2013

Hi everyone,
It is new years eve so I just wanted to take this opportunity to say Happy New Year and I hope that your 2013 was a lot better than mine.
I will not go into detail as I do not want to bore you all but 2013 was not a great year for me, especially in concern to family and friends; I lost many friends and people I hoped would be in my life for a lot longer than they were but 2014 is going to be a new chapter for me and I hope that 2014 is comes with many opportunities.

Have a Happy New Year and I will see you in 2014!

I will end this blog with my favourite Zeitgeist 2013 song:

♥

Review: iPod nano 7th Generation

Hi everyone,
Sorry for not uploading my what I got for Christmas blog: it's taking ages! But one of the things I got for christmas is the iPod nano 7th Generation so I thought I would do a short review on this separately.

I had the green one and it is very small, pretty much the size of my palm.
I will start with the good:

• At just 5.4mm thin — and about the size of a credit card — the new iPod nano is the thinnest iPod ever made. 
• The 2.5-inch Multi‑Touch display is nearly twice as big as the display on the previous iPod nano so you can view your photos better.
• It has tons of memory: 14.7 GB which may not sound a lot but it goes a very long way.

The bad:

• The battery can go down very quickly.
• The background can be only the colour you have the nano itself in. I have the green one which is really nice but not so nice as a background, in my opinion.

The apps include: Music, Photos, Radio, Podcasts, Fitness+, Clock, Videos and Settings.

I am going to go through each individually:

Music

The music app has genius mixes, playlists, artists, albums, songs, genres, composers, compilations (whatever that is) audiobooks, podcasts and iTunes U. With all this it is easy to find the song you want, especially with artists, songs and albums done alphabetically. As you play the song it says who it is by, song track title, album title and a picture of the album. If you tap the screen it gives you the option to repeat album or song, put it into a genius mix, put nano onto shuffle mode and view album song list where you can rate the album up to five stars.

Photos

You can put photos onto your nano although it doesn't have a camera but beware: it does use up a lot of battery so if you charged it for a long car journey it's probably not the best idea to look at your photos.

Radio

You need to have headphones it for signal but I had a problem when I wanted to listen to Radio 1 to listen the Dan and Phil show: the frequency is 98.8 or something and the nano only has odd numbers so I can't tune into it which has annoyed me.

Podcasts

You can download podcasts on iTunes to put onto your nano but I have found the podcasts options quite limited.

Fitness+

Enter you height, weight and gender and you can put it into your pocket and see how many steps you do that day, for how long, and the calories you burned. There is also a running option where can choose a basic, time, distance or calorie workout. This is a very good app if you walk a lot.

Clock

This has a clock, stopwatch and timer but you can only hear the timer if you have your headphones in because the nano does not have a speaker.

Videos

You can download your favourite family videos or something to watch if you want to, although it is a fairly small screen even if it is the biggest nano screen yet so it may not be very good.

Settings

The is an option to turn bluetooth on and off, general (where you can get your information about your nano, adjust the brightness, wallpaper, date&time, language and accessibility), music (shake to shuffle on and off button, sound check on and off, EQ, Volume Limit, Audio Crossfade and Group Compilation), Video (Where for the video to start playing from: from beginning or where left off), radio (radio regions and live pause on and off button), photos (timer per slide, repeat on and off, and shuffle photos on and off) and an option to reset the settings incase anything goes drastically wrong and you have no idea which option it was.

Hope some of you found that useful!

♥
*Disclaimer - these opinions are all my own*

Brownie in a Mug

Hi everyone,
So during the Christmas Holidays I decided to make a fantastic recipe I found on Facebook a few months ago.
Due to this being my very unhealthy lunch I decided to put it in a bowl but it is designed to go in a mug for the full effect.

Here's how I did it:
You will need:

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup flour
• 2 tbsp cocoa
• pinch of salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 3 tbsp water
• any tasty things you want in it: I put in chocolate chunks and marshmallow (optional)
• ice cream (optional)

Method:

1. Add all dry ingredients
2. Add the oil and water
3. Mix until it is consistent
4. Put in the microwave for 1 minute 40 seconds (although cook until you think it is ready; I ended up cooking it for nearly 4 minutes)
5. CAUTION: IT IS VERY HOT!
6. Add ice cream

Voila!

Here is my attempt:

Hope you liked it!

I will end this blog with Zoe's awesome hot chocolate orange :)

♥

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone and hope you have a fantastic day, on friday I will hopefully be posting a blog with everything I got for christmas.
Also, soon I am going to do a review on frozen which I saw yesterday with BeingLaurita

Have a lovely day

♥

Tangle Teezer

Hi everyone,
So something you might not know about me is that, although I have perfectly straight hair, it gets knotted VERY easily which means that I needed to find a brush that doesn't pull out my hair or damage it. This is when my mum came across the Tangle Teezer on Amazon UK but you can also get them in your local drugstore.
They are priced at about £10 and come in a variety of colours and patterns (although some of you may think that £10 is a bit excessive, for everything it does for your hair I think that it is definately worth the money) and I got the glittery purple one. They are aimed at frizzy/curly hair but it can also be used for straight hair and it makes your hair soft and tangle free.
My cousin has really curly hair and most brushes would get caught at the first know but the tangle teezer just glides through and it barely hurts.
You can use it when you hair is dry and wet so when your hair is wet, just after a shower, and your hair is at its most vulnerable it doesn't damage the roots and rarely pulls hair out.
What I like most about the brush is that it makes your hair look full and glossy and gives that healthy glow look which I have always wanted. I also sometimes use it to get a bit of height in my hair and it doesn't damage it, unlike the backcombing brushes.
Overall, I would recommend it to anyone because they are just so awesome and they are so easy to get hold of.

Let me know in the comments if you have a tangle teezer and if you agree

♥
*Disclaimer - these opinions are all my own*

Christian the Lion

Hi everyone,
As you may have seen in Zoella's vlogmas day 12 then you would have seen that they watch the video about Christian the Lion. It is such a heart warming story and you can see the reunion and I will link it to the bottom of this blog (fair warning: you will cry).
I love the story and bought the children's book when I was about 9, and there is also a DVD and a grown up story of the book which I recently ordered..
If you do not want to buy the book or DVD I thought I would a little bit of background to the story:
In 1969 Anthony Bourke and John Rendall went to Harrods to do some Christmas shopping and they saw two lion cubs on sale, after much debate with their own thoughts they bought one of them and named it Christian.
They convinced the local vicar to let them exercise Christian in the garden of the local church but John and Ace soon realised that Christian was getting too big so enlisted the help of George who invited Christian to join the pride of lions he was trying to introduce back into the wild in Africa.
He befriended the lioness called Katrina but had trouble with Boy, enventually he was accepted and Christian was part of the pride so John and Ace decided it was time for them to leave.
A year later John and Ace wanted to visit but was told that Christian was wild now and would not remember them but they went anyway. After many hours of searching for Christian this is what happened:

I bet you cried right?

I hope you love the story just as much as I do

♥

Procrastination and homework

Hi everyone,

Everyone can be a pro at procrastination when they want to be but trust me, it's not the best trait to have in the world...

Procrastination is the practice of carrying out less urgent tasks in preference to more urgent ones, or doing more pleasurable things in place of less pleasurable ones, and thus putting off impending tasks to a later time, sometimes to the "last minute".

Procrastination has been linked to a number of negative associations, such as depression, irrational behaviour, low self-esteem, anxiety, poor study habits, and neurological disorders such as ADHD. Others have found relationships with guilt and stress.

If any of these sound like you then seek help from a trained therapist or psychiatrist.

However if, like me, you just do it to put something off (as described in the definition above)

because you don't want to do your homework or you would rather watch TV than revise for that end-of-topic test you have next week then you need to decide yourself what is your best option.

To help me get over procrastination I do 1 hour of solid revision or work then take the length of a programme or 30 minutes of reading time to use it as a sort of reward, this is helping me more and more and if you have decided that you want to do better in tests then I would suggest trying out this method.

I also try and do all the homework I got that day the day I got it because then at the weekend you will not have all your homework piled up on your desk and you can do something fun.

On the other hand, if you don't want to stop procrastinating then that is up to you as you may not have started to disrupt your work but this will soon become the case and I urge you to stop now as, procrastination, in my opinion, is like smoking; once you start it is very hard to stop and it takes time, help and patience.

Sometimes if I have a big test coming up, I put my phone, e-reader, DS and anything else in a box and my mum guards it for the morning and then I can have it back in the afternoon as reward. This may seem a little stupid but it really does work and it helps me to concentrate on my revision.

Hope this helps some of you

♥



Organisation

Hi everyone,
I don't think I have mentioned this before but I am a bit of a neat freak, let me explain...
I think I get it from my mum but I don't like people having messy rooms or not dusting and hoovering regularly, especially in their bedroom.
Organisation is very important to have everything neat and tidy so find what you are looking for easily.
Due to this, I thought I would do a 'Hannah's Top Tips to being Organised' not just in bedroom space but in revision and photos and things like that as well.

For the house:

1. Clean your house as often as poosible, ideally every fortnight.
2. Don't spend ages on it and try and make it as fun as possible; I tend to put on some music so I dance and sing whilst cleaning.
3. Buy some cheap boxes and pretty cabnets to store everything in and make sure you put it back where you found it so you can find it again easily again.

For you wardrobe:
Having everything chucked in messy piles on the floor is not going to help you get ready swiftly so try buying some cheap hangers from Primark, Wilkinsons, M&S or somewhere like that.
I have mine with bottoms and underwear on the left and tops on the right sorted out by season and then colour within each season; this helps me find what I am looking for quickly and also helps me workout what I am lacking in so I can go on a shopping trip :)

For school work:

1. Place everything into folders by subject or by unit and buy some cheap dividers to serparate the different topics.
2. Try and write as neatly as possible and although different colours looks nice; when you come to revise you may regret writing in bright yellow or a different colour every sentence as it can get a bit overwhelming.
3. Buy different folders with different patterns for each subject so that you can pick the folder you want quickly and easily.

Hope this was useful and fairly interesting

♥

Dieting and going to the gym

Hi everyone,
Dieting is a very big thing when you are young and still growing and developing and need the calories and the healthy stuff in their food to help them grow properly. Some young people are overweight, and being overweight can cause health problems, but kids may hurt their health even more by doing something drastic, like skipping meals or deciding to eat only lettuce.
A simple but effective way to keep healthy for children and young adults, like me, is to simply eat more healthy foods or be more active.
Which brings me onto the next part of this blog:
Being more active could simply mean walking to school or helping to walk the dog in the afternoon after school. Don't worry, if you can't do either of these things then talk to your parents about joining a sport club.
However, if, like me, you are extremely anti-social then I suggest going to the gym, most gyms do a teen membership where you are only allowed in at certain times and restricted the machines you can go on but it is still really beneficial.
My gym routine:
Firstly I go to the loo because you don't want to be half-way through a work out and you suddenly need to pee.
Then I go on the cross trainer for 45 minutes on level 7. I find this increases the heart rate and is a very good warm up.
Next I go on the bike for 30 minutes and then the tredmill for 15 minutes.
Finally, I go on the floor mats for 1 hour and do all sorts of work outs such as press ups, skipping, sit ups and all that sort of thing.

Don't worry about people looking at you, they are doing exactly the same thing. If you are self-concious then ask a friend is he/she will go with you as it is more fun that way.

Bye guys

♥

Choosing the right A-Level choices

Hi everyone,
So as it is coming up to when you all have to, like me, choose your a-level subjects and where you are going to take them I thought I would give a little piece of advice:
If you are not sure what you want to do as a career do things that interest you and you know you will enjoy, because if you enjoy a subject you will do well in it.
Secondly, don't pick subjects because that is what your friend is doing, it may not necessarilybe the right subjects for you; my friend BeingLaurita is into all the academic stuff (maths and science) where as I enjoy the more essay-based subjects (english and psycology) so we are doing completely different things.
If you are sure what you want to do as a career then research that career to find out the best subjects to take for that career.
If you have a careers adviser at your school go and talk to her to be confident about your subject choices.
Talk to your teachers and find out if they think you will be able to do well in that subject.
Check out the requirements for that subject because if you don't meet the requirements there is no point in even looking it the subject (sorry to be blunt, but it's true).

Hope this helped you.

♥

Safety Advice

Hi everyone,
It is starting to get darker now and most of us are walking to and from school or getting some form of public transport so I thought I would do a top tips on staying safe:
1) Walk confidently with your head held high (not all hunched up).
2) Keep your phone, keys and some money in your pocket so if your bag is stolen at least you have the essentials.
3) If you are mugged, give them what they want a leg it, you don't want to get caught up in a fight.
4) If you think someone is following you cross the road for a while then cross back to see if they copy you, if they do call the person you now is nearest.
5) If on a train go into the busiest compartment, if this empties get off and go to another carriage.
6) Obvious but I'll say it anyway: Don't talk to strangers.
7) Don't go down alleyways ever, even if your in a group, walk around it, even if it does take a few minutes longer.
8) Have 999 on speaddial so if anything happens you can call them immediately.
9) Don't wear black if there are no street lights; you won't be seen by cars.
10) Don't make eye contact with strangers.

Hope you found this helpful.

♥

Youtuber's Birthdays

Hannah Michalak - January 18th, 1989
Oli White - January 26th, 1995
Phil Lester - January 30th, 1987
Ingrid Nilson - February 2nd, 1989
Tyde Levi - February 15th, 2000
Tyler Oakley - March 22nd, 1989
Zoe Sugg - March 28th, 1990
Caspar Lee - April 24th, 1994
Louise Pentland - April 28th, 1985
Louis Cole - April 28th, 1983
Jack & Finn Harries - May 13th, 1993
Joey Graceffa - May 16th, 1991
Niomi Smart - May 26th, 1992
Troye Sivan - June 5th, 1995
Tanya Burr - June 9th, 1989
Dan Howell - June 11th, 1991
Nick Laws - June 15th, 1995
Matthew Lush - July 1st, 1988
Joe Sugg - September 8th, 1991
Connor Franta - September 12th, 1992
Alfie Deyes - September 17th, 1993
Mamrie Hart - September 22nd, 1983
Grace Helbig - September 27th, 1985
Hannah Hart - November 2nd, 1986
Bethany Mota - November 7th, 1995
Marcus Butler - December 18th, 1991
Jim Chapman - December 28th, 1987

Just in case any of you were wondering

♥

Batiste

Hi everyone,
I have been using dry shampoo for the past six months and thought that I would do a review on it.

I thought that I would get the worst thing about this product out of the way; it leaves white streakes in your hair, so make sure to properly brush your hair after to make sure you don't go out with white hair! Also, I have found that throughout the day the smell goes a bit "off" but they still smell really good.
They work really well and they don't damage your hair and it lasts all day. Also, it is found at your local drug store and is affordable compared to most of the expensive brands.
If you can afford the more expensive brands such as oribe, I would recommend them more highly as they do not leave white in your hair and many specialise in giving your hair more volume.
A good thing about Batiste is that they now do pocket sized ones which you can throw in your school bag for if you are having a particulrly "bad hair day" or you just had PE.
All in all, I would give Batiste a 7/10.

Hope this helped if you weren't sure which brand to get.

♥
*Disclaimer - these opinions are all my own*

Revlon Lip Butter

Hi everyone,
So I recently bought the Revlon Lip Butter in the shade Pink Lemonade and thought that I would review them.

Good

1. They give really good colour.
2. There is a variety of colours for each of the seasons.
3. Small so can fit in your purse.
4. Reasonable price at £6.99 in Boots and Superdrug.
5. Gorgeous packaging.

Bad

1. Melt easily in a warm room.
2. Smudge easy.
3. Take a long time to set.
4. Have to apply several layers to get the full colour.

Overall I would give them an 8/10 as there are a few issues that need resolving.

Have a good day :)

♥
*Disclaimer - these opinions are all my own*

Cyber Baby

Hi everyone,
A few weeks ago I had a cyber baby( which is basically like a Baby Annabelle who tracks your progress) so I thought I would do a quick review on what it is like:

• You never have time for yourself.
• You can't go out.
• You don't get any sleep.
• You don't get out of not doing homework.
• It had a blue nose and bright red forehead.

Overall I would not recommend it, however, I know that most other people in my year absolutely loved it (they may have been joking but I'm very gullible)
I recommend you try it if you are given the chance as it is a great experience but I would not do it again.

Hope this helped if any of you can't decide

♥

Youtubers

Hi everyone,
There are so many youtubers out there and they are only just getting recognised such as danisnotonfire, amazingphil and my currect favourite: zoella.
I have been watching them for nearly 6 months now and watch plenty, so, for all you lot who are just getting into watching vloggers, I thought I would give you a low down of who is big right now. (These are in no particular order)
So lets begin...
1. Zoella/morezoella - otherwise known as the beauty queen and her real name is Zoe Sugg, she does her current faves of make up, clothing and is known for doing a lot of primark hauls which are very fun and intersting to watch as primark do not have an online website. hint hint ;) Her videos are generally about 15 minutes long but I never get bored or tire of watching her videos, she is such a nice and interesting girl. Opening line - 'hello everyone' She is currently dating Alfie (pointlessblog) zalfie :)
2. Danisnotonfire/danisnotinteresting - real name is Daniel Howel. He is the first youtuber I ever watched at he is so funny and tends to do more sketches than vlogging but I decided to put him on this list all the same.Opening line - 'hello internet' He is currently living with Phil Lester (amazingphil)
3. Sprinkleofglitter/sprinkleofchatter - real name is Louise but is called chummy by Zoe. I have only recently started to watch her but she is fairly similar to zoella although she is slightly larger so has different hauls and a different taste in make up and clothes so it depends on your taste. Opening line - 'Aloha sprinklerinos' She is, I think engaged or she might be married (can't remember) and has a daughter called Darcy otherwise known as babyglitter.
4. Amazingphil/lessamazingphil - real name is Phil Lester and lives with Dan. He used to do mainly vlogging but has now started to do more sketches which is not to everyones taste but I like it. He has been a youtuber since the beginning (2005). Opening line - 'hey guys'
5. pointlessblog/pointlessblogtv/alfiegames - Real name - Alfie Deyes and does mainly vlogging but has done a few sketches where relevant. He has started travelling quite a lot which are always interesting to watch.
6. Marcusbutler - Full name is Marcus Butler. Opening line - 'hello' but in a very starnge way (can't really explain it) Does a mixture of vlogging and sketches.
7. Dicasp - Full name is Casper Lee and is south african but born in England and moved there after he was born. He does mainly vlogging and used to live with Aflie until he moved to the US.
8. Jacksgap - twins called Jack and Finn Harries. It started out as just Jack's during his gap year but his brother Finn soon got involved. Opening line is 'hello everyone how're you doing?' Does mainly vlogging and recently participated in the rickshaw run for teenage cancer trust.
9. Thatcherjoe - Full name is Joseph(Joe) Sugg and is the sister of Zoe. Started not that long ago but very funny and has a variety of videos and has done many inuendo bingo videos which as so funny :)
10. Tyler Oakley - american and gay but everyone loves him. He is a big directioner and does a lot of colaborations.
11. Troye Sivan - recently hit 1 million subscribers and is austrailien and recently did his 'coming out' video announcing that he is gay. Does a variety of videos with collaborations or visits to other places.
12. Funforlouis - real name is Louis and does a lot of travelling. Has dreadlocks and does a lot of travelling videos which are interesting and funny to watch.
13. Tanya Burr - very sweet and does beauty and fashion hauls. Best friends with Zoe and engaged to Jim.
14. Jimstweetings - real name is Jim Chapman and is engaged to Tanya. Does a lot of collaborations and tag videos.

Check them out :)

♥ 

Introduction

Hi everyone, this is my first blog so thought that I would introduce myself.

• My name is Hannah.
• I am 15 years old.
• I love One Direction and Little Mix.
• I am a huge potterhead.
• I love reading.
• I am obsessed with watching youtube vloggers.
• I have a brother.
• I live in England.
• I have a best friend called Laura.
• I do ballet.
• I get the bus to school.
• I go to a grammar school.
• It is an all girls school.
• I have a cat called Tommy.

So that is a little bit about me :)

♥