In a vlog a little while back, I suggested doing shelf tours for those of you who might be interested in a more detailed look at what I've got on my bookshelves, and lots of you seemed keen. I figured it would actually be a lot easier for me to do this on the blog than on video, so I thought I'd start with the classics.

Earlier this month I closed my laptop, packed a suitcase, and left my everyday balancing act for South Africa and Zimbabwe for another safari trip. I thought it would be nice to share with you some of the pictures that Zak and I took over the days we were there, and also tell you a little bit about what we got up to.

This is one of those minimal-effort outfits that is nonetheless super effective and makes you feel so chic and put-together. Is it the stripes? Or the monochrome colour palette? I'm not sure, but it's the kind of thing I turn to every time I need to rush out the door but still look presentable. 

If there's one thing I'm certainly a sucker for clothing-wise, it's a comfy pair of trousers. The first thing I do when I get in the house is whip my bottoms off and put on something with an elasticated waistband and embrace the freedom.

I'm super excited to share with you a few outfit pictures today focussed around these Nike Air Max 1s. I feel like I have a multitude of different styles, from preppy and subdued to dark and grungy to the more sporty, streetwear side of things.

There's always those items you pick up and then they hang in your wardrobe unworn for weeks, sometimes months. For two of these pieces, that was the case. 

For much of February, I took a step back. I think I needed a little time to regroup in a month where nothing very urgent was happening, either with work or study, before the end of term madness started up again. I've spent a lot of time recently thinking about new healthy or helpful habits that I want to form to make life easier and more productive. 

Now the snow has melted and I've come out of hibernation, I'm back to share with you all an outfit formed of all but one of the latest bits I've bought from Topshop (these incredible cowboy boots are missing, inspired by both Claire Marshall and Sammi Jefcoate - I'm sure they'll turn up in a post soon enough). 
 

I recently got a few more tattoos and piercings, and whilst I have done multiple videos going through them all on my channel over the years, I thought this time I might write a blogpost that I can update as I go along instead of making another video which might be outdated soonish. So, get ready to get up close and personal... 

I thought it might be nice to do a little post checking in with you guys now that the longest January ever is finally over and the year has truly begun! So I hung out on my stairwell with a cup of tea contemplating what I’ve been up to the past few weeks.

I have a quick little outfit for you guys today, fit for any casual day (I sped off to class after taking these pics). I'm wearing my new favourite Mom jeans; I actually bought them ages ago from Topshop but I've rediscovered them in the past few months.

I wanted to do a little post gathering together some of my thoughts on the first semester of my Master’s course (and I've popped in the last of the Copenhagen pics, too). To be honest, it ended up a bit whiny. Oops! This is probably going to be one of those things which is more for me than useful for you guys, but I hope I can be even the tiniest bit helpful to those of you who are looking to do a postgraduate course and asked me some questions.

A short and sweet little outfit from Copenhagen for you guys today. If you haven't checked out my last blogpost, I went there for a couple of days over New Year's, and I've only just now got around to sharing my outfits (oops!)

So I didn't really expect to launch my blog and then more or less disappear for a few weeks but alas, life (read: essays) got in the way. I feel like I'm finally getting into the swing of my year now that I have handed in my two 4,000 word essays, which I did last week on the 11th. I took a day or two off and then threw myself into the reading for this semester, so forgive me for only catching up with you guys now. I hope you all had a little bit of a rest over the festive period, and had a wonderful New Year. I went to Copenhagen with Zak and my family, and I have a few outfit pictures to share with you over the next couple weeks, including this one.

Today I would like to share with you all a couple of outfits that are perfect for the festive season. (I've just looked at these photos again and they look hilariously dark - this is how I do festive dressing ok?) As someone who finds it extremely hard to part with her jeans, I thought today I would show you styling that is a little more formal, and more party-ready.

So, in addition to my new, simple skincare routine that I’ve detailed here, I started to go to the D. Thomas Clinic. They are skincare specialists who are most famous for their signature tailored facials, of which there are three levels. About a year previously, I had received the DNA Essential Skin Grade 1, which involved extractions and tailored products and advice, but this time I wanted to go a step further and involve some of the laser services which the clinic is well-known for. Whilst they have a DNA Ultimate Laser Grade 3, I thought that the DNA Laser Complete Grade 2 was the best option for me, being a newbie to any laser treatments.

For a little bit of my skin history and the facials that I use to supplement my routine, click for this post here. But for now, let’s get onto my current skincare products.

So, here we are. After many months of planning and writing posts in preparation, and of course asking the lovely Cat to design me a website, we are finally live, and I can’t explain to you all how excited I am about this new venture. If you don’t know me, you can read a little about me here, but for now you might be wondering where on earth this has come from.

The title of this post is a little misleading because this is not really going to be a ‘how to’ so much as a few observations I made whilst writing mine. I have already (purposefully) lost much of the experience to the mists of memory and time, but I hope that some of you writing undergraduate dissertations this year might find a little comfort in it. I’m not going to write too much about the content of it because for some strange reason I still feel strangely protective over it and I don’t know if I’m ready to open it up to the world (how ridiculous am I), plus I think it’s so specific it wouldn’t be wholly useful to dwell on it too long.

I recently read Young Skins by Irish author Colin Barrett, a slim volume of short stories, all of them set in a nondescript town in County Mayo, and to tell the truth I’m still kind of undecided about it. The opening sentence of the first story, ‘The Clancy Kid’; “My town is nowhere you have been, but you know its ilk”, sets the tone not just for the setting but for the characters, too. They are characters you have seen before, the type of people you may know, though their stories are made poignant and thought-provoking by Barrett’s clipped prose style, that buttoned up effect that seems to make the emotion seem even more unbearable or tragic. Whilst that opening sentence seems to demonstrate the best of this style, there are times when it can seem overwrought (just a sentence later, the narrator of ‘The Clancy Kid’ says, “The Atlantic is near; the gnarled jawbone of the coastline with its gull-infested promontories is near.”)