark

Bag-Zara

Long time no see! I have had a busy few weeks trying to organise my life. As many of you know who follow my Twitter (Follow Here) I have landed myself my first grown up, real, career starting job, no more waiting tables for me! I am becoming a marketing assistant but have the responsibility of setting up an in-house marketing department with the help of the director and manager of the company, along with the creation and implementation of the marketing strategies; big responsibility, but I’ve got many ideas and can’t wait to get started. I am obviously over the moon, however it is located back home in the Lake District, so I am having to move away from my boyfriend and the life I have built in Newcastle and back in with my Mum in rural Cumbria; its going to be a big change. I am also off travelling Finland and Lapland next week, so am trying to squeeze everything in my backpack for then, which is always a struggle as I am not a girl who packs lightly.

Amongst all this excitement I have had the chance to spend some quality time with my boy. One of the evenings being the one featured in this post. We decided to go for dinner at an Italian in Jesmond in Newcastle, and as it was a gorgeous evening took a long walk in the park on the way there. To say people were making the most of the weather was an understatement, the park was full of people, but its great seeing families and friends spending time together.]

For the evening I chose to throw on this quite smart dress, which is from Asda. I have worn it previously for presentations at university, as it is formal yet quite fashion forward with it being midi length, yet it is still very comfortable. I decided to dress it down by wearing canvas ballerina pumps, a cardigan and my trusty Zara bag.

I hope you have been keeping well while I have been absent from my blog.