My Summer in Pictures

This post is something that I've been wanting to do for so long. I love reading other peoples' photo diary posts, and basically having a good ol' nose at what they've been up to, so I figured I would finally do one of my own. I've also been feeling a little bit 'meh' and a weeny bit lost in the past week or so, so writing this post is a great reminder for myself of all the cool things I've done and all the things I've achieved in the past few months.

So, we're kicking off this photo diary with my birthday (of course), which was wayyyy back in the beginning of June. I was still living in my student house at this point, and was so excited to get out of there and move to my new town. I packed up and moved a week after my birthday - totes 'feeling 22' by the way - and my birthday weekend was spent in a mad scramble of packing, visiting Birmingham and having one last barbecue in Leamington.

June was also a month of (albeit tiny) personal achievements for me. I overcame my anxiety and dealt with moving to a completely new town in which I knew no one, and still can count the number of people I do know on my fingers. I also finally learnt how to Dutch braid my hair, and even made a little tutorial for you guys on it. This is something that I've always wanted to do, and I feel like it gets neater every time I give it a go!

The end of June saw me heading to my first ever real blogger event in London, and I had so much fun! I got to meet a whole crowd of absolutely lovely bloggers, and I've written up my experiences in a post here. It gave me the chance to push myself out of my comfort zone and get in touch with a few brands too.

July really felt like such a 'nothing' month for me until I started really thinking about it. I did a whole bunch of pretty awesome things, but they were so spread out it definitely felt like not much went on! I finally found a job that I was (and still am) really happy in to go alongside my freelance work, which has taken a heap of stress off of my finances! 

I went back to Leamington to visit my two closest friends, have a little cocktail making session and get a lil' broody over a beautiful newborn boy that one of them had just had. It definitely helped to ease my homesickness and make me feel less lonely, but it was so hard to leave all over again after a couple of days there!

I did my first fashion post in over six months in July, which really helped me feel more confident after gaining a lot of weight in the last year or so. It was nice to feel sassy and pretty again in a little photo shoot in the nature reserve behind our house!

We also started exploring our local area more in July. The Tewkesbury food festival was my absolute favourite outing of the month. We tried lots of local cider, tasty treats and walked away with some homemade fudge to munch on, mmmm. 

Finally, August saw me do my first bit of UK travel in quite a few months. I headed into Camden to spend a day browsing the markets and hitting the Cereal Killer Cafe with my sister for her birthday. It was the best day I had all summer (possibly), and has me totally inspired to travel more of the UK in the coming months! 
Follow me on Bloglovin | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Youtube

July Favourites, A Life Update + Video

Where did July go?! I sat down, all ready to start filming my video for this month's favourites and was convinced I was about to be summing June up! I'm still not over the fact that we're in August already, even though we're on day 6 now. The one good thing about time moving this fast? It'll soon be Autumn, and I'll have an excuse to have all the baths, snuggle in my dressing gown and be permanently glued to my tea mug. 
So, what did July hold for me and Nourish ME? Well, I had a few sponsored posts this month - in fact the most I've ever had in a month, and I even had to turn down a few opportunities because I didn't want to get oversaturated over here. This seems totally mad, and I'm really hoping that it's a sign of bigger and better things to come in the rest of 2016. 
I finally got a part time job here in Cheltenham, and it's one that (so far at least) is not damaging my mental health progress, and is helping me to get a little more exercise in. It's also been more than a little useful because, you know, getting a secure income is fab when you haven't had one for six months! I'm also finally getting used to living in the countryside, even if we did wake up one morning to an escaped herd of cows just chilling outside our front door.
Now let's get down to my favourites for the month. I'm going to kick start this by talking about my ultimate favourite for July: Vatika's Henna shampoo. This was something that I picked up at Bloggers Ball back in June and had fairly low expectations of. I'm really fussy with shampoos, especially with their scents, and I was a little sceptical about the use of henna in it. BUT, it turned out to be the best shampoo I've used in a long time - my hair has been far less greasy and totally manageable. Plus it smells like apples, which is the most important thing. Obvs. 
My showers have been totally dreamy at the moment because of this and The Body Shop's mango shower gel. Mangoes are a perfect fruit for summer, coming in (in my rankings) at a close third behind strawberries and peaches. Vital info here I know guys. But, it means that when the skies have been grey here in the UK this July I've been able to keep myself smelling like summer. The Body Shop have also done a cheeky simple redesign of their shower gel bottles recently, giving them bold black lids, which I totally love. 
If you've read my summer daily skincare essentials post, then you'll know that I've been upping and altering all aspects of my skincare in the past month or two. The most important addition is possibly my Eau Roma Water from LUSH. This has wormed its way into my favourites after making a comeback in my life for summer. I used to use it about two years ago, and it was one of those things that I just really forgot I liked (does anyone else do this when they finish/lose a product?!), but it's come back with a vengeance.
I've rambled on enough about my newfound love for NYX recently, so I'm not going to bore you with going over that all over again. Just one tip though: go try the soft matte lip cream in Morocco. It is the most divine coral-y red I've ever tried!
And finally we come to a little fun favourite - my tsum tsums! Baymax and Roo are some of my (many) favourite Disney characters, and I was lucky enough that my boyfriend was kind enough to trawl the internet to find them for my birthday. They look so pretty on my shelves, make the perfect blog prop, and the cat absolutely loves to chase/play with them!
Here is my July favourites video, please give it a watch and subscribe!

What were your favourites this month?
Follow me on Bloglovin | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Youtube