Crete Photo Diary

As I usually do, I wanted to put together a photo diary from my recent trip abroad, this time to Crete. The only time I'd been here before was when I was little so it was interesting to come back again.

The weather was always hot and the food was amazing. However, my favourite part was definitely getting to go parasailing on the beach! This has always on my bucket list and it was an incredible experience, I'd definitely recommend giving it a go. Another highlight of the holiday was being upgraded to our own villa for free, with our own pool! This had never happened before so it was a real treat for the last few days of our stay.

Have you ever been to Greece?

Studying Public Relations at Uni

As I've mentioned before, I'm currently in my first year of university studying Public Relations (which is why I've been a bit absent from blogging lately). Anyway, I wanted to talk about my subject on here, as it's becoming a more popular course, especially since the rise of blogging/online media.

Obviously the course will be different depending on which university you go to, but most will have similarities. I've completed the first term and am now onto my second one, meaning I have had the chance to experience a lot of modules and can hopefully shed some light on what it's actually like to study PR. PR isn't familiar to a lot of people, so unlike a traditional course such as English or History, you generally have to give a bit of an explanation of what's involved. For me, it's mainly about managing the reputation of a company or individual by building relationships with the public.

At my university, year one gives you quite a broad outlook on a variety of subjects, some more directly relevant to PR than others. For instance, the module 'Introduction to PR' gave us lots of information about the industry, whereas 'Public Administration' lets us learn more about politics and current affairs, which you still need an interest in but may not use specifically in your future career. A key part of our course is that we receive a lot of education about journalism too, as it's part of the same school as PR. I would say this has had a mixed reaction, but all in all it's been interesting to see 'how the other half lives', for example getting to use a variety of media equipment.

Exam wise, it's very different from what I'm used to. I would say my strength lies in written exams, whilst PR tends to rely more on coursework. Whilst I knew this was coming, I've definitely had to adapt. So far, we've written essays, had in-class tests, done presentations and put together portfolios of creative work. We've even run the social media on one of the university's events. I've actually enjoyed this type of assessment as it ultimately allows you to be more creative.

Overall, I'm really liking my course so far. As PR is still new to the academic world, our course is really small which allows us to all get to know each other well. This may vary depending on where you go, but I would say to generally expect smaller numbers, although this may change in the upcoming years.

Hopefully I've covered the main points about studying PR, but if you have any questions feel free to leave them in the comments!

A Look Back at 2015

It's crazy to think that 2015 is over, it's honestly flown by! I've had a really great year and enjoyed some amazing experiences so today I wanted to round up just a few of the best moments.

1. Our blog meet up!
This year, Kate and I held our first blog meet up in London. Not only did I get the chance to spend some time with Kate, a long-time blogging friend, but we also got to meet some other bloggers and have a generally lovely day.

2. My last year at school & prom
I really enjoyed my final year of sixth form and was happy with the results that I came out with. Another highlight was prom - our school was decorated so prettily and it was really nice to all come together again once more before university.

3. A great summer
So many amazing things happened during summer so I summarised it into one point. Some of the most memorable things that happened were generally socialising and having fun with my friends, seeing Ed Sheeran, going to V Fest and spending a week in Greece.

4. I started uni!
This is probably my favourite part of the year, as university has been great so far. I haven't been there long but I already have so many good memories and I can't wait for it all to continue.

5. Changing my hair colour
This year I've gone from having a nearly-natural hair colour to blonde and then, most recently, to dark brown. I've loved experimenting and seeing what suits me, and I think I'm going to stick with brown for now.

What were your favourite parts of 2015?
(Side note: yes, I have changed my font. I decided the last one was too unreadable, so hopefully this works better!)

My New Hair 2015

Jumper: Topshop

I've recently fallen off the face of the blogging earth due to uni, Christmas and just being busy in general. However, things have settled down a bit now and so I'm hoping to get back into a regular blogging routine and to produce some interesting content for the new year! Let me know if you want to see anything in particular.

Anyway, onto the post. You may remember I did something similar to this about a year ago, when I changed my hair for the first time and went blonder. Since then, I've had the colour topped up once more for prom and have enjoyed having light hair a lot. Recently though, I've gotten really bored of it and fancied a big change again. I've always had the idea of going darker but wasn't sure if it would suit me or not. In the end, I decided to take the plunge and get my hair dyed a dark brown.

The hairdresser started by doing some caramel-coloured highlights throughout my hair, before applying a dark brown colour on the top and a slightly lighter shade on the ends due to the blonde I still had there. I also had a lot cut off as I prefer to have a shorter length - it's so much easier to maintain. I'm honestly so pleased with the result - it's such a refreshing change and I definitely prefer it to when I was blonde!

Have you changed your hair recently?

My University Photo Wall featuring Cheerz

Before I start, I just want to say sorry for not keeping up with my blog recently. As I mentioned in my last couple of posts, I'm in my first term of university and so my life has been pretty busy. Not only that, but it's been hard to find the motivation and enough relevant content. Anyway, for now I'm back and I have a few other posts in the works so hopefully my schedule should be back to normal by Christmas.

Recently I was given the opportunity to review some photos* from the brand Cheerz. I jumped at the chance because I'd already started creating a photo wall in my uni room (the large photos in the middle are ones I printed myself). As you can see, we have pretty boring cream brick walls and so I wanted to decorate them to make the room a bit more homely. Cheerz has a really cute website with lots of products to choose from, including the ones I picked - the Strips and the Christmas Cheerz Box.

The Strips are shown in the last photo, where you get five strips with four photos on each. You can also add text at the bottom to personalise them. The Christmas Cheerz Box is a set of 30 photos, printed in an almost polaroid style and packaged in a gorgeous printed box. You can also add text to these or customise the colour of the frame but I chose to leave them plain. The quality of the product is amazing for the price - they feel really professional. You can also choose various methods of uploading your photos, including selecting them from your Instagram or Facebook account.

Overall, I really love my new photo prints as they make my wall so much more interesting and are a nice little reminder of home. If you fancy making an order yourself, you can use my code SOPMAVC to get £4 off!

Have you ever purchased any photos from Cheerz?

What I've Learnt From Freshers Week

Sunday 14th of September: the day I officially left home and moved up to university for the first time! The first week, or Freshers week, was pretty hectic - going out every night starts to take its toll on you after a while. Although most people have finished their Freshers week now, I thought it would be interesting to share a few things I learnt from the whole experience!

1. Spend time with your flatmates
This may sound pretty obvious, but right from the beginning I tried to constantly talk to my flatmates. Make sure you keep your door open if you can - it's much more sociable and it gives you a chance to get to know everyone rather than just sitting in your room. 

2. Make the most of going out
This one varies from person to person as not everyone likes to go out all the time, but I'd definitely recommend going out as much as you can with your flatmates or whoever you're friends with as it's a great way to socialise and have fun before lessons begin.

3. You have to clean, and it sucks!
I think it depends on how used to doing chores you are, but for me cleaning is probably my least favourite part of living by myself. I've pretty much managed to keep my room in an acceptable state, but sharing the kitchen with five other people means that it can get very messy! Just make sure you chip in and do your bit, otherwise you'll be living in filth!

4. Keep an eye on your money
During the chaos of Freshers week, it's easy to spend money on various things - like meals out or alcohol. Just make sure you know how much you're spending - nobody wants to be using their overdraft so soon!

5. Take all the opportunities you're given
University is all about getting involved in new things, and events like the Freshers and Societies Fayres are great ways to do this. Join clubs and sports and go to the various socials - not only is it a good way to find new interests but you're also bound to make friends too.

Are you currently at university? What did you think of Freshers week?

Life & Blogging Update

My blogging schedule has been a bit irregular in the past few weeks and I just wanted to write a post explaining what's been happening recently and what's going to be going on in the near future.

As you will have seen in my last few posts, I've been on holiday to both Rhodes and Cornwall with my family, from which I put together some photo diaries. Also last weekend I went to V Festival, which was an amazing experience and it meant that my last post went up a little later. There have been a few changes in my life recently and so that's why blogging has taken a bit of a back seat and the content has been a bit random! I'll be spending the next couple of weeks with my family and friends before I head off to university, although I do hope to put together some blog posts so that even if I'm busy, I can keep up my regular schedule.

As I said, I'm going to university (to study public relations) in around two weeks, which is both incredibly scary but also exciting. However, it's most likely going to make my life a bit crazy and blogging won't be my priority so don't be surprised if I disappear for a little while. Hopefully I can still blog a fair bit but posts may appear a little less often whilst I settle in. I hope you can all understand!

That pretty much sums up everything I wanted to update you on, and I'll speak to you soon in my next post!

Cornwall Photo Diary 2015

I spent the last week in Cornwall, which was surprisingly hot and sunny! Photography is obviously a part of blogging, but it's also a hobby for me and so I wanted to share some of the photos I took whilst I was there. (On a side note, sorry that all of my posts recently have been lifestyle based, I plan on writing some beauty ones again soon I promise!)

We spent the sunniest days on various beaches, and we also explored the local town and harbour. We visited this particular place last year and so it was nice to come back again and rediscover all the cute little shops. In the evenings, we often ate out - in a pub, in Rick Stein's café and in a small restaurant called Burgers and Fish. We also went on walks and fed the ducks at the local pond, whilst taking in the amazing views. It was a great holiday and a really relaxing week in general.

Have you ever been to Cornwall?

London Summer Meet Up

On Tuesday this week, Kate and I headed up to London for our #LDNSummerMeetUp in Covent Garden. We've been planning this for a while now and so for it to actually happen was a bit crazy, but really exciting! (Check out Kate's post here.)

Kate stayed at mine and we travelled up to London on the Tuesday morning to meet everyone. There were eight of us which went shopping in the Oxford Circus and Covent Garden area, and then two more joined for lunch. I bought lots of lovely things (although there won't be a haul as the majority was underwear!) - one product which I'm excited to try though is the Stila liquid eyeliner. We had lunch at The Diner in Covent Garden which was great - I'd eaten there at a previous meet up and so knew what to expect, and the food definitely didn't disappoint!

We stayed in London a little longer to do some more shopping - Kate and I were originally going to eat dinner at Wagamama but we were just too full from lunch! We also put together some goody bags which we gave out on the day which included products from St Moriz, Jewellery Box, Balmi, Popband, Timeless Truth and NSPA. As we had a smaller turnout than we had originally planned for, we had quite a few goody bags left over and so both Kate and I will be doing giveaways in the near future! Mine will most likely be going up next week, so keep an eye out for that.

Thank you so much to everyone who came - it was such a great day and hopefully there will be some more meet ups in the future to come to for those of you who couldn't make it!

Rhodes Video Diary 2015

As promised, here is a little video diary which I put together using short clips that I filmed whilst in Rhodes a couple of weeks ago. It's a little bit different from what I usually post, but let me know if you enjoy it! If you fancy seeing more of my time in Greece, you can check out my last post, which was a photo diary, as well as my instagram.

I'd love to hear where you've been this summer in the comments below.

Rhodes Photo Diary 2015

For the past week I have been on holiday in the sunny Rhodes, Greece, and as per usual I wanted to share a selection of photos which I took whilst I was there. I will also have a video diary going up as well at some point next week!

We visited a place close by a couple of years ago, and it was great to return as it's a lovely island. We stayed in a stunning hotel, as you can see by some of the photos, and also visited the town of Lindos - home to the Acropolis. We visited some local bars and restaurants, but mainly ate in the restaurant buffet at the hotel. It was super hot whilst we were there - around 32 degrees every day. The heat was nice at first but I wouldn't want to have stayed for much longer - the weather is very different from back here in Britain! Overall, I had an amazing time and if you want to see more photos from my trip, I posted regularly on my instagram.

Have you ever been to Greece?

Prom 2015

Last night I attended my leavers prom with the rest of my year, which was held at our school. It was the final event (other than results day) with everyone getting together, so it was definitely a bit emotional at times. Although we were a bit wary of it being held at our school, the place was decorated so nicely with lots of fairy lights and drapes, which made for a stunning setting. From the free bar to the amazing fireworks display (our prom is the best), it was a great night overall and I'm going to miss everyone so much!

I chose a dress from Boohoo, as it was quite inexpensive but still really pretty, and I loved the sequins on the front. With this, I wore a pair of black strappy heels from New Look, a clutch from H&M (I didn't photograph this but it did feature in this previous blog post) and a Barry M Nail Paint in Coconut. I did my hair and make-up myself and kept things fairly simple, with a sparkly brown eye and a nude lip. I curled my hair using straighteners and pinned a couple of pieces back. I really liked how this all turned out, and it just goes to show that you don't always need everything to be professionally done!

Have you had a prom this year?

Sunday Summary

Today's post is a bit of a random, chatty one! As I've been on half term this week, it's been all about revision, but I still wanted to keep to my regular Sunday schedule so instead I thought I'd just talk about what's been going on recently.

My first exam is a week on Monday - if you didn't know, I take Spanish and Biology and so I have three exams coming up over the next couple of weeks. Because of this, it's likely that I may drop off the blogging radar soon, but once they're all out of the way I promise to make it up in terms of content. Other than constant work, I've also been doing the 30 Days of Yoga Challenge, which has kept me relaxed as well as active - I'd definitely recommend trying it out.

I also went shopping today, which was a nice break. I doubt that I'll do a haul but I picked up a few simple bits from Primark, some nice summer tops from H&M as well as some Mom shorts from Topshop. Other than that, I've become completely obsessed with Grey's Anatomy (if you follow me on Twitter I'm sure you're well aware of this fact) - I'm just about to start season 11 now! I'd 100% recommend watching it if you haven't, although if you have exams then maybe start afterwards because it often ends up distracting me from revision! Music wise, my study playlists have mainly consisted of Marina and The Diamonds' album Froot and Lana Del Rey's Ultraviolence.

What have you all been up to lately?

Exam Tips | Stress, Revision & Staying Organised

With exam season under way/on the way for some of us, I thought I'd do something a little bit different today and share some of my tips for dealing with exams in general - from handling stress to how to stay organised.

1. Give yourself a break
Dealing with exams and revision can be really stressful, so it's important to take time out and have a break now and again. It may seem like you need to cram in revision, but if you do too much at once you'll end up stressed and tired which isn't going to help when it comes to taking the actual exam!

2. Colour coding & revision layout
If you're a visual learner like me, then colour coding is your best friend! Highlighters are essential, and I find using different colours for different things really useful as it helps me remember them better. Similarly, layout can be really important - rather than just writing things in a boring list, try using mind maps or diagrams and stick them up on a wall you look at often.

3. Keep a diary/timetable
In exam season, it can be easy to just say that you'll revise, without mentioning any specifics. I find that this makes it easier to just put it off and procrastinate - if you have a specific timetable then it makes sure you stick to it, and using a diary helps you keep on track of what you still need to do.

4. Take advantage of resources
Make use of whatever you can - go to revision sessions put on by your teachers, use all the documents they put on your school website and work together with your friends so that you have all the notes you need. This way, you can have lots of different resources available to you rather than just your own revision which can get a bit repetitive if it's all you use.

5. Past papers are your friend
Past papers can get boring really quickly and it's easy to just skip to the mark scheme for answers, but they're super useful because they tell you what you know and what you need to go over. You can also make use of the mark scheme as it's helpful to see how the exam board wants you to word you answers. And don't forget, some exams come with an examiner's report that lets you know where past students went wrong.

I hope you found these tips useful, and good luck if you have exams on the way! Feel free to leave any of your own tips in the comments below.

Weekend Wishlist | Summer Loving

L-R - Shop Dixi earrings, Barry M nail polish, Shop Dixi ring, H&M shoes, New Look dress, Topshop sunglasses, Shop Dixi ring, Hemsley and Hemsley book, Nars foundation.

Another Sunday, another weekend wishlist! This one is more summer themed, as it's been getting a bit warmer recently and I can't wait for summer now! As soon as pay day arrives, I'll most likely be buying some clothes and bits like this for the warmer months - updating my wardrobe for a new season is one of my favourite things to do!

Weekend playlist: All my music on Spotify (username is sophieem5) - but mainly Marina and the Diamond's album FROOT
Weekend reading: Nothing unless you count my school textbooks for revision!
Weekend watching: Season 5 of Grey's Anatomy & The Island with Bear Grylls

What's on your weekend wishlist?

(Disclaimer: none of the pictures shown above belong to me.)

Eighteen | Birthday Haul

If you didn't know, about a week ago I turned eighteen! It feels crazy to think I'm legally an adult and can do a ton of things now, like vote or buy alcohol. I spent my actual birthday relaxing and opening presents with my family, and then this week I went for a meal with some of my friends and also went out yesterday with those who were old enough! I had such an amazing time and am so thankful for all the nice gifts.

Above are some of the presents I received from my friends and family. From my family, I was given some money towards a festival ticket, art supplies, a blender (so I can make lots of nice smoothies - hence the book), cooking books, clothes and lush goodies. From my friends, I received more art bits, some make-up items, jewellery, candles and some seriously pretty plants as well as a copper and glass container to put them in. I've probably missed a few things but I was so lucky to get all of these amazing presents and I just generally had a great birthday.

What gifts have you received lately?

#LDNSummerMeetUp with Beauty Babbles!

Today's post is an exciting one, and one that's been in the works for a while. I've tweeted about it a few times so you may have heard by now, but me and Kate are planning a blog meet up in London this summer and now I can officially announce it! We've set the date as Tuesday 28th July - I know a weekday might be difficult for some people but it had to be then as I work on a weekend. We haven't got all the details as we're still planning it at the moment, so this post is just to put out some feelers and see who's interested in coming.

We want to keep it fairly small as it's our first meet up - around 20 people. So if you're interested then let either me or Kate know and leave your twitter. Feel free to either comment on here or drop me an email. If more than 20 people respond, I'll still take everyone's names etc in case people change their mind/cancel (please let me know if you do). The rough idea at the moment is to do a similar thing to a meet up I went to a couple of years ago - meet in Covent Garden, possibly split into groups and go shopping, have lunch altogether and then hopefully head to a location if we can organise a brand event/demonstration. If you tweet about this, don't forget to use our hashtag of #LDNSummerMeetUp!

Let me know if anyone has any meet up tips or ways to get brands involved. I can't wait to meet more bloggers and I hope it will be a really fun day!