My bath recipe

Since Christmas (yes I know, it's easter and I'm still talking about Christmas) I have been enjoying a lot more baths. I never really had any before this time, and I think it's partly because we didn't have any hot water in the taps (the shower is powered by electricity so it was fine, and I did wash), so if I wanted a bath, I would have to fill it up using the shower head, which took absolutely AGES. I think that it was also partly because I didn't have anything to put in it.

Anyway, after Christmas I received a whole range of Lush bath bombs, that I couldn't just leave to go to waste, and so I used them all - a lot faster then I expected to! I loved using them, and Lush definitely do the best bath bombs (I haven't tried any of their other stuff really) but I haven't been to Lush in a while... I must pop in next time I am passing!

So since then, I have been trying out some other stuff in the bath, and I thought I might show you the things that I used in my most recent bath time adventure.

I used the Neutrogena visibly clear mask and wash stuff as a face mask. I'm not going to talk too much about this, because I am planning on doing a separate review on this at a later point in the future. I just got in the bath, lathered up, left for 5 minutes, relaxed, listened to old school Taylor Swift, washed off, and finished the routine with lovely feeling skin!

For my bubbles, I used my Honeycomb bath and shower gel. I have tried so many products like this and have always been soooo dissaponted by them, but this one I absolutely love. It creates amazing bubbles and smells incredible - my absolute favourite scent at the moment!

I then used a Bomb Cosmetics bath bomb which I received for my birthday. I have to say that I don't really rate these hugely, they aren't as good as Lush - but what is? However it is super cute, and has a little ducky on it, which is why it was chosen for me, because ducks are my favourite animal!

And of course, you can't have a complete bath time experience without a little rubber duck. This one was another birthday gift, and it is so cute because it flashes when in water! Doesn't have a name yet - help me decide on one!

Then all that's left is an Ideal Home magazine and some free time!

So that is my little concoction for the perfect bath, something which I have been very much enjoying recently!

See you soon!

Movie Chats

I am a huge movie fanatic. I just love movies. I love how you can be transported to literally anywhere in the world, and see anything in the world just my watching something on the TV. I have already talked about this a couple of times on this blog, but it seems to me that I am spending my time increasingly just watching movies.

This probably isn't particularly good or healthy for me, and I should be more worried about this then I am, but I'm not.

My friend who gets on the bus with me to and from school everyday, also enjoys movies. Recently we have been discussing all of the movies that we watch and enjoy, and recommend them to each other.

It's now part of my routine - I watch a movie, I jump straight on snap chat  to tell her my thoughts on it, and she does the same.

We have both been enjoying a wider circle of movie genres and styles because of this. And I thought that it would just be great if I could do this with a lot more people - and have an excuse to watch more movies!

So I wanted to start something on this blog, where I can tell you about the movies that I have watched and enjoyed, and you can tell me about the movies that you've watched and enjoyed. I call this genius invention: Movie Chats.

I don't know how often I'll be doing this, but you should expect to hear about a movie at least once a month, if not a lot more regularly.

To be honest, I will really only be telling you about rom coms and chick flicks, because those really are my forte, but if you don't enjoy them so much, you should leave some suggestions in the comments because it will be good for me to branch out.

So, welcome to the wonderful world of Movie Chats, we really are very nice here. Grab some popcorn and the remote, settle in for the evening and we hope you have an enjoyable stay!

See you soon!

100th post!

This is my 100th post on this blog!

How very exciting!

It probably won't be my 100th post for long, because I'm going to upload some more, or maybe delete some of my cringey, bang-hand-on-forehead posts, but for the moment we are oficially at 100.

I thought that it might be nice to share with you some of the stats from this blog, to celebrate reaching 100. I also want to celebrate the fact that I have survived the term and it is now the Easter holidays! I don't know if that's anything you're interested in, but I find it quite intriguing, so you can click off now if you want!

My total number of all time blog views at the moment (it might've changed by the time you read this) is 3120.

My most viewed post ever is one of my earlier ones on Happy Wednesday with around 250 views!

My highest month for views ever was February 2016, where we reached 722, nearly double our highest month before!

And lastly, our top three countries for views are the UK, the USA and Russia.

So there we are! I hope you enjoyed this little peek into my blogs stats.

I want to thank every reader of my blog, I have gotten so much happiness and enjoyment from it, and here's to another 100 posts!

Gabriella Hope 

Xxx

Addicted to washing my hair

I feel like it is quite good to have these little confession posts, where I can come clean about some of the weird addictions that I have (how can anyone forget the post on my floorplan addiction?).

Today I am going to be talking about an addiction that I have been trying to cure, slowly but surely.

I'm addicted to washing my hair.

You see, when I was younger, and was beginning to be nagged about showering daily, I didn't know that you weren't supposed to wash your hair everyday. I didn't realise that it strips your hair of essential oils. I just didn't know the damage that it could do.

It just became a habit. Every shower, I would go in, and wash my hair. I began to focus on it so much, that I wouldn't wash my body. I would shower just to wash my hair.

I used to, everyday, go in the shower, put in my shampoo, wash it out, put in my conditioner, brush my hair (yes I know that it's bad to brush your hair in the shower, but my hair is so curly and untamable, that it is absolutely impossible to brush it at any other time, so I literally have no choice), wash out the conditioner, come out, plait my hair, go to bed. That plaiting might be part of the reason for my crazy curls now.

But recently I have been trying really really hard to stop washing my hair so often. Thing is, it is actually really difficult to stop. I just do it automatically. I'm just washing the conditioner out of my hair when I remember that I have already washed it that day!

The first thing that I have done is starting to shower in the mornings, so that I have more time in the evenings and also so that I don't have to go to bed with wet hair (which I hate!). I always let my hair air-dry because it is so thick that it takes ages to blow-dry, and it always goes very frizzy when I do. I also just prefer the look of it when it has air-dried.

Also, in the mornings I have a very strict routine, which  have incorporated my shower routine into. I now know that I wash my hair on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and at some point at the weekend if I want to.

However, my hair does get greasy easily, and I've noticed that I have been wearing my hair in my go-to ponytail increasingly, to try and trick people into thinking that it actually isn't greasy.

As for the quality of my hair.. I can't say that I've noticed a huge difference, but it has only been a few weeks. Whatever happens however, my time in the shower has shortened incredibly!

We'll see what happens with it!

See you soon!

Biscuit house

For my friends birthday a few weeks ago (that's how behind I am on writing blog posts), I decided that as he had made me a cake for my birthday, I should make him one.

Now we have this joke, because he hates ginger and cinnamon, meaning that he hates gingerbread and cinnamon swirls and just all of the things that are right in the world. I find this appalling and terrible and am working tirelessly to change his taste buds.

So, to help with this, I decided to go all out and make a ginger bread house.

I haven't really had the best history with gingerbread houses. I have always loved the concept, but I'm not so good at the making and construction work. When I was in year 5, my primary school started a project (in a very delusional way) for everyone to make a gingerbread house and decorate it. That one actually went quite well, if I remember correctly. Well, I suppose apart from it being inedible!

I was so inspired by this one that I made in school, I decided to make another. I looked it up on the internet, and downloaded the first recipe I found. However, it turned out that this recipe included about 10000000 tonnes of treacle in it, meaning that the dough was so soft and squidgy that the walls just bent and broke in you tried to stand them up.

Then, one Christmas, I received a pre baked kit, one that you just had to assemble and decorate to save the trauma of baking. I then took it up to my aunt and uncle who live a 4 hour car ride away, when we went to see them a couple of days after Christmas. It lasts fine for 3 hours, 50 minutes. It wasn't until the last 10 minutes that it collapsed, getting icing everywhere in the car!

Since those experiences, my mum has kind of banned gingerbread houses!

But then when I was thinking about it, I decided it was silly to do something that he wouldn't even like or get any enjoyment out of for his birthday. So, with a heavy heart, I decided against the gingerbread.

I still really wanted to do a house though, because I was desperate to do some construction - I was sure that I could make it work this time!

So, after a little googling, I found a recipe for a normal biscuit house.

And that's what I made!

However, me being me, I didn't think of taking any photos until it was finished, so sorry, you don't get to see the work in progress!

It lasted all day, survived the trauma of the bus and of general school life and was still in one piece at break would you believe! And, it tasted alright too! A real success I would say!

See you soon!

The recipe I used: http://www.goodhousekeeping.co.uk/food/recipes/snowy-biscuit-lodge

Packing up my makeup

I have builders coming next week to do some work in my room, and everything needs to come out. I own a huge amount of rubbish, so I'm using this as an opportunity to sort through everything I own, and get rid of a lot of stuff.

I need to put all of my makeup away in storage, apart from my few daily essentials, which I thought I might show you. I didn't keep out my favourite products necessarily, because I don't want to waste them, but these are just my most common daily products.

For my foundation of choice, I have the Maybelline Dream Velvet Hydrating foundation (little sneak peak for the March foundation of the month). I won't say too much about this, as I'll give a proper review at the beginning of April.

I actually don't use concealer very much because I haven't yet found one which I absolutely love. However, I have decided to keep out my Maybelline Eraser Eye concealer which is good for low makeup days. It is more eyes (as shown in the name) and so isn't as good for my spots, as that's just not what it is designed for.

For my powder, I just picked the only powder I've ever used, my trusty Rimmel Stay Matte powder. I should probably branch out a bit more, but you can see how much it is loved, so I don't really see the need to!

Bronzer wise, I have this Rimmel Natural Bronzer, which I think I got as one of those 'buy three things, get a bronzer free' deals, but I ended up loving and have rebought several times now. It is definitely my used bronzer, and I would recommend it, despite it not being particularly long lasting.

For my blusher, I picked my favourite MUA blush in the colour Lolly. It doesn't blend particularly well, but it's a beautiful colour and a great pigmentation. This has also been loved enough to hit pan, but at only £1, I don't think it will set me back much to replace.









The highlight I've kept out is my MUA Undress Your Skin one, in gold. I haven't tried many highlighters, but I do really like this one. I have to be careful though because it's very glittery and I don't want to look like a disco ball!











For my eyebrows, I have gotten brave recently and started using eyeshadow (which I've always been terrified of). The dark brown in Collection's Eyes Uncovered pallet is perfect for me, but I'm still practising. I then also use the Maybelline transparent Brow Drama Mascara, which I love to just organise my hairs into a shape that vaguely resembles an eyebrow.

Choosing my eyeshadow pallet was really difficult because I'm a bit of a nude eyeshadow fanatic. I already have my Collection pallet, but I couldn't limit myself to just one, so I chose my Makeup Revolution chocolate pallet, which I have been absolutely loving recently. It has an amazing range of nudes, the packaging is sooo cute, and it smells like chocolate!

My mascara is everyone's favourite (and mine too!) the Maybelline Lash Sensational, if you haven't heard about this yet, you have actually been living under a rock! It's so good for lengthening and thickening and all of the desirable lash stuff! I use this every single day, and will continue to do so until I find a better one - so I'll be using this forever basically!









I don't do a lot with my lips normally, especially not when I have school, so I have decided to keep out this honey lip balm, which smells amazinggg and then one of my current favourite Maybelline Velvet Lip Crayon, in the colour Nude Perfection. I just think the colour really suits me, and I love it!







So there are my daily essentials and all of the makeup that I will be wearing in the next few weeks. It is now time to say a emotional goodbye to the rest of my makeup, as the lid is closed on the box and it is squashed into the back of a cupboard. See you in a few weeks!

See you soon!

The first day of spring

According to the Google doodle that greeted me this morning when I opened up my laptop, today is the first day of spring.

This is really bizarre to me. I don't know how many times I'm going to say this, but it's just going so fast. I still feel like I'm waiting for Christmas! I just blink and suddenly we are nearly in April.

I've got quite a lot coming up that I'm looking forward to this spring/summer. In May, I'm going to Italy with my school, somewhere that I have never been before and I'm really looking forward to it. Then in summer, I am helping at a local holiday club for children, something that I did for the first time last year and was without a doubt, one of the best experiences of my life. Much excitement for that! Then in October (which isn't realllllly summer) I'm going to Amsterdam, again with the school, which is going to be a lot of fun.

Next week I'm having some building work done on my room, which will be hellish while it's happening, but will be amazing once it has finished. I get to redo everything! Don't even get me started on how excited I am - my IKEA shopping list is impossibly long!

However, there are some not so exciting things, that I don't want to think about (cough cough exams cough cough). Not fun.

The shops have got all of their spring and summer ranges in, which I'm not really sure is good thing! Everything looks lovely on hangers and mannequins - not so much on me!

I'm just really looking forward to the next few months, I have a good feeling about them! I plan to enjoy them as much as possible!

See you soon!

Standing in a river

Yesterday, as I mentioned two days ago, I went on a school geography trip to a river, and I just thought that although it isn't particularly interesting, I'd write about it anyway!

I won't go into too much detail about the boring work side of things, because believe me, nobody wants to know about that, nor do I want to relive it. What the trip entailed was going into rivers (in wellies) and measuring certain factors about it, such as the width, depth, velocity and load size. It also entailed getting very very cold, and in some cases, very very wet.

The first group to go in the water and demonstrate how all of the equipment is to be used properly, were obviously very apprehensive. To go into a river, watched by all of your peers must be a little nerving, especially when most of these teenagers hadn't worn wellies since they were five and had flashing lights and played music. I think that my favourite quote of the day came from this group - "Is it wet in there?" - well... it is a river you know!

But then after laughing at all of them, it was our turn. I had already been told by the students who went on the trip the day before how cold you get, so I was well armed with multiple layers of fluffy socks underneath my dotty wellies. It was quite an odd feeling to be honest, going into the river and feeling all of the water around your feet, feeling it pressing against you and the current attempting to move you, but to not be bothered by it at all (the water wasn't very deep).

We obviously had work to do, so couldn't stand there musing for too long, especially as it was quite a chilly day. By the end of it, my feet were actually ok, fluffy socks are a savoir, but my hands were absolutely freezing from having to pick rocks up off the floor of the bed. However, I did think that the bright red of my fingers brought out the pink in my new nail polish very well!

We had to measure three parts of the river, each one becoming deeper each time, until the water line was worryingly close to the top of my wellies, and I had already soaked myself through walking, so movement had to be done cautiously. One boys wellies were so short he had been completely swamped and was basically just going for a paddle as appose to a serious geography experiment.

By the end of the day, the sun had come out and it was actually really beautiful, the third location in particular. We did realise just as we were leaving that we had just invaded a golf course - perhaps the reason for why it was so beautiful.

It did take all evening and a hot bath for the feeling to completely return to my fingers, but my toes were fine all day. Just as well really, because my friend used all of the spare socks that I brought to throw at people on the bus journey home!

See you soon!

Charity shop dresses

I have been trying hard recently to push myself and my boundaries constantly, and to not allow my nervousness and anxiety fears to stop me from doing things that I want to do. Because of this, I have been trying hard to do things that I suppose I had discounted a long time ago as something that I just couldn't, wouldn't and shouldn't ever do. Which has recently for me been clothes shopping.

I can't really explain why, but I find the thought of it, of catching the bus and going to the big busy shopping centre with people everywhere trying and buying clothes is something that I just can't really handle. This also extends to shops closer to home, like charity shops.

For those of you who don't know (although I don't see why you wouldn't) charity shops are shops that people donate all of their old things and clothes to, and then get sold again with all the money going to charity.

I used to love charity shops. I'd go in there and look at the toys and brick a brack and DVDs, but recently I haven't really had much to go in there for.

That was until a few weeks before Christmas when I was out with a friend and we went into a charity shop together and had a really good time, looking around at all the clothes and seeing what was there.

I have always dismissed the clothes in charity shops as kind of gross, and stuff for a more mature lady, and I've never thought that they're for me. But then after going in with my friend, I realised that there are actually loads of really nice things for all ages and styles - I always give my old clothes to charity shops, why did I think that nobody else did?

But I find charity shops really tough to go into. Again, I can't explain why, but there is something about them... I just feel like I'm not supposed to be there and that people will judge me because I'm too young, or too silly or.. I don't know. That's just the way my mind works.

Anyway, you didn't come here to here about my anxiety, you came because after all this, I was brave and I actually bought some dresses!

The first one that I bought was from Barnardos for £5. It is just this really pretty summerly floaty dress with a gorgeous pink-purple floral pattern. It has an elasticated waist, which I love and some cute little butterfly sleeves - and I just love it! It was originally from Primark, so I probably didn't save a huge amount, but I would've definitely bought it if  had seen it in Primark.

The next one is actually really similar to the first one in the style of it. It was from Cancer Research and also has an elasticated waist
 and floaty butterfly sleeves, and was £6 I think. It just really stood out to me with the super cute red bows all over it and white polka dots, I just thought that it's something a bit different. However, it is really quite short, so I'll only wear this with leggings or really really opaque tights. It was originally from a brand called Shikha London, which I discovered does an great range of dresses, all for around the £30 mark! Barginous!

The last one has got to be my absolute favourite. It is what I can only describe as the ultimate summer dress. I saw it and could just picture myself wearing it somewhere hot and exotic on the last night of the holiday, toasting with my family and an amazing tan. It was from Scope and was £7.50, and has this beautiful scalloped high neckline and embroidery, with a little waistband which then leads down to a full circle skirt. It has loads of embroidery along the hem and its just so pretty, I love it loads! It was originally from River Island, which is normally wayyyyyy to intimidating for me to enter!




I washed them after I bought them (because you can never be too careful with a charity shop) and I've already worn one to a family do! I'm very much looking forward to wearing all of them a lot!

See you soon!

Random Tesco shopping

This evening I had to run down to Tesco (when I say run, I mean go on a very slow stroll - I don't run.) to get some lunch for tomorrow when I'm going on a trip with school. Cause, you know, I couldn't just make my own sandwiches (who even does that??), I had to pay for the ridiculously overpriced ones from the supermarket. However, I have been mentally creating a shopping list for quite some time now of just random bits that I need to get - and when I say need, I mean want. So when I was in Tesco, I couldn't just limit myself to the meal deal section, I had to go and explore the magazines, and then the body lotions, and then the makeup and then the skin care... and this happened. It may not seem like a lot, but I'm dangerously low on funds at the moment so this little Tesco splurge really wasn't a good idea!

So first up is the thing that I actually went there for - my lunch for tomorrow! I don't think you particularly care about what I will be eating, but tough, I'm going to tell you anyway. I bought a chicken and bacon ceaser (I think that's how it's spelt...) salad, cause I can actually be healthy apparently. It had lettuce leaves and everything! However, massive scandal, it was on the meal deal stand (a sandwich, a drink and a snack or something for £3) yet it wasn't actually part of the meal deal! So I had to pay about £5 for it, which I thought was a little outrages! I also got a bottle of Pepsi Max, cause that's my favourite drink of the moment and they didn't have any normal bottles of water and a bag of Doritos, because everyone loves Doritos don't they?

Just along from the meal deal stand were the magazines, so I went and picked up my favourite two at the moment. I bought Ideal Home, because I love interior design, and these are so thick they take me ages to read, and last me a really long time. I get a lot of enjoyment out of them and have been collecting them since the end of 2014. I then bought Look magazine which is my favourite fashion magazine because it is very much high street based, with very little interference from designer stores, so everything is actually quite lovely and realistically priced. I don't buy it every week, because I just don't get around to it, but I really enjoy when I do get it!

I then went to the body lotion-washes-cleaning-nice-smelling section because it was just beckoning me from the magazines. I am getting dangerously low on my favourite Honeycomb hand and body moisturiser that I have been OBSESSED with since just before Christmas. There is a back story, but I won't go into it because I'm planning to write a separate blog on that soon. However they didn't have the moisturiser (I really hope they haven't stopped selling it!) so I got the bath and shower gel for £3, and then got the body butter as well (because to be honest, I don't really know the difference between a moisturiser and a body butter - I swear they do the same thing!). That was £4, which I thought was a little overpriced, and it isn't even a very big pot for a body butter.

Then I just happened to be by the makeup so I decided to go and see what they had. I don't usually get makeup from Tesco, because the one I go to has a very small, limited selection, and is often quite a bit more expensive. I wanted to go and see the new range of nail polishes that I know Rimmel have just released (yay!) and was delighted to find that they were only £4 each. To me, that is actually quite a bit for a nail polish, but they are £6 at the moment in Superdrug, so I thought that I should try it at the lower price before it goes up! They also had the new Rimmel mascara for quite a bit less then in Superdrug, so I'll be going back for that! I bought a relatively pale nudey pink colour to try it out because I've never tried a gel polish before, in the shade 021, New Romantic. I then also bought the top coat, because I feel like that is pretty essential.

Next I turned around, and oh no, I was by skin care. I have just used up the very last drop of my beloved Simple cleanser and have been meaning to rebuy it, but decided to give something new a go. That was clearly the reason, and not the fact that it was the cheapest one there... I bought this Neutrogena Visibly Clear 2-in-1 wash and mask, which I thought sounded quite interesting. I haven't used anything by Neutrogena before, and I just thought that the idea of being able to use it everyday as a face wash, but also being able to use it as a face mask if you fancy a bit more of a pamper evening quite intriguing, and I'm very much looking forward to seeing how it turns out!

I then had to go and pick up some tights, because I go through tights faster than anything in the entire world, literally, and I just always need to buy a pair. Which is a little annoying, because they're £4 for a pack of three! Which I suppose isn't really that much... but come on people, its a necessity!

I then went to pay, but these very skilfully placed sale rails caught my eye just in front of the tills, and I had a little flick through which resulted in me purchasing this (very odd looking in the photo) black turtleneck. I don't think its particularly thick, but I just really liked it because it feels really soft and slouchy and bouncy, and just quite cosy. I've never actually owned or worn a turtleneck before, so I'm looking forward to getting lots of wear out of it, and possibly returning to get some more colours before the sale ends, because £4 each really isn't that much!

So that was my little quick Tesco's shop that kind of spiralled a bit... I am now going to go and snuggle up in my turtleneck and paint my nails!

See you soon!

Foundation of the month - February

Foundation: Air Mat Foundation

Brand: Bourjois Paris

My shade: 01, Rose Ivory

Price (from Superdrug): I can't actually remember... I can't find it on the website either!

Rating: 5/10

For the month of February I was using the Bourjois Air Mat foundation. Let me just start by saying that I actually didn't use this very much - I actually only used it a few times because it was obvious straight away that this colour (which is the lightest one they do) is wayyyy too dark and quite orangey, and just really doesn't work with my skin tone. That is literally the only reason for the low rating I gave it, because other than that it seemed like a great foundation! Looks like I'll be saving it for the summer however...

I'm pretty sure that this is the first matte foundation that I have actually ever tried, and I'm really looking forward to trying a lot more! I just feel like they suit me quite well, because I'm not a huge fan of powder (though I do love my trust Rimmel Stay Matte a heck of a lot!) and most of the time that I have worn this foundation, I have just completely forgotten to add powder, because it looks like I already have it on!

The coverage is actually amazing - I really like it! It is really thick (so avoid if you don't like those sorts of foundations) but for me, who has a lot of pesky teenage blemishes and huge amounts of horrible redness, this is a godsend. It just coats the face like a blanket, covering everything up nicely,

The lasting power is also really really good. It says that it has 24 hour hold, and I can't say that I've worn it that long, because I like to be tucked up in bed at a reasonable time, but for the length of time that I have worn it, it has held very well, and didn't go sticky or anything like I thought it might.

And of course, like pretty much all Bourjois products it smells amazing. I am terrible at describing smells, but it just smells really fresh. It isn't particularly fruity or floral, its just very springy.

You really can't take anything I've said here as solid facts because I've worn it about three times, all quite a while ago now when it was actually February! I am so annoyed though, because it's such a good foundation that I just can't wear! I do feel very bad about the low rating... Sorry Bourjois, but please have more than three shades available in future!

See you soon!

Banana or a block of gold?

As you should well know by now, my favourite colour is yellow. I love it, it reminds me of smiles and summer and sunshine. Yes, the alliteration was planned.

But the other day in maths my friend and I were having a little bit of a disagreement (while also listening to the fascinating maths as well of course!), because he said that he liked the colour gold.

Now I dislike the colour gold, because I feel like it is just a dirty yellow - a yellow gone wrong. The fact that it is one of the most valuable metals on the planet clearly isn't a factor here.

So I was then proposed a question: If you had nothing, would you rather have a banana or a block of gold?

I suppose the obvious answer is the block of gold, but as the banana was the yellow object is this equation, I had to stick to my stubborn guns and say a banana.

And when I was asked why, I just simply said that it is better because its yellow.

Which I do believe.

But then being the very competitive people that we are, we couldn't just leave it at that. We had to find out who was right - by conducting a survey!

We asked the people around us (who were also enjoying the fascinating maths lesson) whether they would rather have a banana or a block of gold.

Now, most of them did sense that this was probably a trick question, and so after a quiet moment of pondering the majority replied that they would infact prefer to have a banana.

And they actually came up with some way better reasons then I was capable of.

One person said that you couldn't go into a shop and just buy things with a block of gold, they wouldn't accept it. It wouldn't fit in the till, and how on earth would you give change from a block of gold?

Another person said that if you were stranded on a desert island, a block of gold would be absolutely no use to you, whereas a banana could be the thing that keeps you alive (or helps you to make peace with the resident monkeys).

Another person said that you could use the banana to grow a banana tree and sell your wonderful organic fair trade bananas to earn money.

Another person said that the block of gold didn't actually specify the size, and you can't just assume that it's large. It could be false advertising, and be the size of a dust particle, meaning that the banana would in fact be more valuable.

And of course, the most important reason being the fact that it's yellow, and I need to beat my friend!

So please, take everything that you have just read into consideration, and comment down below with your choice and your reason (be as creative as possible!) - and remember, you're on MY side!

See you soon!

I just don't get photography

Ello ello ello! It's been a while ain't it? I'm sorry for not uploading in a while, but I have just been so super busy recently. It was my birthday last week, which was absolutely amazing, and then I had a party and since then I have been drowning under work, and I just (sadly) haven't had time to write!

Oh, and another note before we begin, I just want to say that February was an absolutely amazing month for my little blog here. I don't know why or how, but we some how ended up getting more than double the number of views we've ever had in a month before! Go us! Thank you so much for your support, and please continue to read and enjoy everything that I do here. Oh, and tell all your friends about how amazing it is over here! Lets have an even better March!

Now, on with the post!

I just don't understand photography! It doesn't really make sense to me.

Don't get me wrong, I love art. I love the power of a painting and how you can completely loose yourself within one. I love to draw, and paint (though I'm not very good!) and be creative in general.

But I just don't understand photography.

I know that it probably doesn't make sense that I am so passionate about art, but then just have a complete grey area where photography is concerned.

I suppose, I just don't understand what makes a good photograph. What is it about a photo that enables it to be 'good'?

I've heard all about lighting and composition and shadows, but I don't understand if these things are good or bad and what makes them this.

I see people gazing at a photograph, saying how amazing it is and how powerful it is, and I literally see a sad looking boy.

I genuinely don't mean to be offending any readers, because I'm sure that your work is incredibly incredible and that it is a lot harder than it seems, it is just that I don't know anything about it.

You will have seen if you've been around here for a while that the photos I include aren't anything particularly special, being in focus is pretty much my limit as far as good photography goes!

When it comes to doing proper photography... well I'm just terrible at that! I don't know how to compose and set things up and get the right filters and give it the right look. Selfies are my limit.

When I do have to take photos in art lessons for a project or something, I hate it. Last time, I actually refused to show my teacher my photos because I was ashamed and embarrassed by them, and I knew they weren't something I could look at and be proud and enthusiastic about.

But I want to learn. I am trying. When I see a photo, I take longer to observe it, taking it in and trying to understand it and all the hidden meanings. I follow so many photography accounts on Instagram, and I just search 'photography' in Pinterest 95% of the time.

So, please, leave me tips and information and whatever you want in the comments down below, I would love to hear your opinions on photography!

See you soon!