how I look 'stylish' on a dog walk.

Stop, we are not taking a walk down the catwalk. No, today my friends we are talking a walk, on the dog walk.

I'm don't class myself as the most fashionable of people, I'm working on it though. I'm actually often complimented on my outfit in real life and I'm actually amazed to be honest. I'm trying to create different outfits. Instead of throwing on my typical jeans + tshirt/jumper combo.

I'm thinking of creating different outfits, maybe based on occasion.

*light bulb inside my head pings*

I'm not a party girl, far from it. I often feel pretty awkward at parties so there will be no Saturday night going out outfits. But instead here is my contribution to the outfit post world.

I'm not always 'stylish', some of my outfits when dog walking are extremely worrying.

What do I wear on a typical dog walk?

What was my favourite parker coat is now my dog walking coat. Does anyone else have a dog walking coat? Surely fellow dog walkers, you must.

So this lovely, warm, cosy, lined hooded coat it is....

I've probably had this coat for about five years now I'd say, I bought it from New Look. I decided to wear it for dog walking occasionally but once I'd noticed the inside of the pocket was beginning to rip (the dog treat smell didn't help matters) I thought it would be a perfect dog walking coat. It is fading a little in colour, has a few marks on it but oh my, it is just too lovely to get rid of. This wont be leaving me anytime soon.

In this weather the perfect base layer for under a coat is without a doubt a chunky jumper. I picked this chunky jumper up this winter, in the mens section in Matalan. Mens clothing is the way to go if you don't want something fitted, oversized is a pretty good look to rock if you ask me.

Jeans are the perfect leg wear choice for dog walking, there thick enough to stop you getting chilly. Leggings aren't something I'd recommend for walking, unless you put some tights on underneath. I've admittedly got home and can't be bothered to change out of my tights so I've just thrown leggings on, surprisingly pretty warm & cosy but they can become very hairy depending on the dogs you are near.

I love wearing my ripped, distressed looking jeans because I'm not overly bothered if they get the occasional mucky paw print on them or occasional dog dribble. Oh, delightful!

If you're a regular walker you'll know that wellies are an absolute must for this time of year. In the first few weeks of the new year I did see a couple (late teens) walking, the girl was wearing heels and didn't seem too impressed with the situation. Either that or it was their first time of meeting up and she wasn't impressed that he'd taken her on a country walk.

you know you've watched too much pretty little liars when you create this...

A few final musts for dog walking has to be a lead, a treat bag and a poo bag holder (filled with lots of poo bags)! I'm always wearing this around my neck like a medal. Oh and of course you need one happy, furry friend.

Another thing that I do occasionally throw on, depending on the weather is a wooly hat, scarf and gloves. Very rare I put gloves on actually, they just end up being more hassle.

Ooh, this post was actually pretty fun to put together and I enjoyed it. That is what blogging is about, having fun and expressing yourself.

The clogs in my brain are now going around as to what 'fashion' post I'm going to create next. I've got a Pretty Little Liars post in my head already creating itself, who else watches Pretty Little Liars?

♥

What's on my mind? (16/02/2015, 19:37)

I've been thinking an awful lot recently, too much if you ask me. I thought I'd blog about it and then hopefully I can look back in a few months time or even a years time and hopefully then whatever was bothering me has packed up its suitcases and left town.

When it comes to my anxiety I feel like I'm being slightly misjudged in real life. Funnily enough not everyone I know saw me at my worst, they just didn't see me at all. So trying to make them understand is a little bit tricky. I can't just hide my anxiety neither, it has made me the stronger person that I am today.

I'm currently in a bit of a battle with myself too. I want to help raise awareness and break down the stigma surrounding mental health but in the same breathe I don't want to become lost and that be all I'm known for. I'm more than my illness, I'm LOADS more.

I've also been thinking about blogging, I'd thought about sharing what I'd recently bought but I'm not like that. I tried it once, it won't be happening again. I'm going to instead try to put outfits together to share, mainly because I tend to throw on the same style/kind of outfit, not good.

My mood & sparkle seems to have disappeared a little too. Too much rubbish food and drinks plus little exercise probably doesn't help this. I'm working on making changes though, change doesn't happen overnight. Well not good change, only bad shitty change can turn your world upside down within seconds.

My blog was created to share what was in my head, so that's it for today.

Until next time.

♥

LOVE inspired nails ♥

If you aren't a fan of Valentines Day I'm guessing you'll be glad when it is all over & has passed. But in the meantime it is here & I'm going to embrace it. I love, love. I don't just mean love, love. Relationship love. I mean love, in general. The love you might feel for your family, the love you might feel towards a friend. The feeling of love. Basically just love.

Did I make it clear enough? Tonight I'm bringing to you a post, 
a nail post...inspired by l o v e, love...

Over the past couple of weeks I've felt myself struggling, mentally which then seems to be effecting me physically. I've been feeling judged, misunderstood a little bit too. I'm not going to go into it all in this post, I've come here to talk about something that isn't mental health related. There is more to me than my illness, I'm quite the fan of doing my nails too. So here we are.

Tonight, I'm going to show you how to create this look...

Firstly I know for some people this might seem so simple but for others, not so much. We all have different abilities so I thought I'd just create a simple look. 

Secondly, I was going to apologize for the changing of quality, well lighting (lack of it as you get further in the post) but I can't quite help the light outside. I suppose I could of done them earlier, I shall learn from my mistakes. But I'm not apologizing for something so little, it isn't a big deal & I'm learning to not say sorry so much.

To create this look you will need:

    ♥ a base coat

    ♥ a red nail polish (I've used Ruby Gem by Seventeen, it's gorgeous!)

    ♥ a pink polish (I've used Pink Grapefruit by Seventeen, it's beautiful!)

    ♥ top coat (I used Barry M's Matte Top Coat)

    ♥ a dotting tool

    ♥ tin foil

    ♥ cotton wool sticks & nail varnish remover.

(You don't have to use exactly the same colours & brands, jazz it up abit & use what you've got)

Step one... Before you paint your nails you should always prep them (remove old nail varnish, file & all that jazz). Once your nails are fresh & prepped, you need to apply your base coat.

Step two... Once your base coat has dried you are now ready to paint your nails, for this look you'll need to paint all your nails pink.

Step three... For full coverage be sure to apply two coats, or maybe even three thin coats if two just isn't enough. Once your nails are fully dry, it's now time for the top coat.

Step four... It's now time to change your nail look, from glossy to matte. I absolutely love my matte top coats.

Step five... Wait for your top coat to dry. I've learnt now the best way to do my nails & make sure they have plenty of time to dry is catch up on your favourite tv show (hello, pretty little liars!) or maybe even read a magazine or two.

Step six... As soon as your nails are dry it's time to grab that red nail varnish, dotting tool & tin foil. All you need to do basically now is to tip a little bit of your red nail varnish onto a piece of tin foil (I've also found it's easier to just take the nail varnish brush out the bottle & blop it onto the tin foil, less messy), get your dotting tool & just dab it into the polish, then on to your nail.

Step seven... For this look you just need to dab your dotting tool into your polish, dab it on to your nail & just create the shape of a love heart. I didn't manage to take photos of me dabbing & the steps to create the shape, oooops! I decided to just create the shape before it dried up. 

A little tip for you, I found it easier to start with the middle of the heart & then work my way around. I did the top part of the heart first & then joined it together at the bottom.

Step eight... After I'd created the love heart I decided against adding a top coat over it because I was a little scared it might smudge & let's be honest, the background colour would chip before the design & that is already protected so all is good. All that is left to do is to get rid of any nasty little bits of polish that have dried around your nail & your nails are now completed.

TA DAAAA!!!

Love inspired nails, complete!

Well putting my time & effort into this post has improved my mood a little. If you happen to decide to give these a go, please do share them with me.

I'll be back in a couple of hours, maybe days to create another post. All about how I'm feeling. Oooh, aren't you in for a treat.

♥

if you go down to the woods today...be sure to wear wellies/sensible shoes.

On Friday, I decided to take myself off to a local National Trust Park. I'm a lover of my own company, some people might think that's pretty strange but I don't. I can be independent, I can be on my own quite happily, I don't always have to be surrounded by people.

In the morning I had done a few jobs around the house, you know the usual boring cleaning jobs. But I thought, you know what...all work & no play makes for a very boring life so off I went. With it being nice weather already, I didn't really think I'd need to wear my dog walking wellies. I thought I'd be able to walk on the paths that weren't muddy. Within seconds of arriving, my curious side got the better of me & I headed over to a information sign that was on a grassed area. Boots, with very little grip lead to this...

a) am I really sharing this photo on here? yes, looks that way &  b) did I really need to take a photo? oh of course, I need to take photos of everything! How else will I document my life? ;)

If I hadn't managed to keep my balance I would of been well & truly covered in mud & slightly extremely grumpy. Luckily a few months ago in a moment of madness which I now think was actually a very good moment, I decided to buy an extra pair of wellies to keep in my car because well you never know. Safe to say I was very extremely pleased to open up my boot & grab my wellies to go.

Recently I've taken my camera out alot (to the point of boredom) when I've been out dog walking but since we tend to walk in the same area it was lovely to be able to take my camera with me & snap some photos of some other beautiful scenes.

Of course if I'm sharing them on here, I'm going to have to share them how I would in person...talk you through every single photo.

Ok?

If you've got a problem you'll have to have a word with goosey Lucy (googled this to be doubley sure it was a goose, it is...a canada goose infact...canada? canadian?)...

The sun was shining, so a shadow shot was in order...I look soooooo bloomin' tall!

& you know, just incase one shot isn't enough I had to strike a pose. I did check behind me to make sure that nobody was too close to think I was a little strange...

No matter what age you are, you are never too old to walk/jump in puddles! Unfortunately today there was no jumping, I was feeling a little uneasy so I just stuck to steady walking.

Every now & then though it's ok to take a little photo of yourself, right? Right...I thought so too.

Seriously how beautiful is this lake. It's almost too good to be true, there must be some kind of lake monster hiding under there somewhere?

Oooh, how pretty & I can spot my shadow too...

How many Trolls could live under this bridge? It automatically made me think of Billy Goats Gruff.

In some ways this isn't the most 'perfect' photo but in my eyes, it is absolutely beautiful. The sun was well & truly shining bright & look at those clouds too.

A little part to add in here, when I was finally ready to start my walk I had no idea where to walk. I'd never been to this park to walk. I'd been once before & we was on a big field before the main part of the park so I had no idea where to go. I spotted a sign, it had a map & marking showing the walk route. At the side it also had some writing too, saying it was a 1.5 mile walk. Easy peasy I thought to myself, when I've mapped my dog walk before it has been 2 miles, no worries.

No worries until I wasn't actually going the right way & ended up not only taking the wrong way but also ending up on the wrong side of the lake. I knew it would still be alright though, I'd got my trusty wellies on so the muddy paths didn't bother me & the sun was still shining. Thankfully about three quarters of the way round, there was a lovely little cafe on wheels.

What a nice little treat.

I bought myself a lovely cup of peppermint tea (managed to spill some on my hand & also on the serving counter....oooopppsss! turns out I wasn't the only person to do it that day, thank god) & a scrummy flapjack.

It felt like I'd spent so long in the woods it was only appropriate I snapped this sign, I thought the sun shining through also looked pretty cool.

Speaking of the sun shining through looking pretty cool. I was just hoping that the sun would stay up long enough for me to get back to my car in time. I had absolutely no idea how much further I'd got left to walk. I could of sat outside the cafe on wheels but I didn't dare because I didn't have time to kill.

This photo reminds me of a campfire scene in a movie. You know like when you see people go on spring break? or a family holiday.

I was amazed by the different shapes, shading, textures & patterns...

If I see or hear a squirrel I get a little bit excited, maybe a little bit too excited sometimes. Hey, they are such cute little creatures. I was absolutely loving how many squirrels were about, I mean fancy it...in the woods, squirrels?! never!

I couldn't get over how close they would stay to me neither. Where I normally walk the squirrels don't stay near you at all. These ones weren't scared at all, I didn't have to zoom in this photo (below). I just wish I could of fed them, can you feed squirrels?

The sun was setting but the views were still absolutely beautiful.

Can you spot lines running down the right hand side? Yeah, I'd got something on the lens & hadn't realised but still, it doesn't ruin the photo (I don't think so anyway).

Another corner, another beautiful view...

A cheeky selfie? oh why not...but I mean looking back at this now, WOW talk about dark circles...

I'm a) currrently in love with how I'm curling my hair &  b) I seriously love this scarf too. It goes with so much, just whack it on & you're good to go.

If squirrels weren't cute enough, I spotted some bunny rabbits too. They were alot closer (I used zoom on this one) but I didn't get my camera out quick enough.

I have no idea who this man was, but I just had to capture the cuteness. I mean, talk about friendly squirrels...

Sunset, chapel & trees...

Something so beautiful as this row of trees, yet some people don't appreciate the beauty.

You can kind of spot the smudge/lines again but I wasn't going to focus on that & let it ruin the photo.

So a few hours down the line, I was done. Even after taking the wrong route, it was still a beautiful walk with some breathtaking views. I will definitely be returning again & hopefully I'll head on off to some other parks too. I'll certainly be better prepared, I'll be taking a rucksack...armed with snacks & drinks.

I can see massive improvements in myself, two years ago if you had said I'd of been able to manage this I'd of thought you were crackers. Infact, if I had gone with someone I would of probably struggled more than I would compared to on my own.

♥

A little note too, my mum bought me a National Trust Membership in the middle of last year & this is the first time I've got round to using it but I will definitely be using it again & rejoining too. For a young adult it's just over £20 a year...madness!

Do you have any favourite parks to visit? Or any other National Trust place?

I'd love to know if you do.

♥

Dear blog,

2 years to this date I started to use you & by use you I don't mean the horrible, nasty use & abuse way...far from it. I mean use you to help me improve, only I didn't realise how much you would actually help me improve. In the early days I would just sit & type away whatever was bothering me. Leaving the house was limited & things happened, I stayed at home alot.

Over the years not only have I changed alot, but you've changed alot too. I've gone from an extremely anxious girl to a young woman with a little bit more of an understanding of what was happening back then & what still is happening. I've noticed a difference in myself from that very first day. We've grown up, together.

You've changed alot too, I was clueless at the start as of what to call you so we went by the name 'inmyownlittlebubble'. Safe to say I was in my own little bubble, it was quite fitting at the time. We started on the platform, Wordpress but after a few months I decided to make the change to Blogger (still keeping you open on wordpress just incase I didn't get along with blogger, safe to say the rest is history...but I did move all my posts across, don't want them being left behind). We then went by the name of awaywiththefairies321, it is now pretty clear to me I had no idea what to call you. I can honestly now say, hand on heart that I'm 100% certain that a whole lot of chitty chat is without a doubt your perfect name. It just seems so fitting. A whole lot of chitty chat, you are my escape & I absolutely bloomin' love & adore you!

                                       ♥

taking (fifty) five for time to talk day...

If you are very active on social media, especially Twitter (I say Twitter because that is the only social media I use...ok & Instagram but that is more photos than words) you will know that today is Time To Talk Day, created by Time To Change. The idea of this years Time To Talk Day is to take five minutes out of your day to have a conversation about mental health. So here goes,lets...

 TAKE FIVE TO BLOG...

(If you know me, you'll know this will take more than five minutes! I just can't seem to stay quiet for long...or stop typing)

I'm a little bit in love with my hair like this (certainly not my face) so I just had to take a photo...sorry, I'm not sorry :P

My name is...Anna and I have experienced...anxiety & panic attacks.

My mental illness has affected my...'normal' life.

My greatest source of support has been...my mum, my doctor, my therapist (second one!) & my friends I've made online.

My hope for the future is that...we can live in a world where more people talk openly about mental health, oh & filled with fun filled trips to meet my online friends!

♥

Ooooh, an added extra bit from the fifty 'five' minutes...aren't you just so lucky? ;)

In the town I live in, you wouldn't even think today was a day to raise awareness for mental health. Today I saw two posters...two! (that was obviously before I took matters into my own hands & took a little bit of action). I think that is absolutely shocking & just proves that we still live in a society where mental health isn't spoken about. The two posters that I saw where actually in a Mind shops window, well I'm glad they got on board. Even when I was sat in the doctors surgery today you wouldn't even think it was Time To Talk Day, not a poster or leaflet in sight.

When I received my package in the post at the beginning of the week I just knew I had to do something, I was planning on setting up again in my parents shop but they are so quiet at the minute it is silly so I thought I'd do something a little different.

I created a poster in the form of a letter & headed out into my local town to see where I could get these placed. Yesterday I headed to the doctors surgery & left my letter poster & some leaflets too. In all honesty the fact of it had to be approved by someone else did put me off a little & scared me too. Then today rolled around & I had a little bit of courage.

Firstly I did whack two posters in my parents shop window & then added my letter poster too. Then I headed into Mind to see if I could add to their collection in the window, turns out it couldn't go in the window but it could go in the changing room. That is fine by me, atleast it is up.

Afterwards I headed to see my friend who works in an independent store (independent ones are the ones where it is a simple answer, they don't have to ask someone higher up). Luckily she was super lovely (as always), she let me leave one of my letter posters, leaflets, pens & even ended up wearing one of the badges herself. I was proud of her, because I used to be a little scared to wear the badge in public incase people questioned it. (hello stigma?)

Next stop, the library...that was a success, I left my letter poster & a few leaflets behind too.

Next up, the dentists...at first I was scared to ask so I made out I needed to book an appointment (I kind of did too, maybe a little early) so out I tootled but then I kept stopping in the street & questioning myself so I ended up going back & leaving a few leaflets in the waiting area...the word is being spread!

Final stop in town was to a lovely little handbag & accessories shop, independent again...luckily the owner was kind enough to read & say yes to putting up my letter poster, hoooorrrraaaayyyyy!

After all of this I went & had a little catch up with my therapist who actually found out about today through me, how crazy is that?! She was so impressed with my work & she ended up taking two of my letter posters to show higher up in her company & to put up in the reception (yayyyy). I created two, one for windows/noticeboards & one that I could leave leaflets with...yes, I was that organised.

Well, that is how I spent my day...how did you spend yours?
Have you taken five to blog?
Please leave me a comment if you have or send me a tweet, tweet! :)

♥