MCM Expo Birmingham - March 2013

I just realised that I never wrote about MCM Expo in March this year, so I'm going to post a few photos from it now seeing as they're just lying about on my laptop doing nothing whatsoever.

We bought volume 1 of Twisted Dark from NEIL. He spelt my name wrong in our copy so I got him to change it (Boy: Francis. Girl: FrancEs. Not hard). I'll hopefully review it after I've read it!

Joe drew me and it was BAD.

I met the Otaku Owls! I'm still gutted that I missed the audition to join! :-(

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand that's all the photos I took.

I really really enjoyed myself, but the atmosphere was a lot different to the Expo in London last October. It didn't seem as busy in Birmingham, and after a while it felt like we were looking at the same stores over and over! We did go on the Sunday though, so the Saturday was probably a lot better!

 I'm gutted that I missed the expo last weekend, but getting all the way to London during exam season is difficult as well as getting to London being difficult for me in general! I'll hopefully be going in October.

THANKYOU FOR LOOKING/READING/WHATEVER.

Thankful Thursday! #1

So I've decided to join in with the "Thankful Thursday" craze. If you're unfamiliar with what Thankful Thursday's are, it's basically just listing a few things you're thankful for each Thursday. I think it's a super lovely idea as not a lot of people take the time to be thankful for many things, and it's pleasant to be able to sit back and think about how lucky you actually are. I'm hoping that I'll remember to do this each Thursday!

1) My parents

I don't think I really tell my parents how thankful I am of them enough; they're so amazing. I'm going to make sure I give them a big hug and let them know that I love them very much later!

2) Ludovico Einaudi

I've had to do a lot of Art work and revision lately, and I've been listening to Einaudi non-stop. All of his music is absolutely beautiful, and I really suggest his albums if you're having trouble finding something decent to listen to whilst revising! His latest one is In a Time Lapse.

3) My friends from school

I've came to the point in my life where I'll be leaving secondary school (Year Eleven) very soon after the half term. I was reaaaaaaally looking forward to leaving school at the beginning of the year, but it's only just hit me that a lot of people I'm with now I'll probably never see again once we leave! Of course there's a few people that I'll be happy not to see again, but I'll probably lose touch with a few people that are very pleasant. Shame.

4) Lush Bubble Bath

The type of bubble bath that I've been using recently is:

This was the "Santa's Sack" bubble bath which was involved in a Lush Set that I received last Christmas. I've only just started using it as I had a lot of bath items already which needed to be used up, and now I'm finally on to using up these ones. I'm finding using it quite interesting, as you break a little piece off, drop it into the bath and when it dissolves, bubbles appear! I'll be sad when it's all gone, so I'm thankful that I have it now! It also smells super nice aswell, which is always a x10 bonus.

5) Hats, Scarfs & Gloves

I'm currently rehearsing over the next few weeks for The Tempest which is being performed open air, so all the rehearsals are also outside. We always start at about 6:45pm, and it's SO COLD. I don't know what I'd do without these!

Thankyou for reading. Enjoy the rest of your evening!

Merida from Brave Plush!

Hi hi hi. ^_^

So I was looking through Amazon and eBay on my phone in a Drama lesson the other day (the Drama course has finished so we're meant to use the time for revision..) and I came across the most BEAUTIFUL Merida from Brave doll ever.

I found her for a reasonable price, and I bought her instantly. It was really strange because I usually wait for a little while and consider the pros and cons of buying the item before I actually purchase it, but I felt that I really liked it so I bought it straight away.

Honestly? I don't regret one thing.

I didn't expect her to arrive for a few days, BUT SHE ARRIVED THE NEXT MORNING?! OH MY GOODNESS. I was so so excited. 

Aaaaaaaand... here she is! I've never been so happy with a product in my entire life! (Hoping Kyubey doesn't try and make a contract with her...ehehehheehhee).

She's 50cm (20") tall, which is a perfect size. If she was any bigger then she wouldn't be small enough to carry around with me! (I like carring her around, don't judge me).

And this is a close up of her face! Please excuse the background of all the photos!

So cute.

My favourite part of her is her hair. It only has a few odd curls and the rest is just a long piece of soft material which is the same curly, but it's so lovely! 

 She's definitely my favourite Disney princess because I love how she stands up for herself and shows that SHE DON'T NEED NO MAN. I just think she differed from all the other Disney princesses so much, which was really really great. 

You can purchase the Merida plush here!

I'm super super super happy with this purchase. I'd give 10/10 for postage, pricing and service. I love how spontaneous it was when I purchased her, and the arrival of her the next morning was even better!
I highly recommend you buying from this seller if you're a Brave fan!

Bye.

Cloud Atlas: Book Review

Good afternoon!

I recently read Cloud Atlas and I wanted to write a little about it seeing as I have some spare time. I'm currently relaxing because I had an exam today (which turned out to be ridiculously easy) and I'm rewarding myself by having a few hours of doing whatever I like. Which is why I'm writing.

"An exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution." - IMDB.

Everyone went a little Cloud Atlas crazy when the film came out; I hadn't heard anything about the book before that. I saw the trailer for the film at a cinema whilst watcing Les Miserables and got super excited about wanting to see it because I really like Tom Hanks. I prefer to read books before I watch films, so I decided I wanted to read the book before I watched the film.

Cloud Atlas started appearing in the book charts in supermarkets and book stores, and everyone was requesting it at the library. I was lucky enough to get a copy from my library which saved me a little money. The book was really big which was a little inconvenient because of all my exams, so I was a bit hesitant about it taking me a while to read, missing it at the cinema and not having the time to revise as well as learn my lines for the plays which I'm in over the next few months.

When first reading it, I was a little confused about what was going on. I'd read a few reviews here and there saying how it's a mixture of different stories all linked together, but I was really confused for a while so I didn't enjoy the first section too much. Then onto the second section I started to grasp it a little more, and from then I started to thoroughly enjoy it. I really wanted to talk to someone in person about the book and ask their opinion, but no one who I knew had read it. That sucked quite abit, but I was enjoying the book nonetheless. 

I don't really want to write what it's about, as it's hard to explain and I definitely don't want to spoil anything. I especially enjoyed the Orison of Sonmi-451 chapters which were set in the future. I'm not always too keen on futuristic themed books, but I thought this was really interesting. What I really dislike is futuristic books/films with no explanation of how the world/society ended up that way, for example: The Hunger Games Trilogy. Orison of Sonmi-451 didn't have much explanation either, but I think this worked quite well as it was so short and interesting. I was impressed with the casting for this part of the film aswell, they matched quite well with the characters I'd imagined in my head.

I'd rate the book overall about 8/10. I'd give it this score as it's brilliantly written, and keeps the reader thoroughly engaged through many sections of the book. I really enjoyed many parts, apart from the two sections called: The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing & Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After. I didn't enjoy these parts as much as for the first section (The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing) I didn't really have a clue what was going on, and for the middle section (Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After) I couldn't imagine this in my head very well. Many abbreviations were used throughout this section, which I highly dislike. 

Apart from those two, the book was BRILLIANT. I can definitely say that it's not one of my favourite books and it's likely that I won't be reading it again, but I'm definitely glad that I tried it out. I'd recommend this book if you're going on holiday and need a good, chunky book to read whilst in the car/aeroplane/ferry/etc. 

Unfortunately, I never managed to see the film. On the trailers that I'd been watching, it always said "Coming Soon" which was unhelpful, and I saw no other advertisements that it was coming out in February! I searched for the release date last month, and when I saw that it was at the cinemas two months ago my reaction was WHAAAAAAAAAAAT?!

I'll probably rent it sometime when it comes out on DVD from Blockbusters.

Anyhow, I hope you enjoy the rest of your evening! Thankyou for reading. ^_^ 

Etsy finds!

The link for all the items are in the name!

Knitted alien hat

 ♥

Pink chiffon lolita dress

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Totoro cookier cutters

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Black silver bell choker

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Sailor Moon Towels

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Zelda hat

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Lumpy space princess Earrings

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Zelda Valentines Card

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Customised Pastel Star Bracelet

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LOTR Shorts/Underwear 

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May Update ♥

Good evening!
I've been SO busy lately. Seriously, I've been absolutely non-stop with all my school work as it's almost exam season. Booo :c Even so, things are going pretty well at the moment. I got some exam results not long ago which were pretty good, and I'm on track for all my target grades so HEY. 

Enough of the boring stuff.

I got the role I auditioned for in The Tempest! I'm so so excited to start the rehearsals; the only downside is all the rehearsals are the same weeks as my exams so I'm going to have to prepare super hard! I met all the cast the other week and they were all lovely so I'm really looking forward to working with them!
♥

It was my birthday a few weeks ago and I got some cool things including the peach dress I was after and Norwegian Wood by Murakami! I don't really have much time to write posts about them now and I haven't had the time to actually read the book, but I will get round to doing so at some point.

♥

Season 2 of Oreimo is currently airing at the moment and it's SO EXCITING. I've really missed this anime as it's one of my favourites and I've genuinely missed the characters (I'm not sad, okay?) I've also started to try and dedicate my anime time fully to Fairy Tail, but I can't help but watch lots of different anime's at the same time! 

To watch Season 2 of Oreimo, click the photo above! ^ 

♥

I also went to see Ludovico Einaudi for my birthday a few weeks ago. It was absolutely beautiful, and we were seated 6 rows from the front which was even more amazing. I've never been to a concert and it been absolutely silent, nobody said a word the whole performance. It was better than just any other gig aswell, you could tell all the musicians were clearly enjoying themselves and doing something that they loved with a passion. Einaudi was brilliant aswell, he was almost conducting the other musicians and playing the piano at the same time! I've never seen so much talent all at once in my whole life.

I purchased his new album, "In a Time Lapse" the day after because I had to hear the songs all over again, and it's so so beautiful. I should have bought it the day it came out, but hey. I also received the piano book for my birthday so it'll be great being able to concentrate on learning the pieces after all my exams are over!

I quickly took this before making my way to the concert! It was nice to dress up all glam. GLAM GLAM GLAM.

That's all I really have time to write about now, as I have a lot of Art to do and I've got another audition tomorrow to prepare for! 

Goodnight.