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Hello!

I have been sporadically blogging for about a year and probably been on an unofficial break for over a month now so I thought I would make it official and take a step back from my blog without feeling bad about it.

My aim is to give it a makeover - it's been the same since I started blogging years ago! - and come back in February and hopefully get myself into a better routine, I would even be happy with posting once a week!

So I will leave it here for now, but if you've got any questions or PR queries do feel free to get in touch as I'll still be on my emails.

Merry Christmas and all the best for 2016!

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The Harry Potter Tag

You may already know that I am a HUGE Harry Potter fan, so when I saw the tag on Hayley's blog I obviously had to do it!  I'm not actually sure who started it though, if know leave me a comment and I can credit them in the post.

The photos are from the Harry Potter Studios at Warner Brothers just outside London.  My parents took me there for my 21st - best birthday ever!!

1. What is your favourite book?

Order of the Phoenix, I think I just quite enjoy the books which have a good bit of story before they actually go back to Hogwarts - I like that about the Goblet of Fire too.

2. What is your favourite film?

Tricky!  I do love the first one because it's so cute seeing them all as babies, then also the final one as it wraps it up nicely and is very emotional.

3. What is your least favourite book?

Maybe The Goblet of Fire?  I don't actually know, it's too hard, I love them all!  

4. What is your least favourite film?

Probably The Chamber of Secrets, but I do still like it a lot!

5. Which parts of the books/films made you cry?

I tend not to cry from books but I did actually cry a little bit when Hedwig died - yes I know!!  In the films, if I was alone, I would probably cry at every single death, and the last half of Deathly Hallows Part 2...

6. If you could hook up with any character who would it be?

Aw man, Draco!  I kind of love/hate the character but Tom Felton is so hot.  It would just be a one time only thing with a bad boy to get it out my system, he doesn't seem like the relationship type ;)

7. Who is your favourite character?

It's hard to choose but I do love Luna.

8. Who is your least favourite character?

Quite an easy one, Umbridge makes me feel so much anger and hatred for her it's crazy.  Shows how good Rowling is when she can make you feel so strongly about a character!

9. What is your least favourite line?

Line?!  I can't think of one in particular, there are loads of good quotes though which are usually from Dumbledore.

10. What would your patronus be?

Definitely a cat <3 Big or small, wild or domestic! 

11. If you could have the invisibility cloak, resurrection stone or elder wand, which would you choose?

The invisibility cloak so I can be creeper.

12. What house would you be in?

I was sorted into Gryffindor on Pottermore which I was a bit disappointed by to be honest!  However I have accepted and come to love myself as a Gryffindor - maybe.

13. If you could meet any member of the cast who would it be?

Hmm, Evanna Lynch seems lovely I think she would be good to meet, maybe Rupert Grint?

14. If you were on the Quiddich team, what position would you play?

I don't think there's any way I'd get onto a Quidditch team however if I did I would probably be best at being a Beater?!

15. Were you happy with the ending?

Yes.  I did kinda want him to die, which in a way he did, but I know I'd have been devastated if he had been killed off!  I liked The Battle of Hogwarts and how it was realistic and brutal as war is.  I saw a post of tumblr which gave the reasons why Rowling killed of the characters she did, it was very meaningful.  I didn't like the 19 years later bit though that was rather cheesy and unnecessary - especially in the film *cringe*

16. How much does Harry Potter mean to you?

After the final film, I cried on and off for about 3 days... genuinely, it was awful!  I just felt really overwhelmed that that was it all over and there would be no more Harry Potter things to look forward to!  I also kept watching really emotional montage videos on Youtube which really didn't help.  I grew up with the books and they're such a big part of my childhood/teenage years.  I even listen to the audiobooks every night to help me get to sleep.  

I'm also planning on getting the Deathly Hallows symbol as a tattoo at some point, woo nerdy!

Probably a controversial view but I would love for the films to be remade in like 20 years time just so I could relive it haha!  It would be interesting to see a different take on the books.

~

 Well, I think I have truly out-geeked myself with this post!  If you have done this or are going to do it, let me know in the comments so I can read your answers!!

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All Change!

As I mentioned in my last post (Empties #16) that I had some news to share with you but I would do a separate post on it, so here we go!

The Co-Op sent me this to help with the move, so cute!

I've been job hunting fairly seriously since about December looking for entry level jobs in Merchandising but I didn't get very far.  The furthest I got was at the end of last year: a phone interview with House of Fraser which I passed and got to the next level which was a workshop at their head office in London.  However I ended up turning it down because I would need to move to London and the salary was definitely not high enough for me to be able to support myself, and they weren't going to cover my travel costs for the interview either.

I applied for a few more and had a few calls from agencies with jobs for me to apply for but they were always in London!  I tried contacting numerous Scottish retail head offices to see if they could give me any sort of work experience but with no luck, so I decided to widen my search to include northern England.

Long story short:  At the start of April I finally managed to get a job, yayy!!  However it is in Greater Manchester so in less than a week I will be moving down south...

It's slightly terrifying but I'm so excited and can't wait to start my new life down there.  I've got a flat sorted but I've only seen it once and the next time I see it will be when I'm moving in which is making life a bit stressful trying to get everything organised for furnishing it...  I'm looking forward to moving into my own place because I'm still living at home so it will be so good having my own space and choosing my interiors etc!

Are any of you working in retail head offices or in Merchandising?  I've no idea what to expect!

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Festive Nails!

Hello!  I feel like I haven't posted on here in sooo long!  I'm not even sure why?  I've just been  busy working and applying for jobs and stuff, not really had any motivation for blogging sadly!  

I've kind of decided what I would like to do as a career if possible.  I'd like to get into merchandising; they are the ones who work out how much stock goes where, and when to run promotions and markdowns going by the sales figures etc.  I have a background in maths and also in retail so it seems like something I can do!  Unfortunately most head offices are in London which would mean moving away from home but I'm not sure if I'm quite ready for something like that yet!  I have found one vacancy in Scotland so we shall see...  If anyone knows of any head offices that are in Scotland please let me know so I can investigate haha!

Never mind blogging, I've not actually painted my nails in over a month, it's shocking!  I actually felt like a 3 year old when I was doing it, I'm so out of practice... Also my nails are such a mess at the moment but never mind, at least now they look kind of cute and Christmassy.

I've used Nails Inc Victoria & Albert as the red underneath (only needed one coat!) with Deborah Lippmann Boom Boom Pow over the top.  There are smaller gold particles which are much more visible in person and give it a nice shimmer.

PS do you like my Christmas duvet set?  I got it from Primark - love it!

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Summer Wedding

On the 20th July one of my close friends got married!  I absolutely love weddings and was so excited for it.  I hadn't actually started looking for a dress yet when I came across this one - I just saw it in work one day and fell in love!  When I first saw it I wasn't sure if it was actually nice or if I was just being crazy, but after seeing it a few times I knew I had to get it.  I first saw it on a Thursday and by the Saturday the 8 had sold out!  I tried on the 10 (which was enormous, usually it would be fine but oh god, it drowned me!) just to see if I liked how it looked on me before starting to search for it.  I had said the the Coast manager that I was wanting it and to let me know if anything came in, then a couple of weeks later the she came over to let me know one 8 had just became available online, so I just bought it there and then (I was still working, shh!).  

My next concern was that it would be too big as well, some Coast dresses come in a size 6 but this one didn't, and I've got a size 8 in a different style which is a tiny bit big - it's strapless so not much to hold it up!  However when it arrived it fitted, albeit a bit tight round the middle (what?!), so I was delighted!  

Usually I get wedding guest dresses in the sale - cheap, yes - so it was a bit of a shock for me having to pay full price but it was definitely worth it!  It was also a bargain (considering it's Coast!) at only £95, and then I got staff discount.

The final issue was what to wear with it!  You can't see it too much but there's black tubing around the neck and arms which was annoying...  It was quite good in the end as the only thing I had to buy accessories wise were the shoes which were only about £16 from New Look, everything else I already owned.  It was so hot that day as well, so glad I didn't wear a blazer or something!

I kept my make up very simple with neutrals and then liquid liner, and used a pinky/nude lipstick.  For my hair, I just tonged it the night before and went over any straighter bits in the morning, then pinned the front sections back.

Dress - Coast

Pashmina - Debenhams

Bag - ASOS

Shoes - New Look

The beautiful bride and her husband!

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Room Tour!

A tour of my slightly messy bedroom...

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Holiday OOTDs

If you follow me on Twitter (@LooweezBx) you will probably know that I've been at Lake Como in Italy for a week.  While away I decided to take some photos of my outfits so I could compile a post of what I wore when I got back.  The lighting in all the photos is terrible!  My room was horrendous and it didn't actual have a window to the outside - it faced into the atrium, so I never had any natural light in my room...  Fortunately food in the hotel was really good!  The only plus part about my room was that I was on the first floor above the free wifi area so I would be able to get wifi in my room 90% of the time, yayy!!

The gold band on my wrist is because we were all inclusive which was pretty good for having drinks.  It was so annoying having to wear it all week but fortunately I have weird hands so I could slip it off every night before bed.  Onto the photos: we arrived on Saturday lunchtime so the first photo is what I wore after getting changed when we got there.

Saturday

After having lunch we got settled in and then went for a wander around the small town of Cadenabbia.

Evening: Dress - Therapy

Sunday

We had a meeting with our rep at 9.15am to talk us through all the trips, things to do in the area, and all the ferries and boats that are available.  After lunch we went into the next town of Tremezzo to the Villa Carlotta which is a big house with botanical gardens.

Day: Top - H&M; Shorts - Zara sale

Evening: Jumpsuit - New Look

 Monday

On Monday we had our only excursion so it was a 6.30am start - awful!  The trip was to St Moritz in Switzerland which is only a few hours away.  On the way we used a mountain railway which showed off all the amazing views and even a glacier at the top of the mountain.  St Moritz was lovely, very expensive!  I only went into one shop - the chocolatier!  It was amazing, they had big slabs of chocolate with various different things added and you would buy a piece by weight.  I got white chocolate with raspberries and blackberries, it was so good!

Day: Top - F21; Skirt - Zara sale

Evening: Top - F21; Skirt - H&M

Tuesday

We had a relaxing day starting off at the Lido (outdoor pool) for some sunbathing and then a wee swim in the lake.  After lunch we took the free boat provided by the hotel to the town across from us, Bellagio.

Day: Top - Vero Moda; Shorts - Primark

Evening: Dress - H&M

Wednesday

There was central lake ticket for the ferries which was 15€ and allowed you unlimited access for a whole day so we visited as many towns as we could!  We went from Bellagio to Verenna, to Menaggio then to Lenno, and finally back home.  After dinner we went back over to Bellagio for drinks to take advantage of our all day tickets!

Day: Top - New Look; Shorts - Matalan

Evening: Top - New Look; Trousers - Primark

 Shoes: Wedges - New Look

Nail Varnish: Hedonist - Models Own

Thursday

We got the bus down to the big town (city?!) of Como, I didn't really like the look of it as we drove through but the city centre was quite nice and had lots of expensive shops - further out it looked a bit run down.  It started pouring and then turned into a thunderstorm so we took refuge in a cafe until the rain went off!  Then we took the funicular up the hillside and found this strange little town up there, we were expecting a viewing platform and a cafe haha! 

Day: Top - F21; Shorts - Primark

Evening: Dress - Therapy

Friday

We just had another sort of relaxing day.  Spent the morning at the Lido but it was quite cloudy, then got the free boat over to Bellagio to look round the gardens at Villa Meltzi.  We got back by about 5ish so went back to the Lido for another couple of hours to enjoy the last of the sun before we had to leave the next morning!

Day: Top - New Look; Shorts - Zara sale

Evening: I forgot a photo! I wore the blouse in second photo with the aztec shorts from this post.

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Paperbacks & Beauty Facts: My Blogging Story

Here is a short video about how I got started blogging!

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Now What!?

On the 3rd July 2013, I officially graduated from university with a bachelors degree in mathematics, yay!  I guess the hard bit is over, but is it?

Now I just have the wonderful task of trying to find a full time job!  Currently I still have my weekend position which will keep me going for the time being and is certainly better than just being unemployed.  I don't even know what sort of jobs I am looking for to be honest, I don't know anything about finance which is what a lot of maths based roles tend to be, or computer programming ones which I'm no good at either!

I also have my fashion make up HNC now but I swear (cruelty free...) make up counter jobs are harder to find than maths-y ones!!  Ideally I would prefer to get out of retail as I've been in that side of things for the past 4 years but as I have a lot of experience it would always be good to start out there.  Even if it just gave me something to do while looking for another job.

If I don't have anything by the end of August I am going to volunteer with Project Scotland who are an organisation to try and get young people employment experience, you do 30 days and they give you money towards your travel.  The ones I was offered are helping out at a petting farm with horses, donkeys and small animals; and a more business/office type of job which gives you lots of training - I haven't chosen one yet!

I thought I would just give you a little update about my life at the moment - if you have any job role suggestions for me PLEASE do let me know!  I need other keywords to type into my job searches!

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London Trip (IMATS)

Kryolan Stall, pretty colours!!

Here are some photos from my trip to London for IMATS at the weekend!  Very photo heavy but not too many words so it should be easy to scroll through quickly :)

The, ahem, lovely view from our hotel...

An Indian restaurant on King Street where we had dinner the first night, it was so good!! 

Arrived at IMATS!

 

Student Competition

 The Victoria's Secret window displays!

Gatsby Collection in Tiffany's *drools*

 The Sherlock Holmes Museum on Baker Street!  The queue was huge!

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