Back To Blogging...

Life is a funny thing. I've been lucky in the one I've got to live so far. When it throws you a curve ball you never thought would come your way it makes you reassess. Things have been quiet here for a long time but I'm ready to bring some life back to my little section of the internet.

Back in January I wrote about not putting pressure on myself to blog and that still stands but, I'm hoping to go back to getting a post up every Sunday. Heck, I may even stick to my original 2017 goal of getting more 'style' posts on here... watch this space! 

Ferragudo Photo Diary...

I'm the first to say how much I love living in England and how much I love London in particular. But is there anything better than being in a country where you can lie on the beach soaking up some well needed vitamin D in April?! This Easter I went on holiday to Ferragudo in Portugal and with this morning's artic weather (hello? May? Are you there?) I'm definitely wishing England had a better climate...

The week can only be described as perfect. Sun - check. Sea - check. Waterpark - check. Seafood - check. Looking less like Casper the Friendly Ghost? - check! Now I'm on the countdown to August's holiday which seeing how England's weather is going will probably be the next time I see sunshine and warm weather. 

Pineapple Love...

I have a thing for pineapples. Which is funny as I don't actually like the fruit, but anyway... I've currently got a pineapple phone case, top, dress and now shoes! As soon as I spied these beauties on Instagram, I knew I had to have them. I'm currently on a spending ban (hello Excel spreadsheet so that I don't hit my overdraft 👋) but my credit card may have accidentally bought them for me. What can I say, I needed these shoes. Velvet - check. Comfort - check. Pineapple embroidery - check. Value for money - double check as I managed to bag these in the Zara mid season sale for £14.99. It's love!

Accepting you...

'No one can make you feel inferior without your consent' - Eleanor Roosevelt

I've had this quote in my Twitter bio for as long as I can remember. Some time ago I made a conscious effort to not let other people's opinions/perceptions have an affect on me. I was fed up of worrying people didn't like me. Fed up of feeling like I should be more like {insert random name here}. After seeing this quote online, I decided to change my mindset to: 'all that matters is if I'm happy with me.'

Part of the problem with this mindset is, what happens when you're not happy with you? How do you get to that stage where you accept yourself for you. Where you embrace the fact you'll never be the girl who's up for partying every night. You're not the type of girl who has a thigh gap. You're the girl who loves nothing more than an evening in front of the tv watching Harvey Spector give someone some sass while eating a double decker.

If you read this post you'll know that putting my face in front of the camera is something I'm not actually that comfortable with. If I'm 100% honest, getting the shots for today's post gave me anxiety. Not because I'm scared of standing in front of a camera but because of how I see myself in the photos. From the 40 or so that we took, these two are the only ones I could bring myself to post. I've gone against my own personal mantra and let others make me feel less than I should. Or rather, I've let myself feel I should be more like the pictures I see online and on other blogs. I've let myself slip into comparison mode and it really is the thief of joy.

I guess it's an on-going process. As I said in January's post, I'm already one step ahead of where I was. I'm actually stepping in front of the camera and putting more of myself on here which is what I've wanted to do for a long time. If practice makes perfect, I better get back in front of the camera this weekend! So, here's to no thigh gap, acceptance and plenty more blog posts featuring pictures of me feeling like a right idiot.

Quill London | Modern Calligraphy Masterclass...

When I was 10, I was given a calligraphy set that I fell in love with the first time I used it. No matter what I was writing, I'd use my new set. I'd sit there for hours changing the nibs and coloured inks, writing random words over and over. So when calligraphy workshops started popping up in recent years, I was desperate to book onto one. This Friday, that all became a reality when after work I jumped on the Northern line to Angel and to one of Quill London's beginner classes. 

I was a bit nervous as I was going on my own but as it turned out, only two of the ladies in attendance knew each other! Quill London owner Lucy ran the workshop giving us beginners tips and tricks for getting to grips with modern calligraphy. We managed to pack a lot into the class, from how to set up our pens to mastering changing the pressure put on the nib, the two and a half hours flew by! As part of the cost of the class, we got to take home the pen, nib and ink along with some handy guide sheets to help us practice on our own. 

Apart from being super impatient and a bit of a perfectionist, I'm now obsessed with mastering this new skill. I've already spent a couple of hours this weekend practising those damn tricky y's! 

Columbia Road Flower Market...

One of the things I love most about living in London is being able to wake up at the weekend with no plans but having the ability to jump on the tube and do something spontaneously. Today was one of those days!

As we were up early, we decided to head East and pop along to Columbia Road Flower Market. It's been about two years since we last went - which is bad on our part, especially as we've lived half an hour away for the last year... With the weather warming up and beautiful blooms on display, it really felt like Spring, something that I for one can't wait for as Winter seems to have been never ending! 

After an hour of trying to decide which flowers to take home, we I opted for some pretty pink tulips and three succulents. Hopefully these ones won't die due to lack of attention (only I could kill something as low maintenance as a succulent). We ended the morning with a much needed coffee before heading back to the reality of housework. 

Morzine: Skiing Photo Diary...

Happy Sunday! Today has been full of chores and getting back to reality after an incredible week skiing in France. If you follow me on Instagram, you'll have seen a few posts popping up over the week. I've said on here before that mountains are my happy place; for me you can't beat that view or the feeling of flying down a mountain. As usual, I had my camera to hand so here's a selection of the hundreds that I took over the week that didn't make the Instagram cut!

January Lifestyle Favourites...

Harry Potter and The Cursed Child

Don't worry, there's no spoilers here. All I will say is I'm a huge Potter fan (ask anyone and they'll probs tell you how annoying my talking along to the film is) and I loved the play. Despite reading a spoiler - damn newspapers - I wasn't disappointed. Yes the plot wasn't my favourite but the staging and magic were incredible. I nearly shed a tear at the end which says a lot as I never cry. I now have a new favourite HP character and wanted to see the play again before Part 1 had even finished. I might be biased being somewhat of an HP geek but I think Cursed Child is the perfect follow on to a series that is so intertwined with my childhood.

Bullet Journals

I'm a stationery lover. I have countless notebooks that I jot things down in and this year I wanted to try and keep that to one book. I've seen videos and posts on bullet journals before so decided to give it a go this year. Setting my bullet journal up took a little time and I'm still not 100% on how I want the layout to flow but I'm enjoying this new system so far. At the moment I'm only using it for personal things but I think I'll start doing it for work too! If you're looking for a new form of keeping ideas and want the freedom to create something pretty visually pleasing, I'd definitely recommend trying bullet journalling. 

Holiday Planning

There's nothing like a bit of holiday planning to brighten up January! As this post goes live, I'll have touched down in the French Alps and I CANNOT wait! Being in snow covered mountains is my happy place and I'm so excited to spend a week back in my favourite place with my favourite person. *Warning: my Instagram feed is likely to be full of all things Alpine*

Polaroid Photos

I got my Instax Mini 8 last Christmas but haven't used it all that much since then. The film is pricey so I only got it out on special occasions. This year I've decided to start a new traditional, well two new traditions. One; taking a polaroid of Ben and I on New Year's Eve and two; taking a polaroid every month for the rest of the year. I'm hoping to have 12 snaps of 12 memorable moments from 2017 that I can always look back on.

What have you loved this month?  

5 Things I've Learnt Since Moving Out...

This Tuesday marks one year since I moved out of home. 365 full days of living with Ben in our little flat in Clapham. 8760 hours of adulting! To commemorate this landmark, I thought I'd sum up some of the things I've learnt since moving out: 

1. I'm actually pretty lazy (cooking? ironing? changing the sheets? You name it, I'll find any reason not to do it...) 

2. Moving out means you suddenly become obsessed with all things interiors. I now have an appreciation for why my parents spent so long in the home section of shops! 

3. You can never own too many candles

4. Nothing beats a quiet Sunday morning in bed. Fresh sheets, coffee in hand and Person Of Interest on Netflix. 

5. Mum made cooking look a hell of a lot easier and quicker than it actually is

Las Vegas & New York Photo Diary...

During a very boring external hard drive tidy up yesterday, I got lost in my mound of holiday snaps from last year. Several hours later and suffering from a severe case of wanderlust, I realised that as I was on a bit of a blog hiatus during the last half of 2016 these never made it onto the blog. So, here's some of my faves from my family trip to Las Vegas & New York back in October!

Finding Confidence...

Queue the cliche, but at 25, I feel like I'm now actually reaching the stage where I truly feel that I'm starting not to care what other people think. I've mentioned on here before that I'm a people-pleaser and hate to be disliked. There's been numerous times where I've recounted conversation I've had with colleagues, friends, friends of friends and thought "why the hell did I say that?! They're going to think I'm strange..." Now at the ripe old age of 25, I feel the tides turning and so what if people don't like me? So what if people stare when I ask the boyfriend to take photos of me in public for my blog? 

I'm not saying that magically overnight I've suddenly become a completely new version of myself but, this weekend I actually had the confidence to stand in the street with my boyfriend and attempt to shoot a 'style' post of sorts. For me this is a big deal. I'm not the most comfortable in front of the camera (put me behind it any day of the week!) and I'm my own harshest critic when it comes to looking at photos of myself. But, this weekend I managed to push past the feelings of embarrassment and pose in the road for half an hour. I might not be 100% happy with how I look *note to self, get back to the gym* but I'm confident enough to put these images up on here as a start to the new me  my new outlook on life...

Happy 2017...

Happy 2017! So this post may bring on a sense of deja-vu as this time last year I was writing pretty much writing the same thing I'm about to now... but, here goes nonetheless! 

So, I spectacularly failed at sicking to my 2016 resolution of blogging at least once a week. I just fell completely out of love with it. Half way through the year it felt like I forgot how to string sentences together and no mater how hard I tried, I just couldn't find any words to go with the pictures I was capturing. Rather than force out blog posts I decided to give in and leave it until I felt like writing again. (Instead I ploughed my creative juices into Instagram and successfully posted every other day in 2016). 

For anyone returning (which I highly doubt is the case #worldsworstblogger), you may notice that things have changed a little thanks to the wonderful guys at Pipdig. Part of the reason I think I stopped enjoying As A Blonde last year was because I stopped liking the look and feel of it. Now with a sparkly new design, I'm hoping the urge to write will come flooding back - fingers crossed!

Unlike last year I'm not going to pressure myself wth any targets. What will be will be. I want this space to go back to being me writing about things I love. If that means I have a gap of a month without any posts then that's what this space will be. 

So, here's to 2017 and all that the next 365 days will bring!