2015 Round Up

For some reason I didn't do a review of 2014 - perhaps because 2014 was absolutely shit - but hey ho. Onwards and upwards. Here's a quick review of my year.

January
Nothing much happened in January, nothing much really ever happens in January. Mainly the month was spent sleeping, drinking and pole dancing. Not knowing if my job would be extended past March, I went for an interview at a 'rival' NHS Trust (but didn't get the job!)

Oooph. Yeah, this pose hurts.

February
In February I drove down to Stone Henge with my ex-boyfriend, an English Heritage site, and visited Ireland with my job for my first international recruitment trip (very exciting, much Guinness was consumed). I also enjoyed the Six Nations with a few good pints.

It was a tad chilly.

March

March saw my first invert in pole dancing, as well as a visit to Harry Potter World (Watford) as a very belated birthday present for my ex. I started to accept that my ex really was leaving in a months time and considered where I wanted to go next - back to uni? Move abroad? Stay in my current role and hope that my contract became permanent? In the end my job was extended to March 2016 and I started to look at work experience and volunteering for whenever I decided to go back to university.

Oh me? Just chilling.

April
Not a great month in some ways, a fantastic month in others. Actually, looking back, it was one of those months that felt like the world was imploding but actually it's a month that has changed me as a person for the better. My ex moved out at the end of the month and I moved back home; but more significantly I applied for a Masters program in Occupational Therapy. Four days before the deadline. Feeling incredibly raw and unloved, I spent the last few days of April licking my wounds and hoping that this might be the change I need. 

May
Well, if April was the worst month of the year, then May was one of the best ones. I went to see Avenue Q (absolutely hilarious, you must go see it!), had a lovely birthday, did my first 10km run (in just a few seconds over an hour) and most of all, got an interview for the Masters course I applied for on the spur of the moment. I started working out more and running more regularly. I also started volunteering with an amazing local charity called Lindengate who work with service users with a history of mental illness and promote health through socio-therapeutic horticulture. 

June

Throughout June I got the chance to spend time with my family, as my Mum, sister and I banded together to surprise my Dad with a day trip to a local lake and beauty spot for Fathers Day. Unfortunately my tickets for the Foo Fighters at Wembley were cancelled as Dave Grohl broke his leg in an earlier show and I took a trip up North to visit two universities with a view to studying next September. One was massively unsuccessful and had me questioning my new career choice but the other was significantly more positive. 

July
Where to start with July? Busy busy month. But an amazing one! Firstly, the annual Summer Ball happened and as always, it was a fantastic night out with lots of laughter and fun. We had another family outing, this time to Waddesdon Manor, a local National Trust estate home. I got tickets for the rescheduled Foo Fighters gig and picked up a couple more for Of Monsters and Men and Bullet for My Valentine. More pole dancing happened but most importantly I received a very important letter telling me I'd been accepted to study on the Masters I interviewed for back in May. 

August
August started with a bang as I attended one of my best friend's hen dos, comprising of a high ropes obstacle course and then a lot of drinking! Her wedding came in August as well and I had a wonderful time with old friends celebrating the marriage of a fantastic couple. Far too much champagne was consumed! As well as celebrating with old friends, I spent time celebrating the unique fun of pole dancing with new friends. I made a decent start on baking my way through the Great British Bake Off 2015, but ultimately would succumb to the evil of 'no time to bake' 5 weeks in. (N.B. no photos of August because apparently... I spent nearly all of it drunk).

September

I performed my first ever pole routine in my school's competition and had a whale of a time watching everyone else dance, Saw the Foo Fighters perform at the MK Bowl (one to tick off the music bucket list!). Made an awful, awful cheesecake and an even worse beetroot cake. But I did make a pretty special fox cake - see below - and saw The Great British Bake Off; An Extra Slice being filmed - and got to meet Mat, the baker who left that week after the filming! Lets not talk about the main event of September too much, eh? Even though the English performance in the Rugby World Cup was horrendously disappointing, I did have a great evening seeing Fiji vs Uruguay and I will never forget the Japan vs South Africa game. Exciting stuff. I had a wonderful weekend with the annual Pluck family gathering, this time complete with extended family in attendance.

Francois - He's a sophisticated French victorian gent, thank you very much

October

October bought with it the wind and the rain, as well as my one year pole-anniversary! I ran my first 10k race, finishing 34th out of 87 women, and clocked a time of 56 minutes 15 seconds, on a largely grassy track, which is definitely going to add minutes if you normally run on the road like I do (yeah... that's what I keep telling myself anyway). 2016s 10km aim has therefore become a sub 56 minute 10k. My parents left me to watch house for two weeks, so naturally I responded by having an awesome house party with some old friends. Hallowe'en came and went in a blur of zombie cheerleader makeup and tequila shots.

Foot grab Gemini hold

November

Even though it was only November, our pole studio's Christmas party was an excellent way to start the month and Christmas festivities (!) as well as an opportunity for some crazy drunken pole dancing. The day after was filled with more friends and board games as we all tried to recover... Later on in the month I travelled to Sheffield to sort out paperwork for my course and got a chance to meet some of the people I'll be working and studying with for the next two and a half years. I rounded off the month with the Of Monsters and Men gig in Lincoln, which was fantastic. 

December

As it should be, December has been filled with friends, family and lots of festive cheer. By and large I have been making my way around saying goodbye to all the wonderful people I know and love here in my little town in Buckinghamshire whilst trying to remember that Sheffield isn't that far away! A beer festival happened... which was filled with lots of lovely beer and listening to some amazing live bands and ended up in me home by 10pm. My Dad took me and my mum to see the Cambridge vs Oxford varsity rugby match at Twickenham for a great day out. I finished my job with the recruitment team a couple of weeks ago and am now in full swing of getting everything sorted out for the big move next weekend. I went ice skating for the first time in a good few years with my family as a Boxing Day outing and welcomed in the New Year with friends old and new. 

All I can say is... I hope 2016 carries on in the same manner, with lots of great new friends, keeping in contact with the old ones and many more exciting adventures, whether they're drunk, sober or in between! I'm off to university next week to study Occupational Therapy and relive my student years (for about two weeks, until the hard work starts again!). I don't think I'd have believed you this time last year if you'd said it was going to be this good. But it was. It was better than I could ever have hoped for. Most of all, I've learnt this year that happiness doesn't come from others, it comes from yourself. 

My brief goals for 2016: 

- Carry on pole dancing

- Come out of my first year of my Masters with good grades and placement feedback

- Carry on running (2 x 5k races, 1 x 10k race, start training for a half marathon in 2017) 

- Enjoy myself along the way!

- Find a volunteering project similar to Lindengate up in Sheffield in my free time
- Get this blog and my other blog sorted out!
- Lose fat and gain muscle to become mega fit.

I hope you've also had a great year and I would love to hear what your goals are!

Instagram Round Up #2

Since my last Instagram round up back in January last year (!) things have changed an awful lot.

Quite frankly, I have little desire to go and reminisce over last year as it was filled with arguments, deaths and break ups, but I truly believe that we can see beauty in the most dark of places if we look hard enough... so here are some of my favourites photos from the last year and 3 months.

Last year we welcomed Ben and Jerry (Top left and right corners) into our lives and I passed my driving test! I've started to get more involved in my jewellery making and baking, as well as going to the gym - I love working out now. Last year proved to me that family is more than important in my life and I love all of them very much. The blanket in the bottom corner was crocheted for me as a Christmas present by my amazingly talented sister!

I love using Instagram, so don't forget to follow me on there - username is itsanatnat.

You can expect a baking post or two this week coming, as we're having a Red Nose Day bake off at work. Until then, laters!

Instagram Round Up

2013 was, as you can probably tell from my last post, a bit of a hectic year for me so choosing just a handful of photos from my Instagram account to show you was a little hard! 

It was pretty fun to go back through them all and relive the memories that I made. So here below is a selection of my most important events through 2013; both good, bad and ugly. I think my favourite photo in the bunch has to be the third one along on the top line which is of me and my cousin at my sister's wedding. I took it as my sister was having her hair done in the hotel room before we travelled to the church. The whole day was just perfect - filled with friends, family, love and sunshine. 

You can follow me on instagram under 'itsanatnat'. Drop me a comment and let me know your instagram name so I can follow you back! I'm also using my twitter account @NailsandNibbles a lot more now so don't forget to friend me on there too!

2013 Round Up

Lets face it, 2013 was pretty awesome. I'm almost sad to see it go - 2014 has so much to live up to!

In 2013 I...

* Finished my dissertation, and with it my final year of university

Not pictured: 8 weeks of crying, swearing and throwing a Mac across the room trying to compute the stats portion

* Took up an awesomely fun new hobby

My aptitude for hanging upside is somewhat unparalleled.

* Moved back from university and parted ways with some amazing friends (but not forever!)

God dammit those 2am nightclub photos are always so flattering.

* Met my musical hearthrob

*Swoon*

* Threw my sister an awesome (if I do say so myself) hen do

Jazz hands were enforced.

* Graduated from three years of hard work

I'm the one in the hat, in case you were confused

* Moved into a flat with my wonderful boyfriend

The table is still standing, because I didn't build it.

* Had my cake featured on BBC2... Twice.

I cried.

* Took on the role of Maid of Honour at my beautiful sisters wedding

I cried again.

* Completed the Color Run, and with it my first 'official' 5K race. Many more planned for 2014!

Though my 2014 races will probably be less messy....

* Got a job after just a couple of months of searching (no photo for this, unless you want a screenshot of my many, many emails?)

* Went to see my first full rugby match at Wembley Stadium

Unfortunately it was a lose for the Saracens... fortunately, I'm a Harlequins fan.

* Said a very sad goodbye to my lovely childhood friend, Snowball

R.I.P beautiful girl x

Not to end this post on a sad note, but losing Snowie was the last big thing to happen this year. Apart from all of the above it's been work work work... (Gym) Work work work! And I wouldn't change it for the world. Love my job and who I work with, love my flat and who I live with, love my family and friends even though we're not all in one place.

Happy New Year guys. May this one be even better than the last.
x

June round up

4 days until the end of June, where has the time gone? Next thing you know it'll be Christmas!

I'm still unemployed (unless you're a teacher, builder or careworker in my town you're pretty much stuffed...) and there doesn't seem to be a job on my horizon any time soon which is irritating as I need the cash to save for uni next year. I've spent June not really doing much in all honesty, just painting my nails and taking pretty pictures of cats and owls.

Lets jump right in with the fiends of the last month... I got a selection of Soap and Glory sample sized products for my birthday, including a tube of Soap and Glory 'Glad Hair Day' Thick Conditioner. Boots tells me that the full size product is sold for £5.50 - I would be so disappointed if I had paid that myself! This conditioner is sticky and just clumps on my hair and seems to disappear within seconds of me putting it on. My hair doesn't feel any different or like it's been conditioned at all and the few times I've used it, I've had to rewash my hair later on because the conditioner just won't budge. I got the small 50ml bottle and have only got four washes out of it, definitely not value for money and not one I'll be buying again. Which is a shame, as I am a massive Soap and Glory fan!

Previously featured in my dotty nails post from last week is the E.L.F 'Mint Cream' nail varnish. I didn't really talk about it much during that post but unfortunately, it's turned out that I feel the need to talk about it here! Application wise this nail varnish is fine, if a little bit too watery, but it really falls down in the longevity stakes. Even with a heavy wear top coat it chipped and peeled within minutes of hardening. After a few days my nails were showing the amount of wear I'd expect to see from a week of heavy duty typing - not lazing around brushing a cat or two. I love E.L.F products for their price and durability but unfortunately this fell through the cracks for me.

Lastly, it's another make up item that I am slamming this month. When I first heard about Superdrug's launch of their bargain bucket make up range 'MUA' the savvy money saver in me jumped for joy; I picked up my first pieces from the brand the other day. I got two black eyeliner pencils and an eyeshadow and I have to say, even for £1 I'm disappointed. I haven't got a link as the MUA website seems to be broken and Superdrug's website appears to have no knowledge of this product, but it was the intense colour eyeliner pencil in Black that I picked up. What's wrong with it? It doesn't stay on my eye for longer than a minute! Literally, I can apply this to my lower lash line and go to pick my mascara up and it's gone. It's so slippery and fluid that you can't touch it, or it transfers onto your finger. Rubbish.

Now for the things I have loved this month! Firstly, I picked up a jar of Tresemme Deep Conditioning Treatment Masque from Asda for the fantastic price of £4. I've been using this once a week and the results are fantastic - it leaves my hair smooth, shiny and feeling nourished. It also has a lovely scent which isn't overpowering but is sweet and delicate. The jar is quite big (500ml) and I've made barely a dent in it so far, so I predict this is a product I will continue to love for many months to come.

Another birthday gift I received was a bottle of Nirvana Spa Raspberry Milkshake bath and shower gel from the n-spa fruits collection. This stuff smells ah-mah-zing. It's simply gorgeous! I hate eating raspberries but the scent of them is one of my favourites. I've been using this for a month and it leaves my skin feeling lovely and is such a nice smell to wake up to in the morning. It's a great size and really brightens up my bathroom with it's bright pink colour and quirky packaging. And the best bit? Whilst I got mine for my birthday, it retails at just £3 and would make a fantastic gift to anyone you love, even yourself ;)

My third and final love for this month is but a simple one, and probably an odd choice but it's something I couldn't live without now. And it's the cheapest item featured this month! Unfortunately, once again, I have no direct link to buy it if you wish but all you need to do is get yourself down to your local Wilkinsons store and pick up a shower comb. The wide teeth untangle knots with no fuss in the shower (I use mine once I've conditioned) and leave my hair manageable and ready to style when I get out. I had one from Boots which was pretty much the same but cost me about 4 times the price - yes, the shower comb in Wilkinsons set me back just 60p. Best purchase of the month I think!

What have you loved and hated this month? What can't you wait for in July? I'm hoping for some decent weather so I get my shorts out!