Love from, Florence Grace

To Anne-Marie, I will never forget the day I discovered you and your music. Scrolling through my Facebook feed, SB.TV shared your 'Boy' song on their page. I gave it a listen and fell in love instantly- not just with the song and with your voice, but you and your style. You were rocking a look so similar to the one I desired to achieve myself but was often mocked for. I particularly loved your big hoop earrings, an item I am almost never without myself! After watching the video I remember tweeting you and being over the moon when you responded! And I've been following your journey since then, listening to your songs, engaging with you online and seeing you perform too. I saw you at Wireless, in the very front row, and introduced my best friend Alex to you- she's now almost as big of a fan as I am! Then this week, on Monday, we saw you perform at the Koko Club in Camden and you blew our minds all over again. I wanted to write this post for you- to you- because y...

This could be the last blog post I ever write- ever . Okay, it probably won't be but I am genuinely scared of dying in my sleep tonight. I'm not even doing anything drastic haha, I am literally trying a night time throat spray. Let me explain... Since pretty much birth I have had problems breathing through my nose. Crazy, right? It's not that I can't do it; I definitely can. However, I can't do it easily . If I need to breathe through my nose, I have to honestly sit and really force my body to do it. It comes naturally to me to just breathe through my mouth and essentially, forget I even have a nose to use for breathing. It's never really been a problem for me; sometimes my family and my friends complain that my breathing is slightly louder than they would like as we try and watch a film together, but other than that, it doesn't really affect me and people don't really notice. One thing it does affect is my sleeping. As a child I was such a heavy b...

Not too long ago I wrote about the first couple of weeks without taking my contraceptive pill ( catch up here ) and the kinds of effects it was having on my body. I had a lot of people message me about it afterwards, a lot of people ask me questions and a lot of people wanting to be kept up to date with how it was going. Well guys, I have had my first pill-less period and I can tell you... ...it was effectively exactly the same. In fact, it was better than my periods way back when, before I started taking the pill. It wasn't particularly heavy and I didn't experience much stomach pain, bar from Saturday night when for some reason my tummy was literally in agony. I finished my period the next day so maybe there was some correlation there? I don't know. *Dad please stop reading this post here* What I can tell you is that my boobs absolutely killed for about three days before my period arrived. In all seriousness, I was genuinely contemplating going to see a doctor becau...

This weekend was pay day weekend (yay!) and of course Black Friday weekend too. I was one of many, many people who went on a crazy shopping spree and bought way too many things with money I definitely don't have. One of the things I bought a lot of this weekend is underwear. I've said before how I often struggle to find pretty underwear that fits well and looks nice, but this weekend I've found that a lot  of high street stores have really stepped their game up at the moment- like, massively! All of them are incredibly cheap compared to stores such as Marks and Spencer's and Bravissimo, and they're all mega cute too, so I thought I'd share some of the best ones I've found with you guys! Topshop I'm not just saying this because I work there, but Topshop lingerie is really on point right now...I've gone from owning zero Topshop underwear to suddenly owning quite a lot, particularly some of their lingerie bodies which can definitely be worn as oute...

One of the most popular videos I'm seeing on YouTube at the moment is YOUTUBERS MADE ME BUY IT. As the title might suggest, the video shows what products an individual has purchased simply because they saw their favorite YouTuber buy it! As a blogger, I am oh so aware there are things I have bought simply because my favorite bloggers have bought them, and so I thought I'd turn the most current video into a blog post instead...BLOGGERS MADE ME BUY IT. So, what have bloggers made me buy? A MAC Lipstick I never cared to spend over £5 on a lipstick until I started blogging and desired nothing more than a MAC lipstick. On my birthday last year, I went on a shopping spree in London and purchased my very first MAC lipstick...this never would have happened if I hadn't read all the MAC reviews from other bloggers. A ban.do Planner I usually buy myself a pretty planner from Paperchase but this year, after seeing several of my favorite bloggers purchase them, I decided to trea...

Yesterday I posted what I thought  was a fairly humorous blog post (God, how wrong was I!) about how incapable I am as an adult. Now can we please bear in mind that the entire  blog post was literally just me slating myself for not being able to do some of the most basic things an adult should be able to, such as making a cup of tea, so it's not like I was trying to act like I'm so fucking cool for being a dumbass. I was literally insulting myself. So you can only imagine my absolute disbelief when I woke up to over ten anonymous messages all about my post- and none of them good. One comment told me I wasn't cool for being dumb (did I ever say I was?!) and the remaining nine all were furious that I couldn't make a cup of tea. Literally. So let me just confess... I DON'T DRINK TEA and neither does my mum or dad, so growing up- and even now- I have absolutely no reason to make a cup of tea. So if no one's drinking tea, I'm not going to need to make tea, ...

Being a responsible adult is really not my forte. Having recently turned 21, you'd think I'd be able to fend for myself pretty well. However, when I poured a pan of boiling water over my hands whilst trying to drain my noodles the other night, I realised I'm about as far from a responsible adult as you could ever be...and it's probably always going to be that way! I don't eat properly I can go hours without eating. I'll go the whole day and not touch a single piece of food and then it gets to 11:38pm and I find myself eating a Doritos share bag and some crab sticks. Don't ask me why these are my go to snacks, I honestly don't know. Regardless, how can I ever expect to look after another human being when I can't even feed myself properly? What's a cup of tea? Or any hot drink for that matter. I don't know how to make a cup of tea or coffee and I think this is why no one ever wanted me for internships when I was younger. I cook for ten ...

Choosing to share your life on the internet is a big  decision. When I started blogging, I had to have a think about whether I'd have blogging profiles on social media to differentiate from my personal life and my 'professional' life, or whether I'd merge the two together. Initially, I separated the two, but it didn't take long for me to find that I was posting almost identical content on both profiles, often mixing the two up and decided to just have one set of profiles. I'm what most people would call an over sharer. Earlier on I tweeted "I feel like the fact I just found a crisp packet sandwiched between my planner pages sums up how my life is going right now". Pointless, right? I share photo's of everything- if I'm out for cocktails, buying things I can't afford, celebrating an occasion or just having a games night with Alec, BJ and Carda, you'll know about it. I enjoy documenting my life and knowing that at any given point, I can...

I'm so sorry for all the times I threw pens at you when I was suffering from writers block. I'm so sorry for all the times I yelled abuse at you for not doing what I wanted you to do. I'm so sorry for always rushing you and demanding you to go faster when you couldn't keep up with my pace. I'm so sorry for never letting you sleep, always pushing you to the absolute limit before I let you get any rest. To my darling laptop, I am so sorry for abusing you because now that you've given up on me I am totally lost without you. Guys, on a real I am so lost. My entire life is on that laptop- the beginnings of the next issue of my magazine, my coursework for my NCTJ course, my photos, my freelance work...and just like that its gone. And for those of you who are going to tell me that I should have used a memory stick and backed my shit up and whatever else, just don't. I'm going through a hard time and comments like that just make me wish that my laptop woul...

Despite feeling like death warmed up, I took my sister to see Panic! at the Disco last night (and by the end of the night after a four hour journey home, three of which were made in torrential rain, I really wish I hadn't). I haven't been to a proper concert since I saw Beyonce back in July and while I was there I felt old . I'm pretty sure that 90% of the crowd was younger than me and in my mind I was criticising almost everything they were doing...which of course, inspired me to write alllllll about the different people you get at gigs. Such as... The Snapchatter Jesus Christ. I'm all for taking a video of your favourite song and snapping some photos for your Insta, but must you record the entire concert on your phone? Realistically, what are you ever going to do with it? Nothing! Put your phone away, enjoy the concert and stop forcing the people behind you to watch the whole thing through your phone screen.  The guy with the backpack Or girl, of co...

This week, the Christmas lights were turned on in my town and last night, I saw the Coca-Cola advert for the first time. It's official; Christmas is here! My dad has already started asking if we can watch this Christmas film or that Christmas film, but I like to save the best Christmas films until closer to the time. Here are some of the Christmas films I feel are the absolute BEST. Polar Express Without a doubt Polar Express is one of the most Christmassy films of all time. It has all the festive feels, the magic of Santa and believing in him and the animation is just beautiful. It has me crying by the end of the film and wishing I could believe in Santa all over again! (Also, Tom Hanks has five parts so, win win here) Elf Come on, who doesn't love Elf? It's absolutely hilarious and its also such a feel good film, all about the spirit of Christmas and spending more time with the people who matter most. I still find it difficult to process that some people ...

Earlier on this week, I discovered a social media site called Curious Cat, a site where you can make anonymous confessions and ask anonymous questions to people, similar to the long ago days of Ask.FM and such. I decided to revert back to my 14 year old self and, perhaps against my better judgement, set up an account so that people could anonymously ask me anything/confess things to me! After having the account for a few days, I've noticed that once you give people the chance to be anonymous, they all want to know the same kinds of things...  All about your sex life Honestly, it took longer than I expected before I received my first question about my sex life, simply asking "Do you get time for sex?". I'll hold my hands up and be the first to admit I am more than open about my sex life to those who ask- I don't give away intimate details but if people are asking general questions, I have no problem answering! However, I do have a problem with people a...

Last night, breaking news was published at 00:01 once a court order had been lifted, sharing the news that one young girl who passed away from cancer aged 14 was going to be the first British person to have her body frozen, so they could attempt to 'bring her back to life' when they had found a cure for cancer. I was absolutely amazed - until BJ told me this is already a thing in America and that Walt Disney is frozen. However, I'd not heard that it was a real thing before so I was absolutely gobsmacked. 10 year old me would never have believed that this was a thing, and it got me thinking about all the other things younger me would never have believed would happen. We would have plastic money Me and my best friend Alex got so excited when I withdrew some brand new £5 notes from the cash machine for the first time. We were amazed at how the money looked and how small it was and just how... weird  it looks. I would never have thought one day I'd be using plastic...

Today I published a post on my magazine's website by one of my writers, all about women who are criticised for not wanting to have children and get married. It was a really good article and is definitely something I've seen happen to people I know- although not me personally because I'm all about having an OTT wedding and having babies because I love 'em, but that's beside the point. The point was, women shouldn't be criticised for not doing what society tells them they should  be doing.   It's basically the same as what I've been going through for the past eleven months, being single. While my best pals have been all for the new independent Flo smashing her career goals and being generally fab (look, they say it, not me), other people aren't so understanding. I'm almost continuously hit with things like  "You mean you're not dating yet?" "You want to get out there whilst you're still young!" ...

...being a girl.  Surprised? I know at least one of you will be. (In jokes on blog posts are really annoying I know, so I fully apologise for this guys).  Honestly though, being a girl can be pretty shit a lot of the time- dealing with fuck boys, having periods, people voting for Donald Trump to be President so he can tell men everywhere that it's okay to grab you by the pussy... you get my drift. However, it's not all bad being a girl. In fact, sometimes it's the best thing ever because... You can be a princess allllllll the time My best friend text me on my birthday saying "What have you been doing today?" and I genuinely wasn't lying when I told her I'd been lying in bed all day wearing a tiara. The same friend also bought me a tiara for my birthday, taking my collection up to three now. You don't see boys getting to wear tiara's and calling their bratty behaviour 'princess' behaviour, do you?  We have better ...

If you've been following me on social media for a while, or at least for the duration of 2016, you'll know that on the 1st of January I took on the challenge of writing a blog post for every single day of the year, no matter what. Throughout my birthday week, two holidays and a a variety of drunken nights, I have still posted a blog post without fail, even if it sometimes gets posted at 11:57pm.  Timing isn't really a problem for me. I always make time to write, it's part of my job after all! However, I'm faced with a bigger problem now.  Writers block and lack of motivation/inspiration.  It's difficult writing for a blog that doesn't have a niche. If I was a beauty blogger, there'd be get ready with me and product review posts. If I was a fashion blogger, I could just do endless outfit of the day posts. However, because I'm a lifestyle writer, I can literally write about anything and everything and it literally kills me trying ...

I watch a lot of films. If I'm not working, I'm Netflixing and chilling by myself, for real (can we host a little pity party for me over here please?) I'm so bad at choosing films to watch though because I'm so bloody indecisive, and that usually means that I end up watching the same films over and over again. Here are some of my all time favourite films that I will never get bored of watching.  Forrest Gump My number one all time favourite film is without a doubt Forrest Gump. It makes me laugh, it makes me cry, it has Tom Hanks in it, could it be any more perfect? I don't think so.  The Breakfast Club Honestly, if you've never seen this film what have you been doing all of your life? It's honestly one of the best films that I have ever seen and I am totally in love with Judd Nelson (gotta love a bad boy, am I right?) Pulp Fiction I don't even know what it is that I like so much about this film because it's not the ki...

So in case you missed my onslaught of social media posts celebrating my 21st birthday over the last two weeks, guess what? I just turned 21! I'm basically a fully fledged adult now (supposedly) and yet there is so many 'adult' things that I literally cannot do. In fact, some of them I can't even comprehend doing. I figure now is a good a time as ever to work on accomplishing at least some  of these things, so here's a list of things I want to do before 22. Learn to cook. I don't mean just shoving chips in the oven or boiling some pasta. I mean actually learn to cook something from scratch, like a proper adult.  Learn to drive. HONESTLY I can not go on like this. I'm still torn between the balanced pros and cons of driving v. not driving but I need some form of independence and I feel like this will happen through driving.  Go to the dentist alone. (Make the appointment too...) Go to the opticians alone. Ditto above.  Get a 'proper' job. I...

November is flying by already! Where is the time going? Here's my playlist for you guys to have a nosy at this month!  Rockabye- Clean Bandit and Anne-Marie featuring Sean Paul Starboy- The Weeknd featuring Daft Punk Seek Bromance- Tim Berg Birthday Girl- Skepta 1 Thing- Amerie M.I.L.F.$- Fergie  Thinking About You- Calving Harris featuring Ayah Marar  Bed Rock- Young Money  Fake Love- Drake Crank It (Woah!)- Kideko and George Kwali featuring Nadia Rose and Sweetie Irie) This Town- Niall Horan Chocolate-The 1975 Death of a Bachelor- Panic! at the Disco Lane Boy- twenty one pilots So Good- Louise Johnson Crazy In Love- Beyonce featuring Jay Z Don't Wanna Know- Maroon 5 featuring Kendrick Lamar  Hallelujah- Panic! at the Disco  Primadonna Girl- Marina and the Diamonds You Don't Know Love- Olly Murs  I have not one but two  Panic! at the Disco songs on there this month because I'm actually goin...

Yesterday, I was in a pretty foul mood. I was really, really hacked off, didn't have any motivation to do anything and literally just wanted to stay in bed. However, after a bit of a pep talk from Poppy, I woke up this morning feeling a whole lot better about life. It's so important to surround yourself with friends who will always do their best to lift you up, not bring you down. Friends who will keep you grounded when you're being so over the top, friends who will prevent you from freaking out unnecessarily and friends who will support your happiness no matter what. I can happily say that all of my friends are like this, and all of them make my life a little bit better! Today is my sisters 14th birthday, so we've had a nice evening celebrating together, and now me and my middle sister are off to the pub to have a few drinks to bring in the weekend...I feel like after the week I've had, I definitely need a few drinks inside of me!! Sorry today...

Today I'm so grumpy that I don't even want to write a blog post. I'm uninspired, I don't want to write, I just want to sit in bed and mope and eat my body weight in allllll the comforting carbs.  To be honest, nothing is going majorly wrong in my life. I'm still employed, still have a roof over my head, Donald Trump isn't in charge of my country, so you know, some might say I'm doing alright. However, over the last week or so, life just hasn't been going my way, and being the spoiled princess that I am I have had to kick off about it.  In my post earlier on this week, 21 things by 21, I said: 1) Be selfish Honestly, I have spent so much of my life putting other people and their happiness before my own and always being screwed over in return that I've learnt that it's totally okay to be selfish. Don't be cruel about it, don't be horrible to people but  do  put yourself first and be 'selfish'.  I also said: ...