hello! this post has been a long time coming. as some of you may know i went to new york at the beginning of october. it was honestly the best holiday ever and i was completely blown away by how incredible everything is over there! you can just imagine how excited/nervous i was - i'm almost 21 and had never actually been on a plane before this holiday!! i kinda threw myself in to the deep end with a super long first ever flight. considering the furthest i'd ever traveled away from england was paris (by ferry) when i was about 13 years old, i think i coped okay! though i'm sure everybody who shared the two flights to get to america with me may disagree - i talked super fast, non stop the entire way there because it's what i do when i'm nervous haha! 

the feeling when we stepped out of JFK airport and in to the taxi to the city was something i can't really put in to words. the sun was shining, it was boiling hot and, well, we were in new york!! what could be better? the best thing was that that feeling stayed with me the entire holiday. i cant believe i did so much shopping, eating and walking in one week. i'd love to go back because there was just so much to do and see that i could easily go back for another week and not do the same thing again twice!

anyway, here are some photos of my holiday, they were just taken on my iPhone so apologises for the rubbishy quality.  

walking through the streets on an evening was so surreal. it was so busy everywhere you went even when it was like 1am!

this was the view from my hotel room. you could just see central park in the distance! it was so cool! especially the night i took this photo when it was a bit misty in the distance and all the lights were shining through the fog.

times square was about five minutes walk from our hotel. we would go for a walk down there every night after we had dropped all our shopping off at the hotel for the day! there was so much to do and so many good places to eat - i miss it!

so many tortilla chips! and avocado!

9/11 memorial. it was so moving seeing this in real life and not just on the tv / on pictures. 

grilled cheese mmmm (apologises that every other photo is a food picture ha!)

the buildings were so tall! 

one morning we went on an adventure right through central park. i couldn't believe how big it was. i kept chasing squirrels like a child and pointing out all the really posh pedigree dogs everywhere! you could easily forget you were in new york, one of the biggest, busiest and noisiest cities while walking through central park - it was strangely quiet and peaceful! so nice! 

i took this walking across brooklyn bridge. it was so so hot this day even though it looks cloudy. there was a hurricane warning over the city and it was super humid! i've never felt anything like it. in the uk we never get weather like that.

obviously i had to try pancakes one morning for breakfast!

just some of the things i bought! saving every penny of my money for months before coming here was so worth it.

and lastly, a giant cookie from a cafe next to our hotel. it was the size of my thigh and it took me three days to finish it!!! 

have any of you been to new york? or anywhere else in america? i'd love to travel back to new york and i'd also love to do a road trip across america some day. hmm who's with me!?

xo

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas!

there is nothing better than coming home from a bad few days at work, having a super hot shower, making a cup of tea and then curling up in bed with a movie on. i’m watching the notebook (yes, cringe but it's so cute) and then i’m gonna try and get some sleep. tomorrow i have a driving lesson and am going to try and pop down to the hairdressers to see what they can do about my hair (i'm wanting to go slightly lighter and more my natural colour). i kind of just want tomorrow to go really quick because on thursday i'm going for a cinema date and then going for a look round town at all of the christmas stuff in the shops which i haven't had a chance to do yet - i'm so excited haha... i turn in to such a child over the run up to christmas.

have you started getting excited for christmas yet? what's your favourite thing about this time of year? i think my favourite thing has got to be wrapping up warm when it's snowing outside, hot chocolates, all the classic old christmas songs being played everywhere, decorating the christmas tree and buying loads of presents for those close to me!

xo

30 facts about me tag

1. i only take a size 3 shoe and it is the most annoying thing ever because ladies shoes generally start in a 4.

2. i have recently rediscovered my love for reading. i treated myself to a kobo glo which makes it super easy to download books and read wherever and whenever. i enjoy reading crimes and thrillers, the proper gory twisted stuff.

3. despite loving to read scary books, i hate horror movies / end of the world movies. i turn in to a nervous wreck if i have to watch something scary and after watching a horror i will be on edge for days after thinking it's gonna become real!

4. i have super short legs, even if i buy petite jeans or leggings i still have to turn the bottoms up about 3 times so they'll fit me.

5. i naturally have mousey blonde hair. in the past i've dyed it light blonde, white blonde, silver, lilac, dark brown, gingery brown (big mistake - totally did NOT work with my skin tone) and i am currently a sort of medium/light brown and wanting to go back blonde - eeep. 

6. another hair one, my hair used to be super super short! like almost short back and sides. i got it cut when i was about 15 and have regretted it ever since haha. i'm currently growing my hair longer, it's past my shoulders now and i can't believe how fast it has reached this length!

7. for as long as i can remember i've wanted to work with animals. i used to love the idea of being a vet but turns out i am pretty poo at science etc so there's not a chance i could study to become one. i would still love to work as a vetinary nurse, but my ultimate dream job would be working with horses. 

8. i feel like i was not born to live in the uk. it's too cold for me even in the summer. i need to live somewhere where it's pretty warm all year round. although i would miss the winters we have here. (kinda)

9. i am definitely a jeans kinda girl. i wear jeans literally every single day unless i'm doing something nice like going for a meal or if the weather is amazingly nice. some might say it's boring but i love them okay!

10. i broke my arm when i was little by jumping off my cousins bed and nobody really knew i had actually broken it so badly because apparently i just sat there holding it and saying 'ow' 'ow' 'ow' really calmly!! i've also broken a few of my fingers several times, twice from being bitten by horses and another time by crushing them at work.

11. i work in a big cafe making coffees in the centre of newcastle upon tyne. i've worked there since i was 18 (i'm almost 21 now) and i've met some lovely people and i've really come out of my shell from working there and constantly having to interact with strangers.

12. i was so so shy when i was in school and college, i used to get bullied for it throughout my school years and i hated myself for it. i would go bright red even if someone looked at me for a split second, i used to want to die in a hole when teachers did the register and you had to say 'here' in front of everyone else. i used to stay off school if i knew i had a presentation to do. it used to get me down and get in the way of so much. now when i look back at much i've changed it always makes me smile. i never thought i'd be as confident as i am now. don't get me wrong i'd still class myself as a quiet person in general but my shyness is not a big problem in my life any more and i couldn't be happier with myself. 

13. i'm hoping to buy a car by the start of 2014. i'm sitting my test on the 20th of november and i'm really excited to (hopefully) pass and have my own little car to drive around in!

14. i have 13 piercings but only actually wear jewellery in 4 of them.

15. i have a tattoo on my right foot, a one on my right ankle, and one running along my left shoulder towards my neck. i would like my other foot tattooed, my shin, and my lower arm but i know my mum would actually kill me! so i'm gonna give it a few years before i get anything new done.

16. i'm allergic to nivea products which makes me really sad because i love the nivea smell ha!

17. i've only been abroad twice in my life. the first time was when i was 13 with my school, we went to france for just over a week and i absolutely loved it there. i'd love to go back some time and do everything again. i also went to new york last month and i can't explain how amazing it was. i'd never been on a plane before until that holiday and the sheer size of everything once we were there blew me away. i'd definitely definitely definitely visit again and would recommend it to anyone!

18.  i have a thing called raynauds disease. it's a circulation problem that means the blood struggles to reach my extremities so i constantly have ice cold hands, feet, sometimes my legs and my nose. my skin goes a horrible grey ish, red/purple colour often because i'm so cold, and sometimes the blood stops getting to my fingers and toes making them go completely white like a dead person! it really freaks me out every time it happens and all i can do is try to warm them up slowly and gently to get the blood flowing again. it's really painful sometimes and i have to be so careful over the colder months to make sure i'm wrapped up to try and prevent it happening.

19. i have a piece of plate stuck in my thumb under the skin. i smashed a plate at work a couple of years ago and it cut my thumb quite bad and a tiny piece of the plate had got stuck in there without me realising until the skin had healed up. you can see it and feel it under there and it's gross. ewwwww.

20. i would love to go on a road trip across america and/or europe once i have passed my test. it's something i've always thought would be such a good thing to do.

21. i studied a levels when i left school. i did psychology, sociology, classics and english literature. i found it such a struggle in my second year that i dropped out and changed to a national diploma in photography. totally different but hey i don't regret any of it and i'm glad i did what i did. a levels definitely weren't for me.

22. i have a brother and a sister. my brother is 19 and my sister is 16, almost 17. 

23. when we were growing up as kids every one used to laugh when we were together because my mum, my brother, my sister and myself all had blue eyes and really blonde hair. then there was my dad who has almost black hair and dark eyes!

24. i have a dog called sam, he's a rescue dog who came from a home where he was left in a cage every day because his owners didn't have time for him which led to him developing quite bad separation anxiety. we've had him for about eight years now. he's definitely part of the family - i couldn't imagine life without him now!

25. i swear i have a cold 99% of the time. all year round. yay for me.

26. i'm vegetarian and have been for around 8 years.

27. i'm currently trying hard to work out regularly and eat a healthy diet. i feel like it's super important and with my family having quite a few health problems i want to make sure i'm doing the absolute best for myself to try and prevent myself getting any problems in the future.

28. i've never really been a big 'alcohol' person. i rarely go out, i never drank underage when i was a teenager growing up. it's just something i've never really been interested in or felt like i needed to do i guess. i'm not against alcohol in anyway, i mean if i do go out i'll drink more than enough but i just don't feel like it's something i want to do often. i'm not sure if that's because my family/friends aren't big drinkers either?

29. i am terrified of heights, deep water, spiders and lifts. absolutely. terrified. 

30. i have a super sweet tooth and get sugar cravings ALL the time. sometimes i can't help but give in to them and will literally just eat a king size bar of chocolate or a full packet of biscuits in one sitting. so bad!

i was going through a load of old photos and i came across these! it might not look like much special but the places these photographs were taken mean so much to me. it's where my family and i would all go on holiday every summer when i was growing up. we would all squeeze in to my dads car, drive for about two hours up to the borders of scotland (near berwick if anyone is familiar) and then all squeeze into a teeny tiny caravan and spend the entire holiday going for trips out together, enjoying the sun and getting a take away every night without fail. yep. the places in the photos are taken in eyemouth which is a little fishing village, on the borders of scotland, and coldingham (around a five minute drive from eyemouth) which is famous for it's amazingggggg beach, rock pools and chips! ohhh so british! anyway, this was the last time we all went away as a family, in 2012. we got super lucky with the weather as you can tell, although the first few pictures look a bit blah it was actually really warm! this blog post has no real point to it...it just makes me smile and i wanted to share it with you all.

have you got any funny/nice family holiday memories? i'd love to hear them!

xo

new york makeup haul

now if there's one thing i love it's buying new makeup, and where better to go buy some new products than when i was on holiday in new york last month!? the best thing? - everything is a lot cheaper over in america than the uk so i was a bit naughty and spent a crazy amount of money on stuff i would have usually picked up, looked at the price of, and put straight back down!! 

the first place i headed was MAC in Macy's. i spent so long umming and ahhing over which lipsticks to buy, and eventually narrowed it down to three colours. i got 'creme cup' - a repurchase. 'girl about town' - a sort of deep pink which looks crazy bright for someone like me (who likes to keep things neutral!) and 'captive' - an almost purple isn berry colour which i thought is the perfect way to add a little bit of colour to my ghosty face over the autumn/winter months.

whilst at MAC i also picked up a powder blusher in the shade 'tenderling' which is just a pale dusty pink, quite similar to my natural cheek colour. i also bought some mineralise skin finish natural in 'light' which i use to set my foundation. i've used this for a couple of years and i thought it would just be a good thing to repurchase in america where it was a little cheaper!

my next buys were my 'i kinda shouldn't have but did anyway' purchases. i went to sephora (love love love) and the first thing i got was the nars sheer glow foundation in the shade siberia. i also bought the foundation in the matte version too because reasons! in another trip to sephora i then treated myself to the laura mercier silk creme foundation aaaaannd my favourite thing i bought - the radiance primer which makes my foundation look a dream when i've applied it over the top of this primer. while i was waiting to be served i spotted the urban decay naked basics palette and thought it would be rude not to pick it up too. i love this palette, it's not often i find one that i'd actually wear every single colour from but the basics palette definitely does it for me.

i went in to ELF looking for some new makeup brushes as mine were in a sad sad state and it was definitely time to get some replacements. i love ELF brushes, my previous ones have lasted years and for how cheap they are i'd recommend them to anyone! i got a flat top brush which I've been using to apply powder to my face. i also got a little blush brush which is the perfect size for applying bronzer, blusher or to contour with. i did buy a fluffy concealer brush too but i forgot to photograph it. - fail! 

on the top picture of this post i've also shown the bourjois java rice powder. i didn't actually buy this in new york...i got it when i was back home in newcastle but i thought i'd include it in this post as it's the only makeup i've bought since i got back from my holiday and i felt mean leaving it out as i love it! it gives you such a nice glow without being too in your face obvious and you only need the smallest amount when you use it. 

are there any products you've recently bought that you're loving? or have you tried anything i've mentioned? leave me a comment and let me know. :)

xo

this is what i look like these days, pretty much the same but my hair has grown so much this year! 

this isn't a post of much interest but i just wanted to write a list of things i'm wanna blog about over the next few weeks. 

- what's in my makeup bag

- my holiday to new york

- new york haul!

- a few product reviews

- my 21st!

- my run up to christmas

if you can think of any other posts you think would be interesting for me to do please let me know!

xo