1st day of Autumn

Yesterday was officially the first day of Autumn. This year is zooming by, Christmas will be here before we know it and then 2015 is only around the corner! It's crazy.

Now I have to admit I do love autumn time.. the sound of crunching leaves under your feet, cuddling up on the sofa with a big cosy blanket and a nice big mug filled with steaming hot chocolate (with marshmallows of course) watching winter films. Oh and the gorgeous autumn colours, dark purples, burnt oranges and mustard yellows.

What's a better way to celebrate than with a gorgeous pair of boots to add to your A/W14 wardrobe?

ASOS ALONG SIDE ME Leather Ankle Boots

I'm a little late on the bandwagon with these cut out ankle boots, but they're definitely still on trend this year. They're so comfy, I literately haven't taken them off, they're now my go to shoes, they go with so many different outfits. They're the perfect autumn boots and tick all the right boxes for me.

Gema x

Happy Days: the beginning

At the beginning of this year I started seeing the #100HappyDays posts on my instagram and twitter new feeds. Only a few people were doing the tag but I was very intrigued as to what the hell this was. I decided to do a little digging and came across 100happydays.com 

This was all back in March, my not long passed away so I went through a pretty down period. It's never easy losing someone or something you love. When I came across this idea I thought right it's time to cheer up and try this project out.

You've probably guessed the concept.. everyday for 100 days you take a picture of something that's made you happy during that day. You then post this on a social media platform such as instgram or twitter, using the hashtag #100HappyDays. Pretty simple right?

The tag line is that no one has the time to be happy and that a whopping 71% of people who start this challenge fail. When starting it I thought that can't be right and was certain this would be easy peasy.

The few couple of weeks were fine. It was really fun trying to come up with different things that made me happy. I'd just started an internship in London so was having fun learning new things and travelling into London everyday. I found that finding things that made me smile was pretty easy, the only thing was remembering to upload them onto the internet. 

There were a few obstacles I found with this challenge. As my days got more hectic, I found I was forgetting to take pictures of happy things. There were also things that made me feel happy, that I didn't know how to take a picture of them, I was just the feeling I had. I also found that as the days went on the same sorts of things were making me happy, but I felt like I couldn't just keep taking pictures of the same things, I needed to come up with new ideas. In the end it felt like more of a chore than me enjoying it which was why I started in the beginning, so slowly I started missing days and ended up stopping it all together as too many days had passed without take or posting a #100HappyDays picture. So I did become part of the 71% however I disagree that we don't have the time to be happy.

By doing this challenge, even if it wasn't for the 100 days I did feel a change in my attitude. I felt happier and more positive. I really enjoyed things of what things or people made me happy each days, which really did give me a more positive outlook on life. Although everyone has their down days and though times, we really do have a lot to be grateful for. 

Although I started taking pictures for the 100 Happy Days challenge back in March, I still do thinks about these happy things everyday, so I'm glad I tried it. Here are a few of the first pictures I took..

The first signs of spring. These flowers are just gorgeous

First week at my internship. Not only at these flowers pretty but made the whole office smell amazing!

Love looking through old pictures, makes my heart all warm and fussy. Love you Granddad

Lunch break: coffee and a good book.. bliss

Love this song, blasting it out on the underground. Even with all the hype Frozen was still an amazing film.

Work event at Logo land, great but exhausting. Kids are hard work

Nights out with the girls

Mum loves her Mothers Day present, warms my heart

Love you mum

summer is coming. It's still light at 9pm

I'm sure you can tell these pictures were taken a long time ago, but I wanted to share them anyway. It's nice to look back at happier times, that's what pictures are for.

The rest of the pictures will come soon, but that's enough for now :)

Gema  x

Shaking it at Notting Hill Carnival

Last week was the Notting Hill Carnival. I've heard a lot of mixed reviews about this carnival, mainly all good, but obviously with the negative stigma of the history of violence thrown in. I'd never been before so decided to head down to Notting Hill on the Sunday to see what all the fuss was about and I was pleasantly surprised.

With a lot of colour, whistle blowing, dancing, singing, drinking, laughing and food, thing was a very good day. If you've never been before I would strongly recommend checking it out. But remember to stay safe.

The carnival is so big, we never actually go to see all over it, but lucky on the way from the tube station a very nice police lady gave me a map so we managed to find the perfect place to be. With music and food not too far away and most importantly the toilets were only around the corner. 

Also make sure you try some jerk chicken.. it's delicious!

Gema  x