Wednesday Wishlist: #1

Hi guys, this is a new section I'll be doing on my blog! Here I go!

White Ecru Skinny Jeans with Side 
Embroidery Detail /Pull & Bear/ £29.99

I'm pretty much in love with these!

Lace Panelled Chiffon Blouse/ Forever 21/ £16.75

 Felt Tip Spot Crop Top/ Topshop/ £14

Blocked Mini Dress in Scarf Print/ Asos/ £45

Dark Blue Suede Biker Jacket/ H&M/ £29.99

- FrancesMxx

20 Things That Make Me Happy!

Hey there,

A few things have happened lately that have made me really appreciate what I have. I haven't blogged in a while, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity! Here's a list of things that I'm grateful for/ the little things that make me smile. Some of them are a bit random, but anyways, here we go!

1. My unbelievable family and heritage

2. My amazing  friends

3. The fact that I'm on the Student Assosciation

4.  The fact that I can fluently rap Push It by Salt-n-Pepa

5. Not having to wear a coat - this is a big deal where I'm from!

6. Food in general

7. Cheesy American Reality & Teen Dramas: I'm self-admittedly a HUGE fan of the Kardashians, Pretty Little Liars & The Lying Game!

8. I'm easily inspired

9. I was lucky enough to one of the 200 out of the 1200 for the Sutton Trust US programme this year

10. The fact that I live so close to London (I should make more use of this!)

11. I'm smiling 98% of the time!

12. Snickers bars are definitely the way to my heart.

13.Finding an amazing bargain when you're out shopping!

14. My current obsession with bananas and peanut butter...

15. My Friday night youth group!

16. The fact that I actually have quite a fun job!

17. Really LOUD music (especially Beyonce.)

18. Pinterest (if you're not on this, you need to be!)

19. The versatility of my crazy hair

20. This blog!

+ Some songs that just genuinely get me in a good mood!

I could probably go on forever, but these were the first 20 things that popped into my head. I can honestly say I'm in a really good mood after writing this!

I hope I've inspired whoever's reading this to do a similar post - if I have, then leave a link in the comments, I'd love to see what makes you guys happy! Or if you don't want to do a full post, I'm still interested in hearing your thoughts!

- FrancesMxx

My Ultimate Festival Line-Up

For the past few days, I've listened to music practically non-stop. Luckily for me I have Spotify Premium which is great because I can listen to all the music I want for only £5 a month (I also have an NUS card!). Anyways, the Wireless festival line-up has been announced and depending on what happens with my summer this year, I seriously considering going - just look at Friday! 

I pretty much love everyone on there - OK, maybe I'm not the biggest Snoop Dogg fan of all-time, but who could forget classics like this one:

But here's my list:
 Beyonce, mainly because she's an amazing performer AND singer - something incredibly rare these days. Tickets for her tour go on sale on Saturday - fingers crossed!

The OLD Black Eyed Peas where they did songs like this, and not the 'dance' stuff they've brought out lately:

Mumford & Sons

Lady Antebellum

Rizzle Kicks

Jason Mraz

Justin Timberlake

The Script

Coldplay

Jack Johnson

John Mayer

Karmin

Andy Grammer

Rihanna

Ne-yo

F.U.N

Tinie Tempah

The Black Keys

Ben Howard

Trey Songz

John Legend

OneRepublic

Chris Brown

Rihanna

Bruno Mars

Lianne La Havas

OutKast

Kanye West

Bluey Robinson

Rihanna

Cee-Lo Green

Train

Gavin DeGraw

I know that's a really long list, but that's who I'd want to see if I went to a festival! Maybe it could be a week long festival? 

As you can see my music taste is REALLY diverse - but that's what I love about it haha! To be honest, I'm not quite sure many people would want to come to my festival...but what about you - who would make your ultimate set-list? Leave a note in the comment box - I'd love to know! :)

-FrancesMxx

Slogan Tees: Say it With Grey!

Say It With Grey by francesmxx

Zoe karssen t shirt, £68 / Ashish / Denim & Supply by Ralph Lauren screen print t shirt / Topshop oversized t shirt, £21 / ASOS , £16 / Zoe karssen t shirt / Gray t shirt / River Island I'm Yours T-Shirt, £23

On the highstreet, slogan tees seem to be all the rage. I firstly intended this set to be dedicated to all the slogan tees I could find and they ended up being all grey/dark colours! And hey, it just goes to show that you can make even the dullest of colours interesting!

Out of all the t-shirts, I'd have to say Denim&Supply by Ralph Lauren definitely has to be my favourite - it's got that perfect slouchy fit that you could just throw on with a pair of skinny jeans, a cute scarf and some flats. Or if you wanted to, you could dress it up with a blazer, a skater skirt. Plus, I love the slogan!

-FrancesMxx

Natural Hair - Here, There & Everywhere: My Hair Story

It's about time I did a hair post, considering I have so much of it! Well I've been natural my whole life and have never touched a relaxer, and I don't plan on either! I'd say say my hair type is a 3b/c as there are lots and lots of curls, however they aren't coarse enough for my hair to be a type 4.

What I love about being natural, as demonstrated by the pictures, is the versatility of it. I can curl it with a curling wand like in the first picture, set it with bendy rollers and touch it up with straighteners like in the second picture, or just have it straight like in the third picture. And of course, when I want to give it a rest from heat, I just wear it natural!

In fact, the last two pictures are taken a year apart and you can see the length difference! I didn't look after my hair properly for a a little bit which meant that there was practically no growth. This was incredibly upsetting considering my hair used to be 3/4 of the way down my back! For some reason a lot of my hair was cut off during a trip to Ghana. So during the last year I've taken a stand and made a real effort with my hair by using natural hair care sites such a bglh,which has resulted in some growth! It's still not as long as it used to be, but I'm getting there!

I wash my hair approximately every two weeks and the two products that I use are Vatika Oil and RawShea Butter as leave-in conditioners. If I have my hair natural, I will section, wet and finger-detangle it roughly every day, run some Shea butter through it and leave it to air dry - this is how I ended up with the effect in the last picture.

I swear by these two natural products, and I believe getting rid of all the unnecessary chemicals has really worked for my hair! Shampoo and conditioner wise, I tend to just use anything, although I am currently on the lookout for a good product, so if you have any suggestions - let me know!

If you have any questions on my hair, or would like me to do a special post dedicated to my hair, let me know in the comments.

-FrancesMxx

 

Snow Day!

Hat: Asos

Hi again! It seems like the Uk has finally got it's dose of heavy snow. Unlike the rest of the world, where you can get 5ft of snow and everything seems to carry on as normal, the UK seems to come to a standstill. For example, my train line to get to college was pre-cancelled before the snow had even started - talk about wimping out!

On the upside, I got to have a snow day today which consisted of:

• Waking up
• Watching this week's Pretty Little Liars (so good!)
• Watching some more TV
• Doing some tidying up
• Unpacking (finally!)
• Going to collect my scratch card winnings of £4 (woo!)
• Spending the evening with my brother watching Take Me Out & Snakes On a Plane

So all in all a pretty productive day!

-FrancesMxx

 

Ghana Diaries

Hi again! It's 2013 and I've just got back from an amazing holiday with my family in Ghana. I'm actually part Ghanaian so most of it was spent visiting family, which was actually really nice, considering that the last time I went back was 3 years ago. It seems that everyone who saw me said that they wouldn't have recognised me if they saw me in the street - I hope they meant that in a good way haha!

I also did a lot of beach time whilt I was there. First was the family pilgrimage to Bojo Beach in Accra which is an absolutely beautiful white sand beach - you certainly don't get beaches like that in England! They also do the best chicken kebabs.

If you're looking for somewhere outside Accra then I highly recommend the Coconut Grove Beach Resort in Elmina. We ended up going there as an impromptu thing for two nights as a big family group. I don't think anyone regrets it as it was an incredibly relaxing experience. I think I walked the length of the beach 4 times whilst I was there. Everything was really tidy, the rooms were nicely air-conditioned and the food was very tasty. Service may have been slow at times, but then again I don't think they were used to such a large group of people all at once!

We also went to visit Elmina Castle whilst we were there. It was a very different experience to anything I've done before. It was mind-boggling that where we were standing used to be 100s of slaves shackled together. Apart from that, it was a good experience and I'm glad I went.

-FrancesMxx