My 17th Birthday

I've had a pretty fun past couple of days, and one of the reasons for this was that last Friday I spent the day at Leeds Festival with my boyfriend and a few of my friends. I went for the weekend last year, and regrettably only had a day ticket this year, but still had a brilliant time. Biffy Clyro were headlining the Friday and they were absolutely incredible, along with an old favourite of mine, Fall Out Boy. One of the other reasons why I love Leeds Festival so much is that it is always the weekend of my birthday! Which it was yesterday (Monday the 26th) - and I had such a lovely day I wanted to write about it on here. 

As is tradition in my house, and always has been tradition, I got up in the morning and went into my parents room to open my cards and presents from my extremely generous family. Then over lunchtime my Grandparents all came over for cake and sandwiches - ooh how civilised. I received some lovely gifts from my family, some of my favourites were a lovely Nars blusher in the shade 'Orgasm', a gorgeous Yankee candle, some real techniques make up brushes and a gorgeous Pandora ring. 

After my Grandparents had left in the afternoon, Gabriel (in case you haven't read my London blogpost, he is my boyfriend) came over with a beautiful bunch of roses and a vintage denim jacket that I had spotted a while ago, which was so so generous and lovely of him. His mum also came over and brought me a gift which was equally as lovely, and we sat round with my parents and had a glass of bucks fizz which was delicious. 

Gabriel had booked a table for the both of us to go out for a meal at my favourite restaurant in the evening, so at 7 o'clock we went over there and upon entering the restaurant I saw a table of about 8 of my close friends sat with a pink banner and huge birthday cake grinning at me, shouting surprise! I looked over at Gabriel and he was grinning at me and I tried to hold back the tears (yes I am an emotional sap that cries at everything). One of the most surprising things was that my oldest friend Lauren who I have known for the whole of my life, was there, when I don't think she's ever met any of my friends from school, which obviously Gabriel and my friend Kirsten had organized, which honestly meant the world. We had a lovely meal and I got some really thoughtful gifts and cards from my friends, which just made my attempts at not crying even harder. Two of my friends had baked cakes which was so sweet, one of which was a huge musical note shaped cake with multicoloured cake in the middle which was amazing! After the meal I gave everyone massive hugs and went home with Gabriel to recover. I had a brilliant birthday and it meant so much to see my friends, especially when I had no idea whatsoever that they were planning that! Here are some photos of the meal. 

 As I mentioned before, my oldest friend - Lauren - was at the meal as well and she had made a scrapbook of photos of us and various other memories from the 17 years we've been friends, and it was honestly the sweetest thing ever and I have read it more than 10 times already because it makes me smile. She even found some old photos of the two of us and stuck our faces on the front of the book itself! 

Thank you for reading yet another lifestyle post. I really enjoy writing these when I actually have something to talk about! Do you like these posts? Or would you prefer reading something different? I will happily write about anything, and just enjoy the time I get to myself to blog and chill out.

Harriet

♥  

Weekend In London

Brace yourselves, this is going to be a long one!

Last night I got back from spending the weekend down in London with my boyfriend Gabriel, and we stayed with my uncle and his girlfriend for three days. I'd been looking forward to it for pretty much the entire Summer because I've not been away anywhere this year, this was my only escape from normality that I'm going to get - so I vowed I'd make the most of it, and I certainly did. 

We got the train down to London on Friday, and by the time we arrived it was late afternoon so we spent an hour or so looking around Covent Garden, mainly because I wanted to find the Moomin shop in there (if you don't know what Moomin or Moomintrolls are then google them, they are super cute). And with that mission accomplished, Gabriel and I navigated our way through the tubes to meet my uncle and went back to his for pizza yum. 

Saturday was a particularly notable day for me. As one of the biggest Harry Potter fans ever, I was beyond excited to visit the Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studio Tour! We had a tour booked in for the afternoon, which gave us enough time to get ourselves to Watford, and get the shuttle bus to the studios - eek. The tour itself must have lasted about three hours and honestly it was incredible. I can't really describe everything that we did there or this blog post would be even longer than it already is turning out to be, so I will insert some of my favourite things to see there that we did and saw. 

The tour came out into the gift shop, which was absolutely massive. And although the price was maybe a little bit over the top, Gabe and I both picked up a wand. I got Hermione's and he got Sirius's. Goodness knows what we'll do with them in the coming years, however Gabriel was casting various spells on me and other innocent passers-by in the station and on the train home. 

After that very eventful few hours, we headed off back to my uncle's flat and went out for a meal which was delicious. 

Sunday was sadly our last day in London *sobs* and we headed off pretty early in the morning (with our extremely heavy backpacks of the weekends clothes and various purchases - which made trekking round the city centre a bit of a task). We got on a us to Waterloo which went past all your typical sightseeing destinations e.g. Big Ben and the London Eye. We walked all the way up and down the River Thames - finding 'Gabriel's Wharf' on the way, which Gabe was thrilled about and obviously demanded millions of photos with any sign he could find. We walked all the way to Soho, and had a peruse down Carnaby Street which was really lovely. By this time we were eager to get going to where we had planned to spend the majority of our day - Camden. I had never been before so I was really looking forward to it. And I was not disappointed, it was as weird and wonderful as I had expected and more. The markets that were all crammed together held some absolute gems, and Gabe and I both made a substantial amount of purchases (Which I will show in more detail at the end of this post). So we spent the afternoon rummaging around the various stalls and getting lost. By the time we both came out (smelling very strongly of all different types of incense) it was basically time to get the train home. However Gabe wasn't leaving before he had got a photo with a group of about 6 guys, all decked out totally in punk gear. Piercings, tattoos, spiked up hair - the whole lot. It was scarily impressive, and the photo I got of the group of them is brilliant. Sadly we then boarded the train home, and now I'm back in the miserable North, I want nothing more than to run away there again for a few more days and escape my daily life. 
Here's some photos of Camden - including Gabriel and his new friends. 

As I mentioned before, I did buy a fair few things this weekend - especially in Camden. I am a sucker for candles and incense, so I got myself a really dinky little packet of various scented bits and bobs for my room which I love. I also treated myself to two gorgeous pairs of earrings from the markets. We found a photo booth just in a corner of one of the rooms of stalls, which gave us some really sweet photos that I have stuck on my wall as a reminder of the weekend. The weird little shorts at the bottom of these pictures, are pjs that I picked up from David and Goliath on Carnaby Street and I just thought they were super cute. 

Thank you so much for reading (if you have read all the way down here, there you deserve a medal *gives medal*) - I really had a blast this weekend, and just writing this blog post is making me want to go back! 

Harriet x

♥ 

 P.S I couldn't help myself. I bought this is Kings Cross Station. There is no excuse. 

Review • MUA 'Undress Me Too'

As I'm sure pretty much every make-up fanatic out there has - I have been after the rather pricey Urban Decay 'Naked' and 'Naked 2' eye palettes for a lifetime, but just can't quite justify spending the money on them. And it was only recently that I discovered my local Superdrug stock the MUA collection of make-up, which I was aware did extremely good dupes of the two palettes, named 'Undressed' and 'Undress Me Too'. As soon as I realised that I could get to the MUA make-up, I rushed into Superdrug and bought the only remaining 'Undress Me Too' eye palette for a fantastic £4! And I absolutely love it.  
I know I don't need to persuade any of you to buy this product, as I am probably about a million years late with jumping on the bandwagon of this - but I just wanted to do a small review of it and let you know what I personally think of this product. 

♥ Top Row Colours (left to right): Naked, Devotion, Shy, Fiery, Lavish, Dreamy
♥ Bottom Row Colours (left to right): Tranquil, Exposed, Reveal, Wink, Obsessed, Corrupt

Personally, I love the more metallic shades as I think they look so pretty on my eyes. I'm wearing Shy with Dreamy blended into it for a slightly soft smokey effect today and it is really nicely pigmented and it has worn really well all day, which is particularly impressive as it has been super hot and sticky today. I am already really impressed with this palette and I haven't even used all of the colours yet. If you haven't already, then I really recommend going out and getting yourself this, I know as soon as I next get the chance, I will be going back into Superdrug to get myself the 'Undressed' palette when it comes back in stock. 

As always, thank you all for reading and have a lovely weekend! 

Harriet x

♥ 

Liebster Award!

Hello my lovely followers. I can only apologise for my lengthy absence from my blog, I have been extremely busy and stressed out over the past few months and can only apologise and assure you that I am back to stay! 

What a pleasant surprise upon my return I found that the lovely Little Miss Pipedream has nominated me for the Liebster Award, which is so so kind of her! 

So here's what I've got to do: 

♥ Each nominee must answer 11 questions that were asked by the blogger that nominated them

♥ You must choose 11 bloggers who have under 200 followers to pass the award onto

♥ Then come up with 11 questions that they will answer

♥ Go to their page and tell them that you have nominated them

♥ No tag backs 

Here are the blogs which I am nominating:

1: http://beautyandlifestylediary.blogspot.co.uk

2: http://kellylkr.blogspot.co.uk

3: http://abbiesbeautyblog.blogspot.co.uk

4: http://www.poppyalice.com

5: http://cherrytruth2.blogspot.co.uk

6: http://regardingteaandcake.blogspot.co.uk

7: http://beleza-byems.blogspot.co.uk/p/about.html

8: http://equinozioandthemoon.blogspot.co.uk

9: http://allurescent.blogspot.co.uk 

10: http://littlemisspradaxo.blogspot.co.uk

11: http://huckleberryfriend-xo.blogspot.co.uk

For you lovely people I have nominated - here are my 11 questions: 

Q1: Do you speak any other languages? 

Q2: What's your favourite season, and why? 

Q3: What do you love most about blogging/your blog? 

Q4: Where do you want to go most in the whole world? 

Q5: Who are your top 5 favourite bands/artists? 

Q6: What's your favourite thing to do on a hot summers day?

Q7: Do you have any weird talents? 

Q8: What do you look for in a best friend? 

Q9: Did anyone inspire you to start your blog? 

Q10: What is your favourite book, and why? 

Q11: If you won the lottery what would you do with the money? 

Here are my answers to Little Miss Pipdream's questions:

Q1: Why did you start blogging? 

I started my blog because I was so inspired by other bloggers and youtubers such as Zoella, Tanya and Louise and their gorgeous blogs that I decided it might be something I would enjoy seeing as I love beauty and I love writing! 

Q2: The movie that changed you (or got close to)? 

I'm going to have to say my favourite film The Perks of Being a Wallflower. It's such a beautiful film and I can't describe how it had an impact on my life, but it just really did. So if any of you guys haven't yet seen it then definitely go and give it a watch! 

Q3: Favourite sweets?

I'm not actually the biggest fan of sweets, I'm more of a chocolate person really. However I am partial to those really fizzy strawberry laces that you can get in Sainsburys, especially when I'm travelling in the car or by train

Q4: Do you do any sports?

I would so love to say yes, but I can't. I really am not a sporty person.. I do enjoy exercise, but I suck at sport and pretty much always have. I did used to horseride when I was younger for 6 years, but I had to stop that due to schoolwork and expense

Q5: What is the place of the world that you believe is made just for you?

There's a beach somewhere in Anglesey in Wales where I went about 4 or 5 years ago with my family, and one night I went down there at sunset ahead of my parents with my iPod in really loudly. I sat on the pebbles on the beach and made a heart out of sand whilst watching the sunset, and I have honestly never been so relaxed in my life. So I would probably say that beach  

Q6: Favourite beverage?

Non-Alcoholic: Tea 

Alcoholic: Pimms (especially the limited edition Blackberry and Elderflower - yum yum) 

Q7: What were your best holidays ever? ..And now tell us why!

My all time favourite holiday would probably have to be Sri Lanka. Purely because it was so amazing and I saw so many things I never thought I would see, and learnt so much about the culture that it just blew my mind! 

Q8: Last concert you've been to?

I'm pretty sure that it was Slam Dunk festival which I went to with my boyfriend, where there was a number of bands such as Sleeping With Sirens, Deaf Havana and Kids In Glass Houses. It was fab

Q9: A childhood memory..?

This is totally random but it's the first one that I can think of. I must have been about 5, and we had driven to my uncle's house for his 40th birthday party, and I had been asleep in the car all the way there but when I woke up we were there but my parents had obviously already got out of the car and left me in there with the doors locked.. I thought they had just abandoned me and cried for about half an hour before they came back for me - great parenting guys!

Q10: Do you sing and/or dance under the shower?

Oh yes, loudly and badly

Q11: Last trip?

That would be to Durham. It's only an hour or so from where I live, but it was with  my friend so we could look at the university and it was a nice day out, it's such a gorgeous place that means a lot to me

Can't wait to read your answers! Thanks again to Little Miss Pipedream for nominating me for this! 

Harriet x

♥