Little Geordie Lass

Let's be honest, 2016 hasn't been the best for many of us. With Brexit, Trump, numerous celebrities passing and Newcastle United being relegated to the Championship, there has been better years. But in terms of what I have personally been up to, 2016 has actually been pretty good. I look back on the year I have had and realise how much I have achieved and what opportunities I have been granted this year.

I have always been quite adventurous with my hair when I was younger, especially in my early teens getting my hair dyed or highlighted quite often. Coming into my late teens and 20's I just left my hair alone so it could become healthy again, and until now it was the first time my whole head had been its natural colour since I was around 10 years old! But, in true style, it wasn't long before I got bored. So I did a thing...

Being a postgraduate student, I can definitely see the difference between studying my first degree my current one I'm studying now. Firstly, going from a degree where I am learning by being up on my feet all the time (wearing my leggings and trainers) to sitting and having 3 hour presentations and discussions. And secondly the difference in workload. Yes I had a lot of work to do the last 3 years, and telling people that I only have 2 essays to do before Christmas this year may seem like a doddle; but they are both 5000 words, all based off independent learning and doing my own research. It can be stressful. Hell, all university courses are stressful, if it wasn't stressful then it wouldn't be a full university experience! So with assessment period looming, I thought I would share a few of my tips on how to deal with stress at uni; or even school, college or sixth form- these will all apply!

I have always considered myself quite a charitable person, from being a Girl Guide to a university student. A lot of my spare time at university has been dedicated to the Student's Union fundraising strand Raise and Give, RAG for short, as a student committee member which I volunteer my time for. My role on RAG Committee involves planning and executing numerous fundraising events and activites throughout the year alonside other student volunteers and working closely with the SU staff to make our ideas a reality. Background done, every year we try to arrange an overnight stay in a UK city where students volunteer to raise money for a national chairity; which we call RAG Raids. This year we teamed up with Cancer Research UK and headed to Manchester to raise funds for the charity and raise awareness of Stand Up To Cancer day, which aptly took place on the day the TV show was being aired on Channel 4 later that evening.

It seems that I have been hoarding more and more lipsticks every year, this year I decided enough was enough. Instead of going out to buy numerous Autumnal lipsticks for this season, I decided to actually make use of the ones that I already own. So when I was sorting through all my lipsticks, I never really knew how many lovely colours I had which would be great for this season. So today, I have decided to share them with you. In particular, 5 of my favourite high street picks which you will be able to find easily in Boots or Superdrug. I have chosen a range of high street lip products that range in different prices. Now I'm not the biggest fan of the 'dark berry lip' as I feel like it washes me out too much and is too bold for my liking. So here are some alternatives to that trend which I think will be great for the Autumn season which won't break the bank.

I have decided to take one of my old features 'Manicure Mondays' and turn it into Mani of the Month, just to make life easier for me... So this month, I decided to have a little shopping splurge and I saw this nail polish in New Look. I was initially drawn to the colour but I didn't think I would love this much, that I would do a review on it.

So my usual blog posting schedule has kinda stopped working for me now considering that I have gone back to university. I feel like this post is going to be me ranting more than anything, and I just feel like talking now rather than uploading at a set time. A month is a long time, and alot of stuff has happened since I returned from New York. The day after returning I unpacked my case to repack it with all my uni stuff to head back the following day, I threw myself into volunteering Freshers' Week, got to see all my friends again and was introduced to my new MA course. So why was I so unhappy?

Earlier this year, i went on Part 1 of my American Adventure to Florida with my boyfriend, only a few months later Part 2 with my family for my 21st birthday came around so quickly! So here we go, here is my trip to the Big Apple, New York City...

For my 21st Birthday I had the pleasure of being taken to New York City. My brother got a surprise birthday present for his 21st which was a holiday to Dubai, but I already knew about my 'surprise' holiday considering that I had been planning my New York trip since I was 16. The one thing I still hadn't agreed on what what theatre production to see; as a drama graduate and musical theatre lover it was a given that I would have to go and see a Broadway musical. If I had it my way, I would have seen a different musical every night I was in NYC, but that couldn't happen; my parents did want to have a surprise for me though. So on a nice sunny afternoon after visiting the Statue of Liberty, I was told that the following night that I would be going to see School of Rock at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway (SQUEAL!!).

As you may know, last year my obsession with MAC lipsticks began, and over the past year... well you can say it has got a little bit out of hand. I did this same post last year with 6 lipsticks, and now just over 1 year later I DIYed a lipstick holder suitable for 28 lipsticks and I have almost filled it up... so I thought that it was only right that I did an updated MAC Lipstick Collection. I do have a couple more lipsticks that aren't in the holder which I have included in this list, but I haven't included my Retro Matte Liquid Lipstick in 'Oh, Lady'. I like to keep all my MAC lipsticks together on display in my DIY; the box is from a Ted Baker gift set I got for Christmas and I just made my own seperators and poped them inside the box... I think it looks good.

I've seen many people do something like this, where they take some time to reflect on their experiences at university. I know people like to have a read of these type of posts to see if university is really what it is all cracked up to be and just what the general experience was like. I have debated about doing this post for a while, however I mentioned in my 'Responding to my Dear 21 Year Old Elisa Post' (which I wrote reflecting on my mid-to-long term goals for the next 3 years) that I was going to go on and do a Masters Degree; so I was going to wait until I had finished that before doing this kind of post. But I'm gonna do it anyway! My masters will probably need to have a separate post and this is going to be a long one itself. So sit back, grab a snack and enjoy...

Some of you may know that tomorrow is my 21st Birthday! I'm so excited! But it has also come to the time that I have to respond to one of the first blog posts that I ever made which was a letter to my 21 year old self when I was just 18 years old. It is scary how fast time has gone, it doesn't even feel like 2 minutes since I wrote it! But I bet a lot has changed, which is even scarier! So here we go, I bet I get emotional! I have posted the original letter in this post and I have put my response to the post in bold font. But, just in case, here is the original link to the post, which was also my first ever blog post!: http://littlegeordielass.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/dear-21-year-old-elisa.html *disclaimer. The formating for this post is really bad and I've been having issues editing it properly; like the purple font (wth) and the paragraphs not going in place properly.

It is a very known fact that I love to travel. I enjoy seeing the world, exploring local cultures and indulging in the luxuries when I am away. I decided earlier this year that I wanted to try and visit 30 countries before I am 30 years old (just over 9 years until the deadline); and I always thought I was a well-traveled person. However after finding one of those online quizzes which tells you what percentage of the world you have visited and how many countries, I was quite underwhelmed when I discovered that I had only traveled 5.09% of the world, or 11 countries in my life of nearly 21 years. So that's 19 new countries in 9 years... Now I don't know if that goal is realistic, I don't have alot of money in the bank, but I will have a good crack at trying to achieve this goal! Anyways, this is what has inspired me to write this blog post; some of the countries I have visited before but not these particular areas of interest, so here is my bucket list of places I want to t

I love my eyeshadow palettes, however I own very few of them as I find that I don't use all the shadows and hit pan on my favourites colours. So when I discovered Make Up Geek eye shadows, where you can buy single pans to custom make your own palette, I decided to have a little splurge. I did my research into the numerous shadows that Make Up Geek have created and I chose my 9 favourites to create my own every-day eyeshadow palette!                        

I said in my last post that I was going to do this, so here we are! I was like a small child in a sweet shop when I went to the Sephora store located at Disney Springs in Florida. I may have spent alot more than what I expected ($214 to be precise) but I just couldn't help myself, and it was so worth it! I wanted to really focus on the brand's that I either couldn't buy in the UK or are very hard for me to get ahold of, but some stuff I couldn't resist. I also managed to go to Walgreen's, the American version of Boots or Superdrug to get some non-UK high street/'drugstore' makeup. It's fair to say that I bought my fair share of makeup...

My 3 years of my undergraduate degree are over, and I couldn't be happier that I graduated with First Class Honours. The past 3 years have been an absolute whirlwind of an adventure; I've met some of the most amazing people and some things that I never thought that I would ever do. But I have to say, my final year has been my favourite year of university. First year was just a blur of going out and second year was just a nightmare, so full of drama, but my third year did where I finally felt in control of my life, and in terms of my degree; I got to look specifically at my own interests and put my time into researching what I wanted instead of set topics that I was given in previous years. 

Some of you may know from my Twitter or Instagram that I have been away to Florida with my boyfriend! The reason I have titled this travel journal as Part 1 is because this I am also going back to America in September, to New York for my 21st Birthday! I am going to pick up on my 'Travel Journal' series by telling you all about my visit to Orlando, Florida where I went to the Universal Parks, Disney and did lots of other fun and exciting things across the water!

Sleek is a brand which has slowly crept into my makeup collection and is quickly becoming one of my favourite high street make up brands. Browsing through my Instagram, I saw that they were coming out with lip crayons and I got very excited. I intially compared them to my Maybelline Colour Drama lip crayons and went under the assumption that they would be similar to those but with the added lip plumping element to them- so I had to buy some!

Well, well, well... Long time, no see!  I really feel like I have abandoned this blog lately, and my reasoning can be summed up in just a few words. Final year uni student. This year has been absolutely insane, it's crazy that this is even the first blog post that I am writing in 2016! Ive had a whirlwind of a year, but it is all over now and all the hard work has paid off because I will be graduating University in 3 days with a First Class Honours degree!