Loved Lately: August

{ This post contains spoilers for Game of Thrones season 7, episode 7. }

 

Despite being a Summer month, August always holds a little bit of excitement for me. It's my little sister's birthday month and out of the three of us - being Leigh, Matt and I - Leigh's birthday is always the one we celebrate the most. Perks of being the youngest, eh?! August is also the only entire month of the year that my family are all home, all at once, and it holds the last few weeks of heat before my favourite season blows the last of it away with the promise of cosy jumpers and dog walks that won't kill me off.

Anyway! I'm sure you're sick to frickin' death about hearing about Autumn. Although I am firmly in the 'Autumn begins September 1st' camp. Here are my August and end-of-Summer favourites!

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Slime Ranger Rancher for XBOX One.
I keep calling this game 'Slime Ranger' instead of it's official title so excuseme if I refer to it on Twitter or on my blog and you don't know what I'm talking about. It's this. A game about slime farming, essentially. I fell hard and fast for Slime Ranger on an evening at the beginning of August and stayed up until 1am playing before Luke prised the controller from my hands and reminded me I was meant to take my medication at 10.30pm. Oooops. It's so sweet, though, and all of the slimes are so adorable. Tabby slime, anyone? It's a really chill game and I'm all about that RPG life, so it's nice to lose an hour or so to my virtual slime farm every now and then.

Lorde's Melodrama.
Lorde's lyrical mastery became the soundtrack to my life back in 2013 when she released Pure Heroine and she's finallyyyyy released a new album! Melodrama wasn't an instant love for me, but the more I've listened to it the more I adore it. I still don't like Green Light but her way with words and imagery calls to my lil Ravenclaw heart and I can't help but love her. My favourite songs are Homemade Dynamite, Perfect Places, Hard Feelings/Loveless and Sober.

Painted nails ft Barry M. (v)
Keeping my nails looking pretty is up there with straightening my hair on the tedious scale but, annoyingly, they both make me feel good about myself. Who knew that painted toe nails would make me feel like I have my life together? Because they do. I've been coating them in Barry M's Gelly Almond nail varnish - which is my all-time favourite - and, as a lil Hobbit who never wears shoes or socks, it's been nice to catch glimpses of the shade during the day. For my fingernails I've been switching up the colour pretty frequently but my go-to shades are Barry M's Ballerina and the Speedy Quick Dry polish in Eat My Dust.

Jane the Virgin.
I do not have the words to articulate exactly how much I adore Jane the Virgin, but for the sake of this post I'll give it a shot.

Sometimes, when I'm mentally exhausted, the thought of diving into an intense, action-heavy and darkly emotional fictional word is intimidating. My favourite shows, books and films are all quite heavy - Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, The Hunger Games, Lord of the Rings, The Infernal Devices - and even things like Clannad and Your lie in April are quite emotionally charged. Sometimes all I really want is something that will make me feel happy. Jane the Virgin does that. It's truly wonderful. It's funny and dramatic and romantic and realistic, whilst also being incredibly silly. There isn't one character I dislike and even characters like Rogelio and Xiomara, who on paper I'd usually hate, I absolutely adore. I have laughed more often at Jane the Virgin than I have with any other film, book or TV show ever, and I've also cried with happiness, gasped aloud in shock and squealed with delight. If you haven't watched it than I really must insist that you do - and I dare you to come back to me after five episodes and tell me you're not hooked.

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart.
It's been over two years since I last read We Were Liars and I think that this re-read left more of an impression on me that it did the first and second times. As I'm struggling to read at the moment I wanted something that I could really sink my teeth into and We Were Liars filled the role nicely. It's quite short so I flew through it in two sittings across two days and both the interesting writing style and compelling mystery kept me hooked, even though I knew what was coming at the end.

ASOS Musical Embroidered Flats.
AKA the most beautiful pair of shoes I've ever owned. I nabbed these babies for £9.50 in the ASOS sale in the middle of August and although they completely destroyed my feet the first few times I wore them, I haven't wanted to wear anything else! They're so sturdy that I'm sure they'll see me through the colder, crisper months before the heavy rain begins to fall.

Game of Thrones.
For the first time ever, Luke and I watched this season of Game of Thrones live. We usually wait until the box-set comes out and I tend to search for spoilers online but this time we watched it properly and it was a nice thing to look forward to each week. I feel like so much happened this season that I haven't really processed any of it yet aside from the sight of Jon Snow's ass. Please and thank you. Lots of little things annoyed me and the pacing was waaaay off but Littlefinger's death was enough for the entire season to qualify as a favourite.

Lush Fairy Dust. (v)
On days that I dislike my body a little less, I coat my skin in a gentle sprinkling of this Fairy Dust and it makes everything seem okay again. Fairy Dust over my entire life, please! It has a subtle, gentle shimmer and the most glorious bubble-gum Snow Fairy scent.

Baking.
August has been a busy baking month for me, as it's a lot of people's birthday months! Early on I made my sister's 10th birthday cake (a Crunchie cheesecake), then I made a chocolate orange cake for my Mum's boyfriend's birthday, then two days later a Malteaser cake for Luke's Mum's boyfriend's birthday... then a banana and chocolate loaf just for fun. I have so many ideas for Autumn baking now that birthday season is over (the next significant birthday is my brother's in January) and it'll be fun to experiment with something other than cake.

Other items of note include baby sweetcorn, Tesco's free-from tagliatelle and kittens.

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I've been writing 'favourites' posts for years - check the rest of my archives here and see what I've loved over the past three years!

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