I know that Christmas doesn't mark the end of the year and the end of December. There is still another week until the end of December but I wanted the write the post now so I could do my 2016 post at the end of the month if that makes sense.
For the last few months, I have been super conscious of my blog statistics. I mentioned this briefly in my November post and since then, I have definitely let it affect me more than it should. If I see a post get less views, I over promote on twitter and also feel really bad about myself. I start thinking that something about that post was bad. That shouldn't be how I feel. Some posts do better than others and I should post posts that I want to and am happy with. One of my main goals for 2017 is to not let the numbers define and affect me because it just doesn't make me happy.
Usually me and my family put our Christmas tree up the weekend after me and my brother break up from school, we are definitely not the type of people who put the tree up in the middle of November! However, this year we put the tree up even later than usual because we had some issues with the carpet but it is up! Me and my brother decorated it on Tuesday and I for one am very happy with it! Here are some photos of it so you can have a look!
Ever had a white Christmas?
No and if it does snow, it tends to be in January. I wouldn't actually like a white christmas because we travel to see my relatives and it would be really nerve wracking driving in the snow.
Christmas song you listen to on repeat?
Smile at Snow by Dodie Clark - It is so beautiful or Do They Know It's Christmas by BandAid
Hello it's juliette from white interiors!
Me and Laura did this last year, and I also did it in the summer when she was away. We both write on each others blogs for a post and generally talk about one another, not in a bitchy way !
Laura is so much more prepared than me, I'm currently 7 days behind on Blogmas whoops! She has photos ready, I'm currently sitting on my bed, watching YouTube and doing a word search typing away on my iPod.
Friday was my last day of school before the christmas holidays and it was very eagerly awaited! School was getting very hectic so I am glad now that I have 2 weeks off with not much to do. One of the main things I want to do is to pamper and look after myself both physically and mentally so I thought I would share with you some ideas on how to do that.
Just to clear up, this post is not a quiz for you to do right here right now but instead a quiz you can print off and share with your family to do on Christmas day! I always want to do something different on Christmas day and I saw this idea in a magazine and decided to make my own quiz!
Like all the baking ideas, I saw this on Pinterest back in November and instantly pinned it to my christmas board! I sent it to my friend and we made plans to make it as soon as possible! This is so simple and so adorable! They are perfect for after christmas meals when you want a snack but not a proper meal. They do have quite a lot of steps but honestly it is so worth it! My favourite brownie recipe of all time is the Best-ever brownies from the BBC website so here is the recipe.
Today I decorated my room for Christmas and I thought I would show you how I do it! Sorry for the shorter post today but I hope you enjoy the video.
As it never snows in the UK for Christmas, I found a recipe where you can make a snowman! How cute are these! I think these would be perfect to eat in front of the fire on Christmas eve watching a christmas film. Its a nice activity to do with you friends or family to get you in the Christmas spirit but it could get very messy!
Today's post is a collab with the wonderful Emsirose about our Christmas playlists. Make sure you check her post out to find out what she is listening to this festive season. These songs are the one that I will be playing on the run up to Christmas and on the day itself.
I always find that secret santa's can be really hard to buy for, especially if you don't know the person that well. On top of that, there is usually a budget which can make it quite hard to buy something. I would definitely recommend doing these ideas if you are doing a secret santa because I think most people would like these.
Last year I did a post on how to create a customised mug but this year I am going to develop this. If you want to read more in depth of how to create the design click here, but simply all you need is a mug and a oil based sharpie. If you are looking for designs, you could stick a letter sticker on and draw around it or write a quote or do it like the picture!
Last year, in my first year of blogging, I did blogmas, but with a twist. Instead of posting everyday up to Christmas (24 posts), I posted every week day which ended up being 18 or 19 posts (read them here) I really enjoyed doing Blogmas but it was so much to do. This year, I am going to 12 days of blogmas, which as the name suggests, is where you write blog posts every day for the 12 days before Christmas. I have a few collabs planned so look out for that too!
Hello I am back! I took a short unanticipated break from this blog for just over two weeks. School work has been really tough lately and I have had quite a few assessments to do and I couldn't mange blogging as well. As well as school, my views were going down and this made me feel really bad even though views shouldn't matter. I am really sorry for the break even though I am still on social media. I am going to be taking another break until the 13th December when I will be back with 12 Days of Blogmas!!
So many things have happened this month and last month so let's just get started!
After my last feminist post got so much amazing feedback, I thought I would do another because I really enjoyed writing it. Now you may be wondering, bands and feminism? How are these related? I am not going to reveal the names of the bands until the very end so see if you can guess who they are and why I am talking about them! (Be prepared, this kind of goes into a rant!)
Band 1 have had all of their albums go to 1 in multiple countries and their recent single has gone to #1 in over 80 countries. They have broken the Vevo record multiple times. The other band's debut album went straight to #1 in 13 countries and their newest single went straight to #1 in multiple countries. Both of these bands have recently crushed the record for the fastest song to go to #1 without preorder on iTunes. These bands have had multiple tours where they played to thousands to people and had sold out, and if not close to sold out, shows every single night.
Next Thursday it is a year and a half since I started Blossom of Hope. My blog posts have evolved so far and there have been some that you seemed to have loved and I decided to make a master list of these so you can all go have a look.
A couple of days ago I was tagged by the lovely Lexi from Lexi the newt to do this tag. I can't wait to answer the questions and I hope you enjoy reading this! The only rules are to answer the questions and then tag some people to answer them as well. I tag White-Interiors, Emsirose, GracexKate and Meet me in melford!
Favourite Candle?
I don't burn candles because I am clumsy and would probably set my house on fire! However, my ideal candle would probably smell like gingerbread or cinnamon.
In autumn I absolutely love baking and it makes me feel so cosy. I found this recipe online and I love the idea of it because I really like citrus-y tastes. Even though it has a pumpkin design and Halloween was yesterday, I really like the idea of a face and you could make it into anything you wanted! You could also swap the orange for lemon if you prefer lemon. I will definitely be trying out this recipe soon.
Can someone please tell me how it is November! October has gone by so quickly, it is crazy. I didn't do much in October as I was settling into school and dealing with the school work. In September, I mentioned that I was looking for guest posts and this month I had two of them which I loved! The topics were so good and you can read them here and here. I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did. Thank you so much Katy and B1tsandbeautyy for writing them.
Some of you may not know this about me but I am a feminist and proud. Feminism is
is a range of political movements, ideologies, and social movements that share a common goal: to define, establish, and achieve political, economic, personal, and social rights for women. Women have the vote in the UK but there are many countries in the world where women do not. I want to start writing about more diverse topics on my blog so I thought I would start with this.
Guess who is back with another Autumn post! If you read my why I love Autumn post, you will know that Autumn is my favourite season. I also love taking photos and kind of recently bought a new camera. I have been experimenting with it and am pretty proud of the photos I have taken so I decided to share them with you.
I have always wondered how people take a pictures of the traffic trails of car lights and I was messing around with some of the settings on my camera when I discovered how to do it. Before the end of the year, I want to go to a really busy road and do it there and see what it looks like with loads of cars instead of one. If you would like to know how I did this please let me know!
A couple of weeks ago, I was nominated by BakingBoutique for the Blogger recognition award. Let's get started!
The rules:
• Compose a post to showcase your award.
• Acknowledge the blogger who nominated you.
•Present a brief story,based on why you had begun blogging.
•Give two pieces of advice to new bloggers.
• (the hardest part) Nominate 15 other bloggers for the blog.
But it’s also exactly right. Even when you have what feels like every obstacle in the world stacked against you, they aren’t what controls your life: you are. Sometimes it’s not about making everything right at once, and sometimes it’s not about getting rid of the biggest obstacle in your path first.
Hello You're probably wondering who I am? My name is B1tsandBeautyy from B1tsandBeautyy Blogs (I will link my blog down below). I have kindly been invited by Laura (blossomofhope) to write a blog post,so here goes!
Today's Guest blog is going to be 3 top tips to being positive. Because to be honest I think that it is really hard some days to have a positive outlook on the day!
Today's Guest blog is going to be 3 top tips to being positive. Because to be honest I think that it is really hard some days to have a positive outlook on the day!
A couple of months ago, I wrote a post called How I edit my blog photos and you seemed to really like it so i am back with another photo editing post, this time with my instagram photos. I really enjoy taking photos for Instagram even though I forget to post often.
The first thing I do is take the photo. Depending on where I am, I either use my camera, the Canon SX410 IS, which you can buy here, or my phone which is a Samsung Galaxy S4 mini. The difference of the quality is below. Most of the time, I use my phone.
What do you think makes a good friend? For me, it is anyone who makes me laugh and who I can confide in. I am incredibly lucky and happy to have amazing friends. I know that if I am ever in need I can text them and they will help me and they are so supportive. Some of them I have been friends with for what feels like forever and some only recently, but I have made amazing memories with them. I thought today I would spread some positivity and write an appreciation post for them.
I always love drinking hot chocolate in the colder months as I am not a fan of coffee or tea. However, I wanna try something new with my mugs that is still warm so I googled it and saw "Mug Cakes" on Pinterest. I thought these were so cool so I shared one of my favourite recipes with you!
September has been a slightly tough month for me but I had a feeling it would be. I went back to school so I have been very busy doing homework. Unfortunately this has meant that I haven;t had time to blog as much as I want to let alone any time to comment on anyone's posts. I have been struggling to write 2 posts weekly that are a quality I am proud of so sorry. For example, the reason that this post is late is because I was busy with extra curricular stuff.
Autumn is well and truly here and I couldn't be more glad! Autumn is definitely my favourite season (even though I say that about all the seasons!) so I decided to list all the reasons why in a blog post! If Autumn isn't your favourite season then maybe I can convince you to love it.
Today I thought I would write a chatty post so I asked my followers on Twitter for some questions and this is what they came up with! I asked for some questions relating to blogging and school as school has started so I hope you find some useful tips.
@katerosebeauty : How do you balance school with blogging?
I am really bad at this as you might have been able to tell by my recent blog posts! A main tip I have for this is plan everything out and use every available minute to draft posts. I am going to start drafting blog posts on the bus so that I use that time effectively and don't feel stressed when I come back from school.
Recently, Charlotte from VieAvecCharlotte wrote a blog post called 20 before twenty where she listed 20 things she wanted to do before she reached the age of twenty. I found it really interesting and starting thinking of my own that I have decided to share with you! I want to make the most of my life and make amazing memories so this should help with that.
When I was creating this list, I thought of all the things I wanted to do and then compiled them but I also thought of what could actually happen, considering I won't have that much freedom to do these things as I will be in my late teens. I love the idea of having a definite ending to when I have to complete this list and I am so excited to get started with it.
Stargazed
hfh
Continued blogging
hfhhfh
Volunteered at a shelter
hfh
Visited Paris
hfh
Had a Sweet Sixteen birthday party
hfh
Taken a selfie on top of the Empire state building
hfh
Visited Anne Frank's House
hfh
Rolled in flowers
hfh
Walked across San Francisco bridge
hfh
Watched the sunset on a LA beach
hfh
Stayed with my friends in an apartment
hfh
Visited the cherry blossom festival
hfh
Achieved the exam results I want
hfh
Taken a selfie everyday for a year
hfh
Hosted a Harry Potter Marathon
hfh
Donated my hair
hfh
Met my internet friend
hfh
Been on a road trip
hfh
Seen the sunrise and sunset in one day
hfh
Be happy!
What do you want to have completed before you are twenty?
ps: I am still looking for people to guest post, if you are interested let me know!
So for today's blog post I tried something a bit different. I had planned to do a room tour but I didn't want a post which was super long as it would have had 2885 pictures. Instead I filmed bits my room, created a video and uploaded it to youtube. I hope you liked this format!
I am not an organised person and this school year, I really want to try to be, so I bought an A4 notebook with the aim of making it into a planner. I wanted to get into bullet journalling, but I didn't think I would be able to keep up with it, so I decided that I would create my own format.A few months and a lot of googling later, I have created a planner that works for me and I thought I would share it with you.
Are you ever in that situation where you desperately need something at school, to realise that you don't have it and you have to suffer through the rest of the day without it? This is always me at school. It will be a PE day and I won't have a hairband and will have to ask everyone in the changing rooms if they have a hairband or risk an elastic band that the teachers will give us.
As I go back to school on Monday (cry) summer is officially over for me. Way back in June I shared my summer bucket list with you and now I am going to update you on how well I have completed it. I had so much fun completing almost all of these and I can't wait until next year.
I am also thinking about starting to write autumn and winter bucketlist's because I enjoyed this one so much but I am not sure. Summer is probably my favourite season and when I have the most time which is most likely why I complete almost everything. I have already started writing a bucketlist of things to do before I am 30 so if you would like to see that let me know!
I have been loving writing these posts and I am now so in the routine of them. The whole process of reflecting on a month and then moving on from it is really therapeutic and I get so excited to write them. I hope you have been enjoying them!
This month has been quite hectic but also quite rewarding (I don't know if that is the right word). As I went on holiday on the 14th, the first two weeks of August was spent packing and scheduling blog posts, all of which I was really proud of and you can read them here, here and here. Those weeks were so busy that I didn't get to meet up with my friends which was a shame because I really wanted to see them.
Hi I am back! I spent the last 10ish days in Spain and had a lovely time. In case you missed it, I did upload a few posts whilst I was away were: What is in my handluggage, Liebster Award #2 and a guest post titled The Truth about being homeless. I really hope you enjoyed the posts and thank you so much for the lovely comments I have been receiving, they make my day.
All of these photos were taken with my new camera which is the Canon Powershot SX410 IS, would you like to see a post on it?
I was thinking about doing this post in the same format as my Wales Photo Diary, but decided that it would be too long so I split the photos into 2 collages. I hope you like this format! I am also in the process of making a spain video diary (like my wales one which is here) so I will let you know when that is up!
Today I thought I would try something different so the lovely Ayele, from A sense of home has written a guest post. I can't wait for you guys to read it and make sure you give her lots of love.
Dear, You
If I were to tell you my story right now, all you would take from it Is that I am lucky. This might be because yes, I was homeless , I did sleep in airports, fast food benches, parks and laundry mats with my father when we ran of money for our many hotel stays, but I have a bed to sleep on now, and host parents who support me. I have my own apartment downstairs because I was lucky enough that my host parents had a big house. But just because I have a roof over my head now, doesn't mean I will in a year once my sentence has run out. It doesn't lessen the fear of being homeless again. It doesn't ease my mind when I am depressed because I'm constantly thinking of the future I am never going to have because of lack of opportunities.
Dear, You
If I were to tell you my story right now, all you would take from it Is that I am lucky. This might be because yes, I was homeless , I did sleep in airports, fast food benches, parks and laundry mats with my father when we ran of money for our many hotel stays, but I have a bed to sleep on now, and host parents who support me. I have my own apartment downstairs because I was lucky enough that my host parents had a big house. But just because I have a roof over my head now, doesn't mean I will in a year once my sentence has run out. It doesn't lessen the fear of being homeless again. It doesn't ease my mind when I am depressed because I'm constantly thinking of the future I am never going to have because of lack of opportunities.
The Rules:
Post the award on your blog.
Acknowledge the blogger who nominated you.
Answer the questions assigned to you.
Give 10 random facts about yourself.
Nominate 10 deserving bloggers for the award.
Ask 10 questions to your nominees.
Lexi's Questions:
1. Who's your style icon? This is tough because I am not really into fashion! I usually wear a tshirt and jeans. I love seeing Louise Sprinkle of Glitter's OOTD's on Instagram but I don't think I would wear those outfits.
2. What's your favourite film currently in cinemas? Finding Dory! I used to (and still do) love Finding Nemo and I have been waiting for the sequel for ages. I can't wait for Incredibles 2 to come out in 2019 because I love Incredibles as well.
I always love reading these types of posts because I always end up saying "Oh that could be useful" or "Why don't I start taking that" so I decided to write my own What is in my handluggage today! Hopefully, this will also help me write my list and double check I have everything.
Today is a different post to what I usually write because today I am interviewing Nicole from Thrifty Vintage Fashion. She is part of the TTATB chat but I read her blog before we were in the chat together. I asked her some questions and these are her replies!
Hi Nicole, can you give a brief description of your blog and what you write about?
Thrifty Vintage Fashion, is a blog that is full of honesty, support, advice and occasionally a bit a banter. My main aims of my current content are to support, encourage, inform, educate and hopefully make people laugh. I cover a wide range of topics on my blog; from mental health to feminism and photography/blogging advice to funny, nostalgic lists. What started as a place to express my love for fashion has now become a platform where I share and discuss a diverse range of topics.
For my birthday, I got gifted the Satsuma body butter from The Body Shop. After 2 months of trying it, I thought I would write a review and share my opinions and thoughts on it with you guys.
I have recently rediscovered Pinterest and something that I have been loving is making your own summer clothes! I like doing DIY things and also saving money on clothes because cute ones can be very expensive. I thought I would share with you some of my favourite ideas!
This post is also a collab with my lovely friend White Interiors. She is also doing DIY summer clothes so make sure to check her post out after you read this one
Idea #1: Patchwork shorts - image credit
This one is really simple. Glue/sew fabric or lace or even paint on the back pocket or your shorts to renew them! This is such a sweet idea and I definitely want to do this. It adds a different touch to an otherwise regular pair of shorts and it is so customisable.
Idea #2: Swimsuit cover up - image credit
Take a vest made out of thick material and cut the bottom half into strands. The next bit is kind of hard to explain but if you split the strands into pairs with the strands next to each other, then tie them in a knot. After that, split the strands again and tie. (If that doesn't make sense look at the pictures!)
Idea #3 Crop top - image credit
This would be ideal if you had a tshirt with a design you really like and create it into a summer outfit. To make this, cut along the shirt like in the picture above and then tie the two bits hanging down together.
I am definitely going to give all of these a go. I might even try cutting my jeans into shorts and then adding fabric to them!
What is your favourite DIY from this post?
This wasn't my original plan for this post but I looked at my calendar and I didn't want to write that post. Then I saw that the lovely Emsirose had written a new blog post about self confidence and comparing yourself to others. It is honestly such a inspirational post and you can read it here. In the post, she mentioned about writing a blog post in response to her one and that is what I am going to do today.
July for me has mostly been a countdown until the summer holidays. The last term of school always feels like the longest to me and I was so tired! On the last day of term, I had a half day, and then me and my family went on holiday, which I wrote about in this post. It was so nice to get away from everything and truly relax into the summer holidays. The picture above is from a walk we went on and I really like the layout and colours of the photo.
Yesterday I arrived back home from my weekend away in Wales with my family. It was really nice to get away and relax and I had a good time, even though it was cold and rainy. I took quite a few pictures (over 200 oops) so I am going to share some of them with you.
School is finally over for me now, yay! Today is a collab with the lovely Erin from Everything Erin. We met each other in the #TTATB chat. We were talking and realised we had a really similar music taste, so we have decided to write a post on our favourite albums of all time.
Sounds Good Feels Good - 5 Seconds of Summer
I think it has got to the point where most people who read my posts know that I am obsessed with 5sos. At the time this album was released, I was becoming increasingly happiner with myself and where I was. Sounds Good Feels Good is 5 Second of Summer's second studio album and is very different to their first album in my opinion. I feel like the musical style is a lot less pop-y and I love that they included other instruments like the violins.
I love trying out new bath bombs from Lush and I they are my number one essential for bath time. The bath bomb I am going to review today is called the Lava Lamp bath bomb and it caught my eye in the shop because it is bright orange with purple blobs round the outside. It smells really nice and citrus-y which makes sense as it is orange.
Something I really struggle with is comfort zones. I hardly ever wear my hair differently or by different clothing. I think one of my main issues is is that I tend to overthink things. For example, if I was given the opportunity to go abseiling, I might not go because I would think that I would fall or the rope would snap etc. I prefer to stay with things I have done before so I know that they are safe.
What actually are comfort zones?
According to Google a comfort zone is a "situation where one feels safe or at ease". I actually think that they are more than that.
I read a beautifully written post about Living life for yourself which made me really think about what I wanted to achieve in my life. I always worry that when I am older I am going to look back on my teenage years and realise I wasted them doing nothing.
