College and Life Update - Autumn 2016

I enjoy sharing elements of my life here on Daisies and Delights and documenting some of my events and achievements, making a change from the usual content about beauty and books. Various things have happened over the past couple of months that I really wanted to share, so I decided to create this post to update you on what's happening in my life right now, as well as to give you an insight into who I am behind my blog, so I hope you enjoy reading it.

STARTING COLLEGE

September was an exciting month for me as I started college. After working extremely hard towards my GCSEs and gaining some amazing results (I got 6 A*s and 4 As, which I honestly couldn't believe), it was time to start a new chapter and begin my A-Levels. The subjects that I decided to study are English Literature, English Language and Psychology, as well as doing an Extended Project Qualification. College is definitely a change in atmosphere from secondary school but so far I've loved every minute of it and feel as though I've settled in nicely. I'm enjoying all of my subjects, I've made some new friends and I'm generally very pleased to be in college right now. I'll definitely be sharing more about my journey in the future, as well as some revision tips and advice if that's what you'd like to see, so if you want to know more about my experience with college then you'll have to stick around.

DANCE COMPETITION

During the October half-term, I had another dance competition. This was only my second time competing and so was extremely nervous, but it went surprisingly well. This competition was a higher profile than the first, with many more dance schools attending and all of the well-known studios from my area being there, which definitely added to my nerves. We competed two groups: a lyrical number that we'd been practising for some time now and took first place in the previous competition; and a 'mixed-genre' commercial routine that was brand new and so only finished a few days before the competition.

Both routines went surprisingly well and we performed them with little-to-no mistakes, despite such a limited time learning and rehearsing them. At awards, it was announced that our mixed-genre group got 1st place in its category, and our lyrical group also got 1st place in its category. The icing on top of the cake was when the lyrical group received 3rd place overall out of all of the groups, which was an amazing achievement. Above you can see the trophies that we won, which are definitely impressive and are a token of how much hard work went into the routines.

BLOGGER MAIL

I'm always incredibly grateful to be sent products by different brands and companies to review here on Daisies and Delights, and I'm really glad that my hard work has been recognised. To show my gratitude for this, I thought I'd briefly mention the products that I've received over the past couple of months. Rimmel have been incredibly generous to me and I was overjoyed to receive their new Scandaleyes Reloaded range - consisting of two mascaras and two eyeliners that I've loved using. A post about these, along with an exciting giveaway, will be with you soon so I'd make sure to keep an eye out for that. About a month later, they also sent me the entire range of the new The Only One Lipsticks, which I couldn't believe. There's definitely a shade for everyone here, and from swatching them I'm pretty impressed with the pigmentation and texture. If you'd like to hear more about these then a review is definitely on its way.

I also received some book mail from Pan Macmillan in the form of two proof copies. This was very exciting for me, as all of the books I've received in the past have been published, opposed to proofs. The two books that I was sent are Heartless by Marissa Meyer and A Quiet Kind of Thunder by Sara Barnard, both of which I've heard incredible things about and can't wait to review on my blog. Both of these books aren't released until 2017, so I was thrilled to be able to read and review them much earlier.

BRONZE ARTS AWARD

If you've been reading Daisies and Delights for a long time, you'll remember that I was working on my Bronze Arts Award throughout 2014 and 2015 in my local library. This was something that I dedicated a lot of time and effort towards, ensuring that it was at the highest standard possible, and I was pleased with the finished product once I'd completed it. Although it took a long time for it to be moderated and sent back, I received my results in September and found out that I'd passed! This was a huge relief, as I'd been curious about my result for quite some time, and it was great to know that my hard work had been rewarded.

DRAMA EXAM

Every year at Lipa we do a different exam, and this year it will be a LAMDA Grade 6 group drama exam, with this taking place next Saturday. For all of our past drama exams we were given a script to work with or lots of help from our teacher, but for this exam we have to work as a group to create our own piece. With the stimulus being the poem The Manhunt by Simon Armitage and our chosen practitioner being Steven Berkoff, we conducted lots of research and created a 15-20 minute choral piece. The creation process was challenging and a struggle at times, especially with such a great level of detail required, but at the same time it was enjoyable to have more freedom rather than being limited by a script. The entire process definitely involved a lot of work and stress, especially with such a short timeframe, but hopefully the exam will go well.

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Thank you for reading this post and if you liked hearing about myself and what's going on in my life, make sure to let me know. I enjoy writing more laid-back, chatty posts like this one so I can definitely produce more in the future if it's something you'd like to see. As I mentioned earlier, I have a giveaway coming up very shortly, most likely next Sunday, so make sure you come back to check out that!

Love from Daisy x