Love from, Florence Grace

Last weekend, my boyfriend and I were invited to spend the night at The Manor Country House and Hotel . The hotel is located in Oxfordshire, just a short drive away from Bicester Village, which is pretty handy if you're looking for a mini weekend break that involves luxury shopping and  a luxury stay! I was incredibly  excited to have been asked along to do a review- it's probably one of the most exciting opportunities to have come out of my blog and is definitely not something I'd done before. Prior to our arrival we were told we'd be staying in the Chapel Suite and be receiving a complimentary dinner and breakfast. I honestly couldn't wait.  I suppose from the name 'The Manor', and from the brief look at the website, we should have known how posh the hotel would be, but I'm honestly not sure anything could have really prepared us. As we drove up the long, tree lined gravel drive towards what looked like a miniature stone castle, we honestl...

There's absolutely no denying that right now, life is pretty sweet for me. I think a lot of people have noticed a change in my tone of voice when I write over the last year or so. In 2016, I was blogging every single day- there were a lot of posts about the heartbreak I was going through, about how miserable I was feeling and about some really low points I was going through, particularly near Christmas time. December 2016 was probably the lowest point I hit that year, and I couldn't even explain why. Whilst overall, 2016 was my year of self discovery, the year where I really began to love and appreciate the person I was, there was a lot of low points for me. A lot. 2017 has definitely seen a new side of me - in fact, I'd even go as far to say that it's seen a brand new version of me! I have had a truly spectacular year and if I thought  I couldn't be happier than I was in 2016, I was wrong- 2017 me has reached new levels of happiness altogether. I made new frien...

Earlier on this year, I wrote “ I wish younger me had known that it was possible to be this happy all of the time ”. Since then, my life has become even happier , if you can believe it! Yet earlier on this week, I shared a post with you that opened up about a time when my life wasn’t quite so happy .  A time when things were far bleaker, where I hit rock bottom and fully believed that that was as good as it was ever going to get for me. I am a firm believer in the fact that your past does not define you , in any way, shape or form. Sure, it can influence who you are and the choices you make in life, but it doesn’t have to define you and your future, not at all. My past certainly influences the person I am today but it absolutely doesn’t define me. Rather, it has taught me a lesson I won’t ever forget. It taught me how to survive . Because even when I was at rock bottom, when I was torturing myself over the behaviour of others, when my parents were going through a divorce that ...

*Trigger warning. The following content discusses domestic abuse (physical, emotional, mental, sexual), self harm and eating disorders. If that content will trigger you, please do not read on* I've never had a partner hit me . I've never had a partner kick me . I never had a partner leave me with a black eye , or a bruised face that I needed to cover up with makeup in a desperate attempt to look 'normal'. What I have had has been far more subtle. Pushed in the stomach so hard I was sick, pinned to the bathroom wall by my throat, arms twisted up behind my back, 'restrained' on the floor, bruises on parts of my body that no one would see. Not once but twice, there ended up being a hole in the wall where my partner tried to scare me as though he was going to punch me, before veering off at the last second. I've had items of mine broken, a door slammed into my face, doors literally burst through because I'd locked myself away on the other side, resulting...