Wednesday 30 March 2016

Decorating For Easter

Hello lovely readers! 

Today I thought I'd share some photos I took of the decorations I put together for the Easter Holiday.

This years Easter celebration in particular felt quite special; it's the first Easter in my new home City - Brighton, and with now having lived here for almost 4 months it definitely feels very much like home, which fills me with delight. With this along with some other reasons it’s been the first Easter for a long while that I've actually been able to fully enjoy, celebrate and relax through. 

By now, you’re more than likely to know that I love any excuse to plan, organise and display decorations, so of course with Easter being a celebration I took this as the perfect opportunity to put my love towards decorating to good use for my Mum and I to admire and enjoy.

I didn’t want to go too over the top, or spend too much money on the decorations. So I reused some I already had such as from my Mum’s Birthday and Christmas. I then set myself a budget of £15 to spend on a few more items. I’m extremely chuffed with what I managed to achieve for this, and of course I took photos of the final look which I’m very excited to share with you. I hope you like my ideas and how it all came together; I’d love to know what you think!


I reused the table mats and copper ball lights, I then bought a few extra bits mainly from the store - Tiger. I particularly love the colourful bunting; other items from Tiger include the tea lights and holders, napkins, table cloth, the little chicks and decorative grass.


On the table I scattered golden confetti and some party poppers I had left over from Christmas (as you can imagine, the confetti is now everywhere hehe But thats part of the fun, ey!


The beautiful flowers were a gift to me from my Mum, I absolutely adore these, and they've lasted for quite some time now - thumbs up to my Mum!!


The Hot Cross Bun Tea is from a lovely Tea shop called Bluebird Tea Co. in Brighton - they do a huge variety of all sorts of teas and this was one of their Easter specials!


My Mum and I filled the table with lots of Easter treats and later in the day we set up a little Easter egg hunt around the apartment which was very fun, even with just the two of us!


The decorative eggs and the orange paper fold-out decorations were both from Tiger; I'd definitely recommend you take a look around Tiger if you're in need of some affordable decorations. They sell all sorts of other things there too, from kitchen essentials and home furnishings, to stationary  and of course great party decorations.


I hope you've enjoyed having a little sneak peek at my ideas, and as always thank you so much for taking your time out to have a read - it means a lot!

I do hope you all had a lovely Easter time.


Sending you lots of love xxx

Wednesday 23 March 2016

Patience, Acceptance, Time

Right from the very start of creating this blog I expressed that I've wanted to be completely honest. I want to do so to hopefully help those who read this in one way or another; as well as to help myself, especially when faced with difficult times.

Today I am going to write this post from the centre of my heart. I'm going to be completely and utterly honest with how I am currently feeling, and I'm going to say straight away that at the moment I'm feeling a bit rubbish. 

There isn't one specific reason as to why, just lots of little reasons bundled together like a big dark cloud overshadowing me. 

I'm pretty sure we all have times like this, and don't get me wrong, I do believe that I will get through it, but that doesn't mean the 'getting through it' bit is ever easy.

So why am I writing this post? Well keeping honesty in mind, I honestly needed to let out how I'm feeling. I want to speak out to help those who feel how I currently feel, and if you do to let you know that together we will get through the tough times. We will. 

Today I want to write specifically about the 'getting through it' transition, which is an incredibly challenging process. For me, there are some days where I feel trapped in this transition, which is how I've been feeling recently. I just want the big dark cloud overshadowing to back off a bit, to give me some space, to leave me alone and just let me breath...you know what I mean?

Whilst thinking about the struggle I'm currently in, and with there not being one particular reason for why I feel how I do, I'm just not feeling in very high spirits. I really want to channel some of my low feelings into something that'll help me get through, and I've found myself thinking of three words.

Three very simple words, which I came up with off the top of my head. To me, these words have great meaning and now sum up my present focus. 

The words being patience, acceptance, time.

I came across a quote and thought it fitted in beautifully with this post and wanted to share it with you...


For a long time I've struggled with keeping calm, with being patient and with accepting that some things just take time. We all have such moments where feelings of aggravation, frustration and the urge of wanting a quick fix takes over our minds and becomes overwhelming and unmanageable. 

Right from this very second I am going to put all of my power and strength into turning my frown upside down, and to try my absolute hardest to focus on being patient and to accept that however long it may be until I'm out of this tough patch. I will get through it and I will be ok. 

Learning how to cope and manage such negative feelings isn't easy, but nor is it realistic to live letting such feelings take over. This was the case for me some years ago, and it wasn't doing me any good at all. I knew I needed to change things around and get onto a better path, to progress rather than regress.

The biggest and hardest step is making that decision of positive change and sticking to it. For me, now that this want for positive change is embedded in my mindset, I feel I have opened up so many closed doors. 

I am learning incredible strategies and coping mechanisms all of the time and I'm finding out more on how to better manage my not so good feelings and to be patient with myself. 

At the beginning I found it extremely difficult to accept that with some problems there is no quick fix. I do have days where this still upsets me, taking these last few days of me feeling not so great as an example. But with keeping the three words 'patience, acceptance and time' in my mind and using these as a focus helps calm me and ease the frustration. With keeping to this simple focus I feel my mind is clearing.

Going back to the reason for why I'm writing this post, I'd like to invite you to perhaps try out a simple focus - maybe like me with patience, acceptance and time or make up one of your own. Then, whenever you find yourself lost, frustrated, feeling down or similar remind yourself of your focus. 

For example maybe you're finding your workload too much and the amount is causing you to feel demotivated. Or perhaps you're in a similar situation to me where you feel a little stuck, and unsure of whats next, or what you'd like for your future. Or, you're just having a bad day. 

Whatever it is, whatever may be getting you down, stop, just for a moment, take a step out of the negative spiral you're in. Remind yourself of your focus, smile, breath deeply and repeat it to yourself a few times. Remind yourself that tough times never last and that the best things in life take time. 

For me, I am learning that if I give myself the time, if I am patient and accept that the best things to come are often those that take the most time. As long as I stay calm and motivated, I just know that I will get to a better place.

For many years people said to me "Em, be patient with yourself" or "Em, this is how things are at the moment, but if you give yourself time you will get to where you want to be".

For a while I didn't listen. But then one day, I just simply started to listen to these wise words and since then, I can definitely say that I feel positive changes happening all the time - even on my not so good days. Now with using my new three word focus, the more I think patience, acceptance, time the calmer and stronger I feel.

Why not try giving yourself a focus starting from right this second? Just think, what is there to loose? Better still, think of what you can accomplish with this simple focus in mind :)

And remember...


Thank you so much for reading this post.

All my love xxx

Tuesday 15 March 2016

A Misty, Enchanting Sunset

I feeling as though I can now say that Spring is certainly starting to make a show, yippee!! The days are getting longer, brighter and warmer...the flowers are blossoming beautifully, the birds singing joyfully in the mornings and more. I am a huge fan of this time of year, and with this I find myself spending more time out and about with my camera. 

I am delighted by this in fact, as if you've read my previous post 
 (http://www.millymaggy.com/2016/01/ideas-plans-and-moving-forward.html), you'll know that using my camera more is something I've wanted to achieve in 2016. Which so far has definitely been the case and I'm enjoying every single moment!

Doing so of course means that I have a growing number of photos I've taken to share here on my blog; and so hopefully you reading this will enjoy having a browse through this post as well as the others to come!

I feel incredibly lucky to be living in Brighton, and especially to be living right by the sea here. The sunsets over the sea are wonderful and definitely my favourite moment in the day. With the sunsets being especially stunning at the moment I've taken the opportunity to spend my evenings out at this of day to head to the seafront, to take in the beautiful surroundings and of course to capture some photos.

I will now share with you some of the photos I took one evening last weekend. On this day I found the sunset to be particularly picturesque. There was a slight mist over the seascape which I feel gives an enchanting and fascinating effect. As it was the weekend and probably the warmest evening we've had so far in 2016 there were many others out enjoying the evening which made the evenings atmosphere feel even more charming! 

I hope you like having a look at these photos! If you do enjoy this insight into one of my evenings spent admiring the sunset, and you haven't yet seen my other posts of my times by the coast click this link and you'll be able to view them all together: http://www.millymaggy.com/search/label/Coast
I love the silhouettes formed by the light and the contrast between the light and dark here...
The glistening golden colours bouncing and glowing off the sea fill the photos with so much warmth...
Silhouettes of children and families enjoying the last few minutes of daylight...
The sun starting to fade here, behind the blanket of mist which I found created a cool and calming feel to end this lovely day...
Wishing you all a wonderful start to Spring; we can now definitely start to look forward to the longer, warmer days - yay!

All my love xxx

Monday 7 March 2016

Taking Time To Reflect

You may have noticed I haven't published a post in a couple of weeks, and there is a reason for this. I decided to take some time out, not just from my blog but from using my laptop. I did this mainly to give myself space, to clear and refresh my mind. To be honest I was just feeling as though I needed a complete break from my laptop.

By doing so I've been able to carefully and deeply think about things, from what I've recently loved and enjoyed...such as reading, my seaside walks and continuing to learn more about yoga. Also to acknowledge and reflect on what I've achieved over the last year or so, as well as to think about what I'd like to see myself doing and achieving over the next few months.

Even though I did really miss writing posts for my blog I do feel my break has helped my mind feel refreshed, revived and clearer. I can now see how my mind became ever so slightly clouded without me even realising, with multiple spiralling thoughts; from everyday to-dos, to unnecessary stresses and although this wasn't necessarily because of using my laptop, I felt it was the right thing to do for myself.

Something that I'd really love to share with you, are my thoughts on the importance of taking time to yourself to reflect. Now I know I've written similar posts in the past on taking time out; but I feel that taking time to reflect can be slightly different but just as important. Which is why I'm writing this new post on it.

To take time to reflect on something in the sense of to think deeply and carefully can help in so many situations. Its a great tool to use in our everyday lives and can often be forgotten about. 

Lots of us live in a very hectic lifestyle where it almost feels impossible to stop and think carefully, even just for a minute. The constant tasks from work to house chores, and so on can sometimes seem endless and like a continuous balancing act.

If you find yourself getting worked up on a task or you find yourself feeling overwhelmed and stressed, then at that time is the ideal opportunity to stop, even if its just for a couple of minutes, and take some time out to reflect on the situation. 

To give yourself a little bit of space and time; to let yourself breath and think carefully about what you're feeling stressed about and the best way to conquer your tasks can be easier said than done for many of us. I for one used to find it incredibly difficult to simply stop and think, but now having learnt various strategies such as the few below I'm about to share with you I can now truly see and feel how important it is to do so.

Sometimes when I feel overwhelmed by my thoughts I like to take out a few minutes out, I grab myself my notebook and pen and write down exactly what is stressing me out. There is something incredibly pleasing and therapeutic with writing down a list (I know I'm not the only one who feels this) and afterwards I feel a weight lift off shoulders. I can then prioritise the important things, do them first, then work my way through the rest. I also love ticking each task off, and the "ahhh" feeling once the list is complete.

Another thing I like to do if I feel myself getting stressed is to do some breathing exercises using my meditation app on my phone, which helps me regain a sense of calm and focus. There are so many incredible apps these days; the one I use is called 'calm' which I found on the App Store. There are meditations from 2 minutes as a quick pick me up, to an hour, or even longer if you have more time. There's different music and soothing noises to choose from; you can have the option to listen to a person guide you through the mediation or not - your choice. I definitely recommend you give it a go! 

There are so many other ways to take time out to reflect. If you're lucky enough to take a day or even a week out of your busy schedule, and focus on having a real break to yourself, to distress and regain a sense of peace, focus definitely do so. Although I understand this isn't realistic for a lot of people, in which perhaps try one of the strategies above :)

These tips are only from my experience and may not work for all of you, but if you're up to it, give one of them a go and let me know how you get on - I'd love to know!

I hope you liked todays post, and I look forward to getting back into writing on my blog!


Lots of love xxx