2015 // My Roundup!

Hey guys!

So, it's officially the end of 2015, which means it's a shiny new year! Time for you to make resolutions (if that's what you do) and change anything that didn't make you happy last year! 

For me, 2015 was a pretty tough year.

First of all, I lost someone who was pretty important to me. My ex boyfriend, Dan, died last year, which affected me a lot more than I was expecting it to. We were together for nearly three years, but hadn't spoken much in the months before he died. I knew he was ill - he was when we were together - but I also wasn't really expecting what the doctor said to actually happen, you know?

So, a few months after that, while I was still really upset, our dog was suddenly taken ill, and after a long, heartbreaking night where we stayed up all night with him, we sadly had to make the horrible decision to put him to sleep.

Along with these deaths, I'd been dealing with my own stuff that I had going on - I'm not going to go into too much detail here - so, all in all, the year was pretty bad for me.

Of course, though, there were a few good things that happened too! 

In March, my favourite YouTubers announced that they'd written a book and were going to be doing a tour when it was released - so, me and my best friend Lisa were like "shall we get tickets?" so we got VIP. Yep, we managed to get a meet and greet with them too! (I actually wrote a blog post about the experience too, ahah) So, in November, about a week after my birthday, we went to see the show and meet them, which was amazing!

I also got to spend some time with some wonderful people this year, which was lovely, and I also managed to get back in touch with a few long lost friends. 

This year, however, I've decided to try something new. I always see people talking about getting a jar, then writing down one good thing that happens every day and putting it in the jar - then, when you open it at the end of the year, you can look back on your good things and smile. I've always liked the sound of it, but always forget about it - so, this year, I'll be trying to remember to do this, as a lot of the time I always focus on the bad instead of trying to look for the good! I'm hoping I remember to put something in every day, even if it's just something small like "The weather was good and it made me happy", "they got my name right at Starbucks" or "my eyeliner went on perfectly even for once"!

What does 2016 have in store for me? I have no idea! I have vague plans to go back to France and hopefully visit a few places in the UK to see friends, but other than that, I have no idea! That's the good thing about a few year - you never know what's going to happen!

                    What are some of your highlights of 2015, and what are you hoping 2016 will bring you?

My Goals // 2016

Hey guys!

Sorry I've been pretty bad with blogging lately - I didn't really have a chance to blog over Christmas, as I've been busy with travelling and seeing family! Also, as you may have seen if you follow me on Twitter, a few days before Christmas I somehow managed to break my laptop screen :( so I've found it pretty hard to write when I have a massive purple crack across my screen, but I thought I'd try anyway, as I miss blogging!

Today, I thought I'd write about my goals for next year! No, it's not me making my New Year's resolutions - I've given up on making those, as I always end up failing them all before the end of January, so it's pretty pointless for me - it's a set of goals I would like to set myself, and hopefully I will end up achieving them all before the end of 2016! Some will be bigger, some will be smaller, but hopefully they're all do-able. I will also be setting myself a couple of private goals, so when I do a summary post next year, or another goal setting post, I'll tell you what they were and whether or not I managed to achieve them!
Let's start with the smaller goals first.

One - BLOG MORE REGULARLY

I feel like I need to try and set myself a proper blogging schedule, and try my hardest to stick with it! I'm playing around with some new ideas on what I want to blog about at the moment, so hopefully next year I'll be having loads of ideas about what I want to put on my blog, which will hopefully mean more - and more regular - posts!

Two - SORT OUT MY DIET

I don't eat terribly, but I do have some bad eating habits - for example, a lot of the time I don't eat meals because I don't feel particularly hungry, or I'll always crave something sweet after I've had dinner. I might even keep a food diary, so I can see when I'm eating/when I'm craving things!

Three - DRINK MORE WATER

Obviously, this goes hand in hand with my diet goal. I find that I don't really drink a lot of water - during the day, I usually reach for some fruity squash, or tea, which isn't that good - I usually have either one sugar, or a teaspoon of honey in my tea, so if I drink a few of those a day, it's pretty bad! I personally don't really like water, so I struggle to drink it, but I'll just have to try and do it anyway! (Or drink sugar free flavoured water as well, so I can have something with flavour as well)

Four - SORT OUT/PAINT MY ROOM

I've been trying to get this done for so long now, but I keep getting overwhelmed with the amount of stuff I seem to have accumulated over the years - plus the immense lack of storage/space I have in my room - so, this year I really need to get more ruthless and chuck out a load of stuff and have a really good clear out so I can FINALLY get rid of the really old, faded lilac walls I have now and make my room look nice again - less teenage, (slightly) more adult.

Moving on to the bigger, scarier goals now!

One - DECIDE WHAT I WANT TO DO WITH MY LIFE

At the moment, I'm so undecided on what I want to be doing with my life - I constantly flit between ideas and can never seem to stick to just one thing. In 2016, I want to finally decide on something I want to do - whether it's going on a course to get some more qualifications, deciding on a career path, or even just trying to get some temporary work experience!

Two - TRY & SORT OUT MY HEALTH

I have PCOS, and because of this I have thinning hair (one of the side effects, and the one I really hate the most). I'm hoping that I can sort out my medication, and look into ways I can (hopefully) sort it out and thicken my hair, as it literally just makes me feel so down all the time, and it knocks my confidence.

Three - TRY & LIKE MYSELF MORE

I have basically zero self esteem and confidence, so I really want to try and care less what people think of me again (when I was younger, I cared less - I find the older I get, the more anxious and lower self esteem I get) and try and find AT LEAST one thing I like about myself by this time next year! 

Finally, the sillier, more lighthearted goals!

One - DYE MY HAIR A CRAZY COLOUR

Every single year, I start off having darker, more natural coloured hair, and by the summer, I really want lighter hair, so I end up lightening it and dying it crazy colours (usually red or pink) so I'm most likely going to end up doing that again this year - or maybe I'll go a colour I've not gone before!

Two - GO ON HOLIDAY

I hardly ever go on holiday - although I did go to France last summer (my first time abroad in around 10 years!!!) so, this year, I'd like to go on holiday again, even if it's just to the beach for the weekend, or for a long weekend somewhere in the UK - I just want to try and explore some more!

Three - DO MORE PHOTOGRAPHY

I love photography - there's something so satisfying about framing a shot just right, or the feel of a SLR in your hands - but I get really bored of taking photos in my local area, so I really want to start taking my camera out to more places and get back into regularly taking photos, instead of letting my camera gather dust in my house!

So, that's all my goals that I'm willing to make public for the next year! If you have any goals you'd like to share, comment them on here - then we can compare how we did in a year's time!

Good luck!  

TAG // Fifteen Festive Questions!

Hey guys!

It's so close to Christmas now that I can practically smell it! Are you all getting excited too?

I was browsing some blogs I read yesterday, and I stumbled across this cute little festive tag, so I decided to nick it from Becky/milkbubbletea!

If you'd like to check it out, Becky's tag is HERE

So, without further ado, let's leap in! 

One - Favourite Christmas smell/scent ?
My favourite Christmas smell is the smell of dinner cooking or the smell of Christmas cake. My favourite festive candle fragrance is probably spiced apple, it smells so nice and I have at least one every year! 

Two - Gingerbread or Candy canes?
I can never seem to get the wrapped off candy canes unless I break them, so I'm going to go for gingerbread because not only does it smell amazing, but it tastes amazing too.

Three - Is your tree real or fake?
We used to get a real tree, then for the past few years we decided to have a fake one instead, as real ones shed a lot - I think I prefer real ones though! 

Four - Quality street or Roses?
Mmm, I think that Quality Street is more Christmassy - for me and my family, anyway - so I'm going to go for those, even though I only really like the strawberry and caramel ones. 

Five - Do you dress up or down on December 25th?
I usually just dress in something comfortable, as we spend a few hours on Christmas day travelling! However, my plans have changed a lot this year, so we're doing less travelling, but the plan is probably still to dress in something comfy with the added bonus of my first Christmas jumper! 

Six - Do you have any specific festive traditions?
I think I've written about this before, but every year my dad usually comes over on Christmas Eve and we have dinner and stuff, then I go to bed reasonably early, then on Christmas Day we go to my grandmas and spend a few days there. This year, that's changing quite a lot, so we'll possibly be making new traditions, which will be nice. 

Seven - Any embarrassing Christmas moments that come to mind?
None are really coming to mind, to be honest - I'm sure my parents would probably be able to think of something though!

Eight - Do you wake up early or late on Christmas morning?
I've always woken up early on Christmas Day! We usually get up at around 6am, open a couple of stocking fillers, then wait for my dad to come over so we can have breakfast and open our main presents! Even when I was little, we used to get up around the same time, and then my parents had to check and see if Santa had been! 

Nine - If you had a stocking where did you hang them?
I still have a stocking, haha. We usually hang them over the fireplace, and then my granny usually gives us one too, with our presents, which is cute! I usually always get an orange, an apple and an assortment of nuts in mine (even though I don't like nuts, haha, but it's like a tradition!

Ten -  Favourite festive film/s?
I'm not really one for watching many films anyway, so I don't really watch any festive films either! The one festive film we usually watch every year is Jingle All The Way though, I caught it a few weeks on an obscure channel and it still makes me laugh now! 

Eleven - Was there a present you always asked for as a child but never received?
Like most kids, I usually asked for a pet every year and never got one, which is probably a good thing, as I was pretty fickle as a kid. I still always want a pet to this day though - for the past few years I've been secretly hoping for a pug! 

Twelve - What was the best gift you received  as a child?
I think that was probably my bright pink Gameboy Colour and Pokemon Red! I still have the game in a box somewhere, I think I still have the Gameboy somewhere too! I also got a metallic blue CD Walkman one year, which I loved - I used to take it to school every day with a selection of CDs and listen to it on the bus.....and in lessons, oops. 

Thirteen - What is on top of your Christmas tree?
Up until recently, it was an angel made out of one of those paper doilies that I made at school, but I think it ripped! Now we have a big silver and purple star! At my dads, we have some gold bells.

Fourteen - Favourite festive food?
Technically it's probably not necessarily just a festive food, but definitely pigs in blankets! I could eat soooo many of those and never get sick of them!

Fifteen - Favourite Christmas activity?
I like giving presents, in all honesty! I also really like getting up early in the morning and sitting with a cup of tea while waiting to open my stocking! 

 

Feel free to steal this tag and do it yourself, or if you like, you can just answer the questions in the comments! 

I hope you all have an amazing Christmas! Keep your eyes peeled, as I'll be posting a yearly favourites before the end of the year too! 

My New Blogging Goals!

Hey guys!

As you may know if you read my blogs over on Birds, I've been in a blogging slump, and I've been feeling pretty down too, which is why it's taken me a while to post anything properly on this blog and have been unintentionally neglecting it (oops).

I was also feeling pretty lost, as I felt like I didn't have a blogging niche, as such - I've always loved blogs which post a variety of topics, not just all one thing, and that's always been my aim with my blog (although I did quite like blogging about games so much in my 30 day blogging challenge, as it's something I'm passionate about) so I never wanted to stick with one main topic for my blog - I want to feel like I can blog about makeup one day, games another day, and post about meaningful issues occasionally too if I fancy it!

However, now I've decided that I need to get out of the negative mindset I've put myself into when it comes to blogging - I need to stop panicking that no one reads my posts, I need to stop being upset when no one comments on my posts, and I need to stop second guessing myself so much when it comes to writing posts - so often, I'll have an idea, then not write the post, or even just not post it if I feel like no one will read it or like it. I need to stop being so scared about what might happen negatively when I post, and focus instead on the positives. For example, I love writing, so when I feel like a post is well written, I'm happy to post it online! It also makes me happy when people comment on my posts, telling me how much they like my posts, or when people message me to let me know they read my posts and they're enjoying them. 

So, I've set myself a new set of blogging goals! 

1 - do not be afraid to post about whatever you want.

2 - it doesn't matter if you don't get comments

3 - hell, it doesn't even matter if no one reads it, as long as you're happy with what you post.

4 - post about things that make you happy, as well as more serious posts! Also, listen to feedback, it's important!

5 - don't force yourself to blog if you're not feeling motivated, or you have no ideas. It's better to wait until you're feeling inspired and you can write a good post, rather than post several mediocre posts that you're not proud of instead.

6 - maybe start taking pictures again to go with certain posts (I miss taking photos that aren't just for instagram/twitter)

7 - finally, JUST HAVE FUN! 

Hopefully, I'll be back blogging with a vengeance now that I'm beginning to rediscover my spark, and I hope you'll still be here for the ride!

My Birthday // Pugs, London and TATINOF!

Hey guys!

So, a couple of days after Blogtober - which I'm really happy I managed to finish successfully, and I hope you all enjoyed it too - it was my birthday! 

I didn't really want to do much for it, as it wasn't a "big" birthday like 21 or 25, but usually on birthdays my dad will come over and me, my mum, my dad and my brother will have a meal and stuff - I also usually wait until my dad comes over to open most of my cards/presents, although I can't resist opening a few early!

I started off this birthday by playing Animal Crossing New Leaf for a bit - on your birthday in the game, the animal you have the highest friendship with will come to your door when you go on, and lead you to a party at their house - there will also be two other villagers in the house, who you have high friendship with too! There'll be a cake and they'll also give you a present, and a birthday song will be playing too! This year, I ended up getting some birthday shades (basically massive sunglasses that look like cake)

When my dad came over, I opened cards and presents - I ended up with 4 pug cards, haha, and some other really lovely ones, and I wasn't really expecting presents but I got a few! I got a nodding pug (which is adorable), some awesome stationery, an Amazon gift card, a metal pug sign (also adorable) and some Animal Crossing amiibo cards! My mum cooked a paella, which was delicious, then I got surprised with.....A PUG BIRTHDAY CAKE! 

The next day, me and my mum headed into London, which was my present from her. We started off grabbing some lunch, so we decided on Yo! Sushi (I really like sushi, if I have a choice I'll pretty much always choose that) and it was really good - it was the first time I'd eaten in at a Yo! Sushi, I usually just grab a takeaway, but it was awesome! We weren't really sure what we wanted to do next, so we wandered along Southbank with a hot chocolate. We ended up going onto the bank/shore bit of the river (I don't really know the correct terminology but you know what I mean) before going back along the riverside for a bit. We eventually got to the Tate Modern and decided to have a quick look round, but we weren't really feeling it. Not long after, we realised we didn't really feel in the mood to be in London - a rare occurrence for me - so we hopped on a train to Kingston for some retail therapy - however, we both came away empty handed, but I did get to try the honey and almond hot chocolate from Starbucks and it's so nice, it tastes like chocolate marzipan! 

 

Then, on Sunday, it was finally the day I'd been looking forward to since my best friend Lisa booked us VIP tickets in March! (yes, I've been impatiently waiting for this for 8 months!) My favourite YouTubers, Dan Howell and Phil Lester (aka Danisnotonfire and Amazingphil) wrote a book and planned a tour, and we had VIP tickets to the tour - meaning, we finally got to meet them! (we met them briefly like 2 years ago, but I don't really remember very much of it because I was freezing and nervous!)

We met up early and, after having a massive hug because we hadn't seen each other in ages, we decided to find a Nandos and get some food - I've been craving it for weeks, and she practically lives off chicken, so it was a good choice! Also, if you ever go to Nandos and they have vanilla frozen yogurt, get it - it tastes like a 99 ice cream but it's fat free. So good! 

Doors didn't open till 5.15 for VIP, so we wandered around the shops for a while before deciding to head to a Starbucks near The Palladium, where the show was. I got a hot mulled apple drink - it's so yummy, it's like Christmas in a cup! - and Lisa got vanilla hot chocolate, and I was showing her Xenoblade Chronicles because I wanted to see if I'd streetpassed anyone and I'd promised her last time I saw her to show her the game.

We went to the front of the venue at around 5, and I started feeling really faint and nervous and panicky, and I still felt like that when we went inside. We were told to sign a book when we came in, for the boys to read, so me and Lisa both did, and not long after we were told they would be coming up in a few minutes. I won't bore you with too many details, but we were put into a queue and told to have whatever we were getting signed open to the right page if it was a book, or just out if it was our ticket, and to make sure our phones were open on the camera. 

When I met them, most of the nerves somehow melted away. Phil was closest to me, so I got to hug him first, then Dan, who said he liked my hat. Then they signed my notebook, I waffled a little bit (sorry guys, if you ever see this, for being so waffley and awkward) and then Dan took the photo for me (apparently he takes them because he has the longest arms, haha) and it was all over! After I'd walked away, I realised that my hands were shaking from belated nerves, haha, but it was an amazing experience and I'm really glad I got the chance to meet them.

I can't really say much about the show - they're very strict about the fact they don't want anyone to give spoilers, as they're planning on taking the tour around the world - but it was amazing, and it was clear that they'd put so much work into it and it really paid off!

Day Thirty One // Happy Halloween!

Hey guys!
So, this is the final day of October, which also marks the end of this Blogtober! 

I know the challenge I did was only 30 days, so I decided to turn this extra day into a kind of summary!

On the whole, I feel like I did pretty well with planning everything - I actually stuck to writing a couple of posts at a time, made sure I always had one written and saved in case I couldn't find the time to do a day, and I also made sure to try and include pictures/screenshots in as many posts as I could, so you had something nice to look at, you could see what I meant when I was describing things (or the cover of the game in case you were interested) and it breaks up the big chunks of text a bit better - plus I like putting in pictures because I find them interesting! 

I know that some posts were shorter than others, and I apologise for that - I tried to make sure that posts were as long but interesting as I could get them, but sometimes there wasn't a lot to say, or it was a picture challenge instead of one that needed many words, so I decided to let the pictures speak for themselves. Plus, I feel like sometimes I was waffling on a bit too much, so I cut a few posts a bit shorter so I wouldn't be boring you - and myself!

Through doing this challenge, I learnt that, as long as I'm prepared, I can just about handle blogging daily - however, I do feel like I would struggle a LOT if I didn't have some kind of plan. For example, if I had another daily challenge, or a massive list of ideas, I'd probably end up doing another bout of daily blogging, as it's been pretty fun and it's pushed me a lot.

I hope you do still stick with me and my little blog, though - I've had a lot of fun doing this challenge, and I will be continuing to post regularly on here (just not every day!)

I hope you enjoyed my blogging challenge - thank you to anyone who was here for the ride, whether you just popped in and out occasionally, only read one post, or if you were here for the whole challenge (or maybe even longer)! 

Happy Halloween! 

Love, me and the (Animal Crossing) czar of Halloween, Jack!

Day Thirty // All Time Favourite Game!

Hey guys!
Today is day 30 of my 30 day blogging challenge - the final day, in fact! (I'm surprised I made it this far, haha, there's been a few challenging days along the way) I left a photo of the questions in my first blog, where I summarised this challenge, in case anyone wanted to do it, but I'll also copy the question I'm answering into my post every day too.

Sometimes, these posts may contain spoilers for a game - when that happens, I'll warn you before I answer the question, so you can choose whether or not to read on!

Today's question is - what is your all time favourite game?

This is pretty much the hardest question of the lot, aha, and I've struggled to answer it for ages now - I've been deliberating how I'm going to answer it pretty much since day one.

I have a lot of games that I really like - as you'll probably know if you've been keeping up with this blogging challenge (thank you very much if you've read any of them, and especially if you've been amazing and read every single one! <3) and it's been really hard trying to narrow it down to one single game - or even franchise - that I could call my all time favourite!

There's so many different genres of game out there, and sometimes you're in the mood for one kind of game more than others - for example, when I'm in the mood to relax, I'll play something like Animal Crossing, and when I want to adventure, I'll play something like Pokemon or Xenoblade Chronicles.

So, for this post, I decided to have a couple of different answers, as I genuinely cannot choose just one game as a favourite! 

Favourite relaxing game - 

at the moment, I definitely think this would be an Animal Crossing game. I've always really loved New Leaf, since it was released around two and a half years ago, and I've played *most* days, but I'm also really loving Happy Home Designer since it came out at the beginning of this month and I definitely feel myself switch off when I'm playing it. So, the winner of best relaxing game is definitely ANIMAL CROSSING.

Favourite adventure game - 

#this is hard, because if I want something that's a bit more laid back I'll play a Pokemon game (at the moment, I'm working my way through Pokemon Omega Ruby, as I bought it earlier in the year and have been distracted since getting it, oops) and if I want something I really have to think about and immerse myself in, I'll play either a Zelda game or Xenoblade Chronicles. However, purely down to how much I've loved the story and the sheer amount of hours I put into playing it the first time around (well, technically the first two, as my brother accidentally saved over my first file partway through) I'm saying my winner of best adventure game is XENOBLADE CHRONICLES.

Favourite retro/older game - 

the final game I'm choosing is pretty much a no brainer. I've liked playing this game since I was little, and even now, I love the soundtrack, the graphics, and just the game in general. Yes, it's not as retro as it could be, but it's from when I was a very young child so it's like 20 years old or so, and that's retro enough for me. My winner for best retro game has to be SUPER MARIO 64.

I recommend all of these games to everyone, and even if you've never picked up a gaming console before, you should. I love playing games - I always have - and I feel like there's such a diverse gaming franchise out there that you will always find at least one game that someone will like, whether it's brain training and puzzle games, to war games and racing games - you will always find a game you like, and that is the beauty of gaming. 

I hope you've enjoyed this blogging challange - I definitely have, even though I've struggled with it a lot along the way, and I'm happy yet sad that it's all over now! 

Come back tomorrow, when I'll have one final mystery post up! ;)