The Blog-tember Challenge: Day 12 | Books, the greatest weapons in the world

Monday, Sept. 12: Three books! One you just read, one you're currently reading, and one you want to read.

Recently read: Billy and Me

This fantastic book was the first written by Giovanna Fletcher, whom I adore, and is a book of absolute dreams. I've never really been once for romance, I first read books by John Green which I loved, then moved onto these, and I'm now hooked! Ahh Billy Buskin...you can only imagine how dreamy he is, and I must admit that I've fallen in love with him after reading his book. This book is seriously the sweetest thing ever and I can only pray that it's made into a film. The book follows Sophie May, a young lady living in Kent with her mother, and working in a quirky coffee shop with her best friend Molly. Sophie is quite a shy and anxious person and is completely swept away when big time movie star  Billy Buskin turns up in town to film one of her all time favourites, Pride and Prejudice, which also happens to be one of my favourites! This really is a book about chances, a book about risking everything for love. Ahh it's such a beautiful love story.

Currently reading: Always with love

After reading Billy and Me I did actually read Christmas with Billy and Me, but it was such a short story that I don't really have much to say about that. It obviously followed Billy and Sophie through the Christmas period, bringing us to Always with love. This is another beautiful read, although I'm about 3/4 of the way through, so I'm not quite at the end yet. During this book we follow Billy end Sophie to Los Angeles where they are spending New Years with Billy's family. Billy ends up accepting an offer for a new movie meaning he's staying in LA for awhile whilst Sophie sets back off to Rosefront Hill. In this book we see the challenges they are faced with when their relationship turns long distance...

Reading next: Dream a little dream 

The next book I plan on reading is another by Giovanna Fletcher as I'm working my way through all of her books before I start on anything new. I actually don't know all too much about this book, I just know that I want to read it! This book follows Sarah, a lady who has been single for the last two years, and has spent an uncomfortable amount of time around her ex, his perfect girlfriend and all of their mutual friends. No ones surprised when she starts dreaming about a handsome stranger and begins looking forward to sleeping every night, but it all gets a little strange when her dream-stranger turns up in the real world! This is actually the first time I've read about this book and I'm now super excited to read, eek! 

What are you reading at the moment?

What would you recommend? 

The Blog-tember Challenge: Day 3 | Summer Favourites

Saturday, Sept. 3: Now that summer's at an end, share a list of favorites from the season!

Happy 3rd of September! Another new day means a new post as part of the Blog-tember challenge. Summer is coming to an end, and today we'll be taking a little look back at our favourites from this delightful season. 

I was up at the crack of dawn this morning, and chose to spend my time finding a couple more cute items for my Italy trip, and I also decided to have a little book haul, which was quite the success! 

This has been the greatest summer of reading for me, I've found so many authors and read so so many books! I have been absolutely loving anything by Giovanna Fletcher, especially the Billy and Me series. I've never really been one for romance novels, but I think that's something that has certainly changed this summer! OH! The Cursed Child also came out this summer, and it was absolutely amazing to be thrown back into the world of magic, it's a world I want to stay in forever. 

I've been spending a lot of time clothes shopping to ensure I have the perfect wardrobe for my trip to Rome, which means I have bought an unbearable amount of dresses. I love dresses, no matter what time of the year it is, and I've found so many beautiful ones this summer.

The butterfly filter is the best filter ever! I take most pictures of myself with this filter, and it's just so pretty, I love anything that makes me look/feel prettier than I actually am. 

BANDANAS! I imagine it's socially acceptable to wear these at any point, but I see summer as the best possible time. It's a lovely fashionable way to get your hair out of your face, and I just think they are so lovely.

I've spent a lot of time searching for the perfect foundation, and this summer I finally found it, L'Oreal's Infallible 24-hour matte foundation. Seriously, this foundation is absolutely fantastic, it works amazingly with my skin and is great in the sun, it honestly doesn't melt off my face!

Ice Cream...need I say any more? 

What have been your Summer Favourites?

My Reading List

Ahhhhhhhh! Books.

"You want weapons? We're in a library. Books are the best weapons in the world."

I give you my reading list! A list of books that will send you into a new world, and I'm looking forward to sharing my progress with this list.

Kathy Reichs - Temperance Brennan

• Deja dead
• Death du jaur 
• Deadly decisions 
• Fatal voyage 
• Grave secrets
• Bare bones
• Monday mourning 
• Cross bones
• Break no bones
• Bones to Ashes 
• Devil bones
• 206 Bones
• Spider bones
• Flash and bones
• Bones are forever
• Bones of the lost
• Bones never lie
• Speaking in bones
• The bone collection

Kathy Reichs - Virals Series

• Virals 
• Seizure 
• Code
• Exposure
• Terminal
• Trace Evidence 

Jeff Lindsay - Dexter series

• Darkly dreaming Dexter
• Dearly devoted Dexter 
• Dexter in the dark
• Dexter by design 
• Dexter is delicious 
• Double Dexter
• Dexters final cut
• Dexter is dead

Dan Brown - Robert Langdon Series

• Angels & Demons
• The Da Vinci Code
• The Lost Symbol
• Inferno

The Selection Series

• The Selection
• The Elite
• The One
• The Heir
• The Crown

...and the rest!

• Billy and Me
• Christmas with Billy and Me: A Short Story
• You'e the one that I want
• Dream a little dream
• Dream a little Christmas dream
• The fault in our stars
• Looking for Alaska  22/08/16
• The Abundance of Katherines 
• Dakota Days 
• War and Peace
• Great Expectations
• The Time Machine
• War of the Worlds
• Twenty thousand leagues under the sea
• Pride and Prejudice
• Pride and Prejudice zombies
• Emma
• If on a winters night a traveler
• Lolita
• The Odyssey
• Anna Karenina 
• To kill a mocking bird
• Wuthering Heights
• Mobydick
• The catcher in the rye
• Lord of the flies
• Crime and Punishment
• A tale of two cities
• The count of Monte Cristo
• A Christmas carol
• Strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
• Dracula
• The Picture of Dorian Grey
• The Diary of a young girl
• The wind in the willows
• Sense and Sensibility
• Jane Eyre
• Jurassic Park
• The Lost World 
• One flew over the cuckoos next
• Persuasion 
• A Sconner Darkly
• A Clockwork Orange
• The Establishment
• Catch 22
• Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy
• The Silmarillion
• The Alexiad 
• 1984
• Animal Farm
• The forever series 
• Along came a spider
• Sphere 
• The old man and the sea
• For whom the bell tolls
• A farewell to arms
• Slaughterhouse 5
• Fahrenheit 451
• Train Spotting

What's on your reading list at the moment?

Leave suggestions in the comments!

Shopping is the greatest kind of therapy

So after spending yesterday packing, tidying, and basically causing myself physical damage, I decided to take myself on a little shopping trip with one of my loveliest friends. 

After a spot of dinner that cost way to much for me to even talk about, I decided to treat myself to a few little things...

Of course one thing you absolutely have to do when you're in Liverpool is take yourself on a little trip to Lush, which I absolutely adore, I love the overwhelming amount of scents that hit you as soon as you walk through the door. Today I found myself purchasing the Christmas Edition Shower Gel, Snow Fairy, which smells absolutely divine, and was on offer at HALF PRICE!  Apparently this shower gel is candy floss scented, but if you ask me it smells an awful lot like bananas...Mmmm. I also purchased a little robot bath bomb, mainly because it was a robot. haha. 

It's the start of 2016 and one thing I find myself doing at the beginning of EVERY year is buying myself loads of pads, journals, diaries, etc. I like to be organised at the beginning of the new year, I like to give myself the best possible chance of continuing this throughout the year, and what better way? So this is a new little book that I purchased today from Paperchase, and I think it's just the cutest. 

I love Doctor Who, period. I saw this and I just absolutely had to throw myself at that till and make that purchase. I can't wait to read this, it looks amazing...how exciting! 

I must have spent around £30 on all of this, but I'm thrilled with my little purchases. I managed to show an incredible amount of self control which I'm impressed with, I could have bought so much today.

Anyway, the world awaits...

I want to be a writer

THE DREAM:

I WANT TO BE A WRITER.

THE REALITY:

I AM GOING TO BECOME A WRITER

Hey guys, do you remember me? I know I've been gone for awhile, life happened.

Life can sometimes get in the way of who you want to be, you have bills to pay for, mouths to feed, it makes following your dreams something much harder than you ever expected. Since leaving University and starting work I've pretty much stopped doing most of the things I love, the things that I'm truly passionate about, it's something I shouldn't have let happen, something that I intend to change. I can't help but look at my life an feel incredibly lucky for what I do have, it's something I'll never take for granted, I just never thought that I would find myself in a position that I wouldn't be able to follow my dreams. 

Everything's going to change, those things that have always been important to me will take first priority in my life.

Life can be hard, it throws obstacles into your life that you never expect, sometimes it can be hard to fight your way through this, but these are the things that make you a stronger person, these are the things that ultimately make you who you are.

I have a dream. I mean I have a lot of dreams, but this one is the most important, this is the one that will become a reality, whether it works out the way I want it to or not. 

At the end of 2014/beginning of 2015 I lost myself a little bit, I forgot who I was, I didn't quite know who I wanted to become and which paths in life I wanted to take, but all of that has changed.

I want to become a writer.

I started studying my degree during September of 2012, I always thought that this was the right path for  my life, I always though this was how I was going to become who I wanted to be. I soon noticed that wasn't the case, but I chose to stick at it anyway because I didn't know where to go from there, I'm still a little uncertain. 

I haven't gave my degree the full dedication that I probably should have, this was the first sign that I had made a big mistake. During my final year at University I lost my motivation completely, I found it hard to continue.

One thing in life I hate more than anything is having a lack of motivation, which is something that I have nothing for when it comes to media, but when I think about writing and becoming a writer, well that's a completely different story.

I have began writing a book, it might seem a little random, but it's something I have wanted to do for the longest time. It's still in the REALLY early stages, but I am feeling quite hopeful with the direction in which it's going. 

Where do I go from here?

• Just sit down and write.
• Have a target of 1500 words a day.
• Writing doesn't stop when I leave the house, use my iPhone/iPad to write whilst I am out and about.
• When writing, disconnect from the world, the less distractions the better. 
• Make a drink before I start, the less reasons to procrastinate the better. 
• Spend each day re-reading what I have written the day before.
• 
  

I haven't felt this motivated about something in such a long time, this is the greatest feeling. I'm taking some really big risks with my life right now, although I am not much of a risk taker, this seems necessary. 

This is hopefully going to change who I am as a person, hopefully I will become more driven than I am at the moment, hopefully I will procrastinate less and strive to be the greatest that I can be.

I'll keep you updated.

All the best, Ashleigh

xo

Day Seven: Books! The Best Weapons in the world

Sept 7th: What's on your current reading list? Or what have you read that you recommend?

Books are truly amazing things and I absolutely adore reading.

" A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one." - George R.R Martin

Currently Reading:

- You're The One That I Want by Giovanna Fletcher

- Doctor Sleep by Stephen King 

Like most people that thoroughly enjoy reading, I do have a favourite writer, that one person who could write anything in the world and I would still read it. Stephen King is the by far my favourite writer, his novels are out of this world, he is insanely talented! He's absolutely fantastic, I'm sure if you have read some of his books yourself, you will probably agree. Here's a list of my personal top 5 Stephen King books, I highly recommend all of them:

- The Stand

- Under The Dome

- Misery

- IT

- Riding The Bullet

These are just my 5 favourite at the moment, it changes quite often and he has a lot of truly, truly amazing novels, I suggest you give him a read!

Current Reading List:

- Mr Mercedes by Stephen King

- Just After Sunset by Stephen King

- The Fault In Our Stars by John Green 

- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

- Billy & Me by Giovanna Fletcher

- The Dinosaur That Pooped A Planet by Tom Fletcher & Dougie Poynter

Which then brings me onto something else…those of you who know me quite well will know of my everlasting love for the McFly boys.When I found out that 2 of the boys ( Tom & Dougie) had decided to release their own children's books, I was over the moon. They are absolutely fantastic and hilarious little books. Everyone is a little childish and these books definitely show this, give them a read…you know you want to!

- The Dinosaur That Pooped A Planet

- The Dinosaur That Pooped Christmas

- The Dinosaur That Pooped The Past

All Time Favourites

- Harry Potter ( 1-7) - J.K. Rowling

- The Lord of The Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien

- The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien

- The Stand - Stephen King

What's on your reading list?

Until tomorrow…

xo

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Books! The best weapons in the world

Books are truly amazing things and I absolutely adore reading, although quite admittedly I haven't actually done it for a long, long time.

Reading used to be something that would help me a lot. It was a way for me to tune out of the world. I'd turn everything off, relax and it would help me to forget life problems. I love different worlds they can transport you to, the different people they introduce you to, making you think you've known them for years. The fact that books can cause you to fall in love with a character when you know they are not real…boys in books are the best kind and should be real, why aren't they real?

I've found some really amazing books out there and I love the feeling of not being able to put a book down, no matter how tired you may be, because the book is so amazing.

The magic held within a book is something of a different world. It's insane where out imagination can take us to when reading. We can travel across county, worlds even time and space. Someones worlds can help you to set the scene and the people, which often results in you imagining this story like it's real life in your mind, like it's a past memory.

I miss the nights of curling up with a good book.

So I came up with a plan…I am going to start reading again and I am really excited about this! I feel it will help me to sleep, it will relax me before bed and might actually make me more of a stress free person. I'm going to read every night, trying to read at least one book every week and I can't wait to get stuck in. I might even start posting reviews on the book I have read, I'm not entirely sure about that yet but I will keep you informed.

So the first book I will be reading (as soon as it arrives) will be Giovanna Fletchers "You're the one that I want" and I must admit, I am super exited to start reading this book, I have wanted to for so long! Hopefully it will arrive soon.

Reading is a wonderful thing, there's so much magic held within them, don't let it go to waste!
xo