IN ORDER TO HIGHLIGHT MY NEW RUCKSACK - #OOTD 26/08/15

I'd wanted a leather rucksack for so long but real leather ones are just so expensive. And then I saw this Accessorize beauty online. This rucksack was literally perfect, it's fake leather so still has the same look as a real leather one just for a fraction of the price, and it was just so beautiful I couldn't resist. The only problem was the £35 price tag, I told myself I couldn't justify buying it until I got a job. Two months later I had my first pay day of my new job, and the first thing I did was go and buy this bag. I am a very happy bunny. This bag is also the perfect size, it fits all my everyday things with room to spare, and I'm confident that it's also going to be able to fit all my college stuff come September. I am in love.

Bag- Accessorize (£35)

Jumper- Boohoo (£12)
Top- H&M (£9.99)

Jeans- Topshop Jamie (£40)

Boots- Dr Martens (£100)

AN EXTRA SPECIAL BANANA BREAD

I love banana bread but it's something I rarely eat, so I decided to try my hand at making my own. But I didn't want to make just any old banana bread, I couldn't decide between making one with walnuts or with dark chocolate, so I made one with both. This recipe for banana bread with walnut and dark chocolate chunks is slightly adapted from a Paul Hollywood recipe.

Recipe makes enough mixture to fill two loaf tins to roughly three quarters full

You Will Need:
-Three overripe bananas
-250g caster sugar
-2 eggs
-140g butter
-250g plain flour
-2 teaspoons baking powder
-100g walnut chopped into chunks (not too small)
-100g dark chocolate chopped into chunks (any size but not overly large)

To Make:
-Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius.
-Line two loaf tins with baking paper. Greasing the tins with butter first will help the baking paper to stick.
-Mash the bananas and sugar together in a mixing bowl with the back of a fork. The banana will look lumpy but that's okay.
-Add the two eggs and whisk together. The mixture will look overly wet but that's also okay.
-Add the butter and whisk again.
-Sift the flour and baking powder and fold in using a wooden spoon.
-At this point, if you haven't already, chop the walnuts and the dark chocolate into chunks. Don't chop the walnuts too small or your final product will feel grainy and weird (I learnt that on Bake Off). Unlike what I did, it would probably be better to chop the walnuts and dark chocolate before you start.
-Add the chopped walnuts and fold into the mixture.
-Add the dark chocolate chunks and fold into the mixture.
-Add the mixture to the tin and fill until about three quarters full as the mixture will rise slightly in the oven.
-Cook for an 45-50 minutes. Yes that long, I thought it was a weird timing but all the recipes say an hour, though mine didn't need that. You can see from the pictures that it looks ever so slightly burnt on the top but that's probably more due to the oven shelf maybe being a bit too high that the timing.
-Leave to cool.

Rosie

AN EYELINER CHEAT

It's a sad fact of life that I'm not very good with liquid eyeliner. The saying always goes that practise makes perfect, and I am practising, but I've blinded myself more times than I can count. In the meantime, I've come up with my own easy cheat way to achieve the 'eyeliner-on-the-top-lid-look' (I can't think of a name for it) that I am very proud of figuring out. 

My secret is eyeshadow and those cheap sponge brushes that come with eyeshadow palettes. I use the shade 'Noir' (the black shade, obviously) from my Sleek 'Oh So Special' palette, and all I do is pick up a bit of colour with the very tip of the sponge and drag it straight across my eyelid right on the lash line. It goes without saying that a brush is so much easier to control than a pencil or felt tip liner, it's so much easier to create a nice straight line without blinding yourself or making any huge messes or mistakes. The tip of the sponge also creates a slightly thicker line than an eyeliner would, so there's no need to keep having to build up until you get the thickness you want; it's also so easy to build up colour if you want your eyeshadow to look darker. 

I don't know how well I've explained this, in my mind it's simple, but I know what I'm talking about. So to summarise, black eyeshadow, tip of the sponge eyeshadow brush, straight cross the lash line, keeping almost on top of the lashes to avoid any gaps. Simples. 

I'm going to keep practising with liquid liner at home, but for the time being, out in public, this suits me well. 

BOUT OF BOOKS 14.0

Just a quick note to say that my blog is now two years old, crazy!

I thought I'd do a quick post just to summarise the Bout of Books 14.0 readathon, my first ever readathon. During the week, I managed to take part in five of the Bout of Books photo challenges, which you can see on my Twitter, @Rozoid97.

In my post last Sunday, I stated that I wanted to finish 'The Invasion of the Tearling', which was my current read at the time, and then read maybe 1-1.5 more books over the course of the week. I managed to exceed this goal, and I finished 'The Invasion of the Tearling', and then read the whole of 'Amy and Roger's Epic Detour' and 'The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavendar'. I am also 93 out of 194 pages through 'Stardust', which I was hoping to be able to finish tonight but I'm going to end up finishing tomorrow. Overall, over the course of the week, I managed to read 854 pages.

I'll go into more detail in my August Reading Round-Up at the end of the month, but I thought I'd briefly mention my thoughts of each of the books. I absolutely loved 'The Invasion of the Tearling', I thought it had no flaws and it was a fantastic continuation of the trilogy. Despite having the tiniest font size by far, I actually found 'The Invasion of the Tearling' to be a fast-paced read, in my opinion, the other books were actually quite slow reads, despite their large and misleading font sizes. I enjoyed 'Amy and Roger's Epic Detour', though I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would, I actually preferred the other Morgan Matson book I've read, which was 'Second Chance Summer'. Now 'The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender' was an interesting one, it has so many popular reviews and so many people love it, and I just didn't. I had absolutely no feelings towards it until one event in the story, which more or less made me hate it. So far, I'm enjoying 'Stardust', it's quite a slow read but I really, really love the film so I have high hopes for the rest of the book (plus it's only 194 pages long so it's super short).

CAMBRIDGE - 13/08/15

Last Thursday, my father, brother and I took a day trip to Cambridge to do some sightseeing and general touristy things. I'd never been to Cambridge before but I thought it was absolutely stunning. The pictures below include our (rainy) punting trip down the river, our visit to Kings College Chapel and the grounds of a few of the colleges we wandered into- Christ's, Gonville and Caius, King's and Pembroke colleges.

MY FIRST READ-A-THON

There is such a thing in the online book community (Booktube, bookbloggers, etc.) known as a 'Read-a-Thon'. The premise of said read-a-thon is that the participants try to read as many books as possible within a set time, usually a week. I've been interested in trying a read-a-thon for a few months now, so yesterday I decided to take part in the Bout of Books 14.0 that is occurring from 17/08/15-23/08/15. The Bout of Books website claims that it's a 'low pressure' read-a-thon, which suits me quite well for a first read-a-thon.

I've given myself a rough guide of what books I want to read, it's not a case of me wanting to read all of the books on the list, but more to give myself some options during the week. I am planning on finishing my current read, 'The Invasion of the Tearling', which I am currently 395 pages through out of 511 pages, plus one-and-a-half to two more books, depending on timing and how busy I am.

Bout of Books 14.0 TBR:
1. 'The Invasion of the Tearling'- Erika Johansen
2. 'Amy and Roger's Epic Detour'- Morgan Matson
3. 'The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender'- Leslye Walton
4. 'Stardust'- Neil Gaiman

'I AM HEATHCLIFF' - 11/08/15

Back in October, my father and I visited Haworth in West Yorkshire, the home of the Bronte family. Since October, I have been desperate to hike across the moors to Top Withens, which is thought to be the house that Wuthering Heights is based off in Emily Bronte's novel, 'Wuthering Heights'. This August, I finally got the chance to visit, and it was fantastic.