New Years resolutions look back...

Hello there,

As we've reached and gone past the halfway point of the year my Sprinkle of Glitter Diary reminded me to look back on my New Years resolutions and made me ask myself how am I doing with them? 

1) Do more of what makes me happy- I suppose with this one I am succeeding. I am so much happier than I was last year, even if some things end up being cut short because of my anxiety.

2) Drink more- I was doing really bad with this one until this week I am actually drinking just over half of the recommendations daily intake of water which is great!

3) Get fitter- Ahh the failure every year! Who knows one year I may actually take this one seriously and succeed but not right now!

4) Pass my driving test- still a work in progress I took a theory test and failed so have rebooked and have been studying hard!

5) Enjoy life- very similar to my first resolution but I am rather loving life at the minute. I have a job, a roof over my head, amazing family and friends so I can't really grumble.

Let's hope that the rest of the year goes this well.

Leigh x

Bucket List update 2016

Hello There,

I was sat the other evening going through my things when I found out my bucket list and decided that I would update it to what I have achieved through out the past year or so.

1)    Learn to drive – This one is slowly turning into the bane of my life, I'm doing well on the practical side with only a few mistakes here and there but I just cant get the theory side to stay in my head. ARGH!

 

2)    Own a car – Still saving up and looking around but it seems pretty pointless to buy a car that I wont be able to use, so still saving and looking but hopefully soon!

 

3)    Have a job - I have managed to get myself a 12 hour contract! this is pretty big for me as I was petrified going into the interview and came out feeling rubbish but I got it! its only twelve hours but that's still some guaranteed hours and pennies every month plus ill still be working more hours anyway.

4)    Go Abroad –Still hasn't happened and probably wont for a while but at least I have an idea on where I would like to visit.

 

5)    Meet Ameerah – My trip to London is booked for the end of the month so hopefully if all goes to plan by the end of June I will have finally met Ameerah!

 

6)    See Sam Smith Live – I am no closer with this one unfortunately.

 

7)    Watch every episode of Friends – I have started watching them but have only managed the first disc of the box set.  I mean I will have pretty much seen them all I'm sure just not in chronological order.

 

8)    Do the race for life – I signed up and walked the 5k on 19/07/15 it was so much fun and everyone was so lovely, I shall keep my medal forever!

 

9)    Learn sign language – As of the second I am writing I am no further with this one but at the next staff meeting we are being taught Makaton, needless to say I am rather excited for that staff meeting.

 

10) Own a Polaroid camera – I have been looking but as I am saving for a car and London have refrained from buying one.  The cameras themselves in which I have found aren't too expensive its just the paper that you have to put in them is ridiculously priced!

So things are going well so far this year and I cant wait till I can finally say I have achieved every single one of these but until then, bye!

Leigh x

Best birthday ever?

Hello there,

As it nears my 21st birthday I have begun to get myself a little worked up. The big plans I have for making it a brilliant birthday and the many different things I am doing have all accumulated into making me rather anxious and I don't like it.

So there's my actual birthday itself, just an ordinary day really I'm working 12-6 then I have brownies 6:30-7:30,all should be fine right? Nah I can't stop worrying about if work have cooked something up, a co worker recently had her 21st and they got all the children in one room sang happy birthday and gave her the present they had collectively bought... Lovely right? Not for a self conscious one like me. Brownies however should be a breeze I've decided to start a new badge with the girls and have planned on taking cake (what better way to say birthday than cake?)

And then there's my party the source of all the stress and the many questions that come with it. Should I let the venue do the sandwiches or do them myself? Will this many people turn up? Will this person get along with this person for one night? Will everyone have fun? Will I have fun? So many questions that have been floating through my mind and the biggest one... can I actually pull this off? I think I've realised that planning your own birthday party is a lot harder than planning someone else's. I've had to change so many of my plans from the colour scheme I'd chosen to the cake that I absolutely loved. I just can't help but think will it all actually be worth it?

Next up is my London trip, I am looking forward to this as I have wanted to go back to London for many years but my main worry is can I cope? Will I manage 3 days in the busy fast paced city life when I'm used to my quiet little village. Will I cope with the amount of people and overwhelming overload on my senses? I suppose on this one it's a case of put on a brave face and just enjoy it! And I plan to do just that and hopefully make enough memories and take enough pictures to fill up a rather lovely scrapbook.

Leigh x 

Wheat and milk free mug cake!

Hello there,

As like everyone else I have fallen in love with mug cakes! I've tried many recipes wheat free and not and have finally found one that I love! Not only that but after playing around a little with the recipe I have made it completely milk free too, Yay!

Ingredients 

1tbsp coconut oil

2tbsp wheat free flour

1tbsp caster sugar

1tbsp cocoa powder 

And around 2tbsp soya milk

Method:

1) Melt the coconut oil in a large mug in the microwave for about 40 seconds or until completely melted.

2) Add all the dry ingredients and mix well trying to get as many lumps out as possible.

3) Add the soya milk a little at a time until you have the consistency of cake batter.

4) Pop your mug cake into the microwave and cook for around 2 minutes (or until cooked all the way through- you can test this by sticking a knife in and if it comes out clean it's cooked)

5) Enjoy!! I usually add some dairy free ice cream at this point as I find it can be a little dry but this is by far the nicest mug cake I have had!

Leigh x

3 concerts in 2 weeks!

Hello there,

If there's one thing I wish I could do more of in the world is go to concerts. I love them! I love the feeling I get when I'm there, how nothing in the world could bring me down, how I feel connected to everyone in the room just a little bit and how I know that I can have fun and if I make a fool out of myself (my dancing is terrible!) it's fine because I'm probably never going to see any of these people again!

Recently on the past two weeks I have made up for my lack of concerts in January, February and March and have been to three two within days of each other. 

The first concert I went to was 5 Seconds of Summer, who surprisingly no one that I work with have heard of. This concert was good, the boys were amazing and I even found a new artist that I quite like in the form of their support act Jessarae. However I had been having a lot of trouble with my IBS and my anxiety was on an all time high so I felt like poop. As much as I wanted to enjoy myself and dance around I felt like if I moved I would be sick and the vibrations from Ashton's drums that seemed to go straight through the floor and hit my stomach certainly didn't help. I will be honest and say o was relieved to be going home from that one even though 5SOS were incredible.

The same week as 5SOS I saw Mike Dignam. Now this concert was always going to be a good one as I absolutely love Mike and he is such a nice chap. I was quite disheartened for Mike though as he had only sold 60 tickets for this show (just last year he sold out the room) although it was heartbreaking that people seemed to not give a crap I mean £10 a ticket isn't exactly breaking the bank, Mike still gave it everything and sounded as amazing as ever. I honestly think it's the most content I have seen him play his music and the happiest he has been in his music. I especially love when he gets into the middle of the crowd and sings quite possibly my favourite song of his 'great escape' acoustically and everyone around him sings along it never fails to make me smile. And to top it all off Mike being the awesome guy he is came out to meet everyone, as he does at the end of all his gigs, so I got to meet him again briefly and have a picture before running off to get the train. The only thing that would have made this tour better was if I had my best friend with me as we both share a love for Mike. 

Finally the following week was The Vamps. Now I will be honest and say that I mainly booked the tickets in order to see one of their support acts perform live again, Hometown. It was an amazing show and I was astounded by the level of talent that each of The Vamps seemed to hold. From Brad flitting between guitars, pianos and drums to Tristan's rapping and epic drum solo it was incredible! There were a few things that I didn't particularly like such as The Vamps new singing 'New Hope Club' coming on and in my opinion ruining my favourite song 'cecila' to Hometowns meet up before that never seemed to happen. However I did get to do a first for me and met two of the supporting acts 'The Tide' and 'New Hope Club' before the show, I can't see me standing outside again in a hurry though. Two and a half hours in the cold and rain to not even see the band you want to not fun! And of course not forgetting Conor Maynard, he was absolutely fantastic. His voice everything was just so amazing, I have no words of how good he truly was.

That's been my two weeks of concerts for the year, as of yet I have no more booked but I can't see it staying that way!

Leigh x

Planning things...

Hello There,

Where do I start? In what I had planned to be the best year ever I start it feeling stressed and anxious over two things... The Easter Fundraising Fayre for Rainbows and Brownies and my 21st Birthday Party.

We'll start with the Easter fayre. I clearly haven't learnt from last time and thought it would be an amazing idea to basically end up planning and organising another fundraising event, I don't mind doing this it just sucks that I don't seem to get any help or support as I am doing it. One corner of my room is literally dedicated to things for the fayre and quite honestly I'm fed up of seeing it. I'm hopeful that this time around we will be successful and raise more money than last years summer flop but part of me can't help but think we are not going to achieve that. Without being big headed or bratty I feel that if the other leaders had listened to me and booked the room for later on in the day we might have more people show up, but hey I can't change that now can I? I mean the council are being kind enough to let us have the room for free. We'll have to see how it goes (fingers crossed).

And now onto my birthday party the most stressful one of the two. I have all these ideas and plans but I just don't have the budget or creativity to make them a reality, the cake I have fell in love with I have found out will cost me at least£160 (for cake whaat?) so the one thing I wanted is going to have to be modified to make it cheaper and more realistic. And then there's the decorations, I have quite possibly chosen the hardest colour scheme in the world! Gold and white. Like seriously Leigh if you can pull this off it'll be great but good luck finding things to make it work! Argh! I am so great ful that my birthday isn't until June so I have a good time to plan this thing, if it was next month I don't know what I'd do!

Any tips for making either of these a success?

Leigh x

Making 2016 the BEST year!!

Hello There,

For years I have just seemed to float through life not really making it exciting for myself or having plans.  This year I have decided to change that! This year will be the year I do more and make memories I'll want to remember and do things I've always wanted to do. So on the 17th January what do I have planned to make this year the best one?

1) I had my hair dyed yesterday, just the bottom, but I love it! I've been putting it off because I was scared that I would hate it but I am so happy and proud of myself for having it done.

2) I am going to see 5SOS.  I've wanted to see these on their own tour for 2 years so why not just go?

3) I'm going to see The Vamps.  I'll be honest I have seen these already and I absolutely love them live but I really want to see one of their support acts and that's the main reason I booked the tickets.

4) I'm 21 this year! And I have promised myself that I will make it the best birthday yet surrounded by friends and family.

5) I am finally after about 5 years going to meet Ameerah, one of my best friends.  I can not wait to meet her and I know I'll probably get all emotional!

6) London!! I'm finally going to explore London and do all the things I've wanted to do.  Exciting times.

So far I think that's all that I have planned but who knows where this year can take us? I'm hoping that at the beginning of 2017 I can look back on this year and think yeah that was a great year.

Leigh x