WHAT A WEEK.

I have not had the best couple of weeks...things have been a little insane.

2 weekends ago, the bicycle I've been using to get to work was stolen. Someone got through my bike lock with bolt cutters, and cycled off into the sunrise. Luckily I hadn't spent loads of money on the bike, but it's still incredibly annoying and inconvenient!!

The week following I was obsessively searching for a new bike on gumtree, without having any luck.

At the end of the week, I was driving back to Kent. Andrew and I had been singing along to Let It Go from Frozen, laughing at ourselves once The song was over when we came to a stop in traffic, and 2 seconds later were hit from behind. the following week was an amalgamation of calls to and from insurance, organising repairs and pickups, hire cars, and all the rest. On Friday, we heard from the repairs company letting us know that our car is a write off. Our reliable Hogan is no more, after only a year - and there's nothing we could have done about it.

Now we're in a position where we need to find a new, reliable, economical car ASAP before we have to give our hire car back...on top of this, I need a bike to get into work with.

So. Freaking. Busy. 

Menorca 2016

What a busy couple of months! There's a lot to catch up on, most importantly - my holiday!

I went to Menorca with my family, we stayed in a villa at the top of a steep hill - the views were beautiful. Walking up to the villa was hard work, especially with all the shopping! I think this was the first holiday I lost weight by the end of it - not a bad thing! We did so much swimming, walking, lounging and sunning ourselves. Also bought ourselves snorkels, so we could check out the fish off the beach. It was so much fun!

The best part of the holiday has to be spending a morning doing something I never thought I would do. I went scuba diving...in the sea. From the beach. It was...terrifying and amazing all at once. I was not very good at staying the right way up, or with staying at the right depth. Our diving instructor took me by the hand to help me stay in the right place and not be left drifting behind. I was really grateful for his help. Once I wasn't worried about rolling over/drowning/my head exploding, I was able to look around and enjoy seeing the ocean wildlife. It was so surreal, and incredible. I can't get over how bizarre and beautiful it was. There was one moment, when we heard this loud noise coming from all round us, we had no idea what it was until we saw the underside of a speedboat going overhead...eerie.

We all had a wonderful time, it was really relaxing and I'm so glad to have been able to get away!

My Wasted Wardrobe...An Introduction

Anyone who's been reading for a while may recognise My Wasted Wardrobe as the original name for this blog...When I changed it to BeckyBoops I wanted to keep MWW as a regular feature, so here it is! Enjoy.



I have a lot of clothes. A lot. my wardrobe is rammed, I have boxes with clothes in them, as well as several drawers of clothes. Not to mention the permanently overflowing washing basket...and this is after getting rid of 3 black bags of clothes (1 to my sister, 2 to charity). I think it's safe to say I am a clothes hoarder. I have clothes that don't fit, but I can't get rid of because I want to be able to wear them. I'm not as bad as I used to be, and I have given away quite a lot of the clothes that no longer fit. But still, I have so much clothing.

I'm working to shed some weight, so the more weight I lose, the closer I'll be to wearing clothes I have kept, and the more clothes I'll be able to get rid of. Through July I'm aiming to fit into a couple of dresses that are a little too small, one of which I'm planning on wearing to a wedding at the end of this month. My Wasted Wardrobe posts are the place to be to hear about my clothing challenges. I'll be posting pictures of the clothes, and me in the clothes (where possible!) so keep an eye out for that.

I'll be back soon with some pics of the dresses I want to wear at the end of the month!

Penpal Epidemic

Through bullet journalling I've discovered the joy of having pen pals. I excitedly check the post box every day to see if I have any new letters, and I enjoy writing to people from all over the world. It's so exciting to get letters from strangers, and getting to know them via snail mail. I enjoy writing, and letter writing is helping me to get back into it.

I've written to quite a few people, not all of them have written back, but that's okay. I've received quite a few replies and letters from people, and have gone back and forth a few times with some people too. I'm keeping a log of letters received and posted in my bullet journal, but when I started to get more correspondents I thought I'd better find a way to organise my letters and keep track of hobbies, birthdays, interests etc.

I got a cheap and bright wallet folder organiser, and have turned this into my pen pal storage folder. I've also dedicated a notebook to pen pals, which includes notes on their interests and a post log. This should help me keep track until I get to know my penpals better! As well as put one of my many notebooks to use...I'm a bit of a stationary hoarder, especially since I started to bullet journal.

I currently have 5 letters pending replies, so I'm hoping to spend the weekend catching up on those!

If you come across a penpal group...definitely join it. It's fun to write, and who doesn't love getting post that isn't bills?!

Starting a Bullet Journal

I recently happened across the phenomenon known as a 'Bullet Journal'. I saw this first on Basically Innocent's blog, and instantly wanted to have one of my own. From what I've been looking at online, I would describe a Bullet Journal as...a calendar/diary/journal/to-do list all rolled into one neat notebook that you can get as creative as you want with. This is most definitely my favorite thing ever!

I started with the key - a list of symbols I would be using in my journal, and what they mean. I stuck with the original symbols suggested on the bullet journal website, as I wanted to start simple and modify once I was used to the system. Following this logic, I set up my bullet journal following the BuJo website, and got cracking...

It's been over a month, and I can say I'm a full on bujo-er, and I don't see myself stopping anytime soon!

Here's some pics of my pages, hope they inspire or intrigue you enough to check out the bullet journal system  and give it a try yourselves :)

The Empties Challenge! February Edition

This month I've gone through a few products, though one or two of them are actually really old and I'm pretty sure they've gone off - so they're not technically empty...but I'm getting rid of them anway!

1: The Body Shop Shower Gel - Pink Grapefruit

This took FOREVER to get through. Not a bad thing though - if you want a long lasting, great smelling shower gel, this is the one. I do think they are a little overpriced, but when they're on offer they're worth spending that little bit extra on. In this case, I received mine as a gift so I was more than happy with this high quality shower gel. The scent is really noticable - in a good way. after using it it lingers lightly on the skin, leaving you smelling and feeling fresh. Overall a great, long lasting product!

2: L'Oreal Elvive Extroadinary Oil Shampoo and Conditioner

I bought this duo to help nourish my damaged, dry hair. However, the ends of my hair are dry and damaged, but the roots of my hair tend to be healthy and can get greasy easily.I loved these products, they smell nice, and made my hair feel lovely. The downside is my hair needed to be washed more often, because the oils in the shampoo and conditioner made my hair get a bit of a build up of oil. I would recommend this product to people with dry hair, not to anyone with combination, healthy or oily hair. A nice product, but it didn't work for me - I had to substitute in other shampoo and conditioners to control the buildup!

A good product, but not for me! 

3: Avon Naturals Body Whip - Vanilla / Honey

I've had these body whips for a long, long time. So long that they have now, unfortunately gone off. They're both about half used, and have separated. I did try mixing it back together, but they didn't smell right, so it was time for them to go!

That's all I have this month...not sure I'll have many empties for March as I have just opened new toiletries when these ran out...but there we go. I'll try to use something else up perhaps...

No-Spend March

I'm challenging myself!

I'm going to cut my spending through March - this mean no more cheeky coffees, or anything else for that matter. I am on a spending ban - other than necessary items like food and petrol. My rules are below, join me if you fancy it!

Rules:
Only buy what you need to live - food and petrol.
No more coffees or lunchtime food trips
Use as much food as you can from what is already in the cupboards/freezer
Use spare time to go through clutter and chuck/keep/sell things

I know full well I am going to find this difficult, especially as I tend to bulk buy food and binge eat. So I have a couple of techniques to help me along the way...
1. Go for walks at lunchtime instead of driving anywhere (saving in petrol and reducing temptation to buy things!)
2. Don't bring my purse out with me
3. When tempted to spend, set a 15 minute timer and do something else that will occupy my attention, when the timer goes off re-evaluate how tempting it is. If youare still likely to spend, set the timer again and distract self - repeat until able to resist! PS - this works for food cravings too...

I'm tracking spending in my Bullet Journal (more on this later) so I'm holding myself accountable! I'll let you know how I get on with this...

Happy March everyone!