Over the past month, most of you have probably realised that I've been taken part in Blog Every Day in May. At the start of the month I did feel like it would be easy- especially with the fact that I noted down everything that I would like to blog about this month. However, half way through the month with the stress of college weighing on my shoulders I did slightly struggle but obviously I have made it through!

The other day in my post about coping with stress, I missed out one crucial factor that does help me with stress- this being music. Music has always been a really important thing to me and even when I was younger I used to play a violin for a while. Usually, any music I listen to will kind of destress me but there is one specific kind that always makes me feel a little bit more relaxed which is instrumental. 

So in about 2 weeks time I will be turning 19 years old! OhMyGod- I'm getting old! With this in mind, I felt I would share a little wishlist. This isn't neccasirly things I hope for people to buy me but for things I may consider buying myself with any money I get from my birthday. 

Like many people at the moment, I've truly been feeling the stress! With things such as my End of Year Degree Show coming up (and being stuck in a rut with it), plus the stress of deciding what to do with Universities and a few other bits and pieces I have felt it a lot! After getting a lot of encouragement to doing this when I tweeted about it the other day I felt it was something I really should do! So I hope these tips can help you out a bit too. 

It's been a few weeks since the last Pinterest Favourites and I didn't feel like just sharing pieces that research/inspiration for my project at the moment but over the past few weeks I have found a fair few things that have caught my eye!

This weeks been a bit of a mix again! I've been feeling a bit high and low all week and not entirely sure where I am at the moment- stress does that to a person! 

If you read the blog post I published yesterday, you would have seen that Darren and I celebrated our 4th Anniversary yesterday*. For our little celebration we went and did what we did a lot at the start of our relationship- Cadonnas! We spent the evening playing on the machines and pool in Cadonnas, having a meal at Frankie and Benny's and then going to see Godzilla today. We also had a little visit to the area of Aberdeen called Footdee but I'll share those pictures in another post! All in all, it was a great night- especially since we collected about another 1,000 tickets to use at the Cadonnas prize section!

*I just wanted to say a massive thank you to everybody who wished us a Happy Anniversary!

For today's blog post I just went to back to basics- a tag! But with one of my majorly loves being books I felt I would do the 'This or That' one. I found this on Devin Reads. 

To be honest I really wasn't sure on what to share in today's blog post. But after thinking and thinking and realising that I love my blog posts I done last week mainly because of the photos, I felt I would share some random shots that I have taken over the past few months. Some of these are just photo testers, others are spur of the moment things where I felt a really interesting photo could be taken. But anyway, enjoy!

Recently I've been thinking about Summer and what I'm going to get up to throughout my break off! Apart from trying to develop OhHay! and looking for design jobs/internships I'm really hoping to make the most of my Summer! Ignore the slanty text and the size of the handwriting slowly decreasing in size haha!

A lot of these are quite similar to the monthly goals I've been setting over the past few months but with Summer lasting about 3 months I'm definitely going to try and do these properly!

What are you planning to get up to within the Summery months? Or winter if you're a bit further South!

So far I haven't really shared much to do with my self branding and such but that's been due to me focusing on my self initiated brief slightly more to be honest! 

In my usual fashion, I started with some mind maps! The first one I done was just a general kind of one for the different types of techniques and situations I could use for the covers.

This week has been a really odd week to be honest! Looking back now I feel like I really haven't accomplished anything or done very much. But when I think about it fully I realise that I actually have done quite a lot and have started getting the ball rolling on things!

The other week I picked up Elle magazine from worked mainly so that I could try out Benefits- The Pore Fessional. With it working out at £3.60 after using my work discount I felt it was a great deal. Definitely better than buying the full size!

Over the past while I've been using it instead of my Maybelline Baby Skin Pore Eraser. I have to admit I do like the Maybelline product but I do feel that Benefit's wins in being better for me! I have felt that Benefits primer has helped my make up last longer. I also do prefer this one over the Maybelline as the texture is a lot nicer. I've tried applying it on both under my foundation and on top and have felt it works either way. I do feel that it my skin may look a bit more flawless when it is applied over the top as any areas where I have large pores or marks seem more filled in.
When I first used the Primer I was shocked at the colour and was worried that it would end up being too dark on my skin! However, I was wrong and it just blended in and didn't even look like I had any applied at all. 

Overall I do really love Benefits Primer but unfortunately due to being a skint student I won't be splashing out on buying it any time soon. I'll be happy if what's left of the sample lasts another week or so! 

Which product do you prefer? Maybelline's or Benefits or something completely different?

After unrolling all the dough and realising there was no chocolate sticks I started making up the croissant shapes. Then into the oven they went for about 10minutes! After taking them out I had realised I may have had the oven a bit too high and they ended up burnt on the bottom slightly.

In total I made the six croissants and I have eaten two and I think my dad may have had one as well. I also had my cup of lemon tea in this really cute mug I got as a present a few years ago. 

What's your favourite things to have for breakfast? 

Since last week I've managed to get a little further on with my projects for my End of Year Exhibition. On Monday I finished my report based on different Graphic Design Trends- which featured things like 3D printing, Adobe Cloud and Laser Printing. 

I also decided what I was going to do for my brief. If you had been keeping up with my on twitter this week you may have seen that for my project I've decided to combine my two majors loves- books and design. Obviously I had to do something with the later but I've always wanted to design a book cover or something so felt this would be the perfect time to try it!

After deciding on this it meant deciding on which genre of book I was going to do.With most of my read books being of the Young Adult or Fantasy genre I initially felt that this would be the way to go. The first book I thought of to do was The Book Thief, as this is one of my recent reads. After speaking to my lecturer she suggested that I should do more than one book so that a collection would be created. 

After a bit of brain storming I have came up with three books that are going to be used in the collection. The first obviously being The Book Thief. Since I have already read The Boy In The Stripped Pyjamas I felt this would be a good one to include. The last one was one I came across on GoodReads which is Code Name Verity. I picked up copies of the last two yesterday so I can have a refresher of TBITSP and to actually read Code Name Verity. 

In the past few months or so I've finally found products that I feel have helped improved my skin*. Just to give you a little back round on my skin, it is very acne prone with their hardly ever being a day where I don't have one white head or blackhead! The area around my eyes, nose and the side my face can be quite dry. Then my forehead, above my lips, and chin can be quite oily. So all in all I have a very complex combination skin type! I have to admit this year I have only started taking my make-up off properly at night and using cleansers and scrubs properly. 

This weekend just past some of your may or may not know that the Eurovision Song Contest was on! If you don't know what this is, it's basically each May countries across Europe will send someone to sing at the competition to compete against other countries. I have seen so many people comparing it to The Hunger Games, which funnily it kind of is! I've watched it every year since I can remember and I just love the cheesiness of it. This year though, I feel that the cheesiness wasn't so apparent and I love a lot of the songs! 

This weeks been a mish mash of stuff on my Pinterest! With a lot of it being inspiration for design projects at College. However, because I'll probably be doing a 'research/inspiration' post for them I felt I would keep them out of it for this week!

Sorry for not having much interesting pieces this week! My pinning really has been focused on my design stuff for college. However, if you do want to see that or anything keep an eye on my Pinterest @LaurenGemmaHay.

What have you been up to this week?

Last month was a bit of a quiet month for my iPod as I didn't really listen to it much. Well, that was until I got the Frozen sound track then it was my best friend again! This month I've been listening to similar songs to last month but I felt I'd still share it! What have you been listening to this month?

Today I was quite stuck on what I was going to write for BEDM but after reading Rosalilium's post and take on today's topic I felt inspired to well, write about being inspired! I have to admit this post is not only to maybe help any of you who are feeling stuck in a rut, it's also hopefully going to remind me of what I can do. As you know by now my time at College is quickly running out and I have my exhibition next month! So I really need my inspiration to be in gear and get me through it. What I mention below is what helps me, I hope it can help you to!!