Hello World,
It’s been two years since I posted my last post on here and my goodness has my world changed since then.
I think the best way to update you all is a series of life posts, are you ready? Can you guess any of the changes in my life?
Let me give you a hint…
You can probably guess most of the life updates from the photo associated with this post but I’m intrigued to see what you guess!
Until my next post!
Lana xxx
Hello Creatives!
I hope you’ve had a magical Christmas and a wonderful new year! I was lucky enough to spend mine in Spain with my mum and dad, however the wonderful trip has come to an end!
The trip was filled with beautiful views:
Wonderful food:
And the best company – My parents ❤️
I’m sat writing this on my Ryanair flight back to Bristol from Malaga whilst waiting for everyone to board and I can’t help but realise that this was my last holiday before full time employment begins, where holidays may not be so spontaneous anymore!
I’m so excited to get back to George, and I can’t wait for us to celebrate Christmas again together! Well… open presents (as I couldn’t bring mine to Spain, apart from ones mum and dad brought for me – some beautiful wool and a Fitbit!).
This evening will be relaxed, and tomorrow we set off at the crack of dawn to Aylesbury to view a few properties to move into for our next adventure!
Oops I better go! Doors are shutting and fingers crossed take off will be shortly (we’re already delayed by 10 minutes… typical!).
Until next time, where I’ll update you on our adventures,
Love Lana xxx
Hello Creatives,
Goodness me, it has been ages since we last spoke! My life has (as per usual) been going 100 miles per hour and the excitement never ends!
George and I graduated our Masters Degrees (both with Merit) recently and as exciting as it all was, I forgot how bloody mind numbing graduation ceremonies can be Haha.
I’m sure most of you know or have an idea of how graduations go.. you collect your gowns, get photos taken, get more photos taken, sit through a ceremony, and then drink copious amounts of alcohol!
I’m just going to throw a few photos onto the page below of our big days and hopefully you’ll get a feel for how it went!
I opted for trousers instead of a dress as it was absolutely freezing and I was not ready to brave the cold that day!
Georges was thankfully a good 45 minutes shorter than mine, however, was at the bloody break of dawn…
Oh, and how could I forget, Georges older brother coincidently also graduated his Masters Degree on the same day as George but up in Leeds! So each boy had one parent, and here’s Joe below with his mama! As soon as George’s ceremony was over, we made the two+ hour drive up to Leeds for a big celebratory dinner.
ANDDDDDD if the boys’ graduation day couldn’t get any better… I was offered a job! (Sorry to shit on your parade boys… 😂)
Oh it was a simply fantastic week.
I’m writing this from a cosy sofa in our Spanish apartment where I will be spending Christmas with my family this year.
Merry Christmas everyone! Only two more sleeps to go!!
Until next time,
Love Lana xxx
Hello creatives,
If you read my last post you’ll know that the past few weeks haven’t been easy. However, the way I have coped is by keeping my mind busy (or else everything hits me like a truck and I’m a sobbing mess). It may not work for everyone, but I thought I’d let you in on a few things I have been doing to keep my mind active (apart from crochet, because that’s just obvious)…
1) Reading
I was at the airport waiting for my flight and decided to check out what books WHSmith were selling for their typical extortionate price. I looked at pretty much every book and then came across ‘The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving A F**k’ by Sarah Knight, and it definitely struck me as a book I should be reading.
I managed to finish it within a day of arriving back here in Nottingham and it has really made me think, however I don’t want to give too much away!
Since then I’ve also purchased these two books:
And after asking my no.1 girl gang group chat, the majority voted that I read ‘Spark Joy’ by Marie Konda next (the girls always have my back on these tough TOUGH decisions! Haha). I will let you know how they go!
2) Keeping Fit
I have signed up to the gym! Whaaaaaat?! I know. Crazy. But the classes that they offer are just a brilliant way to start or end my day.
So far I have attended:
(If you hadn’t caught on, I signed up to PureGym…)
These classes have sorted out my sleeping, made me more productive through the day, and actually made me feel good about myself – WIN!
3) Outings!
So although I left home on Saturday and it’s now only Thursday… Mummy has come to visit! And here’s a list of things we plan on doing to keep ourselves busy and make the most of the few days we have together:
Keeping my mind busy is definitely helping me cope.
How do you cope?
Love, Lana xxx
I lost my warrior.
My grandmother was the cheekiest, purest soul.
She left this world with me by her side at 4.05am on the 2nd of March 2017 in a very peaceful manner.
She put up such a fight, but unfortunately, it was a battle she wasn’t going to win at the beautiful age of 86.
In her last days I told her everything I wanted to, told her all my stories, kissed her, and hopefully made her proud with my studies as she’d always asked me to do (I got 3 grades back for my masters whilst ny her side and, without boasting, they were preeeeetty damn good by my standards).
This last week has been tough. Sleepless nights, feeling helpless as she went through hundreds of seizures, and emotionally drained.
She was and still is my everything.
I would like to thanks the NHS staff for everything they did for my family and myself. From blankets and pillows, to tea and toast, to even cake and coffee, they did everything possible to make the tough days slightly easier. Most of all, they respected my grans wishes and went above and beyond to help us organise a Muslim funeral (no one in my family has been through the process before, we were all clueless).
I wasn’t ready for my Umi (as I called her) to leave me, or this world, however she left peacefully and pain free, after an adventurous 86 wonderful years of life, and that brings me peace during this hard time.
I’ll forever hope her cheeky smile and memories will be passed down through generations to come.
RIP Jamilah Robertson 1930-2017
P.s. I’m clueless as to how the photos will show on a computer as I have simply just uploaded them from my phone.
Hello creatives,
Today is difficult. Today is not how I’d planned today. Wednesday evening I was flying to Spain from Nottingham, yesterday afternoon I was travelling back home to Scotland, and now I am sat at the bedside of my warrior, my grandma.
If you read my Reflection post you’ll know that my beautiful grandma has recently had troubles with her health. However she recovered and was happy and healthy… Up until two days ago.
She fell. Her weak legs gave in and she fell. The details of her fall are a bit fuzzy as no one can be sure and she was concust, but thank god her morning carer found her (she has a carer three times a day to make sure she has all her medication, however my mum visits her everyday also).
She’s now unconscious, with heavy internal bleeding of the brain, therefore unlike last time, she isn’t going to come back from this one.
I can’t accept it. I can’t accept that her heart is healthy, something that hasn’t been healthy for a very long time, but one fall has left her in this condition. I won’t accept it.
She is everything to me.
My car is currently sat in the car park of Nottingham airport as I had a booking for it until tomorrow (Saturday), when I was meant to arrive back from Spain. But as I ended up flying directly from Spain to Scotland (flew into Edinburgh then drove three hours to Aberdeen as that was the quickest route) and I won’t be back by then, I was stuck in a sticky situation.
After phoning the airport parking sales counter and explaining my situation and putting them in a tough situation (there was physically no space for my car to stay there longer than tomorrow, they would have to figure something out) and I received this email:
I thought I had run out of tears until I read this…
Some people are so wonderful.
Posts will be slow for a while, and I apologise for this, however I must be there for my family and take time to look after myself. I am so emotionally drained.
Lana xxx
Hello Creatives!
So I just neeeeed to vent on my situation with my crochet projects!
First of all, I am a completely impatient person with ADHD..
So, when it comes to crocheted items that come in a pair, I am so excited to get one done (I’m currently half way through mittens!) and will complete it within the shortest time possible, but when it comes to the second one, I have ZERO motivation to start it, but REALLY want to complete the set!
Here’s a few photos of my mitten process (just the one, because I can’t motivate myself to start the second):
My partners mum is coming to stay with us on Saturday so I am using that as motivation to complete them to give to her as a present!
I’m that person that is constantly thinking of ways to improve the project I’m currently working on, or thinking of new projects to start, so as soon as I’ve woven in the ends and completed a project (or in this case, one mitten) I’m ready to start something new (aka not another mitten…) 😂.
So although it has passed 9pm, I am going to try my best to continue watching The Killing on Netflix and start the second mitten!
On another note, im definitely going to need a larger wool basket, or at least a separate basket for completed/semi-completed (ADHD got the better of me) projects!
Please tell me this happens to you too? Whether it be crochet or something else?
Lana xxx
P.s. If you read my previous post, George is well again and this set of norovirus didn’t stick around for long, thank goodness! That also meant that we were able to go keep our Valentine’s Day dinner booking and it was delicious!
In order to be able to open up on this blog, i realise the more you know about me and this blog itself, the eaiser it is to relate. So lets start with this blog. I previously posted about my struggles with finding my feet with this blog (and i guess the fact that im still figuring it all out). You can have a read here if you fancy!
The name of this blog was originally (and still in the URL) BlueHillSpace. You’re probably wondering whyyyyyy? Well, honestly, picking a name for a blog is super duper difficult as youre stuck with it FOREVER (kind of..). I wanted something with meaning, something that would catch on, and something that i wouldn’t regret. It originated from the street that myself and my other half lived on in Wales when we started this blog up. It was called Brynglas Road, “bryn” meaning blue, and “glas” meaning hill. Pretty straight forward right? I guess it had meaning, and will always tie this blog to its birth location, and “space” highlighting the blog as a space for creativity.
Honestly, i guess i grew out of it in a way, especially when the clothing line ‘Zero Space’ came to an end. And i changed (the header name, as the URL is unchangeable) to Snack On Life, Freshie. I thought “freshie” sounded ‘cool’ and connected the blog to university life more, urgh such a bad idea, and as you can see i got rid of that preeeeeeetty quick. I also added the tag line of ‘what do you do when everything’s new?’ quite simply because it rhymed, nothing was new, i was in a very familiar place doing the same old familiar things…
“Snack On Life!”
Snacking is probably one of my favourite things, and although the message behind the slogan “Binge on life” would have been a lot more meaningful, i like snacking, it means you can take a break and when you feel like it, snack again.
“What do you do when everything’s new?”
Only recently coming back to this blog have i found my tag line VERY fitting. I will be moving to a new city, a new university, and a new living situation (although having lived with George for the past two years, we are now in our own apartment rather than shared accommodation!). Everything will be new, even down to having my first new car!
So what DO you do when everything’s new? Well, what im going to do is blog about it! Take it all in and blog about the experience.
Are you starting something new? Let me know! I really want to engage more!
Here’s to NEW,
Love Lana xxx
I’ve come to the realisation that blogging isn’t as easy as it seems (or at least as easy as some bloggers make it seem!)
This blog is still very new and although two years old, has very little content. My blog began as a base to advertise George and I’s upcoming T-shirt line, however although highly successful, was very time-consuming. If it weren’t for university getting in the way, you would have seen our line being sold at all the music festivals across the UK during summer 2014. As amazing as the offer was to us, creating 600 units of our product wasnt manageable in the time frame of two weeks with a busy timetable. We were gutted.
So i don’t really know how to begin this post.. I’ve been away from this blog for over a year now, and i feel like now is a good time to return. I’ve recently graduated from Aberystwyth University with honours, and been accepted onto a MSc (Master of Science) course at Nottingham Trent University. George and i will be moving into a little apartment together, and i guess the first stage of adult life will begin, and boy am i excited! But my time since graduation hasn’t been that easy.
Snack On Life 