Having Confidence To Be Yourself.

Hello my lovelies! I hope you had a good week! This week has been super busy as usual, but I did manage to have a little time to see my sister, niece and nephew! And with seeing them, my sister brought me some funky new earrings that I absolutely adore. Which leads me to today’s post, having confidence to be yourself, no matter what others think.

So, this week I decided to talk to you about confidence. Specifically in having confidence in being yourself regardless of other people’s opinions.

For me, I can remember being tiny and having absolutely zero self-esteem issues and having complete confidence in myself and giving no fucks. And I can also remember when I began giving all of the fucks to what people thought about me and my appearance.

Sadly that day came in primary school when all of the year 6 girls (myself included) got to wear their Brownie uniforms to school. I had no care in the world about how I looked, I was just happy I got to wear something other than my usual uniform; and then came a comment from one of the kids in my class, it was something along the lines of: “why are you wearing those pants? You look stupid”.

And poof. Insecurities as far as the eyes could see.

Several years of bullying throughout school later, all I wanted was to fit in. And then a few years working in two different jobs types, and spending some time working on myself away from negative people.

As time went on, my confidence has grown quite a lot, and I think that is partly due to ‘The Weight Of My Worlds’! I say partly but I think that’s actually a huge factor for me.

Something just clicked in me one day and I decided that from then on I was going to be completely apologetically myself. Regardless of what other people think, because someone who’s worth spending your time with will only lift you up and not put you down.

My tips for building confidence in yourself are:

1. Looking at yourself in the mirror, as you are, without makeup, without fancy clothes, just as you are. Get used to you and your appearance.
2. Don’t be afraid to be weird when you’re by yourself, be as weird as you want to be by yourself so much so that when you’re with your loved ones you start being yourself more because you’re more comfortable with yourself.
3. Fake it til you make it! I love this phrase because it’s something that I’ve done for a long time and it definitely helped me in my early days trying to build my confidence. It’s also a good one for anxiety!
4. Wear whatever you want to. Wanna wear a skirt? Wear a skirt. Wanna wear a suit? Wear a suit. Wanna wear crazy patterns. Wear em. Wear what makes you happy!
5. Do a complete detox. Anything that doesn’t make you feel good, get rid! Social media was a big one for me, so I unfollowed all of the accounts that made me feel bad about myself and followed loads of positive ones that made me feel good.

So, what’re some things that I do now that I wouldn’t before?

Well, for a start, I now don’t care about what people think of my appearance or personality anymore; because I am me and guess what? I’m pretty great as I am.

How else do I know I’m more confident than before? Well, I would never pose or do photoshoots where other people could see me, and now I am not afraid to strike a pose in public!

Another thing that’s changed is that I’m not afraid to wear whatever wacky, weird and quirky things I want. At the moment I’m really into crazy shoes and jewellery! My sister gave me these awesome gumball machine earrings that I can’t get enough of!

So, that’s a bit about how my confidence has gone through ups and downs and ups again and how I have improved my confidence! Have you got any tips and tricks that make you feel more confident? Let me know in the comments!

And remember, you are perfect just as you are. Be apologetically yourself because you’re incredible! Be bright, be bold, be you!

Have a great weekend my lovelies!

Love,

Unique Fashion.

Happy Saturday lovelies!! This heatwave is certainly going on for a bit longer than I’d like! Do you like the heat? Or are you more of a autumn/winter person?

Anyway, on to the subject of this weeks post: DIY Unique Fashion! I couldn’t decide what to call this post for ages and I think that title sums it up the best. I toyed with DIY Fashion, Personalised Clothes etc. but unique fashion fits better.

Where did the idea for this post come from? Well.. as you know, I love wearing whatever I want, no matter what other people think; and because I’m a creative I often dream up outfits in my head with pieces I don’t own or that would cost way too much money that I don’t have.

And voila! The decision entered my mind that since I have some sewing skills I could probably create some of these pieces myself.

First up I had to decide what I wanted to make, and for my first project I chose shoes. Floral embroidered ones to be exact. I got the idea for these from seeing some checked vans when out and about shopping, those shoes take me back to my teens, everyone used biros and sharpies to draw the check pattern themselves haha.

So to start, I had to work out what shoes to buy as a base, and I figured some cheap converse would be a good plan since there’s loads of fabric to work with. I got mine from Primark in the end because they’re cheap and cheerful and if my idea went horribly wrong then I wouldn’t have wasted a load of money.

Then I ordered myself an embroidery starter pack from Amazon. If you’re wondering which one, you can find it here. It cost about £16, and it came with everything I needed. One thing I will say with this set is that the needles aren’t massively strong so I bought some extra needles which worked a lot better with the thicker fabrics.

Now, if I was smarter, I would’ve drawn out the design I wanted to create. But I decided to just wing it and see what happens. If you aren’t sure what design you want, I’d suggest drawing it out first to be safe.

Then comes the fun part! Time to start sewing! If you’re struggling for ideas on what you want to sew or how to sew certain stitches, there’s hundreds on embroidery tutorials on Pinterest, TikTok and YouTube.

My trainers took me about 2-3 weeks, and that was by working on them on and off in the evenings. Then I got myself some weatherproofing spray and gave them a good covering.

And after all that, I’m super happy with my results!

I love my trainers, they’re unique and no one else has any like it! Plus I have the satisfaction of knowing I made them, and you know, you gotta celebrate your successes no matter how small!

Onto my next 10 minute project that anyone can do, I had a pair of dungarees and I kept envisioning a pretty sunflower on them, so that’s exactly what I did. And it took no time at all. All you need is a needle, some embroidery thread (or even thick normal thread would work to be honest) and some interfacing if you’re working with stretchy and flimsy fabric.

Interfacing is something you can buy in two forms, iron on or sew on. I use iron on interfacing for clothes and adding small designs onto things, but if you were to make your own handbag for example, you’d probably use sew in as it tends to be a bit thicker.

And here is my super cute dungarees! It’s such a small simple thing to add, but I feel like it’s brought a bit of new life to them.

Tips for starting a creative project:

• Plan what design you want to do/what you want to make.
• Do some research into different techniques.
• Make a list of everything you’ll need.
• Make it in your own time.
• Take progress pictures if you’re making it over a long period of time. (It’s always great to see how much you’ve progressed!)
• Wear whatever you’ve made with confidence.
• Celebrate your creativeness!

And that’s about it for today’s post! I love being able to channel my creativity into my style, and I’ll definitely being making some more changes to my clothes to make them unique. And I can’t wait to wear these shoes out and about to show them off! And as for my dungarees, well I’ve got visions of wearing them with either a bottle green, red wine, mustard or deep purple coloured jumpers in autumn/winter. After all, I am a winter gal at heart.

What do you think to my dungarees and trainers? Let me know in the comments! Has this inspired you to make some of your own personalised clothes/accessories? It’s really rewarding and therapeutic to do. Perfect for days when its pouring down or something to do whilst you lay in the sun.

If you’re out in the sun today make sure you’re keeping cool and hydrated, and wearing sun cream! Have a great weekend everyone, see you next week!

Love,

Birthday Reflections.

Thursday was my birthday!! Which means I ate cake, got pampered and did a bit of reflecting on what I want for the next year of my life. I guess it’s a little like new years resolutions but without the guilt if you break them. Reflecting on what I want for myself in the next months is something I’ve never really done before, but the time just feels right.

So, lets get into it!

1 . I am learning (and loving) how to be unapologetically myself.

2 . I want to wear whatever I want, no matter how wacky, weird or boring without fear of being judged, because my opinion is the only one that matters when it comes to my appearance!

How cute was my birthday outfit?! I love that jumper and accessories so much!

3 . Not feeling guilty for any food I eat or workouts that I don’t do.

4 . Be proud of myself for my little achievements.

5 . I want to schedule away at least one day a month for a selfcare day.

6 . Continue to push myself out of my comfort zone and try more new things.

7 . I want to read more books, I love reading but struggle to find stories I get sucked into, so I am on a mission to find some new books!

8 . Learning to love my hair when it’s natural and style it without heat.

9 . Continue blogging as it has brought me so much joy, and I love being creative!

10 . Giving people compliments when I like something about them, whether it’s a piece of clothing, their personality, attitude and/or anything really. It’s always nice bringing a smile to someone’s face, and you never know how much of a difference it can make to someone’s day.

Well, that’s what I’m going to be doing for this upcoming year, and I can’t wait to see what it’s going to throw at me! And I cant wait to see where I’m at in another years time.

So here’s to being another year older, wiser, happier and more comfortable in my own skin. Have a great weekend everyone!!

Love,