First year of Uni: What I'd do differently

It's that time of year where 18 year olds across the UK have just experienced that sickening feeling of being left by their parents in a dank uni room, with nothing but a few fairy lights to make it look homely. I'm nearly finishing the first term of second year, and I thought I'd look back on my first year, and share a few bits of advice of what I would and wouldn't do if I started all over again!

Sorry I'm so rubbish....life update!

I feel like me apologising on this blog is becoming a far to regular occurrence. Most of my blog posts start with 'sorry there hasn't been a blog post in a while'. I really am sorry when I say it and well...I'm sorry there hasn't been a blog post in a while. Life has just been so busy. But I'm hoping now I'm back into my usual uni, shift, work life balance I'll have a bit more time to share things with you guys on HBH. I love this little blog, and a bit of time away from it has re-invigorated my love, and I'm definitely looking forward to getting back on it. So today I thought I'd start by giving a little life update. I last shared a life after stroke: two years on update back in July, but I thought today I'd bring you up to date with things.

My Week In Outfits: Menorca 2016

I recently jetted off to sunny Menorca with my parents for a weeks of sun, sea, sooo many cocktails. With the weather starting to get a little bit gloomy back here in the UK, I thought I'd post my week in outfits to add a little bit of sunshine to your day! I love going on holiday and getting changed in the evening into a nice skirt, or floaty maxi dress, nothing to glam, just a change from the everyday wear. Here's all those little outfits!

Recipe: Feel the Goodness Spinach and Chickpea Curry

I made this for my housemates and one nicknamed it the 'feel the goodness curry'. I'd raided the supermarket for a load of delicious spices and put them all in a pan with a heap load of healthy ingredients. This is a super easy quick and cheap meal to make for your flatmates, but equally it lasts really well in the fridge for the next day and freezes as individual portions for later dates.

Life After Stroke: Two Years On

 

I've been planning what to write in this post since some time in April. I would type something then delete it, type then edit, type then delete, and for about a month the line 'I've been planning what to write in this post since April' had been the content of this post. I decided to read back through my one year post stroke update, and I started that by saying I don't know what I'm going to write but I'm just going to write from the heart, and I guess that's just what I'm going to do now.

Coping with messy flatmates

When you sign up to live in Uni halls, you're more than aware it's a complete luck of the draw who you get put with. My flatmates were pretty varied - I lived in a flat of four, however it was more like a flat of three because one of the guys moved out after two weeks and went home, and we never saw him again! My other two flatmates were very different. I got on very well with the girl (Olivia*) I shared with and I was friendly enough with the guy (Jack*), however Olivia and I were very clean, and Jack....lets say he wasn't so clean. So here are some of my top tips to cope with a pretty untidy flatmate.

Closet Clearout

I've recently had a couple of weeks off uni, and in amoungst a heap load of revision and essay writing, I've also had a bit of a sort out of the old wardrobe. I didn't know what to call this post - tips for clearing out your closet? A wardrobe sort out? I went for Closet clearout just because it was way neater than top tips and advice on having a tidy wardrobe in a new season and new purchases mad clean up....I hope the tidy title would represent what I'm going for with my wardrobe. Here goes..

First Impressions: The Yorkshire Soap Co. Bath Truffles

I'm a bath bomb junkie, but while I've been at Uni and had zero access to a bath I've imposed a spending ban on bath products. I received some bath truffles from one of my aunties for Christmas from the Yorkshire Soap Co. Having sat in my bathroom cabinet for a couple of months, the other week, well, it revolutionised my life. It was lovely so I thought I'd share those first thoughts with you today.

Favourite Five Pieces in My Wardrobe

I saw something like this on my twitter feed the other day and it gave me an idea for a new blog post! Today, I thought I'd share my favourite five pieces in my wardrobe with you. They aren't all new buys, some I haven't worn yet, other's I wear on a weekly basis. It was hard to pick just five but I tried to pick a variety. Enjoy!

University Cooking: Chilli Con Carne

When I first went to university cooking was quite the mission. In week one I essentially lived on sweet potato and cereal. However in the past six months I would like to think my cooking has come on quite a lot and I'd like to think that now I'm properly cooking, making things from scratch and actually enjoying it! So today I thought I'd start sharing some of the things I'm creating starting with one of the simplest things ever...Chilli Con Carne!

My Week In Outfits #3

When I came home from uni for a couple of weeks I thought I'd take the opportunity to do another one of these 'what I wore in a week' type posts. The weather was quite mixed (like seriously it's April, where is the sun!) so my outfits are a bit varied.

My Scrapbooking Supplies

I've been scrapbooking for a few months now, and although I'm way behind with my scrapbook, I keep adding to my supplies. I've grown to have quite a collection, of a variety of things, so I thought I'd share some of those with you today. I bought a plastic carry box from Hobbycraft and all my supplies fit in there nicely...although I'm pretty sure they'll run out of space soon!

Spring Clothing Haul 2016

There's nothing like a shopping spree - and I've been only too happy to pick up a few new purchases over the past few weeks. What with my student loan coming in, some birthday money, and the mid season sale it's fair to say my wardrobe has received a bit of a boost. Here is my spring clothing haul for 2016!

April Scrapbooking: I'm wayyyy behind

Back in September I started a scrapbooking series, it lasted until October. That kind of reflects my entire scrapbooking journey really. It's been a bit hit and miss, and the January Exams absorbed all my time and I think I picked my scrapbook up once between November and January. But recently I've started to get back into it, and I've been loving it. I thought I'd share with you the contents of my scrapbook up until the new year and then in a few weeks I'll show you some more recent things.

Recipe: Delightfully gooey brownies

Cake! Who doesn't love a good bit of cake! Combine it with chocolate and make it all gooey and you get one of my all time favourites...brownies! I can't remember the last time I made brownies, so I'm pretty pleased with how these turned out and I'm excited to share the recipe with you!

The Soap and Glory Collagen-Coat Mascara

To be precise the full name of this product is the Soap and Glory Thick and Fast High-Definition Collagen-Coat Mascara. A mouthful to say the least. For my birthday back in February my Auntie got me this mascara as a part of an S&G set, so I've been trialing it for a couple of months now and thought I'd give you my thoughts. I'll be talking about everything from the packaging to the brush to the staying power so lets go.

Recipe: Spring Raspberry Cupcakes

An easter spring get together with friends called for some cupcake baking. My friends always read the baking blog posts on HBH and request many things. I hadn't made these cupcakes before but they went down a storm so I thought I'd share the recipe with you all!

Recipe: I'm in Heaven Chocolate Mousse Cake

Sorry it's been a while since you've had a blog post from me (feel like everytime I've posted this year I've started with that - world's worse blogger alert), and it's definitely been a while since you've had a baking post. Being home for Easter weekend I have taken the opportunity to cook up a delicious chocolate cake with a rich chocolate mousse topping. With it being Easter, I topped this one with little mini eggs, but you could something like raspberries or strawberries for that lovely spring summer freshness. I would personally like to thank Mary Berry for the original recipe, that I've tweaked a little, because its a delicious idea - actually just thanks to Mary Berry for existing!

My advice on picking a University Halls

Moving to uni is a strange concept. Never in the real world would a random stranger decide which equally random strangers get put in a tiny flat together and share a fridge, freezer, cooker and TV, having never met each other. But that's what seems to happen on that fateful day in September when you move to Uni. Choosing your flatmates is completely out of your control, but what you can decide is where you want to live. Here are some little things I recommend you ask yourself when picking your Halls and some things I wish I'd have asked or known when choosing my accommodation.

Top tips on coping with Night Shifts

I know I promised by birthday post would have been posted today however I've been on night shifts and in a state of utter delirium and have no hope of writing anything that makes sense. But I did want you to have a blog post so I thought I would actually talk about life as a student doing night shifts. I've only done a few and by no means am I an expert - I am also writing this in the middle of the night on a none night shift night so some may so I really haven't cracked it, but I've tried a few approaches to the dreaded night shift now so here goes...

I've hit 20,000 views!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I can't believe it! As you can see from the title I've hit 20,000 views! When I started my blog 18 months ago, it was a goal of mine to at some point in its existence reach 1000 views. That target came and went  a long time ago and since then as I've watched the views go up, I've slowly just become overwhelmed by the overwhelming response to my little corner of the internet.

I'm back!

Friday marked the final exam day and since I left the exam hall at 4:30pm I feel like I've got a large Life Sciences exam shaped hole in my life! I'm not saying I miss it but I'm just not quite sure what to do with myself. Now, I wouldn't say that I've had a massive weight lifted off my shoulders - because truth being told the exam did not go well...

Dilemmas, dilemmas, dilemmas

Wednesday...

 

I've just arrived at my first shift on my new placement. I don't start for half and hour but needed to pick up my parking permit so came a little early. Now here is my dilemma...

Happy New Year! (and sorry I've been away)

I am knee deep in revision and essay writing right now. They're not lying when they say studying midwifery is one of the hardest things to do. My life is a continual balancing act - do I eat, do I sleep, do I revise, do I write my essay, do I socialise, do I relax...? I don't know, I don't think I'll ever know if I'm making the right choices, but while I'm home for Christmas (I go back today though, and just two weeks of my Mum's cooking is not enough!) I thought I'd sit down and give you a little life update.