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...

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...

I’ve never been so happy with my life- ever. I genuinely mean that too. Growing up, there was always one issue or another going on in my life, whether it was me being bullied, relationship or friendship problems, body confidence issues or dealing with my parents’ divorce; there just always seemed to be something going on to detract from my happiness. So you can only imagine my surprise when I came to the realisation the other week that, for the first time in my life, everything is good. "I just wish that younger me had known that it was possible to be this happy all of the time." I honestly am at a place in my life where, for the first time ever, everything is going really well. I started my new job, which I’m really excelling at and absolutely loving. I have a buzzing social life and am surrounded by all of the best people I’ve ever known. I’m in a good place financially, I’ve got some exciting travel plans to look forward to, as well as other upcoming events ...

Today is the final day of September (for real?!) and so that means it's the last day in my recent blog series, #SeptemberStudies. I've written about a lot of different topics relating to school, work, uni and college over the last month. I've written about furthering your career while at school, how to balance a social life with your studies, the importance of using a diary, school bag essentials and a multitude of other things. I've tried to write about all alternatives for students, writing about GCSE's and A Levels, going to uni, going to college, going straight into work, doing internships and doing work experience placements too. I've tried to keep this series as open to as many people as possible. But all of that doesn't matter when it really comes down to it. It doesn't matter where you go after you've finished with school or what you choose to do as long as you are doing one thing: Being happy.  Because really, what's t...

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 ...

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.  ...

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, ...

Today is a very good day, am I right? Not only has it been fairly warm with some lovely sunshine, but it is the first official day of Spring and it is the International Day of Happiness. So it's only right to talk about all things happy today, and that's exactly what I'm gonna do- here's a list of some of the things in life that make me happy!  1) Waking up to have birds singing outside my window. 2) Food (couldn't leave that out, could I!) 3) My friends of course! Real life pals, twitter mates and blogging buddies...I love you all! 4) Writing.  5) Shopping. Who doesn't like shopping? 6) Editing photos to post on Instagram. Not sure why I love it...I just do. 7) Having a good make up day. 8) Strawberry and cream frappucino's. 9) Pretty stationery. Buying it, using it, or just looking at it. I love it all. 10) Listening to music...another obvious one I feel.  11) Singing. I...

You know when inexplicably, \you just have a really good day? Well for me, today was one of those days! As I didn't have much inspiration for a post today, I thought I'd just talk about my day and how fab it was and how happy I am instead (lol how narcissistic of me- not! Read more on that here ...)  First of all, my day had a fab start when my manager messaged me to say I could start an hour later than planned- which meant I got an extra hour in bed. I used this time super wisely, obviously, binging on Netflix and blogging away to my hearts content!  When I got to work, my day only improved- my manager bought me a big Mini Egg's Easter egg because I had gotten the most positive feedback from customers in the online surveys! Mini egg's are my fave Easter treat so I was super happy. I also had a few giggles with Chloe and Charlie so that was nice as well.  This evening has just been generally nice too. I've been getting emotional with my one true l...

"You can't spend the best year's of your life waiting for somebody to love you back". This is a quote I discovered as I was browsing through Tumblr late last night and is one that really resonated with me. As I'm sure many of you will know by now, I entered the new year as a single lady, coming out of a relationship that I had been in since I was 14 and had lasted for 5 years and 4 months. The ex in question has been my only serious relationship, my only "proper" boyfriend and he became my best friend, my soul mate and my first love. Losing him was not only unexpected but also the hardest thing I've had to go through.  Yet somehow, it's not as hard as I had expected and I felt a little strange about this...but when I found this quote it made me feel a whole lot better about what I had gone through, and still am going through.  Whilst I wouldn't change the last five and a bit years at all, they definitely weren't perfe...