Another month, another lineup of books. There's a bit of everything here; memoirs, the weirdest book I've ever read, another from the Hornby archives and of course some YA fiction. All the things I look for in my literary adventures. Here's what I'm reading in March...

Wild by Cheryl Strayed-I really wasn't expecting to like this book as much as I have but I love it. Given I know next to nothing about tramping and the American outdoors I've found it extremely interesting. Cheryl Strayed sets out to hike the Pacific Crest Trail in an attempt to rediscover herself and reflect on the last few years of her life, since her mother's passing. It's a true story which makes it all the more amazing and inspiring. I'm not quite finished this yet as I've found myself dragging it out, but don't be surprised if this is my book of the month.

About A Boy by Nick Hornby-I'm still reading Nick Hornby's book about books that I touched on last month but this is next on my list. If you've seen the movie, you'll know that this story follows Will, a 30-something single, unemployed and too hip for his own good kind of guy. He crosses paths with Marcus, a twelve year old looking after his mother and possessing eccentric music taste. I really enjoyed the movie adapted from this book so I'm looking forward to reading the novel.

A Little Something Different by Sandy Hall-This story, told from multiple perspectives follows the unfolding love story of two young adults who meet in a creative writing class. *insert heart emojis here*. This just sounds so sweet and according to Goodreads, it's perfect for fans of John Green and Rainbow Rowell. I will keep you posted..

The First Bad Man by Miranda July-Where to begin with this book... My familiarity with Miranda July begun 2/3 years ago when she did a project where you'd receive an email conversation from a famous face, like Lena Dunham into your inbox. I wasn't really sure what to expect but I'd been told this would be unlike anything else I'd read, and it was. This book tells the story of Cheryl, a middle-aged singleton who works for a company that produces self defense videos. She finds herself lumbered with her boss's twenty-something daughter who has gone off the rails. They have a rather bizarre relationship, to say the least. You'll have to read this to find out what else happens but this book was bizarre and at times grotesque. I nearly abandoned this but felt obliged to finish it. It has to be one of the weirdest things I have ever read but that made it all the more of an addicting read.

*Have you read any of these books? If not, what have you been reading lately? I'd love some recommendations. 

To know me is to know that I am stationery obsessed. I have always been and inevitably always will be. I'm also a bit obsessed with A Beautiful Mess at the moment. While I lack the motivation to do their DIY's, I love the inspiration their designs and projects bring to me. So when I heard about Happy Mail, I was intrigued and decided to sign up with their February kit...

Happy Mail is a subscription service and each month you receive a kit containing various cards, prints, stickers, stationery and more. Given that each kit is valued at $50 US and you pay around 20 NZD a month with shipping, this is really good value. Each item I received in the February kit was such good quality and I've already sent off a few of the cards to friends and family.

If you're an ABM fan you've probably already seen the contents of this month's kit but there was an art print, an assortment of cards, colourful stickers for decorating envelopes/sealing them, those cute word stickers above and a Taylor Swift-themed pencil. There was a lot of gold foil accents on show this month. You know how I feel about gold foil...I loved the range of cards included too. Those word stickers feature phrases from Mean Girls which made my day and they'd be great for cards or journals. I also spotted one of the cards I sent out on my friend's pinboard this weekend which made me smile. They're such beautifully designed cards that deserve to be shown off.

One thing I noticed was a lot of the cards are more postcard style and only have one side to write on. I don't know if this is a particularly American thing but I like cards that open up. It's not a major by any means, I'm just fussy with stationery. I also like having space to write on because I tend to write a lot in cards.

So all in all, I was really impressed with the February Happy Mail kit. I'm thinking about doing a post about the March kit as well, so let me know if you're interested in seeing that.

*Are you subscribed to Happy Mail? What do you think of it?

Pencilled In x Mac: Mac are on fire with their new collections at the moment and their latest lip launch has me excited. If you know me, you'll know that I love Mac's lip products so the Pencilled In collection, out March 16 is right up my street. A range of Mac's popular lipsticks are being repromoted, along with some new lipglasses and lip pencils. I am loving the Candy Yum-Yum lipglass*. In fact, I'm loving Mac's lipglasses in general at the moment. Would anyone like to see a post about them?

Boyhood: This was on my 'to-watch' list at the film festival last year, but from memory it clashed with my timetable last semester. Well I finally got around to watching it this week and wow. For those not in the know, this story is filmed with the exact same cast over a 12 year period. The story is amazing and each section of life flows into the other seamlessly. I also enjoyed hearing music and the various pop culture references from the different years of the 00's. Mason's love for photography was one of my favourite parts as well. This is brilliant and if you're yet to watch it, make that a priority this weekend. 

The Return of the Raspberry: Last year, The Body Shop made me extremely happy with the launch of their blueberry and raspberry scented products. They were as delicious as they sound, but sadly they were both limited edition. Well, thankfully the Raspberry and Peach scented products are coming back as part of the Early Harvest collection at the end of March. I have the body butter and another tub of the scrub which I love and am looking forward to reusing. Don't be surprised if they're in my March favourites post.

That's Just Fabulous: No really, it is. Faith's blog is one of my current favourite beauty reads. She's a designer as well so her pictures and blog are so aesthetically pleasing. She reviews the best of the best and I could happily while away a few hours on her blog.

An Etsy Store to Obsess Over: I do love me a good Etsy trawl from time to time and this week I discovered Velvet Wolves. She sells prints, zines, stickers and apparel. What I love about them though is that they feature some of my favourite famous women; Alexa Chung, Keira Knightley, Lana Del Rey and Zooey Deschanel to name a few. A little purchase may have happened too..

-As always, have the most awesome of weekends everyone! This week was considerably better than the last, although I'm not gonna lie it was kinda...weird not having classes to go to. The job search is still going and I've applied for a few positions that I really liked. Keep your fingers crossed for me! Other than that I have a bit of a girly sleepover planned this evening and finally filming that video for y'all. Oh-and I booked tickets to go see Les Mis in Sydney when I'm there for a few days in May. If you know me you'll know I'm really quite excited about that. xo

A few of my friends have been converting to using solely cruelty free beauty+body products recently. While I'm not too sure I could entirely commit to that, I am trying to use more cruelty-free beauty products when I can do. Recently, iHerb had a sale going where there was discount across many of their beauty brands. It was a pretty good deal from what I can remember so I decided to do a little haul and pick up some products I'd been wanting to try out..

Deep Steep Brown Sugar+Vanilla Foaming Handwash-After ordering this handwash I received one for review in the post so I'm actually yet to open this one. It was an Alix inspired purchase and I know she loves it so I have high hopes for it.

Physician's Formula Lash Boosting Eyeliner+Serum-A liquid liner isn't something that I'd typically go for, but after hearing Tamira raving about it in one of her videos, I had to try it myself. The pen reminds me of the Tom Ford liner which Anna uses. This is ridiculously easy to use and that's coming from someone who usually ends up with black smudges in their crease. It's crazy long-wearing too and if you find liquid liner a pain, you should check this one out. As for the lash boosting properties, I feel like it has made my lashes longer. I'm not sure how that works, magic perhaps. I love this and will definitely repurchase it.

Hurraw Grapefruit Lip Balm-I loved my Coconut lip balm from Hurraw but it had recently run out so I decided to try a different scent this time. The grapefruit is even more divinely scented than the coconut one. I love these lip balms and how conditioning they are without feeling too heavy on the lips for daytime. 

Deep Steep Foot Stick-This was totally a 'what the heck' purchase. I think I was intrigued by the peppermint scent and the fact it was a stick for your feet. Again, what the heck. Basically you roller this on to your feet, put some socks on and wake up with ridiculously soft feet in the morning. Currently, it is far too hot for donning socks so I tend to massage it into my feet instead. It smells amazing and it certainly makes my feet softer. 

Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge-Now this was a repurchase as I managed to break my first sponge. Props to me. I could've replaced it with the beauty blender but let's be real, that is one expensive sponge. This one's so inexpensive and does an amazing job of blending concealer in seamlessly. I use the flat side around my face and then the pointed edge under the eyes. Gently of course! If you don't own one of these yet, get one. You will not regret it.

*Have you tried any of these products before? What did you think of them?

-I hope your week's going great so far! Mine's been a bit low-key. I'm actually not studying this semester, so I am on the job hunt at the moment. Basically I spend a lot of my time on Seek. Not gonna lie, it's a bit of a frustrating process but oh well. One plus side is it means I can blog a bit more frequently and hopefully film too. Have a great Wednesday and I'll see you all on Friday with another installment of The Week xo.

Sometimes it's all too easy to get caught up in what is going wrong. Whether that be in our lives or someone else's. I have to admit, sometimes I get into a skeptical, pessimistic frame of mind and find it hard to shake. In an attempt to counteract that, last year I started a positivity journal. Each day I had to write one positive thought, whether it be about myself or something that happened to another person. I found it really effective and made me feel more uplifted. Perhaps it was a placebo effect, who knows. Well recently, I've been a bit down, stressed and a manner of other things so I decided to introduce a gratitude journal to my daily routine...

The journal in question is the botanical journal from Rifle Paper Co., a design they don't seem to make anymore. You can find similar styles here though. I'll be honest, this was a rather impulsive buy on a holiday last year. Basically I wanted every piece of Rifle Paper goodness I could find. It wasn't an essential by any means but I am glad I've found a use for it. If you don't want to splurge, look for a notebook among your collection or give a plain old exercise book a makeover. There's so many DIY's on Pinterest these days. 

In terms of filling it in I like to include a positive statement about the day. For instance, above I wrote "there is always something good in every day". Then I like to include a list of things from that day which made me happy. I usually end up with six+ things and it really reinforces that quote. More so if I thought I'd had a shitty day. Something like listening to Florence can make me happy. I then include some kind of visual below. It could be anything really-whatever you fancy! So far I've used the back of a lipstick packaging, photos, calendar excerpts and my own drawings. 

It's only been eight days so far but I'm finding this such a useful tool. Doing this at night leaves me in a better mood before I go to sleep and it reminds me, even if I'm in a bad mood, there's never days where it's entirely like that. I think gratitude journals are definitely something I'll be sticking to.

*Do you keep a gratitude journal?