The English Mademoiselle Diaries: blair waldorf

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On Thursday evening I made my way to the city of Bath to attend a blogger event hosted by DUO Boots. When I arrived I was unsure as to what to expect, except of course other bloggers! When I arrived I was greeted by two other bloggers who's names I have forgotten (typical) and we entered the store where we were offered champagne. It had been approximately a year since I had been to a blogger event so I experienced the same feeling of awkwardness to start with but after a while I relaxed and got round to discussing shoes with all of the other bloggers.

Part of the event was being able to choose a pair of boots to be gifted by the company I chose these gorgeous Mena boots that make me feel like Blair Waldorf from Gossip Girl strutting my stuff through the upper east side so naturally I cannot wait for them to arrive!

By far the best part of the event was being able to meet and talk to other bloggers, some of which I have met before and some that I haven't!

XO, Miriam

I have been loving this smock dress from Pull & Bear lately, it is so comfy and versatile to wear that I can see it becoming a weekly appearance during the summer months. So naturally I wore it for my first exam of the season, with some plain black leggings from H&M, and my mums Levis jacket. For me this is a go to outfit when I need to be comfy and look put together at the same time. And I couldn't resist to put on my cat ears that I made for the RED tour!

You guessed it, I just had to wear some frilly socks from Topshop and some tan leather brogues from Clarks. In my opinion you cannot go into an exam hall without some preppy style straight out of Blair Waldorf's style book!

Dirty window selfie ;)

XO, Miriam

Source: Weheartit.com

I suppose you could call this a reaction to a Teen Vogue article, but it is also and agreement with some of the people who gave their short stress related stories.

As someone in the process of applying for student finance loans, navigating multiple social groups, a part-time job,driving lessons, and with my exams just around the corner it is all too easy to become very overwhelmed by it all. I will freely admit that I do at times, when I have more than two pieces of homework a night all week the stress soon builds up, but I have found a few ways to deal with the increasing levels of stress in teens, especially those in the later years of secondary school, college and university.Whenever I think of a stressful school life my mind always turns to Blair Waldorf, not only did she have the pressure to get in to university but here every move was being posted on the Gossip Girl blog... (I am not even sorry that I referenced Gossip Girl, I love that show I don't care if it has stopped airing)

"A recent study by the American Psychological Society found that teens my experience higher levels of stress than adults"

Before I give you my favourite ways of dealing with stress, if you can have favourite ways that is... I would like to say that, in school I felt like I had to be perfect, skinny, good grades, in the "popular" social group, but looking back I know I don't, everyone gets stressed not just students, people of all ages get stressed and that we all need some time out of our increasingly hectic lives to regather our personal forces and head back in to daily life. I also find that you need to admit that you are stressed in order to deal with it before it gets out of control and leads to unhealthy habits, for example when I am stressed and I don't know it I will forget to eat sometimes for days at a time. So on to what I do to prevent and/or cope with stress:

Read. If you don't already know I am a big promoter of reading books, not audiobooks or on e-readers, real books with real pages and the printed word, even a magazine would do I recommend ones like Oh Comely who don't have articles about weight or how you should look etc.
Create To-Do lists. I find that writing out what I need to get done that evening or that week helps me, and I love the feeling of accomplishment after I crossed something off the lists. Sometimes I will create a list of what I am doing that day so I can be sure that I know where I am going and I won't forget anything...
Listen. To music, to other people, to the radio, or to the sound of the train on your commute to and from work or school. Just sit and listen to the sounds that surround you everyday, don't let them sink into the background. Reserve your iPod for when you have a big deadline or something similar and play it obnoxiously loud, yes even on public transport if it means that you will get through your day without snapping at someone who did nothing wrong then go for it.
Exercise. Yes I know this is what everybody says, but for me I get stressed if I don't. My mum will happily tell you about the times I threw a strop before swim practice and then got me to appologise for it afterwards because she was right that even at the age of 9 or 10 I could not deal with a lack of exercise. Plus it will do you body and your willpower a world of good. Dog walking is included in this not just sweaty cardio workouts. Eating well goes along nicely with this!
Go outside. This may seem silly, but sitting in front of your computer screen or staring at your phone probably isn't helping. Go outside experience new sights, smells and sounds, explore nature even if you live in a busy city go to the nearest park and watch the world go by for 5 minutes.
Spend time with Friends. This one is self explanatory, but for me I cannot remember a time when I was not happy when I was with my friends, just hanging out, going for coffee and eat good food, yes even study sessions....
Sleep. Get your beauty sleep, if something isn't working at 10pm it probably isn't going to work at 2am, go to bed sleep on it, then try again in the morning.

I hope you found a few of these helpful.... Pleas comment what you do to help with stress!

XO, Miriam

P.S. I forgot one go shopping for new clothes ;)

I like doughnuts and I like cake so this seemed like the perfect idea, why not make jam filled vanilla cupcakes!

You will need: 2 eggs, self-raising flour, caster sugar, butter, vanilla essence, milk, and some homemade jam (or shop bought if you really have none)

Pre-Heat the oven to 180 degrees C
Weigh the 2 eggs together, then measure out the flour, sugar, and butter to that weight.
Cream the butter and sugar together in a large-ish bowl.
Beat in the 2 eggs and a splash of vanilla essence.
Sift in the flour, and stir until well combined, in the mixture is stiff (won't drop off your wooden spoon easily) add a little milk and stir again.
Spoon 1 teaspoon of the mix in to cupcake cases. DO NOT FINISH THE MIXTURE DOING THIS.
Bake fore 5minutes/ until the mix has flattened out in the cases.
Take the half-cakes out of the oven, and spoon your jam in to the centre of the partly cooked cake mix. I chose my mums blackcurrant jam duh.
Follow this by adding more cake mix on top of the jam, and bake again for approx. 15 minutes
And as always eat with a cup of tea and a good book.

XO, Miriam

Sundays as I have said before have to be one of my favourtie days, but yesterday was just wonderful because for the first time in what seems like forever the sun broke through the clouds and Britain saw warmth and spontaneous trips to the beach! As for me I relaxed, watched the rugby, which was disappointing (Welsh Supporter), then headed off to see The Book Thief.

I adored Markus Zuzak's The Book Thief, I reviewed it here, but the film did not quite live to my expectations, some of the best moments for me in the book were not included and small details were not included! However I applaud the casting for Max and damn he was looking fine for a Jew who was on the run in Nazi Germany!

I bought these sunnies out of necessity a few years ago when I realised I had left mine at home and my eyes were not ready for the bright sun of Portugal in June, oooppps. On the other hand I love the bright orange, and I cannot wait to wear them more often this summer with two holidays lined up for June!

Now on to the outfit! I have been meaning to take photos of this for a while, but due to a lack of time and sun it hasn't happened, none the less it is here and who knew a prom dress could look so casual. Underneath my recent purchase of this adorable lip patterened jumper from Primark is my year 11 prom dress! I paired it with thigh high socks and black Chelsea boots to contrast the white and cream shades in the jumper and the dress. I suppose you could say that I am stuck in quite a preppy fashion rut, but when you consider that I wear jeans and band tees almost everyday at college, I think it makes up for it. I also blame having to wear a shirt and tie for my entire school career from the age of 5 to 16! So naturally I have taken to dressing smartly using Blair Waldorf (Gossip Girl) and Spencer Hastings (Pretty Little Liars) for inspiration, not only do they dress well, they work hard and play hard too.

XO, Miriam

P.S. What do you think of the outfit?

Although I am not the fittest or have a Victoria's Secret Model's body I do actually enjoy exercise and keeping fit and healthy, shocking I know. Now since leaving secondary school and moving on to sixth form college I have had to develop my own fitness routine due to a lack of P.E. Yes I do miss that at times horrific lesson...

So to begin with I didn't use the lifts at college, trust me this works for me the tower building is 9 floors high! But this year I am normally too tired to even attempt 7 flights of stairs to biology first thing on a Tuesday morning.

So I found Blogilates a Youtube channel created by Cassey Ho

^One of my favourite workouts!!!
Now you are wondering how can a YouTube video make you fitter, this girl is amazing she keeps you motivates thoughout her videos. As well as this she releases monthly workout calenders which combine her workouts to create a good workout. And believe me no matter how much you do her workouts you will be sweating buckets by the end!

Now in order to cool down after some serious cardio, and strength training with Cassey you will want to streach, no?
Yes! Yet another YouTube channel, and a free version of sometimes expensive yoga classes Adriene is the perfect cup of tea, even after a huge lunch.

I guess you are wondering if I ever leave the house to workout, and the answer is yes, when I can I swim for an hour or two to help my stamina. And during the summer I cycle to and from the train station where I get the train to college.

xoxo Miriam

P.S. If you would like to see more posts about my health and fitness comment below please, thank you in advance.