My Month In Photos - March 2018
My month in photos - March 2018
Oh hi just me trying not to freak out about us being a quarter of the way through the year anyone else? This year is absolutely flying by and I am filling it with all the lovely things and it's been a pretty solid start to 2018.
March for me was hectic, in the best sense of the word but it meant it went by quicker than both the months before it. March was bookended by trips away, first to Venice and then to Sussex and it meant I was in a constant state of packing, getting ready to go away and unpacking again. Despite the never ending busy it was a great month filled with lots of fun things I'm excited to tell you about.
Here's what I've been up to;
What I Did;
Like I mentioned in last month's round up, I spent the first few days of March in Venice. We flew out on March 1st just when the beast from the east was hitting the UK and we flew back in 4 days later when it had all died down. You can read about everything we got up to in this blog post but we had a great time exploring, despite the rain and it was lovely to spend time with oldest friends and my Mum. We also spent a day either side of our trip in Essex with our pals and even with a 9 hour journey home on the Monday we had a right old lol.
When I got back from Venice we had Joss' family home from America so the week they were here was full of takeaways (I think I ate 4 chippys in 8 days?) and watched loads of old videos of the kids when they were younger. We watched loads of rugby as the 6 nations came to it's end and spent lots of time round the table all together catching up. On their last night we celebrated Joss' 25th birthday (with another takeaway) and presents and a film and then on the day they left it was also Mother's Day so we had a roast at my Mum & Dad's with my brother and his family too.
Mid month was mainly full of chores and standard life, working and looking after my niece and doing the food shop. I missed the beast from the east but I didn't miss the mini beast and we had a snow day at home which was great. We wrapped up warm and I popped my camera in a plastic bag to keep it dry and we took all the dogs for a walk round the lake and I got a whole host of gorge photos. I also went to Cardiff with my Mum and finished getting the last bits and bobs for Effi's wedding and also stocked up on Easter decorations.
This week I have been catching up on all the life admin that comes with being away, taking my niece to nursery and working. I also popped to our local retail park on Tuesday to buy a million and one birthday presents for upcoming celebrations and food colouring and icing kits for Easter biscuits (which were yum tbh). This Easter weekend has been super busy for me with all my friends home for the long weekend so I tried to fit time in with as many people as possible. I have managed 3 runs in 4 days which is more than I've done this whole year so far and I am proper enjoying it again and can already feel myself getting hooked (long may it continue). I took the full 4 days off which when you're freelance is a bloody luxury and on Friday I made biscuits and had a big spring clean of the house. In the evening Joss and I met some friends in our local town for a few pubs and a catch up. It was small, it was quiet but it was great to see them all and we got home at a cushy midnight - and then I woke up at 1.30am to find Joss getting more snacks and dancing with the dog in the kitchen. On Saturday I packed as much into one day as I physically could, starting with brunch with one of my very dearest pals and her lovely boyfriend and a cracking bacon buttie. I raced home with an hour to spare and quickly tidied up the house and set up an egg hunt for my niece. My brother, niece and my parents came over mid afternoon and my niece found all her chocolate and her fluffy chickens and we had a few slices of cake, some biscuits and a few cups of tea which was beaut. By the time they left I had 50 minutes before I was due to be out again so I quickly changed, ordered a pizza in for Joss and pegged it out the house again to spend the evening with my gals from school. We had a takeaway, had a BIG catchup and I got home at 2am to Dominos leftovers which was pretty much the best thing I ate all weekend.
Of course, March can't go without mentioning my weekend away in Sussex with my blogging gals, hence leaving the best till last. There is going to be a proper blog post on our second weekend away together coming soon but if you missed all the excitement, we went away for a few days together for Effi's wedding to the lovely Sam. You can have a sneak peek at what we got up to on my Instagram highlights where all the fun can be seen.
What I Watched;
I unsurprisingly haven't had much time to watch TV this month, what with being away so much and generally running around left right and centre when I was in Wales. That being said I managed a little bit of what I love - I am still enjoying my Sunday morning KUWTK and a cuppa whilst Joss is still sleeping and I also finished watching The Grand Tour which I've been watching at my parents house with my Dad a few times a month. I have a shit load recorded on my TV including the new series of Made In Chelsea which I have only seen one of and loads of homely comforts like Location Location Location and Escape To The Chateau. I have stayed caught up with GBBO for Stand Up To Cancer, my absolute fav being the one with Jamie Laing. What I have managed this month though is to watch a coupla of films - believe it or not, the first ones I have seen in 2018. We watched Kingsman: The Golden Circle on Joss' birthday which was pretty disappointing considering how much I enjoyed the first one. However we did watch King Arthur (the one with Beckham in it) and Death of Stalin which were both actually pretty good and we watched The Great Gatsby the night before Effi's 20's themed wedding. Oh and I also managed to find the time to watch the entirety of The Walking Dead season 7 so maybe I had more time on my hands than I remember.....
What I Worked On;
Having a more busy than normal January and February, March was quieter than usual in contrast. Obviously the beginning of the month saw Mother's Day and my cards went down nicely, especially the ones for Nan's and Gran's which was nice reassurance I made the right decision to make them. You can shop my Etsy cards over here!
Commission wise it's been quiet, I think people are too skint or too busy to part with their cash although I hope wedding season coming up is going to help with that. I have however been working on a wedding commission portrait for my university bestie who I am also bridesmaid for so it's been really great to work on it, not only for people I love but also knowing I'll see it in the flesh at the wedding next year. You can view my portfolio or hire me for your own commission via my website!
Speaking of seeing my own work at weddings, it might be a project I worked on a long time ago (read, last September) but I finally got to see my illustrations come to life in Effi's wedding. There'll be more pictures coming soon in that blog post I mentioned but I did the portraits for the table centres which looked great but undoubtedly the star of the show was the table plan (featured below) which Effi created combining my artwork with her vision and it looked incred on the day. I was a v proud little illustrator.
What I Journaled;
I started my March segment of my bujo with a real life Pinterest board style title page which this month was v blue and grey themed. My master to do list this month was pretty heavy with so much to do and so many places to be but I as always, didn't finish it by far. My blog schedule this month moved around a lot (more on that in a mo) and I ended up refilling it in with post it notes and shifting content here there and everywhere but it worked on the most part.
My monthly spreads have really nailed down now, I am sticking with the same layout I have done for months but for the last few weeks I have added a lil colour into the day headlines - revolutionary I know.
I had a few new pages this month starting with my spring photo challenge which I reckon I am about half way through (join in with that here, it's not too late!) and also a big spread of money people owed me when I spent all the cash in my bank account one weekend on hotels, air b&b's and wedding pressies! I of course also had a packing list for Venice and for Sussex, a list of things to get done the day before we went, plus an itinerary of the weekend which Effi kindly provided us with. I also have lots of instructions to get to Sarah's house, Effi's house and our accommodation but I probs won't be showing them to you cos lol don't want you randomly turning up at their door.
What I Blogged;
Like I mentioned above, my blog schedule for this month really wiggled round a bit. I ended February really on top of my blog content, scheduling posts a week in advance to cover the time I was away but when I got back I felt like instead of hitting the ground running I felt like I was chasing myself all the time. I had a little break mid month where I was just too damn busy to get content out, plus a little lapse in our internet meant it was pretty difficult to post when we had no wifi. I wanted to get back into it at the end of the month but again, I was just too busy to schedule ahead and tbh I was so gripped by The Walking Dead I just didn't type, when normally my blogging time is in the evening in front of the telly.
That being said, I wrote some stuff I'm really pleased with this month and it was mostly the off the cuff stuff, whereas in February I really liked my helpful content. My Venice blog post was the longest thing I have ever written and took days to finish but I also loved my snowy day photo diary which was completely spontaneous but probably something I'll do again as a way of storing all my fav photos. I was really happy with the two posts I scheduled ahead of time at the start of the month; my St David's Day celebration and my Mother's Day post but my absolute favourite post of the month was last week's reflection on my NYE resolution. My year of yes made me appreciate how much I have done in the few short months into this year and made me excited for what's to come - and you guys really got it too which is always a bonus.
What I Bought;
I seem to always say "i was flat broke this month" but yet in March, same thing. As lovely as going away so much is, it's not half spendy on the old bank account so much of this month's spending went on accommodation, food and petrol. I think I had about 8 takeaways in the end this month, we bought Joss' Dad rugby tickets for his birthday and I have a bunch of birthdays coming up in April which I have bought for.
We decorated our house for Easter for the first time and whilst it wasn't expensive by any means, we also catered for my family and my niece's egg hunt so my supermarket shop was v much egg filled, chocolate bunnies, fake rabbit paw prints and galaxy golden eggs. I did however go to Primark toward the middle of the month where I bought the last minute essentials for Effi's wedding like glittery hair grips (which I didn't even use), lots and lots of spare tights (did use) and sparkly necklaces and bracelets and the most extra silver bag ever. I also bought some staples like new running leggings and vests but mainly spent my time sourcing things I wanted to buy when I go to Wrexham with my pal and my godson later this month.
Assuming you've noticed this is a few days later that normally scheduled then you'll probs have realised April has got off to a busy start - no surprises there. This month is set to be as jam packed but fun as the last few have been - I am away this weekend and then away again about 10 days after that and then have rugby tickets about a fortnight after that so next month's round up might be one to get a cuppa for. See you then!
