Resolutions :

I'm not usually one for the 'New Year, New Me' type proclamations. I've always been under the impression the first day of a new year is in fact, just another day and if you're supposedly that desperate to change your life, why wait until the year is up? It's a continuous cycle of hypocrisy. One minute everybody is all for living in the moment, not waiting for tomorrow because you never know sort-of-thing. The next everybody has compiled a list of things they're going to change in their lives, or things they're going to become as soon as it's New Year. Seems sort of daft to me. The one thing I think about every New Year's Eve, is that time really does fly, so I suppose everyone's reasoning for their resolutions is to try and make the most of the new calender year. Which is what I've tried to do this year... (I think this post has become a ramble - bear with me.)

Last year I decided to become a vegetarian and stuck it out for a whole six months, until I realised that me not eating meat wasn't going to change the meat industry on any level. Also, that for me to starve myself of food I enjoyed and is so readily available to me was selfish, when others are so less fortunate. This year I've actually written a full blown list. It would be easy to be vague and jot things down such as 'Travel more.' 'Learn a new language.' 'Eat healthily.' So instead I've tried to be a little realistic and just think of things that I've always wanted to remind myself of.

1. Make the most out of my final year at uni : 

I have the lesser half of a year left and while that tends to throw me into complete stress-mode, I'm actually enjoying my fourth year. So far I've achieved a First - creating a publication that I'm immensely proud of - and at the moment I'm in the midst of writing my case study on unpaid fashion internships. 

I'm going to be so sad to leave Huddersfield but I've had the best time at university and I really feel like I'm ready for the next step in life - whatever that may be...

2. Find some sort of creative outlet and stick to it! : 

There are never enough hours in the day and I never feel like I have time to just sit down and do something I used to love doing, like drawing, or writing or reading. I started this blog in one of many attempts to be a bit creative alongside writing essays and working in excel. And do you know what? I never thought I'd enjoy it as much as I do. So I'm going to try and make 2015 the year I actually do things with my spare time.

3. Keep my hair short and stop washing it : 

Bit of a weird one really. No I'm not growing dreadlocks. I just wash my hair every single day because... Well I don't even know why. So that needs to stop before my entire head of hair falls out.

4. Do what makes me happy : 

Ugh cheese or what. I feel like I spend a lot of my time running round after other people and accommodating their happiness, because I don't like for other people to have a hard time. But there's times when I just want to be selfish and say no to people. But saying no always makes me feel so guilty... It's a work in progress.

5. Keep a diary : 

My mum bought me this beautiful gold coated leather diary from Zara Home for Christmas and I'm determined to actually write in it. I struggle sleeping sometimes because I always have so many thoughts and ideas running round my head that just need writing down!

Ok, that's all folks. I hope you enjoyed my very typical list of resolutions. Have a fantastical New Year's Eve!

What I Wore : Brussels Day 3

We stayed at Hotel Bloom, in a superior king room which we found at an amazing last minute price on Booking.com. It's a boutique style hotel with completely individual rooms - each has a mural painted by a different artist from a different city from around the world. Ours was an Irish painter who had created a beautiful, pink scene with a woman stood in the corner, supposedly emulating Spring. The decor of the rooms are seriously cool AND you even get a full blown coffee machine to yourself! I would recommend staying in Hotel Bloom a million times over and if I ever go back to Brussels, I'd most definitely stay here again!

We went out for a meal on our last night to an Italian style restaurant called Drug Opera. The buildings of Brussels are beautiful and all at least three storys high, which means the interiors of restaurants and bars have mezzanine style balcony's and staircases overlooking the lower floors. Because it was Christmas time, everywhere was covered in twinkling fairy lights and it was maaagical.

I wore this amazing yet irritatingly itchy jumper dress from H&M which I want to wear every single day of my life. For £14.99 I can kind of deal with scratching my neck off everytime I do wear it...

What I Wore : Brussels Day 2

I've been searching for the perfect camel coloured roll neck jumper for so long before finding this one from Gap at the back of my mum's wardrobe. Apparently it itches. I think not. Therefore it's now mine and I absolutely adore it. I always end up pairing it with my flares - which are my favourite jeans in the entire world. Add some hoop earrings and you have total unintentional seventies vibez. 

We traveled up to Bruges on our second morning to explore their Christmas markets. It's honestly one of the most beautiful places I've been. The multicoloured buildings and little cobbled streets were covered in Christmas decs and there was even a real-life nativity parade featuring a brass band, a few sheep, horses and a donkey!

What I Wore : Brussels Day 1

A week ago today we were mid-way through our four day pre-Christmas weekend in Brussels. It's now three days post-Christmas and it all feels a bit of a blur. 

Time is the one thing you can never have more of, so it seems a waste to not go out and do things and see the world. The only thing I really want to do in life is to see everything every country, city and tiny little village has to offer. Unrealistic, I know, but I'm yet to spend a holiday lying around doing nothing when I could be exploring...

We mainly decided on Brussels for it's Christmas markets, where we spent most of the weekend drinking gluhwein and amaretto. It's such a beautiful city and the locals are so friendly and helpful and I think we literally walked a hundred miles over the four days just trying to see and cram in as much as we could! 

These photos were taken in the botanical gardens just by our hotel - so worth a visit. The turquoise blue statues stand amongst fountains, mazes and winding tracks that lead downhill into Brussels city centre. The main attraction is of course the domed greenhouse, where inside there is a bar and a roundhouse where they hold gigs every week or so!

I'm so glad I found this coat in the Urban Outfitters sale last year - I hadn't worn it until last week and turns out it's perfect for the cold Belgian weather. I also wore my Vagabond boots all weekend which I'm pretty impressed about, especially with the amount of walking we did. Comfiest-shoes-ever.

Gig Guide : Xfm Winter Wonderland

The Apollo isn't my favourite venue as I find it near impossible to see over anyone's head. Apparently there's a lot of tall people in Manchester and I'm not one of them.

I'm also repeatedly disgusted by the carpeted gangways which squelch when you happen to step on them. 

However, for such a small venue it doesn't half have a great line-up all year round. This Monday I went to Xfm's Winter Wonderland, which happens in Manchester and London every year. The Manchester line-up is always better though obvs. It started at 6pm which was a bit of a mad rush and we ended up missing the majority of Bear's Den which I was a bit gutted about. The rest of the line-up went as follows: Circa Waves, Jimi Goodwin of Doves, Liam Fray of Courteeners, Catfish and the Bottlemen, George Ezra, Wild Beasts, and, of course, headlining was Ben Howard.

George Ezra is one of my favourite people at the moment, his voice is timelessly brilliant and he's ever so talented. After seeing him on Radio 1's Introducing stage at Glastonbury this year it's kind of insane how popular he's become in a matter of months! 

In fact, everyone was incredibly good, even though they were each limited to a tiny 20 minute-ish slot. But of course, Ben Howard just topped off the night perfectly. I Forget Where We Were is probably my favourite album at the minute - it's so atmospheric and totally different from Every Kingdom in the best possible way. The stage looked like a set of ghosts as Ben and band picked their way through the new album and the stage lights lit the crowd.

All in all, for 30 quid, Winter Wonderland is one of the best mini festival types I've ever been, the line-up was ridiculously good and it was all in aid of such a good cause; War Child.

Top 5 :

ASOS Borg Biker Jacket

This is soooooo much cooler than the leather alternative and it looks ridiculously comfy. Almost teddy bear esque.

Cheap Monday Roll Neck Dress

Simply so I can keep pretending I'm Scandinavian.

Adidas Originals Mini Bag

I'm already a promo-girl for Adidas, so it's only natural that I'd wear this with absolutely everything. I'm just not a handbag type of girl...

ASOS Snakeskin Boots

An ode to my cornsnake. He's named after the main guy in the Lion King 2 - Kovu. Don't ask me why.

Kiss The Sky Flares

Remind me why I ever wanted to wear skinny jeans? These might not be denim but for short legged gals like myself, flares are everything. Plus these are all-year-round wearable. All the more reason to book a ticket to a another festival abroad...

Inspired :

All images taken from Pinterest.

What I Wore :

Before I say goodbye to my hair, I've been plaiting it and corn-rowing it like there's no tomorrow. I've still not mastered the art of neat lines, or not getting a dead arm whilst in the process, but perhaps when it's short I might have a better chance...

This sweat may be a dupe but I didn't realise it had potential as 'favourite thing I've ever bought' until this last couple of weeks. I bought it last autumn and stuck it at the back of my wardrobe because it was too boxy and everyone else in the world was wearing it. For me, I think that's the ultimate deterrence for a piece of clothing.

HOWEVER... As the weather's been dancing around the 0 degrees mark and I'm having to de-ice my car of a morning, all I want and need from life is just want to be warm. I never am mind, because I think I might actually be cold-blooded... 

And it's got a turtle-neck, so in my eyes there's nothing better.

Sweat : SheInside

Gig Guide : Bombay Bicycle Club

So on a very hungover sunday travelling back from London after seeing Kasabian at Brixton Academy we rushed back to get ready to head back to Manchester to see Bombay at the Apollo.

Peace were the support act (we missed SiVU) and to be honest, I was a big fan of them a couple of years ago. But two years on and they've hardly released any new material and it just felt a bit like they were wasting time before Bombay could come out. Even though I was suffering immensely from a hangover from hell, and chugging Pepsi like I hadn't had a drink in a week, there's something so magical about Bombay Bicycle Club that makes everything OK again. 

I always think gigs go too quickly (probably cause I'm usually a bit drunk), but this spectacular hour and a half seemed to last an age! Probably because there was so much to take in - this is a band that always makes such an effort to show everyone a good time. There were fireworks and streamers and little paper tickets that were shot into the air - it was almost as if we were back at Glastonbury. 

In amongst all of this, the stage graphics that flickered through slides onto five circles behind the band as they played through So Long, See You Tomorrow, were just incredible. Big up to the designers that put those together. This is the first time I've seen Bombay at a gig, the previous three times were at Benicassim, Leeds and Glastonbury festivals. I've loved them every time, but I can't imagine any other gig would top this!

Gig Guide : Kasabian

Aside from usual posts of wishlists and Pinterest boards and while hiding inside from the cold, I figured I don't really post as much as I'd like to on here.

After four long years at university, I've realised that fashion is not my forte and I don't actually enjoy buying into trends and getting excited over H&M collaborations. Instead I'd rather wear whatever I want to and not care if my nails aren't the right shape for this season. I feel completely the same about this blog. Not that it has nails. But I don't feel like posting things I'm not interested in just for the sake of people agreeing with my opinion. 

Anyway my point being that I'd rather post about things that I enjoy and not plan or force a post I don't feel like. So this post might differ slightly and get no views but at least I enjoyed adding the photos to it... 

When I was fourteen, my friends and I would go to at least a gig a week. My dad would drop us off and pick us up from Manchester or Liverpool after seeing Kids in Glass Houses or N-Dubz (no regretz). The past year I've been reliving my teenage years with my boyfriend by going to as many gigs as we can possibly afford to, and over the last few months we've seen FKA Twigs, Alt-J and Joey Badass - just to name a few.

This weekend just gone has honestly been the best in a while. Travelling down to London to see Kasabian at Brixton was the best decision I think ever? Even if it meant spending about three hours travelling down. Getting drunk on wine and being sped to the gig by an overly excited black-cab driver who didn't want us to miss the start was great. And the set was incredible. We didn't realise until a few hours before that it was going to a late set, with Kasabian only on at 10:45 and only coming off after 1am. Leaving Brixton drenched in beer was well worth the two hours of pure gold. Serge and Tom are my favourite guys. There's just something about watching your favourite band play in a tiny venue with every single person singing along and jumping around that cannot be topped. 

This is the third time I've seen Kasabian and seeing them headline Glastonbury this year was an unreal experience, being in amongst flares and people on shoulders and a cameo by Noel Fielding/Vlad the Impaler... 

Inspired : Interiors

All images taken from Pinterest.