Black Lives Matter.

I had to do something. Like many others today I popped a little black square up on my instagram this morning, with that square I committed myself to educating myself further, to reading, to listening and to finding a way to help. I signed petitions, I read people’s stories, and then I felt helpless. I remembered this blog, which lets be honest is kind of neglected, but it’s my little space on the internet where I can write. so that I will. So here are some thoughts, some promises and some resources that I’ve found helpful.

I’m very guilty of not recognising my white privilege until a couple of years ago, until I started to read more. I am also guilty of simply thinking that not being racist is enough. It isn’t. It’s also not enough to just be anti-racist. Actions are needed. I know I’m also guilty of hearing racist comments and just checking out of the conversation to save the hassle of calling out somebody. For all of this I’m extremely sorry. Again, sorry isn’t enough. I never want to hear the phrase “I’m not racist but…” ever again. It’s important to be active, let your actions speak but use your voice and make things uncomfortable.

We need to do better.

I am still learning, I always will be. I hope that if I say the wrong thing that I am approachable, I will listen, educate myself and change. I know that I will never fully understand, I can’t, but I can listen.
What can we do?

Listen: Listen to these Podcasts;

• Intersectionality Matters! with Kimberlé Crenshaw.
• The Diversity Gap by Bethaney Wilkinson.
• Momentum: A Race Forward Podcast.
• Speaking of Racism.

Read: Read books, learn, share and recommend them to others.

• Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge. (This book really opened my eyes.)
• I know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou.
• How To Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi.
• The Colour Purple by Alice Walker.
• Queenie By Candice Carty-Williams.
• Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. (I highly rate all of her books!)

Also some books for children:

• I Am Enough by Grace Byers.
• Other Words For Home by Jasmine Warga.
• Festival Of Colours by Kabir Sehgal and Surishtha Sehgal.
• We Are All Welcome by Alexandra Penfold.

Be Active:

Donate if you can:

• Black Lives Matter. Donate Here
• Stand Up To Racism, UK. Donate Here
• Fundraiser for George Floyd. Donate Here.

Sign Petitions:

• Colour Of Change, Justice for George Floyd. Sign Petition Here
• Stand with Breonna Taylor, brutally shot and killed by police in her own home. Sign Petition Here

The internet is our best tool, research, follow and share organisations and movements that are making changes towards racial equality and justice.

A Quote from @findingpaola on Instagram that stopped me in my tracks:

The system isn’t broken. It was never meant to protect black people. We need a new system.

We do need a new system.

Thank you for reading.

Books I’ve read this February.

Hello! Happy March! I think I’m going to keep these ‘Books I’ve read..’ posts up throughout the year as I love reading other people’s and I’ve been enjoying writing them! It’s been a bit of a short month, I completed three books. Gave up on one and I’m halfway through another (which I’m really enjoying and can’t wait to write about next month!) Okay so I’ll start with the one I gave up on..

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid.

I read a little of ‘Daisy Jones and The Six’ by Taylor Jenkins Reid, it had amazing reviews but it just wasn’t one I could get into. There were a lot of characters to keep up with and the book was set out as a collection of interview transcripts of a band from the 70s, except the band was fictional. I just found the writing style a little hard to follow. I figured I’d rather read this type of book about an actual band that I know and love, so after about an hour I gave up l. I hate giving up on books but I was lost and confused constantly flicking back to try and remember who was who.. Somebody else might find more joy in it though as the reviews I read were all bigging the book up massively so it may just be me! Anyway.. Let’s get to the books I actually did read.

The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary.

This was a nice easy read to start the month! It’s about two people who share a flat but never meet due to their shift patterns and arrangement, it was one of those books where you could guess the entire story but sometimes it’s just needed to have a book that you can unwind with that isn’t too taxing on the ol’ brain! It was just a lovely little feel good book!

So Lucky by Dawn O’ Porter.

Adored this. I really really did. It was my first book that I have read from Dawn O’Porter and it won’t be the last. I loved following the character’s individual lives and then seeing how they all end up linking towards the end. Each character was interesting and fun to follow, relatable, conflicting and just spot on. I loved the use of social media and how the images that people portray aren’t always what they seem. Dawn O’Porter managed to touch on some serious real life problems and struggles that a lot of women may face and she wrote them into the story perfectly. I love a book that ties up all the loose ends before finishing, which this one did, you’re not left wondering or confused, such a satisfying ending. I’m now off to hunt for my next Dawn O’Porter book!

Under The Duvet by Marian Keyes.

So this book was a bit different for me, it’s a collection of articles, columns, short stories and essays from Marian Keyes about her life and experiences. I thought it was so funny, honest and witty. I found her stories the best part of this book, I was laughing out loud at some parts as Marian gets herself into such ridiculous but relatable situations. Again just a nice easy little read that’s easy to pick up and put down as you’re not necessarily following a story line.

That’s it! Hope everyone had a lovely February, it seemed to go by so fast! Thank you for reading!

• 

Books I’ve read this January! 📚

Hey! Happy new year! – Is that still OK to say in February? I’ve managed to find the time to read four books this month which makes me a very happy little soul! I just wanted to give little reviews on these books! Firstly I read ‘Feminists Don’t Wear Pink And Other Lies’ by Scarlett Curtis.

I honestly don’t feel like I can review this book properly. How can you possibly ‘review’ the stories of women and their own thoughts and feelings about what feminism means to them. When this book first came about it was actually described as ‘too controversial’ by Top Shop, you can read my post about that if you click here .. Now that I’ve fully read this book that whole situation infuriates me even more. These brave individuals are opening up about their personal experiences, covering topics such as FGM, period poverty, child birth, sexism, imposter syndrome, transphobia and more – People pouring their hearts out all over the pages. How insulting that those who have already faced such adversity then get called ‘controversial’ by a brand, a brand that has even sold tshirts etc with feminist slogans over them. The book also donates 10% of profit to ‘Girl Up’ the UN women’s foundation. I beg you to read this book. It’s not about bashing men, it’s not even banging on about feminism, it’s simply a collection of essays that highlight exactly why we still need feminism. I loved it.

Secondly I read ‘Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine’ By Gail Honeyman. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this, it was nice to relax with and it kept me guessing. It managed to address serious issues with two loveable characters at the forefront using humour and lovely moments where you witness Eleanor’s character grow and gain confidence. This book just made me very happy, Eleanor became a friend that I was rooting for. Lovely little read!

I should have known with Louise O’ Neill that this wasn’t going to be a happy, light and easy read. She pours such sadness, reality and brutal honesty into the pages, filling them with ugly truths that makes you question your own thinking. You are forced to ask yourself what you would think of the unlikeable main character Emma in the situation. Giving you Emma’s very vulnerable thoughts behind closed doors it tackles head on just how quick people can be to judge. It’s clever how the story unfolds, how Emma herself doesn’t even realise what has happened to her at first. I really think books like this one are important for young people to read, for anyone to read.

Next I finished reading ‘The Tattooist Of Auschwitz’ By Heather Morris. I bought this for my dad for Christmas along with ‘The Librarian Of Auschwitz’ – As I was wrapping them I couldn’t help peaking at the first few pages and that was it, I was hooked. I bought myself this one straight away and finally got the chance to read it. It’s a book that keeps you hoping, longing for a happy ending even with tragic, harrowing moments that we couldn’t even begin to imagine all the way through from beginning to end. It’s based on a true events and follows the story of Lale Sokolov however it’s a Fiction novel. My only negative would be that we don’t know much about Gita’s character, I couldn’t really tell you anything about her. I still really enjoyed this book and I have already purchased ‘The Librarian Of Auschwitz’ – Next on my list will be ‘Cilka’s Journey’.

That’s it! Thank you for reading! If you have any book recommendations similar to these please chuck them my way! I’ve got quite a few lined up on my ‘tbr’ list but always looking for more books to read! Have a lovely day!

Always are dropping the female symbol from their packaging?

Hello! ok so I haven’t written a blog post in a very long time but today I felt like I really needed to get something off my chest.

I am sure we have all seen the news about Always the sanitary products brand removing the female symbol from their packaging. I am sure we have also seen the uproar surrounding it which has left me confused. I am genuinely heartbroken that this is dividing and segregating people.

I have seen an alarming amount of comments – a lot coming from people that I know and respect as friends – about how this is ridiculous. claiming that Always are taking away their identity as females and honestly the transphobic undertones of some of the quite frankly ignorant comments I have read has been awful. I am sure that the majority of these people, if not all, would say that they aren’t transphobic and they didn’t mean anything by their comments but why make them? How many of these people even noticed the female symbol on these products beforehand, because I know I didn’t! The hypocrisy of moaning about transgender people moaning about the symbol is laughable. I have only witnessed people moaning about the symbol being taken away, not it’s presence. Always made this change as a statement of social inclusion that should be celebrated and should resonate with so many people based on their own individual experiences of being excluded or feeling alone and like they don’t fit in. I see so many people promoting mental health and why we should be looking out for one another yet straight away completely disregard somebody’s feelings because it isn’t their own idea of what is normal. Has taking away the symbol hurt anybody? I highly doubt it. Could the symbol being there potentially hurt somebody? Yes. Trans and non-binary people NEED to use these sanitary products.

In all of this negativity I guess I just want to show my support and solidarity to anybody going through this adversity, those people who may or may not even have a problem with that symbol being on a package yet still has to read these un-informed, ignorant, stereotyping, shit comments being made.

I sat down with my partner to talk this through as I was so wound up. He reminded me that not everybody looks at the world the same way, I still cant comprehend how other peoples life choices are looked down on or laughed at. I say ‘life choices’ but actually a lot of the time it isn’t a persons choice, gender dysphoria is a real thing, it’s a medical condition and something that people have no choice over and are forced to deal with, maybe give that a thought when your biggest problem is a symbol (you probably didn’t even know was on a package) being removed.

This isn’t directed at anybody, this has just been all over my newsfeed and Instagram for the last 48 hours and on a personal level it resonated within our household, just be mindful of other people’s battles and be nice, yeah?

Slam Dunk Festival 2019.

Hello! I wrote a blog post about Slam Dunk last year and here I am again! I ADORE this festival, it’s just a one day event but they do one in the South and one in the North. We go to the South held at Hatfield, London. I really rate the efficiency of how they run Slam Dunk, in my experience getting in has always been easy, the line of cars to get in the car park moves fast and there’s never been a que to get into the actual festival itself which is awesome, so props Slam Dunk! They changed the way they scheduled set times this year to avoid bands on different stages having the exact same slot, they staggered them out a bit more, which did definitely work for us, we managed to see a lot more than last year however sometimes we were running off before one band finished to make it to another. There’s an app you can download prior to the festival so that you can plan your day and make a list of the artists you would like to see and on the day it will send you a notification before their set so you can make your way there! Much like last year the weatherman was threatening rain, however we only got a little, all was good! The morning started off so hot, I was starting to panic that I hadn’t brought sun cream, my arms were covered so I panic bought a hat. I actually really love the hat though! Of course as soon as the hat was purchased and upon my head the sun went away for the majority of the day.. Sorry everyone!

Anyway we managed to see…

Kublai Khan – We had never heard of these but as we were strolling past the tent we could hear them playing and that drew us in! Really good!

Knocked Loose – A band my partner wanted to see, not my cup of tea but still appreciated that they were good!

Boston Manor – We saw Boston Manor supporting Good Charlotte at the beginning of the year and I have been obsessed since so I was really looking forward to seeing them again!

Wage War – Another one for the other half, once again, cool, but not my thing!

Turnstile – They came on after Wage War and my partner was intrigued as he had heard of them, at this point I was just getting excited for The Interrupters!

The Interrupters – AHHH! I LOVE THEM. I was totally loving life when they played ‘She’s Kerosene’. I remember at Slam Dunk last year they were playing them on some speakers between setting up the stage for another act and I thought how good they would be if they played at a Slam Dunk – The gods listened!

Cancer Bats – I’ve seen them before and my partner has seen them every time they play near us as he loves them! Always so much energy and a good show!

Simple Plan – Oh the nostalgia!

Employed To Serve – WHOA, the front-lady of this band is fire, you would look at her and hear the noise coming out of her and think ‘no way’ … Love love loved them!

Neck Deep – I freaking love Neck Deep, my Spotify is probably tired of me playing ‘In Bloom’ as much as I do! Was lovely to see them, we did have to quickly run off towards the end though…

Less Than Jake – Favourite of the day! There was no way I was going to miss them, we have both seen them before but they’re just so much fun. One of my all time favourite bands. There was such a cool moment whilst watching them too, the rain gave the crowd a good soaking for about 5 minutes then out came the sun, this created the most beautiful rainbow right across the entire stage, made even more magical by Less Than Jake playing ‘Whatever the weather’ at time…Amazing!

New Found Glory – Once again..Oh the nostalgia!

Plain White T’s – Admittedly I only ran towards Plain White T’s at the end of the set in the hope that they were saving ‘Hey There Delilah’ until the end! We caught it, which made me a very happy Misha, what a song, I have adored it for years and years!

My favourite picture of the day, the rainbow over Less Than Jake!

There’s no doubt that I’ll be going back to Slam Dunk next year, I highly recommend it for an easy going day festival because as you can see we managed to see so many artists! Oh and as for the food (very important subject) there’s so much choice, even for us veggies!

Thank you for reading!

Road Trip, UK to Austria!

Hello! Ok so I have just got back from one of the most incredibly ridiculous, amazing, hilarious and memorable trips. I will start from the beginning.. My partner is close to the end of building his own Swallowtail MK1 Golf which has been a huge dream for him since forever, we often attend car shows and I have adored taking on his hobby and trying to learn as much as I can. Don’t get me wrong I still don’t know a lot about cars but I actually enjoy the shows and I am extremely proud of him for the effort and commitment that goes into building up a car from just a shell.

There is an event every year held in Wörthersee in Austria, it’s basically a giant car meet where people bring their cars from all over and hang out. We have always spoken about attending and just saying ‘one day..’ Last year we chose to make it happen, that ‘one day’ would be in 2019, no excuses. My partner worked super hard with a crazy amount of help from a friend Stu to try and get the car finished in time for Wörthersee, unfortunately due to circumstances out of their control it wasn’t ready in time but we were still going ahead with the trip, just in my partners daily car.. A Seat Arosa! 😀

Norfolk – Harwich. 84 miles.

So the 11th May rolled around and we were running around packing (last minute of course) to leave. We met our friends Stu and his partner Jo and set off on the first leg of the Journey from Norfolk to Harwich, 84 miles. We caught an overnight Ferry to the Hook Of Holland. I freaking loved the Ferry as I wasn’t really sure what I was expecting. Our little cabin was adorable, just like a tiny hotel room with a bed and a cute little bathroom. Stu had been a hero and booked a lounge area that had free wine, juice, teas and coffee so we made the most of that! I ate my weight in nuts and raided the biscuit bowl before leaving, don’t judge! I must admit I slept terribly as my slightly tipsy boyfriend fell asleep very fast in total starfish mode leaving me pushed against the wall in a tiny space, the amount of times I hit myself rolling around wasn’t even funny, so many bruises. I allowed this dreadful sleeping arrangement and just laid there silently miffed as I was mindful that he would be driving us to Germany the next day! I haven’t shut up about it since though, I will forgive but I wont forget! We were kindly woken up with a wake up call from the Ferry, a song that unbeknown to me was about to be stuck in my head for the entire trip ahead…’Do do do doo doo do do, I love your smiiiile’ we then had our breakfast and grabbed the cars to head to Germany!

Hook Of Holland – Nürburgring, Germany. 224 miles.

We headed to a Fuel station to fill up and met the next car to join our convoy! Rich and Rish. We knew Rich from briefly speaking to him at another car show we go to called Edition 38 and we follow eachother on social media. Rich had been looking for a co-pilot and Rish stepped up, the cool thing was that they had only met briefly at Edition 38 also so didn’t really know each other but got on extremely well straight away which was lucky considering they were trapped in a tiny car from the UK to Austria! As we continued our journey Rich started to have some problems with the alternator on his car but as he was already aware of the issue he came prepared with two spare, so after a quick stop on the side of the road to change the alternator we were off again! When we arrived in Germany the plan was to do a lap around the Nürburgring but we were unable to find the start so re-grouped and went for a pint instead! That’s where we met Oscar and his friend Magnus. Our friend Stu knew Oscar and Oscar had met Magnus 7 years ago broken down on the side of the road on the way to Wörthersee, Magnus had driven all the way from Norway! This is what I love about the car community. Most of them look out for each other, great friendships are formed and the people are lovely. After getting to know everyone a little more we headed a Nürburgring viewing point and watched the cars absolutely flying round and that’s when we realised just how lucky we were getting lost whilst trying to find the entrance! We would have probably died out there in our little cars! 😀 We went to our cosy little Air B&B apartment and got ourselves ready to go out for a meal at a steak restaurant owned by the family of Sabine Smidt, we had a lovely evening and celebrated Stu’s birthday. Apparently the steak was incredible but I can report the veggie option of pizza was a winner also! We went back to our apartment and got a good night sleep in ready for the longest day of travelling!

Adenau, Germany – Kärnten, Austria. 550 Miles.

Rich’s Series 1 Golf GTI, Stu’s Swallowtail and Oscar’s MK1 Golf GTI G60.

Once we were all up and ready we dragged all of our luggage back to the cars, loaded up and started the long journey ahead, but first, McDonalds! Ohhhhh my goodness it was a looooong day travelling but (here comes the cheese) I was stupidly happy, sat beside my partner with all the time in the world to chat about everything and anything. The roads in Germany are amazing though, so much quicker and more efficient than back home in the UK so it felt like we were making great progress. We barely hit any traffic but of course the one time that we did was the one time that I was really needing a toilet break! I can tell you that being stuck in traffic whilst you need the loo is horrible, but to make things worse the services that had originally been 20 miles away was then blocked due to road works so we drove past them and I had to wait for the next one, I was fearing for my partners seats! Once we finally made it I think I had jumped out of the car before we had even stopped – imagine some stunt in an action movie where someone jumps and rolls from a moving vehicle – yeah it was nothing like that! I ran/waddled across the carpark to the patisserie we had stopped at and of course went the wrong way…When I eventually found them I was faced with two doors, one had just the letter ‘D’ and the other ‘H’ and it was that exact moment that I wish I had learnt some German! My desperate logic had me so close to charging into the toilet with the ‘H’ on the front…I am ashamed to admit I just figured it was like ‘Hers’ ignoring the fact that my flawed logic could also make it ‘His’… Luckily for me some poor German man walked up to the toilets, instead of waiting to see which door he went into I practically shouted ‘WHICH ONE AM I!?!’ …I now know, I am a Damen…Anyway after that ordeal I felt I was deserving of a cake and we continued our journey! The moment the snowy mountains came into view it felt like we had made it. I went into full Julie Andrews mode, the hills were alive with the sound of my wailing! We stopped for some dinner as we hit Austria and prepared ourselves for the last 3 hours. It was the journey through Austria that was the hardest (says me who just had to sit there) I honestly don’t know how the boys managed to drive all that time, but they did, and we all arrived safely and soundly, all five cars and eight people!

We made it!

So we arrived, past midnight. we travelled over a wooden bridge, up a quiet dirt track, past a giant deer, deeper into the middle of nowhere until we arrived at our house! Arriving is going to forever be one of my favourite memories, we were all deliriously running around in absolute hysterics as the house was HUGE and not gonna lie…It felt a bit spooky! We explored, found the kitchen and two sitting areas then we all chose our rooms and after a quick cup of tea we got ready to crash out. Now because I was a little freaked out I had my partner open the cupboards in our room to check there was nobody hiding in them! There was a small 4ft cupboard in our room that as we opened reveled some steps down into a bathroom! We had an en-suite! As we looked inside we found two more doors.. Both leading to two other bedrooms that we hadn’t discovered! We walked through the bedrooms to find a big spiral staircase going down into another lounge that we hadn’t yet found with another kitchen attatched! On top of the kitchen was another balcony with a table and chairs and another toilet! The house was MASSIVE! Spooky or not I slept SO well!

I will leave this post here and continue on another blog post! Thank you for reading! Where’s the furthest you have ever road tripped to!?

Books On My ‘To-Read’ Shelf.

Hello! Happy Saturday! Hope you are having a magical weekend! I haven’t done one of these in so long and if I’m honest I haven’t really been reading much lately but here are some books I’ve downloaded and can’t wait to pick up and read! I’m off work for two weeks and heading on a little road trip to Austria today! We’re catching an overnight ferry tonight to Holland so I’m thinking I’ll have plenty of time to read once my partner is thoroughly fed up of my one woman car karaoke show!

‘Laughing At My Nightmare’ by Shane Burcaw.

I have started this one recently as I watch Shane’s videos on YouTube. He has a channel called ‘Squirmy & Grubs’ with his girlfriend where they vlog and talk about their interabled relationship. I have fallen in love with Shane and his girlfriend Hannah, I can’t get enough of their videos so I figured it made sense that I’d love his books too! Once I’ve finished this one I’m excited to read his other one titled ‘Strangers Assume My Girlfriend Is My Nurse’… Totally recommend this book and their YouTube channel!

‘Everyday Sexism’ by Laura Bates.

This one has been on my ‘to read’ list an embarrassingly long time and I still haven’t got round to it! It’ll be ticked off next though I promise! Laura Bates set up a project on a website to call out sexism she saw everyday and asked women all over the world to send in their stories and experiences which lead to this book. I just love the idea of women standing up and shouting back, coming together to encourage a new generation to recognise these problems, I feel it’s so important as often I sadly think these issues are overlooked as ‘the norm’ because it really is an every day thing that goes on everywhere so we’re just conditioned to think it’s OK as its completely normalised? Of course it isn’t OK. Some of the stories in this book are shocking, some are funny but they’re all important and I can’t wait to read them!

‘So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed’ by Jon Ronson.

This one is a slightly different book for me, this is how it is described on Goodreads… (Because they’ll describe it way better than me!)

For the past three years, Jon Ronson has travelled the world meeting recipients of high-profile public shamings. The shamed are people like us – people who, say, made a joke on social media that came out badly, or made a mistake at work. Once their transgression is revealed, collective outrage circles with the force of a hurricane and the next thing they know they’re being torn apart by an angry mob, jeered at, demonized, sometimes even fired from their job.

It just sounds so interesting and honest. I think we have all been guilty of focusing on others flaws, mistakes and to read about the scary part we all play in the war on human flaws will be eye opening.

‘Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race’ by Renni Eddo-Lodge.

OK so again this is one that has been on my list of books I want and need to read for a very long time, I’m making it my mission to have read it by the end of June. The book came about when Renni Eddo-Lodge wrote a blog about her frustrations of how most discussions in Britain about race were mainly from people who weren’t actually affected by it.

Here is a description of the book from Goodreads.

Exploring issues from eradicated black history to the political purpose of white dominance, whitewashed feminism to the inextricable link between class and race, Reni Eddo-Lodge offers a timely and essential new framework for how to see, acknowledge and counter racism. It is a searing, illuminating, absolutely necessary exploration of what it is to be a person of colour in Britain today.

I just think it’s one of those important ‘must read’ books.

‘It Only Happens In Movies’ by Holly Bourne.

This is one of those books for when I just need to chill out and read something a little more lighthearted. I am guilty of loving a bit of YA fiction and I have read some of Holly Bourne’s books before so I can’t wait to get stuck into this one!

Thank you for reading! I’m off to go run around and do some last minute flapping for our trip, I still need to pack and I have a whole list of other stuff to do… But now all I want to do is curl up with my kindle! Wish me luck! 🙈

April’s Photos.

Hello! Hope you’re all well. So April has been and gone super fast and I just wanted to document it with some of the pictures that I have taken through the month!

Firstly here are a few from the very first day in April where my partner and I scooped up the dogs and headed to Horning in Norfolk for the day, we had intended on going for a long walk but my wonderful boyfriend snapped his flip flop just as we started so he hopped on one foot back to the pub and that’s where we stayed.. I wasn’t complaining but I was definitely laughing.

Here is one I took from the woods, this picture sums up my two babies to an absolute tee. Ginger is sat doing as she’s told and posing beautifully for my picture whereas Pebbles couldn’t give any shits about what I was saying. None.

Jen and I had a lovely morning, we went to a Lisa Angel Sample sale. We were there dead on the time it opened and carnage ensued. Straight away I picked up a bargain £2 table with the plan to put my record player on it. Only problem was I then had to carry it around with me as I looked at everything else… I’m not exaggerating when I say we couldn’t really move. The stock was all piled up in a little square to walk around in a warehouse and we were all crammed in there digging around looking for bargains, my table then turned into kind of a weapon to save me from the seasoned bargain hunters, they were savage… I managed to pick up a few lovely bits. I got a cute purse for £3 (big enough for all the money that I don’t have and receipts from 2001.) I also found some lovely little pieces of jewellery and a little travel case for jewellery as I always struggle on trips with where to put them so they don’t get lost or tangled! Oh and I found a lovely wooden jewellery box with multiple drawers for £2! Afterwards we headed to White House Farm for a cup of tea in the cafe and a little look around their shops. The tea was needed.

My £2 table in all its glory!

Half way though the month we went to see the band ‘The Hunna’ I have been obsessed with them for the longest time. Dr Robotnik’s mum bought us tickets for Christmas so I had been looking forward to it for ages! I can’t even put into words how well they performed, thank you Sue!

I’m so lucky with my work that I get to go to some beautiful places and have lovely days out with the people I support so here is one from a day we had on Wroxham Broad, I had just got my new phone (a Huawei p30 pro) so I wanted to test out the camera!

My dad moved house in April which meant my old friends from my childhood were dug out and have now come to live with me! Who else had beanie babies? I was obsessed and had quite the collection! I enjoyed going through them all, boring my partner with the stories of where I had got them and I scarily remembered most of their names!

My partner and I spent the day in Wroxham towards the end of the month. If you’re local you’ll know but there’s a place called Wroxham Barns in Norfolk, they have some cute shops, a cafe and restaurant, some rides for little ones and animals! I mainly wanted to go to see the lambs and I was in my element when I got to bottle feed one! I also fell in love with some little piglets that were only 12 days old! The goats were hilarious as usual, as soon as you walk into their barn with that paper bag of food you are getting Goats coming at you from all directions, I feel like that’s the same reaction my partner gets from me when he arrives home with food! Except I’m not a goat. I’m not sure why I felt like that needed clarification.

OK so this photo is completely terrible and I probably shouldn’t even include it but as it was a highlight of the month and the only picture I took I felt it was necessary… We went to see Papa Roach in Norwich! Ahh it was so good! Nostalgic and a great atmosphere. So thank you for the tickets Grandma! 😁

Right so that’s it for April! Lots of exciting things are coming up in May, I have some time off and a trip to Austria! Plus Slam Dunk Festival at the end of the month. Busy busy! What are your plans? ☺️ Thank you for reading!

Zoella X ColourPop Review.

Hello! If I said the name Zoella to you I am pretty positive most of you will know who she is, I like many others have followed her on YouTube for years, right back when she made videos from her little bedroom in Wiltshire to now from her ginormous mansion in Brighton… It’s basically a mansion right? She recently collaborated with the makeup brand ColourPop. ColourPop is proudly cruelty-free and MOST of their products are vegan but their ingredients list is available to check certain products. I had never used the brand before as its not easily accessible in the UK but I have always been curious to try it, especially the liquid lipsticks that I had heard everyone and their dog raving about, I need to stop watching American YouTuber’s makeup videos! I had a little look at some videos of people swatching the Zoella Brunch Date eye palette, creating beautiful looks and once again raving about the liquid lipsticks and I was sold, I’m easily influenced!

Unfortunately my poor little bank account wouldn’t allow me to buy the whole collection so after much deliberation and putting things in and out of my basket like some kind of makeup hokey cokey I had settled on the ‘Brunch Date Eye Palette’, ‘What Happens At Lunch Lip Bundle’ and the ‘Bellini Supernova Shadow’.

I chose to put the eye palette and lipstick to the test first. I played around with a few of the colours, quickly discovering that Mimosa was probably my favourite, it looks so pretty under the eye! I managed to do a pretty half decent job considering my makeup ‘skills ‘are extremely questionable, the colours blend out beautifully and are really easy to work with and I didn’t get any fall out.

I popped on the ‘Oh Snap’ lip pencil and the ‘@me’ liquid lipstick – a gorgeous mid-tone matte pink colour and was impressed with how it dried without making my lips feel super dry like the Sahara.

Ok so, the ultimate test.. I went to a gig for the evening, I usually come home looking like a baby Panda that has got into her mum’s makeup stash, eyeliner halfway up my forehead, lipstick on my chin, eyeshadow everywhere but my eyes… I create such a glamourous picture of myself don’t I? Anyway, as I was saying, ultimate test! I am happy to report that it passed with flying colours! In the car the whole way home I was marvelling at my makeup in the sun visor mirror, constantly repeating myself to my partner how amazed I was that it was still all where I had put it! I should probably mention that I have hooded eyes too so it really is a miracle that the eyeshadow was still going strong and hadn’t transferred up near my brows! The lips had held up incredibly well too, no cracking, barely faded and not on my chin, winner! I am pretty sure ColourPop has just become one of my favourite makeup brands?!

Ok so the Bellini Supernova shadow – I put this to the test at home on a housework day, Cinderella Misha had nowhere to go but to stay home and hang out with her Zoflora and Hetty Hoover. I can tell you that my bedazzled eyes and PJ look wasn’t exactly the one but the colour is a glittery rose-gold delight! It dries quickly as it goes on as a liquid, straight away I tried to rub some off around the edges and it was not budging so you need to work quickly with it, something my sloth self struggles with. I was really impressed with how it felt on the eyes, I kept forgetting I was wearing it until I caught my reflection in something shiny and it made me giggle seeing it paired with my crazy housework hair and no other makeup. The verdict, it lasted fabulously well and really did look lovely however I am not sure wearing it all over the eye is good for hooded eyes like mine as it did start to crack slightly in the crease, which you kind of expect with this kind of eyeshadow anyway but it did last a lot longer than any others I have ever tried so props to ColourPop! I feel that in the future I will use this product as just a pop of shimmer on the lids or use a thin eyeliner brush to apply it close to the lashes. So pleased to add this to my makeup collection as it is something different that I wouldn’t usually try, its good to push those comfort zones and all that!

So that’s that! Overall I am so happy I took the plunge with ColourPop and will absolutely will be purchasing from them again, I have been lusting after their Disney Designer range and the Disney Villains collection which has my name written all over it!

Thank You for reading! Hope you’re having a wonderful day!

Setting Myself A Challenge..

Happy 1st of April! I’m feeling the Spring vibes and happiness that the sun seems to bring! The Spring air must have well and truly got to my brain because I’m about to set myself a challenge and no, this is not an April fool’s joke!

This may not be a big challenge to some, infact lots of people may achieve this every day. Not me, I am a potato. So here goes…

I, Misha Gray, set myself the challenge of walking 10k steps every single day throughout April. Done, there I’ve said it. I’ve blogged it. I HAVE to do it now!

The real challenge here is remembering to charge my Fitbit… I’m utterly useless at such a small task so that is a challenge in itself!

Why?

Well for one, I’m unfit and lazy! I need to move more and create new habits so I’m hoping setting this challenge will put me in the right frame of mind to get myself thinking differently and healthier. Secondly my clothes are getting a bit erm, snug! So there’s that! 💁‍♀️ We are off to Austria next month so I’d like to just feel that little bit happier with myself… I’m also going to eat healthier and stay well away from the Just Eat app! – All in the name of saving pennies and my ever expanding stomach!

Right. Let’s see how I do! 💪👟

Thank you for reading!

Monthly Music Favourites – March.

Hey! I’ve been terribly slack at these whole monthly posts! The time seems to fly by and I’m too busy trying to successfully adult that I can’t keep up!

In February we went to see Good Charlotte at Ally Pally in London, it was every bit incredible. They were promising a brilliant show unlike others and they delivered! They played songs they haven’t played in years and fireworks galore! Loved them! Good Charlotte will always be one of those feel good bands for me, whenever I listen to a song it takes me back to a time and a place and has me reminiscing… back in my day! 👵

Anyway, I’ve been reliving the whole gig through March and playing lots of Good Charlotte! Good Charlotte had three bands supporting them, The Dose, Boston Manor and Sleeping With Sirens.

Ok so the Dose.. I dont know if it was just me but slight Nirvana vibes going on there! Spotify them and let me know if you agree! 🤔

I had heard of Sleeping With Sirens so bopped along to the one song I knew thanks to Kerrang, they were good and I do really like the one song I knew but that was it really, not my cup of tea! ☕

Boston Manor. They stole it, they reeled me right in! Stage presence was tip top and their songs are so freaking catchy! They’re going to Slamdunk in May so I’m hoping to catch them again! I think I probably listened to them every day in March.

We also went to see Alien Ant Farm in Norwich again, we went last year and I just adore them. Again they’re a band I’ve grown up with whose songs pinpoint particular times in my life so it really gives me all the warm fuzzies when I get to see them!

POD were headlining the night of Alien Ant Farm, we stayed for a couple of their songs but I’m not the biggest fan, they opened with ‘Boom’ and we sacrificed seeing ‘Alive’ to leave early. Old age huns! 💁‍♀️

A band called ’98 were supporting POD and AAF. Just two men on their own grabbing an entire room and going for it. I thoroughly enjoyed watching them even though once again, the music wasn’t really my cup of tea I could appreciate how good they are at what they do and I’m staggered by the amount of energy and humour they put into their set!

So here is my March playlist! I’ve been loving every single one of these songs throughout the month!

Thank you for reading!

24 Hours In A Day.

I bet we have all seen the ‘inspirational’ quotes that suggest ‘We all have the same 24 hours in a day’ I’ve seen lots of different variations…

‘We all have the same 24 hours in a day. If someone is accomplishing more than you, they’re sacrificing more than you’

‘You hate on my success like we don’t have the same 24 hours’

’24 yours just like everybody else, there is nobody that cheated and got 25 and there is nobody who cheated you and gave you 23. No excuses’

And then my personal favourite…

‘We all have the same 24 hours as Beyonce’

You get my jist. Thing is, we don’t. A full time worker doesn’t have the same 24 hours as a part time worker and a part time worker doesn’t have the same 24 hours as somebody who doesn’t need to work at all. A single mother doesn’t get the same time as a mother who has a partner and that mother doesn’t have the same 24 hours as a mother who has a partner and a nanny. Also somebody with 1 child hasn’t got the same 24 hours as somebody with 7. Lots of different factors determine your time, a person using public transport doesn’t get the same as a person with a private jet and so on!

Our 24 hours are not the same if you’re caring for relatives, if you’re disabled, if you’ve got children, if you work 2 jobs and at the end of the day we all have different goals and dreams that we would like to achieve. We shouldn’t be made to feel bad for being happy and content with what we have and what we have done. Happiness is what is important, that person flying around in their private jet may not actually be as happy in those 24 hours as a person who’s riding the bus home from their day job.

I think it also needs to be said that although having aspirations, motivation, the drive to succeed is an awesome quality in a person, we need to make sure we’re still happy living in the moment day to day. Don’t just focus on that end goal and let it drain you. As cliché as it sounds, live everyday like it’s your last, do something everyday for YOU. So many people have worked and worked, put pressure on themselves, made themselves stressed and unhappy with the future in mind but sadly not even made it that far.

It’s all relative. Balance is key. Comparison is the theif of joy. Be kind. Help others. Do your best. Celebrate every tiny victory. Aim for happiness.

Turning 28 In Amsterdam.

Hello! So it was my 28th birthday at the end of January, my other half and I had originally planned a couple of days in Brighton but after pricing up hotels, parking etc it started to look kind of expensive. Out of curiosity I priced up a trip to Amsterdam instead and it worked out around the same price! Last minute quick trip to Amsterdam it was then! 👍 I fell in love with Amsterdam last year when we went for my birthday and felt like Amsterdam and I had unfinished business! 😄

Here is a link to my Amsterdam blog post from last year!

We left early hours on my birthday, I think we left at 02:30am for our 6:30am flight due to threats of snow throughout the night and my panicking mostly. The roads were all clear and by the time we got through security we managed to sneak in a quick Spoons breakfast before we were off!

We were very lucky that our flight wasn’t delayed and we were in Amsterdam just after 9am their time! We popped to our hotel to see if we could leave our bags with them for the day as our check-in time wasn’t until the afternoon but when we got there they said they had a room available so we could check in early and they had upgraded us to a canal view room! Lovely! I like being 28 already!

We hopped on a tram and visited The Moco Museum.

The artwork in there is predominantly Banksy, Roy Lichtenstein and Daniel Arsham. The museum is set out really well, we had one of those typical touristy voice thingys that tells you all about the art as you walk around. The Roy Lichtenstein room was so strange, like stepping into a painting..Which I guess is the idea! 😄

We got a tram back to the center and went to Body Worlds Museum but they were closed for an event so we had a walk around the shops (basically what I mean is I had a walk around Primark) …Honestly the biggest Primark I’ve ever seen! Then stopped for cake and a drink in a cafe then headed back to the hotel to get changed. We googled for ages somewhere to go and eat but being veggie is so awkward when you don’t know the places so we ended back at the Hard Rock, same place as last year… The Nachos and Cocktails are 👌!

As we stepped out of Hard Rock it was chucking it down with rain, we caught a tram to the centre again and had a stroll around getting absolutely drenched, it even snowed for a bit too which was very pretty! We walked down the red light district but then decided to head back to the hotel, tiredness of my early morning panicking had kicked in. We stopped at a supermarket on the way for supplies.. Chocolate and drink! We crashed out on the bed eating an amaaaazing chocolate bar and were asleep in no time!

We were up bright and early, checked out of our hotel and caught the tram through a frosty Amsterdam to the train station to leave our bags in the lockers, although it would’ve been cheaper to leave them at the Hotel or an independent storage shop those couple of euros more to have a bit more time exploring Amsterdam were worth it as we didn’t have to go back anywhere else before getting the train back to the airport.

We caught the little ferry across to the Amsterdam Lookout, we had booked the Lookout swing, can I just mention, one time my partner and I went on the London Eye (for my birthday) and he sat in the middle freaking out the whole time, yet here we were about to swing over the edge of an exceptionally tall building (for my birthday) .. Get yourself a ‘Dr Robotnik’ everybody! 👏

When we got to the top it was so icy, I was in full penguin waddle mode much to my partners amusement, a few heart skipping slips and near misses I had made it to the edge and the safety of a barrier to hold me up! What a beautiful view, the sky was so clear and Amsterdam was so pretty from way up there, I mean it’s pretty from way down there too but wow! I always find when you’re high up looking over places you suddenly feel teeny tiny, it’s strange to be able to see so much all at once, I look at every tiny building that makes the place you’re looking at, every little car and wonder where it’s going, all the tiny people moving around with a purpose, a place to be. So many different lives happening all at once, every single one completely different from the next. I would have stood there all day if it wasn’t for Dr Robotbik asking if we could go to the inside Lookout area as he was cold! 😄 They had a lovely little bar that you could walk around and take in the view minus the freezing cold temperatures and scarily slippy floor so we took in the sights in there until it was our time slot for the swing! We only had to wait around 5/10 minutes, we were the first people of the day, as we walked out of the top again the clouds had suddenly come in and what had been the clearest most beautiful sky turned into just fog, wonderful timing! 😂 We got strapped into the swing, lifted up and over the building as it started to swing us over what was supposed to be an incredible view but in fact was just a blurry fog, Dr Robotbik was secretly relieved! 🙈 Still such a cool experience!

This tickles me, these pictures the Lookout take are supposed to amazing, that white blur that we’re swinging over is Amsterdam, the exact view we had! 😂

We headed back to the Centre to go and give Body Worlds Museum another try, it was open! Yay! You start from the top floor and work your way down through the rooms, I was starting to think I had made a big mistake, I’m a very squeamish person and I can’t even deal with talking about medical situations/ weird stuff our bodies do/ blood etc and there I was essentially surrounded by bodies/ heads/ body parts that had once been alive and belonging to a living breathing human. I did go light headed and woozy, who’s idea was this again? I whizzed round the top floor with my eyes glazed over and feigning interest then stood and waited for Dr Robotnik, the next floor I tried to pretend it wasn’t real, I did find so much of it really interesting and managed to shake the ‘holy crap, I’m going to pass out’ feeling. I thoroughly enjoyed it by the end and even managed to read about the process on how they preserve the bodies, it was so clever!

I specifically liked the section about happiness, mainly because it didn’t make me feel dizzy but also because it was super interesting… Apparently happiness is determined by 50% genetics, 40% stuff we control and 10% circumstances, which is pretty cool! Also United Kingdom is the 19th happiest country in the world, Norway being first.

Admittedly I don’t look very happy in this picture! 😂

We had our last walk around Amsterdam then our last coffee and cake, before heading back to the train station and airport. Our flight home was delayed 3 hours, but the wait wasn’t bad as we discovered McDonald’s in Holland has the best vegetarian chicken burgers! They’re so good that we triple checked that they were definitely not chicken! 😁🐔

I now feel content that I’ve ticked off everything on my Amsterdam ‘to do’ list! 🗒✅

Thank you so much for reading! If you’ve made it this far then 👏 !

Mystery Blogger Award.

Hello! I was recently nominated for the Mystery Blogger Award by Gina, so thank you very much! Pretty please go and check out her blog here! 💛

The Mystery Blogger Award was created by Okoto Enigma.

The Rules

As with most blogging awards, there are a set of rules to guide us through the processs.

• Put the award logo onto your blog.
• List the rules.
• Thank whoever nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
• Mention the creator of the award.
• State three random facts about yourself.
• Nominate 10-20 people.
• Ask your nominees 5 questions of your choosing.
• Share a link to your best post.

Three random facts about myself.

• I’m a vegetarian.

• I am a support worker for adults with learning disabilities.

• I can read Braille but only with my eyes not my fingers… 🤷‍♀️

My Questions.

1. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be?
Better believe I’d be straight back on that plane to Florida to see my beloved Mickey again!

2. Why did you choose to be a blogger and not a Youtuber?
I enjoy writing and wouldn’t have the confidence to pop a camera in my own face, especially in public! Although, fun fact: When I have had a little bit too much to drink I suddenly think I’m a vlogger. The videos are comedy gold.

3. If you could change one thing about your life, what would it be?
More time to do the things that make my heart happy, more time to see my partner, family and friends!

4. Are you a cat or dog person?
I’m allergic to cats! Dogs all day long!

5. Would you rather live by the ocean, or in the mountains?
By the ocean, the beach is one of my favourite places to be plus living in the mountains would be a disaster for me as I’m too unfit to walk up and I’m terrible at hill starts.

My nominees are:

Mrs Burch

Elsie LMC

Holly Robiin

Ash Williams

The B Word

Jenni

AyR Galaxy

Chloe Luna

Bournemouth Girl

Hannah Van-De-Peer

The questions for my nominees:

1. Why did you start your blog?
2. What is your favourite Disney movie?
3. What kind of music do you like?
4. What is your biggest achievement?
5. Where do you see yourself in five years?

I’m so excited to read all of your answers if you ladies would like to join in! 💛

Ok so the last rule, share a link to my best post:

Florida! Part 4.

I chose my most recent one! It’s about one of the best days of my life and gives me all of the warm fuzzy feelings, I’m suffering major Disney blues at the moment so I’ve been reminiscing hard! 😄

Hope you’re all have a lovely day! Thank you for reading!

Florida! Part 4. 🌎

Hey! I can’t believe I’m still writing these Florida posts! I’ve got to part 4 and day 18. This was my favourite day from the entire trip as it involved Dr Robotnik taking part in his acting debut with Belle, meeting Louise Pentland, Be Our Guest and Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party! So I’m dedicating this entire post to the fun packed, hilarious day 18, another Magic Kingdom day! 🏰

We headed to Magic Kingdom, I was already itching to see the castle again. We ate breakfast at Gastons Tavern which was incredible. Dr Robotnik still talks about the cinnamon roll he had, he announced it to be the best thing ever. I had a Pain Au Chocolat and LeFou’s Brew, LeFou’s Brew is an apple juice flavoured with marshmallow and topped with creamy passion fruit froth – Only in Disney hey?!

Okay so if you don’t know Dr Robotbik and I personally here is a little bit of background information for context on what I’m about to tell you.. I am the Disney mad one, prior to our Disney Holiday Dr Robotnik wasn’t so much. He’s very tall and has a beard and tattoos. He hates having his photo taken and if by some miracle you succeed in taking one he rarely smiles for the camera. Most of all…He hates being center of attention. 😏 Now that we’re all caught up I have to tell you about ‘Enchanted Tales With Belle’ I didn’t really know what this was, I knew it wasn’t a ride and that obviously it would be with Belle. Poor Dr Robotnik however thought that we were in the que for a ride. Imagine his thoughts as we enter a room as the only adults not accompanying small children. There we were stood at the back as some dramatic story telling took place and they start asking for volunteers to play parts. Obviously they included as many of the children as they could but then they asked for a ‘grown-up’ to play the knight. To my absolute joy they chose Dr Robotnik. The daggers he gave me as he was pulled up to the front, handed a knight mask and asked to march on the spot next to the talking wardrobe will live in my mind forever. They were all given their roles and told what they needed to do at what points of the story then we moved onto another room with seating so that all the parents could watch their adorable children taking part, and one proud girlfriend could watch her also adorable 30 year old boyfriend in his acting debut. Belle came out looking like a totally beautiful princess and all of a sudden it wasn’t very funny as she linked Dr Robotnik’s arm and starts parading around the room – Where was the Beast!? Hands off my man Belle! (She did compliment my OTT sunflower Minnie ears though so I’ll let her off.) All of the time while this story telling was going on there were Disney photographers taking pictures, I could feel Dr Robotnik’s awkwardness from behind his mask. Once we were out I could finally let my laughter free and I honestly think Dr Robotnik was still confused about what had just happened. What a highlight!

We ran around the park trying to get as many rides done as we could. One thing on my bucket list was to meet Rapunzel because Tangled is one of my absolute favourites and I’m a big child. I made sure I had a Fast Pass for this! As we entered the que I suddenly realised we were stood behind Louise Pentland! – If you don’t know, she is a British YouTuber, UN change ambassador for gender equality AND she’s a best selling author. I’ve watched her channel for years! She has two little girls called Darcey and Pearl. So anyway there we were stood behind Louise and Darcey waiting to meet Rapunzel and I didn’t know what to do. Inside I was fangirling hard. Dr Robotnik was making faces at me because he knows how much I watch her videos, especially leading up to our holiday as I was watching her previous Disney vlogs! I knew if I didn’t say hello I would regret it and what came out of my mouth? ‘LOUISE!!’ Pretty sure I made her jump and I definitely wasn’t acting cool. What made things worse was I was actually wearing a massive t-shirt with a massive picture of Rapunzel on the front and I was sweating like crazy. I probably looked like an absolute loon and that poor woman was trapped in a que with me. She couldn’t have been nicer though, we spoke until we were called in, Darcey was the cutest little human, so polite and chatty! What a day!

In the afternoon we popped back to our room to get refreshed and changed ready to go back to Magic Kingdom again for our ‘Be Our Guest’ reservation and Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party! I’m sorry to say after much deliberation we didn’t dress up, and I’m kind of glad we didn’t as the heat was insane! Instead Dr Robotnik wore Sid’s t-shirt from Toy Story and I wore a Hocus Pocus one with the Sanderson sisters on the front.

Oh my god the party was awesome! Straight away you’re given a trick or treat bag and people are stood on the side handing out sweets, or should I say candy as we were in America! We had our ‘Be Our Guest’ reservation so headed straight there.

Be Our Guest, woooow. The Beast’s castle was SO cool. We were sat in the ballroom but had a little nose around, we even braved the west wing! The food was ah-ma-zing and the grey stuff is most certainly delicious! Once you’re finished you have your photo taken with the Beast on the way out, this is one of my favourite pictures!

Full of food we were ready to fully embrace Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party! The effort people had gone to with their costumes was brilliant, I started to feel bad that we hadn’t dressed up!

We trick or treated our way around Magic Kingdom and my smile honestly didn’t leave my face.

I need a moment to appreciate the Hocus Pocus show. I had been looking forward to it so much and it was one of the main reasons I was so desperate to go to Disney near Halloween. I grew up adoring Hocus Pocus so I was in my element. The ladies that played the Sanderson sisters were perfect for the parts, they definitely put a spell on me!

We watched the ‘Boo To You’ parade, Dr Robotbik and I still can’t get the parade’s song out of our heads months later! – Loved it!

Possibly the worst photo taken in the history of pictures ever…But I couldn’t leave out the headless horseman who starts off the parade!

Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party has different Disney characters and villains to meet than usual, I made sure we got a hug with Lotso because he’s so cute, also Tarzan, for obvious reasons… 😏

Be with a man who isn’t afraid to hug a giant pink teddy bear! 💖

Getting towards the end of the night we crowded round the castle for the ‘Hallowishes’ fireworks which of course were every bit incredible.

Dr Robotnik had spent our whole trip banging on about Splash Mountain and begging me to go on it, my extra happy mood and time for one more ride meant I finally caved, so that’s how we ended our day. Wet, so very wet.

As you can see… I loved it. 😒

My little heart was so happy heading back to our hotel room after the most perfect day, giant bag of sweets in hand, although I resembled a drowned rat, I was a very happy drowned rat!

Thank you for reading! As always it’s very much appreciated!

If you’d like to read my previous Florida blog posts I have linked them below! 💛

Florida Part 1 🌞

Florida Part 2 🌎

Florida Part 3 🏰

The Number On The Scales Will Not Determine My Happiness!

Hello! I promised myself to start writing about topics that I’m passionate about, topics that make me nervous when pressing the publish button, positive but kind of scary subjects that I find difficult to voice to other humans – Does this count as voicing them? I’m gonna say yes. 😀

Today’s topic? The number on the scales will not determine my happiness.

I was thinking about this whilst scrolling through Instagram and seeing all the 10 year challenge posts. I am a huge lover of these, I love seeing how other people have changed. I had a little dig through my Facebook to find some of my pictures from 2009 and my first thought was ‘Whoa! You have a waist Misha!’

It got me thinking about when those pictures of my 18 year old self were taken and how I wasn’t nearly as happy as I am now. Do not get me wrong, I wasn’t miserable but I was in a relationship that was so very wrong for both of us, I was keeping up with a very toxic friendship and there wasn’t a lot of structure to my life apart from attending college. Funny thing is I thought I was fat at the time, I’m pretty sure I was following slimming world at this point too. I also had an ex tell me that I’d be pretty when I lost my ‘puppy fat’ – Why I didn’t let the door hit him on the way out right there and then I will never know! 🤷‍♀️

They say when you get into a relationship you gain weight which may or may not be true for some people, but for me it’s no coincidence that the last time I wore a bikini was the same week that my partner asked me out on our first date! The pounds… *cough* stones, that I piled on are happy memories, places we’ve eaten, days out, cosy takeaways and treats. I am the happiest I’ve ever been, and also the heaviest I’ve ever been. 💁‍♀️ Would I like to be healthier? Absolutely! Would I like that 2009 waist back? Pass me the magic wand!..But ultimately that’s not what makes me happy.

True happiness right there! ^

We are not defined by those numbers on the scales or the size of our clothes. This is a friendly reminder to myself and whoever needs to hear it… Do not let your weight take over your thought process, this time of year especially it seems everywhere you turn there’s slimming world/ weight watchers/ gym advertisements, which is great if that’s what you’d like to do but please don’t let it steal your happiness.

My Best Friend’s IVF Blog!

A super quick one today! I did have another post scheduled but this is far more exciting! My gorgeous, crazy, lovely and super duper bestie has got her dates to start her IVF so I wanted to take this opportunity to ask you all so very nicely to go and check out her blog because there’s exciting times ahead! Jenny is the most positive and happy human and everyone needs a Jenny in their life! 👭

Jenny’s blog 💕

This is the gorgeous lady herself! She married her partner September 2017 and they have four adorable dogs together. Jen is one of the most positive and happy balls of energy you could ever wish to meet, her laugh is slightly mental but incredibly infectious and I love her to bits. I’m hoping and wishing all their dreams will come true because they deserve the absolute world and more.

I hope you’re not even still reading this as hopefully you’ve already clicked the link to her blog! If you are still here, thank you for popping by! …But here is Jenny’s blog link again… 😉

Jenny’s Blog 💕

How To Make Palm Free Soap. (Very easy!)

Hey! I discovered how to make these soaps last month so wanted to share with you lovely lot! I really enjoyed making some for my friends and family as little extra Christmas presents, I found it quite relaxing and they are ideal for a cute little personal touch. They’re really super easy, honestly if I can do them you definitely can.

What you will need:

• Melt & pour Palm free Soap Base.

I found mine on Ebay, the one I used was ‘Stephensons’ – Link below!

Soap Base! 💛

• Soap fragrances of your choice!

I chose Black Cherry, Parma Violets, Lady Million and Orange & Cinammon. I would definitely recommend the Ebay seller I got the Black Cherry from as it was a gorgeous scent and a little went a long way! Link below!

Black Cherry Fragrance Oil 🍒

• Soap Moulds.

You can have lots of fun choosing which shape you’d like to make your soap, I chose some pretty flowers (mainly for the sunflowers) and little square ones with ‘100% handmade’ written on them, once again I found them on Ebay. Links below!

Square Moulds 💕

Flower Moulds 🌻

• Soap Dye.

If you’d like to make your soaps all different colours then you’ll want to get some soap dye, no prizes for guessing where I bought mine from… Ebay! You can mix the colours together or add them on their own. Link below!

Soap Dye 💙

• Rubbing alcohol spray.

Once again I bought mine from Ebay, link below.

Rubbing Alcohol Spray 💦

• Microwave safe measuring jug.

Just your standard measuring jug, you probably already have one in your kitchen but for hygiene reasons buy one specifically to make your soap! I got mine from Poundstretcher.

Now you have everything!

How to actually make the soap…

Firstly…

Break off some of your melt and pour soap base, pop it into the jug and melt in the microwave. Keep an eye on it and keep checking regularly, take it out once all of the solid soap has melted.

Then…

You need to work fairly quickly as you don’t want your melted soap to set. Add a few drops of your chosen fragrance and add in your chosen soap dye, stir them in very gently as you don’t want to create too many bubbles.

Next…

Once you’re happy that it smells beautiful and you have created your desired colour then pour the soap into your moulds.

After that…

You probably have a few bubbles sitting on the top of what you have poured, if you do you can spray some of the rubbing alcohol to make them disappear!

Finally…

You just wait for your soaps to set! Once they’re hard again you can pop them out of their moulds. I found the silicone ones really easy for this part!

Done!

And that’s it! Sooooo easy right! You can package them up how you wish, you are probably far more creative than me but I just bought some little resealable bags and popped ‘Handmade by Misha’ stickers onto them then remembered I also had some organza bags and used some of those too!

Other ideas if you’re feeling fancy…

Add in some dried fruit or flowers! Whilst adding in your fragrance and colour you could just pop some dried fruit or flowers into your mix, these can be great natural remedies for any skin issues you may have for example Calendula benefits are that it’s antifungal, anti-inflammatory and has antibacterial properties which is useful for healing wounds and soothing eczema. Just do your research for what you’d like your soap to benefit!

You could layer your soap, leave some room whilst pouring your mix into the mould, wait for it to set and add another layer of a different colour. This means you could make some awesome colourful soaps!
Hope this has been helpful! Please let me know if you give it a try and tell me how you get on! Have a wonderful day!

Florida! Part 3. 🌎

Hello! Continuing on with the Florida blogs! Day 7… I was an uncontrollable ball of excitement as today was the day I’d finally walk up Main Street and see the castle! We got up super early to get there for rope drop and to see the welcome show in front of the castle, I cried.

I couldn’t get over how pretty all the Halloween & Fall decorations were!

I was making Dr Robotnik stop every two seconds so I could take a picture or to jump in any quick photographer lines. One of the photographers were taking a picture of us in front of the castle, she asked if we were a couple, we said yes and she asked if we could kiss… You would think she had asked Dr Robotnik to pull out one of his teeth with the moaning and groaning! I have never felt so loved! 😂 …Still did it though. 😏

I had the most magical day running around, we went on the small world ride which brought back lots of memories for me!

I bought a Mickey shaped chocolate ice cream lolly with visions of it being so instagramable – Instead what happened was, I took a terrible picture of an ice cream I had already licked, then as the chocolate was melting fast I managed to drop lots, I somehow managed to not only get it all down myself but also Dr Robotnik! Sticky, chocolatey Mickey mess is so far from instagramable!

We watched the Festival Of Fantasy parade then headed back to our hotel to get changed out of our chocolate covered clothes and get ready to go back to Magic Kingdom for our dining reservation at Cinderella’s Royal Table!

Oh my goddddddd we ate in the castle! I was a bit sceptical about whether or not I would actually like the food because it all sounded rather posh and there was only one vegetarian option that I could eat but it was delicious! I got given a magic wand and Dr Robotnik got given a sword (which was sadly left behind and as we didn’t fancy any awkward airport hold-ups due to a plastic sword outline in our suitcase!) The princesses all made their way round each table to say hello and to take pictures… I took lots of selfies with them as I don’t trust Dr Robotnik to get my best side, he always manages to capture all of my chins and my eyes shut!

We had hoped to see the fireworks afterwards but we were in there longer than expected and the fireworks were starting as we were leaving and due to health and safety they couldn’t let us leave the area as that’s where they were letting them off so we were asked to wait and watch them from the castle which was nice but not the best view so we planned to come back another day!

After we were released from the castle I talked Dr Robotnik into taking a photo with the Tangled lanterns, I freaking love Tangled! It’s funny because you’re stood there, outside the toilets, both holding the lantern and feeling like wallys thinking really? – So worth it though as they come out perfect! Clever stuff! Such beautiful pictures!

I’ll leave this post here, the next one will be another Magic Kingdom day and Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party! Ahhh!!!

Thank you for reading! I hope you’re having a magical day!

2019 Resolutions. 🎉

Happy New Year! First post of 2019 HAS to be my New Year’s Resolution’s, I mentioned in my 2018 round-up post that I love a good cliché resolution, I find them really motivating and good fun! I’m hoping writing them down and broadcasting them to the world will help me stick to them. Here goes… 🤞

1. STOP SPENDING ALL OF YOUR MONEY MISHA! 🛍

I have no self control but big dreams of buying a van and converting it into a Camper with (lots of) Dr Robotnik’s help. I need to stop spending money on unnecessary items, mainly food. I know food is pretty essential when staying alive, but I think I can afford to cut back a little! 🙈

2. Give Veganism my best shot and stick at it! 🥑

I tried last January but didn’t really research what I could and couldn’t eat very well, I was super unprepared and got caught out a few times. This year is different though as Dr Robotnik is doing it too so it’ll be that bit easier. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do but never felt able. I think because I found it so easy to go vegetarian when I was 9 I thought I was failing everytime this whole vegan lark tripped me up, I’ve accepted it will be a learning curve and may take time to fully transition. Please throw any dairy alternative suggestions my way! I’ve already got well acquainted with oat milk in my tea and we have dairy free butter & coconut milk. I basically just want someone to tell me that all the cheese alternatives don’t taste like rubber? I’m begging you!

3. Stop being such an unorganised last minute Larry. 📅

I’ve always been so unorganised but I think I’m getting better! I need to plan more, especially when it comes to this blog! I’ve actually got a diary this year so things are looking up! ‘To-do lists’ are my new best friend.

4. Spend more time with friends and family. 💕

The people I love most in the world! I just don’t get to see them as often as I’d like, partly due to my crazy shift pattern but partly because I’m an unorganised, poor excuse for a human! Must try harder!

5. Read more! 📚

One of my favourite pastimes that I rarely find time to do! I’m definitely a bedtime reader so will make a conscious effort to put down the phone in the evenings and pick up a book instead.

6. Learn how to be more body positive.

Grab a snorkel as this is about to get a little deep. Body confidence isn’t something I speak a lot about, I find it hard to talk about serious subjects and just laugh off any insecurities. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t let the lack of confidence take over my life but it definitely is an annoying niggle that won’t go away. It would be easier for me to say ‘I’d like to lose weight’ – and I would, but I would prefer to say ‘I want to be healthy’ or ‘I want to feel confident and happy in my own skin’ because that’s what’s really important. I’m definitely on the right path, I wouldn’t have dreamed of wearing shorts out in public last year. When we went on holiday to Greece in 2016 even 3/4 shorts made me cringe but before Florida I thought about it, who really cares what my legs look like? Because deep down I don’t really! I bit the bullet and ordered some shorts, that was the easy bit, I packed them, then wore them! I didn’t spend the whole day worrying as I was too busy having the time of my life and that’s how it should be! The moment I realised that I was definitely swallowing the worry and negative feelings were when I posted pictures of myself wearing said shorts on social media, happily not giving any monkeys. So this is the year to build on that, body positivity is the future! 💃

Wish me luck, if you spot me eating cheese or buying another handbag I give you permission to rugby tackle me to the ground! Thank you for reading, please tell me all your New Year’s Resolution’s because I’m unbelievably nosey! 😉