Zoe's Musings

source: oprah.com

A big trend in the bullet journalling world is a gratitude log, which is basically where you list everything that you're grateful for (I think I saw this from bujo queen BohoBerry). As my current journal doesn't leave any space to add in such a list I thought instead I'd write 20 things I'm grateful for in an attempt to make myself feel a bit better and to promote more positivity.

What are you grateful for?

1. My little dog Monty
2. Comforting cups of tea
3. Sunshine
4. Having a kind and caring and supportive family
5. Being in (reasonably!) good health
6. Never really having gone without something I needed
7. The opportunities I've had to go to school and university and to have a job
8. Coffee date catchups with the besties
9. Having friends who I go without talking to for weeks but when we see each other it's as if we've never been apart
10. Living in a country in (relative) peace - I mean UKIP and Brexit are still scary, but compared to what some countries are going through it's nowhere near as scary
11. The lovely blogger girls who I've discovered since beginning my blog
12. Christmas (I bloody love it)
13. Having lived to see my 20th year
14. Having people in my life who help me to cope with the bad stuff
15. Not being allergic to things (dairy especially coz cheese and chocolate are too good to live without)
16. Having a boyfriend who treats me like a queen
17. Pretty flowers
18. Meeting cute neighbourhood cats 
19. Disney existing
20. Pretty highlighters and eyeshadow palettes and lipsticks and nail polishes

In 5 years time I'll be 24, which is the age my parents were when they were married. This fact is pretty scary when I stop to think about it, as by that point I could have the job of my dreams, I could be married, I could be anything. My whole life after education will have begun. That thought led me onto thinking about where I want to be and what I'd like to achieve before then, so I figured I would list some of them on my blog to get you all thinking about your goals!

I challenge you to come up with some goals you have that you'd like to achieve in the next 5 years.

I used to be very stuck in the past. I've had a blessed upbringing, I've had loving parents and I've not gone without, but I have had my fair share of troubles and heartache in my 20 ish years on this planet, and it's caused me to get a bit stuck reliving those bits of my life. It took a lot of hanging on to get through various points of my life, but now I feel like I've got a foot in the doorway of something pretty amazing, and I can't wait for the rest of my life to begin (basically after uni ends because it definitely hasn't been the fun and amazing 2 and a bit years that I'd thought).

So, the message this week is to let old times stay in the past, live for the moment, and look forward to the future (coz it's looking pretty bright).

source: quoteslike.com

On Monday I went to the national trust Sissinghurst Castle Gardens, and I had a lovely time wandering around getting lost in all the different zones of the gardens. I particularly loved the sweet peas and roses that were rambling all over the walls of the 'castle'; aka Vita and Harold's house. There were many little touches around the gardens that made me think "this is so blog post/Instagram worthy", so I knew I had to collect together my favourite photos from the day into a blog post for you all. What I would mention is that although they advertise a 'disabled route' on the map it's not actually accessible, there's lots of steps and bumpy pavements and grass which unfortunately made it quite inaccessible for my grandmother. I've been loving my Nikon again, I'm slowly learning how to get the best out of it and how to take (in my opinion) pretty great photos! It's a very photo heavy post today so I'll let them do all the talking, hope you enjoy!

instagram.com/mynameiszoeee

 



                         




I have quite a lot of family who are from Liverpool, I'm half Scouse myself, and yesterday I came back from a week away to Liverpool to visit family. I love the city, I love the people, I love seeing family and seeing the sights.

We did not stop once this week (my mum has a step tracker and she was constantly hitting 12-15k steps a day which means I was too!).

Here are some of the things I got up to!

• I met Jordan Henderson
• I went to the Albert Docks
• I spent time with my northern family
• I went to the place that LFC train & play (Melwood & Anfield)
• I saw beautiful cathedrals
• I ate delicious food
• I saw some jellyfish in the Mersey river
• I went to the Cavern and watched a live singer sing old Beatles & The Who songs
• I went to St George's Hall which is the old law courts and jail cells

instagram.com/mynameiszoeee

It's not been easy this week. I've spent a lot of the week stressing about various things which I won't go into too much detail about, but it's consumed a lot of my time and brain power, and has made me feel a bit uneasy and emotional. Nothing too major, just having a bit of a stressful week.

It's a bit difficult to keep afloat sometimes, I tend to really get bogged down in things and affected by things in a huge way. This week has been tough to get on with, but it's over now and I'm on to more exciting things (when you're reading this post I'm going to be on my way to Liverpool for the week to catch up with some family I haven't seen for a few years, so that's always nice to cheer me up!)

It's been really nice to be home despite missing certain things about uni, obviously getting to spend time with my family has been nice, and I got to see the home-bestie which was fun, had a good old catch up.

I've made a lot of time for hobbies since I've been home, as at uni I find it's quite difficult to make time for things like that. I read a book (Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell,  it was absolutely amazing I loved it), and I'm also making myself some bunting for my bedroom. I'm quite enjoying the challenge as I've never properly used a sewing machine before, and learning new skills is always good, albeit a bit frustrating as I hate not being instantly good at things!!

Another project I've started this week is the long and laborious task of decluttering my bedroom. Having moved around a fair bit all my stuff has been chucked in boxes which haven't been cracked open since I was about 16. It's safe to say my room is getting overwhelmingly cluttered with things I didn't even remember having, so I've been ruthless in my donating and chucking things I no longer have a use for. I'm only halfway through so my room is an absolute state still while I'm sorting through it all, but I can't wait till it's finished and I can really make my room my own space again. It was long overdue!

I've been feeling the itch in my fingers to blog again for a while now, but in between university stress, working part time and sleeping it's been impossible to find time to blog. However, I'm pleased to report that I'm finished with my second year at university, and so now will have loads more time to write!! Wooo!