Party, party, party!

Last night was my brother and his fiance's engagement party and, my oh my, what a night it was (oh god, I sound like my Nan). The food, delicious. The music, banging. The atmosphere, amazing. 

The night in general was somewhat phantasmagorical (I promise I didn't make that word up, look it up, use it in an essay to impress your teacher or in a game on scrabble to wow your friends. Go on, my treat). It was most definitely one to remember, that is unless you're my brother; who had 4 Jagerbombs, shortly after downing a pint of Carling, leaving his eyes to drift in all different directions.

(Oooh, sneak peak of my outfit!)

It was so lovely for me to see my brother and soon-to-be sister-in-law so happy, enjoying their night surrounded by their nearest and dearest friends and family. As one of the most treasured invitees, of course, I decided to enjoy my night and make as many fond memories as I could, with as little input from social media and technology as possible.

However I really wanted to somehow get you guys involved, without forcing you to read a whole bloody dissertation on a strangers party. Because lets be serious if you want anything to do with a strangers party, it's an invite, not a report. Am I right?

My way of doing this was to photograph and talk you through the outfits instead... So apparently, I now think I'm a fashion blogger. 

This co-ord is nothing like anything else in my wardrobe, I'm used to wearing bodycon dresses or jumpsuits whenever I go out. However my hips are a bit weird, they kind of go out, then in, then out, like an hourglass, but in the completely wrong place haha! So when I where certain bodycon's or figure hugging bottoms, it hugs that bit and doesn't look great. When I saw this online I wasn't sure if it'd make me look old fashioned, frumpy or like a sack of potatoes, but I ordered it just in case, and sure enough when it came I fell in love, it hugged all the right places! Plus it was a bargain, essentially three outfits for the price of one! I'll for sure be investing in more co-ords and box-pleat midi skirts in the future!
Now I bought these shoes before I got a spray tan and I understand that they just kind of blend into my feet... so let this be a lesson to all of us, when buying shoes, clothes, accessories or anything else, try and be about the same colour when trying it on as you will when you wear it! Regardless of that, they are beautiful shoes and I'll definitely be pairing these with dressy and casual outfits throughout the summer!

My fake tan wasn't actually the only issue I had with these shoes, initially I bought an odd pair... As dim as you imagine I must be to purchase two different shoes, I do have some (very weak) reasoning behind it. The right shoe had a big scratch on the strap, so I obviously looked for one in a better condition, and after a while I found one. My boyfriend and I had checked around five times that we had a left and a right shoe, so when I got home and the first thing my mom said was "They're odd" I smugly disagreed, knowing that I definitely had one left shoe, and one right. I was right, but so was she, I then realised that they weren't actually the same shoe. It's not my fault that New Look put two extremely similar, strappy nude block heel wedges right next to each other!
--- I went with the ones on the left by the way! ---
I paired the outfit with a denim jacket that I've had for years as I thought it went well, keeping the vibe sweet and summery. However I must admit that I only actually wore it for this photo, as the weather was beautiful last night, so I didn't really need a jacket.
I wore my Pandora bracelet and my Swarovski rare ring in rose gold, as the pattern on the co-ord is quite busy I kept the jewellery quite simple and avoided wearing a necklace as I didn't want to draw any more attention to my chest...

Cor-ord set - £22 - Boohoo
Denim jacket - £36 - Warehouse (sale)
Shoes - £14.99 - Newlook (sale)
Ring - £49 - Swarovski

Thank you so much for reading guys and gals, I hope you're having a lovely bank holiday weekend! Speak again soon!

Love Rosie x

BUSTED!

At first I was unsure as to whether I'd accidentally walked into a slipknot concert, due to the men walking round wearing purge-like pig masks and what appeared to be hundreds of caged battery pig-humans behind the stage. But after seeing 12 middle aged women, with pink rinses, wearing McBusted tour t-shirts, I knew I was home.

Now, Busted broke up when I was six, so they were genuinely my childhood, after crying for days once they announced their split, that hole in my heart remained unfilled. Just waiting for another music act to make me feel the way they did, but not one artist. over the last 12 years, had the ability to take me 984 years into the future, to see triple breast women swimming around town, totally naked! (Not that that was the kind of thing I was into when I was 6... or now as a matter of fact)

But whatever, they were a big part of my childhood and when I was 7 I was at a market in Orlando, Florida and had a photo taken in front of a green screen, which was then superimposed onto a photo of busted and then printed onto a t-shirt. Best. Day. Ever.

After having to learn the words to more than half the songs played last night, I'm now no longer calling myself a true fan. Ashamed as I am to admit this, I only knew air hostess, sleeping with the light on, year 3000 and what I go to school for; their most mainstream songs, but hey I was like 4 when they were at their peak, so cut me some slack.

(Homemade gif, check me out!)

Losing me voice singing those four songs was totally worth it though, I had such a good night and got so excited that I almost cried! Oh and my super crush on Charlie Simpson came right back ❤️

SEE I bet most of you used to knock him for his eyebrows, well massive slugs are back in style, so who's laughing now?

One thing I find hilarious is that I'm going to Wireless in July. 

Prior to attending this festival I will have seen Ed Sheeran, One Direction (twice), Olly Murs and Busted live... What a contrast haha 

Thanks so much for reading guys and gals, let me know who your childhood artists were in the comments! Speak again soon :)

Love Rosie x

It's nice to be nice

One of my absolute favourite things is when a stranger says happy birthday to me!

And that's probably because I'm that stranger! 

One of my all time biggest pet peeves is when people don't accept the compliment! I mean lets be serious, we all know that deep down, the reason you're wearing that badge is so that everyone knows it's your day, and so they should! Which is exactly why I just wished you a happy birthday, so roll your eyes right back to where they came from and thank me, you ungrateful little shit! I honestly get so riled in these situations, it's happened to me countless times at school, all I want is for a very smiley face to turn back and shout "Thank you!", because at the end of the day I wished you a happy birthday not deathday, chill the hell out and cheer the fock up bro! It's your birthday!

Another thing I hate, again related to manners, is when someone doesn't have any... Oh my God, Lord have mercy, someone please stop me from punching this rude, impolite, uneducated bastard in the face. 

I CANNOT stand when people don't say please and thank you, it grates on me so badly and I'm always drawn between killing them with kindness, by being even more smiley and polite than I usually am, or thinking f*ck you! And treating them with exact same ridiculously low level of respect with which they're treating me. To be honest I usually wimp out and just treat them as I would anyone else, but that's beside the point, the angry thoughts are there, I assure you!

I find that this happens a lot to me at work and it isn't the gang of 14 year olds, each ordering a mayo chicken and an oreo McFlurry, no. It's not the 86 year old man that comes in every morning for his black coffee and hash brown either, no. It's the middle aged people, rushing on their way to work, the ones that always ask "Will it take long?".
Okay, here's the thing, I work on the till, I can do drinks, McFlurry's and drive thru too, but at 10:26 in the morning, 4 minutes before breakfast finishes, I do not have time to ask everyone in the kitchen how long your Sausage and Egg McMuffin is going to take, but I will anyway. And no doubt will I get the same answer as always "No longer than 3 minutes" as well a bollocking from my manager later, for asking stupid question when I have 11 people queueing up to get their orders in before breakfast finishes. Yet will this customer thank me when I come back and tell her that her food will be "no longer than 3 minutes"? No. Will this customer thank me when I read back her order to check she's got everything that she would like, to start her day off right? No. And will this customer say thank you when I hand her her change, give her her receipt and tell her to have a great day at work? No. No she won't. And this is the reason I cry myself to sleep.

It annoys me on quite a deep level that I have to use this gif, as I find Jimmy Fallon EXTREMELY annoying... but there were no other good ones, so here he is, blessing my blog for the first and  hopefully last time

I can't drive yet, but I do get road rage. Mainly at zebra crossings, pelican crossings... all types of crossings from the animal kingdom. HOW is it not just a natural reaction to put your hand up to the car and nod your head when crossing? (The universal way of saying thank you) If it was not for the driver of this car (my mom), you could be waiting at that crossing for 10 minutes, which could lead you to be 15 minutes late for school, causing you to miss your mark on the register, meaning that during the fire drill later your absence is expected. Little do they know that you're having a wee when the alarm goes off. So now you're there locked in the bathroom, with no one coming to look for you. And then you die,
My mom made sure that you didn't die today. Next time, say thank you.

Thanks so much for reading guys and gals, I hope this one made you laugh a bit and I hope you're having a great day!

Love Rosie x

The key to confidence

Put your snorkel on guys, this ones about to get deep.

My cousin, Laura, is just a month and 2 days younger than me (which I like to rub in her face haha). So, as you can imagine, growing up we were very close, especially because we only lived a couple of streets away from each other.

I was the loud, confident, super smiley one and she was seen as the shy, quiet and introverted one. The best way to depict this for you would be to compare our birthday parties. Every February I'd rock up to her party, on my own and end up leaving with 5 new best friends! However every January Laura would bring 2/3 of her friends along and either stick with them or her mom for the whole of the afternoon.

We stuck to these roles from the ages of 2 (or whenever you develop a personality) until about 13. And at 13 we switched, entirely. Laura became this loud, confident, big personality and I became an insecure, unsure version of myself, known to most as "Laura O'Grady's cousin". I can't pinpoint exactly what caused the change for Laura, however I know exactly what caused my major personality shift.

What I consider to be the worst year of my life, consisted of losing two close family members, as well as all but one of my friends. The events, although completely unrelated, all impacted my year and my life in a huge way. The loss of my dog, Sammy (who had been a part of my family for just under 13 years) and then the loss of my grandad just a few months later had both knocked me off my feet slightly, feeling quite a lot of emptiness, all quite suddenly. And then, just two weeks before the summer holidays I had a huge falling out with all of my friends.

The 8 weeks of loneliness with not even Sammy to cuddle when everything got a bit too much, turned me into a shell of myself; my confidence completely gone, taking my smile away with it.

I had one friend who stuck by me throughout this and I will never know quite how to thank him and I don't think he'll ever know quite how much he did for me or how much he meant to me, throughout our friendship, that summer especially.

At that point in my life all I wanted was my friends back, regardless of how I had been treated, I just didn't want to be lonely anymore. 

A few weeks into the first term of year 10, I got my wish, I managed rekindle the friendships with my old group, and I was happy again. However looking back now, I'm not happy with the person I was; I was nasty, bitchy, unwelcoming and judgemental.

I'm completely overcome with shame whenever anyone brings up my past, because I am not a bad person and I know that now. It took a further two years for me to realise this and get in with a new group of friends. For those two years I was still extremely self conscious, unconfident and unhappy. I was reluctant to join teams, clubs or start anything new, in fear of being judged.

If you saw me today and knew nothing about my past, I honestly think that you would have no idea I had been through such a rough patch. Although I used to resent my old friends for making me feel so low, in hindsight I think that it has made me into a better person, someone that I can be proud of. I found my smile again and my confidence is greater than it ever was before! 

It may not seem like much, but I often get compliments at work, from the customers, on how nice it is to be served by someone so happy, and that honestly fills me with joy. I love the fact that I have made someone else happy, just by being happy in myself.

So happy in my own skin, I'm a much happier person now than ever before and I think that is the key to being happy and confident in yourself, you have to be your own #1 fan! Just sit back and take a second to think about all the good you do for yourself and for others, whether it's serving a customer with a smile or hugging your friend when their upset or telling your mom that you love her. The key to gaining confidence, I believe, is making everything you do count towards someones happiness. 

Try it out. Wear a beaming smile all day long and see what good things come to you and what happiness you bring to others!

I am sure that so many others have been through stages just like this in their lives, where they have completely lost themselves. This post is a story of my journey and proof that with every down there is an up and that every cloud has a silver lining. I am extremely grateful for my family and friends that helped me through that year and I'm also so proud of my own strength, for knowing that everything was going to be okay and for never giving up.

If something ever goes wrong in your life and you cannot, for the sake of you, find anything positive, just know that it's coming and remember that, as horrible as it may be, once you reach rock bottom, you can only go up from there.

Thank you so much for letting me share this with you guys and gals, if you can relate to this I hope I have helped in someway :) Remember that if you keep smiling, only good things can come your way!

Love Rosie x

Everything that is wrong with the cinema

I don't recall getting on a plane this evening, yet somehow I ended up watching Captain America: Civil War in Antarctica...

I mean seriously, has anyone that works at a cinema ever actually sat through a 2 hour film? Because they have the air-con blasting like they're showing a 4D documentary on the Sahara desert or something.

Almost freezing to death however, was not the first issue I faced this evening. £3.50 for a bag of peanut M&M's is a joke, if you don't go to the closest B&M, Home Bargains or Poundland before the cinema, to stock up on snacks, then should you even actually be trusted with money?

It's been worse, much worse, I've had backpacks full of sweets, chocolates, drinks and even a KFC snackbox stuffed into my coat pocket once before and been allowed in. But NO, today they decided to check my bag, £3.02 I spent on that popcorn and drink! And they took it all off me! As annoyed as I was, I understood, I understood that it was their policy and that technically I should have just bought everything from there and not been a tight arse (but that's just not me)

I understood, that was, until a guy strolls into the screening, not a bag in sight, a large McDonald's cup in one hand and a McCafe bag in the other... I'm sorry, but is this a joke? How the hell did you manage that one mate? To make matters worse, he was row S seat 17... And here's my ticket

I have never felt the urge to go to the toilet THAT badly, that I had to leave midway through a film I paid £6 to watch! So why is it, that approximately 85% of the audience tonight where playing a game of musical chairs? 

One women stood up, shuffled right the way along her row, shout-whispering "Sorry", "Thank you", "Sorry" as she went, she then walked all the way down the stairs, right up to the screen and attempted to go out the fire exit... At this point I'm left wondering 3 things. 1) That door has a huge green sign above it saying exit, not a stick man wearing a skirt, how did you confuse it with a toilet? 2) You clearly did not enter the room via that door and considering you passed two lots of toilets before reaching screen 7... are you okay? 3) WTF just happened to Ironman?!

There is one kiss in the film, which lasted about 3 seconds. Tony Stark also pulls up in a Audi R8 at one point. How are these events related you may ask? At both points of the film I was taken from the antarctic, to a classroom filled with toddlers who had just learned how to whistle. A monotone wolf whistle to my left, another tone-deaf stuttered attempt coming from my right and what sounded like a gassy fart from the front row. Now lets all calm down and leave the sound effects to the professionals shall we.

And lastly, quite possibly the most irritating, most frustrating, most obnoxious part about the people surrounding you in a cinema is the noise of their existence. Without sounding too unreasonable, I came here to watch a film. I did not spend just under £10 to listen to your impression of Darth Vader, your clueless friends non-stop questions or your son rustling around in his popcorn like a fox through a dustbin.

Thanks so much for reading guys and gals! I'm hoping most of you could relate to this one and that you found it somewhat entertaining haha. Speak again soon!

Love Rosie x

P.S; The film was actually really good by the way! Forgot to mention that haha

You can do ANYTHING if you... copy

Now I'm really not the "sexy cat" kind of gal, however I was told that we could dress up for work on Halloween and I didn't exactly want to scare away the customers (that is, anymore than my makeup-less face usually does haha) so I decided to search through YouTube and try out some different styles of makeup the night before, because, lets face it, a nose, whiskers, and pants round my ankles isn't exactly my style. 
So "What's pretty, presentable and suitable for Halloween?" I thought to myself, and this is where innovation struck me like a bolt of lightning "A CAT!" ... Brill, absolutely brill.
But, as I said, a nose  and whiskers wasn't going to cut it, and who's even scared of a frigging tabby cat anyway? So I decided to be a leopard! (I think it was a leopard anyway)

---- May I just make a disclaimer to warn you all and apologise for what you are about to see. I've always been blonde and so have my bloody eyebrows so, being used to them being invisible, when Jemima646 told me to make my brows "BIG and BOLD", in her Sexy Cat With A Twist video, I literally made the biggest, boldest and oddest shapes around the 6 visible eyebrow hairs I have ----

There was a party that same night, and I wasn't sure whether my boyfriend and I were going, as we both had work in the day (I was only working until 3, he was there until 9 in the evening bless him). However I wanted to go, so I saw this as a 6 hour window to create a Halloween costume he couldn't refuse (although that sounds pretty dirty, I assure you this makeup look wasn't exactly a turn on haha)

1, 2 or 14 video tutorials of bullet wounds, zombie bites and stab wounds later and away I went. I struggled, using eyelash glue and toilet roll instead of latex, red nail varnish instead of fake blood and a Sharpie instead of a black coagulant, but I got there in the end!

I messily threw my hair up, put on some standard clothes, created a bruise on my collar bone and voilà! It ended up looking pretty damn good, I was very proud of myself.
Oh, and it worked, he saw me, was very impressed, asked to have something similar and off we went to get drunk with a slutty nurse, superman, Skepta and many others!

(The handsome guy with the fat head is my boyfriend, beautifully modelling a stab wound to the face.)

My school also does a day for Children In Need where all the sixth formers dress up. Now mine and my boyfriends costumes in year 12 were good, don't get me wrong, but the emphasis was more on the costume (and posture) than the makeup and special effects.

Following Halloween this year I was on a bit of a hype, excited to play around with makeup a little more and see if I could create something even better than a bullet hole made of tissue. Harry and Marv... The bad guys from home alone? You got it! I saved one photo onto my phone and then just free styled it.

Well, I think it went quite well, if I do say so myself 

Year 12

Year 13

I apologise for not having artsy shots, on a white background, these were all taken before my blogging days. I also apologise for some of the filters; I was young, naive and gagging for more than 10 likes on Instagram haha.

Thanks so much for reading guys and gals, I hope you enjoyed it! Speak again soon :)

Love Rosie x

I never eat McDonald's...

From what age would you say you're old enough to start deciding what you eat, wear and do? I'd say about 11? Okay, well after seeing a mighty 2 fights in my town centre before the age of 11, I had told my mom on numerous occasions that, no, I was never EVER going to go to town on my own. Although that may seem ridiculous, I  remember each incident clearly.

It all started with the pool of "blood"

It was like any other Saturday morning (tbf I'm just guessing it was a Saturday) my mom and I were going to town to get some new school shoes (again, that's a guess), just as we're leaving the car park I see a pool of blood! (it was NOT blood) After trying her very best to console a 9 year old me, by telling me that it was just Coke, my mom took me to Claire's Accessories and bought me some clip on smiley face earrings in an attempt to take my mind off the whole traumatic incident! It clearly didn't work, as here I am, 9 years later, recalling this story to total strangers, reliving it as though it was yesterday.

(It probably was a Sunday actually, because parking's free on a Sunday, but whatever)

Millie and Claire

There I was, minding my own business, tucking into a white chocolate Millie's cookie after slurping down my mint choc chip milkshake, and my eyes, ears (all sense but taste really (that Millie's cookie was gooooood)) are drawn to the opening of Claire's Accessories. OMG get me out of here mother! Scratching, biting, hair pulling, punching, kicking, the works. Lord almighty I was scared! These two girls were having a full blown scrap in front of bloody Claire's Accessories. There were children crying, elderly people fleeing, adults tutting and most importantly crumbs falling... Getting so caught up in the palaver, I had failed to realise that my cookie was falling all over the floor! So not only had my innocent mind been overexposed to real life, down and dirty, violence, I'd also been robbed of half of my cookie! WHAT A DAY! 

Now if that's not a reason to never EVER go to town on your own, I don't know what is.

If I were a boy...

This time it wasn't just my mom and I, my dad and brother were in town with us too. We walked, clueless and innocent, into River Island that afternoon, carelessly browsing the rails of menswear, upstairs. After buying my dad a new wallet and my brother a belt we headed down the stairs, with the intention of leaving the shop. Haha not today O'Grady's, you can't get away that easily! It was as though fate was telling me to buy that pink stripey blouse my mom had been forcing me to try on (did I mention that I dressed like, looked like and resembled a boy until about the age of 15?)
WHAT A RUCKUS! There were about 6 young boys crowding around one other punching, kicking, head butting, biting, hair pul... you get the gist. They were basically just battering this poor kid! Being the over-sensitive, town centre-hating, child I was I genuinely shit myself (not genuinely ffs), we were trapped! I couldn't handle it, my impressionable little mind and delicate little eyes couldn't take anymore, I just headed up the stairs and started looking through the rails... nothing but a bit of retail therapy to cure PTSD :)

I digress... as usual. At the ripe old age of 11 I was ready to take the world head on, starting by facing my fear. First stop - Town Centre. With my cousin (who was also 11) by my side I stepped onto the number 3 bus, chatted as though I was fine for the whole of the journey and then froze. Right in the bus doorway, I froze, too scared to get off the bus! I got off eventually and saw no fights or signs of violence for the entirety of my trip, I was a changed girl (/boy). From then on I was going to town every weekend; shopping, going to restaurants, bowling, the cinema etc...

Not once, since that fateful day at the age of 11 until August 2015, did I choose to buy a McDonald's whilst in town (McFlurry's don't count okay), I had the freedom of what to eat, wear and do what I wanted and not once did I eat there. Everything about the place made me sick in fact! From the idea of it to the smell of the restaurant, I just couldn't hack it... It repulsed me. And I took pride in the fact that never, had I EVER chosen to eat McDonald's...

On Wednesday 16th September 2015 I started my part-time job

Haha, bit of a nonsense post but I hope you enjoyed it! Thanks so much for reading guys and gals, speak again soon!

Love Rosie x

The start of something new

Ayy straight in there with the High School Musical reference

So this is where it all begins I guess.

Some may call it procrastination (namely my mom) but I feel as though being committed to a blog will help me be committed to everything else... hopefully!

Now, I'm not talking relationships. I can hold a friendship, I'd like to say I'm a damn good friend! That is, once you get past my extreme social awkwardness and shyness and I actually let you get to know me.

No. I'm talking about commitment to work, school work... eurghhhhh

I'm 18 (as I assume you guessed from the title of the blog) and currently finishing my second year of A levels and omg, I'm just the laziest person in the world. I mean, these exams are coming at me, full speed, head on, they're literally on top of me. And here I am, starting a blog.

Enough rambling, well, I say that but all I really want is to say hi.

My post's are going to be on coping with stress, staying healthy mentally and trying my very hardest to not become overwhelmed with the impending doom that is exam period. But not just that, I want this page to be upbeat and enjoyable for you guys to read! (Although the topics I just said I'd focus on don't quite seem too happy or exciting haha) I'm basically just going to keep you all up to date with my life and hopefully write posts that are relatable and entertaining.

And I said enough rambling... oops haha

Anyway, to finish off I'll tell you a little bit (more) about myself:

• My name's Rosie O'Grady (no relation to Paul)
• I'm from Wolverhampton, a terrible little city right next to Birmingham, England
• I once broke my collar bone, whilst being trampled by a group of 8 year old boys
• I also once fell backwards off a trampoline, splitting my head open, on a toilet
• I have no idea what I want to do with my life, however I will hopefully be studying biomedical science at the University of Chester for the next 3 years of it... after that, who knows?

 I think that's about all for this post, thanks so much for reading guys and gals, speak again soon :)

Love Rosie x

(haha like the film^)

P.S; I spell checked this before I posted it and found it quite hilarious that the word blog is considered a spelling mistake... on blogger. Just thought I'd share that with you haha