The weather in Sheffield is perfect at the moment; bright but cold enough to wear your winter coat. My style definitely comes into its own at this time of year. I love my jumpers and coats, and I've recently really got into hats and headwear after digging my old vintage scarf out of the bottom of my wardrobe.

Here are 3 outfits.

Hat - Oxfam Jumper - New Look Coat - Oxfam (ASOS men) Leggings -Primark Shoes - Clarks

Headscarf - Vintage Dungarees - Topshop Jumper - Primark Coat - Vintage Shoes - As above

Beret - Topshop Jumper - New Look Skirt - Pull and Bear Tights - Primark Boots - Clarks Coat - As above

I've got a thing about powerful women. Women who pioneer, fight hard, push for their passions, create change for themselves and/or others. Women that do things. Women that are bold and brave. There's no greater power in the world.

Madonna is a powerful woman. She changed the face of the music industry with her lyrics and visuals. She's reinvented herself so many times but remained a name, she's never slipped from idol status. When Madonna wore a pink cone bra in 1990 she shocked so many people, taking the high fashion underwear as outerwear trend, and putting it on MTV. The take on classic lingerie was a nod to the past of femininity, and was a bold statement about the future of women's sexuality as she again pushed the boundaries for risque outfits at the time. It's a powerful piece, the bullet bra is a powerful shape made from soft silk, the perfect metaphor for powerful women.

And this Halloween I payed homage.







I got this custom made Madonna outfit from House of Erotique. Each piece is handmade by Ben and you can tell that love and passion goes into each stitch. His customer service was incredible, and I can't even begin to describe what a pleasure it was to wear this outfit. It feels incredible on, fits perfectly, and is such high quality. Catch me wearing it around my house 24/7 from now on.

To complete the Madonna look I did the classic smokey eye and drew on a beauty mark. I tried to keep my hair poofy, then later tied it up in a slick high ponytail like she wore it during her Blond Ambition tour. I also added a chunky choker for a bit of neck bling. Oh and I also listened to Into The Groove about 15 times.

Check out Ben's work on his Instagram, and Depop. Because everyone deserves a Madonna outfit and a leopard print beret.

By now, bullet journals seem like an old concept that's been swimming round the internet for years. I know for me, they're something I'd seen again and again, always thought I'd like to make one, but never actually doing it. The thought of having to work it all out, draw it and keeping drawing it each month sounded draining when I could just buy a diary and be done with it.

But a month ago I made one, and now I'll swallow my previous criticism.

If you read my post a while back, I wrote that I wanted to get a Five Minute Journal, but I couldn't bring myself to spend £15 on something I might not fully commit too and might not be used in a week. So I thought I'd make my own, then I thought I might as well go all out and make a bullet journal. I started out by looking on Pinterest and getting an idea for the pages I wanted that would suit my life and what I wanted from the journal.

I always knew I wanted to make a gratitude journal rather than a daily tasks or academic one, so I decided to make pages that related to self-care, personal projects, and affirmations, and here's what I ended up with.


I start of each month with some thoughts on habits to make and break from the past month, then lay out a calendar with important dates, some goals I'd like to focus on, and an affirmation for the month.

I see loads of really artistic, beautiful month pages but I have neither the skill or time for that, so I keep mine pretty simple but using a stencil for the main title and some crayons to add colour.


For each month I also have spending, mood, and habit trackers. I've found it really good to have a place to visualise this stuff, so I can see where I'm slipping to motivate myself to get back on track. And obviously as a student, the spending tracker is super helpful for budgeting.


Within my weekly spread I have my gratitude journal where each day I write what I'm grateful for, and an affirmation. I've also made space for important dates, a to-do list, shopping list and meal plan to help me keep track of my life a bit more. Again, I'm a really visual person so being able to see my whole week and all my plans laid out is really really helpful for me, and since having the meal plan box and shopping list to write out ingredients I need, I've actually been sticking to my meal plans for once!


Other pages I have include; a yearly calendar, lunar calendar, self-care tips, project pages for this blog, kiloran and The Tab, a page to write down ideas, and a yearly goals page. But I think the best thing about a bullet journal is obviously that it's totally customisable. If you want it to be academic focused, you could have a page for deadlines or study plans, or make one solely for social plans and to-do lists. What ever pages you need you can make, which is something you can't get from a bought journal.

All you need is a basic journal (I got mine from WH Smiths), a ruler, fine liners and any colouring pencils or crayons to design it however you want. Be as creative as you want, or keep it totally simple. It's entirely your space dedicated totally to your thoughts and needs and plans. And the process of considering what you need and drawing out is amazingly calming, I highly recommend.

I've been sucked into the trend and I'm not even sorry.

I'm now back in my beloved university city, and moved in to my new house awaiting the start of my second year. As someone that's massively affected by the space around me, this is always the most anxious time of my uni year; trying to make a new place a home. If you're a freshers about to move to uni I know this will definitely be on your mind, so I thought I could share my process to make yours a little easier.

Uni rooms are weird, especially first year accommodation rooms. You have to pack your life into one room, it becomes like your own little planet with all your belongings. You have to work, relax, sleep, hang out with friends, maybe eat, probably shower etc etc all in one room. It's intense, there's a lot of pressure for that one room to feel good and feel like yours. It's definitely been a lot easier this year in a house, and in a bedroom that doesn't have a neon green wall... But here's some of the things I consider when making my space, and a little look at my room this year. But I definitely thinks it's a case of finding what you find comfortable and comforting.

Lamp - Wilko Bunting- Homemade Shelves - B&Q Hanging vase - Tiger

Bedding - Asda

Bedding - Dunelm

Bunting - Homemade Firefly lights - Primark

The Past Us is a poem about the realisation that your love has changed. It’s a poem about looking back at a relationship and realising it’s become so misshapen over time, it hardly looks like love at all anymore, it doesn’t really even look like companionship.

This poem was written in late October and it feels just like late October, to me at least. It feels like hazey evenings when it becomes annoying how dark it gets so early. It feels like the intense bout of disassociation and confusion I felt during my first months at uni, and the questions about how my new location would alter my relationships and feelings. It’s always been a deeply personal piece to me with very specific settings and conversations in my head, but maybe that’s why it’s ended up being the piece I always go back to, and a piece that my peers regularly reference and compliment (thanks guys).

We all know the tug of a dying love hanging on like a limb that’s gone numb after you sat on it for too long. The period just before the conversation when both parties are aware of the small changes in movement; turning your back, pulling away hands, seizing at opportunities to leave their company even if just briefly to get a drink, when before you always wanted them there, holding your hand and hugging in the kitchen. This poem is a brainstorm for that conversation, a mind-map drawing lines between the people you were and are.

The ideas of making a film was brought to the table in Easter, at a time when I was having this conversation again. I’ve always wanted to make a film, I love films so so much but over time I’ve accepted that I know nothing about how the hell you make a film. So a table full of people who know exactly how to make a short film, and know fancy terms for lenses and shots, and appreciated my work enough to want to visualise it, it was dreamy.

And the end product is The Past Us, it’s exactly what the poem is and all it represents (including some very specific details from it’s context). It’s grey, it’s late October, it’s the lingering thought of a love you had to accept had left long ago, packed up and moved out of everywhere but your head. But mostly it’s just beautiful and far more eloquent that my words could ever hope to be.

I can’t say thank you enough to ever quite touch on how much of a privilege this is, and how cool it makes me feel that a group of people wanted to merge their art with mine. So thank you again to Penny Eastbury, Samara Sajid and S. J Zhu. Thank you thank you thank you.

I feel v cool to have my very own and very first poetry film, am I an artistic and edgy creative yet??? Can I be famous now???

This is The Past Us, part 1 of a Chrysalism film series. This is winter.