When people speak about a new year, new resolutions are always a popular topic but I think the best accomplishments are the ones you achieve without planning them.
Looking back at this year I have achieved quite a few things I didn't ever mention at the beginning of the year. My driving license for example. At the beginning of February I just spontaneously decided to sign up at the driving school and by May I had passed both my exams. Mission accomplished, and that is probably my proudest achievement this year.

Another of my bigger achievements this year has been to be more out there. These past couple of years I have struggled with my social anxiety a lot but this year I have started being more spontaneous and saying yes to a lot more opportunities and although sometimes I do still struggle I never regret it.

What is something you've achieved this year and that you are proud of?

No, that you see isn't an otter, it isn't a beaver either, it is a dog named Jack.
We've had Jack since we rescued him at the end of October 2014 and he is the most loving and happy dog ever (or that's how it seems), he loves cuddles, kisses, playing ball, eating, going in cars, barking at other dogs, barking at my neighbour David, even if you are building he is sat next to you supervising and being a boss, but there is nothing he loves more than swimming.


The first time he went in the water, he wasn't very keen and he was very scared, but once we got him out he just wanted to come back in, so he did. He also didn't want us to hold him, so we didn't, we supervised him and let him swim alone in the shallow end (don't worry, his feet can touch the floor). Then he realized he could lay on the lilo's and chill, so he did. And after swimming and swimming and playing and chilling, he is just a pool babe, he treats it as if only me and my mum can go in with him, anyone else is banned, and he loves playing chase with us in the pool but we never let him stay in for more than 15 minutes at a time and he always has a "tantrum" and tries to jump back in.
What funny things does your pet do? I'd love to know! Xx

          This is a notebook filled with ramblings and scribblings from last year.


          This is a handmade bracelet given to me a year ago.


          And this is a picture I took whilst I was on holiday a couple of weeks ago.
          All of these things have one thing in common, and that is that they are all memories. 





          This pare of cute "jelly" shoes.


          This pair of old trousers.


          Even a song by Ed Sheeran can take you back to a time and a place.
          My biggest issue is that I live to much in the past. I look at all these possessions whenever I am down or upset and I think how happy I was, and I forget that in the future there will be more memories to be had, ones that are probably more happy and positive than the previous ones. That being sad, sometimes your memories can haunt you, and sometimes I can be looking through old pictures and things and I'm almost haunted by how things were, and in that case you almost want to just forget and want to not think about it.
          So memories are a tricky thing, you either love them in such way you even want to try and relive them, or you just hate a memory and you want nothing more than to just move on and forget a memory.
          When you think about it, everything is just a memory. A minute goes by, and then an hour and then a day and then that's in the past and that's a memory. Sometimes it is hard to not look back at the past and not feel some kind of sadness, but it is important to remember that everything we have been through defines us in some way, good or bad it has made us the person we are today.
          Don't let the past haunt you, let it guide you and help you in the future. Learn from your mistakes so you don't do them again. And the thing about this blog is that it is just going to be another memory in your head, but I hope it is a good thing and kind of a positive one.
          Anyway, that is just what I've been thinking of today. Leave a comment telling me what you think about memories and how you think you should move on from the past, and as usual if you like the blog please go ahead and share it, and I will hopefully see you guys soon. Bye bye Xx

          Hi guys! How is everything?
          Today, I wanted to sit here and talk to you about something that has been on my mind a lot lately, and that is the idea of living in the now.
          So I guess a lot of you like me, often worry about the future and how everything will plan out and after reading this book called The Power of Now and after really thinking about it, I guess its just a rethink of how I live everyday life. So the moment I am living in now and the moment your living in now, the past and the future and really things. The past is a previous present and the future is an out-coming present. All we really have is the moment we are living in right now and I guess its just important to capsulize on that. And I guess I am talking about YOLO and the fact that you do only live once, but it has just come more apparent to me, that the clock is ticking, life is counting down and it is important to grab every moment as it comes. Over the past couple of weeks I've heard about a lot of people just dying unexpectedly and just a huge amount of thing happening in the world and that just made me think.
          There's always a divider of whether you should follow your heart, or follow your brain, and I suppose I shouldn't be encouraging this, but if something makes sense to you, but doesn't make sense to anyone else, I think you should just go and do it. I mean, if you want to go on a murder spree, don't do that because that's crazy but follow your heart, live in the moment and capsulize on whats going on now because eventually all of this is going to be in the past. Think of things that will be important in the future but don't become obsessed with them, just be young and reckless, make irrational and stupid decisions and just do what feels right now because before you know it the future will be here and the past will be in the past and you'll just regret it if you don't make the most of the time you've got now.
          Your here on the planet to go and enjoy happiness so please just go and find it, whoever you are and wherever you are, please just go and find yourself. Live the moment and seize the day.
          I hope you enjoyed this post. Leave a comment down below telling me how you live your life, do you live your life? How do you think things?
         Anyway, I hope you guys are having the times of your lives, I hope you are lucking forward to the weather and the summer and I hope you are all going to let loose and enjoy yourselves, and on that note, I will be catching you guys soon. Byeeeeee! Xx

          Ever since I remember I have been obsessed with pictures: Polaroids, film ones, digital ones. I just love something that captures a Time and a Place. I look around my room and it is full of pictures. Moments. These moments that existed, and then disappeared. I suppose I never considered the importance of a picture until I went through a box of my mums old pictures, and inside I found a sea of different memories from when she was younger. Different memories. Different times. Different people. Another world that existed and now it doesn't but you have proof that it happened, it is living and re-living in pictures and it is forever immobilized.
         

          You can see the time you went on a family holiday to Mallorca when you were two.
         
       
          Or the time you got your photos taken back in nursery or school.
       
         
          Or even more recently when you took that late evening stroll round a different city you'd never visited.
         
       
          Or the time in your old house when you we're playing in the garden because it was a nice summery day.
          Its all there and I guess that's why pictures are important. You can appreciate the pictures yourself or more importantly it opens up that little box in your head that takes you back to that time and that place, and the beauty is maybe it was a good time for you, or maybe it was a bad time for you, either way your happiness or sadness can resign in a picture. For example, you might not be able to recognize yourself or other people in a picture but it doesn't matter because it is frozen and it was what it was and I suppose that it is it, it is a fragment of time forever frozen, but frozen while your living and breathing.
          Yes, and I suppose that is why I love pictures.

          Yes, I know. "Where have you been?" Is that what you are wondering? I know I have been distant from many social medias (some more than others) for the last couple of months, and it has all been due to schoolwork and travelling.
          If I could give any of you one pinch of advise for this summer, it is to travel. You don't have to go far and spend a lot of money, but just get out and go somewhere out of your comfort-zone, go somewhere new, somewhere you've never been before and explore. Just turn off your phone and have the time of your life or even just the day of your life.
          A couple of weeks ago I left my house to go out and travel and one of the places I went to was Granada. It isn't far from where I live, just about two hours to be exact, but still I had one of the greatest times and I can't wait to go again and I totally recommend to you or anyone you know to disconnect and get on a couple of hours bus journey (that only cost me 18 euros both ways) and just have a good time.

Firstly, I want to say thank you to all of you who have stayed by me and followed me although I've failed to upload trillions of videos I've promised, and here I am going to tell you the reasons on why they didn't make it to the big internet world and I really hope you'll understand and be there for me although I'm not as good as my expectations at the things I love doing. 
So, for making a YouTube video, there are some fundamental instructions that you need to take in mind and for me personally, they aren't easy. First, I need to pick the right time, a time when my brother (or any other member of my family) aren't going to barge in and interrupt me every ten minutes, and a time that you can't hear GTA playing in the room next door and lots of teenage boys laughing and joking along. Another fact that I highly take in mind is lighting, you need either a decent amount of natural day light (which I don't get in my bedroom, due to the fact there is a massive tree right in front of my window), or a nice pair of fluorescent lights that they sell at a camera shop (which I haven't got the money for at the moment), and one of the other worries that I have, coming to the time of filming a video, or attempting to is balancing boxes on top of books, on top of more boxes and on a chair (that happens to be a desk chair, that spins) and then trying to balance your camera on top, and straighten it out to what looks like an even angle, and then sitting down and struggling to make sure if you should add another book or take one away. To finish it off, there is the editing, once I have filmed, or atempted to film a video, I sit back the next day and open it in MovieMaker to atempt to edit it, and then it starts, I start cutting away, and cutting away, the lighting starts changing, my mum keeps on shouting at a dog in the background, I keep cringing at myself until I get to the part of the video when I start introducing products or clothes, and then I have to turn it off, I can't deal with so much cringiness. Watching Zoella's videos isn't good for me, it makes my expectations be so high up, but then I watch other videos, like Bianca's who doesn't use lighting, or a camera and that brings me down yet again, she's beautiful, she doesn't edit ANYTHING throughout all her video.
So as a summary of everything I just wrote above and the real meaning of this post, once I start filming a video, I just end up rubbing it off, but this time I'm not, I am going to film an outdoors video, in full sunny daylight, I am going to laugh at myself editing it and I am going to upload it. So you heard it, or read it here first, I AM REALLY SORRY FOR WHAT MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL MIGHT TURN INTO but it needs to happen, if it doesn't happen now, it never will, I will never start uploading, and it will always just be the one Ellie and Laila video. 
Thank you again, for reading and just being there, and hopefully I will see you soon with another post about my video. 
For those of you who might want to follow my so interesting YouTube, here's the link. Until next time, E. xx

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Some of you may or may not no, that yesterday I had my hair cut just under the shoulders.

I feel so much happier with it now, it just looks so much healthier and thicker. It sounds really weird, but I used to hide behind my hair, I used it as some kind of security blanket, and recently I just haven't felt good about myself, and I was bored of how I looked, and I knew I needed a change.

I didn't copy anyone when I did this. Its so funny, because when someone sees someone with a new look, feeling good about themselves, immediately they have to make a comment to bring you down. So no, I didn't do it because of anyone, I did it because it was dead and I needed a change.

     February the 14th is Valentines Day, when people all over the world express their love for one another, although in my opinion, there shouldn't be a special day that your partner has to spend money on you and make you realize how much you love them, it should be like that everyday of the year.
     Anyway, with Valentines in mind, the first and important thing you need to know is that we fall in love. Falling in love is kind of an accident- usually a happy accident, but one we are not able to control.
Not everyone believes in love at first sight (me for example). Still it is a popular romantic idea that two people see each other for the first time, their hearts meet and their hearts pound and that moment they automatically know they found love. 
     Indeed for some, Valentines Day is a pleasant reminder of how single you are, but still this doesn't mean it has to be a depressing occasion. You can still treat yourself and be happy about where you are in life, you could meet up with some friends, or just treat it like any other day, you could have a "pamper day" or a "all about you day". The only thing you shouldn't do is sit around feeling sorry for yourself, this will just make the day depressing and dreaded. Don't worry it only comes once a year so get out there and in any of the many ways, enjoy it! 
     Hope you have a great Valentines and it all goes well if you are doing anything special and I would love to hear what you are going to be up to, or have been up to in the comments, until next time! Xx