Happy New Year you beauts!

I got my inspiration from this blog post here. This Day Zero Challenge is to do 101 things in 1001 days, roughly 2.75 years. That's plenty of time right? I'm going to be doing a mixture of personal goals and fun things that I want to achieve. I'm going to be doing this instead of doing my New Years Resolutions, even though a lot of these are things I want to do this year, it's just a bit nicer to have projects that I can keep going for longer. 

Start: 01/01/2015

Finish: 28/09/2017

Key:

Incomplete

In progress

Completed

Personal:
1. Write 5 Letters to 5 people who changed my life
2. Write a personal mission statement
3. Cook a roast dinner for my family
4. Keep up a savings jar
5. Make a uni scrapbook
6. Write bad memories on a piece of paper then burn it
7. Completely rewrite my CV
8. Go to the spa
9. Do something different for a holiday
10. Go to a concert
11. Go to the Theatre
12. Find 50 things that make me happy 
13. Keep a "my day in six words" diary for a month
14. Create an inspiration board
15. Create a photo collage
16. Create an inspiration book
17. Create a memory jar
18. Sort out my pinterest
19. Sort out my emails
20. Keep my car cleaner (it's white so it gets dirty so quickly)


Purchases:
21. Get a new Phone
22. Throw away all my underwear and start again
23. Throw away all my makeup brushes and buy new ones
24. Buy a Camera
25. Buy a pair of heels (I threw all mine out)
26. Buy completely new bed sheets

Health and Fitness:
27. Do the couch to 5k running plan
28. Do a 30x30 challenge (30 minutes of physical activity for 30 days)
29. Detox January - no alcohol, no bread, no dairy
30. No alcohol for 1 month 
31. Track my progress - take a picture of myself on the 1st of each month
32. Lose 3 Stone
33. Get myself a good workout regime
34. Write a meal plan and actually stick to it for 1 month
35. Find a skincare regime that works for me
36. Get to a healthy BMI

Sell, save and earn:
37. Create a strict budget and stick to it for 4 weeks
38. Make a product to sell on Etsy
39. Only make birthday presents for my family for a year
40. No paying for meals out for a month
41. Save £100 in 1 month (this is hard for me)
42. Do my weekly shop in £20
43. Create a budget and stick to it
44. Get out of debt

Style and beauty:
45. Buy myself an expensive dress when I lose 3 stone (over £50)
46. Get a manicure
47. Get a facial
48. Get a massage
49. Declutter my wardrobe/chest of drawers
50. Get a hair cut (I NEVER ever get my hair cut)
51. Get a spray tan

Travelling and Exploring:
52. Visit my sister at her Uni in Nottingham
53. Visit Paris
54. Stay in a B + B
55. Visit Ireland
56. Go for Brunch
57. Go to a festival
58. Write a travelling bucket list

Career:
59. Get promoted to key holder
60. Get promoted to supervisor

Blogging:
61. Join postcrossing and send 5 postcards around the world
62. Do another blog challenge
63. Reach 30,000 hits on my blog
64. Go to at least 2 blogger events a year
65. Write a weekly post about weight loss in January (January 2015)
66. Improve on my photos
67. Learn HTML
68. Advertise on another blog
69. Design my own advert
70. Get my own Business Cards

Fun:
71. Apply to the GBBO
72. Visit a Zoo
73. Visit an Aquarium
74. Attend the Spring Good Food Show
75. Attend Eat Well Good Food Show
76. Go to the cinema 10 times
77. Read a book my mum or dad recommends to me - Gone Girl
78. Make a playlist of my favourite songs
79. Write a letter to myself to be opened when the 1001 days is over
80. Take a picture for each letter of the alphabet
81. Open a cookbook to a random page and make that recipe
82. Take a photo of the same place for every month for a year
83. Turn the previous challenge into a calendar
84. Make at least 10 things I've pinned on pinterest
85. Write a cookbook
86. Walk around Salisbury Cathedral
87. Learn to knit
88. Bake a Giant Cookie
89. Buy someone my favourite book
90. Bake a Christmas Cake
91. Restore a piece of furniture
92. Have a picnic in the park
93. Go on the London Eye at night
94. Make a Baked Alaska
95. Host a dinner party

Charity:
96. Raise money for Mind Charity
97. Do Race For Life
98. Send a care package to my sisters
99. Donate some clothes to charity
100. Start a yearly donation

101. Write a new list for the next 1001 days

What do you think of all this?

And again, here's to the new year, there's no looking back now...

T is for... Travelling

This is something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time but there is always something in the way that I need to prioritise more.

It’s a shame because the list of places I want to go is ever growing. But you’ve got to dream big!

Here is a list of a few places I want to go:

Ireland

Paris

Rio de Janeiro

India

Japan

Australia

Iceland

Dubai

Do you have any tips for travelling on a budget or just in general?

6 Months of Blogging

Oh Wow. I would never have thought that I had come this far in 6 months. I didn’t think that my blog would be anything like it is today! I have worked with several companies, different bloggers to improve my blog and at the end of last month I started writing for two other websites to gain a bit of experience in different kinds of writing.

Blogging has really opened up a whole new world to me, I have been able to do things that never would have happened if I hadn’t started blogging and I’ve shared a journey with people that I never thought I would do.

It sounds really cringe but I’m quite proud of myself, I have my own little space that I can do absolutely anything with! I am completely dedicated to this (as you can see) and a lot of the time that isn’t always the case. I mean there aren’t many things that I have managed to self motivate myself to keep it going and achieve something, but here I have! And it feels pretty damn great.

If I could list everything I wanted to do with my blog we’d probably be here until next year, so to avoid boring you to death, I’m going to share my top 3 that I hope to achieve in the next 6 months by which time it will be a whole year of blogging!

I want to seriously improve my photography skills (they are absolutely shocking right now)

I want to learn a bit more about designing so that I can change my blog to how I want it

Which leads on to…

I want to learn how to code and to some HTML, this seems pretty key with designing and even in basic writing

For me, this would really improve my blog and take it to the next level in the way that I want it to.

Day Zero Challenge

This is actually something I only want to touch on briefly as I am going to do my full post on it at the end of December, plus I need to think of 101 things!

I got my inspiration from this blog post here. This Day Zero Challenge is to do 101 things in 1001 days, roughly 2 and a half years. That’s plenty of time right? I’m going to be doing a mixture of personal goals and fun things that I want to achieve. There are so many categories I could list my challenges under, I need the next month or so to finalise what challenges I want to do!

You can also find the official website for it here.

Have you got any suggestions? Have you set yourself any challenges to do?

G… is for goals

Goals are important, no matter how big or small they are. It’s good to have something to work towards. I think everyone has goals, even if they don’t really realise it.

I have my long-term goals, like my weight loss and finding the right job for me. I also have short-term goals, like planning a few trips and completing the couch to 5k challenge.

Some people prefer to be spontaneous but I find that doesn’t always work for me, and I’ll just end up sat around doing nothing if I don’t make plans.

My goals are really important in my day-to-day life, keeping me motivated and focusing on what it actually important. They play a big part in deciding where my future takes me. Read my previous post on the future here.

Where will I be in 5 years time?

This is a question I get asked quite a lot, even if I prefer not to be asked!

However, I’ve been thinking about it more recently. I mean my future is happening now; I’m not a kid anymore.

At the moment I’m living in Kingston which is half an hour from central London. As long as I can remember I have always wanted to live in London but for now I’m happy enough in Kingston. I would definitely want to live in or near Kingston in 5 years time.

I would also love to reach my goal weight (this will obviously happen( but also to maintain it. People will lose weight but will often gain more than they lost. So I want to be able to find the right balance to maintain my weight at a healthy level so I am not stuck in this position again.

This blog has become so important to me over the past couple of months (sorry, not sorry, that I keep going on about it). So, saying this, as it becomes more popular on a daily basis, it would be fantastic if I could make it something reasonably big. I’m already looking to invest more time into it and looking into getting a logo and better blog format. Are there any computer geniuses out there that could help a girl out? I’m really hoping to get it noticed a bit more, if you could share it with your family and friends I would really owe you one!

One other thing I’ve wanted to do for about 6 years now, but never had enough knowledge, ideas or a topic for it, is a recipe book. Now that I have managed to find my creative side, it seems like the right time to do it, or make a start at least.

The last thing of where I would like to be in 5 years time is having a flat or small house. Renting or buying isn’t really an issue. It is more the point of having my own space and being able to have it how I want it. I’ve mentioned before that I am crazy organised so I would really love to have an office space where I can have inspiration and motivation boards, shelves all neatly arranged with everything in folders and somewhere for all my stationary (I have a lot, it is practically everywhere).

Ok, so I know what you’re thinking, she hasn’t mentioned having a boyfriend, settling down and getting married. Sure it would be great if that happened but that will happen on its own and there is no need to rush that right now.

As for my career, I’m still weighing up options and I will have to keep you posted about that one.