Blossom of Hope: January 2017

January

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I started this series last year but I loved it so much that I wanted to continue it this year so here we are! For most people, January is quite a down year because it is straight after christmas and the weather is cold and rainy. January been 'meh' for me, with good points and bad points.

Starting with a good point, one of my resolutions was to meet up with my friends more which I have been doing. I spent New Year's Eve with my friend and we had photoshoot #2. It was so much fun even if we did hide upstairs for most of the evening and only go down for midnight! I went shopping with one of my friends and we also had coffee one day after school. My friendships have been something that has definitely gone through a roller coaster the past month but I won't go into that too much because it is very personal.

I went back to school this month and dived straight into homework and tests. After a term with my teachers and settling in, I have realised that some of them really don't know what they are doing and it is really annoying me. There is only two weeks until half term though so I am looking forward to that, especially as me and my family are going to visit my extended family for a weekend.

As for blogging, this has definitely been a highlight for me. I have been pre-planning and writing my posts so I am so happy with the quality. I have written posts for companies which I am so proud of and feel like they are the best posts I have written over the past month. Also, the response to my posts have been absolutely amazing so thank you so much! Back in November, I was feeling so bad about this blog but I feel like I have definitely bounced back in the new year and I hope this continues. I have some exciting posts coming up, in my opinion so I hope you really enjoy them.

Most of you probably don't know this, but I play netball for a club. Before christmas. I was playing for the B team at my club but now I have moved up to the A team! I really love playing with the team as they are so nice and the games are so good to play.

As for next month, I am not really sure what is going to happen as I haven't got much planned yet. I hope that my friendship issues solve because they are really affecting me at the moment. I also want to start working more on my resolutions!

How was your month?

Laura xx

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Life

Dear My Future Self...

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Dear 21 year old Laura,

Hello! You are writing this in your teenage years. At the minute, you are happy with your life. You have amazing friends who support you through everything. School is kind of getting you down, in particular English but that probably won't matter to you right now. To be honest you have probably forgotten all about why you hate it. What can I tell you that you have probably forgotten? What about the view from your bedroom window and how it feels to smell mum's cooking. I hope you haven't forgotten that.

By your current plans. you should be in university after taking a gap year after A Levels. How did you do in your A Levels? Did you travel around Europe like you planned to? If not, don't worry, I am sure there was a good reason. What's university like? I hope you aren't struggling with the workload, please don't stress/ Don't spend all your time working though, You are only at university once and hopefully you will lie uni life to the fullest. Have you made new friends? I hope your flat mates are nice and that you are making new friends.

I really hope that you still love blogging and photography. Have you taken amazing pictures on your travels? How do you display them? I would love if they were all in photo albums

If you are stressed out right now, chill! Take a bath and pamper yourself. Read a book. And don't feel guilty about taking time out! If you are feeling lonely, call someone! You are the worst at asking for help and reaching out and I hope you have got better at that.

How is your body confidence? Right now it goes through highs and lows but mostly lows. When you are reading this, your body will probably not look the same as what it is now, have you embraced the changes? Do you wear makeup?? I hope you have learnt that not all bodies are meant to look the same and that is okay.

Mostly, I hope you that are enjoying yourself and are happy with your life. I want you to know that it is okay if you are feeling sad because all humans feel that way sometimes.

What would you say to your future self?

Laura xx

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music

My CD Collection

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I listen to music whenever I can. I listen to it when I am my way to school, when I do my homework, before I go to bed, basically all the time! Recently, I have been expanding my CD collection as I have discovered new music that I love and I thought I would share with you some of them. My Spotify playlist has so so many more bands/artists/albums (link here) but I the albums that I have CDs of are my favourites.

5 Seconds of Summer - 5 Seconds of Summer

This is 5 Seconds of Summer's debut self-titled album. There are 12 songs on the original version (extras on the Target edition etc.). Some of the songs, like She Looks So Perfect, are quite upbeat and feel good but there are some slower ones like Everything I Didn't say. I love all of these songs and I listen to this album when I am feeling nostalgic and need a cheer up! I think my favourite songs are Don't Stop, Everything I Didn't Say and Amnesia.

LiveSos - 5 Seconds of Summer

These are songs that were recorded throughout 5sos concerts in 2014. The songs are the same as the ones on their first album but there are a few extra ones, like the cover of American Idiot by Green Day. I really like how they recorded when the band spoke to the crowd and all the banter that they had. My favourites off this album are Disconnected and Long Way Home. The main reason I listen to this album is when I miss the concerts I went to!

Sounds Good Feels Good (Deluxe Edition) - 5 Seconds of Summer

Sticking with 5sos, we move onto their second studio album with 17 songs and wow, what an album. I honestly think this album is my favourite of all time. This album was released when I was really deep into the fandom and I remember staying up to listen to it and me and my friend screaming over text. All of these songs are a lot less pop-py than the first album and have really deep meanings. It shows their progress as musicians and I am so proud. My favourite songs of this album are Invisible, Catch Fire and Permanent Vacation.

x- Ed Sheeran

All of the songs on this album are so beautiful and Ed Sheeran's voice and talent never fail to impress me! I love how his songs are a mixture of singing and rapping and that there are never 4459 effects or instruments. There are 12 songs on the album and most of them are quite slow. I normally listen to this just before I go to sleep because it is really calm and relaxing. My favourite songs off the album are Nina and Afire Love. I just listened to his 2 new songs and I am very excited for his new album!

Illuminate (Deluxe Edition) - Shawn Mendes

I received this album for Christmas and I really like it. I remember listening to the songs on the Shawn Mendes EP when he wasn't that famous and now he seems to have been catapulted into stardom and deservedly so! He is incredibly talented for his age and his style reminds me of Ed Sheeran. I really like how in Understand, he talks for a bit and it is so encouraging. All of the songs are so catchy and make me smile! My favourite songs are Patience, Honest and Roses.

Death Of A Bachelor - Panic! At The Disco

The last album that I have is Death Of A Bachelor which I received for my birthday (post here!). There are 11 songs on the album and 10/11 are upbeat and incredibly catchy, I always find myself dancing when I listen to it. Brendon Urie, the vocalist, has an amazing vocal range and can hit so many high notes, especially in Death Of A Bachelor (the song!) and Emperor's New Clothes. I really want to see him live just to experience them! My favourite songs are House of Memories, LA Devotee and Victorious.

I really love finding new music to enjoy so if you have any recommendations let me know!

What are your favourite albums to listen to?

Laura xx

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Life

Money saving goals for 2017

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After having a while to think about it, I have realised that I have missed out a few things from my resolutions and that is to be more aware and cautious over my finances. As a teenager, I feel like it is quite easy to forget about the value of money money, or I find it is. I do not have any subscriptions to pay, neither do I spend money regularly on bills etc. I think it is really important to be aware of your money and start saving now for later on in life. It is so so important to know exactly how much money you have and where it is, as well as what you are spending it on.

With the help of Earnest, a company that provides low interest loans, I have come up with 4 personal goals to help me save money and they have provided some for me as well. These goals are quite small so hopefully achievable.

Goal #1 : Put aside £5 a week towards holiday/vacation

This year I am having two fantastic holidays, one to Florida and one to China. I haven't been on a plane in years so there is a few things that I am having to spend money on for that and also for clothes, and accessories. Whilst I am out there, I also want to buy my friends some things. All this adds up to a lot of money so if I try and put money aside, I should have minimise the cost.

Goal #2 : Don't buy unnecessary food

I am incredibly guilty of spending loads of money on food. Whether at school in the canteen or just when I am shopping. Most of the time though I am not even hungry. By trying to reduce this, I should save a lot of money.

Goal #3 : Don't spend more than £30 a month

Although this is specifically orientated to wards September goals, I am going to try and do this for the whole of quarter 3 in an attempt to save money and then I have money saved to buy Christmas presents. I also have quite a few birthdays to buy for in this time period.

Goal #4 : Before buying something, wait 10 days before I buy it

With it being so close to Christmas at the time of this goal (which is so weird to think about) I don't really want to be buying things for myself that I could put on my christmas list. Also I want to make sure that I really want something before buying it.

If you stop spending money, you have more money to spend on education like university, meaning you might not have to have a student loan. Student loans are a large proportion of graduates' debt and if you use Earnest, you can save over $20,000 which is the same as £16,500, so a lot of money!! If you want to check out their website, you can do here and if you want to learn about them and their ability to refinancing your student loans you can do here.

Do you have any financial goals for the new year?

Laura xx

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Disclaimer: Although this is written in collaboration with Earnest, all of these opinions and thoughts are my own. I am not being payed to write this post.

Life

7 Books I Love

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Reading is something that I really enjoy. I just love how I can transport myself away and lose myself in someone else's story. I find it really relaxing and sometimes the books help me with my struggles. Ages ago, right back at the start of Blossom Of Hope, I wrote a post about my favourite books and I thought I would update that because I have discovered some amazing authors and books over the past year and a bit.

Most of the reasons that I like these books are the same so to avoid boring you I will include the blurb or some of the blurb from the book, that way you can make your own mind up about it!

Just One Day by Gayle Forman

A whirlwind day in Paris... A chance at true love... Heartbreak is waiting just around the corner.

Paper Towns by John Green

Quentin Jacobson has always loved Margo from afar. So when she climbs through his window to summon him on all-night road trip of revenge he cannot help but follow. But the next morning, Q turns up at school and Margo doesn't. Shes left clues to her disappearance, like a trail of breadcrumbs for Q to follow. Everything leads to one unavoidable question: Who is the real Margo?

The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.

Holding Up The Universe - Jennifer Niven

Libby wants to be the girl who can do anything. Jack is hiding a secret he must keep at all costs. Then Jack meets Libby, and their world's change. Because sometimes when you meet someone, the whole universe just comes into focus.

Fangirl - Rainbow Rowell

Cath has to decided whether she's ready to open her heart to new people and new experiences, and she's realising that there's more to learn about love than she ever though possible...

Everything, Everything - Nicola Yoon

Live life in a bubble? Or risk everything for love? Maddy is allergic to the world. She hasn't left her house in seventeen years. Olly is the boy next door. He's determined to find a way to reach her. Everything, Everything is about the crazy risks we take for love.

The Sun Is Also A Star - Nicola Yoon

Natasha is the girl who believes in science and facts. Not Fate. Not Destiny. Daniel has always been the good son, the good student, living up to my parents' high expectations. Never the poet. Or the dreamer. A million futures lie before us. Which one will come true?

What are your favourite books?

Laura xx

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Company

My favourite photo taking location #VantagePoint

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For christmas, I received some new bits and bobs for my camera, including a tripod and a bag, and it has really inspired me to get more into photography, and not just for my blog. I really enjoy the process of taking a photo and editing it. Today I am working with Light, a new camera company, to show you my favourite place to take photos as part of their #VantagePoint project.

When I first heard about this idea, I started thinking about all the crazy places I have taken photos, from speedboats to concerts. I have taken photos in loads of places but actually my favourite place to take them is my bedroom window. I know this sounds a bit weird but bare with me! I have a huge bedroom window that spans the entire width of my bedroom. The view from it is of the houses in front of me but as I live on a hill, they don't obstruct all of it. On a clear day, I can see for miles in an 180 degrees direction.

One of the most beautiful things I see from my window is sunsets and these have to be my favourite things to take pictures of. I actually have so many I have a separate folder on my computer for all of them! Not only are they beautiful, sunsets have a big significance for me being that the end can be beautiful and how they mark a new beginning, which I talked about in this post.

However, my favourite photo I have taken is the one of "traffic trails" (I think that is the right word!). I actually shared this photo in my Autumn Photos post but I thought I would talk about in more detail and talk about the steps I took to take the photo. I spend a lot of my life on Instagram (too much of it) and I saw a photo posted by ThriftyVintageFashion of traffic trails and I absolutely loved it. It made me want to take a picture like that myself.

Step no. 1 : Setting up the camera

Obviously the first step is to set up the camera. For me, this was pre-tripod days so I had to make do with whatever I had at hand, which turned out to be a speaker and a book. I set the portable speaker on top of a book and then the camera on top of the speaker.

Step no. 2 : Camera settings

After extensive googling and testing it out myself, I discovered how to take photos of traffic trails. You need to change the exposure on your camera and I did this by changing into Long Shutter. What this does is increases the exposure time so that you can capture more light, I think. If the exposure number is higher, the more light is let in and vice versa. To take the photo, I set my camera to Long Shutter which meant that it did it automatically, however I could change the number and I set it to 8.

Step no. 3 : Taking the photo

Now comes the waiting! I live on a quiet road and I took the photo quite late at night so I had to wait a while for a car to appear. As soon as I saw it I pressed the 'take photo' button on my camera. It turned out like above and I was really happy with it. You could also edit the photo if you wanted!

Those are the steps of how I took my picture and I hope you learnt something! Light are working on a fancy new camera that is as strong as a DSLR but almost the size of a phone that is being released later this year and I am definitely excited to see what it is like!

Where is your favourite place to take a photo?

Laura xx

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Disclaimer: Although this is written in collaboration with Light, all of these opinions and thoughts are my own. I am not being payed to write this post.

Thoughts

How to get over the winter blues

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Loads of people, me included, feel down after christmas. I think it is because everyone looks forward to christmas and then they feel deflated afterwards. There is actually a disorder associated with this called Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD. On the NHS website, it says that it affects 2 million in the UK alone. I don't think I have this but I definitely feel deflated in the months after christmas. For anyone else who feels like this me and my internet friend White Interiors decided to do a post on how to beat the winter blues.

The main thing to do is to do things that makes you happy, whether that be listening to music, watching Youtube, go out with your friends, whatever you want! The best thing to cheer you up when you are sad is your favourite thing. When I am feeling down, I find a Spotify playlist with some feel good, empowering songs and listen to it non-stop! I love the Spice Girls or Beyonce to put me in a good mood. I also like talking to my friends or hanging out with them.

I also suggest taking time out to look after yourself. You could pamper yourself and have a bath or you could have a nap. Anything to just remove yourself from any stressful situation that could make you feel even worse.

If there is something really specific getting you down, I suggest writing down all of your thoughts, feelings and questions onto a piece of paper. This helps you to see what is happening instead of it being jumbled in your head. When it is on the paper, you can also rip it up to try to forget about everything.

I think it is really important to remember that every single human has down days, even the happiest ones. You shouldn't beat yourself up about it because it is natural. To be able to love yourself, you have to patient with you and let your body and mind have what it needs. If you aren't feeling capable of doing something, like going out when you feel awful, it is perfectly okay to cancel and just have a pamper day.

I hope that this post has given you some ideas! Make sure you go check out the post over at White Interiors as well! What do you do to cheer up?

Laura xx

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Blogging

14 Quick ways to change up your blog

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Blossom Of Hope

Hello 2017!

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After 2016, I am very excited to move into 2017. I have a lot of stuff planned and I have identified the aspects of my life that I want to change. Today I thought I would share with you all that is happening because I am very excited! Last year I found that by telling you my resolutions, I wanted to try and achieve them even more!

Last year my resolutions were:

Goals for me

Be fitter - I tried to do this and feel like I succeeded!
Accept myself for who I am - I'm still working on this but self-love can take a long time.
Accept people for who they are - Almost done
Keep my memory jar + book for the whole year - Half completed, I kept my memory jar but not my book.

Goals for my blog

Produce better quality posts and pictures. - I feel like I achieved this
2k on Instagram - Not achieved, I reached 1300 followers.

As I went through 2016, my aspirations changed, which is why I didn't try as hard for some of them. For example, I started to not care about how many followers I had on Instagram so I didn't try to gain any. For 2017 I have decided my resolutions are going to be:

Goals for me

Spend more time with my friends
Stop drinking fizzy drinks
Read at least 10 books

Goals for my blog

Post at least 6 times a month
Become more active in the blogging community (through twitter chats etc.)
Reach 22,000 page views.

The most noticeable change is my blog layout! Over the Christmas break, I downloaded a blogging template and made my changes on it. I love this design and even though it was a pre-made template, I have customised it so that it reflects me. I will stick to the same schedule as last year, which is posting every Tuesday and Saturday at 5pm.

At the start, I mentioned that a few exciting things were happening! On Christmas day, me and my brother found out that we are going to Florida in April! I am really looking forward to it as it is my first time going to America and my first long haul flight. I am also extremely fortunate to be going to be China with my school in July! 2017 is definitely going to be a year of fulfilling my wanderlust. Look forward to loads of travel posts in the upcoming year!

Do you have resolutions? What are they?

Laura xx

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Pages

January

Dear My Future Self...

My CD Collection

Money saving goals for 2017

7 Books I Love

My favourite photo taking location #VantagePoint

How to get over the winter blues

14 Quick ways to change up your blog

Hello 2017!

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