Shopping is the greatest kind of therapy

So after spending yesterday packing, tidying, and basically causing myself physical damage, I decided to take myself on a little shopping trip with one of my loveliest friends. 

After a spot of dinner that cost way to much for me to even talk about, I decided to treat myself to a few little things...

Of course one thing you absolutely have to do when you're in Liverpool is take yourself on a little trip to Lush, which I absolutely adore, I love the overwhelming amount of scents that hit you as soon as you walk through the door. Today I found myself purchasing the Christmas Edition Shower Gel, Snow Fairy, which smells absolutely divine, and was on offer at HALF PRICE!  Apparently this shower gel is candy floss scented, but if you ask me it smells an awful lot like bananas...Mmmm. I also purchased a little robot bath bomb, mainly because it was a robot. haha. 

It's the start of 2016 and one thing I find myself doing at the beginning of EVERY year is buying myself loads of pads, journals, diaries, etc. I like to be organised at the beginning of the new year, I like to give myself the best possible chance of continuing this throughout the year, and what better way? So this is a new little book that I purchased today from Paperchase, and I think it's just the cutest. 

I love Doctor Who, period. I saw this and I just absolutely had to throw myself at that till and make that purchase. I can't wait to read this, it looks amazing...how exciting! 

I must have spent around £30 on all of this, but I'm thrilled with my little purchases. I managed to show an incredible amount of self control which I'm impressed with, I could have bought so much today.

Anyway, the world awaits...

The journey starts here!

HAPPY JANUARY 2ND 

Aloha friends! Just a quick post to let you know what I've been getting up to and to find out how 2016 is going for you? We're now two days into the year and I'm already feeling slightly stressed! haha. I guess stress is one of the more normal feelings that one has to deal with when moving house, but I am incredibly excited! 

So late in 2015 my partner and I decided that it was time to move in together, decided the best way to start off a new year and an amazing life together is to live together. 

Today I found myself in my 'current' house surrounded by boxes, boxes, and you guessed it...more boxes. All I've found whilst packing is that I'm actually making the house a lot messier than it originally was, a lot messier than I intended for it to be, but that's okay. 

I'm always, always excited as to what the future holds for me, but as of lately I have found myself more excited than ever, I've found out what it's like to be truly happy with life without even trying, and I'm loving it!

I'm hoping to find myself blogging more frequently now that some of the past stresses in my life have disappeared (yes, I am talking about towering piles of assignments). It's a new year and I'm leaving all of the the stress, hatred, and upset from the year before in the past, it really is a brand new start for me.

I hope this year turns out to be magical for each and ever one of us.

Until next time...

(Has no relation to -A from Pretty Little Liars)

New Year: Chapter One

Something about a brand new year just fills me with an overwhelming amount of excitement, ahh, I can smell the opportunities in the air. It fills me with complete joy to know that so much may happen this year, so much will happen this year, and I literally have no idea what the world has in store for me. 

The one thing i struggle with every year is setting my goals for the new year, mainly because they actually mean something to me,. I want each of my goals to be something I truly want to accomplish. 

So before I throw my goals of 2016 out there for all to see, I would just like to wish every one of you a Happy New Year, I hope you managed to bring in the New Year in the most magical way possible, I know that I sure did.

A new year can mean only one thing; new beginnings. This is the year, this is my year! This is the year I make things happen, make my wildest dreams come true, and I wish everyone the greatest of luck with whatever they have planned for the year ahead. 

I love the beginning of a new year, it's a whole 365 blank pages in the book of our life, a whole 365 pages that we can do anything with.

So without further ado, let's welcome in January! I hope that January is truly kind to you all, and you are to it. We're only going to get one January 2016, let's make it amazing! 

2016 Goals

1. Be fearless. Be in control of my own life. Make decisions without being afraid of the consequences. Stop imagining who I want to be and just become that person. Believe in me, if I can't do this then how can I expect someone else to? Stop being afraid of life. 

2. Stay motivated. Surround myself with people who inspire me and rid myself of those who don't. 

3. Do more things that make me happy. Find a reason to be happy. Live life how I want to, it's the only life I'm going to get, there's no point being unhappy. Travel. Meet new people. Explore. Find new passions. 

4. Cross something off my bucket list. NO EXCUSES!

5. Blog more. I'll be thankful of it when time has passed by, I'll be able to reread the experiences I have documented. 

6. Commit to kindness. Being good to people will be more rewarding than most other things in this world. Making other people happy will make me happy. Don't judge. 

7. Change something about my life that matters. Although I don't know what this is just yet, I'm sure I will know when the time is right. 

8. Take one picture everyday. The world is beautiful and wonderful things happen every day. It's time to make sure I remember them. 

9. Write a book. This is something I have been meaning to do for the longest time and this is the year I will make it happen. 

10. Dream it. Wish it. Do it. 

Other Things to do during 2016 

Move in with my gorgeous partner. 

Be more of a positive person.Be happy.Learn to love me.

Travel. Photograph EVERYTHING.

                                                                       Read many books.                                                                                           

I really hope that January is kind to you all, I hope many new doors open for you as every old door closes.

All the best!

    

2015: A review!

I'm back! I hope that you all had a magical Christmas! Mine was full of family, food, and wonderful gifts from those I love, I've never been so thankful for the people that I have in my life. Are you looking forward to the New Year? I must admit that after having such a hard year, I've never been so excited to reach the end of one and the beginning of another. 

I know that I've been gone for awhile. I often come back to check on blogs I follow or just to see if I have any inspiration or motivation to create a post myself and although I haven't in past weeks, alas, here I am. 

I'm looking forward to 2016, I really am. I'm looking forward to becoming completely content with my life, I'm so close to being there.I plan to love harder than I have ever loved before, live happier than I have ever dreamed of, travel to many places, read many books, and become the person I have always believedI was. 

2015 was magical in it's own right

I fell hopelessly and unconditionally in love.

I completed my journey in the education system.

I became a fully fledged adult with an actual job.

I photographed my first same sex marriage and it was wonderful.

I began to accept myself for who I am.

I learned to save.

I began to do many things for charity and learned what It was truly like to give to those in need.

2015 was far from perfect, I lost one of the people who meant more to me than anyone else, but that doesn't mean that it was a terrible year.

What did you get up to in 2015?

I want to be a writer

THE DREAM:

I WANT TO BE A WRITER.

THE REALITY:

I AM GOING TO BECOME A WRITER

Hey guys, do you remember me? I know I've been gone for awhile, life happened.

Life can sometimes get in the way of who you want to be, you have bills to pay for, mouths to feed, it makes following your dreams something much harder than you ever expected. Since leaving University and starting work I've pretty much stopped doing most of the things I love, the things that I'm truly passionate about, it's something I shouldn't have let happen, something that I intend to change. I can't help but look at my life an feel incredibly lucky for what I do have, it's something I'll never take for granted, I just never thought that I would find myself in a position that I wouldn't be able to follow my dreams. 

Everything's going to change, those things that have always been important to me will take first priority in my life.

Life can be hard, it throws obstacles into your life that you never expect, sometimes it can be hard to fight your way through this, but these are the things that make you a stronger person, these are the things that ultimately make you who you are.

I have a dream. I mean I have a lot of dreams, but this one is the most important, this is the one that will become a reality, whether it works out the way I want it to or not. 

At the end of 2014/beginning of 2015 I lost myself a little bit, I forgot who I was, I didn't quite know who I wanted to become and which paths in life I wanted to take, but all of that has changed.

I want to become a writer.

I started studying my degree during September of 2012, I always thought that this was the right path for  my life, I always though this was how I was going to become who I wanted to be. I soon noticed that wasn't the case, but I chose to stick at it anyway because I didn't know where to go from there, I'm still a little uncertain. 

I haven't gave my degree the full dedication that I probably should have, this was the first sign that I had made a big mistake. During my final year at University I lost my motivation completely, I found it hard to continue.

One thing in life I hate more than anything is having a lack of motivation, which is something that I have nothing for when it comes to media, but when I think about writing and becoming a writer, well that's a completely different story.

I have began writing a book, it might seem a little random, but it's something I have wanted to do for the longest time. It's still in the REALLY early stages, but I am feeling quite hopeful with the direction in which it's going. 

Where do I go from here?

• Just sit down and write.
• Have a target of 1500 words a day.
• Writing doesn't stop when I leave the house, use my iPhone/iPad to write whilst I am out and about.
• When writing, disconnect from the world, the less distractions the better. 
• Make a drink before I start, the less reasons to procrastinate the better. 
• Spend each day re-reading what I have written the day before.
• 
  

I haven't felt this motivated about something in such a long time, this is the greatest feeling. I'm taking some really big risks with my life right now, although I am not much of a risk taker, this seems necessary. 

This is hopefully going to change who I am as a person, hopefully I will become more driven than I am at the moment, hopefully I will procrastinate less and strive to be the greatest that I can be.

I'll keep you updated.

All the best, Ashleigh

xo

Confidence

Sometimes that I spend a lot of time thinking about is confidence. What does confidence actually mean? And what does it mean to be confident? 

Confidence 

If you asked me a few years ago what I thought it was like to be confident I would have told you how I felt that only the most beautiful of people can be confident, but if you asked me now? It would be a completely different story.

There's more to who you are than just how you look, there's so much more to being confident. I detest how other people feel they have the ability to decide when someone is being overconfident, or when they decide that someone just doesn't have the right to be confident at all. Just because someone doesn't look the way you do, is a different skin colour, a larger or even smaller size than you, doesn't mean that they don't have the right to look and feel confident. Confidence isn't all about your appearance, it's about you as a whole, about how you feel about yourself. 

When I was of school age I found it exceedingly hard to come across as a confident person, mainly because I felt like I didn't have the right to feel confident, I felt ugly in my own skin and that was that. Some people absolutely radiate confidence and although I don't, I do sometimes show my confidence and there's nothing wrong with that, it doesn't mean I love myself, it means I'm becoming happy and confident about who I am, and why shouldn't I be allowed to love myself anyway? I'm probably the most socially awkward person that you will ever meet, which makes coming across as confident quite hard, it doesn't mean I'm not confident, it just means I find it incredibly hard to just put my confidence out there for the whole world to see.

I think that it's important that everyone knows that they have the right to feel confident, no matter who you are, how you act or how you look. I'm currently on a long road, learning to love myself completely, learning everything about myself, becoming familiar with everything about me, and I assure you that once I have reached the end of this journey being confident may be easier for me.

No one in this world will every be perfect, no one, it's all about realising who you are, realising that all of your imperfections are what makes you perfect to who you are. Everyone has flaws, everyone will probably have a huge list of flaws, me included...my thighs, my belly, my nose, my freckles, my hips, then there's being a constant stress head, being fearful, and the list goes on and on. That doesn't mean that I can't learn to love these flaws, it doesn't mean I can't be confident about who I am regardless of these flaws, because I know that although I have so many flaws, I also know that there are so many things about me that I should be confident about .

To have such a soft heart in such a cruel world is strength not weakness. 

Be true to who you are, that's something that I make sure I do every single day of my life. 

I'm shy and uncontrollably socially awkward, but that doesn't mean that I shouldn't be confident about who I am.

People judge too much, too harshly, on just about EVERYTHING. Be confident, love who you are, show that you're happy and you don't give a damn what anyone else thinks about that.  

Until next time

xo