25 Festive Instagram ideas

So today marks my first festive post of 2017! It's been planned for so long but due to dissertation and assignment writing (roll on 8th Jan when it's all handed in), I haven't been able to do Blogmas this year or even really blog consistently for a while. Because I enjoyed these ideas so much last year, and they're just so much fun to see, here are my 25 festive Instagram ideas for 2017!

1. Starbucks red cups
2. Snow! (extra points if you find the untrod perfection!)
3. Your beautifully decorated Christmas tree 
4. Your pets with festive clothes on because CUTE
5. Your delicious Christmas dinner, yum.
6. Doing some Christmas baking? Document it with about 3000 pictures of course!
7. A snowman (p.s. fingers crossed it snows this year!)
8. Wrapped presents (It's okay if you have to get the perfect angle to cover up the cellotape disaster on the other side. We all do it.)
9. Your favourite holiday movie along with some festive treats 
10. Advent calendars (Beauty, candles, chocolate...the possibilities are endless)
11. Your favourite Christmas decoration 
12. Fluffy socks (this one's for you Emily!)
13. An impromptu Costa stop after a day of present shopping
14. Seasonal candles (Snowflake Cookie from Yankee Candle for me, because it's MY FAVE) 
15. Share a memory of you and your besties or S/O (ice-skating, baking, exchanging gifts etc)
16. Your favourite holiday reads (paired with a steaming mug of tea or hot chocolate of course)
17. a perfectly whipped hot chocolate, (maybe with crushed candy cane/marshmallows?)
18. An ugly Christmas jumper, we all have one, thanks nan.
19. Christmas nail art (unless you're like me and can barely do the bare basics. Stick-on versions are a great option!)
20. A Christmas party outfit
21. A Christmas selfie 
22. A pretty window display
23. Mistletoe
24. A cutesy Christmas mug
25. A Christmas market/event 

A-Z of Recovery: Nourish your body (and soul)

It’s getting back to that time of year again where issues with food are more prominent. Thanksgiving and Christmas are holidays where there is a large emphasis on food and eating with large groups of people. For me, those things are still hard if I am having a bad day. It’s really important to remember if you’re struggling with food that you’re not alone. I try to remind myself of the wonderful things that my body has helped me to do on a daily basis and that I need to treat it with the love and care that it deserves.

While it’s important not to focus solely on food, it’s good to remember the amazing things that food can do to help us. Think about the nutrition that it can give you, the energy, how you use that energy etc. it’s all really amazing when you think about it. Here are some of my favourite tips to keep in mind;

Eat when you are hungry. Rest when you are tired. Surround yourself with people that remind you of your inner strength and beauty.

Talk to someone. If you have worries about coping then talk to someone that knows about your struggles and they will be able to support you. If you talk to your parent’s, then they may even be able to alter some things to make you feel more comfortable

Make time to relax. This time of year is where stress levels really hit their heights. There are so many events to attend, things to do, people to please etc. Just remember that you should be your priority. Its okay to say no to some things and just take some time to relax and figure out what you are going to do that way you don't feel too "snowed under".

Time-out. Make sure that you plan some time regularly where you can have a little time out from everyone and their expectations. Sometimes it can be very tiring to make sure that you stay completely strong for people, whether that’s during the holidays or not, so to ensure that this doesn't affect your recovery, make sure that you dedicate some 'me-time'.

Halloween movie marathon 101

One of the traditions in my house at Halloween actually has nothing at all to do with trick or treating, in fact, I've never actually been in my life. every Halloween we collect together the Halloween sweets that either haven't been taken by tick or treaters or if we haven't opened the door (sorry guys, we were one of 'those' houses) and we had a huge movie marathon. In the spirit of the day, I wanted to share with you guys some of my all-time favourite Halloween films.
Hope you enjoy!

The Disney Tag

Something I have come across while browsing a few blogs is something called the Disney tag. those of you who have been reading this blog for a while or who follow me on Twitter will know that I am a die hard Disney fan. I've actually had so much fun writing this post because I played my Disney playlist the entire time for inspiration so enjoy!

1. Favourite Character - Belle

2. Favourite Princess - Pocahontas

3. Favourite heroine - Mulan

4. Favourite Prince - Flynn Rider from Tangled

5. Favourite Hero - I must admit that I've always had a love for Hercules

6. Favourite Animal - Pascal or Pegasus.

7. Favourite Sidekick - Mushu from Mulan

8. Favourite Villain - Hades from Hercules because he's so sassy 

10. Favourite Love Song - 'Tale as old as time' from Beauty and the Beast or 'I won't say I'm in love' from Hercules 

11. Favourite song - 'Zero to hero' or 'I won't say I'm in love' from Hercules 

12. Favourite villain song - 'Come little children' from Hocus Pocus

13. Least Favourite Song -

14. Favourite Kiss - Rapunzel and Flynn Rider

15. First Movie I ever saw - Fantasia or Snow White

16. Favourite classic - Beauty and the Beast

17. Songs that always get stuck in your head - 'Under the sea' from The Little Mermaid.

18. Favourite Pixar movie - Up or Inside out

19. Least favourite Pixar movie - Finding Nemo (sorry guys)

20. Favourite Sequel - any of the Tinkerbell sequels

21. Overrated movie - Cinderella

22. Underrated movie - Enchanted, Bolt or Brother Bear

23. Movie that makes me laugh - Frozen or Mulan (Literally for Mushu and Olaf)

24. Movie that makes me cry - Up, The Fox and The Hound or Inside Out, all I'll say is Bing Bong

25. Saddest Scene From Your Favourite Movie - When Bing Bong fades away in Inside Out

26. Saddest death - Ellie from Up

27. Favourite quote - 

28. Favourite Theme Park- Never been *cries sadly in corner*

29. Favourite Theme attraction- see above

30. Favourite Theme Park Show- see above

If you complete this tag be sure to let me know either on social media or in the comments. Or you could give your answers in the comments, I'd love to see what all your favourite Disney things are!

Autumn goals and ambitions

Autumn/Fall is now here and as it has always been my favourite time of the year, I am in my element! There are so many things I want to do and places I want to go. Although things are getting more difficult to keep up with thanks to university and my placement, I have a very realistic list of things I want to get done this year (even with the bad British weather).
Enjoy!

My realistic bucketlist 🍁🍂🍃

🍁 Go for a walk at the nearest nature park to enjoy the changing colours

🍂 Grab my camera and give myself time for a little Autumnal photoshoot

🍃 Harvest all of my yummy fruit and vegetables that I have been growing this year

🍁 Bake pumpkin pie (I'm baking one for Emily soon so I will share my recipe in a post!)

🍂 Hnvest in some new autumn scented candles!

🍃 Make some apple cider...from scratch!

🍁 Have a Halloween movie marathon (everything from the Adams family/The Munsters to DCOM 🍂 Halloween classics)

🍃 Have a bonfire

🍁 Go stargazing

🍂 Carve the pumpkins I grew in the garden!

🍃 Bake spiced apple cupcakes

🍁 Dress up low-key Halloween to uni on the day!

🍂 Make caramel apples...I personally don't like them but everyone else does.

🍃 Make some homemade hot chocolate

A-Z of Recovery: Managing urges

 So, I think that it’s more than past time for a new A-Z of Recovery post. Since beginning my recovery 4 years ago, there have been a few times where I’ve relapsed or really wanted to do so. Managing the urges that any negative feelings or illnesses promote is very important for staying in recovery and taking care of yourself.

Take some time out for yourself- 'Me time' is anything that you know that you enjoy, that de-stresses you and inevitably improves your mood. It is most often our "escape route" in times of stress and that isn't a problem. We all need a little space to just forget about our troubles for a while before getting on with dealing with them. It is a time to rejuvenate our souls. Whether it’s some meditation, a fun new class or just a walk, find something that you can do for yourself that will not only provide some personal time but also provides a distraction from whatever is plaguing you. 

Stop comparing yourself to others- it’s so easy to get caught up in the trap of looking at people and comparing everything about them to ourselves. These are generally strangers so we end up taking things at face value and making ourselves feel bad because we feel we don’t measure up to how fabulous the other people look, or how nice their car or house is etc. The truth is, we don’t know the backstory of anyone we have just met so they could

Become aware of your negative self-talk-  (i.e. I can’t do that because I’m fat. I always make mistakes). Challenge and dispute that talk (i.e. I am successful at … The size of my body does not determine my worth). Replace the negative statements with positive statements and encouragement (i.e. I have value. It is o.k. to make mistakes. I learn from my mistakes).

Treat yourself as you would a friend- one of the best ways to become conscious of the way that we negatively talk about ourselves is to begin to treat yourself as you would your best friend. You wouldn’t tell them to not eat for the day in order to compensate for what they ate the previous night. You wouldn’t tell them to punish themselves for their body size through over-exercise, self-harm, or abusive eating habits. You wouldn’t tell them they were worthless or unloveable because of their weight. So why do you tell yourself these things? Break the cycle and start treating yourself like a friend—you deserve that kindness and love from everyone, especially yourself. 

Challenge your negative thoughts- You may not be able to change the way you feel about your body today, tomorrow, or a month from now, but you can begin the process by challenging the negative thoughts you have in the moment. Write out a dialogue between your negative voice and a self-loving and accepting one. Even if you don’t believe the things you say to counter the negative thoughts, it’s still so important to challenge them, because each time you do, you’re taking away some of their power and reclaiming your own. And the more you challenge those thoughts, the less you will believe them. The more you argue back, the easier fighting the voice will become. So even if it feels silly and useless in the moment, keep arguing back. Don’t allow your negative body thoughts to go unchallenged. 

Back to school advice

So, this month most of you will have gone back to school, college or university this month. I know for some of you this will have been a really scary time because it’s a new place, new people and a whole new adventure!

Talking/Friendships

One of the things that I always feared about doing something new was making new friendships and meeting new people. It’s still something that I struggle with now but I have found a newfound confidence in myself since I made the decision to just throw myself into situations where I have to talk to strangers…and you know what? I’ve made a lot of new work based friendships in the school that I work at for my university course! Now considering I used to be on the verge of tears whenever I knew I would have to talk to a stranger, I’m really proud of myself.

It’s really easy to forget that being new is something that everyone has to deal with at least a few times in their lives so most people are super kind and talkative when someone is new. So, if you’ve been worrying about how you’re going to make new connections with people, here’s my advice: breathe.

It’s so easy to completely clam up just because we have gotten so worked up over something that realistically isn’t going to be that bad. We create scenarios on our heads that make what we are about to do seem like a huge task. The truth is, we need to just let go and be ourselves in order for the right people to end up being in our lives.

Organisation

One of the things I really enjoy doing in life is organising things. I’m a lover of to-do lists and this has always really helped me to feel more in control over my time, no matter how much I have to do. If you know in advance what things you need to prepare for then you can plan out your time properly, giving yourself small chunks of time devoted to that subject and therefor you won’t burn yourself out. Trying to do things in huge amounts only ever lead to boredom and procrastination for me. Just fitting in an hour or two of revision, homework, essay preparation, reading etc helped me feel more in control without getting overwhelmed so I really recommend starting early with it!

Social life

The balance of school life and a social life was always difficult for me because I used to get pretty lazy about actually going out. I’m definitely a home-body. Luckily for me, my friend lived 3 doors up from me so I never had to go far. One thing that was always really important for me though was that I would never give myself huge blocks of time where I couldn’t go out and see friends and family. Whenever this kind of thing ended up happening I would get super stressed and overwhelmed so making time for everyone else actually worked put better in the long run for me. My advice to you is to take some time out of every week to go and see the people that you want to see. Make your work and social life a balance rather than too much of one or the other.

Grades

Grades are important but it’s not the end of the world if you didn’t get the one that you want. It’s really important to remember that you can only do you best, and no one can ask any more of you than that. If you take a test that you have really prepared and revised for and you don’t come out with the grade that you wanted (or other people want for you) then it’s the be all and end all of life. It’s about how you apply yourself and the effort that you put in. Maybe you really struggle with that subject or you really don’t enjoy it, but if you’ve put in all of the effort that you can then you should be really proud of yourself.

Good luck guys!

The perfect girls night in!

So recently I have been staying at friends houses quite a lot and it's something that I really love doing. I may be 20 but staying with a friend and watching movies together, talking through the night and having a good old catch up is something I don't think I will ever really outgrow. Because I enjoy myself so much, I wanted to share with you guys some things that I think make the perfect girls night in/sleepover!

V Festival prep kit!

Music festivals can be both one of the greatest things ever and one of the worst, if you're really not prepared for everything. This year I will finally be going to V Festival with Emily and her bf and I'm really excited to go. As a certified champion of worrying, there have been so many scenarios that have gone through my head that I thought i needed to be prepared for. Whether it's fears over the portaloo *inward cringe at the thought* or mud puddles around your tent, I've got you covered!

New blogging routine and home truths

Hi guys,

So it's been a little sparse on here for the last few months. I've been trying to give myself some time away from blogging with the hopes that I can get some of my mojo back. I have been successful in sorting a lot of things out in my head that have been causing me worry lately (but not everything because I seem to never sort it all!). One of the big things I shared with you all in my previous post and it reminded me how much I love to just write chatty blog posts.