Can We Talk About: Nina Nesbitt?

I've been waiting ages to finally have enough time to write this post..... IT'S FINALLY HERE! 

A bit about Nina- she's a Scottish (brownie points there am I right?) singer-songwriter, she plays the guitar, piano and flute, started her music career on YouTube but was a teenage model until she met and dated Ed Sheeran who (I'm assuming) got her to start producing and pursuing her music career more. She toured with him and Example and then started releasing EPs, and finally released an official album 'Peroxide' in early 2014. She spent the year touring and playing festivals, and she just finished touring the UK with The Vamps last month.

I started listening to Nina after listening to Ed's song about her (you've probably heard it, it's literally called 'Nina') for a week practically non-stop. I'd already known she made music but I hadn't ever really heard anything by her so, mostly just out of procrastination, I decided to check her out. 

It was practically love at first listen... if that's a thing? Nina's songs are so easy to fall in love with. In a lot of ways she writes like Taylor Swift, meaning she writes songs that you listen to and just think 'YES, THIS IS HOW IT THIS IS HOW I FEEL SHE PUT IT IN WORDS'. Her lyrics are mostly about her... I was going to say love life and finding herself but I really think her lyrics are just about her, and her life and things she goes through and okay yeah a lot of them are about boys but they're the kind of songs that can relate to so many situations. I'm pretty sure I've related 90% of her songs about relationships to one of my situations even when at least 75% of them were probably written about a situation completely different to my own. Don't do the math, all you need to know is her music is the kind of music you can listen to no matter what you're going through and immediately feel comforted and understood. 

In terms of her sound, it's pretty much just straight up acoustic, she has a very singular voice, it's kind of different to most of the popular or current music in America in the sense that it's just straight up music. It's similar to Taylor Swift pre-Red but more like, if you've heard it, any acoustic Ellie Goulding tunes just more upbeat. In contrast to Taylor Swift, it's not just Nina's lyrics that make her music one of my favourites, it's also her voice itself. Girl can hit notes, alright. She's kind of like if T-Swiz wrote an album with her new upbeatedness, but still acoustic and with killer lyrics. 

Anyways, even if you don't like Taylor or Ellie, there's a good chance you'll like Nina so give her a chance! I find her music is very refreshing to listen to because we're so used to listening to the same old manufactured pop music, and in contrast, Nina's songs are very much just real, raw, music. Classic.
SOOOOOO go on and give her album 'Peroxide' a listen here!

My personal favourite songs by Nina Nesbitt are: 
- Peroxide (duh)
- Mr. C
- Way in the World
- Some You Win
- Hold You (ft. Kodaline) = actually amazing I CAN'T EVEN EXPRESS IT ENOUGH
- The Outcome
- The Hardest Part

Summer Favourites

Eeeeeeek, so it's been forever since I posted, I've been working on writing a day by day post about my trip to Greece but it's taking me forever! 
Here's a quick post I'll throw at ya before I finish my Greece one; here are some things that rocked my world this summer!

1- Bleach London hair dye: Soooooooooo important fact about me, I haven't had one hair colour for longer than 6 months since I was in 10th grade. I have hair commitment issues. I get bored easily, I need change. So obviously, when Gemma Styles (who I follow religiously on instagram) started dying her hair all kinds of fun colours with at Bleach London, I became VERY interested. It was a dream come true! Fun hair colours that fade out and when they're gone you just put a new one in! 
I'm not going to talk too much about my experience with Bleach London products because I'm saving a specific post for that :) Here's the gist- I bought Bruised Violet hair dye, applied it to bleach (ombré dyed) hair, here's the result: 
Over the course of July it faded and eventually I just decided to bleach it out (as much as I could), and now I'm blonde again. :)

2- Laced Trim Shorts: 

I got mine from winners for about $20. Super cheap, super cute. (Here's topshop's version) The best thing about mine were that they were so light, comfortable and cute, so I could wear them basically whenever, it was never too hot for them and I was never concerned I'd be too uncomfortable in them. Also they went with pretty much everything, they were a huge plus in my summer wardrobe. 

3- Floral Lightweight Kimono: 

(Check out this one from Forever 21, here)

Okay, another clothing favourite but seriously this kimono was the best. Again, I got it from Winners for fairly cheap, it's a lightweight sheer material and was perfect to put over top of a tank or crop top and was the best for beach days! I got so many compliments on it, I had to put it in my list. 

4- MAC's Frost Angel lipstick: I didn't buy this until the end of the summer but man do I wish I got it sooner, it's the perfect summer lip colour. In the summertime I, and many other people, like to go with a bit of a fresher face look and not wear much make up at all on an every day basis. This lip colour went excellently with that look, it's a lovely light pink colour that I wore day and night for a good part of August. You can get it here, it's sold as "Angel" in the drop down list.

5- Grecian Sandals: I got very lucky with this trend, when I went to Greece in March I found a cute pair of sandals at the Plaka in Athens for fairly cheap. I wore them literally all summer, in all kinds of weather to do all kinds of things, they're made of leather so they molded perfectly to my foot and were unbelievably comfortable. Unfortunately, towards the end of the summer I went to the beach and it started absolutely down pouring and my beautiful sandals got soaked :( They aren't completely wrecked but they're still not quite the same. You can get a similar pair online from any shoe store, but I more so encourage you to take advantage of what you have around you. For example, if you're in Greece, get sandals! Even if it's March and it's cold! It's worth it, even though they're sold on the market they're still good sandals, probably better than the ones you would get in stores here that are manufactured in sweatshops, let's be real. 

6- Moroccan Hair Oil: I've posted about this hair oil before so I won't bore you with specifics, this product was really important to my hair care this summer because of all the dying and bleaching, and because I was working in and at a pool all summer. It was my hair saver, I love it, 10/10 would recommend. (Just make sure  you don't over use it because the extra protein to your hair will dry it out!)

Hope you enjoyed your summer, let me know what some of your summer favourites were too! :) 
xx S

"the anticipation for what the trip would hold was making me sick. literally."

Last March I went on my last school trip to Greece!

A bit of my history with travel club-  In 9th grade I went on my first trip with my school's 'travel club' to China, it was a crazy experience, but now, thinking back to my China trip, it was a fantastic learning experience for me, it made me a million times more competent as a traveler, mostly because I did everything wrong on that trip...The next year they were traveling to France, Italy and Monaco, three countries I was dying to visit, and so I was persuaded to go again. The second trip redeemed the first in my eyes, when the trip was coming to the end everyone else was excited to go home to their families, I think I was the only one there who was sad it was over. The next year they went to Germany and Austria, for financial reasons, I didn't join them. My family has always been one that values experiences over material goods, we never had a lot of money growing up but when we saved up any money it always went to trips rather than new clothes. That's why in 9th grade when I went up to my mother and begged her to let my join my best friend Ella on the school trip to Egypt (we were supposed to go there but they switched it to China when the rebellion happened there) it didn't take much to persuade her, I was only 14 so I didn't exactly have the money to spend on such a trip so my mother called it my Christmas present- don't be mistaken, she never, ever in a million years would have gifted me something of equal value. The next year I wasn't supposed to go on the trip because my mom said I'd have to pay myself and I just didn't have the income to do that, then AGAIN my best friend Karol was going and asked me to come too, my other friends were going to talked to the teacher in charge to see if they could squeeze onto the already filled trip, long story short, she managed to get a bus with four extra seats, one for me and each of my friends! My mom surprised me by saying that she would pay for the trip if I would pay for spending money. The next year I wasn't so lucky, I would have to pay all by myself if I wanted to go, at first I convinced myself I didn't want to visit Germany so I didn't care, and by the time I realised I really wanted to go it was too late to save up enough $$ to go. That's why my name was at the top of the sign up sheet when my teacher decided we would go to Greece.

Fun fact- my oldest sister went on the exact same Greece trip during her senior year, because my teacher doesn't like to repeat trips we didn't rearrange our Egypt trip to go to Greece- a country viewed as having equal amounts of ancient history, when Egypt broke out into war, and so we went to China instead. Lucky me, ended up getting to go on both trips.

Pre Greece trip-
The summer before my senior year I had a serious run in with my anxiety issues. One of my major triggers for anxiety and panic attacks is sleeping out, I'm still not entirely sure why, but it happens, and that summer it caused me to be unable to stay out at a summer camp and it was a whole mess and my mom got very mad at me about it. Of course she didn't tell me she was mad at me about it, but she was, in one of those passive aggressive ways, when I got home from camp we made arrangements to see a counselor to deal with the anxiety issues, which she claimed she was okay with, but only in the way a parent is pretending they're okay with because they're an asshole if they're not?? If that makes sense. Anyways, the whole counselling thing turned into this big thing that was like fix-me-in-time-to-go-to-Greece fiasco, Greece was the end goal, make it to Greece, or make it so that I'm able to go to Greece, whatever. I  was in a difficult position because on one end I never, ever wanted to go through what I'd just been through again, especially with people I knew from school, but on the other half I'm a ma-hoosive art history nerd who's ideal vacation spot is Greece. Damn. By the end of my counselling session I'd learned a lot of techniques to dealing with anxiety- none of which I really use to deal with my anxiety- more of which I use when I have a small case of insomnia. But it was too late for me to back out of the trip so I was basically stuck.

Stuck on the trip-
The night before we left my anxiety was so bad that I was in and out of sleep on the bathroom floor, preparing to vomit at any point. At 5am my parents got up to take me to the airport, my mom yelled at me for not sleeping and I cried all the way to the airport while my dad awkwardly drove me in silence. When I got to the airport I went to the bathroom and vomited for a good 10 minutes, got tims and a gatorade and waited to go through security. I felt better the instant my friend Lilly got there, not less nauseous, but the anxiety calmed a little bit. We went through security together, I cried a lot, and I got on the plane and headed to Toronto. It was completely and totally awful. I was exhausted, and emotional, and sick, and miserable, the anticipation for what the trip would hold was making me sick. literally. Lucky for me a lot of the people on the trip were people who knew I had some anxiety issues, including teachers and what not so everyone was pretty understanding about it all. I cried my way through some pretty average conversations, I don't know why I was crying, I just was, and that's what I told them before we continued to talk about commercials. Seriously. At one point my teacher (who taught me philosophy, a class where I did a presentation on anxiety and all that jazz and therefore knew what was going on) asked me how I was doing and if I was excited for the trip and all I answered was "well I have to be now, don't I?" We were in the Toronto airport waiting for our flight to Greece. Oh that's the other thing! Lucky old me got stuck on the group of flights that left at 6am, and then spent the day waiting in Toronto to go to Greece, not the best flight plan for someone who's obnoxiously anxious for the trip, but it did mean I got to see my family and buy a cute hat from the mall(which I proceeded to wear every single day on the trip)

Voila! The infamous cute hat, the best thing I got from my terrible day at the mall in Toronto,

Anyways, the whole point of this post is not only to lead into my next one - Grecian Adventures (all about the good parts of the trip), but also to point out a few things:

1 - bad things don't have to be all bad, the beginning of this trip was absolutely horrible, but if you read the post about the actual trip you'll know how much I absolutely adored this adventure, and 

2 - the only way to really deal with anxiety issues, is to force yourself to. I went to so many counselling appointments but at the end of the day I had to force myself into the situations that would trigger me, I can't just learn how to cope with my demons, because that doesn't do anything if you don't ever see them, I have to sit down with them and have a cuppa with them and learn how they work so that they don't hold me back, before Greece I would always shove them away and find ways out of situations that would bring them to light, which did a whole of 0 things to help me live with them. Besides, after a couple days on the trip I was arguably the most mentally stable person on that trip, it just took awhile for me to trust myself.

Sidenote: I realise this post is extremely all over the place and sounds very disjointed and for that I apologise, I've been out of school for too long and it's been ages since I posted last soooooo I'm a bit rusty! Also note that I changed names because I didn't bother asking people if it was okay to use their names so I just changed them altogether.

So Here's the Thing..

This year in my English class we read a group of short stories, one of them was called The Flash, by Italo Calvino, (you can read it here). "The Flash" is about that moment of realisation you have every once in awhile where you see the world through a completely different perspective, it's like you've looked up and suddenly you see everything clearly, no murky societal rules to blur your vision, and for a brief moment, you get it. But that moment is brief, and then it's gone, and every once in awhile you wish it came back... you spend your life waiting to see it that clearly again.

Well here's the REAL thing. Every once in awhile, we have "the flash" moment and it doesn't go away, however we don't call it that, we call it an existential crisis.

The thing about existential crises is that we all have them, if you don't ever have on in your life span, I question both your intelligence and your sanity. However, even though we all have them, I have come to the realisation that we don't actually talk about them, which makes more than no sense seeing as we're all in the same boat and probably could benefit a lot from knowing that we're not alone in our terrifying experience of an existential crisis.

The first one I ever had was in 7th grade, after some investigation, I realise that this is later than most peoples's first one, so I actually knew a lot of people at the time who knew exactly what I was going through, but of course instead of talking about it with them I lived in a constant state of anxiety and unhappiness until I found my way out through music.

Now, five years later, I have found myself yet again faced with the challenge of seeing the entire world through that flash perspective, wishing it would go away. The first time it happened, I didn't really realise what I was thinking or what I was seeing, now I'm all too aware.

The problem with the flash perspective is that it's meant to be only a flash, you're not meant to sit there and stew over what it means, and why it is the way it is, because let me tell you, it drives a person crazy. The flash is supposed to come and go to remind you that, for lack of a more relevant term, YOLO. That you've got to prioritize and know yourself well enough to know what you value and want from your life. BUT! When the darn, stinking, flash doesn't go away, it transforms from a bright flash of understanding and enlightenment, to a gray cloud of depression. When you can't stop yourself from seeing that world from the outside perspective, from completely outside the box, you're left there constantly asking yourself how you're supposed to live your life now, instead of actually living it. It's just plain awful.

Last but not least, let me just vent on this lasting flash experience... As I said before, everyone has existential crises. Very, very real ones.. Life changing ones that make you question your existence and the point of life and what happens after death and they are hands down, the most unsettling, and terrifying things to think and experience. So why is it that when I say that I'm going through an existential crisis, people laugh and go, "oh my gosh I had one of those while studying for math last night... the worst!" Excuse me, what? You had time to question all of life and existence and fall apart and crumble to absolute bits and then pick yourself back up and comment that on my instagram feed with a smiley face??? Well call me impressed.

Okay, seriously though, is it because they assume that that's what I mean by existential crisis, a flash moment of me going "what is life?" instead of the constant state of depression and anxiety I've fallen into as a result of my constant questioning of everything around me? Because I really am not trying to give that impression. And it is SO much harder to try and not feel alienated when everyone else pretends that existential crises are no big thing, or that oblivion doesn't terrify them, WHO ARE YOU? HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE???? TELL ME YOUR SECRETS TO SUCH A CALM AND SECURE MIND SET.

I just don't understand.

Sigh.

Just trust me when I say, if you've experienced "The Flash" and are hopelessly waiting for that perspective to come back, move on, and enjoy your blissful ignorance. I envy you more than you know.

Travelling Musts: Packing

Hi guys! So I know it's been ages since I've updated... but in my defense I've been a busy girl! I just recently came back from a school trip to Greece, and since then I've been trying to catch up on all the things I missed, so bare with me! Since I missed so much due to my travelling, I thought I would make a blog set of my travelling musts. I'm only 17, but I have been to 4 continents and on three school trips, which is what I'm assuming most of my readers are travelling with! Without further ado, here are my absolute MUSTS for PACKING! *Please note these are packing tips for vacations, i.e. travelling with school or family!*

1. Not over packing is important, but not under packing is equally as important. If you're going away for a week or more, NO ONE is going to give you street cred for packing all your things in a back pack or carry-on bag (mini suitcase), you'll just end up ill-prepared. Don't do that. It doesn't make you cool, it makes you stupid. Sorry.

2. When it comes to clothes, pack things that you will not only look good in but feel comfortable in! Travelling is one of the only times that I always feel like I've got a good outfit planned every single day, because I've spent weeks thinking over what would be my best options. You need to think what is not only cutest, but most practical, what trousers can you wear with every single one of your shirts? Would you be comfortable wearing walking around a lot in them or sitting in them for long hours? Yes? BRING THOSE ONES. Also! Mix and match it up in there, don't just bring three pairs of jeans and rotate through, it might be warmer so maybe you should bring a dress or a skirt, which you could still wear with leggings underneath if it's cold! Speaking of leggings: 

3.Leggings are the ultimate airplane bottoms for three reasons: 
1) You can move around and make weird poses to get comfortable and not flash anyone like you would in a skirt or dress. 
2) They are not in any way constricting like jeans which is a godsend on long rides. 
3) They're not too warm but not too cold, you can always find a way to get comfortable in them. 

4. I don't think I even need to say it because it's so ridiculously obvious but: only pack clothes that you can wear more than once. If you're feeling overpacked, weed things out by going through each day and making sure you only have enough clothes that if you wore them only once you wouldn't have anything to wear the last 1/3 of your trip, then take away the rest of the clothes that you want to wear the least, and mix and match what your bringing to make up the last 1/3 of the days. Easy as pie. 

5. ROLL YOUR CLOTHES! If you have a crazy momma like I do who is always trying to make you pack everything in the smallest possible suitcase, then roll your clothes to make sure you have enough room for everything else. Tip: if there's no wrinkles in the clothes while you roll them, there won't be any when you unpack them, sometimes I roll skirts and dresses for this reason alone (no creases).

6. Toiletries: Buy empty shampoo and conditioner bottles that way you can reuse them. My family keeps the little bottles you get from hotels, but because the shampoo and conditioner in them is pretty crappy I usually empty them and put things like body wash and creams in them instead. Make sure you bring a nail clipper and file, band-aids and safety. You never, ever know.

7. Dirty laundry: OK so here's the deal, after having gone on many trips with only one random bag as a dirty laundry (until I finally got a cloth reusable one) I have discovered some very helpful things:
- get a cloth, reusable bag with a drawstring; the plastic ones hold in moisture so if you have gross, sweaty things they get extra stinky, a cloth one lets them breath and also it's better for the environment! Wahey!
- only put clothes in there that are n o t underwear; this way if you decide they're not actually too dirty and really want to wear it again, at least it hasn't been sat in a bag with your dirty underwear. To fix this problem I started putting my underwear into a toiletry bag that has the clean ones on one side and the dirty on the other, it's waaaaay more convenient. 

8. Underwear: pack at least three extra sets of underwear and socks, these are things you never want to run out of. 

9. Carry-on: If you're travelling on a plane at all, make sure you put an extra set of clothes in your carry on, even if it's just socks and underwear and a tank top. Many times I've had people lose their luggage and be stuck with no other clothes for a day or more while they wait for their luggage to finally arrive. That being said, make sure you pack everything important in your carry-on, money, itinerary, camera, chargers (and converters), everything. 

And guys, please, please, please make a check list. Make sure everything you need is on that check list, double check everything you need is on that check list, ask someone else if everything you need is on your list, and then triple check that everything on that check list is packed. 

Most importantly though, remember that things go wrong and things get forgotten, it happens. It's taken me at least 5 times before I actually managed to travel and not forget anything. If/when it happens, don't let it ruin your trip, if it's something really big that you forgot, tell someone, they WILL help you, if there's one thing I learned on school trips, it's that everyone's in the same boat and is much more willing to help and be kind than they are at school. Don't let forgetting something ruin your trip, it's not worth it! (And you shouldn't forget anything because you triple checked your list, right?
Hope this helps! 
Lots of love, xx

Beauty Tips for Winter Weather: Dry Hair & Split Ends

ALRIGHT! I've really got to get on with this post, I've been procrastinating forever, but I'm super busy right now, so it's going to be a quick one! Here are my tips on how to deal with dry hair and split ends. FUN FACT: I have loads of experience with both of these because a) I live in Canada. The northern part. b) I work in a pool, not AT a pool, IN one. Agh. 
Here it goees! For DRY HAIR try these tips!

1. Don't wash your hair every night... or even every other night. If your hair gets as dry as mine, it will be able to go a couple nights without being washed. I wash my hair 3 nights a week, I KNOW it sounds gross but it works, I promise. I still shower every night, but I make sure to put my hair up before I get in, that's all. 
2. DRY SHAMPOO IS YOUR BEST FRIEND!  Okay, so your hair gets greasy and gross if you don't wash it every night? NOT an excuse! Dry shampoo is super cheap and it's an absolute lifesaver, I picked mine up for $12 CAD from Chatters on Boxing Day, it's a spray in bottle that I put in every morning that I haven't showered the night before and it makes my hair look normal AND smell flowery, which is perfect because let's be real, if you don't wash your hair, it starts to stink. So when you go to pick up your own dry shampoo try to find one with a scent, and a spray on one because I find it's a LOT easier to apply!

That's basically it for dry hair, as long as you do this your hair shouldn't be neaaaaarly as dry and you shouldn't need to do anything else!

For SPLIT ENDS it's a bit trickier... but I've found that these tips work:

1. Apply a heat resister before applying any kind of heat, including blow drying! You can get these fairly cheap at the drugstore but like anything, the more expensive the better. CHI works super duper well for me! 
2. If you're straightening, blow drying or curling your hair every day, you're doing it all wrong. GIRL GET YO ASS ON PINTEREST! There are TONS of DIYs on there that are HEAT FREE! I know that like 75% do NOT look how they do in the pictures, but log on and try some when you have some time off and you'll find a couple that you can do pretty well, these are lifesavers. (There's a super easy one for a heat free curl that I'll post about later!) If you insist upon having straightener or curled hair every day, do what I mentioned in the first section and don't shower every night, use dry shampoo so that you don't have to re-apply the heat every day.
3. MOROCCAN OIL!!!!!!!!! This. Is. The. Shit. Okay, so I don't actually own any myself, but my sister has it and it works magic, I swear by it. It isn't a straight up hair treatment it's just a jar off stuff that you put in 15 minutes pre-shower, and then a bottle of stuff you put in post-shower. The stuff you put in post shower I always just put on my ends. It makes your hair mega soft AND smells nice, which is a plus. The brand name is literally just "moroccan argan oil", and this hair treatment has become a must nowadays so I'm sure you can find one at your local drugstore for fairly cheap!
4. TRIM YOUR SPLIT ENDS! Okay, I know if you go to the hair dresser and ask them to trim your split ends, they cut like a whole inch off and you end up crying because all the hard work you did to grow it out has disappeared, BUT! All you have to do, is every time you see your split ends coming in, trim them right away. Don't wait for them to get worse, and cut them yourself! When you go in for your next cut, your hair dresser will even out your hair but WILL NOT have to cut inches off because of split ends! It's a no brainer. 
5. SHOWER RIGHT. When you shampoo, only shampoo the roots, when you condition, only condition the ends. Fights split ends and greasy hair simultaneously. 
6. BRUSH. YOUR. HAIR. Oh my goodness, this is my ultimate pet peeve. If you complain about having dry hair and split ends but you're too lazy to even brush your hair every day, then I cannot help you. Leave now. Not brushing your hair is the laziest thing, I know some days that bed head can look kinda cute (it's like a weird thing that we all think some mornings? No? That's just me? Awkward..) BUT WE ALL KNOW that in an hour's time it'll look like serious bed head, so just brush it, it's not worth the hour of sexy bed head. Brushing your hair brings all the oils from your scalp down to the ends of your hair, if you don't brush your hair, there is a 100% chance you have dry ends and greasy roots. Sorry not sorry. *PLEASE NOTE THAT CURLY HAIRED PEOPLE ARE TO DISREGARD THIS TIP, Y'ALL ARE A WHOLE OTHER STORY*

Okay so that's all I've got for now! I'll update again when I get home so I can post links and brand names and such! Thanks for reading lovies, hope this helps! Comment if you tried anything and if it helped! 

xx

Favourite Pictures of Right Now!

OK so my cousin and I are penpals, and we always send some of our favourite pictures of the moment with our letters. Unfortunately, my printer is currently out of coloured ink so I'm posting on my pictures on here so I can still send them to my cousin! They include girl crush pictures, funny pictures, cutesy pictures and artsy pictures.

In this first set we have (TOP left to right), Gemma Styles being gorgeous and girl crushy, Harry Styles still from the Midnight Memories video edited onto a 'Footloose' movie poster, artsy fashion photo that I really liked.

In the second set we have (TOP left to right), a cutesy cat picture that I found on tumblr. a hilarious photo set of stills of Niall Horan from the'Talk Dirty to Me' video featured on 1DDay edited onto stills from Lady Gaga's video, a funny still of Louis Tomlinson & gang from the Midnight Memories video, Emma Watson being beautiful, a pair to the first artsy fashion photo, and Jennifer Lawrence and Little Mix being gorgeous and girl crushy.