Your Work Life Balance

I love blogging.  It is the best thing that I have ever done.  It has brought my love of writing to the forefront, I have met amazing people; grown in confidence and had fantastic opportunities and experiences.

Having a blog however takes a lot of juggling.  We all know this.  Whether you have a full time job, are a stay at home mum or do a combination of both; I think we all end in the same position. Squeezing what we want to do in when we have the time and writing blog posts, as I am now, at 11.00pm.

So when you have a busy work/home life, a blog and a need to do the ordinary day to day things as well as having a semblance of a social life, the question is: how do we balance it all?

I recently completed a work life balance quiz which asks you 10 questions in order to find out if to find out whether you are a separator (distinct boundaries between work and life), an integrator (blurred lines where you do a bit of everything everywhere) or a volleyer (good at prioritizing).

I am an integrator.  My bus journeys to work are filled with research and scheduling blog posts, my lunch hours are note writing and my late evenings are usually reading, as well as thinking about what I need to get done in my job the next day.  This system works well for me, although sometimes you feel like you never leave the merry go round.

However we choose to balance our work and life should be the way which works best for each of us. I think that the hard and fast rules have to be:

• Do not take on more than you can handle.
• Organise, organise and organise again.
• Free time is not a myth, you need it.
• If the system falls apart for one day, chicken licken, the sky will not fall in.

How do you juggle your work life balance?

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*In collaboration with Joes Bloggers

Charity Shop Bargains

One thing that I love to do at the weekends is have a look around our local +Barnardo's   I have written about my local Barnardos in my post here 

We donate regularly to the charity shop with various clothing items and so I love to have a look around and see what bargains I can find.

Here are some of my recent purchases:

All of the necklaces were bought ranging from £1.50 to £3.50, one  of which was brand new and still had the shop tags on it.  

I am love with the turquoise Fossil purchase which I picked up, in perfect condition for the sum of £4.00.  Having had a look online, knowing that Fossil purses are expensive, I found the same purse retailing for £65.00 at Rainbows Accessories so I had gotten myself a real bargain there.

What great finds have you come across in charity shops?

Shine Bright Like a Diamond

I love to wear costume jewellery.  It is inexpensive and can really change and enhance an outfit.  A bright statement necklace to jazz up a simple black dress or that elegant black jet bead necklace that goes with everything.

If I could wear one type of jewellery for the rest of my life however, it would have to be diamonds.  I do not know what it is exactly that draws me to diamonds, their sparkle, their durability, their classic elegant looks; but frequently I find myself looking at jewellery websites and dreaming of the pieces I wish I owned.

When talking about jewellery on the blog I usually feature necklaces, but for this post I wanted to show you some diamond bracelet designs. If you are going to invest in diamonds, I love the idea of wearing a diamond bracelet as it can be a sparkling luxurious feature on your wrist that you get to see every time you look down.

Here are some of my favourites:

The bracelets that I have shown you today range from £900 all the way up to £4,000.00.  Diamonds are not something that you buy every day, but their classic looks will last you a lifetime.

I aim to own a piece like this before I am 40.  That gives me three years to save for a present that I will cherish forever.

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*This post is in collaboration with Anjolee however all views are my mind

Coco Chanel Quotes

Sometimes I think that I may live my life according to quotes from Coco Chanel.  She said so many things that are true in life that you need to always remember.  My favourite quotes from Coco are those about being self confident in who you are:

"Beauty begins the moment you decide to be yourself"

"The most courageous act is still to think for yourself.  Aloud"

"I don't care what you think about me.  I don't think about you at all."

Being "fierce" didn't start with Beyonce.  It started with this lady.

One other quote I love from Coco Chanel is this one:

"The best things in life are free.  The second best things are very expensive"

The best things in life are free, this is true.   Love, friendship and loyalty all come for free, but you have to work hard in order to attain and maintain them.  I believe that you get out of life what you put into it and what you receive in return is of a far greater value than anything you can buy.

Love, friendship and loyalty are in my eyes the most valuable things in the world and without them the world would not shine as bright.  If you have all of these things in your life then you are winning.

The second best things in life are all things that we could do without, that we do not need, but add a little sparkle.  With that in mind, tomorrow's post is about diamonds!

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