Hello!

The time has come to once again wrap up the month with a list of things I’ve enjoyed or have made me happy! Is this a glorified favourites post? Absolutely, but I’d be lying about who I really am if I didn’t come up with pretentious names for things!

(I’m knackered and I’m losing it a bit, can you tell?)

Without further ado – the things I treasured in July:

What I Bought

I really struggled to think of something I bought in July (except books, I can’t stop buying books…) but I actually jumped on the Glossier hype a little bit – I’d seen the Anna Edit talking about the beauty bag which was marketed as the bag that fit everything in it. It has pockets, it actually holds all my make-up (like all of it, I don’t have a lot) and I’m really pleased with it.

And that order came with a free sample of their perfume ‘You’ – I’ve heard a lot of good things about the Glossier perfume but I wasn’t going to spent £45 on something I hadn’t even smelled. But then I got the free sample and I literally couldn’t stop thinking about it. I can’t describe it, but it smells grown up without smelling floral or fake – it just smells really good and it’s probably the most I’ve spent on a beauty product ever but I don’t regret a single penny. It’s actually amazing.

What I Cooked

Last month I mentioned that I’d just got my first box of HelloFresh meals and I can’t lie, I continue to be moderately obsessed – we’re on our third or fourth box now and the meals are just brilliant and I love not having to think too hard about what we’re eating, buying the ingredients or finding recipes – the recipe cards are really easy to follow, the food is always good and then I just chuck everything in the dishwasher and it’s all ready for the next day.

Some of my personal favourites are the mushroom risotto, chicken korma style curry and cheesy oven baked risotto.

What I Ate

I’m really craving cake at the moment and Sainsburys do these wonderful little Victoria Sponge cupcakes and they’re delicious. That’s all I have to say.

What I listened to

I’m still listening to Bo Burnham’s ‘Inside’. This is the one I probably listened to the most:

What I Watched Online

I’ve not watched much YouTube this month either, but here are a selection from my history that I enjoyed:

What I Watched on TV

This month, I could have watched Loki on Disney+ with my partner once he returned from a long work trip to Italy.

What we did was start watching Pokémon Journeys on Netflix because sure it’s a kids TV show but it’s only 20 minutes long, it’s easy to watch and it’s not emotionally taxing so it’s perfect to watch with dinner and it makes my nerdy Pokémon boi very happy when we confidently shout the wrong Pokémon in the ‘who’s that Pokémon’ section.

It’s the little things.

What I Read

I have absolutely adored reading this month. I’ve finished three books and I reckon I’ll finish my current read before August too! I’ve read:

• Remnants: The Mayflower Project, K. A. Applegate – a book from my teenage years that I couldn’t remember much about, so I kept it to reread to figure out if it was worth pursuing and reading the 14 sequels (I’m not exaggerating). It was an okay concept but it was all a bit disjointed and I didn’t love it so it’s going to the charity shop.
• Perfect, Cecelia Ahern – I didn’t love Flawed, but it had such a non-ending that I had to buy the sequel to find out what happened. It was a very stereotypical political riot Hunger Games Mockingjay ‘I’m the girl that’s different that can save the world’ YA that was 3 stars at best? It all felt very holocaust but not done very respectfully, it was weird.
• Peter Pan, J. M. Barrie – I don’t have many classics on my shelf because I prefer the modern style of writing, but Peter Pan is my favourite Disney movie and it was short so one step closer to my GoodReads goal for the year. Wow the book is quite different to the film! Peter is a cocky little so and so, the Lost Boys are all murderers and I kid you not, there was a line about fairy orgies.

And I’m currently reading ‘Adrenaline’ by Jeff Abbott – I’ve had the sequel book on my shelf, ‘The Last Minute’, for literally years so last payday I bought a couple of prequels I was needing. It’s a 500 page book about spies and espionage and it’s not YA! I’ve read one Jeff Abbott book before and I really enjoyed it and I’m approximately 83% through and this one is brilliant too. I’ll be posting the review on my bookstagram when I’ve finished reading it.

Bonus shoutout for StoryGraph – it’s an alternative reading tracking app to goodreads and it does everything that goodreads does as well as more interesting statistics on what you’re reading (including genre, pages and pace which consequently gives you better recommendations) and it’s not affiliated with Amazon, so win win all round!

What I Planned for the Wedding!

This month was a sort of catch up month – I finally got wedding insurance, I spoke to the flower lady who makes silk flowers and I’ve got a consultation with her next month and I even found a sash and some Bride Squad pins on Facebook Marketplace for free so thought that would be a good one to pick up!

It still doesn’t quite feel real yet – I feel like I’m too calm about it but also there’s so much to do and it’s going to cost so much money, but I’m focusing on the short term for the moment, tackling my to do list one task at a time.

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Every month I think these posts might be a bit too old school but then I write them and every month I feel positive and excited about the month ahead! Especially with what I’m reading. My bookshelves are looking really pretty and my database is looking really… unbalanced, so hopefully lots of reading in the sunshine in August!

Thank you for reading,

Sophie xx