Views | Yosemite

Before making our way to San Francisco, the one thing we all really wanted to do was visit one of California's National Parks, Yosemite being an option that was (relatively) on route to my favourite city. The Yosemite National Park is situated in California's Sierra Nevada Mountains and is by far one of the most breath taking parks I have ever had the opportunity to visit.

Since this park is over 3000km we took the liberty of driving to the different attractions, stopping off plenty of times on each route to take photos.

By far, my favourite look out point at Yosemite was Glacier Point. It took about an hour to drive to in total but was completely worth the hot car ride. We had a perfect view of the entire valley including the Half Dome and Yosemite Falls, something not even a picture can put into perspective.

21 Things For My 21st Year

I am aware of how over dramatic I sound but I feel old... In the beginning of June I celebrated my 21st Birthday (how on earth I have made it to 21 I will never know) and over the past month or so leading up to it I have been kind of freaking out. I know I'm not exactly reaching my mid life crisis, however I do feel like the years are going far too fast for my liking without having achieved as many of my aspirations as I would have liked. That's why in todays blog post I want to make a list of 21 things for my 21st year. I hope you enjoy!

One
Starting September I will be going into my final year at university. What?? It's completely terrifying and exciting, a whole abundance of emotions, however one thing I know for certain is that this year I will try my very hardest. In my second semester of this year just gone, I stopped taking slack from other people and tried to focus as much as possible on my own studies including my role (and my role only) in group work which overall really paid off! This year I want to focus more on that.

Two
In my 21st year I will graduate. Again, this entails a whole abundance of emotions. Although at times I know that stress will get the better of me I also know that graduation is inevitable. I will graduate and I'm going to do my very best to do so with the highest degree I can get.

Three
Since I will be graduating in my 21st year, it also means I have the option to attend something called The Grad Ball. This is basically the opportunity to dress up and celebrate the end of university with all my friends. Considering I love dressing up and going to events such as these I have always been quite timid in previous experiences as to making an effort and being excited to go because of unfortunate past factors. At my Year 11 prom I couldn't think of anything worse! For my 18th Birthday I kept it mellow and even now for my 21st I plan on celebrating with only a select few family and friends. Since this year will be my last year I intend to make the most of it! I am going to take every opportunity to feel happy and apart of this experience.

Four
Whilst studying my degree in Leeds I am living away from home in your typical student town with its own typically student traditions, the most popular being a bar crawl names the Otley Run. It's tradition to go out as a group in the most ridiculous costumes and have at least half a pint in each bar as we make our way into Leeds. Granted I might not have half a pint in every bar (light weight problems 101) but this is something I definitely want to take advantage of whilst we still live here.

Five
I'm not the best at travelling and over the last few years have tend to stick to places I am familiar with and have been to before. This year I want to break that cycle and hopefully travel to new places. I've always wanted to go to Norway and even Rio, perhaps my 21st year is a chance to experience these new places, learn about their cultures and most importantly enjoy them.

Six
As part of my final year of living away from home with my university friends I really want to go on more day trips around the Yorkshire area. Last year we visited York during their Christmas Markets and had the absolute best time!

Seven
As of this year I will have gone on holiday with every possible person except my best friend, something that definitely needs to change! Hopefully after all the hard work and stress or our final exams and dissertations we can finally book a holiday together, and to be fair I think after 21 years of knowing one another it's about time!

Eight
Lol I swear I say this every single time I list a bunch of things I intend to improve or achieve but it never happens. Although I have got slightly better since the last time I checked in I still need to drink more water.

Nine
I want to stop skipping meals. This is something I have forever been extremely guilty of doing. I have never really been one to eat breakfast, in fact I don't think I have since Year 6 however I have recently got into the habit of skipping my dinner in the evening if it seems to late to cook which it often is. This year I want to put time into my meals to make sure I have the nutrients and energy I need.

Ten
Learning how to actually cook instead of just throwing a stir-fry into a pan might help my meal situation. In my first year of university I was really good, I always ate a variety of meals and most importantly enjoyed it. However, this past year I have really fallen out of love with cooking and food in general, something I want to overcome and thrive from.

Eleven
I want to hit a fitness goal! I don't mind exercising even though at time I can find it a little boring. My issue is not not finding the motivation to go but in fact the point of going entirely which is why I want to aim for some form of goal and hopefully achieve it.

Twelve
At one point in time, I would have never left my room without a full face of makeup on which I have always regretted as it completely knocked my confidence in my own skin growing up. Over the past year or so I think I am slowly but surely getting better at no makeup days. This year I really want to continue this, maybe even gradually turn these days into weekends, possibly even weeks entirely.

Thirteen
I have always been the type of person that likes to record my life in one form or another and this year I have specifically gotten into the habit of keeping a diary and intend to maintain this in my 21st year. Not the "Dear Diary" kind where I record my deepest darkest secrets. I want to record everything I have planned during the week (meetings with lecturers, catch ups with friends and any event I am lucky enough to attend). It really helps me to organise and prioritise my week and is also quite satisfying looking back at all my messy scribbles.

Fourteen
Getting a tattoo has always been a truly terrifying sense of commitment and longing that I have never felt fully confident with whether it be the design or the artist hindering this. However, I have very recently found an amazingly talented tattoo artist with the most beautiful designs in London that I am now on the waiting list for - ahh!

Fifteen
I know I probably say this every year but I really want to get back into blogging. Not necessarily posting weekly (or even monthly for that matter) but instead when having the motivation and inspiration to blog to run with it.

Sixteen
For my best friends 21st Birthday I made her a scrapbook of some of our favourite memories dating right back to our first day of infant school together. While it was a pain in the - yep - sticking so many individual sequins to this book it is something that I really enjoyed putting together and a craft that I thought I would quite like to do for myself.

Seventeen
This is something that we are probably all a little guilty of doing however this year it is something I want to overcome - talking to my relatives more. Some live a little further a field than others meaning I don't get to see them as often and our main form of communication is a phone call. I want to spend more of my time making time in my day to talk to them as it really does make theirs.

Eighteen
To surround myself with good eggs and more importantly stop letting toxic people control my life.

Nineteen
To stop worrying about other peoples opinions that do not matter.

Twenty
I want to stop being so caught up on social media granted I am not the most up to date person regarding this pointer anyway. I rarely post snapchat stories and my instagram is pretty much none existent on regular content however this past year especially I have seen the negative impact of social media and the damage it can cause. This is something I want to promise myself to take a step back from every now and again.

Twenty-One
In my 21st year I want to remember to invest sometime into me myself and I as it is extremely important and almost always forgotten to actually put yourself first.

You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream - C.S. Lewis

Avengers: Infinity War Review

When thinking about the development of modedeviebel, I really want to get back into writing reviews especially for film. It's an aspect to my mainly lifestyle blog that I find unique and really enjoy exploring. And so for this weeks blog post I plan on doing just that and what a perfect way to kick-start this hopefully more common feature on my blog than by reviewing the most recent blockbuster to hit the screens that EVERYONE is talking about.

Avengers: Infinity War is the (what I believe to be) third Avengers film. The plot follows the Avengers who unite to battle their most powerful enemy yet - Thanos - who has made it his life mission to collect all six infinity stones to inflict his demonic will on reality. The fate of the planet and existence itself has never been more uncertain as everything the Avengers have fought for has led up to this moment.

You may notice the 'what I believe to be' as not typically being something a review should start of with. Surely an Avengers fan should know which Avenger film this falls under, right? Well, here's the truth. Up until very recently I have never been a Marvel fan. Not because I didn't like the films (turns out I love them) but because I was never brought up on them. My mum wasn't really into fantasy and my dad raised me to love the magic of the Harry Potter franchise. Apart from that I mostly spent my time watching Disney's classic animations so I'm basically a diehard Disney Princess fan. I never really had a significant role model that introduced me to the Marvel Universe until now. My knowledge of Marvel superheroes extended to a few of the classic spider man films and its most recent recast simply because of my fan girl crush for Tom Holland.

However, over the past few weeks my film viewing has mostly (if not entirely) been preparing for this film. In week one I had watched all of the previous Avenger films as well as Captain America: Civil War. In my second week I focused on a variety of individual superhero films including Iron Man, Thor and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 and 2. Quite honestly, I'm so happy I did. I'm pretty sure I annoyed my boyfriend enough when watching the first Avengers and asking about the backgrounds of every new character that appeared on screen. In the cinema I kept up with both the plot and basic knowledge of the many many (ok maybe not quite all of them) characters throughout the film - thank god - so it meant I could fully appreciate the rest of the film for what it was worth!

I honestly believe that Avengers: Infinity War has shaped my opinion on science fiction, action films for the better. There wasn't a single aspect of the film that I didn't enjoy. Despite the differentiation and abnormalities, each individual character was relatable and empathetic, engaging the audience. Similarly, the cast playing these characters were incredible. I have never seen such a diverse group of actors from different backgrounds represented this way together. As a film fanatic this was definitely something, especially when seeing so many women characterised as naturally strong, intellectual and pretty damn badass in such high profile roles. There was a real sense of feminism in one particular scene that I loved!

The film in its entirety wasn't the traditional fantasy/science fiction/super hero film I expected it to be either, every individual factor of what makes an entertainingly successful film supporting this. Avengers embodied comedy as a sub genre into the narrative and as a result had me laughing out loud with the rest of the audience. It was so funny, something that even intentional comedies can't seem to get right nowadays. Likewise, what I thought would be embodied with endless action sequences surprised me. The action sequences used were imperative and captivating however the narrative didn't solely depend on action for entertainment. This allowed the characters and the plot to develop and I found myself even more invested in the story.

* * *  SPOILERS AHEAD  * * *

This is where I think my review might get a little controversial... Maybe it's because I have not been as deeply invested in the Marvel Universe as long as some fans have been or perhaps it's the study of film that has left me feeling this way. Whichever alternative it might be, while the climatic ending was painful to watch (Spidey's death definitely proving to be the most traumatic - Tom Holland what a bae) I really loved the ending.

Avengers: Infinity War - the title itself says it all. Not knowing much about the film to begin with, one thing I did expect was this notion of war and in war there are casualties. The suggestion of death alongside the sheer amount of beloved superheroes staring in Avengers was almost a given. The downfall of what could be so many captivating war films is the expectation and result that every character of favour will survive. Giving the audience exactly what they want is child's play and in this case is an unrealistic representation of war. The sad realisation is that heartbreak is needed for an audience member to fully engage and emphasise with the complexity of the narrative. It's stirring and chilling and it hurts like hell but we don't feel fulfilled. It leaves us wanting so much more which is the true beauty of the Avengers.

From a recent fan to someone who has been here a while, I can see why you love it so much. The time and dedication is significantly evident in every aspect of the film, the clear precision within the franchise is something pretty phenomenal to witness. I can only imagine what it must be like to overlook the transition of your favourite Marvel superheroes from paper to film, what's more seeing them all together on the big screen. There is no doubt in my mind that Avengers: Infinity War has making cinematic history. We see all these different franchises colliding, their worlds and stories (some of which started over ten years ago) being woven together to create a brilliantly emotive piece. As a fan that must be something pretty special to be apart of.

I hope you enjoyed today's blog post! Let me know if you are planning on seeing Avengers: Infinity War. Or if you have already seen it, what're your thoughts? See you again soon!

All Shades Of Blue | Santa Cruz

Whilst staying with family in Morgan Hill, we decided to visit another one of California's coastal towns. Santa Cruz consists of a long wharf, full of vintage clothing stores, cafes and galleries with an amazing view of the coast. We spent the afternoon exploring the town before walking around the coast and along the wharf.

At one point, my sister and I climbed the railings to the cliff side the way local surfers would make their way to the sea and I can understand why. The waves on that side of the coast were enormous and the sea was every shade of blue.

Towards the end of the day we made our way to the harbour to watch the sunset. They had the most random gift shop and pizzeria that made THE BEST pizza I have ever tasted!!

Little Update

Ok, so the promise on my last post didn't quite go to plan...

Hello everyone and Happy New Year even if it is three months late. I hope you're all having a wonderful 2018, so far mine has been quite hectic! Whilst I am studying my degree in Leeds, my university work and well being will foremost always take a priority within my life over blogging. This is incredibly frustrating considering how much I enjoy putting my time into Modedeviebel. Similar to many other aspects of my life, my blog is something I either put all of my time and effort into or none at all, hence my inactivity. I don't ever want to upload half-hearted posts that I'm not fully proud of. My blog is a reflection of myself, something I hope to one day look back on in admiration without wishing anything different.

With that in mind, as of last week I have finished all academic elements of my course until September. Where on earth has second year gone??? However, this does mean that alongside my six-week placement program, I finally have the time to get back into the routine of writing and everything that come along with it. I plan to upload the remainder of my American road trip from last July as well as having a few new adventures lined up for this summer. I also promised a friend of mine that we would make the most of any nice weather that comes our way after all this snow by going on day trips and taking plenty of photos.

I'm not going to push myself back into blogging full time or promise at least one blog post every week like before as I know from experience this is not something I can keep up with. Instead I want to keep blogging casual and upload if and when I can, concluding my little update. I'm also sorry if this update sounds something of an academic piece. After writing eight back to back assignments and portfolios for university it kind of becomes second nature, nothing a few new blog posts will sort out though!

Until then, I hope you all have a wonderful week and I'll hopefully speak to you soon!