So last month I began a whole new decade of adventures. I reflected on what I had learnt in the past two decades, explaining the importance of being authentic. Of course I learnt more than just this, but this was a huge life lesson that needed sharing. But there is always more to learn about life, so today I'm bringing you a list of things I would like to learn before I'm 30:

That it's ok to ask for help

I am rubbish at asking for help. In fact, I'm so bad that it was my answer when asked what my weakness was at an interview recently (you can guess who won't be getting that internship!). It's mainly due to embarrassment, especially when I don't know the person that well, which leads me onto my next point...

One day I'll have decent answers for interviews 😂

People aren't scary

The idea of chatting to new people is blooming scary. Its the main fear I have about having a job in the future, and the idea of networking events especially scare me for this reason. I'm fine if the other person starts up the conversation; I have something to say to begin with; or they are super chatty, but any sign of awkwardness and: "Dear Mr Ground, please swallow me up at the next available opportunity, thank you :)."

I call this look, the OCD glove - free with every bottle of hand soap

That you can't control everything...

One of the worst parts about these sort of social situations is that you don't know what's going to happen. A fear of the unknown and a love for my safety bubble, among other reasons, has led to me developing mild OCD in an attempt to control said unknowns. 18 hours of Therapy and I'm not much closer to getting better (I mean I no longer have a 2 minute long hand washing routine, but I'm far off fully recovery), but hopefully 10 years will be enough time for me to remove this irrational mindset.

Stop interrupting people!

I have a really bad accidental habit: I presume how someone will finish their sentence and butt in.
Apart from this being an issue at formal occasions (see said interview), I do this loads when chatting to friends, and I'm surprised they don't get annoyed and leave me haha. It's mainly an enthusiasm thing, but its just rude and I need to be stopped 🙈

To manage my time better

Procrastination is the thief of time, making me the Queen of Thieves. My understanding of how long a minute is is completely skewed - in June land, you can do your teeth, fill a water bottle, apply some lippy, put on your coat and shoes and chat to your housemates in the space of 2 minutes. My initial lack of time management was purposeful cause I didn't want to arrive early, be the first there and have to have an awkward conversation with the one other person there, but now it's accidental and all I want in life is to be able leisurely climb the hill to uni - one day!




So there are just a few of the things I would like to learn in the next 10 years, though I'm sure they'll be many surprises along the way. What do you want to learn in the next decade of your life?

June xx

(p.s. for all the jokes I made about my disastrous interviews, I've somehow got the job! Just goes to show that there's always hope 😊)

It's been sooooooo long since I've done a make up look on this blog, and boy have I missed it! So what a better opportunity to grab my brushes once again (now I've finally washed them) than to recreate the stunning look that Daniel Martin did for Meghan Markle's wedding last week. I mean, it was so simplistic and NATURAL! Her skin was just glowing and almost like there was a glass film over her natural skin, just ugh! I could go on about her skin for years! Paired with a smokey eye, Martin talked about how the makeup aimed to not take away focus from the simple elegance of her gown, in this gem of an article from Elle, and it really fits that brief. All you need is a few brown eyeshadows, I'm sure most of you have in your collection, to create this super versatile brown smokey eye. There aren't any pictures from the day with her eyes closed, but if you watch the highlights programme on iPlayer and pause it at 30:20 mins you can catch her blinking - this is the main reference I used, if you want to use an original image yourself.

Enjoy!

Well aren't these some flattering angles ...

For my glasses wearing brides out there 😊

Terrible quality picture, but it picks up the glooowwwwww!

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BE UNAPOLOGETICALLY YOU!

Ah, 12 year old me before her year of 'hell'... Such innocence. Such unknowing. Such wonky teeth...

...me.

The things I would tell my insecure self from 6 years ago (like don't use a warm toned shadow on your brows!)

Changing yourself to fit in will gain you nothing. Being authentically yourself will gain you everything.

The truth is, is that we all do it. Heck one Birdy song too many and there I was browsing the feed of the-one-that-got-away.

But let me tell you something:

Stalking their Facebook feed will get you nowhere

It won't get you closer to them (unless you accidentally like a pic from 2009, have to awkwardly explain it over messenger and three hours later you're still chatting and- oh actually give that one a go and get back to me. I'm joking (only partly)...)

The point is, over my many years of action-less love-life (heck 10 year old was closer to marriage than I am now 😂), I've come to notice a wonderful pattern:

You can stalk them online all you want, but you'll get nowhere if you don't talk to them.

I know, I know! The one thing that you don't want to hear. That for relationships to even begin, you actually have to say something to them, instead of just staring at them across the classroom. Life isn't the movies, and you can't always rely on the other person to come chat to you. You can't just hope they think you look as cute as you think they look and will make the first move all the time. Have you ever thought about how, apart from being lucky in puberty, the popular girls at school always got the guy because they were confident and actually spoke to them?!  I know, hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Go on- say 'hi'!

The worst thing that can happen is that you have an awkward 2 minute conversation, meaning you obviously don't click and you can move on with your life. One more not-meant-to-be checked off your list. Millions more to get through! (seriously, there are millions of people on this earth, one let down is simply one step closer to your meant to be 😉 )

When I look back at all the people I've liked over my teen years, the real reason none of them ever stood a chance at becoming relationships was because I did not speak to them. Yes there was the fact that I was ridiculously uncool, but the right person would have seen through all of that had we got to know each other properly. I mean, the reason I had a BF aged 10, despite my weirdness, was cause it was pre-awkward stage and I was fine chatting to people of the opposite sex, whilst now I can't put two words together around the hot guy in my lecture and oh, guess what, I'm the singlest pringle! Not that any of the boys at Secondary School were the right person. Gosh, I had such a habit of falling for the bad guy *sighs in exasperation and rolls her eyes, shaking her head in amusement*

via GIPHY

Ah, so revision season has come around again, quicker than the previous and even more menacing. There are few things that can make it bearable, but something I've found is that a good soundtrack can make all the difference. Now, I'm super specific with my music: I can't listen to pop (too distracting) and hard-core classical makes me wanna dance (don't judge me too much ok!).

However, there are some genres and Spotify playlists I have been LOVING recently, so today I thought I would impart my musical wisdom with you all, giving you back that half hour you use to browse for the perfect album when you should be making flashcards (guilty 🙈)...

- Sombre Tunes -

When I'm doing causal reading, or writing out notes that don't require much thought, I can just about deal with having lyric-music being on in the background. When I'm in this mood, I often opt for mellow, indie tracks - nothing too uplifting or high energy. Here are a few of the artists that make the cut, to give you a good idea about what I'm going on about:

• Passenger
• Birdy
• Ben Howard
• Tom Odell
• Salvador Sobral (yes, the guy who won Eurovision last year!)
• Mree
• Billie Marten
• Charlie Cunningham

- Experimental Beats -

This week I've discovered fun, experimental 'sub-genres' such as low-fi hip-hop - think stereotypical travel vlogger music. Apart from it making you feel like you're filming a 'study with me', they are fab for note-making due to their lack of lyrics, whilst the scatty nature of them makes it hard to tap or jig along to. However, a word of warning, the hectic-ness of some of them does mean that they could be too distracting for work that requires high-concentration, such as essay writing.

Here's a couple of playlists to get you started:

• Jazz Vibes
• Chill Beats 

- Smooth Jazzzzzzz -

I've found myself recently reaching for chill, smooth jazz whilst writing the lovely 3,000 word essays uni decided to give me. What can I say? There's nothing like recreating the vibe of artisanal cafés in your bedroom to get you in the writing mood!

It all comes down to one playlist for me, with the Spotify Chilled Jazz playlist being the reason I just about survived second term 😂 It's also a double win if you love a good ABBA cover, cause boy is this playlist filled with them!



So there you have it, the tunes that will be getting me through my second year history exams - yeyyyyyy....... 😩

Good luck to all of you taking exams soon!

What's your favourite music to work to?

June xx