Everything Erin

Last month I didn't end up posting a monthly mixtape because all I listened to the whole month was Ed Sheeran's Divide pretty much! However, as more music has been coming out I've been listening to a few different songs so here is a round-up of everything I've been listening to the past two months... not including Ed Sheeran!

First up I have really been enjoying Take That's new single Giants. I just think it is really feel good and summery so always manages to put me in a good mood! Following on from that I have been listening to the song Paris by The Chainsmokers. As well as their song Something Just Like This with Coldplay which I still love, I really like Paris because it is really chilled.

Chained To The Rhythm by Katy Perry is one of those songs I've got a bit addicted to listening to - so I'll listen to it a few times in my head and if I'm not listening to it it's definitely in my head still because it is so catchy! I'm not a big Katy Perry fan in the slightest so I don't know why I like it so much but I really do. Similarly, the song Stay featuring Alessia Cara by Zedd has also been on my playlist, although not my favourite I do quite like it.

You may or may not be aware of how big of a fan I am of Harry Styles, but if you are aware it will come as no surprise how excited I was for his first solo single to come out. Sign Of The Times is such a masterpiece and has fast become one of my favourite songs. I am so excited for his full album to come out because I imagine it will be just as amazing as this.



The song Old Yellow Bricks by Arctic Monkeys is a pretty random one I've been listening to a lot lately, but it was the song used on a Riverdale edit on YouTube (which I of course was watching because I'm a little obsessed with the show) and haven't stopped listening to it every since.

I'm actually going to see Shawn Mendes tomorrow (very excited, be expecting a post all about it when I've been!) and therefore it was perfect timing for his latest single, There's Nothing Holdin' Me Back to come out. It's one of my favourite of his songs straight away because I love how upbeat and summery it feels.


I'd love to hear what you have been listening to lately in the comments! And if you are loving Sign Of The Times too, comment or tweet me so we can fangirl together, haha!

Lately, I have been busy preparing for my GCSE Art exam, which actually begins today! I have ten hours of work ahead of me now and decided I would share some of my preparation with you. I have never shared any of my art on my blog but today I decided to branch out a bit and share some and if you enjoy please let me know!

The exam board our school is on for art is AQA and therefore I had to choose from one of their seven topics - I chose detail.


I began with a research page all about details everywhere in life - from fashion, architecture, nature and the face. I followed on from this deciding to study further into details of the face - particularly the eye.

I then studied a couple of artists - one who works in coloured pencil and one who works in graphite, my two favourite media to work with. You'll notice that after this point that I got really into my splattered backgrounds!


Then came the more creative side of the sketchbook, my observations and testers! I tested different media from pencil and graphite to things like oil pastel and watercolour. I decided to stick with graphite because that helped to show details best.

One of my favourite pages is where I compared different colours of eyes! I was really pleased with how it turned out. Then for my alternative idea, I studied lips instead of eyes because they are still an interesting facial feature yet different. I enjoyed using lipstick to create the texture of the lips but I find lips a lot trickier than eyes!


I then chose a focus for my final piece. I decided to look at how the details of the eyes change throughout someone's life and chose for this the Queen because her whole life has been documented in photos. I explained why I chose her and the meaning for the background, and then practised the four eyes I would use on my final piece - at the ages of one, twenty-seven, fifty and ninety.


My sketchbook finishes off with a plan for the ten hours of the exam (which it will be a miracle if I stick to) and an evaluation of all my work. Hopefully it will go well!


I'd love to hear your tips for art because I am always looking to improve! I am also planning on studying Fine Art at A-Level next year so let me know if you have any tips for that!

After Tuesday night's lovely #GRLPOWR chat, of which the topic was Musicals, I have been inspired to write a post sharing some of my favourite songs from musicals. I have a variety of different genres of music I like and I feel like musicals is one I very rarely write about on my blog, even though I loved chatting about them so much the other night.

I have a musicals playlist on Spotify that I am always listening to, so today I thought I would round up a few of my favourite songs from it!


I grew up watching Mary Poppins and The Sound Of Music - I feel really lucky I've managed to see them both on stage; The Sound Of Music only last year although Mary Poppins was when I was four so I don't remember a whole lot! Although I loved the classic Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious when I was younger, nowadays I much prefer A Spoonful Of Sugar and Feed The Birds - I especially love the instrumental Feed The Birds section on the overture, it's so heavenly.

As for the Sound Of Music, My Favourite Things is my favourite of the musical because it's uplifting and such a classic. I also quite like Edelweiss and The Lonely Goatherd, it's a bit out there but I think it's really fun.

Les Miserables has a wonderful soundtrack, and a long one at that, since the whole musical is purely singing! One of my favourites has always been Do You Hear The People Sing but recently I've loved One Day More as well, it has a really good build up and features many of the characters. On My Own is another of my favourites from Les Mis because it is sung by Eponine and I will always remember how utterly blown away I was by Carrie Hope Fletcher singing it as Eponine a couple of years ago.


Defying Gravity has always been one of my favourite musical songs and I am sure I'm not the only one! Elphaba is so powerful in Defying Gravity and I love the duets between Elphaba and Glinda in Wicked. I also totally class the High School Musicals as musicals and my favourite of the trilogy is by far the third one, Now Or Never is my favourite but also Right Here, Right Now because it is possibly my favourite Troy and Gabriella duet.

Tracks from the La La Land soundtrack are a new addition but many are firm favourites, particularly Another Day Of Sun - I can't think of a better song to begin the day with than it - and A Lovely Night. City of Stars was my favourite originally but I think I overplayed it because I don't play it as much now. I'm not a huge lover of instrumental pieces (apart from the overtures) but Mia And Sebastian's Theme is truly beautiful.


View my whole musicals playlist on Spotify below to see everything I've been listening to!

Exam season is looming; I'm currently off school for Easter which is my last break until the GCSE's begin which feels so scary! Because of this I have been beginning to revise and thought I would share some tips with you if you are beginning to prepare for your exams too.

Find what works for you:

There are so many different ways to revise: mind mapping, using lots of colours, writing notes on big display sheets or smaller cards, even rewriting your book all over again can work for some people! Some things that work for me and help me to remember the information aren't effective to other people at all - I've learnt that at in my history class lately because we all have different little ways of revising, and that is okay because everyone is different!

If you're not sure what works for you, try some different ways and see what helps you remember best. It can even vary between each subject. I knew that writing notes out in my Pukka Pad wasn't so effective for me because I did that for my biology mock and didn't do as well as I hoped, therefore for the actual GCSE's I have made cards instead using a different colour for each section because I remember the information better that way.

Set up a timetable:

During the Easter break, I have set up a timetable to make sure I am focused and get the amount of revision done that I want to achieve. Each lesson has a different colour (coordinated with the colours I've been using in my homework diary the past couple of years) so I can easily see at a glance what subjects I'm doing on that particular day. Make sure you schedule in breaks - I like to work for 45 minutes and break for a quarter of an hour in between, and you can also easily blank out times when you may be busy.

Although setting up a timetable is very beneficial and important, don't worry if you don't stick to it to the letter. I may start a quarter of an hour later than I wanted to and finish a bit later and that is fine! Don't beat yourself up about it as long as you aren't procrastinating and get everything done you aimed to.

Here is an example of my timetable for over Easter. I have split the day into five 45 minute slots and have easily blocked out the days I am away and unable to revise. I created mine on Google Sheets so I can access it on my computer, iPad and Phone easily but you could also check out getrevising.co.uk which creates a timetable for you. I tried this but preferred the flexibility of making my own.

Write a 'To Do' List:

How broad you want to do this depends on what suits you; I have recently written a to-do list for each subject of what I want to get done by the end of the holidays but daily ones can also be very useful. This will help to stay on track and make sure you're getting everything you want to done, along with your timetable. However make sure you don't overload your to-do list or hardly put anything on, find a good balance of how much work you are realistically going to get done in the time you have!

Make Your Notes 'Pretty':

Even if you are not the most creative person, at least make an effort to make your revision notes presentable and legible. I find that if revision notes look nice I'll want to look at them more. They don't have looks like the notes you see on Tumblr and Pinterest but make them stand out to you - investing in some good quality fine lines or highlighters can be key in making your notes look more attractive. I recommend checking out Paperchase for highlighters because they are super cute!

Utilise a Studyblr:

If you're obsessed with social media like I am, you could involve it into your revision and set up a Tumblr blog dedicated to your studying. Although it's important to not make this a distraction, I find having one really useful to see how other people revise - and it's also really motivational when one of your posts gets quite a few notes! I've always been unsure about how to actually use Tumblr but I've really been enjoying it at the moment to help revision - I especially found some great resources for English Literature Revision to name a few.

Mine is eringracestudies.tumblr.com so let me know if you set one up and I'll make sure to follow!