Update..

Where have you been I hear you ask? I know, I've been quite absent these past few weeks but life has been pretty stressful as of late. This will be a super quick post just to let you know that I'm not dead and will be continuing with my blog (hopefully that's good news?)

I've been back at school for about a month now and blimey has the work piled on. All three subjects that I take involve essays and a hell of a lot of learning so obviously that's been taking up an awful lot of my time. I'm starting to get back into the swing of things with balancing school and everything else in my life and I just need to work out how to combine my blog into that. I've also had extra hours added onto my contract at work which means that Thursday evenings are now taken up by that leaving me with less time to do everything else.

Anyway, enough with the excuses and onto just general life stuff.. Last week I got an upgrade of phone and have converted to the iPhone cult. I always said I'd never like an iPhone but when the chance to upgrade came around I was like what the heck, might as well. I went for the 4S in black and I absolutely love it!

Today was mine and my boyfriends 9 month anniversary which is crazy, it feels like just the other day that we started going out! We didn't really do anything much, just chilled at his but still, we got to spend time together so that's all that matters.

I don't really know what else there is for me to chatter on about as my life is pretty boring if I'm honest so I think I'll round it up now. I promise I will be writing a lot more when I've settled into my new routine and if I don't then feel free to leave me comments or tweet me telling me to get my arse in gear! Also, any requests for posts would be greatly appreciated. Please leave them either in the comments or @ reply me on twitter.

Glossy Box | September 2012

The other day I got home from sixth form and was just sat in my room when there was a knock at the door. Oh, hello Mr Deliveryman here to give me my latest Glossy Box!

This month marks my year of being a Glossy Box subscriber and I have to say that I've had mixed feelings about them. Over the summer I found that there were a couple of boxes that really didn't live up to my expectations. As a result of that and a lack of money I unsubscribed for the month of August meaning that I missed out on the around the world box which really wasn't upsetting for me at all! I subscribed again and I'm quite happy that I did, this month's box was much more interesting and something to get a little bit more excited about than previous boxes - although I must say that it isn't my favourite box that I've received.

One major plus about this box is the actual box itself. The picture isn't very clear but it's mint green with pink and white doodles all over. It's so cute that I'm using it for storage in my room.

Lady Gaga Fame Fragrance: This is probably the most exciting product for me in the box. I've heard people say that they aren't too impressed by the scent of this but I'm quite a fan. I haven't actually tried it out properly so I don't know how it will smell on me but hopefully it'll be nice & I may have to splash on the full size!

Balance Me Wonder Eye Cream: I've tried the Balance Me moisturiser and lip balm before and have quite liked both and this seems good too. My only issue with it is the fact that it has a scent, I'm not too keen on smelly products going on my face.

Maghrabian Hair Oil: I've never actually used a hair oil before so I'm quite interested to trying this out. The smell is lovely which is always a plus!

Vichy Idealia Day Care Cream: I'm always on the look out for new moisturisers and this one looks promising. It's a pink cream and smells lovely and well, moisturisery..

Rodial Glamoxy Snake Serum & 5 Minute Facial: Not the most generous samples ever as they are just two sachets of each but hey, still two uses I suppose. The serum is pretty self explanatory whilst the 5 minute facial is a clay mask. I'd never heard of Rodial before but may have to look into them more if they work well.

Do you subscribe to any beauty boxes? I'd love to know which ones and what you received!

New and improved you

Firstly a quick apology for being away for a while, I've just started back at sixth form & it's been quite full on. That & other things in my life have just taken priority as of late but have no fear, I'm not planning on going anywhere in the long term, posts may just be a little less freque

nt than they were over the summer.

I've been doing a lot of thinking over the past few weeks about my life and I've realised that I'm not overly happy with the way that it has been. I've been stressed, paranoid, upset and just not my usual, happy self. Obviously I don't want to be feeling this way so I've come up with some 'rules' for myself to try and get back on track. I thought I'd share them with you as I know that a lot of people my age (and others, but exams & hormones etc can really take their toll) feel similarly at some point or another.

1) Have some 'me time'. Every day I aim to spend some time for just me. No homework, no chores, no anything. Simply sit for a while and do something that I enjoy, be it reading a magazine article, listening to some music, painting my nails, anything will do, just so long as it gives me a little time out from life.

2) Find a way to vent my feelings. I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to do this but normally if something is bothering me I'll just cry but that's not how I want to deal with things any more. Perhaps write it down either in a notebook or in an unpublished blog post, I don't know. If you have any ideas let me know in the comments.

3) Deal with issues head on. If someone is annoying or upsetting me I am going to try confront them about it. This is a big step for me as I tend to keep all of my emotions bottled up but I've realised that is contributing to my stress so it needs to stop.

4) Talk to those close to me. I'm not overly close with my family but I'd like to think that I can go to them with things. Even if I just talk to them about how our days were, that's a start right?

5) Be more social. Honestly, I'm not that much of a social person, I'm quite boring really. All I really do is school through the week, go to work some evenings and on Saturdays and stay at my boyfriend's at the weekend. I've found myself saying 'no' to many things lately for absolutely no reason but I'm going to try to make the effort to see friends much more.

Hopefully these few things will help me to become happier and just enjoy life a bit more. If anyone decides to do these things (or a variation of) I'd love to hear about how you get on. If you'd like me to give you an update in a few weeks on whether I think it's working let me know.

How do you keep yourself happy and get rid of stress?