So, where the devil have I been, eh?

On the 16th of February this year I decided to take a nastily long blog-break in order to finish my degree. However, enough of that sadness, because today, three months and four days later, I am back and am absolutely ecstatic :) Before I get stuck back into reviews, hauls, event write-ups etc, I decided to ease myself back into the blogging scene with an update on what I've been up to over the past three months... I'll give you the highlights shall I?

1) My 21st Birthday!

 

 

My 21st was a fab day. My best pal Vikki from Victoria's Vintage came to visit me at home in Stoke-On-Trent from Milton Keynes which was lovely. We went shopping, ate at my favourite Chinese restaurant with my family, went clubbing with my little sister (who is in the first picture... I know she looks WAY older than me when she's actually only 16!!! FML). I got some great presents including the outfit I'm wearing in the photograph, a Bobbi Brown make-up book and a Thomas Sabbo bracelet. My white chocolate and raspberry birthday cake was lush! 

2) The Hippy Hippy Shake Company presents HippyHaze 2012

 

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before, but my dad lost his mind about four years ago and left his job as a Sales Executive so he could open a milkshake chain, named The Hippy Hippy Shake Company. I know, crazy right? But since my mother promised to love him in sickness and in health, she left her job with the NHS and jumped aboard the crazy train. During Easter weekend, the crazy train pulled in at Foxfields Railway Station which my dad decided was a fantastic location to start his own local music festival named HippyHaze. Before we knew it, he'd thrown together an awesome weekend which everyone who's anyone in the local area showed up to and thoroughly enjoyed. The weekend could not possibly have gone any better and in spite of the insanity, I've never been prouder of my adorable father. 

3) Study, study, study!!!

Of course, I studied like a nerd on crack. I had to! I had a 10,000 word dissertation to write on the relationships between adults and children as presented by popular twentieth century children's literature. Thrilling right? At least I got to read Matilda, Harry Potter, Artemis Fowl, Mary Poppins, The Lion, The Witch and The Warbrobe, The Secret Garden and The Little Princess for my degree *Ican'ttellyouhowpainfulitwasformetolistthosebookswithoutcomplyingwiththeharvardreferencingsystem*. I also had a 2000 word language assignment on the narrative features of film. Then I had two exams, one on Shakespeare plays which lasted for two hours. Then the other was three hours on fantasy literature titles such as Lord of the Rings, Beowulf, Lud-in-the-Mist, The King of Elfland's Daughter and many more. There was a LOT of reading to be done in time for both of my exams and I had to work really hard to prepare. I definitely did my best. In the above picture you'll see my colour-coded Shakespeare notes. Impressive, methinks.

4) Boux Avenue opening...

If you haven't already heard of Boux Avenue, then I'm about to let you in on the sexiest secret since Victoria's. So we all know the business brain-box Theo Paphitis from The Dragon's Den UK show. Furthermore, ladies nationwide know him as the man behind La Senza for a certain amount of time (before it went a tad tacky with desperate signs splattered all over the place with 'TWO BRA'S FOR £20' written on them. Not that I have anything against getting two bra's for a tenner, but when the sizes are as screwy as I often find they are at La Senza, I could be getting ten bra's for £20 and I'd still be £20 poorer without a single useful bra... *RantOver*) However, Theo has a new exciting project and its called Boux Avenue. I will do a full write up of the event that I attended in Birmingham with more pictures, but for now all you need to do is prepare yourself for a luxury lingerie experience like no other at exceptionally reasonable prices.

5) Bedroom Organization...

Not sure about you guys, but when I'm going crazy with studying I'm constantly trying to find a new way to procrastinate. The dishes in my house have never been so clean as during exam time. My family has never eaten such elaborate and time-consuming-to-cook delicacies. And my bedroom has never been so tidy! I've only put the one picture here as I'm planning on doing a full Youtube room tour soon, so keep and eye out for that...

6) Holiday? BOOKED.

Last summer I worked at Disney World in Orlando with my pal and fellow blogger Victoria's Vintage. If you want to know more about my Disney experience, please click here for my Disney International College Program Youtube Channel. Anyway, I've always been mad for the United States and had planned to travel the country after finishing my College Program. Unfortunately, I broke my finger whilst working on one of the rides and after putting up with agony and pain-killer-caused exhaustion for a couple of weeks, I decided to come home a week early and skip my travelling. Luckily, I was feeling spontaneous early on this year and decided to book a five week coast-to-coast tour from San Francisco to New York city for this summer. I'm going all alone and I leave in just over a month! Wish me luck...

So I think that's everything IMPORTANT that I've been up to over the past three months. Exciting, right? Haha. Anyways, now we're all up-to-date with me, I want to get up-to-date with the blogging community! What have I missed? Any great events coming up which I must attend? Have you tried and reviewed any fantastic products recently? Have any of you decided to spend a bomb on an insane travel sesh? Catch me up!

Anyway, keep an eye out for any upcoming blog-posts as I have loads planned :)

Love and snuggles

gabriellasofia

x

Honey, I'm Home!

Ohhhh the excitement of seeing blogger interface on my screen once again! The thrill of sitting before a clean page of 'New Post'! The buzz of being able to type the blog-post which I have been looking forward to for ever so long... I am LOVING LIFE!

For those of my lovely loyal followers who have stuck by me during what feels like a millenium-long blog break, I have nothing but the most sincere thanks. As you will know, making the decision to take my break was really difficult, because to be honest, blogging is quite literally my favourite thing to do. I love it so much, that I was wanting to invest more time in HauteFuture than in my university studies. Now I know some of you are probably thinking, 'So why didn't you???' Well, it can be hard when you know that the consequences of doing something you love might be disappointing to the people you love the most. Although I'm still quite positive I'm only going to get a *perfectly respectable* 2.2 degree classification for my past three years studying English Literature at the University of Birmingham, I had to feel like I was doing my best, so at least if my grade does disappoint, I know there's nothing more I could have done. Anyway, enough of that palaver, if you want to read more about my Blog Break Decision click here. So as I said, thank you very much, followers, for sticking by me and being patient whilst I pursued my education for a little bit.

Also, a huge thank you goes out to my fantastic guest bloggers who held the fort for me while I was gone. If you missed any of their posts, please check them out! We had...

Fighting Acne Together by Sophie Nightingale

Long Distance Fairy-Tale Relationships by Karyn O'Donnell

Being Miss Thrifty by Victoria's Vintage

Fur, Friend or Faux? by Erin Allenn

North American Fashion by Rachel and Her Journal

Also, there were many other lovely ladies who got in touch in order to write guest posts for me, but we just didn't get round to publishing them yet, so please expect a couple more guest posts in the future, and similarly, if you think you'd like to write a guest post for me please read this post and send me an email :) I welcome anyone, blogger or non-blogger, male or female, human or amphibian.

Finally, I want to say a huge thank you to my friends and family who have been so supportive over the past few months. Having to quit something you're passionate about in order to pursue something you're not passionate about was a big sacrifice for me and without lovely home-cooking, hour-long phone calls, and the occasional late night booze-up I literally wouldn't have gotten through all this! You realize the people who really love you not by the fact that they're always there to enjoy the good times, but also because they pick you up when you're down and share the bad times with you too. I'm pretty sure I owe drinks to way more people than I can afford at the moment because of all the support, but I promise I'll get it all sorted in good time... Like, when I get a job maybe? Yes, I think that's fair... :)

So this was just a huge 'Thank You' post really, but I think it needed to be said. I'm so happy to be back to blogging, especially as there are so many posts that I've been dying to write for months and I can't wait to get back to my YouTube channel as to be honest, I feel like my most recent video was one of my best and the most professionally done so far, so I can't wait to improve even more! I'm definitely going to be posting often now, however, I'm not going to make a schedule just yet because I believe that will ruin the spontaneity which I'm loving at the moment. I may consider making a schedule after a few weeks, but we'll see! If you'd like a sneak peek of some of the things I've got in the pipeline, click here. My next post will be a run-down of all the things which have been keeping me busy over the past few months...

Now you know I'm back in blogging-business if there are any posts you'd like to see, please let me know... Would you like some more beauty tutorial videos? More lifestyle than I used to do? Perhaps I could write up some more events I've been attending? It's totally up to you! So please let me know :)

Love and snuggles
gabriellasofia x

WE ARE ON A BREAK!

Hey guys :)

So, this is a post that I never really wanted to write but kind of knew it was coming although didn't expect it really until my uni study leave, but basically I'm taking a break from my blog until I've finished uni in June. Thought I'd tell it to you straight as quickly and painlessly as possible because this is really hard for me and I really didn't want to have to do this. I figured it's like ripping off a band-aid, so blurted it out just like that.

I know it is a pretty huge blog break to take, like, most people take a week or two off and I'm planning on having about four months off. But I really think it's probably the best decision for me right now.

Why am I doing it? Well, essentially, I'm doing it because I love it too much. I'm in my final year at university, and due to a terrible module choice I made last year, I spent most of my second year and this first three quarters of this third and final year struggling to reach the standards I know I'm capable of. Once I started struggling, I realized that I didn't really think what I was struggling for was really worth it; I stopped enjoying my degree and started putting my energy into something I love doing, blogging. If you know me, then you know I would blog all day every day for free. I've dreamed so many times about just dropping out of uni and becoming a professional blogger for a living, but we all know that its not as simple as that. Someone has to pay the bills, boost their job prospects and most importantly, bring home a diploma at the end of the three years so their parents can be proud. So I stuck at it, despite my wishes getting stronger and stronger over the past few months.

Finding myself now in the 'final push' of my university career, my logical mind reasons that it simply wouldn't make sense to drop out now. Sure, I have the dissertation left to hand in, the exams to sit, and the results day to attend, three of the hardest things any student has to 'look forward to' particularly if they aren't even remotely passionate about what they're doing, or can think of much better ways to spend their time. However, it is only a few months left so I know it just wouldn't be worth quitting now, especially not just because I'm scared that I might only get an 'average' degree rather than 'above average'.

If I do average on results day, sure I'll find it a bit of a bummer, but I'll be proud of myself because I stuck at it. But I need to stick at it in order to achieve that sense of pride, and the people around me seem to think I won't get that if I keep up my blog at the same time and I get that. I get that because every minute I want to blog. Once a week I want to pick up a uni book. Maximum. So this is all about eliminating my main distraction.

Now, it's bad enough having to sacrifice something you love in place of the possibility of gaining something else. It's even worse when you're making that sacrifice for something you're kind of indifferent about but want for the people around you.

That's the most important thing for you guys to know, I'm not giving up my blog for myself or to push myself forward. I'm giving it up for the people around me, who I can't bear to disappoint. At least not if I knew I could help it.

As I say, I don't know if dropping my blog will mean the difference between a 2.1 and 2. But at least I'll know I did my absolute best and couldn't have done any more.

It's kind of ironic that I should have to make this decision just as things are going so well for my little blog. Companies and events are starting to recognize me, fellow bloggers are working with me and I'm beginning to feel right in my element having just run and awarded my '150 follower giveaway'. I can only hope that all of my followers will still be here when I return, waiting for me with as much support as ever they did. And you know what, if not, I'd earn you all right back again in June, because I've loved every minute of it :D

Literally have a little tear in my eye right now, because I'm under a lot of pressure at the moment, but I'm pretty sure that this is the right thing to do. I know you all probably think I'm making a huge ceremony of this but it really is a big deal for me right now as I know I'm sentencing myself to at least four months of pure misery. But nonetheless, in the words of Christina Aguilera (YES I went there) 'They say if you love something let it go, If it comes back, It's yours, And that's how you know.'

So for the foreseeable future, my blog and I are on a break, and until such a time when I think it's a good idea to pick it back up again, you may only see the odd guest post on here (if that). However, I will still be available on Twitter as @HauteFuture and you can still email me at hautefuture@gmail.com

Thank you for reading and for keeping the smile on my face for the past year and a half. It's meant an awful lot and all I ask now is that you close your eyes, make a wish, count to three and say a little prayer for me. Hopefully I can come back in June and tell you all that this was so worth it. But until next time, this is me, signing off :'(

Love
gabriellasofia
x

Back From Sabbatical!

Hey Strangers!

Yes, I know how terrible I've been recently by not blogging for ages, but honestly, my university commitments are more intense now than they were back in September when I started this whole 'blogazine' idea and as it turns out, it's just not practical for me to operate my blog in that way. In theory, the 'blogazine' would have been great... Like our favourite mags I would have had a different 'issue' published each month with almost a feature a day posted on an array of topics. But the pressure to post certain 'articles' on pre-decided days got a bit much and I simply couldn't keep it up!

This year is my final university year so it's really important for me that I make my degree my first priority. And so I've abandoned the 'blogazine' (although I'm likely to revisit it once (or if!) I graduate) and I've decided to keep this fun, breezy and something I can do to escape the pressures and deadlines I have rather than adding unnecessary deadlines to my To-Do list. Having said that, I will be listing blogs I want to post in my To-Do List page, purely to remind myself!

So what else has been keeping me busy, rather than the likes of Shakespeare, Dickens and Rowling? Well, as you may have noticed, I've been making some changes to this blog in order to make it look more professional, attractive and easy to navigate. As you can see, I've changed the back-ground and my header with the help (ok, she kind of did it all...) of my best friend Vikki to something a little better suited to the sophisticated luxury feel I would like my blog to exude. Also, you might notice I've listed a few tabs up at the top so it is easier for my readers to Contact Me and I've also included an About Me page which allows readers to learn a little more about my personal life. I put the links for all of my Reviews so far in one place making it easier for readers to find my thoughts on different items I've tried rather than having to hunt for hours through my archives. My favourite page by far though is where I list my BlogCrushes... Blogs and vlogs which inspired me to start HauteFuture, blogs and vlogs which I check almost daily as they're so full of great stuff! Be sure to go and check them all out.

I've also been busy hanging with my bestie Vikki as she came to my hometown for a couple of days. We went shopping in the town center, ate posh cake at the gardens near my house and ate Italian food. Call me sad, but the times I love best with Vik are when we're just sat under the duvet eating yummy cupcakes, catching up on the Junior Apprentice and working on our blogs!

On top of fixing up my blog and hanging with Vikki, I've also been juggling four literature modules including my dissertation which will (hopefully!) culminate in a 10,000 word assignment on April 25th... I've spent more time in the library in the past two weeks than I probably did across first and second year put together.

Things have been pretty crazy, but I'm finally happy with the direction this blog is heading in so I feel really mellow :) I hope you like the way I've organized it all and I have many plans for blogs over the next few weeks, so hit Follow (even if it means you have to set up an account) and you can come along for the ride! Please take some time to click on my tabs and see the new features I've added as I've put a lot of work into this blog and I'd love to see that there are people out there reading!

I love you guys and hope that you get involved with HauteFuture by following (here at Blogspot and also on Twitter), liking (on Facebook), subscribing (on Youtube) and commenting (EVERYWHERE!) as it would mean an awful lot to me!

Love

gabriellasofia

x