Books of the Month

I've been reading more this month as I have finished school, so have lots of time to do absolutely nothing. 

One of my books this month is by the same author as my April books of the month. I just love Kate Atkinson's books! Luckily she's written quite a few, so I still have lots to work my way through. 

This month I've been loving Human Croquet by Kate Atkinson, available from £6 on Amazon. I actually bought it for my sister, but stole it from her as soon as she finished reading it. 

Atkinson's style of writing is just so unique: the way she weaves tales around each other and goes from past to present and back again without confusing you is amazing. 

Human Croquet is partly a fairytale, partly a mystery, but also about Isobel Fairfaxe, the narrator, as she discovers who she is. The village of Lythe, where Isobel lives, was once set in the heart of a mysterious forest, home to dark secrets, Shakespeare, and runaway brides. A descendent of these forest people, Isobel often gets stuck in time warps, and spends the rest of the time with her mad family; a brother obsessed with finding their missing mother, a war hero turned shopkeeper father, a step-mother who longs for a baby and turns increasingly neurotic and a grumpy aunt hiding a secret. She seeks refuge from her family in her friend Audrey's home, but that too, is not altogether normal. This book contains less of the humour normally found in Kate Atkinson novels, and is a lot darker, and made me cry quite a lot, but I loved it nonetheless. 

I definitely recommend Kate Atkinson as an author!

Helen x

Beauty Bargain Of The Month

I'm so happy I now have time to get back to blogging on a regular basis. However, this week I'm on a residential in Scotland as part of NCS. (At the end of the progamme I might do a post on it, if you're all interested) As I'm going to be away, I thought I'd try using the scheduled posting, so fingers crossed it all works and this is posted at the right time. 

Anyway, on to my beauty bargain of the month. I'm not too sure what happened this month, but I seem to be left with very little money *ooops* I needed a waterproof mascara for my prom, as the one I'm using currently tends to flake, and I wanted something that would last all night without me getting panda eyes. I wanted something very cheap, so avoided Boots and Superdrug and instead headed to Accessorize as I'd spotted their half price sale. The Waterproof mascara I picked up would usually be £5, which is very good anyway, but I got it for £2.50. 

This doesn't claim to be volumising or lengthening and isn't really, but I quite like it anyway. It is a very dark black, and the formula isn't really thick. The brush is quite big and rigid, so if you like a more flexible wand this isn't for you. It does however stay on without smudging for a long time, and the packaging is so lovely, it's reason enough to get it!

For £2.50, I think this is a very good mascara, but I'll be using it in combination with my other mascaras to get a more volumised look. 

Helen x

Prom

On Friday it was my school prom, which was a lovely way to end 5 years with some wonderful people. 

There is no official dress code, and the girls came in a combination of long and short dresses (and one boy came in skinny jeans and trainers) 

I knew I wanted quite a simple dress, and finally found one from Topshop. It's by Jones and Jones, one of the brands at Topshop. Aside from being beautiful, it's also designed and made in the UK, which is great. I paired it with red heels from New Look (these were great as they weren't too high, so I could actually walk in them without falling over, which is always a bonus) My gold clutch was also from New Look. As my clutch was quite sparkly and eye catching, I went for simple red nails-I used the No7 Speed Dry Polish in shade 50 Siren. I didn't want to spend a huge amount on prom, as after all, it is just one night (though admittedly a long one, as I didn't get back till 2am) and found that shops like Topshop, New Look, Boohoo and Accessorize had some lovely dresses, shoes and accessories, so definitely check them out.

My hair took over an hour and a half, due to the amount of hair I have, but it was definitely worth it-I loved it and got lots of compliments.

Prom was an amazing night, and it was so nice seeing everyone dressed up and it was lovely to have an excuse to wear a pretty dress and get my hair done. I didn't want to take off my dress or undo my hair at the night!

Helen x

Packing light: The essentials

To celebrate the end of my exams, my family and I went away for the night to the Yorkshire Dales. Since we were only going for the night, I didn't take my usual make up bag and just took a few things. 

I used a little floral bag which a friend got me. It's laminated, so can be cleaned easily. Since my skin is pretty good at the moment, I skipped out on the foundation and just took my Collection 2000 concealer to cover any redness, and my Rimmel concealer to use under my eyes. I then used my Elizabeth Arden mascara ( I love this mascara-I'll do a review on it later) and my Une blush to give a light colour to my cheeks. For my lips, I took my Neal's Yard lip gloss in Goji Berry. This has a lovely, very subtle colour, and isn't too sticky.

I'd normally take more, but only having room for a small number of products was actually really helpful, as it helped me realise what my favourite items were, and that actually, I don't need foundation, eye shadow etc.

What would you pack if you could only take 5 products?

Helen x

NOTD: Pretty Pastels

                                

To cheer me up on a grey, rainy day I painted my nails this lovely pretty light blue by Barry M. It's one of the polishes in their gel range, so gives a glossier, plumper effect. I then used some silver 'gems' from the Topshop nail art set I picked up recently (it was only a £1-I couldn't resist) and placed these on my nails, just to make them look more interesting. I think the silver and blue look really good together, so I'll be using this combination again! I finished up with a coat of the Barry M top coat.

                               

                               

Helen x

The end is in sight

An apology-again! 

I only have three more GCSEs left, and in one week I'll be free! I've got quite a busy summer but I'll try to blog as much as I can, because I really miss it 

April books of the month and an apology

Firstly, I'd like to apologise for my absence from the blogging world. I'm in year 11 and we are steadily approaching the exam season. I have 19 exams to revise for, so I have been very busy and haven't had an awful lot of time to blog recently. It's really annoying as I have quite a few posts lined up but just no time to write them! I'm going to do my beauty bargain of the month and my books of the month and then a couple more posts spread out over the month. After that though, I'll be in the middle of exams so I'm afraid I'll just have to fit blogging in whenever I have a bit of same time. 

Anyway, on to my books of the month.

This month my favourite books are by the same author, whom I hadn't heard about till recently. 

My first book is Behind the scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson. This is £4.99 from Amazon. 

This book is about Ruby Lennox and her life. It's quite hard to go into a lot of detail about the plot,because essentially, it is a very well written book about Ruby and her bizzare, yet very relatable family. In some parts it is in the present tense and I parts, the footnotes, it is about her forebearers. At times it is very funny and at times very dark, but always written in a very unique, readable way. 

The second book is Life after Life, by Kate Atkinson, available from £4 on amazon. I have always been fascinated by what happens after we die. I'm not religious, and don't believe in the idea of there being a place called Heaven, as such, but I'd like to think that something happen after we die. I'm not sure what that something is, but I'm always interested to read about it.  A Buddhist once came into my primary school and spoke of what she believed and how she had a friend who died and came back as another friends son: I remember being fascinated by the idea we can be reincarnated and live again and again. But Buddhist ideas aside, what if we could live multiple times, till we got it right, or at least until we made it as good as we possibly could? Would you even want to? This idea is what Atkinson explores in this very moving, very clever book. Ursula Todd is born on a dark, snowy night and dies repeatedly in the book, so that she can be born again and try to rectify the mistakes that were made in her last go. It seems like a confusing concept but actually it works very well as each 'life' is clearly defined. 

I loved this book, and I'm sure it will be one I re-read again and again. 

Helen x