Hey lovelies! Well, if I'm honest, today has been a miserable one for me! I've been really struggling with my depressive thoughts and I've just felt majorly 'down in the dumps' all day. I very almost decided to give up on Blogmas and just spend my evening binge watching shows or something, but I eventually managed to motivate myself enough to write a post! I have chosen to blog about the best moments of this year, in a bid to cheer myself up! 2017 has not been a great year for me overall, it's had some up's but mostly down's. So, I thought by writing about the positive things that made my year a memorable one, it would help to feel like it's not been too bad of a year really. Sorry for such a morbid introduction though guys! I hope that you enjoy reading about all of my highlights of 2017 :)
I saw Green Day at the Manchester Arena in February, and it was a great way to start my year! If you've been a regular reader of my blog for a while now, you may remember me mentioning that Green Day is my favourite band of all time! I have been a big fan since I was around 12/13 years old, and our shared love of Green Day was one of my things that me & my best friend found we had in common when we'd just started hanging out together at school! They hold a special place in my heart for that but also because of their lyrics. They meant a lot to me growing up, and through all my tough times in life their songs have helped me :) I finally saw them for the first time with my best friend back on Halloween Day of 2009. They were absolutely amazing live, and I am so happy that I got to see them again after all that time! They were just as fabulous this time round & I will jump at any chance I get to see them again in the future. Are any of you guys fellow fans of Green Day? Do you have a favourite song by them? Mine is Jesus of Suburbia.
Going to Comic Con is one of my favourite times of the year! I get super excited as soon as the 1st of July comes around and I know that it will be time for the MCM expo at Manchester very soon! I've been going every summer for three years now with my best friend, and although this year I couldn't make a new cosplay, I was still very happy to be wearing my cosplay from the previous year of Totoro, from the Studio Ghibli movie, My Neighbour Totoro. You can see my cosplay here :) I just adore the atmosphere at the event so much, everyone is friendly and having a great time and it's wonderful to be surrounded by fellow nerdy folks. I love to admire everyone's cosplay, which just seems to get better and better everytime I go! It's also super great being able to take advantage of a room filled with geeky merch stalls, and come home with a delightful haul. We say this every year on the way home, but next year we are definitely going to aim to stay over in a hotel and go to both days of the convention.
This might seem like a silly thing to be named a highlight of my year, but seriously it really was! I'm a big fan of the 1990 Stephen King's IT mini series, starring the absolute legend that is Tim Curry, and also a lover of the horror genre so I was very much looking forward to watching this new adaptation of the novel and original series. I was very intrigued to see how Pennywise would be portrayed by actor Bill Skarsgard, who I loved after watching him in the TV series Hemlock Grove (It helps that I'm a little in love with his brother and fellow actor, Alexander Skarsgard too, haha). I was certainly not disappointed with this movie. I really really enjoyed it! I went to see it for the first time with my best friend, and was then delighted when my mom said that she wanted to go and watch it as well! I have watched it again since those trips to the cinema with my family, and have re-watched some of the movie clips on YouTube numerous times. I might be slightly obsessed, but I don't care :) It has inspired me even more so to read the book, which I've now bought and will start in 2018. Have you watched this movie yet? If so, I'd love to hear what you thought of it in the comments.
Aaron is one of my closest friends and I have talked about him a few times on my blog :) Some of you may know by now from following me on social media, that every year we like to celebrate the glorious musical event that is the Eurovision Song Contest in style. We are both huge fans of the ESC and in 2016, we got the chance to go to see the final show live in Stockholm, Sweden & omgosh it was so flippin' brilliant. This year, the competition finale was held in Ukraine, and for many reasons we decided that we didn't want to go there, so instead Aaron put on the most awesome party! Aaron organised such a wonderful night with themed games and food from different European countries. All of the cups for drinking that night were red, white & blue to represent the flag of the United Kingdom, which was a very cool touch. He covered the ceiling of his flat with the flags of the countries that can enter the Eurovision song contest, and it looked fabulous. For the party itself, everyone invited had to choose a country that had entered a song into the ESC this year, and dress up in the colours of their flag. One of my favourite songs in 2017 line up was from Estonia, Lost in Verona by Koit Toome & Laura Poldvere, so I rocked the colours black, white and blue on the night. I got my sister to paint my nails in the colours of the flag too :) I was gutted that Estonia didn't make it into the final show, but I still proudly wore their colours to Aaron's party. It was a fantastic night and so I couldn't not include it on the list. Fingers crossed that we can get tickets for the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest in Lisbon, Portugal.
My inner animal nerd has been released for this particular highlight of the year, haha! Nerd terms aside, in July I saw my first ever Comma Butterfly. I am a big fan of nature photography and insects alike, specifically butterflies. I really enjoy coming across new insects and identifying what species they are. I like to go searching for them and love photographing them, and this is pretty much how I spend a lot of my afternoons in Spring time and early Summer. I am aiming to spot as many species of UK butterfly as I can by the time I'm 30, and I hope that I can do it! I have a little chart to check off and everything! I can just hear my best friend shouting GEEK in the background as I write this :D I was sitting in my garden with my family in Summer this year, just enjoying the weather and photographing a few birds and Green-veined white butterflies as they visited, when out of the corner of my eye I saw something orange fly by. I was immediately very excited thinking I'd seen one of the more orangey looking Red Admiral butterflies, but when I walked over to where it had landed on our hedge, I saw that it was a species I'd never seen in person before. I was over the moon, and pretty much straight away knew it was a comma! They have such a unique wing shape and spotted pattern. I was very happy that it stayed still and let me take so many photos of it! It was certainly one of my favourite moments of 2017 for sure :)
If you know me well, you'll know that I adore musicals. I always have, since I was a very young child. I just think they are fabulous, so extravagant and expressive! I am fascinated by the act of story-telling via song, and I will forever love singing along to my favourites! I had this musical on my show wishlist for a long time. Almost every year around Christmas on channel 5 they would show the version of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat with Donny Osmond as Joseph, and I really enjoyed watching when I was little. I knew all the songs by heart after a few times watching it, and when the wonderful world of YouTube came along I was able to listen to them as many times as I wanted. As soon as I saw the advert about the musical coming to the Manchester Palace theatre, I was determined to go! My best friend had never seen it before and wasn't sure what she'd think of it, but yay! she agreed to come and watch it with me! It was an epic show, with the most fantastic costumes and staging. The performers were so so awesome, and Joseph himself was played by 2009 X factor winner Joe McElderry! I was interested to see how he'd changed over the years and how his voice was live, and was happy to discover that he was awesome! I mean for me personally, no-one can beat Donny Osmond's versions of the songs, but he did an brilliant job! I couldn't stop singing (well mouthing the words) along to the songs as I watched, and some of the performers kept noticing and winking or nodding at me, because our seats were at the front XD that was making me feel pretty shy, but I couldn't stop myself, hahaha! Oh well, one of guys playing one of Joseph's brothers was hot and I got a few winks and a high five from him at the end so I'm not complaining! :D 10 out of 10 would see again! By the way, Jess loved it too!
I literally blogged all about this in yesterday's blogmas post so I won't go into too much detail. Please have a read if you're interested! At the beginning of this month, me and Aaron went to see Steps and Vengaboys, and they were both fantastic! They put on wonderful shows, especially Steps because of all of their awesome staging and costumes, and they sang all of my favourite songs. It was one big 90's nostalgia party, and I had such an awesome time! Thanks again for surprising me with a ticket for my birthday Aaron!
So, those were my favourite moments of 2017! Even thought the year had so many challenging parts, these events helped to keep me going through the hard times and are some wonderful memories to look back on. There were also plenty of little moments when things happen that just brighten up your day! Aurora the Shih Tzu, the newest addition to our family, has made my year wonderful too. She's a bundle of joy and a little terror too, and she cheers me up all of the time! I love her so much and she's made many of my worst days bearable with the way she greets me and always wants to cuddle :) Collecting the Pokémon plushies from the Build A Bear Workshop has been fun, as well as starting up collections of other figures because I'm a total nerd when it comes to vinyl figures, haha! This year I have finally got my own bedroom, and even though I'm still in the process of making it my perfect space, it's very nice to have the room to myself to relax in :) 2017 has been a year where I've learnt more about myself, mostly of my resilience and my strength. I am however thankful that it will soon be a new year and a fresh start. Here's to 2018! But first it's Christmassss! And I am excited :)
♥ Seeing Green Day in concert again! ♥
I saw Green Day at the Manchester Arena in February, and it was a great way to start my year! If you've been a regular reader of my blog for a while now, you may remember me mentioning that Green Day is my favourite band of all time! I have been a big fan since I was around 12/13 years old, and our shared love of Green Day was one of my things that me & my best friend found we had in common when we'd just started hanging out together at school! They hold a special place in my heart for that but also because of their lyrics. They meant a lot to me growing up, and through all my tough times in life their songs have helped me :) I finally saw them for the first time with my best friend back on Halloween Day of 2009. They were absolutely amazing live, and I am so happy that I got to see them again after all that time! They were just as fabulous this time round & I will jump at any chance I get to see them again in the future. Are any of you guys fellow fans of Green Day? Do you have a favourite song by them? Mine is Jesus of Suburbia.
♥ Manchester Comic Con ♥
Going to Comic Con is one of my favourite times of the year! I get super excited as soon as the 1st of July comes around and I know that it will be time for the MCM expo at Manchester very soon! I've been going every summer for three years now with my best friend, and although this year I couldn't make a new cosplay, I was still very happy to be wearing my cosplay from the previous year of Totoro, from the Studio Ghibli movie, My Neighbour Totoro. You can see my cosplay here :) I just adore the atmosphere at the event so much, everyone is friendly and having a great time and it's wonderful to be surrounded by fellow nerdy folks. I love to admire everyone's cosplay, which just seems to get better and better everytime I go! It's also super great being able to take advantage of a room filled with geeky merch stalls, and come home with a delightful haul. We say this every year on the way home, but next year we are definitely going to aim to stay over in a hotel and go to both days of the convention.
♥ The release of the new IT movie ♥
This might seem like a silly thing to be named a highlight of my year, but seriously it really was! I'm a big fan of the 1990 Stephen King's IT mini series, starring the absolute legend that is Tim Curry, and also a lover of the horror genre so I was very much looking forward to watching this new adaptation of the novel and original series. I was very intrigued to see how Pennywise would be portrayed by actor Bill Skarsgard, who I loved after watching him in the TV series Hemlock Grove (It helps that I'm a little in love with his brother and fellow actor, Alexander Skarsgard too, haha). I was certainly not disappointed with this movie. I really really enjoyed it! I went to see it for the first time with my best friend, and was then delighted when my mom said that she wanted to go and watch it as well! I have watched it again since those trips to the cinema with my family, and have re-watched some of the movie clips on YouTube numerous times. I might be slightly obsessed, but I don't care :) It has inspired me even more so to read the book, which I've now bought and will start in 2018. Have you watched this movie yet? If so, I'd love to hear what you thought of it in the comments.
♥ Aaron's Eurovision Party ♥
Aaron is one of my closest friends and I have talked about him a few times on my blog :) Some of you may know by now from following me on social media, that every year we like to celebrate the glorious musical event that is the Eurovision Song Contest in style. We are both huge fans of the ESC and in 2016, we got the chance to go to see the final show live in Stockholm, Sweden & omgosh it was so flippin' brilliant. This year, the competition finale was held in Ukraine, and for many reasons we decided that we didn't want to go there, so instead Aaron put on the most awesome party! Aaron organised such a wonderful night with themed games and food from different European countries. All of the cups for drinking that night were red, white & blue to represent the flag of the United Kingdom, which was a very cool touch. He covered the ceiling of his flat with the flags of the countries that can enter the Eurovision song contest, and it looked fabulous. For the party itself, everyone invited had to choose a country that had entered a song into the ESC this year, and dress up in the colours of their flag. One of my favourite songs in 2017 line up was from Estonia, Lost in Verona by Koit Toome & Laura Poldvere, so I rocked the colours black, white and blue on the night. I got my sister to paint my nails in the colours of the flag too :) I was gutted that Estonia didn't make it into the final show, but I still proudly wore their colours to Aaron's party. It was a fantastic night and so I couldn't not include it on the list. Fingers crossed that we can get tickets for the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest in Lisbon, Portugal.
♥ Seeing & photographing my first Polygonia c-album ♥
My inner animal nerd has been released for this particular highlight of the year, haha! Nerd terms aside, in July I saw my first ever Comma Butterfly. I am a big fan of nature photography and insects alike, specifically butterflies. I really enjoy coming across new insects and identifying what species they are. I like to go searching for them and love photographing them, and this is pretty much how I spend a lot of my afternoons in Spring time and early Summer. I am aiming to spot as many species of UK butterfly as I can by the time I'm 30, and I hope that I can do it! I have a little chart to check off and everything! I can just hear my best friend shouting GEEK in the background as I write this :D I was sitting in my garden with my family in Summer this year, just enjoying the weather and photographing a few birds and Green-veined white butterflies as they visited, when out of the corner of my eye I saw something orange fly by. I was immediately very excited thinking I'd seen one of the more orangey looking Red Admiral butterflies, but when I walked over to where it had landed on our hedge, I saw that it was a species I'd never seen in person before. I was over the moon, and pretty much straight away knew it was a comma! They have such a unique wing shape and spotted pattern. I was very happy that it stayed still and let me take so many photos of it! It was certainly one of my favourite moments of 2017 for sure :)
♥ Watching Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat ♥
If you know me well, you'll know that I adore musicals. I always have, since I was a very young child. I just think they are fabulous, so extravagant and expressive! I am fascinated by the act of story-telling via song, and I will forever love singing along to my favourites! I had this musical on my show wishlist for a long time. Almost every year around Christmas on channel 5 they would show the version of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat with Donny Osmond as Joseph, and I really enjoyed watching when I was little. I knew all the songs by heart after a few times watching it, and when the wonderful world of YouTube came along I was able to listen to them as many times as I wanted. As soon as I saw the advert about the musical coming to the Manchester Palace theatre, I was determined to go! My best friend had never seen it before and wasn't sure what she'd think of it, but yay! she agreed to come and watch it with me! It was an epic show, with the most fantastic costumes and staging. The performers were so so awesome, and Joseph himself was played by 2009 X factor winner Joe McElderry! I was interested to see how he'd changed over the years and how his voice was live, and was happy to discover that he was awesome! I mean for me personally, no-one can beat Donny Osmond's versions of the songs, but he did an brilliant job! I couldn't stop singing (well mouthing the words) along to the songs as I watched, and some of the performers kept noticing and winking or nodding at me, because our seats were at the front XD that was making me feel pretty shy, but I couldn't stop myself, hahaha! Oh well, one of guys playing one of Joseph's brothers was hot and I got a few winks and a high five from him at the end so I'm not complaining! :D 10 out of 10 would see again! By the way, Jess loved it too!
♥ Seeing Steps and Vengaboys at the Echo Arena, Liverpool ♥
I literally blogged all about this in yesterday's blogmas post so I won't go into too much detail. Please have a read if you're interested! At the beginning of this month, me and Aaron went to see Steps and Vengaboys, and they were both fantastic! They put on wonderful shows, especially Steps because of all of their awesome staging and costumes, and they sang all of my favourite songs. It was one big 90's nostalgia party, and I had such an awesome time! Thanks again for surprising me with a ticket for my birthday Aaron!
So, those were my favourite moments of 2017! Even thought the year had so many challenging parts, these events helped to keep me going through the hard times and are some wonderful memories to look back on. There were also plenty of little moments when things happen that just brighten up your day! Aurora the Shih Tzu, the newest addition to our family, has made my year wonderful too. She's a bundle of joy and a little terror too, and she cheers me up all of the time! I love her so much and she's made many of my worst days bearable with the way she greets me and always wants to cuddle :) Collecting the Pokémon plushies from the Build A Bear Workshop has been fun, as well as starting up collections of other figures because I'm a total nerd when it comes to vinyl figures, haha! This year I have finally got my own bedroom, and even though I'm still in the process of making it my perfect space, it's very nice to have the room to myself to relax in :) 2017 has been a year where I've learnt more about myself, mostly of my resilience and my strength. I am however thankful that it will soon be a new year and a fresh start. Here's to 2018! But first it's Christmassss! And I am excited :)
Thankyou for reading!
♥
What was your favourite moment of 2017?
Looks like you had a great year!! My highlight of 2017 was going to Disneyland Paris. It was such an amazing trip. I can't stop talking about it!!
ReplyDeleteI bet it was amazing omgosh! I neeeeed to go to Disneyland :) x
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