The English Mademoiselle Diaries: tea

Showing posts with label tea. Show all posts

Yesterday evening I was writing down a list of things I want to do during A/W14. And some of the things I came up with I felt needed to be shared, so here is my bucket list for this Autumn and Winter Season:

Smile: It isn't that I don't smile at all but I think that I need to smile more. Some days I find I get to caught up in the stresses of life. Also someone once told me that just by smiling your mood improves.

Drink more tea: As much as like the majority of the fashion blogging community I am partial to a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte, I do favour tea. Not because I am British (that probably plays a part) but because I freaking love tea. Not the general purpose tea though, I really enjoy trying new kinds of herbal teas along with several cups of green tea.

Interact with new people: this is my first semester of university and I feel like this one is unavoidable. Having said that I do get very nervous about talking to new people and have a tendency to retreat to my room to avoid social interaction. I am setting myself the challenge to make friends at university in and out of my classes.

Finish the A Song Of Ice And Fire book series: I am two books into the series so I have a fair way to go, but last year during the second year of IB I realised I stopped reading for pleasure because of my studies so while I am at university I want to prevent this from occurring again by finishing all of the books by the 1st of December.

XO, Miriam

So over this bank holiday weekend my family and I went on a trip to the North of England to visit my friend Eleanor from Green and Aquamarine. So naturally we took a trip to York where we drank a lot of tea, walked around the walls and rummaged through a few quirky and vintage shops. I have been to York a few times before but I haven't really payed too much attention to all of the different buildings across the city. The mix of different buildings from different eras has a certain charm to it that not all cities have and I love as you will be able to tell by my choice of city to study in along with my love of Bath.

XO, Miriam

In a flurry of inspiration I went from scrawling venomous words in deep inky black, the kind that worries people, the kind you are scared of, not because of what is in it but because you have been blinded. The kind of darkness that makes you fear the future and the unknown and retreat back under the covers. To drawing the Mad Hatters Hat. Sometimes I wonder, Am I Alice before she looked through the looking glass? The answer is yes as to me the world is still enchanting and the Mad Hatter is still real enough to touch in my mind, cracked tea pots and sunken eyes. But so much more than that the sort of person you would miss in a future life.

"I am Alice before she looked through the looking glass"

So I took to my supplies of which I don't have many and tied them up in knots around a bowler hat seen here. Drew 10/6 on some folded paper, attached it to the spotty material with mismatched stud earrings and for a while I was the Mad Hatter complete with a fresh cup of tea (even if it was Green Tea, not English Breakfast Tea..).

I can see myself wearing this out at some stage, with some backcombed hair and pale eye make-up, and lest I forget the old school blazer, worn with ripped jeans and Doc Martens would be so perfect. But for now it will sit with pride upon my split end ridden messy hair. Not that, that matters at all I am only doing English revision today.

XO, Miriam

P.s. Follow me on instagram: @englishmademoiselle to see journal updates/clues to my next posts ;)

The photo card says: "You're my cup of tea" and it reminded me of Alice in Wonderland so it has been added to my wall.

Lately I have be wondering about my blog, and what it is for now I have completed the CAS programme section of the IB. I considered whether it could go in new directions, or if it should be removed entirely. I came to the conclusion that it shall go in new directions, ones that suit me not the few people who read my blog. That doesn't mean I don't appreciate them reading, but I believe that for me at least having a blog should be for me.

Now I have decided to get back into blogging for me more than I have over the past few months, and for that I need to be more comfortable with myself both internally and externally, which I hope I will be able to achieve more easily when I have finished my exams. I also want it to be a place to recorded my thoughts and internal monologues that I keep in a neat on the outside but scruffy on the inside journal. There is no time like the present to begin a new way of thinking and therefore typing.

So here goes nothing important to everyone but me:

I guess this is something I have always wanted to do, cover up "that" school logo, with it's obnoxious motto. But I also know that "that" school and it's logo shaped me to be who I am today, whether that be good or bad.

"This world is all so real and fake. Only what you experience is real, what you see with your eyes and believe in your heart, everything else fades into nothingness compared to those memories of what you have done." - mon journal intime

Blurred images and unrealistic ideas of what I should be to "fit in" hide under this bowler hat. All of those stupid, crazy, fansical (is that even a word?) dreams that spill out on to pages of paper filled with in and ideas of my own personal wonderland fill my head when I take myself away from people where I sit nervously, never knowing how to act or what to say.

//Tee - Zara//Blazer - School//Trousers - Fat Face// Hat - Topshop//

XO, Miriam

It has been such a long time since I last picked up a book to read for pleasure and not for studying purposes, so to ease my self back into my previous reading habits over the next month or so of exams I am sticking to relatively easy reads. Basically not Lolita or anything by Kahled Hosseini. Naturally I went for a John Green book, having read both the Fault in Our Stars and Looking for Alaska, Paper Towns seemed like a great place to start.

Despite loving John Green as both an author and as a human being, I was not anticipating this book to be as good as either of the ones I had read previously. But by the end of nearly 6 hours of reading that had all changed, this rivals Looking for Alaska for the top spot of my favourite John Green books. This is a gorgeous story about obsessions, society and hope. It made me dream of all the things I want to do, where I want to go and how I want to live my life. Are all the barriers that we perceive to be real actually there or can we just walk straight on through just like Quentin and Margo Roth Spiegelman?

For the test of a whether a book is good or not is if I keep thinking about the characters after I finish reading, or inbetween reading stints like they are real people that I know and have known for year. I am aware that I don't live in Florida but Quentin does and so did I for a week or so, all I could think about was what happened to them after the end of the book, so just like a good post-modernist play I left with more questions than I had answers. I like that in a book, something that makes you think and reconsider your own life choices. Paper Towns did that for me, along with taking me away from the daily grind of revision and work to somewhere else to explore someone else's life and mind.

So thank you John Green for this book, I am sure I will read it again this summer when I am sat inside on a rainy day with nothing else to do. Like Harry Potter this is book I will come back to again and again. Have a gold star, a virtual hug and a cup of tea or coffee depending on your preference.

XO, Miriam

I only bought a couple of these Macarons but they were to die for, I just wish I could have had more!

One does not simply watch Paul Hollywood bake with out promptly eating cake, oh and his eyes are as blue as they look on the Great British Bake Off! I also got to watch Kimberly off the last series bake and as it was in Exeter Glen Cosby was milling around!

So this had demonstrations and lots of stalls, I founds some really cute ones who made me want to buy lots and lots of mismatched crockery and decorate the house with too much bunting and eat cake and cake only... Shhh. I know that isn't possible but a girl can dream right?

Now this stall has to be my favourite, the milk bottles, the straws the cute vintage style signs were all so pretty, fortunately I know were to buy some of those straws in time to make 50's milkshakes and wear pastel skirts to match the era!

Never say no to freebies from a bakery. Ever.

I went to The Big Cake Show for Mothers Day, with my mum, sister and nan, it was a great day out and we really enjoyed watching people that we love on the Bake Off in real life!

XO, Miriam