Where I've Been/My Week (and a bit) In A Nutshell

Hello everyone! This week has been a crazy 7 days so I haven't been totally up to date with posting on here so I thought I'd brief you, especially if you follow me on twitter (@melissanye) as you may be completely out of the blue about what I've been up to.

On Thursday I ventured to the Old Bailey, or the Central Criminal Court in London which sits some of the most famous cases in Britain from around London and Greater London. It is such an historical building, with glass still embedded in the walls from when an two car bombs were planted outside the grand entrance by the IRA (Irish Republican Army) back in 1973. Plus it used to be a prison, which was new information to me, which was fascinating and we had a private tour before sitting in on a trial too which was cool.

Last Friday (21st March), I went to see Kodaline at O2 Academy Brixton, which is a lovely venue and the atmosphere was absolutely amazing, honestly one of the best bands in terms of crowd atmosphere at gigs, everyone was singing along, knew the words and was waving their arms. So if you like Kodaline's stuff, you'll love it even more if you buy tickets for one of their gigs - tickets are cheap too! If you haven't heard of Kodaline then checkout their debut album, "In A Perfect World".

Saturday after was were it went slowly downhill as during the day it was fine but if you follow me on twitter, you may know that I had an eventful night...! On Saturday, I met work friends at the pub to pre-drink (prink loool) for someone's birthday at work before a couple of us headed out to a nightclub and well, I got up to somethings I may not necessarily be proud of. Anyway, long story short, I got a lot of crap for it and grief the next day at work and I felt like I needed to set the records straight but it all turned out to be an overly exaggerated emotional experience for me as proven on Sunday evening when I bailed on quiz night at work. The next day was spent at school before heading straight to work, such fun.

On Tuesday I went to a conference on sociology exam practice - very VERY insightful. It was hosted by Keith Trobe, chief examiner for AQA Sociology and who also wrote the commonly used textbook for our course with other associates. Afterwards, I enjoyed my first Nando's (can you believe) when our small group got back into town (the conference was in Horsham, about 45 minute train journey) and I fell in love, which I find quite funny because I don't even eat chicken, I am vegetarian... Then me and my sister went to see Nina Nesbitt (who I am listening to now as I write this) - we bought tickets on the train home from Kodaline on the Friday prior, when we found out that James Bay, who supported Kodaline with Amber Run was also supporting Nina. The night was fab besides the girl in front of me who thought she was at an effing club and wouldn't stop bloody booty popping into me like no you're probably 16. But on the plus side, me and my sister met James Bay!! Listen to Nina's debut album too, called "Peroxide" :)

Wednesday I literally did nothing besides afternoon classes. Thursday I had morning classes and afterwards, to of my friends who had come home for Easter break from uni met me and we went for lunch down probably my favourite little cafe in my village, called Milano's. We stayed there for at least two hours before I headed home, showered and got ready to go out clubbing AGAIN. I have never been out twice in the space of a week but the club was soooooo dead, they had one room open and there was hardly anyone out that night and I hated it, I hate that club it just gets worse every time I go. I stayed at my friend's house when we got back and I left hers around 2pm on Friday, stopped off at Sainsbury's on the way back before going home and watching Sex and the City for the rest of the night while eating brie and grape sandwiches. Then I get a text reminding me that I was going to a friend's as she arrived from uni that day too - so I went to hers and saw her which was nice as her family is so huge but lovely and they are all caring and funny, like those big families that you see in those feel good films.

And now today is Saturday, and I have been asked if I want to go out AGAIN and I feel like I might because I want to cry at how bad each time I've been to that club has been and I want to go to improve the reputation that club has on me now, and to improve my reputation as I am not a desperate hoe. Anyway, if I do end up out tonight you will probably hear about it on twitter and I apologise in advance if more photos of me end up on the internet.

Thanks GUYS XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

(P.S. What I have learnt this week is that romance isn't dead, ain't that right Carrie? - I literally watched this episode below and realised that, especially with the week I had)

My New Favorite Bag!

I cannot get enough of this bag oh gosh I am so glad I bought it because it is so cute and metallic and ditsy and handy and adorable oh dear. I bought it about a week ago from H&M in the sale for £7 and used it for the first time on Thursday when I went to Bastille at Alexandra Palace and it the perfect size for a small evening bag. It fits my phone wallet perfectly, a pair of sunglasses and my lipstick and plus it has a little zip pocket too for all your personal things. I absolutely love the strap detail of the chain (oh my god) and that the bag itself is structured, like a box (if you understand what I mean!), so there's no damage done by weighing out the bag. If H&M had this in a matte faux leather black then my dreams would come true and I think my dream mini bag would be a reality but in the meantime, thank you H&M for creating such a beautiful baby bag.

Thank you for reading!
Melissa xoxo

New Hair!

Ahh I haven't posted in so long but I've been so busy with college now that revision for my June exams has started and I'm trying to be more organised with myself but I am not sure that I am completely up to speed!

Anyway, on Wednesday I spontaneously decided to chop my hair off! My hair prior to this was sooooo long (it came down to my waist and probably measured 18-20") and I wanted something new - to be honest I was bored at the time too and saw inspiration to cut it but I didn't really have a style in mind and just went for it! I'm so pleased with how it's turned out, I'm impressed with my hair dressing skills! My split ends were unbelievable and thank God they are all gone because my hair is so healthy and fresh now, so much thicker I just know it.

I'll be posting more frequently (I hope) as I have a lot of ideas down, one of them being an all about my hair post if that's something you would like, just let me know!

Thank you for reading!
Melissa xoxo

Quick H&M Haul!

On Friday 28th February I was in town (I spent the day in court which was really boring) and a friend that I was with had to return something to H&M during our lunch hour and while I was in there I spotted this really nice skirt so as the day progressed I decided to go back to H&M after court was dismissed and see what they had. At the time I was wearing one of those basic H&M tube skirts that cost pennies and is it just me or do those skirts lose their stretch if you wear them for the day? Mine had faded a bit anyway due to many washes but it was losing it's stretch so it wasn't a tight mini skirt like it was supposed to be anymore but ANYWAY what I am trying to say is that when I saw this skirt I thought I would try it out and probably change into it because the basic tube skirt wasn't doing me any favours. I tried two different skirts on and ended up buying a really cute pleather, cross texture black mini skirt with silver zip detail on either side (insert cool photo that I took of Nina Nesbitt as she wore the exact same skirt the day I went to see her on the 13th Feb how freaking awesome - H&M don't have this skirt on their website so make do with this photo of Nina modelling it for you honestly you can't even see but oh well)

The next day, the Saturday I was supposed to meet a friend that I hadn't seen in a long time to go on a spree in Primark however her train was delayed by a couple of hours so I was wondering around (guess where) H&M for a while before picking up some cute things. Normally when I shop H&M in store (and online to be fair) it does tend to be sale items and I rarely purchase full priced items unless it's accessories like bags or shoes. The pleather skirt the previous day was a good buy at £14.99 and I was impressed that I managed to bag a cute black v-neck chiffon dress at just £14.99 too, a chiffon jumper style crop top which had PEONIES on it which was a cheap £9.99, a black scuba fitted mini skirt that was sale priced at £5 and lastly an adorable little box bag for a decent £7 which is so cute that I wrote a whole post about the bag itself and its many wonders.

THEN Sunday I was at work so I wasn't shopping but on Monday, I asked my sister Sophie if she wanted to come into town with me and honestly we were probably just going to get Starbucks then leave but her friend and my other sister Chloe joined us too and of course I ended up buying the kids McDonald's and reduced chocolate in Smith's before buying myself the dress of all dresses in (you guessed it) H&M! It's beautiful and I love it - it's half sleeve, navy blue velvet top half which is a sweetheart neckline with almost black chiffon from the sweetheart neckline to the neck plus a chiffon skirt. I'll insert a cheeky photo below as I probably haven't explained all too well what I am on about.

This isn't the exact dress as H&M didn't have it online but just imagine this ASOS one, without the deep plunge, half/three-quarter length sleeves, a chiffon skirt and the top velvet part in navy and then voila - I did see the dress on eBay actually when googling it

To sum up, I have ADORED H&M's stuff recently (so gorg) and I keep browsing the website almost everyday I swear I do it subconsciously but I love love love their new arrivals and just a lot of their shoes that they have available now too so when payday arrives the Friday after next, I will be there don't you worry.

Thanks for reading!
Melissa xoxo

I have a VSCO!

I downloaded vsco (a photography app) and I guess it kind of reminds me off instagram combined with tumblr and I'm not 100% sure how to use it so maybe someone can help me figure it out or whatever but for the meantime here is url for my grid: melissanye.vsco.co.

Anyway on issue I have come across is that on the grid/on my account there is a square with a triangle in it which looks like the default photo you are given for a profile photo, however I'm unsure if this is a profile photo thingy and I can't figure out how to upload one anyway if it was one but hey if you know what I'm on about please(!) let me know how to figure this out!

I don't have loads of photos on my grid at the moment and I think most of them are also on my instagram anyway but vsco just seems all in one place rather than instagram being tiny photos on your screen. But yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa check out my vsco if you want to and do what you do (do you follow people idk you tell me).

More posts are to come soon! I shall keep you updated!

Thank you for reading :)
xoxo

NOT BEAUTY RELATED - I GOT MY FIRST UNIVERSITY OFFER!

If my emails were coming through on my phone like they normally do then I would have realised at yesterday at quarter to five in the afternoon that I had received my first university offer!

I checked my emails about 20 minutes ago when I realised that I strangely hadn't received any emails today so I logged on to find a good 95 emails stacked into my Yahoo! account when I scrolled to see the email from UCAS to say that their had been a status update in my application (which means anything from "you have a reply [offer/no offer]", "you have an interview" or "your application has been withdrawn").

When you log into Track, the first thing you see is a list of your university choices and their status. All the choices are in a random order but stay in the same order so usually for me, Manchester Metropolitan is at the top but since there is now a little purple status bar that says "You have received decisions from 1 out of 5 choices" to at which point I almost died. But thank God, I scrolled a bit further and saw that the University of Derby has given me a conditional offer!

I am so excited to get my first offer seeing as everyone else has already heard something from their choices but I haven't despite sending my application off over 3 weeks ago! But yes I am so excited for this course and although Derby isn't my first choice I am so happy (and about time something came through too!).

Orange Sherbet Shake!

I kinda made this cool shake/cream based frappe that I thought I would share with you as it's kind of a bit different!

Some inspiration came from the Mandarin Sherbet Shake (I think that's what its called!) available on the TGi's menu - but funnily enough I didn't use oranges or sherbet (or cointreau either haha!)

Firstly I used about 4 scoops of vanilla ice cream which I put in the blender along with a (peeled) easy peeler (basically mini satsumas or clementines). Don't worry you only need one easy peeler for a venti mug!

Secondly I used a handful of walnut pieces and broke them up a bit more before placing in the blender with the ice cream and satsuma.

Then I turned the bad boy on and let it work its magic for about half a minute. At this point it was a bit too runny and not thick like a shake should be so I found some natural fat free fromage frais and put one heaped dollop in before blending again and voilà! There you have an orange and tangy shake!

I was quite happy with the flavour of mine but you may find it not sweet enough for you - try adding a spoonful of honey or even sherbet if you have any! Or for a healthier option, replace the ice cream with frozen yoghurt.

Let me know how yours turned out or if you liked it by leaving me a comment below or mention me in your tweets or instagram pictures of your shake!

Thank you so much for reading and take care! XOXO