Being away from home can be tough sometimes. Before I left, I was worried about so many little things like living alone, dealing with the cold weather, being in a foreign country in general - but all those things haven't phased me since I've been here. The hardest part of it all is being away from the people you love, and that you're used to seeing every day for the past few years of your life. I obviously miss my friends and family a lot, but needless to say, I found it extremely hard to be away from my boyfriend for so long as we've never gone more than two weeks without seeing each other.

So my friend and I decided to book a surprise flight home and spend a few days there. It also happened to be both my mum and my dad's birthdays in the week I was there which was obviously even more special. I basically spent a few days enjoying sunny Malta and spending as much time as possible with people I hadn't seen in two months. It was obviously amazing seeing my boyfriend and getting to spend some quality time with him.

I must admit, it was a bit weird going back home though. It was weird because I now refer to my house in Coventry as my 'home', so being back in Malta felt like I was just on a short vacation. I'm curious to see what it feels like when I go back to Malta for good - I'm expecting a very bittersweet feeling but I'm not sure how I'm going to handle it. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

2016 was a very hard but also wonderful year for me personally. I can genuinely say that I had some of my lowest moments and also some of my happiest moments during last year. I experienced things, both good and bad, that I never thought I never thought I would have to deal with. So overall, I'd say it was a pretty great year. Although there were some tough times, 2016 helped me grow and allowed me to learn more about myself. 

I'm excited for 2017. I have high hopes for this year and I already have some amazing things planned. So like every year, I want to set some goals for myself and hopefully I'll manage to keep them up all throughout the year.

1. Cook more: Since I've lived alone for a few months on Erasmus, I obviously had to learn how to cook for myself. However I know that when I go back home I will automatically go back to relying on my mother to cook every day. So I want to carry on cooking meals and trying out new recipes even when I'm back home. I actually enjoy cooking and I want to keep improving, so hopefully I can keep this up!

2. Read more books: My aim for the year is to read at least one book each month. I absolutely love reading, and when I get a good book I won't put it down until I've finished it. So I want to try out different genres, different authors, and allow myself the time to get lost in another world for a few hours.

3. Be more productive: Gosh, I am so lazy. I could spend days in bed on my laptop and not even be bothered to meet anyone or leave the house. So this year I want to work my hardest at getting up early and doing something with my day. Whether it's going to university, going for a walk, or meeting up with my friends; I just don't want to waste my life away in bed haha.

Those are my three main goals for the year, let me know if you have any new year's resolutions that you hope to keep. I hope you all have a great year, and I'm excited to see what 2017 has in store for me!

xo

Fun fact about me: out of all the places I've visited until now, Dublin is by far my absolute favourite city. I've been there four times till now and I'm going again next summer which I'm already super excited about! So when the opportunity came to spend the weekend in Dublin, I obviously jumped on it. I mean, catching up with one of my best friends, seeing Bastille live, my favourite city - how could I say no?

We went to watch Bastille live at the 3 Arena which was beyond incredible. Both my friend and I already saw Bastille live earlier this year but they were so good that we just couldn't resist going to see them again. It was truly an amazing concert, they are so talented and Dan's voice is ridiculously perfect in my opinion. We were really close to the stage too which is always a good thing (especially since I'm literally 5"2.) If you ever get the opportunity to see them - do not think twice about it.

I enjoyed this trip because it was completely different to the other times I've visited Dublin. It was much less of a touristic visit. We spent most of our time in cute cafes and simply walking around admiring the beauty of the city. Since our friend lives there, he obviously knows the city well and took us to some of the best places. We only spent two days there but they were extremely relaxed and served as a short break from our normal daily lives. 

Seeing as Birmingham is only a ten minute train away from Coventry, my friend and I thought we should spend a day there. We got on the train quite early in the morning so we would have lots of time to go round the city without being rushed.

The first place we went to was Cadbury World as we had both heard so many great stuff about it; and I mean, who wouldn't want to spend the day surrounded by chocolate? It was actually so interesting to see and also so much fun. I think it's perfect for literally anyone no matter what age you are. We also got lots of free chocolate so that was a lovely bonus!! I loved the fact that the whole area in which Cadbury World is found has bits and pieces painted purple, from as soon as you get off the train! I thought that was such a cute touch and made the whole environment so much better.

We then headed to the BullRing shopping centre (which I had no idea was so huge) and had lunch at Jamie's Italian which obviously is never a bad idea. We went round a few shops and tried our best not to spend all our money, until we finally decided to head back home. 

It was such a lovely, relaxed day and I definitely want to visit Birmingham a few more times before I head back home for good. From what I saw, it seems like quite a nice city, and the face that it's so close to where I live at the moment gives me all the more reason to visit!

Halloween is one of my favourite times of the year, and every year I love to go all out with my costume and try to make it even better than the year before. This year, my friend and I decided to go as cursed mermaids. I mean, what's more perfect than looking scary while being a glowing highlighted mermaid at the same time?

The idea was that half our face was still in normal mermaid form (aka shiny pretty colours), while the other half of our face was slowly turning black and evil (aka cursed). We also decided to add some gore to spice up the look (and also because we really wanted to try using liquid latex), and it turned out pretty cool if I must say so myself! It's really easy to use too, just look up a few Youtube videos and you're good to go! Last but not least, we added a white contact lens on the cursed side to really make it look creepy, and in my opinion this put the whole look together. I've listed every product I used for this look down below, hope you like it!

Face:

○ Nars Sheerglow Foundation - Mont Blanc

○ Urban Decay Naked Skin Concealer - Fair

○ Sleek Solstice Highlighting Palette

Scales (use fishnet tights):

○ NYX Hot Singles Eye Shadow - Ultraviolet

○ NYX Prismatic Eye Shadow - Mermaid

○ Kat Von D Eye Contour Palette - Shax

○ Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette - Verve

Brows:

○ Anastasia Beverly Hills Dip brow - Dark Brown

○ NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil - Electric Blue

○ MAC Eye Shadow - Cranberry

Eyes:

○ NYX Prismatic Shadow - Mermaid

○ MAC Eye shadow - Cranberry

○ NYX Hot Singles Eye Shadow - Ultraviolet

○ Kat Von D Eye Contour Palette - Shax

○ NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil - Milk

○ Benefit Roller Lash Mascara

○ Eylure Enchanted After Dark Lashes

Lips:

○ NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil - Electric Blue

○ NYX Prismatic Shadow - Mermaid

○ Sleek Solstice Highlighting Palette 

○ Kat Von D Eye Contour Palette - Shax