Yellowcard @ the O2 Ritz | Manchester

Concert season has rolled around again for me, finally! Last Wednesday (14/12/16) my boyfriend and I saw Yellowcard in their final tour at the O2 Ritz in Manchester. The Ritz is by far my favourite concert venue in Manchester as it has two tiers, so on the days where I just feel like relaxing I can stand on the balcony and observe all of the action from afar.

The first support act was a band called the Kenneths who weren't really my cup of tea but I found the frontman to be very energetic and engaging and  he was very good at getting the crowd warmed up. The second support was a band called Normandie who are a Swedish rock band, I really enjoyed their music as it reminded me a lot of Bring Me the Horizon. Both bands were really great which is always nice as it really sets the tone for the whole night.

Before Yellowcard came on stage an announcement was made reminding you to not watch the show through your phone and rather enjoy the moment with your own eyes, because of this I didn't get many photos. They played an exceptionally long setlist of 23 songs, unfortunately this didn't include my favourite song but I still really enjoyed the setlist,

The atmosphere for the whole night was amazing, everyone was singing along and having a great time and it was just really nice to see. It reminded me of why I listen to the kind of music I do, although the crowds get a little rowdy if someone is in a position where they could get hurt everyone stops what they're doing to help them out, and I just find that really humbling. Everyone was singing along to the encore and it was just breathtaking. I just really wish I could go back.

(video courtesy of my boyfriend)

I hope you enjoyed this different kind of post. I have a lot planned for 2017 so keep an eye out for more of these posts, if you like them of course. As always thank you for reading and a follow would be greatly appreciated!

-Chloe

| Bloglovin' | Twitter | Instagram | 

The Christmas Tag | 2016

I have seen a lot of bloggers doing this tag and I have really enjoyed reading about other people's Christmases so I thought I would have a go myself. I know I said I would try to avoid tag posts but I figured I could make an exeption for this one!

1. What is your favorite Christmas film?
I haven't really sat and watched a proper Christmas film for a long time, we tend to just have Christmas 24 on constantly in my house and my favourite Christmas 24 film is definitely A Christmas Wish. But my favourite Christmas films growing up were The Santa Clause and The Santa Clause 2.

2. Have you ever had a White Christmas?
I remeber having at least one White Christmas in my life as there are pictures of me building a snowman with my uncle outside of my Grandmas old house from one Christmas. Other than that I can't remember having any snow on Christmas.

3. Where do you usually spend your holiday?
I either spend Christmas at home or at my Grandma's house depending on how many people we have to squeeze around a table. This year we are having Christmas at my house as there will only be 5 of us.

4. What is your favorite Christmas song?
I would happily listen to any Christmas song, I couldn't possibly pick a favourite. The song that I associate with Christmas the most is probably Do They Know It's Christmas? by Band Aid, more specifically Band Aid 20 as that is more my generation and I have memories of watching the video on TV with my mum.

5. Do you open any presents on Christmas Eve?
Never!

6. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer?
Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, ......., Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, Rudolph. I'm pretty proud of myself for remembering that many but I can't for the life of me remember the 4th.

7. What holiday traditions are you looking forward to most this year?
Definitely staying up watching the Norad Santa Tracker which I do every year. Also watching Christmas films with my family and then Christmas morning breakfast made by my Grandma. 

8. Is your Christmas tree real or fake?
We had a real Christmas tree once but my mum didn't appreciate all of the pines being left on the floor so now we stick to fake trees, in fact we've had the same 7ft one for about 5 years now.

9. What is your all-time favorite holiday food/sweet treat?
We always have one of the big biscuit selection boxes on Christmas Eve, although that's not really Christmassy. I also really enjoy the limited edition Lindt chocolates and Terry's Chocolate Orange. This year I've really grown a liking to Pret's Gingerbread Melting Snowman. It's just so cute! 

10. Be honest: do you like giving gifts or receiving gifts better?
Although I absolutely hate the stress of Christmas shopping, I do enjoy giving people the 'perfect' present and making them smile. I also enjoy delivering presents to family and friends that I don't see on Christmas Day, but of course I also enjoy receving gifts too because it's nice to know people have gone through effort for me.

11. What is the best Christmas gift you’ve ever received?
When I was younger my favourite gift was probably my little play kitchen that I think everyone will have played with at one point in their lives, they're a classic! 

12. What would be your dream place to visit for the holiday season?
I really enjoy our tradition of staying at home for Christmas but I've had a dream of spending Christmas in a log cabin for many years, prefereably somewhere in Canada because it snows there also I've always wanted to visit Canada.

13. Are you a pro-present wrapper, or do you fail miserably?
I'm not by any means a pro as I can only really wrap presents that come in boxes, I tend to either put gifts in gift bags or ask my mum to wrap the difficult presents for me because she is amazing at wrapping.

14. Most memorable Holiday moment?
My most memorable Holiday moment would definitely be the year we went to Lapland. Although I was only young I remember pretty much the entire trip; visiting Santa's Grotto (the real Santa), Reindeer and Husky rides, the ice slides and the massive snowman. I would love to go back one year!

15. What made you realize the truth about Santa?
I honestly have no idea, but my mum told me that the year I stopped believing I pretended to still believe until after Christmas because I didn't want to upset her.

16. Do you make New Years resolutions? Do you stick to them?
For the past couple of years I have made New Years resolutions and not really stuck to them because they are usually quite unattainable. This year I am however planning to make some more realistic New Years resolutions so look out for that blog post! I'm hoping that I will be more inspired to stick to them if they're on the internet. 

17. What makes the holidays special for you?
This is probably a cliche but I really enjoy getting to see pretty much every member of my family. I have a very large family which means that I don't get to see them very often. I like that I get to see everyone at least once around Christmas time. 

I hope you enjoyed this post! I have really been enjoying reading other bloggers' Blogmas posts so next year I will hopefully take part in Blogmas myself. I am however trying to keep December's posts Christmas themed this year so I hope that this will suffice. As always, a follow would be greatly appreciated! 

-Chloe

| Bloglovin' | Twitter | Instagram | 

Manchester Christmas Markets 2016

On Wednesday my mum, my grandma and I went shopping at the Manchester Christmas Markets, I had a really lovely day so I thought I would share it with you.

The day began with a browse around Primark because you can't go shopping without nipping into Primark. We all picked up a few bits, I will show you one of them later on in the post.
After we had finished in Primark we went for our first hot chocolate of the day in Costa. I had a Black Forest Hot Chocolate with a Raspberry and White Chocolate Muffin. My mum and my grandma had normal hot chocolates with marshmallows, a yule log muffin and a slice of carrot cake.

We then ventured into the Christmas Markets for our first shopping burst. We stuck to the main strip of market stalls at first. I bought a couple of things that I will show you at the end of the post. We also popped into the Arndale Centre and looked at all off the cute Christmas presents in the shops. We spent hours hunting around the markets and other shops to find a nutcracker for my grandma, sadly we were unsuccessful so I had to order one for her from Amazon instead.
When we got tired of walking around we decided to go for some lunch. We went to Frankie and Benny's in the Printworks (which is a really cool building, check it out if you ever get the chance). We had garlic bread, chicken strips and stuffed potato skins to start, I then had a carbonara with chips which was a little strange but very yummy.

Finally we headed back to the Christmas Markets to sample the hot drinks that they had there. I had an Amaretto Hot Chocolate which I had been excited for the whole day, amaretto is my favourite drink. My grandma had an Irish Cream Hot Chocolate and my mum had a plain hot chocolate as she was driving. I also had some of the mini Dutch pancakes with nutella on which were amazing!

I picked up quite a few things from the day so I thought I would show you them now.

The Christmas tree in the box is not actually from a market stall but as it is Christmas related I felt like I should include it. The tree is from Primark and was bought for me by my mum, the tree cost £5 and can be found in the home section.
The big white reindeer? teddy was bought by my grandma, she bought us each a present (my mum got a snowman). These cost £10 and were bought from the large stall on Albert Square.
The small Santa teddy was given to me for free at the same stall by one of the staff, presumably because we spent £30 but he didn't say anything he just put it in my hand.
The bottle of  Grumpy Git Amber Ale cost £4.50 and is a Christmas present for my step dad so hopefully he doesn't read this and spoil it.
The dream catcher cost £7 and I bought this because I don't have one in my room at the moment and I have been having a lot of bad dreams recently. I hope that having the dream catcher will help me out but also I just find them to be quite pretty. They had smaller sizes of these also.
Finally, I took the cup that I got my hot chocolate in home with me. I'm not 100% sure if you're supposed to take them but I really wanted a souvenir to remember the day and no one stopped me from walking out with it so I guess that it's alright?
I hope you enjoyed this post. I really enjoy writing these types of posts because not only do they allow me to share bits of my life with you but also they act as a little memory box for me,
As always if you enjoyed a follow would be greatly appreciated!

-Chloe

| Bloglovin' | Twitter | Instagram | 

Netflix Shows I've Been Loving

I haven't really done an awful lot this week as I have been having a huuge lazy week. My time has mostly been spent eating, reading and watching Netflix, I have been trying to distract myself from spending all of my time on social media recently.

So, this week I have decided to prepare a list of the shows that I have been watching recently on Netflix.

The first show that I have been absolutely loving is Gilmore Girls. I had seen a lot of people talking about this show on Twitter and so I decided to give it a go. I have really missed having a girly show to watch so this show fills the void quite nicely. I think I remember having watched a few episodes with my mum as I was growing up but I really wanted to start the show from the beginning. Since starting the show on Monday I have been hooked. I am currently up to episode 10 of the first series. Although I didn't get to watch the whole series before the new one comes out I am still excited to watch that when I'm done. This show hasn't yet failed to cheer me up when I'm feeling a little down, it does however make me miss my mum a lot!

The second show that I have been enjoying is Episodes. I feel like this show is highly underrated as I never really hear anyone talking about it. I started watching this show on a recommendation from my boyfriend. I really like that the episodes are only half an hour because sometimes I just don't feel like I could sit and watch something for an hour. It's also nice to be able to watch a comedy every now and then. I am currently up to episode 3 of series 3. I am hoping that I will be able to finish the whole series in time for the new one so that I can watch it with my boyfriend. If you are looking for a comedy that doesn't feel too time consuming I definitely recommend Episodes!

The final show that I want to include in this list is Orphan Black. This is another show that pretty much everyone on the internet has already watched but as always I'm a little late on the bandwagon. I started watching the show over the summer but have recently got back into it now that more episodes have been added to Netflix, I believe it is actually a Netflix Original now. As with most of the shows I watch I am trying to finish the whole series before the new series comes out, luckily the new episodes will go straight to Netflix so I wont have to worry about catching them on TV. I am currently up to episode 8 of the second series.

I feel like the three shows that I am currently watching are quite a nice mix, I have a different show for each mood that I'm in.

I hope you enjoyed reading this post and I hope that it helped you pick your next show to watch if you were searching! As always, a follow would be greatly appreciated if you want to stick around!

-Chloe

| Bloglovin' | Twitter | Instagram | 

This or That: Beauty Edition | Tag

I was struggling with writers block this week so I looked to google to find some inspiration. On my search I came across Nikkie Tutorials "This or That" tag. I thought this would be a fun way to get to know a little more about me. In the new year I do plan to make a whole post of facts about me but I do not feel confident enough to do so yet. If you would like a blank copy of the questions I used to complete yourself click here.

QUESTIONS:
→ Makeup
Blush or Bronzer: I'm not very good at using bronzer and always feel that it looks a little strange on me so I would definitely choose blush as I have used it for years.

Lipgloss or Lipstick: I'm really not a fan of lipgloss at all as I hate that they leave my lips feeling sticky so lipstick all the way!

Eyeliner or Mascara: Although I am an eyeliner addict I cant imagine it would look very great if I wasn't wearing mascara, unless I was wearing false eyelashes. However that's too much effort for a daily basis so I will have to choose mascara.

Foundation or Concealer: I really don't enjoy how my skin feels when I'm wearing foundation. I like to feel like my skin can breathe as I suffer with quite bad skin. But I do like to wear concealer under my eyes so I choose concealer.

Neutral or Color Eyeshadow: I am not brave enough to experiment with colourful eye shadows so I will stick with neutral eye shadows.

Pressed or Loose eye shadows: I don't think I have ever tried a loose eye shadow before so I will have to choose pressed eye shadows. Although I will look into some loose eye shadows to try.

Brushes or Sponges: Although I enjoy using my sponge when applying liquid foundation a lot of the makeup I wear would be virtually impossible to apply with a sponge. I also feel that brushes have a lot more uses than sponges.

→ Nails
O.P.I or China Glaze: I have never used anything by China Glaze before but I have used some O.P.I, before, therefore I will go with O.P.I.

Long or Short: I don't really enjoy having my nails too long as they are quite weak and snap easily. I do however enjoy having some length to my nails but I think a lot of people will consider my nails to be short.

Acrylic or Natural: I haaaaate acrylic nails as they leave my natural nails in a mess so I would definitely choose natural nails.

Brights or Darks: I wear dark nail polish all year round so dark nail polish for sure.
 
Flower or No Flower: I'm not a fan of nail art at all (mostly because I'm not good at it).

→ Body
Perfume or Body Splash: I prefer to use my Victoria's Secret body splashes on an every day basis as I don't get paranoid about them being in my bag.

Lotion or Body Butter: I don't have the patience for body butters as I feel like they take too long to soak in to my skin so I would choose lotion.

Body wash or Soap: One of my favourite things in the world are different types and scents of shower gel. Especially seasonal ones!

LUSH or Other Bath Company: Lush is my default store for things like bath bombs and face masks, I don't really ever consider any other stores.

→ Fashion
Jeans or Sweat pants: For lounging around I would obviously choose sweat pants but for going out I would definitely put on jeans instead. I don't think I've ever been brave enough to leave the house in sweat pants before.

Long sleeve or Short: I prefer to wear long sleeve shirts as I am quite insecure about the tops of my arms.

Dresses or Skirts: I like to wear both dresses and skirts but if I had to pick I would probably prefer to wear a dress as I struggle to find tops to wear with skirts.

Stripes or Plaid: Striped jumpers are one of my favourite things to wear so stripes would be my choice. Although I do quite like my plaid shirts.

Flip flops or Sandals: I hate having my feet out but I would definitely rather wear sandals as I find flip flops to be very uncomfortable.

Scarves or Hats: I do enjoy the warmth that wearing a scarf gives you but I'm currently obsessed with the £2 bobble hats from primark.

Studs or Dangly Earrings:  I rarely wear earrings nowadays but dangly earrings annoy me so I would choose to wear stud earrings.

Necklaces or Bracelets: I hate having anything other than a bobble around my wrist and necklaces are my favourite things to wear so this was quite an easy choice for me.

Heels or Flats: I prefer to wear flat shoes on normal days but when I go out I quite enjoy heeled boots. But if I had to pick one I'd choose flats.

Jacket or Hoodie: For going out I prefer to wear a jacket as I feel that they keep me warmer but also make me feel like I've put more effort into my outfit.

→ Hair
Curly or Straight: I like to curl my hair for special occasions but as my hair is naturally straight I find it easier to keep it that way.

Bun or Ponytail: I hate having my hair up but if I had to I would rather it were in a bun.

Bobby pins or Butterfly clips: I rarely use any clips in my hair but I probably use butterfly clips most often.

Hair spray or Gel: Again I rarely use either of the choices but whenever I curl my hair I use hair spray to keep it in place.

Long or Short: My hair at the moment is very long. I prefer my hair to be long-ish, just below my shoulder. I don't think that I would suit short hair.

Light or Dark: My hair right now is a faded red colour as I haven't had it dyed for a long time. However, I prefer my hair to be dark brown and that is the colour I plan to dye it soon.

Side sweep bangs or Full bangs: I don't think I could have a full fringe without looking even younger than I do now so I would choose to have side sweep bangs.

Up or Down: As I said earlier I hate having my hair up so I would definitely choose to have my hair down.

→ Random
Rain or Shine: I don't like rain as it makes my hair frizzy so I would choose for the sun to be out. Or at least no rain.

Summer or Winter: I hate being too hot so summer is not my favourite season. I don't particularly like being cold either but I prefer it because I like wearing more layers and find it easier to warm up than to cool down.

Fall or Spring: Autumn is my favourite season of all as I love the colours. I do also like spring because everything feels fresh and new but I do prefer autumn.

Chocolate or Vanilla: I'm guessing that this question is about ice cream in which case I would choose vanilla. I'm not much of a fan of other ice cream flavours and I don't really like chocolate flavoured anything.

I hope you enjoyed this post! Hopefully next weeks post will be a little more personal and creative. As always a follow would be greatly appreciated!

-Chloe

| Bloglovin' | Twitter | Instagram | 

How To Build A Girl | Reading Challenge

I have a feeling that these sorts of posts are going to become a little more frequent than once a month as reading is the thing I seem to be doing the most recently. I hope that you don't mind and that you enjoy reading these sorts of posts as much as I enjoy writing them. My last Reading Challenge post is one of my most popular so that appears to be the case!

The second book that I read for my reading challenge was How To Build A Girl by Caitlin Moran. 

This book took me a very long time to read. I started reading it a couple of months ago over summer and unfortunately lost interest in the middle of the book, I found it to be a little tedious and dull as the plot didn't really seem to be moving anywhere. However, when I decided to embark on my reading challenge I wanted to ensure that I finished all of the books that I had started but never quite got round to finishing. I currently have one last unfinished book to read but I will probably not write a post about this one.

Although I did lose interest in the middle part of the story once I got past the 'hump' I really managed to get into the story a little more and found the last half of the book to be more enjoyable. I found 'Dolly' to be quite entertaining and the book did make me giggle at some points.

I think the main thing that stood out to me about this story is based around a character from a working class background which is something that you don't see all too often. But other than that I could not find anything else to relate to within the main character (my life is simply not that wild) which I think may be to blame for my loss of interest.

I also found it quite hard to keep up with how time was passing as one minute she was 14 and the next she was 17 and appeared to be a completely different person. Although this may be down to the long break I took in between reading the book.

At times I found the language to be vulgar which is something that I am not a fan of. There was a considerable amount of talk about sex in the last part of the book. If this is something that you do not like I would probably steer clear of this book. I personally found a lot of the pages to be somewhat awkward to read a little bit too cringey for me.

Although this review does seem to be mainly negative points I did somewhat enjoy the book and grow a liking for the character towards the end when she begins to see 'the error in her ways'. I also found one chapter at the end of the book to be quite inspiring and it did leave me with a warm feeling and a sense of a little more self-acceptance.

I hope you enjoyed this post and as I mentioned in my last Reading Challenge I have been getting back into Goodreads recently. If you would like to follow me on there Click Here!
As always, thank you for reading and I hoped you enjoyed.

-Chloe

| Bloglovin' | Twitter | Instagram | 

Garnier Moisture Bomb Tissue Mask

Last weekend my mum and I decided to have a bit of a girly night as we had the house to ourselves. We bought a takeaway, lots of goodies and some pamper bits. We picked up two of the Garnier Moisture Bomb Tissue Masks and I wanted to share my thoughts on them with you. 

Normally I tend to prefer non-sheet masks but we decided to try these out anyway. We got ours from Boots for £1 each, normally they are £1.50 each. 

The instructions on the back suggest that you apple the mask to a freshly cleansed face. I used my Garnier 3 in 1 wash because I like to use matching products but I don't really think it matters what cleanser you use. 

When I first took the mask out of the packet it was a little slimier than I had anticipated and was quite fiddly as I was afraid of tearing the sheet when trying to unfold it. Like all sheet masks I have tried this one didn't fit my face at all so I had to line my eyes up and then squish the rest of the sheet onto my face which I think worked fine although it looked significantly scarier than a normal mask. This made it hard to try and keep a straight face as we were both laughing at each other.

I left the mask on my skin for the recommended 15 minutes and then I peeled it off. I must add that peeling this mask was oddly satisfying. When you peel off the mask some of the cream is left over, the instructions say that you can either wipe the excess off with a cotton pad or you can massage it in as you would with a normal moisturiser. I chose to rub the excess into my skin which left my face feeling quite sticky for a while. This however eventually went away and left my face feelings soft after about 10 minutes.

Although there were no dramatic differences my face did feel quite soft and re-hydrated after using the mask. I have already purchased another mask to use next time I feel like a pamper night.

I hope you enjoyed reading this post and as ever a follow would be greatly appreciated!

-Chloe

| Bloglovin' | Twitter | Instagram |