Highlights of 2015

Hi everyone,

For today's post I thought I would share with you my highlights of 2015. I hope you enjoy!

2015 for me was an important year, my blogging really took off, I started to decide my future more and I found my real friends. This is also in no particular order as that would be too hard.

1. Meeting Bars and Melody

Your probably thinking, "Grace who the hell are they?". Well if you watch Britain's Got Talent, they came third in 2014. My friends were obsessed with them and I sort of got on the bandwagon. Even thought they were just a phase, it's something off my bucket list. It was a super good day too as it was spent with some of my good friends and we had a great time.

2. London

If you started reading my blog back in February you would remember my London series. I had never been to London before this year and it was honestly amazing! I cannot wait to go back this year. My London series will be linked here (Travelling essentials, My Experience, Haul).

3. The Vamps Concert

I kindly got these tickets off my parents for Christmas 2014 and I was super excited to go. Sadly, my mum was unable to take me to the concert, which was the plan but she was ill, so instead one of my best friends came with me. We had a great laugh and it was a super fun night.

4. Olly Murs Concert

If  you know me, you know I Love Olly Murs! He is my favorite singer and this was the 5th time I had seen him in concert. He always makes each concert better and better. It's always me and my mum to go together as we always have, and this year, it was amazing.

5. Hitting 100 Bloglovin Followers

This was a super big deal for me as I didn't even expect 1 follower never mind 100. I don't know why people follow me but this is honestly one of the best highlights of the year. My blog has grown so much and I could not be more grateful!

6. Hitting 1000 Followers on Instagram

Again, another huge achievement. When I first started my instagram, it wasn't going anywhere. I was being someone I wasn't and I was just copying the wrong people. Somehow I managed to improve a lot and I hit 1000 followers, which to me is insane!

7. Radio City Concert

As you can probably tell, I was very lucky to go to all these concerts this year. I really enjoyed this concert as it had a mixture of lots of people. My favorites were Nick Jonas, Rixton and Year and Years. I also did a GRWM that night (linked here).

8. Blackpool Pleasure Beach

During the summer holidays, one of my best friends invited me to Blackpool with her grandparents. Since I had never been before I really wanted to go, so I did. It was a great day and I had an amazing time.

9. Penny's 14th Birthday

If you were reading my posts all the way back in September, you would remember this post. It was a great day with some of my closet friends and we had an absolute laugh. Post linked here.

10. Brothers 21st Birthday Meal

Most of you will probably know that my brother turned 21 this year and to celebrate we went for a meal. I had all my closest family there and it was just a lovely way to celebrate. I also did a GRWM so the link to that is here.

11. Dubai!
For my brothers birthday my parents paid for us to go to Dubai. It was honestly the best holiday I had ever been on and I really hope I go back one day. Dubai series is linked here:

Pre Holiday Preperations

Whats in my Dubai makeup bag

Holiday OOTD

My Experience

12. Burj Khalifa

I know this should be included under Dubai but I feel like it deserves it's own little mention. In case you are unaware of the Burj Khalifa, it is basically the tallest building in the world. Yes! I did go up and it was the best thing I have ever done in my entire life (big statement I know!) It was absolutely beautiful and I could re-live that day again and again.

13. Halloween

Again, I have shared this with my readers in a post, linked here. Anyway, this year I had a really good Halloween, I spent it with some of my great friends and I was just a really fun day.

14. Germany

In case you didn't know, I went to Germany with my school in early December. We went to visit the Christmas markets and I honestly think it was one of the best paces I had ever been. Were we went was so beautiful and I really got close to some of my friends while being on this trip. You are probably sick of this, but I did also blog about this. The posts including Germany are linked below.

Germany Photo Album

Germany Haul

15. Christmas Day

I couldn't say my highlights of the year without mentioning Christmas day. I always look forward to Christmas day as I love spending the whole day with my family. Even thought this year Christmas day was quiet I still enjoyed. To find what I got for Christmas, it is linked is here.

I hope you enjoyed this little run down of my highlights for 2015. Make sure to comment what your favorite memory was of 2015. Have a great day!
Grace xx

New Years Q&A

Hi everyone,

A while ago I asked on instagram (@gracexkate) some New Year related questions and that's what I will be answering for you today. I hope you enjoy!

What are your New Years resolutions?

I actually have already wrote a whole post dedicated to this questions. It talks about my blogging, mental and physical goals. The link is here if you want to read it!

Is there anything you really want to do in 2016?

I want to make more memories and not waste time as I did a lot of that in 2015. Hopefully, I will take more pictures so I remember all the great things I did.

Was 2015 a year to remember?

Yes in certain areas. It was my brothers 21st birthday, I went to Dubai, my blog really took off and it was a good overall year for me.

If you could choose one day to go back to in 2015, what would it be and what would you do?

I think I would go back to Dubai as it was one of the best holidays ever and I wish we had spent longer there. I would probably go up the Burj Khalifa again and explore the Atlantis more.

Favorite things to do on New Years eve/day?

My family don't really make a big deal out of New Year like lots of families. We usually have a really relaxed two days and chill as my parents don't have to work.

Favorite piece of makeup you bought in 2015?

Probably the stuff I bought in Germany as that is not easily accessible in the UK. Germany Haul linked here.

If you could only keep one new years resolution for the year and achieve it, what would it be?

I don't really know, probably just to find myself more as I find it so important.

I hope you enjoyed this post, let me know what you are excited for this year. Have a great day!
Grace xx

Hopes for 2016!

Hi everyone,

The time has come to start a fresh new year, and I couldn't be more excited. Every year I make a little list of new years resolutions, they are usually lost by the end of the year but I will not loose them this year. This is because I am writing them on here. 2016 for me is going to be all about improvement. I have achieved a lot in 2015 but I want to improve. That's why today I am sharing with you different goals I have for the new year. Maybe this will give you inspiration for your new year resolutions, if you write them. 

Blogging Goals:

- Get to 200 Bloglovin Followers

During 2015 I managed to get 100+ followers which is just mad, and this year to improve I am aiming for 200. I don't know whether it is possible but I want to try.

- Better Blog content and photos

Personally, I think I have improved a lot on my blog from last year, when it first began, but I want to take it to a whole new level. I really want to put a lot of time and effort into my posts with great quality photos.
- Produce a wider variety of content
At the moment, my blog is mainly based around beauty and as much as I love beauty, I want to make my blog a variety of themes. There is going to be some beauty, fashion, life, fitness, advice and just a general random theme.

- Post more often

I use to post once maybe twice a week but I think 2016 I am going to post as often as I can, when I want. During this year, some of my posts haven't been to a good standard because they have been forced. That's not what I want to happen this year, so I am going to post when I want to and hopefully that will be often.

- Discover more bloggers

I think I have been pretty good with this year but I want to discover more. I think it would be super nice if I could help promote other bloggers that deserve more recognition.

- Continue to be active on blogs

I love commenting on other peoples blogs and I would love to maintain that as I love encouraging others. I think commenting on peoples blogs can make a huge difference to their confidence.

Physical Goals:
- Loose a bit more weight
I know I am going to get a lot of hate for saying this but I absolutely hate my body. I am not super overweight but I am overweight so I would like to loose weight. Since I am a dancer, I am expected to be healthy and slim and that's what I want. I am not going to loose weight to the point were I am stick thin but I want to loose weight so I get a bit of fat of my stomach and thighs. I am not doing this for anyone else, I want to do this for me. That's why I am going to do a lot more health and fitness things on my blog as well.
- Workout more
This will help me to loose weight but think it deserves it's own section. As I said before, I am a dancer and I need to build up my stamina. When I do workout I really enjoy it so I am planning to do an outdoor workout once or twice a week and an indoor workout three times a week.
- Improve my skin
I have super spot prone skin and it needs improving. I have bought a few new skin care bits to help and it just needs a general re-boot. 
- Drink more water
I think almost everyone says this as a new years resolution. This goes hand in hand with improving my skin, but I think because of school, I just forget to drink water.

Mental Goals:
- Make scrap books of events
I love looking back at old memories but I don't have a lot of them. As I am doing a lot of exciting things next year I want to be able to record them all in a scrap book. Let me know whether you would like to see a DIY on it or not and that should encourage me.
- Be more positive
I have not been my best this year and it's not good. I want to become a super positive and open person. A lot of people have told be this year that I only think negative and I was really sad about that.
- Love myself
This may sound weird but I really don't like myself. I don't like the way I look or the way I act. During this year I have found it super hard to be myself, with so many people judging me, pressuring me and just being super forceful. I want to be able to stand up for myself, be myself and for people to except that.
- Find myself
I know I am only thirteen but I want to find myself a little more. Try new things to see what I like and don't like and do more things I enjoy. I want to find m style, my look and my future. I am taking my options this year and I would like to know what I want to be when I am older. Not necessarily an exact job but a subject I want to peruse.

I hope you enjoyed this post, so sorry it was a bit long and chatty but I hope this has helped you in some way. Have a great day!
Grace xx

What I Got For Christmas 2015

Hi everyone,

As Christmas was a few days ago, I asked on my instagram whether this is a post you wanted to see and all of you said yes. That's why today I am ding the What I Got For Christmas post. As you can see by the pictures above, they aren't great, that's because currently it's raining and the lighting is unless and I have to get the pictures taken today otherwise I will forget. I hope you enjoy. This post is just going to be from my Family as I don't want this post to bee too long. It is also a colab with two lovely girls, Prettily Painted (blog link here) and Charlotte Crowder (blog link here). Definetally go a check out their posts.

Disclaimer - In no way am I trying to brag or boast. I do know that this is a lot of stuff and my family did really spoil me and I could not be more grateful and blessed. I am so so so eternally happy and grateful to have received all of these gifts. If you do not celebrate Christmas, I am sorry but a proper post will be up later this week.

From my Mum and Dad

- Timberland Boots

- Daisy Dream Perfume set

- Michael Kors Handbag

- Michael Kors Purse

- Tiffany Bracelet

- GHD Straighteners set

- Zoella Makeup Bag

- Zoella Soak Opera

- Zoella Wonder Hand

- Soap and Glory Get a Smooth on Gift set

- Soap and Glory Soaper Star Gift Set

- Soap and Glory The Whole She-Bang Gift Set

- Ballerina Ring Holder

- Jewelry Box

- Benefit Pucker up and part Gift set

- Three Mac Lipsticks in Creme Cup, Velvet Teddy and Kinda Sexy

- Mac Painterly Paint Pot

- No7 Light up Mirror

- Shay Mitchell Bliss book

- Twist and Pout Lip balms

- Burgandy Topshop Joni Jeans

- Topshop Ribbed High-neck top

- Adidas Leggings

- Adidas Beanie

- Hype Cropped Jumper

- Hype Joggers

- Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish

- Lush Festive Friends Gift set

- Pajamas and Underwear

From My Brother and his Girlfriend

- Elizabeth 8 Hour Cream

- Sephora Palette

- The Body Shop Born Lippy in Watermelon

- Mini Paris Notebook

From My Granddad

- Real Techniques Deluxe gift set

- Pajamas

- Hot Chocolate and Cake in a Mug Making Kit

- Selfie Stick

- Zoella Reed Diffuser

- Zoella Lip Balm Duo

From My Godmother

- Pajamas 

- Tickets to see a musical (forgot the name)

Off my Uncles and Aunties I got money, which I am putting toward my savings for Florida.

I hope you enjoyed this post. Comment below what you got for Christmas. Have a great day!
Grace xx

Blogmas Day 1 - My Christmas Playlist

Hi everyone,

Today is just the beginning of something so exciting. IT'S BLOGMAS!!! Now that is only 24 more days until Christmas, I thought I would share with you my favorite Christmas songs.

Micheal Buble - White Christmas

Train - Shake Up Christmas

Wham - Last Christmas

Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas is You

Ariana Grande - Santa Tell Me

The Vamps - Sweater Weather

Justin Bieber - Mistletoe 

Christina Aguilera - Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

The Jackson 5 - Rockin Robin

Wizzard - I Wish it Could be Christmas Everyday

John Lennon - Happy Xmas

The Jackson 5 - Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Dean Martin - Let it Snow

Chris Rea - Driving Home For Christmas

Elvis Presley - Blue Christmas

The Snowman (film) - Walking in The Air

Band Aid - Do They Know it's Christmas

Mean Girls (film) - Jingle Bell Rock

Ariana Grande - Santa Baby

The Vamps - Hoping for Snow

Coldplay - Christmas Lights

The Vamps - Hallelujah

Michael Buble - Holly Jolly Christmas

Leona Lewis - One More Sleep

Michael Buble - Christmas

Lily Allen - Somewhere Only we Know

I really hope you enjoyed this long list of Christmas songs that I will definitely be listening to until Christmas day. Comment below if I have missed any off or some of your favorite Christmas songs.

Grace xx

Happy One Year Anniversary!

Hi Everyone,

Today's post is a super exciting one. This time last year was my first ever blog post! I can't believe it either! If you do want to read it then click the link here. This past year has gone so quickly that it only feels like a few weeks ago since I first started my blog. Through starting my blog I have gained so much.

I asked on instagram what I should do to celebrate, but none of the suggestions felt like it would show my appreciation. I decided that today, I would share with you the things I have learned or gained through blogging. I am sorry if you expected something huge and exciting, but I hope this does at least help you in some way or even getting to know me a bit better.

Confidence:

This is probably the thing I appreciate most about what blogging has given me! I have struggled a lot with confidence since a young age. I am not slim, I have got opinions and I am clever. These things might represent me but that's not how everyone sees it. I have been bullied, I have been through tough things like everyone else. Starting my blog made me feel very nervous about whether people will actually read, or my friends finding out and picking on me for it but it only went uphill. Seeing my page views get higher and higher each day just made me feel special. Just because I felt like someone cared and understood me in a way that no one else did. I know it sound over dramatic but that is how I felt. Once I told my friends, they were nothing but supportive. I am so grateful that I can finally have something that makes me feel so proud of myself and something that has made me so motivated to try harder each time. I never had that until starting my blog.

Excepting who I am:

My whole life I have tried to fit in, I have never been that person who is accepted easily because I don't like that latest singers or don't wear the latest clothes. Even though I still am only young, I still regret things. Like making people believe that I actually was obsessed with that band or had everything they had, and saw their favorite film, but really I hadn't. As all my thoughts and opinions began revolving round everyone else, it got me really down, but after starting my blog it gave me a lot of confidence to have my own thoughts and not be afraid to share them.

Being myself:

This goes hand in hand with excepting who I am but this is a bit more focused on blogging. After my blog had been up for a few months, I felt like I was failing, reading other peoples posts and seeing how many comments and followers they had made me feel down. I know that it is jealousy and I am not denying it, I was jealous. Looking at them bloggers, I felt like I had to change my blog to look exactly like theirs, and that's why you might notice my blog setup changes around a lot. I use to just copy peoples blogs detail to detail, but now I take inspiration and put a spin on it. There really is a difference. Through this I noticed, it's not about having a certain layout, or banner design but it's about making it your own and unique  to you (bit cheesy I know). 

Internet friends:

This is my favorite thing about what blogging has gave me. I have honestly met so many lovely people through blogging. I would say them all but I would take forever! I love making new friends because I can talk to them differently to how I talk to my real friends. We talk about beauty recommendations, life hacks, future plans, colabs and of coarse blogging. On a day to day basis we talk over instagram and comment on each others blog posts. I love seeing their blogs get better and better and I love that they support me too.

I hope that by reading them four paragraphs you realize how much blogging has effected me and I could not be more grateful. Blogging to me is a distraction, this year I have been through some rocky patches but blogging has always kept me motivated to keep going. If you are reading this and feel like you might want to start a blog, then feel free to email me or contact me over any social media. Or if you want a whole post on tips for blogging then let me know in the comments!

THANK YOU !!!

I wanted to take this chance to say a huge Thank You. This has honestly been one of the best years ever! and it's all thanks to blogging. Thank you to everyone who reads my blog, comments on my posts and follows my networks. If you have been here from day one or you have only just joined, I appreciate you all so so so much! I love you all !!!! 

Have a great day!
Grace xx

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PS. I am sorry it was a bit cheesy!xx

Dubai Series: My Experience

Hi everyone,

As you can see by the (many) pictures above, today's post is going to be a little experience post about my recent trip to Dubai. I hope you have enjoyed the pictures above, I took lots more, but these are my favorite, if you have any questions about the pictures or Dubai in general comment them on this post or email me at Gracesss100702@gmail.com and I will reply as soon as I can. This is going to be very brief as I don't want this to be a super long post but I will try to cover as much as possible.

Firstly, I just want to say, we went to Dubai to celebrate my brothers 21st birthday so it was a family holiday. I went with my mum, dad, brother, brothers girlfriend and my granddad. Dubai was honestly one of the best holidays ever! I had so much fun and I can't wait to go back. I shared a room with my granddad, we had a queen size bed each and a huge room.

I am going to break down certain things I did and go into a bit more detail.

Atlantis Hotel
The Atlantis Hotel was so beautiful. Even each detail was to perfection. It was probably the best hotel I had ever stayed in. My room had an amazing view. Every afternoon they would come in and clean and make the beds. The staff their were so lovely and it was just a great experience. One of my favorite things, was the lobby (picture 3) as it was just suited the whole concept of the Atlantis. Let me know if you want a hotel room tour, of the room me and my granddad shared.

The Lost Chambers Aquarium
Even though this is in the Atlantis Hotel, I think it deserves it's own section. Again, I might do a separate post on all the pictures I took of the different creatures in the aquarium. Anyway, it was utterly stunning. They had so many different tanks/sections with all different creatures. My favorite were probably the white alligators, stingrays, sharks or the fish. You probably must think I covered all the creatures, saying they were all my favorite, but there were so many different creatures there, that I had never heard of. Images 2 and 4 are an example of things you might find in the aquarium. It was just such a lovely experience and it was truly beautiful.

Atlantis Water park
This was obviously not in the hotel but was on the same land (if that makes sense). To get from the hotel to the water park you just had to wait no more then five minutes for these carts to come and pick you up. I am a massive ride fan so I went on lots of these rides. Honestly, they do the best family rides. Even if you are not a ride fan, there is something for everyone. The lazy river was super fun. If you have been to a water park before you know you have them rides in huge plastic hoops (they are actually called inner tubes, which I didn't know) but in the Atlantis water park you didn't have to carry them up endless stairs. You just had to sit in them and you went up an flat escalator type thing which was so convenient and amazing. 

Burj Khalifa
In case you didn't know, the Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world. It is joint up to the biggest shopping mall in the world but I didn't manage to take any pictures (never mind). We went to the 124th floor and we got up there in the worlds fastest elevator. The view from the top was breathtaking and you just realize how amazing it is. I got so many great pictures (most featured above) and it was just amazing. This was probably the best highlight of the trip and it will always be one of my greatest achievements.

I hope you enjoyed this little breakdown of a post. Let me know if you want more of my Dubai series. Have a great day!
Grace xx

Autumn/Winter Bucket List

Hi everyone,

For today's post, I am going to be giving you ideas for a autumn/winter bucket list, so if you are bored during this time of the year, I hope that this post gives you some inspiration. This is also a colab with the lovely Floralfe (blog link here), go read her post once you have finished reading mine!

1. Go on a autumn walk

2. Write out Christmas cards

3. Make your Christmas list

4. Go ice skating

5. Have a hot chocolate

6. Go sledding

7. Make smores

8. Go on a hike

9. Make a leaf/snow angel

10. Rake leaves and jump in the pile

11. Run a massive Lush Christmas bath

12. Have a jumper/sweater shopping spree

13. Have a Christmas movie night

14. Have a huge photo shoot

15. Build a fort

I hope this post gave you some inspiration for autumn and winter. Let me know if you are going to try any of these suggestions. Have a great day!
Grace xx

Halloween 2015

Hi everyone,

I know this post is a little late but I still really wanted to do it. This is a colab with one of my best friends Caitlin (from Hello Caitlin - blog linked here). Me, Caitlin and a few other friends spent Halloween together so I thought I would share my costume, hair and makeup look. 

Picture 1 - Me and my friends (from left to right), me, Ella, Caitlin and Lauren.

Picture 2 - My hair and makeup

Picture 3 - Me and Caitlin

Picture 4 - My makeup essentials for the cat makeup look.

For Halloween, I went as a cat. My costume just consisted of all black clothes. My long sleeve, black velvet crop top was from H&M, my jeans were the Topshop Joni black ripped jeans and my boots were black Chelsea boots from river island. The jacket I wore was just a leather jacket from Miss Selfridge.

When I figured out I was going to be a cat for Halloween, I just couldn't find a nice pair of cat ears, so on the day I had to improvise. One of my friends at dance told me I should make it out of my own hair, and that's what I did. I gave myself a middle parting, grabbed a small section from each side and braided it, bent it over to make them look like ears and I just pinned it. To cover the bobby pins, I just grabbed a piece of hair bordering my face from each side and pulled it to the back of my head, covering the bobby pin. Finished it off with a bit of hairspray and it works amazingly.

My makeup was very dramatic, in the last picture are a few products that made this whole look complete. I did my normal base routine of primer, foundation, concealer, blush and powder but I also added some contour and highlight to make my face look a lot more defined. For my eyes, I took the Freedom Innocent 32 colour eye shadow palette, but the make the shadows bolder, I took the Pro-fixing spray also by Freedom, and sprayed my eye shadow brush to make the shimmery colours more pigmented. For my eye look I took the shade Simplicity (shimmery,light,silver, blue shade) in my inner corner, the shade Justice (shimmery,grey/silver shade) all over the lid, and the shade Take Me (shimmery, navy, silver shade) in my crease and lower lash line. You obviously can't be a cat without a cat flick, so I did a very bold one with the Collection Extreme 24 hour liquid liner. I then drew three dots on each side of my cupids bow with The Body Shop black coal liner and with the same liquid liner, drew little "whisker like" flicks. On the tip of my nose, with the same liquid liner I drew a little heart nose. For my lips, I lined them with the same coal liner and filled it in with the MUA LUXE Velvet liq lacquer in Potency, but to make it a bit more colorful I added a bit of red lipstick to give a really dark purpleish colour.

A few days before, I also painted my nails with the Barry M gelly hi-shine nail paint in Plum.

I hope you enjoyed this post. Don't forget the read Caitlin's post! Have a great day!
Grace xx