25.____YSL

I stumbled across this earlier, it's a beautiful photo from one of the original advertising campaigns from YSL, it's the man himself, and it's just a stunning picture, which unfortunately is going up for sale later on this month. The winning bidder is a very lucky person indeed.

Hauntingly beautiful.

24.____Bloglovin

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23.____My Make Up Bag...

"Vanity of Vanity, all is Vanity"

Thought I'd share something about myself with you & here it is:

Bit of a mess I know, but there it is, apparently you can tell a lot about a person by what they put in their make up bags, I currently have; 

• 2 Hair Bobbles
• 1 Hair Grip
• 1 Nail file
• 1 Pair of Tweezerman Tweezers
• Benefit Dandelion 
• Benefit Hoola
• Clinique Eye Palet
• Trish McEvoy Eye Palet
• Chanel Quattro Eye Palet
• Chanel Blusher
• Laura Mercier Mascara
• Clinique Mascara
• Estee Lauder Nutritious Foundation
• Clinique Blusher
• Mac Eye Palet
• Barry M Nail Varnish
• Avon Lipstick
• Mac Eye Shadow
• Maybelline Kohl Pencil
• Marks & Spencer Eye Liner
• Collection 2000 Liquid Eye Liner
• Clinique Lipstick
• Chanel Lipstick Sample
• Natural Collection Eye Liner
• Maybelline Lipstick
• Estee Lauder Mascara and Concealer Duo
• Chanel Beaute Initiale Sample
• Laura Mercier & Trish McEvoy Make up Brushes

Ever wondered why your handbag was so heavy? I've just found out why mine is! Some of what in there is brilliant - the Chanel & Benefit are great, however, the Laura Mercier Mascara doesn't agree with my eyes particularly, I bought a Maybelline Super Mascara - a yellow one, in a huge bottle, that is actually brilliant. 

As you can tell, I love make up & I'm not ashamed to say that I do spent a lot of money on it, a friend of mine used to be a model, it was her in fact who bought me the MAC eye palet, and she has taught me a lot about what to wear and how to wear unusual colours.

The latest trends are nude lipsticks and pale pastel nails, especially turquoise, which is why there is a Maybelline lipstick in there and a Barry M nail varnish, as well as why I currently sport Lemon Yellow nails, and why there is a bottle of it on my bed at home. The Beaute Initiale coincidentally is brilliant, smells gorgeous but is hugely expensive so I treasure the sample and would beg any more from any nice Chanel lady who would like to give me some more!

22.____Liberty

The fashion house which has recently been bought by BlueGem Capital Partners for £32 million! Pretty expensive, but the place sells itself.

For example, this gorgeous dress, as seen on http://www.vogue.co.uk/news/favourites-of-vogue/100119-what-to-buy-liberty-/gallery.aspx is a definite must have for this summer, unfortunately, I'm a student, but maybe if I look after the pennies...

21.____Lea Michele

Or, as most people know her, Rachel Berry from Glee.

In this issue of ASOS magazine, she's brilliant, and in Glee, of which, I have to say I'm a devout follower, she is fantastic too! All in all for someone who's only just over 20, she's done pretty well for herself! Check out the article if you can!

20.____Exams!

At last, unfortunately the exams are upon us, my first one is tomorrow, and I'm definitely not looking forward to it! I've tried to revise so we'll see what has stuck! I'm dreading it! Introduction to European Politics, I've discovered, is not that interesting. So here's hoping it goes okay, and I get what I need for Leeds!

19.____Pablo Picasso

I'm watching Modern Masters: Picasso on BBC 2 - it's brilliant. Picasso was a wonderful artist with dozens of different styles, completely revolutionising the art world & continually inspiring thousands of people. 

Hopefully, at some point, I'd like to do a Picasso trail & follow in his footsteps, see the places he saw & photograph them.

He was wonderful, still is. Modern masters though, is a brilliant programme, iPlayer it now!

18.___Arty Farty

17.____Big Dave.

So we have a new PM...it's not been taken as kindly as he had hoped, the first coalition since WW2. It's a brand new phase that no one is used to, which is why there's a lot of panic involved. I, personally think it'll be good to shake things up a bit, hopefully the country will come out top. 

Here's hoping.

16.____Last Day in Hullywood!

Today is my last proper day in Hull, all I have to come back for is exams, then first year is over & Leeds University beckons! Can't wait! Hull has taught me a lot about myself, but ultimately I still stand by my decision and next year will be amazing! Not to mention an economically challenged one - there's a lot of nice shops in Leeds!

Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye!

15.____British Politics described as "Lord of The Rings"

I found this on a Facebook Group and it's brilliant!

Labour: The kingdom of men, a vast and influential group. Known for their hardy nature and love of the common man.

Conservatives: The Elves, a large group who base their lives on traditional values.

Liberal Democrats: The Hobbits, a small group who have nice ideas. They can’t really compare to the other forces on an open front, but somehow they hold the fate of Middle-Earth.

UKIP: The Dwarves, a small group who are fiercely territorial and prefer to distance themselves from the rest of the world.

Green: The Ents. This one is pretty self explanatory…they’re trees…

Independent: The independent politicians are the mercenary leaders who sit around places like “The prancing pony” swapping courageous stories.

SNP, Sein Fein, Plaid Cymru: Easterlings and Haradrim, vaguely external political forces that frequently come to loggerheads with the other kingdoms of man.

Monster Raving Looney party: Tom Bombadil…enough said.

The eye of Sauron: Sauron is usually either China, Russia or Afghanistan depending on your own personal “nuclear threat” views.

Other important characters:

David Dimbleby: Gandalf (Think about it…it’s obvious)

The BBC: The white council, the wizards


All Credit to Luke Russel & http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=122846437741784&v=info 

14.____Revision

Something that everyone hates but that we know in the end will do us good. Currently though, we'll do anything to avoid it, napping, watching all that TV that you've missed, watching those series that have been recommended to you - even though the exam is tomorrow! 

Good Luck everyone!

One I regularly watch

One I will be watching soon!

13.____mmm...Cake!

It's my mums birthday today, so, as a special touch I thought I'd bake her a cake, it was delicious!

Here's the recipe:

300g/10½oz plain chocolate, broken into pieces
225g/8oz caster sugar
175ml/6fl oz boiling water
225g/8oz salted butter, cut into cubes, plus extra for greasing
6 free-range eggs, separated
1 tsp instant coffee powder
2 tsp vanilla extract 

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
2. For the cake, grease and line the base of a 23cm/9in springform tin with baking parchment.
3. Blend the chocolate and sugar in a food processor until a fine powder forms. Add the boiling water, butter, egg yolks, coffee powder and vanilla extract and blend until well combined.
4. In a clean bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form when the whisk is removed, then, using a metal spoon, gently fold into the chocolate mixture.
5. Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake for 45-55 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
6. Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool in the tin, then transfer to the fridge for 2-3 hours. 

Thank you to Sophie Dahl & the Delicious Miss Dahl BBC programme for that!

12.____Thursday I had a massive election!

So...we've had the general election, which unfortunately turned into a wee bit of a farce, with at least one polling station, Liverpool, running out of ballot papers, and numerous constituencies turning their voters away as the 10 o clock deadline hit.

As a result, one can hardly say that the election was 100% fair as a number of voters didn't get to vote, which in one constituency the vote was won by less than 100 votes - a completely different outcome could have happened there.

Currently, the situation which the country is in is "talks" David Cameron and Nick Clegg are deep in discussion about running the country in a coalition.

11.____The Deep

One of the few things that Hull hosts is...

"The world's first submarium"

Basically, it's the only aquarium that you start at the top & work your way down. It over looks the Humber Estuary, which on the day we went was quite a nice view.

Apparently it boasts over 3500 different fish, I have to admit we saw a lot but maybe not that many. There was a Sword fish though...

Lots of Jelly fish, which paradoxically, terrify me in the sea but turned out to be my favourite thing that we saw.

Mini ones which I thought looked like mushrooms....

This one resembles a 'Man O War' but I'm pretty certain it isn't.

Plus lots of other things like coral and an octopus!

All in all, well worth the day out!

10.____BBC Politics...

Their political pictures are amazing, this just made me smile when I saw it. It's such a close likeness of a hung parliament...

09.___Housewives in training...

My friend Hannah & I decided as we're students, and exams are looming, what better to do on an extra day off from uni than to bake cakes!

The recipe is simple:

150g Golden Caster Sugar,

150g Self Raising Flour

150g Butter

3 Eggs

Beat it all together & cook at 180 degrees for 20-25mins. Simple.

Here's our finished products:

For the European Politics Students among us.

For the Political Activists among us...

For everyone else!

08.____The Gorgeous Ray-Ban Wayfarers!

Aren't they beautiful?

I invested in these 2 days ago, they are just stunning, I haven't yet informed my mother, as the price was lets say...excessive! Unfortunately, I have only briefly managed to wear them, as I currently live in Hull, so no guesses that there's a lack of sunshine here. In a month & a few days I'm off to Kenya, can't wait - and not just so the glasses can have an outing!

07.____The 2010 General Election

The General Election is on Thursday, which, I think & definitely hope that everyone knows by now, especially those over 18. Most people that I've come across at least know, and after the obligatory pleasantries are interrogating you on who you're voting for or canvassing you on who you should vote for.

I'm a politics student, and to be honest, an under-active one in terms of party activity. Here there's the die hard Labour supporters, and, to be honest, it seems as though with some, there's a competition on who can be more 'working class'. Then there's the Tory's - mostly a bunch of people who you wouldn't expect, yes, there is the stereotypical 'Conservative' but mainly these are just normal people. Finally, there's the Lib Dems, this group of people, bless them, are like a 6 year old child, desperate to be heard and when they're not they shout about it.

To be honest, I don't know who I want to vote for yet, and I really do not feel comfortable with telling other people who they should vote for. At the same time though, I'm fed up of when even mentioning a party that others don't agree with I can get abuse or dirty looks

At the moment, our university emails, phones and facebook are clogged with pleas of help to 'get the message heard'. Surely, at 18/19, when a lot of those who are canvassing haven't seen a lot of the world, are the wrong people to be throwing there ideas in older peoples faces? I know it sounds harsh and perhaps a little hypocritical to say they haven't lived, but I'm 18 too, I can say that although I've seen a lot, I can acknowledge that I am only 18 and have a lot more to see.

People are supporting parties for the wrong reasons, or supporting them like a football team when really, it's the policies you should be choosing, not just the name.

As a friend said recently "When you vote it's a secret ballot, I don't tell you then, and I'm not telling you now."

06.___Demi Moore

I just finished reading the article in May's Elle magazine, and I don't think I was the only one not to know that she is actually called Demetria.

And, I didn't think I was the only one to find it a tad shocking she was named after a shampoo brand, luckily it was a well named one. She's 47, breaking Hollywood all over again & has a husband who's 15 years her junior. If she isn't someone to aspire to I don't know who is!

She has this amazing natural beauty and isn't afraid to be who she is. That's a lesson I think we all could learn.