February Favourites.

>Instagram 'Photo a Day' Challenges (#fmsphotoaday): This month was the third time I decided to attempt a 'photo a day' challenge on Instagram, and it was the first one I managed to complete -bar one day but that was due to a personal thing. I really enjoyed doing it! It was a lot of fun thinking outside of the box and trying to come up with different takes on the daily prompts and trying to take creative pictures. If I find another one that has a good set of prompts I'll definitely be taking part again! 

Day 19: Feet, the challenge prompt image, and Day 16: Create.

>Galaxy, more specifically, Honeycomb Crisp and Cookie Crumble: One day after uni I decided to treat myself and Brandon to yumyums and lots of chocolate. I chose the Honeycomb Crisp bar for myself and the Cookie Crumble one to share -if I'd remembered how delicious it is I would have kept that one to myself as well!

>Revlon Colour Burst Lip Butter in 'Sugar Frosting' and 'Crème Brulee': These are two lipsticks I brought not too long ago. When purchasing them I wasn't too sure how much I was going to like them because they have a bit of a shimmer to them and I've never really gone for pale pink or nude lips before. I really like them though, despite all my earlier doubts. The only negative I have with them is that with both I usually have to put quite a bit on, compared to my other lipsticks and the like, in order for the colour to look somewhat noticeable.

This one isn't part of my photo challenge, I just really liked it and wanted to include it; Day 13: Perfect; and Day 16: Create (Yes I did two in one day).

>Rimmel London 'Space Dust' Nail Varnish in 'Moon Walking': Although it's a pain in the backside to get off I absolutely adore this nail varnish! It just looks so pretty and different. My nail varnish collection is a fair size now, so I don't know about buying any more of this range, but I'll definitely be wearing this one a lot!

>Rimmel London 'I Lasting Finish' Nail Varnish in 'Loafer Love For Your': More nail varnish, woo! This is one of my February favourites purely because of it's colour. It is just a stunning blue and it just so happens to be my second favourite shade of blue, so naturally I 'needed' it as soon as I spotted it in Boots. This nail varnish will definitely become one of my staples in no time!

Day 18: Magic (also the one on the right is the Space Dust nail varnish I just spoke about), 'Loafer Love For You', and my Primark scented candle.

>Sweet Vanilla & Coconut Scented Candle From Primark: This candle smells so good that on a number of occasions since purchasing it I have contemplated going back to Primark and stocking up with enough to last me 20 years. All I can say about this candle is: if you haven't already smelt it, go to your nearest Primark right now and sniff away to your heart's content!

So those have been my favourite things this month. What have some of yours been?
-Hannah. :)

My Training Programme | Update.

I'm now just about two thirds of the way through the six week training programme I'm taking part in for Brandon's degree. I thought now would be a good time to do an update on how things are going before doing a 'Before and After' post on it.

Balance & Core Stability:
So far so good on both counts, although my balance does seem to be a little hit or miss at times in my opinion. That being said I do think that it's improving and Brandon has noted the same. 

My core stability has gotten sooo much better! On my first day I managed to plank for 42 seconds and on Tuesday I was able to plank to a whole minute after completing the whole session! *pats self on the back* And because that was after just over an hour of exercise Brandon reckons that I could probably last around a minute and a half at the start of a session. So that is a pretty big improvement for four sessions of work!

This is 'the plank', just in case any of you were thinking that Brandon had me planking on gym equipment.
(Not my image)

What I really like about my balance and core stability day is that although I'm working really hard it doesn't feel like it during the sessions. I mean yes I can feel 'the burn' and certain muscles being activated by certain exercises and movements; but I'm not going red in the face, sweating buckets and pulling faces that make it look like I have constipation. 

Strength & Toning:
This day is proving to be incredibly challenging. Getting the form right for 'cleans' and the like is something that I end up working on every week, and it gets really, really frustrating. But I haven't given up or called it quits, so that's got to count for something, right?

Miraculously, I am showing some improvements though in terms of my strength. I went from lifting 12kg to lifting 30kg. Now I know that that is barely even a fraction of what some people can lift, and I know I'm not exactly lifting 30kg with the greatest of ease -with no ease at all when it comes to lifting it above my head- but I'm a tiny female who has only been lifting once a week for the past three weeks -I haven't had my strength training yet this week- so I'm entitled to be pleased with myself.

This is one of the moves I do within a strength session. The weights on my bar are a lot smaller than these; I have 5kg on each end, which equates to 30kg when you factor in the 20kg bar.
(Again, not my image)

I haven't really noticed any changes in my body -if anything I think my stomach has gotten flabbier- but according to Brandon there are a few visible changes from the sessions so far.

So there's a quick little update for anyone who is interested.
To any Sprinklerinos out there who are also taking part in 'Glitter Gets Fitter' I hope you're having as much success as me -if not more!
-Hannah. :)

We Are The In Crowd | Music Recommendation.

My post encouraging you to check out the band Deaf Havana seemed to go down pretty well, in terms of views at least seeing as I have no way of knowing of anyone then went on to give the band a listen. I hope some of you did though! And that is for two reasons: 1) Their music is amazing, and 2) I'm about to repeat the process with another amazing band.

The band pictured above are We Are The In Crowd, who come from the state of New York. They are signed with Hopeless Records and have recently released -literally a few days ago- their third full length album -if you include Guaranteed to Disagree as an album instead of an EP- entitled Weird Kids.

I first discovered We Are The In Crowd at Slam Dunk South Festival in 2011. This was the year that I went with my friend Ella. Prior to the event I had looked up the line up for each stage and what times each band were due to come on; and on the day planned to travel around watching the bands I wanted to see and then catch a few songs by bands I'd never listen to or heard of before between sets. However, Ella pointed out to me that one of the stages had a far better overall line up than all the other stages and suggested we just stayed put there for the day. After listening to her words of wisdom and accepting the fact it would mean missing bands such as Zebrahead and Less Than Jake, I agreed that staying at that stage all day sounded like a good plan.

We Are The In Crowd just so happened to be one of the many bands lined up to play that stage -bet you didn't see that one coming, huh? Prior to them coming on stage I had only heard of them and after their set I sorely regretted not listening to them sooner. They completely blew me away and I've been a massive fan of theirs ever since! I'm really hoping they have the same effect on some of you guys!

We Are The In Crowd often get compared to Paramore. I personally think they sound absolutely nothing alike. The one and only thing they have in common is the fact that both their lead vocalists are females. And We Are The In Crowd aren't the only band to be compared to Paramore within this genre of music purely because they have a female vocalist and that really, really annoys me. Just because a band has a female lead vocalist does not mean they're going to be or sound like the most popular band with a female vocalist within that genre. So if you do go ahead and listen to We Are The In Crowd once you've finished reading this, please go in with an open mind and don't expect them to be a Paramore rip off. They are their own band and put in far too much effort to be considered a copy of a more famous band instead of a band in their own right.

Songs I would suggest listening to:

Never Be What You Want

Both Sides Of The Story

Both Sides Of The Story (Acoustic)

Rumour Mill

Kiss Me Again

Exits and Entrances

The Best Thing (That Never Happened)

Let me know what you think of WATIC in the comments!
-Hannah. :)

Italiano!

I don't think I've made it common knowledge on my blog that I have a 'little' obsession with Italy. It is the one place I am desperate to visit, explore and immerse myself in.

If I ever got the chance to travel across Italy there is so much I would want to do. I'd want to devour all the signature foods of Italy, walk along the beautiful beaches, go to galleries, spend hours walking around museums, visit all the historic landmarks Italy has to offer, walk around admiring the architecture and just completely lose myself every town, village and city I visited along my journey.

In preparation for all of my future visits to Italy -I'm hoping of going to Rome next summer for a few days with Brandon- I've decided that I'm going to learn Italian. I've made small efforts since the summer, but I'm now really going to try. I've even brought myself two books from the book shop affiliated with my university to hopefully help teach myself, along with the two apps I downloaded onto my phone over the summer. 

As, like French, it is a language derived from Latin I'm hoping I'll be able to find some similarities between Italian and French. I studied French for five years at school, so any knowledge I can apply from that to Italian will be a godsend and hopefully make my mission a little bit easier.

Is there anyone else out there who has a mild obsession with another country?
Has anyone else tried to teach themselves a new language? I could do with some pointers, so if you have leave me a comment below with any advice you have on how to tackle learning a new language.
-Hannah :)

The Fault in Our Stars.

After watching the trailer for what must be the 20,000th time since it was released I decided that writing a quick post about how excited I am for the film would be a really good idea, although it doesn't appear to be quite as prolific on here -from what I have seen anyway- as it is on Tubmlr.

Now I know I've never expressed my love for this book or its author John Green so it may seem like I'm sort of jumping on the bandwagon to any die hard nerd fighters out there who happen to stumble upon my post, but I'm not. I've loved John's work ever since I first read Looking For Alaska -which FYI is still my favourite book after the God knows how many books I've read since. 

What I love about John Green's written work is that there is always a perfect mix of deep, thought provoking moments and fictional moments of comedy gold. I also love that you can see his progression as an author with each book you read. The more books he writes the more amazing and beautifully written they get.

But getting back to the more specific topic of The Fault in Our Stars, I honestly cannot wait until the film is released in UK cinemas! The book is his best piece of work to date; it's a beautifully, gut-wrenching emotional rollercoaster of a novel. If you haven't read it already 1) have you only recently moved out of the space under the rock you were residing under?! and 2) go and read it immediately! 

I do however have one concern about the film and that is the typical almost-fact that when a book is turned into a film it's never as good as the book.

DFTBA!
-Hannah :)

January Favourites.

Sorry for my absence as of late! I'm very aware that we're already over a week into February and this is my first post of the month; so much for being a better blogger in 2014! Anyway, my failure aside, the start of the month means a new list of my favourite things from the previous month! I can't see this one being too long, as although I've splashed out with all my Christmas gift cards I haven't really tried anything new. 

So out of the existing things in my life and a few new things these are my favourite things from January:

>My Primark hoodies: One cold and windy Monday in January I went into uni with an ineffective number of layers on. By the time I got to my first lecture I felt like a mobile icicle! Knowing it would be much colder in the evening when I began my commute home I decided that in one of my three hour breaks I would pop into Primark in the shopping centre and purchase a cheap hoodie that I could stick under my leather jacket and keep scrunched up at the bottom of my rucksack when I wasn't wearing it. 

And that is sort of what I did. What actually happened was I couldn't find a dark grey/charcoally hoodie -which was for some reason the specific colour I had in mind- so I found two other colours that I couldn't bring myself to choose between -burgundy and a really nice dark green- and a Ramones t-shirt to wear to the gym that was the same shade of green as one of the hoodies.

All three are super comfortable and that is why they're one of my January favourites. Sorry about the super long back story! 

>My leather jacket: That badboy is still one of my favourite things, especially now I've got three hoodies to pair it with for a bit of extra warmth!

>Juicy Water - Lemons & Limes: I've always wanted to try Juice Water but I've never been able to pick between the flavours they offer. The choice always came down to either Lemons and Limes or Raspberries and Lemons. One day in Tesco I found myself once again trying to decide between the two when my friend came up to me and recommended the Lemons and Limes one. Following her recommendation that's the one I brought and I've been hooked ever since!

>Maybelline Baby Lips - Cherry: During the Christmas holidays my sister brought three of the Baby Lips range with some of her Christmas money. I noticed she left the orange one on the table and me being the odd ball I am picked it up and sniffed it -I find that the smell of a lip balm is a very important deciding factor on whether I like it or not. It smelt amazing! And for that reason alone when I found myself in Superdrug looking to spend my gift card I popped one into my basket.

So there's a quick-ish run through of my January favourites. What were some of your favourite things over the course of January?
-Hannah :)