Brit project.

Sundays in Manchester.

Aaaaaaaand breathe. If you're anything like any of the people I've spoken to in the past couple of days, your week's been a shocker. Inevitably it's the oh-crap-it's-October-how-did-that-happen panic setting in, along with a whole load of other Q4 feels, but there's definitely something other than pumpkin spice particles in the air.

Despite this (by which I mean, if we casually brush stress under a carpet), it's been a good start of month for me. I managed to catch up with old colleagues, school friends and new Manchester pals all in one weekend. Pity my bank balance, but we'll ignore that for a little longer. After the hazy beginning of a weekend in London, I was back in Manchester for a chilled Sunday. And, if I do say so myself, it passed pretty perfectly.

If there's one thing I've learnt since moving here, Manchester does Sunday very, very well. Or rather, it does recovery better than any city I've lived in; everything closed on a Sunday Munich was not best when I had a habit of going to the atomic cafe and not having the foresight to get food in... nightmare. Pretty much every place in the Northern Quarter and Deansgate does a killer brunch, and if your stomach's up for it you've got plenty of Sunday roast options too. 

With a lingering hangover tiredness from Friday, Laura, Clare and I headed to Hawksmoor for one of the best roasts I've had since moving here. Can I get those potatoes on tap, pls? Yes, it's not the cheapest, but for a score you get a Yorkshire the size of your face and refills on gravy. Photo below!

We headed back home via Spinningfields, where we managed to get some outfit snaps without any awkward reflections in the glass buildings - hurrah! Note my lack of expandable waistline, and see my main error. A couple of weeks back the babes at JD Sports got in touch and asked if I wanted to go to Brit Project, and they set me up with these beaut Nike Theas to wear on the night. I'm generally an Adidas girl through and through (other than my gym shoes), but my Superstars are getting a well deserved rest for a bit as I wear the new loves of my life in. Brit Project was a beaut way to spend the evening. I haven't been to a gig for a while, and it's always good to dust your dancing shoes off every once in a while - particularly when you can get there direct from yours on the tram, hollaaa.

If you've made it through this disjointed blog post thus far, congratulate yourself with a metaphorical gold star and a roast potato or five. This girl's done too much exercise today in preparation for another roast, and is falling asleep at her lapto.........

What I Wore.

Warehouse silk shirt: £15. Oasis Lily jeans: old. Nike Thea: c/o JD Sports. Olivia Burton watch: c/o OB.

Where We Went.

What's on Insta.

Last night we headed to @britproject with @jdsportsofficial, and today I felt it. Bad. #britprojectmcr #mcruk #victoriawarehouse #manchester

A photo posted by Rebecca 😈 (@rebeccacohen_) on Sep 25, 2016 at 9:30am PDT

At #BritProject watching #badlydrawnboy with @jdsportsofficial and @robyn_lynch ✨ #Manchester #mcruk #saturday

A photo posted by Rebecca 😈 (@rebeccacohen_) on Sep 24, 2016 at 2:13pm PDT

Ladies who Sunday lunch. Pretty sure I've used that caption before, but I'm still in a food coma so that's the best you're getting. #sundayroast #roast #hawksmoor #eatmcr

A photo posted by Rebecca 😈 (@rebeccacohen_) on Oct 2, 2016 at 1:09pm PDT

Regram from @chambrayandcurls - because apparently there's a uniform when we meet up now 🐼 #ootd #wiwt #wiw #whatiwore #whatimwearing #monochrome

A photo posted by Rebecca 😈 (@rebeccacohen_) on Oct 7, 2016 at 1:01am PDT

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Evening and chill.

How to Chill The Fuck Out

It's been a long ol' process, learning how to chill out. I'm not 100% there yet, but I've been learning how to let go and generally stop being a ball of stress at all times. I still get massive FOMO and let tasks build up, but these are the small steps I'm taking on the daily in order to make sure that I have my shit together and keep functioning like a, well, functioning human being.

Plan to wake up early.

Massive disclaimer here: I am not a morning person. I find my prime hours of activity are between about 8 and 10pm. That said, I am slowly weaning myself onto a normal person's bodyclock.

When I wake up early, there's a weird sense of accomplishment that I get from completing tasks and activities before I've started the commute to work. This means that I don't feel like things are unachievable by the time my PC's booted up, as I've already started to boss the day. Do you see my logic?

I say "plan to" rather than "do it", because there's no way I'm waking up at 5.45am every single day, even if my alarm's set that way. Even if you snooze your alarm, it's totally a-okay because no one's that good at life every day.

Treat yo' self.

Whether it's Fat Friday (definitely a "thing") or an evening of having your phone on do not disturb and catching up on the Real Housewives of Cheshire, everyone needs a lil something to look forward to.
For me, I like to indulge in an evening out of the loop. As said above, I live in a constant state of FOMO. I say yes to a lot of things, just in case I miss out on a funny story or one of those you-had-to-be-there-moments. I look forward to an evening out every once in a while where I can vegetate in front of my laptop, watching youtube videos while I treat myself to a skin treatment and sort my nails out.
I've been a long time fan of Antipodes, so when they got in touch a few weeks back I knew that these guys would have something to help on one of my chill out days.
Today is the last day of Organic Beauty Week (I know, who knew that was a thing?), so I've been testing out their Aura manuka honey mask for just over a week. I've been having quite a few issues with my skin recently due to a new hospital treatment, and this little tube of goodness has been helping to settle my skin regardless. It's very gentle and the results aren't dramatic, however long term use has shown rejuvenated skin and a less patchy complexion.

Take ten minutes to develop a routine.

Morning and night, there are little things that I can do on autopilot. Once you've developed a routine, you don't even have to think about what you're doing, meaning you get some time to think whilst still doing something: multitasking like a pro.
For me, this is my skincare routine. I talked about my evening skincare routine a while back, and it's just gradually progressed, new item by new item, to a very similar one today. Both in the morning and the evening, I take a good ten minutes to cleanse-serum-moisturise my to-do list. As I go through the motions, I work out that day's plan of action and work out my priorities.
Once I've got it sorted in my head, things are a lot more manageable.

Switch off at least one evening a week.

From reading a minimum of two books a week when I was at university, things came to a stop. Or rather, things fell off a bloody cliff. When we drove home from Liverpool, I just stopped reading. From being that weirdo bookworm kid who used to read a book on her walk to school (not good when you're as clumsy as me, fyi), it was odd to have gone cold turkey.
However, I've recently been getting back into it, and it's definitely helping to clear my head further. The internet is an absolute overload of content and conversation, and it's easy to get sucked into trying to catch up and add your own voice all the time. Rather than getting sucked into that hammed up hamster wheel all the time, I've been taking one night out a week to get stuck into a story and concentrate on that one thing fully.
Recently I've read the Miniaturist by Jesse Burton, and now I'm onto the Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling. Next on my list is Tess of the D'Urbevilles, which I recently salvaged from an old unread reading list pile.

If you've got any more tips on how to chill out, definitely let me know @rebeccacohen on Twitter. Other than that, here's hoping that everyone's doing a-okay.
Because, as always, there's nothing worth crying over, unless it's a video of baby pandas.

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MAN > SHF

A Culottes Jumpsuit and Embossed Watch

Let me just hold backspace for a bit.

I have a habit of leaving my emails for about three weeks, then replying en masse. It's not a technique I'd recommend. In fact, I'd actively dissuade you from adopting this method, as it's only going to make you stress and piss people off. Either way, when I got an email from the babes at Olivia Burton asking if I wanted to head to an event in Sheffield I was mid-way through typing a "cheers, but I live in Manchester" reply before deleting it all and saying "oh, go on then". 

Sheffield is one of those cities I've always loved. No beating around the bush, it's a solid 95% because of Arctic Monkeys, but it holds its own right too. I applied to university there way back when, and even though I didn't attend full time I did go a fair amount to visit my friend Selena. Last time I went was back in 2011 for an Arctic Monkeys gig (surprise surprise), and I've just never had a reason to go back.

Now I live up North, it's not hard to be a daytripper. Yes, trains are few and far between, but they're cheap as chips. That day I met up with Kavita to discuss what she'd been up to since we'd last seen each other. Sheffield weather was behaving, so we ate outside before heading into town for a quick walk around. I then headed to Meadowhall to visit boutique Goldsmiths. I was very lucky to be treated to my very own Olivia Burton watch, which has been personalised with my name: it doesn't just tell you the time, it also helps you out of tricky situations. You can get this done online, but it was super quick in-store.

Fast forward to the next weekend, and Laura and I were picking our brunch spot for the weekend. Not feeling a 45 minute (!!) wait for Alabamas, we just went round the corner to Allotment. One of those "should I eat where I drink?" establishments, but I am so glad we went in. Honestly, the eggs benedict comes highly recommended from me, and I've tried a fair few platefuls of it in my time.

Laura was kind enough to snap a few photos of my outfit before it proper peed it down. New fave combo of a culottes jumpsuit and anything chelsea boots that I picked up for a mere £7 in Zara. Of course, paired with my faithful leather jacket and a fedora hat.

What I Wore

Olivia Burton watch: c/o. Warehouse culottes jumpsuit. The Kooples leather jacket. Zara metallic chelsea boots: c/o Liverpool ONE. Topshop fedora hat. Urban Outfitters bag.

Where We Went

What's on Insta

Sunny skies in the steel city today 🔥🔥 #Sheffield #travel #summer

A photo posted by Rebecca (@rebeccacohen_) on Aug 7, 2016 at 9:11am PDT

Yesterday's kiwi special (apparently) mince on toast with @shewearsfashion #sheffield #acolorstory #green

A photo posted by Rebecca (@rebeccacohen_) on Aug 8, 2016 at 10:21am PDT

Get in me. 🍳 Brunch with @chambrayandcurls #eatmcr #brunch #manchester #food #breakfast #capturemcr

A photo posted by Rebecca (@rebeccacohen_) on Aug 20, 2016 at 4:15am PDT

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