Australia Exploring #3!

Yesterday was one of those days where I just had to go to the beach. Priorities though: I went for a manicure first (a really awesome one) and then I met my friend for lunch before we walked to the beach. 

First of all, lunch was flipping amazing. I can't remember the name of the place we went but the sandwich I had was one of  the best. It was somewhere in Port Melbourne on Beach Street I think, so hunt down the good places on there and I'm sure you'll come across it. They also do these pretty awesome berry smoothies.

It was so frickin' hot though and I am as pasty as it gets so me and the sun don't always mix well, but I put my factor 50 on (if a higher one existed I would be putting that on instead) and off we went to the beach.

We stopped at Princes Pier on the way to the beach, seeing as it was only a couple of minutes away and it proved to be quite the photogenic spot on a beautiful day.

And as for the beach, well it was very sandy and I got sand in places I didn't even know sand could go but all in all it was a fab day!

Katie x

P.s. For those of you wondering, yes, my pasty, milk bottle skin did get burnt - it resembles a tomato instead now :(

My Month In Pictures

Hello!

I decided to be super cute today and make a collage of all my favourite pictures from this month because, you may have noticed, I love to take snaps of all the lovely moments! Now I have the cutest collage that rounds up my month and all the beautiful things that happened this month.

Most of them I've probably already blogged about somewhere in this little internet world because I like to make sure I keep you guys all up to date with my life and I find it nice to look back on myself today and see all of the lovely things I've done.

There was my lovely grown-up niece's birthday and then, of course, Miss Princess Daisy's birthday (I wrote a little something for her HERE, if you want to pop over to it), then the day after was the James's birthday, and two days after was my Grandpa's birthday! There are way too many birthdays to handle in just one month!

I also had a night out with some of my friends from home amidst all of this and a day in Newcastle with my bestie. There have been plenty of days out with all of the Little (and Big) Ones that I can't even tell you about them all but I did posts on a few of them HERE, HERE and HERE. I also found time to have an operation on my ear at some point and get a job (which I did a little thing on HERE)! It's actually been quite a busy month now I'm trying to remember everything I've done!

Have you done anything nice this month?

Katie x

A Day of Little Ones: Part 2

Hello!

The afternoon part of my day last Thursday was spent with Megan and Sophie, who are so grown up now it amazes me! I look at them and I'm just like "when did you shoot up?! This is a recent thing... Right?". It seems to have just dawned on me recently how big they're getting - Megan, the oldest, will even be off to secondary school (high school) in September next year! I remember when they were just little babies, it feels weird to see them so grown up and giving you answers to things that you forget a nine year old knows!

Anyway, my distress of them growing up so quickly aside, here is my afternoon with the girlies!

If you didn't see yesterday's post with Part One, click HERE to give it a quick read!

 One of these bikes decided to break whilst we were at the park, with the breaks stuck on it, unfortunately I got the joy of pushing it all the way home!

 Little gymnastic girlies! They're amazing at it! I went to see their gym show last week and I was amazed by what some of the children in the show could do and none of them were older than ten!

 To say I had a mini heart attack when I turned around and saw them climbing this tree would be an understatement!

 I got over it though, they assured me they'd done it plenty of times before... Not going to lie, it still didn't stop my heart from pounding twice as fast as it should have.

 She's a right poser this one!

We all went out for a little meal afterwards with some other friends - I especially love the Daisy and her Megan in this photo, so cute!

Katie x

The Sunny One

Hello!

Yesterday was an actual, fatual sunny day! Believe it or not, they are very rare where I live so, obviously, sun can mean only one thing a trip to the park with my Little One! 

As soon as I walked through the door, she looked at me, grinned and started shouting "shoes on! Shoes on! Out! Paaaark!" - she knows if I go to visit and it's sunny then we go out, so we did and what a lovely afternoon we had, too!

Ice-pops are just crazy-exciting!

Spot the birdies!

I have my own miniature Hermoine Granger - she even ran around the park waving the stick and saying "abbacababa" - in other words "abracadabra" - it's not hard to see where her big sisters are rubbing off on her!

Katie x

Just Another Little Shopping Spree

Hello!

If you read THIS post, from yesterday, you will know that my best friend and I took a day out for a shopping trip in Newcastle!

I didn't go crazy (although I really wanted to), due to the whole summer-means-no-student-finance-which-means-no-money situation, but I thought I would share the things I did buy with you!

(Like last time, I'll add a little collage at the end of the clothes being worn because I know how different things can look until you see them on someone).

An essential to any students shopping trip is Primark, of course.

Primark - £8.00

I used to have a bag extremely similar to this which was also from Primark but the clasp finally broke a few months ago, probably because of my extreme over-usage of it... Anyway, I saw this one and thought it was similar, just a different colour, and thought it would do as a good replacement for the one that's gone to handbag heaven (R.I.P. little bow bag). 

I really like this bag and, as you can see, I've already started using it. The only thing is, it's a little bit of a tight squeeze to fit a lot in and I always like to stuff useless and pointless things in my bag, but maybe it will teach me to be more ruthless!

Top - Primark - £3.50
Shorts - Primark - £4.00

How cute are these pj's?!

I have a pajama obsession. I definitely have more sets of pajama's than necessary BUT I only have one set of short pj's, so these were a necessity! Or at least that's what I'm going to tell myself. I know there's not much need for short pajamas in England but we're having a particularly hot spell of weather at the moment (or hot for us English people, anyway) and I can't stand being too hot on a night. So, I bought these. Don't judge. I need pajamas.

Primark - £6.00 each

Two cardigans, one in black and one in navy blue. A bit boring but they were needed - even though it's kind of hot in England at the moment, you still need to take some sort of cardigan or cover-up; the weather can change quicker than you can click your fingers here!

Primark - £6.00

Oh hai there, little bag!

Okay, so I didn't really need another bag. It's cute though, right? I already found a use for it when I went out the other night (also explained in yesterday's blog post, *hint* *hint*). It's actually a really good size. I managed to fit my purse, phone, a small amount of make-up (mascara, lipstick, etc.) a little tin with hair grips and hair ties in it and something else that I can't even remember now in it. So it's perfect if you're trying to be concise and limit what you take out with you.

Primark - £4.00

This one was actually from when I went on a day out with my brother a few weeks ago (I blogged about the day HERE, if you're interested) but I thought I'd just add it to this post, considering it was the only thing I bought that day.

It's definitely not something I would normally pick up, never mind buy, but I was obviously feeling extra brave that day and went for it. It's super pretty actually! The colour and the pattern just scream spring/summer to me. I just need to get used to the round neck, I don't normally wear anything with a high neck but I think the top is lovely. It's a little bit on the big side for me but I don't think it looks bad being a tad too big because it's made of a meshy kind of material. I would wear a vest top under it seeing as it's see-through, but the light material makes it cool for a warmer climate!

Dorothy Perkins - Wallis - £12.75 (with student discount)

Now this was from Dorothy Perkins, or Wallis in Dorothy Perkins, to be exact. The colour is what caught my attention - it's sooooo bright! It's definitely something new for me; I don't normally go for colours this bright but I do love pink so I had to buy it. Once again, it's something good for the warm weather because it's a sheer kind of material and light and airy.

Boots - Benefit - £15.50

Alas, the £15 eyebrow pencil I told you about yesterday (it was actually £15.50). It's by Benefit so obviously it was going to be expensive but Benefit are normally a great brand so I splashed out. 

I really didn't want to use it once I bought it - all I could think was "don't ruin this, Katie. You paid £15 for it - don't be your usual clumsy self with it!". I did finally bring myself to use it though and it's amazing. It's the best eyebrow pencil I have ever used. I'm not much of a make-up person but, if I'm going out somewhere, I'll always at least use concealer, mascara and an eyebrow pencil (there's my little tip of the day!). It's the perfect colour for my eyebrows, stays on incredibly well and it has a little spooly thing (is that what you call it?) on the other end to tidy them up! As my friend said when she convinced me to buy it - it will last at least twice as long as any cheap one you would buy because you don't have to top it up and it's amazing quality.

And that's everything!

It was a lovely little day out and who doesn't love a bit of relaxed retail therapy?!

I hope you liked this little shopping insight, let me know what you thought or if you've bought any pretty summer-y things lately!

A candid moment of me falling over mid-twirl to end - I'm so graceful - thank god the bed was there, or that could have been more painful than it actually was!

Katie x

Exciting Days!

Hello!

Sorry for the lack of a post yesterday but the day suddenly got really busy, really quickly!

I thought I'd give you a little update of what's happened over the past few days because I've been a busy, buzzing bumble bee!

I feel like I've done nothing but run around since Wednesday, when I went to see my great aunt. It all started to get super hectic Thursday though.

I had to be up at 7AM on Thursday morning and, can I just point out, I don't think I've gotten up that early for about a year now, considering most of my lectures were after 10AM - it nearly killed me (of course I'm not exaggerating)! Anyway, I had to be up early for an orthodontist appointment, then I was meeting my best friend, Feef, so we could go to Newcastle for the day and have one of our epic and wonderful shopping days! We literally only made the train with seconds to spare but hey ho! What fun would it be if we were always organised... 

We did nothing but chat the entire way to Newcastle, and the whole time we were there. And the whole way back, actually. We just talked. A lot. We have one of those incredible friendships where we can talk about anything and everything without even thinking about it, and we can make fun of each other but if anyone else does it, they're dead meat (not literally, obviously, I don't advocate violence... Seriously though, we always have each others backs). Our day in Newcastle started with a lovely meal in Pizza Hut; it was yummy - I'm one of those awful people that goes to somewehre called Pizza Hut and gets pasta because what's the point in going with the flow, right? It was delicious though, without a doubt, one of the best pasta dishes I've ever had. 

We also had a lengthy discussion about tattoos (something I'd love to know your opinion on, by the way, I know not everyone is a promoter of tattoos). I personally wouldn't mind a tattoo, I'm just not sure if I could handle the pain, and I wouldn't know where to get it either. I like tattoos as long as they're not too big; I don't really like the whole cover-your-body-in-tattoos-because-it's-so-cool look and, I'm not meaning to be sexist here but I know everyone will say it sounds like that, I don't think girls suit having heavy tattoos, like sleeves or a whole leg covered etc., I do love to see other peoples tattoos though and get to know the meaning behind them.

We spent over an hour and a half in Primark and I'm sure over half an hour of that was spent in the fitting rooms! Of course, we needed a coffee break after that (any excuse). A trip to Boots ended up in me spending £15 on an eyebrow pencil - don't ask - after Fee persuaded me I was in desperate need of it, which I'm sure I am... Maybe. It's okay though, we went to New Look after that and I told her that the denim jacket she was looking at was a necessity and a bargain, plus, every girl has a denim jacket in her wardrobe; it's a staple. Apart from me, oops! We went other places too but our feet were killing by this point and we were knackered and now I'm struggling to remember everywhere else we actually went into, and I need to stop saying 'and'. 

Before we went to wait for the train (we actually had to wait for this one, rather than jump on it at the last minute) Feef went and bought one of the smallest Machiato's I've ever seen - her whole hand could cover it, and she has tiny hands!

We had a great, girly day, now we just wish we hadn't spent all of our money so that we could go back and do it again!

(I had to put all of the pictures into a collage, there was that many!)

We made an impulse decision the next night for us all to go out, like a mini reunion for those of us who are back home from uni. Only problem was, I'd already arranged to go and see the Megan, Sophie and Daisy, so I had to pay a flying visit to their house (I pretty much did fly in and out of the door, too!). The night resulted in a lot of alcohol and a lot of pouting - I'm not even sure why we were pouting so much, we're obviously just too cool for school! I don't drink that much either, so I guess there wasn't that much alcohol for me. Every picture I have from the night was what we found on Snapchat the next day - some of us were definitely drunker than others, I'm proud to say I was not one of those - It was an phenomenal night full of laughter and a whole lotta new 'drunk jokes'.

Anything interesting been happening elsewhere?

Katie x

The Cute Days

Hello!

I am loving being back at home because it means so many of those cute days that I just love!

Yesterday I took Daisy Doo (her name isn't actually Daisy Doo - it's just Daisy but we add the 'Doo' on the end because, well, why not), my goddaughter, out for the day and it was soooo cute! Or maybe it was just her that was cute... Whatever the case, she made the whole day cute! Basically, there was a whole lot of cuteness!

Her sisters were off to see One Direction with their Mama, so it meant I got to spoil her for the whole day!

It's beautiful weather at home (for once) and there was no way we weren't going to make the most of it, so we ended up at the park. Of course, I took tons of pictures but here are just a few (we'd be here all day if I posted them all!).

It's days like this that I've missed since going to uni and I can't wait for more!

Katie x