Top Spring/Summer 2014 Trends

While Spring is fast approaching I would like to show you my favourites for the up and coming trends. Spring 2013 saw the return of pastels once again - one of my personal favourites and the rise of the monochrome trend which lead into summer, as did another favourite - floral which I saw being worn all through Spring and Summer.

 

Yet again pastels will be making an appearance in Spring and Summer 2014.  As one of my favourite trends I look forward to wearing the cool and calm colours of the trend such as mint green, baby pink, pastel purple baby yellow and duck egg blue. These colours will take over almost all clothing items from our T-shirts to our socks.




While it is still cold outside over sized jumpers will always be a favourite to most! This Topshop mint green knitted chunky bobble jumper will be perfect for the cold months. This colour is quite easy to style and is often associated with the Spring trends. It is currently priced at £36 but there will be cheaper alternatives in other stores if it seems too expensive for a jumper.




The famous MOTO Joni jeans are making an appearance in a baby blue colour this season. These stretchy high waisted jeans are very flattering and pull you in, in all of the right places! These are a definite must have for Spring and as they are easily styled they are worth the £36.



Next I have noticed tartan has appeared during the winter months and will continue to do so during Spring however, it will change its style and possibly adapt to have lighter colours to match the season. We will begin to see cropped tops and other Spring/Summer attire. The tartan trend is a personal favourite of mine and I will definitely be carrying on the trend into the Spring.







As a fan already of the skater skirt style the tartan skater skirts are certainly a trend I am looking forward to styling. The Brush Check Flippy Skirt from Topshop has an almost vintage style. They complete an outfit and can be so easily styled! With a price of £28 it is on the pricey side for a skirt however it is fantastic quality and a wardrobe staple.



Another trend making its way into stores is wearing bold prints, something a little different to recent trends but is one that will be popular and look good if correctly styled. This trend is already beginning to appear in stores but will be most popular in the run up to summer when people begin to wear more bright colours and patterns. 





This mix match print shirt from Topshop is very over the top with this trend. Although these patterns had once been seen as uncool and 'embarrassing dad' shirts they will be heading into our stores. This shirt being priced at £42 is on the expensive side and there will be cheaper alternatives in other stores who will also have patterns which may be more preferred.

 
As well as several other trends including a geographical, an oxford, and a metallic trend this spring will have our stores full of different styles and patterns to suit almost everyone! It will be full of all sorts of colours and themes so keep a look out.
 
What is your favourite trend/trend that you are most looking forward to in Spring 2014?
 
**Please note although my examples of clothing were all from Topshop I was not obliged or made to mention the store, I just personally love the brand and I know most people love the store and its clothing as much as I do. All images belong to Topshop.**




2014 Resolutions

Although most would wish this was easy, making resolutions that you are likely to complete is a very difficult task. Motivation is key. Motivation is defined in the Oxford Dictionary as "A reason or reasons for acting or behaving in a particular way."

 

Motivation is something I personally find very difficult to achieve. I struggle to have such a desire to want to achieve something and succeed in doing so. I wish I had the effort and will power to find my motivation, but sadly I don't.

 

As 2014 has begun I feel that the start of the new year is an excuse and the motivation to make a change to your life and have a goal for yourself. "A new year, a new me" is a saying often heard or seen during the new year period. But once thought about the new year really is a chance to start a fresh and make 2014 a year to smile about when you look back.

 

2013 wasn't the best for me, but that is only from the memory of the last few months being very tough for me, however I did do several things which I'm proud of and I will always look back on with a smile:

• I began to spend more time with my family, we spent time together and we even began travelling more to get out of the house.
• I did some of my GCSE exams for Science and achieved a high grade that I'm very proud of.
• I went on a school trip with my nearest and dearest school friends and became closer to others and it also helped boost my confidence as it proved to me that we are all the same and I shouldn't' feel any less confident than anyone else.
• I had a lovely family holiday in Spain.
• I spent a morning travelling over Yorkshire in a hot air balloon, something I never thought I would do as I'm terrified of height's.
• I began my last year in high school.
• After over two years of waiting I got my braces and my teeth are finally looking straight.
• In addition, having braces helped me achieve a goal that I have set myself several times over the past five years; I finally stopped biting my nails.
• I took several mock exams and achieved incredibly good grades considering everything else happening in my private life.

I'm sure there are many more but these are the ones worth noting. Overall I guess had a good year, excluding the several life lessons I learned throughout the year, but that's another story.

 

For 2014 I don't want my resolutions to be too large or extreme for me to achieve. I want them to be merely goals from what 2013 has taught me and how I have learned from them.

My 2014 resolutions are:

• Talk to new people to work on my people skills.
• Find a job so I become more independent and to also improve my people skills.
• Don't trust anyone who doesn't trust you.
• Find my motivation.
• Pass my exams in the summer.
• Apply to a college and have an idea on what I would like to do in the future.
• And finally, do something out of my comfort zone.

It may seem like a long list but these are my goals for the next year. Even if I don't achieve all of them I want to know that I tried my hardest and have put all of my effort in to achieve them.

 

It's important to set goals you feel like you can achieve and goals that are worth achieving.

Let me know what your resolutions are for 2014. Happy New Year!

My world of Harry Potter

As most young people will say their love for the Harry Potter book/film series is incredible. However for me it was a little different. I would be lying if I said it wasn't a huge and very important part of my childhood.

It was a chilly November in 2001 and my mum and aunt had once again dragged me to yet another film, named "Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone". I would complain and cry until they would take me home, I would create any excuse to avoid seeing yet another dreadful production. We arrived outside our local cinema for the first showing and were one of the first in a small queue, it was a freezing morning and the four year old self was doing the usual performance but my mum insisted this film would be different and I would enjoy it more than any other. 'What a fool' or in child terms 'silly billy' I thought, over an hour later and incredibly annoyed I looked back at the queue and people were queuing all around the car park (which was enormous!).

The next event I can still remember vividly to this day. As the film was edging closer a white car pulled up and from the back two older boys jumped out dressed in these long black robes accompanied by a yellow and red striped scarf with a motif on both. My curiosity was sky high, what was so special about this film? I'd never seen people dressed like that before. By the time we were let into the cinema there were so many people behind us eagerly awaiting to buy their tickets. We found our seats right at back and had the best view with no one tall sat in front of me, but by now I was so used to the routine of hating every film I'd seen, so I complained and complained to my mum that I once again needed the loo but she was insistent that I was to remain in my seat (silly parents).

This next part is from my mums perspective, I spoke the whole way through the adverts and the people around us were getting seriously annoyed. The title screen came up. The large yellow Warner Brothers sign came up and the theme music played, oh the theme music. My mum has told me that within seconds I had gone quiet , throughout the whole film I did not speak or move, my eyes were glued to the screen. A whole new world was being unveiled before my eyes, it was magical (quite literally). I didn't speak again until the end of the film and even then my words were limited. My mum then told me I didn't even go to the loo until the end of the day!

I loved the whole world of witchcraft and wizardry more than anything else, so when 12 months later I was again woken up early to see "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" I didn't mind! The second film is now my guilty pleasure, I don't know how or why it's my favourite but it always has been! Me and my mum would do the same ritual every 1-2 years for every new film that would be released and would get the seats at the back and sit in silence as a new adventure was unveiled.  As June 2011 arrived we did the same for the very last film. The day where the highlight of my childhood would come to an end, but I'd never have it any other way.

As I sit here now reliving the day by watching my favourite film series I feel like that same four year old girl again! I feel silly knowing that I never read the books straight away, I read the first book at 8 and I have carried on reading each one since. As any other Harry Potter fan will say, it frustrates me how much information is missed out in the films but I wouldn't change any of the films, just like I wouldn't change my childhood. I grew up with Harry, Ron and Hermione and so will my children in the hope we will share the same love for the series!

Thank you for taking the time to read about my world of Harry Potter.

Yer a wizard 'arry!

 

As this is my first blog post please be kind as this is all new to me and I'm still getting used to everything, thank you.