Rachel Ellen

Sunday, 23 October 2016

Autumn updates

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

Wednesday, 12 October 2016

beauty 17:11

Goodies From The Body Shop

by Rachel

Last Friday I visited Meadowhall in Sheffield with my boyfriend for him to look for a birthday present for his Gran. On our journey we ended up in The Body Shop (no surprises, it's the title of the post) and when I was in there I was told about a little deal they had on.

You could get any three single items for £20, and that includes the big pots worth £28, so really, how can you say no? My favourite smell from The Body Shop is the British Rose, it's just so gentle, but unfortunately, they didn't make that in the big pot, so instead I picked up two big pots of the Moringa body butter, quite a flowery smell, nothing overpowering, and a smaller pot of the British Rose body butter.

So, £28+£28+£14= £70 worth of stuff for only £20!!

But that's not all...

They had another deal (another! I hear you say) that if you spent over £25 you got a free tea tree set. As my boyfriend had chosen something for his gran, we had spent the more than enough.

Within this set I got:

Skin Clearing Mattifying Toner
Skin Clearing Foaming Cleanser
Mattifying Lotion

Which in total should be £20, totally for free. So I spent £20 and got a heavy bag full of stuff! So pleased.

Unfortunately the deal isn't still on, but they have just put a sale on (I only know cos we went back for more, gotta think of Christmas!)

This post does sound like it's in line with The Body Shop, but it really isn't, I was just so excited!

Thanks for reading,

Rachel xx

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.

Monday, 8 August 2016

list 17:00

What Makes You an Adult?

by Rachel

As I am 22 years old, I'm well on the way to adulthood, I mean I don't feel or look like an adult but my age tells me I am. There's some things that remind you that you're not a teenager/child anymore some good and some bad. I just wanted to make a list of the things that really stand out to me at the moment!

1. Being left responsible for things/people. When something, or a child needs "keeping an eye on" and you start looking around for that responsible person, and you realise it's you. All trust is on you, anything that goes wrong is down to you, but it shouldn't go wrong because you're an adult. No pressure

2. Talking about houses, cars, marriage, children etc and realising that you could have all of those things if you wanted to and nobody is going to say no to you (if you have the money). That's terrifying, but definitely one of the plus points of being an adult!

3. A silly little thing which has happened to me a lot in the last year, pens running out! I have never had a pen run out on me before in my life, I used to lose them before I even came close to them running out. In this last year I couldn't even count how many pens I've thrown away because they are empty!

(look at these images, I may as well join the minion memes like middle aged people on Facebook)

4. Making your own decisions is a really big deal. Whether this is a good thing or bad thing is questionable. I could quit my job tomorrow and nobody could stop me, I could book a plane ticket to America and never return and nobody could stop me doing it, how exciting and scary!

This is hilarious

5. A bit of a serious one, but finding out about how many people take drugs recreationally, it's something that really doesn't interest me. I thought people didn't do them after the talks we had in school but apparently I was very naive in that aspect! I think just realising that teachers do anything kind of reckless is always crazy! I think we still all have that idea in our head of the teacher living at the school like you thought when you were young!

6. My biggest clue about being an adult is clothing choices. When I moved my bandeau tops from my t-shirt/tops drawer to my underwear drawer I really knew I was growing up. When things are "too short" is another pointer, I had to retire some black hot pants when I was about 20 because they just weren't acceptable anymore, let's keep my bum cheeks covered now!

7. Being able to like what you want is a really big deal for me. When you're at school and college you're so worried about what everyone else will think of your choices. Now, people judge you less and I care less what they think! I love that kids trust your judgement too!

8. Choosing your own bedtime is a really big deal, maybe some people have had control over this for a really long time, I have since I left school. But I end up wanting to go to bed earlier and earlier when I've got the choice!

9. Not understanding the cool new words. As much as I do (kind of) know what Fleek means, I really can't use it seriously in a sentence, it doesn't sound right. I think eventually, our capacity to accept these new words really diminishes.

I can't tell you how much I love this picture, especially with the comment "I'm an independent dog who don't need no man!"

10. Being excited about household things, I don't mean like decoration because I think that depends on the person. I mean things like cleaning things. When you see something in a shop and think, I really need that, that will make my bathroom shine! Like, take yourself to the toy aisle and calm down

I hope you enjoyed this post, numbers and memes, it's pretty much a Buzzfeed article. What reminds you that you're an adult? What makes you feel like an adult?

Thanks for reading,

Rachel xx

Monday, 1 August 2016

lifestyle 17:00

100th Post!

by Rachel

In Feburary 2014 I posted my first ever blog post, and this is my 100th. Admittedly, a lot of bloggers have posted that many posts in a shorter time, but I'm still proud.

Although I've had a lot of inconsistency and a few lengthy breaks from blogging, I'm so proud of how long I've stuck at it. I even feel like I might have got better at it.

Why I started blogging

I briefly touched on this in this post. In all honesty, when I first made my blog I hardly knew anything about blogging, I'd watch a few vloggers when I was younger (Charlieissocoollike, Amazingphil, Danisnotonfire, JennaMarbles) But I hadn't really come across any blogs, I didn't know how people found them, how you followed them and had no idea of the community I was stepping into.

What I wanted was a chance to write, publically. I've always loved writing, I've been shy about it, I've thrown things away that I've written but I've always loved doing it. My thought of going into journalism was really blossoming and this felt like the only logical next step.

Starting Blogging

So low and behold I created a blog and started to write. I shared it on both Facebook and Twitter and was surprised to see people actually viewing the pages. I posted 48 times in 2014, 17 times in 2015 and 34 times so far this year.

I somehow came across a couple of other blogs through googling and quickly found out about Bloglovin. This gave me the opportunity to really see other blogs, and have a feed to look at and people other than my family and friends to see my posts.

Learning more

Blogging turned out to be so much bigger than I had ever realised, last year I decided to make a Twitter page specifically for my blog, giving me the chance to follow other bloggers, for them to follow me and for us to interact a lot. I have taken part in Twitter chats and spoken to many people, I'm learning more about promoting my blog, writing and taking pictures.

My worst part of blogging was finding about the view count. Thinking I was doing quite well looking at my blogger view counts and then reading a post about how inaccurate they are. I signed up for Google Analytics and found much more honest page views, that was hugely disappointing. I'd advise any starting out blogger to look at that first before believing your blogger statistics.

Improving

This year I've already hit a few of my blogging goals, I've hit my end of year target for my page views (the fake blogger number), numbers of posts, numbers of tweets and twitter followers. And each time I try and give myself the next mini goal.

Blogging is something I really enjoy, and most of the things I learn make me enjoy it more, just not that fake page views number!

Do you give yourself blogging goals? When did you find out about the difference between blogger views and Google analytics?

Thanks for reading,

Rachel xx

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

Sunday, 23 October 2016

Autumn updates

Wednesday, 12 October 2016

Goodies From The Body Shop

Sunday, 9 October 2016

Learning Shorthand

Sunday, 25 September 2016

I Have Arrived in Sheffield

Monday, 8 August 2016

What Makes You an Adult?

Monday, 1 August 2016

100th Post!

Why I started blogging

Starting Blogging

Learning more

Improving

Thursday, 28 July 2016

Uni Preparation

Rachel

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