selfish or what?

Ahhhh summer time really is the best time. 

Honestly I've felt nothing but bliss since I handed in my work a few weeks back, it just feels like a weight has been completely lifted off my shoulders. It's just so nice to be able to waste time and not feel guilty for it, but at the same time be able to use my time to focus on the things I've really neglected the last 6 months. 

Okay so I would be lying if I said the worry of what grade I'll get is completely out of my mind but I'm try to not think about it, after all it's out of my hands now. 

I don't think I've ever had a summer break where I've said you know what I'm going to be completely selfish this year until now that is. Second year was incredible, the friends I made, the experiences I had, the motivation I gained- I owe second year a lot. But now it's time for me. Time to be completely, utterly, entirely selfish. To use my time to work on things that I'm really passionate about. Controversial I know but I feel like it's about time I was due a break to do the things I want to do. Third year is a good 4 months away so I want to do my research, get into the projects I want to do alongside third year and to use my time to go to the events I want to go to, work with the brands I want to collaborate with. I'm excited!

I finally got round to filming another YouTube video today and it felt so damn good. I was a little nervous incase I'd lost my love for it but safe to say I definitely haven't. It's just so nice to be able to do work for fun instead of because I have to, summer breaks should be for that. The job hunt is somewhat never ending and the internship front well that may be about to change but I don't want to get my hopes up just yet and jinxs things. 

But I'm keeping my fingers crossed & my mouth zipped. 

Pinterest.

The three main areas I really want to work on this summer are my brand Instagram, YouTube and this little blog. All three are passions I love to pieces, but all 3 are never going to get anywhere if I'm not prepared to put the work in. 'Do your future self a favour, work hard now'. I'm not saying they're going to go anywhere but I want to give them a shot and see where the opportunities take me. Who knows but I'm excited by the unknown. 

Kicking off with my instagram. Friends will know I have two accounts, a personal one that I'm soon to make private and my creative one which will stay public. Don't get me wrong I love both, but the creative one is the platform I really want to work on. I want to feature a lot more outfit posts, getting creative with the way I do them, I want to give sneak peaks of my YouTube and I want it to be the main platform associated with my brand 'LippieTalk'- I'm emotionally invested. Financially creating a good feed costs nothing, all I need is the 'get up and do it' attitude and my mum as photographer (she's actually pretty good!). People may say I'm silly to invest so much time into social media but when it's the line of work I want to go down I personally feel it's time well spent. 

 Other than working on those three areas, I want to start saving, I mean seriously start saving. This time next year after I hopefully graduate I want to go travelling for 6 months to a year, it's something I've wanted to do for as long as I can remember but it's an expensive goal. Originally my plan was to travel America but slowly Australia & New Zealand are looking more appealing. Working on my brand and working out on my fitness not only fill my free time but they are hobbies that cost next to nothing but will be rewarding if I somehow make them successful. 

Pinterest.

I love being at home but sometimes it can get a little dull & I can get a bit lost at what to do with myself so hopefully these things will occupy my time. Yes to some people my summer plans may sound like their version of hell but to me I can't help but get excited and maybe a little ahead of myself but where's the harm in that hey?

See you tomorrow on my YouTube because there's a new video coming and Friday back here.

XOX

Pictures: Own unless stated otherwise.

A week in uni outfits?

It's finally Friday thank god! I don't think I've ever needed the weekend anymore than I have this week. Safe to say right now would be about the right time for a long, hot holiday. 

Just a quick post today because I'm quickly trying to type this in between seminars.

So fashion and style?

I would like to class myself as a fashion blogger & YouTuber but in all honesty I don't feel like my blog really reflects this to be honest. Which is why this past week I've been working on something super exciting- a week in uni outfits vlog. Personally these vlogs are something that I always like to watch just because I'm a nosey person, that and the fact I think it's nice to see how people style themselves day to day. Now pre-warning I don't dress the best not everyday anyway but I've had a few people say to me how much they love my style so I thought maybe it's about time I share a bit more about it. My 'week' will go from Tuesday- Monday ready for my upload day on Tuesday. At the minute I hoping to do one every week but maybe I'll mix it up week to week by wearing the same one item different ways daily or I could even do a week in my going out outfits because it's hard to look good and stay warm this time of year believe.  I can't wait for those summer nights.

(Not that I could hack going out 7 nights in a row- 2 nights practically kills me!)

Random I know but another thing I just want to quickly say is how much I'm obsessing over the song "Capital Letters" by Hailee Steinfield- I mean I love her music anyway but this song damn the past 24 hours I've literally been playing it on repeat non stop. In fact I love the entire Fifty Shades Freed soundtrack I just think there's some real tunes on it, yes I have seen the film already- it's so good would deffo recommend! Don't worry if you haven't seen the others because I hadn't either but I still understood what was going on in the film with the help of friends explaining roughly what had happened in the other two.

Not much else to say really... I know this was a super short post- I hoping to spend the weekend planning out my content for the upcoming weeks, that and get on top of my uni work. I've only been back a week and I already feel about 3 weeks behind. lol go me! 



By the way, you know how in my last post I was saying I had a dilemma well, I may have just bite the bullet and applied to work in summer camp in America!!!! Yes I'm quite literally jumping up & down on my bed with joy typing that, nothings confirmed yet and I still have a lot to sort out for it but it just feels like the ball is finally rolling. I haven't wanted to do something this bad since applying to uni! Fingers crossed it goes to plan.

Well that's all from me till Monday anyway. Have a good weekend hunnies. 
What do you think about the idea of a 'week in uni outfits' style vlog?
Let me know in the comments below.

I really want to start doing more outfit posts on here too, I guess I'll have to get my mumma back behind the camera since her photography skills for my last uni project shocked me.

XOX 

Images: own

It's about time...

Welcome back!

I know it's been a crazy long time since I last blogged, I think my last post must have been the one about going to Berlin which is madness because it's been like 2 weeks since I got back from there. Then what with deadlines causing me to hibernate away from anything remotely fun for an entire week and going home straight after it just felt like I needed some time to breathe. Life got a bit crazy, Not going to lie the stress of coursework made me need a week just to do absolutely nothing. 

I'm now back at uni still with another week til any lectures or seminars but I'm hoping to spend this week productively sorting my life out. That means planning and organising the whole blogging lifestyle, filming/ uploading YouTube videos, getting my butt back to the gym because it's now February before you know it, it's gonna be Summer before we know it and most importantly get somehow ahead of my next semester of work. In all honesty the only thing I really want and need right now is a holiday somewhere hot and sunny, where I can be sat on a beach, Pina colada in one hand and a good book in the other. In reality though that's not and probably won't be my life for a good 6 months yet, I don't understand how I am so physically drained of this year when it's only February 5th, like how is that even possible?!?

Berlin as you're probably eager to know was great! Not sure I'd visit again just because I don't know it didn't feel like as a city it was my vibe, I'm a NYC gal at heart and I seriously don't think that is going to change anytime soon. Still I'm glad I went and saw the sights, not only that but to be there in the midst of Berlin Fashion Week was honestly a dream come true. It actually made me feel quite emotional to be honest, to think that could be the first of what will hopefully be many fashion weeks to come made me a teary-eyed mess, maybe it's my hormones playing up who knows, that kinda stuff doesn't usually get me. But you know that feeling you get when you want something so bad it physically hurts, yeh that's me, as a 'Greatest Showman' fanatic if you didn't know already, the millions dreams song gets me every single time, I'm a massive believer in 'if you believe you can then you will' so stuff about what will hopefully be my future career just makes me tear up. Fashion has probably been the only thing I've ever really enjoyed, I'd like to think I'm good at it but most importantly I want it to do amazing things for me.

Back to Berlin, I'd 100% recommend going to see the city, overall I'd say it was having a lot of renovation done to it but all the same it was amazing to experience a new way of life. I personally loved the Reichstag building tour which was free and quite literally took my breathe away, going up in the dome and looking across the entire city from 360 degree angles was mind blowing. It wasn't like anything I've ever experienced before, it was different to the London Eye or the Empire State it was just magical. I also really appreciated the Jewish memorial, obviously it was extremely sad but it made me just feel the event so much more, it's hard to explain but having been to the memorial just makes me have so much more empathy for the whole thing now. Of course I knew it was a horrific event before I went but it just opened my eyes up to the scale of things- it's the type of thing I will never forget. 

Trade show wise by far the Bright & Seek ones were my favourite, okay so they were completely irrelevant to the research needed for my next assignment but personal style wise they were a bit of me. Growing up I was that girl with a skateboard so really it's no surprise that the fashion event with it's own skate ramps was going to be my cup of tea. I actually vlogged my whole Berlin trip which was nerve racking but exciting so I'll leave that below.

Deadline wise I don't think I've ever felt more stressed, not joking I finished my work about 9 hours before the official deadline. That week quite literally killed me off, I still think I'm catching up on sleep from it now which is mad. In the end as bad as this is going to sound I didn't care anymore I just wanted it over with. I think that was partly why I regretted going Berlin, that extra week was just what I needed but didn't get to have. Still it's over now, it is what it is. I put my heart and soul into it but in the end I was just like why? Yes obviously I want a good grade for my personal goals but when it comes down to it second year on my course doesn't count for any percentage of my final degree- the whole thing is just a learning curve. 

Getting my life back on track...

Having recovered from all that stress I am now ready to get back to it, those internships won't find themselves if only it was the easy. I think the biggest lesson I learnt from last semester was that organisation is something I really need to improve on, yes I can manage my blog, YouTube, group projects, individual projects, internship searching, gym going and a social life if I use my time effectively. Sleeping in all day and binge watching Netflix is not effective for me, don't get me wrong down time is important of course it is but I keep seeing this same tweet everywhere I go "Work hard now, your future self will thank you for it" and I think it's trying tell me something. I know deep down that what I'm doing at the minute, myself in 5 years time would not be grateful for, yet if I just dedicated my time more evenly I would be happy with myself. I've decided it's not about what or how or even where other people are going, it's about me- you can't drive forward in a straight line if your constantly staring at other people's lanes either side of you. 

So I guess the whole new year, new me thing starts now, February 5th 2018, I'm saying I will be better, a better version of myself because I'm tired and unhappy with my life decisions I guess I'm just a little bit too indecisive for my liking. From this point that is going to change. 

Starting with a regular blogging schedule- see you Friday (well tomorrow on my YouTube)

XOX

Images are all my own

So I did it: YouTube.

Okay... deep breathes so it's finally happened, I have finally taken maybe one of my biggest gambles to date... I've started my own YouTube channel....

Yes after literally years of considering it, weighing up the pro's & con's, this Tuesday just gone (January 2nd) I uploaded my first video. If I'm completely honest it wasn't as scary as I first thought it would be- so far the feedback has been really positive. Even though it is a little daunting to be heading back to uni tomorrow knowing that people could potentially know about my channel. Okay so it's not some big secret, of course it isn't after all I'm talking about it on here but it's just the thought of people judging me for making this decision. I know everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and fair enough I'm not asking anyone to subscribe just because they know me. Honestly I don't even care if people don't watch because I'm not doing the whole YouTube 'thing' for anyone else  but me. 

(a sneak peak at next Tuesday's video)

It may sound dramatic but for years I have battled with confidence issues so to get to the point where I feel somewhat comfortable putting videos of me on the internet is a huge deal! I'm so proud of myself, I never imagined when I started this blog a few years back that I would be taking this step because I never thought I would have the confidence to eventually do it. It may sound cheesy and people may think I'm living on cloud 9 for saying this but deep down I've always known I've wanted to do the whole blogging thing full time as a career. Okay so I don't know yet if that'll ever be possible and I'm not saying I won't try other career paths along the way but what I am saying that if someone asked me what 'the dream is' then that would be my answer. Yes I know there are SO many bloggers/ YouTubers out there, I'm quite literally a small fish in a very big ocean but even if it takes a good 5/10 years to get there, then I'm going to give it my best shot. 

My self promotion project for uni is I guess what spurred me on to give it a shot and really it was what I needed. I've said this previously on here but I look at my parents and how much they hate their jobs and I don't want that. To them a job is a job, it gives them the money they need to live the life they can afford to. My Dad never says he's looking forward to a day of work and I don't want to be like that! I don't want to just do a job just because it pays enough for me to scrape together enough money to rent a tiny 1 bed flat in some rundown town. That's not and has never been the life I've wanted to achieve. My parents probably more than anything make me all the more determined to work so hard. Again cheesy but I went to see the film, 'The Greatest Showman' last week and it was honestly amazing! (you all need to go see it!) Not even joking I was lost for words, ever since I left the cinema I have been playing the soundtrack non stop, I'm even listening to it as I'm writing this! But to get to the point of the story, it got me thinking. P T Barnum, was told by so many people that he was just dreaming, what he imagined could be would never become actually possible but he proved them all wrong, he worked his butt off and showed them that with a bit of imagination anything can become possible. Despite people disagreeing with him, he still kept working to achieve his dream , "No one ever made a difference by being like everyone else".

I don't know where this blog and my YouTube channel will take me, I don't even know if I'll keep the whole YouTube thing up long term but what I do know is that I'm damn well going to give it my best shot. So if you feel like joining me, you're more than welcome to subscribe to my channel (LippieTalk). So far I have published a Christmas clothing haul. I plan on uploading every Tuesday - hopefully that'll be semi achievable what with uni and everything else in my life. 

I'd love hear your thoughts on the whole YouTube thing, fair enough if you think it's embarrassing or I'm making a big mistake your opinion will be heard but I can't say it'll make any difference after 'you do you'. 

XOX

Image: own

Video: own Youtube channel.