Rachel Ellen: university

Showing posts with label university. Show all posts

Tuesday, 1 August 2017

Placement Haul

As you'll see in my last post (here if you missed it) I was at the Good Housekeeping Institute last week for a placement, and what an exciting week it was.

I helped to prep samples that were being sent out to testers, I helped to find future products to test, I helped to taste food ( i know, what a hard week), I attended three PR events and spent my lunch times hanging around Soho.

I just wanted to put together a list of all the freebies I got through the week, can I use the hashtag #blessed yet? (the answer is no)

On the first day we were preparing brow products, and the ladies I was working with let me take home a few of the spares they had, that B. brow cream is absolutely life changing in the brow department, I am in love with it. On the second day, the lady in charge of me had a few spare Palmer's products (as you do) and let me have them, they are such nice products and feel lovely on my skin!

At the end of the third day I was asked if I wanted to accompany one of the girls to a press event for Mary Kay, which of course I did! I've never been to a press event before and it was really exciting. They had rose wine slushies, somebody doing nails, somebody else creating ombre lips, and the most gorgeous set up!

They were very kindly giving out goody bags on the way out, which contained two of their new gel semi-shine lipsticks, a felt tip eyeliner, a body lotion, fragrance mist and shower gel.

On day four I went to two press events, the first had a range of independent companies. One of which was Chocolate and Love who gave us a few bars of chocolate to try (which obviously I ate and forgot to take a picture first). Another was The Handmade Soap Company, they gave us two hand creams each to try out, and they smell incredible!

After that we headed over to the Primark Home press event ( I know, I was SO excited). I got to see all their Christmas stuff, a massive Harry Potter selection and a few beauty bits.

I really can't wait for their Christmas clothes, there are these woolly dresses which I cannot wait to arrive in stores. They didn't have a good bag to give us, but gave us both a little envelope. When we opened it we found it had a £50 Primark gift card!!! I can't even tell you the excited noise I made, I was SO excited! Can I just be a professional PR event attender please?

On the final day, I had no press events to attend, and no spare products, but at the end of the day they gave me a goody bag of products to say thank you for the week.

This has ended up being a long post of bragging about all the things I got, but honestly I had such a great week, I met up with a few friends through the week, I ate amazing food and had this great experience.

Thanks for reading,

Rachel xx

Monday, 12 June 2017

university 16:19

Who would think a Masters is stressful?

by Rachel

Ok, so I knew I hadn't blogged in a while but I hadn't realised my last one was the 27th of April, oops.

But, I'm still here, hanging around and hasn't a lot happened.

In my own life, I've made it through the May from hell. I somehow survived through my deadlines. My last one was the 30th May and I'm still not fully recovered from the lack of sleep and lack of decent food. In a four day period I spent 43 hours at uni including an 18 hour day. But, this term I mocked up a whole idea for a brand new magazine and created the website for it, I was tired, delusional but actually so proud of myself.

In the last couple of months I have nearly made it through all 9 seasons of How I Met Your Mother, feelings of achievement and embarrassment.

My friend and I have an 88 day snap streak on Snapchat (Tasha I hope we make 100). Potentially my biggest achievement this year, it shows real commitment and I might put it on my CV.

I co-edited in our uni production week, and as a class we created this beauty

Had my end of year party (even though we have another terms worth of work) and felt pretty sad that I won't be spending everyday with these three and everyone else.

Me and my boyfriend celebrated 4 years of being together by going to Liverpool. In all my life of living 45 minutes drive away from Liverpool I had never actually been. But I went, bought a mini Superlambanana, and then went to see the real one. I was super excited, as you can tell.

This weekend, I went to Peace in the Park in Sheffield, ignoring a brief spell of rain it was a really fun day!

Somehow, through all the stress and lack of sleep I really enjoyed the last couple of months and everything I've achieved. I really can't wait to start working in the magazine world, but please can we avoid anymore time in the library?

Thanks for reading, I'll try to blog again soon and not leave it a month and a half

Rachel xx

Monday, 10 April 2017

university 14:53

Storing Make Up

by Rachel

Today I wanted to talk a little bit about how I store my make up. Most people on the internet seem to use those plastic transparent drawers, I have to say I'm not a fan (this post explains why).

At home, I have the MALM white dressing table from IKEA, yeah that one that everyone has. It's so great for make up as the drawer is so wide so you can fit all you need in there!

But at uni, I'm not so lucky with furniture, I have to work with a dark brown TV table that has one drawer. I made do for a while but it just wasn't what I wanted.

Then I remembered I had these drawers (which were bought to store uni work... oops)

I thought they'd be the perfect place to keep my make up organised and safe from damage.

In the top I store any face related products, foundation, concealer, highlighters, contours that sort of thing. Don't judge the number of Revlon foundations, in BnM they were selling them for £5, when they're normally £12.99, the shades and types are a little limited, but absolutely worth the buy. (UK people check BnM out to see if they still have this deal!) But also, don't buy that bronzer, orange 'r' us.

The next drawer is dedicated to eye and eyebrow products, shadows, liners, primer and mascara

And lastly, which is looking a little bare, is the drawer for lip products. This isn't even half of my lip products, most are sitting at home.

I get that this way of storing make up may be less organised than the plastic drawers and containers but I like that I can hide everything away and make it look really tidy. It stays out of sunlight and stays away from dust. And I can actually see the colour rather than just a range of black lids.

How do you store your make up?

Thanks for reading,

Rachel xx

Sunday, 2 April 2017

university 16:00

I Went to London!

by Rachel

On the 21st March I had a very exciting uni trip to London. Although we stayed in very close quarters in a hostel it was such an exciting few days.

On the first day, Tuesday, we went to visit John Brown Media, who own magazines such as Waitrose Food magazine and John Lewis magazine, Edition. We had some really valuable talks about the magazine industry and this was my first time ever experiencing a magazine room in action. Unbelievably exciting.

On Wednesday morning, we had the absolute pleasure of visiting Immediate Media, we were spoken to by various people who work for Radio Times (including Ben Preston, oooh), some of the people that work on loads of children's titles, such as Lego titles, Cbeebies ones, Octonauts and so many others.

In the afternoon we headed over to Hearst to speak to the Good Housekeeping team, Hearst also own other titles such as Prima and Cosmopolitan (honestly not a big deal at all....)

Now unfortunately, it has to be mentioned, when we were in this meeting we found out about the terrorist attack outside parliament, where a lot of our course were trapped inside. All were safe so this isn't any detailed post, you can find so much information across the internet about that.

My input is, that no matter what the media says, London didn't stop, Soho was buzzing as you'd expect on any other Wednesday afternoon, people had pints in hands, absolutely no strangers spoke to me, our meeting went on as planned and it was as informative as you'd expect. We kept in contact with the others, knowing they were safe. Just don't be fooled into thinking that London came to a halt, that's just not the capitals way.

In true London fashion, we treated the next morning as a brand new day, we headed over to Dennis Publishing, Publishers of The Week magazine among others.

Not one of these experiences wasn't valuable, and as intimidating as the whole thing was I am absolutely spurred on to complete my Masters degree and get into one of those newsrooms as soon as I can (if any important people read this, please can I have a job?)

In a last minute dash, we went into Kings Cross Station to visit the good old platform 9 3/4 (which is neither on platforms 9 or 10, but just against a wall, my upset is now your upset too), super cool to actually see it!

If you ever get the chance, make sure you experience a magazine room in action, it's not crazy and shouty but a creative, hardworking atmosphere and I'm so excited to one day call one my place of work.

Thanks for reading,

Rachel xx

Thursday, 1 December 2016

university 16:47

Snapchat Challenge!

by Rachel

Tomorrow I will be doing a Snapchat challenge for an article in my uni portfolio.

For that challenge I will be getting as many Snapchat trophies as possible in that day. I have created a new Snapchat account: RachelScape

So, anyone that would like to follow my snapchat journey, or would like to send some pictures to me, or even receive some from me, add the account!

I will update you all on how it goes in a few days!

Thanks for reading,

Rachel xx

Wednesday, 23 November 2016

university 10:36

Stressed, But Happy

by Rachel

I started my Masters degree nearly 2 months ago (I actually can't believe it has been that long) and I have been through so many emotions over it that I can't even express them all.

Everyone knows that a masters degree is going to be harder and more work than an undergraduate degree, and yet my little brain still wasn't quite prepared.

In about 3 weeks time, I have 8 articles due in, an essay, and in January I have an exam. I think the most I had at one time in my last degree was five essays, and that was hell.

I realise articles don't seem nearly as bad as essays, and that's true in some respects, they're much more fun and your topic is much more free. But you also have to do so much for it. You need your initial idea, you need to develop it, choose an audience, choose a platform, find the information (which a lot of the time can mean interviewing someone), write it, re-write it, get feedback, basically start it again, take pictures/videos/sound, edit, hit word counts (and you have to be very close to your word count.)

I know I sound like I'm complaining, but I'm not. This is all the most exciting, exhausting, draining, fulfilling thing I have done. I spend each day going through such a wide range of emotions

I have never done a "creative" course before. Since school, everything could be done from the comfort of my own laptop. It's so exciting now that I get to have so much hands on experience.

I can't wait until all of my efforts start coming together, some of them are really exciting and I can't wait to share them with you all

Thanks for reading,

Rachel xx

Sunday, 23 October 2016

university 21:51

Autumn updates

by Rachel

The blogging community's collective favourite time of the year has come around again, Autumn! The weather is dipping meaning more chunky jumpers, scarves, hats and gloves. The trees are vibrant shades of reds and oranges and Halloween is just around the corner.

In the educational world, this means things are getting serious, we're not a newbie anymore, we have so much more knowledge already and we're so tired.

So far on my course (if anyone is interested) I have about 3 trees worth of notes for Media Law, I have done hours and hours of Shorthand, I've been in discussions about the ethics of journalism, learnt a lot about news writing and even more about multi-media.

We have been taught about filming, photography, voice recordings, both on mobile and the specialist equipment. I think I've learnt more in my four weeks of this course than I did in three years of my undergraduate degree.

A picture I took in one of my multi-media sessions

I think, unfortunately the fun stuff is out the way, and now I'm moving on to the serious work, we're thinking about assessments more and more, which is terrifying, I feel like I've only just started.

How's everyone's educational year going so far?
Or are you missing/not missing education?

Thanks for reading,

Rachel xx

Ps. Here's another picture from a multi media session, I haven't found any appropriate context to share this so here it is!

It feels like modern art

Sunday, 9 October 2016

university 19:41

Learning Shorthand

by Rachel

Two weeks ago, I started my Masters degree in Magazine Journalism and I think I've been tired for those whole two weeks. I have had so many contact hours in uni, in fact I did more in my first day than I would have done in 2 weeks in the final year of my undergraduate degree! The whole thing is so fun and so crazy and scary. I'm meeting a whole new set of people, learning a new set of skills, and so much knowledge.

But for today I am just going to talk about shorthand. I am in uni Monday - Friday at 8am for shorthand for 2 hours. 8AM! I haven't missed a single one so far which is a lot better than most people!

Shorthand is a skill that many journalists have, although it is becoming less used. Shorthand is defined on Google as "a method of rapid writing by means of abbreviations and symbols, used especially for taking dictation." But basically is like learning a whole new language.

It really does take time and patience to learn and I am finding it so difficult, but I have to keep reminding myself I am only two weeks into the course.

To leave this degree with the ability to write in shorthand will be so special though, especially in the world of magazine journalism where it is much less common to have it. However, with the amount I am working on it and thinking about it, it is starting to drive me a little crazy, as my Tweet shows:

Seriously though, I think I need to get out more! However, me and my boyfriend have just started watching Orange is the New Black and we're really enjoying it, now I need to wait two weeks until he visits again so we can carry on watching it!

Let me know if you have learned short hand, or if it's something you want to do!

Thanks for reading,

Rachel xx

Sunday, 25 September 2016

university 21:58

I Have Arrived in Sheffield

by Rachel

So after many months of preparation I have finally moved to Sheffield for my Masters degree. After a long day yesterday of first packing, then moving and again unpacking 2 hours later I'm almost settled.

I will get some pictures of my room soon enough, but it needs a little bit more organisation and cleaning before I can make it public!

Over the next year I am going to be super crazy busy as far as I can tell. For at least the next 6 weeks, I will be starting at 8am Monday to Friday ( I can't even begin to tell you how mortified I am about that)

I am both so excited and absolutely terrified about this whole thing, but at least the move to Sheffield has gone smoothly. On Tuesday I will be in the building pictured above, so pretty!

My blog has taken a back seat these past few weeks as I have been so so busy, but I've been doing really boring things that aren't worth blogging about.

Has anybody else started uni this September, or returned? How are you finding it?

Thanks for reading,

Rachel xx

Image not mine, from Google Images.

Thursday, 28 July 2016

university 17:00

Uni Preparation

by Rachel

My uni course starts in less than 9 weeks which is absolutely terrifying. As I've been to uni before I kind of have any idea of what I need and already have some things from last time (check out my full "What Do I Need to Take to Univeristy?" here). This post consist of a few things I've collected especially for university, that I won't use at home first.

Stationary

I do have some bits and bobs left over from uni last time, but most note books are half used, folders still have my work in because you never know! So I've got myself a little collection of things, I'm sure I'll need more but I'll wait until I've started, I know a nice little shop in Sheffield that sell folders quite cheap! I also need some pretty pens as well as the standard bic black

Ipod dock

This Ipod dock is what I had at uni last time, although I no longer have a phone or iPod that fits this I have a little adapter and audio jack wire which means I can still use it! I do have a full stereo system at home but I was always worried it'd be too loud to have at uni. Having music on is really important to me, especially when doing work so it's hard for me to cope without it!

Kitchen essentials

The spice rack on the left is something I had all through my undergraduate degree (meaning I do need to replace the spices) It's really useful to have different herbs and spices when you're eating on a budget, it helps make even the cheapest of foods a little more tasty! I would fully advise one of these for everyone.

A good frying pan is everyone's best friend, I used mine for so much at uni last time so I decided to get a bit of a posh non stick one this time, is it sad that I'm excited to use it and see how nicely it cleans afterwards? Yes Rachel it is very sad.

Generous gifts

I told a lady at work how much money I had to save for this degree and how I would have to take bits from home rather than buying much, she very generously brought me a few bits and bobs she doesn't use at home that she would have ended up throwing away, I'm so pleased with all of these!

Others

Another gift was the mattress protector from my boyfriends Gran, I was a little concerned what she thought of me and why she thought I needed one, but turns out it doesn't fit her new bed.

A very nearly new baking tray, me and my boyfriend made ourselves cookies a couple of weeks ago and wanted a nice non stick tray to put them on so I bought this one and said I would take it to uni with me. I was always surprised how much I actually needed a baking tray when at uni the first time.

These are just a few bits and bobs I've got stored ready to go with me, I'm getting more nervous and more excited to go by the day!

I've also received an email from uni telling me about the first book I should buy to learn short hand over summer, how exciting!

Are you going to uni in September?

Thanks for reading,

Rachel xx

Monday, 11 July 2016

university 12:12

What Diary Should I Buy?

by Rachel

As mentioned in my last post (here) I will need an academic diary for starting my masters course in September. I want one that's quite nice to look at as the more I like it, the more likely I am to use it!

So after scouring a few websites I thought I'd share my favourite diaries I have found.

Paperchase

Where else would you go first for stationary other than paperchase!

Brushed floral casebound A5 mid year 2016/17 diary £8 - here

I think this one is so pretty on the outside, it has week to view pages on the inside which are really useful! Not loads of space but enough to note down assignments and reading! It's A5 size which is quite nice, although I haven't decided if I want that size or smaller yet. There's also an A6 sized one with this design.

Geo floral magnetic A5 mid year 2016/17 diary £12 - here

I think this one is so pretty, and has an unusal way of opening. However, this might get annoying if you're in a rush. Again it is A5, but this time has two days per page, it gives a little more writing space and I think the pages look so pretty and neat and tidy. It also has a flap in to put any spare papers you need to put somewhere safe which is so helpful!

Kraft maps A6 mid year 2016/17 diary £6 - here

This one is a bit smaller at A6, I think the cover is so cool and the gold detailing just makes it look so nice! This one is week to view but has much smaller writing spaces. I'm not sure how much space I'm going to need so it could be a risk!

The Works

A5 Academic Diary £3 - here

This one is from the works webise, at only £3 it is so cheap, but admittedly is much less pretty than the others on this list! It has a day per page, which would probably mean the diary is very thick, maybe not easy to transport.

The Happiness Planner

The Happiness Planner $55 - here

Now this one is much more expensive than the others! Check out the website to see why. I'm not willing to spend so much but I can see why people do! I think this is much more suited to people who treat their diary as a journal rather than just putting important things in.

Wh Smith

Now we know WH Smiths have loads of choice, if anything to much choice to get my head around! The filters help you find exactly the type of diary you want

Bizzy Lizzy 2016-17 A5 Floral Stripe Mid Year Diary Day to Page £10.99 - here

This one is really cute and so colourful, if you can't decide on oner print this is a good one! A little pricey compared to the paperchase ones though as most of the WH Smith diaries have very plain looking pages.

2016 - 17 A5 Floral Lace Design Mid Year Diary Week to View £8.99 - here

I love the colours of this one (surprisingly like my blog) I think it's quite a simple design but so pretty. I really like that it has a wire side, makes it much easier to open and write in.

2016 - 17 Slim Retro Butterfly Diary Week to View £6.99 - here

A slimline diary like this one is actually what I normally aim for. Small and light that can easily be carried around as I only put important dates in and my work shifts. I'm still tempted with the small size for my masters but I'm worried about running out of space or wanting to put bits of paper in.

I hope you 've enjoyed my list of diaries, let me know if there's anywhere else I should look to find good ones.What do you normally look for in a diary?

Thanks for reading,

Rachel xx

Thursday, 7 July 2016

university 19:19

What Do I Need to Take to University?

by Rachel

So, September is coming around fast, as everything has this year. September brings the start of my Masters degree(yes I know I mention it in every post, but somebody out there might not know!). As absolutely terrifying as it is, actually living away from home is the first thing I need to sort out. I have my place sorted (living with some people I know, super exciting) Now I just need to know what to take.

As I have done university before, this hopefully means I won't take as many unnecessary things, but knowing me I'll take even more. Last year I made a post about Unusual University Essentials ( go check that out if you haven't seen it already!) But today I thought I'd create a list of the more common things I will need. Get ready for a long list.

This is what moving out of my first year flat looked like... messy!

Kitchen

Ok, easy things first, although I do need to speak to my new housemates about what is already in the house, the kitchen isn't massive so I won't be able to take everything! Also I have found, the more kitchen things you have, the more the washing builds up, I like to keep it to a minimum.
- Pans - two normal pans and a frying pan should do it
- Baking trays ( I just don't think you can ever have enough)
- a couple of big plates, a couple of small plates, and a couple of bowls ( I had two different kinds of bowls, plastic for cereal and pot for hot meals)
- Basic cutlery (knives, forks, big spoons, little spoons)
- cooking cutlery - spatula, wooden spoons, tongs, serving spoons. (a ladle was surprisingly handy as well)
- scissors
- a sharp knife or two (trust me, buying a melon and then realising I had no sharp knives was not a good idea
- A couple of mugs and a couple of glasses, they are both so easy to drop and smash so don't spend a lot on!
- a bottle opener
- Maybe tupperware unless you're likely to buy chinese, just use theirs! Also a lunch box if you will be in uni all day, you don't want to be buying your dinner everyday
- Colander or sieve, especially if you like pasta.

Bathroom

With the bathroom you shouldn't need too many things! I won't go through the actual toiletries like shampoo etc.
- a toothbrush, it's best to have one at home and one at uni to avoid forgetting them when you travel between
- A basket or something similar to put your toiletries in when you don't want to use them or don't want them in the shower.
- Toilet Rolls - uni means you will suddenly be angry about the useage of toilet rolls, it's normal! I plan to go to Costco and get a big pack to take with me initially!
- Towels - at least two big bath towels and one small hand towel, it's no fun having no hand towel in the bathroom

Bedroom

Bedroom is the more fun part, less about utensils and boring stuff! Like the bathroom I won't include the things like make up and hair brushes that are more personal.
- At least 2 sets of bedding
- Pillows and Duvet, most places do not supply you with them
- a blanket - you spend most of your university time in winter so it's a good idea to prepare for cold weather!
- Laptop, it would be difficult to complete a degree without one but the uni will have lots of computers to use
- a TV - admittedly I have been through a whole degree without one in my bedroom as I just don't watch TV that much, the laptop does everything I need it to do.
- Something that plays music - along with my laptop I had an iPod dock so I could play music whenever I wanted!
- A wash basket
- Photos, Every list like this mentions photos but don't underestimate how important they are to make your room feel homely

- Decoration - like soft furnishings, ornaments, plants, just things to make you feel at home!
- A mirror, usually you'll have a small one in your room, stuck somewhere that is completely useless! It's nice to have a full length one but I would advise buying this when you get there rather than trying to transport it.
- A bin, these aren't always supplied.
- A lamp - again, not always supplied.
- A money box - you need to put the pennies somewhere and you'll appreciate them when you need it!
- A door stop, most uni doors shut themselves, it makes everything much more sociable to have the doors open!

we made paper chains to make our flat more homely!

University things

The things you actually need for being at university
- Laptop as stated above
- Pens, pencils, highlighters etc. I advise taking coloured pens and pencils, it helps make your work more pretty and therefore more interesting and memorable.
- Folders, I won't be buying these until after I start and find out how many modules I will be doing, I like to have a folder per module.
- Paper - lined mostly, you never know when you might want some plain though! Whether you choose pretty notebooks or like me you choose simple ones that you can pull out and put in your folders
- A diary, I plan on buying a diary starting in September, if anybody can advise me on where to get a good one, let me know! (I will also use the planner that I wrote about here)
- A good sized bag, you will need to take things to uni with you, some days more than others. Something big enough but not too big that you look as though you are moving house!
- any relevant past work or books that you have from college or your undergraduate degree, I did use my college stuff in my degree!

Etc.

- Medications
- plasters, you always need plasters
- Iron and ironing board
- Clothes maiden
- washing powder
- Cushions for the living room, chances are they won't be supplied
- A small suitcase or weekend bag - for when you want to go home for the weekend.
- A laptop bag, sometimes you need to take your laptop to uni, or home with you, you need something that will protect your laptop!
- any important documents - ID, national insurance number, a wage slip, certificates. The sort of things you'd need if you applied for a job.

And don't forget a good sense of humour, pranks are fun!

If there's anything you think I've forgotten please comment below! Let me know if this list helped at all!

Thanks for reading

Rachel xx

Tuesday, 1 August 2017

Placement Haul

Monday, 12 June 2017

Who would think a Masters is stressful?

Monday, 10 April 2017

Storing Make Up

Sunday, 2 April 2017

I Went to London!

Thursday, 1 December 2016

Snapchat Challenge!

Wednesday, 23 November 2016

Stressed, But Happy

Sunday, 23 October 2016

Autumn updates

Sunday, 9 October 2016

Learning Shorthand

Sunday, 25 September 2016

I Have Arrived in Sheffield

Thursday, 28 July 2016

Uni Preparation

Monday, 11 July 2016

What Diary Should I Buy?

Thursday, 7 July 2016

What Do I Need to Take to University?

Rachel

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