VAGABLONDE: August 2014

Wednesday 20 August 2014

READING FESTIVITIES

As of tomorrow I head off on the scary and unknown journey of my first ever music festival, Reading 2014. As a very experienced camper I thought I'd give my tips on camping and also a mini 'What's in my Bag' post.

Tips:
-Read the reviews on your tent before you buy it; you want to know what you're letting yourself in for.
-Don't bring anything expensive or that you really like; especially to a festival, you will regret it.
-Don't forget your wellies.
-Bug bite cream is essential.
-Be prepared for a lack of proper sleep.
-If you're going to a festival, bring your own breakfast stuff and some form of healthy snack, you will be eating complete crap the whole time you're there unless you're prepared to cook your own food and you will end up craving some form of healthy stuff.
-Bring toner for your face as you will unlikely be spending large amounts of time washing your face with your normal fancy foaming face wash and toner at least stops drastic breakouts.
-Be prepared for the camping spot, it is inevitable, you will always get the one uber spot every time you go camping (bring spot cream, and also bring a mirror).
-Don't go all-out on makeup, everyone else will look awful and it's a nightmare to try and put on and take off loads in a tent.
-Dry shampoo is everything.
-French plaits are also everything.
-By the second day the ground will be gross, camping chairs are essential.

Potential new background? Makes the fanny pack look 'instagram cute' and arty...

What's in my Fanny Pack:
Yes, you heard me correctly, I am bringing a fanny pack, I own a fanny pack, no shame (a little bit of shame). (Fanny pack from Bag Base on Amazon, under £5).
-Rubbish Nokia brick phone; for contacting people around the site, plus will never, ever run out of battery.
-Antibacterial hand gel and wet wipes; festivals are dirty.
-Money; for food and merch.
-Disposable camera; safer than bringing your nice digital camera and super cool looking pictures at the end of it all.
-Vaseline; I don't normally use it much so it is disposable if need be.
-Snacks.

It's all very green...

BON ANNIVERSAIRE

I'd wanted to post this on the actual day my first blog post was posted as a kind of anniversary but I will be at Reading Festival on the actual day (the 23rd is on this Saturday). But anyway, on 23rd August 2013 'roseteabags' was born. The desire to start a blog came to me on my family holiday to Florida in the summer of 2013 and I haven't looked back since.

We jumped right in there in August with a '50 Facts About Me' post that was written in the notes section of my phone on the beach and then transferred to the computer screen. September was an experimental month deciding what I'd like to include in my blog content so we started there with lip balm (my favourite). October was quite exciting at the time, having the first 'favourites' post and dedicating the entire month to skin care products; and then November arrived with the first baking post. Weird nostalgic throwback to the much-loved September-December period and finding my feet.

On December 1st, we started our first '25 Days of Blogging Christmas' which involved blogging every single day up until December 25th and was, miraculously, completed with a whopping 25 posts being uploaded that month. Also in December, we hit 500 pages views which was an amazing achievement and we are currently on the mid 900s. We saw in the new year with a book review resolution (that feels like yesterday) and soon afterwards in the February, our first (of hopefully many) travel posts was published.

At the end of February 2014 and early March we underwent the first (probably) change to the blog layout, going from pink stripes to a more complexly designed (in my eyes) purple spots with added extras including an 'About Me' page. And then, also in the March, 'rozoid' was born in the place of 'roseteabags' and we entered a new stage of a more sophisticated and less childlike looking blog.

June and July saw some more blog content changes as monthly goals and playlists posts were added in June, and the idea of more picture-based posts and days out, etc. was started in July. In August we also had our first look-book post which, though being long and difficult to photograph due to outfit changes and weather changes, I was actually really pleased with in the end and will hopefully do some more of. September also sees the coming of many holiday photos posts, and Blogmas 2014 is already being planned!

I'd just like to thank everyone who has stuck by us and carried on reading this blog for an entire year, your support means a lot and I'm excited to see what happens next!

Sunday 3 August 2014

PLANE JANE

For this post I tried out a new way of taking photos using bedding as I'm not keen on my old way, not sure how I feel about this way either so bare with for the next few posts :)

Back in February, I made a post about my plane hand luggage for my AS geography trip to Barcelona (worst trip of my life, but lettuce not focus on that). So it's coming up for the summer holidays, and I'm going to Barcelona- again. But this time with my holiday group (there are 22 of us and our parents all went to uni together and every year we go on holiday together, normally to the Lake District or France, so everyone is very overexcited about Spain); and super duper exciting is we're getting the same flight as my bestie (I pity all the other people on the plane who have to listen to me and him and our younger brothers kick each other for three hours).
I thought, since I've already done a carry-on bag post, I'd do a beauty plane essentials because no one wants to look gross and covered in plane gunk when they land.

We'll start with the essentials:
If you are carrying these in your carry-on bag, you must make sure that you get sizes to fit the airlines liquids policy, Boots, Superdrug and Body Shop do mini ranges of some popular brands/items.
-Wet Wipes: for general cleanliness and for stopping yucky greasy face.
-Antibacterial Hand Gel: in case you touch something you don't want to (like sticky plane chairs).
-Moisturiser: planes dehydrate your skin and it is important to have healthy skin.
-Hand Cream: you could probably use your moisturiser for this, but it's just an added luxury.
-Body Butter: I heard that body butter and/or cocoa butter is really good for making your tan last longer and I fully intend to tan while in Spain (not going to happen) so I picked up one of Body Shop's mini versions of their body butters to make that happen.
-Deodorant: you don't want to smell on the plane, do you?
-Body Spray: so your clothes also smell nice.
If you can't tell I am a certified over-packer.

The non-essentials:
-Concealer: because planes dehydrate your skin, I don't tend to wear foundation on the flight until maybe the very end, concealer just covers your blemishes without being too heavy.
-Eyeliner: so I don't look weird and dead and makeup less.
-Mascara: so your eyelashes don't look overpowered by waterline eyeliner.
-Lip Balm No.1: purely for self-indulgence (don't worry, there's another two in my suitcase).
-Lip Balm No.2: one with SPF for sunbathing, because sunburnt lips are the worst thing in the world.

BARCELONA LOOKBOOK

This summer I am going to Spain (Barcelona and also somewhere slightly north of Barca that I can't remember the name of) so I enlisted the help of my long-suffering brother (and my cat, who decided he wanted to join in at one point) to show some of the outfits I plan to wear while I'm there (I'm pretty impressed by brother's photography actually). The one thing I don't have for summer that I really wanted is a massive, oversized sunhat. Boo.

I'd like to make a note that this was very difficult to photograph, we started on the most beautiful day but got halfway through before it began to pour with rain and we had to make do with the change in natural lighting. It also had to be photographed on two separate days between holidays (note my change in tan in some pictures). I am sorry for the lack of continuity in the pictures, it pains me.