Purchase of the day | Primark, The 1975

Shirts - Primark - £12

I don't usually buy anything from Primark, it's one of those shops where they either have exactly what you want or nothing at all but when entering today, I couldn't resist picking up these two shirts. They're so floaty and colourful and not for a bad price either. I've noticed that Primark are putting their prices up, they need to make sure they don't get ahead of themselves!

The 1975 CD - HMV - £4.99

HMV has gone awesome. I don't know why or what has happened for it to go awesome but the one in my town has had a total transformation since the scare of it closing down. They now sell Vinyls in-store, have a huge choice of artists that aren't particularly mainstream and are selling CDs from independent record labels. They've also started hosting gigs from local bands and have even had Goldblade perform there. 

Today I purchased The 1975's album. I've been aware of them for a long time, they've played at festivals I've been to and even ones hosted in my home town but I've never taken time to actually sit down and listen to them. It wasn't until T in the Park was on TV that I heard them properly for the first time and since then they've become this summer's soundtrack. I feel like the album is litteraly a compilation of their singles with a few extras thrown it. Every song is ace!

No17 Blusher Brush - Boots - £2.99

I finally got round to buying a blusher brush today after needing one for a very long time. It's amazing how expensive they are which did have a big impact on the brush I chose. This one was only £2.99 and compared to £10+ that the other ones were selling for it was pretty cheap - I'll just have to see how long it lasts for...

Challenge | Questions 3 / / 4 / / 5

3. Have you ever fantasised about changing your first name? To what?

Yes! Probably to Tabitha. Then it could be shortened to Tabby which sounds like Abi. At the moment though my friend calls me Bee which which I kind of like. Just different versions of my name I suppose!

4. When do you get your best ideas?

At night when I'm in that twilight zone and I'm not really thinking of anything but at the same time it's as though all my thoughts in the day come together, mixing up ideas and producing things I don't think I'd ever think of if it wasn't for being in that state.

It's either then when ideas come to me or when I'm least expecting it. Whenever I try and think of something to write or draw I can never think of anything good but when I'm not focused on anything a load of thoughts come into my head at once, it can be quite annoying!

5. Have you ever had chance to meet your heroes? 

It depends what you class as a hero. I've been lucky enough to meet people I admire, The Charlatans, The Heartbreaks, The Gramotones. Then there are the people I look up to like John Robb and Sarah Lay who are amazing journalists. With John Robb coming from a background pretty much like my own it lets me set my aspirations high!

But the one hero that I'd really like to meet is the Doctor who saved my life when I was two years old! I know I have kind of met him when I was a baby, but I've never had the chance to shake his hand and thank him. If it wasn't for him my life would be soo different to how it is now... I might not have even made it to ten years old, let alone eighteen. I have a lot to owe this guy and I hope that someday I'll be able to meet him and let him know how grateful I am.

Challenge | Question 2

What are you most afraid of?

I don’t know why, I think it’s the unknown but I can never talk about death or think about death without feeling sick. I mean, I can’t imagine not being here. Leaving all of your friends and family behind.  Not living, seeing or feeling. Everything just numb, gone and forgotten about in a rotting grave.

I’m a religious person, I do believe in a God or a greater being but somehow that still doesn’t fully comfort me. I think now with the world becoming more secular you’re open to more views on life after death allowing you to think more and make your own opinion.

It’s great how in medieval times God and Religion was so powerful that when someone died people celebrated rather than being sad. They thought you were going to a better place and they had no fear as it was an honour to die. That to me is such a good way of living. To believe that there is something, spiritual or not just that sense of there being something after death may take away the fear.

I try and tell myself this and I do believe that the spirit carries on, but for some strange reason, I still fear death.

I see our bodies as an empty vessel, almost like a shell that the soul takes on and once the body dies, the spirit then leaves. The whole body thing is just like a machine.

Take a car for example. We have to set the ignition for the car to work and then we can take it on a journey. The engine runs by its self until it has no fuel. I think our bodies are like this. The soul ignites us and brings us to life, then it controls our journey and what we are like and then one day we die (or should I say, run out of fuel) and the spirit leaves the body.

After that, the possibilities are endless…

• Reincarnation – Do we get to live again as our soul takes on another body? Is it just like stepping out of one car and into another?
• Ghosts – Do we still get to roam the Earth? Maybe space? Or other planets?
• Heaven and Hell – are we met by our maker?
• Nothing – Does the spirit also die?

The list goes on and on.

I do think we are a ball of energy which is released once we die. If we’re ghosts can this energy have the force to push and pull things? Are there a hundred more senses that the spirit has that our human body is only subjected to five? There is so much we don’t understand because I think our human brain is limited to the spirits knowledge.

One thing is for sure is that death happens to us all, everyone goes through the process and yet no one knows what this process consists of.

Like I said before, I’m afraid of death but I think I’m more afraid of the unknown. 

Sister's Graduation | OOTD

My sister graduated with a First Class Honors degree the other day at Leeds University.

It was a strange day, everyone was floating around in their big black gowns, I felt like I was on the set of Harry Potter! The sun was shining for the majority of the day too, making it even better, and everyone’s families were there, suited and booted and looking so proud – it was verrrryy cute.

The day before I’d been to the beach with my friends and at around 5 in the evening I got a phone call from my dad saying that we were going to Leeds that evening instead of the following morning. I rushed home, franticly threw a few things into a suitcase and we headed off.

We stayed at Headingley Stadium which was pretty cool, our rooms over looked the cricket ground.

The ceremony was fun. Everyone looked so serious and fancy in their gowns even the professors were swishing around, the whole pompousness was ace.  I must admit though, I was jealous of some of their hats. I mean dayum, as if they can only wear them at important uni events!

We ate at the Slug and Lettuce for tea and if you haven't been there I totally think you should go. The food is to die for, I'd recommend the cookie explosion for dessert. Heavenly. 

In the evening we went to a little jazz bar and hung out there for a while. There was this band playing and everyone was having an awesome time, was a good vibe to round off the day.

My dress was from Lipsy, my sunglasses from Topshop and my shoes were from Dune…

I had a nightmare finding comfy shoes for the graduation. First I bought some from New Look and within the first five minutes of wearing them they had totally torn my ankles apart. They skipped right past the blister stage and just sliced into my ankles making them bleed. Soooo I had to go and buy some more,I pretty much tried on every sandal in town and they either rubbed on the cuts already made or didn’t fit. Then the last pair I tried on were the ones I got. Me and my sister had literally given up but on the way out of town we spotted these and they are soo comfy and real leather, and with them being in the sale, I couldn’t not get them!  

Challenge | Question 1

Are you living your life purpose or are you still searching for it?

I would say I’m still searching when phrasing it as my ‘life purpose’.

I don’t really know what my life purpose yet, but then again does anyone? What is anyone’s life purpose?

I guess I’ll start my ‘purpose’ in the next few months when studying journalism at university. But I don’t really know if I want journalism to be my life purpose. I don’t think it’s healthy to be defined by a job, unless you define that job. You’ll obviously be influenced by your job with spending most of your time there, but is that really why we’ve been put on this planet? Am I here to write for a publication or to take photos of what’s happening in the world? Surely that’s what you do in life in order to live but that can’t be your sole purpose.

I think you just have to live and enjoy everything you can. Take on new opportunities and basically just have a good time. Then if that is life’s purpose, I think I’m doing a pretty good job of it. You just need to be satisfied with what you have and learn to accept the life you’ve been given and then I believe you’ll begin enjoying it more.

There’s not a lot I’d change in my life at the moment, even though I’m not contributing to the world as such (I’m not saving lives or making new discoveries) I’m just living and loving and surely if you flip the statement, then I think that that in itself is the ‘Purpose of Life’.

Have you found your purpose?

Blog 100 | Challenge 100

This is my 100^th blog post and what better way than to set myself a challenge…

Seeing as this is my 100^th blog, I have decided to answer 100 questions I’ve found on a collection of ‘self-discovery’ sites and hopefully before the summer ends I will have managed to get through them and will have ‘discovered myself’ before I leave for university.

The inspiration behind me setting myself this challenge is because I recently went to a Mind and Spirit fair where I spoke to a lady about writing a journal. She explained how it had been self-meditating for her and had helped her through hard times in her life. I know this idea isn’t quite like writing a journal but hopefully it will allow me to express myself and discover things I didn’t know about myself. It will be one big learning process for the both of us!

Some of the questions are quite personal and some are very vague but I will try to be extremely honest with you throughout answering them and more importantly be brutally honest with myself.

Do expect some random blogs in between these questions as I may want to share something with you that might not be entirely related to this challenge I’ve set myself, but I think the majority of them will be! (at least  100 of them however!)

Anyway here goes! My 100 questions challenge…

The only rule is that I answer them all.

Wish me luck

J   

OOTD | Summer

Hat - MissSelfridge

T-shirt - TopShop

Kimono - NewLook

Shorts - Primark

Watch - Gift

Necklaces - Gifts

Not to mention the Bowie phone case, a Christmas present from my Aunty!