#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?

My Morning Routine

Ever since we moved back to Manchester, I have gotten into the habit of not cringing when the alarm goes off. For a start, it's two hours later than what it used to be in Peterborough. I will not miss that 5am beeping. The bags under my eyes are breathing a sigh of relief and are hopefully disappearing slowly but surely.

Waking up is now something I'm happy to do and I've been honing my morning routine over the last three months to give me the get up and go that I need to tackle the day. As I live so close to work I could actually get away with setting the alarm for 8, even 8.30 if I was feeling daring. This is what I used to do in London when I lived the same distance from my job. But there was something about that which was leaving me unsatisfied with the rest of the day.

Flashback to 2011 before I started this blog. I worked at New Look which was varying shifts starting from 7am to 5pm. This wreaked havoc with my body. It didn't help that I stayed up late and woke up just before I would need to leave for my shift, no matter what time it started - even 5pm. This is something I advise against as it leaves you feel like you're on the never ending treadmill of work, eat, sleep. Just horrible.

Even though I'm now on a schedule (9-5 baby) I cannot get away with that same attitude of just waking up to get ready for work and go. So from the week that I begun my new job, I started waking up at 7.30am. This gave me time to shower, have a leisurely breakfast and read some blogs for about 50 minutes before getting ready to leave for work. Nice. This combined with me making sure I'm in bed by 10.30 has been such a life changer. No feeling guilty if I happen to stay up a little later because as long as I'm asleep by midnight, I get at least 7 hours sleep.

But recently, especially since getting the kittens, I decided that I could get so much more done if I got up at 7am. That would give me an hour and 20 minutes of free time before having to go to work. Think of the things I could get done in that time. Reading about morning routines of successful people tends to be full of meditation and yoga but I think it's about finding what works for you. Maybe I could use my wii fit (after wiping the 3 years of dust off it) or schedule some blog posts or tidy the house. Do the things I'm too tired (lazy) to do when I get home.

I find that I'm the kind of person who gets most motivated when I'm unable to do what I want. Ideal isn't it? Finding myself thinking about things I could blog about while I'm at work is my worst attribute. So many yellow post-its are floating inside my bag. And then I lose my motivation by the time I put my key in my front door. So if I get up a bit earlier than I can get through all the things that I feel like doing during the day. Morning appears to be a time when I feel like getting things done - yep, I was surprised too.

So I'm going to continue this little experiment of mine and see what I can get done when I wake up early in the morning. Are you with me?

What's your morning routine?

London to Brighton Trek

Sometimes in life, you fail. When I began the London to Brighton trek on the 21st (feels like forever ago now) I knew I was physically prepared but I came to learn that day that I wasn't entirely mentally prepared. I don't think the thought properly sank in that I was attempting to walk 100km!

So young...so naive

With weather that brought joy to the country that day, filled me and my fellow trekkers with dread. It's pretty damn hot for 8am isn't it? And where are all the clouds? Never have I seen a sky so blue! Thoughts filled my head of my friends tanning themselves in a park somewhere while I was facing dehydration, heat stroke and blisters. It's all for a good cause though so off we trotted.

10 miles in I got my first blister. I walked on. 20 miles in I visited the first aid tent. I was surrounded my people having their entire foot bandaged up. I got a sheep plaster. I walked on.

At checkpoint 4 around 9pm, 47km in, my feet were covered in blisters. I visited the first aid tent again, this time to join the bandage crew and got both my feet almost covered in gauze. I hobbled on in a fair bit of pain. At this stage I was determined to get to the end, no matter how long it took. Topher led the way into the dark forest and we hobbled on with our head torches. This is when things changed. The terrain got rocky and the woods started to slope up. I had completely forgotten about my fear of the dark as I couldn't feel anything else but the rocks agitating my blistered feet. That was bloody painful. I slowed down. We reached the half way point and still carried on. I was close to tears but didn't cry - I wouldn't let myself. That last kilometere to checkpoint 5, felt like it went on forever.

I really didn't want to quit but I knew that I had to. Topher told me it was ok and that he wouldn't go on without me. We reached checkpoint 5, just under 54km at about 11/12pm (I'm quite hazy on the exact timing). We had walked aprox 33miles in 15 hours. I visited the first aid tent a final time and got the remainder of my feet bandaged up.

We were then driven to checkpoint 6 along with some other people who had to drop out and got some hot food in our bellies. Checkpoint 6 was 12km further and it was like a war zone. We got out of the van and there was a girl being loaded onto a crash trolley as she was in shock and later another girl collapsed at the table next to us when we were eating. Topher overheard one of the first aid crew saying that they wished that some people hadn't pushed themselves so hard. They turned their minor injuries into worse ones. That made me feel relieved that I had dropped out before I had done any further damage to myself. I have a huge respect for those people (both a mix of fitter and less fit than myself) who carried on after that point.

After the food, we were taken to Brighton and found to our horror that the finish line was at the top of a massive hill. Even bigger respect to those who finished now. I think that would have killed me! We were led into the race track building where there we're blow up mattresses and food waiting for us. I just stuck with the mattress - I wasn't hungry at all at that point.

Part of me felt like a failure to have only gotten half way - that I'd let my sponsors down. But it turns out that only half of the 900 people who began the challenge finished it. The other half dropped out like I did, all along the route, before and after me. Besides, it's the big picture you've got to look at. Topher and I have raised money for a charity that we both care a lot about and we walked further than we've ever walked before by just over 10 miles so it was quite an achievement. This time last year, we killed ourselves walking 8 miles when we were heavier so I'm really proud of the two of us.

Besides, there's always next year!

30 before 30

Yesterday I turned 26. Still in the mid twenties so nothing to write home about. I couldn't get the day of work so I had to endure that but I had the joy of being fed by Topher when I arrived home. I'm properly celebrating tomorrow with a day trip to London and to visit lady Dinah's cat cafe (so excited!).

So what do I do when I reach a birthday or a new year? I make a list. Today it's a big one. 30 things to do before I'm 30. I've permanently borrowed a couple of things from my 25 before 25 list that I didn't accomplish for this list. I just don't think that a year is enough to complete this many goals so I've given myself four. I think that's a lot more realistic. Check me out being all "grown up".

Nothing to do with the post - just thought I'd brighten your day!

30 before 30

1. Ride a horse

2. Buy a house

3. Visit Iceland

4. Make a gingerbread house

5. Get to my target weight and stay there

6. Make sushi

7. Go indoor skydiving

8. Make a scrapbook

9. Do a charity walk abroad

10. Drive across the USA

11. Successfully make all of my favourite Arab meals

12. Own a piece of Tatty Devine jewellery

13. Build a capsule wardrobe

14. Write an article for a magazine

15. Have a spa day

16. Own my own cats

17. Go to the recording of a tv show

18. Have my own walk in wardrobe/office

19. Make macaroons at home

20. Sort out my acne

21. Be in a happy place in my career - whatever it may turn out to be

22. Marry Topher

23. Go to a premier league football match

24. Sew a dress

25. Own something from Kate Spade

26. Sleep inside a treehouse

27. Go to Cadbury World

28. Finish the London to Brighton trek

29. Fill in my recipe book

30. He watch, she watch project - more info on this coming soon!


Are you doing a birthday milestone to do list? Link me up to yours, it's good to have someone behind you giving you a kick I find!

#BEDM Day 9: Motivation

Motivation. 

Story of my life – I seem to get motivation at completely the wrong times. Like at work or when I’m trying to sleep. Back in my student days if I was feeling crafty I could just stay up all night and make something start to finish. But being a grown up means you have to go to work in the morning. 

Recently I've been getting inspired at work to blog but by the time I get home, my energy is gone. It's really frustrating. Though I have to admit, this BEDM task is making me sit down when I get home and blog which is helping. I do like a good challenge.

My Motivation Tips

• Surround yourself with inspiring things. I use a Pinterest board to look at for when I'm feeling uninspired.
• Keep a notebook or your phone handy for those great ideas of yours - I use Evernote on my iPhone.
• Challenge yourself! It gives you something to reach for and keeps you fighting to keep up - it works for me anyway.

My Motivation Goals:

• I'm going to see this BEDM challenge through to the end 
• Once I move next week, I'm going to use my new commute to my benefit and get blog stuff done on the train.
• Schedule & draft more blog posts in advance when I am inspired so when I'm not I can just click publish. 

How do you stay inspired?

#BEDM Day 6: Passion Projects

I'm no longer afraid to fail. I've done that plenty of times in the last decade and I'm probably not finished doing so. I could rattle on all day about the things I would love to do instead of my day job and I will always continue to dream.

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I want to blog

I want to make jewellery

I want to craft

I want to travel the world and go on adventures

I want to take beautiful photos

I want to try new foods, see new films and read new books.

I want to be free to be ridiculous. 

Somehow, someday I will combine all my loves into one thing that I can enjoy everyday. Will I get paid for it? Maybe, maybe not. Either way as long as I'm doing it at all, I'll be happy. 

At the moment, my first priority as well as this blog is my mission in life to find home. I'm about to walk one step closer.

What is your passion project?

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...

Life Lately

Hello there, remember me? Exactly 1 month later here I am. In a nut shell, I needed a break.

So what have I been up to? Not a lot. Just over a week ago I closed my shop in Afflecks. It was a good run but a combination of the rent being too high and the traffic being too low lead me to decide that I'm better off sticking to an online and fair presence only. I'm really glad I had the opportunity to give it a go as I would have definitely regretted not taking that leap. 

I took the entire of last week to just rest. It's been a long time since I gave myself a break and I felt my motivation disappear over the last month before I closed my shop. Sometimes you just need a break.  

Now I feel recharged and fresh - ready to start again. 

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How have you been?

25 before 25

That's right, a month late but I finally finished my 25 before 25 list. I've been wanting to make one for ages after seeing them on other people's blogs. Plus, I can't resist a good old list. 

Not the best photo - but I decided to map out my goals in my sketchbook. These officially began on the day after my birthday (27th June) so I've already started.

1. Visit India - going in October

2. Make a gingerbread house

3. Get to 150 online sales on Random Quirks

4. Be in a happier job

5. Go to The Alchemist bar - in Manchester

6. Get clearer skin

7. Loose weight - be healthier

8. Read 50 books - on my 7th book

9. Paint 25 paintings

10. Dye my hair a random colour

11. Get 100% on both my lego Harry Potter games (geek!)

12. Make sushi

13. Swim regularly - got my membership and have been a couple of times

14. Visit the Manchester Museum

15. Make a rug

16. Go indoor sky diving

17. Watch all 8 Harry Potter films in one weekend

18. Make a scrapbook with all the bits and pieces of memories I've been collecting over the years

19. Make a fort in the living room and watch films inside all day

20. Make a 3 course meal all by myself

21. One day, take a photo every hour

22. Take both my businesses to new heights

23. Go to a football game

24. Fill my sketchbook

25. Make a recipe book and cook the recipes inside. 

They range from easy to hard things to achieve and I can't wait to conquer them all. I'll set up a page on here tracking my progress just in case you're interested. 

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Bring it on!

Have you ever made one of these birthday goal lists? Link me to yours if you have one! 

Don't Play It Safe

One of my new mottos. You can apply this to any aspect of your life. I am personally talking about my career. I have basically found out that I was downplaying my talents. Instead of going after something I was passionate about and pretty good at, I settled for something else. And now I know that I wasn't giving myself enough credit. So, don't play it safe.

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Underestimating yourself wastes time that could be spent working towards something you love. But sometimes, you have to do the "wrong" thing to realise that it's the wrong thing for you. You learn with every step you take and you get closer to finding out what you want.

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I personally haven't got a clue what my next step will be. But I know what I don't want to do and that's a start. I want to do something more creative. So that's what this blog is for. It's my way of expressing my creativity and a place to be myself. 

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I'm not going to play it safe anymore. I'm hoping that by taking a leap and being myself, I'll find out what I'm here to do. 

Ask yourself.

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Do you play it safe?