I know I’m a little lot late in posting a ‘New Year’ post, but I didn’t want to skip it as 2018 has been such a year of growth for me. If you follow me on Twitter you may have read that this time last year was a bit of a whirlwind for me. A lot of stuff went down alongside a lot of blood, sweat and tears. But that’s another story. Bottom line is that I grew a lot in 2018; I learnt how to let go of the past, how to forgive (ok, maybe I’m still a little stubborn), but most importantly I found myself and my inner sass – which trust me, every girl needs!
It’s because of the events that occurred in 2018 that I can finally treasure time alone, and appreciate the little moments so much more. I picked myself up when I felt I’d hit rock bottom, and let’s just say, no one is messing with my emotions in 2019.
Instead of getting too much into detail about last year’s drama, I instead wanted to share some pictures of my 2018 highlights. From reserving my first home, to getting my first tattoo and writing my first ever gifted blog post – 2018 has been a year of several firsts and I can’t wait to see what 2019 brings.
January
Since passing my driving test in 2014 I’ve always had the same car – a cute little Renault Twingo. Now Twingo treated me well; She never caused me any problems and took me on many road trips. But I’m sorry Twingo, you were getting a bit old. So world, meet Fia.
February
February was a cute month as it’s when my boyfriend and I first started getting serious. Also, snow!
March
March 2018 marked the month of my childhood bestie’s hen party. It was absolutely freezing this day as it was during the fortnight of crazy snow storms that hit the UK. I remember us huddling together for warmth straight after this photo was taken, as we awaited our taxi onto the next destination.
April
I absolutely love easter. It’s the perfect time for baking, woodland walks and visiting farms for cuddles with newborn lambs and ducklings.
May
Two months after Grazi’s hen party marked her wedding day. This was such a beautiful day, and I had so much fun getting ready with her and the other bridesmaids in the bridal suite. I actually really miss all of the get togethers we had in the run up to Grazi’s big day. A reunion is most definitely needed in 2019.
May also marked the month of my very first tattoo. I had wanted to get a tattoo ever since I can remember, and in 2018 I finally plucked up the courage to. I chose a tiny wave on my ribcage to represent my love of the ocean.
June
Summer is my all time favourite season so I book most of my holidays during this time. In June I visited Barcelona for the first time with my girl, Nicole. We went to Rome the summer before and had such a great girly weekend that we thought we’d do one last getaway before 2019, when we both move out and need to start saving them pennies.
July
Birthday month!
At the start of January 2018 I challenged myself to a 25 before 25 bucket list, and I completed it! This was a really fun challenge, and I even pushed myself to do some useful things such as learn first aid, and how to check engine stuff on my car.
I also celebrated my ‘big’ birthday by taking the day off work and driving to the coast with my boyfriend for a day in the ocean.
August
This is probably my biggest personal achievement of 2018 – I reserved my first home!
I’d been umming and ahing about some future plans for a while. I almost ended up in Australia at one point, then I looked into renting a place with strangers on Spare Room, but ended up being ‘grown up’ and booking a chat with a mortgage advisor just to weigh out my options.
Well, one thing led to another and before I knew it (in literally the space of a month or less) I had found and reserved my first flat using the London Help to Buy scheme. This is actually the first time that I’ve announced this on my blog, and I 100% want to write some posts about the whole process along with tips I’ve learnt along the way, but until I get the keys I don’t want to jinx anything.
Completely unrelated, in August I also got back into crochet (the old lady hobby), in particular making Amigurumi toys. I’ve so far made Baymax, Groot and a penguin (as you do).
September
In September my boyfriend and I went on our first holiday together, to Croatia. We spent five days in Dubrovnik, making day trips to some of the neighbouring islands and national parks. We then moved onto Split for the last four days of the holiday.
We also filmed a few short vlogs while we were there if you fancy a view.
October
In October I was invited to my first ever blogger/PR event. I brought my boyfriend, sister and brother-in-law with me to taste an incredible three-course menu at The Spring Tavern, Ewell.
I also sobbed goodbye to my blonde locks and went back to the dark side.
November
So my friend works for Disney and very generously gifted me some theme park tickets; so of course I took this opportunity to visit Disneyland Paris at Christmas. I’d never been during the festive season but heard it was supposed to be incredible. Well now I want to go back every year at this time.
The attention to detail around the park is beyond impressive. There’s lights everywhere, Christmas trees all over Main Street, fake snow filling the skies, fireworks at Disney Village, and carol singing with Mickey and Minnie before they turn on the Christmas tree lights. The pure definition of magic.
December
I ended the year by coming home for Christmas – to Spain! This was the first time since I was a tot that my family and I travelled back to my mum’s hometown for the festive season. It was also my favourite Christmas I’ve ever had as an adult. We had not one, but three family meals in a row!
But my absolute highlight has to be going out out with all of my cousins on Christmas Eve. We had all grown up together and were more like siblings, but this was the first time in our adult history that we were all at the same place at the same time, so we took advantage and visited some local bars. It was definitely an odd feeling seeing us all grown up and legally drinking together.
How was your 2018? Do you have any resolutions for the year ahead? And have you already broken them?
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