My First Time

Hiya Peeps!

If any of you are familiar with the blogging / vlogging community, you will have probably already seen this tag floating around the interwebs. I'm terribly sorry to disappoint but this is not a post about my first sexual experience. This is merely a post about me experiencing things for the first time. But it's a cheeky title, isn't it?! ;)

 First Pet - My first pet was the cutest rabbit in the whole wide world (this is a fact) and she was called Jasmine. My aunt bought my sister and I a rabbit each for Easter, which was actually the coolest Easter present EVER! Originally I wanted to name them Jasper and Horris (like 101 Dalmations) but the vet then told me that mine was a girl so I went with Jasmine. Lucy called hers Barney and we had them for about 7 years.

First Kiss - Oooooooh, cringe! I'm not going to name names in case by some chance he ends up reading this but my first proper kiss was with a guy I went to secondary school with. I think I was like 12/13 and I went round his house after school and we kissed... A LOT. From what I remember, my first kiss experience wasn't a terrible one... Probably because he'd kissed hundreds of people before me but that's all we'll say on that.

First CD / Piece of Music - The first piece of music I ever bought was actually a cassette tape and it was Peter Andre - Mysterious Girl. I remember my mom used to give me like £3 a week pocket money and I'd always spend mine in Virgin Megastores hah! The first CD I ever bought was Lionel Richie - Tender Heart and I still completely ADORE it! That wasn't the first CD I ever owned though; I was given DJ Luck and MC Neat - With a Little Bit of Luck for my birthday by my next door neighbours and that's still one of my favourite songs ever!

First Concert - The first concert I ever attended was the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party. I think it was in 2001 but I'm not entirely sure. It was at the ExCeL centre in London and I saw Blue, Westlife, Steps and S Club 7 as well as many others. We got told off a few times for standing on the chairs, but I don't think we cared too much!

First Job - Well my first job was a paper round and I hated it! It was horrifically boring and I'm very lazy meaning I never wanted to walk around delivering newspapers. When I was 16, I got my first 'proper' job working in a health and beauty shop and I've been there ever since!

First Tweet - My first tweet was 'is getting ready for work :|'. It was way back in April 2009 so I can't scroll back that far to take a screen shot, so you'll just have to trust me!

First Best Friend - My first best friend was a girl called Leanne. I'm lucky enough that she's still one of my best friends because she knows everything about me and we've been through so much with each other. We're actually born only ten days apart and our parents knew each other before we entered the world, so it was destined for us to be close really! We went all through primary and secondary school together and maintained our friendship despite going to different sixth forms and me going away to University. Love you, Lea, my little XXi p3N1.


So that's it. I'm sorry this post has been quite text heavy, but a lot of these things happened earlier in my life and I don't have photos of them. I hope you enjoy these kinds of posts / tags and if you do, please let me know! All of my social media links will be below; come talk to me, I'm really nice and would love to hear from you all.

Thanks so much for stopping by, all the love in the world,
Take care, stay beautiful and dream big!
@amyjcollins

50 Facts About Me! @amyjcollins

Hiya Peeps! 

So I guess these are floating around lots of places and I thought I'd give it a go. It was extremely hard for me to think of 50 remotely interesting things about myself so gimme a chance! I'm sorry if I'm really boring. If you do like this post, please subscribe with your email address to get a message every time I post! Thank youuu.

50 Facts About @amyjcollins

1. I've just finished a 3 year degree in Media Production.
2. I'm a Chelsea football club fan and have been since I got my first kit for my 2nd birthday!
3. I think I might have Twitter addiction. I tweet almost as much as I speak. @amyjcollins, gimme a follow!
4. McFly are my favourite band ever; I am a Galaxy Defender. But I also love All Time Low and Take That.
5. I am a Belieber. Here's a photo of me with Justin back in 2009. We look adorable. He kissed me shortly after this.
   
6. I'm also a Directioner.
7. I suffer from panic attacks and anxiety and have done for a large part of my life.
8. I'm single, and very much happy that way. Relationships and commitment scare me.
9. My favourite part of my body is my nose.
10. I am ABSOLUTELY PETRIFIED of Baked Beans.
11. I've only been blogging properly for about 2 months, but I've had a Tumblr since 2008 (I think!) - Although I don't really use it anymore.
12. When I was younger I wanted to be a teacher or a scientist. 
13. I love acting and wish I'd studied it at A Level. I went to a Performing Arts secondary school and got a B in GCSE drama. I would love to be an actress.
14. I ADORE NANDOS.
15. I don't drive.
16. 2 years ago, I left my heart in New York and I cannot wait to go back there. 
17. I often wish that John Travolta was my father. On the first day of Uni, I told this to my whole module group and they thought it was hilarious! I also told a man in Asda once and he believed me. Sorry! 
18. My favourite perfume is 'With Love' by Hilary Duff and it breaks my heart that they don't make it anymore :(. HELLO EBAY.
19. My favourite film is 'Grease'.
20. My sister is my best friend. You can follow her on twitter if you like. @_lucycollins Here's what we look like.
    
21. I should go to the gym much more than I do. I currently resemble a small house and it ain't pretty!
22. I was a Prefect in school. 
23. I once went to a Q & A session with Usher but I was too scared to ask him anything because he is beautiful and I am not worthy
24. I really like guys who can rap.
25. I also really like guys who have big arms.
26. I'm really into big armed musicians who like to travel.
27. I cry really easily.
28. I once jumped off of the back of a boat and into the ocean while on holiday in Portugal. Originally I was more than happy staying on board and being boring but when I saw a sexy boy jump, I thought I'd do the same in the hope of looking cool. 
29. I absolutely LOVE Diet Coke. I'm slightly concerned it's an addiction. I once gave it up for lent and it was the hardest month of my life.
30. I've never had a Valentine.
31. I am quite a fussy eater which probably explains why I'm pretty fat.
32. When I was about four, I gave up dummy because my Mom said I could have a present. I chose a Mark Owen doll and I treasured it with my life... Until I broke his arm off by accident. Sorry Mark!
33. I've only recently got properly into wearing make-up and it's become an obsession. I just want to spend all of my money on make-up brushes. 
34. I bite my nails - sorry! 
35. The first person I ever followed on Twitter was Tom Fletcher from McFly. Yaaay Tom! 
36. When we were younger, me, my sister and our friend Jess were in a band called The Glitter Girls. 
37. We also went on a Caravan holiday one year and the three of us wrote a book. When it came to crediting the book, I was 'the writer', Jess was 'the illustrator' and Lucy was 'the pencil-sharpener'. Sorry kid! 
38. I day dream an awful lot.
39. I am PETRIFIED of the future. 
40. I have extremely low confidence, even though I talk a lot and sometimes come across like I don't.
41. Me and my mum have the same birthday. (8th July, whaaaaat?!)
42. I really want to go on Big Brother.
43. I can play the steel drums. WHAAAAAT!?
44. As much as I moaned about it the whole way through, I'm really going to miss University and all the amazing people I met there :(.
45. I would love to work at a record label doing social media marketing.
46. My most played song on iTunes is - Blizzard - Neckbreaker. 
47. I hate being controlled by other people or being patronised. 
48. I am terrible with money and like to buy lots of food and pointless trinkets that don't mean anything.
49. I am a keeper. I keep lots of useless stuff like birthday cards and gig tickets but they mean a lot to me and remind me of amazing times and people. 
50. I am at my happiest when I'm wearing pyjamas.

 So that's it, 50 (slightly crappy) facts about my life. I hope you feel like you've learned something more about me. 

Remember, take care, stay beautiful and dream big! 

Thanks for stopping by. All the love in the world.

@amyjcollins

<3.

McFly - 10 years until forever.

Hiya Peeps!

So I'm quite surprised in myself that it's taken me this long to even mention McFly on my blog. Now, anyone reading this who is a friend of mine / followers me on Twitter will know the extent of my love for McFly. For those of you who don't know me, I'm going to try and express it all here, which might be the most difficult thing I've done for a long time. There aren't really enough words to describe McFly and I don't suppose any of the ones I do use will really do them justice.

I'm passionate about a lot of things, but music is the thing that stands out above anything else. It's the driving force behind my life and keeps me sane when everything around me could be falling apart. I turn to music before I turn to people, and that's a huge thing. I don't really know where my love for and dependency on music started, but I've always been around it, and it's something that I've been bought up with.

Which brings me to McFly... I was 10 or 11 when McFly first hit our radios and TVs but never did I think my love for them would last this long. I remember watching their first video on TV in my dad's old flat, and I haven't looked back since. I just remember thinking them climbing into a Television was really cool and that if I tried hard enough, I might be able to do it too. It didn't work. I remember my sister, Lucy, being in love with the song 'Obviously' and using her cheerleading pompoms to make up a routine. My real love didn't start until I was 14 and I went to my first McFly gig the same year. Lucy was always too young to go on her own without a parent and I didn't want to experience it without her. We saw them at the Brentwood Leisure Centre back in 2007 on their 'Up Close and Personal' tour. We were proper little fan girls and got there at like 4pm even though the whole show was standing; we even went as far as to buy t-shirts and wear them for the whole show. I don't remember much about it, but I do remember them playing 'Broccoli' from their first album, and not many people in the crowd knew it. Lucy and I sung at the top of our lungs and we felt really important.

It got a little bit crazy after the Brentwood show. We started talking about McFly all the time, and if any music was on in the house, it'd be them. We even drove to France one year and had the Motion in the Ocean album on repeat... the whole way. We didn't become these crazy super fans who followed them around everywhere and practically went on tour with them (although we would have liked to). It was just at the point where whenever they announced a tour, we'd save up all of our money to be there. I haven't worked out how many times I've seen / met them, or how much money I've spent on the band (which would be a completely frightful amount, I imagine), but for me it's not about them. Whether you've seen McFly 3 times or 300 times, if you're a fan, you're a fan. I've seen them quite a few more than 3 times, though!

But beyond anything else, it's about the music. It's about the four boys (who are now men) who have gotten me through so much over the past ten years just with their lyrics and their power to make you smile at any given moment. I've got through my GCSEs, my A Levels and now a degree with the help of McFly. I even got through a migraine on Christmas morning because Lucy came and played their music to me (I'm sure that was psychological, but I'm going with it being the boys). It's the amazing, overwhelming times I've had at their gigs, not to mention the immense amounts of fun and laughter and just the general loving of life at that particular point.

I write this now as I've just finished reading McFly - Unsaid Things... Our Story. I've never cried so much at one book. Not because it's sad (although some parts of it really are) but because I love them so much. I'm so proud of what they've achieved and so happy to be able to say that I've been a part of it since it begun. Not in the sense that I was there with them when they recorded the album or went with them on tour, but I've been there. I've been at the shows, I watched Harry run a Marathon (and met the other boys in a pub) and I've bought all the albums. I know I haven't changed anything for them, but they've changed something for me. If ever I'm having a bad day or need cheering up, I know there's always a McFly song that can fix me. Subsequently, if I'm ever having a good day, I know listening to Star Girl or Surfer Babe will make my mood 10x better!

Basically, what I'm trying to say is that I love McFly, and I'm not ready for any of this to be over. Ten years isn't long enough. As the legend (Tom Fletcher) once said, 'It's not always easy, but McFly's here forever'. Well, I certainly hope so, Tom.

Thanks for sticking with me and reading this one. I know it's a bit different and some of you won't like it, but it needed to be said. I was having a McFly moment and I wanted to share it. 

Remember, take care, stay beautiful and dream big! <3.

Thanks for stopping by, all the love in the world. 

@amyjcollins

Things I'm Loving At The Moment...

Hiya Peeps!

So I've moved over to 'Blogger' and it's really hard to get used to, but I am really liking it. I love that it's linked with Google+ which means I can try and get a bit more savvy at that as well. I know a lot of bloggers are using this platform to post so I thought I'd give it a whirl!

I just wanted to do a little post about 'Things I'm loving at the moment'. It's not necessarily just going to be products or items of clothing that I'm enjoying; I'm going to include things that I'm doing and maybe some people (because I'm massively cheeky!).

Something I'm really loving at the moment is working. Now, I know this sounds completely insane coming from me as I moaned the whole way through my degree about the heavy work load and how much I hated it. I'm currently doing an internship with a Social and Mobile media company (more in Big Life Updates post!) and it's honestly so much fun. I really feel like all the work I did in Uni is starting to pay off and I'm absolutely loving learning more about an industry I think I'd really like to work in. I like the routine of going to work and it keeps me in a much healthier mindset meaning I'm much more motivated to do other things and to actually get up in the morning. I feel important on this internship and feel like my ideas and opinions are being heard. It's a great feeling having a team of people that believe in me and who I really enjoying going to work with! I will be writing a blog / series of blogs about my time with Coup so stay tuned for those if you want to find out what I've been getting up to and any tips I have for those of you looking for internships or who are about to embark on your first internship!

Moving very swiftly on to the rest of the things I've been loving recently. Like I said before, it's a bunch of different types of things and I'm just going to list them and talk about them a bit. Ok, here they are.

I recently came across this really UH-MAZING singer on YouTube called Lewis Mokler. When I first heard him singing it was in the back of another video and I thought it was a new Ed Sheeran track. I went a bit crazy and started Googling lyrics and Shazam-ing the video so I could find out what it was. I can't actually remember how / when I found out who he was, but he's my 'favvy musician of the moment' (that could be a thing?!). If you've got a few spare £££'s, jump onto iTunes NOW and buy some of his music. My favvy's are Pieces, Nutella and The Traveller. He's got a bunch of stuff on YouTube as well so make sure you check him out! https://www.youtube.com/user/LewisMokler?feature=watch

At the moment, I'm really ill and there's literally nothing that makes me happier when I've got a cold than a mug of hot squash. I know what you're thinking... 'Amy, that's so weird', 'OMG, that's so gross, what's wrong with you?!', 'Can't you just have a coffee or something?!'. My response is that yes, it is weird and it's not the norm but it's literally so comforting. I don't like tea, coffee, hot chocolate or any other warm drink that may exist, but sometimes you just need something to soothe your throat when it's all gross and gravelly and a mug of hot blackcurrant sorts me right out. Plus, it reminds me of Brownie Camp when I was younger, and I like that.

I also feel that I need to quickly mention Grilled Cheese sandwiches. Yesterday I was 'stumbling' at work, and I came across this amazing image of a gooey, cheesy toasted sandwich thingy that I literally wanted the eat through the screen. It was so delightful looking that I immediately texted my friend to tell her about the delicacy and we decided to make them that evening. They were delish and you should Google how to make them because they're like heaven.

Moving very quickly into the make-up section of life which I know will shock anyone who knows me because I haven't always been a massive lover of the stuff and only recently started wearing it on a regular basis, but yes. I have been lovinggg the Real Techniques make-up brushes. I recently had the 'Core Collection' kit bought for me after I went on about it for weeks on Twitter and I'm so impressed. They're so soft, are great sizes and even come in a cheeky travel case which is extremely handy. My favvy is definitely the 'Buffing Brush' which I've been using for my liquid foundation. (I think it's very similar to their 'Expert Face Brush' which is also supposed to be good for foundation).

I also recently purchased my first eye primer and I went with the Rimmel Exaggerate Undercover Shadow Primer. I'm really impressed with this product because it does exactly what it's supposed to and it doesn't feel weird. It's a really light primer, blends really easily on the eyelid and lasts for blooming ages! It keeps my eye shadow on all day, and I absolutely swear by it!

My final make-up product that I'm loving is the Sleek Contouring and Blush palette. I'd seen a lot of reviews of this one going around and thought I'd give it a go. At £9.99, I was a little skeptical as make-up isn't something I'm used to spending a lot of money on, but when I thought about it I was in effect getting three products for the price of one and bought the thing anyway! I'm really glad I did because it's now part of my 'everyday' make-up and I just love it. It doesn't have a weird smell to it and the bronzer and blusher are super pigmented meaning I'm getting exactly what I paid for and what I can see in the palette, YAY! (Bet you're glad that's over!).

HOLY MOLY, this is a long post. I'm sorry guys!

The final thing I'm really loving at the moment though is really just having time. I know that sounds completely odd and everyone's probably reading this like 'Amy, what you on about man? Everyone's got time. Time isn't a thing that you have, whaaat?!' but it's really true. Now that I've finished Uni, it's meant that I've got so much more time to do things that I want to do and not worry about when my next deadline is or when I've next got to go out filming. Having this extra time has meant that I've been able to take an internship (which is great and I can't stop talking about) and it means that my friends and I can just enjoy spending time with each other without work climbing on top of us. Because most of us are going to be leaving Cardiff soon and going back to our home towns, it's nice to have this time together to just relax before we do all go our separate ways. Having this extra time has also meant that I get to have 'Hollyoaks sessions' with my housemate Verity which are usually extremely vocal and end with us screaming at the TV and eating copious amounts of bad food (banana custard and jam doughnuts). I've also started reading for leisure which I'm really pleased about. When you're studying it's really hard to enjoy a good novel because you're worrying about worm so much. I really like getting lost in a good book so I'm glad I've got the time to do it now! Happy days!

AND BREATHE. So that's finally it, guys. I know it's a long one and I'm sorry (but I'm not sorry if you've enjoyed it!). I'm going to try and blog a lot more regularly so I hope that's something you'd want to see. For me, it's kind of like a little diary that I get to keep online and people read if they fancy it (not me).

Take care, stay beautiful and dream BIG!

Thanks for stopping by <3.

@amyjcollins

xox