Tuesday 22 September 2015

Tuesday Tuesday- September

Hey guys! It's time for my monthly music post where I run down the chart and talk about my favourite songs of the month. This is a week early, the last tuesday in september is next week but since next week is my freshers week, I realised I probably wouldn't have time to do it then!



The official top 10 are:

1) What do you mean- Justin Bieber
This song has been everywhere this month! I don't mind it too much but it isn't something I go out of my way to listen to, and not something I could listen to twice in a row if that makes sense.

2) Easy love- Sigala
I like the "kiddie" part of this with the young voice's and the young Michael Jackson feel, it's fun and summery which is nice as we head into the colder months!

3) How deep is your love- Calvin Harris
I did slate this a lot last month and I enjoy it a little bit more although maybe it has been around just a bit too long now!

4) Don't be so hard on yourself- Jess Glynne
 Love Jess so I do really like this song although maybe not as much as her other songs actually! It's a lot slower that her others so that might be why although I do like the lyrics.

5) I can't feel my face- The Weekend
This song makes me laugh, the lyrics crack me up and I have loved singing this out loud in the car!

6) Fight song- Rachel Platten
I love this song so much! It's actually in my playlist which you will see down below. It's so empowering and fun to sing out lout too. A great power ballad!

7) Marvin Gaye-Charlie Puth ft Meghan Trainor 
I love this song too! This is one of my fave songs at the moment it's so fun and makes me want to dance.

8) Peanut Butter Jelly- Galantis
Another song which makes me laugh a lot. I find the lyrics really funny, it's not normally my style of music but I do like it.

9) Intoxicated- Martin Solveig & GTA
This isn't really my fave song in the top 10, I like the backtrack a lot but I like good lyrics too and these don't really make me want to sing out which I love to do.

10) Aint nobody- Felix Jaehn ft Jasmine Thompson
Her voice is a little bit like Ellie Goulding I think! I do like this song but I haven't heard it as much this month, maybe I just haven't been listening when it's on the radio!

My Playlist:
 She's kinda hot- 5 seconds of summer
Fire Under my feet- Leona Lewis
Fight song- Rachel Platten
Cut the cord- Shinedown

You can find this and all my other playlists here.

What have you been loving this month?
Lots of love
Eleanor x


Friday 18 September 2015

Endgame: The Calling - book review




Hey guys! I have finished book 24 of my 30 book challenge for 2015 so I am feeling very proud! This book was one that really caught my eye in the shops and so I bought it quite a while ago but only got round to reading it a few weeks ago. I went into Endgame: The Calling blind, as the blurb does not give anything away. I have not read anything by James Frey before and so I did not know what to expect.

The book is about 12 teenagers who are part of ancient blood lines, and when meteors hit the earth, the start of the end of the earth, they are instructed by the creators of the world to "play the game," to kill each other and find the keys. The one who lives and finds the keys has the ability to save who they want from the destruction of the world. The teenagers are from all over the world something which I really loved about this book, there are only so many apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic YA novels about white americans.

A really interesting thing about the book is that inside it is a hidden puzzle, if you get the clue you can win a large sum of money. I had no intention of trying to work the clue out as I just wanted to enjoy the story but I am excited to see if someone gets the clues. There is also a website where people can talk about this hidden puzzle and it explains more about the different ancient blood lines too.

I liked the idea of following 12 different people in their quests to find the first key, the earth key. Frey changes between the characters so that by the end of the book there is a part of you that wants them all to win. However, what confused me most was that I also didn't want any of them to win. The teenagers are trained killers, they are blood thirsty and out to kill and so I didn't sympathise with any of them either, some of them less so than others. Even the character that I assume Frey wanted us to sympathise with most, Sarah the white american (just when I thought we'd have a different main character) still had a dark side and some of the other characters I felt were more interesting anyway. I am not sure if that was Frey's intention or not.

The plot is really imaginative and exciting, it constantly kept me on my toes. It's gory, with lots of blood shed and amazing action scenes which regular readers know I love. There is love within it of course, and of course it was a difficult love which shouldn't have happened.This irritated me a bit but it did give the story an interesting twist; when the teenagers who were supposed to be killing each other fall in love. There is lots of love for Sarah through her boyfriend  Christopher who I disliked as a character. He was annoying, idiotic and blinded by his love which is all the things I hate. Again, I don't know if it was Frey's intention for us to see him like that but they was definitely my views.

This is the first in a trilogy, I have pre-ordered the next one which comes out on the 6th of october and I am really excited for it. I would recommend this book I think it's clever, exciting and mysterious. I would give it 3.5 stars out of five.

If you've read this tell me what you thought! Also comment if you think you would give this book a go after reading my review!
Lots of love
Eleanor x

Tuesday 15 September 2015

Letter to my insecurities





Hey guys! Today's little thought is based around the idea that for girls especially (but also for boys!) we often feel like it's our job to look "pretty." By pretty I mean the socially constructed idea of what "pretty" is. You know the feeling of terror when you go out without make-up on, that we are letting someone down. It doesn't make sense. We don't have to look a certain way. Our imperfections are okay and we can and should love ourselves for how we look now. To prove this, I have written this letter about the parts of me that I get insecure about. I hope you enjoy and feel free to also do this letter, to show people how important and not "big-headed" it is to love yourself and your imperfections.

To myself and anyone else who feels the need to comment upon how I look,

I do not have the ideal body type. I am not six foot 10 with big boobs and flawless skin. But that does not mean I am not beautiful, that does not mean I should not love my body.

I have no boobs. Nothing. Nada. They have not grown for five years and there is no cleavage to speak off. But yano know what? I do not have back pain and these babies will stay perky for a lot longer.

I do not have a flat stomach. I have a little stomach pouch at the bottom of my stomach. But so what? This protects my important organs so that one day I can have a baby. 

I am bottom heavy to say the least. I have a pear shaped body with no thigh gap to speak off and a rather large behind. Who cares? Big butts are in and if someone tells me my thighs are too big then I had snap their head off like a walnut between these big boys.

I have random fat at the back of my calves that's really prominent and no one else seems to have. But do you know what my legs do? They help me walk and run and dance and if they were thinner I might not be able to do that which would suck.

Yes, my face is covered with acne marks and and spots. But my hair and natural hair colour is a gift from the gods, it is smooth and silky as fuck. I have a cute button nose and I have eyes you can get lost in, they're massive and beautiful and deep. 

I am well aware I am 4ft10, you do not need to comment on my hight. I'm smaller than the cute "small girl" phenomena on the internet, I am really tiny but that's okay. It's me and it's rad as hell. 

Our  bodies was not designed to please others. They were not designed so that we should be aesthetically pleasing. It was designed so we can walk and talk and think. So we can learn and try and succeed. So we can brace all weathers, so we can have opinions and love and live and laugh and cry and feel. 
Our bodies were not made to be pretty
They were made to be amazing.


Friday 11 September 2015

Positive thinking pinterest board

Hey guys! Today I bring to you another one of my pinterest boards, this one is all about positive thinking about your body. You know how much I advocate self love and positive thinking so hopefully as I show you some of my favourite pins on my board they will help and inspire you too!












You can find the rest of this pinterest board and all my others here.

Lots of love
Eleanor x

Tuesday 8 September 2015

Making friends

Hey guys! Many of us, myself included are soon heading back to school and university, some of us for the first time. One of the most daunting this about this is the question of

"Will I make friends?"

I often find that I find friends in the most unexpected places and with people that I wouldn't have thought I'd ever be friends with. My number one tip would be to not have an idea of who you would like to be friends with. We all have an idea of an "ideal" friend but if we do this we will miss the people in front of us who we'd actually get on really well with. Talk to everyone!



My second tip would be to be friendly. Often you will have to make the first move, talk to them first, invite them to somewhere or pop up first. We all have to put in effort and putting yourself forward sometimes is a good way to start off a friendship!

Another thing I find is that friends can be found in different places, at school, through other friends, through sports clubs and often joining new things can be a good way to find new people to connect with.

Social networking is a great way to make friends now. It's easy and quick to join groups on facebook. For people going to uni, try and find your flat mates of course mates by seeing if there are any facebook groups for them. I found loads of people in my flat this way and it's a good plan to have some idea of knowing who you're spending the next year with!

Overall, remember to be yourself and to relax. You will find that you will make friends as humans are social creatures and often everyone is in the same boat together,

Lots of love
Eleanor x

Friday 4 September 2015

Coffee and a catch-up



Hey guys! Today I just thought I'd have a bit of a catch-up and fill you in with what is happening currently with my future plans and with my blogging. I hope you are all sitting comfortably with a preferred beverage (I am as I type drinking peppermint tea so I lied about the coffee sorry) and I shall begin.

So on the 25th of September (21 days away!), I will be moving one and a half hours away from Leeds where I currently live to Nottingham. I will be studying psychology at Nottingham Trent university and living in halls with 11 other strangers. This is quite scary and by quite I mean very but I am really looking forward to it too! I am sure I will keep you up to date with everything!

Those of you who didn't know, I currently write three blogs. This one which most people know about and which is my first blog. However over the summer I have also been documenting my life over on a new blog called littlesummeradventures (link is at the side) and I have decided to continue this blog as a lifestyle blog to show you guys what I get up to at uni! I now additionally write a food and recipe blog which is at littlerecipesfromlittlepeople and is all to do with food and recipes and reviews of restaurants ect which is also linked at the side.

Going to uni however means I may not have a lot of time to blog as much as I am currently doing. I will be balancing uni work, a part time job, the gym and having a social life all while trying to fit in the three blogs I currently write. This is not going to be easy and as always, I accept the challenge!

Unfortunately I know I am not going to be able to write as much as I am, but I am aiming to post still four times a week. Twice on this blog, the same usual "little thought" posts and fun Friday post and then once on my recipe blog and once on my adventure/lifestyle blog to keep you all up to date with my life!

I am self catered at uni and so will probably still be cooking, however I am saving a lot of drafts of recipe's I am making over the summer so that I will have enough post on my foodie blog. I will of course be reviewing new restaurants in Nottingham which I am super excited about seeing the cafe's and restaurants we do not have in Leeds. I aim to start a new series on that blog too focusing on different foods and ingredients so I should have plenty to talk about there.

As always I will be planning my posts monthly and pre writing many of them so with any luck I will be able to fit it in!

I am however going to give myself freshers week off from blogging just while I settle in and get used to my course and timetable and how things are run so from the 25th to the 4th of October I will not be posting on any of my blogs unless I have something I really want to show you on my lifestyle blog about what I have been up to!

This is what is happening at the moment and I will update you if the plan changes which it may do knowing me!

Lots of love as always
Eleanor x

Tuesday 1 September 2015

So what you failed?

Hey guys! I'm guessing by now everyone has had their exam results back, GCSE's, A levels, uni and others. I wanted to focus today's little thought on these results. To most people, the little letter on a piece of paper handed to you on this fateful day is important. It was to me too. Sleepless nights the night before, shaking hands, I bet these are all familiar feelings. I have had joy, disappointment and everything in between on various different exam results day.


If you do well, it's brilliant and I am very happy for you. If you are like me however and you are forever feeling like you don't get what you deserve or you don't do as well as hoped, I know how horrible that can feel.

On my year 12 results day I was horrified at my results and cried and cried and stormed and swore, the whole fiasco and that was while I was still in the hall.

This year, I got the same results but this time I didn't have a massive show, I simply accepted it and moved on.

At the end of the day although I did not get into my first choice of university and the grades I got did not reflect how hard I worked, it truly is not the end of the world. There are other opportunities, other universities, other courses, other schools, other ways in. Often these opportunities are better than what you wanted originally.

In my short life, I have learnt that things in life very rarley go the way you want them too. and you have to be prepared to accept that and move on. You cannot grow as a person if you continue to let yourself be consumed with what you wished had happened or hoped had happened. You cannot keep your mind closed to other possibilities or your going to seriously create a problem for yourself.

So what? You failed, you didn't get the grades, you didn't get the job, you made a mistake.
What do you do?

You pick yourself up, you hold your head up and you keep going. You keep trying. Don't let yourself give up because of a number on a paper, they don't reflect you so keep fighting and keep plodding on.

Lots of love
Eleanor x