I am a princess. All girls are. Even if they live in tiny, old attics; even if they dress in rags; even if they aren't pretty, or smart, or young. They're still princesses. All of us. Didn't you father ever tell you that? Didn't he?
So I am now an official graduate- I am out of education and into the big wide world of adulthood. And this is the last long summer that I have before I begin the rest of my life. In this period before it all starts I have nothing to do and therefore I have come to realise a few things about myself... This things are not massive revelations or anything majorly important but I am sitting here home alone and wanted to write away.
So here it is...
1. I only like to drink tea if it is out of a pretty mug- don't know why but my mind says that it is wrong if the mug is not pretty.
2. I love the e-harmony adverts with the random singing meetings- music shop and train station- if you haven't seen them then I suggest that you try to discover them because they are wonderful.
3.I have tooooo much stuff. The fact that all my junk would not fit in my mums massive car when I moved out of my uni house was the first indicator - the fact I had to clear out my room in my parents house before I could unpack was the second.. oops
4.I get bored very quickly and do better when I have something to do- anything to do really, including housework :/
5. I love to drive, even if it isn't to anywhere specific- it is just beautiful.
6. i love wearing dresses, they make me feel all grown up, like a proper adult :) it makes me happy.
So anyway back to my cup of tea in its beautiful mug. Also the sun is shining outside and it is lovely
In this summer time where I am in a lull between to busy years I find myself outside of my comfort zone.
Comfort Zone; Noun: A place or situation where one feels safe or at ease and without stress
I am outside of my comfort zone mainly because I am having to spend most of my time alone and being an extravert this makes me uneasy. I like to be surrounded by people and to be busy rushing from place to place. However at the moment this is not possible and so I am finding myself alone with my thoughts and wonderings.
One of these wonderings today was actually on comfort zone's - hence the above definition. I was thinking about how there is often a lot of talk amongst Christians about getting out of your comfort zone. I always thought that it meant being pushed to do something big and dramatic; move to a new place or give up a huge part of your life.
I realised today that it is not necessarily a dramatic change but sometimes simply a look at the way you live your life.
For me at the moment I have realised that I do not like spending time alone - my Dad very wisely reminded me that I am never alone and that Jesus is always with me even if I can't see Him. This made me think- I have days and days of just me and Jesus but somehow this makes me uncomfortable.
It is outside my comfort zone to just spend a day with me and Jesus with no visible human contact.
I guess what I am saying is that moving out of a comfort zone is not necessarily about dramatic change but rather about us leading on God and letting Him show us how to be comfortable in situations we aren't usually comfortable in. It is about pushing ourselves to be more in touch with Him way and His will.
At the moment I am learning that being alone does not have to equal depression or terror but that it can be joyful and a time to discover God and learn more about His world. It is an opportunity for me to listen to Him and go where He tells me- even just to the shops and back. It is a new way of living which I never really understood before.
I just finished my degree- every essay, exam, lecture and note is written. All I am doing is waiting for the results. It is the strangest feeling.
Yesterday it truly hit me that this is the start of life. Real adult, in the world life. No student bubble, no 4 hours of lectures a week (yep it's true) and to be honest I became terrified.
It is scary to know that this is university over, education over.
But today, after the initial realisation terror I began to look back on the beauty that these past few years have been.
I look back at the small, scared and very young girl who arrived in this city and I see a great transformation. God has taught me so much.
I was a big mess when I arrived 3 years ago. I wasn't sure what I was doing or where to turn and I held on too tightly to my then boyfriend. I was so lost and so unaware of what God had planned.
God has shown me amazing people- my church, my cluster, my cell, my friends- who have surrounded me and taught me life and what it is and how to navigate through it.
Starting at the beginning with the church that embraced me on that first Sunday. A place full of people who made me feel like I was at home even when all I wanted was to run back south. A place which God has filled with His Spirit and people who shine so incredibly brightly.
This church was the setting if you like, for God's transformation in me.
I arrived confused about who I was, very easily convinced and persuaded by others. But I was raised up, listened to, prayed with, understood and pushed to be my best. The people who I have encountered are people who let me be me and showed me that it was okay.
I look at myself now and see even in the small things like what I wear and the colour of my finger nails- that God has shown me who I am. That He is moulding me into the woman He desires me to be.
This last year at University has been the most incredible, I have met even more wonderful people and have been continuously changed by God's beautiful Spirit. Part of that year included leading an incredible group of students in my cluster (small group type thing)
I cannot believe how amazing these students are. Each and everyone of them has enriched my life and has brought such an incredible spirit and passion to my life. They are a group of people who I stand back and look at and I think they can change this world, they can be great and powerful people who bring goodness to everyone.
They are a group of people who I have had the immense privilege of knowing and they are the most welcoming beautiful brothers and sisters that I know.
These people have helped to transform my life and show me the beauty of passion and love of the Father.
I am so glad that I am not leaving next year and that God has given me the resources and abilities to stay here and to work more with these students and others. I feel so privileged that God has called me here.
I am not leaving this place but so many of my friends are and those friends are going to be missed an insane amount. It feels like such a big change even though I am staying. But it is an exciting and brilliant change at the same time. It is just another big adventure.
This is just to say thank you for all those who made me adore uni, and to also celebrate the changes that God has brought me through.
♥
this song has such beauty and such memories from the past 3 years ♥
I have just written a 10,000 word dissertation on Proverbs 31 but somehow in all the academics of it all I think I began to forget the beauty of the passage.
I have always had an obsession interest in this passage- I think it is so intriguing, this account of a women's life.
The passage was first brought to my attention when i was about 15/16 and I was at a camp in a girls seminar. The passage captured my heart.
It is a beautiful account of one women's life and the way in which she leads it. The passage recounts all the duties and her hard work- talking about how she works completely for her family and their needs. She is a beautiful women with good standing in the community and she is adored by her husband and children.
The passage begins with the phrase "she is worth more than rubies" and ends with "a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised"
This woman is so wonderful, she is a woman whose heart is sold out for God and who is living her life in a way which serves Him and shows Him to others. This woman is the a woman who has embraced her identity as a daughter of the most high, a woman who knows that fearing the Lord is a great way to live.
Woman in the Bible fascinate me. They lived in a time when there were no woman's rights, a time when a woman was either the property of her father or her husband. Woman who were alone were either pitied or scorned. Yet somehow God used these brilliant woman like Esther and Ruth and Naomi and all the others to show a new side to the King.
These woman show a strength and a femininity to God. They show that God can use anyone and that God has a softer side to Him.
I was reading a book called 'Captivating' a few months ago and in that the author writes that both men and woman were created in the image of God.
The characteristics of a woman are characteristics of God and the characteristics of men are also characteristics of God.
The differences between male and female are beautiful because they are just different characteristics of God.
Because I have been working on an essay I have discovered some new and old music favourites- I tend to be distracted easily when I have to write an essay...anyway I thought I would share these little gems ♥
only 3 days left until I have finished uni forever!
Grace is a funny thing. There is nothing like it and it really does not make any sense at all.
It is something which seems so against our nature, it is something that sometimes goes against everything that we feel would be right.
It is something which I have struggled with for ages, something which I still don't fully understand but recently I have learnt a bit about what it means to be gracious and to accept things without fighting against them. I have learnt that sometimes you just have to accept that the world is not always fair and that there are things which will happen which do not make sense.
When I see these things I tend to get really angry but then I am always reminded that God is the master of Grace. He is the one who gave us His son so that we could live and I remember that:
"There is no love deeper, there is no love greater, there is no love vaster than your love!"
God's love is the picture of pure Grace- He gave us everything despite our sinful natures and despite the way that we treat Him sometimes.
So I remember that and things always seem a little bit better and I carry on, trying to not forget the greatness that God is and the wonderful Grace He shows.
Today was such a sunny beautiful day and this means it was glorious. I met up with a friend of mine and we went and sat in the sunshiny park and chatted away. This fabulous girly is one of a kind, she is strong and brilliant and beautiful and she knows who she is.
Ever time we meet up for a chat she challenges me by the way that she is living her life. I love that, I think it is so important to have people in your life who challenge you and make you a better person just by the way they live.
So today she made me realise more of my dreams and more of my passions, more of who I am.
This is what I have been thinking about all day....
Woman are strong. Every woman is strong, not necessarily in the traditional sense, but inside of us there is a strength that God has placed in us. It is at the core of who we are and when we acknowledge who we are and accept how we were made this strength shines through. There is nothing that can stop that strength!
This strength is shown through our beauty, sexuality, maternal nature, friendships and how we live. The strength is what makes us able to be emotional, to be sensitive, to go through the monthly pain that we do and when we get there, childbirth (i have not done this yet and btw am slightly terrified!)
So often woman are placed in a tiny box in where we are seen as sweet and timid and innocent but that isn't how we were created. We were created to be strong, powerful, dangerous humans. We were created to look after our families, to provide for our children; we were created to go and reach out to the hungry and poor and needy... and trust me those aren't easy tasks.
Woman's bodies were created to be pushed to the limit, and we are able to do that. Woman may not be considered physically strong with muscles popping out everywhere but we are made to push ourselves, to be out of our comfort zone and to do it in strength and the knowledge that we can do it.
God made woman because man couldn't do it by themselves, we were made to be a companion to men and to be the emotional, sensitive beings. To be the carriers and carers of our children and our families.
Woman have strength that is set deep inside of them. Can you imagine a more wonderful world that one where all woman took that strength inside them and allowed it to shine out of them? How powerful would those woman be, how much better would the church and the world be if woman did that?
Ice frappes and barbie pink nail polish ♥ some of the beautiful things of my days lately :)
Also me and my bestie girl were talking earlier this week about how we have 'bad' days and 'good' days. How in our brains we think that we are pretty somedays but hideous another. She said that he lovely boyfriend reminded her that actually her beauty doesn't change day to day but that it is constant.
It is so true, we are all woman who have been created in God's image, in a sweet and delicate and fantastic way. Whether we feel like it is a 'good' or 'bad' day we have the same beauty each and every day that we live.
It is the beauty that God created us with and we should embrace it. Nothing changes that beauty or makes it go away.
Yay for being absolutely gorgeous all the time :)
how beautiful is the sky! this was the view out my window the other day when i was typing my essay...
and this is the view i will have for the next few weeks as i write my final draft... eeek.
i saw this as an advert for a new coffee shop that they are setting up in my home town and i liked it as it reminds me to do things just because.
Today was another essay day, and I realise that the next month each day will be an essay day or dissertation day or dissertation presentation day. But then I am free into the adult world (what are they thinking?) For an essay day, it was surprisingly good.
So here are the simple things that made me happy:
♥ making coffee for myself the first ever time (i know i am 21, should have done that by now, but i am a recent convert)
♥ feeling the warmth of the sun on my shoulders through the window
♥ burning a candle all day
♥ turning my flower fairy lights on at dusk
♥ finishing the essay and calling by bestie from school, complaining about work, celebrating her handing in her dissertation and making plans for the summer
♥ going to bed before midnight
see it is the simple things that God gives us that makes our days happy even when we are writing an essay in one day.
♥ Jane Austin is by far my favourite author and Pride and Prejudice is the best book written ever, in my humble opinion anyway.
This blog post is once again a break from my life as a final year student, I am currently trying to write a 4000 word essay full of insight, due Wednesday- word count so far:0! ooops
but i have done the reading so the type type typing can start.
hahahahaha
Another ♥ of my life is that I am back home in my beautiful Uni town and everyone of my beautiful friends is making their way back here for our last month or so of the year. Also it is sunny and summery and this makes me happy endless amounts. Times like this I am thankful to live in the attic and have a skylight which allows me to feel the warmth of the sun of my skin while typing away at my desk.
Along with drinking fruit tea and reading many a book on Genesis, I have taken to looking through this website weheartit in little breaks from work, so here are a few of my current loves from there.
I like this one cause it reminds me that actually sometimes I expect too much and that it is the imperfections which make life so beautiful
if i felt i could pull it off and if it wouldn't hurt my mum so much, i would probably become the decorated lady and cover myself in beautiful designs, however for now i think i will leave it to my love tattoo and maybe the bird that i will get after graduation
be yourself, be yourself and no one else.
in honour of the royal wedding, which i might say was beautiful and kate is an inspiration as was her dress. (p.s i always liked harry better anyway)
yay life is beautiful, even the pain in life is beautiful in a way cause it is yours and is part of you.
Also on another note completely i wanted to link this annointedwithgrace in light of the recent death of Osama Bin Laden.
I think I was a little surprised at the level of celebration, I know and agree that he wasn't a very good person at all but it is quite scary that there can be such jubilation over one man's death.
Anyway here's to the last month of university, to the world being beautiful always, to wearing high heels and lipstick while writing essays and to all the people in the world, each as beautiful as the next.
I am writing this in dedication to the girls who have brought me to where I am now. These people have come and gone but they are important and I will not forget them or what they meant to me.
♥ Esther, the best friend a girl could have between the ages of 3 and 8, the lessons of friendship learnt early on set me up for life
♥ Emily, one of the few constants who has seen me through the many stages of growing up- we have had more than a few ups and downs and have seen so many sides of each other- you are someone who I can always find joy and peace in.
♥ Kirsty, who helped me learn more about myself in a year than I thought possible, who shared one of the best summer's with me and who I will always love for that.
♥ Sarah, who brought me joy each day of sixth form without a doubt and who I know is destined for greatness, if she ever gets there on time.
♥ Anna, who for a short time was one of the best friends I had, learning to forgive you is one of the hardest and best things I have ever done, sorry we aren't in contact any more.
♥ Lydia, simple put you are like my sister and I hate not having you with me at all times, I miss our conversations and joint sense of humour and understanding of life, you are destined to be a musical genius in my humble opinion.
♥ Alice, you are my sister in my house, the thinnest wall separating us. You have kept me sane through the toughness of the last year and you are forever engrained in my heart as my sibling! Do not know how I will cope not being able to run into your room at every stupid thought - Love you dearly.
♥ Elle, loud, gorgeous and almost too much like me, cannot wait to live with you and to experience the first year of proper adulthood with you- too much wine (or beer knowing us!) and Carrie Bradshaw will most definitely happen. I know next year has excitement in it, just cannot wait to find out what it will be.
♥ Char, you are my big sister, without a doubt and I wish I saw you more than I do. You teach me more about myself that you will ever realise
♥ Rosie, you make sense of the craziness in my brain and you live your life with so much grace and poise that I watch in awe. I love you and plan to have you at my side or on the end of the phone at every major event in my life.
To these ladies who help me be a better woman each day
i am tired. this is an understatement. last night i did not sleep one bit, nada, not one wink of sleep. I dislike this as although sometimes sleep feels like a waste of my time i need it to function.
but i am listening to this and it reminded me of what Easter actually is about and it made me happy. Jesus is the only reason and the only one who saves me. it is amazing how much i keep forgetting this, forgetting how much i have been given and how amazing life is.
also for easter my aunt gave me cupcake chocolates :D literally one of the best inventions ever
and i saw these beautiful creatures while on a walk with my parents the other day
they truly are magnificent!
and later today i am having a skype conversation with my future housemate who has just been to disney land! and then i get to have coffee with one of my oldest friends after that....
I am currently away with my parents in a place that is miles from a city, and I am here partly to spend time with my parents and partly to be working on my final year essays and my dissertation. I am failing. I cannot concentrate on my work and I am going crazy at the lack of contact with my normal world. I have no signal and this morning my dad brought me some wireless internet so I could have access to some work I needed on the internet.
Part of my avoidance of work and all things university related has involved me reading many a blog distracting myself from what I should and inevitably will be doing.
I have been reading Rachel's blog encounterswithjoy; she is an amazing girl and her blog always makes me stop and think, and smile and laugh.
I realised as I read through her past posts, that actually me sitting here wasting away my days is pointless. There are many a thing in my life that I should be thankful for. I have incredible parents and an ever patient big brother, who throughout their lives have supported me without fail. I have friends who I could call on in a second and they will listen and council and be there to laugh and joke through the hard things. I have been given the opportunity to study in ways that many in this world cannot (and therefore should embrace it and not ignore it) and I have been given so many opportunities to travel and experience the world.
Most of all I have been given the joy of knowing God and His ever bounding love. I have been comforted and taught and challenged by my Father in heaven and I am able to rest in the knowledge that He is my king.
I can rest in the fact that He loves me all the time, no matter what...
In her blog Rachel wrote this:
"because the truth is that he likes me - and you - A LOT, he laughs at the things you laugh at, he understands when you're afraid angry or just plain bored. When you cry he cries - he loves the people you love even when they don't love him, he doesn't disapprove of you - he thinks you are utterly top notch!! When you do something that you're passionate about and are totally in your element he sees that too and rejoices in it - he created you to live a truly full life."
this is what i am thankful for, i am thankful that He understands that I am bored of my work and that it frustrates me, i am thankful that He knows the things that are occupying my brain and driving me crazy and He knows that i miss being in a city and seeing the business that fuels everyone.
In a few months I will be graduating from University and starting out life outside of education- I am excited and slightly scared of the things that are to come, but I know that He has everything in His hands.
I am excited to do things that I am passionate about and things that scare and push me.
I am excited for what is going to happen and the places that I will be going, the new people that I am going to meet, the adventures I will be going on.
I have dreams of tomorrow and the things that I can do, I have big ideas that form in my daydreams. But for now I am trying to focus on the work I have to do now.
The place that I am in now and what that is and what God is showing me.
so back to the slog of work, or maybe it won't be such a slog and maybe I might find joy in the work I have to do.
Today was such a beautiful day- the first proper day that felt like summer. I walked into uni today and everyone was in summer clothes and sunbathing on the grass- it was beautiful.
I spent the day sitting on grass and walking around shops browsing and enjoying the sun. Tonight was then spent packing for easter. I am going back to my parents house for 3 weeks easter break, although it shall be full of essay and dissertation writing. It will be a break from the madness and busyness that is the life of a third year.
Today as I walked around, actually over the last week, I have been thinking about the last 3 years and the journey that I have been on since I moved to uni. I was having a conversation recently with some of my best girl friends about who we were at school and I began to realise just how different I was back then.
The past 3 years have been the best and worst of my life- I have been through so many things that have shaped who I am. The biggest of them all was a relationship which at the time was everything to me. It was my world, and I thought that it would be for the rest of my life. When it ended I thought that my world had collapsed around me and that I would never truly recover.
I don't think that I knew how strong I was or how much I was being held back by the relationship or the things that had happened during that time.
I know that the person I am wouldn't exist without that relationship and I know that the relationship taught me a lot and gave me a lot of life lessons.
I am about to start a brand new chapter of my life, meeting new people and discovering what it means to be out of education and into the big wide world. It is exciting and full of possibilities.
I am itching to get out there and see what the world has to offer, what God has in plan for my little life.
Life is exciting, especially when you look back and see where you have come from and what has changed.
I won't lie and say that I am completely recovered from the hard times, and I won't say that it doesn't still hurt sometimes but I do know that for the most I can see the good in it all and that, actually, there is hope and joy in everything.
God's goodness shines through and keeps shining through whether we notice it at the time or not.
"if i lay here, if i just lay here, would you lie with me and just forget the world"
So my housemate got engaged!!! last weekend and oh my it is amazing! and it makes me feel very grown up and old.
It is amazing and girly and makes me very happy! I get to talk about dresses and flowers and hen parties. But it is also just an incredible expression of their love and their commitment to one another. It is so amazing to see how extremely happy they are and how excited they are about their future life together.
Also her ring is amazingly sparkly and beautiful, and I can not keep my eyes of it.
I found these beautiful pictures of wedding things and it made me happy.
minute by minute we live out lives without thought or pause to think about the purpose of our life. We go about lectures and we go about life with a aim to achieve what is right in front of us.
what if there is more?
what if there is something so much greater than we could ever imagine?
If our lives had a purpose that was greater than just getting to the end of the day, or just finishing this essay or project.
what if our lives were about more than graduating and getting a job or money, or leaving school and going to uni.
what if we had the ability to change the whole world? what if we had the ability with every breath and every day and every minute to change the lives of millions- starting with those who are closest to us- those who we are surrounded by each and every day? what if.....
what if? what if? what if?
what if we stopped asking what if and started to do.
our lives do mean something more than getting to the end of the day, they do mean more than graduating and getting a job and money.
we do have the ability to change the world and to change the lives of millions.
we can change the lives of those surrounding us each day.
we can because we are meant to. we can because it is our purpose. we can because we are made to love and care and bring compassion and joy and peace. we can because we are made to reach out, we have the ability, the gifts, the talent, the money.
we can because we are who we are and because that it all we need.
we can because if we are willing God will give us all we need.
we can because we are adopted and we are accepted by Him as we are.
we can because it is what He asks of us and all we need to do is say 'yes' and then follow Him.
so let us stop asking "what if?" and start doing and knowing that we can
'Gentleness (praotes in Greek) describes the complete surrender to God's will and way in your life. it means to stop fighting against God. it is not weakness. it is the power and strength created from submitting to God's will. it is responsibility with power. praotes describes the ending of resistance to God. it begins with that word we love to hate; submission.'
Today is so sunny and beautiful and I am listening to one of my friends songs which is all about God as our Father and it is really making me thing so much about how wonderful God is.
There is so much that we have to thank Him for and so much that He provides for us. I think that in today's society and culture we have such a tendency to spend out time complaining and worrying about what goes on in out lives.
We should be looking to the good, the bright spark in each day, the idea that God's joy is in everything. I think that there is this false idea that joy is all about smiles and laughter- don't get me wrong sometimes it is- but there is a deeper joy that comes from God. This joy is deep and strong and resounds in the heart of who we are. This joy is at the centre of who we are, God wants us to have it all the time. He holds it out to us in open hands waiting for us to receive it. It is a joy that stays through the tough times, a joy that we know even when we are sitting in the corner of a dark room and crying. It is a joy that no-one and nothing can take from us. It is the joy that keeps us alive and awake in the darkness of the world.
There is nothing that take's this joy from us. It is the joy that comes from knowing that we are adopted by God and that we are His children and that we are forever and ever His.
It is the Joy that we know from knowing that God is running to meet us and welcoming us home- that God meets us exactly where we are.
Some of the lyrics of the song are "there is no love deeper, there is no love greater, there is no love vaster than your love"
God is beyond all of us, higher, greater, bigger than we can imagine and He picks us up and holds us tight and close. Whispering that He loves us for what we are and who we are. His love is eternal.
God's joy is boundless and we have endless access to it. Grad hold of it, never let it go, allow it to seep to the inner depth's of you. Allow it to hold you as you cry, allow it to break down those walls of depression, anxiety and sadness. He doesn't change and He will never let go.
this week has been full of sunshine, flipflops have been worn and summery dressed placed on our bodies. The mood of all I meet has been so much better than usual, essay deadlines and looming exams don't seem to matter anymore.
I spent a day having lunch on fields of grass, and going to mcdonalds for mcflurry's, running into people and having random coffee's and chats. It has been a good week.
I also was introduced to this website thx which I feel in love with- the idea in genius and beautiful and so simple.
So in light of her beautiful idea, here are a few thank you notes of my own from this glorious sunny week...
My life for the past 3 years, in fact probably longer than that has been full of conflicts and stress and general hard times. But the last month or so the beauty of life and the Love of God has been scattered into everything I do and everywhere I go. I have a bad day or an stressed and something reminds me of the Love of God and the beauty of this world.
The overwhelming message of the moment seems to be that there is nothing we cannot do with the Love of God. That the world was created and is engulfed in His Love. The knowledge that He Loves so unconditionally and so fully, the Knowledge that through all the pain of the universe and all the heartbreak that happens: God's Love Remains, endless, constant throughout time and space.
I don't think I have even begun to fully grasp this concept and it is just now filling me and resting on my heart.
God Loves.
He Loves and that is it.
We can argue the theology of everything, we can debate and disagree but ultimately at the heart of everything that exists is the Love of God.
And because of this, we are called to Love, to be deeply and undeniably Lovely to those around us. To Love the hurt and the broken but also to Love those who have hurt and broken us.
We need to stand up for Love.
As cheesy and as cliche as it sounds, Love is the answer.
"This one thing, it remains, Your Love never fails and never gives up, It never runs out on me, Your Love never fails and never gives up, It never runs out on me."
So i turned 21 this week, I know feel like I should act like an adult.. as my brothers card said "welcome to adulthood" except birthdays don't seem to make the difference. They are beautiful days but I never feel that different after one.
This year was indeed the best birthday I have had in years. My friends were incredible and among other beautiful presents I got a Barbie! This is beyond incredible- I used to get Barbie's ever year from my parents but they have refused for a long while on the basis that I am to old- so thank goodness for my housemates who disagree :)
beautiful birthday cupcakes ♥
I have finally started writing the dreaded dissertation and feel like I may slightly be getting somewhere. Although it is a lot of work I don't think I have ever been this excited about writing something at Uni before. I like that I could choose my subject and that I get to write about something that is close to my heart. I like that there is almost free reign and that we basically have to do it all alone.
Somehow this makes me feel like a grown up.
One of my friends made me a mixed CD of songs that we shared on our Israel trip this summer and this is one of my favourites:
Lectures start next week, along with a load of essays and endless hours of dissertation writing that must be done, and because of this I somewhat sub consciously decided that this week would be a lazy one, full of tea, chats, shopping, cupcakes and films. I haven't focused much on anything other than relaxing before my final semester of university commences!
This also marks a week of owning my iphone 4 which has now become a beautiful fixture to my side and is my new ♥ ... therefore the photos (which i know are mostly of food- what can i say, i love it) of my week shall be ones taking on that beautiful object which I am inclined to call 'my love'
cupcakes and tea
australian red liquorice
the view from the SU on a gloomy winters day
I saw the film Black Swan today with some friends and it is such a good film! It is disturbing and weird but the dancing is soo beautiful and the story is so beautiful. Maybe it is that I always dreamed of being a ballet dancer when I was little or that I simply have a love for the art but it transported me back to christmases at the ballet and beautiful women on stage. However it should be an 18 not a 15 in my opinion because it is quite an explicit film!
Tomorrow marks the start of a new busyness to my life and therefore I shall be enjoying the end of today.
currently listening to: Kings of Leon: Only by the Night
Music always has the power to speak to me, completely change the way my day is going.There are songs that I can link back to times in my life- happy and sad.
So here's to two songs which have been going around my head today and which are speaking to me.
Pink always seems to do a brilliant job of showing us that we are beautiful, that we shouldn't believe the lies we tell ourselves. The message of this video is something I am passionate about- Every girl is perfect, we should be celebrating the differences that we have, no analysing each other and pulling our gender apart! One of my all time favourite quotes, from one of the best films ever is from A Little Princess when the lead character Sara says
"I am a princess. All girls are. Even if they live in tiny, old attics; even if they dress in rags; even if they aren't pretty, or smart, or young. They're still princesses. All of us. Didn't you father ever tell you that? Didn't he?"
This quote makes my life, it is soooo true- all girls are Princesses, whether they are warrior princesses or glittery fairy Princesses. We are daughters of our Daddy God in Heaven and He loves us all. He is the king and we are His princesses.
Jessie J, what can I say, i think this song is awesome and it makes me smile
These cupcakes make my life- Thursday afternoon was spent listening to dissertation presentations and eating these beautiful things, before pub hangouts and and evening in.
slightly barbie obsessed!
On the bus home from town I picked up the Metro and read that Barbie and Ken are trying to reunite after many years apart. Apparently Ken is trying to win Barbie back with flowers and cheesecake from the Magnolia Bakery....yes I do know that it is fiction but as a self confessed Barbie lover, I must say that this article made my friday.
It looked better in real life
The clock tower in my town. It looked so pretty as I walked past it on saturday night that I took a photo. We were on the way to see the new disney (Tangled) which is a lovely film, full of little girls who i might add had amazingly long hair which fitted nicely in with the film.
Today has been spent hanging out with friends and chilling at church and the pub.
♥ Twinnings tea and the quotes that come with them.
