June 2015 Favourites

Hello You Lovely Lot!!!

As I'm going on holiday to LA on Wednesday I thought I would do my monthly favourites this week as I won't have a post up next week (I don't think). I have quite a few favourites this month so here we go!!!

Favourite Book

V For Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd

This is actually a graphic novel and I saw the film of this last year. It is now one of my all time favourite films so I knew I had to read this graphic novel. I gave it 5* on Goodreads and I would highly recommend it but only to older readers as some of it's content is definitely not suitable for younger readers.

Favourite Beauty Product

Soap and Glory, Girligo, Spray-on Body Moisturising Mist.

I just love the smell of this product. Personally I think it smells like aftersun and that's just the perfect smell for this time of year :)

Favourite Item of Clothing

Primark: Kimono £8.00

This is the perfect wrap around for the summer as it's super light and the patterns give it a more vibrant look for this season. It's also not very expensive so that's a bonus!!!

Favourite Homeware Items

Ikea: New Furniture

Bookcases: £17.00 each

Malm Chest 3 Draws: £35.00

Malm Chest 4 Draws: £49.00

These cases are on a wonky angle, your eyes aren't deceiving you. But it's not the cases that are actually wonky. Turns out I have a rather big hill in the middle of my bedroom floor. My boyfriend says they make the room look quirky though so I'm not really complaining. 

This has been fantastic to store all of those little things that you never know where to put. The draws are also super deep so you can fit so much stuff into each of them.

Just like the previous set of draws, these ones are also super deep which has been fantastic as I have a crazy amount of clothes and my boyfriend is moving here soon and needs space for his clothes. Because of these I have managed to clear half of my wardrobe out so he now has half a wardrobe and we are also going to buy another set of smaller draws for him to fit in the corner of my room.

And the final favourite of this month is...

My Haircut!!!

Before this haircut I had really long hair but it was in such bad condition from tying it up all of the time for dance so I had a trip to the salon and told them to cut off as much as they need to to tidy it up. This was the result and I love it!!!

So that's all of my June Favourites. What have you been loving this month? Tell me in the comments below :)

Speak to you in 2 weeks time as I'm in LA next week. I'll have lots of photos to share with you from that trip so you can look forward to that :)

Resolution Recap

Hello You Lovely Lot!!!

I tried to upload this post yesterday but my internet cut out. So here is yesterday's post today!!! Sorry about that!!!

As we are pretty much half way through the year (where has that gone!!!) I thought it would be a good idea look back on the resolutions I made in January. 

The first resolution I made was Tone My Tummy. At the back end of uni, things got a bit hectic meaning when I came in from rehearsals/classes/performances, I then had to work on my theory work such as essays. This didn't give me too much time to think about this resolution and because I was so tired from the constant busy days, I didn't manage to carry this on. 

However, now that I have written this, I would like to restart this resolution and see if I can keep it up until the end of the year. Wish me luck!!!

The second resolution I made was Drink More Water. Although I've slacked a bit in the last few weeks, this is something that I have definitely kept up as much as possible. I try to drink at least a litre a water a day, but most days I manage two litres which is the recommended daily amount.

And the third resolution I made was Remember To Take My Tablets. This resolution now does not apply to me, not because I remember to take them all of the time, but because I made the decision to come off them as my body has become immune to them so I didn't see any reason to keep taking them. If my IBS flares up at all, I take Buscopan tablets which are tablets specifically for people diagnosed with IBS.

After that look back at my resolutions I made at the beginning of the year, I'm not too disappointed in myself as one I have kept up pretty well and one doesn't apply to me any more. The one I need to try to start up again is doing my daily stomach exercises. This won't just tone my tummy, but give me a stronger core for my dancing.

That's it for this week. What were your resolutions and have you managed to keep them so far? Let me know in the comments below :)

Speak to you again next Sunday!!!

Inspiration

Hello You Lovely Lot!!!

Recently Carrie Hope Fletcher from the YouTube channel ItsWayPastMyBedTime posted a video about inspiration and the difficulties that people face when trying to be inspired. Below is the video she posted for you to check out now before reading the rest of my post :)

This is something I can definitely relate to being a creative person. She mentions that she is rubbish at the academic things like maths and science, but her strengths in life are her creativity in acting, singing, writing etc.

Being creative comes natural to some people but even for them they hit a brick wall sometimes and it takes some time to get more inspiration to create more work, whether that be a story, a song, a dance etc.

As you know my main area of creativity is dance. I love choreographing and choreography was the module at University that I always received the higher grades for. I would love to go into choreography professionally one day as it is something that I very much enjoy.

Something you don't know about me though is recently I've been collecting ideas for a book I would like to write. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not a great writer, but I do find inspiration and when that happens I want to share it in any way that I can. Now this is usually through dance but I thought I would change things up a bit and try to write a novel. I would love to be a published author one day so staying inspired and getting the motivation to write is essential.

Now as Carrie said in her video, everyone gets creative block sometimes and this can make you develop a series lack of motivation. So I thought I'd share my ways of getting over creative block in both a dance perspective and a writing perspective. Obviously I have a lot more experience in the dance side of things.

How to get over Creative Block in Choreography

1. Improvise - If you are struggling to come up with some set movement, put some music on, and improvise. You'll be surprised at how much movement you can get from this. Music can also help with inspiration.

2. Use Specific Words - Depending on what you are creating, words can come in handy for when you have hit a brick wall. For example, if you're creating a piece based around the woods, you might want to think of words such as scared, small, curve, or bright, sunny, happy. These will help you develop movement based around these words but will also be relevant to the piece you are creating.

3. Characterisation - This doesn't help in all areas of choreography; if you were creating an abstract piece, you/your dancer(s) might not have specific characters and the piece might be specifically based around the movement, but for narrative pieces, movement can be developed efficiently by thinking about the character you are trying to portray.

How to get over Creative Block in Writing

1. Analyse Your Surroundings - When you're out and about, make sure you have a little notebook with you as you never know what you might see that could inspire you for your next character, location etc. Note these little inspirations down and you'll be writing in no time!!!

2. Get Someone To Proof Read - Bring in a fresh pair of eyes to read what you have so far, whether that be a few sentences or a few chapters. This person might see a direction for the novel to go in which could then create another few chapters for you to share your ideas.

3. Keep Reading!!! - This is super important for someone who wants to write. You can get so much inspiration from other authors that are more experienced than you are and that have also been in your shoes. Just remember, even the most experienced writers hit a creative block sometimes; you're not the only one just because you are new to this.

I hope this helps some of you, whether that be in a dance sense or a writing sense, and Carrie's video is fantastic and she explains so much better than I do the difficulties creative block brings. She also provides some websites that could help you get over creative block so be sure to check that out if you haven't already.

That's it for now and I will speak to you again next Sunday!!!

Birthday Haul 2015

Hello You Lovely Lot!!!

Earlier this week I turned 21 and thought I would share with you the little gifts I got off friends and family. I am not in anyway trying to show off, I just thought I share my gifts with you :)

If you also read my book blog http://thatswhaticallabookreview.blogspot.co.uk/ then you will know I love to read. And for my birthday I got a crazy amount of books. I'm so grateful and couldn't be happier :)

From Top to Bottom:

The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton

Paper Towns by John Green

Looking for Alaska by John Green

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Six Years by Harlen Coben

The Maze Runner (Book 1) by James Dashner

The Scorch Trials (Book 2) by James Dashner

The Death Cure (Book 3) by James Dashner

The Kill Order (Book 4: Prequel) by James Dashner

The Selection (Book 1) by Kiera Kass

The Elite (Book 2) by Kiera Kass

The One (Book 3) by Kiera Kass

The Heir (Book 4) by Kiera Kass

As well as books I also got a lovely Tinkerbell ornament :)

I absolutely love her and she now sits next to my other Tinkerbell on one of my book shelves :)

The next gift I'm going to share with you is an Anchor bracelet!!!

I love anchors and have a collection of anchor things so this is a new item to my collection :)

I also received from the same person as the bracelet an Anchor watch!!!

Absolutely love this :)

And the final thing I got off this person was a Tinkerbell phone case!!!

I was in desperate need of a new phone case so this is much appreciated!!!

As well as these I got a little mirror for my handbag :)

I love little mirrors like these and this one is the perfect size to fit into my bag :)

And from the same person that got me the mirror I also got a 21 key ring :)

Just another one to add to my growing collection of key rings on my keys...woohoo!!! :D

And the final gift I got from this person was a mug and coaster set :)

I have a huge collection of mugs so this will sit nicely with all of them :)

And speaking of mugs, I also got 2 of the same mug, one off my grandma and grandad and one off one of my friends :)

These are so pretty and are 2 more to go with my collection :)

From the friend that got me one of the above mugs, I also received two lovely pieces of jewellery!!!

Some ear rings :)

And a necklace :) These are stunning!!!

And also from this friend I got a gorgeous quote sign :)

I love anything to do with quotes and this is gorgeous to hang up in my room :)

From my boyfriend's mum I got an awesome t-shirt!!! :D

IT'S SO FLUFFY!!!!! Need I say much more :p

And a gorgeous set of nail varnishes :)

I have to pink and grey colours on now and love them :)

I also got another t-shirt off my dad which is completely me!!!

As I'm sure you know by now, I love all things Disney, so this is just perfect!!!

And finally I got a lovely photo frame off my mam with pictures from when we went to London in April together :)

Thank you to everyone that got me these gifts; you are all truly amazing and I couldn't ask for better friends and family :)

For now that is it and I will speak to you again next Sunday :)

May 2015 Favourites

Hello You Lovely Lot!!!

Apologies for not posting yesterday. I've been moving back home from uni so it's been a bit crazy. It's time for a monthly favourites though so here we go!!!

Favourite Book

Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas Butler

This is so beautifully written and you really fall in love with some of the characters. It follows a group of friends that have grown up together and how they deal with adulthood and growing apart. I definitely recommend this.

Favourite Event

Finishing University and moving back home.

Image from Google

Although I've loved some of uni, it's also been some of the most stressful years of my life so I'm super happy to be back home and ready to start a new chapter to my life :)

Favourite Shop

Waterstones

Image from Google

This won't be a surprise to any of you that know me personally but I love reading and I love Waterstones. I really enjoy going in this shop as not only is it full of books.....duh, but the staff are always so lovely. I'm really going to miss Waterstones in Doncaster as the staff are always so lovely and I've had so many book recommendations off them.

That's it for May!!! Let's see what June brings :)

Speak to you all next Sunday :)