Resolutions

This past New Years was the first year I've ever made serious resolutions. If you haven't already read my 2017 post this may be a little new to you, but the series of resolutions I made were much needed and all working towards me taking better care of myself. I wanted to document here, a couple of months on, how I've been doing and what progress I have made in the hope that it will keep me motivated and, perhaps, motivate you with any goals you have recently made. 

 I have tried to make subtle changes in the early months of this year in order to keep myself on track. These have been goals such as, drinking at least a litre of water a day and posting on my blog once a week. Other changes working towards my resolutions have been the use of notebooks and listing to keep myself organised. I have very little free time at the minute and so keeping what free time I do have timetabled to include everything I want to achieve is crucial. I pencil in time for music, writing and reading as well as studying into my little weekly planner. I don't always stick to it completely, but it's really helpful having everything written down rather than in my head and I'm less likely to get overwhelmed and stressed over how little time I have. 

 Drinking water has always been difficult for me. I'm not sure why, I just can forget to drink all day and then suddenly realise in the evening that I'm pretty thirsty. I try to carry a litre of water with me all day everyday and remain disciplined in getting the whole thing down. I do this by refusing to let myself get a coffee before I've drank my water first. I'm a pretty big fan of coffee so this seems to work for me! However, no amount of notebooks or listing can help with this one unfortunately, self discipline is the way forward. 

 Blogging every week has actually been so helpful for me. It's been easier than I thought. I've gone from feeling like I have nothing to say to finding inspiration from everything I do. I have this blue notebook from Coconut-Lane which is very compact and has blank pages. I never leave the house without it and it slips easily into any bag. It's perfect for planning my blog posts. I have months worth of ideas jotted down and it's making it so much easier to find something to write about every week. It's been so crucial to this process. I lost touch with my blog as my life got busier and I've felt so much more like myself now that I have things to write about and I know what direction I want to take.

 In the following months I'm going to be writing a lot about books seeing as I read so much and those posts seem to be my most popular at the minute! I also want to dabble a little more with beauty posts and I have a list of products I want to try and things to talk about so I'm very excited about the direction I'm taking with my blog this year and I hope you are too!

 In terms of music, my passion for singing and performing was also something I lost touch with after losing so much of my free time. I have set myself the goal of uploading a YouTube video a month. I have noticed that meeting deadlines is actually a quality of mine. So, by setting myself a deadline each month I can make sure I am motivated to dedicate time to playing guitar and learning new music. It's not that I don't want to do it, I love music more than anything! It can sometimes be a little difficult to have a spare hour where I can sit and play and this goal has really helped me in making sure I have that time every now and then.

 I noticed last year that all of my passions were being lost to work and studying, including my social circle and my general enjoyment of each passing day. That was a scary place to be in as well as a daunting cycle to get out of. We're moving house soon and when things have been at their most difficult, I have used that as a milestone to reach where I told myself everything would change, and everything would get better. I have taken this as an opportunity to leave the job that was taking up so much of my own time. My last shifts are next weekend. I will be finding a job that leaves me at least one day off a week and with that, all of these little goals should get easier to reach. 

 That was the one big decision I have made to stay true to myself and put my well being first and I'm sure there will be plenty more made over the next year. 

 Hopefully you've taken something from this post and have been inspired to prioritise what makes you happy. I am a huge advocate of keeping a diary, be it a personal diary or a planner. It's so important to reflect on whats going on and make sure you can manage everything. 

 You can receive 20% off at Coconut-Lane using the code chloehanks20. As I said, their notebooks are the reason my blog is doing so well at the moment so please go and check them out. I'm sure they could help anyone keep their creativity flowing. 

 See you next week for something cosy and book related... thank you for reading. 

Instagram Giveaway | Coconut-Lane

One thing that caught my eye when I received the email asking me to work with Coconut-Lane was the opportunity to hold Giveaways. Giveaways are a lot of fun and I see a lot of them around on Instagram. It seems like a great way to connect with your followers and to give back to the people that support your art. I have never done one before; although, I have entered many. Today marks my first ever Giveaway; depending how this goes, I'd love to do more in the future, hopefully bigger and better. 

 First things first, I want to state that this giveaway is UK only and I will be taking entries until 8pm on Wednesday the 22nd Feb. The winner will be announced on Friday 24th. 

 I want to tell you a little bit about the products I'm giving away. Firstly, I'm including 2 of the Coconut-Lane A5 notebooks. I absolutely love these. I've found mine so useful for planning blog posts, making lists and otherwise general organisation. Not only are the designs so cute but they're also very petite and lightweight making it so easy to slip one in your bag. If I get an idea for a blog post at college or at work, it's so easy for me to just grab my notebook from my bag and write it down. It was so hard to choose just 2 designs to include but I really love the ones I selected; hopefully you do too!

 Secondly, I have included these adorable gold-plated, seashell earrings. I love wearing stud earrings to work or college and I'm always looking out for more interesting designs. I loved these because they're simple, quirky and so pretty! 

 Just to note, the products photographed are my own, the winner of the giveaway will received their own, packaged and unopened products! 

 To enter this giveaway, head over to my Instagram @ChloeHanks23. Screenshot and repost the image on my feed and tag both my account and @coconutlaneuk. Mention me in the comment as well and leave the post up for at least 24 hours in order for me to process the entries. You must be following me to enter. 

 I will be announcing the winner on Friday on my Instagram story and will then post the winner's package as soon as possible!
 I am really excited about this, I hope you are too! Good luck! 

Winter Favourites

When deciding what I wanted to write about this week, I realised I had probably missed the window for posting a January Favourites. Also, the few products I have that I'd like to share have been favourites for much longer than a month, in fact, a few of these have probably featured in favourites before. Never the less, there are so many products I want to talk about. I've avoiding including anything I have talked about recently so there are a few books and beauty items missing. Thus, I have decided to do a more general Winter favourites for you today rather than a January favourites. I love watching favourites videos and reading about what people love using, I hope you do too! 

 The first on my list is a hair product. I have always tried to take pride in my hair. I invest a fair bit into keeping my hair healthy and strong. This has involved some big hair cuts over the last couple of years so I'm always on the lookout for products that will help me keep my hair healthy without having to keep cutting loads off! I picked this up in Boots one day without really thinking about it. I'd ran out of my old oil which I can't buy from regular drugstores; after trying this, I won't be going back to my old one! This is a conditioning oil by Aussie (my favourite hair brand) called the 3 Miracle Oil. It's a leave in oil designed to repair damaged hair. I wouldn't describe my hair as damaged because all of the colour damage has been cut out now. However, I like to use this to act as a deterrent to any of the things that could damage my hair, eg. heat, sunlight etc. Whilst I steer away from using anything that could damage my hair, every day life can be testing on fine hair like mine so every little helps. This oil is amazing. It smells so lovely and it has such a perfect consistency. I used to use Moroccan oil a lot but it can be quite thick and sometimes too much for my thin hair. This product is clear and much less viscous leaving such a lovely finish. My hair looks shinier if I use this, it combs more easily and smoothly and feels so much stronger. I would recommend this to anyone looking to breathe some life back into their hair! It's also perfect for anyone on a budget who can't afford the price of the Moroccan oil range. 

 Next up is the Palmers Cocobutter daily skin therapy. This is a really rich moisturiser. It comes out really thick and creamy and it smells divine. I always use this after shaving my legs and coherently throughout the week and I just love the way it makes my skin feel. My skin is soft, smooth and shiny. The hydration payoff is amazing. I love using body butters but I often find they can take so long to dry; this is fairly quick to dry considering the thickness of it. The whole range is wonderful. Throughout the summer I was using their tanning moisturiser almost daily and I am also loving the hand cream. They are really affordable products and so worth the price! I love it all so much and I love smelling like chocolate! 

 My third favourite is the Pil'Aten black suction mask. I use this weekly and my skin has never felt cleaner. I'm sure everyone is familiar with the videos going around social media of these amazing black face masks that remove every blackhead. This is a similar deal; however, you have to have realistic expectations. A lot of people leave bad reviews of these masks because, lets face it, they don't really have the results that the video suggest. I don't think it's possible for a mask to do what the video suggests. I have to say, the first time I used this I was a little disappointed. It didn't seem to remove any blackheads at all. I have used it weekly regardless and, with time, I'm seeing much better results. I find the longer the mask is left on, the more evidence you see of it working. Moreover, I like to apply a second layer after the first dries which also seems to make it work better. Overall, for the price of this product (around £4-5) it works really well. My skin feels so clean after I use it and my skin has been clearer than it has ever been since using this. I do use it in conjunction with other products as a part of my skin care routine; however, the results are clear to me and I would advise anyone trying these masks to just persevere and figure out what method works best with your skin before judging the product. 

 Before I move on to makeup, I want to share my last general beauty favourite. It's Taylor Swift's Wonderstruck fragrance. I wore this religiously when I was 14-16. It's a beautiful scent. Everyone always compliments me when I wear it. I ran out ages ago and didn't get around to replacing it but I got this miniature bottle for Christmas. It's a really lovely, floral smell and the bottle is so cute! I think this has been a favourite of mine for many years but I've been wearing it a lot in the last couple of months!

 Moving on to makeup, this mascara is another product that I picked up without really thinking about it and it has honestly changed my life. It's the Rimmel Volume Colourist mascara. I always hated my eyelashes. I'm still not the best at curling eyelashes or applying mascara and I struggle to make my lashes any more noticeable. This product is the first mascara I have used, since trying an abundance of higher end products and Zoella recommended products, to actually do something to my eyelashes. I just love it. My eyelashes are showing up in pictures, they stay curled for much longer. I do notice that this product can flake off a lot throughout the day but I don't really mind when it does such a good job! 

 My last favourite is a brand that I have only found in Superdrug so far. I was trying to save money on makeup; so, when I discovered this brand I fell head over heels. They make some really amazing products for really low prices. I absolutely adore this foundation. It's the MUA Skin Define Hydro foundation. 1 bottle costs £4. I love this because it's water based and it has worked wonders for my skin. I had a horrible breakout over the summer and my whole face went so dry and flaky that I often couldn't wear any makeup. When I found this, I was sold. Not only because of the price but because it is so kind to your skin as you're wearing it. It keeps my skin moisturised and has surprisingly good coverage considering the price. The MUA brand is fantastic. I'm also loving their concealer and their liquid lipsticks. Budget makeup isn't always cheap. 

 That brings us to the end of my Winter Favourites. Let me know what you've been loving and what you think of these products if you've tried them! I'll see you next week.  

January Book Haul

I've seen in the new year by prioritising my favourite past time. I was lucky enough to get lots of new books for Christmas as well as having a stack left that I collected over last year. This included some must reads for my A Levels as well as books that had caught my eye on Instagram over the fleeting months. I still have so much to read, I am so looking forward to hopefully getting through everything and much more over the remainder of 2017. For this weeks post, I wanted to share with you what I have read throughout January. I love reading these kind of posts on either blogs or Instagram because it gives me so many ideas regarding what to read next. If you're not a book person, this probably isn't the post for you!

 I saw in the new year reading When The Floods Came by Clare Morrall. This is an absolutely stunning book. The cover is beautiful. The idea is so original. I have never read anything like it. It was so brutally honest yet it had an air of magic about it. It really gets you thinking about the world we live in and how we treat others and our vulnerability as humans. The narrative is captivating. I have already added Morrall's book Swimming Lessons to my 'To Be Read' list because her writing is just so wonderful. I must have finished this in under a week. If you're interested in post-apocalyptic stories, you'd love this. It's so good! 

 After finishing that, I had to give in to my huge pile of Non-Fiction books that were insisting to be read for college. I do find non-fiction books interesting; however, I prefer to get a sense of magic from what I read. I love the feeling you get from reading a good fictional story. I have to commend this writer, though; this book was an absolute life saver in terms of getting to grips with my A Level history subject matter. Tales from the Long Twelfth Century brings to life the events that catalysed the downfall of the Angevin Empire. If you love books and have a passion for History, I would recommend you try this one out. It was testing. I have a habit of not being able to leave a book in the middle of a chapter; so, the long sections of this book left me finding it hard to read if I didn't have much time. It took me a couple of weeks to read this whereas a book of this size would usually take me under a week. It was really useful though and I will definitely try to re-read it before my A2 exams. 

 To reward myself for going the extra history mile, I read the jaw-dropping Messenger of Fear by Michael Grant. This was actually my first Michael Grant book. It's made me really want to read the Gone series if only I could find the time! This is a wonderful book to advocate the idea of social responsibility. I guessed the twist before I got to the end but it was still just as powerful. I read this in a couple of days. I just couldn't put it down! If you're looking for a really gripping read for a weekend or whatever, definitely give this a try. It's dark, haunting and so well done. 

 I've recently been rediscovering my love for fantasy novels after falling head over heels for The Night Circus. I was advised to read Stardust by my Creative Writing lecturer and so I added it to my Christmas Book List. I decided to read it sooner rather than later because the magical theme could help me with my coursework piece for this term. It's such a quirky little book. Again, I was able to read it in a few days. It's really easy to read and just a lot of fun! It's so much better than the film that was made a few years ago. I have watched the film but I couldn't remember it very well so the book brought to life a forgotten story for me and I loved every page. I have added some more Neil Gaiman to my list so I'm excited to get around to those. 

 My final book for my January Book Haul is unfinished but I wanted to include it because I started it just at the end of January. A colleague of mine lent me this book after we bonded over The Night Circus and I absolutely love it. A Discovery of Witches is obviously similar to the Twilight Saga in terms of basic plot line. However, in my opinion, Deborah Harkness does it so much better! It's laced with culture and magic and history; it's as if it was written with me in mind. I haven't finished yet, so I can't say much, but I'm so excited to get to the end and read the rest of the books in the series! 

 I hope you've enjoyed this weeks post and have perhaps been inspired to pick up a book this month! Let me know in the comments if you know of any books I might enjoy. 

 See you next Sunday.