March Favourites

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Hi all, 

Now that I have completed my assignments (well most of them) and my Uni has shut due to this virus, I thought that I should write a blogpost about all my favourite things in March.  This may give you some inspiration about what to watch or even what to listen to since we'll be stuck inside for what looks like the next few months. 

Music 

This month so many different albums have come out which I have been loving and listening to non stop. I love music which I can dance to and especially love pop and rap, but  as of this month I can't stop listening to pop albums. My favourite albums this month have been 'Fine Line' by Harry Styles, 'Future Nostalgia' by Dua Lip, and 'K, bye for now' by Ariana Grande (I know it was released last year but I cannot stop listening to it!) They are all so good, I really recommend them all. 

My top 3 favourite songs are: 

• Break your Heart 
• Levitating 
• Good in Bed 

But honestly the whole album is so good, it's like a combination of all the good pop songs in the 90's mixed in all the best 2000's pop songs.

My top 3 favourite songs: 

• Tattooed Heart (if you haven't heard the live version of this, have you been living under a rock, it's stunning and makes me wish I could sing) 
• R.E.M (my favourite song on the 'Sweetener' album) 
• Break your heart right back 

But honestly, if you love Ariana Grande as much as I do, you'll love this album.

My top 3 favourite: 

• Adore you (because why not) 
• Cherry 
• Sunflower, Vol.6

Again, if you like Harry Styles this album is basically him singing to you.

Podcasts 

Now when I'm not listening to music, I like to listen to podcasts when I am doing my Uni work (writing notes) as the talking just helps me to concentrate and really focus on my work. I don't like listening to podcasts that are about serious subjects, I like the podcasts that focus on giving advice on fashion, boys, mates and beauty. Therefore, the podcasts that I have really been loving this month are.... 

I like this podcast (At Home With...) purely because of the concept. Lily Pebbles and Anna Newton (who are the hosts of this podcast) are invited to their guests houses. On previous episodes they've had Lucy Williams (Blogger, Writer and Brand Consultant), Charly Cox (Poet) and Patricia Bright (Youtuber and Blogger). They go round to their houses and it's so nice because even though they are talking about topics such as beauty, fashion or lifestyle, these guests are also describing their house interior to the audience. Which is nice as you get to imagine what their house looks like from the descriptions they give. 

 'Getting Lippy With' is a podcast where the host Imogen Hudson invites guests such as Mark Ferris, Talia Mar, Karen Hobbs (and many more) onto her podcast to talk about questions people may have sent into her inbox on Instagram regarding lifestyle or their mental health which people may be struggling with. With the help of Imogen and her guest they give out advice relevant to the issue. I like this podcast because if I have any issue that I know they might talk about I listen to that episode to see what advice they might give. 

However, I would love to listen to some more podcasts in April, so in the comments recommend your favourite ones, and I'll give them a listen!

Shows 

I have always loved watching television shows on Netflix, so for me this is the perfect time to get myself into some new series. These are my favourite series that I have been loving throughout March. 

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I first started watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine in January, and it's just so amusing, I finished Season 5 in February and have been eagerly waiting for Season 6 to come out on Netflix. Thank God Season 6 came out towards the end of March! I have watched so many episodes of this in a day, it's been so bad, but it's so good at the same time. Comedy Gold. 

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A classic favourite for me. I can watch this at any point of the day and it'll still be funny even though I've seen it multiple times throughout my life. I especially like viewing this when I am sad as I know I'll laugh when I watch an episode. 

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Even though I only watched snippets of 'RuPaul's Drag Race' (Snatch Game), once I watched the British one all the way through I knew I had to watch the American ones. I now understand why so many people love it, there is just so much drama. I still need to watch Season 4 and Season 12. 

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I LOVE ELITE!! I know it's in Spanish but I love watching the story unfold and what drama is going to come next. If you have not watched this yet, I definitely recommend you to.  However, the third series is kind of slow until episode 7 and 8. 

Fashion and Beauty

I have grouped these together because there are only a few products which I have been loving this month. This is only due to the covid virus stopping me from going outside, but it's best to stay safe and not really care what you look like as it's only your family & friends who are going to see you. 

The Good Girl Perfume, I love this perfume as it's my University scent. When I was at Uni,

I used to spray this on me every single day when I attended classes. It just makes you smell so nice, and reminds me of the time I went to Florence as I constantly wore this perfume.

The Ariana Grande 'Thank U, next' perfume smells like you have just gone to the beach. It's my favourite scent in the world and I am glad that I have a big bottle of this so I can spritz it on me anytime I want to. 

As I've been at home for what seems like forever, I have just been wearing my joggers as they are really comfy and the perfect leisure item for staying indoors. 

P.S In relation to makeup, I may not have any favourites this month, but I have just started doing a 'makeup roulette' challenge that I have created. How it works is that I have stuck my palettes into a cup and with the help of a friend or family member, I get them to pick a random palette out. I then get them to pick random numbers from the palette (say if there was 24 colours) the number would be from 1-24.
Once they have picked these numbers, from another cup I get them to pick how many different colours I should put on my eye (numbers range from 2-5). I then do a makeup look with the colours they have picked, to see how it comes out on my eyes. I then get them to pick my lipstick shade (I have 13 lipsticks so I give them numbers 1-13 to pick from). I then finish the makeup look with that lipstick shade, and I see how the look comes together.   I was wondering if you wanted to see posts on how I did my makeup and how the makeup look turned out? (Comment in the comment section below if you want me to do this)

I hope you enjoyed my March favourites! I hope this gave people inspiration to listen to different things, or watch something new! 

Comment what you have been loving this March so I can find new things to do. 

Stay Safe, 

xNx

   

Netflix Must Watch: 'To All The Boys P.S. I Still Love You'

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Hi guys, 

As it's Valentines Day soon, I thought I should review a movie which of course relates to Valentines Day which is 'To All the Boys' the sequel. 

We meet Lara-Jean and Peter Kavinsky who as we remember are now officially an item, I know it's cute right. However, Lara-Jean often compares herself to Kavinsky's ex girlfriend Gen, because she has never had a boyfriend before and doesn't know how to act, (which is understandable, but at least communicate that to your boyfriend)!  

Even though we see Lara-Jean and Peter's relationship as romantic as they go on dates and spend time with each other, it get's worse when she receives a letter in the post from John- Ambrose, a boy she was obsessed with in the sixth grade. She is planning how to write back to him, but feels bad since she is in a relationship with Peter at the time. 

However, things get worse when she volunteers at an elderly person's home, when John Ambrose walks in AS THE OTHER VOLUNTEER! I KNOW 

I do love this movie as the cinematography is great, but the part which really brought home my obsession for this movie is the ending. It's so sweet and simplistic, but makes me look forward to the third movie which is in production!  

So... who will Lara-Jean eventually go for.. are you Team Peter or Team John? 

Sound off to me in the comment section! 

I do hope you enjoy it, 

xNx 

Netflix Must Watch: Horse Girl

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Hi guys, I’ve been wanting to review this for a long time. Originally, I thought this was going to be a series, but I was very pleasantly surprised when I opened my Netflix and saw that it was a film. I’d seen many trailers for this movie, but hadn’t seen many press releases until I saw the movie had just been released as I follow Debby Ryan on Instagram (one of the main actresses in the film).

After I saw this, I knew I wanted to watch the film, I clicked on it straight away as I usually just wait until a few weeks. However, I knew I had to get back on the blogging bandwagon, so I clicked on the film and hoped for the best.

Firstly, I thought this film was going to be about horses given the title of ‘Horse Girl’ but let me tell you – I was soooo wrong. Secondly, I loved how Alison Brie had written this movie along with the director Jeff Baena, which showed that Brie had fully thought out her own character direction and could give her own interpretations of how she wanted this movie to go along with the director’s guidance.

Initially, when I watched the movie, I was confused what the direction of the movie was going to go in as this movie is about a young woman called Sarah (played by Brie) who’s isolated and not in touch with her reality. The latter, gets more and more weird as the movie goes on.

 Furthermore, it just shows that you should not judge a book by its cover as I previously said what I thought it was going to be about, however, this was not the case.

The movie does not have a specific genre as it’s said to be ‘genre-bending’ and when you get to watch the movie (which I highly recommend), you’ll see why.

I also thought that  all of the characters (except for Sarah) were  made up, this wasn’t true, but as the movie got weirder and weirder I thought that this was going to be true. 

Also, the ending does not explain things in a linear way, you are kept guessing, which doesn’t explain things when throughout the majority of the film you’re really confused at what is actually happening.

Regardless of not knowing half the time what was actually happening, I did think this film was beautifully documented as throughout we see  Sarah’s transition from ‘sane’ to ‘crazy’ decline showing how mental health affects people dramatically.

This movie did not glamorise mental health at all, all it did was made people aware with the signs of someone with mental health issues – psychotic depression specifically. Mental Health is obviously a huge topic, and this film just illustrates how it is demonstrated in everyday life.

I do hope you get to watch this film as this is something truly great.

xNx

Netflix Must Watch: 'Sex Education' #2

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Hi all, I’m back at it again with another review -you didn’t see that one coming did you hahah.

Today, I wanted to write about one of my favourite series in the entire World, Sex Education the second series. And while I know I’m late to the party with this review, here’s my opinion of how I thought ‘Sex Education’ developed in terms of its storylines and its characters. 

We get to meet our favourite characters again, Otis (who is still as awkward as ever), Maeve (the rock chick who gives zero f’s), Eric (the most caring friend of them all) and Otis’ mum (the most embarrassing parent of them all, with a heart of gold). However, we also get to meet some new characters like Rahim who is introduced earlier on, while Isaac is introduced early on, but his development plays a huge part in the series two finale. We also get deeper insight into the residents of Mooredale High (majority of the teachers, and some of the school kids from last term). 

Last we saw of Maeve was that she left school and had broken up with her previous boyfriend to give things a try with Otis, however as she saw Ola and Otis kissing outside his house, their time hadn’t begun, and we see her working in a waffle-house when Season 2 begins. For Otis, his ‘sex clinic’ with Maeve has taken a backseat as she is obviously not there, but his relationship with Ola has been going well, Otis is trying to come to terms with the fact that his mum is in a relationship with Ola’s dad Jakob, which is certainly proving quite difficult for him.After last season’s climatic finale for Eric, he still thinks about Adam (even though Adam’s dad has sent him to a military boarding school to clean up his act), but Eric is more positive than ever as he is grown to be carefree. 

I love how every single character has developed as we get to see Maeve’s mum and how their relationship is non-existent at the start, but it develops into something strong towards the end, however (don’t worry I’m not going to spoil it for you) towards the end … well you’ll just have to see. Through her relationship with her mum, we get to see Maeve’s more caring said, which we might have seen in the first season, but it becomes more apparent in this one, especially when she is helping Aimee get on the bus (THE MOST ICONIC SCENE OF THE SEASON)!Furthermore, this series explores stigmas regarding sex and sexuality and explores them, telling people it’s alright to feel this way, which gives it an exclusivity tick as I feel every topic is answered/gives people advice.

Otis’s character development starts off slowly, but especially in the scenes with his dad we find that Otis is trying to be a better version of himself, and not an ‘asshole’ like his dad. It’s really sweet as he starts taking responsibility for every wrong-doing he has caused, it just takes him ages to figure it out.

 Finally, Eric’s character development shows him being in a relationship with Rahim, but as soon as Adam comes back he does not seem to know where his loyalties lie. On one hand, Rahim shows Eric it’s okay to express yourself as he is being really open, however with Adam you can tell that this is a more delicate relationship as both characters care for each other, however, one is more open than the other.In the season finale, Eric chooses and thinks with his heart.

 I love this series and I hope you do too  

xNx

Netflix Must Watch: 'The Stranger'

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Hi guys, First and Foremost, I just wanted to say Happy New Year to my MiddlingAround subscribers and thank you so much for giving my blog so much love and support.I know I’ve said this for a while, hopefully I will be continuing writing while I am at University, however you get the gist, I might not post in-between assignments, but I promise to be more consistent this year (this year more than EVER).I know it’s February, but here’s my first ‘Netflix Must-Watch’ of the DECADE (can you BELIEVE IT), so here’s what I’ve ‘binge watched’ whilst balancing my social and Uni life. 

‘The Stranger’ came onto Netflix on the 30^th of January, and I kid you not, when I watched the trailer, I was so caught up in the suspense of the whole drama that I just knew I wanted to watch it in one go. Even as I watched TV (yes, I still watch television even though I’m a Millennial SHOCKER) most of the interviews I watched could not give any details away because it all connected together, which made me even more intrigued. However, I did not start watching it until the first or the second of February as I had just watched Ru-Pauls Drag Race UK (I know I’m not much on the bandwagon am I), and needed something to fit that lonely hole in my heart reserved for television shows, so I decided on watching ‘The Stranger’.

I’ll tell you the complete truth, I was utterly confused at first. The things I had seen on the trailer were shown fairly quickly, but the twists and turns of how the incidents of the residents became connected made me continue watching it.To be fair, I did Google the ending (who doesn’t love a spoiler alert) and even after seeing that I was still confused, this answered none of my questions as I barely knew the names of some of the key characters. I don’t want to ruin the plot for you, as if I tell you even a small thing, it could ruin the rest of the plot for you, but what I will tell you is that it’s a psychological thriller which surrounds an English family.  Each family member has their own secret, which will humiliate them if their secret ever got out. It’s only got eight episodes too, however if that does seem long to you, watch it in two parts like I did, having a two-hour break to clear your head. But it does get you hooked! 

ENJOY :) 

 xNx