Update...

Ok having not posted since May 10th is pretty shameful! I have had such a busy couple of months that blogging was the last thing on my mind!! Fresh start today. Since then I have completed my second year at uni, something many people never thought I would manage! I have broken up with my boyfriend, but it feels awesome, we are still great friends and it's all working out splendidly. On that note I have changed my holiday plans to include a visit to my sister whom I have no seen for nearly 4 years! Madness. USA here I come!! :D I have also come down with the dreaded swine flu, this is something I would not wish upon my worst enemy, it was truly awful. Now I have to build my fitness levels up and that means running again. I am so looking forward to seeing what my body can do, it has had a couple of weeks of very little food (being poorly and a break-up makes you lose so much weight!) and even less exercise. I have also been baking a fair bit. Knitted cupcakes have been my newest adventure, but more on those in a separate post. I think that's all for now. Oh I also turned 22, but it was over shadowed with swine flu, so wasn't overly eventful. Yup, that's definately it for now.

Sunshine & Sparkles
xxxx

Marathon Challenge!

Ok so after a conversation with a friend the other day I was challenged to complete a Marathon within one year. So I decided to get on it straight away, I went to a specialist running shop and they advised me which running shoes to get. I had to try some on and run on the treadmill whilst they filmed my feet, which was a little bizarre, but actually very handy. I now realise I have never seen the backs of my heels properly. The nice lady in the shop brought me out a few different pairs, but when I put on one pair, they just spoke to me and asked me to buy them! They are so amazingly comfortable and a complete investment! I figured that I could not justify spending the money (£92 including socks!!) unless I was really going to put them to good use. I really want to be able to complete a marathon, and not just run it, but actually complete it in a good time :) Regular updates will be happening, I figure my blog is a good place for me to keep track of how good I am doing! My first run today went amazingly, it barely felt like I had shoes on and my fitness can only improve! Sunshine & Sparkles xxxx

End of the year

Ok so not being able to blog a lot has been rather lame recently. I have had an awful lot of work on and when I haven't been working I've been sleeping! I had a bit of a genius moment the other day (at least I think it was a genius moment) concerning university planning. I think that they shouldn't make everyone cram for exams and essays all at once at the end of the year, it should be a continual staggered process. Knowing how much stress people go through at the end of the academic year they should take this into consideration and do their best to limit this. I really should be allowed to run the country. I'd do a much better job! There would be cupcake days and no stress! :)

Sunshine & Sparkles!
xxxx

PostSecret

postsecret

I have spent the past two night re-reading my 2 PostSecret books and just needed to share the love. PostSecret was started by Frank Warren and it is a truly amazing phenomenon! Every book has at least one secret of mine that I've never shared and it's amazing how even just writing down your secret can relieve you of an amazing burden! My boyfriend introduced me to it by buying me my first book for my birthday a couple of years ago and since then I've been hooked. You should check out his blog here! It's an incredible thing to be let into peoples darkest and sometimes brightest places in their lives and I am in awe of the whole thing :)

Sunshine & Sparkles!
xxxx

Stress!!

Now I realise I have not posted for a while, this has been due to my incredibly increased work load from uni!! I am a very organised person, and have all my essays under control at the moment, but just thought I would take a moment out of working hard to post about how proud I am that I have not been stressing! I usually get really organised, then part way through all of my work, have a nervous breakdown and want to tear my hair out. This time round, for whatever reason (I'm thinking it's because I know that this is my final few weeks on this horrid course!) I have been calm and collected through everything. This is including a ten minute presentation, that is not assessed, but you can lose marks for!? This was a genius moment (I use the term 'genius' very lightly!) one of my lecturers had. 6 weeks to go and then I get a 4 month break and can finally start my new course! Roll on summer!

Sunshine & Sparkles!!
xxxx

Valentines Love

So last year my boyfriend and I didn't really do anything and this year I really wanted to make it special. We set a budget, decided to stay in for dinner and had a really fantastic day!! The boy made a home made pizza (yum!) and I made lemon drizzle cupcakes. I decorated his NES with balloons and was really proud of myself as I am scared of them! I got a beautiful diamond ring (pictures to come later) and it is so pretty and sparkly!! We stayed in and watched the Pokemon movie that I bought him, just as something light hearted. It was a lovely day and I really enjoyed the effort we both made. I hope everyone else in a relationship or not had a lovely Valentines day!

Sunshine & Sparkles
xxxx

Cupcakes!!

My love of baking is something that always cheers me up so I decided to bake something yummy this afternoon. My sister bought me an amazing baking tray that makes flower cupcakes instead of your regular old shape and I haven't really used it that much. My boyfriend is an avid lover of most things lemon flavoured so to be extra nice I decided to use lemon juice in the icing and make them extra tasty! :)

Sunshine & Sparkles
xxxx

More Snowy Adventures...

Ok so a while ago I posted about how much I love snow, and this time round it snowed so much I got to make a snowman :) It had long ginger hair just like my boyfriend, and once we had decided that it was going to be a look-a-like of him, we figured it would need a smug smile!! I am really proud of him because we didn't have any carrots for his nose or stones for his eyes. We ended up using a glass bottle for his nose and plums for his eyes! I hope everyone else has had a fun snow day!

Sunshine & Sparkles!
xxxx

Transformation Challenge

So last year Gala Darling did the iCiNG Transformation Challenge and I took part and it felt wonderful to have a place to not only vent, but to give and receive support for whatever changes I was trying to make. This year it's back on and I am ready and rearing to go! It started this morning and I have been doing quite well with my positivity and healthy eating. We went food shopping today and I bought lots of fruit and healthy snacks :) Fingers crossed I can keep it up! Keep posted for updates!

Sunshine & Sparkles
xxxx

Things I love Thursday

Another week another Thursday full of things I love...

• Sparkles! Ok so apparently I am a great lover of all things sparkly! My boyfriend just bought me something really pretty and sparkly, although I'm not allowed it yet and I realised I'm like a Magpie and drawn to pretty things that glitter :)
• Getting back to uni and doing some work. I have found over Christmas that I have been awfully un-productive and since being back at uni I have been loving the amount of work I have to do! Bring on the assignments!
• Cleaning. So since posting about my NOT new years resolutions I have upped the anti on my cleaning habits. Just generally going round and dusting and wiping things brings a great big grin to my face. It's good really because it takes my mind off things.
• Free Range Friends. When I was at home last I had a night with my favourite friends and it was awesome! I've felt a little out of the loop at the moment with them, but since watching Camp Rock together things have been better!
• Pretty Nails, this might be an odd one, but my nails looking pretty and neat really makes me happy. Lush deep purple and inky blacks make me the happiest!
  

Happy Thursday! Sunshine & Sparkles xxxx

Achievements!

So this past Sunday I got some amazing news that has made my Cheshire Grin come out in full force!! I applied to change my degree to the Primary Teaching with QTS and after a panic because my letter had not arrived, I realised it had gone to Leeds! My lovely boyfriend went back up North on Sunday and lo and behold there was a big letter for me telling me that I had been offered a conditional place for September!! It made me feel so relieved and like I had achieved something and it made me feel like everything is finally starting to fall into place!! I am on placement at the moment and it is helping me be sure that teaching is the right path for me! Early years and Foundation had better hold onto it's socks because come September I will be well on my way!! :)

Sunshine & Sparkles
xxxx

Not New Years Resolutions!

Ok so this year I have decided to make some NOT new years resolutions. Every year I go through the whole lose weight, stop swearing etc but never actually stick to them. This year to encourage me to actually stick to my resolutions I have found a fool proof way to make me stick to them, this is by making them more long term and actually achievable. So these are my NOT new years resolutions:

• More Cleaning: I need to continue my amount of cleaning, and I need to up the anti. I clean a lot and need to make sure I do this all the time. It helps relieve stress and I really enjoy it so why not?!
• More Baking: I love baking so I need to continue doing more of this. I like baking people yummy things and need to make more scrummy things. I want to learn to make more things and hopefully get better at baking!
• I want to get more organised. I am already obsessive compulsive and feel that I am much more in control of everything when I have my whole life organised. It's something that I can control and need to begin getting more in control of.
  
• Becoming more positive. I need to learn to try and be more positive, I am doing this by making more effort with the above resolutions, but my boyfriend is helping me by making me say things that I would probably never say out loud. When things go right I tend to keep it to myself , but he encourages me to mention it and get more vocal with my feelings.

I hope that everyone else has had a Happy New Year!

Sunshine & Sparkles!
xxxx