i don't know what this is

writer's block

i know exactly what i want to say but the words just won’t come out. is this writers block? i have never experienced writers block despite writing for years, i mean yes i’ve stopped writing but that was always just due to laziness or procrastination, but this is different. i know what i want to write, and i actually do want to write this essay because i think it could be interesting but the words are just stuck in my head, hiding from the paper. i think it might be writers block because i have typed this very easily, i’m barely even having to think about what i write, which how things usually go when i’m faced with blank paper. i think i have been very lucky in my writing, people plan and plan and still struggle to get their words out, still have that fear of the blank screen or empty page, but i revel in it, a blank page for me is a space i can fill quickly, my hands just gliding over the paper and ink spilling from my pen and forming sentences i am proud of. if this is writers block then i understand the frustration it brings to the writers of the world because its safe to say, this sucks. dear words, please come out of my head and join the blank page, i don’t want you in my head anymore, i want you to have a safe place, a home in the snow-like whiteness of my laptop screen. it’ll be okay, i promise. you just gotta come out and try it. 

WHAT IS THIS?

Hey, this is just something I wrote whilst sitting on my bathroom floor (I was doing one of those deep cleansing nose strip things and waiting for my timer to go off, my bathroom floor isn't a regular haunt of mine!) and struggling with an essay. I wanted to just get some words out and this was the result. My poetry teacher tells us that if you don't know what to write, just write "i don't know what to write" again and again until you do know what you want to write. And I guess this is bigger form of that. I actually quite like something about whatever this is that I've written, and that's why I decided to post it on here, I guess. 

Anyway, I'm going to go back to this essay and desperately try to write something! Do you have any tips for writers block? If you do pleeeease tell me in the comments - i'm not coping well with it! 

We'll be back to regular posts next time, haha. 

Love Chloe x

Dinner Time With Chloe

Chicken and Vegetable Stir-fry

THE FOOD
For dinner today I had a chicken and vegetable stir-fry. It was delicious and super healthy (I had a huge slice of Victoria Sponge in the afternoon, so y'know I was mostly just making up for that!) and I thought I'd share it with you because it was so easy to make.

YOU WILL NEED

• Chicken, cut into strips (totally optional, if you don't eat chicken then substitute it with something else, like more veggies, haha)
• Broccoli 
• Cauliflower 
• Baby corn
• Cherry tomatoes
• Half a can of chopped tomatoes 
• Olive oil
• (Obviously you can choose whatever vegetables you want, this is just want I had. And I'm probably never going to know if you use courgette instead of cauliflower, and even if I did I wouldn't care because courgette is delicious and would totally work here, so just do your thing.)

YO CHLOE, WHAT SHOULD I DO NOW?

Begin by heating up a little bit of olive oil in a frying pan, and then add your chicken. Fry for about 5 minutes (it might be quicker or slower than this depending on your hob/stove, it's hard to tell because the hob at university is incredibly bad). 

Once the chicken is cooked through and just starting to brown add your veggies. I added the broccoli and cauliflower first as they take a bit longer to soften.  

Once the vegetables are tender (after about 5 minutes), add your chopped tomatoes and stir so that everything is covered. Wait for the chopped tomatoes to warm up (this only takes about a minute).

Serve! 

YOU CAN ALSO...

If you wanted you could add noodles, rice or even pasta to this and it would taste amazing. I was originally planning on using noodles but I forgot to buy them, but it would be delicious with noodles too! 

Also a little drizzle of soy sauce added at the same time at the chopped tomatoes would also be really nice, but again I didn't have soy sauce. 

I'M GOING TO EAT NOW

And that's it. As I said, it's so easy to make and takes less than 20 minutes, woooo! So thanks for reading. In the comments tell me what your favourite food is :)

Love Chloe x

Mmmmmmm...

The Daily Traveller // 20th March 2015

HEY
My 20th of March was pretty rad, so I decided to vlog it and blog it. I'm sure you've already guessed that this is the blog part of that, but there's going to be a link to the vlog part at the end of this post so look for that when you get there and go relive this reading experience in video form ;) Anyway, so my day was rad, as I said. Here's what happened.

SOLAR ECLIPSE
I woke up at quarter to 8, and as someone who can sleep through entire mornings, it's safe to say I was tired. But it was worth getting up early because I was up to see the solar eclipse!

My housemates and I ended up taking a really long walk around the countryside that surrounds our uni, seeing glimpses of the eclipse through clouds and trees. At 9:30 we stopped and watched the eclipse at it's peak time. I don't think we got the full effect of the eclipse due to the clouds, but what we did see was still incredible. Once the eclipse was over and we were essentially just staring at the regular sun, we began our downhill trek home.

 A WORKING AFTERNOON
My afternoon was pretty standard - coffee, youtube, essays, youtube, toast, coffee, game of thrones and getting myself pretty for the next part of my day.

MEETING THE CAKE QUEEN

My parents arrived in Bath at about 6 o'clock and we then headed into town to see Mary Berry (she's a cook and also a judge on the show The Great British Bake Off, and also one of my weird girl crushes). She was doing a Q&A for my local bookshop, Topping and Company. She talked about her life, how she became a famous cook, The Great British Bake Off, her new book 'Absolute Favourites' and general baking and cooking things. Mary is 80 years old, and she is literally my old lady goals. When I'm 80 I want to be as healthy, happy and fashionable as she is. After the Q&A I got the chance to meet Mary as she was signing books. The queue to meet her was obviously huge so everything was rushed, but I managed to say hello and get a photo and that's good enough for me.

THE END OF THE DAY
We finished the day off by having dinner at Wagamama (honestly best place on earth) and then beginning our 2 hour long drive home. It was such an amazing day.

BYE
Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoy the rest of your day, and I'll talk to you again soon.

In the comments, why don't you tell me if you saw the eclipse, and if you did where did you see it from? I'd love to hear, because space and eclipses fascinate me!

Love Chloe x

YOU WANTED LINKS? HERE YA GO.
THE MATCHING VLOG: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJWpXga62Dk

A Cruelty Free Makeup Bag - #BlogforBunnies

SO WHAT'S THIS GUNNA BE ABOUT?
Recently I have been trying to have as many cruelty free products in my makeup bag as possible. At this stage my makeup bag isn't entirely cruelty free but I'm getting there. I'm focusing on trying to get my drugstore makeup cruelty free first as this is what I use everyday and purchase most, so that's my main priority right now.

Everything cruelty free in my makeup bag.

So here is everything from my makeup bag that is cruelty free (as far as I know anyway, if I'm wrong about any of these brands being cruelty free please let me know. Also please know that some of the parent companies are not cruelty free for these products, e.g. bare minerals and urban decay). And now it's time to explore some of these products in more detail! These are my favourites out of my cruelty free collection.

NSPA OIL FREE MOISTURE GEL
This is my all time favourite moisturiser, and it's because of that key phrase 'oil free'. I have oily skin and so I obviously don't want to be adding extra oil to it, so this moisturiser is perfect. It's super gentle, hydrating and refreshing (especially on those early mornings!). Nspa is the brand from the UK spa called Nirvana, and so the scent of this is very reminiscent of that in a spa, and so it makes it feel like a lovely treat when you use it, despite being an everyday product.

NO 7 STAY PERFECT FOUNDATION
(Before I start I want to just say that i'm pretty sure this is cruelty free as No7 is part of Boots, who is cruelty free, but it's not 100% certain that No7 is. Hopefully it is though otherwise I'm going to have to find a new favourite foundation!) This concealer is another one of my oily skin savers. It's oil free and designed to last all day - they say 24 hours but firstly who is wearing makeup for 24 hours? And secondly it doesn't last 24 hours but it does last a hella long time. It creates a natural finish and is fairly high coverage so it's great for covering up any dark circles or blemishes if you want to. Also this lasts for so long. I've had bottles of this for months and months before, so it's definitely worth the money.

KIKO FULL COVERAGE CONCEALER
I love this concealer. One second you have a spot, put this on it and it's gone. It covers blemishes so well and you can't even slightly see them under the concealer. IN. LOVE. I honestly can't think of anything else to say about this product, except that it's perfect and you need it in your life.

REAL TECHNIQUES EXPERT FACE BRUSH
I wanted to include a brush in this list so that it wasn't just about actual makeup products, so let's talk about the real techniques expert face brush. This brush provides such a natural and flawless finish for your foundation and I don't know where I'd be without it. And can we just take a minute to appreciate the softness of it?! Ugh. It's so lovely.

2TRUE EFFORTLESS EYELINER
I have been using this eyeliner for years now. It's really long-lasting, and I never have issues with it budging throughout the day. The brush is silicone which makes it really easy to apply, even for those not so practiced in the liquid eyeliner field. Now this brand is exclusive to superdrug so you might not be able to get your hands on it everywhere, but if you can I urge you try it! Plus it costs about £2, and there is nearly always an offer on it, so it doesn't hurt your purse too much either.

LET'S WRAP THIS UP
And that's it. I have spent many years collecting my staple products and exploring different brands to find what I like, so it was hard to pick out just a few items from my makeup bag to tell you about in detail! If you have any recommendations for cruelty free brands let please let me know in the comments, i'm always on the lookout for rad, animal friendly brands to try out.

Thanks for reading. I hope the rest of your day is wonderful!

Love Chloe x

OH, YOU WANT SOME LINKS? HERE YA GO.
Moisturiser: http://www.nspa.co.uk/products/oil-free-moisture-gel-step-4/
Foundation: http://www.boots.com/en/No7-Stay-Perfect-Foundation_1376459/
Concealer: http://www.kikocosmetics.co.uk/make-up/face/concealers/Full-Coverage-Concealer/p-KM00102003
Brush: https://realtechniques.com/shop-collection/expert-face-brush
Eyeliner: http://www.superdrug.com/2True/2True-Effortless-Eyeliner-Shade-1/p/312479#.VQb5uUtZ5FI

Coffee Cups With Chloe: Updates

HELLO

I've just sat down with my cup of coffee (in the cutest little hedgehog mug) and a breakfast bar (it's 4 o clock in the afternoon but breakfast bars are delicious at all times of the day, okay?) and I've decided to do a little blog writing. My goal for 2015 was to write more on here because I love writing and this blog was just sitting here sad and unused so I thought I'd give it some love. But this week I haven't been inspired to write about anything, blog wise anyway; I've actually done a ton of writing for other things, I'm on a creative writing course so that's not really shocking, but I'm also in the process of writing a book too. I've been writing it for two years but in February I realised just how close I am to finishing it, so I've been pushing myself to write a little bit everyday to try and get it done. Anyway, back to the point... I haven't been inspired to write anything for this blog this week. So I thought I'd just write. We've done this as a writing exercise at uni a few times and it's often produced some pretty great stuff, so here we go. Sorry in advance if this gets rambly!

MUSIC

I have a bad habit of listening to the same music on repeat until I get bored of it, and at the moment my repeated jams have been anything by Chet Faker. I listen to the Australian radio station triple j nearly every night (which is when their breakfast show is on) and so I've ended up listening to quite a lot of Australian artists. But Chet Faker is hands down my favourite discovery. I play his album Thinking In Textures on repeat and then there are loads of individual songs of his that are very likely to be on repeat too. I have really thin walls at university so I'm sure my next door neighbours really enjoy having the same hipster songs blasted every day! His music is kind of indie, crossed with a electronic, dance vibe. I'm really bad at describing music genres but hopefully you kind of get what I mean. It's the kind of music that you could expect to hear quietly playing in a coffee shop full of bearded men with man buns and girls in oversized jumpers and messy hair. It's super hipster and I adore it.

FOOD

I've been trying to eat healthier and snack less this week, and I think I've done pretty well! I actually planned out each dinner for the week and so when I went food shopping I brought what I needed and was less tempted to buy lots of bad food. Now I admit I have been snacking, I can't get through the day without eating something at about 3 or 4 in the afternoon. But I made sure to stock up on fruit so that when I do get peckish in the afternoon I reach for the fruit bowl instead of the crisps (I don't even have crisps to reach for, as I said I planned out exactly what I wanted to buy). I can't say I've noticed any difference in my health yet, but it's only been a week. However, my meals have been much tastier and I'm staying fuller for longer so that's rad.

FASHION

This week I've also been trying to wear the clothes in my wardrobe that I haven't worn in a long time. I'm really bad at buying clothes, wearing them a couple of times and then never again, or constantly wearing the same outfits because they're easy and I like how they look (which would be fine if I didn't have so many other clothes going unworn). So this week I've been trying to wear some different pieces. If I was a professional blogger I'd put some photos in of my outfits this week but I haven't actually taken any... But I might do a post about these style of outfits at some point, so look out for that!

BOOKS

At the moment I'm reading City of Thieves by David Benioff, which the local bookshop Mr B's sent me. I'm really enjoying it so far, and I've only got a little bundle of chapters left to read. It's about two young men from Leningrad during the second world war, and they are arrested and then given the job of finding a dozen eggs for the colonel's daughter to use in her birthday cake. But of course, that's not as easy as it sounds when you're in rationed, war time Russia. I was shocked to find out from the opening chapter that this is actually a true story, based on the life of the authors granddad! This book ties in really well with the last book I was reading, which was A Storm of Swords Part 1 by George R.R Martin. As I'm sure you know this series of books has been turned into the massive TV show Game of Thrones, and David Benioff is actually the co-creator of the show! It was a very odd coincidence when Emma from Mr B's informed me of this! :')

GOODBYE

I think that's probably enough of my life updates. I hope this was vaguely interesting to read, and if you only take one thing from this, then let be that you go and repeat Chet Faker songs for days. Thanks for reading. I hope you have a rad day.
Love Chloe x

My February In Photos

                 

So here's my February in photos. You might have already seen some of these scattered across my social media, but others are gracing the Internet for the first time in this post. 

These are the stories behind my photos.... 

1. BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH.

2. Actresses dressed up all Victorian style for the Sherlock filming. 

3. Selfie at setlock.

4. Because it was freezing on the day we saw Sherlock being filmed we had to seek warmth (and food) inside a restaurant. This was at Revolution in Bath, where I was surrounded by plants and ate burritos. Also I love this photo of me because my hair looks amazing.

5. Tuna bake and The 100 with my sister in my little uni home.

6. Farm shop lunch with the two people who will be my housemates next year! Taken after we'd been to see the house we'll be living in for the next few years.

7. Eating ice cream when it's freezing is weird, but it was worth getting even more cold for this ice cream because it was delicious. Chocolate and coffee flavour, but i'm 98% sure that the coffee had been spilt in it by accident because it was literally just random instant coffee granules every now and then and the coffee bit had been added to the label in biro, so y'know pretty sketchy stuff at the ice cream shop. 

8. We made Riccardo, my darling avocado tree, get into the valentines day spirit by adding heart confetti to his plant pot. Why? Because Riccardo is my one true love.

9. "I got that red lip, face mask, thing that you like."

10. To represent Valentines Day, because as I said Riccardo is my one true love and he didn't even send me a card. 

11. Tartlets made by me, with the help of my favourite new cookbook by Mary Berry.

12. Souffles made by me, once again with help from Mary Berry.

13. Apple and Cinnamon cake by me, and Mary again (this cookbook is amazing, okay.)

14. I love Pancake Day <3

15. My outfit on the day I went back to uni after our reading week. I felt very cute and just a tad bit hipster.

16. More meals by Chloe. This one was inspired by an amazing chilli con carne I had whilst in Maastricht. No rice, lots of sauce, and a warm baguette. Delicious.

17. I went to see Samantha Shannon in conversation at my local bookshop, with my friend Lisa. Samantha Shannon is an amazing writer and The Bone Season series is wonderful, so it was rad to be able to see her. I met her and got my book signed afterwards too!

18. A moses basket bought by my family for our friends, who were obviously due to have a baby. They had the baby the day after we gave it to them, which was very unexpected but rad all the same. 

Thanks for reading, have a lovely rest of your day.

Love Chloe x

P.S This post was inspired by a similar thing that Loiuse, aka Sprinkleofglitter, does over on her blog. I always think it's such a nice way of looking back at the month, so I've decided to do it myself. So thanks to her for the inspiration. Here's a link to her blog, it's great: http://sprinkleofglitter.blogspot.co.uk

Top 5 TV Shows

Today my mum sent me a very excited text to say that the DVD for the final series of Sons of Anarchy had arrived. I've yet to watch this series but I am very very excited and little bit nervous to because I already know it's going to be ridiculously sad. I thought that because of this it would be the perfect chance to write about my top 5 TV shows. So time for a TV chat!

1. Sons Of Anarchy

As I just said the final series of this has just come out in the UK and I'm crazy excited. Sons of Anarchy is about a group of motorbike riders, who also get involved in illegal drug and gun businesses. And it is amazing. It deals with family primarily though, and the relationships between the families of SOA affect so much of the plot. This show has a lot of violence and death, but it's done well. It's not unnecessary blood and killings like other TV shows often have. Sons is based on Hamlet, and this is a fact which hurts me on a daily basis because as we know, nearly everyone in Hamlet dies. Oh god. This final series is going to be tough. Also if you needed any more reasons to watch this, then just know that Jax Teller (played by Charlie Hunnam), the protagonist, is beautiful. Like seriously.

2. The Mentalist 

The Mentalist is a crime drama, based on the protagonist, Patrick Jane, and his search for the serial killer who killed his wife and daughter - Red John. Patrick is a consultant for the CBI and so many of the episodes revolve around solving crimes, with a few episodes about Red John here and there. The great thing about this show is that despite it having some tense and heavy moments, it can be funny too, as Jane is a little bit... odd. And there are some hilarious moments of banter between two other main characters, Cho and Rigsby. I'm on season six of The Mentalist at the moment and it's been a very intense season so far. And like in Sons of Anarchy, Patrick Jane is gorgeous. So add that to your list of reasons for watching it.

3. Beverly Hills 90210

We're get a bit more relaxed with this TV show, it's one that calms me down instead of stressing me out like Sons and The Mentalist do! 90210 is the famous 90s teen drama and I adore it. It follows the lives of a group of teens at West Beverely High. I'm only on season three at the moment, so the characters are still at school but I know that in the later seasons they're older. I love this show, and if you just need some easy going TV to watch, I highly recommend this. Plus most episodes are on YouTube for free, so bonus!

4. Neighbours

The classic Australian soap is next. I have been watching Neighbours for my entire life, and it's just a part of my daily life now. Neighbours is about the people living in Erinsborough, and more precisely, Ramsey Street. There are some really bad acting moments in it, and some really amazing ones too. But that's what I love about it. I'm such a big Neighbours fan that I actually went on a neighbours tour when I was in Australia last year. I got to see REAL LIFE Ramsey Street and also some of the set. And I got to meet James Mason, the actor who plays Chris in the show. It was so cool!

5. F.R.I.E.N.D.S

And of course, Friends has to be on this list. I have been watching this for most of my life, obviously most of the jokes went over my head when I younger, but y'know. My favourite episode has got to be The One With The Rumour, because I love Brad Pitt. Anyway, Friends, need I say more?

And that's it. Those are my top 5 TV shows. Do you watch any of these shows? And what are you favourite TV shows? Let me know in the comments! 

Thanks for reading, hope you had a rad day. 

Love Chloe x

My MAC Eyeshadows

MAC eyeshadows are amazing. Like seriously amazing. And every time I'm in a MAC store, I spend ages studying their eyeshadow stand, reading the colour names and swatching them on my hand. At the moment I only own four of their eyeshadows, but if I wasn't a student who needed to use my money for food, I would definitely own more! 

They're incredibly pigmented, and the colour will stay on for hours without creasing (when I use primer anyway... Darn my oily eyelids, haha!).

But you've probably heard all this before, so let's begin the short tour of my MAC eyeshadow collection. The theme of my shadows (yes, they have a theme, bit fancy, eh?) is The Great Gatsby. This is because my sister bought me two of these shadows for my eighteenth birthday, which was Gatsby themed, and so when I purchased the other two I made sure they could be linked to Gatsby too. 

AMBER LIGHTS

Amber Lights is a gorgeous bronze coloured shadow, and was actually my first MAC eyeshadow. It has a little bit of glimmer in it which means it's perfect for adding some sparkle to your look. As I have brown eyes I can't confirm this, but I've heard that Amber Lights makes blue eyes appear a more intense blue, so all you blue-eyed kids need to try this shadow out! The Gatsby theme comes in here because of the black and gold style that was fashionable in the 1920's. 

'Amber Lights'

SUMPTUOUS OLIVE

I love the name of this shadow, it always just makes me picture really glamorous, curvy olives for some reason and it just makes me laugh. It's also a lovely eyeshadow. It's a sort of forest green colour, so it isn't too in your face, but really compliments green outfits (obviously). I chose a green eyeshadow for this palette to represent the green light that is in The Great Gatsby. 

'Sumptuous Olive'

NYLON

Nylon is the perfect inner corner colour. It's pure white with a little glitter speckled in it. I tend to use this on the inner third of my eye to highlight, but as it's such a stark white, I extend the highlight further into my lid and blend it out with the rest of my eyeshadow. I also like to wear Nylon as an all of over the lid colour, especially in the winter as it creates a lovely frosty look. I have to admit I mostly bought nylon because I'd heard so many people talking about how good it was, but hey, white can fit in with Gatsby aswell... I don't have a definite reason why, but let's just go with it.

'Nylon'

BLACK TIED

Black Tied is a gorgeous black shadow, and it's full of glitter too. And because of the glitter, this is perfect for wearing on a special occasion. I tend to wear this blended with nylon, as the two colours obviously contrast well against each other. This shade ties in with The Great Gatsby theme as gold and black was a fashionable design in that era, as previously said. 

'Black Tied'

And that's it. Those are my four shadows and I love them all! I hope you enjoyed this post, and if you have any MAC eyeshadows, or recommendations for MAC products, let me know in the comments; I'm always keen to know what I should treat myself to next! 

Love Chloe x