Where has the time gone??

July has gone SO quickly and so much has happened since I last posted! I had a great time at home and it was so lovely to spend time with my family again. I have finally taken the plunge and I've moved out of my childhood home. I say "moved out" but I still have a lot of my belongings there so I suppose I've not properly moved out yet... I'm now living with my boyfriend, Mario, in Nottingham and so far it's going really well! I was naturally a little nervous about it all but that's expected.

I suppose the next big thing I need to share is this:

I graduated! I now have a BA Joint Hons in German with French from Nottingham Trent University! It was stupidly hot that day and I had a proper sweat on for most of the day! Delightful... It was lovely to have the support of my family there and they all seemed so proud! My sister even stayed with us for a few days after graduation which was so wonderful!

I've been doing a lot of baking lately! In case you don't know, my dream is to open my own tea room so I need to perfect the art of delicious cakes! Mario and my housemate, Matt, don't mind sampling them for me!

Vanilla cupcakes - my auntie's recipe. They're so tasty!

Earl Grey Cupcakes - the icing was incredible but the tea flavour in the cake wasn't strong enough for me at all!

Coconut cupcakes with lime and coconut icing - these went down a storm with my friends and my grandma loved them too!

Banana and chocolate cupcakes with Nutella icing - I thought these cakes were going to be a disaster. I over-filled the cases and the icing was too wet... Turned out they were delicious!!

Vanilla cupcakes with chocolate sprinkles - these didn't last very long either! Yum yum!

Banana and chocolate cupcakes with vanilla and chocolate icing - these weren't was banana-tasting as the last batch I made but were still tasty. Mario bought me a piping bag that allows two icings to be used! Grandma said that they looked very professional; what a compliment! :D

We went to Nottingham Pride on Saturday! I went with the intention to sell my friendship bracelets (Banana Bracelets) but we won't discuss how that went... *cough* I had a great time anyway and the atmosphere was great! I even did rainbow makeup to commemorate the occasion and to get into the spirit of things! I received a lot of compliments on it :)

SO MANY COLOURS!!

The job hunt continues but I do have an interview next week so hopefully my luck will be changing soon! *fingers crossed*

Big update!

So it's almost been a whole month since my last post! Sorry I've been such a fail. Not a lot has happened to be honest because I've come home for three weeks before moving up to Nottingham for good! I'm back in Notts on Wednesday though.

So on the 11th of June it was my university's graduation ball. As I am graduating in 2.5 weeks' time (how specific am I??), I naturally went along. Example and Rudimental performed there so that was fun. I sadly didn't go to the after party for a few reasons and I really wish I had!

Here's a few photos for your enjoyment :)

Four of the housemates together. The boys decided to surprise us by attending as they had told us that they weren't before!

As you can see, I went for the 1950's, pin up look and it was very well received! I bought my dress when it was in the sale too, which was a bonus! I filmed a "Get Ready With Me" video for the makeup, if anyone is interested.

The day after grad ball, I came home for a bit. I've been looking for a job in Nottingham but I've not had any calls back yet so home was a lovely opportunity to get away from all that stress. Charlotte, my sister, and I went to Brighton when I got home and had a lot of fun! The weather was wonderful, although a little too windy to make the most of the beach.

A gorgeous cake from Catwalk Cakes (link to the Twitter page)

We found a knitted Brighton Pavilion! This must have taken a lot of patience!

Then we found the real deal :D (Yes I am wearing a John Barrowman tshirt...)

The gorgeous window of Choccywoccydoodah :) All made from Chocolate!

And we saw Rolf playing the piano!

The final part for now: I tried to dye my hair brown so I could be taken more seriously when I'm looking for a job :P Unfortunately, the coloured part of my hair was too stubborn and didn't want to be covered up, so now my hair is mainly brown with some purple and pink parts! I'll have to do it again at some point but it won't be for a while. I can't afford to damage my hair too much!!

Thank you for reading this long post and I hope that you enjoyed it!

Exploring the South West!

So some of you may know that I went to visit my boyfriend last week who's currently studying in Exeter, Devon. I got back yesterday after a wonderful week to find my house here in disarray so I'm writing this blog post to put off facing the mess the boys were kind enough to create while I was gone!

Anyway, you didn't come to this blog post to read my complaints, so let's get on with the week in pictures! Naturally I didn't take photos every day because I fail, but I got a lot of photos on one day so hopefully that'll do.

On Sunday we went to Dartington Food and Drink festival, which was a lot of fun. Had a delicious steak pasty for lunch (while in Devon...) and looked around all the different types of food Dartington had to offer. There were also animals there, which was just too cute! (Some of these photos are stolen from one of my friend's Facebook page.)

These were truly delicious. My pasty was warm too! Yum! Yeah, you can see that Mario and I appreciated them in the photo below, although my facial expression says otherwise...

The name of this tea made me laugh just a little too much probably! I wish I'd have bought it but it was hibiscus tea and I'm not such a fan :(

We had a barbecue that evening that the boyfriend was kind enough to cook for us. It was delicious! I won't include photos otherwise this post will be far too photo-heavy... But Mario's housemate did make a delicious Nutella cheesecake (recipe can be found here, good ol' Nigella) and I have to include a photo of that!!

(I'm clearly no food photographer...)

 We were blessed with gorgeous weather all week and I'm so grateful for that. We explored the coast a little on Monday and we went to Branscombe and Seaton, which are gorgeous seaside towns.

Seaton

Tuesday and Wednesday were quiet days. We went into town for a spot on Shopping on Tuesday and then went to a place called Trago Mills on Wednesday. Trago Mills is like a giant warehouse with literally everything in it and most of it is quite reduced in price! Mario was in his element.

Thursday was a very busy day. Mario originally wanted to go camping, but changed his mind halfway through the day. We did explore a lot of Cornwall though! First stop was Land's End. It was on Mario's list of things to do before he dies, so it was nice to tick one of them off! It's such a beautiful place and I may be spamming with pictures, but it is worth it; I think it is anyway!

Panoramic!

We then drove on a little way to the Minack Theatre. We did want to look round but after paying £5 to park at Land's End (!!!), we didn't really want to spend too much more money! We did walk down a little way and found a gorgeous cove that I have usefully forgotten the name of. Sorry :/ The sea was such a beautiful colour and the beach looked so sandy!

Cheeky shot of me, thanks Mario!

We then had lunch in Penzance. Delicious fish and chips on the seafront. It felt like I was truly on holiday! After a bit more driving around, we went to Hayle, which was another pretty town. In case you hadn't guessed it, there are many pretty towns in Cornwall. Definitely worth a visit if you have the opportunity!

We then went home after an exhausting day. Mario was worn out after driving all day so the next two days were lazy days. We stayed around Exeter and it was wonderful. Mario made biscotti and I attempted to make honeycomb, but I'm pretty sure the boyfriend ruined it :P We also made icecream, orange flavoured, but I left before I had a chance to try it. Hopefully it's tasty though!!

( recipe can be found here :) )

Yesterday I just spent the day travelling back to Nottingham and here I shall stay for the next 10 days or so until I go home. I'm going job hunting this afternoon, but the weather's nice so it shouldn't be too bad!

Sorry for spamming you with so many photos, but thank you for sticking it out until the end. Until next time!

Farewell Uni!

So May has been a hectic month for me as it was the month my dissertation was handed in, the month all my final assignments and presentations were due as well as the exams I had to study for, but it has finally come to an end. I am finished with university now! No more studying or education for the next few years, which is weird because I have been in education non-stop since I was 5-years-old!! I feel a bit at a loose end now. I don't know what to do with myself!

First of all, dissertation hand-in! That was due the 3rd of May and I was actually finished with it way before then so I didn't have a last minute stress, which I definitely predicted for myself.

 It was a very interesting topic to research and I absolutely loved writing it. I liked that it was one of my only modules that I was interested in and enjoyed as much as I did because I wasn't so engaged with the other modules I was forced to study. If people are interested in finding out what a typical German is, or "typisch Deutsch" as they say, let me know and I may do a blog post about it :)

 This is me just after I handed my dissertation in! Look at the sheer excitement I have on my little face.

Bank holiday Monday, or May Day, followed this celebratory time. In England, May Day is renowned for being rainy and miserable, but this year it was actually incredibly sunny! Who'd have thought? I went to the local park with one of my friends and a group of her friends. We had a picnic and icecream and we played a new card game that I want to say is called Mafia, but I'm not entirely sure. It was a while ago!

That afternoon, my housemates and I had a lovely BBQ! You'd never have guessed that a few days later the weather turned and was cold, wet and unpleasant! The same friend whom I went to the picnic with bought me some daffodils! I won the pot at the choir Christmas party, but I only just got my prize from my friend! She decided to make it more interesting with some gorgeous daffodils, which aren't quite so gorgeous any more!

And finally, I have changed my hair colour once again. I was trying to go for a more acceptable-to-society colour, but my hair is brighter than I thought it would be! Directions Rubine (diluted with conditioner) on top and then Directions Plum (mixed with some violet and diluted with conditioner) on the bottom of my hair.

I have had people telling me frequently that this is their favourite colour-combination, but I always get different people telling me different things about the colour of my hair! I guess it's all about personal preference at the end of the day!

I bought my grad ball dress but you'll have to wait until the event to see that, unless you follow me on Instagram (@HananatheBanana) because I have already posted a photo on there.

I'm off to the boyfriend's in Exeter this afternoon and I'm very excited about it! I still need to pack but it's fine... I have plenty of time!

The Nottingham Vintage Fair!

Hey team! Another update from me :D

I have been going great guns with making new YouTube videos, so be sure to check them out if you feel so inclined: http://www.youtube.com/user/hananathebanana

I went to The Vintage Fair in Nottingham (https://www.facebook.com/nottinghamvintage or https://www.facebook.com/VintageFair) on Sunday and it was SO cool! It was in The Albert Hall in Nottingham, which is just up Derby Road. I've performed there with my university choir in first year of uni so I have fond memories of that place!

There were so many people and stalls there. The popularity for these fairs has definitely picked up as they continue! There were also many stalls selling a variety of gorgeous vintage wares. I wanted them all but I limited myself to only spending £20. Entry was £1 for students and £2 for adults. Bargain!

I am naturally obsessed with tea and teasets at the moment. This place was like a haven to me. SO many different stalls selling teacups and saucers and all sorts of cute things! I resisted the urge to buy any though as I will be moving out soon and the new flat doesn't have a lot of space for excess storage. I thought I was very controlled.

I cannot wait to go back there when I have a job and spare money to spend so I can start investing for my tea room! It's going to be perfect :D

There were also a lot of clothes stalls. I have a problem with vintage clothing. Not the actual wearing of it itself, but more because the sizing is very different to what it is now. This means it can be very difficult for me to find something that's affordable (I think spending more than £20 on a dress that someone else has previously owned is a bit of a rip off, unless it's a posh designer) and that will fit me. I tend to stick to the accessories stalls because they're not that expensive and they can be "one size fits all", to a certain extent.

Here is a photo I took (really bad photo btw... I got embarrassed) while I was stood on the stage looking out across the room.

So I bought two things when I was at the vintage fair and they're just jewellery. I bought a cute necklace for £3.50 and some lovely earrings for only £2.50! Unfortunately I forgot the name of the shop I bought the necklace from, but the company selling the earrings included a business card in the baggy, so win!

https://www.facebook.com/madamecherrydesigns

Of course they're both tea-based... What did you expect??

One last tea related purchase that I recently bought... I got yet another teapot. It was reduced on the Urban Outfitters website and I found a 25% code too. Oh, and it was the last one left. I couldn't resist it!

Cutest teapot ever, am I right?? I cannot wait to use it, especially as it has a mesh part included, meaning I can drink loose leaf tea! Yaaaaaay!

Anyway, I shall go and bid you adieu.