Resolute.

/ˈrɛzəluːt/
Defined as "admirably purposeful, determined, and unwavering."

Every year I will inevitably be asked what my New Year's resolution is and I normally just make up some fluff about not having any or come up with something incredibly generic.

However as I am entering my 20th year on the planet, it's time to actually do this properly and I'm hoping that by writing them down here, on the internet for everyone to see may actually actively encourage me to follow through with some  all of them (see, already trying to wriggle my way out of them!) 

Some of these will likely sound pretty generic, but they are personal and fairly numerous. So here goes...

1. Stop being so hideously messy. My rooms, both at home and uni are always untidy, and I'm terrible at picking up my clothes. Honestly, it's sometimes embarrassing inviting people into my rooms. This is an incredibly long term bad habit and one I intend to break in 2014!

2. Quit the procrastinating and lay the groundwork earlier. This is mainly referring to my uni work, I am one of those people who does work better under pressure, but the more preparation I can get done, the easier it'll be on myself when those deadlines roll around.

3. Finish the projects I start or else plan them better. In recent years I have managed to convince myself that I'll ever be happy until I've mastered every crafty/artistic/digital/fitness practice that I see on Pinterest. However as I am not (unfortunately) superwoman, I need to take a more focused approach and actually plan out what I want to achieve, lest I just end up with a computer and desk full of unfinished projects. COMMIT!

4. Make my blog posts more meaningful and relevant. I've had this blog for over a year and I haven't posted on it nearly as much as I originally intended to. While I don't have many people reading this it, I feel like this blog should be a place where I can put down my personal thoughts and not feel like I just have to produce the same sort of content that everyone else is producing.

5. Don't let opportunities pass me by. This is an age old problem with me, I don't put myself out there enough. Like the rest of the world, the fear of rejection has meant that I haven't been fulfilling my potential and settling for less than I should. 

6. Manage my finances better. As my friends and family know all too well I have a bit of a spending problem, particularly when it comes to clothes. I need to get a grip on this and if I'm going to spend the money, make sure that I've done the work to afford it! As I want to spend more time travelling and experiencing the wider world, I really need to start saving for the things that matter.

7. Actually become a healthier, fitter person. Every year I talk about toning up, particularly around the summer months, but I need to stop eating quite as much studenty crap and make more of an effort to eat things that are good for me. I would also like to take up some form of dance again, it's something that I miss and for me fitness is something of a break from work and I always feel better for having done it!

8. Care less about what people think. I know this in theory this sounds simple, but I am a people pleaser and I need to make sure I stand up for my views and don't let them get quashed by those with louder personalities (or bigger mouths).

Well I think that's quite enough of those, it feels like 2014 is going to be a year of self-improvement and I really am aiming to stick to these as much as I can, I don't want to have given up by the second eek of January!
Are you making any New Year's Resolutions? Are any of them similar to mine? I'd love to hear either way!

Jx

London Fashion Weekend - A/W Trend Report

Yesterday, I went to the lovely Alice to Somerset House for London Fashion Weekend.
It's a great event for any fashion lover, with lots of designer shopping, events and catwalks on offer.

Alice and I booked "Shop and the Lot" tickets, which gave us access to the shopping areas, talks from industry insiders, a goody bag and we got to see a trend catwalk which was so cool. I may never be F-Row again haha!

The show covered four main trends; Pretty in Pink, Back to Nature, Shape Up and Victoriana.

Pretty In Pink: This feminine trend would normally conjure up images of S/S fashion, however this trend has been adjusted for the cooler months with pastel coats, hot pink knits and luxurious fur. See some of my favourite pics below.

Back To Nature: The clothing from this trend focused on a lot of opulent shades, rich purples, earthy browns and deep greens, all of which are great for autumn and really wearable. Again, there was a lot of fur and texture used to create these looks.

Shape Up: Shape up was all about bold prints and bright shades. This is a really graphic trend and a real continuation of the print revival we've been seeing over the past few seasons.

 

 

Victoriana: This was possibly one of my favourite trends. Demure, chic tailoring with sleek silhouettes and a beautiful use of texture. Brocades and lace really complement the high necklines and long sleeves.

 

If you do get the opportunity this weekend (19th-22nd September) it is worth going along. You can buy tickets once you get there, but as it's such a popular event, you might be safest booking tickets online before you go.

There's loads of interesting things to do, even if you can't afford to do much shopping. A particular favourite was the Canon 360 photo studio, where they take a 360 degree image of you so you can see all angles...

Here's mine and Alice's: 

I also bought myself a Kate Sheridan pouch and House of Harlow necklace at a great discount so if you love shopping, this is a good place for discounts.

For more information about the event and to book tickets, Click Here

(Belated) Zakynthos Round-Up

Hello hello, and sorry!
I know I haven't posted for a very long while! I've been super busy with work experience, but I've finished now and am having a few weeks off before I head back to uni!

I thought I'd share with you a few of the pictures from my holiday, which feels like it was so long ago at this point! The tan is fading all too quickly for my liking!

I spent 2 weeks away with my family on the beautiful island of Zakynthos. It was the second time we'd been to the Greek isle and it was just as lovely as I remembered! We had some amazing weather and some beautiful food.

See the pictures below for some of my favourite meals, sights and outfits.

Summer Reading List

Hello,

So it seems my purchasing problem has now spread beyond the reach of clothing and nail polish to books as well.

I really enjoy reading when I have time, which isn't often so when I go on holiday I tend to make up for the rest of the year. The holiday before last I read 10 books in 14 days! Pretty good going I think ;)

So I thought for this post I'd share with you the books I'm planning to read over the summer, providing I can fit them all in my suitcase of course!

Curly Hair Care Routine - Part 2: Styling

This is the second part of my hair care routine, which is about how I style my hair. Read the first part here.

N.B. please excuse the lack of make up but it was too hot today to bother and I had just gotten out of the shower!

So after rinsing out the Argan Oil treatment, I use a microfibre hair wrap/towel to dry my hair.

Next I apply Africa's Best Leave-in conditioner, a product I have using for a few years now and find works really well at moisturising.

I follow this up with the Elasta QP liquid styling gel as this helps to keep my curl between washes, and really helps with the next part. I run this through my hair and section into two pieces.

To get a nice defined curl, I wrap small sections of my hair around my fingers. These twists help to create ringlets which set with the help of the styling gel. I work around my whole head, from the back to the front on each side. At this point my hair is still quite damp from all of the styling products so I leave the ringlets in for a few hours (or overnight) to dry and set.

Once the ringlets have dried, I use clean, dry hands to separate each individual one so that they are more defined. This is a really quick and easy process, thankfully as it would look bizarre to leave it!

Here's the finished result! It will probably last me 3-4 days, before it needs washing again. Hope this was helpful to some of you! 

Send me links to your curly hair care routines! I'd love to see what other curlies do!

J xx

Curly Hair Care Routine - Part 1: Cleanse and Condition

Hi all,

As you aren't likely to know unless you've met me in person, I have very curly mixed raced hair. It's taken me a while to learn how to deal with it myself but I'm finally starting to get to grips with it and have recently found some products which work really well for my hair.

Me (and my hair) on the far right in January in NYC.

A problem that a lot of curly girls suffer from is dryness and frizziness and I'm no exception. Over time I have found that the products with sulphates in them (the chemicals that cause lathering in shampoo and body wash), are the source for a lot of the dryness. The Curlygirl method (which can be found here) is what first put me onto this fact and my hair is definitely healthier for not using them.

Summer Sales Shopping Haul!!! - TOPSHOP, ZARA, PRIMARK.

Hi all,
This weekend has been unbelievably hot and sunny and I've spent a lot of today tanning and enjoying the sunshine. But even with the beautiful weather, my sister and I still managed to make the trek into town yesterday to brave the summer sales.
I tried not to go too crazy but having not been physically shopping for a while (online shopping doesn't count, but it is an addiction), it was always going to be difficult.
Even so I thought I'd show you the few bits that I bought and how I may end up putting them together!
 - A side note: I still haven't managed to replace my camera from the burglary so these were taken on my iPhone. So sorry if the quality isn't great!


The Accessories...
I must have been on a bit of an accessories hype yesterday as I bought quite a few bits.

Digital Illustration - A First Attempt.

Hi all,

As I mentioned in my last post, I recently made the BIG purchase of a MacBook Pro Retina and even though I've had it less than a week, I already love it and don't really know how I ever dealt without one before.

I'm currently doing full time work experience at a local digital marketing agency and despite the fact that it's exhausting, I'm learning so much and really feeling inspired creatively at the moment.

So much so that I came home from work today, whacked out the highly underused drawing tablet that I got for Christmas and drew this... 

Last night I just happened to find some images that I found really inspiring and just went with it really. Now it's not very good by any stretch of the imagination, but I can only get better, right? And for a first attempt I'm pretty proud of it!

I've also found myself sewing again recently, mainly out of necessity as I needed a case to protect my new laptop, so I may have some sewing tutorials up on here soon.

Have any of you had your creative juices flowing recently? Have you made or created anything you're proud of? Share share! I'd love to see anything you've got!

J xx

The Last Line: "Lover you may cause me tears, drag me through the best of years. But I love you so."

(Mexico - The Staves)

Sorry

First and foremost, let me apologise for being such an absentee blogger for so long.

Not long after my last post my uni house got burgled and my laptop and camera got stolen. Thankfully the lovely Alice was able to lend me her old laptop but I'm currently in the process of purchasing a Mac and searching for a new camera.

(If anyone has any suggestions for affordable bridge cameras I'd be sincerely grateful!)

Furthermore, with how hectic uni was during the last term I suffered a bit of a confidence crisis with regards to where this blog was going - but I'm getting my act together now and trying to plan some posts so I can be a bit more organised on here. Just to let you know it may be a bit sporadic to begin with. (Yeah I watched clueless the other day...and what? Haha)

I'm working pretty much full time at the moment but I'm going to post again soon. Even if it kills me! Haha

J xx

Papier Bazaar

With Uni finished unexpectedly early for the weekend, Alice and I headed into town with the intention of heading to Papier Bazaar at Waterstone's Nottingham.
After a little unnecessary retail therapy in Topshop and a not-so-healthy lunch, we made it to the book shop and went up to the fourth floor.
Papier Bazaar is a pop-up shop run by third year FMB student Daisy Simpson as part of her final project. The shop is open for this weekend only 19th-21st April, from 10-3pm each day.

Instagram Round-Up

Sorry it's been so long since I updated! March has been a pretty busy month for me.
I had my birthday, nights out, days out and lots of nail painting sessions!
I'm also doing work experience at a local marketing company over the Easter period so no restful holiday for me!
I've done a quick Instagram round up of some of the fun things I've done this month! Hope you enjoy!

1) My Birthday gifts from my family, 2) Nude and silver mani, 3) Birthday night out with the housemates,
4) Solar polka dot mani, 5) Birthday with the girlies, 6) Nude and Peach Daisy mani
7) Birthday with Course girlies, 8) Mint and Silver mani, 9) "Grapumkin" with purple and gold mani.

Part of the reason I've been doing so much nail art at the moment is because I bought some great nail art brushes from eBay for less than £3. I would definitely recommend them for anyone who likes doing their nails. Such a cheap investment!
Find them here.

The Last Line: "All of your flaws and all of my flaws are laid out one by one. Look at the wonderful mess that we made. We pick ourselves undone." 

(Flaws - Bastille)

Mother's Day Tea at Basildon Park

Sunday 10th March was Mother's Day in the UK and this year, because it was so close to my birthday we decided to do something a bit special.
We went to an Afternoon Tea at Basildon Park, an 18th century National Trust property set in the Berkshire countryside.
It was really nice to go out as a family and I must admit that part of the draw for me was the fact that the scenes for Pemberley in Pride and Prejudice (2005) were filmed here (it's one of my favourite films)

Perfect Combos #1

I've had this in my mind for a while...

I first read this book towards the end of last year after hearing a very cryptic review on it by ItsWayPastMyBedtime on YouTube and I loved it...it's pretty hard to explain but it's a great story line and the descriptions are so beautifully written, you just have to read it! 

One to watch: Annabelle's Illustrations

Hey guys!
For this first proper post I thought that I would spotlight a really promising up and coming young illustrator who goes by the name of Annabelle King. I first heard about her through a friend who studies with her at college.
Annabelle does great fashion illustrations and drawings of celebrities, using pencils and even glitter on Limited Edition prints!

She has done some beautiful illustrations of Beyonce (which even got reposted by Beyonce's stylist and made it on to Beyonce's blog!!!) and other celebs.

I think she is definitely "one-to-watch" and I know she'll go far!

You can find her here on:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/annabellekingg

Instagram: annabellesillustrations

Tumblr: annabelleillustrations.tumblr.com

and even buy your own here

Etsy: etsy.com/shop/annabelleKingg