Lazy Saturday and New Music!

I hope you're all having a good weekend whatever it is you're up to. I spent the morning laughing at magazines with Mum and eating fondant fancies, truly one of the greatest ways to be spending a Saturday, right? As much as I'd like to tell you I've been relaxing on a fancy yacht in the Mediterranean, that'll have to wait until the weather heats up. Apart from being very lazy, I've also been scouring Youtube looking for some amazing new tracks which I heard last night and here they are, because they're just too amazing and I was desperate to share them with you all because who doesn't love new music?!

Sorry this post is so short today, I'm trying to stick to my rule of posting something each day though, so enjoy the music and let me know how your weekends are all going. And because I haven't posted some photos for a while, these are from the Summer last year because all this new music is reminding me of listening to my MP3 player in the garden with my feet propped up on a chair. Roll on Summer!

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The big tree in our garden, with the sun shining down. One of the nicest things about Summer is being able to lie on the grass with the tree shading me.

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Another cloud photo, but I love the fact that you can really see all of the shadows and the shapes on the clouds where the sunlight's hitting them.

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This photo isn't the most clear, but there is a frog somewhere in the grass! Click to see it larger, and you can find it.

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Next door's cat, Prince. He always comes into our garden and last Summer my Mum and I found him dozing on top of the guinea-pig's hutch, so I quickly took a photo while he was day-dreaming.

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Reflection of the sun on the kitchen window. I miss the Summer.

Enjoy lovelies and have a great rest of the weekend!

xxx

Candyfloss Sunsets and Lie-Ins

Today's been a very late start for me so I'm just having a very lazy day. How is everyone else spending their weekend? Ooh, and sorry for not letting you know before but you can also follow me on Twitter and Tumblr if you want, the links are in my sidebar for you :) So I haven't been up to too much over the past few days, apart from giving my best friend her birthday present, which she really loved. I got her an elephant necklace and some elephant stickers from Accessorize, and a Magic Mushroom bubble bar and a Twilight bath bomb as well. Plus it was really good to see her again as well!

On another note, I was really sad to find out that the Lush website had been hacked after receiving an email telling everyone who'd purchased with them to be wary as since the 4th of October, apparently, this had been going on! Getting the email on the 20th of January wasn't too good either as it was such a late notice but I do love Lush so I hope everything get's sorted soon, and after a quick call to my bank, just out of caution, I was able to breathe a sigh of relief! And, to those of you who were subscribed to my old blog, I am bringing back the This Month I Heart.

Anyway, here's a photo of the sunset last night and I hope you all have a brilliant weekend!

Lots of love, Tasha!

xxx

Terrific Thursday

I hope you've all been having a good week lovelies, but if you're not, and I understand (I had a few wobbly moments last night) no fear because Friday is nearly here and then you'll all be on your weekends! So today I started my volunteering placement at the NAGC. Everyone's really nice there, and it was fun as well as being a fantastic way for me to get some work experience in an office environment, so I'm really happy about that.

Anyway, I promised to show you the jewellery I've been making, so here they are!

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My dolphin and blue bead charm bracelet. Unfortunately, I dropped this on the floor as I was balancing it on top of some books, because I thought that was a clever idea, so now one of the beads has the tiniest chip in it, but luckily I'm not selling these, haha, otherwise I'd be in trouble:P As well as that I pulled too tightly on the thread so now the bracelet's just a little too tight around the wrist, but I'm happy it turned out ok, especially for a first try.

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And my shell necklace. I just made this very quickly and easily, because all it is, is a charm attached with a jump ring, then threaded onto a piece of hemp string and then I just tied the ends together with a simple knot. I just wanted something simple for the summer. :)

Apart from that, I took a few more photos of the past couple of sunsets because it looked really pretty, especially a few evenings ago when all the birds were out and about, flying across the sky. And it felt a little warmer when the sun was out shining the other day, so I hope for a warm spring...I hope :/ It's been unusually cold this winter!

I hope you like the jewellery and as always click the photos for a larger version.

Have a great Thursday evening everyone!

Quick question - If anyone on here has ever suffered with depression, how do you cope with sudden bouts of it which just seem to come from out of nowhere?

xxx

Jewellery Making and Yoga

Photo taken back in 2010, when the park was awash with wild flowers!

Hey everyone!

Monday decided that it wanted to add to my morning walk by bucketing down this morning, and it would be just my luck that the only umbrella we had had been taken *sadface* Anyway, I braved the rain and had a good walk. I'm only joking, I don't mind the rain, but when it's cold and seeps through my shoes so I feel more cold than I did at home because it's even cold in my house, it's not very much fun. But I love going to the park and starting the day with a walk has become one of my favourite things, so I'll miss it when I'm working/at uni. And an even yoga workout has made my muscles veyr sore, but it's a good sore. I'm determined to be doing 5 lots of 20-30 minutes of exercise a week now. For the past couple of months I've just been doing 3 lots a week, but I want it to be like it was a couple of years ago when I would use our bike to cycle for 30 minutes each evening! I can't believe I haven't lost weight yet, haha :P

Apart from that I made a bracelet and a necklace yesterday. I had these plastic, brown and cream charms in seaside designs, like shells and crabs and because I wanted a really simple necklace like I see a lot of in the summer, I took a piece of hemp thread and just attached a jump ring to the charm and threaded it on. Then I used a knot, which I can't remember the name of so I'm really sorry, to close the necklace so it just slips over your head. I will take some photos, but my camera's upstairs in my bedroom right now so that's something I'll do tomorrow. I also made a bracelt using blue beads and two metal dolphin charms. However, this bracelet is actually too tight because I pulled the cord so hard, but it's shown me that I can definitely make bracelets! Now I just to get some more beads and I can make a couple more.

Sorry for no photos or anything today, but tomorrow I'll upload the recent ones I've taken, sorry about that.

Lots of love guys and have a good week.

xxx

A List of Happy Things

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Photo taken by me back when my family and I were on the way to Lulworth Cove. Mobile phone quality, but I still love this photo.

I hope you're all having a good weekend. Nerdy side-note; check out Hugh's Fish Fight which is on Channel 4 OD at the moment for UK viewers. Not sure if it can be watched from anywhere else in the world, but it's a really good programme about the new EU fishing laws which have caused mass amounts of discard, which is leftover fish which can't legally be sold, to be returned, dead, to the oceans. It's really bad and a complete and total waste of food, so please watch the programme!

On a more lighter note, I've been watching a lot of Youtube videos lately which talk about being positive and happy and focusing on the good things going on in your life. Recently I've been feeling really low because of a few personal things which have been going on, but tonight I feel a little brighter after laughing at some silly things on the internet with Mum and reminiscing about crazy family antics this morning. So I thought I'd make a list of things that cheer me up when I'm feeling really fed up and miserable, and hopefully if anyone else has been feeling as rubbish as I have been, then this will help them :)

So, here is a list of happy things!

1. Talking and giving cuddles to my guinea-pigs. They never fail to cheer me up.
2. Looking at old photos I've taken. A lot of them have very fond memories, either on holiday or just when I was mucking around one afternoon. Though they get more embarrassing the younger I get in the photos :/
3. Watching silly videos on Youtube. Sometimes just looking at a silly video of a cat or a cute kid giggling can be enough to make me smile and lift my spirits.
4. Exercise! I know that a lot of you will hate me for saying this, but simply going for a walk makes me happier, and actually allows me to clear my head if things seem bleak.
5. A 10-20 minute nap. In today's world where everything is fast paced and lively, taking a short nap can make me feel energised and relaxed instantly.
6. Listening to music. It doesn't have to be a happy, upbeat song as sometimes I've found that listening to a slower, gentler song helps me relax more.
7. Talking to my friends. A really simple and obvious one, but just posting a message on Facebook when I can't phone them or see them in person is great. For example, one of my friends always posts Futurama quotes on my wall everytime I log in, which I love XD
8. Singing, dancing, drawing, writing or doing something creative. It doesn't have to be elaborate, good or something which would win an award, but sitting down and doing something fun and creative always makes me happy. And take this from someone who makes loads of mistakes when trying to make jewellery, painting etc. sometimes the mistakes are the funny part!
9. Watching a comedy film/TV series. Another really obvious one, but this is a great way to relax yourself, especially as it's a great way to make yourself laugh.
10. Go outside. Depending on the time of day and where you are, but again, another really great way to lift your spirits, especially in the warmer months. Even walking around for 10 minutes in your garden can be beneficial.

These are just a few tricks I use when I'm feeling low, but doing anything that makes you laugh or is fun makes me happy from baking to going out for a few drinks with friends, but I wanted to limit the list to 10.

What do you do when you get down?

Have a great week everyone, I know Monday's a tough one, but keep dreaming of Friday and it'll roll around soon enough.

xxx

Clouds...

I was inspired by Eadaoin, from City of Blackbirds to do a post all about my various cloud photos, haha. Now I know everyone's now thinking, oh God, she's finally lost it because she's taking non-stop photos of clouds, but bear with me. Whenever I take my camera out into my garden to try and get some new photos, it's always the clouds that draw my attention. Now it's probably because I'm a boring geography student whose into all the nature stuff, but I love the fact that everytime I go outside and look at the sky, that the clouds always change shape. Now, thankfully at college, we skipped the weather processes module because that module is really quite hard, haha. I'm more of an ecosystem's and volcano's kinda gal :P

So, without further ado, here are the aforementioned cloud photos, in no particular order. And once the weather starts to get a bit warmer and there's less rain I'll probably stop being a hermit and start venturing back out into the world, (although having said that I surprised myself by continually going out into my garden and to the park for walks right up until Christmas) again to get some new photos, because so far I haven't been using my camera a lot lately except for the Christmassy photos I took. This year, come summertime, I plan to get some really nice photos of the park and I am definitely going back down to the beach this year!

Have a frabjous Friday everyone and take care!

And don't forget to check out City of Blackbirds, because her blog is beautiful and she has some amazing photography on there.

xxx

Hopeful Thoughts and Volunteering!

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Photo taken a long time ago, and I picked it because this haircut was one of my all time favourite ones! And it makes me happy when I see it, and hopeful! Hopeful that I could have good hair again, haha :P

I hope this Thursday is treating you all well, and that your week is going good. I'm feeling very hopeful today, even though I've been struggling recently with feeling very down lately, hence the erratic blog posts, but I'm beginning to feel better again. Today is my best friend's birthday but rather than embarrass her by writing about her on here, I'm just going to tell you that she's one of the most amazing people I've ever met and I wish I could travel to Portsmouth and have a huge party with her, but I can't. Instead I got her some nice presents to give to her when she next comes home, so Happy Birthday Megan, I love you!

Aside from birthday-present-buying, if that's a phrase, I've been doing some hip-hop dance exercises which are tough but good when I've finished doing them, so I feel like I've achieved something today, haha. And good news, I have a volunteering opportunity at a charity in my town, called the NAGC. They work with gifted children, so kids with high intelligence. However with that often comes either a learning disability, like ADHD or maybe a phobia of school, or they can become easily bored because they aren't challenged enough at school. So they work with parents and children to help them when they come up against problems during their education. They're a really brilliant charity and I'm looking forward to doing some work experience with them, so wish me luck! I don't know when I'll be starting but hopefully it's soon :)

Has anyone else ever done any volunteering, and how did it go?

Have a great rest of the week everyone!

xxx

Late Christmas Presents Post

I know I'm very late to post photos of my presents, but I got up early this morning and remembered to do it, so here they are and sorry if you're not into this sort of thing, but I can't think of anything else to post and my life right now is less exciting than watching two snail's race, although that's probably quite exciting, well much more so than my life, but anyway.

This is what I got, in no particular order -

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A notelet set from Accessorize.

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n-spa goodies from l-r

. Gingerbread latte body cream

. Angel cake bath syrup

. Angel cake body cream

. Ruby orange and mango butter shower sorbet

. Pomegranate and butter milk shower sorbet

. A face cloth

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Frankenstein wind-up toy, rolling tongue snowman head and another wind-up dinosaur toy. Got to be my favourites :) These were bought from The Early Learning Centre, and Hawkins' Bazaar.

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Ultimate make-up gift set. Not heard of them before so I don't know whether they're a high-street brand or this is just a one off gift set.

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Christmas socks! I got four pairs, and they were wrapped up in little cupcakes :)

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My best friend got me this headband and a beautiful bracelet, as well as some Eclipse jelly hearts :P

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An Accessorize lip-gloss.

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Coconut Body Shop body scrub.

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Books, books and more books!

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Inside of the Burt's Bees manicure kit containing two hand-creams, a hand salve and a cuticle cream as well as a bumblebee decorated emery board.

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Outside of the Burt's Bee's gift set

So I hope everyone got everything they wanted. As well as those I got lots of chocolate and money so I enjoyed doing some sales shopping with that.

QotD - What's your favourite Christmas present?

Take care everyone and have a great week.

xxx

Happy Weekend!

It's finally Friday and I just want to wish everyone a good weekend. I don't have a lot to share, apart from the fact I went out with some friends last night for a drink and surprised myself by liking some strawberry and lime cider! Of course I stuck to my favourite, ice-cold Pepsi, as well as sharing a bowl of chips with my best friend. It was a good one. I'm not really much of a clubbing person, so restaurants and bars are more my thing. I had a really good time, but it's been a busy week so I'm looking forward to a quieter one next week.

Does anyone have plans for the weekend?

Whatever you're all up to I hope you enjoy yourselves.

And my guinea-pig Smudge wishes you a good weekend too :) Patch is too busy enjoying some celery at the moment to pose for any photos. Poser.

xxx

Forever Autumn

Hey everyone.

Today I had a CV and interview skills training day. It's part of a two day course to improve my job seeking skills, and while it was tedious, the information was really good and I enjoyed using the bus for the first time in what felt like years! I've missed being able to put my headphones on and just listen to my music on the ride home. Apart from that I've been feeling very tired as it was an early start after a late night watching Event Horizon, getting 2 and a half questions right off of the Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2010 (and that's just for the first 5 questions, I'll finish the quiz tonight!) and just wasting time on Cityville - the new addiction!

So because I haven't got any new photos, I thought I'd share some of the ones I took before Christmas, back in the autumn. I miss the slightly warm, but chilly days with all the golden leaves, but spring is the one to look forward to, which is a big favourite of mine! I love the warmer months, when you can just leave the house with a cardigan on and spend days in the garden in leggings and t-shirts. I love winter with a passion, but summer has a special place in my heart.

Sorry for the lack of recent photos! My package from The Body Shop came today, so I'll show you what I bought, the last of my Christmas money and I have a Christmas present post scheduled :)

I hope everyone's week is going well.

xxx

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Two doves were nestled in these branches very happily, and though I have photos of them, this photo just makes me very happy because it has that hazy summer tint.

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Thank goodness for super macro! A leaf up close. The sunlight added to the glow.

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I already miss these leaves...

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The clouds above our house always twist into the strangest shapes. I think I may do a cloud shapes post, because I have several others like this.

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Au revoir Autumn!

Snow Fun

I feel like a traitor to many people for saying this but I already miss the snow. It only seems like a few days ago when the garden resembled an icing cake, but now it's returned to it's green and brown earthy tones. I am sad that Christmas is over now, although the city centre still have their decorations and their lights up, which does make me a little bit happier. So I have some more snowy photos to show you when England got it's annual blizzard, which seems to be becoming a regular winter thing now.

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Check out the size of those icicles!

I've also finally started a diary! I used to have a lot of notebooks and diaries when I was younger, but I never really wrote in them. This year though I promise to do Bridget Jones proud and try and document something ever day. I managed to get a beautiful hand-stitched diary from Paperchase for just £9.04 which was really good because I was expecting them to be a lot more expensive, especially since it was hand-stitched as well.

So, has anyone else taken their decorations down yet or do you wait a little longer?

xxx