Quick Blog Update

Hi everyone! So I know it's been a little while *guilty face*, and this isn't really a proper post, but I'll try and put something proper up in the next few weeks.

This is just a quick one really to say that you can now find my blog on Bloglovin (if you don't know what that is, go look it's great!) Apparently I have to paste this into my blog for it to activate so here goes:
<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/12018967/?claim=wrz4x9ajtng">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Right, hopefully that worked, and I have another announcement! (I know, I can hardly cope with the excitement either!) As you know, I can *occasionally* be ever so slightly iffy with keeping this blog regularly updated, and that's mostly down to a lack of ideas of what to write about, but recently I've been toying with the idea of writing about makeup, and have decided to do it! 

However, I figured most of you reading this blog would be less than interested in hearing about my favourite mascaras or whatever, so I decided to make a whole new blog! (pause for applause)

I've named it Chibby Beauty in honour of the nickname given to me by some very lovely friends of mine, and if you're into girly, makeup-y, fashion-y type things, I'd love it if you'd come take a look!

That's it for now, but I'll try and post soon!
xxx

Feeling Sheepish...

Remember all those good intentions I had? I was going to blog every few days, it was going to be multiple times a week you guys, do you remember that? So now I kinda feel like I can't face you...
But then I remembered that you probably don't care that much, and I feel like the only people that read this are people that know me pretty well, so I figure you'll forgive me, right?

For those of you that guessed that the only reason I'm blogging again now is because I have suddenly a lot more work to do, you win a prize!*

*prize is fictional, and I accept no responsibility for raising your hopes unduly.

Despite my rubbish-ness at telling you, a lot of happy things have actually happened (although if you know me, you'll already know). I went on a brilliant Christian conference, conquered Snowdon, had a birthday and went to a ball since I last posted on here.

...oh and I got engaged! Which I think kinda wins the 100 happy days thing, so I'll use that as my excuse for completely giving up on it...

So I'm all into wedding-y things now (read, Pinterest-ing like a pro), although I still haven't perfected a way of non-awkwardly sticking my hand in someone's face when they ask to see the ring...

I was going to write up the "proposal story", as it were, but then I decided that was kinda self-indulgent, so if you disagree and do want to read it, then drop me a comment and I might decide to listen to you.

Instead, I'm going to share some wedding-related things that I've recently discovered:

1. People will spend thousands, yes thousands on their dresses. (That's pounds, by the way, yeah, I know)

2. Weddings make people believe that this: 

is completely abhorrent.

3. Whereas this:

is beautiful. Ridiculous is apparently not what they're going for. (Sorry if you love chair covers and I've just deeply offended you, I just think they look kinda silly)

4. "Corkage" is a word. 

5. I love all the colours. Being fussy would almost be easier.

6. I have weirdly specific images in my head, often containing things totally beyond my control (e.g. it will be sunny, and there will be children running around for the pure joy of it all)

7. Corsets. End of. Why bother dieting when you can have a fabulous corset that makes it look like you did all that work?

8. Finally, wedding planning is SO fun! Much more than uni work, which probably doesn't bode well, but at least I'll have a pretty wedding! (I'm joking mum, don't worry, I'm still working!)

Anyway, that's pretty much all I have, but I honestly will try to blog more frequently from now on. Thank you so much for reading, and see you soon!

100 happy days 1-4

Yay I'm so excited to be starting this! Hopefully this'll be the start of a new era- maybe one where I can start my blog posts without apologising!(so far so good!)

So Friday was my parents' wedding anniversary, which I know is more their happy day than mine, but my mum loves knickerbocker glory ice cream sundaes, (with jelly, of course) and so my dad went out and got all the stuff we'd need to make our own, which can only be good news for everyone, right? Anyway, here are some pictures (they're not the best quality, but I'm going to try and get better at this photography thing)

Happy day no. 2 was Saturday, and I took my little sister climbing. Our local Leisure Centre has recently installed a great big climbing wall, so we thought we'd try it out and it was really good fun! Due to insurance stuff, the instructor there had to clip us in and out of every single wall, which was slightly unnecessary, but it was still really fun and totally counts as exercise so that's me done for the week! Again, some bad quality photos:

I wasn't sure what to say for Sunday, because a lot of stuff happened that was pretty good, but didn't really seem worth mentioning, but I decided that seeing Sarah was the most unexpected and therefore interesting bit of the day! (I also thought I'd sneak in a quick shout-out to her blog, which is great, but she hasn't posted for ages, hint hint!) All the churches in our town were coming together for a joint service as part of our Passion For Life weekend, so it was lovely to see her, if only for a few minutes.

As for Monday, I had a really lovely day shopping in Cardiff with my mum, and it was one of those shopping trips that feels so productive because you come home with a bag full of goodies! I won't bore you by telling you all the stuff I bought, but I will tell you that a) if you want to test out nail polishes before you buy them, then Topshop is the place to go and b) if you paint your thumbnail with the matte finish one, you will look like you've taken a sharpie to your nail= not as sophisticated as they'd have you believe!

Until next time!

P.S. I know that doesn't quite take us up to present, but bear with, we'll get there! (and again, apologies if you're ever so bored with this sort of thing, feel free to comment if you like this sort of thing, or if you don't.... basically, if you comment, it'll make my day, no matter what you're saying!)

100 Happy Days!

So I've seen this idea a few times around the interweb, and it seems like a really nice way to a) be more optimistic and realise how much good there is in my life, but also to b) blog a bit more regularly! If you want to join in too, then you can read more about it here!

I know this blog is usually a bit more funny (or at least that's what I aim for, so if you've missed that then... yeah, my bad), but while I'll still try and be funny for the next hundred days, this blog may take a bit more of a cutesy turn, just to let you know in case you're not down with that... in which case, thanks for stopping by and I'll see you in July! Also, I'll probably not be posting every day, but maybe just a weekly round-up of all the happy things that have happened in the week.

I'm not going to start today, because I'd like to get a bit more prepared and take some nice high-quality pictures of my happy things, rather than covering the page in dodgy camera pictures, so I'll have my first one up by the end of the week!

So sorry for the slightly non-post, but I thought if I posted this then I'd be committed and make sure I do it! Thanks for reading and stay tuned!

One last break before the crazy...

Hey! So I know I haven't blogged in over a month, sorry about that, if you're one of those rare people that actually reads this! Maybe one day I'll start blogging a reasonable amount and not have to start every post with an apology, but don't hold your breath...no, seriously, don't, I don't want to be responsible for any sort of injuries!

Aaaaaanyway, it's almost the last week of term, and it's going to be completely mental, because our tutors either didn't communicate with each other or are just being mean, because we have 3 essays to write and 2 classes to go to, which probably doesn't sound like much if you're a sciences student, but if you're humanities you should be sympathising with me right now, right? ...right?

And in case you weren't sympathising yet (you cold-hearted human being), I also have to make a costume for our "Anything but Clothes" party, which I know sounds like the dodgiest thing ever, but apparently it's supposed to be a green, recycling type thing. So alongside all the frantic reading, I'm also going to attempt to make this:

(found here, all credit to the lovely Alexia Esque)

I was going to include a funny story or something in this post, but realised I do actually have a LOT to do, so for now I'll just say wish me luck! Hopefully I'll find the time to post some more during the vacation, so see you soon! 

I have a new header!

So apparently I have too much time (it's funny because I don't), but I made a new header! It's supposed to show the madness that goes on inside my brain, compared to the "quiet" that everyone thinks I am. Although that was probably self-explanatory, and I've just totally patronised you, so... yeah, sorry about that.

Anyway, I've also been playing around with gadget-y things for the blog, so now you can email subscribe! I know, I know it's exciting, but don't all do it at once, you might cause the system to meltdown.

I also have a list on the sidebar of all my favourite internet people. Some of them are hilarious, and some of them are just downright lovely. Either way, they're worth taking a look at, but a word of warning for Cake Wrecks and Hyperbole and a Half: I would not recommend reading them while a) in public, or b) drinking. You will be looked at funny and/or have tea all over your computer. Don't say I didn't warn you.

I haven't really got time to write much of a blog post, so here's a few self-esteem-destroying things my tutors have said to me:

Tutor A (to my tutorial partner): That's a really really good essay, it would definitely be a first if you did that in an exam! I'm very very impressed. (turning to me) Libby... solid first try!

Tutor B (basically every week):  - Um... yes, thank you for that essay.
                                                                 - It was very... interesting.
                                                                 -You raised a lot of points.
                                                                 - I think you should read the writing guidelines I sent you at the start of the                                                                                                           year.

Tutor A: The Anglo Saxons often spoke proverbially, so it would be like, for example, if I read your essay and said to you "A man must learn to walk before he can run".

Thanks for reading!

How I became a bigamist

I'm baaaack! I know I promised to write more once I got to uni, but it turns out that I massively underestimated how much work I would have so... yeah. However, I recently discovered a blog that has inspired me to rekindle my blogging love! (it turns out the blog was already hugely famous, but I missed it, and in case you did too, click here- it's pretty awesome)

Anyway, since I last posted on here, I have started, ended and most importantly survived my first term at Oxford! But now that I'm back in my college room, all my good intentions of working much harder this term have dissipated and I keep finding myself singing and playing candy crush... so I figure if I'm not working, I might as well do something slightly more productive! (yes, this does count, honest!)

There are a lot of weird Oxford things I could tell you about, such as the terrifying, life-threatening cyclists (no exaggeration!), having tutorials in my tutor's living room, and having someone clean my bathroom and simultaneously judge my hygiene levels and nocturnalism (I actually love Jan, but I'm sure she thinks badly of me). But probably the weirdest thing that happened was the start of my college marriage. (see, the bigamy isn't what you thought! Unless you already knew this story...)

For those who don't know, Oxbridge and Durham colleges have a system to ensure that every student in college has a "family" of parents in the year above you and siblings in the same year as you. And then there are also grandparents and cousins and stuff. So I have 3 dads and 2 brothers (yes, I do feel horrendously outnumbered), but the weirdest experience by far was acquiring my two husbands.

Apparently it's expected that freshers "get married" quick, as in during the first 3 weeks, which is extremely weird if you don't know many people. Also there are weird rules about college marriages, seemingly enforced by an undefinable "them". No one really knows who "they" are, or if they even exist, but they prohibit marriages between same-subject couples and college siblings (cause if they allowed that, it would make the whole practice weird, which it so already isn't).

But what all these "rules" mean (real or not) is that it's really really difficult to find a husband! A tip for other normal unis; if you want to make the experience of making friends during freshers' week more stressful, just add some good old-fashioned marriage pressure into the mix! Suddenly everyone is eyeing each other up and asking covert questions about who's still single, and despite all the insistences that it's completely romance-free, there was a fair amount of evidence to the contrary, along with some proposals that were probably more extravagant than real ones.

As I watched all the "eligible bachelors" being snapped up, I was left behind asking people if you really couldn't marry people from your subject. Before I even realised it had happened, I was one of the only girls left, with very few guys left. Since there isn't a "rule" against homosexual marriage, I thought it would be relatively easy to find a girl to marry me, without realising that they'd been grabbed somehow quicker than the guys (I later found out that there were more guys than girls, which sort of explained it).

I was even categorically rejected at a pub crawl, which somehow descended into a frenzy of sad unmarried people introducing themselves and getting married there and then out of sheer desperation. My friend tried to "set me up" with a guy who will remain nameless, and it was all fairly embarrassing and awkward, but not bad enough to excuse his much-too-definitive "the answer is NO", as if I'd been pushing it! No, of course I'm not bitter about it, I don't know why you thought that...

I was about to lose all hope, and was planning on investigating the mysterious "them" with the aim of requesting single parent-hood, because for some reason I really want to be a college parent. I even had a whole impassioned speech prepared, which mostly centred around calling "them" misogynist dinosaurs who were also discriminating against me because I'm Welsh/Chinese/State school.

However I was eventually rescued from having to do that (or possibly denied the joy of doing it), by two guys who hadn't realised there were any girls left, so had married each other. On discovering that I was indeed "single", they were so overjoyed at finding someone to mother their children that they immediately came over and got on their knees. It would have been incredibly romantic if it hadn't been so odd. Oh yeah and if they hadn't stopped to ask me my name just before proposing.

In the end, it was quite funny, and now I have two lovely husbands. And how many people can say they were proposed to by two guys in unison?(because that's obviously something everyone would want to be able to say) Together we have a truly screwed up family tree (between us we have 7 fathers and one mother... I think) in which to bring up our children come October. If you want to see a picture of the proposal and/or me with a double chin, here it is:

P.S. If you're wondering how Luke (my boyfriend) feels about the whole thing, he wasn't very impressed to start with, but once he heard about the lack of romance in the whole thing, he eventually came round to the idea.