Monday 23 July 2012

Weekend Away and I'm going to Loooonnndddon!

I spent a nice long weekend at my dad's; on the Saturday we went horseriding at Bold Heath Equestrian Centre, then had home made chips with egg and finished off the day trying out their new hot tub with a glass of red, lovely!  On the Sunday we went to the christening of Zack and Eva, then afterwards got very drunk at a local beer garden, what a fab weekend!
{What I wished I had photos like! Photos found at miss-mc.deviantart.com}
{Me and my stepmum Julie}
{Me and Father!}
Today I've had a really lazy day reading and having a little shop with my mum.  I've been looking online as well shopping and I've fell in love with daisy prints.  This is one I've found on eBay, a sold out topshop blouse:


Think I had a bit too much free time...
Now I don't know how long it's gonna be until my next post, because I'm going to London for a week tomorrow! I might be able to fit one in tomorrow or a couple while I'm there, but if not then so long for now amigos!
Muchos love,
Fran
xoxox

Thursday 19 July 2012

Book Round up!

One of my friends does an English Literature degree (incidently she graduated yesterday as well and she's now getting funded for a PHD!) so we were talking about that and recommended a book to me which got me thinking, people don't really talk to each other about books enough!  Maybe I should sign up at a local book club, but lord knows I'm being old school enough going to the library!  Instead I thought I'd do something on here, and maybe other people have some favourites they want to mention. Spread the wealth, ladies!
Favourite Books of All Time
The Grown Up Stuff
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

The Not So-Grown Up Stuff
Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman
Harry Potter Collection by J.K.Rowling
Danny the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl
His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman
Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison

And these are some of the books that I've recently read/am reading/am about to read:
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins 
Set in a dark vision of the near future, a terrifying reality TV show is taking place. Twelve boys and twelve girls are forced to appear in a live event called The Hunger Games. There is only one rule: kill or be killed. When sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen steps forward to take her younger sister's place in the games, she sees it as a death sentence. But Katniss has been close to death before. For her, survival is second nature. 

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini ☆:
A Thousand Splendid Suns is a breathtaking story set against the volatile events of Afghanistan’s last thirty years—from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to the post-Taliban rebuilding—that puts the violence, fear, hope, and faith of this country in intimate, human terms. It is a tale of two generations of characters brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war, where personal lives—the struggle to survive, raise a family, find happiness—are inextricable from the history playing out around them.
It is a striking, heart-wrenching novel of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Anglelou ☆:
In the first volume of an extraordinary autobiographical series, one of the most inspiring authors of our time recalls--with candor, humor, poignancy and grace--how her journey began.  In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou describes her coming of age as a precocious but insecure black girl in the American South during the 1930s and subsequently in California during the 1940s. Maya’s parents divorce when she is only three years old and ship Maya and her older brother, Bailey, to live with their paternal grandmother, Annie Henderson, in rural Stamps, Arkansas. Annie, whom they call Momma, runs the only store in the black section of Stamps and becomes the central moral figure in Maya’s childhood.

Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence ☆:
Constance Chatterley feels trapped in her sexless marriage to the invalid Sir Clifford.  Unable to fulfil his wife emotionally or physically,Clifford encourages her to have a liasonwith a man of their own class.But Connie is attracted instead toMellors, her husband's game-keeper, with whom she embarks on a passionate affair that brings new life to the stifled existence.  Can she find true equality with Mellors, despite the vast gulf between their positions in society?


Just started reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larson, and next on my list are:
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

And that's all in a month!  I realise this looks a tad obsessive right now and you're probably thinking why am I reading this nut-jobs blog again?! If so, my apologies! Doing Maths I quite literally haven't read fiction for nearly a year, so I'm loving it!

Muchos love,
Fran
xoxox



Graduation Day!

18th July 2012, The University of Sheffield









"Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value."  ~Albert Einstein

Tuesday 17 July 2012

Some photos and a bit of a surprise!

It's been too long! I've not blogged for the past couple of days properly because honestly, I've been shattered! Work have had me go in for 30 hours over the past three days and I am still KNACKERED.  All I managed to do when I got in Sun and Mon (12 hour shifts 8am-8pm :( ) was have a glass of wine and sink into the bath haha.  Today has been fab, caught up on Friday Night Lights and gave my hair a wash and I'm about to sort out my nails because tomorrow is Rich's graduation!  I was really unsure about what to wear, but this is what I think I'm going to go for:
Off the shoulder LBD
Black patent pumps
Red nails
Red shoes
Loose curls hollywood style!
What do you all think, ok?  I didn't us to clash on the photos so I thought black would be the best to match his cap and gown, then hopefully I won't stand out too much with all his Uni mates and everyone else graduating!  Also   my LBD is a little bit clingy so I did some sit ups before to compensate, not done any in ages so I was panting like a fish out of water after!  It feels crazy that he's graduating tomorrow, we've been through all of Uni together and now it's a bit of an end of an era.  I've got a nice quote that I was thinking of writing in his card:
"I hope your dreams take you to the corners of your smiles, to the highest of your hopes, to the windows of your opportunities, and to the most special places your heart has ever known. So don't live down to expectations.  Go out there and do something remarkable"
In other news, I've added some photos to this post - it's my first attempt at photography in a long while so please be kind!  My mum bought me the sunflowers and my dad got me the orchid plant so I was a very lucky girl :)


Now, what you've been waiting for - the surprise!  I rang Rich this afternoon only to find out that he was on his way back home... in the new car that he'd just bought!  He'd mentioned it a few days ago that he was thinking of getting one (after he passed his test on May Day he's been itching for a car) and I think he just caved this afternoon.  It's a Ford KA in black and he's over the moon, he even went into the car on facetime to give me a tour haha, and I can't wait to give it a spin ;)
 Also, girlfriend status equals automatic shotgun, can I get a woop!
Until next time :)
Fran
xoxox

Saturday 14 July 2012

My Graduation Celebration :)

Now I know I mentioned yesterday to you lovelies that I won't be graduating til next year, so tonight was my 'sort-of grad celebration' night from my mum and stepdad Roy.  I woke up at 7am and I ended up doing an 8am-3pm shift at work so I was pretty knackered by the time I was finished! Then when I got in I got the most lovely presents off my mum and Roy :) A couple of months ago I said to my mum that I wanted to get myself a plain silver locket, then because I say a lot of things without people really noticing I just sort of forgot about it and moved on! But today when I came back there it was, my perfect silver locket! And not just that but the perfume Daisy by Marc Jacobs, and my biggest surprise of all, a lovely new dress to wear for the restaurant we were going to that night!  Now my mum NEVER buys clothes for me, our tastes are too different - but on this occassion she got a bullseye, the dress fitted perfectly and I loved it!  We went to Gusto, and Italian place on the Albert Dock, where we got steaks, pasta, garlic bread and a lot of wine to boot! It really was the most lovely day, so I decided I'm going to put some pictures of tonight in my new locket so I always remember it.  Here are the snaps we took :)
Muchos love,
Fran
xoxox







Friday 13 July 2012

Happy Friday!

Tomorrow and Sunday I'll be working so TGIF for all you lovelies, not so much for myself! My nurses' watch came in the post today so I'm gonna feel really swish in the morning haha, and I've finally ordered a memory card reader - atm I'm transferring my memory card to my parents camera, uploading onto their computer, emailing them to my iPad and blogging from here, nightmare!




{Endcliffe Village, my new home next year!}
On a brighter front though I found out today where I'll be staying in September, exciting! For those of you who don't know all my friends are graduating next week, but little old me is going to have to wait til next year as I'm doing a four year undergrad masters :) it'll be strange to go back to Shef without all my mates but I think getting another year to be a student and a fresh start is gonna be fab, I'll be like a fresher again haha! Apart from that today I've had a lovely time relaxing and catching up on a bit of D.H.Lawrence, Lady Chatterley and her lover trump 50 shades any day for me!
Muchos love,
Fran
xoxox

Thursday 12 July 2012

"Lucy in the skkyyy-yyy with diamonds..."

Now I'm afraid that this post has nothing to do with anyone named Lucy, and nor rather regretably, diamonds.  But I decided that with the undiminshing regularity that I go to Liverpool, writing Beatles tracks is a bit preferable to the title "Shopping Trip to Liverpool #4721", right?  Well I think so anyway!  So today me and my friend Lauren got the train in and did a spot of eating and rather a big spot of shopping, hope you like my new finds!

{The Sweet Box at Wok and Go is gorge, highly recommend!}
{Hairclips £3.50, Accessorize}
 {Top £6, Primark} 
{Shoes £8, Primark}
{Vest £3, Primark}
{Leggings £3, Primark}
I loved the back on this top, I'm a sucker for criss-cross straps! Plus in the half price sale you can't really complain ;)  
 {Top £6, New Look}

Now I think that this might be one of my first mid-life crisis moments.  I saw this top about a month ago in H&M and I was thinking it's a bit young for me and brushed it off.  Then like last week I was looking in my wardrobe and I was thinking, that top wasn't too young for me, it's just 95% of stuff I buy is for at least a 28 year old woman!  I figured I haven't got too many years before I'm genuinely too old for this stuff so I decided it buy it, put my hair in a top-knot and rock multicoloured teenage style! AND I was pretty glad I was hesitant about it because I managed to catch it in a half price sale, sweet! 

{Top £5, H&M}
Give me your thoughts ladies, more worried about being mutton dressed as lamb or dressing like your grandma like me?!
Muchos love,
Fran
xoxox