Gonna start this post with a little bit of a shock announcement. Hold on to your horses here peeps. I don't like summer.

So we all know I've got my fabulous Blogger friends. These gals are the bomb, we talk pretty much every day and I think we've probably covered every subject matter.

For something that started as a chat to organised a blogging picnic and blogging advice it really has turned into proper filth - and we've even organised our first holiday together! Between me, Gwennan, Hannah, Nina, Sarah and Effi we've sent over 35,000 messages in 11 months....

I thought (as did the gals, 'cause of course they have to back every post I write) that it would be proper hilare to make a post of out of context messages we've sent in the last month... so here we go. 

So it's May, apparently. And here I am, writing my new year, new me Bullet Journal post.

Whoops.
In my defence I only started using my new BuJo in the beginning of April, and I wanted to make sure it worked yada yada. In all honesty though I've had these pictures stewing for around 2 weeks now just not gotten round to writing this up, that London life eh.

Well anyway this is gonna be a photo heavy post so maybe grab yourself a hot chocolate and a slice of cake whilst it loads.Here we go.

You've got it by now haven't you?
I met up for the cutest little Instagram trek with Sarah, Gwennan and Sairah and it's the only thing that's kept me motivated to write for a while so I'm gonna stretch it out.

I don't know how many of you have actually met people from the Blogosphere, but it really is a strange but wonderful thing. You know when you go out with friends and really want a picture of yourself surreptitiously walking through a field of lavender but don't want to ask them? A regular occurrence for me, and going out with bloggers means they want these things too...


I mean it doesn't even look slightly posed does it?

But things that I wouldn't have even thought about before I knew that I wanted them, things that you wouldn't have even realised make you feel kind awky because you would never ask. There was a stage when all four of us where in a canopy of trees throwing fallen flower petals around for that perfect boomerang when it struck me how weird this kinda was. All of us wanted our own little flower petal boomerang picture thing and none of us got fed up with the retakes, or the different angles. Although tbf there was a point where my inner child came out and I decided to climb a tree... I'll pretend it was for 'that perfect angle' but really I just like to climb.

And no, I didn't get stuck... much.


Of course to get the perfect picture you do need to get the perfect angle and sometimes that just means crouching or getting in a position that you'd only ever find in a game of Twister. There is a much better picture of this in action that we were proper LOLing at in our little WhatsApp group (we do sometimes talk about useful stuff) but this one is slightly more blogger-y.

Unless you don't follow me (massive mistake), Gwennan, Sarah or Sairah on Instagram you must have noticed that we went on a cute little tour last Friday. Now I can hear your shock from here, but Friday? That was only a week ago Mel and you're posting about it already?!

I really did lose my blogging mojo, I was, and still am, in a constant routine of work, eat. eat, nap repeat. Trying to slot in seeing people, watch all the new films I wanna see and ya know, stay sane, blogging has had to take a back seat. But this day out with the blogging gals was exactly what I needed. And now I'm here to stay. Sorry.

Anyway, that's a story for another less photogenic post, so grab a cuppa and some cake cause this post is gonna be super photo heavy. Sorry, not sorry.

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....