Life is one big learning curve, one great adventure but adventures can be difficult sometimes, things trip you up or knock you down and this blog is a way of helping me pick myself up. If you have any interest in reading the ramblings of an Irish girl in her mid twenties then please feel free to browse...you never know what you might find here on The Next Great Adventure!😊
Thursday, 29 September 2016
And on the 7th day I was shrouded in mist.
Tuesday, 27 September 2016
Day 6. My life is an explosion
Everything in my life is changing. Dramatically. Well maybe not that dramatically but after a year of relative stability I feel like everything is suddenly happening all at once. As it likes to do.
We have moved house and while we're so sad to leave our last place our new house is adorable and cosy and it makes it easier. My boyfriend just started a new job so all of a sudden we have this new schedule to keep. I have cut back my work hours and now after two years working with the same family I am moving on to a new job. My boyfriend has started a new online course and I am starting a new photography course next month. It's wonderful but it's hectic. My living room currently looks like a bomb and I can't find any of my clothes but I'm happy to have change. I'm also rocking some very Halloween socks..anyone else as excited for Halloween as I am??
I have been loving blogging more these last few days and I hope to keep it up which is why I challenged myself to blog everyday for 30 days. So far I haven't always been bang on time but as I said life is pretty much eating/sleeping/moving at the moment. Adding in getting up at 6:30 to take pics every morning and you've got a recipe for a girl who falls asleep in the middle of star trek every.damn.evening. Honestly..someone rang my boyfriend at 9:40 pm last night and I'd already been asleep for half an hour!
So I did get up again this morning and something I'm realising is that each night I'm half tempted to turn off my alarm and just sleep in but each morning I'm waking before my alarm, alert and ready to go look at more clouds again. At least that's what it feels like! Of the five mornings I've done this there has been one proper sunrise! But it's a little insight into professional photographers lives..a very little one. You get all your gear..you get prepared and then the sun doesn't even put on a show. It's not all that frustrating so far though..I'd rather be out there then miss a beautiful sky!
I thought today was a repeat of the last few mornings and I was happily snapping on the beach. I had just decided it was time to go home when the sun decided to give me a wonderful treat. The clouds parted and the sun, already well on its journey through the sky lit up the whole world, or at least it felt like that to me. The mist over the sand dunes turned golden and ethereal and the waves were tipped with golden surf. It was breath taking. It was worth two dud mornings and more. I just stood there and marvelled at its gorgeousness and eventually I had to tear myself away..almost late to bring my boyfriend to work!
Today I wore some black shiny leggings that just wrecked my head all day. They were constantly slipping down and getting wrinkles in them that made my knees look elephant skin-ish. I'm also stepping away from my usual grey to wear...wait for it...black. or rather it used to be silver but life has taken away it's shimmer (how sad) but it has now been transformed into a glittery black number so it's cool!
I chose a classic red lipstick to contrast my all black outfit and I remembering my original love was red lippy and thinking maybe I should purchase a few new ones! Any excuse to buy more make up eh?
Sit back and enjoy the adventure, it's well worth the ride!
Monday, 26 September 2016
Day 5. If anyone finds my luck could they return it to me?
I woke up stupid early this morning. And as I was trying to drift back to sleep my phone beeped and when I checked it is realised it was six in the morning. That's basically it for me. If I know it's after like five in the morning I just can't go back to sleep. So after a few minutes of laying there is decided to roll out of bed earlier and go a bit farther a field. I went downstairs, made a flask, grabbed my coat and set off. I got to this beach and sat sipping my tea looking out and it became clear pretty quick the sky was going to stay cloudy as could be.
Needless to say there wasn't sight nor sound of the sun so I decided to cut my losses and drive back to my usual spot. Still no sunrise. It peeped out once or twice but then it disappeared.
I love this though. And in my life I spend a lot of time surrounded by craziness and noise. Standing on a beach, alone with nothing but the waves and the birds to keep me company is kind of wonderful!
I wore a simple to short dress today and completely forgot to snap it but during the week for me it's comfy over classy because I am not going to rock up to the kids schools in something uncomfortable.
I also found something else today which kind of expands on the whole "lipstick brings out different aspects of my personality thing". Unfortunately after two years in my job I have decided to move on. Yesterday I had to hand in my notice and as I sat at my mirror in the morning I found myself looking at my lipsticks and thinking which colour portrays "I'm sorry I'm leaving you" more? I settled on a bright pink because it felt less threatening to me. Am I insane for casting these attributes to these colours? I don't know but I thought it was interesting!
So far I am loving this challenge. I have found myself more likely to say yes to things and in general just a bit more thoughtful about how I spend my time. I would definitely like to incorporate some crafting to my daily life again so I might add something about that into my next 30 days!
Enjoy the adventure!
Sunday, 25 September 2016
Day 3/4
I swear life knows when to mess with my plans. So my computer decided to update yesterday and it took...hours.....actually hours. And so I didn't get a chance to blog...that's what I get for leaving it till night time though. My boyfriend was up half the night again, sick, and I couldn't even contemplate getting up this morning. I also feel like the point of this challenge is to do something i love however if it becomes like a chore it takes from it. I also know it's important however to practice some persistence and I have decided to take just Sundays off as this particular challenge involves getting up at half six every morning.
Of course as is life I ended up waking up just as the sun rise anyway so my lie in wasn't exactly insane!
I did however get up yesterday morning but this time the sun let me down. Well the clouds did to be accurate.
But it didn't matter. I got great pics of the beach anyway and I still felt brilliant. The winds whipped my hair every which way and I felt alive and full of beans! The point of this challenge is to help me revitalise a bit after all.
I'm also discovering that my favourite colour really is grey. I don't know if it's just a wierd coincidence or if I regularly wear so much grey but I've lived in it this week.
I've also found something interesting about wearing lipstick everyday. I love my face. I have no problem going make up free but I have found that wearing just lipstick gives me a little kick in different parts of my personality. I mean I always knew that on days when my make up was on pointe I would have a little extra pep in my step and I was aware that certain looks would bring out different sides of me but I thought it was the whole look.
I was wrong. If I put on baby pink lipstick and nothing else I instantly tap into my girlier side of me and if I put on a vampy colour my ass kicking side presents itself!
I kind of love it.
That's all my observations for today.
Until tomorrow,
Enjoying my next great adventure into my comfy bed!
Friday, 23 September 2016
Our computer hates me. Day 2
I have some important thoughts about today and my challenge but I'll be honest, I spent most of last night awake and I am going to bed...at half eight, and I just can't find it in me to function.
I am checking in, this (barely) counts as blogging but I wanted to share my over whelming lesson from today.
Getting up to watch and photograph the sunrise made my whole day better. My day started bad with neither of my good cameras cooperating but I couldn't even be mad. The world was so peaceful at that time of the morning that I couldn't but see the wonder in it.
That, I'm afraid, is it for today!
Keep looking for your next great adventure!
Thursday, 22 September 2016
Teeny, tiny pay day haul and Day 1 update.
I couldn't be more happy I did. Even just for the sake of smelling them. I opened them and this beautiful cake, choco smell that I frankly wish I could rub on my body hit my nose. If your not into that, don't buy these, but if you like deliciousness I say go for it. They have a little heart shaped doe foot and they applied lovely. They are extremely thick as far as liquid lips go, sort of mousse-y but they feel lovely going on! Also I never have an issue not smacking my lips together when wearing liquid lips I feel a serious compulsion to smush my lips all over each other because the texture of these is just lovely!
I'm also finding them lasting enough for me. I mean it's not like a twelve hour kind of lipstick but it's comfy and the colour is lasting pretty well. As I said I can always just top them up!
I also picked up a few different nail varnishes today. I got "The Metals" from Essence in shade 35 Rock my soul but I have yet to try this baby. I picked up W7 Diamond top coat and W7 shade 106 Purple Rain which I am wering and loving, lets just see how long it lasts! They were all under €3 and I will be buying a few more from these ranges.
Today was also day one of my thirty day challenge and I wore a lovely new jumper that I got from New Look and a pair of navy blue jeans. I'm not going to go into too much detail as these two will be in my haul that should be up at the start of next month!
I also wore my penneys/primark vans style shoes that I have been living in and will be going to buy more of this weekend. I finished the outfit off with my handmade scarf that I made earlier this week.
The Next Great Adventure.
In my life I have always looked on to the next great adventure, college, travel, art college, job choices etc. and I was doing good as a spontaneous wild young thing, that is until adult life caught up with me. As millions about the world will tell you, at certain points you tend to get stuck in a rut. For whatever reason I have found myself in one for far longer than I would like to admit. I'm not going to go too much into that because that is the boring part of all this, hence my feelings that some change is needed. My main excuse however, is important so I will tell you it. I never have time. Time is my excuse for everything. I would do that if only I had more time, I would go here if only I had more time. You get where I'm going with this.
I expected a lot of things to happen in my life. Like a lot of people I had notions about being different etc. And I'll be honest in the grand scheme of things, among my friend group I probably am. I have made a lot of choices people might have questioned because my focus in life is not having a large bank balance but rather loving what I do and I have been very lucky to do what I love for the last three years. I work with kids as a childminder. Many people, including my family, fairly openly look down on my work choice but it is my opinion that one facet of a persons life is not enough to judge them on. As I said I have loved the last three years of my life. After college I didn't pursue my degree area and I went from one boring job to another ending up in an accountants office working as a secretary. It was not for me, I am scatter brained and find it hard to apply myself to tasks for long periods of time and these are definitely are not traits that a good secretary should possess. Needless to say I was in trouble a lot and doing a bad job unintentionally. After a year of toil I left and found work as a child minder. I really wanted to work with kids but not having a qualification limited me. I was lucky enough to find work with two lovely families and have been there since.
I get to go for walks on the beach while others sit in cold dark offices. I get to play with building blocks while others photocopy the same page 500000000 times. I think I'm the luckiest person in the world. And I am good at my job. It all comes natural to me. I have always wanted to be a mother and the one resounding comment everyone makes to me is "I'd say it makes you think twice about having kids eh?" and I'll be honest, it does the exact opposite. I have never wanted kids more than I do now. I love my job and I can't wait to have my own little ones who I don't have to say goodbye to at the end of the day.
However, as is the nature of my job, things have changed. The kids are both in school now and that means a reduction in my hours and a change of my job requirements. My boyfriend and I are lucky enough to be able to accept this hour reduction without it being too detrimental to our lives. He has recently started a new job as a preschool teacher in an Irish school. This allows me work less hours. I have been enjoying the last couple of weeks but a few things have become apparent to me.
Unfortunately the new schedule in my job has relegated me to a glorified cleaner and babysitter. I barely get downtime with the kids and the schedule is quite tight and stressful. I have lost the part of my job that I loved and it is making me assess my decisions regarding how much longer I will stay where I am. Also my boyfriend is working in my dream job. I would love to be in a preschool all day every day and while I am so proud and happy for him it is reminding me that my initial thoughts going into childminding were that I would do it while I got qualified in childcare and then move on. This hasn't transpired. Life got busy. I was the sole provider in our house for much of the last three years as I helped put my boyfriend through college. My boyfriend is one hundred per cent behind me and is happy to support us while I try and figure stuff out so I have been left with, for once, more time!
This in turn has made me aware of how much I have allowed life slip past me the last few years. I have become the person who will say "yes I'd love to do that" but won't actually take steps to do it.
I am most definitely lacking challenge in my life, in fact I have become scared of challenge.
I spent my life riding horses and believe me I fell off many times. I was never scared of falling, that is until I got good and went several years without falling. It became a massive object in my mind. I was scared of falling again. When I fell off all the time I knew it meant very little but the more I built it up in my mind the more terrifying it seemed. I have become afraid of falling in my life. I have gotten older and lost some of my childish bravery.
What if I'm not as smart as I was? What if I fluked my way through college the first time? What if our lives fall apart because I'm being selfish?
I'm here, in the rut, with many others and I want to change that.
I'm not going to start big. They say it takes a month to make or break a habit, however the habit I want to make in my life is fun, it's creativity. I want to say yes more.
Most people these days have some habit tracking app or something like that. My habits you ask?
1. Give up sugar.
2. Take your vitamins
3. Exercise.
4. Drink more water
I looked at them the other day and I thought..shit when did this happen? This isn't me.
Where did I lose my fun along the way? When did I lose my desire to challenge myself?
So I'm changing that,
Each thirty days I am going to pick a few things, small things to start and I am going to commit to them for 30 days. Just 30 days. I have more time. I have my whole life. If I can't give thirty days of my life to something fun then I have lost the essence of me.
I'm hoping to learn more about myself during this and maybe even find out what I want to do with my life who knows?
If your interested in seeing me push my boundaries then please feel free to join me. I might make you laugh you never know!
This month I am going to start with a few small things, some I will update daily about, others at the end of the week, others at the end of the month but everything will be documented here which brings me to my first task this month.
1. I will blog, EVERYDAY, for 30 days!
2. I will photograph the sunrise everyday for 30 days.
3. I will wear a different outfit everyday for 30 days.
4. I will wear a different lipstick everyday for 30 days.
That's it for these 30 days.
The only one with any addendum is to no.3 I will use the same jeans, leggings and tights as bases for each outfit but other than that I must wear something different everyday and I can repeat an item but not styled the same way!
And so I start my next great adventure!