Autumn Wishlist

red knit - sportsgirl // denim jeans - urban outfitters // nail polish - butter london // tartan scarf - river island // bracelet - sportsgirl // mustard knit - all about eve // lip crayon - maybelline // bag - collette

Hello wonderful people! It's almost holiday time for me and I have to say I am prettyyyy keen. I feel guilty that I'm so excited... but it is with due cause! I have some great shopping trips planned for these holidays because my winter wardrobe is needing a little TLC. Being the incredibly responsible person I am (not), I've made this wishlist to prevent (inevitable) impulse buys. Lets see how that one goes down...

As you can see, I'm loving red this winter! I think its nice to have a little colour in winter. I spied this red Sportsgirl jumper in store a few weeks ago and instantly added it to the mental list. This tartan scarf was added to the list after reading this post from one of my favourite bloggers. Love how Lucy styled this soooo much! Full credit goes to youtuber, Zoella for the lip crayon and nail polish. Zoe has a slight obsession for berry make up, so I thought I'd join the club. I'm also loving this mustard jumper from All About Eve. I saw a girl absolutely rocking a similar jumper last week, and decided I had to track it down! Loving the high neck, and of course the colour. Jeans are also on the list, because denim is an obvious must.

Apart from large amounts of online shopping, my life at the moment is including a whole lot of relaxing. I spent my weekend sailing and eating churros #bestweekendever #churros=life. I feel like I've been so busy lately. Stopping to breathe is so nice. I've been doing some photography with this epic film camera (see instagram), and taking photos has just made me realise how beautiful our planet is - seriously something pretty special.

I've also been super driven to use the Zola fb page more, after hearing an awesome talk on pursuing dreams. I wanna blog forevz guiz. Who even needs Uni!? Like Zola on FB here if you agree or if your just kool.

Till next week xo

Thoughts On... The Insurgent Movie

It has been way too long since I've sat down to write a 'Thoughts On...' post. But never fear, I've found the perfect occasion to get back in the swing of it! You might remember I posted a Divergent Movie review almost a whole year ago now. I'm excited to announce that the next instalment in this series hit cinemas, so here's my thoughts on the Insurgent movie.

Now I have to admit, the trailer and video teasers set my expectations fairly low, but I decided to be a dedicated fangirl and see the movie on opening night anyway. The movie picked up where Divergent left off, with the factions deteriorating into a war sort of situation. The first thing that I noticed is that the stakes have raised heaps from the first movie. It's hard to remember the little initiates jumping off the train as we see them running and fighting through the already destroyed city.

The movie is more violent than I expected, with quite a few fight scenes that arise as they journey from faction to faction. That said, the violence is hilariously fake for the most part of the movie. 

This violence brings some great character development, particularly with Tris's brother Caleb. Caleb isn't Dauntless, and struggles with the ethics of hurting other people in order to protect himself. 

I thought this was a really human thing to add, and it made me really love Caleb as a character. The characters in Insurgent are very tricky though. Both Caleb and Peter seem to change sides throughout the movie. Now I've seen the movie and I still can't decide quite who their loyalty is with...

I should mention that the movie follows a rather different line to the book *book fans start a revolt* but but but - it works very well. The plot line has been simplified quite a bit but it makes the movie very easy to follow. A box is discovered that was being protected by Tris's parents. They realize it can only be opened by a Divergent, who they believe is Tris. 

A large part of the movie is Tris feeling responsible for the loss of her loved ones, and trying to forgive herself. We see Tris's character develop as she's forced to sort out her problems in order to open this box. 

In all the cutting and simplifying from the book to the movie, I noticed they had cut a rather crucial scene. This was of course, the scene where Tris is drugged by Amity and finds herself hilariously peaceful in the presence of Four. I was soooo looking forward to seeing that on screen and it wasn't included in the movie :(((( Sad fangirl. Very sad fangirl. 

Some other things worth mentioning are the special effects and the sets. There are some quite cool visual effects throughout the movie, my favourites being in the simulations Tris goes through. She sees Four, and moments later he breaks into little crystals and evaporates into the air. Pretty epic. I also loved the sets of the faction headquarters. Each one was beautiful, and reflected the views of the factions well. My favourite was the Amity set, which we see in the start of the movie. It was exactly how I imagined it, made of greenery and natural woods. 

Sorry not sorry for the ridiculously wordy post, I just love writing. I'm still learning how to balance the whole busy life blogging, but I'm getting there. If you've got anything you'd like to see here on Zola, hit me up in the comments! Have a great week all xo

8 Instagram Accounts Worth Following

If you've ever had a night with 3 assignments due the next day - you'll know that there are A LOT of accounts on Instagram. I thought for this post I'd turn procrastination into my friend and put together a little list for you of my favourite Instagram accounts. If you're looking for some cool accounts to freshen up your feed, look no further!

1.  @beautifullinspiration

This account is possibly my favourite account ever - just let me put that out there. I loveeeee it! This feed is filled with incredible quotes and images that just brighten my day. I don't know exactly who runs this account, but he/she makes it 100% better with the photo captions. They're so thoughtful and caring. The world needs more people like that.

2. @harrigilbert
Shoutout to Harri! I'm seriously jealous of this kid and his abundance of creativity. His style is unlike anything else I've seen, and his captions always make me smile. Harri's feed is filled with moody experimental shots. And like all true artists, there's also a few that you look at and think 'what the heck is that..?' Seeing I clearly can't fully explain the inner workings of  Harri, you'll have to go have a look for yourself.

3. @viewsofnow

It's no secret I just adore Views of Now. For those of you who don't know, Views of Now is a blog run by Brisbane girl, Izzy. Her Instagram is obviously an extension of her blog, and it's such a fun way to keep up with her day to day life. She grams everything from new hair colours, to coffee spots, dreamy sunsets and cute behind the scenes shoot photos. Also seriously envious of how well everything matches!

4. @project365eliza
This account is so incredible! It's a photo a day project run by a girl called Eliza. I started following this feed a month or two after it was started, and she's still going! It's not easy maintaining a photo every day, but this girl is killing it! The photos aren't anything overly special, just a beautiful observation of the little things in life. It's so cool getting a little window into someone's life through their photos.  Eliza's photos include gorgeous colours, skylines, gardens, and some pretty rad pairs of socks.

5. @rubymaymusic

Ruby May is a young up and coming artist, spending her days writing, recording, filming videos, and pushing laptop trollies...? So much exciting stuff happening on this account!! Seriously though, there is so much behind the scenes goodness into the creative mind of Ruby. Her feed is filled with sneaky recording snaps, snippets from shoots, and other daily adventures. After you've seen her Instagram, head to Soundcloud for a whole new world.

6. @lostbutntfound

This account belongs to another lovely blogger, also called Isabelle actually. This girl is an adventurer, and she does it in style. Over the past 6 months or so she's been taking Europe by storm, and sharing all the amazingness on her blog. Her feed documents some of the coolest trip highlights, and her Insta deserves a whole lot more love than it gets. Isabelle's feed is filled with on trend outfits and brightly coloured travel snaps. I feel like I'm in Paris with her! I wish!

7. @taylorswiftfacts

This account is pretty well explained by its username, it's an account for facts about Taylor Swift. You can submit your own facts and the owner posts her favourites. As a Swiftie, I find this account really interesting. There is info on all sorts of things from her fashion, charts, tweets and statements from Taylor's friends. Some of the facts are also really random, like the most recent one: Taylor's legs are estimated to be worth $40 million. How could you possibly live your entire life without knowing that!?

8. @waverider_
This is the ultimate feel good account - it just makes me smile. I've been following Liam since way back. He started his account doing the most hilarious parodies of 'little girly things.' Since then his account has developed to just general celebrity parodies. Liam is super creative, and does these parodies sooo well! Its also a nice reminder that celebrities aren't very realistic. Some that appear often on this account are Nicki Minaj and Ariana Grande. Next time you're feeling down head to @_waverider for an endless feed of balloon butts and instant noodle hair.

Floral Minded

Savannah Wears

Dress - T By Bettina

Ring - Elm and King

Shoes - Rubi (Not pictured)

Let me set the scene. I'm sitting on a mini bus, chugging along a main road. My little headphones are trying desperately hard to overpower the funk blasting from the radio. It's 7:31am and the skies are grey, getting ready for another day. This is my crazy life now, and I'm loving it!

I've been super busy this year, so I've had a lot less time for blogging which is really sad. I'm doing a lot of sport, which is very different for me but I'm having a surprisingly good time. I'm playing touch football, and we had our semi final on Friday. We were 2 down at half time, then we ended up tying and going into 'drop off'. I had no idea what this was, but turns out they take a player off each team every 2 minutes until someone scores. We ended up scoring with 3 players left!! I've gotta admit this had little to do with me, because I hurt my finger in training but I'm so proud of the team and excited for our final this week!

I'm also taking classes in film photography, which is proving very cool. It's different to what I was expecting, but it's interesting learning to play with light and developing negative images. Once I add a few more photos to my portfolio, I'd love to share them with you!

I've also discovered some awesome music lately. My bus driver has a slight obsession with Triple J which I can say is definitely broadening my taste in music... When I can be bothered to try and overpower the radio, I'm listening to a band called Paradise Fears, The Broods, and Imagine Dragons new album Smoke and Mirrors.

So now for this actual outfit. I've had this dress for a while, and I can't get over how great the print is!! Its a perfect geometric colourful floral wonderfulness that I can't describe any other way. It also has gorgeous cut outs at the back. This is my go to formal outfit. 

I went to my first 21st on the weekend and it was so lovely. The house looked incredible, and there were touching speeches and the cutest childhood photos. I just really enjoyed celebrating the milestone, and seeing just how much we can all do in 21 years.

Although I'm tired, and everything is a little crazy I can't help but feel so lucky. Lately I've been trying to be thankful for all the little things, because this life really is so incredible. We've got Lindt hot chocolate, music, and people. People are my favourite.

Moral of the post: try new things and find happiness in appreciation. Sorry not sorry for the super long-ness! Till next week xo Also, be a legend and like the Zola Facebook page here :))

Q + A

Hey all! I've hit that week of the term where all my assessments are due at once. On the bright side, I've been enjoying some cool music, and YouTubers! Gotta love a bit of procrastination. Anyway, its just a quick post from me this week. I've been collecting up your questions via my social media (@zolablog) and I've answered my favourites below. Thanks for the questions, and have a great week xo

Eyelashes as fingernails or fingernails as eyelashes? 

I was so shocked by this question, I just had to include it! First up, this is disgusting. I love painting my nails and making them look nice, but on my eyes!? No. That said, I'm going to have to go eyelashes as fingernails. I wonder if I'd put mascara on my hands...

Tea or Coffee?Hmmm... Neither? I don't drink normal tea or coffee. My friends are a little obsessed with tea, so they went on a bit of a quest to find a flavour I liked. So far I've found one - T2 Strawberry and Cream. But as far as tea or coffee is concerned... Hot chocolate anyone?? 

Who is your fashion inspiration?Inspiration is everywhere! I can't say I have just one fashion inspiration, but I'd love to find one. I'll work on that. I find inspiration in my favourite blogs, which change all the time. I also like magazines and photo shoots from stores I shop at. 

What is your favourite song?I've been discovering so much incredible music on Spotify lately, I'll make a playlist very soon. It's so hard to pick a favourite but one song I am just loving at the moment is Dead Air by CHVRCHES. The lyrics are a bit depressing because It's on The Hunger Games soundtrack, but the music is on point. 

What is your go-to snack?Nuts! I am constantly eating nuts. Above all, nuts are a quick snack that you can just grab. It doesn't take any time to make! They're super tasty, filling and pretty healthy too. 

Summer or Winter?Definitely summer! It's not even the heat that I love, but the essence of summer. Summer means long nights,beach days, ice cream, sailing, sunsets, and holidays! Christmas! It's officially autumn now, and the last few days have been pretty overcast. It makes me want blankets and YouTube. 

What camera do you use?For all my blogging photos I use my Canon 600D. I've got a few lenses but the main one I use is a wide angle 55mm-250mm. I'm going to learn how to use all the manual settings better this year, promise!