Treasured In… April

2020

Hello!

Whilst in isolation, I thought it would be fun to come up with a new series to work on whilst I’ve got a little bit more time to think about blogging. Essentially, I thought of a more structured ‘favourites’ that I’ve decided to call Treasured In… [insert month here]. But there’s the scope to do more – if I go travelling I could do it themed to a place, or I could do it about a year around New Years or… other stuff…

I’ve selected a bunch of categories that I’m going to pick ONE thing I’ve loved this month and share it! I’m really excited about this and I hope you enjoy it too.

First category: blog post – though going to go with the ‘bad news’ first… I’ve not really read a blog post that I loved this month? I know I need to make more of an effort to read blog posts but it’s so much easier just to scroll through Instagram. If someone links a blog post on an Instagram story I generally read it but generally my favourite bloggers are the ones that don’t have enough followers to do swipe up. So this is a note to self to do better and read more engaging bloggers posts’!

Recipe: I’m not very good at trying new things but I love learning to cook new things. I’m really enjoying risotto at the moment and I found this recipe for a bacon and pea risotto which we tried and I loved. Granted, it doesn’t sound like it’ll be nice because anything with ‘pea’ in the title isn’t usually promising, but it’s risotto rice with bacon lardons and peas – it’s SUPER SIMPLE and it was really yummy, thoroughly recommend.

Online course: I’ve been ‘self-teaching’ for over a year now – I was working on Google Digital Garage’s Digital Marketing course for the best part of a year, then I worked through a bunch of the other free courses but this month I did the first week of An Introduction to Screenwriting course from UEA via Futurelearn. I’ve been creative writing for over a decade now but never had the facilities to learn about formal scriptwriting, so I’m teaching myself! There are so many free courses out there that I’ve found, would it be useful if I wrote a blog post on it? I’m no expert and it’s not difficult to find them but having a bunch of links all in one place might be helpful!

Music: two new albums that I’ve really enjoyed came out this both so I’m already going to cheat and give two for this one – firstly, my all time favourites All Time Low released their first album in a couple of years Wake Up, Sunshine and I’m obsessed. It’s fantastic, it’s fun, it’s beautiful; Alex Gaskarth is my favourite singer of all time and always will be.

The second album I loved was CALM by 5SOS and I still kind of hate to admit it because I’ve had such a rocky relationship with the band, but it’s a banger of an album and I had a good dance in the kitchen while I was making dinner so I had to mention it.

YouTube video: ‘The Crippled Suffragette’ // Rosa May Billinghurst // Historical Profiles [CC] – Jessica Kellgren-Fozard

I only recently subscribed to Jessica Kellgren-Fozard though I’ve been aware of her for a while (that’s a weird sentence when you don’t think of it outside the context of YouTube). I really love the variety of her content and I actually thoroughly enjoyed the way she told the story of this woman who I never would have heard of without this video. Always love a bit of unintentional learning!

Books I’ve read: My intention for this category is to list everything I’ve read in the last month and give you a couple of lines of whether I actually enjoyed it or not!

Love, Rosie (Cecelia Ahern) (previously published as Where Rainbows End) – absolutely loved this book, such an interesting writing style and just wonderfully kind and lovely characters. 10/10!

The Centauri Device (M. John Harrison) – refusing to link because I think it was awful. Overly complex unnecessary language to mask a pushover protagonist, a lack of plot and no emotional engagement between characters. Amazing potential as a concept for a sci-fi adventure but literally hated reading it.

Skarrs (Catherine Forde) – kind of stereotypical YA book ‘good kid fell in the wrong crowd’ but I was taken aback by it’s subtle way of describing how grief can effect people in such different ways.

One Day (David Nicholls) – I get the hype around this book now and I think Love, Rosie took a lot of inspiration from it. Kind of anticlimactic ending through, didn’t really see the emotional side that I’ve seen people talk about…

Currently reading: The Eve Illusion (Tom and Giovanna Fletcher) – I’ve been waiting for this book for what feels like ages but has only been a few months. I’m about halfway through and currently very intrigued about what will be left until the final book in the trilogy… keep an eye on my Instagram for a full review!

Snack: I’m all about the snacks and in lockdown, resisting them is even harder. When I finally got my hands on some self-raising flour, my boyfriend and I made dark chocolate chip banana bread muffins and they’re to die for. Far too many calories than I should have in one sitting but so good.

Visual Entertainment: this is the way I’m describing all things film, TV, Netflix, etc! With the release of Disney+ I’m almost ashamed to admit I’ve barely watched it, but I have been watching a couple of episodes of Kim Possible with dinner and having a fantastic time.

The other thing I’ve started is a 52 week movie challenge – my mum sent me this little review book in the post and rather than doing it on my own, between my mum, my sister and my boyfriend we’ve all been allotted 13 categories and each week we’re having a virtual movie night. We started by watching Forrest Gump, a film which I definitely should have seen but haven’t and I really enjoyed it.

Then because we had to pay for the Now TV Cinema pass to watch it, my boyfriend and I watched Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald to make the most of the pass – considering all the negative hype I got, I thought it was pretty cool and we’re excited for the third part to see how it all ends.

Wedding Planning Update: Literally nothing. When I planned this series I thought it would be nice to see month by month progress but now that we’re in complete lockdown there’s no progress to be made, but I thought I’d introduce the category regardless!

And that’s ‘Treasured In…’! I’m really enjoying this new format to talk about things I love so I hope you enjoy it too. Let me know your favourite things in each of the categories in the comments if you like!

Thank you for reading,

Sophie xx

YouTube | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

June Monthly Mixtape

2019, music

Hello!

This months mixtape feels really short – my discovery weekly playlists have been mostly rubbish, there’s been lots of new releases and there’s one song I’ve had on repeat for most of this month (that we’ll get to later) but I don’t feel like I’ve listened to a lot of music.

I do still have a few songs to talk about, so here’s some of my highlights from my June music playlist!

Easier (5 Seconds of Summer) surprised me to be honest – I have such a weird relationship with what I think about the band and my favourite 5SOS era was ‘Sounds Good Feels Good’, but I really like how experimental this song is. They’re trying something new again within the pop-electric realm and I actually really enjoyed it. Some of the lyrics are a bit forced but it’s fun!

Forfeit (Arrows in Action) is a band and a song I never would have heard if it wasn’t for my discover weekly playlist but it gives me major Alex Gaskarth/old All Time Low vibes and I’m 100% here for it. Definitely going to be looking into the bands other songs!

I’m Not Okay (I Promise) (Robyn Adele Anderson) is a refreshing take on the classic teenage emo song – I love jazz/swing remixes of pop chart songs and this one really took me by surprise. The vocals are astonishing, the arrangement is true to the genre and the original song simultaneously and it made me smile on the bus, which is the best kind of song really!

Outside Looking In (Jordan Pruitt) – this song is on the playlist exclusively because I remembered it existed and it was a banger when I was 12. It got me through tough times of no friends and difficult friendships and boy-o I would belt it at the top of my lungs and rediscovering it has been a blast.

End Of The World (Plain White T’s) was a song I literally added this afternoon – I was giving this week’s discover weekly a listen on the bus and this is the only song I liked enough to engage with at all. It was a cute, catchy bop – nothing ground breaking, but a fun listen.

My shoutout of the month goes to the song I’ve had on loop – the song that at first I was very ‘eh’ about, then the melody kept cropping up in my head and then I started really listening to the lyrics and really fell in love with Guiltless (dodie).

It’s been a mixed month for music, to be fair to Spotify I didn’t have as much time for listening to music as I usually do and with a new routine settling into place I need to figure out how to integrate music into the time I have but as always, I love writing these posts – if you have any recommendations let me know in the comments! This months challenge is listening to my Release Radar playlist as well as my Discover Weekly on Spotify!

Thank you so much for reading,

Sophie xx

YouTube | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

childhood heroes in fiction

2017, lifestyle, travel

Hello!

What we watch as a child can hugely affect who we are today – in a millennial generation that longs to go back to when things were easier, Disney movies both old and new are more popular than ever before I reckon.

Personally I have always been a huge daydreamer – I have very, very vivid memories of perching on the edge of my bed when I was about six with my head in my hands desperately wishing that Peter Pan would come and sprinkle some pixie dust over me and take me away on an adventure to Neverland.

Just for clarification – I was waiting for the animated character, not a ‘real life’ version of him, the actual cartoon.

But from a more psychological point of view, the way the story of Peter Pan has influenced me is by making me always look for adventure and fun, to not let my youth limit my attitude and goals and an insatiable desire to fly.

I also periodically get ‘We’re following the leader’ stuck in my head for three hours on loop. You’re welcome.

I started watching Doctor Who in 2007 with Series 3 of ‘New Who’ – 10^th Doctor David Tennant and new assistant Martha Jones. And I still watch Doctor Who to this day – I think the current series (10) with Peter Capaldi and Pearl Mackie is one of the best series there’s been and I think there’s more parallel’s between Peter Pan and Doctor Who than anyone would think at face value.

It inspires that sense of adventure, not letting time or age stop you from exploring and causing a little bit of trouble, except it’s time travel rather than flying and The Master and Daleks rather than Captain Hook and the crocodile.

Doctor Who has a phenomenally big fanbase because so many people grew up with it and let’s them relive that little taste of childhood once a week for 45 minutes – at this point, I wouldn’t even call Doctor Who a kids show but it’s still got that sense of wonder that no one ever really loses.

My boyfriend and I quite often browse through Netflix or his dad’s old DVDs to watch an old episode of Doctor Who because it’s just so much fun, it’s so easy to watch and it’s almost comforting, in a way, to be able to come back to the same characters.

From a creative point of view, I love the way Doctor Who is written and produced – recently I have a growing interest in how TV works and how programs are created but that might be because so many of my friends study in a TV related field and I don’t want to be left out. But I’ve always loved how Doctor Who is written – I used to want to be a screen writer purely so I could write episodes of Doctor Who for a living, Steven Moffat was my idol.

Things change, times pass and people change too; I’ve changed – I don’t want to be a screenwriter anymore, I think I want to be in Doctor Who as much as I’d love to write for it and I’m ten years older than I was when I watched David Tennant and Freema Agyeman on the Moon.

I’ve been thinking a lot about childhood recently – I spent the weekend with my family scattering my Nan’s ashes and we managed to turn it into such a positive, happy gathering and I have so much love for my family. But there were a lot of old photos being passed around – my Granddad had written up a sort of memoire and I thoroughly enjoyed reading each and every detail the other night and finding out so much about the man I’ve grown up with.

There’s so much that I miss about being a kid, but rather than let myself get down about it, I think I’m just going to carry on as if I still am – because who grows up really?

Thank you for reading,

Sophie xx

December Favourites!

2016, lifestyle

Hello!

I know it’s not quite January yet, but with the New Year approaching I wanted to save those posts for a 2016 review and talking about New Years Resolutions, and I’ve got plenty of favourites to talk about!

View this post on Instagram

i have the best flatmates ever – fairy lights decorated with coca cola cans ❤️

A post shared by Sophie (@sophiecountsclouds) on Dec 12, 2016 at 2:12am PST

Firstly, I have to thank my amazing friends Nick, Ollie and (boyfriend) Lucas for taking so much time to make me some beautiful fairy lights with coca cola cans. They’re the tiny mini ones that are in the alcohol aisle at the super market and I don’t know why I didn’t question it at the time but they’re absolutely gorgeous and I’ve put them up above my desk – I love them a lot.

Amazon have been an absolutely blessing with all the Christmas shopping and last minute buys – this photo was original used in my last favourites post to talk about the Grand Tour but it’s an Amazon box, so it’s relevant? I did a fair bit of my shopping in person but Amazon is my favourite way to shop – one massive order that covered 90% of the people I needed to buy presents for, which made me feel really organised. Good job Amazon.

I’ve been a fan of Busted for a really long time – fourteen years later, they do a signing in Southampton and I got to go! They were so, so lovely, it was an incredible experience (I made a news package on it if you’d like to see that!) and the album is brilliant too – I had a proper listen to it that evening and it’s actually really good. It doesn’t sound all that much like the early 2000s Busted, but their sound has developed and progressed with modern music yet still has hints of ‘Busted’. As a long term Busted fan, having a new album fourteen years later really makes me happy.

I’m called this ‘David III’. This is a ‘make your own’ cactus pillow – I have a felt cactus called David and a succulent called David II and I’m going to make David III. I’m going to have a collection of cactus-related-David-plants and this is actually really cute. Well, I’m sure when I get round to making it, it probably won’t be as cute but the potential is there.

Okay, not every lifestyle blogger puts a toothbrush in their favourites post but this is a vibrating brush from Oral B, it was only £8.59 for two of these brushes and I got really excited about it. My teeth are the cleanest they’ve ever been.

A wonderfully practically Christmas present – a portable charger is very useful but when it’s got four USB ports and a torch? It’s the kind of thing someone who relies so heavily on their phone finds really exciting but isn’t really that exciting. For the price though, it’s really powerful and if you’re looking for a portable charger that will fully recharge your phone about four times I think? It’s here on Amazon, if you’re interested!

I got quite a few new bits of kitchenware for Christmas and it made me surprisingly happy! I had a really nice set of knives when I lived in halls last year but two of three of them went missing, so kitchen knives were on my Christmas list! I also got a Doctor Who TARDIS cereal bowl, a TARDIS drinking glass and little TARDIS salt and pepper shakers. My mum is trying to give my kitchen a theme, I think. I really wanted the TARDIS salt and pepper shakers though.

Definitely the cutest present I received by a long run – my sister made this cushion in the shape of a cloud and painted eyes and little blushed cheeks on him, then put fairy lights inside the stuffing! It’s one of my favourite things I got this Christmas, he’s just so adorable. I have another cloud pillow at home and she’s called Sora (because I googled cloud related names and it’s also the name of the main character in Kingdom Hearts) and my family and I named him Nimbus, because it’s a cloud related name and a Harry Potter reference. Perfect!

I mean, I’ve probably mentioned it once or twice, but I’m a huge Disney fan – I love Disney animated movies because they’re so heartwarming and fun, in recent years they’ve led more towards heartbreaking and I cry at every film but I still love them. Over the summer I decided I wanted a Disney movie collection and I wrote out a list of every Disney animated film ever (over a hundred in total) and my mum got me these four for Christmas – the first three and the most recent one! I’ve got both Jungle Book films in Southampton as well so my collection is well on it’s way!

And lastly for this months favourites – my new hair colour! On Christmas Eve, I finally got the red dye out and dyed it a dark burgundy red. Following a deep conditioning treatment last night it seems to have gone for more of a rose-gold/pinky-red colour, but I’ll top it up in the next couple of days I think. I love this colour and I’m definitely sticking with it for a few months – the past few months have been a blur of bleach, blue and mistakes!

Thank you for reading, if you have any suggestions for things I should try out next month please leave them in the comments!

Sophie xx

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/sophiecountsclouds
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sophintheclouds
Instagram: http://instagram.com/sophiecountsclouds
Snapchat: @SophieALuckett
Uni blog: http://sophieannblogs.blogspot.co.uk/
The Student Seat: https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/

September Favourites

2016

Hello!

This post was actually scheduled to go up on Friday but with the MAC event I went to being on Thursday, I figured I’d write that post on Friday and give you a bonus Sunday post too!

The first thing on my favourites this month is an app that me and Lucas have been playing for a while now – it’s called Mystic Words and we’re obsessed. You get seven word clues and then tiles with combinations of 2, 3 and 4 letters and you have to figure out the words. We’re on the 6th pack, Level 26 and that means we’ve done a lot of levels… like maybe a couple of hundred levels… maybe… I mean, at least it’s not something mindless like flappy bird.

We mostly enjoy making silly words out of the word tiles. Envelope was not envelope.

I loved the Jungle Book before September – the animated film was a massive part of my childhood and the new ‘live-action’ film is absolutely astonishing, I adore it. So when Lucas bought me this set for my birthday, I was very excited. I’ve since watched it twice. I might watch it again tomorrow now that I’m reminding myself how good it is.

And this is the first DVD in my collection of Disney DVDs! I’ve decided I’m starting my own collection so now it’s officially been started.

I really love the new flat I’m living in… over the summer, my boyfriend and I had a separate contract with the same company so we only moved into our flat for the year at the beginning of the month. Would you like a full flat tour with lots of pictures? Leave a comment if that’s something you’re interested in!

Another birthday present! This one came from my friend Nikki and it’s this gorgeous candle holder – it came with all these wax melts that you put in the little dish on top and they all melt together and smell amazing. I’m obsessed with it and I’m glad to have an excuse to be burning candles again! I just love candles. A lot.

Now this is one of my favourite favourites – NYX lip colours. I’ve seen a lot of amazing things about NYX products and particularly the matte liquid lip colours and I was so impressed – they’re so easy to apply, they last so well and they were so reasonably priced…

So I bought four? I just… I love red and dark purple lip colours but also nudes and I got all of these for less than £25! That’s cheaper than the MAC lipstick and pencil I bought!

I have NYX Lingerie in Bedtime Flirt, two NYX Liquid Suedes in Cherry Skies and Kitten Heels and a NYX Matte Lipstick in Siren. I’m obsessed with all of the above.

This one is more of a birthday present to myself… let me explain; I’ve wanted some decent over-ear headphones for a while, I bought a cheap pair but they weren’t the size I wanted so I sent them back. I saw these Ted Baker headphones and I was in love – they looked beautiful, they looked the size I wanted and yes, the £47 which was cheap compared to the ones that were hundreds of pounds but it was too much for me to spend on one thing.

Then my birthday came around. I got Amazon vouchers for my birthday. I used about £2 of my own money in the end and oh my goodness, they’re absolutely beautiful. I wear them all the time – to the gym, when I’m editing, when I just want to mask in their beauty.

This photo album I’ve been excited about for a long time – I’ve wanted this ever since I did my first shift at Paperchase and since being fired for no valid reason, I obviously don’t want to go back to the Southampton store, so I waited until I was home for my birthday and my Dad offered to buy it for me!

I got a bunch of my favourite photos from my first year of university printed out in the style of polaroids and I stuck them all in the scrapbook and I really do love it. I’m now someone who’s going to make photo albums for everything because I love the idea of being able to look back on all of these photos when I’m old, maybe with children and grandchildren and telling them the story of when my flatmate Nick wore a Chewbacca onesie and said ‘Chewwie got dollaaaaa’.

Another delayed Paperchase purchase – I was thinking about if I wanted a new bag for uni this year and I came to the conclusion that I only every take my laptop to uni so I only really need a laptop bag and this one is beautiful.

It’s a black padded material, pretty bog standing doesn’t draw too much attention but it’s the rose gold detailing I like – all of the metallic elements, including the zip, are a beautiful rose gold colour and I feel like it’s a perfect bag for me. I love it.

This was another birthday present to myself – I’ve wanted a Nintendo DS for a while. Since being with my boyfriend I feel like I’ve been reintroduced to the gaming world and with Pokemon Go coming out and my consequent new obsession with that and the new Sun and Moon games coming out in November, I wanted my own console.

This is a New 3DS XL in Metallic Black. I picked it up from CEX because it was about £35 cheaper than buying it brand new and it still works like new. Lucas has leant me his copy of Pokemon Y so I can familiarise myself with the game before the new ones come out and I’m really excited about it.

I blame Lucas.

(Also I know I’m about 15 years late with the Pokemon thing but I never watched it or played it as a kid… I’m having a good time so it’s okay)

The last thing in my favourites this month is the Collection ‘Lasting Perfection’ Concealer. Any beauty bloggers out there would be screaming at me – yes, I know I’m a million years late to the party but holy smokes this concealer! It blends absolutely beautifully, the first time I used it I was surprised that it took so little effort to blend it in to my foundation.

I’m obsessed and I’ve already bought a second one for when my first one runs out because I adore this concealer to try and cover my awful eye bags.

So there are my 10 favourites for this month! I really like writing these posts – would you like them to be a regular feature? If you enjoyed this post please do leave a comment because I’d love the feedback!

It wouldn’t always be 10 things and it wouldn’t all be beauty or a particular genre of items, it would just be a nice round up of things I’ve loved in the month!

Thank you for reading,

Sophie xx

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sophiecountsclouds/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-3CmMYbZuSV5eSvGgkW5Cg
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sophiealuckett
Instagram: http://instagram.com/sophiealuckett
Snapchat: @SophieALuckett
Uni blog: http://sophieannblogs.blogspot.co.uk/
The Student Seat: https://thestudentseat.wordpress.com/

DisneyLand Dream Goals

2016

Hello!

As a major Disney fan, it hurts my heart that I’ve never ever been to a Disney park – not Disneyworld Orlando, Disneyland anywhere else, Disneyland Paris, no Disney, no Universal, nothing. I’m getting sad just thinking about it.

And I’ve been a major Disney fan since I was a kid – I’ve always loved Disney movies.

I’m planning to go to Disneyland Orlando next summer for two or three weeks, I’m going to save as much money as I possibly can and go for as long as I want and buy as much merch and cute t-shirts and dresses and everything. I’ll take an empty suitcase. I’m so excited. This is going to be twenty years of major Disney consumption built into one trip.

Also I’m not 20 yet, but I will be by then. I’ll be nearly 21 by then. That’s scary. Let’s move on.

But I’m so excited for this potential trip – I’m excited to see Epcot and all the rides and all the characters and all the shops and restaurants, I can’t fathom how excited I am.

I’ll be honest, I know very little about the parks outside of what I’ve seen in vlogs on YouTube but I don’t want to research it too much because I want to experience it first time!

But Disney vlogs always make me cry, like so much. Watching families with young children meeting their favourite characters makes me bawl almost as much as the mothers of these small children. I know full well that I will spend most of my trip to Disney crying but in a good way.

I’msoexcited.

Also Harry Potter! Disney World Orlando isn’t just Disney – there’s Universal resort, Harry Potter land, I’m so excited about Harry Potter. I’m really into Harry Potter right now and I’m so pumped for potential Harry Potter world. I’M JUST REALLY EXCITED.

I also really want to do the thing where you dress with a nod to a Disney character without actually cosplaying, there’s a word for it and I can’t remember it but I would have the cutest Belle dress and I’d love to dress like Peter Pan and Lilo and maybe Stitch too and Inside Out characters and just… I’m still excited and this hypothetically trip is nothing more than a hypothetical trip right now.

Two things to learn from this blog post: I really love Disney and I’m excited. And I said excited far too often.

Thank you for reading,

Sophie xx

sophie counts clouds

disney

Treasured In… April

June Monthly Mixtape

childhood heroes in fiction

September Favourites

DisneyLand Dream Goals