Who is One & The Same?

I am writing this post for you fellow nosy parkers. As I have mentioned before, the first thing I do when checking out someone's blog is head straight to the 'About Me' section. I want to inhale as much information as I can about where you're from, what you do, your likes/dislikes and of course, see your face. Knowing who is talking to you and being able to assign a character to them makes blog reading all the better.

In the spirit of practicing what I preach I am going to lay it bare for you. (Not too bare because I know my Mum is lurking about here somewhere. Hi Mum!)

We'll start at the beginning shall we?

I'm from a small village in County Down Northern Ireland and have been so lucky to live in the middle of the countryside. Nothing is more refreshing to me than rolling hills and the sheer greenness of the place I call home. We've always had tons of animals (sadly not so many any more) and I've always been utterly obsessed with them. Throughout my lifetime we have had 5 cats, 3 dogs, 3 horses, 3 rabbits, 3 guinea pigs, stick insects, an ant farm, hundreds of doves, thousands of fish and millions of hamsters. Now we are sadly down to one dog, one horse and one Yorkshire cat.

Betty, our half pug half shih tzu mix, is an absolute dream boat. I babied her so much when she was a pup she sometimes forgets how to dog. Honestly the soppiest (and most jealous) little BFF you could ever ask for.

Ozzie, my thoroughbred ex race horse, is my pride and joy. I have had her for almost 10 years which is really crazy and I miss her SO much when I'm in Leeds. Over the years we have evented, done county shows and galloped along miles of beaches. She is about 20 right now but you would never know. Despite being a bit of a clumsy oaf she is as adorably excitable as you could imagine and bizarrely enough, absolutely petrified of pigs.

Clemmie is my little Leeds princess. We got her in November 2015 from our local Cats Protection and she is such a friendly face. I wrote about her in enormous detail here if you want to find out more about this gorgeous gal.

I went to big school in Belfast which although is only a 30 minute drive from my house took 2 hours to get to in the morning. Queue plenty of bus ride snoozes until I turned 18. I absolutely loved school and wouldn't hesitate to relive it, even just for a day.

I took a year out from school before I went to uni to fulfil all of my grand plans. Which largely amounted to nothing. I wanted to go to Argentina to ride polo ponies, travel the world and take my riding instructor qualifications but didn't get round to doing any of them - something which I hugely regret, particularly the latter! I didn't really think about it properly before I took the year out. I didn't think about the fact that the majority of my friends where either still in school or had already gone to uni so I spent a year at times pretty lonely but generally having a blast.  Amongst other things I went to a cookery school in Bristol for a month which was amazing and worked in a stable yard for a month before I got swine flu and realised mucking out stables for 10 hours a day isn't as much fun when it's not for your own horse.

In September 2010 I moved to Leeds to go to uni and I was absolutely terrified. I knew I had to go to expand my life and take the course I did but I was miserable about living my life behind for the utter unknown. Everybody said to be "you'll last 2 weeks and you'll be home" and I wholeheartedly agreed with them.

Three years later I had graduated from Leeds Met with a 2:1 in PR and Marketing and was SO done with uni. I actually hated my course and the complete favouritism my tutors had for the brown nosing students. A personal highlight was when my tutor for the year told me I was 'distinctly average' and 'would never amount to anything'. Cheeeerrss for that!

My time at uni, and Leeds in total, has been amazing. I have met some unbelievable people and made such amazing friendships I wouldn't change it for the world. I laughed solidly for the three years at uni and had more fun than I thought was possible. I met Ciaran in my second year of uni when he moved into the house all of my BFFs were living in. We've lived together for almost 5 years and been together for four.

Family holiday in Menorca last year

It took me until October to find a proper job out of uni after what felt like thousands of interviews and the same shit sandwich from each employer. 'We really liked you but you just didn't have quite enough experience to get the job but we're sure it won't be long for you'. Honestly it got to the point where I could hardly bare it anymore and was on the brink of giving up trying to get a graduate job entirely.

I worked for a nationwide boiler and central heating installer as their Marketing Assistant and one third of the Marketing department. To say it was an eye opener would be an understatement! I learn so much in the two years that I worked there and met some lovely people, but I was so ready to leave when I handed in my notice.

Before summer 2015 we were in a bit of a conniption about what to do when our tennacy ran out in June. We didn't want to carry on paying rent for someone else's mortgage when we could just (terrifyingly) get our own. So in May we finally got the keys for our own house and moved in 6 weeks later. It was an uphill struggle for weeks trying to remove 60 years worth of wallpaper on every surface imaginable but it's finally finished and is our own little home.

In July last year I started working for a PR agency five minutes away from my house as a Social Media and Digital Exec which was the perfect job for me. I work for numerous different household names and run their social accounts, writing the content plans for the month ahead, talking to customers online, running ads and campaigns and reporting to measure their success. It is a busy job and I need to stay on top of my work/accounts otherwise my brain would quite literally fall out of my mouth.

I've always loved to write and wrote for numerous online and print publications while I was at uni and my blog was an extention of that. Started as a portfolio piece in my first year, I carried on updating it with my new work over the years until I graduated and decided to get my shit together.

What you will find here is a real mix of posts - ranging from beauty reviews, recipes, travel and lifestyle. I hope you find something you like and stick around - come and say hi, I love to chat!