Favourite Folk - December Edition

Last month as part of BEDN (Blog Every Day in November) I posted Favourite Folk, talking about my favourite blogs at the time. I've decided to make this a permanent feature that will be posted at the start of every month, featuring blogs that I was loving in the previous month. Does that make sense? No? Never mind. You'll catch up. Anyway, let's crack on;

Miss Budget Beauty

Why do I love this lady? Because it's budget beauty and I am on, you guessed it, a budget. She reviews a lot of MUA and Seventeen which are both upcoming brands that are quickly making a name for themselves. She's also posted quite a few Christmas Gift Guides which have been EXTREMELY helpful seeing as I'm rubbish at buying presents. I also subscribed to her YouTube channel so I can gaze at her pretty face, which you can find here; YouTube!

BengalCatWorld

Now this is a weird one, I understand it isn't beauty related whatsoever. But I did point out that I would sometimes be posting animal related thingys and I think it's nice to spice things up abit! I love BengalCatWorld and I love that it's written as if it is Spot himself speaking. Also; having a stumpy little Bengal myself, I love reading about what other peoples kitties get up to. This month the blog is doing a World Advent Calender where they're investing different 'cat' quotes and sayings. Whether you find that interesting or not is entirely your choice, but I love it! Go have a read.

Student Life (The Diary of a NotSo Secret) Poor Girl

I have fallen in love with this blog! Being a student myself it's awesome knowing that someone else is going through what I am, and writing about it. Sharing tips, sharing thoughts, I just love it. The way Hannah writes shows off her bubbly, HILARIOUS personality and I love reading her posts. She writes a lot about becoming an adult which is something I love to read as I'm pretty much one foot into the world of adulthood and her little posts give me a nice lift when I'm feeling like I'm the only person struggling in the world. 

Life is Worth the Fight

I have a friend going through a very similar situation to Stacie; who is weirdly called Stacey! This is actually a really emotional blog where she talks about her illness openly which I think is such a brave thing to write about. She is currently waiting for a heart and lung transplant and writes about her false alarms and the ups and downs of living with her condition. I think she is an amazingly brave person to go what she is going through and still come out smiling and living her life and I constantly look forward to her inspiring posts. 

Somewhere Beyond the Sea

During #BEDN I met a lovely woman who goes by the name of Claire. She is all the kinds of woman I want to be. She has travelled pretty much everywhere and reading her blog makes me want to constantly globe trot. My favourite post of hers is the beautiful story of how she fell in love with her partner. I love her blog because it's different, it's inspiring, it's magical. The places she has been make me want to jump in her backpack and go along with her to the next one. You definitely need to check her out if travelling the world is your idea of heaven. 

Okay guys, so those are my 5 favourite folk from November. Only one beauty related which is quite strange for me, but as we know, there is more to life than make-up. I really think you should give all 5 a read as they're all completely different and I love them all for different reasons.

Thanks for reading guys.

Any new blog suggestions for me to have a look at?!

- Charli, xo

a fresh start.

I thought I'd take the time to share with you a few of the things that take up huge parts of my life.
 Insecurity. Confidence. Trust. Self belief.

The last few months have been pretty awful for me, mainly because of those 4 things, amongst a few others. Last week I felt like it was about time I turned this around and started concentrating on me, my life & what makes me happy.

In a nutshell, I am probably thee most insecure person you will ever come to know. Now, I am a firm believer that everyone has confidence issues, everyone doubts themselves occasionally but over the last 22 years I have convinced myself that I will never truly be good enough, for anyone or anything. When I was in my 'teens' I was your typical miserable, moody teenager. But it was more than that. I spent from being 15 up until I was about 18 constatly fighting to find a reason to wake up in the morning, to even get out of bed. Once you tell yourself there's no point in you being here, a certain amount of times, you start to believe it. I convinced myself of a number of things; no one could ever truly love me, there was something wrong with me. Why would anyone want to care for someone like me? Someone with so many non-existant problems and such a negative outlook on life.

Now, in reality, I had nothing to be so unhappy about. I have a wonderful family, granted I had few friends & school was a hell hole, but nothing particular had happened to cause me to feel this low. To this day, I still don't understand what started that whole phase of my life, but I've carried it with me & it still affects me now.

I do not see the good in people, only the bad. I constantly assume that people have an ulterior motive because why would they want to be involved in my life? What reason do they have to like me? I have the most wonderful partner, who goes out of his way each and every day to attempt to make me happy and in return I am miserable, I repeatedly put him down, I moan and bitch about things he doesn't do, that he doesn't love me. Never taking into account the things he does and the things he sacrifices every single day. Anyone else would of left a hell of a long time ago and yet he's still right by my side and now I realise, THAT is love.

I have a handful of friends that I would die for. I have so much love for the people around me, so much that I want to give, yet I constantly doubt them. They're not bothered about me, they'll walk away like people in the past have, they don't love me as much as I love them. All of this stems from being insecure, having no confidence, having no trust in people.

Trying to change your outlook on yourself and life, when you've spent pretty much 22 years putting yourself down, being put down & telling yourself your life has no meaning, is more than difficult. I've decided to tackle this challenge head on and last Monday was my first 'fresh start' day. It was my first day back at University, my first day back into eating properly and going to the gym, my first day back to enjoying myself, enjoying the company I have and realising how lucky I actually am.

Deep down, I know that I'm bat shit crazy and that's what makes me, me. But it's about time I held my head up high and started convicing myself that my life does have meaning, I am here for a reason & not everyone is out to watch me fall. I've wasted my whole life in a shell, from now I am free.

To the most important people in my world; I want to be a better me for you, but most of all, for me.