I’ve not done especially well over the last month or so at keeping up the blogging. I have lots (and I mean LOTS) of post ideas and half written posts but none of them have really come together that well. There’s just barely been a trickle of things appearing over here. So I’m going to try something different. A 30 day blog challenge. There are lots of them all over the internet, but I’m not going to pick just one and I’m not going to stick to the prompts designed for specific days. That’s too prescriptive for me and if the prompt doesn’t appeal I just won’t do it. I’m also thinking I might mix it up a bit by throwing in some posts from the various photo challenges that are out there. If I find one day that I have something to blog about that’s from my own stack of ideas then I’ll do that. Maybe just that, or maybe in addition to a post from someone else prompt. Whatever comes out of my keyboard though I’m going to try and post something every day for the next 30 days. It’s a little bit daunting I have to say…

Most of the challenges seem to start with “A picture of you and a bit about yourself” or something along those lines. Seems as good a place as any to start so I thought I would share a few of my favourite pictures of myself (they are rare things I tell you, I’m not a fan of being photographed. Camera’s have a very different idea of what I look like than I do…) and a bit about me and my life right now.

This is me. Although my hair is a bit shorter now. The two colour photo’s are from a shoot at Twilight studios in Manchester about 18 months ago. I went because I wanted some pictures of me in my various dance costumes from my latest show, including my beautiful tutu. I love all the pics I came out with after that shoot but these two are my favourite. The black and white one is (obviously) from my wedding day. BEST. DAY. EVER. I honestly could have picked any one of the thousands (yes really thousands) of photos from that day. Our photographers from Creative Weddings were absolutely amazing and there isn’t a single picture I don’t love. This one is one of my favourites of just me, and it was moments before I went down to my mum and dad and bridesmaids. I am definitely planning a full on reminiscing-about-the-wedding post to mark our one year anniversary in the summer so you’ll see LOTS more of these gorgeous photos.

So. My life right now. I am blissfully married to a handsome, intelligent, hilarious and completely crazy man. We are in the middle of buying our first home. YAY! We are approaching two anniversaries – one marking one year of marriage, and another marking ten years together. Yep. Ten years. That sounds long…well I guess it is long! So excited for the next ten…

At the end of last year I finally finished my degree in Youth Work with the Open University which took me six years, was very hard work and incredibly rewarding. This autumn I get to graduate. Silly hat and all! I can’t wait!

I am currently working in a large secondary school in a pastoral support role. It is manic. It’s a role a really care about but I have found it much more difficult to cope with than I thought I would. So I am hoping to move into academic support in the very near future, to try something new. I’ll let you know how that goes!

In my spare time (which I definitely have more of now I’m not studying) I love to read, dance, draw, craft, watch films, listen to music and sing really loudly.

I am infinitely blessed with amazing friends and family, opportunity, health, wealth and happiness. And although, like anyone, there are bad days that feel like a struggle, I honestly don’t think I could be happier with my life.

What a lucky girl I am. 🙂