5 Things To Do This Summer- 2015

Wait what? How is it almost Summer already? It's really crazy that I'm doing this post again because I remember doing it this time last year here! This year I really wanted to write a little checklist for myself, to make sure I'm being productive this Summer. Let's take a look at what I want to achieve by the end of the Summer shall we?

Knowing me I'll spend the whole summer in my room 

so the only way I'll see the sun is out the window!

• New blog and YouTube theme- I am hoping to change my blog theme to make it look a bit more professional. I still want to keep it looking personalised to me, with pastel colours, but I feel like it needs a bit of tiding up. I also want to change my channel banner on my YouTube channel. The bios and descriptions definitely need to sound a bit more enthusiastic and appealing too. 

• Organise my life more- Yep, more on the topic of organisation. As you can probably tell, this is a skill I'm really lacking at the moment. My room needs a good ol' tidy and I need to make sure I'm fully prepared for year 13 and A2 levels. 

• Find out what I'm doing in my gap year- It would be pretty good if I had an answer for when people ask me what I'm doing in my gap year wouldn't it? I'm not sure if I'll go to university or not but I am sure that I'll be taking a year out... at least. 

• Get involved in a charity- This one is probably the one I'm most excited about. I'm not sure how "involved" I'll be able to get but I want to raise awareness as a minimum. I already have a charity in mind, but I'm still going to do a bit of research into what other charities help this cause too. 

• Rest, rest, rest- This one is pretty damn well deserved (if I do say so myself) and the thought of it is all that's been keeping me going lately. I've made plans to have a Harry Potter marathon with my mum because she's never watched the films. Shocking, I know! I also want to fully catch up with Pretty Little Liars and possibly start Gossip Girl because I've heard it's pretty good. 

This is what people have to tell me whenever I watch Harry Potter

Let me know in the comments what TV shows you'll be watching this Summer. The song of the day is What Time Is It from High School Musical 2. I'm not gonna lie, that song is one of my ultimate jams. What are your plans for this Summer? xxx 

We're Half Way There...

... Woah, livin' on a prayer! (quite literally)

I feel like I haven't updated the little escape from my life, which is my blog, for quite some time, so a post is definitely due. Sadly, all I've been doing with my life is going to my A-levels. After all, my exams aren't gonna fail themselves- am I right?

"How are your exams going Izzy?"

As the title suggests, I'm now halfway through my AS exams. Well, I've done 7/9 so I'm a bit over halfway, but I'm still living on a prayer to get me through the last two. My last two exams are biology and chemistry unit 2's which are my absolute worst topics out of any of my subjects. 

This will be my reaction when I read the first question

The strange thing is I never did too badly at school, that is until exam stress kicked in. For GCSEs I ended up getting a C, three B's, one A* and the rest A's. But this year is a completely different story and I'll be lucky to get a C in any of my subjects. I'll need a miracle to pass them and I wish I was joking. 

Looking for a chance at passing my exams

If you follow me on Twitter you may have guessed I've been having a teensie-weensie breakdown over my exams. I can't seem to stop retweeting from the page "A Level Problems" and I think it's becoming a problem. But yeah, despite wanting to, I cant seem to concentrate on my exams due to the internal screaming that happens when I think about them. 

I might look fine but I'm...

Something that's stressing me out more than the exams themselves is waiting for the results. After every exam I try to find the unoffical markscheme online. I always end up shouting at myself and being like "OMG IZZY YOU KNEW THAT SO WHY DIDN'T YOU WRITE THAT DOWN?!?". Looking at the Chemistry mark scheme has definitely knocked down my confidence for the next exam so I'm preparing for complete and utter total failure. 

                         When I remember all the answers after the test has finished:

I just can't wait until all my exams are over so that I can finally start to enjoy myself. I'm going to power through these last couple of weeks of revision so please, please, please bare with me. I'm sorry for the lack of posts during this revision period but I'll be back to posting regularly ASAP!

The song of the day is Livin' On a Prayer by Bon Jovi. I honestly wholeheartedly admire anyone that is actually passing their A Levels, you must literally have to be a genius! I know a lot of you guys are doing you exams too so I wish you the best of luck and I know you'll all do amazing. Let me know in the comments how you're finding your exams xxx

Zombie Apocalypse Tag

I felt like it was about time to do another video. I'll be honest, I haven't posted as many videos as I'd like to but I'm going to use the age-old excuse of having too much revision to do. Trying to fit things around my A-levels has been a literal nightmare.

But nevertheless I thought it would be fun to give this tag a go. I remember when it first came out and its been on my to-do-list ever since. Essentially what you do is answer a load of zombie apocalypse scenarios. Sounds simple enough eh? Honestly though, I doubt I'd last 2 minutes in a real life apocalypse. 

Here's the video itself:

Please excuse the dreadful thumbnail, 

I still haven't got the hang of them yet haha!

If you would like to try the tag yourself here are the questions:

1. Which three YouTubers would you have in your team?
2. The object immediately to your left is your only weapon. Will you survive?
3. If you were a zombie, who would you want to bite?
4. What would your survival plan be?
5. What would you do if your parents became zombies?
6. Do you want the zombie apocalypse to happen?

Thank you for reading/ watching! I hope you guys enjoy my version of this tag. The song of the day is Radioactive by Imagine Dragons. What would you do to survive a zombie apocalypse? xxx

Olly Murs Never Been Better Tour

On April 28th I was lucky enough to see the amazing Olly Murs in concert. I've been so, so, so excited for this concert as I've been a fan since X-Factor and I can't believe I hadn't seen him live before. Like how is that possible? 

Again I must apologize for the lack of pictures, 

my camera takes rubbish photos at concerts. 

We arrived when it was still fairly empty, which was understandable because it was a Tuesday and people would have still been at work. This made it ideal to take silly pictures for our Snapchat stories since no one was around to judge us. The arena filled very quickly, which was very impressive considering it was the third night in Birmingham. 

The amazing man him self obviously had a support act. It was the wonderful Ella Eyre, who's voice I personally find incredible. She performed her previous hits from the charts as well as her new single, "Together". I must say that she did a good job supporting as she definitely got the crowd excited for the concert. Luckily that wasn't the last we saw of her either because she came back on to sing "Up" with Olly. 

Olly himself said that this was one of the hardest tours to put together. He's been on four tours before, and having to put all his greatest hits from them on one tour must have been difficult. He did a good job of including his classics such as "Dance With Me Tonight, Troublemaker, Never Been Better, Right Place Right Time". My personal favourite performance of the night was a medley of "Please Don't Let Me Go, Busy" and "Thinking Of Me". I just think those three songs worked perfectly together. 

You can just tell that Olly Murs is a lovely guy. He cracked jokes the whole night in between songs and interacted with the front row. He comes across as a very cheeky chappie too; he kept shaking his booty to the songs which was hilarious. As he was changing, he made the whole crowd "aww" by showing a video of his biggest fan, his nephew, who was wishing him luck. You can tell an artist is great from how they perform live, and let me just say that he gave one of the best live performances I've ever seen. It's definitely worth the money to go.

No excuse me while I go and listen to nothing but Olly Murs on repeat for the next few weeks! The song of the day just has to be Busy by Olly Murs because its my absolute favourite song of his. What do you guys think of him? xxx

Use Your &

The absolutely wonderful Esmee B has come up with a great tag. I'm really happy that she created it because I think it's the perfect way to make loads of people aware of this campaign.

 As the title suggests, it is called the "Use Your & Tag". It was inspired by the lovely SprinkleOfGlitter from YouTube (I'm sure you all know who I'm talking about). She is an inspiration to thousands millions of people and Venus contacted her for their new campaign. It aims to encourage people to "use their &" to point out their good qualities and not limit their potential.

Venus have made a really cute video that basically explains what the whole campaign is about. I love how big companies are trying to promote self confidence, especially when their target market is young women. The video tells you that you are so much more than what society labels you as. I highly recommend you watch the video for yourself.

Here are the five steps:

1. Grab the "Use Your &" logo from the top of the post and share a list of your qualities titled;    "I am..."
2. If you get stuck or can't think of anymore; ask your friends and family around you to describe you using three words and see what they say
3. Thank the blogger who tagged you and include the Venus video above.
4. Tag as many people as possible and encourage them to use their &. 
5. This one isn't necessary (but I think it would be a really nice thing to do) is link back to Esmee's blog which is here! I highly recommend you check it out, I love the way she writes.

So here are a list of things that I am, try to be and hope I actually am:

I am...

A blogger &

A YouTuber &

A daughter &

A Granddaughter &

A sister &

A niece &

A cousin &

A friend &
A student &

A fangirl &

Silly &

Small &

Funny &

Happy &

Excited &

Forgiving &
Indecisive &

Hard working &

Unorganized &

Messy &

Brave &

Trustworthy &

Loyal &

Crazy &

Ambitious

I tag:

• Georgie Watts
• Lauren Williams
• xImmortalMindsx
• Cara Dixon
• Harel Ziv
• And anyone else that wants to do this tag!

Thank you so much for reading. I really love this campaign and highly enourage you to take part in some way too. The song of the day is Mr Brightside by The Killers. I'll see you guys soon xxx

25 Question Tag

Today I thought it would be fun to do the 25 Question tag which the wonderful Georgie tagged me in. You can check out her fabulous version of the tag here! Thanks for tagging me in it and lets get started:

1. Do you have any pets?

I adore animals and I have 2 cats called Kitty and Fidget and 2 fish. At home we also have my sister's hamster, Terry, and stick insects.

Here's Kitty when my sister dressed her up. 

2. Name 3 things that are physically close to you

My laptop, chocolate and Kitty. 

3. What's the weather like right now?

It's the classic British weather which is overcast. How delightful!

4. Do you drive? If so have you crashed?

I've had a couple of driving lessons and surprisingly I haven't crashed yet. You can read about my first lesson here. 

5. What time did you wake up this morning?

9.30 because its the holidays and I wanted a bit of a lie in. I also didn't want to spend the whole day in bed and waste my holiday. 

6. When was the last time you showered?

Last evening because I have a shower every evening. 

7.What was the last movie you saw?

Expelled. I was procrastinating during revision please don't judge me.

8.What does your last text message say?

My last text message was off Vodafone (I'm too popular I know!) The last text message I got off a real life person though was from my dad. He's in China at the moment and he told me he left his laptop at the airport. Nice one dad!

9. What's your ringtone?

It's just one of the really standard ringtones that come as an option on my phone. 

10. Have you ever been to a different country?

I have been to Wales, Germany, Romania, Austria, Switzerland, France, Greece and Cyprus. I've never left Europe though. I'd love to go to America next year but I doubt I'll have the money. 

11. Do you like sushi?

To be quite honest I can't stand it, or any sea food in general. 

12. Where do you buy your groceries?

Well my mum is the one that does the grocery shopping. She usually goes to Tesco or Lidl. Yeah... we're quite a cheap family. 

13. Have you ever taken medication to help you fall asleep faster?

I've never taken actual medication to get to sleep. However, I do take some herbal remedy things to help reduce stress and get to sleep at night. 

14. How many siblings do you have?

Just the one which is plenty lol! I have a sister called Vicky who's a year younger than me and quite a handful. 

15. Do you have a desktop computer or laptop?

A laptop. I much prefer having a laptop because it means I can spend all day on it in bed. 

16. How old will you be turning on your next birthday?

I'll be turning 18. Am I ready to be an adult? Absolutely not...

17. Do you wear contacts or glasses?

I'm supposed to be wearing glasses but I always forget to wear them. 

18. Do you colour your hair?

Yes because I'm kind of obsessed with changing my hair colour. My natural hair colour is a blonde/brown colour but at the moment its a reddish-brown colour. 

I'm so torn between going back to my 

natural colour or this sort of chestnut brown. 

19. Tell me something you are planning to do today?

Finish revising. I always write a little to do list for each day and today I want to actually be able to understand something that I need to know for my biology paper. 

20. When was the last time you cried?

Yesterday when I watched Kodaline's video for All I Want. It's such a beautiful song with a sweet music video. It's quite sad to start off with but it has a cute ending. All those emotions in a short amount of time just made me sit there bawling.

21. What is your perfect pizza topping?

Does it sound really boring if I just say margherita? 

22. Which do you prefer: hamburgers or cheeseburgers?

I'm a vegetarian so I love veggie burgers with lots and lots of cheese on them.

23. Have you ever had an all-nighter?

Yes probably way more than I should. Being an A-level student has taught me to survive without sleep and just do homework and revision instead. Besides, who can sleep when you're so very stressed?

24. What is your eye colour?

My eyes are very dark brown although I think they're getting a tiny bit lighter. 

They're this sort colour 

(although my makeup never looks that good)

25. Can you taste the difference between Pepsi and Coke?

No I honestly can't say that I can, but I wish I possessed the mystical power to be able to do so. 

Thank you for reading this post. I tag anyone who is reading this, and if you do this tag let me know in the comments. The song of the day is All I Want by Kodaline because it features in this post xxx

My First Driving Lesson

So today something quite exciting happened. I drove for the first time! It was different to how I thought it would be but good fun nevertheless.

My Mum wanted to be sentimental and capture the moment

(Don't worry I was pulling an awful face on purpose)

Now if you know me well, you will know that I have always wanted to drive. I have literally been counting the days to my 17th birthday since I was about 12. I just think I'll feel so mature doing it. Since I'm always being patronized for looking about half my age I can't wait to show people that I can do something really "grown up".

Now the irony is that although I have been waiting for my 17th birthday for years, I didn't go driving until now...and my birthday was in January. Woops! I've had my driving lessons on my to-do list for a while now but I just haven't got round to and actually doing it. One reason was because I didn't have my insurance for a while because me and my family weren't sure who to use. We probably should have looked that up before hand! Also, and this is the main reason, I have had soooo much work and revision to do. I've basically been cocooning in a pile of revision notes in my bed for the last few months.

I had my first driving lesson with my Mum because I didn't want to be judged by a driving instructor. I know they're used to teaching beginners, but trust me I would be exceptionally bad. I haven't driven properly yet, like not on a road or anything. Me and my Mum practiced in an empty car park so I could get used to the car and everything. Overall I think it went pretty well (by that I mean I didn't crash). However I did keep forgetting how to break and just ended up stalling the engine a lot instead #mybad!

So that was my first little driving experience and I can't wait to have more lessons. Hopefully I'll pass as soon as possible but knowing me it will take a few years till that day actually comes. After all, I managed to fail my cycling proficiency which is quite an achievement. Thanks for reading, the song of the day is Like I Can by Sam Smith. See you guys soon xxx