31 Days Grace: July.
31 July 2017 • July, July 2017, monthly, monthly favourites, wrap up
Oh,
July. You were a funny one. Beautifully hot one week, unpleasantly
muggy the next, and then some days you were just grey. I still
enjoyed you, though. You were a month of unique situations and new
adventures.
I
mentioned her departure in the last monthly wrap up; little sis was
away for half of July. She returned home with two new tattoos and a
shit ton of stories to tell us.
Don't beat around the bush.
26 July 2017 • body hair, body love, body positivity, Grace Talks Sex, gracie actually has opinions, shave, shaving, taboo
**
This post features artwork by incredible female body-positive artist badasses.
All names etc. in captions **
All names etc. in captions **
There was a time when my friends and I would sit on the steep bank above the school games field, dressed in our summer PE kit of shorts and polo shirts, hair pulled back in elastic bands and our bare legs stretched out in front of us on the grass. We'd compare our leg hair almost weekly, and we'd see how long each of us could leave it before we caved, and shaved.
At 13, I didn't care. Sure, it sometimes annoyed me that the fairly pale hairs on my shins would often peek out from under my navy tights, but that was the extent of it. Then suddenly, the other girls in my year started shaving, waxing and plucking.
Why? Well, mostly because they'd heard a fable that boys liked girls with less hair, but also because some mums had told them it was more feminine to be free of fuzz.
Soon I found myself doing the same - but not for a boy, or because my mum told me to. I did it because every other girl was, and I didn't want to be the only one not. I came home from school one day and asked mama to fetch some hair removal cream for me so I could sit in the bath tub and get rid of every little bit of fluff, which took a bloody long time and sometimes over the years led to me feeling faint due to the hideous smelly fumes that cream would give off. Just to feel...accepted? Ladylike? Normal?!
Why? Well, mostly because they'd heard a fable that boys liked girls with less hair, but also because some mums had told them it was more feminine to be free of fuzz.
Soon I found myself doing the same - but not for a boy, or because my mum told me to. I did it because every other girl was, and I didn't want to be the only one not. I came home from school one day and asked mama to fetch some hair removal cream for me so I could sit in the bath tub and get rid of every little bit of fluff, which took a bloody long time and sometimes over the years led to me feeling faint due to the hideous smelly fumes that cream would give off. Just to feel...accepted? Ladylike? Normal?!
The 'Mid-Year Book Freak Out' tag.
24 July 2017 • bookish, mid year, mid-year book freak out, tag
Ooh
look, another excellent bookish tag that one of my most excellent
bookish blogger pals Bex invited me to do! Right, let's crack on and
do this. The year is slipping by way too quickly as it is...
Best
book you've read so far in 2017?
*panics
already and opens Goodreads, checks Reading Challenge*
It's
a tie between 'The Loneliest Girl in the Universe' by the mega babe
Lauren James, and 'The Princess Saves Herself in this One', a poetry
collection by Amanda Lovelace.
'Loneliest Girl' is perhaps the most surprising YA I've ever read – partly because it does not read like it is publicised...not because the (amazing) press team at Walker haven't done their job correctly, oh no, because they've been extra clever in their marketing. Trust me, read this and you'll be surprised.
As
for 'The Princess Saves Herself in this One', that was a badass
awakening-type read, the kind I need more of at regular intervals
throughout each year.
Is blogging dying?
23 July 2017 • bloggers, blogging, click bait, content, death of blogging, gracie actually has opinions
Everyone
seems to be saying that blogging is dying, these days. This news is sad, surprising and honestly quite...confusing. When did it begin its decline towards death? Who fired the kill shot? Did all the best URLs run out? Did Blogger and Wordpress finally throw down and battle it out in a back alley, both coming off fatally wounded? Ooh, or did it all kick off when Blogger deleted their app and spurned endless hate from users (still not forgiven them, tbh)?
Oh wait, I actually have an idea about what could have done it. Y'all may not like it, though. I can't help but wonder...is content the cause of death?
Oh wait, I actually have an idea about what could have done it. Y'all may not like it, though. I can't help but wonder...is content the cause of death?
Dear you, for the last time.
22 July 2017 • dear you, goodbye
Dear
you,
Yes,
she's writing about you again. After all these years – tell your
friends to play that game they invented, 'spot him in her blog!',
as this will be the last time they can. They'd crowd around a laptop
in your dingy kitchen, poring over the words, they couldn't get
enough. You couldn't care less, most of the time.
Well,
you'll be gone after this. Gone from this blog, and gone
from my mind. You'll be merely the inspo in a series of outdated
posts, a face in old
YouTube videos and some faded T-shirts crammed in
my pyjama drawer. A bow tie that I selfishly kept,
and now plan on giving back through a mutual friend.
How Not To: get a hangover! (The Olive Fox archive)
20 July 2017 • drinking, hangover, how not to, how to, howto, The Olive Fox
There's
nothing quite like a morning after to really bring you down from the
night before. It doesn't matter if you spent the night happily
dancing, laughing with friends and maybe even flirting with a certain
super-cute someone at the bar...waking up with a splitting headache,
sore throat and swirling tummy will always dampen the memories and
the whole mood of the morning. Ughh.
Maybe
this particular morning after will be it; the hangover is
so bad that it makes you want to swear off alcohol, refuse any future
nights out and have a hardcore detox. I mean, is there much point
going out and getting crazy if it just means you'll feel like this
every morning after?!
WELL,
hold up. What if I told you that the feeling could go away? That if
you follow a few of these simple steps (yes, I'm aware I sound like a
fake health company internet scam right now, bear with me) you could
bid farewell to those grim hangover feels?
I
have always been semi-famous in my friendship group for managing to
avoid or stave off hangovers. No, really. When I first started going
out at 16/17, I would down alcopops, drain bars of Malibu and knock
back £1 shots like there was no tomorrow – because, for me,
tomorrow wasn't a problem. Then all through uni I'd be the envy of
everyone in the 9am lectures in last night's clothes with makeup
melting off and emergency sick bags stashed under their desks. And
these days I can sink 5 double gins in the pub with my colleagues
with an important 9am work call scheduled the next day, no sweat. My
gosh, I love gin...
Wanna
know my secrets? Read on!
Let 'em look.
19 July 2017 • attraction, Grace Talks Sex, gracie actually has opinions, looks, love, lust, opinion, personality, relationships
I am about to say something quite controversial. It may incite shock, horror, or straight up anger. For that, I am sorry. But it's my opinion. Hear me out, please?
Here
it is. Ready? Okay. I feel that when it comes to making friends and finding love...looks can be as important as personality.
What's in a name?
16 July 2017 • amwriting, author, author interview, authors, bookish, characters, creating characters, fiction, name, names, writing
About
a year ago, I wrote a post about creating characters when
writing fiction. I had so much fun sharing writing thoughts and
sort-of tips...that I thought I might do it again! But this time I'm
gonna write about...naming characters.
Weekly warm 'n' fuzzies #2.
14 July 2017 • happy, weekly, weekly warm fuzzies
Every
day lately I've been thinking how important it is to not just get
happy, but to then stay happy.
Grabbing hold of the good things, and sharing them with others, is a
great way to do this.
So
this week, the following things have made me happy:
Seeing
my neurosurgeon and support nurse, two of the best humans I've ever
met. Being told, again, that my misbehaving brain is 'stable'.
Some really great coffee dates. A pizza with vegan cheese, made in a
wood-fired oven behind the bar at the pub – by a very attentive chef –
served in a cardboard box. The cat keeping me company all night
long, snore-purring softly. Booking another tattoo with a lovely local artist. Meeting and chatting with a brilliant comedian who is delightfully rude onstage, and so far beyond sweet out of the spotlight. Staying up in my beloved Bethnal Green, for the first time in forever. A proper grown-up dinner with my favourite couple, after which I sat contentedly and quietly on the train home, happily all 'talked out'. Dad having to pick me up after missing my connection, this giving me unexpected time to chat with him, just us. Having my 'content' praised, and feeling so stupidly legit. A
significant amount of the evening news suddenly being tennis-related.
Visiting my secondary school, and chatting with my favourite teachers
– trying, and failing, to call them by their first names, at their
insistence.
Stay happy, friends. Grab the good things and don't let go.
What I'll be reading in July 2017.
11 July 2017 • bookish, hype, July, reading, reading schedule, YALC
July
is here. The month in which Wimbledon takes over our TVs, eating
outside becomes more or less normal, pubs with proper gardens get
their time to shine, the seafront gets mobbed by DFL types, pale legs
get pulled out of jeans and forced into shorts...
But
July is also the time when we bookish folks all start properly
prepping and scheduling for YALC. It's when we fill our suitcases
with the latest bestsellers to read by the pool in Spain, or between
trains in the unfamiliar city. We'll be celebrating Harry Potter's
birthday at the end of this month...and mine, the day after. Obvs.
This
month I will be continuing my YALC prep, which I began in June...turns out 1 month wasn't enough! Surprise, surprise. Over the
next 3 weeks I'll be tearing through (not literally – although I do
sometimes turn pages over...) as many YA novels as possible, or at
the very least those which correspond with the authors I desperately
wanna see in panels or for signings (the YALC schedule is driving me
mad...in a good way).
I'll be mixing it up a bit too. I feel too much YA could make it all
blur in my mind; I would hate to get plots muddled or characters'
names wrong due to excessive young adulting...
My best dates.
9 July 2017 • dates, gracie's life, love, memories
Due
to a recent tweet I posted concerning a moronic ex – wow, I haven't
done that in a while – I
found myself reflecting on dates. This particular ex doesn't really
count as an ex, actually; we only went on the one date, and that was
more than enough. I remember regaling my girlfriends the following
morning with the disastrous tale involving O'Neills (worst first date
location? I'd say so), lime and lager (for him, not me – his
company eventually drove me to neat scotch) and karaoke (don't
even). All my friends felt sorry for me, especially considering I'd
fancied this guy for a while. We all had, in fact. We'd referred to
him as 'Arms', the hot guy who could sing. He was a fantasy – and
after that night in O'Neills, the daydreams about his arms had to
end.
At
the time, I actually rolled my eyes at the sympathy from friends,
saying 'I've had worse, and I'll have better. If nothing else, this
will be a good story someday!'
And
guess what? It is.
And
also, I have had
better dates since then. Some of which were so good, I decided to
write about them right here, right now! (along with some from before then...)
30 Days Grace: June.
5 July 2017 • June, June 2017, monthly, monthly favourites, wrap up
June
2017 came and went. We are now in the early stages of July, and over
halfway through the year. How
completely ridiculous is that?
My
June was mostly happy – I only went into hospital once,
for just a night, I started making plans for the near
future not just the end of the
year, I had some yummy coffee dates, I spent actual money that I'd
legitimately earned several times (this shouldn't be that big a deal,
but trust me, it is for a poorly freelancer), and I ended the month
in one of my favourite places, with some favourite people.
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