#BEDM Day 20: Role Models

My dream is to one day work for myself. So any role model I have at this point in my life is a badass woman who has her own business. There are so many of these people out there and it's amazing what they have proved is possible.

They have taught me that you can do anything you want as long as you believe in yourself and put the work in. You can moan about your day job all you want but if you're not willing to get up and start something then what's the point?

Call me a dreamer but I'm going to keep working until I fail. Then when I do, I'm going to get up and keep working again. It's what I've been doing since I was 15 and I will keep going until I succeed at something. Otherwise I'm just another zombie at a job that doesn't fill them with joy.

So thank you to all my role models for paving the way for people like me.

Bring it on.

Who are your role models? What have they inspired you to do in your life?

Nomad seeks another home

So...two and a half weeks. *Awkwardly shuffles from one foot to the other* Yeah, about that...

This has been an interesting month. A continuation of my zombie-like state which I was rudely awakened from this morning when I had a minor accident with my car. Both me and the car are fine, I can't say as much for one of my tyres though. Ribbons.

Anyway, the last couple of weeks have been pretty busy and I am truly exhausted. As of this month I had started driving down to London everyday for work. Yes, from Peterborough. I don't recommend that. Getting up at 5am everyday, having a 4-6 hour round trip as well as the usual 8 hour working day is enough to drive anyone loony. Not to mention that we're so short staffed at work that I'm doing about 3 people's jobs. I haven't felt like myself at all. I'm not blogging, not taking photos, not doing anything. All I want to do when I get home from work is eat and go to sleep. That's not really much of a life is it?

So on the 10th this month, I handed in my notice at my job. Then a few days later I handed in my notice on my flat. I'm getting out of here. The last week or so has been spent accepting a job offer and applying to rent a very lovely house. Where are we going? Topher and I decided that the south is not for us so we are heading to pastures north. 

It's time to go home. To Manchester, the city where Topher is from, where I went to university and where we met. The only place that I have ever clung on to and now I see that it was for good reason. We both decided that in order for us to be truly happy, we needed to be somewhere that we could make a life for ourselves. 

Even though I'm completely shattered and totally broke, I can't stop smiling because I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. This time next month, I'll be home. 

Normal blogging will resume this week I'm hoping. 

So how are you?

#BEDM: DAY 21: Dream Workspace

My ideal situation would be to work from home. But then, isn’t that any bloggers dream? I’d love to make money blogging, illustrating, making jewellery and just being overly creative every day. Wouldn't that be nice?

I’ve been dreaming of my ideal work environment for years and in the last three, Pinterest has fueled my desire for my own workspace. One day people, one day. For now, take a looksie at my favourites:

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I think it's mainly the fairy lights that are making me happy in this one. So pretty!

My ideal office if it were to be in my house would have all my work stuff on one side, then a massive long rail down the other wall where I'd keep all my clothes. Kind of like this one from A Beautiful Mess:

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In my ideal office, above the rail would have a shelf for handbags, and below would be a long shoe rack. Sigh. 

Plus I would certainly need lots of shelves:

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And finally, a great source of inspiration for me is Scathingly Brilliant's office:

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I just adore all the art work on the walls. Go check out her blog - she recently moved and has been posting tours of her new place. Oh the pastels! :) 

What does your dream workspace look like?

365 project: Week 6

This week has been a little bit tough in terms of finding interesting (or anything) to photograph. Lots of work pics this week!

February 5th

Making earring packs

February 6th

More earring packs

February 7th

Bit of office humour with the girls at work

February 8th

Planning our first walk

February 9th

Admiring the Valentine's decorations in Selfridges

February 10th

So many samples to sort through and check

February 11th

Looking at jewellery (seriously eating, breathing, sleeping jewellery this week).

So that was my "exciting" week. How was yours? Link me up if you're also doing a 365 project!

365 Project: Week 4

Almost a whole month of taking a photo every single day. Though I must admit that I did almost slip up this week!

January 22nd

Rocking some rings and Topshop nail polish

January 23rd

Kicked back with a magazine

January 24th

Got a great deal on some Model's Own nail polish. Just over £20 for the lot!

January 25th

I bought ALL the fruit

January 26th

Tried out the Phoenix lush bath bomb. Review here.

January 27th

Working hard at work. Can you spot the difference? The supplier couldn't apparently!

January 28th

I made stuffed peppers and spicy potatoes. Yum!

How was your week?

Well that was interesting...

It has been just a little over a week but my oh my how things have changed. Where to begin? Well, right now I'm sitting in a Travelodge in London. And I'm not here to visit. I live in London now. 

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As you may know, I went to London  a couple of weeks ago for a day trip. The reason for this was that I had a job interview. Which last Tuesday I found out that I got! Yay! And it started on the following Monday....wow!

So since then, I packed up, chucked everything including Woy (my car) into my parents garage and set off for the capital. Yes that's right, I've moved in less than a week to a city where I have nowhere to live and I know no one! Scaaary.

I started work yesterday and have found somewhere to move to in a couple of weeks. Plus, the bf will be joining me when our flat becomes available. So for now, I'm alone in a Travelodge, ha ha. Not bad at all really, just finding things for my tea is a challenge. What can you do with a kettle? I currently have a bag of noodle pots. Those may get old quick. Any other ideas?

Plus, I just realised I'm here alone at the weekend. Londoners: where's decent to go in the city? I might have a wander. 

Hope everyone's enjoying the lovely weather! Ignoring the spots of rain of course :)

April, May and June

Just a re-cap of what I've been up to the last three months.

Popped home for a week to visit my parents, Celebrated with the bf on finishing his disseration & degree, discovered the awesomeness that is Wasabi, Tried a pie at Pi in Chorlton.

In May, I got to go to Florida! My mum was there to check on our house that we rent out and wanted some company. No problemo! 

My auntie, uncle and youngest cousin recently moved to Orlando so me and my mum went with them for little Hamza's first trip to the Magic Kingdom.

Sunset, Magic Kingdom!, my mum and I with our fancy Mickey and Minnie ears, couldn't go to Florida without paying universal studios a visit, yummy margarita, my mum is apparently a bad ass at shooting games. We weren't a third of the way round Buzz Lightyear before she maxed out her score pad. I don't know who was more surprised!

We even did the special 24 hour event at Magic Kingdom on the 24th May where it was open from 6am - 6am! We knew we wouldn't be able to handle the full 24 hours so we just went from 6pm to 6am. It was awesome seeing the park overnight and I had a blast spending time with my mum.

Epcot - the big ol'golf ball. 

I made a new friend at Universal. Meet Melvin. He likes fries and has no concept of personal space. 

To celebrate my birthday (cough*25*cough), I decided to drag some friends along to 2.8 hours later. The gist is that you run away from zombies and try not to get caught. 

One thing I was reminded of during this was that I am so unfit! Though I am proud to say that I made it 3/4's of the way through before being caught. The bf was the only one out of our group of 9 that survived. The rest of us got to put on zombie make-up at the end for the zombie disco. I really really enjoyed it and would definitely recommend it - they do it every year. 

On my actual birthday; me, the bf and Claire made a fort in the living room and watched all 8 Harry Potter films in a row. They dumped a load of balloons on me so the fort was filled with them all day. Such children we are :)

The bf made me an awesome New Girl themed card. He always sang along with the theme tune and ended with "It's Chris!" so it was a pretty funny idea :)

My awesome birthday cake as made by Claire. 

Oh and I saw Despicable Me 2 the other day. It's funny - go see it!

I don't feel much different being 25 apart from the lack of direction in my life. I feel like I should be acting more grown up but oh well. I'll figure it all out soon. 

Back to job hunting amigos!

So I was cleaning the other day...

And I found my ball. My blogging ball. The one that I dropped. It appeared to have rolled under the sofa. I probably would of found it sooner but I wasn't really looking for it. I was too busy doing an awesome impression of an ostrich by burying my head in the sand the last three months. 

I lost my mojo for everything. My shop & my blog have suffered greatly. Though I am happy to say that I managed to still get dressed and job hunt every day so that counts for something. No luck on the job front but I'm staying positive. 

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Just dropping a quick message to say that I'm still here and am planning to throw myself back into the ring. 

I hear Google Friend Reader is leaving us so please follow me on Bloglovin if you fancy sticking around. 

Watch this space...

Dreams etc.

Right, I'm going to get a bit serious on you. No no, don't run away. I'm also going to distract you with pretty pictures (I love Pinterest).

So, I find it hard to understand why so many people these days are telling me that it's ok to be in a career that you hate. Thanks to the economy at the moment, I see people giving up on their dreams in order to survive. Which in these times is quite necessary, but I remain optimistic for the long run. It's just convincing other people that they don't have to give up and remain in a job they hate forever. 

If you can't do this at work, then compromise for now and put this into practise in your life outside of work.

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Now I'm not saying that you should go and quit your day job in order to find your perfect one because that's just unrealistic. And you really need to eat. I'm talking about having the faith in yourself to work towards your dream career whatever it may be. 

As a university graduate, it is realistic to go and get any job to start off in the working world and get some money in the kitty. This is coming from a girl who after completing her masters, spent a year picking up shoes off the floor in a very busy shoe department. Don't be a snob. Don't be afraid to get on your hands and knees to tidy up other peoples messes (but do be afraid of picking up shoes that are still warm from being tried on *shudders*). But the way to keep yourself going is to know that it will get better one day as long as you work hard. 

Remember when the shops were full of glittery shoes? This is what my hands looked like during that time. 

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Once you have your "any job", then you have the security to begin building up your experience and searching for something that makes you happy. I see too many people sticking where they are just because they don't believe in themselves or think that it's normal to not enjoy your job. That's why when I was looking for another job, I refused to look in the same sector. Why replace one horrible job for another? I stuck it out at my current one even though I wasn't happy until something better came along, which it eventually did. 

After a few months of getting on the first step of my chosen career, I quickly realised I was completely wrong. It isn't for me at all. But I'm sticking it out. Yes, this isn't what I want to do long term, but I had to make this mistake in order to realise it was a mistake. I'm learning a lot about a different side of the industry which will give me a stronger understanding and will eventually lead me to something that will make me happy. It gave me the courage to start this blog in order to give myself a creative outlet so I'm very thankful for my current job. Don't be afraid to make mistakes.

Pretty much sums up how I feel at work at the moment!

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Don't even worry if you don't know what you want to do, just do what I'm doing: eliminating what I definitely don't want to do first! All I know is that I want to do something creative, we'll see what it will be exactly. Just have faith in yourself and be as patient as a saint (or a retail employee). 

Of course, even your dream job will have it's downsides - but as long it's something that when looking at the big picture makes you happy then that's all that counts. No job or career is perfect, you just need to make sure that the positives outweigh the negatives.   

Now that I've come full circle, I will end by saying be realistic and get a bill paying job. But don't forget about your dreams. 

I think this sums it up perfectly.

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Rambling over from me and over to you. Tell me, are you happy with your career direction at the moment? Any thoughts on my ramblings?