Friday Favourites 19th - 25th March 2016.
So firstly, apologies for this post being up a lot later than normal! This is one post I can't schedule because obvs my favourites take me right up until a Thursday night so I ALWAYS write this list in the evening. Yesterday was miserable and rainy and I spent it doing boring things and chores like doctors and chemist and Tesco and shopping and filling up the car but then when I settled down to work, I got a FB message from a friend that needed cheering up and, well I just left my desk and went.
And then I had all intentions of writing it this morning but then bank holiday sunshine happened and I ate cake right from the oven because Easter and I had an episode of Kardashians recorded and ya know, gurl gotta do what a gurl gotta do.
So now I am sat in the sunshine with my laptop and a cuppa and some catch up BBC documentaries and you can finally have the Friday Favs you've been waiting for albeit over 5 hours late...
1. Sport Relief.
Last Friday night (was it really a whole week ago??) was Sport Relief night and like most of the country, I donated by text and then settled down with a duvet and snacks to watch it and ya know what, I was pleasantly surprised. Sometimes these types of events can be a bit forceful and a kinda forget to be funny? But this year they really nailed it with the celebs, the sketches (Luther was amazing) and the stories they presented were heart wrenching. We're used to seeing Lenny Henry and Davina and John Bishop and co in Africa or war torn areas speaking to the people who live there but this years surprising supporter was Danny Dyer. I have always been a fan of Danny Dyer, I think he is hilarious but watching him standing in a hospital crying about a baby with malaria and listening to him say how ashamed he was to be a human being standing on a rubbish dump where people live was the most heartfelt, REAL video of the night.
2. Gal Pals.
So my friends from school are the group of friends I met in year 7 and 8 and we've stuck together since leaving, since all going to university, since graduating and since we all started work. Out of a group of 7 we are spread out all over the country from Cornwall one end to Scotland the other and getting all of us together is a NIGHTMARE. We think we haven't been together as a 7 since this photo Christmas 2014 (we think). It is a miracle if we get more than about 3 people together at a time and it always takes months of planning so when someone asked who was home last weekend on a Facebook message and 4 of us happened to be free, we couldn't turn down the chance to have a catch up! We had such a nice afternoon chatting, laughing and bitching and whilst we might have stayed in Costa long enough to accidentally get involved with a church group who were holding a meeting there, we drank copious amounts of tea and had freshly made welsh cakes. Is there any better way to spend a Sunday afternoon?
Old photo of a group get together Christmas 2014.
3. Happy Happy.
*First of all, a disclaimer, this photo has no relevance to the following bullet point but is there anything happier than a cactus with sunglasses?
So baring in mind what I just said about how difficult it is to get my friends together, I managed to see two of them again on Thursday. Like I mentioned in my intro, one of my pals was having a rubbish time and a quick text round and suddenly within an hour we were all curled up on sofas in my friends home with a cuppa. This is why I love working for myself - if one of my friends is feeling a bit rubbish I CAN just pop down town in the car and be with them, even if it was only for an hour and a half and it just makes my day a bit sunnier to know we've done something nice for someone else.
4. Hitting Some Milestones.
So last week my Instagram was a year old (read about that here) and this week I hit 100 posts on my Twenty Something Meltdown Instagram account (follow here). So that was all cute, Instagram was going well and then yesterday I happened to check my Twitter analytics and I nearly fell off my seat to see my blog account had over 42K impressions. So then I thought I'd just check up on my business account because last time I'd seen it had had less than 10K this month (one of my lowest stats since I started the account) only to find that had jumped massively, through no real effort of my own to 40K too? So yeah, I was feeling pretty smug about my social media work this week.
5. Bank Holiday Weekend.
So this is where I should probably remind you all I am a self employed freelance illustrator who works from home.... So yeah, for me, every day could be a bank holiday weekend if I wanted to but I have always find certain days of the week good or bad, based simply on the day, not what I have planned. I quite like Mondays, it seems a pretty productive day, I don't like Tuesdays - I find it a bit blahh and boring and nothing. But it is amazing what a Friday can do for my mood and this 4 day weekend and all the people cheering about it on social media (see my obligatory bank holiday GIF here) has made me all GO GET EM GAL and the sun shining through my window and my Easter inspired nails has made me feel all productive and sassy. It's good for the old mental wellbeing.
I hope ya'll have a lovely Easter weekend, enjoy the time off work (commiseration's to those who ARE working like my other half) and eat ALL the chocolate! Happy Easter!
How are you celebrating the bank holiday?
If you enjoyed this you might also enjoy last week's Friday Favourites!