My New Bedroom

My minor hiatus can be easily explained, I have just moved house! In the last week I have moved into my new home for the year, my first ever student house! This week has been a complete whirlwind and there are so many things to do when running your own house, luckily I have four lovely housemates to help me and keep me sane. 

If you have ever lived in a student house then you will know that we are not talking luxury accommodation so I have tried so hard in my bedroom to make it as homely and personal as possible. Please ignore the less than ideal red flowered curtains in the background which were definitely not my choice!

This is an idea that I stole from Pinterest, which is such an inspiration when it comes to home décor, and well most other things! I had some of my favourite photos printed and followed the very easy steps to create this heart photo montage on my wall along side my bed. It not only lets me display loads of my favourite memories and people, but also adds an amazing pop of colour to a room that was otherwise quite bare.

Bedding is an amazing way to transform a room, as it adds colour, pattern and individuality. My set is a super old one from Tesco that combines all of the colours I wanted for my room scheme: pink, white and minty blue. My throw is a huge fluffy pale pink one from BHS and my two cushions are the softest things I have ever felt and are both from Primark, which I would highly recommend checking out for cheap but really cute home items. 

My bedside table was probably my biggest bargain when shopping for new things for my room, of course Ikea was involved.  I saw this table and fell in love, it is so simple but chic and I am obsessed and the best part it was £15!!! If any of you are interested it is the Lindved in white,  My bedside table essentials include #daclip of course, The Death Cure by James Dashner which I am loving at the moment and a cup of green tea in a super cute owl mug. The vase which I do intend at some point to fill with flowers is from Zara Home and the lamp is also from Ikea, the Knubbig. 

These two posters epitomise me completely, my two favourite things: tea and Friends. The Friends poster, is titled 'Everything I know in life I learned from Friends' and that is definitely me, I am that person who in almost every conversation makes some kind of Friends reference! And I certainly agree I know wherever I have tea I have love! 

I hope this post gives you a little insight into my room and how I have tried to transform a room that looked slightly like a hospital ward before I moved in, into a place that is my own. If you have any decoration tips or tricks do let me know and thank you very much for reading, and until next time,

B xx

What I'm Loving: September

Rather than your usual monthly favourites type post I thought I would try something slightly different. This is a breakdown of what I have loved listening to, watching, eating and wearing over this month so far. Plus my favourite thing I did this month, which features some very good looking men!

To begin with what I have been listening to, and this would not be a post by me if Taylor Swift wasn't mentioned, but wow Shake It Off has truly been my anthem of the last few weeks. Any excuse to play it at full volume and dance like no one is watching! On a more mellow level though I am still obsessed with the whole of The Fault In Our Stars soundtrack, particularly All of the Stars by Ed Sheeran and both of the Birdy tracks. Finally, Sam Smith, he is everywhere at the moment and rightly so, his voice is angelic and his new single I'm Not The Only One is by far my favourite song he has ever released. 

What I am watching at the moment has quite an eclectic mix, if you follow me on twitter @cloudbelle25 you will know that I have been loving X Factor so far. I am very happy that Cheryl and Simon are back and of course there is always love for Louis Walsh! Another reality type show that I have been a fan of for many years is the Great British Bake Off which at the moment is all me and mum can talk about! Something Mum is not a fan of, but it is a highlight of my weekend is Made In Chelsea NYC which is just further fuelling my love for New York and of course for Lucy Watson! For people outside the UK though something that I have recently become hooked on is The Office, the US version, and I can honestly say that I laugh hysterically out loud at every episode I watch. 

Houmous, that covers all that I have been loving eating this month. I love just the plain regular one, but also all the amazing different flavours, some of my favourites being lemon and coriander or caramelised onion. The ultimate though I have found this month is the Marks and Spencer Piri Piri Houmous, which was life-changingly good! 

I have been very boring with what I have been loving wearing, but what I lack in style I have made up for in comfort. If you have never tried the fluffy Primark pyjama trousers you have not felt true comfort. I have pretty much lived in my various different pairs over the last few weeks. They are amazing pyjamas but I also wear them as the perfect item of lounge wear too for those days when 'real' clothes are just not what you want! 

My favourite thing of the month is very easy for me to choose, as early this week I was lucky enough to attend a press launch of the opening night of Dan Osborne joining the Dreamboys! One of my best friends was working for Cosmopolitan and managed to bag us some tickets for honestly one of the most crazy and surreal nights of my life. It was basically like having a real life Magic Mike experience.... 

That concludes what I have been loving in September, thank you for reading and let me know if you would like a similar post for October which I am sure will include Downton Abbey and Pumpkin Spice Lattes!

B xx

My Hangover Routine

So it happens to the best of us, and yet we never learn the torture that is The Hangover! Now luckily I have never experienced anything on the level of these guys in Vegas, finding a tiger strolling around or a random baby, but there have been some mornings when you wake up feeling like you may just never recover from the night before. For these very occasions I have constructed a certain routine I like to follow in order to best survive this near hell!

You wake up in the morning, sadly not feeling like P.Diddy, but rather like you got punched a thousand times over in the head and in the stomach. Your best friend right now, water, and lots of it. Coming in from a night out I always try to make sure I have a cup of water by my bed because when you wake up you will feel like the Sahara Dessert!

The next step is to manage to actually make it out of bed because if you are anything like me you will still have your makeup on from the night before! The feeling of getting all that mascara off and having a clean, fresh face will literally be life changing in the midst of a hangover. My favourite product to use is the Clinque Take The Day Off Cleansing Balm as you can rub it into dry skin all over, including eyes and it takes makeup off incredibly plus removes any oil or dirt that will have been sitting most likely on your face all night. 

When I come in from a night out I usually grab the closest comfiest item of clothing I have, which invariably is my beloved purple fluffy dressing gown from Primark. So in the morning once my face and teeth are clean I like to add to the comfort levels and grab my go to hangover outfit, some form of tracksuit bottoms, I personally love my Hollister ones, and then a sweater of some kind. Walking around campus whenever you spot this outfit you can pretty much guarantee they have been out the night before!

Now that you are sufficiently comfortable it is time to sort out the fact that your stomach is churning, and for me there is only two remedies to this situation and that is a strong cup of a tea and some buttered toast. Plain and simple but works every single time! 

Providing that you don't have to go into work or school, or there isn't an essay due in the next day, how I like to spend my hangover day is in bed or on the sofa watching endless hours of trashy TV. Reality TV is my guilty pleasure of choice, episode after episode of the Kardashians, in fact when I was feeling slightly fragile after a night out only a couple of weeks ago I watched all the Kardashian wedding specials from Khloe and Lamar to the most recent Kimye one!

Sadly when I have been away at university this last year I haven't had access to a bath, but when I am at home this is another crucial step. A Lush bath bomb or some Body Shop bubble bath combined with your most relaxing playlist will help you forget all the embarrassing things you may have done the night before and how your head is still pounding!

This pretty much rounds up all my top steps to the hangover routine I perform after a night out with my friends. Whilst I do not recommend this on a regular basis, it is good to know that when you do decide to let loose and maybe drink a few too many tequilas that the next morning you won't be totally marooned in bed with no idea how to stop the world from spinning!

I hope you guys have enjoyed this post, and until next time, lots of love, B xx

The calm before the storm!

Summertime Sadness

First day of September means the end of summer, and whilst here in Britain the weather gave up about 5 weeks ago we could still say it was at least meant to be summer. I thought I would take this time to look back over the last few months at what I have loved this summer and then also why I cannot wait for Autumn.

Coming back from university at the end of June marked the end of one amazing year and whilst I was super sad to leave I was also so excited to back home with my family and friends. It is amazing how quickly you settle back into life at home after a year away, and it also makes you realise all the things you missed about home.

For the whole of July I was interning at at PR firm in London and whilst at times it was stressful, and even boring it was an amazing experience. What I particularly enjoyed was living the 'London lifestyle' and though that does include the hell of commuting it also means the lunches in the park, the regular coffee breaks, the office attire and feeling like Rachel Zane - well I wish! 

I would occasionally lunch on the steps of St. Pauls and do my best to emulate the Gossip Girl steps of The Met!

From the cosmopolitan city girl life during July, to in August when for a while I'm pretty sure all I did was sit in my bed watching TV series after series! I have always been a massive TV fan and over this summer I have added to my already rather long list of series that I watch. As mentioned in numerous posts I became very quickly obsessed with The Mindy Project, but also in a slightly different genre I finally got around to watching Revenge which I have been recommended for years. 

These shows are both addictive in totally different ways, but I would highly recommend them both. Two amazing female leads who both kick butt, one more literally than the other!








Speaking of incredible women, I had the biggest fan girl moment ever of the summer when a certain +essiebutton replied to my tweet! I have loved both Essie's blog and Youtube channel for years and her recent Nordic Vlogs have been the highlight of my subscription box for the last couple of weeks. And I have #daclip to thank for it all ;)

This was a seriously cool moment for me and I literally haven't stopped talking to my sister about it since! Sorry Lu!

Quick plug whilst we are at it - my twitter is @cloudbelle25 if you want to follow my probably not so interesting daily insights!










If you do follow me on twitter than you will have seen that last weekend I met John Torode at the BBC Good Food Festival at Hampton Court Palace. I have watched Masterchef with my mum for years so when he wandered past it seemed criminal not to ask him for a picture. And wow he was so nice, he insisted that we 'take a selfie' which I was more than happy to oblige to. In general our day at Hampton Court was honestly one of the best family days out we have ever had, it was a beautiful day and the palace is stunning, plus we ate about our body weight in free cheese, what more can you want out of a day!?

And if we are talking summer highlights how could I not mention the fact that this summer I finally started my blog which is something I have thought about and wanted to do for such a long time. It is all still so new to me but I am honestly loving it, both writing my own and becoming more involved in reading other peoples. I cannot wait to see where it will take me.

That concludes a round up of the things I have loved this summer, clearly there are so many others I could have chosen, but really to summarise what I have enjoyed most is taking the time to be with the people and the places that I have missed whilst being away at uni this year. Saying this I cannot wait to be going back to university in a couple of weeks and starting my second year which sounds so crazy to me, but I just know it is going to be just as incredible as this last year has been!

Thank you as always for reading, and until next time, B xx