Easy Updo: Messy Plait Bun

This is my go-to hairstyle for casual wear, date nights and even events (particularly weddings!) and I love it because it's so damn EASY to do! I'm sorry I don't have any photos of the process, but I'll talk you through it step by step:

1) Section off the front part of your hair (or your fringe if you have one) and french plait this along the front of your head, securing with a clear or thin elastic (you'll be hiding this later)

2) Plait the rest of your hair on one side and secure it with another thin or clear elastic, pulling parts of it loose to create bigger sections in your bun

3) Twist your plait into a bun, securing with bobby pins as you go to create a tight side-bun, making sure that both clear elastics are tucked within your bun

4) Pull out sections where you want to create the effect of loose plaiting

Et Voila! Set with hairspray if you need this look to last, and do what I did and take lots of arty photos!

Budget Birthday Celebrations: Sushi Sunday

When asked what they would like to do for their birthday, most people will say they want nothing more than a day with friends and/or family, and so finding a fun way to spend an evening which didn't cost the earth was the number one priority for us, a group of students, on a friend's birthday! Eventually settling on a sushi evening, we enlisted the help of our wiser (and far more cultured) friend to guide us, although I'm sure it could have worked just as well with a YouTube tutorial, and sharing the end result (however awfully they may turn out) and splitting the price of the ingredients just make this all the more attractive as an idea! All in all I was particularly pleased with my slightly misshapen sushi rolls, however bad they may appear to a more experienced sushi chef, and I like to tell myself that it's definitely the taste that counts in this situation...

All of the ingredients required can be purchased fairly easily at a local supermarket, although if there's one near you, the Japan Centre is well worth a visit for the most authentic ingredients - and you can pick up some amazing sweets there, too! Site link at the bottom of this post.

 https://www.japancentre.com/en

Things I Realised When Sharing a Bathroom

With three showers between fourteen students in my flat, things can (understandably) get a little tense now and then, and all sorts of rules have been born out of necessity following rather  *ahem* interesting experiences. Such exciting circumstances have led to a few realisations for me, many of which I wish I'd been aware of before arriving.

The first of these is that it will always be damp.

You know that disgusting feeling of cold water under your feet in swimming pool changing rooms? Yeah, that. That is constant. It's quite unsettling the first few days when it takes you by surprise, but, worryingly enough, I can't say I notice it any more.

Secondly, people pee in the shower.

This is one of those situations that led to a rule. With a wet-room style shower, peeing is really not ideal for anyone, and the smell lingers (sorry for that thought). Thankfully, this hasn't happened since, and I'm really hoping it stays that way.

You can't keep your stuff in the bathroom.

There are two parts to this one. Firstly, there just isn't the space for it. For a flat designed for so many people, the storage really isn't optimal. For this reason, I'd recommend investing in a shower basket which lives in your room on a shelf and you can just pick up and take with you. Quite possibly the best investment I've made this month. Secondly, although this hasn't happened in my flat, I've heard tales of 'borrowing' from others. I guess this is where I'm grateful to have such fantastic flatmates, because if I had space I'm confident we wouldn't have this issue, but it is a thing. That happens. Just not to me.

You need to reconsider your shower schedule.

You're a morning showerer? So are seven others. And all of you are trying to lie in for as long as humanly possible in a personal game of 'how quickly can I get ready?' Waiting for a free shower can take a while, and when one is free you have to get in there quickly, because I can guarantee that someone else is also on the lookout. This isn't helped by the fact that I, along with most of my flatmates, have a shower of preference. It must also be remembered that point number one still applies when you finally get into one.

Despite my grumbles and complaints, however, sharing showers really isn't all that bad, and once you're into a routine it flows pretty easily. It also makes for an interesting conversation starter when one has a plumbing issue, to shine a positive light on a less than ideal situation!

Selling Ice Cream to Hipsters: Vintage Clothes Fair

In true East London fashion, myself and a few friends decided to spend our Saturday fighting off hipster types and rummaging through piles of vintage clothing in an 'everything £1' warehouse sale. Underestimating the level of interest, we turned up at about 11 only to stand in line for a good hour and a half before finally entering the building and grabbing everything that came to hand in a vicious scrabble that brought to mind the Hunger Games (with me as Katniss, of course). With neither time nor space to try anything on, this was a bit of a guessing game with some items, but I managed to pick up four pieces I was really happy with, and so I think the ridiculously long queue was worth it. Plus a guy came past selling ice cream and sorbet, so I was happy. I'll upload a post about my purchases on another day, when they've been washed and dried, but until then it's goodbye from me and have a great week!

Borough Market

Being a self-proclaimed foodie and market lover, I of course jumped at the opportunity to go with my friends to Borough Market, just a stone's throw away from my uni accommodation. Despite the slightly drizzly day (pretty standard), I managed to get a good look around and snap a few pics. Although perhaps not the best market for low prices, you really can't replicate the atmosphere here, even on a day when it's a half market, and it's well worth a visit for the experience if nothing else - a good hour or so can be easily spent wandering around trying free samples!

Room Tour

Now that I'm all settled into my uni accommodation halls (after a good few hours of arranging and rearranging), I thought it was about time for a room tour!

'Currently' reading 'Beware of Pity', which I haven't actually started as of yet due to the busy nature of the first few days at uni, but am looking forward to greatly! I also have a fruit bowl in order to encourage my to stay healthy and not binge on ready meals for a year!

    

I'm absolutely obsessed with Jo Malone, and was given a gift set of Pomegranate Noir which included a 250ml hand soap, 175ml room spray and an adorable 30ml bottle of cologne which just lasts and lasts! So, of course, moving to uni was the perfect opportunity to make use of these, and my blog the perfect place to gush about them! I can't get enough of this masterfully blended scent, and look forward to filling my room with the slightly spicy aroma as the Winter months draw in.

All Pomegranate Noir products can be found at:
 http://www.jomalone.co.uk/products/3576/Fragrances/The-Collections/Fruity#/products/3607

Overlooking the minor error on the Hogwarts crate (which even I, as a self-proclaimed Potterhead, have managed to ignore) I'm fairly pleased with how stocked my cupboards are, and hope to keep them this way, although realistically, we'll see how that goes throughout the year...

Not pictured here is a shelf beside my sink absolutely spilling over with products from Lush, Simple Skincare and Tresemmé as well as my double wardrobe and textbooks (oops - the reason I'm here!)

I hope this was either enjoyable or helpful, depending on your motives for reading/looking!

Naomi Natters: My A Levels Advice

As I watch students go back to school this month, I remembered my own experience of school and, in particular, of A Levels, which got off to a bit of a rocky start (whoops!). One thing I'd have loved when I started Lower Sixth, however, is a bit of advice on staying on top of things and making the most of your education so that you can get the best grades possible for yourself and, hopefully, make things a little easier along the way!

My first piece of advice would be to invest in an academic planner or journal if you don't already have one, and to use this. And I mean RELIGIOUSLY. Write down your homework and coursework assignments (if you have them) and check it at night, just in case you've forgotten something! Alongside this, I found it incredibly helpful to write to-do lists for every day (which may be a bit TOO organised, but I promise it helps! Especially if your days seem to go on forever and you find it reallllyyy satisfying to cross things off), and a great idea is to get a whiteboard and stick it up at home with your work listed (This works particularly well if you do coursework subjects, because it's harder to forget to write those 3,000 words when there's a reminder above your desk, try as you might!)

Another technique that helped me a lot was to think of personal goals (bear with me, I don't wanna sound like your head of Sixth Form here...) every term, and write these on post-it notes which I then stuck up on my wall. These don't need to be unrealistic, don't go thinking you can learn an entire language fluently in a few weeks, but something simple, like 'hand every piece of work in on time' can be an interesting task to set yourself, and this is so important when you're doing A Levels, because you really do need those much loved Study Periods to...well...study.

My last piece of advice is something that I've told friends of mine and scared them with, but it really does sound worse than it is, and that is to read through parts of your textbooks every night. I did this myself during Upper Sixth, and you'd be so surprised how easily and quickly things go in if you read them just twice a week! This is the kind of thing that you can do pretty casually - I would tell myself 'I'll read half an hour of my English Language textbook, and then tomorrow half an hour of the next unit' - but I'd recommend that before doing this you read through and highlight the key areas of study. This makes the pages far less scary late at night (if you, like me, aren't an early sleeper) and means there's far less information to digest. This sounds scarier than it is, I promise, and it really does give you such a head start when you *finally* get around to revising!

I hope these helped at least a few of you out!

Newest MAC purchase

And so, with just a week to go before I start uni, at a time I should really be saving my money, I couldn't resist a sneaky MAC purchase whilst walking past the store today (judge me, people, judge me). I'd been excited to get myself a pureple-y, plum toned lipstick for Autumn/Winter, and this seemed a perfect excuse to finally get around to getting MAC Cyber, which I'd been lusting after for far longer than can be healthy! At just £15, I fully intend to get a good season's worth of wear out of this one, and it now sits proudly in amongst my lipstick collection! Can't wait for a *good* excuse to go out and MACe myself up (see what I did there?)

What's in my Bag?

Seeing as you liked my 'What's in my makeup bag?' post, I thought I'd do the same for my handbag, which, although less detailed, will be far more random! I'm currently loving my Paul Costelloe oxblood coloured leather bag - it's the perfect size for everything I *ahem* 'need' to carry around on a day to day basis and matches most outfits! Let's see what happened when I tipped it upside-down, though...

As some of you may know, I live in London. What you don't know is how paranoid I get before travelling a new route on the tube, and so I tend to repeatedly check I know where I'm going with the help of one of TFL's handy pocket tube maps! You can pick these up in tube stations, and I'd recommend having one on you if you're visiting London and you aren't entirely familiar with the tube network.

I have a tendency to shove cereal and fruit bars in my bag in the morning and then forget about them, so it's no surprise to me to find a Stoats Raspberry and Honey (very good!) oat bar and a good old fashioned Raspberry School Bar lurking in the depths of my bag. I also have these adorable personalised love hearts from my cousin's recent engagement party, and they were so cute that I just had to take a few packets home with me! Great and fun idea for parties or even announcements!

My lips aren't great at dealing with windy weather, and living in the UK, that occurs for most of the year! So I carry around a tin of Vaseline to keep them in good condition when I'm on the move.

I get incredibly bored when travelling, and so I'm always sure to have my Kindle and my iPod with me to keep me entertained! What I'm not so great at, however, is making sure they're always fully charged, which kind of destroys the point of me bringing them half the time... oops!

I wear glasses occasionally, although my eyesight isn't poor enough to need them that often. I love my Lipsy frames with pink sleeves, as this cheeky pop of colour hides beneath my hair and is only just visible through the strands if you look closely enough. I've gotten many compliments about these, and I'm very pleased with them!

Finally, found within my deep red (also Paul Costelloe) leather purse are a number of loyalty cards I have been talked into getting, although only about 50% ever actually get used, and an absolute tonne of train tickets from when I used to be travelling back and forth to school! Time for a good clear out I think!

Also in my bag although not pictured were:

-A box of Nerds for when I get peckish (although the majority of these had fallen out to turn my bag into a maraca - great)

-A spare memory card in case mine fills up at an inopportune moment

-Lots of hairbands that I've thrown in when I've taken my hair down

-A packet of tissues (just in case!)

-A small tub of Purell hand sanitiser

-A box of Rennies (again, just in case!) and

-A spare tampon. In case of emergencies!

Hope you enjoyed this post!

    

Naomi Natters: Top Short Books for the busy Reader

So this is a new feature for me, and my 'Naomi Natters' posts are gonna be a little more lifestyle-based than my usual fashion and beauty. Hopefully these give you a bit more of a window into my life and me as a person (if that's what you want!) If this is something you lovely lot aren't liking much, though, let me know and I'll try and adjust things accordingly! So grab a cup of tea or coffee and here we go with Naomi Natters #1!

Anyone who knows me knows full well that I'm an avid reader, and always try to find time to read and get lost in a good book, but something I'm asked more and more frequently is how I do this, and if I can recommend any good books for people who don't quite have all the time in the world and fancy a lightweight read on the way into work, or that can be easily managed in half hour chunks before falling asleep, so I thought I'd compile a list of ten short books for the busy reader:

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

I absolutely had to start with my favourite, and there's no questioning Fitzgerald in my mind. He paints a beautifully rich picture of the 1920s party scenes alongside representing an array of strongly defined characters who grip your interest. How so much can be packed into so few pages astounds me. A real page-turner, I enjoyed this so much that I completed it on a train journey!

 Persuasion - Jane Austen

The shortest of Austen's major novels, this is a great read if you've never read her work before, particularly if it scares you a little! The storyline is simple, yet enchanting, and the satirical nature of Austen's work is, arguably, clearest in Persuasion, adding humour to the romance as you get lost in a simpler, beautiful period of balls and marriages.

 Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

Shelley's gothic novel is fascinating, as the split narrative bridges the world between supernatural and reality, causing conflict in the reader as you battle with your own emotions to reason who to side with! The concept seems so modern that it's scarcely believable that this wasn't written during the vampire and werewolf surge in about 2011, and it makes for an easy read if you aren't into heavy, old novels.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - J. K. Rowling

Honestly, if you haven't yet had a chance to read the Harry Potter series, I recommend you do it as soon as possible. Regardless of age, these books are a really great read, and you'll pick up on lots of things left out of the films! I apologise now if you turn into a raging Potterhead like myself, but that really is no bad thing!

 On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan

A stunning work of 'what if?', this compact novella features detailed flashbacks as a newlywed couple awkwardly attempt to live their first night of marriage. Illustrating the divide in class and a time of silenced opinion, this is a favourite of mine which always leaves me in tears!

 The Importance of Being Earnest - Oscar Wilde

Okay,  so perhaps I'm cheating a little here as this is actually a play, but it's so wonderfully witty that I really couldn't leave it off the list! Wilde's talent for highlighting the ridiculous through each and every exaggerated character creates a true masterpiece of theatre - there's also a damn good film adaptation, but read the play first - it's worth it!

 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

I first read this book when taking AS level English Literature at school, and I'll admit I wasn't a fan at the time. Since then, however, I have come to appreciate the raw beauty of this novella with its strong narrative voice guiding you along the journey, serving as a window into a world sadly little talked about in the modern day. Definitely worth the read.