The times they are a-changin'...

Today I officially deleted my two previous blogs, and I already feel better for it. Obviously, I still have all of the content from them because I transferred everything to this blog, but it makes so much more sense to me to have everything in one place. It's cleaner. And now I occupy less space on the internet, yay!

I've been looking through some old blog posts today actually. I like having the 'You might also like...' widget at the bottom of the posts because it not only recommends some of your posts to potential readers, but it also reminds the blog writer (in this case, me) of what they have written in the past. For instance, today I was reminded of this post that I wrote in 2011, a couple of months before I finished university. It's interesting to look back at things like that to see how much you've changed, if at all.

I think I've been quite 'out-of-sorts' since I finished university. Sure, I've got a job which I've had ever since I finished university, but it's not one that I need a degree for. I'm a waitress and barmaid, which although isn't rocket science, it by no means is easy - anyone who has done this kind of work will know that. I am happy in my workplace. I get on really well with all of my colleagues, some of whom have become very good friends. I'm currently on really good hours as well, which I have earned after a good two years working practically every single weekend. I work hard, and I am good at my job.

It's 2014 now though. I will turn 25 this year, and in July it will be 3 years since I graduated. I don't know where this year will take me, but I've got a feeling - just a feeling - that there's a change in the air. 

Jumper: Esprit via ASOS

Shirt: Next

Jeggings: Topshop

Song of the Day: No Strings by Chlöe Howl

Currently Reading: Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman

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Lazy Saturdays

My Saturday started the way all good mornings begin. With pancakes.

Not made by me of course. I supervised while Jack made them. I had a very important role.

Although in fact, my morning began long before the pancakes were made. I had a text just after 7 to say that my ASOS delivery (which I ordered last night at about 8.45 - what service!) would be arriving between 7.30 and 8.30am. As soon as it was delivered, I promptly went back to bed, naturally, and so didn't get a good look at what I had ordered until a couple of hours later. I got a few things, most were in the sale with a couple of tops that weren't, but I'm a happy bunny. Everything fits and is comfy and lovely.

My favourite from my ASOS haul is this waterfall cardigan.

It's so cozy and warm, and it's going to be ideal for those inbetweeny days when it's not cold enough for a coat but there's still a chill in the air. It's a bit too thick for wearing inside (unless your heating is broken, in which case it would be perfect), but it's best for going out in anyway - it's a cardigan that demands to be seen!

Hat: Dorothy Perkins

Cardigan: ASOS

T-Shirt: Dorothy Perkins

Jeans: Marks and Spencer

Shoes: Dorothy Perkins

Actually, when I saw the cardigan on the ASOS website, I had this exact outfit in mind, so I'm really glad that it works in real life too and not just in my head, haha.

Anyway, I'm going to spend the rest of my day relaxing, maybe tweaking my blog design a bit, and probably watching more of Merlin (it's so good!).

Happy Saturday!

Song of the Day: Two More Years by Bloc Party

Currently Reading: Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman

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2014 Goals (yep, it's one of those posts)

Today has been a quiet day. A day for cups of tea, listening to soft music and playing Star Wars Angry Birds on my Kindle. All whilst wearing the most coziest of slipper socks in existence.

It's also been a day for reflecting on what goals I want to accomplish this year. And yes, I know that it's very cliche to be all 'new year, new you' every year when most of the time it's actually going to be more of the same. But honestly, I don't see the harm in making a few goals for yourself every once in a while, and it makes perfect sense to do it in the new year just after you've enjoyed a bit of indulgence over the holidays.

Some of my little goals I'm going to keep to myself because they're just for me, so here's a select few:

• I want to try and get back into the habit of playing the piano regularly. I had lessons when I was in years 4 and 5 at school and then I played the clarinet for a couple of years in high-school, but I've forgotten quite a lot, and I think I'll have to remind myself how to read music again. I'd love to be able to just play by ear but I'm not that musically talented!
• Keep taking photographs, and remember to upload them to Flickr. Even of mundane things (like my socks, see above photo, haha).
• Do a little bit of creative writing every week. Whether or not I'll share anything I write with anyone is a different story entirely, but I'd feel better knowing that I'd written something.
• Read more. I was a bit better with reading in 2013 than the previous couple of years, and I want to do even better this year. I want to read a better quality of books this year too, as a lot of the ones I read in 2013 were really terribly written.

As you can see, these are all kind of creative goals which I'm pleased about. Also, they're not too difficult to accomplish, hooray! Right, now I need to go and sort out something to eat before I have to get ready for work, joy of joys.

Song of the Day: You're So Great by Blur

Currently Reading: Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman

Bloglovin'

2013 Favourites

As we've started a brand new year, I thought I'd do a little round-up of my favourite things from 2013.

Outfit Posts
In general this was quite a disappointing year in terms of outfits because I didn't blog nearly as many as I would have liked to. A lot of my favourite items of clothing from 2013 actually didn't feature on the Emma Wears blog at all. But of the few posts that did go up, these were my favourites.

1. It's still sunny
2. Hey there!
3. Winter's back
4. Maxi skirts

Movies 

Some of these are movies that came out in 2013, and there's a few others that I just watched for the first time last year. I saw quite a lot, but these are the ones that stand out (for good reasons!).

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013) - I was a little bit wary of this initially because I thought they might move some of the plot into the next film as it's going to be split into two, so I thought it might be really slow moving with not much happening. Happily, I loved it. It was much better than the first film (which I enjoyed anyway). I'm just a bit worried about Mockingjay now though because I didn't enjoy the book as much as the first two! 

Frozen (2013) - Pixar's latest offering. I absolutely loved it, possibly on a par with how much I loved Tangled (which is a lot!) Just your standard really good fun disney film.

Monster's University (2013) - Well worth the wait. It's the supporting characters in this that make it so great.

Blackfish (2013) - This is a documentary about Tilikum, the Killer Whale at Seaworld who killed one of the trainers. It examines how safe you realistically can ever be when you work so closely with an animal in it's own environment, but even more than that it just shows what a shady company Seaworld is in general. Well worth a watch, definitely an eye-opener if you were ever thinking of going to Seaworld.

Thor 2 (2013) - I love the comic book movie adaptations (well, most of them), and this sequel was great, everything you need from a trip to the cinema really!

Warm Bodies (2013) - I really love zombie movies, and this one is a lovely different take on the standard zombie movies. It's also got a cracking soundtrack.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2011) - This is cheating a bit because I technically watched this in 2014, but I'm including it anyway. Just a really lovely little film. Plus, Ewan McGregor.

Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2 (2010 and 2013) - I was a bit late to the party with Despicable Me because I didn't get around to watching even the first one until quite late this year, but now it's one of my all time favourites, and the second one is just as good. I've even got a minion phone cover now.

Like Crazy (2011) - This follows the love story of a couple who get separated after Anna overstays her visa in America to be with him and then gets deported. It's not always particularly uplifting, but it's really well written and I really enjoyed it.

Also, honourable mention goes to The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013). It's fantastic. Obviously, there's extra plot details that are nowhere in the book and it's constantly trying to link to Lord of the Rings, but you've just got to embrace the waffley-ness (definitely a word) and enjoy the ride. Plus Smaug is genuinely quite terrifying.

T.V. Shows

Firefly - Just think of it as cowboys in space. I started watching this on Netflix last year and I became hooked, so I was bitterly disappointed when I realised it only ran for one series before getting cancelled. There's a film too, Serenity which kind of gives you some kind of closure.

Adventure Time  - A cartoon about a boy, Finn and his best friend Jake, a talking and magical dog. It's wonderfully weird and funny, and if you pay attention properly it also has important life lessons.

Game of Thrones - I fully jumped on the GoT bandwagon in 2013 and cannot wait until the next series comes out. When will that be?!

The Walking Dead - I'm relatively new to this show. I'd wanted to give it a try for a while (because Zombies, obviously) but just never ended up getting around to it. I'm only just over halfway through series 2 so I've got a lot of catching up to do but it really is compulsive watching.

New Girl - This really is one of the best sitcoms to come out in ages. Just really light hearted and funny, and none of the characters annoy me which makes a change.

The Office (U.S) - I feel like if I was to do this kind of a round-up every year, The Office would make it back onto the list every year too. I can re-watch episode after episode and not get bored, I love it so much. 

Modern Family - Phil Dunphy. Need I say more?

Books
I'm not going to say anything about these, you should read them for yourselves, so just take these as my recommendations.

The Fault in our Stars by John Green
The Perks of being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Divergent by Veronica Roth
The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan
The Loop by Nicholas Evans

Music
Bands/Artists: London Grammar, Kodaline, Bastille, The Civil Wars, Frank Turner, Gabrielle Aplin, The 1975, Two Door Cinema Club, Paramore, Tegan and Sara, Alex Winston.

Songs:
Shell Suite - Chad Valley
Be The Song - Foy Vance
Close Your Eyes - Young Love
Polaroid Picture - Frank Turner
Flickers - London Grammar
Brand New Day - Kodaline
Flaws - Bastille
C O O L - Le Youth
Another Love - Tom Odell
Two Fingers - Jake Bugg
Home - BriBry

Aaaaaand, I think that will do.

Song of the Day: The Mother We Share by CHVRCHES
Currently Reading: Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman

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Happy New Year!

This post was meant to go up hours ago but I got distracted by my dinner and then pudding, and then I watched Salmon Fishing in the Yemen with my mum and brother (it's really good - I recommend it!). But anyway, this post. I wanted to take better photos but unfortunately the weather has been so appalling today that going outside was a no-no, and the lighting in my room is terrible. However, I got this dress from Topshop yesterday and really wanted to photograph it because I don't know when I'm going to get a chance to wear it again. It seemed New Years Day appropriate.

Dress: Topshop

Necklace: Dorothy Perkins

Please excuse the blurriness - as I said, terrible lighting, and everything just looked too bright with the flash on. Also the lampshade in my room is patterned which is why there's a funny shadow all over the walls. Also, here's a bonus picture. I flicked the camera on the shutter-speed accidentally and I thought the photo wasn't taking so I moved and then it clicked, resulting in this cool ghostly picture.

Can't quite believe it's 2014 already, last year really did go incredibly quickly, and Christmas has come and gone in the blink of an eye. I worked Christmas Day, but I've had a week off afterwards and so I'm back at work tomorrow and I really don't feel ready for it! Never mind, it's almost the weekend.

My New Years Eve was a quiet one. I spent the first half of it at my boyfriend's house, eating Chinese food and drinking Lambrusco. We also watched Mamma Mia! which I was happy about but Jack complained the whole way through, haha. After it had finished, Jack's family all seemed to be falling asleep, so we walked back round to my house to see what my mum and brother were doing. After a couple of games of trivia questions, it was almost midnight so we turned on the telly to watch the London fireworks (very impressed this year). After that, we flicked channels before inevitably ending up on Jools Holland's Hootenanny despite my irrational hatred of watching it! Then I was in bed by 1. Very rock and roll.

Anyway, Happy New Year! Anyone do anything more fun than me?

Starting Afresh

Believe it or not, this is my very first post on this particular part of the internet. I had two blogs; one which just had general ramblings, and another which had outfit posts and wishlists and stuff like that. Posts on both of those gradually became few and far between and I knew the main reason for that was because of the hassle of having two blogs. Also, I felt like I'd pigeonholed what I could post on either of them because of how specific the blog names were (Useless Ramblings was one and Emma Wears was the other).

I debated just starting a new blog and leaving the old ones where they were, but when I really thought about it I realised that I didn't want to be occupying that much space on the internet, and I liked the idea of just incorporating all my old posts from both blogs into the new blog and just carrying on from there. So a new blog but without having to do another awkward first post introduction (even though it kinda feels like that's what I'm doing now!)

Initially I thought it was going to be really unnecessarily complicated and tedious trying to transfer posts from two blogs into a new one, but when I finally decided to sit down and look into it (which was today) I found that it was incredibly easy and quick, so I went for it. It took me a while to think of a name, but in the end I went for 'Pieces of Me' which I thought was appropriate because I can put absolutely anything I want on it. Even if it is the name of an Ashlee Simpson song.

Anyway, in a couple of weeks I'll be deleting the old blogs completely, but in the meantime please bear with me over here as I make a few tweaks and get it just how I want it. If you're interested, please do follow along with bloglovin' (or google friend connect, if it still exists - I'm never quite sure!)

I hope that everyone who celebrates had a very Merry Christmas and I wish you all a Happy New Year - here's to 2014!

Winter Warmers Wishlist

1. I love slippers, and these bunny ones from Next are adorable, I reeeeally want them!

2. I have a few scarves, but I've never bought a snood before. I love the colours in this one from Dorothy Perkins, and I think it would probably be more efficient than a scarf. Might be worth investing in one as it is definitely getting considerably colder!

3. I don't wear hats too often, but this festive one from New Look is really fun, I love novelty Christmas things!

4. So these H&M loafers aren't really winter warmers, but they are sparkly shoes. I doubt I'd ever wear them but still, they're pretty.

5. Another pair of slippers, again from Next. They would be so perfect for the festive season, especially for those days when you just want to stay cosied up in your pyjamas!

6. OK, I'm going to admit now that I don't get the whole onesie obsession that everyone seems to have at the moment. They just seem so incredibly impractical and are always too expensive for me to overlook that. But this monster onesie from Topshop is just so ridiculous and obnoxious that I really want it haha.