YOYOYOYO.

I think this post is a bit cheeky, celebrating having a blog for a year this month when I've posted like two times since November. But still, any chance for a celebration eh.

Yeah it's been a rocky few months on this corner of the internet. And I know a lot of people are struggling with this year so far, how is it only February? I genuinely think January lasted about 3 years. But I am ready to dust off the cobwebs and start a fresh in the new Melberryy year.


 So I thought I'd write a little post about my past year, not even in the usual 'Things I learnt in my first year of blogging' way, but more what I've learnt in the last year. So here we go;

HEYYYYYYY
Bare with me one second whilst I dust away the cobwebs from my little corner of the Internet.

It's been a few weeks or so since I last had the time, energy and let's be honest, 'bothered-ness' to sit down and right something for my blog. And now, it's New Years Eve.


Whilst I'm not the biggest fan of going out on New Years Eve (although that is of course what I'm doing) I actually love New Year. The feeling of hope and excitement that can only be found once a year, the thought that we can wipe the slate clean of the nightmare of the past 365 days.

There's always things going round on Facebook about how the start of a new year isn't instantaneously gonna make me 2 stone skinnier, not craving a McDonalds or cheesy chips from the kebab house and rolling in money because I got my dream job. Whilst the likelihood of any of that happening in the next 12 months I really love the hope and freshness about this time of year. So shut ya gums.

Anyway, I guess you can't really move on the next chapter without a cool little summary, it's like that thing on Netflix when you're binge watching a series and then it has a 'Previously on...' section like you haven't been watching it for the last 7 hours straight. I say that having never used Netflix in my life. (I KNOW) I'm pretty sure 2016 has been a pretty interesting year for everyone, it's definitely had it's ups and downs.

Moving back out to London
After my epic adventures in Corfu and Lapland last year (Timehop this year has just been constantly painful, get me back to -30 please) it was time to 'settle down and get a real job' as my Mum was constantly telling me. It was a long hard slog trying to find a job that so many fresh faced graduates were going for, and it took me a fair while and swear I aged 4 years in the process. But in July I started my new job, slept on the floor of two amazing friends house for 2 weeks and found a flat just round the corner. It was a hard couple of months settling in, especially as all my friends were just coming back from Uni to enjoy a summer at home. But now, exactly 6 months later it has all been worth it. (Probably because I've just had some time off and half forgotten how hard it is lol)

Blogging
I have always loved writing, loved putting my thoughts out there and I hate to blow my own trumpet, but I have a pretty cool, dry sense of humour that I can easily transfer to words when I'm feeling it (like now). I had attempted to start up a blog before, but kinda flopped it as I guess my heart wasn't in it. But this time I actually paid for my own domain, and not one to waste money (Unless it's on a double cheeseburger from Maccys... or in fact any food) I managed to stick to it pretty well. I know it's weird to say that after I've just taken a solid two month break, but I kept thinking about how much I missed it, it has just genuinely been ridiculously busy. Which I feel like I'm repeating about 50 times a day at the moment, but it is true! This time last year I would have never thought I would have worked with brands, organised a damn picnic or made some solid friends from this little corner.



I worked on myself
I really didn't know how to word this little subtitle, as it's so all-encompassing. But this year I really tried to fix myself. As I'm sure you'll know if you've read any post ever, I started the year suffering with anxiety and a pretty bad (and silly sounding) phobia. After having been like that for almost two damn years I finally bucked up the courage to speak to someone, got myself into CBT, and started to get back on track. Whilst I still am absolutely damn terrified of them, I've stopped crying at the sight and hiding myself in a room. Ish. I've also finally lost some of the weight I put on whilst living off pasta and cheese whilst at Uni, got myself back down to a decent proportion and am starting to feel happy with how I look again. Although I'm sure I 100% have night shifts to thank for all that I still class it as an achievement.

Meeting new people
I've met so many new people this year. Whether it's through work, moving in with people I didn't know or through blogging. It's been bloody fantastic. I love meeting new people, having so many different circles of friends and always having someone to talk to. I'd like to use this opportunity to thank my absolute baes of blogging, the squad with no name involving Sarah, Hannah, Nina, Gwennan and Effi. I actually love these girls so much. Although at the moment I don't have a phone that I can use out and about, the other day I came back to 253 unread messages from just our WhatsApp group alone - safe to say I asked for a little summary! It's great to have a group of gals from all over the UK that I can chat to about anything, don't think we have boundaries anymore. I always forget that Nina and Effi weren't at the picnic and I haven't actually met, but know that when we do it will be just as like meeting old friends as it was meeting the rest of them. I never expected this when I wrote my first post on February 22nd (almost a damn year ago - wtf) that I would actually make ~real life~ friends, but I fo'sho have with this wonderful lot.

And that's 2016 all wrapped up and done! All thats left now is to get ready for a night out in my local town, with my bffls, probably get too drunk and hopefully end it with some great cheesy chips - because isn't that the whole point of going out?

Happy New Year everyone! I have absolute faith that 2017 is going to be damn great, we're all going to smash it! And never stop sparkling, have a nice glass of champers tonight and celebrate! We made it out of 2016....

I failed. I admit it now. It may only be the 17th October but I have already failed at blogging every day throughout October. But I'm totally OK about it and here's why.

Today, ladies and gentlemen, is an incredible time. Today, I am inventing a time machine.

*Pause for dramatic effect*

I've seen a few of these posts around so I wanted to do a letter to past me, it is interesting to read and you get to see all funny pictures of me growing up. Who doesn't love that?


(Apologies for the possible non-quality of these pics, they are from approx 50 years ago. Yes I'm 59)

One of the most wonderful things about living in a city as huuuuuuuge as London is that you will never run out of things to do. There's something new popping up pretty much every week, things that you always think 'Ah I'll do another day' or always walk past on your way to work but never go inside.

One of my fab friends Sophie has recently moved back to London to finish Uni, and together we have a cute little list of these types of things that we want to tick off before she leaves again. We had a pretty jam packed day last Sunday visiting loads of amazing places and I wanted to share it all with you guys.

To be quite simple, I wasn't entirely sure whether to post about this. I knew I would like to do something for Mental Health Day, but then I had a super busy day and nothing went right and it just wasn't possible for me to get a post out. But I truly believe that it's such an important day, and I know the majority of bloggers and people agree - but I still wanted to do something.

I still think the following post might come across as a bit cringe, but I really hope it helps you.

So as many of you guys might now, wait, you should know, that I went to University in the big old smoke of London.

Now consider this, a freshly turned nineteen year old, moving away from a tiny Island that doesn't even have a train service with more than 9 stops, to London. It felt at the time like there were more people on a Tube train than there were on the whole Island. To put it politely, I was terrified.

Hi, my name is Mary Berry. It sounds kind of like Melberryy doesn't it. Kinda. 

As I am basically the Queen of Baking it should be absolutely no surprise to y'all that I love to bake. So when the lovely Talking Tables emailed me about a possible collabaration I knew that I wanted to test out some of their beau-tiful baking range.