I think in recent years feminism has come leaps and bounds. It's become a much more accepted thing and I think more people feel comfortable about telling people they view themselves as a feminist. However, saying that I think that when you tell people you're a feminist or talk to people of feminism their minds automatically go to one of the following.

1. All feminists are women:
   I think when people hear the word feminism, they hear 'fem' and automatically assume that it's just for females and female rights. The actual definition of feminism is about having equality of the sexes, it isn't all about women although that can be a big part of it. As a feminist I personally feel that EVERYONE deserves to feel safe, happy and comfortable with who they are and the life they lead.
2. All feminists hate men and think women are better than men:
   This is a huge misconception that I know so many people who don't understand feminism have. I don't hate men, at all and I count myself as straight so I certainly don't hate men. What I hate is ignorance, whether this is from men or women. I certainly don't believe that women are better than men, there is no way to judge whether someone else is better than the next. Radical feminists believe that male supremacy should be completely eliminated in all contexts of life, but a large majority don't count themselves as radical feminists anymore and believe that all men and women should be equal (equal being the key word).
3. Sexism isn't a problem anymore:
   Ofcourse sexism is nowhere near as bad as it used to be; we as women now have the vote, we can work and do just as much as any man can. However, saying this we still have so many areas in the world where we are complete behind on the times. Abortion is still considered a horrendous crime, child marriages are still the norm in so many countries, FGM is still happening and people still feel ashamed about coming forward about rape and abuse. There are still so many awful places in the world where feminism is needed. Feminism is needed for EVERYONE.
   
   

I thought that as I haven't blogged at all this year I'd give you all a bit of a catch up as to whats been going on in my life, and then give a few facts about myself for any of you that might be new to my blog!

2016 so far has involved: 1 hen do, 3 weddings, my 21st birthday and a joint birthday party, another holiday to Greece, 1 mini holiday to Paris, a festival, many MANY nights out, seeing Adele and Coldplay live, starting my degree and a number of other little occasions and days out with friends.

My 21st birthday party was brilliant and everyone had an amazing time and going to Greece again after last year was lovely. After visiting Rhodes last year we decided to try out a different area of Greece and settled on Crete which was equally as beautiful as all the other areas of Greece I'd previously visited and I'd definitely recommend to everyone!

A small collage of a few things I've been up to in 2016!

After deciding to give university a miss and get a job straight away instead when I finished college, I slowly started to realise that I actually did really want to get a degree and that was the whole reason I went to sixth form. I've always wanted to teach English and so at the beginning of this year, I finally decided that I wanted to start working towards my English degree, so since the beginning of this year I've been working towards that part time through the open university!

For any of you that are new to my blog or began following me whilst I was M.I.A, have 10 facts about me that you may or may not know.

1. I've never liked my name, but I love my middle name which is why my blog and all my usernames on social media platforms is AshleighRhiane. 
2. I have a huge phobia of all insects. It doesn't matter how big or small they are, how many legs they have and whether or not they can fly. They all terrify me.
3. I was in choir for around 8 years and sometimes I really miss it.
4. I got my ears pierced at 14-15 by my friend, she used 2 safety pins... it wasn't pretty...
5. When I'm really sad, I listen to Disney music. It always helps.
6. If I could speak any other language, I'd choose Swedish. I've always loved how it looks and sounds, its amazing!
7. When I was 6 I wanted to be an archaeologist, I was a strange child. 
8.  A French man was impressed with how much wine I could drink. If that's not impressive then I don't know what is. 
9. So far I've been to Spain 3 times, Greece 2 times, Turkey 2 times, America, Paris and Portugal and there are still so many different places I want to see!
10. I've always wanted to be a Disneyland princess, but then I found out I'm not tall enough.I'm still not over it...

So, March was a very up and down month. There was high points and really low points, and at the particularly low points I posted this quote, if you can't read it it says "a negative mind will never give you a positive life" and I just had to keep trying to remind myself of this quote which is hard but if you are having a hard time right now then remember this quote because it will make you feel a little bit better. It was also mothers day this month and so I posted a cute little photo of me and my mumma because she is a diamond and I love her a lot. It was also mine and Adams 'year anniversary' I feel weird calling it an anniversary if it's only a year, but that's what it is so oh well! We went out for a lovely meal at Ask and enjoyed it so much and I've enjoyed the last year with him so much. Lastly, my best friend Chloe and I had a long awaited night in with wine, chats and just general loveliness.

So that was my month of March, how was yours?

Here are some of my absolute favourite songs from the past month, it's quite a mixed bag of music but I love them all equally and keep listening to them on repeat!

What songs have you loved this month?

I personally think this is the perfect budget buy and Bourjois have made a real winner for me here, it's long lasting with a range of different red shades and it's matte. Whats not to love? I will absolutely plan on re-purchasing this little gem!

I was super pants last month and didn't post a large amount towards the end, and then I realised that I hadn't done a post on January and now its March and I am a terrible blogger. Feel free to judge me, I wouldn't blame you! I didn't actually take a whole lot of photos in January, but February there was a lot more so I thought I'd do the two together.


I tried to cram in as many photos as I possibly could without making it look to messy, there were so many more photos that I wanted to include but this post would end up being way to long and I don't want to bore you all with my life story!

The first photo is of the beautiful flowers that Adam got me for Valentines day, he'd taken note the month before that lilies are some of my favourite flowers. The man did good! Then he took me out that evening for some amazing food at Chiquitos, and the second photo is of some of the cocktails we decided to get with our meals and the vodka and raspberry one that I had was probably one of the best things I have EVER DRUNK IN MY ENTIRE LIFE, I miss that drink.
I went out for a Costa catch up with one of my favourite females in the world and we literally just sat chilled, talked and laughed the whole day and it was just lovely being able to catch up with her as we don't get to see much of each other but when we do it's like nothing has changed. My closest friends and I went out for a meal and then went back to Adam's flat and had a few drinks and played cards against humanity (if you haven't played it yet and you have a messed up sense of humor then I recommend it!) and it was a really fun and brilliant night.
I also got my new camera in February and it is so amazing, I can't wait to go out and give it a spin, I'm genuinely craving some sort of day out or occasion so I can use it!
Lastly, in January my 2 best friends finally gave birth to my absolutely beautiful god son/ surrogate nephew. I've covered his face up because he's only a little baby and I'm not going to post his face on my blog so you'll all have to take my word for it when I say he is the most stunning little angel in the whole world. I'm head over heels in-love with him and so proud of my friends.

So that's all you really need to know about my last few months, how were your January and February?

I was an extremely lucky girl for Christmas, I got a lot of thoughtful and beautiful gifts and I am so greatful. One gift that I was SUPER excited about was something I had hinted at Adam to get me since it had been released and the man did good, because as soon as I saw a little rectangular present laying there I knew I had finally gotten my hands on the urban decay basics 2 palette. I still feel a little emotional about it now.
LOOK AT HOW BLOODY BEAUTIFUL IT IS. I genuinely felt a bit choked up looking at it because it is just such a wonderful little palette. If you aren't into your neutral shades then you'll probably look at this like its just another palette (like Adam did) but to me, it is like angels have crafted it themselves. Each shade is super pigmented and very wearable, I find that I can create both daytime and evening looks with this palette. I was concerned it wouldn't be very show stopping for evening looks, but this little beauty proved me wrong. I used skimp, cover, primal and undone and created such a good smokey eye; I was very proud of myself.

TOP- L-R: Skimp, Stark, Frisk, Cover BOTTOM- L-R: Primal and Undone

I have to say that my favourite shades out of all the five are stark, frisk and primal as I use them basically everyday now. On their own or with some black winged liner and it just works and looks effortless.
It's the perfect travel size compared to my naked 3 palette and because of that it is becoming a very firm favourite of mine. For £22 I will definitely be purchasing this for myself again as I cannot be in a world without this palette.

Have you tried the urban decay basic palettes?

For the past few months I haven't been wearing foundation, I've just been focusing on wearing concealer and not much else. My skins been a bit problematic recently though and so I decided that I wanted to try a foundation that wasn't too heavy and still gave my skin room to breathe.
I've heard a lot about bourjois foundations and when I spotted this one in boots I decided that it would be worth testing it out! It retails at roughly £10 in most shops and from what I remember this one might have been on sale when I bought it.

Now I know that i didn't actually do a years worth of these last year, but it would have bugged me otherwise and so I decided to start again because why the hell not.
December was a super awesome month for me; I had my work Christmas party, loads of meals out, the BBC music awards, Christmas, New years and just loads of nice fun things to do.

I bought the new Essie Christmas nail polish to wear for my works Christmas party and I had to snap a photo of it, but it's so stunning and really is Christmas in a bottle. The only thing I hate about it though is that like every other glitter polish, it is the hardest thing to get off of my nails and I've now had to give my nails a little rest from products for a while. Myself and Adam also went to the first ever BBC music awards which were incredible! I hope I get to go back another year because it was absolutely amazing. The creme brulee was the dessert I had when we went out for a birthday meal and it was absolutely MASSIVE, no one could finish it.
I was very very spoilt this Christmas and got so many beautiful and thoughtful gifts which I appreciated so much, two were from my absolute favourite jewellery retailers 'astrid and miyu' all the jewellery they do is stunning and I was lucky enough to get a ring and bracelet from Adam.
Lastly, myself and Adam spent new years in Liverpool. It's my favourite place in the UK and so I was over the moon to be there with my favourite person, it really was the perfect way to end the year!

I hope you had a brilliant December and that your January is even better.

• In the earlier part of the year, me and some of my best pals went to Norwich for our baby boy Zachy’s 19^th birthday and although I ruined the night because of my crippling stomach aches (sorry again guys) it was definitely one of the best nights of the year. We all played drinking games and took photos and had chats and danced so much and it was just a bloody beautiful night with some of the greatest people ever.
  
•   In July Adam and I went to Spain together for a week and it was just everything I had hoped it would be a more, spending a week together sun bathing, exploring, eating and drinking the week away was definitely what I had needed. It was such a chill out holiday and was just wonderful and reinforced all the reasons that I love Spain, because who doesn't love Spain!?
  
• I don’t like birthdays, don’t get me wrong if it’s somebody else’s birthday then I love it because I like to make people happy and get them what they want. If it’s my own birthday I just struggle to feel upbeat about it and don’t really want to do anything, this year was completely different. I spent the day with my family and Adam and it was just completely chilled and great because I got such wonderful and thoughtful presents from everyone; my family, Adam and Adam’s family all put such effort into what they got me and I was so thankful.
  
•  Now this joins to the last point I made about my birthday.  A week after my birthday, me and all my closest friends in the world (excluding frasmine) and Adam went out for my second ‘birthday’. This was hands down my favourite night of the year, I had one of the best nights out I have ever had which is hilarious because it was in our home town which is NOT good for a night out at all. It was absolutely amazing though, and at the end of the night I just remember lying on a hill and being so happy and thankful for all my friends. It was an emosh moment and I still get stupidly happy if I think about it now.
  
•  Going to Liverpool and seeing my family after such a long amount of time was so special for me, especially being able to take Adam with me. I've always gotten on so well with that side of my family and so just being able to spend as much time with them as I could and just doing really casual things like going shopping and watching TV and stuff, it meant a lot to me.
  
• Going to the Bury Christmas Market with my parents and Adam was great, we've never really done anything like that and so being able to mooch round and just look at all the great things that the market stalls had to offer was great and I think we all enjoyed it.
  
• Adam decided that for a Christmas present he would buy us tickets to go to the first ever BBC music awards and it was wonderful! We went shopping, went to Winter Wonderland and just did all cute London things and spent time together. I loved cute little days like that, they make my life.

What were your favourite memories?

I can feel myself gradually getting more and more tired because I know that I break up from work next week and my body is just going "nah don't worry about it Ashleigh, you can go to sleep for days now it's nearly Christmas anyway". No, my body is wrong and needs to be stopped now. My parents have added the finishing touches to our Christmas decorations now; a few fluffy clouds are hanging about as well as some glittery/glass stars and it looks so cute I just cannot handle the sweetness of it all. I never want these decorations to go; they can stay for Easter, bonfire night even Halloween.

Me and all my pals have arranged to go to the cinema this weekend and it's going to be so good, I miss them and it's probably one of the main times that I'm really going to have a chance to see them over the Christmas period. Hopefully we'll be able to see each other a bit more, if not then atleast I will be able to see all of their beautiful faces this Saturday night. In all honesty I've not really got much else to say today because I've just been doing the normal stuff of work and just coming home, blogmas is very boring if you don't do something fun everyday. With vlogmas atleast it's slightly easier to make moderately interesting videos, when you write it's either interesting or it isn't and unfortunately tonight I am super boring. HOWEVER, I have put up a wishlist post tonight as well. So if you get bored of this (I will completely understand if you do) you could go and check that one out instead like the lovely readers you are.

I hope you all had more interesting days than I did!

I have so many posts planned that I'm finding it hard to actually figure out when to post them, which is an absolute first for me! It's growing closer and closer to Christmas and although I will over the moon with any gifts I am lucky enough to get, I thought I would do a wishlist of stuff I'd like to be able to buy myself for Christmas!

Tomorrow I'll be on blogmas day 15, so I've technically caught up in my own messed up crazy way. I hope it's not been too confusing for any of you! So after the amazing night at the BBC music awards we were unsure of what we wanted to do for the last few hours we had in London and eventually we settled on going to winter wonderland which I've been super excited to do for a while.

I know what you're all probably thinking and yes I know that 13 doesn't come after 11. I'm not quite that bad at maths! I was obviously in London for Thursday and Friday and so I've not really had any access to a laptop, and as I knew I wouldn't be doing much this weekend I thought I'd combine Thursday with today and then I'll do tomorrow and Friday together. I'm sorry if it's a bit confusing, but it does make sense in my head I promise!

So Adam and I woke up early Thursday morning and got in the car to drive to London, yes you heard me right; we drove into London. Why we decided this would be a good idea I have absolutely no idea, but it was an experience to say the least. We were obviously in London to go to the first ever BBC music awards, so we still had a few hours to kill before we needed to get ready and so had a bit of a mooch around London. I've been obsessed with trying five guys ever since I had heard there was one in Covent Garden, it just needed to happen. So when we saw it wasn't that busy we ran straight in and thank god we did because it was so so worth it! You definitely get what you pay for and I cannot wait to go back. We then went to have a look around Convent Garden and I fell in love with the Christmas tree because who couldn't?! It's bloody beautiful



 After a few hours of shopping we hurried back to our hotel to get ready for the music awards. I'll say now, this was the first ever BBC music awards and if they decided to do it again next year and you can get tickets; then go. It was one of the best experiences of my life so far, the music was amazing, the atmosphere was fabulous and the crowd was just full of really polite nice people apart from a couple of inconsiderate douche-bags. We were stood up and we were actually really close to the front of the stage which was insane, although we are both really short it was quite hard to see but there were big screens so the little people could see which was great. In all honesty though it was just an absolutely amazing experience that I'm so glad I was able to see for the first time.

The highlight for me was Coldplay, Clean Bandit, George Ezra, Catfish and the bottlemen and Will.I.am & Cody Wise. Coldplay started off and were so so stunning, they put the crowd in such a mental and up-beat mood and I genuinely want to see them again. Clean Bandit have been one of my favourite bands this year and so I was super stoked to see them and they were worth the wait, they are such an interesting mix of genre's and they were just as good live as they are in the music videos. George Ezra was just an absolute darling, which I thought he would be and I just love him so much! Catfish and the bottleman won an award (WOO BEST NEWCOMER) and me and Adam were cheering so loud for them because they deserved it 110% and Will.I.am and Codywise were fabulous; I've always been a huge fan of Will.I.am so when he was announced as an act I did a massive fistpump.
My phone died, but here are a few photos that I managed to get.