August Favourites: Part One! || 2015

Hello me' maties. I'm aware I sound like a pirate so I'll not repeat that introduction any time soon!
Anyway it's a bit of a jumble of bits and bobs that I have collated from last month that I have particularly enjoyed using, or found myself liking or buying again. Don't know why I have just explained the whole theme of a favourites post but I'll just get on with it. lol. Does anyone even use that word anymore!? I've not put capitals on the 'L'because then it looks unsymmetrical and weird and I just don't like it. XD

1) The Great British Bake Off
If you haven't already heard about this programme and you live in the UK then why are you living under a flipping rock. Like I know how hard it is to buy houses recently but a rock was really the best accommodation you could find!? I'm only joking, don't worry. I'm sure half of you reading this are probably unaware of this programme. It is basically a baking programme (I know *yawn*) but wait 'till I tell you it's full of innuendos, cupcakes and Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry eating lots of soggy bottoms. It's on every Wednesday for a few weeks now, from 8pm-9pm and it's hilarious and comforting and just amazing. Seriously. Go watch it. Now. Well, it's not on now but you know what I mean. Probably...
I'll stop.

Sending my best wishes for your health, Sue. 

2) Patterned Glass Mason Jar!
I know that mason jars have been kind of 'trendy' over the past few months, so a lot have been designed and produced, and trust me I have a fair few in my collection now! This one, however, is really unique and something that I have never seen in terms of mason jars before. It has- oh gosh, what's the word... eeerm- indentations? Indentations wasn't the word I was after but it'll do, in the glass and so it gives it a really vintage look. It also hasn't got a handle like some of the quirky glass mason jars/ cups that are available and I actually really like that about it, as it allows it to be held a lot easier. I found your fingers get squashed between the handle when you try to hold it stably on the ones with handles, but that's just me XD. I also love the straw it comes with with is plastic, and the little gingham/ check pattern on the lid of the jar. I actually have three of these, one in a grey-brown colour, blue and then lime green, but I think they are available in others if they don't float your boat.

3) Maybelline Dream Fresh BB Cream
I've had this a while now (I'd say about half a year) but since I've found myself quite sensitive in terms of concealer anywhere near my ears I have been using this a lot more, and appreciating this a lot more this past month. It's a very light coverage foundation/ cream but I think of it as a tinted moisturiser as opposed to foundation. Usually things like this are recommended for people who have fairly clear skin, with only slight blemishes (which I have not got!) but I still use it, because I find foundation too heavy and scary XD. I actually look forward to applying this when I decided to have a day wearing makeup because it feels so nice on the skin, and I love rubbing it into my face with my hands as I find this gives it a more natural look. It evens out my skin and, for me, is the perfect base. I really want to try the Bronze spin-off of it, and I may try and find the one for oily skin as well, as I do find this one makes me look quite shiny, which I'm not a huge fan of! 

4) Rimmel Stay Matte Transparent Powder
I included this in the photo with the BB cream, just because they are base makeup items. As I mentioned before I find that the Dream Dresh cream can leave me looking quite shiny, and I actually prefer a matte finish on my skin, so I recently went out and bought this and now I just find it incredibly helpful. It has a lot of hype surrounding it in the YouTube world, and I now understand why a lot of people use it. For me, it conceals redness more than actual concealers, and tackles shine to give you a really even skintone to work with. Somedays I only wear this with/ without mascara if I only have a few minutes to get ready and I feel slightly less exposed. Exposed? Where was I going with this? Maybe I mean less self concious about my skin. Either way I love it! And a good price too!

5) Wishbone
I don't usually include apps in my monthly favourites because I tend to stick with my usual ones like Instagram, YouTube, Topshop, Pinterest and IMDB etc. But last month I really got into using this! It's called Wishbone, and if you are trying to find it in the app store it has a reddy-pink icon with a white wishbone. You basically choose between two options that have been selected for you over a series of around 50 questions per go. A typical sort of question would be: 'What car do you prefer' and then there are two different photos, you pick the one you like and you can then see what the public have chosen in percentages. There are some questions I skip past like 'who wore it better' and 'who is prettier' because I don't really believe in competitions and rivalry in that field but I find it's a great time killer, and it's free which is a bone-us! Get it!? No... ok... 








Looking at the sheer amount of writing I have done- I promise you I do try to cut down on how much I do... it doesn't seem to be working!- I have decided to split this monthly favourites into two because I have been loving a lot of things in August it seems. See you in about two posts! Signed, Geekling. x

Sorry...

Hi Guys. As you may have noticed I've not posted since last Thursday's Thoughtless Thursday post, and I have some explaining to do!

I went to go on my laptop on the Friday after, and it broke. It wouldn't switch on, the screen was black, the only thing which showed it wasn't completely dead was the whirring noise- which wasn't entirely comoforting. I now have managed to get a new one, and so the posts will hopefully be coming at you more frequently.

Sorry for any inconvience (this sounds like some shop notice now XD) write to you again soon, hopefully.

Signed, Geekling. xxx

And sorry for the floating 'hi' you might not have spotted on the right of this photo. lol

Thoughtless Thursday: Lana Del Rey

My favourite artist this week. Enjoy!

Signed, Geekling. x

Two of my Favourite Blogs!

Well hello there!
I was about to write 'you may not know this, but I love reading blogs' but then I realised I'm a flipping blogger and you're reading this on my flipping blog. Which I actually now think is a good name for a blog come to think about it. 'My Flipping Blog'. Let me check if it's registered.
*a minute later*
Darn it. It is. I don't think there's any posts on it, the page just appears white. Aaah that' a shame, I liked that idea.
*virtual tumble weed rolls across the screen*
*5 minutes later. Realises she actually needs to write about the subject...*
What was I writing this post about, again? Aaah, yes. My lovely bloggers!

It's obvious that I love blogging, and I love reading other blogs too. Originally I was going to write about only my top favourite blog, but it turns out I really couldn't choose between two, and so I decided to write about them both! So, in no particular order (ooh, I feel like an X factor judge!) here they are...

FashionRocksMySocks 

Link: http://www.fashionrocksmysocks.com/
I've been watching Rhiannon's YouTube videos and vlogs ever since I discovered her channel when I was ill one day, and binged watched loads of them! Looking back, it is still one of my favouritest (that's not a word, but it should be!) but most simple days, just because her videos cheered me up so much. Anyway, I recently decided to check out her blog because I love her channel so much and I was not disappointed. She's such a lovely person and her bubbly personality shines through in her posts, as well as her awesome style- which I always admire! Some of my favourite posts of hers is her most recent 'what's in my bag' and 'how I style dungarees' because the outfit collage is so cute and original. I agree... if in doubt, wear some red lipstick!

I think reading her posts is also molding mine to be a little less meaningless and unnecessary drivel (don't use this one as an example!) as hers are concise but still have the chatty vibe, which in my mind is an ideal post to read. So if you are in need of a new blog to read, which is based predominantly around fashion and beauty, I'd definitely recommend this one! 

Look how lovely the cover illustrations are!

Through A Cat's Eyes

Link: http://cat-throughacatseyes.blogspot.co.uk/

I re-discovered Cat's blog a few months ago when I got back into hardcore blogging. Hardcore blogging!? What am I going on about? I mean when I got a little more serious with posting and design. Anyway I'm super happy I did because her posts about life and advice are some of my favourites, and I love catching up on them. My favourite post of hers however, was written quite a while ago, but it makes me giggle every time I read it. It's called 'one more thing...' (this is the link) and contains funny and interesting factoids about herself! Which reminds me...I thought I recognised her face when I started re-reading. I'm an avid bake off watcher and I am afraid Cat, if you're reading this, I am one of the ridiculous amount of people that thinks you look like Martha XD! 

Looking through some of her posts I am actually starting to believe I am the only blogger out there that hasn't got ridiculously nice hair. I am sitting here with a blonde ponytail, and everyone has amazing curls or a style that suits them so well. Seriously, I just googled 'blogger haircut'. I need to get a life.

Anyway! If you want to find a blog which has original posts about life, with a but of humour, books, beauty and DIY mixed in, 'through a cat's eyes' is perfect. And if you aren't looking to read a blog like that, go and read it anyway because there is something for everyone, hehe.

I love that font! One of my goals for life is to know the names of every one. Is that weird? Oh well...

And they are my two favourite blogs! Hope you get something out of this post, or just enjoy hearing about what kind of blogs I like to read. Are there any blogs you love? I'd like to hear. Signed, Geekling. xxx

A Dismal Day!

Joking! Well, am I?

I went to Dismaland! 

If you live outside the UK then I'm not sure whether you are aware of the 'Dismaland' attraction, or whether it's been televises and talked about as much as it has in this country but if you live in the UK, especially England you will most likely have heard about the latest Banksy (and other guest street artists/ artists) exhibition which is being held for 5 weeks in Weston-Super-Mare. If you read one of my earlier posts about my top 5 favourite artists, link here, then you will know that Banksy is one of them and so when I saw it being covered on the news I immediately started googling it. 

It is called Dismaland and it has kicked up a storm in the media over here already even though it only opened three days ago. It is Banksy's take on theme parks and amusement parks across the world, and featured a lot of his and other artists work, nearly all of them having some sort of meaning or political message behind them, but I'll get on to that a bit later in the post. It's called Dismaland because the staff and 'attractions' are very gloomy and forlorn and a lot of the work that's in there kind of adds to the effect of that. Anyway I thought you'd like to hear or look into it more (I know there is some mystery about what the experience is like etc.) incase you are thinking about going or you are an art or Banksy lover like myself.

As me and my family aren't local to Weston-Super-Mare at all, we first attempted getting tickets on the Dismaland website, so that we had we had a guaranteed entry without worrying about queueing with a chance we might not get in, as they only accept the first 2,000 in the queue and after that entry is on a one-in-one-out basis. However the website kept going down (6,000,000 people tried to access it each day so no wonder!) and then they finally took the ticket page off the website and declared that on Saturday and Sunday you couldn't get tickets you just had to queue for them- and if you were travelling from far away you had to take the risk. So we did! And luckily for us, it paid off and we got in smoothly!

A little word of warning, though, if you are thinking about going you have to be prepared to queue for a long time. We arrived to Weston-Super-Mare at about 8 or 8:30 and there were about 200 people infront of us. We then queued for about 2 hours to get tickets and then a further hour and a half for them to open the doors and then for the groups of people to be let in at around 10 at a time. We made the mistake of not bringing any camping chairs, foldable seats, food, coffee, water or anything like that and we hadn't had any breakfast. But when we got in, it was worth it. Just be prepared!

The first thing that hits you as part of the dismal experience was the staff, who walk around wearing fluorescent pink hi-vis jackets with the slogan 'DISMAL' written across the back of them. They also wear black Mickey Mouse ears, as a reference to Disneyland. There will be a member of staff manning the entrance who made comments to us and to the people in front about your choice of outfit: 
Staff member: 'Did you dress yourself this morning?'
Lady: 'No, my friend chose the outfit.'
Staff member: 'Hmm... It's horrible. I don't think they're a very nice friend''
Lady and myself: *Can't contain our laughter because the dismal and unhelpful comments the staff make and the way they stand and the expressions that they pull are so hilarious*

You then pass through a comic book-like security room, where you get told to look into a cardboard CCTV camera and metal detector and finally get checked by another lackadaisical member of staff. Once again, I couldn't contain my laughter when they were asking me questions to see whether I was dangerous or not!

After that, you go through the doors and the first thing I noticed was the creepy, slow paced music which blared out through old fashioned speakers, and continuously played throughout the whole day, with occasional interruptions from a girl with an eerily sweet voice making political/ scary statements. I can't remember any off the top of my head but I think you get the picture. 

One of the main sculptures/ installations/ pieces of art that you see as you go around like you would a normal theme park, is this mermaid, Ariel. Except a distorted and warped version of her, and I have to say that this was my favourite piece by Banksy in the whole thing (I think he did 7 pieces in all). I'm not really sure why- I just think it is original and effective and when I think about it, it must have been incredibly hard to make and then paint whilst keeping it realistic. This is in a big lake in front of a burnt, ash grey and brown kind of Disney castle in the centre of the park, and is one of the first things you see when you walk in. 

If you were wondering whether there were any actual fairgroud rides (even though they aren't really the point of the whole place, but you might be interested!) then the answer would be yes. There were 2; a carousel which went round quite a bit faster than a normal one should, and a huge Ferris wheel which once again goes faster than one normally should. The carousel above had a plastic dummy in a white lab suit and mask in though to represent the horse meat scandal, as well as a few horses hung up from the top of the ride, which I've only just noticed looking back at the photos I took, once again to represent the horse meat scandal. 

And if you were wondering what was inside the gloomy castle...
You walk through a pitch black corridor which winds around and takes you to the above display: Cinderella draped, lifeless, across a life-size carriage. The crash is surrounded by model photographers, all frantically taking photos (represented by the repeated flashing, so definitely don't go in if you are sensitive to strobe lights or get affected by it). The piece was mesmerising, because it was like looking on something frozen in time. I overheard a woman near me saying it was an interpretation of the car crash that princess Diana sadly died in, and the way that media reacted. Getting the story first, not help?

Here are the photos I took of some of the main features of the 'bemusement park', I won't go into depth about them otherwise this post will be as long as a marathon XD

The Big Rig Jig was colossal!

I loved the wall of simple but thought-provoking poster quotes. One of my favourites is above!

Seagulls are dangerous! Behind the bench is a large part of the park, which is a darkly lit gallery of all the artists work, including a mushroom cloud treehouse, an amazing changing animation and finally a spectacular mini model display of  a town after a riot, it must have took years to finish because the models were so detailed, and there were so many police cars and about 100 flashing lights for their sirens.

A ginormous sandcastle and run down childrens play area. What I found interesting was that children playing in it did not care at all about what state it was in... I don't really know what point I'm trying to make , it just made me think about the difference between childhood and adulthood. 

The Ferris wheel I mentioned earlier.

An installation to make a point about the conditions and life of some show whales. Behind the wall in the background was a toilet paper bench XD and a small cinema screen which played several short animations or films. There were two I really loved; some giraffes doing Tom Daley style diving, and then a girl and a boy seemlessly growing from babies to death, all captured through short clips. 

And that's all I got up to! Thouroughly recommend it to anyone thinking about going, just get their fairly early and keep the mantra of 'it'll be worth it when I get in' in your head whilst queuing, because it definitely will be. Only £3 entrance fee as well, which I also think was making a point. 

Ok, hope you found it interesting. More posts soon! Oooh and thankyou to Maisy for 
giving my little blog a shoutout- made me very happy. And shoutout to Sherl for being lovely and understanding, and shoutout to Thunder- hope you are having a great holiday! And shoutout to anyone else reading (think I just covered my whole audience XD) but I love you too :)
Ok, bye! Signed, Geekling. xxx

Posts, Posts... Pinterest... and More Posts!

Hi everyone! Thought I'd give you all a big, but fairly speedy catch up! Not sure who this will help out more, you or me, as I need to get on top of all the different post ideas and when they'll be published etc. So please bare with this non post I just have a lot of things to say and organise XD!

PINTEREST!
First of all... I got my Pinterest account back! *pops party popper...if she had one... which she doesn't* Which makes me so happy and I've spent so long on there the past few days because I've been making up for all the time I missed and kind of savouring it whilst I've got it. I'd like to say an enormous thankyou to Grace, who was a member of the Pinterest... eerm... I don't know what to call them... *TEN HOURS LATER* help team! That's the phrase! She helped me out so much after I got past the automated reply and so, once again thankyou! Aaah. So relieved. 

Speaking of Pinterest I have set up a new blog account on there, so if you want to see the kind of stuff I like give that a quick look, maybe! My username is 'Geeklings Blog' and my little '@' name thingy is @geeklingsb. My boards (so far) are: 'Beauty', where I pin fashion and makeup, 'Interior and Exterior', where I pin house and garden design and bits and bobs for around the house, 'Art' which is pretty self-explanatory, 'Humour', which is once again pretty self-explanatory, 'Cute' which is mostly small fluffy animals or little illustrations, 'Extra', which contains all the random pins which don't fit into any other board, 'Blog', self-explanatory, 'Photography' same as before, and 'Wishlist' which is a board of all the things I admire or long to have! Hope you like looking through :)

POSTS!
Upcoming post ideas and mini sort of schedule for them so you know what to look out for! These aren't all the posts I'll be doing, there'll most likely be a few more dotted around, or if something strikes me/ happens I'll no doubtedly talk about in here so don't worry if you don't think there's many/ see any you like... although I'm desperately hoping you'll all at least like one. Or I have failed as a blogger. XD.

Early Next Week (Mon-Wednesday):

• Geekling Bakes: GBBO Week 3. Hopefully making either normal bread, or cranberry and orange soda bread. (I will be doing this up until the end of Bake Off hopefully and so I won't keep writing it down in all the other sections of this post. Same with Thoughtless Thursday!)
• A post about 'Dismaland' which I am currently about to edit and then publish! -Done!-

Late Next Week (Thursday-Sunday)

• Thoughtless Thursday! Either Lana Del Rey, more Benedict Cumberbatch (had to refrain from writing his non-normal names... the fandom will know XD) or Autumn themed things/ quotes.
• Hopefully my Makeup Revolution order will be delivered late next week so I will be doing a haul with all that. I think it'll include 7 items.
• POSSIBLY a review of a few of the new Tanya Burr Cosmetics if I can get my hands on some!

Early Next Month

A little warning that the amount of posts I publish may slightly decrease during this time

• August Favourites (If I have enough to post about!)
• John Frieda Sheer Blonde Go Blonder Lightening Shampoo Review (wow, that's catchy... may have to rethink the title of that post XD)

Late Next Month/ Very Early October

• Some of the Things I Got for my Birthday! (My birthday is in late September if any of you were wondering XD)

And that's it I think! Turned out longer than I expected I just wanted to plan it all out and tell you guys. Singed, Geekling. xxx

Thoughtless Thursday- Taylor Swift!

This week it's the sensational Taylor Swift (with an appearance from Calvin Harris and Meredith!) Love her style... and her cat...and her music... and just everything about her to be honest. Enjoy...but seriously, how could you not!?

Signed, Geekling. x

Lush Blogger Event!

Hey and hello! This post is the post I mentioned I would be posting soon in a previous post...

''And the award for worst and most confusing blogging introduction goes to Geeklings Blog!'' *manic cheering*

If you didn't catch the post about the meetup- damn just remembered I reverted it to draft... *re-posts it*- I said that me and my friend kind of gate-crashed a Lush blogger event that evening, which the friendly Lush organiser said was fine. It's not like we were just members of the public, we both have blogs and this would be something we'd post about, we were just not on the list as we hadn't made earlier kind of... reservations *that's the word!*. In fact, she said it's good to have fresh new people talking about things like this. I'd never been called 'fresh' or 'new' before so I was actually very pleased! XD

*freakishly dances to the song which just came on*

Anyway, it turns out that the bloggers which attended got a goodie-bag with a few testers of products which I think were either new or being brought into all shops from the Oxford St. store (which was the main reason why Lush held this event, I think). And so I thought I'd give my first impressions of them and just show you what I got. 

1) Love and Light Hand Cream 

So we got three mini tester pots of different products and the first one was the Love and Light Hand Cream which is the far left pot in the photo. My first impressions after just sniffing the contents of the pot (which sounds weirder than it did in my head XD) was that it didn't have a really strong smell, but I was completely wrong. When you start working the cream into your hands the smell gets a lot stronger and it is an amazing scent. If any of you have got the Burt's Bees cuticle cream, it smells exactly like that! And if you haven't it smells quite citrusy, but it isn't really sharp because the cocoa butter kind of evens it out. It just smells delicious and your hands immediately look and feel a lot softer and smooth. I can tell I'll be using this a lot!

2) Beautiful Shower Gel 

The name of this shower gel does sound like I am describing it whenever I don't put speech marks around it, however if I had to review it in one word I would use the word beautiful! In the photo the gel looks a lot darker and more green than it does when you use it, really it is a vibrant yellow colour with lots of sparkle! Whenever I use this in the shower it instantly lifts my mood just because it's such a happy colour and such a happy scent. Before I researched this on the Lush website I believed the main kind of fruity ingredient was lemon, but turns out it's apricot! Smelling it now actually, I can tell it's apricot... 'Memoirs of Me and my Dodgy Sense of Smell...'

3) Cup O'Coffee Face Mask 

The Lush lady whom was leading the group I was in actually demonstrated this mask on my hand and when she did I could instantly name the smell, it's a really rich, strong coffee and I love it! She explained that because this mask actually includes lots of ground coffee beans it's perfect for when you and your skin need to look and feel a bit more awake! I've just used some on my hand quickly (so I can talk about the product more accurately!) and after I washed and dried it, you can definitely feel the difference- my hand feels so much smoother. I think this is my favourite out of all the goodies we got given on the night. 

4) Yoga Bomb Bath Bomb
This bath bomb has a fairly subtle scent- by this I don't mean that the smell is weak, but the ingredients used are purposely not in-your-face, in order to take a relaxing and calming bath. I actually crumbled a bit of this in a ceramic pot to show you guys (photo below) and it dissolved fairly slowly, with little bursts of turquoise and purples in the water and then a really fine golden glitter which doesn't leave your body in need of another bath, just to wash the glitter out! It's surprisingly really calming just watching the bath bomb fizzle (is this even a word!?) and gradually spread and mix with the water (this was just from my experience with the ceramic dish on my desk so I bet it would relax me so much I'd fall asleep when I actually take it in the bath!). Another thing I noticed was that you could probably easily get away with using only half of this in the water and keeping the other bit for another bath because you get the same atmosphere and affect with only a small amount- great value for money! Highly recommend this. 

And that's all of what I recieved. Thanks to Lush and to... eerm, I don't really know who else I was going to thank! Thanks to you I guess! I've almost hit 9000 pageviews which is crazy, remember if you like what you see you can type in your email at the side of this blog and receive my posts via email after I've published them! Love you all. Signed, Geekling. xxx