The Emerald City

Hi everyone!

I just got back after a lovely weekend in Seattle! Such a gorgeous city, especially around this time of year - everything is so green and full of life.

I was staying with a friend, and we visited all sorts of places - Fremont, Ballard, downtown. Here are some pictures!

A view of the striking city skyline, including the Space Needle, of course!

The locks in Ballard

South African tea shop!
Super cool to have some South African baked goods, just like Mum makes at home.

The Grand Slam breakfast (SO GOOD)

Pike Place Market

SUCH a perfect outing! Oh how I love weekend trips like these.

-Hannah

Best Weekend

Hi everyone!

This post is more of a life update than anything else. I'm really trying to get in the habit of updating more frequently... which mayyyy mean more posts that don't really have a solid topic, but hopefully I'll still keep things interesting.

This weekend was absolutely amazing - I spent time with friends I hadn't seen in a really long time, and it was so lovely. It was such a welcome break from the hectic work week, and the weather was quite gorgeous for it too, so we all spent a lot of time outside and got sushi and watched movies and just had a nice catch-up in general. So perfect.

The weather is back to being blah and I'm also back to working tomorrow, but I think it'll be a good week. Hopefully next weekend will be just as lovely - perhaps I'll do a weekend trip? Do some adventuring? I think so.

My inspiration for these next few weeks:

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I hope you all had amazing weekends!

-Hannah

Covergirl Stay Fabulous Liquid Foundation Review

Hi everyone! I hope you all had lovely weekends.

Today I'll be reviewing Covergirl's Outlast Stay Fabulous Foundation. 

This foundation has an SPF of 20, which was one of the main reasons I got it - I had been looking for a good foundation with UV protection for the summer. The foundation doesn't provide a huge amount of coverage, however it does apply wonderfully smoothly, and is light and creamy in texture, which I think will be a huge asset in summer months when putting heavy foundation on will be the last thing I'll want to do. The foundation was also very affordable; I purchased mine for $13 at a drug store.

Before applying foundation

After applying foundation

Look complete!

I hope this review was helpful for you! Have a wonderful week :)

-Hannah

I'm a Headband Newbie

Hi everyone! I hope you are all having splendid weeks.

I have an extra long weekend - off work today and tomorrow as well as the weekend! I'm pretty excited about this, seeing as the weather has been absolutely gorgeous these past couple of days and I would much rather not miss the sun while I'm inside working.

Aaaaand today I wore a headband for the first time in what feels like decades. (Probably just a couple of years, but still.) I never used to wear headbands much, or any hair accessories for that matter. But in this past year I've started wearing accessories like bows and pretty clips. And now, headbands.

It's always fun trying out new hairstyles every now and then! Plus this headband (one I found buried under years of random clothing items) happened to match my shirt perfectly. So a win-win, really.

You can probably tell I'm a bit low on blog post ideas when I devote one entirely to a headband.... It's been a slow week idea-wise. More interesting things to come, I promise!

-Hannah

Summer Doldrums

So starting at the end of April I've officially been on my four month break from university! Only a week in and I'm already super frustratingly bored.

Now don't get me wrong - I definitely need these four months to get myself back on track and prepare myself for my second year of uni. But after eight months of insane business, having nothing to do feels weird. 

So I've decided to set myself some goals for these summer months. Hopefully this helps me stay active and not fall into an apathetic rut.

1. Get a second job. I started a part time job a couple of days ago, but hours are scarce and always in the evening, and I feel this is just an excuse to wake up super late and not do anything until four in the afternoon (which is fine sometimes, but probably not every day, I'm thinking). Thus, a second job.
2. Begin working out again. Man, have I fallen off of that wagon. On campus at university I at least had a gym membership that cost me a decent sum of money, so I felt motivated to go to the gym at least twice a week to make it worth the fee. But now I'm just sitting around, and I really should get back on my feet again. Another gym membership here, that'll be good motivation.
3. Get back into my hobbies. I think this one is super necessary. So many things - like reading, painting, playing guitar - I simply did not have time to do during the school year. But now that I have all this excess time on my hands, I really have no excuses.

Hopefully with this goal of keeping active in mind, I can make this summer the best one yet!

-Hannah

April Favourites

Hi everyone! It's May, yay! ♥

April was a very interesting month - it was my last month of university, so the majority of my time was spent studying for finals, which is just as fun as it sounds.

I did, however, pick up some favourites throughout the month, naturally!

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Music-wise, I absolutely fell in love with Andrew Belle. Look him up, please do! His songs are gorgeous, and I find they're all very relatable as well. My favourite on this particular album - Black Bear, his most recent - is called Pieces. Beautiful song.

My next favourite:

Lily Collins & her flawless eyebrows
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Filling in eyebrows. On a side note I don't think Lily Collins fills hers in, but she has flippin amazing eyebrows, like, just look at them. I've been filling my eyebrows in for a while now, but started doing it more often in April, just because I really do enjoy how easy it is to do it once you get the hang of it.

Aaaaand lastly:

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Crop tops. Shown above is one that I actually own, I bought it at Forever 21 for about 10 dollars. A couple months back I was completely determined to enlarge my nonexistent collection of crop tops, and since then I have. I have a couple basic ones, and a couple nice floral ones that I adore. I love this trend, especially now that the weather is improving!

So those are some of my April favourites! What are some trends you are enjoying this spring?

-Hannah

Far Better Things Ahead

Hello everyone, I haven't posted in quite a while - my apologies!

Things have been incredibly hectic this past little while. April was my last month at university, so there were lots of things to fret about - finals, moving out, getting employed. Now I have fully moved back home, so I'll be able to make some legitimate posts soon. This post, however, is just a short hey-I'm-still-alive kind of thing.

Exams went really well (all except calculus, but that isn't too much of a surprise), and my first year at university was an absolutely amazing experience. Moving out of dorm was so so hard - saying goodbye to all of the people I had become so close with during the year was heartbreaking. It is just for the summer, however, I will see them before I know it!

And now I'm looking for a summer job, which is proving to be much more challenging than I had originally thought it would be. Today I went around downtown and gave out some resumes. Hopefully someone out there gives me a chance!

And one last fun update - we're going to South Africa for August! I am so so so excited, it's going to be brilliant. So I have that to look forward to, as well as my second year of university, which I'm sure will be just as wonderful as my first year was.

A little bit of wisdom as you continue with your week (image source):

So that is my brief life update - more posts to come soon. I hope you all are having lovely weeks.

-Hannah