2014 Finished // 2015 Started

Remember me? After many failed attempts, swearing to you all that I will get back into a blogging schedule in 2014 I was proven defeated. 2014, even though a great year, was stressful and busy and simply overwhelming to the point in which blogging became a thought in the back of my mind. However, now its 2015 - lets call it 'The Year of the Raindrops', and or as seen on my instagram 'The Year of the Perdragon'. 

Sitting here in my baby blue fleece pyjamas  with my Yankee Candle in Candy Cane Lane burning I thought lets start now. This post is going to be a summary of what I've learnt this year and my best experiences as well as what I will hope to happen in 2015.

1) Giving back is one of the most valued things a person can do

I had the opportunity to go to one of the most amazing countries in the world this summer, Costa Rica, and spend some time giving back. I wrote a post about this so I won't rant but I spent two weeks helping in three different schools in Quepos, San Jose and Turrialba with teaching, building and painting. It was one of the best life experiances I have ever had and one I will definitely do again. I think I'm going to start doing excursions like this as often as possible, it's so important to give back to a world that gives you so much. Whether its helping someone struggling crossing the road, or giving up your seat on public transport - you are benefitting someone. 

2) Traveling 
Please do not think I'm bragging when I talk about my experiences, I do have a job and I work hard to afford to travel but 2014 was a great year for me, I was able to see some amazing places. I started the year off in Phuket, Thailand and then Italy and Costa Rica in the summer and Greece in October and I've seen some of the most beautiful sites. 

3) Discovering the Vegan lifestyle
At the beginning of 2014 and in the end of 2013 I had two operations, minor ones, that put me on medication for months. This caused me to become sluggish, had breakouts and gain weight. In February I discovered the Vegan lifestyle in which I've always gone on again and off again, but I'm hoping in 2015 I'll be able to stay on it as much as possible. I've just discovered Trek bars and love them, especially the 'Peanut Power' one! 

4) Relationships and Friendships
This year all my friendships have definitely improved and I've gained so many close friends, especially girls, that I hope I will stay friends with throughout the years. Special credit goes to my girls of 2014: Martina, Millie, Sylvie, Tubby, Amy, Cat and Lia who have helped make this year amazing! I don't think any of them will ever even check this post out but these girls have all been so kind and friendly this year, some I only met or became close to this year, and they have literally helped 2014 become as amazing as it was. Some girls, even me, can say things like 'I get along better with boys than girls' or 'Girls don't like me', give them a chance - I did and they have definitely made my year better than I could have ever presumed.

5) Procrastination versus Working
This year, in February, not only did I get a part-time job but I've also started juggling that with my five AS levels, extra curriculars and social life - hence why blogging had to take a drawback. I've had to cancel plans with both family and friends to get my school work done and fit in 6 hours a week in at work but I've balanced it to a fine art. Around 4/5 weekdays I stay at school till around 7pm and do some work, I also try to do my school work on Friday nights or Saturday mornings and then also after work on Sunday evenings. This leaves me to have my social and family life, and blogging life, when I'm home and it allows me to relax. Gone were the days when I finished my weekdays at 4 and was left to do what I wanted. I tried that in September and I crashed and burned. My advice is reduce your social calender Monday-Friday, even if its just a coffee after school and it will pay off.

When I think of 2014, I think of those changes and improvements. 

2015
Now its 2015 and I want to make it bigger and better and try and complete as many goals on my list and complete some of my new years resolutions. These resolutions I've divided emotionally, physically and economically in my head but here they'll probably seem a bit more random. I've left out any blogging goals because for 2015 WMRDX isn't going to be about the statistics or numbers of viewers and hits but about enjoying blogging. However hypocritically, I do have some blogging goals! 

Pass my driving test
I've seen this on a few people's to-do list for 2015 and I totally agree. I don't turn 17 till February but I can't wait to start and I'm hoping I'll pass it within the year, hopefully by the summer so I can start cruisin'. 

Improve my foul mouth
What none of you do know about me is that my language is absolutely awful when it comes to swearing and its so unattractive. I've tried many times to reduce my cuss words, from swear jars to mental scoldings, and just nothing has worked but I'm hoping 2015 will be the year.

Save up to have £500 emergency savings
This may seem either a small number, especially for all you full-time workers, or a large number depending on whose reading but I decided I'm going to start saving up a fraction of my paychecks each month so that by the end of 2015 I can have at least £500 of savings to be spent on nothing - yet.

Go on a 'gurlz' trip and travel to somewhere new
These two go almost hand in hand but some of my friends and I all want to go on a massive group holiday this summer and I really hope we do. Some want to go on a dingy, motel, party island beach getaway whilst others want to hire a villa or stay in a house or apartment and have a couple of days pure relaxation. We'll see where this year takes us.

Eat as vegan as possible
This one is quite self-explanatory but when I am vegan I feel so energetic and light and bouncy, its something I always want to feel! Sometimes it can be overwhelming and when I'm tired or at school, eating a salad or some tofu is literally not what I want and ergo there is the 'as possible'.

Reduce the amount of arguments I get into 
This usually refers to boys - come on girls, we all get into this stage, right? When all you end up doing is arguing with the same people over the same reason over and over again? Well this year I'm going to try and reduce that - with everyone: boys, girls, friends, family and especially teachers.

Sing and laugh and become more free and involved
'Sing' is a totally unprofessional, I'll-smash-the-glass way not as in career. I want to be more light-hearted and go with the flow more. I may keep a strict schedule for my blog, work and social life but when it comes to relaxing and hanging out I want to be more free and active. I want to have more fun with my friends and make sure I laugh and enjoy myself every single day. I want to get more active within my school, community, blog, the world and my life in general to help me do so.
I hope this year brings you all the hope and happiness each one of you deserves. Thank you so much for sticking by me during 2014 - its means so much! Happy new year, 2015 will be yours for sure! 

Volunteering in Costa Rica

I know - awful blogger! But now I'm back for good - scheduling posts and everything! I'm in Greece next week so hopefully content should still be being posted. I have loads of content to deliver but I thought I would start you off slowly before I indulge you all in my recent makeup purchases and hauls and what I'm wearing and give you all a review of my trip to Costa Rica! I just July I travelled to Costa Rica to go volunteering across three schools in the country. I flew into the capital, San Jose, for a night then travelled to Quepos for a week, then to Turrialba for four nights and then back to San Jose! Quite a short trip, but definitely one of the best experiences of my life, I met amazing people, did amazing things, saw some of the most amazing sites and definitely ate amazing food! 

  

Very picture heavy - it's so hard to organize photos in a blog post! I tried my hardest, in the top half you see some of the photos I took whilst working in the schools. We were painting, building and teaching. The kids were amazing to be around - their spirits and attitude was amazing and so inspiring! If you look through the photos you see there is one of a mural outside a building - that's a school called Villa Nueva and we painted a mural on the kindergarten building. It was an incredible experience, we had each kid paint a flower into the bushes. In the other photos of the group and I you have pictures of us just after surfing, at dinner, just before we leave. I had a great time, we did so much! We even stayed in the depths of the jungle and rainforest for a few days, but I think I'm going to do a whole other post on 'Jungle Survival', coming into contact with spiders, snakes, scorpions, micro-pigs, sloths and monkeys! 

It was an amazing trip, I made such amazing friends and I gained so much from the experience. I'm so grateful to everyone who I was with, the volunteering company (GVI, who does great volunteering programs with Under-18s) and Costa Rica for being such a welcoming country.

If you want to check out more photos definitely go on my instagram: perdi_stoller to see everything from the sunsets, selfies, six-packs and waterfalls as well as my daily life! 

I'm so glad to be back and huge thank you to helping me reach over 200,000 views! That's massive and amazing and I never thought I would ever get to this place! Thank you so much for reading, bouncing, scrolling and definitely commenting and following! 

Apologies

I have so much explaining to do, but I don't think I'm able to do it! I've been inactive for around 5 months. Even though I have been lacking posting I've still been thinking about you all - from testing products for future reviews, planning posts, taking outfit photos and checking/answering/reading emails many times and let's not even get started on my twitter. I haven't forgotten about you, or given up. Since May I have had study leave, exams and summer! My exams were rough, my results even rougher! I will definitely do a post soon on school tips, from revision to binder organisation - maybe I'll even do it in a video! My summer was amazing, in my last post I mentioned my trips I was about to go on. Those trips have came and went and totally changed my life and I want to share my experiences with you all soon.

The reason I haven't been posting was because I was completely tired out, it was my first day back at school #seniors and I am even more tired but I thought if this is what stopped my blogging, I should stop complaining! I'm still too mentally exhausted, even with a five month break, to go back into posting three times a week but I promise I will get back into it slowly. I think we'll call 2014 WatermelonRaindropX's worst year yet content wise so far, but I'll try and fix it for the latter part of the year especially in honour of WMRDX's 3rd birthday.

I also would like to say a quick apology! I'm sorry to the few brands I've been working with over the past few months as I've not offered them the respect and services that I promised and what they expected and deserve. I'm really sorry and will try to make it up to you soon! 

I have so many exciting things to tell you, soon! 

Till next time,

Sporatic Blogging

I just wanted to give you lovely girls (and gents) an update of why I haven't been active properly for just under two weeks. I know I just came back from a break, but I came back from a blogging break to go straight into breaking up from school, onto study leave. My exams have officially begun and I'm managing to fit in this post between Biology revision and a Maths tutor, but my blog is still one of my priorities and in between exams and revision I definitely will be answering comments, emails, tweets, facebook messages (I think you get the idea, any social media site I'm active on) and I will try and upload during days when I have no exams. I started my exams last Thursday, Geography (Paper 1) and English Language out the way and now I only have 22 exams to go, 15 by the end of next week. Starting Tuesday I have nine exams within three days. 

Then I start summer on June 18th and then I am all yours.

Wish me luck,

Triangl Bikini: Santa Rosa Splash

Around a month ago Triangl sent me this amazing bikini, but as I have not been active on my blog I haven't had the chance to write about it. Quick apology to Triangl for this! Triangl were seriously a great team to work with, with such great customer service, and I was such a bad blogger in response! Triangl are an Australian brand but they ship internationally. I first heard about Triangl around this time last year from Australian instagrammers and seriously loved all their bikinis. All their bikinis are made from 100% neoprene with a 100% opaque look, you'll never have the issue of transparent bottoms again! Not only do they have an amazing swimwear range, they also have a super cute underwear range! 

I chose the Santa Rosa Splash bikini, $79 (US). It's a gorgeous baby blue colour, I had a hard choice deciding which one I wanted. They have amazing colours and range and you end up wanting to collect them all, I know I am definitely wanting the mint, white and coral/mesh! They have a great range of sizes and a really reliable size guide! I'm a 34DD and got a large in the top and a medium in the bottom and they fit like a glove. Literally a glove, the neoprene sticks to you for a super sexy and fun fit. Once you try a neoprene bikini I can guarantee you, you will never want anything else! Neoprene definitely clings to you, potentially even flattening you a bit, I can definitely tell you you will not appear to be 'popping out', if anything they can make your boobs appear small but I like it! It's super comfortable and definitely the most flattering bikini I own. All their super colours will look amazing on your beach holiday and will definitely make for some great photos, honestly no bikini looks as good as a Triangl bikini especially when it comes to photos! Each bikini also comes with a really cute matching beach bag, as you can see in the photo. The packaging is amazing and you can be reassured that their products will never come damaged and always will be at the best of their quality.

I seriously recommend these. If anyone has any questions or recommendations I'd love to hear them! 

Thank you Triangl for such an amazing piece! 

This post is sponsored, the bikini was sent to me, but all views are 100% my own as are the photos. 

Review: 22 Days of Being Vegan

 Earlier on in the year, just after I tragically broke my finger on my birthday, I read a review in a magazine of a girl who just finished the 22 Day Vegan Detox. When I first read it, I had no clue Beyonce and Jay Z had done it (apparently for spiritual reasons) but what the girl said about it appealed to me so much. She mentioned how clean and energetic she felt after it, and how much she loved doing it. At the time I read it, I had just finished one month of being doped up on prescription painkillers after an operation on my ankle and just about a week after I ended up being put back on them for breaking my finger. I do not understand how people can be addicted to pills like these. They made me lazy, they made me gain weight, they made my skin so bad, they made me sleep all day to the point I missed so much school that I am still behind nearly six months later. All I wanted to do was feel clean and energetic and confident, so I thought it was perfect.

I first read about it around the 15th February and decided to become vegan on the following Monday, 24th February for three weeks and one day. I walked to and from school every day, twenty minutes, and did vigorous exercise twice a week, from Zumba classes to jogging with the dogs. 

You'd probably be more interested in hearing about my diet during these times so I thought I would write an example meals:

*I should also mention before I was vegan, I ate anything: meat, dairy products, animal products etc*

Breakfast:

- Porridge with almond milk (or water if we were out) with cinnamon, a chopped up banana and agave nectar

- Home-made fruit smoothie (no milk, just ice) 

Lunch:

- Rice cakes with hummus and celery/peppers/cucumber/carrots

- Salad with no dressing

Dinner:

-  Teriyaki tofu on vegetable fried rice

- Stir fried vegetables and vegan noodles

- Vegan sausages and sweet potato fries

Snacks:

- Lightly salted Kettle Chips with hummus

- Fruit or vegetables

- Vegan chocolate with almond butter

Drinks:

- Only water

- (Iced) black coffee around 3 times a week                   

Those were just some of my most common meals. Breakfast was probably the easiest meal of the day and even when I am not vegan I still eat porridge. Dinner was also really yummy, but I do really hate the texture of tofu. For those who haven't tried it (and do yourself a favour and don't), it is squishy and soft and tastes like flavourless mush. Lunch was 100% the hardest, I'm at school during lunch and often starving watching everyone else eat sushi, pasta and everything I cannot eat, but I'm sitting there dipping my carrots into hummus (I ate a lot of hummus being vegan). I would almost go as far to say it was degrading. Well that is a tad of an over exaggeration but don't be pedantic. Another really hard time was my morning trips to Starbucks with my friend, I decided to limit coffee to only three times a week but Starbucks was the worse. Wishing I could order 'an iced white chocolate mocha' but having to say 'an iced black americano' can destroy a soul. Other soul destroying moments continued to be when you are ordering food with your friends and the only vegan thing on the menue is 'a side salad with a side of chips' and finding out McDonald's chips are not vegan!

Being vegan didn't go as smoothly as I hoped. I was often hungry, but it helped me concentrate on my school work as a distraction, and often irritable. I cannot confirm this was from being Vegan but one can presume. My skin didn't clear up till after I was vegan, unfortunately being vegan can even make your skin worse. The weight I lost, 13lbs, is easily put back on but i've worked hard to keep most of it off. A perk whilst being vegan? Most bubble teas are vegan! 

Stopping being vegan was weird, I still feel almost anxious walking into a restaurant and having the ability to order anything. There are times when I miss the vegan diet's limitations so often I go back to being vegan for a day or two.
Would I recommend it? Yes. Is it hard? Yes.
If you've ever done an extreme diet/detox like mine comment below! I'd love to hear about it! Any questions about being vegan, i'd be happy to answer them. If you'd like to read more about the vegan detox, leave your requests below and maybe i'll do some recipes! 

Disclaimer: I do not have any form of eating disorder or craving to be an unrealistic goal. I didn't do this detox to lose weight and I am not promoting doing detoxes or trying to lose weight by drastic measures. I did this detox to rid my body of all my medication, toxins and pathogens, gain energy, confidence and to help my brain focus on school work. All of the above was achieved. This post was not sponsored, nobody told me to become vegan and no food mentioned was sent/gifted/sponsored.

Where have I been?

I'd like to start off with apologizing for disappearing. I haven't blogged for 4 months and 6 days, and yes I have been counting. I took this break because I couldn't handle the stress of managing my blog, my exams, my social life and my new job, I just had to stop the most frivolous of the three. Not that I think blogging is frivolous, I love it, seriously. I've continued to be active on twitter and my email and I have seriously been checking my blog every day. I even stopped reblogging as much on tumblr, that's how much I wanted to focus. 

My exams don't start till May 6th, and then after 24 exams I'm on Summer by June 18th. I'm hoping you'd all understand that during that month and a bit my content will either lack or be irregular but I'm back for now, scheduling as many posts as possible. 

In February I managed to get myself a part time job, working at one of the best hairdressers in London and it's fab to work in. Not only am I getting a great experience, it's helping me with opportunities on my blog. They're my Sunday family and I love them all to pieces. 

This Summer I have so much planned. I'm going volunteering in Costa Rica, helping with the construction and conservation of a school. I'm hoping I get a chance to visit The Sloth Sanctuary, it's an orphanage for sloths! I'm also going to Wireless Festival, all three days, with the best people I know and I cannot wait. We also want to book a spontaneous weekend to Paris but I think that will either be for before Wireless or after Results Day.

Coming up, I'm planning on a few fashion features, maybe a haul, a rant and a lot more!