The catch up over coffee

Hi Guys!

Sorry for the lack of posts about beauty, health and fashion I've just been extremely busy, and I know that's such a lame excuse, but it's true! So today I've decided to share with you what I've been doing recently and what I've got planned over the next few weeks, kind of like a catch up coffee date!

Lets go all the way back to the last week of my holidays. So I got back from Melbourne and had a week to do nothing much before I headed back to school! Seeing as we had just got back from Melbourne I had absolutely no money, I only had $15 which meant I couldn't even get that money out of the ATM because the minimum amount is only $20, boo! But luckily for me I only had to wait till Tuesday for my pay to come in, but even so I had to use it very sparingly. Anyway, so a few friends and I made a couple of visits to the city to go to our favourite cafe called 'The Brew', it's down an alley way and it has cheap food and good coffee, if you're from Brisbane definitely recommend you checking it out, it's in Burnett Lane, just of Queen St Mall. So we did that, then being cheapskates sun-baked in the park. On another day we decided to see a new movie out called 'Ruby Sparks', great movie! Then on the Friday arvo my favourite band Ball Park Music played a free gig in Queen St to celebrate the release of their new album 'Museum'. They also had a CD signing, so my friend and I got a CD signed and met them. They are the most chilled, down to earth people I've ever met! The rest of my holidays consisted of watching Pretty Little Liars and sitting in the oh so warm sun! 

Okay, so when I got back to school I was automatically bombarded with an assignment for each subject, yay! Still to this point I am yet to open the task sheets for any of them. So it reached the second week of term 4 and the grade 12 cohort headed of to Toowoomba (aka middle of nowhere) to attend a retreat. It was full of affirmations, fatty foods and crying. Though because I'm not an emotional person at all whist everyone was crying, I stood there being awkward trying to force a tear out of my eye, but it just didn't happen. We also had to hand in our baby picture for it to be presented on the last school assembly, which was a little bit sad (it's down below). 

So now that your up to date with my life, I'll share some exciting things coming up! The next few weeks are shaping up to be pretty damn decent! So on Tuesday night I've got my last awards night ever and I, Erin Hipwell, won an award, god knows what for but who cares! Then not the weekend coming, but the weekend after that, I've got the Last Dinosaurs and Jungle Giants concert then the week after that I've got the Ball Park Music and Loon Lake concert then the week after that is my last week of school ever, super excited! And then on that Saturday I head of to Schoolies, for all you that don't know what Schoolies is, it's when all year 12's of Queensland (and most of the rest of Australia) head to the Gold Coast and spend a week there partying it up to celebrate finishing 12 years of schooling! Then after that a solid 3 months of holidays before I start University! So, as you may have guessed I'm pretty keen! 

Sorry for the masssssive post, but I thought it was appropriate to catch up properly! I'd love to see what you guys have been upto! Anyway in a few days my 'herbal tea' review will be up! Catch you later! xx

P.S sorry for the crappy quality photos most are just from my phone!

Melbourne Trip part 2

Hi guys sorry the second Melbourne post has been a bit slow coming up, but here it is!

So now that we had arrived in Melbourne CBD we were ready to hit the city to shop and explore. Firstly we went and scoped the place out, whilst doing this we saw some iconic buildings (as shown below) such as the Parliament House, Hotel Esplanade- which is where an Australian show called Rock quiz is filmed, some massive churches and some other really fancy shmancy buildings. After doing the real touristy things we decided to hit up the shops and of course spend all our money in a short space of time. In Melbourne they have so many different shopping districts it’s ridiculous! Firstly there is Harbour Town, which is just a shopping outlet with heaps of sales. Then there is just the city centre which has all your ordinary shops you’d find in any Westfield store.  Then there is also Chapel St, which holds the high end stores. There are many more but I think you get the gist, it’s shopping central there. We also were lucky enough to experience the wild weather in Melbourne, it’s literally crazy, it’s raining one minute, sunny the next.  We loved going to all the cute little alley way shops to have a coffee and for dinners we enjoyed going to China Town as the meals were all around $10, I extremely satisfied with the Pad Thai. Overall, we had a fabulous time in Melbourne and I can’t wait to get back there next year! I highly recommend for anyone to go check it out; it’s a great place to go!

I am still currently working on my video so that should be up soon! Below are a few more photos for you guys to check out! Thanks all, talk again soon xx

  

Melbourne Trip

Hi guys! So as you know I'm in Victoria this week, and so far it's been absolutely fabulous! For the people that don't know, Victoria is a state here in Australia. So I arrived here on Sunday and for the past few days my mum and I have been staying with a friend (Karen) that lives in a place called Bendigo. We were there to celebrate her 50th birthday. The past few days have been full of celebration, including multiple dinners with friends and family and lots of presents. Bendigo is such a lovely place, it's full of beautiful old, vintage buildings and lovely parks with tones of colourful tulips. So today my mum and I have said good-bye to Karen and her son Ziggy and caught the country train from Bendigo to Melbourne CBD. As soon as we got here we were overwhelmed by the rush of things in the city. We then checked into our backpackers hostel (which to add is surprisingly tasteful and clean?!?). Anyway, at around 6pm we went out to explore a little and pick up some dinner. It became evident quite quickly that the people of Melbourne held much more style and life compared to Brisbane. It was also quite strange to see that Melbourne city was way busier on a Wednesday night than Brisbane city is on a Friday or Saturday night. So, after exploring we picked up some Indian curry and took it up to our room to enjoy whilst watching a long awaited episode of Big Brother. The next few days we intend to shop (till we drop, lol) and explore the city in greater depth. I am making a video of my time here, so if everything goes to plan, it will be up in a week or so. But for now I will leave you with an assortment of photographs taken over the past few days!

Looking forward to posting again soon!
xx

Birthday Picnic

Hi Guys,

I've finally finished all my exams and assignments for this term, yippie! This means that I will be dedicating much more time to this blog! So, it was my birthday yesterday and as you already know I got a camera! To celebrate my birthday I went down to the local park with my friends for a casual picnic as it was such a beautiful and sunny day. Me being eger to use my new camera, I decided to film snippets of the picnic and then later make them into a little video. This was my first time making a video, I usually tend to just stick to photography, however if you guys enjoy it I may start to do videos every now and then :) Also, on Sunday I am going to Melbourne for a week with my mum, so I may make a video out of that aswell :)

Here is the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RP9ZwxqjiU&feature=plcp

Hope you guys enjoy xx

Good & Bad News

Hey Guys!

So today I have some bad news and some good news.

I think I'll start with the bad news, so I can end on a good note!

So, the bad news is that for the next couple of weeks I will not be posting every Monday and Thursday, due to massive amounts of school work. However, I will try my best to upload something interesting every now and then. I do promise in 2 weeks time, the usual blogging will be back to normal!

Now, onto my good news. In around 2 weeks it is my birthday, woo! I know I mentioned this a couple of posts ago, but I am getting a camera. This therefore means that I will be posting photographs taken by myself! There is also a second piece of exciting news. As you may know, I have two blogs- my personal blog and my body and soul blog. I was soon to find out, that it's quite a lot of maintenance updating two blogs. So I have come to the conclusion to 'mash' both blogs together. So, this is the blog that I will keep, though the name will be changed to EKH. Don't stress, I still will be posting  body and soul tips, though I will also be posting about my personal life, this will include pictures and videos!

Sorry that post was so long.

Anyway, I hope you continue to stick around!

I assure you that when I come back in 2 weeks, my blog will be better than ever!

Thanks for hearing me out :)

EKH 

Sleep deprivation

So, for all the Aussie's it's term 3, the most dreaded term and for all people from the US and UK, I know you guys are starting back at school, so this advice may be useful for you guys later on in the year! 

So as you may have noticed, school does tend to cause alot of stress. This stress often leads to sleep deprivation. Being able to concentrate throughout a 6 hour school day can be hard enough without the extra exhaustion and tiredness, caused from stress and sleep deprivation. 

Teenager's need around 8.5-9.5 hours of sleep per night, however I do totally understand that this sometimes is hard to get due to other commitments or assignment overloads. Though, it is important that you, as a teenager, should be getting at least an 8 hour sleep per night. Another common issue that is causing sleep deprivation amongst teenagers is stress. Something that happens alot is once you get into bed, you tend to just lie there thinking about everything that is stressing you out, from assignments to friendship problems, and before you know it you've been lying there for 2 hours. 

A way to help you to get in the right frame of mind before going to sleep is to meditate. This relaxes your body and mind, getting you ready to go to sleep. All you need to do is shut your bedroom door so there are no distractions, turn your phone notifications off and find a cushion to sit on. If you wish to, you can also burn some incense. Then you are to sit there crossed legged, with a straight back, focusing on your breathing, in and out. Do this for around 20 minutes. This will ensure you are relaxed and in for a good nights sleep. 

Get your body ready for Summer

So, Winter is almost over and I'm sure alot of you are in the same position as I currently am, freaking out because your bikini  body is not up to scratch. Summer is fast approaching and it's about the time that most of you start crazy dieting and working out. So, today I am going to give you a few tips on how you can regain your summer body without agonising over every calorie you consume. 

1. Train your stomach. Slowly cut down your meal sizes, at first this may be hard but soon you will adapt to consuming a smaller meal and you will get full quicker. 

2. Don't snack. The biggest mistake we all make is thinking we are hungry when we are bored. This consequences in eating unnecessary food when we aren't even hungry. If you are ever bored, the best thing to do is to make a cup of herbal tea (peppermint, green ect). This will keep you preoccupied and trick your mind into thinking you are full, whilst allowing you to not gain any excess weight. 

3. Choose the 'lite' option. When buying things such as milk, yoghurt, ham, biscuits ect, purchase the 'lite' option. By taking this simple step you will be helping yourself, without any effort.

4. Wholemeal/wholegrain over white. If you are a massive carb lover, it is crucial that apply this to  your diet. Instead of purchasing white - bread, pasta and biscuits, purchase the wholemeal/wholegrain type. Wholemeal/wholegrain are so much better for you than any processed white products- they even have more flavour!

5. Schedule exercise. Figure out the days that you are able to exercise and schedule it into your week. You   may have heard that you need to do 30 minutes of exercise everyday, this may be true, but it's also unrealistic. If you schedule exercise for at least 4 times a week, you will stick to it because it's easy to achieve. This way is much better then going hard out and giving up after a week because it was too hard.

So to sum up, by following these 5 achievable tips you will be flaunting you bikini bod in no time!

Good luck! 

P.S Feedback would be great guys and also if you want me to do a post on anything in-particular, I'll be happy to do it! I also am getting a SLR camera for my birthday in a few weeks, so when I do my posts will have much more interesting photographs! Thanks

Fashun: Colours for Spring

Hi guys, so for all you Aussies you may be getting excited for the weather to start warming up as we make our yearly transition into spring!  So, today I thought I would share with you guys the colour trends that will be in fashion for spring 2012. The top 5 colours that will be trending are Tangerine, Mint, Citron Yellow, Kelly Green and Coral Pink. These array of colours will ensure that we bring a fresh start to Spring. So, you've officially got less than 10 days till you can debut your new Spring look, so  go and dig up your closet and see if you can find any of these colours- if not go treat yourself to some shopping! You won't regret it when you're a style icon for the trends of Spring 2012!

Tip: feel free to mix and match these colours aswell- as you may already  know colour block is absolutely in trend at the moment!

I'd love to see some of the looks you guys come up with!

San Cisco

Today I thought I would share with you guys a new and up-coming indie- pop band called 'San Cisco'. The four band members (left to right) Scarlett Stevens, Nick Gardner, Jordi Davieson and Josh Biondillo, went to school together in Fremantle, WA and from there they formed the legendary band now known as, San Cisco. The young Perth group placed in at number 7 with their hit 'Awkward' on Triple J's Hottest 100 in 2012. This was a massive step for San Cisco, getting them more recognition from around Australia. If you're ever wanting to chill out to some epic tunes, San Cisco are your guys.