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My Graduation 2017

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Hey guys,

So I did a post a while ago about life after uni and I thought because my actual graduation was only at the start of this month that I would share some photos and how I felt with you!

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Technically I finished university in June but the University of Worcester can only rent out the cathedral in November so I had to have mine much later than everyone else’s. It’s crazy because I have been studying for three years and this is what it all builds up to, wearing the cap and gown.

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I was a little bit nervous building up to it but I really was excited about it. It was one of the proudest moments in my life! My mom saw me come out in my cap and gown and cried which made me nearly tear up because I was the only one out of my brother and sister and I to go to university. The tickets were quite pricey though, around £18 each! Also Claire Balding received a honorary degree during my ceremony so was nice to see her speak about motivation and say how amazing we were for getting there!

It was amazing getting to share this moment with my parents, boyfriend and sister. They were all so pleased to see me get to this stage as university was so difficult at times.

Also, to my amazing friend who I carried out my final year study with I am so pleased that crazy stressful time brought us together as friends! You realise in these times who is really important and who is there for you when you are the most stressy you can possibly be.

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Hope you enjoyed a little look into my life and what has been going on, this will be fun to look back on!

Thanks for reading,

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Coconut Lane – Brand Review!

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Hey Guys,

So carrying on from my last post on how I was buying things to do up my room I decided to buy some things on this new site that I had just found.

I first of all love their website it’s so aesthetically pleasing, it honestly is such a nice website to just browse on. Especially if you like stationary and accessories as much as I do. You can have a look at the site here. I also have been lucky enough to be given my personal code which will save you 20% off your purchase! The code is sophiacrisp20 use it with your order as many times as you want! I think the prices are already reasonable but this is just a little bonus!

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These little A5 notebooks are so cute to add little quotes to my room. They have all sorts of designs such as marble, fun flamingo ones and quotes like these ones. All just for £4.50 and that is without the discount! They are plain inside so they’re perfect for accounts, plans and doodles. I am definitely excited to use mine.

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Next I got some wall art that shows my love for pugs perfectly. Hence my cute bedding also, I have a lot of pug themed stuff in my room and plan on putting this in a frame on my wall because I really love typography like this. This costs £6 so with the 20% code it’ll only be £4.80 and the print is really good quality.

These are the first few things I bought but they also do sweatshirts, sunglasses, coasters and all sorts of other great stuff. I feel like this brand will definitely grow quickly.

Hope you enjoyed this post and let me know if there are any other brands I should check out!

Thanks for reading x

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Mini IKEA Haul

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Hey guys,

I have recently moved back into my family home since finishing university and have been doing my room and making it more homely.

One of the main issues that I have with moving back is I have way too much stuff from having too places to live. I needed more storage in my room so I have had a look for drawers and things like this for my mountains of make-up that I own. So a trip to IKEA was definitely necessary.

While I was there I picked up two floating shelves (£8 each), I really like these because the brackets are not showing and they look really-modern. I also got two fake plants, these were cheap at only £3 each. I also got the two plant pots that were green to match my room for only 80p each. I am not usually a fan of fake plants but I think these don’t look too fake and are less effort than looking after a plant!

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For my make-up, I found the new Skadis line that IKEA are doing a really good idea for my make-up storage. They’re basically a peg board which you can get metal trays, little baskets and cloth baskets for which can hold a lot of make up on a wall.

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The cloth basket was out of stock so I have to go back for this but I did manage to get two peg boards for £7 each and little baskets which cost £2. The metal tray is £4 which is really good and I will get another one of these. It helps me because it allows me to have more room on my desk and good way of storage.

Even though this shop did cost £50 it is way less than what I would pay for a good set of drawers which would definitely take up more room. I will definitely be going back to finish my room!

Hope you found this post interesting, thanks for reading!

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Life immediately after a undergraduate course!

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Hey guys,

So it’s been a long time since I have properly posted anything that wasn’t a makeup review on this blog. Therefore, I thought I would put a sort of life update and talk about my experience after an undergraduate course in the UK.

I’ll be honest, these last three years have been crazy. There has been a lot of ups and downs for me personally but all of the stress and the anxiety felt worth it when I stood there holding my dissertation in my hands all completed and bound.

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It was an absolutely surreal moment, considering my nephew poured water all over my laptop just two weeks before this moment and I thought I wasn’t going to make my 4 deadlines in time, I did it! I am very proud of all the hard work that I put in and I am so glad I got a 2:1 overall.

However, after walking home I did end up feeling that hole in my stomach like “what do I do now?”. For three full years, I had been a psychology student just trying to get through all my assignments and now I have to decide what I actually want to do with that degree. I’ll be honest, it is daunting and I hope this is not just me that thinks so but being 21 years old and having to decide what career path to take is a big thing! To this day I am still wondering what am I going to be when I grow up and at this point… part of me wishes I did a degree that led me straight into a job.

So after a few weeks of just catching up on all the Netflix episodes and Youtube videos I had missed out on I went on my holiday to Cornwall. Such a beautiful little week away to take me away from the stresses of being newly unemployed (from my part time job in my uni town) and from being constantly asked by family and friends “so what are you going to do now you’ve finished uni?”. It was nice to get away from the pressure and have a lot of quiet time which I didn’t get for the three years at uni!

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I’d say, the one thing that has been very helpful in this stressful year of “finding my career” has been getting to do it all with my best friend/boyfriend who has supported me even when I have been mega-stressed. He has actually been my rock and has done so well himself this year and I can’t wait to see what next year brings for us!

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Finally, I just wanted to say I absolutely do not regret going to uni. So anyone that is either completing their course or thinking about starting one, my advice would to be do what makes you happy and a subject that gives you endless opportunities. Even though I am in this awkward in-between now; Psychology has meant that I have many transferable skills to offer and I have learned a subject I do actually find interesting.

 

Hope you have enjoyed this little look into my life at the moment! I hope that one day I will look back at this post and laugh at how indecisive I was!

Thanks for Reading and follow for more posts soon!

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Third year life update! 

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Hey guys, 

So you might have realised that I have been out of the loop for pretty much two or three months now. That is because I have only got two weeks left to finish my degree! 

Crazy that three years of my life amount to getting these two weeks worth of work done and dusted. But I have a few things to share with you guys. 

One, I turned 21 and even though it will be way past my birthday after may 4th I’m definitely doing a what I got for my birthday post! It was in the middle of a stressful time so I just had a lovely day with my family and the day before I went for my nails done and a massage with my sisters! 

Two, I passed my driving test! Guys, it took me way longer than I thought but I kept at it and had the most supportive family and boyfriend who picked me back up every time and never let me quit. When I did end up passing all of it was worth it because I have my little car now to take me anywhere! 

Three, third year takes such a toll on every aspect of your life. I can honestly say that I hardly see anyone from uni at the moment because we’re all completely panicked and having a hundred meltdowns. But I absolutely know that it’ll all be worth it in the end! 

If any of you want any tips or advice about how to get through third year please let me know! 

My twitter is @sofablogs

Thanks for Reading! 

How to go back to Uni without spending a fortune!

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Hey guys,

Apologies for the lack of posting but getting ready for University has been no joke this year. It is my third year which means it’s going to be the biggest/toughest year of my life! Therefore, I got some stuff to make me feel better about it and to prepare me for the hell that is to come. I tried to do this year as cheap as possible as I didn’t want to be worrying about money while worrying about everything else so all this stuff is very affordable for what it is!

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So the first thing I want to talk about is my tablet, it is actually Tesco’s own brand called Connect and is a windows powered tablet. I got the smaller one which was on sale at only £70! I thought this was a very good price for a tablet which I have since been using in my first few weeks of uni for writing notes on and looking at lecture slides. I find it a bit slower than maybe an ipad but very good and had word, powerpoint and everything a student could need during lectures. The memory is very high and you can also put a micro SD in for more storage! If you’re interested the link for it is here.

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As I bought the tablet I wanted a wireless keyboard that wasn’t expensive and was light enough to carry in my bag. So I got a slim silver one for £11 that I found on amazon which was actually on prime as well. Next day delivery is definitely no joke with amazon I swear! The link for this is here.

Next up, stationary! So because I wanted to get some cheap stuff I ended up going into good old poundland to have a look at their stuff. I was actually pleasantly surprised and got my cute little Academic Diary from there! I also got my cute pug calendar which actually goes well with my cute bedding (from tesco). I think these buys are well worth the money since the calendar came with a little board and a pen that you can jot important notes down on.

Also, my cool water cup is adorable! This ones cheating as my mom bought it for me when she went on the London eye and it’s actually made me want to drink water a lot more. I would advise anyone to get a water bottle because it saves so much money from buying bottles of water every time and you’ll need it during the long lectures.

Also you’re going to need some exercise books! I found these the most expensive things to try and find (apart from the tablet) if you want a fancy one be willing to pay £7 for two! However, I got these cute little green ones for a pound each from Tiger which do the job and are easy to put in my bag.

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Last but not least I got some new boots from Sainsbury’s! The 25% clothing was on so I made the most of it by getting puts that were £25 for £19 and I’m sure these will get me to uni through the winter.

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Hope you enjoyed this post and let me know if you want to see more of my new uni room or want any tips about university life!

Thanks for reading!

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Storytime: How I found out I had an Anxiety Disorder.

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Hey Guys, 

So I wanted to just talk on here about something I do not talk about much as I feel like this blog is about my passions so I don’t want to make it a negative place. However, I’ve seen a lot of people on Facebook sharing a post about “whoring out your undiagnosed mental disorder” and it has got to me so I thought I’d share my story. 

So every since I was little I have always found I stressed out about small things. I never knew why and sometimes I’d find myself in a panic and I wouldn’t know why or what that was about but I knew it wasn’t a normal reaction. I then had my first panic attack when I was around eight years old. I was ill at the time anyways and I remember not being able to breathe and the feeling of panic come over me was uncontrollable. It was a feeling I wouldn’t wish anyone to feel, my mom and dad didn’t know what was going on so called an ambulance. I remember they told me I was ill but didn’t tell me what happened or what it was. It was only when I was older that I realised. 

So when I got to high school I didn’t really have any problems until I was doing my exams. I would get to the point where I was having a break down everyday! I would try to revise for an exam and then stress about how much I knew and then not get anything done. However, it wasn’t too bad at this point it was just a little bit of anxiety and then it would go away. 

The worst point was in sixth form where it got so bad that if I didn’t feel in control of a situation then I would panic. I wouldn’t get trains by myself because I was scared I would miss my stop, if someone said they would be there for a particular time and they weren’t I would panic and get frustrated! At exam points these things were magnified like crazy. It got to the point where I started googling it, the symptoms so high racing, panic and fear of everything and found out about anxiety disorders. As soon as I saw this I knew I would have to go to the doctors but I put it off so much, I know the feeling of being anxious about needing to sort out your anxiety. It’s a horrible circle you get yourself in where every day you’re full of dread. 

So eventually after months I went to the doctors and they diagnosed me as having a Generalized Anxiety Disorder. However, all they did was give my strong anti-depression tablets which they were going to up the dosage of to the point where I felt I would be dependent on them. So I decided against it, I decided to try and find other methods like not drinking as much caffeine, getting enough sleep and things like that which helped a little. 

The real help I got was when I got to university. I knew because of the new change I got to the point where I couldn’t get a train because I thought I’d miss my stop and not know where it went. Luckily my university do this mental health service where you can talk to a psychologist and that’s when I felt I was actually diagnosed. After a few sessions of going through my anxiety and ways to work through it, I finally understood it and what I had to do. 
I want to make it clear that not many people are as lucky as me to have the free mental health service I got offered by the university. Therefore, the stigma and to say those “whoring out” their “undiagnosed” mental illness is just unfair and adds to the stigma as you don’t know what people do. Many people reading this may not have known that the whole time at uni I have been dealing with this. Mental illness should be seen like any other illness and sadly there’s just not enough money going in to helping so many people my age dealing with this.

Be kind to everyone! 

I hope my story has helped people and I hope people take that step to find the appropriate help and support they need.

Thanks for reading!