Love from, Florence Grace

Recently, I bought the 2015 film "The Intern", starring Robert de Niro and Anne Hathaway. The film looked funny in the adverts and I love both Hathaway and de Niro so had a good feeling about it.  I was right to have a good feeling- it is a truly brilliant film! I cried all the way through purely down to the sweetness of Robert de Niro in his old age, but also at the great story line. Without giving away too much, Anne Hathaway plays a very ambitious career woman who owns her own massively successful internet company- a total girl boss. Rife with feminist themes, the film portrays Anne's character as one that I could definitely relate to. Throughout the film there were some lines that really meant something to me- I wanted to share some of those with you guys in order to provide you with inspiration yourselves!  "It's 2015, are we really still critical of working mums, still?" "Apparently selling clothes makes us a chick s...

Today I saw a shocking statement on facebook. If you follow me on Twitter, you will have seen me airing my brief thoughts on the topic earlier on today. (Link to original post can be found here due to authors request: HERE ) To cut a long story short, the statement can be summarised with this one line... Curvy girls are just fat girls in denial.  Now, its not secret that I am currently on a weight loss regime and have had, and still do have, many issues with my body image and accepting my size. I don't think I am what people would call 'fat', I'm five foot six and wear a size 10/12 in most clothes. I have wide hips, a big bum and a large chest area, and for that reason, most people describe me as curvy. Never once have I been called 'fat', at least not to my face, and yet apparently that's what I am- a fat person in denial.  Now I'm not about to sit here and lecture people on what weight/shape/size is defined as 'fat', if a...

"Beyonce could throw Blue Ivy in the sea and the Beyhive would be like YASSSSS THROW THAT LIL BITCH" "Beyonce could kill Jay and have all these chicks killing their men too" "Beyonce could nuke a country and the world would be like YES B" Sigh. These statements themselves are far from funny- in fact, the failed attempt at humour is the funniest part of them. In case you aren't clued up on the situation, these statements come around as a series of meme's every time Beyonce does something amazing  totally out of the blue that gets the world talking- for example, when she dropped Lemonade.  Now people who share these kinds of memes and jokes are right in the fact that Beyonce has a huge amount of support no matter what she does, and she certainly does set her fans of into a mad frenzy, creating a world wide movement of mass hysteria every time. However, the people who share these meme's forget one teeny, tiny detail... ...

Today I've been super busy, hence the lateness of today's post! Rather than try to make a good post for you when I am super tired, I thought I'd just give you a chatty update about what's been going on with me. Well, I have two damn words for you, pals: Google Analytic's. Seriously, what is up with that. Kindly, my blogger friend Fiona set it up for me today (at long last, it's only been nearly two years since I started my blog! I highly recommend her for all blog related services) and I have been left feeling absolutely crushed at the statistics I have seen. Today, Google Blogger told me I hit 81,000 page views on my blog, and I couldn't have been happier- I wanted to hit 100,000 for my blogs second birthday and now this seemed in reach!  And then GA decided to slap me in the face, showing me that my apparent actual page views are not even half of that. Not even half . Not even a quarter.  It also told me that most of my readers are fr...

A lot of films are only half as successful as they are because of their epic sound tracks. Some films are absolutely awful and are saved entirely by the fact that they have a good sound track. At the end of the day, music is everything. Here is a list of films that I think have the best soundtrack! Pulp Fiction. My personal favourite: Let's Stay Together: Al Green. The Breakfast Club. My personal favourite: Don't You (Forget About Me)- Simple Minds. The Great Gatsby. My personal favourite: Young and Beautiful- Lana del Ray. Lemonade.  My personal favourite: Hold Up/Sorry/Don't Hurt Yourself/All Night- Beyonce. AMY. My personal favourite: Stronger Than Me- Amy Winehouse Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging.  My personal favourite: In the Morning- The Coral/ Young Folk- Peter, Bjorn and John Juno.  My personal favourite: Anyone Else But You- Moldy Peaches ...

Of course you knew it was coming- a blog post on my one true love, Beyonce, and her visual album 'Lemonade'. I had basically watched it on launch day via people's streams of tweets but unfortunately, without HBO, I couldn't really  watch...so I wanted to wait until I'd experienced it in all of it's glory before writing about it for you guys. Well. I have one word for you all. Wow. That is literally all that I can say. We moaned at Beyonce via social media, we complained about the fact she was taking her sweet time to bring out more music for us, but I can absolutely forgive her now because the wait was 100% worth it. It is an absolute masterpiece from the lyrics, to the melodies, the political messages, the strong story line running throughout the visuals that tie the songs together...I just physically can't put into words how incredible it is.  Beyonce touches on some hugely  important issues surrounding police brutality and racism, parti...

Everyone knows I'm a firm feminist- I don't exactly keep my views on the subject of gender equality secret! I'm very open about it. I have also been open about the fact that my mum and one of my sisters don't necessarily choose to identify with the label 'feminist', and how that's often hard for me.  However, today my mum launched her personal trainer business and a friend tweeted me to congratulate my mum and said "a family of hard working, enterprising women". And I suddenly realised that whilst I'm not necessarily surrounded by women who label themselves feminists, I am definitely surrounded by women who take the opportunities they've been provided thanks to feminism and have begun to pave the way for brilliant futures.  My parents split up when I was 15 (wow that long ago already?!) and since then I have lived in a house with four women, myself, my mum and two sisters now aged 18 and 13. In the last five years all three o...

Today I received some very exciting news... I'm going to be a princess! Okay, okay, it's only going to be for a day but still - how exciting?  Basically a few weeks ago, I heard my town was putting on it's first ever 'proper' May Fair and were looking for a May Queen. Straight away I applied, because a) I am a queen and deserve to have the official title and b) I wanted to wear a crown. Lols. Anyway, a few weeks passed and I heard nothing until this morning!  The judges emailed me to explain that they had selected a young woman with learning disabilities to be the May Queen but that there had been a unanimous decision that she should have two princesses by her side to accompany her and assist her with royal duties on the day. They wanted one of these princesses to be me- and so of course, I accepted!  I get a floral bracelet made of real flowers that will co ordinate with the colour of my dress (pink, of course) and will be driven to the e...

Snakes. They are everywhere .  I'm not talking the kind of snake with scales that eat deers whole- that would be pretty terrifying. No, I'm talking about the kind of snake disguised as your best friend, your pal- and to me, they're even more scary than a real  snake.  If you still don't get what I mean, I'm taking about people with two faces- three, four, five faces! Recently I have been surrounded by such snaky people and to be honest with you all, I am sick of it.  Is it really that hard to be a genuine person with everyone that you meet?  I am a very genuine and honest person. If I don't like you, believe me , you will know about it! I will be courteous if I have  to be for whatever reasons, but if I don't have to acknowledge you, I won't. You aren't someone I like or want to be in my life so I won't pretend that you're a part of mine. I will just act as though you don't exist.   Now, that doesn't mean I ...

You may or may not know by now that I run my own magazine, Love from... . Its a lifestyle magazine funded solely by myself. I have an incredible team of writers, most of whom are bloggers who work full time, are studying, have families etc. and still find the time to write for me on a voluntary basis. I don't profit from the magazine in any way, shape or form- but it's not about that for me anyway! It's just about being able to do what I love, all of the time!  Recently, I'v been stuck in a bit of a rut with the magazine, struggling to find advertisers or to grow the readership to an even larger number. I've had several rants to several people, several ideas, some great and some awful, and now I have come to one conclusion;  It is time for the relaunch.  On June 1st not only will we be releasing the fifth issue of the magazine, but it will also be the magazine's first birthday! So with a new year is going to come a new start. Have no fea...

 Feeling great. I'm running my own business. I'm my own boss. I'm awesome. Go me. Damn it's hard being my own boss. So much to do. Let me watch another episode of Gossip Girl first. Yay! Someone has bought something! Money in the bank like ch-ching biatch! I'm so rich right now. Ugh my expenses are way more than my profit. Can I claim the money back for excessive wifi usage??? Why is nothing going right? I should be the next Zuckerburg right now omg. UGH I JUST WANT TO GIVE UP. Give me a job in retail any day of the week. Sits in horrible slump for the next week. Because honestly, what's the point? I'm going to end up penniless, homeless and alone.  OOH something good has happened. Cue positive email, something being bought or some great customer feedback etc. YAY. All is well again. And repeat.  Love from, Florence Grace Like this? Why not try... 10 things you...

Last night, the final episode of The People v. OJ Simpson: American Crime Story aired. After a thrilling, tense and exciting series made up of ten episodes and an all star cast, I know I was not alone in feeling the disappointment that it was all over.  Now, obviously we know that OJ got off with a "not guilty", despite having a different result in civil court shortly after. I am totally undecided as to whether he did it or not, but I feel like for most of me thinks that he does. The statistics about his blood samples, the gloves, various other DNA samples and the fact that Robert Kardashian, his best friend, thought he did it just seem to sway it for me. But with all of the evidence that the prosecuting team kept putting forwards to the jury, why did OJ end up being "not guilty"? Of course there are a number of reasons; it was a case run by people's emotions, rather than by people taking in the cold hard facts. It was a case that turned into a medi...

Working from home has it's major advantages- but it's not all sunshine and rainbows ! I have a few jobs, so I currently work part time from home, running Love from... magazine and as a freelance journalist, and then I work part time in nurseries and at my local Topshop. I love the balance I have, but sometimes there are days when I wished I worked fully out of the house and days where I wished I worked fully from home, and very often I'm also hit with "you're so lucky getting to work from home!"- so I thought I'd share the pro's and con's of working from home with you!  PRO'S. - You can have lie in's, it doesn't matter when you wake up and start working because you're your own boss! - Similarly, you can stay up as late as you like, working through the night if you choose because, again, you have no set time to wake up in the morning. - You can work from your bed- amazing, right? - You can cuddle your...

Weight loss, body image and feeling comfortable in your own skin is something I blog about pretty regularly. As of April 1st, I began trying a new technique for losing weight and getting fitter. Rather than restricting myself to a strict diet that I knew I would fail at all over again, I set myself something a little more realistic- doing 10,000 steps a day and eating a set amount of calories per day; 1,400 to be exact. If I go over the calories, I have to do more steps, simple as!  Well, it's been two weeks since I started this regime so I thought that I would update you guys on how it's going. I have quite often been below my calorie intake, normally consuming 1,200 rather than 1,400. Sometimes I have gone over (usually at the weekend when I have a movie night with my sister or something similar!). I have only once  hit my goal of 10,000 steps. I usually average between 5,000 and 7,000. Considering I used to do only 2,000 steps (according to the app I am using) th...