2012: the year in photos

Clearly enjoying myself at a meal with the girls.

Sixth form history trip to Poland.

Elliot & I at a friend's birthday.

Yet another meal.

Animal social.

17th birthday.

Oh look, out for dinner again!

Family photo from my brother's wedding in June.

My gorgeous baby cousin.

Shots for the first of our group to turn 18!

My outfit for my work's Christmas do.

Elliot enjoying his Christmas present from me.

Elliot & I dressed as Amy Winehouse & Redfoo (LMFAO) for New Year.

I hope you've all enjoyed 2012 as much as I did & that 2013 is just as wonderful for everyone.

Aimée

xx

Update..

Where have you been I hear you ask? I know, I've been quite absent these past few weeks but life has been pretty stressful as of late. This will be a super quick post just to let you know that I'm not dead and will be continuing with my blog (hopefully that's good news?)

I've been back at school for about a month now and blimey has the work piled on. All three subjects that I take involve essays and a hell of a lot of learning so obviously that's been taking up an awful lot of my time. I'm starting to get back into the swing of things with balancing school and everything else in my life and I just need to work out how to combine my blog into that. I've also had extra hours added onto my contract at work which means that Thursday evenings are now taken up by that leaving me with less time to do everything else.

Anyway, enough with the excuses and onto just general life stuff.. Last week I got an upgrade of phone and have converted to the iPhone cult. I always said I'd never like an iPhone but when the chance to upgrade came around I was like what the heck, might as well. I went for the 4S in black and I absolutely love it!

Today was mine and my boyfriends 9 month anniversary which is crazy, it feels like just the other day that we started going out! We didn't really do anything much, just chilled at his but still, we got to spend time together so that's all that matters.

I don't really know what else there is for me to chatter on about as my life is pretty boring if I'm honest so I think I'll round it up now. I promise I will be writing a lot more when I've settled into my new routine and if I don't then feel free to leave me comments or tweet me telling me to get my arse in gear! Also, any requests for posts would be greatly appreciated. Please leave them either in the comments or @ reply me on twitter.

New and improved you

Firstly a quick apology for being away for a while, I've just started back at sixth form & it's been quite full on. That & other things in my life have just taken priority as of late but have no fear, I'm not planning on going anywhere in the long term, posts may just be a little less freque

nt than they were over the summer.

I've been doing a lot of thinking over the past few weeks about my life and I've realised that I'm not overly happy with the way that it has been. I've been stressed, paranoid, upset and just not my usual, happy self. Obviously I don't want to be feeling this way so I've come up with some 'rules' for myself to try and get back on track. I thought I'd share them with you as I know that a lot of people my age (and others, but exams & hormones etc can really take their toll) feel similarly at some point or another.

1) Have some 'me time'. Every day I aim to spend some time for just me. No homework, no chores, no anything. Simply sit for a while and do something that I enjoy, be it reading a magazine article, listening to some music, painting my nails, anything will do, just so long as it gives me a little time out from life.

2) Find a way to vent my feelings. I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to do this but normally if something is bothering me I'll just cry but that's not how I want to deal with things any more. Perhaps write it down either in a notebook or in an unpublished blog post, I don't know. If you have any ideas let me know in the comments.

3) Deal with issues head on. If someone is annoying or upsetting me I am going to try confront them about it. This is a big step for me as I tend to keep all of my emotions bottled up but I've realised that is contributing to my stress so it needs to stop.

4) Talk to those close to me. I'm not overly close with my family but I'd like to think that I can go to them with things. Even if I just talk to them about how our days were, that's a start right?

5) Be more social. Honestly, I'm not that much of a social person, I'm quite boring really. All I really do is school through the week, go to work some evenings and on Saturdays and stay at my boyfriend's at the weekend. I've found myself saying 'no' to many things lately for absolutely no reason but I'm going to try to make the effort to see friends much more.

Hopefully these few things will help me to become happier and just enjoy life a bit more. If anyone decides to do these things (or a variation of) I'd love to hear about how you get on. If you'd like me to give you an update in a few weeks on whether I think it's working let me know.

How do you keep yourself happy and get rid of stress?

Hair A-Z

I love reading other people's posts about their 'hair history' and have been wanting to do mine for a while now. Unfortunately mine isn't the most interesting in the world but I figured some of you may like to read it. So here goes, the story of how I've had my hair for the past 17 (and a half) years...

**WARNING** Severe overload of photos of me in this post, I got a little overenthusiastic with picking them out, I even had a nice little trip over to ye olde bebo!

As a baby I had very, very dark hair. The style was baby style, you know, just kinda there. Then as I became a toddler it turned a lot lighter, almost blonde even. My mum kept it cut into a bob until I was about four maybe? Then it started to get darker again and went to a dark brown and I grew it to just below my shoulders. It stayed like this until I was about eleven. There was one slight incident at the age of about eight where I got hold of a pair of scissors and gave a chunk along my hair line a lovely chop (think stupid looking tufty fringe!)

When I was leaving primary school I got a long side fringe cut in, just basically a few layers/feathering to make it a bit more interesting as I was getting a bit older. The length was still just below my shoulders and I had it parted at the side.

Then when I was about 12/13 I took a bit of a risk. I got my hair cut into a Posh Spice-esque style (unfortunately I can't find the picture). Think super short bob with it shorter at the back. I loved it like this, I had a nice side fringe, layers and the cut quite suited me (I think anyway..) but it was just so much to maintain! I'd have to straighten it every day and put loads of serums on it to keep it smooth and it couldn't be tied up, basically I just got a bit stressed out with having to put so much effort into it! I decided to grow it out into a longer bob, just below my chin, still with the layers and fringe. I kept it like this for perhaps a year and a half.

I then grew it to about shoulder length and still had the fringe and everything. It stayed like this for quite a while and I just kept getting it cut into the same style over and over. Now is when I got lazy... I didn't bother getting my hair cut for quite a while and it started to get long. I decided that I liked the length and, after a trim to get rid of the graveyard that was forming on my head, I kept it long, with a longish side fringe and long layers. I really loved it like this as I could do literally anything with it!

I got slightly addicted to the length and just kept growing it and growing it and then in spring/summer 2011 I changed my parting to a near-middle one. Since then my parting has gone even more centered and the length is now to about my waist. I tend to just leave it blow dried which gives a natural, slightly wavy look, or chuck it up in a bun. I'm not really very into hair if I'm honest, as long as it looks slightly decent then I'm happy!

Just to add, as for the colour I have never dyed my hair. It's naturally a medium brown colour & in the summer it sometimes to develop some subtle blonde/ginger highlights. For the natural look of my hair see the final image.

A little update for you all..

Apologies for not blogging over the weekend, it's been quite hectic! I worked a 13 hour shift on Saturday & then my boyfriend stayed over that night. Sunday was my dad's birthday and we had the majority of his side of the family over for a bbq - luckily there was good weather! My boyfriend stayed over again Sunday night and then we both had to get up quite early (well, 8:30, but still, it's a bank holiday!) for work this morning so I simply haven't had the time to write, but here I am now & I have quite a lot planned for my blog over the next few weeks/months.

Firstly, I'd like to say a massive thank you to my new followers. I logged onto Blogger earlier this evening when I got home from work and had a bunch of new lovely people following my blog! I can't even begin to tell you how grateful I am!!

Another thank you goes to Lydia at All Of Her Yesterdays. Those of you who follow her blog (if you don't you're mad, get on over there!) may well know that she was holding a giveaway. Well, on Saturday I went up for my lunch break at work and had a message on Twitter telling me that I had won! I'm so excited to receive my package from her and will definitely write a blog post on it when I get it. Thank you again Lydia!

Speaking of followers and giveaways, I think that when I reach some form of milestone follower number I may hold one. It probably won't be huge but still, anything's something right? I don't know how many followers I will wait for but it'll probably be about 100, 150, something like that. If you have any ideas for prizes or anything please leave them below.

I also have quite a few posts planned for the next few weeks, but as per usual any requests are welcome, obviously I won't do all of them as sometimes things just aren't practical or to my liking, but I will try to do any posts that are suggested. If you do have any ideas either write them in the comments below, email me at petticoatscontact@yahoo.co.uk or tweet me @aimeemoncur

So that's all really. Thank you all again for the support that I've had and I hope you continue to enjoy my blog :)

Tidy space, tidy mind

I don't know about any of you, but I'm one of those people who live by the title of this post, tidy space, tidy mind. I find that when things around me are tidy and organised, I can think much better. Now, if you were to ask my parents, they would definitely say that I'm not a tidy person - they are wrong. I love being tidy and honestly, I have some form of OCD when it comes to organisation. The thing is is that I simply don't have the time to keep everything spic-and-span.

My whole life is spent doing something - weekdays I'm out of the house from 7:30am until 5pm at school, I often work a few evenings during the week, Saturdays I work most of the day & will more often than not spend the night at my boyfriend's house along with the majority of Sundays. Add things such as homework, driving lessons, meals and household chores into the mix and I am home, awake and not busy for about 7/8 hours a week, which if you think about it, is nothing at all! This is why I things aren't always tidy.

I do, however, love things to be tidy, and I really do enjoy doing the tidying (I know, freak or what?!). I have decided that from now on I am going to take just a little bit of time every couple of days to keep things organised. Just little things like de-cluttering my bedside table or my desk, picking up the few clothes that may have 'accidentally' missed the laundry basket, things like that. I think that by doing things like that I will be able to keep both my environment and my mind clear, helping me to focus on other things in life such as school, work and relationships.

I know that this post has probably sounded super cliche, but it's true for me. What do you do to keep your life more organised?

What I plan to do with my life...

Anyone who's in/has been to sixth form/college will know exactly what I'm on about when I say that from now on things get stressful.

I'm super duper close to finishing my first year of sixth form, meaning that I only have about nine months of actual learning left, scary or what?! However, this also means that teachers go UCAS crazy at us! UCAS seems to be a word (if you can call it a word) that sends shivers down students spines and causes them a crazy amount of stress - this word may well be the most important thing in your life at 17, applying to Universities and deciding what you want to do with the next 50+ years of your life!

All of my friends are getting stressed out writing personal statements, looking around Universities and deciding which courses they want to do, which with over 50k courses on offer is a pretty daunting task! On the other hand I'm feeling pretty mellow about it all. I am definitely taking a gap year, although not in the sense that most people think of when the term gap year is said, i.e. travelling the world, volunteering in underdeveloped countries, etc. I am going to use my gap year to explore what opportunities there are out there for me. I'm not even sure if I will apply to University afterwards.

I want to become a Journalist.

After having conversations with my tutor and careers adviser we've decided that if I do decide not to go to Uni then I should try the following:

a) plenty of work experience - in progress

b) keep a blog - check

c) perhaps do some sort of apprenticeship in something in the business field for an extra qualification

So yeah, apart from the career I'm not 100% certain what I'm going to do over the next few years.

I'm don't really know what it is about Uni that doesn't appeal to me, just at the moment it doesn't seem as though it is for me, I'd rather get out there, earning money and living my life.

Is anyone else going through the Uni/post school plans at the moment or have you recently? What did you do and how did you decide to do it?

My emergency kit

I believe that every girl should carry a small make-up bag containing her 'emergency' items. Being the super organised person I am, I carry mine in the knowledge that even if I don't need the items, someone else may do.

I keep mine in a small Dermalogica bag which you may remember from a previous GlossyBox (if you subscribe to GlossyBox that is...). It's the perfect size for me to fit all of the things I need in without having to force the zip shut or it taking up too much room in my bag.

I keep a variety of things in there, unfortunately it wouldn't be overly useful for a guy but when I'm at school with my girls I'm always prepared if they ask for anything!

The first thing is a compact mirror - a real necessity for any girl! Whether it's to apply your make-up when running late or to get some pesky dust out of your eye, the chances are you will need one most days whilst out and about. Mine is just the GlossyBox one that came in their birthday box.

Next up is a clear nail polish. So incredibly useful if you snag your tights or need to strengthen your bare nails, both of which I find myself doing regularly! This is the Maybelline Salon Manicure clear polish.

I don't know about you but I seem to get spots pop up midday and always in the areas that I've only given light coverage, therefore my concealer is a must! I keep one in my make-up bag and one in here so I'm always prepared. This is Collection 2000's Lasting Perfection concealer.

Next is something that won't apply to everyone. I personally keep my contraceptive pills in here as that way I can easily find them. I know some people like to keep them at home but I often work until after the time I take them or stay at my boyfriend's house, therefore leaving them at home doesn't work for me.

Another complete necessity is Vaseline or some sort of lip moisturising product. I suffer from dry, flaky, cracked lips so always make sure that I have one on me.

When it comes to that time of the month obviously you're going to need something to help you out. I personally use tampons, however if you prefer pads, fair enough. These are Lilet's which are my all time favourite brand, but I'm not going to go too far into talking about sanitary products so we shall leave it at that.

A mini perfume can be useful if you just want to spritz a bit during the day to give your scent a little boost. Others may put a body spray in their handbag or whatever but I like this option. The one I'm currently using is a Lolita Lempicka one from a GlossyBox.

Nail clippers are also useful. You not only can use them to obviously trim a broken/too long nail but also to cut off a loose thread or whatever.

Tweezers also come in handy if you ran out of time to pluck your eyebrows or someone gets a splinter or something.

So the next item probably isn't a necessity for everyone and I honestly contemplated not including it in the post, but hey ho, scroll down a little if you don't want to read this one.

I carry a couple of condoms just in case I forget to take my pills or it's the week off, whatever. Better to be safe than sorry hey?!

Hair grips, again, an essential. Gripping back annoying bits of hair or picking a lock (does this actually work?!). These are just cheapy ones from Boots.

Hair ties too, just in case you get annoyed with your hair or it rains or whatever. I quite often end up tying mine up as it's so long and gets in the way of life. Again, these are from Boots.

I also normally keep plasters in here but I had to use the one that was in there this morning - see, it does come in useful! - sometimes I'll put a cotton bud/pad in too.

Do you have an emergency kit? If so I'd love to know what you keep in it, I may be forgetting something key!

The day I was born.

I saw this post on Jazz's blog and thought it was such a fantastic idea. Yes, she posted it 9 months ago but still, I liked it so thought I'd do it myself.

I was born on Friday 31st March 1995. 

Monday's child is fair of face,

Tuesday's child is full of grace, 

Wednesday's child is full of woe,

Thursday's child has far to go,

Friday's child is loving and giving,

Saturday's child works hard for his living,

And the child that is born on the Sabbath day

Is bonny and blithe, and good and gay.

I think that's pretty true, 'loving and giving', I'm generally quite an affectionate person. I care about others and will happily do thing for others. I also love giving people presents!

After searching what the personality traits of people born on a Friday I found this, which says that those born on a Friday have the following traits: As already stated in the poem I should be loving and giving, which is due to being ruled by Venus, I have a sense of values and enjoy beautiful things, my environment should be harmonious and peaceful. I also enjoy being with people and simply engaging with pleasantries. I'm generally driven for securities and am usually willing to work for them & I have an idea of what is fair.

Some other facts about being born on a Friday:

My birth stone is Aquamarine, which I love.

A March born shall always be

Soothed by Aqua, gem of sea.

This mermaid's treasured stone you wear

Will bring happiness, love, affection and care.

I am an Aries, which I always struggle to spell.

Qualities of an Aries: Competitiveness, aggressiveness, impulsiveness, rashness, impatience, courage, spontaneous, assertiveness and self-reliance.

I disagree with these, I don't think that any of them really define me.

1995 was the year of the pig. Perhaps that's why I eat so much?

The number 1 song in the UK on my birthday was Love can build a bridge by Cher. I've never heard it before, but I do like a bit of Cher. The day after my birthday it changed to Don't stop (Wiggle Wiggle) by Outhere Brothers.

My birth flower is the Daffodil.

The Prime Minister in the UK at the time was John Major.

Today I am 17 years, 2 months and 0 days old.

It's 304 days until my next birthday.

In dog years I am 119.

I am approximately 150,525 hours old.

I am approximately 541,890,803 seconds old.

I really enjoyed doing this post. It was great to find out things I didn't know about myself. I recommend that people do it and if you do I'd love if you would post a link in the comments & I will take a look!

Love.

When was the last time you heard someone tell a person that they love them? More than likely it was recently. Everyone tells at least one person that they love them, be it a family member, a friend, a partner, anyone. There are so many different  kinds of love, the love you feel for your family has always been there, you've grown up loving and caring for them, whereas the love you feel for friends and partners has to grow and develop, it takes time. Obviously the love you feel is different for each person, whilst the feelings you may have for a boyfriend or girlfriend are romantic, the feelings for a friend are generally platonic, you just enjoy their company and know that if they did not play such a significant part in your life it would be extremely different and possibly less enjoyable.

People often say that teenagers who are in relationships don't feel true love. I personally disagree with this view. It is unfair for people to class us as a whole collective group, saying that it is impossible for us to feel love at this age. I bet that when the majority of adults were teenagers they would have said that they were in love with whoever they may have been in a relationship with, so how is it different for us?

Of course, I don't believe that when you see 12/13 year old girls on facebook updating their status about how much they love the boy they are with, using a million little hearts and kisses at the end and commenting and all that jazz, a truly in love, generally these relationships tend to only last a few months tops and they seem to say that they love each other after only a few days. Yes, there is no set time that it takes to fall in love, but you can't know a person that well after only a few days to be in love with them. What about those annoying habits your partner has? Or the little things they do which brighten up your day? Or the things you notice about them, the order in which they do things that differs to other people (for example my boyfriend always puts socks on before trousers or a top)? These sort of things help you fall in love with someone.

It gets on my nerves when people say 'but you've only been together a couple of months, you can't be in love!'. I think that is quite ignorant as obviously, no one but the two people in the relationship know how they feel, and as I said before, there is no set time that it takes to fall in love. I know people who have been in relationships where they said 'I love you' after only a few short weeks and the relationships have turned out to be long term, then again there are people who have done the same and have only lasted a few months. I believe that when you feel it, you feel it. It doesn't matter if it's been a few weeks or even a few months, as long as you know how you feel that's all that is important.

Love develops over time, but sometimes you don't quite realise that it is there until something makes you notice it. I 100% believe the phrase absence makes the heart grow fonder. When I went away for a week back in February it was the longest I had gone without seeing Elliot or having a proper conversation with him. That week was when I realised that I was in love with him. Coincidentally, the exact same thing happened with him too and about a week after I got back he told me that he loved me and, obviously, I told him that I loved him too. That was just under two months into our relationship and, yes, some people have said that it was 'too quick' but for me it was the perfect time. We both felt it so why wait until we had been together for longer just to fit with what is believed to be societies idea of when it is right to say it? If everyone lived life in the way we are expected to, following set rules of time and everything else, the world would be such a boring place, and imagine the pressure of knowing that 'after 3 months and 17 days you are expected to say I love you to your partner'! What if you didn't love them? Would you still be expected to say it?

I think that in general, people shouldn't criticise others' use of the word love. Say it when you want to, to who you want to, and in which ever way you want to. It is your love, let it be heard the way you want, not the way everyone else wants.

Summer is (finally) here!

So, after what seems like months of waiting, it's finally gotten hot here in England! Yes, it's been hot for a few days now but today was the first day I've actually been able to enjoy it. Monday it wasn't too sunny, Tuesday I had to go into sixth form for an exam and then on Wednesday I had at 8:30-5:30 shift at work so missed almost all of the sun! This meant that today I was able to get out into the sun at last and all of last night I was praying that it would be warm. My heart almost broke when I looked at the weather app on my phone and it said that it would rain, I mean that's just my luck isn't it, the one day I have off all week and it's supposed to rain, I almost cried!

Thankfully, however, it didn't rain. I woke up and it didn't look too nice but I still put on my shorts and cami in hope that the weather would perk up and it did! So I spent my day doing the following: went for a lovely long walk with my dog, did some housework, and then lay in the garden soaking up the rays whilst doing a very small amount of psychology revision.

Overall, a lovely way to spend the day, even if my tan isn't that amazing.

 the sheep are out in the fields by my house now, there were some absolutely gorgeous lambs but couldn't get too close to capture a good picture because of their overprotective mummys!

Pepe got a little overheated from our walk, probably wasn't the best idea to go so far as he was ill the other day but he seemed to enjoy it nevertheless.