GOODBYE 2014, HELLO 2015.

My last post of 2014. Another year gone by. Here's to a hopefully awesome 2015. Happy New Year!!

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LOVE VANESSA xx

THE MUSIC POST | TOP 5 SONGS OF 2014

Can anyone tell there's a running theme in my last few posts? If not well I figured I'd do a list of favourite things of 2014. Here are my top 5 songs of 2014.

1. Thinking Out Loud - Ed Sheeran

2. Drowning - BANKS

3. Love Me Harder - Ariana Grande ft The Weeknd

4. Yours - Ella Henderson

5. Yellow Flicker Beat - Lorde

Whats your favourite song of 2014?

LOVE VANESSA xx

THE MOVIE POST | TOP 5 FILMS OF 2014

This year there have been some great movies out. Here are my top 5 films of 2014.

1. Guardians of the Galaxy

2. Only Lovers Left Alive

3. Captain America : The Winter Soldier

4. The Hunger Games : Mockingjay Part 1

5. Divergent

What were your favourite movies of 2014? 

LOVE VANESSA xx

TOP 10 POSTS ABOUT BLOGGING OF 2014

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Not all of us are well versed in the world of blogging and I am still learning about it all. Blogging advice posts are one ingenious way of getting quick tips for upping your blogging game. So I thought I'd share my top 10 blogging advice posts I've read from this year.

1. 21 Things I Have Learned From One Year Of Blogging

2. Blog Topics: Starting Your Blog

3. Blog Class: What An Editorial Calendar Is & What It Can Do For Your Blog

4. Getting Into Your Blogging Groove

5. Things To Bear In Mind When It Comes To Blogging

6. Blog Class: Six Ways To Beat A Blogging Block

7. When You Think You Don't Have Any Ideas Left

8.  Marketing for Bloggers: Useful Links

9. 20 Ideas For Blog Posts

10. Thoughts & Ways To Show Blog Love

If you have any more tips or links to blogging advice hit the comments below.

LOVE VANESSA xx

THE FASHION POST | CHRISTMAS & NEW YEARS PARTY OUTFIT IDEAS

It's that time of year again... Christmas & New Year is filled with family gatherings, work parties and going out on the town. When it comes to figuring out what to wear to these events it can be incredibly challenging. Here are just a few outfits to inspire.

Very have some great outfit ideas in their A/W '14 lookbook to help you along the way and they can all be ordered straight from their site it couldn't be easier.

For those tomboys out there you can't go wrong with a fitted suit.

Metallics are perfect for New Years Parties.

Go edgy with a faux leather dress.

Or for a more family appropriate outfit maybe this will give you some inspiration.

All images rights go to Very, no copyright infringement intended.

This post was written as part of the #VeryBloggers competition run by the awesome folk over at Very.co.uk. Do check out their amazing site.


LOVE VANESSA xx

QUOTES FOR MOTIVATION

We all love a good quote and I love motivational ones especially so here are a few.

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“It's not because it's difficult that we don't try. 

It's because we don't try, it's difficult.” 

― Volksweisheitheit

Let me know in the comments your favourite motivational quotes.

LOVE VANESSA xx

UPDATE | IT'S BEEN A WHILE AGAIN...

It's been almost 6 months since I last wrote a post on here and during that time so much has happened. In August I had a marketing internship in one of the biggest publishing houses in the UK Random House. I then finished my MA in Publishing at the end of September. It's been a busy last few months of 2014 and I was just so unmotivated to blog. Which has happened before and I promised it wouldn't happen again but alas it has. 

I really lost interest in reading blogs which in turn meant I lost interest in writing on mine. 

I don't have that many followers compared to other bloggers out there and that doesn't bother me so much. I think when someone decides they're going to blog they enter the blogging world with so many hopes and more often than not it doesn't live up to your expectations. I've learned that while you may not gain a huge following overnight it takes a lot of hard work and tenacity to blog on a regular basis. I take my hat off to those of you who manage to do so. 

But anyway I'm rambling. I wanted this blog to be a place that I love and can write about whatever I want on it but it started to feel like a chore. That's not what blogging should be like. So I went on hiatus and concentrated on other things. But slowly I am coming back to blogging. I've been mostly active on bloglovin liking posts etc even if I haven't actually been blogging myself.

So here I am not making promises and blogging with no expectations. :)

LOVE VANESSA xx

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!

As the title says it's my birthday today and I turned 23 years old. And how do I commemorate it with a birthday selfie ha ha. ;) Whenever it's my birthday I always take the time to reflect on what I've achieved the past year. I actually had my undergraduate graduation on this day last year which was the strangest way to spend a birthday ha ha.There are so many amazing things that have happened in the last year and I feel that the next few months will be huge for me. I have made so many new life long friends, got to live in Oxford for a year and I will have finished my Masters degree which is something I'm really excited about. It means that I can work on my blog a lot more which I'm looking forward to as well. So here's to another year...

THE OPINION POST | FAN ELITISM

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I tweeted about fan elitism a couple of days ago after I read a comment on an article about Paramore and was inspired by Zoe's post she wrote today about music snobbery which you can find here. Her post got me really thinking and I came to the realization that snobbery and elitism isn't just limited to fans of music but of other things such as TV shows, comic books, actors/actresses, youtubers and even gaming. 

I'm part of a lot of fandoms and fanbases and have been for some time namely Marvel, Echelon & Star Wars as a couple of examples. All of these and even ones I'm not part of such as One Direction all have some form of elitism it seems. Either you need to have liked it for several years, or need to know everything about it etc for you to be classed as a true fan which to me is BS. Also it's come to the point where people bully or even send death threats simply because you don't like the music they like.

I've experienced it myself and it's not fun believe me, also you find yourself often having to prove you're a 'real' fan when simply liking something in my eyes makes you a fan. You don't need to know everything about it or have liked for them for years. Also for example as a Marvel/Star Wars fan you are continually disregarded as a fan if you just so happen to be female. The first true science-fiction book ever to be written was Frankenstein and that was written by Mary Shelley who is in fact a woman, so women practically invented the genre. The elitism here is redundant; gender doesn't affect your ability to like something.

I admit when I was a teenager it felt a bit like I had to prove myself a fan of certain things and often got mocked for things I liked; especially music I liked. I remember I always got mocked for liking the Killers at secondary school by boys who were my friends; admittedly I'm not so big a fan of them now. Now I'm in my 20's I don't care as much about people not liking things I do or if I don't like what they like to me it doesn't really matter.

But anyway I'm rambling now which always seems to happen ha ha.

For me I think there are several mottos to live by as a fan of something:

1. Like whatever you want to like.

2. Ignore those who mock you for liking it, who really cares if you're enjoying yourself.

3. You don't need to know everything about it.

4. Remember you'll find so many people who will appreciate you for joining their fandom/fanbase.

5. And finally just enjoy it regardless.

What do you think about fan elitism? Have you experienced it?

LOVE VANESSA xx

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

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Love this quote from Kurt Vonnegut's Timequake which you can get here.

I've decided I'm going to have various different quotes for this segment on the blog, some literary some not.

You can see quotes I have reblogged on my tumblr too here.

LOVE VANESSA xx

THE MAKEUP POST | TESTING THE EYEKO SKINNY LIQUID EYELINER

This product has been raved about by bloggers and one of my style inspirations Alexa Chung. I was lucky enough to get the Eyeko Skinny Liquid Liner free with July's Issue of Glamour.

The eyeliner claims to be smudge-proof and fade-proof, long lasting and intense single stroke colour.

Now I'm a eyeliner fiend literally only two eyeliners Collection 2000 Fast Stroke waterproof eyeliner & Max Factor Colour X-Pert waterproof eyeliner (both in black) actually manage to last a whole day without rubbing off. So I was hopeful in that the Eyeko one would be very good because of all the positive reviews and hype.

Well to be honest it's not as amazing as I thought it would be. Yes it is easy to apply but I have kind of mastered the technique of applying it after wearing eyeliner for years now. The product is very dry and I don't know if that was just my one but some people on instagram mentioned that it was dry for them too. Now that would be fine if it was highly pigmented and didn't budge. It took several coats to get a real black colour compared to the ones I usually use which require only one coat. It also rubbed off quite quickly and I found myself having to remove the eyeliner that had transferred to the top of my eyelids. I also had to put on the Max Factor one over it to make sure it didn't rub off; all in all not very good.

At the retail price of £12 I find the Eyeko Skinny Liquid Liner a little pricey for something that doesn't quite work for me so am glad I got it with the magazine. It's such a shame because I know loads of people love the product.

What do you think of the eyeliner?

LOVE VANESSA xx

THE FASHION POST | MINI SUMMER WISHLIST

This post is an entry to a competition held by Excel Clothing in conjunction with The Blogger Programme to win £500 to spend at their online store.

For me most of the time I wear quite monochromatic colours and a lot of black but when it's summertime I do wear slightly brighter colours like blue which is the focus of my mini summer wishlist.

I love the camera motifs on the dress.

Most of the time I am wearing a collared shirt if I'm in a skirt or trousers this one is quite unique.

I've been eyeing up Michael Kors bags for a while but they're slightly out of my current price range.

1. Sugarhill Boutique Ching Ching Skater Dress in Green. x

2. French Connection Holiday Block Classic Shirt in Yellow. x

3. Michael Kors Hamilton Large East West Satchel in Navy. x

If you want to enter the competition too go to this link here to see the rules and how to enter.

I'll be making another wishlist with no restrictions on brands and not as a competition entry soon.

LOVE VANESSA xx

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

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A little motivation goes a long way.

LOVE VANESSA xx

THE MOVIE POST | THE FAULT IN OUR STARS

A tearjerker of a book makes for a tearjerker of a movie. 

I first became aware of the book through the author John Green's Youtube channel with his brother Hank; VlogBrothers. As someone who is slightly older than the target demographic I wasn't really aware of the hype and excitement surrounding it. Now I've seen the film have to say it's one of my favourite book to screen adaptations and I've seen a lot, Divergent being higher on the list of favourites which Shailene also starred in. :)

I've watched films that are similar to this in terms of story but not necessarily focussed on teens with terminal illness. But anyway let's get down to talking about the film. (I'm going to try and keep this mildly spoiler free)

Shailene & Ansel really embody the characters of Hazel & Augustus and I think really made the film even better. Nat Wolff also provided some comedic elements to his character and I laughed at many a scene of his especially the egging of his ex girlfriends moms' car. But what really struck me was the poignancy of several of the scenes including when Hazel & Augustus visited Anne Frank's House in Amsterdam. The film captured elements like feeling like everything is against you or that bad things are simply inevitable but there are positives too like love can happen between two people regardless of circumstances and you can fall in love when you least expect it. I'm rambling terribly in this review but the film got me thinking about a lot of things. Anyway to end yes I cried, definitely bring tissues if you go to see the film, I thoroughly enjoyed it so highly recommend it you guys.

If you've seen it what did you think?

LOVE VANESSA xx

TRACK | GHOST | ELLA HENDERSON

Oh what's that another music related post? Music is one of my biggest passions alongside books and films so I shall be talking about it often on the blog. I also like a range of genres so you can get an insight into my music taste. :)

Anyway I've been really loving Ella Henderson's newest song Ghost which actually hit #1 on the UK charts last Sunday.

It's quite a soulful love song and I love the breakdowns between the verses and the choruses. For someone who appeared on the X Factor it's refreshing to see such a credible artist in Ella and I'm looking forward to hearing the rest of the album.

You can see the video for the song in the link below.

What do you think of the song?

LOVE VANESSA xx

FAVOURITE BLOGGERS & VLOGGERS

These are just a few of my favorite bloggers and vloggers and I felt like spreading the love ha ha.

So my first favourite is Suzie from Hello October who blogs and is also on youtube, her eyebrow game is strong and you can really rely on her honest reviews of products. I've been following her for about a year now and was actually introduced to her blog through Company Magazine as she was featured in one of the issues. She also has replied to a couple of my comments on youtube which is pretty awesome. :)

Lily Melrose is another favourite of mine. I absolutely love her style. She has two blogs and is on youtube too. We also share a love of A Song of Ice & Fire and her cat is adorable! She also replied to a few of my comments on youtube too, I may or may not have gotten a little too excited when I noticed them ha ha!

Jenn Im of Clothes Encounters is quite possibly one of my most favourite vloggers ever! I've been subscribed to her channel ever since back when it was her and Sarah running it. Her style is definitely one of the best and I take a lot of style inspiration from her as we're both really short! She also hung out with one of my favourite bands Young Guns when she was in London recently yes I am jealous ha ha.

 A Little Opulent is a more recent follow as they only very recently launched but they're quickly becoming an everyday read for me.

Claire Marshall is one of the coolest youtubers I've ever come across I've been subscribed to her channel for about 2 years now and her video editing is phenomenal. I get a lot of style inspiration from her as well so definitely worth a follow.

Amy from The Little Magpie is another of my favourites and she also has a youtube now definitely give her a follow for amazing style inspiration!

Chapter Friday is curated by Yara previously of This Chick's Got Style and her team of three; it is a great destination for career advice, lifestyle, fashion and everything else. I originally followed Yara on TCGS and now Chapter Friday; check out the regular Friday Quote post it's always a good 'un.

So there are a couple of my favourite bloggers and vloggers I'm pretty sure most people follow them but if you don't definitely do!

LOVE VANESSA xx

THE MUSIC POST | MY SUMMER PLAYLIST

Here are some tunes I'll be listening to this summer. 

If you click on the name of the song it'll take you to the song. :)

City of Angels by Thirty Seconds To Mars

I Really Don't Care by Demi Lovato ft Cher Lloyd

Cold Night by You Me At Six

Do Or Die by Thirty Seconds To Mars

Hanging On by Ellie Goulding

Let Go For Tonight by Foxes

Sex by The 1975

Drowning by BANKS.

Settle Down (Young Ruffian Remix) by The 1975.

What songs have you been listening to lately?

LOVE VANESSA xx

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

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As someone who has anxiety I feel that this quote is something I can really relate to as I have often pushed myself past my anxiety and enabled myself to do things I didn't think I could this year.

LOVE VANESSA xx

The Liebster Award

I was nominated by the lovely Paige Victoria of Lady Paige for the Liebster award. For those who don't know what the Liebster award is it is a way for new bloggers to connect and cross promote which sounded like a pretty neat idea so I'm joining in ha ha. :)

The rules:
You are asked 11 questions by whoever nominated you and they must be answered
You must nominate 11 new nominees (I'm going to be breaking this rule as I don't follow many lesser known blogs!)
Your chosen nominees must then answer a new list of 11 questions created by yourself
And finally you must inform those you nominated of their nomination.

Where did your blog name come from?

I actually wanted something with my name incorporated but wanted something slightly different à la Zoella so thus Evanessage was born.

Apart from the Liebster award post, what was the last blogpost you read?

The last blogpost I read was "10 x inspirational cozy nightstands" by CHAPTER FRIDAY.

Where is your favourite place to eat out?

There's this lovely pub called the Red Lion just off George Street in Oxford, I love their burger & chips!

Which types of posts do you most enjoy reading?

I like loads of different types mostly lifestyle, clothing, music, film and books.

What is your favourite scent?

I love the smell of freshly laundered bedding and clothes. My favourite fragrance would probably be Just Different by Hugo Boss which happens to be for men but I love it ha ha.

What is the most expensive thing you have ever bought?

My Samsung laptop.

When was the most you ever laughed?

When my friend and I were working on our projects for the MA and we kept moaning and swearing about how difficult it was and then in contrast I sent a really polite and well written email to my lecturer we found it very funny mind you we had been working for about 6 hours by then...

What is your biggest regret?

I struggle to maintain contact with old friends.

The best book you've read?

That's a difficult one I read way too much and have way too many favourites. I'm going to have to go with The Colour Purple by Alice Walker. It is a really thought provoking novel covering lots of issues like racism and sexism all within the context of the black women's experience in 1930's southern United States. The movie is pretty good too.

If you could do absolutely anything tomorrow, what would you do?

Boring answer; I'd probably like to go back home to visit my parents.

If you could have been in any Disney film which character would you have liked to play?

Mulan because she's a badass and proved that a woman can do just as good if not better than a man.

I'd like to nominate these lovely people:

Lisa from The Beauty Type.

Taylor Rose from Taylorose19.

Emily Rose from Emlaff

And these are the questions for them to answer:

What is your favourite time of year?

If you had an unlimited amount of money to spend in a week what would you do/buy with it?

What is your most worn item in your closet?

What is your favourite song?

What are your aspirations?

What country would you love to visit?

What type of blogs do you follow mostly?

What was your favourite subject at school?

What makeup item can you not go without?

Are you part of any fandom/fanbase if so what one/s?

What inspires you?

A massive thank you to Paige once again for nominating me! Do check out her blog here and give her a follow!

LOVE VANESSA xx

UPDATE | BLOGGER FAIL & WHAT'S NEXT FOR THE BLOG

Hello my lovely readers. So yes I fail massively at keeping up with blogging and apologies for that. As some of you may know this year I've been doing a Masters Degree in Publishing and at the same time I was promising to update the blog more often. It got to the point however where my studies were really hectic and taking up all my attention so blogging was put on the back burner for a while and by a while I mean 2 entire months!

My MA is winding down as I only have my end of year project to do so I do have more time to blog now hooray.

Saying that I'll still be pretty busy but I'm going to dedicate more time to blogging as I may not have been posting much over these last 2 months but I was liking and reading other blogs' posts on bloglovin and gaining inspiration along the way ha ha. So here's to more blogging from me.

I've also changed my blog theme as I just wasn't getting on with the old one and I really love it, I'm kind of into the minimalist look nowadays it just looks so much cleaner. :)

So anyway hope you are all doing well and enjoying the rare hot weather we're having in England although I must admit I'm more of an autumn/winter type of person. ;)

LOVE VANESSA xx

TRACK | WESTCOAST | LANA DEL REY

I've been a fan of LDR's since Born To Die and even have listened to her old music before that era. It feels like forever since she released any new material. 

Today WESTCOAST off her second album ULTRAVIOLENCE got it's first airplay on Radio 1. 

First thoughts were it was quite Black Keys-esque which makes sense as it was produced by Dan Auerbach from The Black Keys. I really love the simplicity in the heavy guitar driven ballad and Lana's usual breathy emotionally tinged vocals. Her lyrics are still amazing and despite the retro feel it still sounds fresh and she literally never disappoints me.

If this song is anything to go by I'm really looking forward to the new album dropping.

What do you think of her new song?

LOVE VANESSA xx

UPDATE | NEW BLOG THEME

This is just a little update I've changed my theme now so it fits more with the kind of content I'm going to be posting from now on. Hope you like it and this is a sign of new phase for the blog. :)

LOVE VANESSA xx

THE GIG POST | BANKS

So last friday I went to see BANKS in concert at O2 Academy Oxford. If you don't know who BANKS is she's a singer from LA and her music is what I'd call electronic RnB with some Lana Del Rey/Lorde/Grimes vibes thrown in too. She's also the queen of wearing all black, a girl after my own heart.

I've been listening to her music since late 2013 and have loved everything so far, my favourite songs are Change & Brain.

The gig itself was sold out but was really short and went by too quickly. Time definitely flies when you're having fun. She was supported by Eclair Fifi on the entirety of this tour. I managed to get to the barrier so I had an unobstructed view of the stage which was brilliant as I'm only 5ft tall although I was wearing heels that night.

She performed songs from her EPs alongside two covers one of Aaliyah's Are You That Somebody and The Weeknd's What You Need. She also performed 2 songs Stick & Goddess from her album coming out in the summer. Her voice is amazing on record but live is truly phenomenal you really feel the vulnerability and the honesty of her lyrics.

Anyway I didn't take too many pictures as I was enjoying myself way too much to get my phone out but here are 2 of them. I did film the songs Stick and Waiting Game but I'm not going to be posting them online.

BANKS

LOVE VANESSA xx

THE FOOD POST | CÔTE

So as I stated in my last update post I would be looking at developing and changing what type of things I would be posting on here. One of those is going to be having a different type of post entitled with what I'm discussing. This post and all the future ones that will cover similar content are going to be called "The Food Post."

I recently visited Côte Brasserie in Oxford for one of my flatmates' 22nd birthday. It's a little restaurant that serves French food. It's a quaint and intimate place but I was slightly disappointed as it didn't have a very French vibe but that was not something to worry about at all.

I ordered Half Chargrilled ‘Breton’ Chicken with Frites which was effectively just glorified chicken and chips but it was lovely and tasted delicious.

And while my friends had some wine I was the responsible one with my Coca Cola ha ha. :)

All in all it was a nice meal but the restaurant was just a tad pricey for some of the food but I was paying for the atmosphere and would still recommend it if you happen to find yourself in Oxford anytime soon.

LOVE VANESSA xx

UPDATE | IT'S BEEN A WHILE...

Hello,

Hope you're all enjoying your weekend. Well as the title says it's been a while since I actually posted anything on my blog which is very remiss of me. I say it's been a while it's been 4 months... so apologies to you lovely followers.
Every time I decided to sit down and write something assignments would need doing and I'd put blogging on the back burner again. Also I'd struggle to actually write anything decent, I'm kind of at that early stage of blogging where I'm testing the waters and trying to work out what fits. But I've gotten myself a diary and intend to use it to manage my time better so blogging can have space to actually happen.

So hopefully I can continually update my blog more often. I was at London Fashion Weekend earlier today and was watching the Social & Creative Careers talk with Abisola Omole, Shini Park of Park and Cube and Serena Guen of Suitcase Magazine. What was really prevalent in the talk was that if you're serious about blogging or intending to be it's all about consistency and constantly creating content. Also you don't necessarily need to have studied a subject e.g fashion to blog about it. After this I was feeling incredibly inspired by the talk which also kick-started me getting back into the blogging game.

I was thinking I could post as regular posts like monthly favourites which I used to do or a round up of my week although I mostly study during the week so not sure how that would pan out ha ha. Any suggestions would be mightily appreciated. :D

LOVE VANESSA xx