New Year

A very happy New Year to you all!

I hope you have a lovely year ahead filled with lots of happiness and success.

I've gone back to my old resolutions of the year and I am happy to tell you that out of the fifteen I set myself I managed to keep one! Perhaps best not to actually set any so I can't disappoint myself by failing to keep them.

Instead we will just say that I will try my best to have the greatest year possible whilst trying to fulfill some goals.

You may have noticed I've had a bit of a spring clean on the blog - New Year means a little bit of a spruce up. All the recipes are now also under their own tab making them easier to find. This is also to celebrate getting 10,000 views on the blog which is just brilliant and has made me so happy :) Thank you to all of you who read this, it means a great deal to me.

Its going to be a very good year indeed. 

C x

100th Post

So as the title says this is my 100th post on Pourable Sunshine!

I just wanted to say thank you to all of you who read the posts that I put up, there is nothing better than hearing that you are enjoying what I talk about and it is lovely to know that I am sharing it with all of you.

As I said recently it is easy to try to maintain a perfect facade but I am trying to bring you more of the every day and try to talk to you all like I do to my best friends, rather than portraying the unreal and unattainable.

Please do let me know in the comments below if  there is anything you want me to try and talk about, or a regular feature you want to see. Your feedback means a lot to me!

Once again, thank you for being so lovely :)

C xxx

The Perfect World

Do you ever get that feeling that everyone’s is having a bigger, brighter, more fantastic life that you are?

As a blogger and an avid blog reader I have read about so many other people’s lives and it’s sometimes hard to remember that what they are showing you and the image that they are portraying is one of perfection of their own making. Now don’t get me wrong – some of the blogs that I read, I really do think that their life is like that. Especially the lucky ones that are able to blog full time and are endorsed and sponsored to travel to far off places and go to amazing social events but the majority (I like to think deep down) are just a normal people.

I sometimes wonder what the image of me is. I like to think that I come off as a cool fun adult who lives in London, who hangs out with her close group of friends and goes to fun events, whilst maintaining my full time job and gaining a degree, all the while cooking and balancing a mixing bowl on one hip and sipping a drink with the other hand. Or maybe people just think I’m really boring, pretentious and they wish I would stop posting my blog columns on facebook and clogging up their newsfeed.

The thing is, the reason that I really keep the blog, is because it is a way to keep a diary of everything. Having failed spectacularly at keeping a handwritten one past my 22^nd birthday I now find that this is the best way to remember everything that I have done. I’m not going to lie, this is the whole point to this post – I do sometimes sit there and count my followers and wish that I had thousands of followers who hung on to my every word but I know that at least 40 people read my columns when I post them and that makes me happy (One of my posts reached 100 views the other day which made me smile lots!).     

It’s just so easy to portray a lifestyle that you want people to see on the internet. The amount of times that I have posted about something, and told a little white lie just to make it sound like I know what I’m talking about, before my friends – the ones who were there with me – call me out on it. Sometimes I’m not even aware I’m doing it! Photographs are the other easy thing to fake. The right light, angle and background can make the double chin disappear and the face seem radiant.  It is the same with pictures around the house. Look at my perfect tidy house, it is always this way with no mess at all…

Oh no wait……
 

We live in a world and a culture where everyone is always trying to keep this façade of perfect up. I want to know how all these other bloggers find people to take pictures of them as they walk down the street. I know that my friends wouldn't follow me around with a camera, waiting while I posed!  I say this not because I plan on changing it but because I am trying to make my own self aware that this happens so when I see someone else blog about that holiday with the pictures of perfect bliss:

Or the beautifully lit food shots that make your mouth water, I just have to try and remember that they have probably spent an hour trying to get that one shot and they burnt the first batch:

What do you think? Would you prefer to see the messy side of things, rather than the perfect? Would you prefer to hear about the slightly rotund girl who is forgetful, a bit of a bitch, loves a gossip and can’t go a day without eating cheese (hence the rotund-ness). The girl who spends 20 minutes taking pictures of food before she will eat it, and won’t let her boyfriend eat either. The one who much prefers to sit on the sofa watching TV than actually exploring the amazing city she lives in and who tried to cram a year’s worth of revision into 4 days because instead of revising she was baking lemon cakes and getting pissed with her friends.     

I just needed to have a bit of a chat today actually, and this is the most diary like post I’ve done in a long time. Sometimes I just need to sit down and talk. Not that it’s changed anything though – I’m still a bloody jealous person who wishes I could be paid to write a blog and travel the world but I guess sometimes it’s much more preferable to sit at home with the boy and the cat and eat an entire melted camembert with a four pack of cider.

C xxx

Resolving to....

My theme for resolution this year is little is more. Every year I set myself these big unachievable goals to complete for the year and every year I fail.

So instead I have doing 6month resolutions – this will give me time to achieve something that might be more manageable and then in June I can look at what I have done, why I haven’t done something, and what I still need to do. Doing it this way I hope to accomplish some of them!

So let’s get started...it’s the big three first:

1.  Lose weight ~ this goes on my list every year and every year I last a couple of months and then get bored. I know that I need to lose around 2 stone (plus those 4 pounds I put on over Christmas), so with that in mind for my 6 month resolution I am going to try and hit the target of 1 stone 4lbs (8.1kg). I think this is very manageable as the first stone always goes tends to go quickly. I might review this at 3 months if it’s going really well but let’s not be too hasty.

2. Save Money ~ another one that makes the list often but I’m a nightmare for keeping up with. So this year I’m going to stop being unrealistic . I’m going to notice that £100 a month going out of my account and I’m going to spend it when I run out of money so instead I’m going to put £30 a month in, which will give me £180 over the 6 months. It doesn’t sound a lot but I think it’s better to start small and then review at the 6 month mark.

3. Exercise ~ I hate it. I really do not like it at all. I get all sweaty and red faced and out of breath. But this really isn’t an excuse. A couple of years ago I actually managed to stick to this resolution. I was going to the gym 3 times a week and it wasn’t killing me but then I badly sprained my ankle and had to stop and now I can’t get back into it again. 2014 will be the year though! Listen to my optimism! Once a week. That is the goal I am setting myself. Or better yet – 1 hour. I have to complete 1 hours exercise a week minimum. There is no reason I shouldn’t be able to do this. And I have to do it properly so I get all sweaty and red faced and out of breath.

4. Driving ~ I can’t drive which is fine because for the last 5 years I have lived in cities and had no need for it. However I am approaching my 30’s (admittedly this is still 4 years away) but I feel like it might be a bit embarrassing to admit that I can’t drive when I’m 30 so my 6 month goal is to learn the theory behind it and look at booking a theory test. I started to learn to drive 5 years ago but stopped when I moved to Cardiff so I know my way around a car  a little  bit so I’m hoping I won’t need many lessons but first I need to get the theory done so I  am motivated to do the lessons.

Those are the main four however there are a couple of little ones below:

5. Focus on my course more

6. Do at least one blog post a week on here

7. Look at learning how to use photshop

8. Learn the words to Auld Lang Syne in preparation for 2015

9. Get out and see more of London – something I am likely to achieve for I have this new column with Miss Mint – details to follow soon.

10. Be organised, focused and happy

xxx

A Year in Review 2013

It is that time of year again where I do my yearly review. These can get a little bit cheesy so I'm going to try and keep it short.

To be honest that shouldn't be too hard because my year has been brilliant. There haven't been any lows at all, only highs and I am so lucky that once again I have had a year filled with fun, laughs, good holidays, Leigh and friends.

Here is a round up of my year in a series of pictures:

January started off very snowy with promises of things to come for 2013

In February we found a new house and set about decorating it and making it in to our own little home. Unfortunately will still only live in rental but at least we upgraded the rental

March bought about the move and the start of spring

April was a very busy month, not only was it my 25th birthday but at the end of the month we also went to New York for a week.

In May I had the lovely trip to The Savoy for afternoon tea and we also went to Field Day -a one day festival in Victoria Park London. Unfortunately that day Pumpkin got hit by a car and hurt her paw which was awful but luckily 6 months later she was as good as new

In June of course there was Glastonbury, which was my 4th year and brilliant as always

July was filled with sunny days and lots of ice-creams

We went to Leigh's uncles wedding in August which was lovely as who doesn't love the romance of it all and I caught the bouquet!

In September we jetted off to Menorca with Leigh's family and it was so nice to have 2 weeks in the sun not doing a thing

October passed in a blur of colder weather, a spa day and Halloween

And November saw the night's draw in, fireworks everywhere and I was asked to write 2 columns for a new website which was very exciting and will be going live in a few days

And lastly December with the twinkly lights, Christmas fun and parties it has rounded off my year perfectly.

I hope you have enjoyed my little yearly round up. Like I said, everything this year was just lovely and I can only hope that 2014 will be just as delightful. A very Happy New Year to you all. I wish you all the best :) 

xxx

Hello Miss Mint

So some very exciting news - I have been asked to be a contributor/writer for a new website called hellomissmint.com which is coming to a computer screen near you in January 2014.

I have been asked to be the writer of a weekly travel section - which will be called 'Wanderlust' with lots of little travel tips and my reviews of countries. I will also be writing a column called 'The London Monologues' which will discuss life in the big city.

As well as the travel column you must all make sure you tune into the other ladies columns which will be covering all of the below.

It's going to be filled with lots of fun things which will enrich your lives and make you wonder how you ever lived without the sound advice of the Miss Mint team.

I am honoured to be asked to take part of this fresh project and it gives me a chance to write more which is so great because I love any excuse to have a chatter. Also don't worry I will still be posting my usual waffle on here.

Make sure that you all tune in - I will post the link when we are up and running in January. I know you are as excited as I am!

xxx