Wardrobe Cleanse

To say I've been out of it with the blogging is a huge understatement. Whilst I've been on the quiet side, it has had its advantages. I've read tonnes of books, I'm a good chunk of the way to catching up on the few programs that I like and I've managed to collect some new items for my wardrobe.

I think the most important and slightly more obvious change is my health. At my heaviest I was horrendously unhappy with my body and myself. Those of you who have read my stuff before know (or may remember) that I have a degenerative back condition and with all the extra weight, I was in constant agony. So I quit smoking and hauled myself to the gym. 
I needed to keep my work outs low impact to avoid injuring my back so I took the plunge (literally) and signed up to water aerobics....and holy moly, how much do I enjoy it! 
At first I was crazy nervous and really had to pluck up the courage to take my towel off and get in the pool but I'm glad I did. From being the newbie, to now being recognised as a regular I've built up my stamina and confidence. 

On top of two visits a week, I try and squeeze in a few low impact gym sessions which I go to with a friend. It defo helps having someone else there to pass the time else I clock watch. I also walk to and from work everyday (2miles).

So anyway, I've lost two stone so far and have built a great deal of muscle mass (more so in my legs). Feeling pretty good. The only downside was that after a holiday in Kefalonia with my Nan and Mum, I slipped back into smoking so I am back on trying to quit again.

The up side? I dropped two dress sizes so bring on the excuses to shop!! I added a few items to my ever growing wardrobe so now I'm going through all of my clothes and trying to wear each piece at least once over the next few months to justify keeping it. What better time to rejoin the blogging community and showcase my new outfits and how I'm putting a spin on my old ones.

First up is todays work outfit. I bought this dress from New Look just before Christmas in the sale. 

 I've tried to show the pattern and the sleeves. Its elasticated around the waist for me, but I assume its really supposed to be elasticated around the chest. I have no boobs so I have to adapt. 
I feel in love with the pattern straight away and paid about a tenner for it. I paired it with black leggings, my black boots and the trusty green cardy.

After buying it I wore it for a girls night out with the same boots, but a black cardigan.

Me and the 'Laura' Cocktail

Then again for Boxing Day with the family, but with my grey cardigan.

Me and my little sister.

I love this dress and probably wear it once a week. Not far off my knees, its a nice length and the material isn't overly thick making this a good one for summer as well. 
 

Dress - New Look

Leggings - Very (South)

Boots - Very

Black Cardigan - Hand-me-down

Grey Cardigan - New Look (old and sequins removed)

Green Cardigan - Very

Facebook - Swearing included.

Is it just me or has Facebook turned into a gigantic bullshit fest?
Once a place I went to find and make friends, keep in touch with family, plan events, share pictures of my life, have banter and follow the goings ons of my favourite teams/bands/clubs etc.

Now my news feed is 90% pictures of babies, 5% game requests and 5% utter nonsense.

Whilst I am happy for my friends who - unlike me - have managed to conceive and are proud of their offspring, I don't really want to see 17 pictures of little Jimmy in the bath every day or know what he's done in his nappy. I also don't need to have tri-daily updates on what he's eating, playing with, doing....

I also don't need the gratuitous "My little baby is 3months, 17 days and 4hours old right now, where has the time gone?" - well, just check my newsfeed, I'm sure you'll find it there, along with 964 pictures of your spawn in varying stages of his/her life. 

Don't get me wrong - I like kids, I'm more than happy for my friends and family who have them. One of the reasons I kept Facebook so long is so I could keep up with my nephews and friends kids. I like seeing the cute pics - within reason. This is purely aimed at the people who apparently have nothing left in their life to talk about. I think kids today are over exposed as it is, without 4 pictures of its nappy being changed every 3 hours appearing on my feed. 

If that wasn't enough to set me over the edge then the game requests certainly did. No, I do not want to play Bubble Saga, or Sweet Shop or Farmville or anything similar. NO. I even went so far as to publicly request people not to invite me to these games (cue trolling from my colleagues and husband) but was met with a resounding chorus of "Well, why don't you just block the game request?"......why don't you fuck off sending them to me? I DO block them, but as soon as I've blocked one lot, another batch of irritatingly addictive and equally time wasting games comes out. I'd be forever blocking them.
I even went as far to say I'd delete people who invited me to them, and held my end of the bargain.... but they still came.

Add all of this to the fact that I can't speak my mind on their because most people on there can't be trusted. That, my friend, is the white icing on the big blue Facebook cake. 

I can't remember the last time I used it for connecting with people, had a decent conversation or read anything remotely interesting on there. 

So, for the meantime, I'm on 'hiatus'. I'm cutting away all of the nonsense in my life and re-focusing on the stuff I enjoy. Back to swimming and the gym, more time writing and blogging. 

Hopefully in a few months it will either A) have become interesting again or B) It won't bother me so much.

Well, we'll see...