25 Goals for 25 Years of Age

 

Hey again! I actually did a post similar to this before I turned 21, although that was something that I posted as a one off almost; it was before I really started blogging as a serious hobby. However I did enjoy writing it and I feel like blogging is a fantastic way of documenting the high (and low) points of your life. 25 feels like such an important number; it's the kind of age that when you're a child you think you'll be 25, married with kids and a house etc etc. Basically when you're small you believe that 25 is seriously old and your life will be all sorted! In reality, none of these things will be happening for me, but that doesn't mean that I don't have a huge list of things that I'd like to achieve before that age! So here is 25 things that I'd like to achieve before 25! (Or least within my 25th year of life!) That said, I don't have long to plan as I'm already 24, but a girl can dream, right?

1. Get a piercing. (What and where, I have no idea).

2. Visit at least three more countries in Europe that I've always wanted to explore and make the most of every minute. In January I'm visiting Copenhagen in Denmark and Oslo in Norway, so that's a start, but I'd like to see more of the world over the next year if possible.

3. Stop talking about getting more fit or losing weight and actually start making the change to see it through. Join the gym and actually go on a regular basis.

4. Rediscover my love for photography and take the time to document my life and what I see; buy a camera and create the kinds of images that I love, rather than just using my phone.

5. Learn (or at least try to learn) another language.

6. See the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Play.

7. Learn the names and locations of all of the countries of the world.

8. Visit the Harry Potter Studio Tour and relive my childhood dream of attending Hogwarts!

9. Have a romantic dinner on a rooftop, or high up where you can see the world from above, somewhere like the Shard, whether that's with a friend or with family, I want to feel on top of the world for a while.

10. Do an ancestry DNA test and find out my family history, as I know that there is definitely some Welsh, Irish and German but I want to know for sure.

11. Learn to relax and stop constantly overthinking; let go of the past and move on. Cut out all of the anxious thoughts and feelings and just live in the moment.

12. Get a second tattoo. (Where, or what I'm not 100% sure, oops).

13. Start a scrapbook and document all of the good times and memories I've had so far in my life. I have countless photographs printed out everywhere that I want to collate them all somewhere and so scrapbooking looks like a good hobby to start up.

14. Buy a ticket to somewhere, anywhere on a whim and see where life decides to take me for a day (or more, depending on my mood). Over the last year I've definitely become more relaxed and I'm trying to be open to spontaneity.

15. See a fortuneteller; ever since I was a child I've been interested in the spiritual world and I've love to see what a professional could tell me about my past, my present and my future.

16. Start saving. It's taken a while to get to the point where I can even contemplate the idea of saving money as I've had some financial issues over the past couple of years that were genuinely not my fault. Now I'm sorting my life out, I want to start properly having a savings plan and think about about the future.

17. Spend more time having fun and less time stressing out; I want to make an effort to see my friends more regularly, especially those who I've definitely neglected recently. I have a good bunch of friends and I need to remember to take some time out and spend time with them as memories don't get made otherwise! I want to spend a lot of time with my best friend as she's been so consistently supportive of me over the last few years.

18. Read at least 50 books that I've never read before; that's not a difficult task, but I really want to keep up with reading as a hobby and blogging has definitely helped that. I've found reading to be a fantastic way of relaxing.

19. Get back into dancing; from 4 years old until I was 17 I used to go to dancing lessons, my absolute favourite was ballet and I really want to get back into it. I used to dream about being a professional (was never going to happen, ahaha) but I’d love to rekindle my love of dance, especially ballet. I definitely want to look into some adult lessons.

20. I’d love to see the Northern Lights; simply because the world is a beautiful place and I don’t need an excuse to find a way to enjoy the natural sights of the world so hopefully over the next year I’m going to see a lot of the sights!

21. Go to a Christmas market; I’ve been to many different markets but I really want to go to a traditional Christmas market and get super festive with trees, decorations, food and drink. I’m not obsessed with Christmas, but after being ill this year I want to enjoy having time off and spending time with family and friends. Plus, there’s something magical about Christmas time.

22. Go on a boat tour, whether that’s in London, or England, the UK or abroad; I love seeing how cities look from the water and it’s the best way to take landscape photographs without crowds of people everywhere. I like the idea of having afternoon tea or a dinner on a boat, watching the world go by in good company.

23. I’ve been thinking about starting a YouTube channel for a while now and that is definitely something that I’d like to have at least tried to do in the next year. I have a feeling that I’ll still prefer blogging as writing comes more naturally to me than speaking does, but I want to push myself and really try and give it a proper chance.

24. I want to rediscover my creativity; I always used to draw constantly in a sketchbook and I haven’t finished a sketchbook since I finished university two years ago. So, in the next year I would like to see myself finishing a sketchbook and reminding myself just why I loved being creative. My favourite thing used to be filling up a sketchbook and I really want to start doing that again.

25. Go to a concert of a band that I really like, regardless of the ticket price.

MOTD - 90s Gal

Hello again! This month I'm trying to be a little more organised with my blog posts; as in I'm attempting to keep more in line with a blog topic, such as beauty or fashion. If you've been reading my posts for a while then you'll know how much of a beauty love I am. At the minute I'm really loving the 90s make up trend of brown lipstick; actually brown lips are having a massive retro revival right now, which is kind of a joke as I remember reading teenage magazines aged around 14 that were literally slating all of the main 90s trend, including the brown lipstick. I bought the NYX Liquid Suede in the shade Sandstorm and I've been in love with it ever since. It's got the largest applicator I've seen on a liquid lipstick so I do find it a challenge to apply neatly. If I'm honest, I almost always over line my lips with this lipstick by mistake. The downside to having brown lips does mean that my contour does end up making my complexion look hugely muddy, although that's also because I'm super pale. This look is definitely more of a night out look than a day to day look. Using the Maybelline Baby Skin Pore Eraser Primer as a way of setting my make up flawlessly, followed by the L'Oréal Paris Infallible 24hr Foundation in the shade Porcelain before the Rimmel Wake Me Up concealer placed under my eyes, across my nose and on any other blemishes and spots. The final part of the base is powder, which I always use the Maybelline Matte Maker in the shade classic ivory. The next step is to contour my face using the Rimmel Kate Moss Sculpting Palette in the shade #002. Due to my pale complexion I only add the bronze shade to my cheekbones and my hairline as I don't like to look like I've been hit by a brick, haha. I also use the blush shade from the same palette and lightly dab it across the apples of my cheeks.

 

 

I decided that as this look is more of a going out look, so natural brows were not an option. I used the Sleek MakeUp Brow Kit in the shade Light; firstly using the powder to fill in any gaps in the hairs and the gel to set my brows in place. I did thicken my brows slightly, so that they would stand out and frame my face. For my eyeshadow I used the w7 In The Night palette, using a lilac matte shade all over my lid and a shimmery purple across the centre of my lid. They're not the most pigmented shades in the world, but they add colour without making me look like I've been punched in the face! In terms of eyeliner, I swear by the L'Oréal Paris SuperLiner Slim in the shade Intense Black as it has a pen shaped nib that glides across the lid and it dries very quickly. It's the only liner that I'm able to create a neat looking cat eye shape with. My favourite mascara of the moment is the Maybelline The Rocket Volum' Express in the shade Very Black; it lengthens, separates and literally curls my eyelashes so well I feel like I've got falsies on and the blackness matches the eyeliner well, making my eyes pop. My holy grail highlighter at the minute is the MakeUp Revolution Vivid Baked Highlights in the shade Ever Glow Lights; it's a really bright, glowy highlight that's super buildable to blinding if you want to be. For £3, it's an absolute steal. I apply it over my cheekbones, across my brow bone, along the centre and tip of my nose and lastly across my Cupid's bow. Lastly, I apply the NYX Liquid Suede all over my lips in the shade Sandstorm. I've found it can dry a little patchy with one coat, so I usually apply two coats to ensure that it's completely opaque. I hope you like this look, I liked it but it was definitely a lot bolder than I usually would put on my face! Forgive the badly lit photos, I really need to invest in a proper camera. Until next time! ❤️

 

Happy Things #11

 

1. My boyfriend bought me the loveliest bouquet of tulips one day and they're still healthy enough to last the upcoming week, which is great. I love flowers, they definitely make me feel better.

2. At the end of this month I go on holiday for ten days and plan to simply relax and enjoy having some time just for myself and my boyfriend. The coming week of work is going to disappear in a flash.

3. Fingers crossed, my new bank card will arrive... I don't have any money but it's still annoying, I can hope it will come. After what feels like ages! I hate carrying cash everywhere, ahah.

4. I have the weekend off, I can't wait to chill out and have some me time. I'm planning to eat some crap food and watch films. I haven't done that in years and it feels like the perfect opportunity to just have a Harry Potter marathon.

5. I want to try and stick to my plan of joining the gym, this will be the week that I force myself to go! Even if it's just 30 minutes, I need to get into a pattern or I'll be forever unhappy with my weight.

 

Things I hate about Adulthood!

 

1. The older I become, the more distanced I feel from the person I was in my teens. If I'm honest, I'm 23 now so my teens were not that long ago, but I feel like I've changed so much even in the past year. People that I was close to when we were around 15. Or perhaps younger I feel we have nothing in common now. I don't have an issue with growing older or growing as a person, but I wish that I'd kept up some friendships I had from earlier days.

2. Somehow, everything is about money. You need money for everything and even if you're earning a decent wage, it's never enough. The goal of owning my own home is definitely years and years away and it only feels possible due to having a steady partner. There's so much negativity surrounding the whole 'generation rent' tag, when the true is you need a ridiculously high deposit which isn't possible for all of us. For example, you need to pay for yourself in every way; phone contract, travel costs, food... So many things you never realised cost so much until you worked for a living!

3. People who knew you as a child always look surprised that you're managing to survive as an adult; only the other day an elderly family friend was amazed that I have a proper, tax paying, student loan paying 'real' job and a degree under my belt. I was even more annoyed because you can have a fanstasic job even without a degree or other things; it's all about passion and experience in the job world right now. A lot of people always assume that I'm not very clever, when actually I just don't enjoy bragging about how good I could be at different things, I find it rude and bad taste to be honest.

4. The insane pressure of being a twenty something; the whole world seems to expect you to achieve either everything or nothing, which is super daunting. The true is, yeah I have goals - I'm sure the majority of people my age have some kind of goal, but no idea how to get on track with making the said goal a reality. It's ok not to have a clue, but for some reason it feels like the world has an expectation that you have to be mature, confident and constantly successful to be an achiever. I class getting to work on time an achievement for me, oops.

5. The expectation that your younger self had about being an adult; you would grow up and have the perfect job, career, and life. You thought you would sleep 8 hours a night, own your own house, eat the most amazing food, buy the best clothes, go to the gym and have the most amazing bod, an incredible social life... The list goes on and in reality you cannot have it all, it is impossible. Which is depressing as even as an adult, you wish for that dream to come true.

6. Looking younger than your age; I often pass for a 19 year old. Everyone treats me like a child whilst expecting me to function as an adult. That is the most frustrating thing... The most irritating part is that age is just a number. You can be a 40 year old child and an 18 year old adult. It's all about your mental state and attitude to the outcome of life, not the year you were born!

7. The word 'adulting'; maybe I'm just being incredibly passé about it, considering it has become a kind of movement within lost late teens or early twenty-somethings who are obsessed with being #relatable or #millenial but for me, I know that's it's not a word. At the end of the day, it's adulthood and it's something we all have to do. It's not a new phenomena, it's a part of life, one that no one likes. Adulting isn't a new thing, it's just a new word - a rather useless one at that.

8. Paying a massive amount of tax... It feels as though everything has some kind of tax placed on it and as you get older you learn that nothin in life is free and that is such a depressing moment. Student loan, income tax, council tax, national insurance; it feels literally never ending and all you do is dream about what you could be doing with that money instead, oops.

9. Once you've left education, being ill isn't so fun anymore; you have to learn to force yourself to get into work unless you're actually dying because everyone in the world will hate you for being a massive pain.

10. Having to be polite, even when you hate someone with a passion. You can't be a bitch as you grow older, because it will eventually come back to haunt you. Sometimes you want to feel young and free again by writing swearing stuff all over social media, but ultimately that won't end well. Friends, family and workmates won't think highly of you and you just end up embarrassed but it's just so hard to learn to be nice!