relax & unwind

With this term being a particularly stressful term with a lot of studying coming up (or so I'd like to lead myself to believe), I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to share some of my ways to relax and unwind amidst waves of stress and being buried under piles of books.

First things first, make yourself a steamy cup of tea - tea is literally like my safe place; it's like a hug in a cup.

Okay now that you've successfully made tea to your taste - some like it milky, some like it not quite black with two drops of milk - you can move onto my next step.

This next step for me involves either a) switching on the TV or b) in most cases my laptop and surfing the interwebbles.

My go-to interweb sites are firstly YouTube and catching up on all my subscriptions - there's generally a dailygrace or two to watch and a couple of vlogs there too along with the normal youtuber videos.

Secondly i open up facebook but if I'm not in the mood to be annoyed by the people I kinda met this one time. then i open up pintrest and play house and fashionista by repinning all these beautiful looking photos. But I tend not to open weheartit, it's hopelessly too soppy, self-piteous and teenage dream (most of the time anyway) for my liking.

Once I'm done catching up on these two important sites in between the sips of tea i move onto series. Series is another way to get lost for a couple hours - some prefer books, which I don't mind but series is my calling. 

Thankfully it's October which means a lot of the series that I watch are premiering this month - just in time to help me procrastinate studying for exams (jokes, mom).

What are your favourite ways to relax and de-stress? Have a great week! xo

Happy Friday!

It's the weekend at last, this week feels like it dragged fooo' sure. This week was mildly uneventful although yesterday was October 3rd and the Mean Girls world imploded and it was a very grand day quoting Mean Girls (not that I don't do that on a daily basis anyway - totes relatable, I mean "get in loser we're going shopping" who doesn't use that in everyday life??)

I digress. Looking forward to another chilled weekend and procrastinating hopefully getting myself organised for the upcoming exams and what not. I am also loving getting back in the blogging groove.

Have a suuuper fab weekend all. xx

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C'est une citation.

We all have those days where we would rather just hide under the duvet for the day and so this is just a little motivation quote for those days because sometimes you just got to fake it till you make it.

What do you think? xo

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I like them 80s movies.

So this year I've fallen in love with everything to do with old movies - especially 80s and 90s movies.

I love the naïveté of the characters and the simplicity of the times in the high school movies compared to teenhood today. It just really and truly makes me happy. Before you jump ahead - no I do not wish I was a teen in the 80s, truly. I'm pretty sure I was born in the right era because I can't imagine being a teen without internet. 

So I thought I'd just give you a list of my favourite golden oldies that I will never get tired of, it's not quite a top ten but it's close. 

1. The Breakfast Club

This movie is one of my all time favs and I will never get tired of - don't you wish that you could go to detention and come out with new friends and a boyfriend? 

2. 10 things I hate about you

Yes, yes it's not an 80s movie but it's still an oldie and a classic. I first watched this movie whilst on exchange and I recently rewatched it and loved it all over again - how can you not love her poem in the end and of course Heath Ledger? 

3. Dirty Dancing

One of the cutest love stories there is. If you didn't feel utter joy when they could do the lift in the end then there is a problem. 

4. Sixteen Candles

I didn't enjoy this one as much as the others but it's still one of my favourite oldies. It follows the story of a girl on her sixteenth birthday where her family has forgotten about her birthday and even worse the boy she has a crush on doesn't know she exists - imagine how horrible that must be.

5. Footloose 

Now before you say that you've watched this one you better not be talking about the 21st century remake. The original version is much much better - surprise surprise. I find it more sincere and believable and it just suits the time better having it set in that decade (the 80s) rather then today. 

6. Dead Poets Society 

I forgot how sad and heartwarming this movie was until I rewatched it recently. The movie follows the lives of boarding school boys whose lives are changed by a new English teacher. It is such a well-written story about following your passion and not following convention and tradition for the sake of it.

7. Pretty in Pink
This is one of those really bad 80s movies you can't help but love and find entertaining. Another Molly Ringwald movie where Andie finds herself in a bit of a love triangle and she has to choose between a sweet rich boy and a childhood friend.

8. Some Kind of Wonderful
I found this movie to be very similar to Pretty in Pink but the gender roles are reversed where Keith asks out a popular girl unbeknown to him that his tomboy best friend has a huge crush on him. If I had to choose my favourite between Pretty in Pink and this one - Some Kind of Wonderful would get my vote because I found it cuter and my heart melted more at the end of this one than at the end of Pretty in Pink, that's a very good indication right?

That's my list - it's not a very long list but out of all the 80s movies I've watched so far, these are my fav. It's a lot of John Hughes and quite the Molly Ringwald overload. 

Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. What are your favourite golden oldies? xx

Images: the breakfast club, 10 things I hate about you, dirty dancing, sixteen candles, footloose, dead poets society, pretty in pink, some kind of wonderful

C'est une citation.

I came across this quote whilst reading a book based on real events called Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. I found it quite thought-provoking and thought to share it. 

Tutu.

A while back I found a DIY article on Rookie on how to make a tutu. It didn't look that complicated and I've been itching to do a DIY project for a while. So I decided to give it a bash (LOL, how English of me next thing you know I'll be starting posts with top of the morning to you). 

So here's a simplifed version of how you do it and me being the organised person that I am - I didn't take any "during"/"process" photos so your imagination is important here. But I did capture some photos of me prancing around it, selfies etc. Usual tutu behaviour. 

Stuff to make tutu:

• roughly 9m of 140cm wide tulle, depending on the amount of poof you want in your tutu. I opted for a harder sort of tulle almost like net. 

• a piece of fabric about 13cm wide and the length of your waist, this acts as "skirt".

• piece of ribbon - a little longer than your waist. 

• scissors

• measuring tape

• sewing pins

• needle and thread

The method was simply laying out the fabric on a flat surface. Then cutting even strips of the fabric and then folding each strip of fabric in half and looping it and tying it around your ribbon. I then hand sewed a piece of white fabric underneath the tutu which acted as a skirt. Please do check out the full article up on Rookie for more detailed explanations and methods.

I hope this inspired some of you to release your creative side. Trust me, it isn't that hard - if I can do it, you can (me who can barely sew a button, don't tell my mom that). I haven't really had a chance to frolic in it yet, waiting on that perfect summer's day. I really did enjoy making my tutu and have definitely caught the DIY-bug so I will be trying out more DIY things as I come across them on Pintrest. Stay stylish, lovelies! 

Sunday Songs

I've only done this post once before. I guess it's not often that I find a song that I madly enjoy and want to share it. This particular song is another french song called Je Veux by Zaz. It has quite a jazzy vibe to it. It's just really fun and makes you want to dance and sing a long. I put the french and english translation below as well so you can follow along. I hope it brightens up your Sunday, enjoy!
(please excuse the corresponding lyrics not matching up exactly, the OCD in me tried very hard to get them to align but alas it refused to budge)

Je Veux

I want

Donnez-moi une suite au Ritz, je n’en veux pas Des bijoux de chez Chanel, je n’en veux pas Donnez-moi une limousine, j’en ferais quoi? Offrez-moi du personnel, j’en ferais quoi? Un manoir à Neufchatel, ce n’est pas pour moi! Offrez-moi la Tour Eiffel, j’en ferais quoi? Je veux de l’amour, de la joie, de la bonne humeur Ce n’est pas votre argent qui fera mon bonheur Moi je veux crever la main sur le coeur Allons ensemble, découvrir ma liberté Oubliez donc tous vos clichés Bienvenue dans ma réalité! J’en ai marre de vos bonnes manières, c’est trop pour moi Moi je mange avec les mains et je suis comme ça Je parle fort et je suis franche, excusez-moi! Finie l’hypocrisie, moi je me casse de là J’en ai marre des langues de bois Regardez-moi, de toute manière je vous  en veux pas Et je suis comme ça! Je veux de l’amour, de la joie, de la bonne humeur Ce n’est pas votre argent qui fera mon bonheur Moi je veux crever la main sur le Coeur Allons ensemble, découvrir ma liberté Oubliez donc tous vos clichés Bienvenue dans ma réalité!

Give me a suite at the Ritz, I don’t want that Jewellery by Channel, I don’t want that Give me a limo, what would I do with it? Give me staff, what would I do with them? A mansion in Neufchatel, it’s not for me! Offer me the Eiffel tower, what would I do with it? I want love, joy, good spirit It’s not your money that will make me happy I  want to die with my hand on my heart Let’s go together, discover my freedom Therefore, forget all your prejudices Welcome to my reality! I’m fed up with your good manners, it’s too much for me I eat with my hands, it’s just who I am I speak loud and I’m direct, excuse me No more hypocrisy, I’m done with it I’m fed up with double talk! Look at me, I’m not even angry with you! It’s just who I am! I want love, joy, good spirit It’s not your money that will make me happy I want to die with my hand on my heart Let’s go together, discover my freedom Forget all your prejudice Welcome to my reality!

Lyrics

July Photo-a-day Challenge.

I found this Photo-a-day Challenge on Fat Mum Slim's blog and thought I'd give it a try. I'm not that regular on Instagram but I'm going to try to do it at least three times in the week. And I'll also post the pics on my blog. You can do it on pretty much any platform so go crazy and join in. 

Stay stylish! xo

Follow me on Instagram: @sohinii

It's me.

Yes it's me, no I have not forgotten about my little blog. I don't even have a very good explanation, life just happened. I watched a YouTube video yesterday which kinda sums up my bloggers block but I wasn't really avoiding my bloggie, school just took over. But I'm back and making a half year resolution to be more regular. In the meanwhile here's a picture of a zebra wearing a crown and the YouTube video by Ella Grace. 

Stay stylish y'all! 

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Rainbow Splash.

This past weekend was the Festival of Chariots held on the beachfront. We went a couple of times over the weekend. It started on Friday with the pulling of the chariots (which is exactly as it sounds - the giant chariots were pulled by ropes by people along the promenade).

Yesterday was the Rainbow Splash, essentially like the celebration of Holi. Holi is the Hindu festival where it celebrates the beginning of Spring and a time to say farewell to winter and commemorates times of good harvests and fertile land. The event is celebrated by throwing coloured powder at each other.

So that's what we did yesterday on the beach. The Festival of Chariots held the Rainbow Splash event and was basically a 2-hour event of throwing coloured powder at each other whilst a DJ (Deon-G) entertained us. Every half an hour or so, there would a mass throwing of colour in the air where we would throw a certain colour up in the air. The whole event was heaps of fun and we all looked like we swam in a rainbow by the end of it.

Just a tip to all those going to next week's Colour Fest, don't talk that much otherwise you gonna get some of the colour in your mouth and that stuff stains. Also being short doesn't really help because people just dump a whole lot of colour on top of you hence my face is the most colourful. But it's still loads of fun so enjoy chickens! 

Stay stylish! 

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C'est une citation.

"It is necessary that I bear with caterpillars if I want to get to know butterflies." 

Not quite as beautiful in english as in french but the message is still there. Stay stylish!

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Rainbow Cake.

Yes so today Paige and I decided to bake a rainbow cake. It was a very time-consuming process but so worth it in the end. The method for the cake-baking is pretty straight-forward.

We used the following recipe for the cakes:

Ingredients:

• 290g flour
• 75g salted butter and 75ml oil 
• Alternatively use 150g Stork 
• 250g castor sugar 
• 1 tablespoon baking powder 
• 3 large eggs
• 100ml milk
• 50ml water
• 5ml vanilla essence 

The method is simple. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. You sieve all the dry ingredients in a bowl. You then mix in all the wet ingredients and beat it until well mixed. This makes 2, 20cm, cakes. 

We doubled the recipe and made it twice so that we got 8, 20cm, cakes. To colour the different layers we split the batter and coloured it in a bowl using food colouring then poured it into the greased 20cm baking pan. 

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the skewer comes out clean. 

We trimmed the cakes so that they were all flat and even then layered the cakes in the order (from the bottom) green, blue, purple, green, yellow, pink, orange and red and used butter cream icing in between each layer and around the giant cake. Oh and we added sprinkles to the top because what is a cake without sprinkles? What is anything without those tiny colourful baubles?

My oh my, why are you so tall?

Lol, so it didn't go as smooth as that. We ended up with two green layers because we tried to make the one turquoise and that was a fail. We almost forgot to add the butter and oil to the first batch and in between all of this we were videoing our whole baker day on Paige's laptop (yes we are going to be the next youtube sensation). All in all, it turned out really cool (and indie). So without further introductions here is our holi (rainbow) cake!

Talk about a mouthful. 

Stay stylish! xo

The Fault in Our Stars.

I read the book The Fault in Our Stars by John Greene last year, recommended by Hannah, whilst on exchange. It was one of the most heart-wrenching books that I have read. It's a boy-meet-girl story except both of these teenagers have a type of cancer and they meet at a cancer support group.

One of my favourite youtubers Troye Sivan recently wrote a song about this book. It's beautifully sung and is as poignant as the book so I couldn't not share it with you. Enjoy! xo

The Fault In Our Stars - Troye Sivan by Troye Sivan

Unleash your inner animal.

Last week Wednesday we had a grade bonding evening with the prefects! It was a lot of fun despite majority of the grade not pitching up... The theme was "Unleash your inner animal". I didn't have many animalistic clothing so I unleashed my inner guinea fowl in the form of my earrings. What a cool cat, I know (more like cool guinea fowl). We played various games and one of my favourites were where we put into groups of about six and given characters and we had to make plays/sketches out of them. We had an elephant, drunk pilot, teacher, druggie, taxi driver and my character had a broken leg. My group won best play/sketch thing (not that I'm bragging or anything). Here are a few photos a few of my Facebook friends posted (I didn't bring my camera, so these photos aren't my own).

Notice my animal earrings.  

The group.

The play. 

Have a stylish weekend, happy Friday y'all!

C'est une citation.

"In an ideal world people would not talk before 10am. People would just hug because waking up is really hard." - Zooey Deschanel

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Quack Quack.

So for a few years now, I have had this thing where I wanted a duck as a pet. Odd, I know. Alas we don't live on a farm so it wasn't really going to work out. However, we have had a pair of duck doorstoppers in our house for a while and they recently found a home in my room. You can imagine I was mad excited about that and they even look pretty life-like (one of my friends thought they were real like I would have real ducks in my room, how crazy do you think I am?)

Here they are, Barney and Betty:

My sister's chalk masterpiece. Note the pink bow. 

Have a stylish Monday, y'all!

Sunday Songs.

There is literally thee cutest French song which I was introduced to last week and I couldn't not share it with you. It's called Comme des enfants by Cœur de pirate and the lyrics are so sweet. So here's the video with the french lyrics and its corresponding english translation below just to brighten up your Sunday.

French

English

Alors tu vois, comme tout se mêle Et du cœur à tes lèvres, je deviens un casse-tête Ton rire me crie, de te lâcher Avant de perdre prise, et d’abandonner Car je ne t’en demanderai jamais autant Déjà que tu me traites, comme un grand enfant Nous n’avons plus rien à risquer À part nos vies qu’on laisse de coté Et il m’aime encore, et moi je t’aime un peu plus fort Mais il m’aime encore, et moi je t’aime un peu plus fort C’en est assez de ces dédoublements C’est plus dure à faire, qu’autrement Car sans rire c’est plus facile de rêver À ce qu’on ne pourra, jamais plus toucher On se prend la main, comme des enfants Le bonheur aux lèvres, un peu naïvement Et on marche ensemble, d’un pas décidé Alors que nos têtes nous crient de tout arrêter Il m’aime encore, et toi tu m’aimes un peu plus fort Mais il m’aime encore, et moi je t’aime un peu plus fort Et malgré ça, il m’aime encore, et moi je t’aime un peu plus fort Mais il m’aime encore, et moi je t’aime un peu plus fort MUSICAL INTERLUDE Encore, et moi je t’aime un peu plus fort Mais il m’aime encore, et moi je t’aime pas plus fort Malgré ça il m’aime encore, et moi je t’aime un plus fort Mais il m’aime encore, et moi je t’aime un peu plus fort REPEATS

So you see as everything gets mixed up From your heart to your lips, I become a headache (problem) Your laugh defies me to let you go Before losing hold and abandoning Because I would never ask you for that much You already treat me like a big child And we have nothing left to lose Except our lives, which we have set aside And he still loves me, and me I love you a little more But he still loves me, and me I love you a little more That’s enough of this splitting in halves It’s harder to do, otherwise Because without laughter it’s easier to dream Of what we can never again touch We take each others hands, like children The happiness on our lips, a bit naively And we walk together with a determined step While our heads yell at us to stop everything He still loves me, and you love me a little more But he still loves me, and me I love you a little more And despite this, he still loves me, and me I love you a little more But he still loves me, and me I love you a little more INTERLUDE MUSICALE Again, me I love you a little more But he still loves me, and me I love you a little more Despite this, he still loves me, and me I love you a little more But he still loves me, and me I love you a little more But he still loves me, and me I love you a little more RÉPÉTER

C'est très mignon, n'est pas?

Lyrics