#167 Mid Year Round Up 2013

Fingers crossed for getting the keys very soon and then of course moving. It’s really not far from my parents house, less than a 10 minutes walk and only a couple of minutes drive. It’s close to both sets of grandparents and near Little Miss’ nursery. It’s on the same street my mum grew up on, you can see her old house from the window so I have had some very emotional members of family calling me up. Two bedroom of course, upstairs and downstairs, with a front and back garden. Now I’m just on some mass housey shopping spree so I can move straight in. So far I’ve bought a 3 piece suite, bookcase, wardrobe, dressing table (my first ever!) and a chair from Little Miss’ room. I’m leaving most of the decorating until I have a bit more money. So that is the big news there! Everyone on twitter has been so supportive following my homeless to house story, cannot thank you all enough.. but lets move on. 

I made a silly gif, sorry about the quality!

It’s been a while since I’ve done a real lifestyle update, the most I ever seem to do is events I’ve attended! As i’ve mentioned before, this is mainly to do with the fact that I try to only mention Little Miss in passing and I never include photos of her (due to my nightmare of an ex!) Since my every day life revolves around Little Miss, it’s real hard to really write in detail about anything we’ve been doing, and all my photos generally include her. I’ll admit now, I get a wee bit jealous of all my fav blogs that do children updates and post photos of their cherished ones and I can’t share my beautiful baby girl with anyone on my blog. Oh, listening to me gushing on about her when I do moan a lot via twitter about how much hard work she is! Luckily, she’s worth every second of that hard work. 

Anyway, my mid-year round up! 

This year has been one of the worst I’ve ever had to experience, from January until about May I felt like I had continuous bad luck, there was at least one thing every since week that would go wrong or be really difficult to deal with. And all though everyone told me time and time again that things will get better, I genuinely didn’t believe them. I was really low, I felt like I had to fight for everything. Court battles, lies and threats from my ex, loosing my job, struggling to get a house, the isolation from my best friends, arguments at home, hospital visits, worrying tests, my sister being homeless.. you name it, I was dealing with it (within reason, of course). Little Miss was what kept me going when I didn’t know what else I could and my blog is what helped keep my sanity since I lived so far away from my friends.

In May, the tides finally started to turn! I started to retrain as an accountant/secretary/PA (I haven’t decided what I’m going to pursue yet) I started to build up a great group of friends I’d met through blogging in Newcastle who I now see at least once a month.. then in June things have improved even more.. I was given a house, I started to plan a get away in the Autumn with Hayley, plans to see friends in July.. I finally only have good things to look forward to and I really hope it stays this way all year. I don’t like being unhappy, I don’t like complaining, I want to feel excited again, and more so I want to feel hopeful.

The best part of the year is of course Little Miss growing from a baby into a little girl. She is a proper comic and clearly set for the stage (she loves a raised platform to dance on). I love being able to look at her and see that despite everything her father says about me being an unfit mother, she’s coming on a treat. She’s so clever (every mother things this of their child though), a bloody brilliant eater and yeah, she doesn’t sleep through the night yet but that’s because she knows i’m in the room and wants me to get up and play. I think I’m doing a great job at raising her, despite the government thinking single parents are shit (I paraphrased). I cannot wait to finally give her the bedroom she deserves.

Of course the year has had it’s good points, Little Miss turned one back in January and I baked her an impressive 3 layered pink strawberry cake and she has a little tea party in the house with the family. In February I had a night out in Lincoln with my best girls from Uni, it was very very messy. March, I turned the big TWO FIVE. It was uneventful but I received some wonderful gifts including a Lush Spa voucher from some awesome twitter, blogger & LJ friends. Probably one of the most thoughtful gifts ever. And in April, I had a wonderful long weekend away with all my best friends at some point. I’ve also attended two fantastic Murder Mysteries, an Alice in Wonderland one and a Fairytale one, hosted by my best friend Bel.

Finally, thanks to my blog I’ve met so many wonderful people and quite a few fantastic events! First one was a Benefit product promotion in March, followed by my first Blogger meet in April as well as The Body Shop event. May saw me attend a great evening in Lush and then in June I’ve attended a cupcakery opening and the NE Bloggers social (which I have a post on within the next week). Not to mention meeting Kirsty and going to see Les Miserables in February and Alice for a Wagamamas in May! I’ve honestly never felt so popular in my whole life.

Blogging has been my life support over this incredibly tough year. I’ve had so much support from my readers and twitter followers that I’ve been known to cry a few times due to feeling so loved (I was a girl who excessively through school, college and even uni, I only ever really count myself having 3-5 friends). I have made fantastic friendships, even with girls I haven’t even met yet but talk to most days via whataspp or text. Not only that, but the comments I’ve received on my blog have been so wonderful. Of course it’s not all about praise or friendships, I have also enjoyed writing. Having a little place on the Internet to share my thoughts, loves and opinions has been great. I finally found a hobby I feel I can stick at.

When I move I’m probably going to be sans Internet for a few weeks, so I’m looking for guest bloggers! My blog is anything and everything so if you’d like to guest blog for me, please please please email me! I do have loads of new ideas for posts even if they’re going up sporadically, so watch this space.