Truuciellen #1 – Stereotypes about Christianity and our thoughts on them!

Hello lovelies!

Today I have a very exciting post – a collaboration with Truuty! She blogs about lifestyle, fashion, dance and healthy living and her posts are always full of positivity and general loveliness. She is a Christian like me, so we thought we would start a ‘Truuciellen’ series, sharing our thoughts about lots of faith related things! This post will be the first one and we are both super excited for it.

Today’s post was inspired by a question from one of Truuty’s followers, who asked “What are some stereotypes/ideas about Christianity which are not true and annoy you when people think they are?” Hopefully this post will explain our thoughts on this 🙂

As a little disclaimer, we are not annoyed or angry with anyone who might believe some of these stereotypes about Christians, we just want to share our thoughts! Enjoy 🙂

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Truuty: One of the main stereotypes that people think about Christians is that church is boring, strict and just for older people.

 

Graciellen: Yeah definitely! For example, at school when I tell people that I’m going to church on Sunday they often imagine a more traditional church and get confused when I mention our worship band, which has drums and electric guitars! We both go to a Charismatic church, which means that we are Christians who are filled with the Holy Spirit – God’s incredible presence living inside of us. 

Truuty: Every summer, we both go to a Christian festival for teenagers called Newday. It’s really fun and we have talks and seminars about all sorts of different topics ranging from tough questions such as ‘Science vs God’ to true stories about how people have followed God through their lives. There are lots of good speakers including Martha Collinson from the Bake Off! 

Graciellen: We go to Newday with our Church youth group (there were 40 of us this year!) and have lots of fun together playing games, going to the cafes for milkshakes and just hanging out. Spending time with my closest friends, lots of lovely new people and with Jesus is so much fun, it’s honestly the best week of my year 🙂

Truuty: Yes it’s my highlight of my year too! Another thing people think of when talking about Christianity is that Christians are all ‘goody-two-shoes’ and have to follow lots of rules for God to love us. However, we believe that God loves us no matter what. 

Graciellen: We choose to live our lives in a way that honours and brings glory to God, we’re not forced to. Because we love God we don’t want to hurt Him in the same way that I wouldn’t want to hurt my family or friends.

Truuty: It isn’t because of rules that we choose not to join in with things like gossip and swearing, we want to follow God’s plan for our lives and live how He wants us to.

Graciellen: Even though we choose to live like this, we don’t want to be judgemental of people who don’t! You might have had experience of a Christian being unkind or judgemental of your lifestyle, but most Christians aren’t like that at all.

Truuty:  We want to love people in the same way that God loves us, not to judge or be critical. The bible says in 1 John 4:19 – ‘We love because He first loved us.’.  

Graciellen: Another Bible verse that I find really helpful is in Matthew 7:1-5 – ‘Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticise their faults – unless, of course, you want the same treatment. That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging. It’s easy to see a smudge on your neighbour’s face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own.’

Thank you so much for reading our first collab! We are hoping to start a Truuciellen series, with similar posts to this one 🙂 Let us know in the comments if you enjoyed this post and if there are any questions or topics about our faith that you would like us to write about!

Lots of love,

Truuty and Graciellen xxx

Recipe: easy oaty cookies

Hey lovelies,

Hope you are all having a lovely summer and have been enjoying the sunshine! I’m sorry that this post is a couple of days late, I got back from Newday festival on Sunday (which was amazing, I had such a great time!!) but I have been really tired since haha.

Today I thought I would share with you guys one of my go-to recipes for birthdays, picnics, or whenever I have time to bake. These cookies are so quick and simple to make but taste so yummy! I hope you enjoy 🙂

1.) Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade // 160 degrees centigrade fan oven // gas mark 4

2.) Weigh 75g of porridge oats and pour them into a large mixing bowl.

 

3.) Weigh 175g of self raising flour and add it to the large mixing bowl

 

4.) Weigh 175g of granulated sugar (I used demerara as it makes them more caramelly – but granulated works just as well) and add it to the mixing bowl.

 

5.) Add 1 teaspoon of baking powder and then 1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda to the mixing bowl.

 

6.) Weigh 175g of butter into a small saucepan

 

7.) Measure 2 tablespoons of golden syrup into the saucepan

 

8.) Heat the butter and golden syrup on the hob until the butter is fully melted.

 

 

9.) Pour the butter and golden syrup from the saucepan into the mixing bowl.

 

10.) Mix it all together until it looks something like this!

 

10.) Squidge the mixture into small balls and place them on a lined baking tray.

 

11.) Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes until they are golden brown. Once out of the oven, leave them to cool for a few minutes and then pop them onto a metal cooling rack.

 

12.) Ta-dah!

 

Over to you…

What did you think of this post? Have you done anything nice this summer? What is your favourite thing to bake? Send me a link to a similar recipe post! [Let me know in the comments]

I am leaving for holiday at 2am tomorrow morning and I’m not taking my phone so won’t be able to reply to any comments or write any new posts from then on, sorry! I’m looking forward to chatting to you all when I get back.

Lots of love,

Graciellen xxx

Summer haul

Hello lovelies!

I hope you’ve all had good weeks. Today I thought I would show you a few things that I have bought over the last few weeks in preparation for summer!

1.) Little black bag

I found this bag in the sale in Zara for £12 and it was just what I was looking for! I have already used it lots as its a really good size for putting all my bits and pieces in. I will also be taking it to Newday (which starts tomorrow!), a festival that over 7000 Christian teenagers will be attending! I will probably post some photos from it when I get back, so keep your eyes peeled. [If you want to find out more about Newday, check out their website]
2.)  A new notebook and some pretty pens!

I love pretty stationery far too much haha, it makes going back to school in September much more exciting! I bought these bits for taking notes during talks at Newday, but I will definitely continue to use them afterwards. I love the pen colours so much! The notebook was from Home Bargains and the pens are from ASDA.

 

3.) Floral blue summer dress

I bought this dress a few weeks ago in H&M for about £12 and I have worn it so many times! It is so pretty and is perfect for hot sunny days, or for wearing with a long navy cardigan on slightly cooler ones.

 

4.) Halterneck yellow top

I saw this in New Look for £7 and totally fell in love with it as yellow is my favourite colour and I loved the cut of the top, but I didn’t have enough money on me to buy it! However, I saw it a few weekends ago in Bluewater in the sale section for only £4! I knew that I had to pick it up and I love it, especially tucked into denim shorts [like the ones featured in this post which I bought last year!]. Yellow is my favourite colour and I love this halterneck style 🙂

 

5.) Denim pinafore dress

This was also in the sale in Newlook and was down to £14.99, which I thought was quite good! I LOVE pinafore dresses, (I also have the burgundy corduroy one from Topshop!) so when I saw this I thought it would be perfect for summer. It is quite long, but I think that makes it more fun and quirky! Staple items like this are great as, depending on the weather and your mood, you can pair them with lots of different tops.

 

6.) Purple floral dress

My parents bought this for my from a shop called Apricot which we found at Bluewater. I tried on 4 different dresses in there and loved all of them, they just seemed to fit me really nicely and were all really flattering! If you are looking for a dress for a nice occasion like a wedding or a party then I would definitely recommend looking in Apricot as they had lots of lovely items 🙂

Over to you…

Which of my buys is your favourite? Do you also have a love for stationery or pinafore dresses? What have been your favourite things so far this summer? Have you done a similar post recently? Let me know in the comments, I love chatting to you guys!

Lots of love,

Graciellen xx

I’m back!!

Hello lovelies,

I’m back!! After a six-month-long break from blogging, I’m back with a whole new blog theme and a change of heart. The last few months have been a crazy whirlwind of school and exams and pressure and I feel like all my creativity has been completely zapped and replaced by tiredness. Although school is great and the opportunity of an education is a huge blessing, sometimes it doesn’t feel like one! Recently my head has felt so full of algebraic fractions and isotope formulae and key individuals during the medical renaissance that I have had no space to just think and have ideas and feel creative. I was beginning to feel like blogging was a bit of a chore rather than a pleasure and that is never the place that blogging should have, which is why I took a break from it.

I want blogging to be a creative output for me: a place and a reason to write other than just for homework or an exam practice paper. I want to write about interesting topics which stimulate my brain, research things which I want to discover and learn about in depth, and talk about the things that make my heart sing. I want to dream about the future without just thinking about A-level choices, and write stories that won’t be graded. I want to start fascinating conversations with interesting people and hear view points from across the world. I want to express my thoughts without having to define them, and I want to write beautifully without purposefully including metaphors or personification, without being able to identify the exact literary technique used.

Although what schools teach is brilliant, it is not enough. There are so many life lessons which you simply cannot learn in a classroom, and that’s why I love holidays so much. Especially the long 6-week summer, which seems so brimming with possibilities and makes me jiggle with anticipation. Although I’m away quite a lot over this summer, I want to aim from now on to write one blog post a week. This will probably be on a Saturday or Sunday so that I can have the whole week to write it and make sure that it is good! I want to write about all sorts of things and hear all of you guys views on them, I’m sorry that I have been so neglectful of all your kind comments!

Over to you…

Do you agree that sometimes school can zap all of your creativity and enthusiasm? Have you had lots of exams recently? How did they go? What do you want to achieve from your blog? What are your plans for the summer? Let me know in the comments below xox

Lots of love,

Graciellen xx

Collabs and Guest Posts

Hey lovelies!

One of my goals for 2016 is to try to do more guest posting, as I have already made some truly amazing friends through my little blog and chatting with you all makes me ever so happy 🙂

I have only ever done one guest posts (I think!) which was with the lovely Emma who sadly doesn’t blog any more but I still chat to, and we had so much fun and became really good friends through doing it (click HERE if you’d like to have a read), and so I would love to guest post or collab more often.

Whilst thinking about all this I had a few different ideas:

-The Internet Friend tag: not sure if this actually exists but if not we can make one haha!

-Interview: we’d both interview each other about ourselves and our blogs

-Outfits post: both come up with outfits along a similar theme (EG: spring, summer, beach day, prom, etc) and show on opposite blogs!

-Everyday makeup routine: both write about our everyday makeup routine and post on opposite blogs

-Short stories: both write short stories with the same title and see how they turn out!

-Something we’re both passionate about: we could either write separate posts or write one together over the phone or on facetime?

-Giveaway: combine our efforts and funds to run a really lovely giveaway for someone who follows us both?

-Q&A: answer questions from our followers in a post together

-Get Ready With Us: do different sections of getting ready for an occasion (EG: school day, evening out, lazy Saturday etc), for example: one blogger might write about a makeup look, someone else might write about hairstyles and another could write about a possible outfit/outfits?

 

Let me know in the comments if you would be interested in collabing or guest posting with me and if you like any of these ideas (or have any others!) nd we can sort out something exciting 🙂

Lots of love,

Graciellen xx