Love from, Florence Grace

On Wednesday (1st November) I turned 22! Eeeeeek . That sounds so  old in my head! 21 seems like an age where it's still seen as acceptable to be a little wild, a little out of control, a bit of a party animal. 22- in my head, at least- sees so much older, so much more mature. I feel like I actually have to start being a responsible adult now, and like I need to start getting my shit together (for lack of better terminology!). As with all birthdays, I did spend some time surrounding my 22nd birthday reflecting on the kind of year I'd had being 21, and the kind of things that being 21 had brought to me and my life. I feel like I say this most years, but I genuinely feel like 21 was my best  year yet. Honestly, this year has shaped me like no other. When I was 20, life turned into a learning curve for me. I was experiencing things I wasn't used to, dealing with emotional turmoil that sent me to breaking point that I felt like I would never bounce back from and so, for the...

You’ve probably heard of the saying ‘ your vibe attracts your tribe ’. For the most part, I have found this to be true. However, have you ever stopped to think that maybe, it might work the other way around? Maybe your tribe actually creates your vibe? Now that’s something I definitely know to be true. Over the last two years of my life, I’ve made a huge amount of changes, and a lot of these changes have revolved around the kind of people I’ve been spending time with. It hasn’t always been easy to recognise that some of the people I believed that I loved the most were incredibly toxic for me, but once I opened my eyes and saw how they were dragging me down, I was able to cut them off and make room for more positive, dare I say it, better people in my life instead! "Five types of people you want to surround yourself with: the inspired, the passionate, the motivated, the grateful and the open minded" When you surround yourself with negative people , criti...

I was always the girl who said she got on better with boys than girls . And back then, it was true. My friendship with girls was always very fickle - I had a new best friend almost every six months or so! But my friendships with boys always lasted years, I was always friends with the same boys throughout my entire school life pretty much. There’s even some boys from primary school I’m friends with now! I can’t say the same for girls. When I went to an all girls secondary school, I decided now, more than ever, that I got on better with boys . I just didn’t fit in with girls the way I did with boys. I didn’t know how to do my hair or makeup, I didn’t wear the right clothes, I wasn’t pretty or skinny, rich or popular - all things that girls seem to care about in a friend and boys don’t. While I did have female friends, all of my closest friends, including my very best friend, were boys from the all boys school across the road. Now that I’m older, things have changed slightly. ...

*Spoiler alert- if you're not in this post, you probably won't like this post or want to read it. Sorry* Today's post is definitely going to be a bit of a soppy one, because it's reached the end of the year and I feel like, after the year I've had, I owe a lot of people a lot of thank you's. There's so many people who I absolutely wouldn't have made it through 2016 without and so I definitely need to show them some recognition! So in no particular order whatsoever... BJ The only guy I love to hate, you have been my absolute rock this year and I honestly do love you so much, even when I pretend like I don't! You always have nothing but nice things to say to me whenever I'm feeling a bit down in the dumps about life, you're always fully supportive of me and even when you tell me that every single guy I present to you isn't good enough for me, I know you're doing it with my best interests at heart and not to be annoying......

As a single girl in 2016, let me tell you it is actually incredibly  difficult to get yourself a boyfriend. Myself and my friend Alex are constantly in disbelief at how badly we can be played, how straight up ridiculous some guys can be and to be honest, I know I speak for both of us when I say we are just exhausted  with the whole "seeing each other slash dating" kind of thing. It's not like I'm even asking for much! I'm not looking for David Beckham (hey, it would be nice but I know he's taken). I just want a fun guy who has his shit relatively together and isn't still hanging around at parks with kids on a skateboard or on street corners dealing drugs (too salty? Oops). Apparently this is too much to ask for, and after a final  boy disaster last month, I had decided that I had had enough and was literally just going to fuck boys off altogether. Who needs them, you know? And then I realised how selfish this was. Of course not all boys are the sa...

Well, almost a week later, my birthday celebrations are finally over and done with! Last night I finished my 21st birthday with a bang, taking a limo for myself and seven friends to a cocktail bar in London where we had a booth booked before heading back to town to do some more club hopping. It was a brilliant night, I definitely went all out and my friends spoiled me rotten. With a pink and silver theme, a personalised Instagram frame and wrist bands, I had the best time and have never felt so lucky or so loved before!  It's late and I'm tired/slightly hungover, so I'm going to do a more in depth post about it tomorrow, or later on this week (possibly a "look what I got" post about the gifts from my friends because I was so  spoiled!) but for now, here's some photo's from the night! I had such a great night and I am so lucky to have such brilliant friends and family who have made my 21st birthday th...

Today was the third of my fourth birthday celebrations- a civilised drink at my towns newest cocktail bar with my work girls, Chloe, Smithy, Lauren and Hannah. It was happy hour from 4-7 so we got plenty of cocktails in! The evening was so  lovely. I have had three retail jobs and working at Topshop has honestly been my favourite one. I have made such incredible friends here and we all get along so well and have a laugh together. Smithy and Chloe were actually the first people to know about my break up at the start of this year, and I definitely wouldn't have got through it as well as I did without them. Chloe provided me with the sympathy I needed while Smithy gave me the blunt truth I needed to hear. They are such good people to have in my life. Hannah was the newbie like me. We started at Topshop together, have a pretty similar attitude towards work (not always a positive one!) and her sassiness has me in hysterics every time we work together. We're pretty s...

There isn't much to say in this post today. It's not a helpful list, a set of guidelines, some useful information. Today's post consists of one piece of advice, from me to you.  Do not follow your friends. I mean it! Of course, in this case, I'm talking about university and college etc. And my advice to you is, do not follow your friends. Don't select GCSE's or A Levels because you want to do the same ones as your friends. Do not select a college or university course based on what your friends are picking. Finally, do not pick a college or university, or to even go to college or university at all, based on what your friends are choosing to do.  At 20 years old, I can safely say I have been 16, 17 and 18. I've been there, worn the t-shirt and I know  what it's like. I know you want to be glued to the hip with your BFF's. I know you don't want to be the only one from your group of friends in a particular class. I know the ide...

One thing we have all struggled with (or you may even still struggle with!) is being able to study and do all of your coursework, revision and homework whilst trying to maintain a decent social life.  The first thing to remember is that your studies are number one priority . I hate to say it but they are. If you want to get into a particular uni or college course, if you want to pursue a particular career, your friends won't do it for you, you have to do it yourself by working hard and studying (where appropriate). You might want to go out every single night, you might be suffering from a serious case of FOMO  but when it comes down to it, your studies are going to benefit you in the long term more than that party ever will.  However, with that being said, it's important not to abandon your social life altogether. If you neglect to see your friends every time they ask to see you or go out somewhere with you, they will eventually stop asking you altoge...

Sunday 26th June.  Waaa. Today it was time to come home from Devon- and I was not happy about that one bit. We had to be out of our cottage by 11am, and then had plans to spend some of the day in Devon before starting the long drive home. Leaving the cottage was pretty emotional (for me anyway!). We might only have been there for 5 nights but it had felt like home to us, 'our house'. Locking the door for the last time almost  made me cry, because I'm emotional like that! The weather wasn't too brilliant but we drove to Westward Ho! which is where we had gone to the beach. We had a reservation for lunch at the nice restaurant we had tried after last nights dinner failure. We also spent some time taking photo's of the beach and, of course, playing on the 2p machines in the arcade. BJ managed to out do me this time which was surprising!  After Westward Ho!, we headed back to Appledore to purchase some gorgeous glass necklaces we had seen on t...