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! 
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Visiting Leamington Spa and Making Cocktails

Moving away from the town that has been my home for the past three years broke my heart a little, I'm not going to lie. I've made some of the best of friends there, worked my absolute butt off, got my first real job, graduated and bought my first ever pet that's really mine in that town. Although I was super glad to move out of my student house, moving to a new town has definitely been tough for me, especially with my mental health. I've moved away from living with one of my closest friends, and living five doors down from another, to being in the middle of nowhere in a town in which my social life is non-existent. 
So, when one of these lovely ladies had her beautiful baby boy a couple of weeks ago I knew I had to go back. Me and my boyfriend needed to sort out the final bits on our student house, which we'll be officially free of after paying our final bills (thank god!), so it was the perfect time to head down for a couple of days. I had the best of time having newborn baby cuddles with the weeniest little two week old bubba and it was so nice to catch up with his mum, a lady that I couldn't miss more now that I live far away!
We then headed over to a different part of Leamington to spend the evening and stay the night with my old housemate. It feels so strange not to live with her anymore - no more facemask and Vampire Diaries binge nights for me *cue crying*! So, we decided to make the night extra special with a little round of cocktail making (of course). Is there anything better than a night in with your girly in your PJs and a cheeky glass of tipple? Nah. She's a little more experienced than me in the cocktail making department, so I handed the responsibility over and designated myself as Number One Cocktail Taster and Photographer. Of course. 
Here's how we made the gorgeous cocktails I snapped above. To start, we bought a cocktail syrup set with simple coloured sugar and a bottle of prosecco. We had mango, raspberry, mandarin and grapefruit flavours and they were heavenly. This set actually came from ALDI, so it was by no means an expensive cocktail making session! Sorting out the sugar rim was the hardest part for sure: we had to pop the sugar on a plate, make the rim of the glass wet and then swirl it in the sugar. We then popped a shot's worth of syrup in each glass, and filled the rest up with prosecco. Finally we slotted a raspberry on the rim of the glass, because, aesthetics y'know? 
These were such fun and easy to cocktails to make and I had a great time visiting a town that opened its arms to me!
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