Friday Favourites 5th - 11th March 2016.

How on earth did it become Friday yet again? I feel like this week has gone insanely quickly and I haven't had much time to stop and take stock and certainly no time to schedule enough promos as I should have baring in mind I have blogged all week. 

But hey, it's been a lovely week so I can't complain (even if you can for my lack of form). 

1. Dyffryn Gardens. 

I have spoken about Dyffryn before (you can read about it here) but it's a National Trust property about 10 minutes down the road from where I now live and we took my niece there for a wander on Monday. It was one of them weird days where it was bitterly cold but sunny and then all of a sudden hail stone storm and then sunny and then a bit of drizzle and then sunny again. Good old March. Despite the mad weather I managed to get a bunch of shots for my Insta grid and we found a whole new set of formal gardens we hadn't seen last time which made me feel a bit like I was in Italy or summin. Plus my niece had SUCH a lovely day out and sat happily in her buggy (something she isn't normally keen on) and looked at everything and told me all about some trees she'd seen in her own 9 month old garble. 

2. International Women's Day. 

So Tuesday was International Women's Day which you probably couldn't have missed if you were on social media. I wrote this post about it and what it means to me and I just thought this year, more than any year women embraced it and celebrated it and I think that's a pretty great thing. The quotes were too good and in a week where Kim Kardashian got trolled for posting a naked selfie and then stepped up against slut shaming and Daisy Ridley got shamed for having an 'unachievable body' and had to defend herself for no good reason, I think we need more days like International Women's Day. 

3. A New Blogging Manifesto. 

Ever read a blog about how the author just feels like blogging is so over done or they have no inspiration or how new original content is hard to find? Of course you have, we've all read them, heck we've probably all written a post like that. Everyone these days has a blog because we all want that little section of the internet for ourselves and when everyone is writing, how on earth do you find fresh new content? I think this week Hannah Gale has cracked it. Everyone needs to have a read of this 'Care Less, Do more' post  that she wrote this week about how we need to stop planning our content so much and obsessing over how much we write and when we write it and how much we schedule. Sometimes, the best content is off the cuff and fresh and written in an afternoon and posted immediately. Hannah is rejigging her blog and working on a diary like system and I think this kind of content HAS to be the way forward because everyone's days and their thoughts are completely unique and THAT is how we need to be creating original work. And hey, if nothing else doesn't it just lift you mood to find out your fav blogger posted more than one time that day?

Read Hannah's post here and visit her blog here

4. Thursdays. 

This week, Thursday was my kick ass day. You know the type of day where you get up early, the sun shines all day, you go get the Tesco shop done, it's warm enough to only need a jumper and not a coat as well, you take the car to the garage to find out it doesn't have a fault after all and they don't charge you, you complete all your mundane tasks like post office, doctors, chemist in bish bash bosh, you've got your sunnies on and Radio 1 in the car, there's 3 loads of washing in the machine, you take the dogs for a walk, you make tea and you manage to whack out some blog posts whilst watching tv in the evening. That's the type of day I had yesterday and those types of days make me feel so much better than -dare I admit it- days where I just stay in my cosy bed watching Netflix and eating pudding. Those indulgent days are DEFINITELY good for my mental health but it's days like yesterday where I just get shit done and think damn gurl, you are on fire that make me the most energetic and go getter in life. Also I took these photos so my grid can thank me too. 

5. Happy Birthday To Youuu. 

Bit of a short one to end because this will be happening as this goes live but today is my boyfriend's 23rd birthday! We don't have a lot planned, some family time, a takeaway, maybe a nice stroll if the weather is good but he has 6 days well earned annual leave from a carer job that means a fortnight ago we managed to see eachother for 4 hours of of 72 which is saying a lot baring in mind we live together so yeah, it'll be nice just to actually see eachother. 

(Photo is from our trip to London for his birthday last year, sadly that is not our living room)

Assuming this next 7 days goes as fast as the last, I'll be rounding up my next 5 Friday Favs in no time!