Before I start writing this post here is a disclaimer: I am grateful for everything which I got for my birthday and by no means am I trying to show off. I am also not including everything which I received as this post would go on for ages with all of the little bits and pieces I got.

One of the things I have been using recently which was given to me by my friend Georgina and that is the MUA eyeshadow palette in Hall of Fame. We are both lovers of the MUA palettes as they are only £4 (!!!) and are quite similar to the Naked palettes. They are also very pigmented and are of a high quality. This is my third MUA palette and I'm hoping to get another soon.

The next thing I received was from my Nan, I about screamed when I opened this as I am an avid make-up lover I just don't have a lot of money to buy expensive products, and that is Benefit's They're Real mascara. I had heard so many good reviews about this and my mum also has it so I really wanted to try it out myself. I can confirm, I love this mascara! But due to the long fibres in a ball on the end of the mascara wand I constantly poke myself in the eye.

From my friend Clara, I got two The Body Shop hand cream's in mango and pink grapefruit (I got the shower gel from her as well) and they smell absolutely amazing! The mango one is pictured but my favourite is the pink grapefruit. It leaves my hands so soft and they come in a really cute metal tube kind of like watercolours would!

Another beauty product which I have been absolutely loving is the Barry M Gelly Hi Shine Nail Paint, from my Aunt. I always get two Barry M nail polishes from my aunt and she never fails to disappoint with the colours. I have them in 'plum' and 'sky blue'. Right now I'm wearing plum with a matte top coat over it. The colours are so nice and recently I have been loving purple and you can never have too many light blue nail polishes!

From my Grandma and Grandpa I got a white orchid plant which I've wanted for so so long! I just find them so beautiful, and from my other set of grandparents a got a bamboo orchid for doing well in my dance show which you can see in the back. Whenever I go in to Asda I spend quite a lot of my time just looking at the plant section in awe.

The final gift which I will be featuring in the post is a cushion from my friend Paige. It has the prettiest colour scheme or oranges, greens and white. It has the old rhyme which people say when picking off the petals of a daisy and I just find this cushion really cute. It already has it's place on my bed with a few other cushions which I've had for years now.

Big news! I actually got a new camera! (Just saying, but if someone asked what I'd like for my birthday I'd say that I was saving up for a DSLR camera so I ended up receiving mostly money for my birthday which was what I wanted and ended up having enough to buy a Canon EOS 1200D which is the camera I have been looking at for a year now.) So expect higher quality pictures and as it is the summer holidays also expect more posts on my blog and other stuff coming your way.

A few of you may know that back in June I went to Chichester for Festival of Speed at Goodwood. Even though I don't particularly like or enjoy cars and had a good time there.


I had to wake up at 5am which was a nightmare as I only went to sleep five hours prior as a dance show kept me up late. I slept a large chunk of the way to the festival and we arrived at 8am. When we entered we met up with another family which we are friends with and I got a bit suspicious when people at stands were offering me free things (they were meant to).

As the day went on the males in the group were off all over the place looking at racing and stands, which left us sitting on a picnic blanket in the middle of a cricket pitch. The only stand which took my interest was the Canon stand, they had a competition (which I obviously haven't won) and loads of the cameras with massive professional lenses on them, I was allowed to take a picture with one. I also picked up a I 'heart' Canon badge.

There was then an air show put on by the Red Arrows which I got a few pictures of and then a show done by Tornado which was just one fly by. After that we had a bit of a wander looking at the different stands, we went in to Mini and looked at the new model of car which is released in October I think, we weren't allowed to take in phones or camera's so I don't have any pictures of that. We then got the picnic food from the car and ate, I definitely ate too much as when Typhoon (another air show) was flying I fell asleep in the sun!

All-in-all I had a great time. We want to go back next year but for two days so we're able to see more and go around the whole festival. Another thing which I gained from this trip is strap marks on my back and tanned knees from wearing ripped skinny jeans as the weather was absolutely beautiful!

Sorry for the lack of posts but it's now the summer holidays so expect hearing from me much more!

Recently, I have been trying to be healthier as I have two different dance shows coming up in the next two weeks and don't want to feel bloated. A few days ago my dad came back from going to the Co-Op with a smoothie maker with him (Kenwood Smoothie 2Go) so I took the opportunity to make a delicious drink!

Ingredients:
1 banana
a hand-full of frozen raspberries
3 cubes of ice
soya milk

Firstly, put the frozen products in the bottom (raspberries and ice) and then put the rest of the fruit (or veg) above it. You don't need to chop the banana as it is easily breakable.
Then, quarter fill it with soya milk. Personally I prefer soya milk but you can use whatever milk you want. My brother made the exact same smoothie but with cows milk and I find the colour isn't as nice and is too creamy to me. Soya milk is also good because then vegans can drink this, my mum doesn't really want me to be a vegan but she is supporting me still and we're coming up with different vegan meals.
Finally, put on the blending lid and tip it upside down put it on to the base and turn the machine on. I alternate between high and low as I don't want to break it with the amount of frozen produce in it.

I have been thinking of doing more posts like this and maybe making a food & drink section of my blog with different meals that don't really need cooking