Nails of the day | L’Oreal Paris, Riche

I saw this colour, Riche, in Boots and fell in love. It’s such a gorgeous colour and the polish itself goes on really smooth. Even though it might be a little bit more on the pricey side of things, I would definitely recommend L’Oreal nail polish. As the saying goes, you get what you pay for.

Clinique long last glosswear SPF 15 | Review

Clinique’s own Long Last Glosswear SPF 15 is my life saver. For me this is not just a lip gloss, but it seems to work better than any other chap sticks I have ever used. My mum first introduced me to this gloss saying that it worked wonders in the winter to protect her lips from getting chapped and on top of this had a really nice look to it. With this recommendation I decided to get some.

At first I must admit, I did find it a bit sticky but you kind of get used to this or just put up with it because it is soo nice. I went for the shade stellar plum which is quite subtle, it’s practically the same colour as my lips so it just adds that little bit extra to your finished look without going over the top!

It’s one of those dress it up or dress it down glosses, there is a little bit of glitter in the mix so with a full face of makeup you can really accentuate your lips. However, it’s also perfect for day to day wear as the shimmer effect isn’t too obvious – there is also an option of getting non-shimmer if you want that polished matt look.

If you’re feeling adventurous you can also layer it up over some lipstick too. It’s translucent so you can see the colour of your lipstick underneath, it just adds a beautiful glossy effect.

The one thing I was unsure about when purchasing this item was how it claimed to be ‘long lasting’. There have been a lot of beauty products I’ve bought that say this, but after a morning, or sometimes even after a coffee, I find myself no longer wearing lipstick. This though really does live up to its long lasting title. I can find myself going a whole day without needing to top up my lips which is probably one of the main reasons why I absolutely love this item!

At £16.00 it is quite pricey, but I adore this lip gloss and would really recommend that you give it a go. You definitely get what you pay for and it definitely does what it says on the tin!

Click here if you’d like to purchase the item.

Remember me?

Remember me? I am back after quite a stressful start to 2014.

I feel as though I must explain my disappearance to you as I have vanished for quite some time!!

At the beginning of January I was buried under a mountain of revision guides, notes, books, dates and more dates all in preparation for my A-Level mock exams. My days were a routine of getting up, eating a bowl of porridge, going to college, coming home and learning .. well, dates, and then falling asleep only to wake up, eat some more porridge (with jam in may I add!!) go to college and learn some dates – Groundhog Day much?!

The mocks came and went and after a tiresome month my routine was broken with the arrival of my sister’s 21^st Birthday Party! This was so fun! She came home for the first weekend in February and we practically chilled and pigged out for the whole three days. Cake, Pizza, meals out … it was awesome!

The only downside was is that on the Sunday night, I felt rather ill. But I went to sleep and just thought that it was the excessive intake of rich, glorious food!!

Monday morning, I still felt the same: a little bit shakey; my tummy didn’t seem to settle and my temperature was playing up. But I thought it would pass and it was just the morning groggy feeling.

Oh how I was wrong.

Throughout the first period at college a burning sensation grew in my tummy, something definitely wasn’t right, I’d never felt so terrible before. I phoned my dad to pick me up and within two hours of coming home I was being taken to hospital in an ambulance!

Turned out I had appendicitis and had to have an operation. I won’t go into the gory details, but lets just say it wasn’t pretty. The operation went well however, following it I had to be put on a course of antibiotics for 48 hours. These things were awful! I can’t remember the names of them but apparently they were three really strong antibiotics of which made me feel so ill! I couldn’t eat for five days and I lost so much weight. The anti-sickness pills they put me on made me hallucinate which didn’t help – it was terrifying.

But that is all over now, and I’m just left with a few tiny scars to remind me of my trip to the hospital – I’m always one to pick up a souvenir!

I am definitely going to get back into blogging; I’ve missed it so much.

As you may have noticed not only have I been fixed, but so has my blog! I’ve changed the whole layout and format, even got myself a new kickass banner! Massive thanks to Alex Birch for making it … check out his Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/BirchHillStudios

I hope you’ve all had a good start to the year … any plans for Spring?

@abigillibrand

@_woodnote

Re-vamped?

So I revamped my blog today! It needed to be done, I don’t think I had updated that previous picture of me since the day I created this – though I’ve not really changed too much!

Everything is so busy at the moment. I feel like one of those cartoon characters with the bulging bloodshot eyes, dragging their feet behind them and clinging on to their last bit of spark. You know the ones right?
Well that’s exactly how I’m feeling, I just hope I don’t look like that. I’ve had tons and tons and tons of essay writing to complete, which I’m so close yet so far to finishing. It’s a never ending circle of drafts and redrafts until the deadline which is slowly creeping up on me.

I took a trip to the Trafford Centre though this Sunday, you know, having a little shopping break from the stacks of paper that cover my desk like a pall. It was great, we started the day off with Champaign, Strawberries and Cupcakes, then swayed our way through the shops to make a start on the gigantic task of Christmas Shopping. Unfortunately though, I didn’t really buy much which is quite sad. Just a hat for myself and one present for my dear friend, Millie.
I had to get the hat though … It had ears!

Now I’m off on my merry way to do … more redrafts!! This will be the death of me! Happy readingand I hope you like the new format of my blog! x

@_abigillibrand
@wood_note

HALF A YEAR? EEEEK

Hey people, remember me? It has almost been half a year since I last did a post on here – that is some crazy stuff! I really don’t know where time has gone, I keep trying to hold onto it but it just ends up slipping out of my grasp.

I do apologise for my absence!!!

There is a hell of a lot to catch up on as these past few months have been too awesome. So where to begin?

Here is an extremely quick run down!

At the start of summer (which seems forever ago now!) I did work placement at The Gazette, which was amazing – the people were lovely – I got my first by line and I got to go out to some pretty cool places (one being a bomb scare…….. eeeeeek). It opened my eyes massively to journalism and confirmed that that is definitely the profession I’d like to go down (unless I find an unknown talent of mine and suddenly have overnight fame – there is always that option!!).

A week later I went to Kendal Calling, one of the best weekends this summer! It was out of this world and I got to meet so many inspirations of mine – John Robb, The Heartbreaks, The Gramotones and not forgetting the one and only Tim Burgess. I even got a few groovy interviews with them, and Deaks’ (The Heartbreaks) phone number! Ooofter 😉

Nick Fraser was a genius that weekend! He managed to sneak me and my sister backstage to meet The Charlatans who were extremely giddy after their performance. It was throwing it down and we were drenched right through – but it didn’t kill the mood. We were soaked but stoked. When we asked for a picture with the band, they ended up taking around 20 hilarious ones – one looks like Tony is kissing me. They were awesome and the festival was amazing – Primal Scream becoming one of my new favourite bands. I really don’t think you’ve heard a band properly before you watch them live – Primal Scream were magical and I still get shivers thinking about their performance that weekend.

I went down to Dorset a few weeks later with my family. We stayed in this adorable cottage and visited many castles, beaches and houses – one being Thomas Hardy’s house, it was pretty impressive.

Following the death of Jon Brookes I released Woodnote issue six which went pretty big. Its theme was ‘What do The Charlatans mean to you’ with many Charlafans writing in their anecdotes and memories of the band. Louder Than War have got behind Woodnote and Sarah Lay has written a feature article on it’s all about.

Now I’m in the process of applying for Universities, doing coursework, writing little bits for The Gazette and trying to bring out the next issue of Woodnote. On top of that, I’ve found a Ukulele that I’m learning to play and the piano, it’s all go!

I could not have asked for a better summer and definitely stay tuned – I’ll keep posting bits and bobs on here about what I’m getting up to!

Thanks for reading, and until next timeeeeeeee x

Groooovy! Check it out, I’ve been drawn as a comic character with a cape. Uh hu, a CAPE! I’m now officially a cool character. Loving this drawing ….

Sweeeeeet!! x

Superhero me!

I have abandoned you for a very long time, and I’m really sorry for that. I must start writing this blog again, it was fun the past two years doing so. However, I have been really busy lately with my first AS exams and issue five of Woodnote (Which is highly exciting). But now those are over for a while, I promise that I will be getting back in touch with you guys!
I have recorded a vlog, which I’ll upload shortly. See, I was reading my blogs and I figured that you don’t know much about me personally. I tell you what I’m up to or what I’ve done, but on a strange level, you have no idea what I’m actually like or who I actually am! So hopefully this vlog (which will be uploaded very sooon!) Will tell you a little bit more about me rather than what I’ve been up to.

In the meanwhile I have a question I want to pose to you. See I have been doodling recently in my frees at sixth form and any spare time I can grab. And I would love to throw a comic together. I have no idea what it would be called, but my character would be based around me and I guess I’d just turn them into a pretty cool superhero.

So looking into this, I asked myself what does a good super hero need? I mean, I don’t want the character based on me to have underpants over her lycra fitting suit. She needs to look established and respectable and also pretty cool.
Then I came to realise that everyone cool has a cape. Frodo, Wonder Woman, Batman, I mean, even Robin gets his own cape! So there I decided I need a cape to make a sufficient comic character.

I know I declared earlier that I want to be a superhero, and yeah, it would be pretty awesome, but in my storyline that I’ve been plotting for a while, I don’t really do anything superhero-ish.

So here is my question, should I start up this comic? The pictures may not be all that good, but the storyline is quite decent. Or should I just write it as a story with a few pictures here and there?

In my mind I think I might just throw some pictures together, post them up here and see where it takes me … The setting is kinda space-y with a charming romance going on. But there are twists and dark corners every now and again.

Expect to see something starting here on this blog. You guys are the first to know about it and I’ll see what happens!

Here’s one of my sketches, I would obviously have to sort out that outfit, and I am in need of a name ^^ x

Saga

Free Shadows

Run free with the lone wolves and watch the crows flee from ragged trees,

The fog arises and the mist creeps in.

Ivy crawls and clasps you, trapping your soul as it hugs your skin.

Your eyes are bright yet your heart is taken,

Mine forever, lost in your arms.

Abigail Gillibrand                   

…

You know when your heart sinks and you can’t quite place what makes you feel like that? Or when you just want to cry, and there’s a constant lump in your throat that you can’t seem to shake no matter what you do. Well, I’m kinda going through one of those times right now. I don’t know why though, I mean, shouldn’t I be happy? All of my exams are done and everyone’s life is planning out just fine. I have nothing to be sad about, I’m just feeling quite low.

I guess there are many things going on in my head and so many people to be concerned about. My whole life has changed this year and I can’t quite say whether or not it’s for the better or worse. At first I thought it was good. Going to college was scary, but I made friends and they’re all pretty nice. New friends. People that don’t judge you for your past, what you look like, but for who you are. I guess that’s the special thing. I’ve never really experienced such things before.

But music is on a low. I don’t ever seem to have time to listen to it anymore. To go searching for all those hidden jewels that cause such emotion you understand what life is about, why it’s worth living. Songs that give you such a thrill that even days after listening to it, you’re still thinking about the meaning, searching about the band and constantly replaying it over and over in your mind. It was only a few months ago where music shaped my life, and now it’s slowly dwindling.

Piano. A way I can express my feelings.

Everything and everyone is changing around me. People are advising me on my path to adulthood and to be honest, I don’t want to go there. It sounds such a scary place. Exams and more exams all leading you to a university that depicts you by a letter and decides your fate. Or maybe its fate that decides your university. I’m a big believer in fate. I feel that it guides your life so you eventually end up on your deserving road.

ISFE

Look what arrived in the post today! Joseph Coward’s Fanzine ”I’m Sorry For Everything”. It’s pretty cute so if you’d like a copy Tweet him @JosephCoward.

Hope you’re all doing well folks, not blogged in a long while. Keep up to date with everything at: http://www.woodnotemagazine.blogspot.com

And follow me on twitter: @AbiGillibrand