Graduation, Moving & New Starts | Life Lately

Hellooooo lovely people! What a month it has been! The last you heard from me about life in general was in May, where I talked a lot about how I was exploring a spiritual side of my mind along with musings on gratitude, living and making the most of my days. I'd just been through a traumatic experience and looking back now, when I wrote that post I really was not in the best place. I needed time to recuperate mentally, so writing it out like that and taking a breather was exactly what I needed.

I'd been having anxiety (especially about allergies and food) which has now pretty much passed! In fact, I attended a counselling session which was quite helpful though I felt I only needed the one and I feel so, so much better. It's so important to recognise when you need to talk to someone.

Since May, I've had my final university exhibition, visited home, graduated with an upper second class grade (2:1), moved into a new place with my boyfriend, began seriously freelancing (oh book balancing, my old friend) and started two new jobs! It feels like I'm always busy but honestly I thrive this way and NEVER forget to drop in chill time in the evenings.

Ours exhibition went by like a blur. So much set up and cramming for a whirlwind week, talk of book illustrating and lots of celebrating my friend's work. Everyone really pulled through and the exhibition looked amazing! You might have seen it on my Instagram stories.

A month later was graduation, but not before trying to find a house, a job and pack! Alex and I have decided to stay in Preston, just for a couple of months while we find our place in this world outside of study, settle into new jobs (Alex's job title is 'Fun Expert', how awesome is that?) and learn how to share a freaking room haha.

We've been living together for a couple of years now but this is the first time we're sharing a room completely. Lots of our belongings are hidden away in the cellar for storage, though I did take moving out as a chance to declutter my life. It felt gooooooooooooood.

I've decorated my part of the house in you guessed it- plants. It feels like home already.

Graduation was so amazing! I STILL can't believe it's been three years already. It feels like yesterday that I was trying to survive first year of university, haha. Uni has been a huge period of growth and change for me, so Alex and I took some time to celebrate by ourselves at the end of the night and reflect on the last three (five for him) years, over yet more bubbly.

I might do a few posts on graduate life, or how to prepare for your final year of uni if that's something you would be interested in? If there's anything you want to know about student life, let me know! I'll do an update on graduate living once I've settled into my job a little more.

At the moment, I'm beginning a job at Hobbycraft. I formally start tomorrow, where I'll be doing all the usual shop floor bits as well as helping people out with painting, creating displays and all the other arts and crafts you can think of! I wanted this job because it means I get to do something slightly creative as a day job which is awesome.

I'm also working some days as a breakfast waitress at a hotel (it pays the bills). The downside is suuuuuper early mornings, but it does give me entire days to work on my freelancing and blogging so you can expect a huge haul of fresh content and regular posting again! Yay!

I was almost given a job at LUSH but working at Hobbycraft meant I wasn't available on one of the days they needed me. I'll totally be applying again come August/September, considering my foot  to be jamming that door open haha. Would a post on my experience at the interview and trial shift be helpful? One day I'll take my freelance illustrating full time, but as my favourite book right now, 'Big Magic' says- don't rely on your hobby to pay the bills. Get a job to pay the bills and revel in the money you make from your craft, by yourself.

So that's my last 6-8 weeks in a very small nutshell. Hopefully a little explaination as to why I've been MIA- but now that my degree is over and I'm getting settled (before travelling next year) expect regular content and maybe even videos once again!

I hope you're all well and have had a brilliant start to the summer! What have you been doing lately?

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What A Beautiful Sight | GlassesShop.com Review

For some reason, almost every summer I decide I want to improve or re-invent myself somehow. Even if the reinvention is simply cutting my hair, or changing my hair colour, feeling like a new me can often be the motivation I need to do better and be better!

I've always known that I've had less than perfect sight, but I always thought that glasses never looked quite *right* on me. Too squeamish for contact lenses, I avoided the problem as much as I could but with my line of work being drawing (sometimes really detailed) illustrations or looking at a computer screen for a long time, it was time to buck up and hunt down the perfect pair. So while browsing The Glasses Shop's catalogue, I decided to go for a daringly beautiful pink pair of eyeglasses.

Seriously, how gorgeous are these frames? For the price tag of around $20-25 I thought the quality of these would be something to improve but honestly these are as good as my old £90 Specsavers pair. The Glasses Shop offer free lenses which is amazing, as that's usually where the cost lies when getting new specs. The only trouble I ran into with this service was the confusion around my prescription.

My prescription should have had all the details of what lenses I needed on it but missed out some vital information, which meant we went through a lot of back and forth in e-mails trying to figure out the missing details.

In the end I had to get my friend Holly, (who is luckily and conveniently trained in Optometry) to figure it out for me! Bear this in mind if you're thinking of ordering eyeglasses online- make sure your prescription is up to date and in full! They also offer prescription sunglasses which is brill if you're someone who needs to wear lenses constantly, especially on these beautiful Summer evenings or when driving.

They also offer non-prescription lenses, so you can rock glasses just because!

My frames +lenses took about two weeks to arrive as they were shipped internationally (I live in the UK) and I've had no problems with them at all. They're comfortable, never catch on my hair or clothes, sturdy and if I do say so myself, stylish haha. The colour of the frames aka the whole reason I chose them, stayed true to the picture on the website. My specs even arrived in their own protective plastic case. 

Being a bit of an eco-nerd, I'd love to see the company cut down on plastic (as plastic glasses are surprisingly bad for the environment) by using cases made of perhaps bamboo, or fabric! 

I'm chuffed that I can see properly again, putting them on came with quite a shock as I didn't realise what I was missing! Why did I not discover these while illustrating my final year project?! I have astigmatism in my left eye and having this corrected even temporarily is amazing. The detail in my illustrations will totally be improving with the arrival of these babies. Look after your eyes people! ♥

Do you wear glasses or contacts? How do you change up your appearance?

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*This post contains items sent to me for review, but all opinions are my own! I'm also not an affiliate but was kindly given a code for you guys to use! If you want 50% off eyeglasses and sunglasses use GSHOT50 at the checkout. 

A Girl's Night In with Skinny Cocktails*

Welcome to a post scheduled for June, a post that slipped through my fingers as quickly as the past month itself! As the stresses of student living come to an end, I found a little down-time to have a girly night in with my friend Robyn accompanied by some cocktails courtesy of Skinny Cocktails*. 

We headed to an Urban Decay party for an exclusive preview of their Shapeshifter and Afterglow palettes (the Afterglow palette is to DIE for, so shimmery) where Robyn got her make-up done and we gorged on bottles of bubbly.

I'm not a huge drinker (the key to surviving the antics of university's first year) but you'll never catch me turning down a glass of fizz, so when we wanted to continue the party at home, Skinny Cocktails were the perfect option. They're only 5% and have so little sugar in them, yet are such a treat for your tastebuds. 

With a Cosmo and Margarita each in hand, we settled down to watch the latest episode of Pretty Little Liars in our comfy clothes (that finishing storyline though... seriously PLL writers, get it together). Does anyone else realllllly want to visit 'The Brew'?

Robyn wearing the Shapeshifter palette on her cheeks and eyes, with Afterglow palette for highlight

Honestly, I'm so over being hungover. Brilliantly, both cocktails contain Milk Thistle which is suggested to stop you from being hungover and I definitely felt as fresh as usual the next day- I think I even bagged a little lie in. It's been so long! 

My favourite cocktail of the night was the Margarita, made with Cointreau and Tequila, my two loves. Slightly more bitter than the Cosmo, which is made with vodka, cranberry and lime, it was the perfect accompaniment to the Ten Acre sweet and salty snacks that every good night in has. Yes, we ate our body weight in popcorn. My favourite was the cappucino flavour, which is thankfully suitable for nut allergy sufferers like me.

Robyn said she preferred the Cosmo cocktail, flamingo pink in colour and more refreshing than you'd expect a ready-made cocktail to be. Although making cocktails is so fun- I learned this from the #BonPrixontheRocks event last year, something ready made and chilled is absolutely perrrrrfect for an easy night in.

We stayed up late and ate dinner on the couch while binging old Rick and Morty episodes-  not what you'd expect from a typical girl's night but if your friends don't have a sense of humour then you probably have the wrong friends! Introducing the beloved cartoon to my Portuguese housemate, Cindy, was something to behold for sure. If you've never watched Rick and Morty then please do and tell me your reaction because Cindy's was hilarious! 

It was really nice to have all the girls together in one room for the night as we've all been so busy with work and coursework lately. It's definitely something I'll miss when moving out.

Having said that, when I move out of my current digs, I'm totally installing a mini bar in my new place for hosting girl power get-togethers.

Sometimes you don't realise how much you need down-time until you've had some down-time.

Cheers to an exciting new chapter in our lives, and thank you to SkinnyBrands Skinny Cocktails for giving me an excuse to rally the girls together. I'd really love to try the Mojito next as that's my all time favourite cocktail. Overall I really would recommend these as the taste was gorgeous. Not only that but they're slightly better for you than your average bar cocktail and you can enjoy them from the comfort of your own sofa. Game of Thrones marathon, anyone?

What's your favourite cocktail? Have you been binge watching any series lately?

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*this post contains products sent to me for review. all opinions are my own! for the boring stuff see here.