Happy Friday #1...

Hi everyone, and happy Friday! How has your week been? My working week was short and sweet, much like they were for rest of summer, but as lovely as having some down time has been, I am actually looking forward to getting stuck back in with work properly now!

Now that we're on the edge of Autumn and on Wednesday I posted the last of my summer scenes I didn't want to let the happy sunshine vibes finish with them, so I've decided to start a happy list series. I always love reading other peoples 'good things' posts, and I have had posted similar style lists in the past but I've never kept to any routine with it! So I thought now that my new blog design is all finished, and all the kinks are ironed out it was the perfect time to rectify this, and make sure that every other Friday I make some time to appreciate the moments that have made me happy. So without further ado, here is this weeks list...

1. Being spoilt rotten for my birthday...

I don't think I will ever get bored of birthdays no matter how old I get, and this years was particularly lovely! I also managed to spread out my birthday over about 2 weeks, with a weekend in Manchester with the young man, a specially baked vegan cake and celebration at work, a weekend at home in York filled with small towns and afternoon tea, and then a midweek bake off party with friends on Wednesday! It all left me feeling very lucky and very loved. I got some gorgeous presents, including a culotte dungaree style jump suit, and some Cath Kidston dessert plates, but more importantly I got to spend time with almost all of my favourite people!

(If you're wondering how I'm feeling about turning 25, you can read my birthday ramblings here.)

2. Getting my new blog space all sorted out...

Ok, I won't ramble on too much about this, because the new design has been up for over a week, and I explained why I had a little makeover already here. But just because the redesign and moving from wordpress to blogger went relatively smoothly didn't mean the rest of it did! For a while my domain name was doing CRAZY things, my disqus worked fine for a while before all my comments magically disappeared to then thankfully reappear, AND my posts weren't feeding through to bloglovin' properly (and it wasn't the easiest of tasks to get in touch with them) HOWEVER that is all fixed now, and I am so HAPPY with it. I'm feeling full of inspiration for this space once more, and hopefully connecting with more of you now will be so much easier!

3. Being a grown up and sorting out my finances...

Ok this one isn't so much a happy thing, as a sigh of relief thing. After mentioning on Wednesday that one of my goals before next summer is to have paid off my credit card and start saving this week I finally sat down and looked at all my finances properly. I made a list of all my bills and outgoings, set myself a budget and a target for when to pay off my credit card, as well as begin saving for Venice in October. Of course this didn't mean everything was suddenly magically all paid for, but it does mean I can now open up a spreadsheet and see that the right numbers are going the down, and even better, other numbers are going up. I just needed to know it was under control and now that it is there really is no need to fret!

4. Having my first driving lesson...

I got behind the wheel of a car, and wasn't entirely terrible. I mean I can't steer for toffee, so may never be able to actually drive, but I've got the 'mirror, signal' part of 'mirror signal, manoeuvre' down to a T. Self deprecation aside, I actually didn't find it half as terrifying as I expected, and along with sorting out my finances it feels good to be working on my list of direction goals which I posted on Wednesday. I'm 25 now, and even if I never buy a car, I know that is about time I got my license. It feels good to be facing up to that.

5. Putting a little bit more time and effort into what I'm wearing...

Maybe this one is a little bit odd, but this week I've actually been planning out my outfits the night before and for the life of me, now can't remember why I stopped doing this. I never blog about fashion, but I do love clothes and like to think of myself as being someone that has a recognisable style but recently I've let that slip. Just grabbing whatever comes to hand in the morning doesn't make me feel my best, but having a planned outfit has made me feel pretty confident in myself every day this week, and I'm a big advocate for celebrating that!

So those are my 5 happy things for this week, what has been making you happy recently? Have you been working on your goals in any small way, or do you have a new favourite outfit that's really boosted your self esteem? Leave a comment and let me know!

Live life & take note of the happy things x

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