Weekend Roundup

I really had such a lovely weekend these past few days. Between starting work and everyone being away on summer holidays it'd been a few weeks since I'd seen anyone so it was amazing to be able to spend a chilled out weekend with a few of my best friends!

We had some lovely weather here on Saturday morning so my cousin, Jenny and I got up bright and early and went for a long walk in the park followed by some lunch in Belfast. It was the first time I'd seen her since I got back from uni in June so it was great to spend some quality time and catch up. We went to this really quirky restaurant called Birdcage, though because it was quite busy I didn't manage to get any photos- I'll make sure I will next time!

Later on Saturday night Isabel and Libby who are two of my best friends from school came to stay at mine and we had a typical girly movie night with lots of chocolate and a cheeky bottle of Rosé. Then after a long lie-in the next day we braced the rain and headed back into the city for another lunch date. This time we went to a restaurant in the city centre called Made in Belfast which has a menu made up of all locally sourced produce. It can be a little pricey but it's completely worth it because the food is so good!

It was quite a special occasion for the three of us because since we've all moved away to different unis we really don't see as much of each other as we'd like to any more. Isabel (Izi) lives in London now and because of commitments with her job over there she can't come home very often. In fact, she's only back in Northern Ireland for two weeks this summer before heading back off again! So whenever we all get a chance to see each other it's literally the best thing ever. I really couldn't have asked for a better end to a week of placement!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

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Rainy Baking Day

The weather was truly miserable outside today. The rain has been utterly relentless from this morning until now (8pm) and normally I really don't mind it very much but today it was that kind of aggressive rain that pelts you as soon as you step out the door, meaning my friend Gemma and I had to abandon our grand plans to go for a picnic in the park when she came around today and had to opt for an indoor day instead.

Unfortunately I don't have any photos of earlier in the day but I picked Gemma up from the train station around 1 and we headed out for lunch at Blue Chicago Grill which is a local burger franchise. I wish I'd thought to take a picture because the food was delicious (basically I'm a bad blogger!) We then grabbed a quick coffee and headed back to my house where we spent the remainder of the afternoon making some of the most pathetic-looking fairy cakes you'll probably ever see from a recipe written for 8-14 year olds... But hey, it's how they taste that matters at the end of the day, right?!

For some reason the sprinkles were going everywhere except onto the actual buns, please excuse.

I also thought Gemma's outfit today was pretty funky so I asked her if I could do a little outfit of the day for her

Shirt - Topshop

Jumper - Urban Outfitters

Jeans - Topshop

Necklaces - Accessorize

Watch - Urban Outfitters

Shoes - Berska

Hope you've all had a good day, whatever the weather!

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Life - Saturday Beach Walk

I think one of the best things about living in Northern Ireland is that you're never too far from the sea, even if it is a bit chilly. These are just a few photos from a walk with my mum, sister and Heidi at the beach today...

Love finding some seaglass!!

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My University Room

I am now back home in Ireland (after having travelled for 10 hours- we took the ferry from Scotland) and I can tell you, I am KNACKERED but very happy to be home in my own bed now!

Before I started taking my room apart to pack up, I took a few photos just to remind myself of what it looked like in case I ever wanted to look back in the future, and since I know a few people reading may be heading off to university in September/October time and may be starting to think about university accommodation I thought I'd just post these for you to show you what my room looked like in case anyone is interested!

The photos on my pinboard are a mixture of photos of me and my friends as well as a few of my favourites from Tumblr that I got printed at Boots.

I also got these Polaroid-style instagram photos printed at polargram.com which I believe were £12 for 48 prints!

I got these two ornaments as gifts from friends at Christmas and just hung them with a pin :)

At uni I used this heart-shaped photo holder to put my necklaces on so they wouldn't get tangled- and my little cousin bought me this ceramic-heart ornament as a leaving gift when I was heading off to uni.

This is my shelf on the left-hand side of the room that I just kept some hair products and cards and ornaments on! (I always lose the lids for these sorts of things!!)

On the right-hand side I just had some nail-polish, perfumes, hand-creams and what not, then in the middle I had some framed photos of my school friends. The corked jar on the left-hand side is just filled with seaglass I've collected this year at uni!

I got this vintage Coca-Cola tin in a charity shop I used to work in a couple of years ago and I love it so much!! I just use it for a bit of jewellery storage.

As always, hope you are all doing very well!!

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Falling in Love with Lancaster

These are just a few photos taken out on a girly evening with my friend Louise (who, by the way, was the very good friend who lent me the wise Lion King-related advice a few posts back). It's crazy to think, but my first year at Lancaster is now very quickly coming to a close (my last exam is tomorrow, moving out of uni accommodation on Thursday!!!) and it was nice to just spend some time off-campus to reflect on the months that have gone by.

I  first met Louise because she was part of my workshop group on my marketing course but for months we were just casual acquaintances and only really spoke when we had to sort things out for our group work and presentations. I was actually a little intimidated by her at the start because since marketing was her major she often had to assume a sort of leadership role in the group and I was afraid she was judging me or I was letting her down by not giving my all. As it turned out, however, this was all nonsense and in fact, she had also found me a bit intimidating! First impressions can sometimes be very wrong. especially among girls I think sometimes.

Despite our misunderstanding about each other however, because she lived quite near me on campus we would sometimes walk back from seminars together and chat for a bit. It was on one of these occasions I mentioned to her that I used to horse-ride and was thinking about taking it up again, it turned out she also used to ride and we decided to go together and in the process we actually found out we really have a lot in common and now I'd consider her one of my best friends!

If you've read any of my previous posts you'll know I wasn't particularly happy here at the beginning. I found campus and campus accommodation very oppressive and because of a few personal problems I encountered, I found it really difficult trying to keep up with work and assignments as well as the demands of living on my own for the first time. It was a struggle but I can now say over this last term and a bit I've really found my feet, settled in and made some really good genuine friendships to the point where I will actually be really sad to go home for the summer.

Sometimes I also think I failed to appreciate how beautiful Lancaster actually is. There's some really stunning architecture in the city which is then surrounded by miles of green countryside (I'm a big fan of countryside), and also the Lake District is basically on your doorstep, something which I will definitely be taking more advantage of next year.

All in all, I'm very happy to say that I'm very much looking forward to my next few years at Lancaster and all the ups and downs that are still to come over my next 2 years here.

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