Happy Easter!

Admittedly, nobody in my close family is religious; the only traditions we keep for Easter are food-related. I just thought, while I was in a warm and happy mood, I'd make a quick blog post to wish any readers- Christian or not- a happy Easter Sunday!

I love hot cross buns any time of the year- yum! And who else loves my big sister's wrist tattoos?

Two heads are better than one, especially if they're the heads of Lindt chocolate Easter bunnies! 

One of my Easter eggs came with a sweet cartoon comic and stickers relating to the Easter story, I'm sorry but how cute is Jesus? haha

Also I thought I'd mention that I'm on a two week holiday from school. I do have lots of work to do revision-wise, and hopefully I'll be a social butterfly over these two weeks, but I'm hoping to make a good handful of blog posts over the break. I think it'll be a good way to finally train blogging into my every day life and become more a part of the blogging world, as I do love observing it all from my little corner of the internet.

That's all for now, and again:

Happy Easter!

-Deenie xoxo

Disappointments

What's worse than judging a book by its cover? Judging a book by what huge fans of the author have been saying about it. And worse than that: judging a book by its movie.

Life would be incredibly boring if all expectations were met exactly, but that doesn't stop the feeling of disappointment when something isn't quite what it's been bigged up to be. 

All across the internet I've heard praise of The Fault In Our Stars by John Green. A couple of my friends who've read it had recommended it to me excitedly and when I finally bought it, I was looking forward to it. I had read on tumblr that this book is so brilliant, a work of art, that future school children will study it as we study older books today. The first thing I will say is that I enjoyed reading it, it's a very good book and I appreciate how much it means to some people. But (to me, anyway) it's not the flawless/amazing/heartbreaking masterpiece that everyone told me about. I guessed the entire plot half a chapter into it and I didn't cry at the ending (and I cry at everything). I'm sorry, John Green.

Another example of my prejudice is when I finally got around to reading Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie. I'm guessing you've heard of it. The live action movie is one of my top five movies of all time, I'm absolutely in love with it. Somehow I picked up the book expecting it to be the same in every way, just a text version; needless to say- I was wrong. And I was mostly disappointed in myself for preferring a movie to the original book. Despite all of that, I still adored the book, only separately to the live action/Disney movies. I can picture reading it to my own kidlets when I'm twenty years older (as long as I cut out the not-very-nice bits).

After this happening an unfortunate number of times, I've made a decision. I'm going to stop making judgements on books/movies/etc. from what I've heard from other people in order to prevent disappointment and to cut down on saying "It's a bit overrated". I'm going to stop coming to any conclusions until I can make them completely independently, and maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised next time.

Sorry this post was a little negative, and woefully overdue.

-Deenie xoxo

Oreo Cupcakes and Half-Term Happiness

 My life is like a chocolate cake: perfectly lovely- and even better with Oreos stuffed into it. 

Obviously everything has its ups and downs but I haven't had a bad day in a while (maybe due to half-term happiness) and even while I sit before a pile of homework I feel like I'm really beginning to appreciate being a little'un.

I baked these beauties with my boyfriend* today (or rather-I baked while he sat and criticised my food prep ability; I don't have the biceps to smash a biscuit with a rolling pin) and I just had to make a blog post to both show off and thank my inspiration. I decided to bake these after reading Couture and Crumpets' recipe, posted on the Laura Ashley blog and it was surprisingly successful, and much easier than I thought it'd be. The cakes are incredibly yummy and the icing is to die for (literally, I ate half the bowl and can almost feel my arteries clogging). If you have the time, I double dare you to make these, you won't regret it.

I think stuffing my face with Oreo cupcakes was a fab end to a fab week away from school. It's been an overall wonderful week full of dodgy fringe cuts, unreliable weather and junk food- I made a short vlog about it if you'd like to hear me natter on some more.

Now I must go, let's get down to business to defeat my French coursework/the huns.

-Deenie xoxo

*Yes this was my poor excuse to drop in casually the fact that I've got a boyfriend now but what's a girl to do? He has no idea about my blog so I feel quite cheeky writing this, shh!

Inevitable Cringey Valentine's Post

Isn't this the sweetest valentine's card you ever did see? Well it's absolutely perfect for me, and I got as close as pressing the purchase button when I realised how awfully pathetic it would be to buy myself a card for valentine's day. There's always next year, eh?

Most people have a love-hate relationship with valentine's day, usually depending on their having someone to spend the day with. I'm decidedly mutual (not counting last year when I was extremely grumpy and bitter about the whole thing and may or may not have made paper voodoo dolls with my friends), and will spend the day just like any other day, because that's what it is;I do think that being super cynical is quite unnecessary, even if you are 'forever alone' on the day.

A lot of people think that the clichéd version of romance is significantly overrated- flowers, cards, chocolates etc. and I wholeheartedly agree. Don't get me wrong, they're nice gestures and a bit of classic romance can be adorable, in moderation. But being romantic doesn't mean following in the footsteps of millions of other before you, romance isn't about classic ideas and poems and candlelit meals. Romance is, for me anyway, about sentiment and personal ideas. Valentine's day should be a day to celebrate memories or favourite things or inside jokes. Things that mean everything to you and your loved one(s), and maybe don't mean so much to others around you. Because everyone can coo over a bouquet of roses, but if it's only you and your boyfriend/girlfriend/bestfriend giggling over a re-enactment of a silly photo from a year ago, it's like the moment is extra special.

So if you're spending it alone, with a significant other, or with your friends, I hope you each have a super sweet personalised valentine's day.

-Deenie xoxo

What Even Is Exercise?

I'm going to start this crazy thing I've heard of called exercising. I decided this while sitting around with my friends eating teenager food (aka 10 kids' monies' worth of junk food) and realising how happy it made me. Because it tastes great, no health advisor can deny it. But even in moderation I won't be able to get away with it for long unless I exercise.

So I started yoga yesterday, which was lovely and exhausting. And I'm planning to go for jogs a couple of times a week. The big obstacle to this was the fact that I don't own a pair of shoes that would endure half a jog, so I had to wait until I could find a pair. I settled for a plain pair of plimsoles, after moaning for days about how hideous running shoes are.

Unfortunately for me it was only after I'd spent my money I saw these, the perfect pair of running shoes I'd been looking for. I'll have to wait to meet my soul mate shoes.

(Tried and failed to think of a 'jog on' type pun to say goodbye)

-Deenie xoxo

Sundays

I'm sure that the majority of people will agree with me on the fact that Sundays are meant for laziness. Admittedly I often moan about the tedious boredom and anti-productivity on the day but what could be better than a whole makeup-free day on the sofa with a book and a cuppa (or five)?

So today I've decided to appreciate that I have the freedom to do this right now. I'm going to kick back with Mockingjay, eat those insanely rich cookies from the co-op that we all know and love, and go through the classic Sunday routine:

Walk the dog, get to Dad's house, have an easy lunch, find something old on TV and tolerate the 'face parade' after the Sunday roast. Face parade is a weekly event that my sister invented a few months ago which basically means she takes 50 photos of us three or four sisters making goofy faces.

Please tell me it's not just my family who have strange Sunday traditions like this?

Maybe we're just mad...

Happy Sunday!

-Deenie xoxo

Hurry Up Spring!

We've been through Christmas, New Years and snowy days. I feel that Winter is now complete and should hurry along so that Springtime can take its place.
Unfortunately I've been having a rubbishy few weeks due to exams and other school work. It's really been draining and it's difficult to think of anything positive, especially when my social life is on pause and the weather is dreary.

So after this week, when I have enough freedom to pick up a book and go out after school, I'll be back to optimism and cheeriness. Until the next lot of exams come along *sigh*.

I've got to go and teach myself the entire topic of Chemistry now. 
Bubbye -Deenie xoxo

P.S. Here's my latest vloggy-thingy-ma-jig, thought you might want to see.