10 Things To Do This Autumn

I’ve noticed the season seems to have changed to Autumn over night! Leaves have turned brown/orange/yellow and have fallen off the trees and the air definitely seems to have more of a chill to it than last month. With this in mind, I have decided to create a 10 things to do this autumn list, similar to the one I published for summer. I’m giving myself until the 1^st December to complete this list as December signals winter to me! This season I am only planning 10 as I have started my third year at university and have a lot of work to be done before Christmas. Some of these things you will have seen featured in my 101 in 1001 list. So here goes! 

1. Go to the park to feed the ducks
2. Write 1000 words of my dissertation
3. Visit three new places (and take my camera)
4. Get my hair cut
5. Write three letters to children from the Post Pals website (read my post about this here)
6. Order my provisional driving license
7. Book my Christmas holiday!
8. Make popcorn in a pan and watch a movie
9. Carve a pumpkin
10. Learn to cook chilli

So these are the ten things I hope to accomplish this autumn. The list doesn’t seem too long and definitely feels doable to me. I’ll report back in December to see how I got on! Do you have a list of things to do this autumn? Let me know in the comments section below! 

University Tips - Packing for University

I started a little mini-series in August focussed around going to university. So far I have published a movinginto halls of residence tips post and the second post was a money saving atuniversity post. Today I am posting a checklist of what to pack! It’s moving in weekend this weekend for my university but I know some start later so hopefully I’ll still be able to help a few people out! These are going to be things you may have forgotten, not the usual list of pots and pans! 

• Calendar – This is overlooked but is something you will definitely need. You can write all your deadlines, important lectures, doctors’ appointments etc all on here so everything is in one place.
• Books/DVDs – Take with you all your feel good films and your favourite books, also new ones you have to read! These are great conversation starters with your new flatmates; they may even have the same film as you! They are also good for times you may feel a little bit homesick as you can just pop on a film or read a book and feel better again.
• Decorative items – These will help you make your new room feel like a home, somewhere you want to spend your time. I cannot stress enough how important it is to feel ‘at home’ at university. It will help you out so much in all areas of your university life if you have somewhere you feel relaxed and able to unwind. I personally didn’t unpack for a couple of months and once I did I felt so much better about being there!
• Door stop – Chances are, your bedroom door will not stay open on its own. With this in mind a door stop will be your best friend. It’s so important to have your door open, especially in the first week so that people from your flat are able to pop their heads round and say hi!
• Camera – A small digital camera comes in really handy anyway, but especially at university as you want to capture all the memories. They are also great to take on unexpected days out. I take my camera everywhere with me!
• Fairy lights – There doesn’t really need to be an explanation for this one does there? Fairy lights make EVERYTHING cosy and cute!
• Extension leads – This one is a bit boring but there is never enough plug sockets! Surge protected ones are best so that your electrical items are protected.
• External hard drive – You can get these pretty cheap these days and they are definitely something worth thinking about. You need to be backing up your work, excuses like ‘my laptop broke’ the day before the deadline won’t cut it at university. If you haven’t got at least two copies, you haven’t done the work!

This is just a small amount of the things you should be taking with you. I know I took so much more than this and filled a campervan with all my boxes! If you have any other things you think I have forgotten (aside from pots, pans, clothes, and other obvious things) leave them in the comments section below!

NYC Sidewalkers NOTD

Just a quick post today to show you what's on my nails. This is one coat of NYC Sidewalkers and it is opaque enough to cover my nails. Two coats would work for a stronger colour or longer nails. Grey is my favourite colour all year round but there's just something about Autumn that makes Grey perfect for your nails!

What colour is on your nails? Do you love grey nails? Let me know in the comments section below!

25 Things To Do This Summer REVISED

So, the start of September signals the end of summer to me, although I personally felt summer had ended way back at the start of August this year. I think this was due to my holiday at the start of July and then feeling like I was running out of time until university started again. But now I know I’m running out of time and I don’t really know how to feel about it. But anyway, today I will be re-posting my 25 things to dothis summer list and crossing out the ones I accomplished.

1) Finish writing my diary of my holiday to Thassos and create a scrapbook to go with it.

2) Have a girl’s night with my friends either in town or at my house when I move in.

3) Go to Alton Towers with Jordan, Shan and Sam

4) Get my hair cut

5) Spend the day with my mum

6) Have a games night with Jordan

7) Make a list of 100 facts about me (and publish here) The post is in my drafts waiting for photo's.

8) Go swimming

9) Visit Wales for the day and explore a new place

10) Revisit Warwick Castle on a sunny day and take better photo’s

11) Have a weekend away (maybe York?)

12) Spend a day baking and decorating buns!

13)Buy a slow cooker

14) Go for a picnic in the park

15) Feed the ducks

16) Go shopping in London

17) Read at least 10 books

18) Buy a play pen for my Russian Dwarf Hamster Humbug

19) Go on a few bike rides with Jordan

20) Plan/book our New Year’s holiday

21) Plan/book our Christmas shopping trip to Liverpool

22) Learn to cook something new

23) Hold a giveaway on my blog

24) Start my savings again

25) Organise my new bedroom!

So out of 25 I managed to complete 4 things. That is really not very good at all. I have had well over a month to complete this list and I know it isn’t a serious list that I had to religiously stick to, but seeing how little I managed to do compared to what I wanted to achieve has made me think I have wasted my summer a little bit. I have been working quite a lot recently so that could explain it and I haven’t had very much money to live off but I could have easily organised my new bedroom or had a games night as both those things are free.

Did you manage to do everything you wanted to this summer? Did you make a list of things you wanted to do? If you did, leave a link below and let me know how you got on!

September Blogging Goals

Today is the first day of September and with a new month comes new goals for the blog. I will revisit last month’s goals to see how I got on and then make new goals based on this and what I want to achieve this month.

August’s Goals

• Post 2 outfit of the day’s (OOTD) – I have not managed to accomplish this at all. The plan was to take outfit photos in the garden, but after moving to the new house I saw that the garden wasn’t how I remembered it to be. This goal could have been achieved by simply taking photos inside the house so this is marked as a fail.
• Post two posts a week – I managed 5 posts in total in August (including the original goals post) and managed to post twice in just one week out of four. This was also a fail but I think I really tried at this one so I’m not too unhappy about it.
• Post three day trip posts – I have not been on any day trips this month so had nothing to post about. Hopefully that will change in September though so this will be an ongoing goal.
• Post more nail art – I haven’t even painted my nails in the last month due to working 6 day weeks with food so this was a no go really. I still love nail art and do want to post more on my blog however this was a fail this month.

Looking back over these goals the only one I feel I even partly achieved was posting two posts a week and even then, I didn’t do as well as I thought I would. I had a lot of ideas for my blog throughout August (including my university mini-series), however somehow I did not find the time to update my blog or accomplish all that I wanted to.

With all this in mind, here are my goals for September:
September Goals

• Post two posts a week – I feel that this is something I will be able to achieve with a little forward planning and good use of the schedule button!
• Post two day trip posts – As we just discussed, this one was a bit of a fail last month so I’ve lowered the goal slightly and will start planning trips soon.
• Post two more wish lists – Wish lists are some of my all-time favourite posts to read and I just love creating them myself. As part of my 101 in 1001 list I stated I wanted to post 10 more wish lists to my blog and September is the month to get this started.
• Finish my university mini-series – This may seem a little late but I know some universities don’t start until October and I have a few posts in mind I want to get published. Part One can be found here and Part Two here
• Comment on more blogs – This is something that has always been a goal. When I receive comments on my blog it makes me feel as if this has all been worthwhile and I’m sure other people feel the same so with that in mind, I aim to comment on 10 blogs this month.

This has been quite a long post this time but let’s see how I get on this month. I have one more goal than last month but I feel these may be more achievable. Do you set goals? What are your goals for September, both in blogging and other aspects of your life? Let me know in the comments section!