New Years Resolutions!

For my final post of 2013 I'm going to be telling you all my new years resolutions!

I don't always make resolutions, sometimes I'm not in the mind set and think 'if you want to change something why wait till new years?' But I also think it's really great to start a new year with an open mind and goals of what you would like to achieve, so that's what I'm going to be doing. 

Get a full time job

I've kinda been a bit lazy the past year (or two) by only working part time and just waiting for my dream job to just come to me. I refused to work anywhere I didn't love, and I realised that could take years or may not happen at all so this year I want to just get a full time job. I don't mind what it is, I just need to get back into habit of working more.

Get our own place

This has been a plan for around a year now. However, finding somewhere to live in London with not a huge budget is proving difficult. Me and my boyfriend have discussed moving out of London soon so this may be on the cards, I'll keep you updated.

Jog

At the start of every year I tell myself to eat healthier and exercise more and in the first week of January I go full force into that, I exercise every day and eat fruit and chicken constantly. But then a week later I get bored. 

This year I'm not telling myself to jog a certain amount of times a week or anything but I do want to jog more when I can. 

Stress less

Something I haven't ever discussed on my blog and don't plan to (not yet anyway) is that I've been suffering from anxiety a lot the past year. It's gradually getting worse so I hope to work on that a lot in the new year.

Blog more and build blog/s

My final resolution is to build both of my blogs, I finally have my blogging head back and have been loving it more than ever lately, I have triple the amount of followers as I did last year and I hope to build that and create lots of fun future blog posts.

So that's it, time to say goodbye to 2013. It's been a good one, despite a few bumps, I've learnt a lot, matured a lot and I'm excited to see what 2014 will bring. I hope you all have a great new years whatever it is you're doing. 

Thank you for your constant support.

See you next year.  

2013 Random Favourites!

Hi guys!

I'm back again with yet another 'end of the year' themed post and today I'm going to tell you all about some of my favourite things from 2013. I will be doing another 2013 favourites post on my other blog which will consist of all things beauty, hair and skin care in the next day or so, so keep posted on that.

So without further ado, here's a round up of things I've been loving this year!

Favourite Person:

So of course, it's no surprise that my boyfriend Chris is my favourite person. He puts up with a lot being with me, but we really do have a great relationship and he has been so good to me this year.

Favourite Place:

This is quite tricky, I've found myself appreciating visiting home a lot more this year so that's definitely up there. Over the summer my favourite place was definitely Southend beach, I think it's so under rated compared to other beaches around London, but I had so much fun there this year.

Favourite App: 

Probably Instagram or Pintrest. I'd love to say a new found discovery, but to be honest I'm not hugely into games or anything exciting so there's nothing exciting on my phone sadly.

Favourite Non-Alcoholic Drink:

A new discovery (invention) this year was Peach and Apricot Fanta, I can't even express my love for it!  

Favourite Alcoholic Drink:

Working in a cocktail bar for two years I was always discovering new drinks, as well as going to several cocktail bars in my free time ha! A few favourites would be frozen Strawberry Margaritas, Disaronno Royale (champagne with lemon and disaronno) or a French Martini. Yum.

Favourite Food:

This year I've found myself loving anything spicy. I think my taste buds kinda got bored of normal food and wanted everything to be spicy. Other than that my food habits haven't really changed, I like burgers, cheese, curry and anything that's bad for me. 

Favourite Restaurant:

I'm quite low maintenance when it comes to restaurants (obviously I expect good service and good food) but I'm not hugely into very fancy restaurants. My boyfriend's family are into fine dining so I'm lucky enough to eat at some great places but my favourites still continue to be Byron Burger and TGI Friday's.

Favourite Book:
So I've finally got back into reading again after a year break and I've read quite a few books this year, but my favourite would have to be Dorothy Koomson's - Rose Petal Beach

Favourite Memory:
2013 has definitely been a year of making memories, in particular mine and my boyfriend's first holiday to Marbella.

Favourite TV show?

Gossip Girl. I can't believe I only discovered it this year! It's my favourite TV show of all time, I could watch it daily (and I do most days).

Favourite Artist?
This is so difficult, there's so much music I really like I can never choose favourites  this year I've been loving Ellie Goulding (kinda cheating because I've always liked her), Bastille, Ben Howard also.

Favourite Movie?
This is another difficult one, I've seen plenty of good films this year including one of my favourites Now you See me, but the takes the throne (and yet again I'm late to the party) is Pitch Perfect, I didn't expect myself to like this as much as I did, I'm not into musicasly at all, but this is so funny and I loved it!

That's about all I can think of, it's been a great year with plenty of discoveries and new things going on.
I have a couple more New year's themed posts on their way in the next week, but if I don't get on here in the next couple of days, then I hope you all have the best new year!
Thank you for everything! 

2013 Completed Goals?

So this post is kinda going to be a two part post. At the start of last year I compiled a list of things I wanted to do in 2013, I made the list and put it into a tab at the top of my blog, see here!

I knew by putting it into a space like that I would reference to it often and try to complete as many as possible. 

The reason this will be a two-parter is because I plan on doing the same for 2014, so stay tuned till later to see an updated list. 

So let's see how many I completed and how many I didn't...

Get to a weight I'm happy with

This didn't exactly happen. I exercised a lot more than a normal year this year, but it was often I  bursts, next year I plan to stick to a regime. 

Go abroad

Complete. I went to Marbella. 

Go to Paris

Incomplete. I went on a road trip all the way across France though. Paris is definitely in store for next year. 

Go to a festival

Yes. Holi One Colour Festival was definitely one of the more memorable points of the year. I  very glad I did it.

Go to the beach lots in summer

Complete. I probably went between 5-10 times. 

Have a BBQ

I had far more than anticipated.

Go to an Aquarium

We spontaneously visited an aquarium on our anniversary in Brighton. 

Go to Blackpool pleasure beach

Incomplete. We sadly didn't venture anywhere further north than the Midlands this year.

Visit the Lake District

Didn't do this, but it's still somewhere I'd like to visit.

Go to a Safari park

Visit a zoo

Two things I've been banging on about to my boyfriend all year, but we've never gotten round to doing.

Go to a comedy show

Jason Manford and Stephen K Amos. Check.

Go on the London Eye

Considering I've lived in London for 2 years and Chris has been here his whole life, we had both never been on the London Eye. Although I'm very scared of heights this was something I'm glad I did.

Have a picnic in the park 

For the first time in God knows how long, summer in England was actually pretty good. So I spent plenty of time having picnics in the park.

Dress up for Halloween

I dressed as a bloody snow white as I gave my original costume to my sister as hers wasn't delivered on time. It counts right?

Go to a fancy dress party

Does Halloween count?

Make an EBay account 

Something I've been putting off for years! Okay so I didn't actually create my own, but I equally use my boyfriend's account. Before our holiday we put loads of old stuff on, definitely glad I did that.

Get my own place, or one with Chris

Quite a complicated one but incomplete. Moving out is more difficult than anticipated. We hope to early in the new year though.

Get a full time job 

Again. No. I was in a job I loved that was part time up until July then got thrown right into another part time job straight away. Hopefully this will change soon. 

Have a new years kiss

Incomplete so far. But I have new years plans and will be with my boyfriend so I'm sure I will complete this.

Get a summer party house for a week

Something again, we talked about a lot but never got round to.

Conquer a fear

Flying. I flew for the first time this year and was terrified! Very glad I finally did it.

Adopt an animal (cat or dog)

Sadly not.

Go got London Dungeons & Madame Tussades

London Dungeons. Check. Madame Tuassades, maybe next year? 

And that's that. More than I thought I'd complete. Some will be rolling around to next year's list, some won't. I'm glad I wrote it all out though, it's sometimes nice to see what you've achieved. I'll be back later with my new and improved goals for 2014! Stay tuned.

The Best of 2013!

Hello everyone!

2013 is almost coming to an end, as excited as I always am to begin a new year I'm also sad to leave a great one behind. 2013 was a good one for me, it definitely had a few downs, it had a lot of lessons and a lot of realizations. But one main thing it had was memories. This post is going to be a huge post of my 2013 summary (the good bits) in no particular older. 

Enjoy. 

1. My 20th birthday
(Read full post here)

My 20th birthday was perfect, the night before my lovely boyfriend took me for dinner then took me to see Matilda the musical which was amazing!

On the day of my actual birthday he took me to get my hair done, took me shopping then took me to the Marriott County Hall hotel (which was beautiful) then he took me for dinner on a boat along the river Thames! The next day he took me and my friends out to my favourite restaurant. (He's the best). Overall a great birthday.

2. My 1st year anniversary in Brighton
Read post here

3. Loads of beach visits
I love to be by the water, and as growing up all of my closest beaches were all in Wales I decided my first summer in London would be full of lots of spontaneous beach visits. Including Brighton, Bournemouth and Southend (a few times!)

  

4. Dinner in St. Tropez
Yes this happened. A surprise birthday treat for my boyfriend's sister was dinner at her favourite restaurant in St. Tropez France. We road tripped from London all the way across France for the weekend at it was lovely (despite the rain).
Read my blog post about it here!

5. Holi One Festival 
I love festivals. I knew I wanted to go to one this year and when my friend emailed me about Holi One I knew I HAD to go. I asked my friends and everyone was in! (If you don't know what it is, YouTube it!)

It was honestly one of the best days ever, everyone that came had so much fun and we will definitely be going back next year. Read the blog here!

6. 10 days in Marbella 
Fortunately for us, my boyfriend's sister lives in Marbella, so of course we are obliged to visit her (hard life!). In September we flew out for 10 days of sunbathing and cocktails, it was lovely.
Read more here!

7. Endless BBQ's
Me and Chris kinda got into the spirit of hosting BBQ's this summer and probably over did it and threw far too many. He'd be on cooking duty and I was on cocktail duty. So much fun.
Blog post here..

Other than all of this fun stuff, I spent 2013 having plenty of picnics in the park, commuting between London and the Midlands to visit my family. Having lots of fun nights out making new friends and seeing Daft Punk and Kelis spontaneously and topped off with a new addition to my family (my niece) and a lovely Christmas.

It's safe to say, 2013 has been pretty good to me.
I've definitely had some pretty big downs which I don't intend on delving into right now, but for the majority it's been a good year and I hope 2014 will be even better.

Winter Wonderland

Hello everyone!

And happy December :D

December is my favourite month of the year, I love everything about it!

And what better way to kick off the year than by visiting Hyde Park's Winter Wonderland!

I've been every year now since living in London and I love it. It is impossible to not want to smile the whole time being there. I took a few pictures whilst there, so enjoy! :)

Goodbye summer

So the rain has begun and the scarves are coming out, which in England can only mean one thing.... summer is gone for 2013.

I love summer, I love the heat, I love the clothes, the bright colours, being outdoors more, cocktails, frozen drinks, BBQ food. I just love it. 

If you live in England you will know that we don't really get good summer's here, we probably get a week of 30 degree heat in July then rain for the rest of August.

However, this summer the weather has actually been really good to us.

The rain has steered clear through the majority and I've wore dresses more often than not.

But summer is finally over and its been a good one, I wanted to do a post to reflect on what I've been doing this summer and what has made it so great.

Back at the very beginning of summer I was invited by my boyfriends family to St. Tropez in the south of France for a weekend.

We drove all the way across France and spent a cute weekend in beautiful surroundings. I loved it.

I spent many nights out with friends, the best one being a spontaneous night out in Mayfair, where I got to see Daft Punk and Kelis perform. That was pretty cool.

We hosted several BBQ's, where I was on cocktail duty and Chris cooked. 

Good food and drinks is what mostly made summer so great haha.

Had plenty of picnics in the park.

I went home a couple of tines and spent some quality time with my family.

Spent plenty of time at the beach, Bournemouth and Southend beach.

Celebrating birthdays, having girls days out and going to see Jason Manford.

Even though my boyfriend has lived in London his whole life, he had never done any of the tourist things, so I took him to London Dungeons and on the London Eye.

Spent an amazing day with great company at the Holi Colour Festival. 

Had so much fun!

So that's some things I've been up to over the past few months.

I've had a great summer with great people.

My summer isn't completely over as this time next week I'll be jetting off to Marbella in Spain for 10 more days of sunshine. But when I return I'm sure I'll be in fully fledged winter mode, which I'm quite excited about!

But for now, hope you all had the best summer ever.

And let the countdown for Christmas begin!