Spring Semester Essentials

Unfortunately, we can't lounge around in our pj's, watch movies all day, take exciting mini-vacations, go shopping at all hours that our favorite stores are open, and hang out with our friends 24/7 all year. Spring semester is approaching, and we should prepare ourselves so when we set our alarms for way-to-early a.m. again, we won't go right back to hitting snooze and hiding under our covers.  On the bright side, at least spring semester is followed by summer break and the end of the school year.

Half the school year is over, so you are most likely in the swing of things at least a little bit, and have figured out where all your classes are.  That means most of the stress is gone, so you can focus on making it more exciting to walk to and sit in class.  How, you may ask?  With just a few essentials that help make school fairly more enjoyable.

Stationary
Believe it or not, having cute notebooks, pencils, and anything else you would find in your bag makes a huge difference.  They're adorable (and probably better than everyone else's), so you will want the chance to show them off.  Pick a color scheme that you love, and pick stationary that works well with your personality.  For example, mine consists of baby pinks, Tiffany blues, rose golds, silvers, and whites (very similar to the colors on my blog).

No matter what you drink in the morning, whether that be coffee or tea, you without a doubt should at least be drinking water.  It will help you look and feel more awake and, as I seem to keep repeating on this blog, it's amazing for you.  The fun part is getting a mug or cup that matches your stationary and that you love.  I have a few different ones that all match and reflect my style.

The Bag
You may already have one from the first half of the school year, but in case you don't or you just really want a new one, the bag you choose helps add to having a good school experience.  Depending on your circumstances, different bags could be of more or less use.

If you are in college walking around campus all day or just have a far way to walk, an actual book bag or messenger bag would probably be the best for you.  JanSport carries a wide range of bags like those that are both cute and comfortable to carry around.

Maybe you aren't traveling very far during the day.  Well, lucky for you, you can choose a larger handbag.  These match cute outfits much better and can help add to them.  You can choose from a wide range of textures, sizes, shapes, colors, and accents.  Some of the my favorites of this style are at H&M.  The bags are big enough to fit all your school essentials and give you a classic, sophisticated look.  Target also has an amazing range especially if you are looking for a bag a bit smaller just like mine which is shown below.

Things You Should Always Carry With You
Besides the basic things you need for class, bringing a few extra things with you can help keep you feeling your best.  Here is a list of things I always bring with me and what I recommend you do too:

• tissues
• hand sanitizer
• lotion
• chapstick
• headphones
• phone charger
• tinted lip gloss
• mascara
• concealer
• roll on perfume

With all this in mind, maybe you don't enjoy early mornings followed by long days of classes, but hopefully all these tips can help get you through the day with a little more spring (semester) in your step.  Feel free to leave a comment below and share this post as it helps me know you liked it! Thank you for reading!

Love Always,

Bree x

Back to Blogging

Oh, hi there! Somehow you ended up on my blog, which, may I add, has not been written on in quite a bit. But whether you are new around here or you have checked back to see if I am ever going to write another post, welcome to the new, and hopefully improved, Beauty with Bree blog. I plan on making this a little more picture friendly, include more how-to's when it comes to beauty, and all-around be a much more fun place to come and read.

So why was I gone so long? 

Well, there's a whole lot of reasons, most of it having to do with my constant business lately.  Senior year is a lot to juggle with senior class officers, student council, NHS, cheer captain, college applications... Which, come to think of it, you probably don't want to hear about all that much.  I apologize. Basically, I have been living at school when I'm not at work or home, and I can't do it all. So since most of those things had to be done in order for my world to keep revolving, I had to take a a break on here, which was upsetting for me since I love my blog and readers very much. 

Nevertheless, I'm back!

You may have noticed the new picture at the top of my blog which is one of my senior pictures and was taken by the lovely Cocolaine Photography. (If you don't have your senior picture photographer planned out, I really recommend her!!). I also added a new backdrop which is so much better than those weird birds, right?  I would've gotten rid of them sooner but as a new-bee, I wasn't all that sure what I was doing.  This fits much, much better.

Hopefully you're just as excited as I am about everything coming soon to my blog. Check back! Thank you for reading and happy holidays!

Love Always, 

Bree x

Bree's Wanderlust: Belfast, Derry/Londonderry, & Dublin

Last week I posted my first travel blog from my trip to Northern Ireland. It had a lot to do with the scenery and nature that is there. But this week, I knew I needed to explain my pictures a lot more than before due to the time I was there and the situations that happened over the course of history. So in an attempt to play historian, I tried to show you what has been and is going in this country (as well as a bit of Dublin, Ireland at the end). Enjoy!

Belfast

If you didn't know, Belfast is the capital of Northern Ireland. It's full of diversity, history, and unfortunately, sometimes conflict. Nevertheless, Belfast is an absolutely amazing city, and I was lucky enough to get to spend a large amount of my time there! 

If you read up on some history about this place, you may know that there has been religious conflict here for centuries. The Protestants and Catholics have deep rooted problems which is getting better, but still exists between some people in the two religious groups. July 12th is a Protestant holiday that celebrates the Glorious Revolution in 1688 and the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 where Protestant King William of the Orange Order won over Catholic King James II. Today, people celebrate with parades and bonfires, but a big problem with the bonfires is that they truly aren't very peaceful. These bonfires are massive and burn all night into the next morning, and many burn the Irish tricolor flag on top as a sign of dominance. Neither Catholics or Protestants try to keep the peace more than the other and many are still bitter over something that happened way before their time. So when you look through these photos, there are a lot of Union Jack flags and huge bonfires simply because of the time I was there. Murals also cover walls and buildings everywhere in the cities which I also tried to take pictures of.

These are just some of the bonfires in Belfast during July 12th.

Mural of King William of Orange

This clock is actually not standing straight up, but is slanted to one side, so it's like Belfast's own Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Kissing the fish is supposed to bring good luck!

Belfast City Hall

Victoria Square Shopping Centre

Queen's University

The Belfast Castle

If you didn't know, Belfast has its very own castle with a lovely garden and view of the city. We were lucky enough that the guard let us in to see it all because there was a wedding taking place a little after we arrived. People are allowed in the castle unless there is an event, and they have their own shop inside. You can also take a hike up the mountain next to the castle which is supposed to have a crazy beautiful view. 

Derry/ Londonderry

This lovely city is important for many reasons, but mainly because of two. The first being that, as you may have noticed, it has two names. And yes, it really is both of those names. This is because of territory being owned by both Protestants and Catholics over the years and it's name changing from Derry by the Catholics to Londonderry by the Protestants. In an attempt to keep the peace, it's officially now both names together, but a decent way to tell what religion the person you're talking to is, is by which name they call it (unless you're my friend Megan who calls it Derry because it's shorter and less of a mouthful to say). The second reason it's important is because of the wall that surrounds it. It's the last walled city in all of Europe which is pretty cool of you ask me. Of course, the city has expanded and has more people living outside the wall now a days too, but all the walls are still up around the original outline of the city. 

Dublin

Now the last place I'm going to talk about is in a whole different country (but it's only 3 hours away from Belfast), Ireland! I didn't take a lot of pictures here around town because it's a lot of shops and street performers which makes it hard to snap many pictures. But I did, however, take pictures at the famous mall in Dublin and my favorite place on earth, St. Stephen's Green.

Yes, this is their mall. I know, it's amazing.

The map of St. Stephen's Green featuring my lovely friend, Megan.

As you can see, it's absolutely stunning. Families have picnics, couples take romantic strolls, people sing and play their guitars, and you can watch white swans swim all through the little ponds. So if you're ever in Dublin, I suggest you take a trip down here.

I hope you all enjoyed my second travel blog on Northern Ireland and a little bit of the Republic. And I'll talk to you in my next blog! Have a great week!

Love Always, 

Bree x