2012 Highlights

2012 flew by, I know everybody always says so, but things that happened right at the beginning of the year still feel like yesterday – hell, I even get a bit confused about what happened in 2011, thinking it was 2012! It really is true that time goes faster when you get older!

I wanted to throw together my favourite things and times of 2012, to share with you all. I’ll admit that this is going to be a bit of an eclectic mix, but perhaps it will serve as a little ‘insight’ into who I am, beyond glittery nails and a spending problem.

In January I made my boyfriend a Nyan Cat cake for his birthday (fairly obviously pictured above), and it’s probably the coolest thing I’ve ever made in the kitchen. The inside was neon marbling and the icing took me an age and stained my hands blue but I was very proud of it!

I’ve hardly been to any gigs this year, which is something I used to do a lot more, but I did get to go see Andrew WK on his ‘I Get Wet’ anniversary tour in April, which was incredible. I absolutely love Andrew WK, and I don’t think it gets much more party than crowd surfing onto the stage and partying with him in the flesh! It was a really great gig, but I didn’t take any photos to share with you as I was too busy you know, partying. Here is a picture of what happened to my shoes instead. I partied so hard the sole CAME OFF…

I’m gonna go ahead and include one of my favourite songs of his. Potentially not everybody’s cup of tea, but I love it SO MUCH.

Another highlight was summer. Remember summer? It was approximately two weeks long, and it happened in May. Apparently all the lucky southerners got a lot more of it than we did up North, and I spent weeks jealously hating anybody who posted pictures of lovely weather while I stared out the window at the rain. I honestly wish it could be summer for two thirds of the year, I love it so much. I am a very cold person, so I love warm weather and it just generally makes everyone happier, I find. I spent as much time as possible outdoors, or clutching a Starbucks iced beverage of some sort. My friends and I managed to get in a few trips to the river to paddle about and lounge in the sun while it lasted. I can’t wait for our next few hot days, whenever we’re lucky enough to get them!

My 2012 started off in a job I hated, with lots of stress and money problems, and in June, when they wouldn’t give me the time off to go to Download Festival, I decided that it just wasn’t worth making myself unhappy any longer, so I just bit the bullet and handed in my notice. I definitely believe that you shouldn’t compromise yourself and give up on the things you love, and it was a leap of faith that paid off because I managed to bag myself an infinitely better job by believing in myself and not selling myself short. Definitely a highlight. It also meant I could buy a new car, something I desperately needed. I now have a lovely Peugeot 307, with fancy features like doors that actually unlock (my old faithful first car wouldn’t let you in the driver’s side… I had to get in the passenger side and shuffle. Dignified!).

Speaking of Download Festival, that was also definitely a highlight! It rained and rained for the first three days, and I didn’t want to leave my tent! After the blazing heat of Download 2011 I was pretty disappointed, but once the days that actually involved music arrived, it managed to dry up a bit and I got to see Black Sabbath and Metalica for the first time, as well as lots of bands I’ve seen quite a few times but absolutely love live like Megadeth and Devin Townsend. I’m really not one for taking pictures when I’m watching bands, but here is a shot of the fireworks at the end of the Black Sabbath set!

London hosting the Olympics was a pretty big deal, and definitely something that we can be proud of from 2012. There was just so much excitement surrounding it, with the torch making it’s journey around the country. The opening ceremony was absolutely spectacular, and it was probably my favourite bit. I did catch a few actual Olympic sporting events on the telly, gymnastics has always been one of my favourite ones to watch, ever since I was a kid. I also went to school with some people who actually competed for Team GB so it was pretty cool to see what people have managed to achieve! Here is a picture I took of the torch passing through where I live.

Another thing I got excited about in 2013 that might mean nothing whatsoever to a lot of you, was the band Wintersun finally getting around to releasing their much anticipated album ‘Time’. If any of you are into Finnish metal at all you are probably familiar with their self titled album which they released in 2004. It was absolutely amazing and us fans were super hyped when they announced they were releasing a new album. It was supposed to be released in 2006, but it got postponed. And postponed. So. Many. Times. I was supposed to see them live twice, and both times they pulled out to ‘focus on Time’. Nobody believed it was going to happen. Then in October it was actually released! And it was worth the wait. My friends and I practically had a religious experience when we first listened to it through on release date. AND it’s a two parter, so  we get part 2 in 2013 (or maybe 2020, who knows).Okay so the majority of my ‘highlights’ are music related by the looks of things. I’m not gonna lie, Call Me Maybe and Gangnam Style were definitely highlights. I was firmly on team ‘love’ for both of these babies from the start. Being a resident of the internet, I had already come across and become obsessed with them long before they started getting radio airtime, so they perhaps did get a liiiiittle bit overplayed for me, but driving around in the summer with my windows down blasting Call Me Maybe was glorious, and learning the dance for Gangnam Style was practically compulsory. Starting my blog definitely counts as a highlight of 2012. I’ve always ‘blogged’ in some form or another. When I was younger I had a paper diary that I wrote in every single day, it was for my eyes only of course, and eventually when the internet happened for me properly I got a livejournal account to update life stuff. I’ve technically had my blogger blog since 2007, but it was only in October of 2012 that I decided to delete everything and start seriously. Having read other people’s beauty, fashion, and lifestyle blogs for many many years, it was something that I’d been wanting to do, and I literally have no idea what took me so long to get round to it. It’s so much fun, and I may not have millions of followers on here, but I really appreciate the little following I have managed to amass. My blog is only three months young, but I really enjoy getting comments and emails from you guys. It’s so great to finally have an outlet for my ‘passion’ for girl stuff, because I find, as I’m sure most of my fellow bloggers do, that most people just don’t care as much as you do, and it can be a bit awkward if you get really enthusiastic about a product that’s just been released, or the hot new fashion trend, and nobody has any idea what you’re on about. We really are lucky to have the internet to bring us all together! So thank you all so much for finding me and sticking about, it really means a lot! I will definitely be keeping it up in 2013, and I have a few little blogging goals, like getting my hands on some decent equipment (it’s SO frustrating that I want to do more outfit posts, but I’m seriously limited by the camera and lighting I have right now, since I work all day and we have no natural light these days) and possibly putting together a little blogging schedule to add some structure to my blog. I’d also like to start my YouTube channel up again. I got into it a little bit in 2011/2012, but then stopped because the sound quality on my camera is horrific. I’ve deleted all but one of my videos because I just wasn’t proud of them, and I think I’ll start a brand new channel in 2013. I might just be filming on my iPhone at first, but that really is such an improvement from what I was using before! Let me know if there’s anything you’d particularly like to see, and I’ll start compiling a little list. I’ve said quite enough words now, so I’ll give your eyes a rest and give my body a rest as it’s 1.30am and I’m up for work at 8am, but if you aren’t done reading yet, you can go read my New Year’s Resolutions. They’re all fairly vacuous and vain, nothing particularly character building or life changing, but I think this makes them pretty easy to stick to. If you do fancy reading something a little more inspiring, I can recommend you go and check out Zoe off of The London Lipgloss’s latest post. It’s really struck a chord with me, because 2012 was about learning to take more risks, and take a plunge, and I really aim to do so even more in 2013! I plan on making my life exactly the life I want, because I believe you can do anything with determination and self belief!