2018, the year of my career - talking new year's resolutions and goals

Hello, hello, hello! Happy almost 2018, craAzy that I'm even saying that. I remember once it got to 2013 the years started to sound unnatural because they got so high, and I've felt the same every year since. The older I get, the faster time goes, and I'm finally at the age where I actually want it to slow down and to stay this young 5eva instead of itching to grow up and be an adult.

What often comes with a new year, are resolutions and goals and plans and things to achieve. The 'new year, new me' trope we hear for the last week of December and first week of January ever year without fail. A whole new year seems like the perfect starting point and motivator to ~turn your life around~, strive for something better and work on your personal targets. And, with Jan 1st falling on a Monday this year, it's a brand new week as well as a brand new year - extra motivation.

the ultimate gossip girl guide to new york

Morning Upper East Siders, have I got a treat for you! XOXO

Gossip Girl is an iconic show with something of a cult following, even ten years after its debut and five years after its finale. Any fan of the show would love to go to New York and see all the hot spots from the show for themselves, from the iconography of the bright red Hotel Empire sign to the place Blair likes to get her macarons. 

After trawling through a ton of GG NYC guides last year before my trip to New York, I was finding that each page only had the same few obvious spots like the Met Steps, and I had to go to a million different pages to compile a good enough, extensive list of places from the show. That's why I've decided to put everything I can into one guide - the ultimate guide - so you can visit all the places S, B, N, C, Lonely Boy and Little J did.
All the other guides I've seen have about ten locations and I've managed to gather 36. Five or six a day over the course of a week's trip anyone?

So, here we have it. Live out all of your Gossip Girl fuelled dreams during your New York City visit and pretend you're Blair Waldorf for a day (I know I do even when I'm not in NY).
PS: Spoilers ahead.

the pink teddy puffer (& a lil thought on blogging)

puffer: urban outfitters // beret: seint [similar]

So I wanted to share this coat desperately. Except, I couldn't think of what to chat about. And in my post all about finding my ~niche~ and ~USP~ in the blogosphere, I said, literally quoting from that post, "I don't want to just put up a few pics of an outfit with five sentences about it when that could be done on Insta". Hmm, how about a couple pics of one item of clothing and a few lines about it instead?

You see, I think ya girl got a bit caught up in the thing of the moment, and thought I had to be deep 24/7 baby 365. I love having a proper chat about something that holds at least a little bit of significance and can give an audience something, it is still what I want to do and the direction I'd like to see my blog go in, a la that post. But what if I want to put up a pic or two of an outfit and tell you what I think about it too? I want to do that now. I've been writing (aka attempting to write) what you may call deep think posts so that I had words to accompany my pink puffer pics, but I didn't care that much about what I was writing about. When I wrote my 'deeper' posts like the sexism in tennis one it's because the issue was bothering me incessantly and so I had to speak out about it and have an outlet, and this blog is my outlet. 

The thing is, these posts are a bit of a thing at the moment. And that's great! They're both my favourites to read and my favourites to write - but only when something sparks me writing it, not me sitting there trying to think about what deep life issue I have some sort of an opinion on and then forcing that into a thoughtful blog post. I didn't realise this until I saw some people chatting about it on Twitter, I think Lily Pebbles started it off. Why does it seem to be the 'thing' - why does it feel as though you could no longer share an outfit post with a few lines about the outfit and that you have to provoke discussion when all you want to do is show the world your bloody pink puffer? 

So, here's my stance, and my point. I LOVE a 'think piece' of a blog post, but at the same time I enjoy reading someone's thoughts on their outfit - why they chose those boots, what compelled them to style these piece together, how they felt when they laid eyes on that jumper on ASOS and knew it was 100% them. Yes, you can briefly sum that up in an Instagram caption and achieve almost the exact same thing but like, do it on your blog. You have your blog for a reason and it's to do what you want with it and post what you want on it. So if you wanna share a photo of your pink puffer so bad, maybe it means you care about your pink puffer enough to form a blog post around it, without the need for a deep life story. 

So I was thinking, why can't I do both? And there is absolutely zero reason why I can't be ~the girl who does it all~ and so that is what I am going to do.

And here we have it, by having this thought, this 'why do we have to be deep 24/7 and why did I say I have to be deep 24/7' thought, I've kinda written a post with substance. Not just talking about my pink puffer.

Now, without further ado, finally(!!!), onto the pink puffer!