Love from, Florence Grace

It's so important to have good friends. In fact, when it comes to friendship, it really is quality over quantity. I don't have a massive number of friends, but all of my friends are people I trust 100% and would do anything for- I love them all to pieces! I'm lucky enough to have close friends that I see every day, some I see less than that, and some I rarely see at all. I have friends from college, friends at work and other people I'm just friend's with!  What I value most about my friendships is that time doesn't affect them at all. It doesn't matter how little or how often we see each other, when we're together it seems like no time has passed at all. Today I saw my gang of best friends (you know them all, I've featured them several times on the blog before!) for the first time in two months ! This is the longest we have ever gone without seeing each other! And yet, when we were together, it was like I'd only seen them last week.  ...

If you've been watching the news, or reading articles online, chances are you will have heard about Harambe, a 180kg male gorilla who was shot dead within his enclosure after a four year old boy somehow fell into his enclosure. Harambe 'played' with the young boy for around ten minutes before his keepers chose to shoot him- from the video footage I've seen, he simply holds the boy up in the water and moves him around a little, he's not violent in any way, shape or form...but there we go.  Thankfully, the boy walked away injury free (despite falling all the way down into the enclosure...) and his parents have released a statement saying how grateful they are that the right people were in the right place at the right time. Most of the world is screaming in anguish at the unnecessary death of Harambe, and as sad as that is, it's not the point.  The point is the developments that have come about as a result of this incident, shared with the public tod...

This morning I was scrolling through my Twitter feed and once again came across several tweets posted from accounts like "Typical White Girl" and all the rest about being...well. Being brats.  It seems the latest ongoing trend throughout 2016 has been for girls to act like brats and expect to be perceived as cute for doing so. I find this idea completely and utterly bizarre! What is 'cute' about being a brat? Stamping your foot because you don't get your own way, throwing tantrums, behaving like nothing more than a toddler screaming in a supermarket because mummy won't buy you a chocolate bar! Why would any girl want to be perceived in this way- and why do they think anyone will believe that they're cute because of it!? Of course, I'm not here to dictate how you should behave to attract a boy or whilst in a relationship- if you want to be a brat then you do you, sure! However I just can't get my head around such a bizarre i...

Do you ever just have a really good day for absolutely no reason? It's just that lots of little, small things add up to make for a totally fabulous day? Well, I had one of those days today!  I didn't do anything wild or remotely worthwhile, not really. I woke up earlier than I would have liked, reminiscing on the night out before, went to work for 6 hours and then went out for dinner with my girlfriends. Lovely, but nothing totally out of the ordinary. However, several small things happened today that really made me smile: I managed to straighten my hair and have it stay straight all day. My boss changed my 5 and a half hour shift to a 6 hour shift so I could have a break, as I hate shifts without  breaks as they tend to go a lot slower. I was complimented on my outfit by a customer that I served.  I saw an old friend from school who told me I "looked great".  Everyone began to receive their copies of Love from... magazine and has said ...

It's Friday and that means its the next instalment of my newest series, FELINE FRIDAYS.  Today, I'm reaching out to my fellow cat lovers with a problem I have with my kittens. They are just under one year old now, in fact, they're exactly eleven months old tomorrow, and recently they've been acting a bit...well, strange. Especially Doris!  They've stopped eating properly. Whilst they will still eat, we will sometimes put a bowl of food down for breakfast and by 10pm its still there, untouched! They have begun wriggling around on their bellies, head butting bags and shoes (and only  bags and shoes, bizarre right?) and yowling over and over, sometimes very loudly- and they were not very chatty cats before! The only conclusion we were able to reach is that they must be 'on heat'. But is this possible before they're even one yet? It seems to be the answer, as it lasts for a few days, disappears and then comes back again, and apparent...

Is there life after death? It's a question I'm sure almost everybody has asked. We all want to know if there's something more  than this, because we struggle to face the idea that once we die, that's it, game over. Finished. We want to believe the stories, the movies, that we will haunt our loved ones, get up to tricks as an unsettled spirit, live on as an angel watching over people. You get the gist. I have always sat on the fence with this one.  I have experienced 'ghostly' activities, things moving around, being flung across my room before my very eyes and so on. Thankfully this was at a previous house and once we moved, they stopped! However, in spite of this, I have still never been sure.  I often watch ghost documentaries with my sisters and my dad that discuss people's 'real life' paranormal encounters and am always left wondering if there could be any truth to their stories. And then there's the book I discussed a...

As we approach the 1st of June with a scarily rapid speed, I can't help but feel a little  freaked out that we are pretty much half way through the year. It's seven months today until Christmas, and seven months and 7 days until 2017. How bloody scary is that?! I genuinely do not understand where the time is going this year, it just seems to be disappearing more and more quickly. Anyway, I wanted to take some time to reflect on the kind of year 2016 has been for me so far. Well. It's definitely been different!  Of course, I expected that this year I'd be getting up to more exciting things with my boyfriend, but at the stroke of 12 on New Years Eve, I entered 2016 single- quite literally feeling like it was a new year with a new me. I didn't think I would be able to cope, I didn't see how my life would be able to go on after such a harsh and sudden adjustment after nearly five and half years of a set routine. But something magical happened.  ...

Just as the title suggests, let's talk about boobs. Because to be honest, I've had enough.  I mean, it's annoyed me before, but it wasn't until last night when I saw a certain post that I had to "go off on one" shall we say. That's right, I ranted about boobs, on Twitter, for all of the world to see. This was the post that triggered it: Now of course  it wasn't Halle Berry's response that made me angry, because she was amazing! It was the person tweeting her! Not only did they get Halle's name wrong  but their comment is just ludicrous- and also suggests they have never seen a pair of boobs before! Here's some fun facts about boobs... Everyone's boobs are different. Different shapes, weights, sizes. No one has the same pair of boobs.  The vast majority of people have one boob larger than the other- usually this is the left boob. No one's boobs are symmetrical because guess what? The human body isn't s...

Today I did something very exciting...I got my first set of eyelash extensions! It's really bizarre because I had been contemplating getting them and then all of a sudden my best pal Abby was like "hey, I've done a course in eyelash extensions and need some people to practice on for free, you up for it?"- so of course I was like yes !  I was a little nervous as I've heard mixed reviews about eyelash extensions. Some people said that they were great, some people said they ended up damaging the natural lashes- overall though, it was obvious that it just depended on where you got the lashes done and whether you looked after them correctly.  I was also nervous because Abby had told me it would take two hours  to do and that most people end up falling asleep- something I definitely didn't want to do! What would I do without my phone for two hours? What if I needed a wee? What if my eyelids got glued together? Of course, I had no need to worry. Ab...

Guys, I have 10 minutes to spare- I totally  forgot about todays blog post! Here's a quickie for ya... My life has been a bit like Made in Chelsea at the moment- boy drama, girl drama, more boy drama and...yep, more boy drama! I don't understand why boys feel they can play girls off against each other? Especially girls who are, oh, I don't know, best friends?! It's crazy, do they think we won't communicate with each other about who we're talking to? They surely can't be that  dumb?! Of course, I'm sure the same can be said about the behaviour of some girls too, but as I'm only interested in men I only have one perspective! Let's also discuss the C Bomb shall we... Nope, not the one you're thinking of. "Chill". Nothing gets my girl Xenia riled like a boy dropping the C Bomb on her, and I know I feel the same. If I'm angry about something, it's because you've done something worth being angry over. Boy, do...

Hey, it happens to the best of us. You're on a blogging roll and then out of nowhere, poof. All inspiration and post ideas, gone! It's more than a little frustrating and can really hold you back from writing. Here's some tips to help you get that motivation and inspiration back! Read. As a lifestyle writer, I like to read articles on current issues, and often this provokes a reaction from me, which I choose to then blog about. You can read all genre's of magazines to provide you with the right kind of inspiration for you blog. You could even go beyond magazines, seeking out articles online, in the papers, or maybe even just reading a book!  Take a break. If you tend to sit down and write numerous blog posts in one day, then you can use up all of your inspiration very quickly. Take a break from blogging, step away from the computer and do something different. Tidy your work space, go for a walk, bake a cake...any of this could lead to further inspira...

I wanted to start a 'series' on my blog recently but had absolutely no inspiration as to what I could do. It wasn't until I whipped my laptop out this morning to write today's blog post and had one of my two fur babies flop across the keyboard, as per, in order to prevent me from writing that I had a lightbulb moment. I should do a cat series!  I write about my cats quite often on Twitter and share images on my Instagram of them too. My sister (embarrassingly) made them their own Instagram account too, which has actually had pictures taken from for larger Instagram cat accounts! Of course, my series needed a name, and as it's Friday, Feline Friday just seemed to work!  So here's the introductory post to the new series, FELINE FRIDAY. Today I shall introduce you to my two little fur babies, Doris and Elsie.  They were born sometime around the end of June (not exactly sure, I shall have to check that with my sister!) and belonged to my mums fr...

I've spoken about my favourite books before, all of which were fictional novels for young adults (okay, okay, one of them was a children's book), but there's one book I always forget about. A book which moves me to tears, fills me with rage, a book in which I feel every word, every emotion that has been poured into each chapter. Which book am I talking about? "Goodbye, Dearest Holly" by Kevin Wells.  Source: www.easons.com If the title hasn't given it away, the book is written by the father of murdered school girl Holly Wells, who, along with her friend Jessica Chapman, were tragically killed back in 2002. Their story was such  a high profile case that you can't have missed it, and even now is brought up in the news, with Kevin appearing on TV towards the end of last year. The whole world felt this case, in a similar way to the way the world feels the disappearance of Maddie McCann, and it's one that has never left people's minds. ...

Do you know what really sucks? Friends who don't support you.  Am I really completely mad for thinking that your friends should support you in all that you do? (As long as it's safe/healthy etc. of course!). I have a brilliant group of friends around me currently, and I've never been so happy with who I spend my time with. They're positive, they life me up, support me, encourage me and I think that's really amazing. I don't have many friends but it's definitely about quality, not quantity, and I think I've got the balance right!  I did have more friends, but as the New Year rolled around, I cut them off. Not in a nasty way, not with any kind of negative actions. I simply stopped bothering to send them messages, stopped texting and calling, stopped trying to arrange meet ups. These people never tried to speak to me, never tried to see me, so why should I bother? Most importantly of all, they never supported me, and I wasn't going to...

Today I saw a quote on Twitter that really resonated with me. "Sometimes we are so focused & worried about the next move, that we don't look back & appreciate how far we've come & how much we've achieved" It was tweeted by Michael Buck Maris (@buckotb) and retweeted by Remel London (@Remel_London) which is how it ended up on my own timeline. At first I scrolled past it, not too bothered, and then I looked back and re read it, letting the words sink in properly. And I realised it is so  true. I spend so much of my time focusing on what's happening next for me- the next big career move I'm going to make, the next article I will write for a magazine, the next move I'm going to make for my magazine and so on. I do this all  the time, getting overly stressed out and getting really worked up. Something I never do is take the time to sit back and look at the things I have achieved, especially achievements that look so 'small...

Have you ever just felt super content with life? Like, not everything is 100% perfect but for some reason you're just super happy anyway? I hope you all feel that way right now, because I definitely do! I don't know if its just the good weather automatically putting me in a good mood or if its because I have so many exciting things happening over the next few months but I'm just really happy right now! Here's some things I've recently been happy about... I had a good review at work and it's really motivated me to try harder, perform better and appreciate working there!  I'm surrounded by so many fabulous people who lift me up, support me and love me- friends both old and new and my family as well. I've managed to cut off pretty much all the people who were bringing negativity to my life and it's a great feeling.  The thought of going on holiday with my best friends in just over a month! I've never been on holiday with friends, ...

So as you will know, I've been trying (yet again ) to slim down, tone up and boost my health. I've been trying to get in 10,000 steps a day (or as close as I can) by going on long walks, which has been especially nice now that the weather is better in the evenings! I've also done something else a little different the past two days... I have cut down on my carbs! Now, those of you who know me will know what a huge  deal this is for me. Bread, pasta, crisps , it's all my favourite! I eat carbs excessively and not much else, due to the fact I strongly dislike almost all fruit and vegetables! However, my mum has been encouraging me to cut back on the carbs and I have already  seen a difference!  Of course, I can't- and never would- cut out carbs completely. But I am trying to only have one, maybe two carb-y things a day. For example, my carbs were the bread in my sandwich, and three small new potatoes with my dinner- I had salad and a chicken breast w...

Exactly one year and one day ago I pressed publish on my last YouTube video. I only made six videos and none of them were particularly spectacular, but for the short time that I was creating this content, I really enjoyed myself. Yesterday, I was having a conversation with my youngest sister about how much I missed performing on stage. When I was younger, I played a variety of instruments and performed at numerous locations, both in competitions and for fun, playing music for crowds that varied from being as small as the school hall to as large as the Royal Albert Hall. The feeling performing gave me was unlike anything else. When I did my TV  presenting work and whilst I was a radio presenter, I had that same feeling, and so naturally I came to the conclusion that I just love giving something back to a large audience- playing them songs, performing or simply just chatting. I love it all. And whilst writing is my true love, presenting/performing comes a pretty close secon...

I can be a pretty emotional person when it comes to TV shows and movies. However, at the moment there's one advert  that really gets to me and I well up every time for a totally inexplicable reason. Every time it comes on YouTube I actually refuse to skip it. I get goose bumps, my chest goes all tight and I become overcome with a weird  emotion that I can't quite place. Here's the advert I'm talking about:             Weird, right?! I can't help it though! There's just something about it, from the choice of song to the clips included, I just get so emotional! I think it all actually boils down to one thing though, and that's pride. I have a huge sense of pride when I watch this video because I know I've helped to make these moments happen, I've shared them, retweeted them, watched them, laughed at them. I've used the hashtags to help find the dancing man, I've welled up over the Obama's dancing, I used the hashtag to show supp...

I am mad. Like, really, really mad. Everyone knows how defiantly I will fight against women's body image issues in the media, everyone knows what a firm feminist I am and everyone knows I run what is predominantly a woman's magazine that doesn't  focus on women's bodies or looks. It's all very important to me.  So you can only imagine my fury when my friend sent me a link to this article:  What the actual heck?! I could not believe my eyes! It makes me angry enough to see articles about being "beach body ready" in magazines such as Cosmo or Heat or whatever, but to see it in a children's  magazine aimed at 8-12 year olds?! Several thoughts ran through my mind... How the heck did this get an 'okay' from the editor? What actual imbecile is running this magazine and thought "yes, great  idea, let's try and get 8 year old's to care about how they look in a swimsuit, rather than just letting them enjoy their...