The Decision

Life, decisions and adulthood: I hereby declare they are as much of a grey area as ever. If this token of abysmal enlightenment isn't enough, then I implore you to keep reading.

Should You Trust Me?

It's the treasure at the end of most wireless devices. Portable, almost infinite and truly extraordinary: the internet allows us to do so much, learn so much, see so much and also, to become oh so much.

The bizarre fact remains: we gain friends and form communities online with people we've never even seen, or met. It's awesome, and I actually adore it but the burning question still rages on: who do you trust, and who don't you trust?

15 Things I'd Tell My 18 Year Old Self

Nostalgia and wisdom, closer than ever.

As I step further away from my days of discovery, naivety and youth I move into a different part of my life, and I kind of like it.

We Must Be Happy In The 'Now'

It's the relentless pursuit of wanting, craving and longing for something that lurks in the murky waters of our desired future.

It isn't tangible, often indescribable yet this feeling pulls us like the ocean waves: lapping over each other, crashing, spilling and suddenly, strongly retreating back out to sea.

Is there a way to live in the now, but also for the future? Yes.

Why & How I Want To Be Wonder Woman

The bloggers credo: slow and steady wins the race. One of my most asked questions lately is a lengthly one: how do you continuously blog, cook fresh food from scratch, update social media, exercise, work a full time job, have a life and hug your cat?

Ok, so I slipped the last bit in for giggles. I do hug him. Lots. 

The enigmatic question actually holds a few key but simple answers I want to share with you because I'm learning we all have the ability to push ourselves to do it all.

How I Lost Almost Two Stone

Applying discipline to our diets is only the first step: the real test is the daily diligence that's required of permanent weight-loss. After years of drastically yo-yoing, how do you go from daily disaster to lasting lightness?

I did it, and so can you!

I'm Waving Goodbye to Negativity

Knowing yourself can be tough, but being honest with yourself - really, truly and deeply honest - is a true skill.

My Vegan Story

I've always wanted my blog to be an extension of my personality by simply allowing my thoughts and feelings to flow from each post I type, image I edit and from each video I record.

So, it seems only fitting that I don't overlook such a key point in my day-to-day life. Food is a huge part of me. It's something I'm massively 'into', am enthusiastic about and enjoy delving into. To not include it in my blog feels like a huge omission.

Wanna watch? Oh, go on then.

The Best Coffee Date in Belfast

It all began with a lie: coffee is a necessity to be endured, not enjoyed. They say it specifically serves a purpose during our first few weary hours of the day, but 'they' are indeed wrong.

The Personality Behind The Outfits

I honestly believe Instagram captions, brief tweets and filtered images sometimes aren't enough to allow us to truly get to know one another.

Grab a cup of something tasty, perch yourself comfortably and let's talk as if we're together in a quaint coffee shop!

In This Life, I Choose Growth

I want to open up to you in a way I haven't before.

I started The Small Town Girl with the goal of reviewing and sharing products for girls who want to curate a collection of cosmetics or clothes that maybe cost a little bit more, but work and 'do' as they say. The idea behind the words is to promote a habit of shopping strategically so we don't buy more and more on a whim, find ourselves out of pocket and then inundated with products and clothes that are essentially useless.

Today, I'm letting you in on my entire lifestyle. My thoughts, and my approach to this crazy thing called life. It's immensely important for me to let you know who I am as an overall person, beyond the mascara and bags. I speak from my heart when I say I really and truly aim for you to come here to feel uplifted, encouraged and incredibly inspired on a personal level. The Small Town Girl is evolving, and the blog itself now goes beyond me as I feel you as a reader deserve a platform promoting positivity, self-belief, true happiness and inspiration.

Are you ready?

4 alternative ways to boost your creativity

Distractions. Lack of sleep. Writers block. Oh hey, my phone just lit up! Sorry, where were we? In the midst of so much routine related chaos it's hard to find the motivation to meet bog standard goals let alone blogging extraordinarily.

What's the key? How can we ultimately 'do it all' whilst creating high quality content we're genuinely proud of? Ah ha. Let me tell you..

A very personal goodbye to 2015

Wow - that ended quickly. The last year has been an absolute whirlwind, of the good, sad and memorable kind. From the birth of my niece, to last minute travels, low personal moments, investment purchases and racking up nearly 60 hours of work a week - it has been b-u-s-y.

So as I look back with a thankful heart, it's now time to look forward with a hopeful heart bursting with positivity and energy.

How to: Get 'the' Skinny

Weight is something we all struggle with irrespective of how we actually look in the mirror; the pressure, paranoia and sheer determination to look a certain way all too prominently exists. So, how do we 'get' the balance between living (and enjoying life), loving our bodies and also importantly learning to say no to gluttony?

It's...the VLOG!

I'm still in disbelief that this actually happened. Yes, introducing.....the vlog. A few things went slightly w-r-o-n-g:

1. I filmed vertically, not horizontally. Duh. 

2. Despite my ability to have a full blown conversation with any human/plant/cat/inanimate object, I was unable to muster the courage to vlog in front of crowds of people. It's daunting, but hey, I do like a challenge. 

3. Positioning the camera from a height that makes me look drugged, somewhat asleep and often goofy seems to be a skill I've acquired and unknowingly fine tuned. Also, duh. 

As many old people say (mostly in reference to baking, stoking a fire and other senior related activities); nothing ventured, nothing gained. Anyway, hopefully it was viewable and somewhat entertaining. Perhaps I'll perfect the art and I'll take you along on my next travels, outside of the emerald isle..♥

The business of me

My Day

Wake-up time? 5.50am if I'm exercising, 7am if I'm not.

First thing you do in the morning? It's an awful habit, but I'm forever checking every single outlet of social media as soon as I get up. It's more a (poor) ritual.

Working day? I'll be in work at 8am and normally be on my feet mostly all day until I'm leaving at around 5-6pm. 

One activity you do everyday without fail? Either wear lipstick, or drink a ridiculous amount of water. Mostly sparkling as it's my favourite.

"A good day is...." When you feel like you've done your job well, have been productive or have had one of those eureka moments regarding something creative. All three at once is even better!

"A good meeting is...." preferably non-existent as I actually really dislike them. A good one would be when you meet with someone who's actually productive, energetic and excited about whatever is being discussed. The worst is when you meet with someone who's clearly killing an hour or two of their day and needs you present to kill that time.

Last thing you do at night? Drink a glass of water before bed, always.

And just like that, I'm back!

Firstly, hi..hugs..hello. This feels weird. I haven't blogged in what must be at least four months. Why? Well, let me tell you.

In a nutshell, work has been pretty busy i.e. working 6 days a week busy. I like it, don't get me wrong but it certainly hinders time management when it comes to blogging. My lack of tech skills and inability to renew my hosting then led to my blog slipping into the blackhole of the web and unfortunately along with it has gone every single post, picture and longwinded rambling; basically every modicum of what was The Small Town Girl.