June TBR

It's nearly June and I figured id do a TBR for next month (and try to stick to it). When I give myself a TBR I feel like its more likely that ill read all the books because its like a challenge for myself. So without further ado, here is my June TBR.

First is The Bronze Key which is the 3rd book in the Magisterium series by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare. I enjoyed the first two books, though its been a while since I read them so I may need to recap so I remember exactly what's happening. I'm interested to know what will happen to Call and his friends.

Then there's Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins. I've been wanting to read this for ages and I'm in the mood for a nice romantic contemporary novel. I've heard great things about this book and I cannot wait to read it. It's about a girl whos sent off to a boarding school in France and who sounds like she'll fall in love.

Precy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riodan is the next on my list. I have enjoyed the first 3 Percy Jackson books and I'm sure this one will not disappoint. It's been too long since I read one and I have missed it a lot.

Finally, To All The Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han. Again, another romance book, can you tell I'm feeling romantic? Its about a girl who keeps love letters to every boy she's ever loved in a box and she can write what she wants because she's the only one who will ever see them, but then somehow they get out. It sounds really good and I'm excited to read it.

- Claire

Trying to find a Job when You have Anxiety and Depression; Explained

You feel the pressure to get a job because money makes the world go round but you can barely even go to an interview without throwing up from the nerves or having a panic attack on the way there. Phones are the devil and you do all you can to avoid them and most jobs involve people which is where you struggle the most. You're not unintelligent or incapable, you just struggle with people. Your friends begin to think you're lazy and just cant be bothered so you force yourself to apply and through endless rejections that only bring you down even more. All applications say they want outgoing people, which you are definitely not. You try to imagine yourself working in these places and see yourself screwing it up and so you wonder how you'll ever do it.

You see your friends working and moving out. Living their lives, working their way up while you're stuck sitting still. Your boyfriend works and you feel ashamed every time he pays for something for you. You can barely look him in the eye when you withdraw money that you did not earn. And he says he understands and he doesn't mind but surely he must to see you doing nothing and getting money.

You wish you were working, like most other people. But your mind has you trapped and no matter how hard you keep trying it always pulls you back in. Makes you feel worse about yourself because you cant do it, like a continuous circle of self-doubt. You just want to be normal, be able to get a job and work hard, move out, buy a car. It gets you down and people say "Just do it then." but how do you do that when your own mind wont let you?

- Claire

Book Haul

So today I was out with my mum and my grandparents which means we went in a few charity shops. This means I got some books, so I thought I'd share with you what I got.

First of all there is Hold Back the Stars by Katie Khan which I hadn't heard of before I saw it but the title intrigued me and the blurb even more so. It seems to be about two people in love who live in space alone. I'm not really sure but it sounds interesting and I'm a sucker for a love story.

Then there's Hotel Valhalla by Rick Riordan which is a Magnus Chase companion book. I will admit I haven't read Magnus chase yet but I plan to in the not too distant future and it was £1 so I couldn't resist.

Next is The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer which has been on my amazon wishlist for a while and as soon as I saw it in the charity shop I had to buy it. I'm not entirely sure what it's about but the blurb just intrigued me so much. "I'll tell you what happened because its a good way to introduce my brother. His name' Simon. I think you're going to like him. But in a couple of pages he'l be dead. And he was never the same after that."

I found a David Levithan book in a charity shop! I didn't even have to think for a second before getting this. I have a few books by him already and this one is Boy Meets Boy which I don't know much about. I love the books of his that I have read and I look forward to reading this too.

Then there's A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. I can never resist a fantasy book, anything with witches or vampires or werewolves and I feel a need to own it. And apparently this one has witches, demons and vampires and of course a forbidden love. I'm excited to read it!

Finally, I am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes. Another book on my amazon wishlist I can now tick off. It's a thriller and I don't own many thrillers but this one was so hyped about when I came out so I had to get it. I'm actually so tempted to start it right now but I have to finish my other book first!

So that was my little haul, I only got six so I done well. I now have to find room for them somewhere!

- Claire

Revolution Cosmetics Advent Calendar

I'm going to start this off by saying that I actually won the Revolution beauty advent calendar on Instagram. So this is not something I just went out a bought myself, although I am a huge fan of beauty advent calendars I had to cut back this year sadly. But I was really excited when I received this in the post and I thought that since we're now a week into December I would give you my first impressions of this calendar. I'd also like to point out how amazing TAM beauty were with the order as they apologised for the delay due to black Friday and sent me a free item to make up for it! Now onto the actual Revolution beauty advent calendar..

 First of all "25 full size products" hell yeah! I hate it when these beauty advent calendars only have sample size products. Also 25 not 12 or 24 but 25 which is always great. The calendar itself is pretty big but that's to be expected since its got 25 full size products inside. I'm not going to talk about every single product I've got so far individually, I just want to give you the general gist of the quality of it.

Okay, inside a couple of the windows so far there have been makeup brushes, and though they are smaller brushes they are amazing quality. Since they're small I shall be putting mine inside my makeup bag which goes inside my bag. So they're going to be really handy when I'm out and about. Most of the products have been pretty easy to get out, I've struggled in that area before with beauty advent calendars, although as you can see in the picture there's no easy starting point to open the window which can make it a bit more difficult.

This is probably the only product so far that I'm not sure if I'd use, simply because of the colour. I am not a big fan of bright pink lipsticks. However there was another one of these in a lovely nude colour which I love and have been using often so I guess a variety of colour doesn't hurt. Its all about personal taste I guess. The pigment is good and they've got a nice texture and don't leave your lips all dry so I'm quite pleased.

This is possibly my favourite product so far, along with the strobe balm. This is the baked blush which looks so nice and the colour is amazing. I haven't actually used this yet as its from todays window but I am looking forward to using it very much. I mentioned the strobe balm which is also amazing and I have also gotten an anti shine balm.

Overall I am really pleased with the products I've gotten so far and I'm really excited to see what else I get, I definitely recommend this beauty advent calendar as its not overly priced and has amazing products!

Claire xoxo

Tarte Grav3yardgirl Swamp Queen Palette

I am a huge fan of grav3yardgirl aka Bunny and as someone whos been watching her videos for years as soon as I heard she had collaborated with Tarte I was so excited. So obviously I got the palette which I'm now going to talk about.

First of all look how pretty it is! I love the quote at the top "Believe in yourself, love yourself, embrace your individuality" which is very Bunny. As you can see there are 9 eyeshadow shades and 3 cheek shades. The brush is also very good which I'm pleased about because lets face it you can never have too many makeup brushes! I have used the blush at the top, sweet tea, as more of a bronzer because I'm quite pale and it looked really nice. The middle one, does this thing really work?, is such a pretty blusher shade and gator wings makes a really nice highlighter.

The eyeshadows are such lovely colours, I have yet to use all of them but I have done a day look using #SFS, haunting, mancat, uncommon and big baby. It looked amazing, the colours were so pigmented and blended together nicely and I wish I had of taken a photo but unfortunately I had to go out so I didn't have time. I cannot wait to try more looks with this amazing palette, I highly recommend it.

Claire xoxo

October TBR

October means Halloween so I tried to add some spooky books to my TBR this month. I've not done much reading recently, but I'm planning on getting myself back on a roll again. So here is my spooktacular October TBR!

 

First of all I have The Vampire's Assistant by Darren Shan. This is the second book in the cirque du freak series and I'm very excited to read it. It's also a very short book so it shouldn't take me long to finish. It's about a boy who becomes a half-vampire and must serve as the assistant to an old vampire. You may have seen the film! 

   

The second book in my October TBR is The Witch's Kiss by Katharine & Elizabeth Corr. I picked this up the other day because I thought it sounded good, it was the "some fairy tales are darker than others" part that got me. From what I gather it's about a teenage witch who falls in love with a guy who's part of an old curse. I added this to my October TBR because I thought it was the perfect Halloween book.

Next is Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris. I'm sure you've all heard of True Blood, this is the first book in the series. I enjoyed the show a lot and I'm looking forward to seeing how the books are. Another good one for the Halloween month.

Then we have A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. An obvious choice for this month. Its about a boy who keeps having the same dream until he wakes and there's something outside his window that wants the truth from him. I've heard many good things about this book and I'm sure it won't disappoint.

Cress by Marissa Meyer is actually the book I am currently reading. It's the third book in The Lunar Chronicles which is a collection of fairy tale retellings but with cyborgs and aliens. It's one of my favourite series' so far, I cannot wait to finish this book!

Finally, The Bronze Key by Holly Black & Cassandra Clare. This is the third book in the Magisterium series and I loved the first two. It reminds me a bit of Harry Potter but with different types of magic and a different plot. I look forward to finding out what happens with the amazing characters in this book. Anything by Cassandra Clare never disappoints me!

Claire xoxo

Updates on My Life

I haven't made a blog post in quite a while so therefore I have lots of updates for you all. I've been pretty busy the past few months and I have a lot of exciting news.

First of all I got accepted to college. I'm really excited about this, very scared too, but mostly excited. I will be starting my animal management course in September. Its a two year course and I already have my placement sorted so I'm one step ahead. I've been to their keep in touch day and it all looks really good. They have alpacas and six cafes which I was not expecting. I also met someone doing the same course as me so now when I go in September I wont be completely alone.

My second piece of news is that I have a boyfriend now. We've only been dating for a couple of months but he's really amazing. He's helped me get out more and made me laugh when I feel really rubbish which is what I've needed. I met him through a friend of mine who is also new to my life and has been so great helping me get out and about too. So I have a few new people in my life who have been brilliant and I'm so glad I met them.

I have finished all my counselling sessions now. I feel like I am free. I'm finally going out and having fun and living a normal life. Obviously there are so many people that have helped me get to where I am now and I can not thank them enough, they all know who they are. For the first time in a long time I feel like things are finally going right.

I've had lots of fun days out lately, some with my friends, family and with my boyfriend. Its been a really good few months. I went to the beach with my friends a couple of months ago, I went to the cinema with my boyfriend, went bowling with friends, met up for coffee with people I hadn't seen in quite some time. I've spent days out with the family and spent lots of days at the kennels volunteering.

The only bad thing really that's happened to me recently is smashing my iPhone screen. But I got it fixed today and so everything is good again. I feel like I'm on a rollercoaster that only goes up!

Claire xoxo