i could treat you better but i'm not that smart

 Dress - Dorothy Perkins

Coat - Urban Outfitters

Socks - Topshop

Shoes - New look

Bag - 2nd hand/Dad's old

I'm wearing my gingham dress again! At the moment this is the dress I could live in for weeks. The print, the colours, the shape all make it such an easy and effortless item to throw on and it still looks like I've made an effort. I also like how different it looks depending on which coat I wear, because paired with this blue duffel coat is definitely a different look than with my green army coat. I also like how it's finally been cold enough for it to be weather-appropriate for me to wear this blue coat.

The National Archives have nice little fountains and everything outside, that make me want to go and feed the ducks and swans there. I used to love doing that when I was wee and wish I still took the time to do fun little things like that. But apparently I'm too busy being an adult and staying inside the archives reading about revolutionary propaganda and what not. Feeding the birds would be more fun though, I think! But I still wouldn't feed the pigeons inside the bus station like some crazy lady sitting behind me did last week.

thursday thoughts pt. 41

I do love this quote, it is very sweet. I know you don't want to hear how I don't believe in love at first sight and all that, but even then I can appreciate the sentiment and say that this is a lovely quote. A bit of Shakespeare will never go amiss. Also, if you have been following me on Twitter lately, you might have noticed my wee struggle with mini existential crises, I've just been having a bit of a strange time trying to figure my life out and questioning everything. I suppose I still am. But one of the things that this led to was that I realized I don't believe in romantic love. After that I was even more iffy about posting this quote, but have decided that my non-belief in romantic love and love at first sight don't actually lessen the quote in any way. I think I'll treat romantic love and romance as a genre quite similarly as sci-fi from now on. I can still love and appreciate both.

project 365: 019-025

 019 I'm a bit neurotic when it comes to moisturizing my hands and using hand lotion. I'm not as bad as I used to be about it, but I still need to have some kind of lotion or cream with me at all times. This is what I'm using at the moment.

 020 If you've never eaten raspberries like Amélie, you're maybe doing life wrong. If you've never seen Amélie, you are doing life wrong.

 021 My first day at the archives, hooray!

 022 During my visit to London, I stayed at an airbnb in Kew. It was really lovely and in a fancyish area. They even had wee ponds with Koi fish in them. Surely that is fancy? I don't like them though, they look creepy.

 023 I got home at midnight and although I love being away, travelling and exploring, I also love coming back.

 024 I woke up with a migraine (First one of the year, I think. Surprised that it took 24 days, to be honest.) and spent most of the day trying to sleep it away. As that didn't work out, I finally succumbed and took my pills, so that in a few hours I was able to make my way to the living room and spend the rest of the day reading "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy". And I know reading isn't the best thing for me to do while recovering from a migraine, but I'm stupid like that.

025 Sunday was a lovely lazy day. Read a little more, blogged and got ready to go back to uni. Christmas holiday, where did you go?

sun is in the sky oh why oh why would i wanna be anywhere else

Dress - Primark

Socks - Topshop

Shoes - New look

During the week I was in London for a couple of days, which was nice. It would probably have been nicer if I had had the time to do other things than go to the National Archives, haha! But I had a lovely time anyway, going through so many World War documents, seeing friends for a few moments and staying at this lovely airbnb. I need to go back to the archives during the next couple of weeks, so I'm hoping I'll get the chance to do something more fun as well. (Not that I didn't like the archives, actually. The first day was so boring, but once I knew what to do and took the time to have lunch and breaks in between research, I started to quite enjoy myself. Makes me sound like such a boring person, haha!) It had been almost 10 years since I'd properly visited London, instead of just travelling through, so it was and is definitely time to visit that wonderful city again. If you know of something interesting that's on during the next few months that you think I'd like, let me know!

Anyway, this is what I was wearing while travelling on the first day. I didn't even realize how matching the dress and shoes were before putting them on! I love black floral dresses and should wear this one more often as it's really comfortable and can be quite casual or dressed up, which is how I like my dresses. I also have my new favourite socks on. I just love the structured lace and any socks are just such a lovely addition to an outfit. And they keep my lil' toes warm.

project 365: 012-018

 012 This is very much a representation of what my life is like. I had an essay due at noon, stayed up until 6am writing it, slept for two hours, continued writing and still hadn't reached the word count by noon. So I spent most of my Monday writing and rearranging an essay that I then handed in the next day. In this photo I'm still having breakfast and being hopeful of not losing 5 marks straight away.. Such fun.

 013 Finally got my 2015 Moomin calendar properly on the wall and ate loads of these bad boys. Genuinely in love with these Daim eggs, and I buy them almost every day, haha!

 014 Face of the day, and also some new rings. As I'd only been sleeping for about five hours during the last two nights together, I spent most of my day in bed. I really need my sleep:-(

 015 I still have some of my Christmas decorations up, but is that really that bad? In my family we only take them down on the 13th, but this one is so pretty I might leave it for still a little longer.

 016 This is probably the most honest photo that has ever been on my blog. I can be a bit of a slob and have all kinds of crap covering the whole surface of my desk and chair. Anything from (clean) socks to dishes to old receipts to jewellery. But I tend to keep my floor clear, so that's ok. Right..?

017 It was snowing!

018 The shadow of my glass angel that hangs in the window, I just thought it looked pretty:-) And as it was my nameday, I ate a doughnut. It was a good day. (Apart from the fact that I was writing yet another essay. On time, this time around.)

P.S. How has my life become so irregular and I so nocturnal. Just postin' in the wee hours of the morning..

old and new

 When it comes to make-up, I rarely repurchase anything. I like trying new things, and unless there's a product that I know absolutely works for me in the optimum way, I don't see the point in not going for something else instead. After all, there's a plethora of make-up things out there and I do love the excitement of having new stuff on my hands. (Oh, materialism..)

So, when I say I've bought something twice or even more than twice, the chances are that I really love this thing. The Rimmel Stay Matte powder is what I've been using for a few years now. It's definitely not the best powder ever, but as my skin is quite dry and this doesn't make it worse, I've stuck with it. I suppose, I just don't want to spend money on something that might or might not be better and end up not ever using it. But the Soap&Glory Archery Brow Tint & Precision Shaping Pencil is something that I still think is absolutely brilliant. I bought my first one last spring, and despite me using it pretty much daily, it has lasted almost a year. I can see myself trying new eyebrow products sometime in the future, but for now this is the best thing in the world. Seriously.

A couple of new things I've been trying are this Revlon lipstick in Smoked Peach and the Maybelline Mega Plush Volum' Express mascara. I don't know what it is about beauty products, but they're the only thing that I am really easily influenced to buy. When I see other bloggers/vloggers use or recommend something and like it, if it's in my budget range I'll probably get it. How awful is that (and common as well, I think)? I don't remember who I saw wearing the Smoked Peach first, but now I have it too, and it's really lovely. It's the only nudeish lip colour I own at the moment, and although I'm more of a red/colourful lips kind of girl, I'm really enjoying this as a daily wear to uni &c. Then there's the mascara that I saw on the blog of the stunning Holly. I'm not sure about this yet! I do like it, but can't tell you if I think it's as amazing as a lot of people seem to think it is. Takes me a while getting used to a new mascara, and as the last ones I've had have had a much slimmer bristle brush, which is just very different from this, I don't know how to feel about this yet. I do like the way my lashes look after using the mascara, but I maybe expected more, you know?

project 365

 As I don't really do resolutions, I thought I'd do something else instead. Inspired and encouraged by the amazing Kaylah I decided to try my hand at the Project 365. Having had my wee Canon now for almost a year, I still haven't gotten around to properly learning to use all the different settings (haven't even read all through the manual, haha!). So with this project, hopefully, I'll get more use of my camera, learn to take better photos and possibly get more comfortable taking photos in public both just of random things and of myself. I can't promise I'll have something interesting to photograph every day, but so far I have actually remembered to take photos every day, and I'm really happy about that:-) Although, I've mostly remembered about this lil' project only when it's already gotten dark and the lighting definitely hasn't been the best, but you can't have everything in life, eh.

 001 Wee Laura playing with fire. I've actually used up all my candles in a couple of weeks and need to get some new nice-scented ones!

 002 The fanciest Christmas hot chocolate with a candy cane (ha ha). One of the only things I miss from living with le mother is her making me hot chocolates and one of the only food things I miss from Finland is hot chocolate. I just thinks it tastes better over there, or maybe it's the fact that my mum makes it..

 003 Don't actually know if I like this one. It's just a lil' street in Headingley.

 004 Breakfast of the day; porridge with dried blueberries. It doesn't look or sound that special, but it's good. Trust me.

 005 Took some make-up photos, some of which I haven't gotten around to posting yet! But you can see my MAC post here.

 006 I actually took the photos of products on a different day than the one I was wearing them. You can still see my MAC post here.

 007 I had a really exciting day of returning uni books, did a little sales browsing without any massively interesting finds and took a picture of the Parkinson building. My uni is quite pretty.

 008 Taking full advantage of my housemate's Angel collection. I love Buffy (as you might know), but have never seen Angel before this. I'm now about to start season three and I am beyond excited. I thought a series fully focused on him might ruin the dark, mysterious and broody Angel for me which is why I had been a bit hesitant of watching it in the past, but I was so wrong. I'm loving it pretty much as much as Buffy.

009 I've also really been into Matlock lately. I used to watch him with my grandpa when I was little and I just love Ben so much. I do love my old(ish) TV series.

 010 A rainy day spent inside doing uni work. At least my Moomin notebook is pretty!

011 Yet another walk to and from uni, this time to borrow some more books. Because, really, what else would one do on a Sunday afternoon?

That's pretty much what the start of the year has been like for me so far. Not too exciting, but quite enjoyable nonetheless. I'll possibly make this into a weekly thing, so you all get to see what I get up to (or how little I get up to, ha!). Later, lovelies!

and the banker never wears a mac

 As well as becoming a Lush girl, I think I've also become a MAC one. When the lovely Corinne told me I'd won her House of Fraser gift card I decided to finally try some MAC lipsticks. They obviously aren't the most expensive make-up product out there but it did feel like a splurge I wouldn't have otherwise done. However, after actually owning these, there's no going back. I can now even understand people who only use MAC, haha. So glad to be wearing these, even when only staying in and reading about the Secret Services (which is basically what my life is right now).

 The first one I chose to get is Morange, which is a lovely orange. I wouldn't actually mind it being even a brighter colour, but it is really nice for everyday wear; lovely and creamy. At the moment I'm more drawn to darker shades, so I'm looking forward to spring and wearing this all the time!

Like I said, I'm more into dark colours now, like Film Noir. This is definitely what I've been using the most lately. The perfect dark lip, I'd say. Most of the time I like to keep the rest of my make-up simple and light with this, but don't mind going for a more gothic or grunge look either.

What about you, do you love MAC and what's your favourite lipstick at the moment? I'm curious, haha:-)