So almost another week has gone by without another blog post, sorry. But today I'm posting about a new favourite artist of mine: Lorde. Quite a lot of Australian people I follow on Polyvore have been raving about her music for quite a while, so I finally decided to see what all the hype was about, and I really regret not doing so earlier.

Wikipedia says:

Ella Yelich-O'Connor (born 7 November 1996), known by her stage name Lorde, is a New Zealand singer-songwriter. She released her first EP, The Love Club EP, in March 2013 and her second single, "Tennis Court", in June 2013. The artist's début album, Pure Heroine, was released on September 27, 2013.

I love the feel of her music, it's so mellow and deep, though her genre is supposed to be electropop - I've heard her likened to a cross between Lana Del Rey and Marina & the Diamonds, two of my absolute favourite artists. But the lyrics are just out of this world - I can't even describe how beautiful and evocative some of them are, not to mention the fact she's only 16! Her song Tennis Court is my absolute favourite of all time, I can't even express my love for it.

Here are my favourite songs of hers - enjoy!

Tennis Court

Yes, I'm aware I haven't blogged in over a week, but things (aka homework) have been so hectic recently and the weekend seemed to slip away so quickly that I didn't get round to writing any posts. But I'm here today with a quick DIY!

So when I was in the supermarket the other day, I happened to buy one of those Arizona green teas, mostly because I'd never tried green tea and I wanted to know whether I liked it or not. I was going to get a bottle of it, but the can was just too gorgeous to resist...

My opinion on green tea aside (not sure if I'm a fan or not), I decided the can was too pretty to just throw away, so I came up with a really simple DIY to turn it into a pretty decoration for your room.

And hey presto! This is the kind of thing I think I could easily go to town on - it wants glitter and wire flowers and silver doodling, but I kept it quite simple for a first go. Who knows, perhaps I'll have to buy another few cans to try out more ideas with.

xx

Today has been a lovely, rainy September day, and I've spent it sitting at my laptop wearing a big woolly jumper and furry socks - alright, so I've been doing my homework all day, but who's counting?

Anyway, today I'm posting a book haul, as a huge box arrived from Amazon yesterday, and this is my portion of the goodies.

A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels and The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray

Bright Young Things and Beautiful Days by Anna Godbersen

Even though it's only the second week back, school is keeping me more than busy and I realise I'm not going to have a whole lot of time for blogging, to say the least. But I will try my best to keep it up, even if I only post short things - such as this post.

Emilie Autumn is only of my favourite artists of all time, and after a Marina & the Diamonds stint I've recently got back into her music. I might do a full post about her and what I love so much about her music at some point, but today I just want to post a few songs I'm utterly addicted to at the moment.

Rose Red

The H-Bomb Girl by Stephen Baxter

First up is The H-Bomb Girl by Stephen Baxter. It is essentially a science-fiction novel, but told in such a way that sets it apart from the rest of Stephen Baxter's more high-tech, futuristic novels. Set in Liverpool in the early 1960s, The H-Bomb Girl is the fictional account of 14-year-old Laura Mann and her role in the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. The story starts off fairly normally and is easy to follow, but before long the read is thrown into a jumble of potential bomb-threats, parallel realities and criss-crossing timelines (which Doctor Who fans will know is something to be avoided at all costs). I won't give away much more, as it's hard to do this incredibly confusing yet also fantastically brilliant novel.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by the comedic genius which is Douglas Adams always has been and always will be one of my favourite series ever, regardless of genre. There are five of the original books (the trilogy of five), as well as another instalment penned by Eoin Colfer for the thirtieth anniversary of the books. The story follows Arthur Dent, who wakes up one morning to find his house is about to be destroyed to make way for a motorway. Soon he has bigger problems, when he finds out the Earth is about to be destroyed by a fleet of vogons to make way for a hyperspace bypass. Along with his old friend Ford Prefect, who he suddenly discovers to be from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse, Arthur travels the universe armed with only his trusty towel, in a series of books universally acknowledged to be one of the best works of sci-fi comedy ever written. If you haven't read these books, you won't regret it!

Chaos Walking by Patrick Ness

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness is the first in the Chaos Walking trilogy. I remember before I read these books I kept seeing The Knife around all over the place, as it has won various awards, and never really knowing what it was about. It's the story of two characters: Todd Hewitt, who is running from his home town to escape the Noise and the secrets being kept from him, and Viola Eade, whose spaceship has crash landed on Todd's planet. There's a lot more to the story than that, but I've only read this a few times so the details escape me - but it was very, very good, I can tell you that much.

172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad

0.4 by Mike Lancaster

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Last weekend I went shopping with my friend Joolz, and as the title suggests I bought an odd mix of things - usually I get some clothes or shoes, but although we went in a few clothes shops, I was totally uninspired. I'm also trying to limit my shopaholic tendencies by only buying stuff off a list every time I go shopping, which probably accounts for it as I didn't find anything I set out to get. Anyway, here's what I ended up with:

I go back to school tomorrow (Tuesday). I know that lots of people have already been back for a while, but I decided to put together a quick list of 'Last Hurrahs' for the summer holidays, or just summer itself. Why not spend your last days of freedom and/or sunny weather doing a load of stuff to make the most of summer? Enjoy!

Go blackberrying

Watch an old movie

Tie-dye an old t-shirt

Have a movie marathon

Bake something with fruit in it

Play Monopoly with real money

Go to the park and read a book

Eat as many ice lollies as you can

Make covers for your school books

Challenge a friend or sibling to a game of Mario Kart

Make a PowerPoint presentation of your favourite summery photos

Draw on the patio or the pavement outside your house with coloured chalks

(pictures from Polyvore, not my own)

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As I said not too long ago in my Back to School Advice post, choosing what to wear for the first week back at school can be tricky, but today I came up with a few outfits that I think would be good for wearing at school. I put the outfits together on Polyvore, and I've done four ideas each for warm and colder weather.

Outfit 8

Last but not least, this quirky style is something I've been loving recently. It's all about bright colours, denim, glitter and crazy elements (which pretty much describes my Tumblr, actually) and everything about it screams summer. I put yet more jellies with this outfit, as I think they characterise this style perfectly.

I hope you enjoyed my back to school outfits, or at least found some inspiration. I would personally wear all of these to school, but then again I'll wear just about anything :P