Right keep this a secret but I actually feel like I'm getting a bit old no?



I genuinely thing it was only yesterday I was 21, able to handle my drink (and more importantly my hangovers) and could eat a whole pizza without instantly putting on 4 stone. But here I am, almost 25. But anyway, a lot has changed this year, and I wanted to do a bit of a summary.

So here we are, 14 things I've done this year:

1. Started asking for help more
2. Went on holiday to Florida
3. Started liking myself a bit more
4. Lost a lot of weight
5. Got in a relationship and put it all on again (and some)
6. Became a Tinderella
7. Made some brilliant new friends
8. Went through a few different jobs
9. Became a lot stronger
10. Met up with the Blog Squad and had a ball
11. Got out of something I was unhappy in, and decided to make a change
12. Started spending time on self care, and knowing what I need when I need it
13. Started teaching myself a lot more things
14. Celebrated a year of blogging

I feel like 2017 has been a year full of changes, both good and bad. It's been a tough year, but I for one feel like I've come out of it a lot stronger.

What have you done this year?

It's not been easy to get in the Christmas spirit for me this year. Leaving the flat at 7am, getting back at 7pm, spending half my life on a crowded Tube train and the fact that I've been ill for approximately 2 months. But when it comes to it, I think that all I really needed was a little Christmas sparkle in my life.

Once again, Talking Tables know exactly how to jump in on time and fix everything. What a surprise. The babes. This post is a relatively short one but I have more bits and bobs going on with them over the next while so keep your eyes peeled!

 The trouble is, living in a rented place that I will (hopefully) not be living out the rest of my years in, I don't have a great deal of things I can actually do without wrecking my walls and losing the deposit. Which is probably worth more than my left kidney. Also, my room is smaller than some peoples wardrobes so the idea of getting a tree or any large things is hugely laughable. So all the things I have up in this post can be done without ruining the chance of getting your deposit back, whether it's blue tack, free standing or can be pinned into the side of a door frame (sneaky).

Everybody knows that fairy lights make anything feel Christmassy and overall more snug and cosy, which is something a small cupboard/room definitely needs. It's lovely to sit and blog under them, or even just cosy up watching Netflix with the boyf. These copper ones from Talking Tables are especially wintery, they're such a subtle and soft light it's the flat equivalent of having a fire burning.

 Something to make your shelves, or desk, or on top of your chest of drawers more festive are these cute as anything Nordic Christmas Trees. They have wood trunks and you could mould the tree-y bit around a bit to how you want/make it stand up. I also had some great fun making up some fake snow I got from Winter Wonderland. I go to that bloody stand every year and it's so much fun and now I have it in my house and it's just amazing. I hope you all know what I'm talking about here.


A final thing to do to get your room in the Christmas spirit is pretty obvious, light some candles. I have this Yankee Candle which is called Snow in Love and is such a clean but Christmassy scent, it get everywhere. With the fairy lights it makes for such a nice lighting and with this to get all snuggly with (but never fall asleep with candles on, I'm such a fire freak) I do feel a lot more relaxed at nighttime.

So there it is, some ways to make your rented cupboard apartment feel all cosy and festivey without throwing away your deposit! Let me know what you think about it down below!


*I was sent the Talking Tables items in this post in return for a review, but all pictures, thoughts and love for them is absolutely my own*

So as my first post in the most mismatched series of posts ever, I'm starting off with some goals for 2018. I've mentioned approx a thousand times before that I love the optimism of starting a new year all fresh, so here we go eh. May as well just jump right in then...



1. Blog more
I mean I said this last year, and I blogged a lot less. But ya know, what you gonna do? I've been through a lot of jobs this week, a lot of things have gone on (wait for the next post, I'm a tease) and I have been very busy. I don't think I've really had a break since I went to Florida and even that wasn't the most relaxing holiday. But I do feel a bit more settled now and with a long commute on my hand I wanna learn to use that as productively as I can in the New Year. Ideally watching new stuff on Netflix whilst blogging (so if anyone wants to gift me an iPad Air that'd be great). Anyway I really wanna put a lot of effort into my blog and not see it trailing into nothingness like it kinda has been.

2. Try being Vegetarian
I am a meat lover. For the first 23 years of my life I strongly believed a meal isn't a meal without meat. I couldn't understand why anyone would be a vegetarian because that would mean you can't eat bacon. But over the first month or so I have really cut down my intake of meat. To be honest, it was nothing to do with the environment or anything ethical, more that a) meat is expensive b) I painful bloat a lot (TMI) and was convinced it was coeliac like my Mum, but since I cut down it's got a lot better. So I'd like to give it a go. Even if I only last a month I'd like to just try. Also my Dad told me a really cute story about a pig at his monastry the other day and it made me very emotional.

3. Join a Class
I was so tempted to write 'get fit' as a goal, like I do every bloody year and every year I get to December the 18th and end up fatter than I was in the first place. This year is no exception. Back in January/February I lost a tonne of weight (thanks to night shifts), got really happy with how I looked and then got in a relationship and promptly put it all back on again. Thanks. When I was younger I did dancing classes for 15 years and loved it, and it's something I really want to get back into. I'd love to do tap dancing again but for some reason it seems harder to find an adult tap dancing in London than on the Isle of Wight.

4. Take more short trips around Europe
It won't be hard for me to improve upon that for this year, seeing as I didn't take any short trips out around Europe at all. My friend Sophie and I have been planning a day trip to Oslo for approximately the last 12 years but we seem to have gone another year without taking our relationship to the next level. I know there's so many cheap flights around at the moment (Thanks to Ryanair no doubt) and I'd love to take advantage of them even if it's only for a day here and there. Though to be fair I did have a nightmare the other night that I went to Oslo and got mugged by some nurses dressed as pigs and ended up sleeping rough on the street. So who knows.

5. Learn new things
I really want to become one of them really cool well rounded people that appears to have knowledge in everything. Though tbf I also want to be one of those people that likes to run and chooses fruit over a doughnut but I tell you thats not gonna happen. Anyway, realistic goals, I want to take some new courses. I'm going through an NVQ online right now, I do Japanese on Duolingo and I just wanna become cool. Because who doesn't love cool?

So there we are, my goals for the next 12 months. A pretty generic post but I for one feel motivated now and I'm hoping I've passed that on to you!

Ha, I started my last post of 2016 with exactly the same title. With exactly the same sense of optimism, motivation and breath of fresh air that comes with a New Year.



And did it change things? Actually, it was a pretty progressive year.
And do I regret it? Absolutely not. I still love, and will always love the excitement that comes at the end of the year. The thought that anything is possible, you're starting a new page, a clean slate, a breath of fresh crisp January air.

Anyway, I'm digressing as per.

A lot of people do Blogmas this time of year, or their own different series of Christmas posts. But, I'm not gonna lie, I'm a bit Scrooge this year. I am currently sat in a cold flat, listening to the door slam for the 60,000th time, knowing I should get some sleep because I'm up in 8 hours for my two hour commute. And this isn't me moaning (shocking). This is just me struggling to look past the next day to a time where I can sit around all day eating Pigs in Blankets and doing cartwheels with Jack.

But there is one thing that is kind of making me keep going.

A NEW YEAR.

So I decided I'm going to do a little mini series about basically reviewing the year, goals for the next year and just maybe telling you a bit more about myself.

Not gonna lie, it's not planned at all. It won't be every day, maybe twice a week (hopefully), one post a week reviewing and one goal-ing. I know that's not a word.

So basically, bare with me, keep reading and I'm kinda hopefully back to blogging. 

So I can't really remember if I've mentioned this before, but I have a sleeping problem. Yes, like everyone else in the world I don't get enough of it. But also, I sleepwalk, sleeptalk, sleeptext and have such realistic dreams I feel like I haven't slept because I was too busy having my flatmate turn the flat into a light show and tidying my bedroom because I live in Disney World and my Mum was coming to stay.

True stories.



When I tell people I sleepwalk it's normally met with a 'REALLY?' and a laugh. Because, yeah I get it, it's funny to imagine me walking round like a zombie putting my socks on at 3 in the morning because I think someone's coming to get me for a bike ride. But in reality, it means that I live the rest of my life (deep) as an actual zombie and constantly feel exhausted because really, I've never actually slept.

I was actually in the Sun about all this (10 bonus points if you can find that article because I am defo not sharing it) which made everyone, including me, think it was super funny. I wasn't going to post this because I wasn't really too sure if it would be an interesting post but Gwennan persuaded me that she'd like to read it, and I do everything she says because she is Queeeeeen.

So here we are, have a list of things I've sleep text various people throughout the course of 2017.

- Lol msomdellmmsldepe

-  Can I
Come
Downs (from me during a nightshift)

- *Picture of me in bed*

- Come is blending ad the time

- Do you wanna sleepwalk?

- Nah j wanna go to Scotland

- I meant why are you such a dickens

- I meant two wybfamdenv

- Can we go on Supermarket Sweep

- And the cupcakes? You know the cakes

- Oooooooh thanks Gwennan!

- *Image of a meme about the longest dominos chain being knocked over by a bird* (I still to this day have no idea where I got this from or where it went)

- That' dnnöhn

- It's a trip though

- Are you here??

Nobody whos number I have is safe, muhahahah.