My Month In Photos - July 2018.
My month in photos - July 2018.
When I looked back to my bullet journal calendar for July I couldn't quite believe it all happened in the same month. If you'd asked me whether I had 5 different people staying in my house in the same month I'd have laughed it off but never the less, 5 I had.
July whizzed by and it brought about the biggest change in my life probably since my niece was born three years ago. Enough waffling, you all know I got a job, let's just get into the nitty gritty shall we?
*side note, I wrote that intro on July 29th and am now finishing the rest of the post and publishing on August 6th so that's what full time work does for ya kids.
What I Did;
I got a flippin job is what I did. There will be a proper blog post (or three) coming at some point this month when I have the time to explain why I did it and what exactly it is I do but if you want the highlights you can follow me on Instagram where I post daily updates on my story. I applied on July 10th, had my interview on the 13th, got the offer on the 16th and started on the 24th and have been fully flung in the deep end since then. Obviously it's taken up all my time since and I promise I'll get into it at some point but for now here's a lil summary of what I got up to for the rest of the month....
I kicked off July with a sunny weekend, working the last day of June at an event with the cider company and then seeing July in with pizzas and friends. I went to my pals house by the sea for the evening with another friend and we had a Dominos and cuddled cute babies and sat outside for hours and hours until the sun went down and had a lovely old catch up.
Immediately after that I had my bestie and godson travel all the way down from Manchester to stay with us for 4 days which literally seems like a lifetime ago. It was so good to finally have them in South Wales and my godson was the dream house guest (which is saying something for a 10 month old). We ate loadsa good food, had a takeaway, watched Love Island, visited my Mum's house, went shopping in Cardiff and they slotted into my daily routine like they'd been there all the time. You know the kinda guests that you say 'treat it like you're own home' and they do and you can go about your business as normal? Yeah that. The dream. We also had pancakes with loadsa fruit one morning when the baby was napping and it was amazing.
The day they left I took my niece to nursery whilst they had breakfast, raced back to see them off then raced back to my Mum's house to look after my niece for the afternoon. This was also the week I absolutely decked it and gave myself an abundance of injuries that stood the test of time for weeks and with all that racing about you can probably see why. After my niece went home at teatime I packed my bags and the following morning drove up to Bristol to stay with my old housemate from uni. She's getting married next year and ya gal here is a bridesmaid so we had a VERY hot sunny weekend in Brizzle bridesmaid dress shopping and it was a joy. It was sooo nice to see the other bridesmaids again and catch up, we found the most gorge dresses we all loved (and such bargains) and generally chilled out with pizza and cheesy chips and it was a super nice weekend.
Because of the never ending heatwave and my impending job we did loads of fun stuff with my niece to end the time we have together as childcare on a high note so we went to the beach loads and went to our local National Trust property. I did much crying over the fact it was coming to an end and she was none the wiser but we had a lovely time enjoying the sunshine and getting bloody soaked in the sea. Jos and I also took the dog for a walk down the beach on evening with a McDonalds. We chased the sunset, skipped stones (or failed on my part) and listened to the England semi final match on my phone.
I did loads of life admin stuff in preparation for my job too like Ikea trips for new furniture for my house renovations, lots of stocking of the cupboards and the odd takeaway thrown in when we just couldn't be bothered to cook. I was on the cider stall for a full day at a local county show which was nice as the other stall holders were round about our age (not common) so we had a lot of bants and listened to the tennis on someone's phone. I was there again a week or so later when Jos was feeling ill in the sun to take over on his stall which was insanely hot but was my last market for a little while whilst I settled into the job. We also packed up my office from my Mum's the day before I started work and nearly gave our van a flat with all the stuff I had in there which is now all dumped in my hallway awaiting it's new room.
We did lots of nice family stuff this month too with a few birthdays which meant takeaways and movie nights for both, plus some quality time with my niece and my Mum in some local NGS open gardens where we taught her how to play badminton and she nicked my racket. One evening I left Jos ill at home cos I am a top girlfriend and went to my brother and his fiancée's house with their friends for a games night and yes, I did win at Cards Against Humanity and no, I have never been beaten thanks for asking.
Right when I started work you'd think it would have slowed down but ohhh no my friends, it only got busier (and hasn't really stopped but that's a story for another day). After my first day Jos took me out for a meal to celebrate which was nice and then the following day after work I went back to my Mum's to see my niece cos lol, missing her already. Following that, as if that wasn't enough, I deep cleaned my house and rearranged it all as the last weekend of the month saw our American side of the family fly home for a week to stay with us and wedding plan which was super nice. We also got fed every day by Jos' mum so we could eat with them so that was also v ideal.....
What I Watched;
Maybe it'll come as no surprise to you that I really didn't have that much time for TV in July. I didn't get hooked on Love Island this year because lord it's just such a commitment to watch something every day for THAT long isn't it? But when my pal from uni was down it gave me the excuse to kinda get into it and soz, I called the fact Georgia was a loyal knob before you lot saw it for yourselves. And obvs I wanted Jani to win, is there anyone that didn't? Because of the many many birthdays we actually got to see a few films this month too starting with The Darkest Hour which was amazzzing and ending with Pitch Perfect 3 with a chippy which is the most me night in you can ever have. Other than that, can't tell ya a single thing I have seen soz.
What I Worked On;
Not a hell of a lot tbh that wasn't in office work. I feel like I have been palming you all off for months whilst I have been job hunting but unwilling to talk about it but my motivation for my own business took a nose dive when I realised it wasn't going to be my full time job anymore and I stopped working and blogging almost exclusively because of it. More on that in the future but in July, aside from learning 832918742872367 office related things, I created some really cute wedding and welsh wedding cards which you can see on my Etsy and I have been working on a commission for a print for a friend which will be complete this week!
What I Journaled;
Another thing I can finally talk about! I really didn't want to talk about my job or the fact I needed one or job hunting for a long long time and whilst I will now (maybe this month, maybe in 13892718 years when I have time), for a while even my bullet journal brought me no joy. I have written before about how I use two bullet journals per year so July saw the start of the new one and tbh it takes so much work to outline a new journal I just kinda didn't bother. I filled in my July and August calendars and my habit tracker and my weekly spread but I didn't really bother with the rest. In fact it's still barely started even now, just loads of blank pages with pencilled in titles wishing to be drawn in but it's SO time consuming and I felt like any free time I had should have been spent job hunting not journaling. At least it explains my lack of bullet journal posts since the year dot anyway.
What I did do though I did well, even if I do say so myself. I started my new berry coloured journal and my Pinterest boards are looking mint and my use of colour is making me all kinds of happy. I used a new layout for birthdays which I loooove, added colour coding to my monthly calendars, streamlined my habit tracker, made a new steps tracker which is way more practical, updated my mood spread alongside one for the weather and created a sleep log I am much more happy with. Primarily though, I tracked all the millions of jobs I applied to and that's basically the same for the past few months, I just never showed ya.
What I Blogged;
No surprises here, blogging took a back seat, as it has done for the past few months. I feel like this post is just me making excuse after excuse but between the constant rhetoric that blogging is dead plus my lack of motivation plus no time, blogging hasn't been my number one gal for a while and that makes me sad because I still properly love it.
In July I only posted 6 times and 3 of those were my normal monthly favs like my June version of this post, my social media stats and my advertisers. On the plus side, the posts I did write I actually really enjoyed composing, you guys liked them and it felt like the old me again. Sure my love letter to summer and my ode to my body were good and all but it was the auntie guilt one that I love the most for sure.
What I Bought;
July was a weird one for my for shopping because I spent an absolute fortune in 3 different trips to Primark but due to their weird ass sizing changes I ended up getting 60 quid refunded for stuff that didn't fit. What I did buy though I absolutely love, from mustard coloured tops to weekend vibes t shirts. From new skirts to the jazziest earrings ever, I really love each piece I got and have had loads of wear out of them since. Just at the end of the month I bought a new desk and storage unit from Ikea to deck out my new office which I am excited to put up and of course, we got our beaut bridesmaid dresses. I also had a car service which set me back a cool 200 squids which was less enjoyable but these cars don't run themselves ya know.
And that huns is it for another month! Only a week late but it's always the best post to get typing away again to because it's basically one massive catch up. My intention for this month of August is to get my advertisers post live and then hopefully some bits and pieces about my bujo and my new job so hold me to it, keep reminding me on Twitter and Insta and we might get there between us!
