In the summer time

She Said Beauty Box. Ombre nails. Neighbours cats Lightning and Mattie.
Moonrise Kingdom ticket. Cupcakes. Atmosphere. Orange Sunglasses.
Broken Glass. Beach View. Costa. Me on a Dragon Pedal Boat.
Sand. From where I stand. View from the Library. Library Haul.

Okay so a bit of a mish mash post, maybe from the last two weeks. I either take loads of pictures on Instagram (username is lisamello) or I forget all about it for a few days. Oops. I've gone to the beach a few times, and even on kinda cloudy days, if its warm enough to sit on the beach then I don't mind, its so relaxing to just dip your feet into the sand. I also went to the Library which is right next to the beach, I need to go more often! I got a new Library card from my local one the other day, and can use it at Swansea Library too, which I'm planning on spending a few days reading there in the sun with the pretty views. I also took out a few books, which have similar book covers...

Um from the top not including beach photos, I had my second She Said Beauty Box (well actually I had two, I'm confused) and took photos of my neighbours cats like the cat stalker that I am. Lightning the grey one, he never comes near us, but watches us, and Mattie is such an attention whore she'll flop dramatically down on her the floor for you to rub her belly and joins me whenever I sit outside. I love that photo of her sticking her tongue out though. (One day I'll have pets of my own again dammit!) I painted my nails using an ombre technique which I LOVED but the photo doesn't do it justice, and reminds me of the sec on the beach cocktail with the colours.

I went to see Moonrise Kingdom which was fantastically whimsical, and is one of the few films I've actually paid to go see in the last few years since they didn't show it in the cinema where I work :( I made patriotic cupcakes for a night in with my friends, except the blue didn't turn out except in the icing, so I'll have to try gel food dye next time instead! I also had a games night with work people and my boyfriend who used to be a work person, where we played Atmosphere! I love that game, its so silly. Did you ever play it when you were younger? And speaking of work, we have this new promotion where we have bright orange t-shirts, glasses and wigs to wear! It was dead in work so me and four other girls dressed up, it was hilarious, but I did love the glasses. The t-shirts were a nice fit too, as we usually get large t-shirts if we get any.

Then a quick mish mash of the other photos, my brothers cat got broken into (nothing was stolen) and while gutted for him, since every vehicle he owns gets broken/stolen/smashed/dies, the broken glass was kinda pretty. I've tried a few of the costa cooler things, and got one to match my dress the other day! Not on purpose, but it was funny. I had orange and raspberry which was gorgeous, only because mango and passion fruit was sold out, and red berry  another time which I didn't really like the after taste. So I just need to try mango now, but I'm glad I tried the orange and raspberry one, its gorgeous! Oh and then there's me on a Dragon Peddle boat. So much fun and relaxing. I'd never been to the ones in Singleton Park despite Swansea being my home town all my life! So I had to fit it in with my boyfriend before he left, and I took lots and lots of photos.

Okay so that's a quick post, I'm trying to post more regularly now, but I've also been working and enjoying the sun whenever I can. And now I'm off to a Olympics closing ceremony party down my boyfriends. Has everyone been enjoying watching it? I'm so proud that we've come third overall! I never intended to watch any of it except for the opening ceremony but have watched it here and there, and wish I'd watched more, it's a bit addictive isn't it?

Little bits of Summer

Sending off my giveaway parcel in the post office. Sparkly nails and a foxy ring. Swansea Beach. The Night Circus.
Heroes chocolates. Pub quiz. Shoes. Weird clown thing.
Krispy kreme trip. Mug drawing. My neighbours attention seeking cat. New necklace from Delilah Dust.
Still reading A Clash of Kings. Glossy Box. Mumbles Sunset. Sandal buddies.

So it turns out we're getting a bit of a summer right now, is everyone making the most of it? I am trying to but still not as much as I'd like considering it might not be here next week! Silly, mean British weather, y u no make up yr mind?! Anywho I didn't really know what to call this post other than 'Week in Instagram' so I called it 'Little bits of Summer' even though not everything is summery, ah well.

I've been to the beach of course, but they're more like evening or afternoon strolls with my boyfriend or my friend, not proper beach visits. I went to Cardiff for some shopping (was meant to go Ice Skating but we got there too late) and I tried my first ever twinkies (didn't like it) and my first ever Krispy Kreme donought, well two actually (they were heaven) so it was fun. I tried out a new pub quiz with my boyfriend and we double dated with his friend, me and his friends girlfriend just left it up to the boys and we came third! (Out of er...four oops!). On the way to Cardiff though they had all these street performers from the town centre to the train station which was a bit bizarre but a cool concept called 'A Welcome Disruption to Life'. I drew on a mug as a birthday present, and got a new necklace from Delilah dust which reminds me of being a teenager when I had loads of crystal necklaces, they're so pretty though. I won a box of Heroes in work for being super (well sorta) and I got this months Glossy box so I should do a review on that and She Said Beauty soon. I also stole cat cuddles with the neighbours cat who is an attention whore, but I love it. With my old cat she never really liked that much fuss so its novel to me for a cat to demand attention, it makes me happy.

I read The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern which is really good if you like realistic magical books which involves pov's from multiple characters and a Romeo and Juliet style romance. I half wish I was still reading it, as I didn't really want it to end. However I also need to finish A Clash of Kings which is the second in the Game of Thrones series by Geroge R. R. Martin. These books are taking me forever! The Night Circus I finished in less than 24 hours, I read it late at night over two nights. This is usually typical for me to read a book in one or two goes, but these books? Take forever. I think its because the pov changes every chapter and it takes awhile to get into it. I also put it down a lot since the end of each chapter is always an easy place to stop reading compared to other books as that section is done for the time being. I decided to stop reading it to finish watching the TV series as some things were out of order and I was getting confused. So I waited until I caught up on the TV show and started reading again. I will eventually finish these books, and hopefully if I read them before the next series start that'll be better. I only had this problem with Lotr when I was 11! I read the first book after watching the first film and that took awhile, but the second and third books I read before the films and they flew by so I'll have to do that now. Sorry for the little book essay, I like reading books!

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend, I'll be wokring later but had this day and tomorrow off so that makes me happy. Did anyone watch the Olympics Ceremony last night? How weird was that? It was like Loft at the start with the shire and then the fires haha, I saw so many comments on fb, twitter and instagram about how weird it was. It was good, but it took awhile didn't it? I really liked the Queen/James Bond bit, Mr Bean, the NHS moon bed bit, the flying bird cyclists and that guy from Two Door Cinema club singing as they lighted the 'Cauldron'. I thought it was really awesome how they did it and liked the fact that they let teenagers light it instead of themselves. So overall it was weird, with some good bits inbetween!

Mumbles Adventure

I really love where I live when its sunny, who doesn't? It just makes everything so much nicer. When we had Summer like weather last week me and the boy went off for a trip to Mumbles in Swansea. We got some Joe's Ice cream (it is so delicious!) I always get a chocolate sunday :), went to the arcade, traded in our tickets for sherbert, collected rocks (well I did) and climbed hills taking in the view. It was a really nice way to spend the day.

We went to Braclet Bay in Mumbles which is more of a rocky beach, which suited me just fine. It was windy so I didn't want sand everywhere and I'd walked along the main sandy beach with my friend a few days before. I really like collecting rocks, and most of the ones above are now in a glass bowl in my living room. I also like stacking shells but I didn't bring them home with me. My boyfriend thought I was a bit weird taking so many photographs and collecting rocks, but I always have done. We climbed up that giant hill, which was a bit difficult for me since I wasn't wearing proper shoes and it hurt, ooops. The views were amazing though as you can see and now I'm sad the weather sucks and is Wintery again, bah humbug. Next time its sunny I'll try going to different parts of Swansea, or rather Gower, there are so many different beaches and I need to take advantage of them all!

A little bit of my week, a very interesting title yes

So I haven't been on much since I posted a lot over a short time, I should really space those posts out rather than post two on one day. This week I've been up to Summer stuff but not really taking pictures, and I didn't really want to post anything unless I had my own pictures, since I don't want to use other peoples pictures, and I don't really like posting just text posts. I'm thinking too much about this aren't I?

Oh well I've had my first BBQ of the year, as most of Britain probably has. Here in Swansea, I am still in shock that it's been sunny for days! Like, more than one day! Shocking! So of course everyone's going down to the beach, I haven't gone in the day yet but did wander down there for a night time stroll with my friend who's back from Uni (In Aberdeen!!) for Easter, and there were loads of bonfires. We also saw This Means War, mainly since I wanted to see Tom Hardy, yum! But yeah I had a BBQ with work friends the other night, and pub quizzes like usual and I LOVE driving in this weather. It is so nice to have the windows down and my summer playlists playing. Aaaah tis the life, but I do need to clean my very dusty car now lol, but I can't wait for road trips! 

In other news I am super ill, well I can't stop coughing and I sound like I smoke 40 a day when I've never smoked, so I haven't done as much fun things as I'd like and now my shifts are picking up in work. This is both yay and nay, as I need the money but also want to enjoy this weather with friends who are back for a short time. I've also been addicted to 'Draw Something' which is sooooo good! I jumped on the bandwagon and suggest you do the same.

Anyway! Hope everyone's enjoying this lovely weather while it lasts!

How I spent the Chinese New Year

Happy year of the Dragon! I like celebrating Chinese New Years even if its just small things like giving my friends fortune cookies. I wanted to light paper lanterns and make rice balls (onigiri) this year and its also part of my day zero list.

I've made onigiri once before so this was only my second attempt, they were a bit too salty for me so next time I'll use less. I made the onigiri in the first picture and my boyfriend made the all sesame seed ones, I'll try to experiment more with animals next time, I think they're cute. We of course had fortunes cookies, and there's a picture fortune cookie on my dress to see the pattern of my dress, it has cats on it. My fortune for the year "Your big opportunity may be right where you are now" makes me feel better about where I am in life as its been something I've been worrying about it for awhile.

Originally I wanted to wear a red outfit, but I don't have that many red clothes, so I wore a black cat dress from New Look and a red belt, I also had a red tassel bag and wore my flowery brogues which I realise now didn't really go. I didn't get a full outfit shot as we were in a bit of a rush to see a film afterwards and set off chinese paper lanterns before we watched it. We had one each and did them together but his burnt and we had to chuck it away. We got it right by the time it was my lantern and I didn't manage to get a photo of it closer as it went up since I was afraid of it accidentally burning while I got my camera ready lol, you had to hold onto the lantern for ages till it was hot enough to float into the air. We went down to the beach to set them off. It was freezing! But also fun as we were doing it, and we made a wish as it went up. A random guy was watching us which was weird, but it was very pretty seeing the lantern floating into the air so I don't blame him. I wish I could see hundreds of lanterns in the sky, like in the film Tangled! I know there are festivals like that so maybe one day.

I think the beach is so pretty at night, we weren't on the sand as it was wet and dark, but you could see all the lights reflected in the water, which I couldn't capture on my camera. We also went by the marina which is also very pretty and relaxing at night and an evil looking swan was swimming around, he even swum up to me to have his picture taken! After that we went to watch a preview of The Descendants which is a really good film, so all together it a very fun night! :D