Essentials to bring to UNI

Moving away from home can be a little daunting to say the least! Not only do you have to adjust from living with your family to living with strangers, you also now have to deal with starting to be some sort of an adult. When I first moved to college, I had a million lists of  'essentials' that I thought I needed for uni. Turns out most of it was useless and I was missing a lot of ACTUAL essentials. To make live easier for you, I've made a list!

1. Stuff for your bed - Duvet, duvet covers, pillowcases, sheets, extra pillows and any cushions that you'll want.
2. Basic Cleaning Products - A bit of washing up liquid, flash, febreze and some sponges will go a long way! 
3. Ear Plugs - Just trust me on this one! 
4. Medicine - I like to make a little medicine box at the start of each academic year, filled with paracetemol, lemsip, cough mixture, allergen tablets, pretty much anything you think you may need throughout the year. I tend to buy them on the weeks when I have a little bit more money so that when I need them, they're there! 
5. Bathroom Essentials - You'll obviously need the everyday essentials like shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, toothpaste etc. But you may also need a bath mat, towels, hand towels, soap, a toilet brush(glamorous I know) and it would be no harm to keep a little first aid kit there too.
6. Laundry Bag/Basket 
7. Kitchen essentials - Delph, I cannot recommend this highly enough, bring your own delph with you, it'll save countless arguments with housemates and it means you're never waiting on people to clean up their mess before you can start making food. Also bring along things like wooden spoons, spatulas and chopping boards as a lot of places don't provide you with any.
8. Stationary - Pens, pencils, notebooks the works!
9. Academic Diary - This will help you manage your time and keep your schedule.
10. Electronics - Extension lead, USB, an Ethernet cable, external hard drive, all of these in my opinion are essential, don't forget the hair straighteners & curlers too!
11. Important Documents - passport, health card, driving licence, medical card, bank cards, travel discount cards, CV. I keep all of these safe and sound in a folder all year and I have it put away out the reach of drunken housemates. 
12. Umbrella - If you live in Ireland, do I even need to explain?
13. Clothing Horse - Pretty obvious right? You would be surprised how many people rely on dryers to dry their clothes, which boost the electricity bills like mad. Get yourself a clothing horse and save a lil money!
14. Small suitcase - For travelling at the weekends, Pennys have a great selection.
15. Formal clothes - There'll be a lot of balls and fancy nights out in Uni so be prepared!
16. Photos - This is a personal preference but I love having photos with me in Uni, it makes my room so much more cosy and homey.
17. Speakers - essential for house parties!
18. Mini Fridge - This is not exactly an essential, but if you can afford one and have room for it, it'd be brilliant. Most accommodation have really small fridges & freezers and you have to share with like 6 other people! Also having your own fridge will keep your housemates mitts off your food!
19. Fairy Lights - Again a personal preference, but I just think they can change a room, make it feel warm and cosy!
20. Pack of Cards! 

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Life Lately - Stuck in a Rut!

Hi Everyone!

I know I've been super duper quiet here, ever since June really when I did the month full of blog posts. I just wanted to catch you up with what's been going on and why I've been quiet on here recently! After I finished my month long posts in June, I was exhausted mentally. I'm surprised I even managed to publish as many posts I did to be honest. After June I was left a little uninspired and felt like I had no ideas of posts that were good enough.

Uninspired
Since then I've opened up this blog probably about 15 times to write a post, I've taken blog photos, even edited some. But every time I went to start writing, I just couldn't. I'm not sure why to be honest. I think I just needed a break. And even though I haven't posted anything here in a good while, I feel as if I have been, I've done little brainstorming sessions, photo sessions and I've been micro blogging a lot. I guess I just kind of ran out of steam.

Content
I feel like I haven't much quality content to put up at the moment. I've been on a spending ban and haven't been to any events over the summer so I haven't had any new products to review and to be honest my life has been pretty much work work work this summer. I have received some lovely bits in the post from companies but I've done all about them on my YouTube so that hasn't left much for the blog.

YouTube
After spending a full month blogging in June, I switched my focus to my YouTube channel in July and that was great. I have put up a good few videos even managing two a week sometimes. I had hoped by the time August came around I'd have found nice balance between blogging and making videos, but that hasn't happened yet.

Stuck in a rut
I think this is probably my biggest issue. At the start of the summer I moved home and started doing my college work placement with my mam's company. Don't get me wrong I love being home and I'm finally in a job/doing a job that I genuinely like and jump out of bed in the morning for (I don't literally jump out of bed but I don't mind getting out of bed as much). But it's strange being home again after moving away for three years, even though I obviously had come home to visit a lot and moved home for summer two years ago, it's still strange. I'm a completely different person to who I was when I last lived here. But everything looks the same and feels the same and smells the same. But I am completely different. It's a change that happened gradually since I moved to college but living at home has made me realise how much I've changed.

I had great plans for the summer, I'd work during the day, film/blog in the evenings before or after I went to the gym. Well all of those things happened but rarely on the same day! A lot of my friends have gone travelling this summer on J1s or on foreign work placements etc. All while I was stuck in rainy Ireland staring at a computer screen. Please don't get me wrong I really love my job but sometimes it's a little hard to see all the fun instagrams of your friends having fun while you're wrapped in a blanket in the middle of July.

Technical Difficulties
So it's not from a lack of trying that's caused me to stop blogging, I've had some difficulties along the way. My editing program has suddenly stopped working which means I'm back using the anti christ that is Movie Maker until I can fix it. I don't have a 'filming space' or a 'place with good natural lighting to take photos' space. Whatever way my camera works, it picks up colours in my room weird. If you've seen any of my recent videos, my walls look purple, they're not, they're actually baby pink!!!! Even with artificial lighting, my videos just look weird! Also whenever I want to film I have to re arrange my room aka move heavy furniture! Oh and the biggest DISASTER of all, my phone! I stupidly updated snapchat and now my phone won't work properly due to storage issues, even though I've deleted essentially every god damn thing off my phone! Snapchat will not be used unfortunately until I get a new phone, hopefully by the end of the month!  So all things considered, I've kind of just gave up.

Taking a break!
I'm moving back to Limerick over the next two weeks and I have a few small trips planned, one with my friends and one with my boyfriend. I am also really busy at work. SO I've decided to take a break, from the blog, from YouTube, from social media in general. I always put pressure on myself to get a certain amount of content up each week and when life gets in the way and it doesn't go according to plan, I get really disheartened and feel like a total failure, which is very silly because all of this is just a hobby! So I'm taking a properly planned break from now until maybe the second week in September. There may be the odd blog post or video up, if I miss it too much or just happen to post some but nothing is planned as of yet. I will still be on twitter & Facebook mainly because otherwise I'd be totally bored in the evenings!

I'm excited to move back to limerick, to a new house, a new room and new housemates! A fresh start and a new beginning! If you made it this far, well done and thank you. Thank you for all of your constant support genuinely means the world! I'm sorry if this post is a bit negative and down in the dumps, but I just wanted to be real with you and let you know what's going on!

Erin X 

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