So, to begin: I think I'm becoming one of those people who is addicted to fairy lights....

And this got me thinking about why I like them. I think, it may be because they just give a little glow in a dark room. In a room that would otherwise be pitch black, it's quite amazing how a little tiny light can give out so much light! and likewise (<<< good word that) every human being has a chance to be a little fairy light in the world. Tbh, the world is a pretty dark place with war and terrorism, just the last fortnight there have been multiple terrorist attacks and bombings, but every so often a little spark of light shines through and makes the world a little brighter even if just for a moment. 

...and so there's a little snapshot of Birmingham, I took some on a disposable which I am so excited to finish and eventually get developed!!! 

lots of hugs,
​abbey x

So this is the start of something I'd like to do alongside normal blog posts. I'm currently going through Psalms and making notes on them. I've read most of them previously but I haven't taken notes on them by myself thoroughly before. How I'm going about this is in the morning I will read through the psalm, write down a verse that stands out to me and think about psalm and its overall meaning. Later on in the day, normally just before or after dinner, I will sit and take some notes on each "section". Finally before I go to bed I'll read it again and add anything else. If I think I haven't completely understood it then I'll do the same one again the next day. Short disclaimer: I'm not claiming to be some expert, this is just what I have understood from each psalm and what it means to me, if you have another thoughts, please please do comment and we can all share ideas, thoughts and perhaps other verses you feel it links to. Also, I'm directly copying from my notes, just making them make a little more sense, feel free to ask any queries you have in the comments if I dont make sense :) 

I've lost my notes from Psalm 1 so when I find them, then I'll do that but for now I'll start at no. 2 

I've never written notes in order for others to understand them so bear/bare with, hopefully I'll improve :/
{word in blue are given definitions at the bottom}

I hope this has helped someone, I'm very excited for tomorrow's, Psalm 3 is so relatable (not the word I was looking for but good enough for 8:30pm after a long day) and I just love it :)

lots of hugs,
abbey xx

So my first official post back was going to be a recipe but I thought I should probably get back into the swing of things with a little chat. 

Not quite sure how many times I've said this but I#m painting my room!! As in officially officially. This week I have the task of clearing my room and walls in order for them to be physically paintable. Then on saturday we are going to B&Q or some other hardware store to pick some paint and yay!!!! I still haven't decided on a colour for my feature wall yet :S but we'll get there.

Also, LUSH Reading have places open for their Christmas jobs so that's also a job for today: writing my covering letter and sending that with my CV to the Store Manager, hopefully my obsession I had with Lush between year 7 and 10 will pay off... okay I may be still slightly obsessed but not quite to the point where I make wishlists every saturday and circle the items that I plan on getting my friends and family... and never having the money to afford it. See I guess that's what comes with them being an animal friendly shop, their stuff is soooo expensive!! It's justified getting them for people as presents but I can never bring myself to spend £6.50 on a face mask that, having the troubled skin I have, could potentially make my skin break out. Although I am still very much in Love with the shop and the people are always so nice and friendly and maybe if I get the job then I'll have some hard-earned cash to treat myself to 'Cupcake' or 'the Comforter'.

I was considering doing the thing that I've seen quite a few bloggers do recently which is to take a screen shot of 9 photos on my instagram page and do a blog post going into more detail on the slightly more interesting ones. What do you think?

Also!!! I recently invested in an NUS extra card and I must say, I'm racking up the discounts! Most clothes shops do 10-15% off, restaurants are so much more though!! Pizza Express:.....40% offf!!!!! Domino's is 20% when you spend over £20 (maybe its £25) and so many more. Unfortunately, it doesn't count on sale items *sad face* but it is amazing all the same. The only down side is its £12.50 per year which if you don't go shopping very often, might not be worth it. One of the reasons why I felt it was worth it was because my sister has had one for 2 or 3 years now and has made many-a saving from it. Sometimes its a few pence but often its a few pounds. Every Little Helps!!

I'm intending on writing a blog post tomorrow but I make no promises as I have no real plans atm and so anything could happen!! I think when my room's cleared, I'll show you the cooler sections of it, namely my walls which I am rather proud of and I can tell you a little bit about them :)

I'm currently just waiting for my sister to finish taking ages in the shower then I'll hop in. Yes I'm still  in my pj's at 11o'clock, don't judge its the holidays

lots of hugs,
abbey xx

Just so you know, I haven't abandoned blogging, not in the slightest. Incase you didn't know, I've just finished a programme by NCS the Challenge but I'll go into more detail in another blog - just know that it was incredible.

So this is like a quick little message to say I will be posting this week, hopefully a recipe and some NCS blogs will go up shortly... once I've written them....

lots of hugs,

abbey x

So, you may have seen on Instagram, but if not, on Friday I made burgers!! It was really quite exciting because I'd never made them before and for my dad's father's day present I bought him a burger press (not completely necessary but a novelty item that is handy and nice to have). So, being rather pleased with the outcome I thought I would share my recipe with you :)

Soooo your first step is to mix together all of your burger ingredients. You don't actually have to use the particular ingredients that I chose. You need a meat and a combining ingredient (egg and breadcrumbs) but the spices/herbs etc you can change out for whatever you like. Also, I would chop the onions into various sizes, it adds something extra I think :)

Next, form into even balls. I made 4x 150g and 1x 90g -ideally, you would weigh the total mass of the burger meat and divide by how many burgers you want but I didn't think of that.  

Now is the exciting part (for me anyways). Cut squares of greaseproof paper about 12cm x 12cm for each burger. Using either a burger press or a large cookie cutter, press the ball down with your hands so it is relatively even and touches the edges of your shaping device (at this point, if like me you used a burger press then go ahead and press down with all your weight).

Now refridgerate for 40 minutes to 1 hour. I ended up only giving mine 35 minutes as we were short on time. I would recommend quite a bit longer and some of mine started to fall apart. Alternatively, pop in a tupper-ware box, separated by greaseproof and put in the freezer. Just make sure they are completely defrosted by the time you want to cook them.

Finally, heat up a large frying pan and pour about 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil in it. At the same time, you can warm up a dish in the oven for when your burgers are cooked to keep them warm whilst the rest of your dinner is getting ready. 

When your pan is ready, flip your burger into the pan, peeling back the paper and being carefully the oil doesn't spit on your hand. (I didn't time how long I cooked each side for but basically...) Cook until it is brown over half way up the sides and the bottom is starting to go a nice dark brown (very technical). Then turn over and cook until its brown throughout- you don't want any of it to be pink! Then voila, your burger is done, put into your pre-heated dish and move onto the relish.

{ as you can see in the photo, I actually cooked the relish whilst the burgers were in the fridge but the instructions could get rather confusing if I wrote it like that }

Chop your onion in half from root to tip and cut into fine half-rings. Chop your tomato however you like and if you want to add more then go ahead, this recipe is very much put as little or much as you want.

Put the onion and tomato into a small saucepan and pour about 200ml of vinegar over it. Add roughly 4-5 tablespoons of sugar~ with this, its really just depends on how sweet you want it, I actually just chucked some in so I'm estimating the amount. 

Now simmer for 10-15 minutes or until the relish completely purpley-redand soft. Taste some and see if you need to add more sugar/vinegar etc. I added a little more because I like things sweet :)

Now all that's left for you to do is eat it!! We ate ours with salad, coleslaw, couscous and jacket potato but basically just whatever you would usually have with a BBQ.

I hope you liked this recipe and if you do try it, let me know!

lots of hugs,
abbey xx

so I'm sat inside costa pondering life as you do with a coffee and wondering whether I'm an introvert or an extrovert. I've come to the conclusion I'm an extrovert with occasional introvert tendancies. For example, I prefer to be around people than on my own but when put in a situation where I find the person I have to talk to intimidating then I clam up and spout rubbish. Maybe that's just a problem with being human. Like literally 5 minutes ago I failed for the second time this week to order my coffee correctly, completely forgetting that I can't have caffine.

Sometimes I find if I've been alone for too long I become really unproductive and pretty much a slob. On the flip side, one time I went to a party (I know dont judge i dont have too much of a social life, that was the first and last time) and it was so overwhelming, after a while it was alright but to begin with I just didnt know what to do with myself.

I'm not sure what I'm trying to get at here, I'm just sharing my awkwardness with the world. I've edited all the photos from Friday's cooking day and so one blog post will go up this week and one next week :)

lots of hugs,
abbey xx

So I'm really qiote busy today, I have sooo many photos to edit from all that cooking yesterday so I thought I would just leave this blog post to being just photos of the day I spent at Bournemouth beach with my friends on Thursday :) Enjoy!!

lots of hugs,
abbey xx

I guess I may as well dive straight into the deep end. I was never much for make-up during the first few years of secondary school, with parents not particularly keen on and never having really dabbled in it before. So, recently I've tried it out and tbh, I am much more admiring of people who can do decent eyeliner! I don't have the patience yet, maybe I'll get there some day. 

This first purchase was £4 from Superdrug. Its a dupe of the first 'Naked' palette (I've used it already as you can probably see, tried and tested) and it's pretty good I think. I think the next palette I get will have to be a more matte one as this one is pretty glittery, even the 'matte' ones have a bit of shimmer to them which is sometimes good I guess. { I've labelled them with the naked names as they didn't have any }

Okay, so some people may be screaming rn that these are awful etc but they were cheaper than the other sets available and not being sure how I would get on with brushes, being generally a more 'hand on' person, I decided it wasn't worth getting a really nice set if I would end up just not using them. Again from Superdrug, these were £11.24 . 

What I have forgotten to take photos of (note to self: next time make a check list) are the two hair-things I bought I Superdrug and Boots. I bought the Aussie 'Miracle Styling Mousse' (£4.99, Boots) by advice from my hairdresser that with my short hair, I should probably invest in some mousse- I dare not argue with a professional. Secondly, I bought the CoLab dry shampoo in the 'Rio- Tropical Fragrance' scent. I can't remember whether I bought it full price or not but its £2.32 in Superdrug at the moment (1/3rd off). 

These two were impulse buys. The mascara is the Collection 'Does it All- 5 in 1' (£4.99 - Boots), and the concealer is the Natural Collection Liquid concealer in 'Medium' (£1.99 - Boots). The mascara was one of the first make-up products I've bought and it's not bad to be fair. I didn't really know what I was looking for so I figured the one that supposedly does it all would be a good place to start. I think when I buy a new one when this runs out, I'll go for a volumising rather than lengthening one as being a glasses wearer, having long lashes can be a bit of a nuisance. 
The concealer's not too great, its a bit too orange-y for me but with it only coming in 'fair' or 'medium' I certainly wasn't fair! I think maybe a mix of the two would be ok. It does slightly lift the shadows under my eyes but not hugely so on days when I have had next to no sleep, it doesn't really do anything.

This book I have been wanting for absolutely aaggees and I think I mentioned it in one of my previous blog posts - 'All I Know Now' by Carrie Hope Fletcher. I had some vouchers for WHSmith from my school and decided to treat myself to this book and a new set of sketching pencils. I read through the entire book in 2 days it was that good! Its a collection of chapters for Carrie's advice in different areas of growing up through early adulthood, with the occasional sketch by Carrie herself thrown in, breaking up intense paragraphs. Even though it is intense, it has a good balance of seriousness and funny stories for a book to read perhaps on the beach, one the train or anywhere really. 

Anyone who does any form of art or design will know the joy of brand new pencils. Ahh the beautiful things. I bought them mainly because some of my most used pencils had been sharpened to a stump that was physically impossible to write with. But also partially because I'm carrying on Art next year and hopefully if all goes welll, into year 13 and I kind of wanted something to signify new things etc...

Well its now gone past 10pm, I need to have a shower and pack for the beach tomorrow so I think I will leave this here. I may have missed some things out, I will come back to this on Friday and add links to all the items at the bottom :D

lots of hugs,
abbey c xx