Yes this really was me at uni.

With spring approaching that can only mean one thing: graduation is creeping ever closer. Alongside dissertation deadlines, final exams and job hunting. 

But, it’s not all doom and gloom. If you’re being really honest with yourself there are some things about student life that are less than ideal and that you’re probably looking forward to leaving behind by now. 

It’s been almost a year since I handed in my dissertation and effectively finished my degree so here are the things I definitely DON’T miss about student life and chances are you won’t either.

1. Being hungover approximately 4 days out of every 7.
2. The sad empty feeling that you’ve wasted a whole day without achieving anything because said hangover prevented you from going to your lectures.
3. Revision. Nothing else needs saying.
4. Lecturers who don’t reply to your emails.
5. When you zone out for a few minutes in a lecture while you contemplate how you can possibly survive on the £8.27 left in your bank account and then suddenly realise you’ve got zero clue what the lecturer’s talking about.
6. Spending £300 a year of precious money in order to spend 2 hours a day on a bus.
7. The feeling of panic when you get your results emailed to you later than everyone else.
8. The anxiety of having to open the email when it does arrive and actually read your results.
9. You are surrounded by people who have exactly the same problems as you (same deadlines, same exams etc.) so EVERYTHING is a drama.
10. Having to listen to people trying to one up each other on how much time they spent in the library.
11. Never being able to get a seat in the library because of the people who seem to have just moved in.
12. Living in a damp, mouldy house with a bunch of twats.
13. Cleaning up after you stupidly decided to have pre-drinks at your house the night before.
14. People who eat your food.
15. Constantly getting threatening letters from the TV licensing people. WE DON’T EVEN HAVE A TV.
16. Working solidly through your holidays so you can afford to live.
17. The sick feeling you get from knowing you have a big piece of work to do.
18. Fresher reps. They can fuck off.
19. Spending 4 hours straight in lectures listening to someone read off the slide which you could have done from your bed.
20. The crushing feeling when you’ve worked really hard on something and get a lower mark than you hoped for.
21. Friends of your flatmates who move in and won’t leave.
22. Being too scared to ever take a bath because it’s so filthy you’ve got no idea where to even start cleaning it.
23. Physically dragging yourself into uni after a tearful all-nighter to submit a paper because the lecturer won’t use turnitin.
24. Lying awake the night before your exam unable to sleep because there are drunk students outside your window who’ve already finished their exams.
25. Owning one chipped wine glass and one washed out Nutella jar glass.
26. Getting into a passive aggressive war over whose turn it is to take the recycling out.
27. Refusing to give in when playing Bin Jenga.
28. Surviving on a diet of toasted sandwiches, cold dominos and questionable things from cans.
29. Meeting sports societies out drinking together on a night out and having to endure their rowdy and obnoxious behaviour.
30. The never ending ‘what am I going to do with my life’ crisis.

Leaving uni was scary, there’s no getting around it but at least none of these things irritate me on a daily basis anymore!

3 Ways to Brighten up your room on the cheap

As a student your room is where you spend most of your time. You work, socialize, sleep and (most likely) eat in there. Its also your haven away from annoying housemates and life in general. Unfortunately most student landlords are agents of the devil and are capable of making any room look like a prison cell. After 3 years of student accommodation I have finally managed to find a nice landlord who appreciates that students do not want to live in a magnolia box (he is most definitely the exception to the norm though). Even so, it can be hard to make the space feel like your own when you are limited by your contract and a tight student budget.

Below are three ways I have personalized my room with accessories acquired for very little money, I hope they inspire you to be creative when it comes to decorating your room!

1. It is a known fact that fresh flowers make any room look much nicer. To decorate one of my bedside tables I got this vase for £3 from Waitrose and a bunch of Daffodils for £1. The three candles are all from Primark and were 80p each. I love the yellow of the flowers against my yellow walls and how much they brighten the place up.
Total cost: £6.40

2. This idea was direcetly taken from Hannah Gales happiness advice so after a rubbish day I ran to Paperchase and picked up this postcard for 60p. I decided I loved it so much it needed a frame so picked this one up from Poundland. I am really loving having it next to my bed as it is the first thing I see in the morning. The lamp is one I already had from Tesco a few years ago, the handcream I got for Christmas and the lip balm came in my Pink Parcel. So although I already had this stuff none of it was too pricey.
Total cost: £1.60

3. My third and final idea is a craft I did myself. I've been looking at some lovely prints on Etsy but I didn't really have any pennies. So I went on Pinterest and found a quote I liked and made my own design using my sisters watercolours before adding the lipstick print. The frame is another one from Poundland and I think its a great way to display my creation. The diffuser is from Sainsburys and was about £5 (although you can similar ones from TK Maxx) as is the candle holder (not sure on price as it was a gift). The heart is from Primark and was £1 which was an absolute steal. The little box and mini candles were also gifts.
Total cost: £7

So for a mere £15 I have decorated 3 different corners of my room and made the space my own. Best of all these can be packed up and easily moved to the next student house. Has anyone else got any tips for decorating on a budget?

The Happiness Project

So some of you might remember a few weeks back when I was still in the midst of exam/dissertation hell I wrote a post about all the things I was planning on doing once it was all over?
Well now that it has all been handed in I just thought it would be nice to share the positivity and happiness of all the fun things I've been up to.

In my head, I have called this 'The Happiness Project'. Please nobody laugh at how lame that sounds, I just think its important that we all focus on doing the small things that make us happy. In the rush of everyday life it is so easy to get caught up on all the stuff we need to do and this makes it hard to do the stuff we really WANT to do. So I'd like to share with you guys my busy week so far which I have tried to fill with as many fun things as possible.

In a way, this is the whole theme of my blog, in that I try to celebrate the small everyday joys in life. It can be tough sometimes, and recently things have been tricky for me. This post is about how you have to sometimes be nice to yourself and be proud of your achievements, even if they seem small to others. What is important is learning to respect how you feel and understanding how to make yourself feel happy. So while the things listed below are actually very mundane, for me the time I have spent with people while doing this has made all the difference.

Went on a fantastic date night on Friday to Turtle Bay which has got to be one of my favorite restaurants. This was partly a celebration of me finishing exams (and my dissertation although I had not handed it in) as well as Jared's birthday. A big happy birthday to him <3 I got pretty sloshed on Prosecco before we even got there and then continued with the wine throughout the meal. It was nice to get merry though after so long of having to be boring. The food as ever was divine, and I had pulled jerk pork for a starter followed by Mo Bay Chicken (chicken in creamy sauce) with sweet potato fries. Jared had their goat curry which was also delicious and as always I was getting food envy. The only problem with Turtle Bay is all the food is so good I always want all of it. 

On Monday as we all know, I handed in my dissertation and this was the same day as the start of the new semester. My new modules seem to be fun so far which is good. As soon as lectures were finished I headed straight to Boots and treated myself as promised. I bought my new Clinique Sonic Brush as mentioned here and a new Long Last Lipstick in a colour called Rose Shimmer. It's much pinker than the lipsticks I usually wear but I wanted a change. So far I am obsessed with it. I think after all that hard work I deserved it. And I feel better now I've rewarded myself.

I did have a whole day of Netflix planned yesterday but this has had to be postponed due to my boyfriend being called into work at the last moment. Will be doing this at the weekend instead and I am really looking forward to some vegging out. We've made a whole list of movies we want to watch and I can't wait to get stuck in.

Yesterday, instead of watching Netflix I went to the gym and actually enjoyed it. I haven't been in so long it was actually fun. Fingers crossed for me becoming a super fit gym fanatic. It could happen.

After the gym however I undid all my hard work by meeting my flatmate for lunch at Wild Lime where the food as ever was delicious. Plus it was nice to have a catch up as I have hardly seen anyone recently.

I spent the afternoon having a really good sort out of my room and threw away a whole bag of rubbish. There is something so soothing about having stuff back in order and clean isn't there? Had a lovely relaxing bath before heading out on a bar crawl with the rest of the geologists in order to celebrate our freedom.

So there is what I've been up to so far. Can't wait to carry on having fun over the rest of the week!




Pictures: my own and the top one is stolen from Pinterest. 

Christmas Cocktail Party

Bit late for this post but who cares, life got busy as I am currently drowning in work.

Last week was the Geology Society Christmas Cocktail Party and my god was it fun.

I've been to this event every year since being at uni and with each passing year I remember less and less of it and they seem to get better and better.

Kicked the night off with girly predrinks at mine getting ready. Found myself doing everyones make up and hair which was great because I LOVE playing around with make up. I also treated myself to a pair of hair curlers so got to work on making my hair EVEN curlier than usual. Fun times.

My housemates (who are not geologists) joined us as I decided to combine this event with my birthday night out as they are so close together. We all headed over to my boyfriends house as he lives just round the corner before heading to the venue itself.

The music was excellent, with yummy cocktails and I had a lovely evening chatting with my lecturers, socializing with my course mates and dancing with my housemates. My non geology friends did ridiculously well on the raffle and someone won a bottle of fizzy red wine. Yes it is as disgusting as it sounds.

The night was only slightly marred by high heel pain as I decided to wear my highest most uncomfortable (but sassiest) heels so I decided to drink to numb the pain. This works but also means you can't stand up in them very well.

Anyway I think the pictures of the night speak for themselves. Big thanks to my housemates for coming and I think we can all agree it was the best night we've had in ages.


But then again any chance to get glammed up is good with me!
Pictures courtesy of SU Photographic Society events team

A super cringy, yet funny pic of the dance floor.

Halloween Madness!

Ok first of all, massive apoliges for neglecting this. But hey, I'm a new blogger, its allowed. I've been really busy but I thought I would do a quick series of posts for you on the main things I've been up over the past few weeks.

First of all lets start from where I left off: Halloween!

My flatmates and I hosted a witches tea party with spooky snacks and we had a few friends over before heading out for the night. Beforehand my flatmate Nicola took her turn to cook for us and made us a yummy spinach and ricotta cheesy pasta bake.

Nicola and I spent the night before tidying the house and making the snacks (mostly Nicola, I 'helped'). There was an unfortunate incident with the jelly when Nicola opened the fridge and the unset jelly fell out and went EVERYWHERE. Really gross and sticky but we managed to clean it up eventually.

Was such a fun night with everyone dressing up. I was a witch although my hat kept falling off my head and I lost it when we went out...

Had to get up horribly early the next morning to catch my train home as I needed to get my passport before my trip to Tenerife.

Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Picture kindly provided by Nicola :)