Bookshop Cafe Berry!

Hello again!

<3

Today I went on a little road trip to the Sydney's south coast and stopped by for lunch in Berry a cute, quaint, homely country town.

 It was still and cloudless, and it's meant to be spring at this time of year, but it's Australia and apparently the weather has no rules to follow, so yes, it was like 35 degrees Celsius (I'm not being dramatic.... no one was expecting this, and I wore leggings. Woe is me.)

view over Kiama Beach on the way to Berry

And Berry is such a beautiful little town, along a country/coast highway, where you basically go through one whole street with vintage, homeware shops, boho clothing, cafes or luncheon places either side and then off into the next bends of the hills!

We stopped and had lunch in the Bookshop Cafe. It was so cute and sooo yummy, as well as really reasonably priced! It had these mirrors on the way with sayings and famous quotes, which I loved and thought was really clever.

We ordered fresh apple, carrot, orange, celery and ginger juice, caramel milkshake, corn fritters and salmon and eggs bennedict. 

Yum! Here are some photos:

Hope you enjoyed reading and got hungry looking! :P

Ruby-Leigh
xx

Dolly and Cleo Magazine Intern!

Hello!

<3

As you might remember, late last year I was given the AMAZING and once in a lifetime opportunity to be Dolly Magazine's teen reporter. I was given the chance to travel to Brighton, England and interview the beauty and lifestyle blogger and YouTuber Zoella, with over 9 million subscribers.

As Zoe Sugg is one of my idols and a down right amazing person, this was one of the best days of my life. And from this I was also able to become Dolly and Cleo Magazine's intern. 

I intern in their editorial features and youtube departments, and get to do the coolest things like writing, researching and editing stories, doing interviews with YouTubers or transcribing interviews with celebrities, assisting in photoshoots and in the fashion departments AND meet and greets for touring or visiting celebrities. 

I've interviewed Zoella, Marcus Butler, Tyler Oakley, CutiePieMarzia and soooo many more to come!

 I also got to write a story about myself and my experiences with YouTube which is probably the most important thing I've ever written.

I was involved in the first Dolly YouTube special where I wrote a massive feature on some vloggers you need to be watching (as they are amazing!)

I also get to write stories for Dolly and Cleo's online content to be on the websites and facebook pages.

They are pretty cool-you can check them out and one of my favourite stories I wrote too.

http://www.dolly.com.au/

http://www.dolly.com.au/advice/life-coach/2015/2/30-things-to-do-before-summer-ends/

http://www.cleo.com.au/

It is a dream come true! I would ready and buy Dolly as a teenager and can not have ever ever ever pictured myself working with the mag, let alone actually having my stories, about myself and the passions and loves I have. It is crazy exciting!!!!

I'm so so grateful to have this opportunity and can't wait to see what it leads me to do with the magazines :)

I hope you enjoyed reading :)

Ruby-Leigh 

xx

Oops! I'm Back; My Year So Far

Hi

 <3

Well it's about time!

Yes; it has been a very very long time since I've posted anything.

I have recently been inspired by two of my lovely friends

http://aboutanail.blogspot.co.uk/

and

http://preciselyriley95.blogspot.com.au/

And a soon to be another friend, who have all either returned or starting blogging. And it made me realized it's been way too bloody long and I have just forgotten about this. How sad :(

So far I've had the best 12 months of my life. This exact day last year I set off on an adventure and travelled to Europe before settling into a university in the UK for a semester, interviewing my YouTube idol Zoella, meeting the most amazing best friends, falling absolutely in love with the dream guy <3, and spending a cold and (kind of) snowy Christmas in London with a chum, before setting off to bus about Europe and the UK for a month before returning home to Australia and landing my dream internship at Dolly and Cleo Magazine!

WOW!

 -The first time I actually saw real proper snow, falling from the sky on my hat and crunching inches below my feet. I'm at a service station in Holland (or Belgium, I can't remember it was a long day) :P

 -LONDON <3

-Australia's Dolly and Cleo Magazine. My textbooks as an intern ;)

I am still trying to comprehend it myself. But in this busy time I forget how much I adore blogging, reading blogs and watching YouTube, and how one way to show this is to share it. So, I'm back again and will ~attempt~ to post regularly.....

So that's a snapshot of the year so far and a clue to every exciting thing (which there are many!) to come in the next few months.

I hope you enjoyed this post and my return :) 

Ruby-Leigh

xx

Self-Criticism and Positive Talk.

Hi,

<3

Bit of a deep one today.
I have been thinking recently on self-criticism and the way we use it.

I am imperfect. I am not going to lie and pretend that because I have a handful of good qualities and a handful of good situations in my life that I am a perfect person. I am ordinary and am not going to promote this twisted non-existent "Hollywood" sort of idea that we must strive for perfection.

Negative things will happen, or you will feel like something you have done has been negative or will cause a bad consequence.

We are humans. It sounds very boring and bland and obvious. It's very overused and it's effect is lost, but its only because it's so easy to forgot, we are born with little to no knowledge and must be taught everything. In every way we are always developing.

But we hinder ourselves but brushing mistakes we make aside with vicious self-critical excuses.
What actually comes of that? Do you or anyone benefit in anyway from saying something negative about yourself?
You're voicing something that is probably your own impression of the situation, generalizes and categorizes yourself and doesn't reflect what mostly everyone thinks of you.

Saying, "I'm such an idiot," when you make a mistake doesn't fix what happened. It doesn't change anything. It probably doesn't make you feel any better about yourself or the situation.

If you say it enough people will think it's unarguable and will give little or no effort into disagreeing with you, making you feel worse. Or at the worse they will eventually believe you, take it as "fact" and call you out on it.
Picking up on people's mistakes in a positive way is a good thing. Digging at someone for the way they behave is bullying.

If we take time out to say,
"Oh that was not really very clever, I could have done that differently, but I didn't. So I will accept it, learn and try again next time."

Rather than,
"I'm such an idiot! Why did I do that!?"

Most likely we will feel better and avoid it in the future.

If you've got enough mentality to say "I'm such an idiot,"
Then you are very clearly... not an idiot.

If someone said that to you, you might get angry at them or cry. That's what your mind is doing quietly when you say things like that to yourself.

Hope you liked this post,

Ruby-Leigh xx

Tesco Favourites!

Hi

<3

Oops; really hope this isn't too late to upload, had a slight problem with internet and time...

I went on my first shop to Tesco this evening.

I've ordered online from them, as I mentioned before, but never actually been inside the store and it is just as amazing as I had thought.

It may sound weird to be raving about, basically a grocery store, but honestly when you have no clue what you want for dinner, how to purchase toilet paper of how you will survive in a different country for at least three months on your own... supermarkets are your best friend. Anywhere. Anytime. Any kind.

Tesco is very different to the Australia ones I'm used to. Kind of combine Woolies and Kmart and you get the general idea...

Please do enjoy the very elaborate, extremely British Christmas Advert for the shop.

Things I've been loving from Tesco;

- Tesco Finest Cornish Custard.

As my friend and I discovered and spent six minutes raving about in the kitchen; it's filling, but soooo light :P

Basically a posh creamy Madagascan vanilla custard.

- Tesco Finest Yoghurt.

Billions of posh flavours, ranging from Hazelnut to Champagne Rhubarb.

- Tesco British Crumbed Ham.

Ham slices with golden breadcrumbs along the side. Yum!

- Tesco Organic Raspberries and Blackberries.

If you're from Sydney you know how expensive berries are. The climate here is perfect so they are so cheap and available I can't resist getting one too many punnets a week... 

- Tissues.

Don't even joke they are so important.

Hope you enjoyed this, 

Ruby-Leigh xx

Exploring Keele Grounds!

Hi <3

If you have ever watched anything remotely British; 'Harry Potter' to 'Pride and Prejudice', 'Doctor Who' to 'Midsomer Murders', then I'm sure you'll have a general idea of what the typical British country side looks like.

Keele is located north of London, generally central in England and is picturesque and idyllic. Before it started to really get cold, mid- late autumn, I went exploring the grounds of Keele with my roommates.

Favorites definitely include;

- Sneyd Arms Pub. I've been to this place almost everyday since late November....very unhealthy.

They have the best best cheesy nachos, literally only a walk down the road. Soooo tempting.

(Fun Fact: Sneyd is actually the name of the family that owned the manor/castle style house that was the first building of the university!)

- Clocktower Walk. It's just the most amazing little road and is almost completely overgrown in green moss and tall trees. The rocky walls that curve round the bend make it so much more mysterious as well.

- Keele Hall. Literally a mini Hogwarts.

So haunted. You can just tell. Exploring it at night gave me the chills....

Hope you liked this, let me know if you want to see more!

Ruby-Leigh xx

Moving Out And Learning The Hard Way.

Hi  <3

-Tunnel Vision. Doing my own Laundry.

Before moving to the UK for university I had lived at home my whole life.

It was more than a shock when I moved out and realized i had to suddenly organise my life. I had to make sure I would live, day by day by myself. Now thinking about it I don't truly know how I did it...

Suddenly you need toilet paper, soap dispensers, laundry baskets, containers, pots and pans. 

Things like can openers and cereal containers and lamps and blu tack and scissors are forgotten.

Some things I learnt the hard way;

1. There's no such thing as a top sheet in the UK. Yes, you know that boring (usually white) sheet that goes on top of your bed, just under the duvet/quilt? That's called a "flat sheet" and is the hardest thing to find ever in the whole country. I honestly thought I had a better chance of seeing Daniel Radcliffe, Benedict Cumberbatch and the Queen all having tea and scones before I managed to find one measly scuffy packet hidden on the shelves in Primark.

2. Keeping anymore than about 5-8 fridge required food items, excluding milk, is impossible. The uni fridges will either freeze them, squish them, or mould them up.

Do take my bread as an example of what not to do.

Monday it was beautiful, pure and white.

Tuesday it was 'left-in-a-small-remote-island-for-eight-years' kind of moulded and very very very green.

-Don't make the same mistakes I made, kids.

3. There's no excuse you could make humanly possible to say that online shopping at Tesco is not the best idea in the world. Honestly saved me so many trips.

-Popcorn and Cookies. My first shop...

There's probably loads more but more importantly I enjoyed the decorating, designing and shopping element of sorting out my room a lot. I've already figured out what to decorate future family house like!

Hope you enjoy your week!

Ruby-Leigh xx