Tuesday 30th May marked the date of my Nana's 70th birthday! We celebrated with a family gathering at one of our favourite pubs, The Ship. It's like a family tradition as we always find ourselves here for every occasion. At the same table as well! It was the most wonderful evening spent in each others company and was a lovely way to relax after all the stress of preparing for our holiday. The meal was planned as a surprise and since my Nana hadn't suspected a single thing, the look on her face when she saw everyone at the table was something I'll never forget.

Before the meal, I did what all good bloggers do and started taking every photo opportunity I could. I also realised that when I write up blog posts about time spent with my family, I never actually photograph them and instead it normally ends up being a blog post about the food I have eaten and our surroundings. This time I made sure not to forget and managed to get everyone to get a photo or two taken. I was surprised to see Joseph so optimistic about being in front of the camera, especially since I always frustrate him with the amount of snapchats I take with him.

The food at The Ship is always absoloutely incredible and the fact that its local makes it so much more convenient. Although the food and drinks are one of the main reasons why this pub is a family fave, I have to admit, one of my favourite aspects of it is the fact that its decorated as a ship, hence its name 'The Ship'. Its so unique and creative!

Furthermore, what's a blog post without my choice of food for the night, right? I got my usual dough balls starter, which I normally end up enjoying more than the main course because they are so delicious. As for the main course, I opted for a steak and ale pie and I still stick by my word in the fact that its the BEST steak and ale pie that I have ever had in my entire life.

The surprises didn't stop when she walked through the pub door as my grandad also ordered her the most beautiful cake. Her reaction was once again so memorable and this time, I captured it all on my camera.

Ever since I started my Fashion Communication and Promotion course at University, I have collected so many fashion magazines. I have to admit, before university, I wasn't a massive magazine reader and mainly sourced all of my fashion related news from the internet. However, because my course encourages us to read them in order to get a taste of all media platforms, I have started to get a little addicted. Each month, I collect a variety of different titles including Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Marie Claire, Harpers Bazaar and Elle as I don't necessarily restrict myself to one publication.

I wasn't on the look out for new lip products as I have more than enough in my makeup collection, but whats one or two more, right? I love liquid lipsticks and was instantly drawn to these Revolution Retro Luxe Lip Kits which contain a lipstick and lip pencil. They are both retailed at £6 which is not too bad for the quality of the products. I was also very fond of the packaging even though its clear that they are cheaper dupes of the Kylie Jenner Lip Kits, but lets be honest, what makeup brand hasn't caught onto this trend?

The two kits that I picked up were in the shades 'Echelon' which is a matte nude and 'We Rule' in a metallic gold. I have mixed feelings about these kits because whilst the formulas are smooth and creamy and the shades are incredibly pigmented, the liquid lipsticks are annoyingly sticky and the colour of the lip liners don't match the lipsticks. I definitely think that these are very standard, run of the mill products as I've found that its rare to find a matte liquid lipstick that doesn't leave a sticky finish. The shade of the Echelon lipstick is a beautiful nude, but the liner is unusually orange toned. On the other hand, the plus side is that the lipstick wands have enough precision to work perfectly fine without the need for a liner. With the cons aside however, I would still recommend the kits, solely because of the lipsticks, to anyone who is looking for an affordable liquid lip product that is good value for its retail price. This can be found at most high street stores, including Boots and Superdrug.

My favourite kit out of the two is the metallic which has a much nicer feel on the lips and isn't as drying as the matte. The finish is also absolutely stunning. However, the liner in this kit is very sheer and honestly quite pointless. The tip also snapped off with the littlest of pressure. Aside from the negatives, the pigmentation, durability and creamy consistency of the lipsticks is very impressive. However I wouldn't wear the matte for more than a few hours if you don't want to start to get an uncomfortable dryness, but if you decide to wear it for longer, it does not budge whatsoever. The metallic is a little different and is more likely to rub off easier than the matte as it has a glossier finish.

It's also worth noting that the colours on the box are misleading as the actual product shades are very much different. Make sure you have a look at the tester products before you decide to pick one up. I would definitely stick to the metallic collection if I was to pick up another one because I'm not too found of how drying the matte feels.

On the other hand, I am greatly impressed with the Barry M In The Glow Tahitian Body Oil. First and foremost, the scent is absolutely incredible and is stated on the bottle as "the tropical fragrance of Tahitian Gardenia", which is manufactured by the brand Pacifica and has notes of jasmine, gardenia, sweet orange and tea leaf. A little bit definitely goes a long way with this product, but be careful when pouring it onto your skin as the product runs out relatively fast. However, I wouldn't worry about trying to rub it in quickly because I noticed that once it was on my skin, the oil didn't run down my leg as fast as expected with body oils. The one issue I have with this product is the bottle as you could very easily knock it over and spill the oil everywhere as it has an open cap. It would have been much more convenient to have had a lid with a pump or some sort of pipette.

The product itself is fantastic! It contains coconut oil which ensures skin hydration. It glides on so smoothly and soaks in relatively quickly, so you don't need to awkwardly stand naked in your room for what seems like a decade, trying to avoid touching any piece of furniture. Once its fully soaked in, you're left with the most lovely subtle bronzed sheen finish thats more visible when light hits the area where its applied. It would look great on top of fake tan or on natural skin as a little boost. Just make sure you wash your hands afterwards, otherwise you will get oil EVERYWHERE. It's original retail price is £7.99 in store and online.

During the Easter holidays, I had written a blog post about my entire first year of university called 'My First Year of University in Photos' in which you can find here. I love writing and reading these kind of blog posts and have also written one about my summer last year, which can be found here. I love taking photos of my friends, family and surroundings as I think its the most amazing way to capture memories. It's also a lot nicer to look at and is more visually appealing than reading a ten page blog post on every experience at uni. I'm sure I would probably start losing readership if I started writing ten page blog posts.

After the Easter holidays, I returned back to my student halls for three weeks to spend some more time with my friends before everyone left for summer, as well as going back to pack up my bedroom ready to move back home and get myself ready for Bulgaria. I refuse to look at my bank balance after the amount of holiday shopping I've done in the past few weeks. I have well and truly done some damage.

The photos in this post are relatively self explanatory. They're either from a messy night out, our trip to Blackpool, days where we just did nothing but chill out, or when we actually made it outside, photos of the beautiful scenery of Huddersfield. It was so nice to be able to go back and not have any worries about deadlines. I was so much more relaxed and was able to appreciate the time I spent with my friends even more. I came back home with everything (just about) packed up in the car, my Bulgaria to do list completed, a years worth of memories I will never forget, and friendships that I will treasure forever.

Oh and also, a cocktail recipe that will make you think twice about sticking to vodka and orange at pre drinks:

Echo Falls Fruit Fusion Rose Wine with Summer Berries

Lemonade

Cranberry Juice

I never stick to proportions and just wing it each time, but I normally fill half the cup with the wine and then the second half with the lemonade and cranberry juice. It really depends on your flavour preferences.

This weekend I came back home to celebrate my brothers 18th birthday and today myself and my family went to Al Forno which was a very fancy Italian bistro. I love Italian food and was looking forward to it all weekend. It was definitely worth the wait because the food was absolutely incredible and I can definitely see myself coming back here in the future. It's situated right next to my brothers future university, so theres no stopping me from frequent visits when I'm home.

The interior design was absolutely stunning. I found myself taking so many photos, in fact, I couldn't stop. I had to delete so many before organising them for the post. I love restaurants that have old photos on the walls and at Al Forno, there isn't a single wall without one. 

For my starter, I picked the Bucce Di Patate which was deep fried potato skins with a garlic mayonnaise dip. They were absolutely incredible and I would even go as far to say that they were the best potato skins I've ever had. I was also so tempted to ask for the recipe for the garlic mayonnaise dip because that is something I could see myself getting very addicted to. There was so much in the bowl that I definitely couldn't have finished myself, but this actually turned out to be a good thing because they were that delicious, it wasn't long before everyone on the table was having a little try.

For my main course I then ordered the Stinco Di Angello which was a slow braised lamb shank with Mediterranean vegetable stew, Rosemary mashed potatoes and tomato infused lamb juices. The starter filled me up so much that I wasn't able to finish the entire main course but it was so difficult to stop because it was absolutely incredible.