2014 - 365 days to smile

Well I'm glad that's over. I've missed you. What a crazy few weeks it's been but I'm here again and I'm much better than I was last year. Progress is progress so positive news all round.

Now, being a new year I've decided that instead of making promises about "New Year, New Me" I'm going to make a promise to make the next 365 days count. Interested? You should be!

For the next 365 days I'm going to take a photo every. single. day. - It's not going to be of anything particular, just something I find interesting or inspiring. I'm going to upload them every Friday night for you to see and I encourage you to do it too! But why? Why would I do this? Well, I've got 2 words for you - Blessings Project.

So what is a "Blessings Project"? It's a way to simply find the good in the everyday. It's a way to smell the roses whilst providing yourself the opportunity to keep photographic evidence of what makes you're life so wonderful on a day to day basis. At the end of the year I intend on creating a photo book of the year that was. Just a nice way to remind my future self that everyday is a chance to appreciate life.

I first saw this concept on Facebook via The lovely and talented Emma of E.K.Mcleod Photography. Emma has not only captured images of me and some of my friends, she has inspired me and is also doing a Blessings Project of her own. You can see her project here: Linkity Link Link. 

The concept of this project has really resonated with me. As a person who deals with Depression and Anxiety on a daily basis, I feel that this will provide me with an opportunity to find positive thoughts and/or feelings about my life every single day of the year. It's a chance to be able to collate my year in images and will enable me to look back and see that every day counts. With the preparations for IVF in full swing, it may also serve as a unique and interesting way to document one of the most important and significant events in my life. The creation of our baby!

I'm very excited about this project. So here is week 1!

1st January 2014

I thought I'd feel different today, a bit like a  birthday I guess. I thought I'd wake up and look in the mirror and see a woman staring back at me that was a little older and a little wiser. Instead I saw my young self. The girl with the looks of a teenager the wisdom of an old soul and grey hairs of a woman who feels older then her 23 years.

2nd of January 2014

Today I sat in a food court for the first time in over 8 months and actually ate a meal.  It doesn't sound particularly amazing but for me it was a huge milestone. It was a step closer to feeling normal again and even though I was tense and left with a huge headache, I didn't try and escape. I sat, I ate and I survived.

3rd of January 2014

 Today I looked in the Mirror and really started to see the difference in my body. I've lost 10 kgs  so far and plan to continue. I don't want to lose weight for anyone or anything in particular, I just want to do it for me. I have no pressure or expectation of myself. Just a renewed awareness of what is going into my body and the role it plays on how it makes my body function. If I feed my body what it needs, it'll hopefully co-operate when we try and pump it full of drugs to help create a baby. It's as simple as that.

So there they are. My first few days of 2014 in pictures. I hope you like them! I'll be back tomorrow to talk about my absence! We have a lot of catch up on.