Books, Ikea, and Lemons

Good Afternoon, it is a delightfully sunny day in Leicester today. I love living in the city when the sun is shining, especially in Leicester as there are so many parks within walking distance of where I live. The weather tomorrow is supposed to be just as beautiful so I intend on finding myself a spot in the park with some iced tea, a book and a picnic blanket and enjoying the weather (while covered in factor 50, because I burn!!)

On the topic of books...

For my birthday my lovely Sister in law and her hubby bought me two books, I love reading so books are always a great present.I am forever dragging the boy to second hand book shops and coming away with stacks and stacks of books, in fact I love books so much that I dragged Si and our friends to the largest second hand bookshop in Inverness and spent far too long wandering around the book stacks. Enough rambling.... so the books they bought me were... The Husbands Secret by Lianne Moriarty  

 and Behind Closed Doors by B A Paris. 

 

The Husbands Secret

 

This book was great, if you enjoy books by Kate Morton, this is the perfect book for you. This is the first ever book that I have read by her, and it was so good that once I finished it I was straight on iBooks looking for another one to read. I am big fan of books with that focus on "ordinary" people and relationships between characters, this book had all of this and more. Its the perfect beach book and is a great read. 

 Behind Closed Doors

  

I normally hate the phrase "unputdownable" , for so many reasons, mainly because its not a word, and secondly just say "I couldn't put it down". However...this book I defy you to put it down. I started it last night at work and before I knew it I was 197 pages in. This book was not what I was expecting at all, it is bone chillingly dark in places, granted I've not quite finished it yet, but there were parts of this book that really shocked me. It is not a gore filled book but it will make you shiver, it certainly makes you question how much you know about the people around you. 

On a happier note...

I indulged one of my great joys in life and dragged the boy to IKEA on the weekend and picked up some little gems that I'd like to share with you. Firstly, in attempt to make our yard/garden look less yard like we picked up some greenery. 

My favorite is the little lemon tree that Bramble is sat in front of, I don't know if it will produce lemons that we can actually use but I love how cute it is. We also picked up a little olive tree and two small shrub plants. I plan on picking up some fairy lights to brighten up the wall and some staggered flower beds so I can plant some herbs and flowers. 

 

Finally we picked up this super cute tray table that we are using as a mini bar area. 

 

 This comes in lots of different colors but I just loved the gray one a little bit too much and this was my favorite purchase. 

 

Hope you enjoyed this weeks post, Its my little brothers 21st birthday this week so I may be a bit quieter this week. Let me know if you liked anything your saw in this weeks post and if there are books you loved reading this summer. 

 

Sending Leicester cuddles to you all. 

 

Lady Law Student 

 

xx

 

 

 

 

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Congradtulations

First of all ....

A huge congradulations to all the Leicester Law Students who graduated yesterday, I can't imagine how good it must feel to know that all your years of hard work paid off. I got to see some of the fabulous outfits from my reception desk yesterday and you all looked amazing. Big shout out to all of the beautiful ladies from the Union Point reception desk who graduated this week, you all looked stunning and should be so proud of what you achieved.  I hope you all really enjoyed your day, you all earned it. 

Watching everyone graduate made me super excited to do the same next year, I can't wait to walk up on stage and receive my degree. It also means shopping for a graduation outfit, so keep your eyes peeled for a graduation outfit post in the future :) 

This week ...

This week I've been; baking, working,puppy training, editing my blog layout (let me know what you think), writing an about me section , and receiving lots of lovely post goodies.

 So...what do you do when you've got a whole bowl of limes and lots of gin....you make a Gin and Tonic Cake. 

I doubled the recipe and made two and had a little bit left over for some cupcakes as well and instead of making the candied limes I just grated some lime zest on top of the icing, I also included some tonic in the icing. They are scrummy and one of my lovely ladies has one on its way in the post to her.  I love making loaf cakes and I think that this will probably be my wedding cake, because both the fiancee and I love gin. 

Postal Goodies

Obviously earlier in the week I received my Love Me Beauty Box and was super impressed, today I received my BirchBox and my favourite purchase from ASOS (more on that one later). 

First of all my first ever BirchBox, I was super impressed with the packaging, the Love Me Beauty Box is super cute but this just feels more luxe and a bit more together. The colours are beautiful and the contents was a little bit of everything that I love. 

I can't wait to try the sheet face masks, I love face masks and I try and do one at least once a week. I suffer with really bad skin at times and it can really get me down, so every week slapping on a face mask really makes me feel much better. There is nothing worse than still having spots at 27...seriously I thought i'd be done with teenage skin by now. 

Also I was so freaking happy to see a spectrum makeup brush included, I'm obsessed with how pretty these makeup brushes are and I can't wait to try it out. A full sized Frizz Ease was also included with will hopefully save my hair over the humid summer months, fingers crossed. I also can't wait to try out the nails inc nail varnish which is the prettiest nude pink colour ( a serious wedding nail contender). Finally a full sized lip colour designed by Millie was included, its a beautiful boho pink colour that I'll be trying out this weekend. 

Finally .....

My wedding shoes arrived, as I'm trying to plan a wedding a student budget I thought I would make the most of my student discount. ASOS has the most incredible wedding collection, and with a 10% student discount I decided to order my first wedding item....MY SHOES 

I know some of you will be thinking...snooze she is wearing flat shoes, well yes I am. Its going to be a long day and I want to be comfy, plus I plan on swapping to a surprise pair of shoes at my reception...which I may reveal later on...or may not. I'm already completely in love with these shoes and they were only £25.00...and with student discount they were only £22.50. 

Hope you enjoyed this post (and the new layout), sorry to spam you with another post only two days after I posted the last one I was just excited to share these with you. Next month I'll include my Love Me Beauty and Birch Box in one combined post. This weekend I'm dragging the poor boy to Ikea, so if you see a sad bearded man walking round Ikea that will be him. 

Sending lots of Leicester cuddles to you all. 

Lady Law Student 

xx

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Love Me Beauty ...

Love Me Beauty

I love getting things in the mail, so I thought it was about time that I signed up for a monthly beauty box. After hunting through the mountains of monthly subscription boxes available, trust me when I say there is a box for everyone out there, I settled on two different boxes. The first box I subscribed to was the Love Me Beauty, which arrived today, the second box I subscribed to was the Birch Box which should hopefully arrive later in the week. 

The Love Me Beauty Box works slightly differently to most monthly boxes, your allocated a number of points and then you pick from a selection of products (worth different amounts in points) until you've reached your total. Some products are obviously worth more in points that others. So enough rambling...heres what I received. 

Firstly I love the packaging, all my lovely products came in this little makeup bag in this beautiful pale blue colour. A girl always needs a makeup bag so this was a lovely added surprise. 

So these are the products that I chose; pixi by petra mascara, La potion Infinite , Caudal Radiance Serum and the pop band. 

I always sleep with my hair tied up away from my face, but then the next day I have that dreaded kink in my hair which is just one more thing for me to sort out in the morning. Having read that this leaves no kinks in your hair I was excited to give it a go, however when it arrived I was dubious as to whether this would contain my mountains of hair..I guess we will have to wait and see. 

The second product I picked was the Pixi by Petra Lengthy Fibre Mascara, I love trying new mascaras. Saying that I have been using the same mascara for a while, which is the MAC Extended Play Gigablack Lash, however I love trying new products so I'm excited to try this out. The brush is slightly curved with lots of lovely lash catching bristles which I love and you can see that the formula is loaded with fibres which should be super lengthening. 

The third product I chose was a serum, mainly cause I don't really use them and I wanted to see whether they are as good as everyone claims them to be. It claims to boast the radiance of your complexion and appearance for a smoother brighter looking skin...and I thought to myself who doesn't want that so into the basket it went. 

Finally I picked a "super hydrating, restorative anti age cream" because I'm 27 now and you've got to start protecting your skin as early as you can right?? I have no idea how early your meant to start using anti ageing products but I figured what harm can it do?? 

So thats everything that I picked, let me know if any of you use the love me beauty box and if so what you picked, or if you use any of the products and love or hate them let me know. Hope you all enjoyed the post...if you do feel free to follow me on BlogLovin or on my FB page Lady Law Student (shameless self promo..sorry). 

Sending lots of Leicester cuddles and Love. 

Lady Law Student 

xxx

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Homeware treats on a budget ...

Homeware treats on a student budget 

Happy Saturday everyone, somehow (goodness knows how) I managed to end up with a Saturday off work...so...to celebrate I popped into Leicester and did a little bit of homeware shopping. Currently I'm on a pretty tight budget as I save up for 3rd year, so this meant that I really tried to shop around for some bargains and seeing as I found some I thought I'd share them with you lovely people. 

So the first shop that I ventured into was ...

TKMaxx 

I love browsing around TKmaxx, they are my favourite shop to pick up workout clothing from and converse trainer socks. Occasionally I venture into their Homeware section, and by occasionally I mean all the time, the duvet cover section is my absolute favourite ( I'm obsessed with bedding). This week I was on the hunt for picture frames and I picked a lovely worn silver wooden effect frame for a print that my lovely sisters in law to be sent us. 

£6.99 TKMaxx

I then took a wander around the kitchenware section and picked up a teapot for loose leaf tea from Bodum, I normally use a tea infuser (I've got a super cute pug infuser and a Man-a-tea infuser). However, I thought I'd try a Tea press teapot as sometimes I want more than just one mug of Green Tea. Plus it was such a bargain at TKMaxx at only £5.99, which is nearly £20.00 cheaper than it normally retails for. 

£5.99 TKMaxx

The second shop I popped into was ....

Wilko

I was hunting for some more photo frames to frame some holiday photo's and my friend wanted to pop into Wilko to pick up some door knobs, as you do, while I was waiting I wandered into the frame section. Wilko is normally the shop I pop into to pick up cotton pads for removing my makeup and not for homeware, however these frames were too good value not to pick up. I picked up two single frames and one multi photo frame. 

£5.50 Wilko

£4.00 Wilko

I can't wait until we have our own home so I can create a gallery wall of all our pictures of our loved ones, but at the moment we have them arranged on our book case. 

Next I popped into....

Tiger 

I freaking love this shop, it is like a happy little Ikea that is full of wonderful little treats. Its the best shop to walk round, the music is so happy and everything is so bright and colourful. Of course best of all its a complete and utter bargain. My lovely friend Laura, the wonderful lady who bought me the lush face mask, bought us the sweetest little engagement candle. So Ive been searching for a little candle holder and I found this glass holder for ..... £2.00... its such a bargain.

£2.00

Finally I popped into paper chase 

Paper Chase

Seriously who doesn't love Paper Chase it is a mecca for all stationary lovers, I always buy my cards from here, mainly because they do student discount and have a brilliant reward card system. I decided to start a Wedding/Engagement box to keep all the mementos, we've been so lucky to receive such love from all our friends and family and I wanted to keepsakes to be able to look back through in years to come. So I picked up one of their storage boxes in this beautiful gold polka dot design. 

£8.00 (£7.20 with student discount)

Inside I've got the champagne cork from our first celebratory bottle with Simon's parents, a photobook of our holiday together, all our engagement cards and the ring box. As the planning and celebrations go on I plan to add the invitations and a sample of the dress fabric etc. 

So thats all from my budget homeware shopping haul, I've included all the links for the products where I can find them. Also this week I set up a Lady Law Student FB page so give it a like if you've enjoyed todays post. 

Hope you all have a lovely Saturday night, whether your hitting the town with friends or cuddling up on the sofa watching movies. Sending big Leicester cuddles to you all. 

Lady Law Student 

xxx

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The Results are in.....

The Results are in....

Finally, after what seems like an absolute age, I have received my exam results and I can happily announce that I got...*drum roll* ....a High 2:1. I'm so happy with the results and massively relieved that I've got 40% of my degree sorted. This year I did feel like I had taken on a little bit too much and I was worried that it would be my grades that suffered. While I am glad that I still managed to gain the grade I wanted, I will still be cutting back for my third year. Each year it gets tougher as they cut more and more student grants which means I have to pick up more and more hours, however sadly this is the reality for a lot of students. So to all you students working crazy hours to fund your studies I salute you, I fully appreciate how hard it is and it will all be worth it in the end. I cant wait to graduate next year and celebrate how hard I've worked.

Time to Celebrate

So to celebrate I have had a little pamper session, after a week of amazing food, wine and gelato, my skin was a bit of a mess. I suffer with breakouts a lot but the past few months I've been eating super healthy and working out lots and my skin had cleared right up. However, sadly on the week of my big birthday and engagement my skin was a disaster, luckily covered in all pictures by Clinique Beyond Perfecting  in 0.5 Breeze (this foundation is amazing). I will admit it isn't the cheapest at £25.00, however one bottle lasts forever and it covers all sins. I came home determined to sort my skin out, and as if fate would have it my lovely friend, Miss Laura, had sent me a little birthday parcel including some lush face mask.

Lush face mask

This face mask is AMAZING, I used it once and my skin the next day was 100% better, the face mask is called Mask of Magnaminty. It has the most incredibly minty smell which is beautiful, fresh and clean, all lush products smell amazing so that's hardly a surprise. The other thing I absolutely love about this is that its self preserving, I love Lush face masks but I struggle to use all the product before I have to throw it away so the fact that this one doesn't go off as quickly is a massive plus, which is also a plus for my purse!! I'm sure you all know how to use a face mask, but if you don't, 

I applied it to clean makeup free skin and left it on for the recommended 15 minutes, and then I removed it with warm water and a flannel. My skin felt amazing afterwards so thank you to Laura and Lush your both my favourites this week!!

My second pamper purchases

This week I sadly ran out my favourite blusher Benefit Dandelion , I love love love this blusher but on my student budget I can't afford to splash out at the moment. That being said it does last a very long time so if your willing to spend a touch more and treat your self it is worth it as this blusher has lasted me forever (and I wear makeup most days). So on my day off this week I decided to find a high street dupe, I searched Superdrug (which currently has 3 for 2) and picked up three new blushers. The closest match was Barry M - Make Me Blush Powder Blusher in Fairy Cake, it is such a pretty pink and is super buildable.

Fairy Cake

However seeing as it was 3 for 2 I also picked up some beautiful triple baked blushers from I Heart Makeup Factory , first of all the packaging for these products are too cute I saw them and just had to have them. Price wise they are only £4.99 which I thought was too good to pass up, and finally the colours are super pretty shimmery perfection. So I picked up the Queen of Hearts and Iced Hearts, the first is a pink shimmery colour which I will probably use for evening blush or on holiday in Rome. The second is a light shimmery highlighter which looks so delicate on top of my new Barry M blusher. I highly recommend taking a look at both of these products.



Blushing hearts - Candy Queen Hearts

 

Blushing Hears - Iced Hearts

 

Finally..my favourite purchase

I am a massive Harry Potter fan, so I can't believe its taken me this long to finally purchase so Harry Potter Pyjamas . Primark pyjama's are my favourite, they are cheap, comfy and come in the best designs and when I saw these I just had to have them!! I forgot to upload a picture of them but there is a picture of them on my Instagram @katdolly.

That's all from me this week, sorry if its been super long and rambling. I've tried to include more links so you can see where I get everything from.

Hope you all have a wonderful week and you get to enjoy some beautiful sunshine. Sending love and hugs.

Lady Law Student

xxx





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