Song/Album Of The Month | July

It's that time again! It's time for me to share with you the music I have been loving throughout the month of July...

Song Of The Month

That's right, the single I've most loved throughout this month is John Newman's Love Me Again from his soon to be released album, which is yet to be given a title. I'm not the only one who thinks this song is stunning, as it previously hit the top spot in the charts and still remains in the top ten. John is the incredible voice in Rudimental's hit single 'Feel the Love' and making a name for yourself as a solo artist can be a difficult task anyway, but even harder after featuring on someone else's track and being fingertips away from the stardom you want to reach. But Newman has well and truly established himself in the music industry with this beauty of a track! His soulful tones fit perfectly over deep piano thuds to make the most incredible northern soul throwback. Although it may have already done it's time at the top of the chart, I still believe it be to be a brilliant summer track that everyone will want blaring out of their car stereo's. If you are yet to hear this single, then take a listen here!

Album Of The Month



Guess who's become all patriotic? Yep, me! Having it been a year since the UK proved itself as being so great with the Jubilee, the Olympics and the Paralympics, what better way to celebrate that than to turn back time and enjoy the incredible album created by Gary Barlow and The Commonwealth Band 'Sing'. The album was originally created just for the Queens Diamond Jubilee, but it's fair to say it was an album enjoyed by the whole nation throughout the whole of the summer. The single 'Sing' became a huge hit, as did the album, with them both reaching the top spot in the charts at the same time. Gary took months out of his busy schedule to create 'Sing' and traveled all over the Commonwealth collecting thousands of voices and notes from homemade musical instruments either on his Mac or his iPhone and created a stunning song which made the whole country smile. Just listening to this makes me realise how amazing last summer was and that I am proud to be British...

x

Liebster Award | I've been nominated!

I've been nominated for the Liebster Award! A huge thank you goes to Hannah from Random Brilliance With Me for my nomination, I really appreciate it! She has a fantastic blog and its one defiantly worth checking out!

The purpose of the Liebster Award is to give recognition to those new to the blogging world who have less than 200 followers, just like myself!

The rules for this award are as follows: 

1. Answer the 11 questions that were asked by the blogger than nominated you and then share 11 random facts about yourself

2. Choose 5 bloggers with under 200 followers to pass the award on to

3. Create 11 questions for them to answer on their blog

4. Visit their blog and tell them about their nomination!

My answers to the questions Hannah asked to her nominees: 

1.  If you could have one super power for the day what would it be?

I love sight seeing and visiting new and interesting places, so I think being able to fly would be the perfect one for me!

2.  Do you prefer cats or dogs?

Hmm, I'm a bit picky with dogs and don't always trust them so I'd have to say I prefer cats

3.  If you could have any job in the world what would you be?

My ultimate dream job would to be either a set or lighting designer for an artist/band on tour. The idea of live music, travelling, being creative, having fun, working with different people and doing all the things I love just sounds amazing! You never know, one day I might get there...

4.  What is your all-time favourite movie?

Ahh this is a difficult one! I'm a bit of a big kid and love animated films, so some of my favourites include Toy Story, Despicable Me, Monsters Inc, Cars, Finding Nemo, Up, Wall-E etc. But I'm also a lover of movies such as The Notebook, 17 Again, Iron Man, Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging, Aquamarine, the list goes on and on and on...

5.  Which is your favourite Disney character and why?

Another difficult one... I'd have to say Tigger, I've always loved him. I think he's just so adorable! (I even cried when I met him in Disney Land when I was younger)

6.  What do you have the most trouble with during makeup application? Eyeliner, brows, eye shadow, etc.?

Top eyeliner, no matter how hard I try I can never get a straight line, which is why most of the time I don't bother 

7.  What is your favourite physical feature of yourself?

I'd have to say my eyes, some days they look blue, others they look green, I've even had a hint of yellow in them before! I love using eyeshadow, mascara and eyeliner to make my eyes look pretty too

8.  What is your biggest fear?

This is probably very deep, but my biggest fear is death. I appreciate eveything in this world, I'm so grateful to be alive, well and loving life, that I just don't ever want it to end. Also the  thought of not knowing how or when I will die, really scares me...

9.  What is your favourite inspirational quote?

'You are an immovable force with magic at your finger tips, it's now your choice how you use that magic... if you're reading this and thinking... 'but it's only me and I'm not big enough or good enough to achieve' then that's exactly what you'll get.. live in the light or live in the dark... you choose' - Robbie Williams

10. If your house was on fire and you could save 3 items what would they be?

Assuming that family and pets don't count as 'items'... 

- My mobile phone

- My first teddy bear that I had when I was a baby

- My box of Take That/Robbie Williams memorabilia

11. What is your favourite type of weather and why?

When it's sunny and warm, because it makes everyone happy especially when it comes to the UK! Plus it's a chance to get a tan ;)

11 random facts about me:

1. I live in the UK and unlike most people, I actually love it here.

2. My favourite colour is purple, yet recently I'v become a bit of a pink lover.

3. London is my favourite city and one day hope to live there.

4. I'd describe my style as 'stylish yet comfortable'. 

5. My favourite band are Take That and Gary Barlow is my favourite member. 

6. I hope to gain an apprenticeship with either the BBC or ITV and hopefully pursue a career in the field of TV/Radio Production. If not I hope to do theatre production.

7. My family are the most important people in my life, I love them all so much and honestly don't know where I would be without them. I am extremely grateful to have such a tight knit family.

8. I started this blog as something to help keep my creative ideas flowing, to share things with new and interesting people and as something for me to enjoy. So far, I'm loving it!

9. My favourite food is Pasta, it goes with everything!

10. I hate the sound of polystyrene being put into a plastic bag.

11. Photography/Media/Radio/TV/Music/Concerts/Theatre - Yep, they're all my kind of thing!

Who do I nominate for the Liebster Award?

Kelsey-Alie from Adventures of Food, Beauty and Life

Sinead from Sinead Dreaming Again

Tanyia from Tanyia Talks

Hannah from Northern Hurricane

Laura from LouLouBella

My questions to you are:

1. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?

2. How long have you been blogging?

3. How would you describe yourself in 5 words?

4. Where do you see yourself in 10 years time?

5. What do you enjoy most about your morning/make-up routine and why?

6. Do you have a moto in life that you try to live by?

7. Who is your celebrity crush? 

8. Do you have any hobbies? What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

9. What's your pet peeve?

10. What languages do you speak?

11. What do you love most about blogging/your blog?

Good luck to the people I've nominated in answering the questions, you deserve to get all the followers in the world! 

Once again, thankyou to Hannah Random Brilliance With Me for nominating me!

x

Song/Album Of The Month | June

This is a new segment I have created called 'Song/Album Of The Month' where at the start of every month I will post my favourite song (old or recent/in the charts) and album (old or recent/in the charts) for the previous month. I'm a huge music fan and love all kinds of genres and as musical posts have been some of my most popular, I thought I'd give it a whirl! So here we go....

Song Of The Month

As a previous blog post has suggested (which you can check out here, where I discussed his incredible new album Momentum) I'm a huge Jamie Cullum fan. I love his jazz/pop style along with his unique voice and piano playing skills. His cover of Rihanna's Don't Stop The Music has to be my favourite song for the past month, purely because I cannot stop listening to it! It comes from Jamie's album The Pursuit, released in 2009 and features many other incredible songs. Jamie's version of Don't Stop The Music features heavy beats along with his soulful voice and magical piano notes. It's one of those songs where if your stuck with what song to listen to, you can put this on and you know you'll enjoy it. He makes the lyrics far more meaningful, which is why personally, I prefer it to the original and recommend it as a song you should defiantly have a listen to! 

Album Of The Month

Mark Owen's new album, The Art Of Doing Nothing is also something I have previously blogged about (take a look here). It's his first solo album to released since his How The Mighty Fall (released in 2005) and is completely worthy of a place as my favourite album of June. Mark Owen is know to be part of one of the best bands to come out of the UK, Take That, with which he was one many Brits, Ivor Novello's and numerous other achievement awards. The Art Of Doing Nothing is an album I've had on repeat and it's one you can never get bored of. You could chose to leave listening to this album for days, weeks or even months and as soon as the first song is played, you'd fall instantly back in love with it; it's that perfect! My favourite song from the album is Heavens Falling, I knew even from just hearing the previews that it would be my favourite and its fair to say the full version is even better! The overall album is a mix of bass/techno beats, echos, rapping (not from Owen) along with Marks amazing vocals both whereby he  hits both the high and low notes with ease. It's pure simplistic perfectness. 

And that concludes my Song/Album Of The Month for June! I hope this has encouraged you to give some new music a listen or to even turn back time and listen to a song you'd completely forgotten about. What's was your favourite song/album for last month? Comment below, I'd love some recommendations!

x

I've been gone for way too long...

I would firstly like to apologise to anyone that has been following this blog, as I haven't posted anything in a very very long time! I set myself the challenge of starting this blog and completing Sprinkle Of Glitter's 30 Day Snap and I didn't do it, and for that I am extremely annoyed at myself and very sorry to you, the reader.

I just haven't been feeling myself over the past few weeks, and I'm not quite sure why... I've just been really struggling with the momentum to do anything, I've been feeling really down all the time, but when I have needed to I've picked myself up. I'm not normally one to be down in the dumps, I see myself as quite a happy, jolly person (yes, I have my off days and moments when I'm angry or upset... but don't we all?!). I'm a life lover, no matter what happens, but recently that's just not been the case. 

So I thought that I needed to get all this out of my system and there is no better place than here. I'm not bothered if nobody reads this or even thinks that I'm just being silly, but as I'm writing this, I'm slowly starting to feel better about everything. Which for me, is a good thing.

I need to run this blog as a motivation for me, as something to keep my creative ideas following and to keep myself happy. I have some very interesting things happening throughout this month and I hope to post many of them on here!

I promise to do better

x