♥ Autumn Reading

Nothing is better than curling up with a big blanket, cup of tea and a good book on a cold evening. While my university course already has a extremely lengthy reading list for me to tackle I think it's still really important to read something for entertainment, not education. These few titles are the ones I'm going to be absorbed into over the Autumn months and here are the reasons why.

The Time Travelers Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
I remember going to see this film years ago when it was released in cinemas and I loved it. I picked up this copy, that was published after the movie release, in a charity shop for a few quid. It's a little battered and I've been throwing it into my bag because it's a novel I'm focusing on this week for one of my modules at university. The book isn't anything I expected after watching the film. It's layout is tough and confusing at times and my lecturers argue over the genre of the book. Is it a romance or is it science fiction? I'd say its a good mix of the two. Henry and Clare's love is a strange one that can be difficult to wrap your head around and Henry's status as a time traveler definitely brings in science fiction! It's a good book - but it does require a bit of concentration and time. It's lengthy!

Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned - Wells Tower
This is a collection of short stories, something I bought in relation to my short storied module. It's a collection of dark tales, a must read for anybody familiar with Angela Carter and her unique way of telling a story. They're condensed little snippets of various lives and this is something I'm learning to love with the module I've chosen. They're good for if you only have a little bit of spare time and excellent if you don't want to commit yourself to a novel or want to try something a little different. I picked this up on Amazon for the good old price of a penny, with a few quid postage, so it's definitely worth it!

Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins
The final instalment of The Hunger Games trilogy. Mockingjay: Part One is hitting cinemas this Autumn, so obviously it's time to re read the novel! The Hunger Games are my favourite books of all time because they're so different to the sort of books I would usually enjoy and so different to the type of novels I write. I'm not going to give away any spoilers in case you're a fan of the films but haven't ventured over to the novel companions, but these three books are so worth getting your hands on. They're phenomenal stories that delve much deeper than the movies do.

Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk 
Another reading I've been focusing on for university. It's a novel I absolutely love and the film is amazing too. I was chuffed to see this on my reading list and excited to delve a little deeper in the meaning and read it more closely for my studies. Palahniuk's writing style is so very different to anything else I've read and I always want to read something else of his afterwards, It's a little boyish, too, which is a nice change!

Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn
I picked this up last summer, unread, from a charity shop for £1.49. I was chuffed. I'd heard of the title before and it was a best seller and a thriller - two things I usually shy away from. With the movies recent release, it's something I really want to sink my teeth into. It's a story about Nick Dunne's missing wife, Amy. Nick is a prime suspect and with Amy's friends revealing that she was a scared of him, there's nothing to help his case. Ben Affleck stars in the movie and I'm sure it will be incredible, but I'm a believer in reading the book first so I really need to get started with this one!


Are any of these books taking your fancy, or should I be reaching for something else?

Em x

tumblr | twitter | instagram

♥ My Beauty Essentials

Over the past year so I've really found myself loving certain products that can make a girls life a little easier. The products I'm going to tell you about are something I always have lying around, in multiples. They're the non-makeup products I couldn't really live without.

Nivea Extra Gentle Eye Make Up Remover
This is such a gentle product. I constantly wear liquid eyeliner and lashings of mascara and this soft liquid manages to remove it all with no fuss whatsoever. The area around your eyes is super delicate and after scrubbing my eyes red raw with make up wipes when I was younger, I've finally learnt to use safe and soft products so I don't damage the skin and end up looking worse for wear.

Nivea Hydro Care Lip Balm
This one isn't set in stone, but it's the lip balm I'm using at the moment. I've been wearing eye shadow much more recently, so my tinted Baby Lips create too much of a make up look so this colourless balm is perfect. I apply it constantly throughout the day and in the run up to winter a good lip balm is essential for making sure you don't end up with dry and chapped lips.

No7 Beautiful Skin BB Cream
So, I cheated and this is a make up product, but I can't imagine not having it for those barely there days. It's perfect for those days when you don't want all the fuss of foundation and this, teamed with a good moisturiser is what I use on my face the majority of the time. The formula isn't too thick and it's easily worked into the skin. It's my go to base, for sure. It also has spf in it, so it's protecting your skin too!

Johnsons Cotton Buds
These are both a curse and a blessing of a product. They can do pretty much anything. Cleaning the fiddly parts of keyboards and mobile phones, but for me they're a saviour when fixing eye make up. With just a dab of make up remover on they can help eliminate any make up mistakes and I would surely be an angrier person if I didn't have them on hand!

Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water
Garniers offering on the micellar front might just be everyone's favourite essential. It's constantly talked about and it's so much better for your skin that scrubbing off make up with rigid wipes or harsh soaps. I use this every single night and most mornings too, just to get my face feeling clean and fresh. When used with cotton pads, it's a brilliant way to get make up out of every pore and is super gentle so it's unlikely to leave your skin red and irritated.

Cutex Nourishing Nail Polish Remover
I must admit, I used to just pick off nail polish or use cheap nail polish removers, but nails are on show all of the time so it's best to look after them. This offering from Cutex has quite a milky colour and leaves nails looking clean and moisturised. It's only a little bottle too, and lasts ages so it's not a waste to invest in a good quality remover for your nails!


Are there any essentials I've missed that I should definitely be using? Let me know!

Em x

tumblr | twitter | instagram

♥ How To: Settle into Student Life

By now, those of you who have started first year are over the excitement of freshers week and you're into the dull routine of lecture, seminar, lecture, seminar. I guess the move to university is like most other things in life - it's not at all what you expect. Chances are you're loving the independence and be away from home for the first time, but hating that you have to cook and clean for yourself. It's a time when you're going through a lot of 'firsts' and I can assure you it'll be exciting and hard from the get go but it does get easier. You'll settle in a dream and will be hesitant to leave in December!

I thought I'd put together a little post that brings together the three things I struggled with most, and ideas on how to get through the annoying bits or how to avoid any disasters.

Living with strangers and making friends:
Unless you're off to university with a massive bunch of friends, it's so unlikely that you'll know anybody that you live with, or anybody that you have to sit with in contact time at university. Though I had met my best friend at our interview stage, back in February before we started I only knew two other people going to the same university. I lived with four girls that we're all doing different courses and two boys whom I barely ever saw. It ended up being only the five of us after Easter, and so I was lucky that instead of struggling to build relationships with seven other people, I had to only did it with four. It was a shame in a sense - it narrowed down the people I knew, but luckily had those I already knew to fall back on. It was such a relief when Grace invited me to her flat. The layout of the halls were different and it was almost two in one. So I was suddenly exposed to over ten people I ended up seeing all the time, and this year I live with Grace and two of her old flatmates!
You'll also find friends within your course. While two of my best friends are my housemates and coursemates (almost, one lecture a week with them counts, right) I still had to find my feet within the entire course group at first. I don't really have any tips on how to make friends, other than to be friendly and chatty and find a common ground with those you live with. It's funny how much you'll have in common with people you'd never thought you'd get on with. So in the beginning of the year try to expand friendship groups and get to know as many people as you can - through friends in different flats, your course and through societies!

Money and making the loan last:
Due to having a single dad, I was lucky in that I had a loan that I could just about survive on. Many people aren't that fortunate and end up in an overdraft straight away. So being careful with your loan and knowing all your incomings and outgoings is absolutely vital. You're likely to be lumped with unexpected charges or outgoings so it's important to budget and put a little money away into a different account for a time when you really do need it. You'll probably want to go out and buy all your new winter clothes but you need to make sure you're going to be able to survive until January, when your next sum will come through. I wrote a really popular post on budgeting which you can find here, and it's definitely worth reading.

Getting your assignments done:
Luckily, I avoided exams altogether and chose a university that bases your degree on 'coursework'. This was perfect for me as I always struggle and panic in exams and with a creative degree, it would be pretty stupid to have exams anyway! Even with the lack of exams, first year was a shock.You have a lot of reading and extra work to do every week and lectures can really baffle you sometimes. I find it best to write up notes for each lecture while I'm in them and then go through them afterwards too, so I can note or highlight anything I don't quite understand. Then, when you're in a smaller seminar group with the module leader, when they ask questions you know exactly what you didn't understand...
These notes will then help when you choose what to do your assignments on. Chances are your lecturers would have included vital quotes or theorists within each weeks topic and if you were noting down important stuff and their references you know exactly where to find them - it saves you that bit of time you'd spend tracking down the right lecture notes online.
It's also really important to give yourself enough time to do every assignment, come January I will have three modules worth of work to hand in, and probably two pieces of work per module, so it's crucial I'm on top of it all. You're likely to be given loads of guidance in your first year on how to write essays and how to reference correctly, so you won't be thrown into the deep end... However, having ten thousand words worth of work to hand in isn't something you can leave until the night before and will take a few weeks to get done. When assignments are first mentioned, go home and start gathering references, notes and plan out each essay or piece of work!


I know it's all a lot to take in but I really struggled with my first year and getting into the swing of things. You're probably doing great but if you do feel like you can't cope there are tons of options available. Phone Mum or Dad, get in contact with your personal tutor if your university has assigned you one, students from the years above will always be willing to point you in the right direction and there are specialists within your institution that are there for the times you don't think you're doing very well. It'll probably all be super easy to figure out though.

Hope it's all going well for you and if you have any concerns or questions at all, I'm right here!

Em x

tumblr | twitter | instagram

♥ Do I Really Need That?

With my recent move back to uni and a delve back into my life of unemployment, I've realised just how much I buy without really needing it. After figuring out a rather tight budget that will stem into December, I know that I can only really buy things I desperately need... like food. This post is being written after my boyfriend had stern words with me about not really needing any new products... I'm beginning to understand why, too. Do I honestly need to buy a newly released mascara even though I have seven sat in my makeup bag? Do I need a new foundation when I have four bottles full of the stuff? There are some things that us girls just want to buy, even if we don't need it and it's not good for our purse or skin, come to think of it.

Beauty products come with an expiry date, just like food, and it's not always obvious when you should stop using a product. Checkcosmetic is an amazing little website that can help you determine whether or not you should be using that old moisturiser or lip gloss - especially for the things that don't come with clear expiry dates. It's just a tool to help you figure out what you do or don't need and which products you should be throwing away and which ones you should be using up before you go out and waste your hard earned cash. Over on one of my favourite blogs, Autumn Leaves, Rebecca does a lot to help us all figure out what's what in the beauty world and if you feel like your stash needs an Autumn clean out, you must read this amazing post she put together about expiry dates when it concerns your make up!

I know I'm definitely going to have a long hard think about all the make up I don't need to buy, and instead save myself the money and treat myself around Christmas time. It'll give me a chance to use up those four bottles of foundation, surely!

Have you got into the habit of buying products you don't even need? Confide in me so I know I'm not the only one!

Em x

tumblr | twitter | instagram

♥ Back to Blogging!

I've been shit on the blogging front lately. Not even a little bit absent - I've disappeared and promised more posts and never actually got round to re-drafting my pending topics. It's all set to change though. With the beginning of September, I'm on the mission to get a first in my second year of university (after getting a 2:1 by about 0.4 of a percent last year) and with the beginning of second year, I'm determined to try and carve myself a little part of the internet that I'm honestly proud of and could present to potential employers.

Hopefully I'll have loads going on with a lot of academic reading to do but reading for pleasure still being a priority of mine. I'll be going out, still, but not as much as I did in my first year. I'll be spending more, as rent is a little lower. Hopefully I'll be improving my technology and blog format to get it up to a more professional standard and do better at juggling my life as a student than I have done for the six months or so that this blog has been live!

I do of course, have loads to say about my personal experience with university - all in the hope of persuading younger people to grab the opportunity with both hands. I've loved it all so much and after moving into a student house with my best friends I feel even stronger about the subject! I have plenty of different things I want to share - eating habits will be cropping up, a bit about what I wear and how I spend my time... So I'm hoping the next six months of blogging will go smoothly and I'm hoping you all stick with me while I find my feet again!

Have any of you been to busy to do the things you love recently? Let me know!

Em x

tumblr | twitter | instagram