Shopping Haul, feat. Hollister, Orla Kiely & Local Shops!

Hey Everyone!

I apologise for my lack of blogging as of late, so here's a haul of some items I've purchased in recent weeks. The shops I bought from were Hollister, Orla Kiely and a couple of local shops in my area.  I was checking my emails and found that several sales were going on and of course, I couldn't resist! 

First up is this gorgeous purse from the Orla Kiely website. Orla Kiely is an Irish designer and I'm a big fan of supporting local and Irish. My last purse was quite dark so this new purse has injected a pop of colour into my handbag (also an Orla Kiely design - can you tell that I like her designs?) I will admit that I only buy her designs when they're on sale as I'm a student with very limited spending power!

After that, I went onto the Hollister website. which coincidentally was also having a sale. (Sales are my favourite thing, okay) I picked up this pretty long-sleeved top. It's really soft and cosy - perfect for Winter! I generally wear short-sleeves so this will be wonderfully warm in the coming months.

I adore hoodies so I bought this one on the Hollister website too. It's really roomy and so warm! It's very spacious and generous for its size - a rarity for Hollister! It's perfect for chilly evenings. 

Also in Hollister, I picked up this light, white t-shirt. Like the hoodie, it's very roomy and made of a wonderfully soft fabric. I haven't worn this t-shirt yet but it'll be perfect should the Summer decide to return. (Fingers crossed!)

I was going around my local shops and came across this stunning bag. I'll most likely be bringing it to the Debs in August. The bag sparkles in sunlight and I just adore it. 

A new arts & craft shop opened recently, so obviously I had to go for a little peek even though I wouldn't be the definition of an artist. (I felt inspired to make my own cards after leaving though, which is a start) I came across the butterfly, unicorn and cow stickers which are unbelievably adorable. I'll definitely be making more trips to try release my inner ''artist'' (I'll be positive seeing as I can barely draw a straight line)

Have you bought any interesting items/products lately or any summer sale bargains? Let me know in the comments! 

Stay Strong, Happy and Fearless!
Aveen xx

My 18th Birthday and Reflection

Hey Everyone!

So last Friday (September 26th) was my 18th birthday! I'd like to say thank you to all my friends and family for their lovely cards, gifts, text messages, Facebook messages, tweets and lots more, you are all so thoughtful and brilliant.

I was in school on my birthday, double Maths is always fun when you turn 18. *intense sarcasm* However the day simply flew by, before I knew it I was in Spleodar with some of my friends all speaking Irish. It was my first week in charge as a cinnire so I was a little uneasy about being 'i gceannas' but it all went well and I got good advice too. If you don't learn something new every day then you clearly didn't have a good day!

Afterwards at home we had cake (which was scrumptious!) and I opened present from my family and friends. (If you're wondering, gifts from my parents were opened when I woke that morning!) Mam and Dad gave me an Orla Kiely handbag and some small presents which I appreciated as much as the handbag, lip glosses are life. Down below are some of the presents I was given.

*I'm not bragging by posting this blog post. I wouldn't call it a 'haul' like if I went shopping. Birthdays are different and I'm extremely grateful to all my family and friends for their cards and gifts, they're far too kind :)

On Saturday night I went to the Chinese with most of my friends and we all had a brilliant night filled with yummy food and of course, chocolate cake. I actually only took a few photos, which is very unusual for me, so they're down below too.

I must admit, it's slightly strange turning 18. In Ireland I am a fully fledged legal adult now and that's quite weird to think about and consider. The only ''adult'' thing I have done so far is buy some scratch cards, (with zero success) and walked around the alcohol section in Tesco thinking ''Muwahaha I don't feel awkward walking here now as I can legally buy anything I want.'' How weird indeed.

Photos From My Birthday!

Some of my birthday cards!

I adore this card my godmother made, I'm planning on framing it and hanging it on my bedroom wall.

The utterly gorgeous Orla Kiely bag my parents gave me, it's love. 

Taylor Swift perfume from my lovely cousins, thank you! :D 

Perfume from Grace. (I'm noticing a trend of perfume) Thank thee Grace! :D *Subtly wears it to school all week*

 A necklace from Topshop from Viv, thank you, it's so pretty. 

A bracelet my friend Emily gave me from Germany as she went on an exchange there and came back the day of my birthday! :) Thank you! :D

I bought myself another Orla Kiely bag after my birthday as they had special offers on them and well, you can never have enough handbags can you? ;)

A gorgeous notebook from Caítlín, thank you! :)  Notebooks are my life

My friend Robyn gave me this really pretty notebook which she covered herself. Thank you, it's so cute! :) 

Orla Kiely design. 

 

A take away coffee flask !

Saturday night!

Robyn & Maeve

Maeve & Caítlín 

Unfortunately I don't have many photos from my birthday dinner as I spent too much time chatting than taking photos. Yet I can't really complain about that either, it's nice living moments, not just capturing them on a camera. 

Stay Strong, Happy & Fearless!

Aveen xx

Another Week Of Exciting Adventures!

Hey Everyone!

It's the end of another week! To be honest, this week absolutely flew by! One minute it was the Bank Holiday Monday, now it's Saturday. I guess time flies when you're having fun (and working) Just to let you all know, I only have TWO weeks of my summer job, then I'm back in school. It's scary how quickly my time was up there.

So, I've started to record/film a video every week which you can see here! My channel is called AwkwardAveen and I post videos about my week & life in general, it's the same as my blog but you have the opportunity to hear my voice, not just see words on a screen. I hope doing this will bring more life to my blog and more of an opportunity to connect to all of you. I'd love to know more bloggers.

LINK TO MY YOUTUBE VIDEO AAH!

On Friday night I took part in a teenage bloggers chat organised by Gaby, Jane and my friend Grace! It was a great success, we discussed the pro's and cons of being a teenage blogger and I met/tweeted some lovely fellow bloggers! It was a good way to unite all the Irish & UK bloggers. So a HUGE thank you to all you brilliant people.

As I've been feeling a little artistic (something which never happens) I also re-designed the cork board in my room, added some new photos and re-arranged the entire thing. I really like what I did with it, it describes my personality very well, obsessed with quotes, London, books, danisnotonfire, Converse, danisnotonfire. Oops did I say danisnotonfire twice? ;) Well I love it, it's right beside my mirror and right beside my door so it's the first thing you see once you walk into my room.

John Green book update! I FINISHED PAPER TOWNS. Repeat, AVEEN FINISHED PAPER TOWNS. I didn't enjoy it as much as The Fault In Our Stars and Looking for Alaska, it just didn't have that addictive trait those books possess. It was well written like all of his books, however just not my favourite. Next I'll be reading Will Grayson, Will Grayson and then I'll be reading Delirium which I'm quite excited about.

After work one day I went into my local supermarket and discovered my name on a Coke Zero bottle! It's a different spelling of my name (Aoibhinn) which I don't mind seeing as on my birth cert it's spelt ''Aoibhainne'' not Aveen! (Sssh, most people don't know that) so my name causes a lot of  controversy as there are so many ways to spell it (Aveen, Aoibhinn, Aoibheann, Aoibhainne) I still haven't quite forgiven my parents for spelling it Aoibhainne! I really like the spelling Aveen and Aoibheann the most I think. So I was thrilled with finding my name on a Coke bottle as most of my friends had long ago found their own names and I hadn't, until now! Muwahaha

My Mum also bought my One Direction gel pens! 1D are my guilty pleasure to listen to so I was thrilled! I also have an obsession with gel pens which spawns from my childhood when I had a tin full of them and I would arrange the pens into ''families'' based on what colour ink they had. I sound like such an OCD person right now. *hums One Direction*

Also, I'd like to say a special thank you to everyone reading my blog, yesterday I hit 5,000 page views! This means so much to me seeing as I only started properly blogging in around late March and I had literally no views so thank you all for sticking with my random updates of insanity! I really appreciate it x

Playlist for this blog:
(Basically Ed Sheeran's entire album titled +. I always listen to the album, it's so beautiful)
Jason Derulo ~ The Other Side
One Direction ~ Best Song Ever
Goo Goo Dolls ~ Iris
Aslan ~ This Is (I've always know the song but I heard it played on the tv this week and have been listening to the song for days)
ELO ~ Mr Blue Sky

The infamous Coke bottle! (Still haven't drank it!)

Before photo of my cork board! 

After Photo of my cork board!

Another After Photo!

Zoomed in photo of my corkboard, love it.

A photo of my wall beside my door. The painting was done by my granddad who sadly passed away a few years before I was born. It's of a local beach and surrounding area. I've been told it's from the 1960's or so. There's a funny story of how I came to possess the painting! :)

Stay Strong, Happy and Fearless!

Aveen xx

Ps, I'll be posting a link to my latest video once it uploads! x

It's a HEATWAVE!

Hey Everyone!

Hope you're all keeping well in this simply beautiful weather. Here in Ireland the temperatures are soaring in the 20-30 degrees Celsius mark! Something which is really rare here to be honest. As I live in the 'Sunny South East' we have been enjoying the best of the weather.

I have been slightly creative and hyper this week, probably due to the brilliant weather, so this week I'll be telling you more about my kind of artistic side. Just so you all know, I never did Art subjects in school, I never studied them as exam subjects or anything. It's just that I have a lot of artistic family members for some reason! (We all think it came from my grandfather, I am said to have his hands because I'm double jointed)

So, I have this pen holder, I've had it since I was around six or seven. However I was looking at it during the week and thought it was a little outdated for a nearly seventeen year old student! I have a love for Doctor Who (Yes, I am a Whovian!) so I decided, due to it's shape, to design it like the Tardis!

I measured the holder and measured everything out equally, using the Tardis above my desk as a guide (It's the 11th Doctors Tardis, Matt Smith's one) I sat at my desk, listening to Taylor Swift's album, Red and just simply drew the 4 sides of the Tardis, I can't quite explain it, but I completely immersed myself in the task, I listened to the entire album during the process.

I must say I'm quite proud of how well it turned out seeing as I'm don't credit myself as being artistic or mathematical (for the measurements and accuracy of the squares) as I feel I don't possess those traits. Perhaps I proved myself wrong!

In other news, I ordered 4 John Green books, (I already have TFIOS) and they arrived on Friday. I started with ''Looking for Alaska'' I won't spoil the book, but, I cried, and for a long time! There's something so beautiful, poetic and heartbreaking about John Green's books, I can't quite put my finger on it. However it's SOMETHING and really gave me alot to think about.

I'm reading An Abundance of Katherine's next I think, hopefully it won't be as sad as Looking for Alaska and TFIOS. I haven't started it yet as this afternoon I was at a local Patron. For those of you who are lucky enough to have never attended a Patron (pronounced Pattern) it's basically where you go to a graveyard at a specific date and time and a mass for the deceased is held. You wear good clothes, put flowers on the grave of your loved one (today it was my grandfather on my dad's side, who passed away a year before I was born) so I attended with my parents and brother. I wore a blue and white dress (I took some selfies on my phone for you all as I felt bad about taking non at the wedding last week) so I attended the Patron and it was fine.

An awkward selfie of my dress .. 

Maybe I shouldn't upload this but okay, here's the dress, if anyone's wondering where it's from, it's from Penneys and I'm not sure how much it cost, I recycled the tag before I could check! But it wouldn't have been much as it's from Penneys (Primark for those in the UK)

The before photo of my pen holder ! It was quite girly and suited a 6 year old me VERY well!

                                      
                                                     A during photo of the drawing of the Tardis!

An After photo! 

                                     

Side view of my now customised pen holder! Very proud of myself.

The John Green books arrived!

As a joke with my brother and also Grace (DaintySprinkles) I made a John Green book SHRINE. I even have a chocolate muffin candle there too! (Below it is some things I got in London)

A close up of my JG Book Shrine, did I mention I even made the cupboard? I'm a little too proud of it.. :)

So that's it for this week! 

Stay Strong, Happy and Fearless,

Aveen xx

Ps. Just thought I'd say R.I.P. Cory Monteith, who played Finn in Glee. Back when I was 12-15 I used to watch Glee religiously and needless to say, he was my favourite character. Glee was also one of the first fandoms I was in and will always remain in my heart. I even had posters of Cory all over my bedroom walls. I was so upset to hear the news of his death this morning. My thoughts are with his family, friends, the Glee cast and in particular Lea Michele. Stay Strong guys x

PPS! The Blog Awards Ireland are still taking in nominations! Find the deets on my page under ''Contact Me & More!'' If you could vote for me or any of my blogging friends it would be amazing! Thank you x

Playlist for this blog:

(It's from my Spotify playlist!)

The 1975 ~ Chocolate

Mumford & Sons ~ I Will Wait

Train ~ 50 Ways To Say Goodbye

Biffy Clyro ~ Black Chandelier 

Fall Out Boy ~ My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark

Fall Out Boy ~ The Phoenix

Fall Out Boy  ~ Alone Together

Fall Out Boy ~ Young Volcanoes

(Also I listened to the entire Red album by Taylor Swift whilst making the Tardis pen holder!)