Goodbye 2013!

Hola mis amigos!

It's officially the last day of 2013! We finally made it through this year!
For me, 2013 was definitely one roller coaster of a ride! It definitely had its ups (I mean, I actually met Justin Bieber!) but it definitely had its lows.

I'm not going to dwell on that which has passed as I believe we ought to keep positive! I'm a firm believer in happiness being a choice (thanks to Shay Carl of the Shaytards for enlightening me to this view). If we continue to look at those moments in life which were most definitely negative or impacted us in a negative way, and never try to view the positives in them, it will just bring us down. For example; in January 2013 I was very stressed out with school work and I gave in to it and left high school. I was then, by my mum, made to find some sort of job or January start college course. To cut the story short, I joined what I believed to be a course aimed towards musical theatre (a passion of mine). However, the course turned out nothing like that, I hated it and left after a month. For a long while I hated myself for leaving school and not getting by qualifications and then not even getting a certificate in the college course. I could look at this as a negative time in mylife, however, I did end up with a job for a while, more money than I ever had, and free time in which I found myself discovering my love for blogs and YouTube (zoella, sprinkle of glitter, stilababe09 to name but a few)

I decided to go back to school for my sixth and final year and picked up three of the same four "highers" (qualification) I was going the precious year along with Higher Philosphy.

School is great now! I don't hate it as much and I've only had two days absence! (From third year up until fifth I always had a very bad attendance. One year it was 22%...)

I still sometimes think about how if I had stuck in for another month or two of school I could've passed these exams already and be sitting Advanced highers in them. Alas, I cannot change the past, only the present and the future. The past year has shown me that I cannot allow these things to upset me. Yes, I can be seen as being a "step behind" but I view it as being a step forward. Everyone in my class is now about to go to college or university, and this may or may not be the right place for them. I already know this for myself and I am also more self-aware as to what is right for me and what I enjoy.

While I do not know what I intend to do next year - 7th year at school, a job - I do know that I really want to get right into my blog and my YouTube. I love sitting in front of the camera and talking to my  (so far not many, but wonderful!) subscribers and sharing things I have purchased and my favourite things etc. 

I also very much enjoy writing up my blog and spending time changing its design and layout to make it the kind of blog I, myself, would love to visit/read! I do it out of my love and passion for this area. Not because I think I'm the "next zoella" or anything. Wether I have 2 followers or 2 million followers, as long as somebody is enjoying the content I create I am happy. 

I guess I've went a little off topic!
For 2014 I have a few "new years resolutions". The first of these I've spoken about to you before; and that is uploading a video to my youtube channel once a week as well as writing a blog post once a week. I intend on making this the same day (a Tuesday) but the day for blog posts may change :)

I hope you all ring in 2014 full of joy and are looking forward to it! Let me know what your plans for the year are in the comments below or what positive experiences happened to you in 2013!

See you next year ;)

~Emma x

PS. this weeks video can be found here: http://youtu.be/gVUsuMSyUGU

       

 

New Videos!

Bonjour, ma chérie-s! haha

I thought I'd ought to give you a little update about my life and my plans for this blog along with the YouTube channel!

I have previously shared all four videos currently uploaded, ("What's In Our Bags?", "Clothing Haul!", "Edinburgh's Christmas" & "Boxing Day Sales Haul!!"), on a really rather erratic and unscheduled schedule. I hope in the coming months to have an upload schedule of about 1-2 videos per week, however, I have a lot of exams coming up in school before the final exams so I will be busy with those.

 I do get "exam leave" which means I will have a LOT of free time for a month or so which I will have filled with studying (or procrastination) which means I will not have much time for filming and editing (or perhaps I will find all of my time to do this haha) but after my exams are over (roll on Jun 5th!) I will be hoping to dedicate my time to bogging and youtube - yes, ok, and finding a job or something!

I intend, from now on, to update the blog once a week; I'm thinking Tuesdays? But as I said earlier, it all depends on school workloads and things such as what to actually blog about. Don't want to bore you all by updating with boring junk! If anyone would like to give me inspiration, please feel free to leave blog post - or youtube video - topics/ideas in the comments, or drop me an email at wonderofnothing@gmail.com.

I hope, once again, you all had a splendid Christmas and I'll see you all on Tuesday (HOGMANY!) to say goodbye to 2013!

~ Emma xx

Boxing Day Bargains!

Hey Everyone!

As you all know (well I'm guessing you all do), it's the day after Christmas which - apart from meaning it's only 364 days until next Christmas - THE BOXING DAY SALES HAVE STARTED! woohoo!

Normally, my mum, gran and I get up about nine or ten to get along to the shops but this year, we got up at 6am to head out shopping and to get to boots in time for it opening at 7! Whilst we were all knackered, this was honestly the best idea! The car park was so busy but that was for the masses of people queuing outside NEXT for the 6am open so Boots was relatively quiet.

I wouldn't say I bought a ridiculous amount of stuff, but in comparison to my normal purchase amount and my bank statements, I definitely got a lot:

 

See? no? ok.

Boots wasn't as amazing as I'd hoped, but I believe that is down to my lack of enthusiasm for any of the gift sets this year. I did however get a pair of amazingly soft and comfortable PJ's (Jimmi Jams) which I am wearing now and utterly adore! Along with a Simple minis set and some Toni&Guy hair products

 

 

We then stopped off at New Look where my bag obsession was no longer dormant! I have been looking for a backpack for a while now and kept going to one in New Look which was £20; admittedly, this is not expensive, but I'm used to a £10 bag from Primark so when I walked in to New Look and found said £20 backpack for £10 I HAD to buy it! It is such a perfect size for me and the straps go to exactly the length I like. It is extremely good quality and I feel it will last for a long while!

 

I also got another bag for £10 which I feel is great for a shopping trip uptown or if you're aiming for a 'smart casual' look. It's black (fake) leather with a sort of wicker-ish patterned material in the middle. There is so much room on the inside for everything I need and the neutral colours mean it will go with everything!

 

I also bought a pair of fluffy socks because they are irresistible and sooooooooo soft & cosy!

 

I received a £20 giftcard for Next but their sale this year wasn't impressive to me. I did find an adorable little cushion that goes perfectly with my room, which is Parisian themed (lamp and duvet) so for £6 I figured it was a bargain!

 

Also, I purchased a cute little necklace in Claires and a pair of fake pearl earrings. The necklace was just a silver chain with a teeny tiny Eiffel Tower and I thought, for £1, it was a must!

 

Finally, I was in the Card Factory (mi madre wanted a new years card) and all their Christmas stock was half price. This little festive box caught my eye and I impulse bought it because it was so bloody cute! (I have used 'cute' and 'adorable' faaaaaarrrrr too much in this post. SORRY!)

 

I wanted to share this with you as I had so much fun shopping today and I in no way wish to brag about this. I didn't receive any extravagant gifts this year and mostly received money and giftcards which is why I bought most of these items :)

 

I sincerely hope you all had a wonderful Christmas full of happiness and laughter with your family, friends and loved ones.

See ya!

 

~ Emma xx

 

P.S: New Video going up soon! Haul of all the above products http://youtu.be/AB42A0VYVMM     

Christmas Traditions!

Hey everyone!

I hope you're all having a wonderful festive season and are all prepared for Wednesday! I just finished my Christmas shopping yesterday - oops! They are all wrapped and under the tree; including three of my friends' presents which I reeeaaaly need to deliver to them soon!

Whilst laying in my bed tonight, going through in my mind if there was anything needing to be done before the "big day" I started doing what I normally do when I'm either nervous or excited (obviously, I must be talking about the latter in these circumstances!) and that is plan out the day. (Do any of you do that, going through what needs to be done and going through the day in your mind?)

It got me thinking about what Christmas Traditions my family and I have. The one that sticks in my mind the most is definitely the Christmas Eve present. Every year without fail, I get to open one present - which is typically one my mum has bought specifically for this purpose - just before I head off to bed. Nine times out of ten this is usually a pair of [Christmassy] Pyjamas for me to wear that night. I say nine times out of ten because last year I got toothpaste and a Justin Bieber singing toothbrush hahah!

For the first eight or nine years or so of my life, I would (beg my parents to) get up early and open my presents from my parents and, of course, Santa. I can't quite remember when/if I saw my grandparents from my mums side during the day or not but I definitely remember the Christmas afternoon/evenings being spent at my dads parents with all of his side of the family: all my aunties, uncles, cousins and for a time, second-cousins, all being their for Christmas dinner. There were literally fifteen - twenty of us packed into one room and my gran and my aunties trying to cook the dinner in a kitchen that could barely handle one person! My gran had the inside and the outside of the house COMPLETELY covered with decorations. There was not one bit of clear wall - or ceiling! - space. I think the Grinch would have a heart attack if he saw it. She's like all of the Who's in Whoville rolled into one!
My fondest memory of Christmases there is actually the only one I really remember: we were all sitting at the table, Christmas hats on everyone's heads and party popper streamers hanging from the ceiling light and drowning in the gravy boat, the noise was unbelievable! I must've been about six years old and I just sat there watching everyone having about ten different conversations at once. My dad's dad was sitting at the head of the table and clearly had had enough of everyone's lack of table manners (talking whilst eating!) so he screamed "STOP TALKING WITH YOUR MOUTH FULL!" to which everyone stopped, looked over at him and burst out laughing for he had just forced a huge forkful of roast potato into his mouth and subsequently was not "practicing what he preached"

However, around eight years ago my parents split and I believe for the first year or two, I continued to go to my dad's parents house for Christmas dinner, but for certain reasons I stopped this and since then I visit him for a few hours on the day, see the family and then come home for Christmas dinner (with my mum and her parents) which is cooked by my mums new husband.

I'm not going to go into my plans for this Christmas as 1. I will possibly do a post on my Christmas day and what I got/gave for Christmas and 2. I actually don't really know! It will be a strange Christmas this year as we will be missing a very special member of our family.
Benji, our 17/18 year old cat had to be put to sleep at 9:38am on December 21st 2013 as he had taken what we believe was a seizure the previous night and there was nothing we could do for him. It's definitely a relief as we didn't think we'd get him to last until last Christmas and he's definitely not been himself.
Whilst we will miss his, wonderful, constant meowing and his never ending scrounging for food, the money saved on buying his cat food will be wonderful (the skinny little thing never stopped eating!)

Sorry to end on a slightly sad note but anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! love ya!

~Emma xx

Edinburgh's Christmas!

Hey,

Just a quick post to show you all the video I posted on Youtube the other day of Edinburgh's Christmas :)

If you enjoy it, and haven't already, please subscribe and thumbs the video up!

Thanks!

~ Emma

 

 

Christmas Gifts!

Ahhhhhhhhh!

Christmas is in three weeks!!!
THREE weeks!!
3!

I can't believe it!


I currently have no presents for anybody.
None. Zero. 0. Zilch.
Oops.

I really only planned on buying presents for my parents, step-father and grandparents, along with my friend who desperately wanted someone to buy her pyjamas so that's her sorted. But then two other friends told me that they have me something which of course means I now, out of the goodness of my heart, even after being told not to, am obliged to buy them a gift also.

Of course, I have no objection to buying my friends a gift, (that is not the problem), the issue is that I have no idea what to get them! Which made me wonder, has anyone else actually started their Christmas shopping with any idea of what to get people?

Hope you're not all as stressed as I am about it! Haha!

 

~Emma xx

 



P.S. I have a small selection of clips from Edinburgh's German Market/Winter Wonderland that I took at the weekend that I thought (if there's enough) I may make into a cute little montage-y video-y thingy for you to see, so keep an eye out to see if it ever does appear haha :)