Summer

I've wanted to write a brief post for the last few weeks, and so every day on my way home from Sixth Form, I was looking for things that remind me of summer. The weather in the UK right now is pretty hot and so everyone is just enjoying it, including my mother who is literally outside sunbathing right now. Anyway, this post won't be a lot of writing or anything, just a small collection of photos that make me think of this beautiful season.

 I was on the hunt for pretty flowers that I could take photos off and I was literally only 2 streets away from my house before I found some.

 

 

They were so beautiful, I really REALLY wish I had a better camera so that you could see how vibrant the flowers were. The purple colour in the photo above was absolutely gorgeous. 

 

 

 

 

You can read my last blog post: END OF SCHOOL - where I write about my delight at finishing Sixth Form for the summer

END OF SCHOOL

Yesterday was my last day at Sixth Form until September and I have to say, it felt AMAZING. Walking out of those gates and seeing that blue sky was just magical.

This summer I'm going to try to do as much as possible; I want to hang out with my friends, do some olunteering and just try to have some relax, especially before my results come through. I also want to start blogging more, like I did last year, because I really REALLY enjoy writing about what I've been up to and such things. I think this is a good way of storing memories and I like the idea of being able to read everything back and thinking, 'wow, that was incredible'.

Now as far as I'm concerned, I have 26 days and countingbefore I find out my grades but until then, I am going to have FUN. This is my last summer before I decide what university and as much as that scares me, I am so ready for it.

Feel free to follow my blog to find out what I'm going to be doing this summer because I'm absolutely determined to make it a good one. Care to join me?

Check out my last post: Higher Education Fair - where I told you about my day talking to university representatives

Higher Education Fair

Last Friday, my Sixth Form organised a school trip to a Higher Education Fair at a local university. Now it didn't take long to get there, only about an hour or so, which I was pleased about because I get absolutely terrible travel sickness. We left at about half 11 which I didn't really care about until we actually got there and saw how many stalls there were.

There was at least a hundred university representatives there to ask questions to but to be honest, I wasn't really focused on that. Any places that I want to go to, I have already looked online on the websites and know everything that I need to know about that specific courses, campuses or universities. While I was there, a lot of people tried to get me to order prospectuses even though I've already got loads, so I was generally just helping my friends talk to people.

The absolutely best thing about the day was all the free stuff we got, I mean it was AMAZING; I literally collected 8 pens, about a dozen chocolates and a wristband. As soon as the bus pulled up to the gates, we saw masses of people walking out of the halls with BAGS of free things and I almost died with excitement.

There was also a Careers Hall that we went in for a few minutes but it wasn't that good to be honest. I mean, there was only a few stalls which weren't really that interesting and so we left pretty much straight away.

The only downside of the day was that we weren't actually told where all the stalls were and so we spent the large majority of the time in the Main Hall without realising that the Sports Hall, which was literally on the other side of the campus, was filled as well. This means that we weren't able to see every uni stall before we left since we were only there for 2 and a half hours.

But overall it was a good day and I think it was really beneficiall for people who haven't really looked at unis and wanted a little bit of guidance. I know that they hold the fairs at loads of different unis across the country all throughout the year so if you are looking at going into Higher Education, then I would recommend going to one because I think its a good experience. You can have a look online at the remaining events right HERE.

Check out my last blog post: French Manicure Nail Tutorial - where I give you easy step by step instructions on how to achieve simple yet beautiful nails

French Manicure Nail Tutorial

For the last few months I've had bare nails just because I haven't had any time to paint them properly. So I thought I would do something really simple and pretty in time for summer, and thats a French Manicure. Now the last time I tried to do this was years ago and it completely failed but this time, I was a lot better. I think any nail art just needs practice to perfect it and with that in mind, don't worry if it doesn't work out exactly right the first time. I will say that this tutorial is very similar to my 'Cupcake' Inspired Nail Art which you can check out if you want to.
Now the first thing I do is cut and shape my nails correctly. I find that French Manicures always look better when the nail is squarely rounded; by that, I mean that the shape should be more square than not but the corners are rounded. I think that this makes the nail look professional but beautiful at the same time, which is exactly what a French Manicure is.

At this point, you can put tape around your nail bed to avoid getting it all over your fingers but this depends on how well you paint your nails. I don't usually do this but I think it looks good. I didn't use tape for this just because I only painted my nails to take the photos.

The next thing I do is start creating my white tip; now you can use a base coat first but I don't really think its necessary for this look because the white is only on a tiny part of your nails. Depending on how good your white varnish is, is how many coats off it you need. I would say two coats is probably best because it gives just a solid block of colour on your tips and that makes the nail look SO much better. Anything more than two coats is usually more risky because the more layers you put on the tip, the more 3D it becomes and therefore the longer it takes to dry. This increases how likely you are to smudge or ruin your nails so I would definitely stick to only two coats.

The next step that you would usually expect is to wait for the tips to dry then paint your entire nail with the French Pink. However, I'm skipping this step because my nails naturally are relatively pink and adding another colour to them just doesn't look right, especially since my skin colour is darker than the French Pink. It also dulls down the intensity of the white tips that you've spent the last ten minutes perfecting, so I leave my nails bare.

I still use my Elegant Touch Rapid Dry for Nails just to set the tips before I put a top coat on. This gives my nails a slight shine which looks nice with the white and then thats it! You are DONE.

Check out my last blog post: UPDATE JUNE 2014 - where I tell you what happened in my life last month