I have a feeling in my bones this year is going to be awesome.
July
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| Lovely bunting in Weymouth/little C/a statue by the seafront/drunken fun/my dad/my face/on the wing/me holding baby E/Weymouth seafront. |
Our holiday in Weymouth went on into July. I had a cold, an acid reflux episode which scorched my throat out and infected it, and a stomach bug, but I still enjoyed it because the weather was lovely. 5 members of my family came to stay with us, so we did lots of tourist-y things with them which made us see where we live in a whole new light. We went for a couple of lovely walks (we drive somewhere then walk) and saw World War Z at the cinema, which was really good. We went to stay with Rebs oop North for Lisa's birthday, and had drunken almost-naked drinking games while the fellas went to see a band. We also went to Kent to visit family, so it was a very full month. It makes me tired just thinking about it. ;)
August
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| Overgrown graveyard/lady bird nails/sunset/glowy skin/beautiful clouds/mum's grin/cotton wool clouds/church. |
My poor health continued into August, but so did the sunshine. I was feeling very weak and even more lacking in energy than usual, and wondered if I was anaemic. I was 7 weeks late for my period and hoped I might be pregnant, but nope. We did a bit of DIY round the house, putting up curtains in the living room (which faces out onto the sea) so when it's dark we're not looking out to black nothingness. We visited family in Kent again and I decided to start looking after my skin better, which resulted in lovely glowy skin. It's never too late! We also had a walk round a local church ruin. I'm never more happy than creeping round a graveyard!
September
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| Bournemouth/Robert Llewellyn/my dad & brother/nails, 3 of my friends/the IKEA Alex/hubby putting it together/my mum on holiday. |
September was another month crammed full of goodies. We had a lovely walk in the park to see the changing leaves. We went to a family wedding in Essex and took a detour to IKEA to get me some small make up storage, and ended up getting the Alex, which lots of beauty bloggers have to house their make up collections in. That reminds me, I still haven't posted a blog about it! ;) We went to Manchester to celebrate my friend George's 50th birthday and see our old mates. It was a lot of fun. My dad and brother came down to visit for the day and we went for a nice meal. We met Robert Llewellyn of Red Dwarf at a talk he did about electric cars, and got a photo of me with him and he signed our book. He was chuffing lovely. We went on holiday with my mum and step dad to a gorgeous log cabin in some woodland in Dorset, where badgers and deer roamed. We had shag all phone signal though which drove me and hubby barmy, the tech addicts we are. My blog had started picking up more readers and I started to be approached by companies who wanted to send me things for review. Me? My little ol' blog? I was chuffed and surprised.
October
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| Weymouth/me in the park/Mookie and I/my dad and brother/Gok and I/makeup came out good/hubs toe done again/hubs on hols/my dad/pretty Lulworth cottage. |
Our holiday rolled over into October. The weather was mild and it was lovely to spend some time with my mum and step dad as when we visit Kent we have so many people to squeeze in everything feels rushed. We went to the park again as the leaves were still falling. Hubby had his toenail redone as it was growing back terribly infected. I met new blogger Mookie and her husband Mike when they visited Hastings for the day. We had a nice meal and Mookie was most impressed with the huge plus size section in my local New Look. My dad and brother came down for the day and we went out for another lovely meal, hubs sporting a lovely pool shoe/flip flop over his dressing! Sexy.
A MAJOR accomplishment for me was going into London on my own on public transport when I was invited by Simply Be to go to an event and meet Gok Wan. It showed how much help CBT had been so far. I was still shitting it when it came to getting on the train and the tube but I did it. I met Nikki (Natty Nikki), Becky (Does My Blog Make Me Look Fat), Hanna (The Wardrobe Challenge) and lots of other lovely ladies.....and Gok chuffing Wan! I took him some Haribo as they're his favourites and he was so lovely to me it made me blush. It's a good job it was dark in there! Hahaha. What a lovely end to October, compounded by meeting my dad for lunch the next day, and my mum and step dad drove me home as I was in so. much. pain.
November
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| Sunset/sundial near Tower Bridge/St Dunstan in the East/mum & step dad/sunset/nails, glorious clouds/pout face. |
My trip off into London lugging half my possessions in a bag last month (light packers - HOW do you do it?! I can't) really set me back and I was in a whole world of pain and fatigue for half of November, which set off a Fibromyalgia flare up, which buggered up my sleep. I'd do it all again in a heartbeat though! There was lots of naps, lots of reading on my Kindle and the occasional jaunt out. We went to London to see hub's parents and had a lovely walk round a church ruin which was turned into a garden. My mum and step dad came to stay and we went to quite possibly the crappest Christmas fayre in history, but at least it sticks in my memory! There were some truly cracking sunsets this month which meant there was at least something to see when I dragged my carcass out of bed every
December
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| Festive town centre/sunset/brother at our Xmas meal/little C in my scarf/another successful make up day/pepparkakor/Xmas tree x 2. |
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| Sunset/Xmas cards/bro & step dad Xmas Day/my mum & her tiny head/BHC Xmas necklace/woolly jumper time/nails/Mookie and Carmen at the Christmas market. |
In December, much like anyone else, I was caught up with the frenzy of buying and wrapping Christmas presents. Because I was still suffering with terrible insomnia I had less enthusiasm for Xmas this year than any other year, and it has made me realise there have to be changes next year if I'm to remain sane. :) We visited Kent and had our family Christmas meal, which was chaos but we were together. We went to the Club Indulge Christmas market which was nice, as I got to meet lots of blogger ladies, as well as see Mookie again. We went to see the Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, which was fantastic. All too soon Christmas was upon us and we had a lovely 5 days visiting as many people as possible.
I'm going into 2014 with high hopes. This'll be the year I hit 40 (where did the time go?!) and one of my close friends is getting married. Who knows what other goodies this year holds?
I have plans for this year, both on the blog and personally.
I'd like to thank everyone who reads and comments because without the interaction I'd be doing no more than shouting into the wind. Without you there is no echo, no feedback. Every time I get an email, a message on my Facebook page, a tweet or a comment it's incredible. I'm very lucky to be able to work with a few companies to review items and I hope to get the balance just right between reviewing gifted items and buying my own bits and bobs. I count some of my fellow bloggers and readers as friends and there are still so many I've yet to meet. I'm proof positive that if you put yourself out there (even in the tiniest of tentative ways at first) good things and good people will come your way. All it takes is that first step.
What will your first step be this year?
Thanks for reading.
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