Self Harm Distractions * Trigger Warning*

Hello 

This isn't going to be a usual happy blog post but it's important . I've known too many people who self harm for too many different reasons that should never lead them to feeling like it is the only option . I am not a qualified professional and If you are effected by self harm I definitely urge you to go and find professional help to stop,  which I talk a little about at the end of my '100 reasons to live' post which you can find by clicking here . Today I'm not talking about stopping self harm because I believe the main key to that is talking about but today I want to talk about distractions to get you through the night because if you stop yourself every night then eventually that can lead to stopping completely . 

What is Self Harm ?

self-harm

sɛlfˈhɑːm/

noun

1. 1.

   deliberate injury to oneself, typically as a manifestation of a psychological or psychiatric disorder.

verb

1. 1.

   commit self-harm.

Self harm is very serious and can take place in many different forms that deliberately cause physical damage to yourself,  including : 

• Cutting or scratching 
• Causing bruises
• Banging their head against a wall
• Pulling out hair
• Burning 
• Falling over 
• Breaking an arm or leg

What self harm isn't : 

•  Just attention seeking . Maybe it is a cry out for help or maybe it's a secret release, there are so many different reason but if its a cry out for help then they need attention for something and if that is the only way they feel it can be asked for them,  they definitely need help with something . So give them that help . 
• Something that only happen's to people who are depressed or suffering from any other mental illness. Anyone of anyone age, gender, background or religion can be put in circumstances which may lead to them feeling the need to self harm . However I truly believe that every one of those people can (with a lot of hard work and help) overcome this and get better because I believe in you no matter how bad it's got and regardless of whether you still have any faith in yourself whatsoever. I still believe and will continue to believe in the wonderful person that is YOU . <3
• Something that self harmer's enjoy or they wouldn't do it. No NO NO No NO NO! Just NO . I'm not even going to comment on this ridiculous myth . If you seriously think that someone enjoys hurting themselves ... I think you need to think that through again because you got confused somewhere . 

Distractions

Okay so I promised distractions so distraction's you will get. Just to remind you this is NOT an alternative to professional help but just to get you through the hour or however long it takes <3 I love you . I've asked people in the Help and Support Boards of the hopeful forum for their in put and some of my friends whom have been affected. Additionally I've done a lot of  Research on as many reliable sites as I could and I will leave links to sites that can help or have useful pages at the end of this post  Also if you have any good distractions or beneficial idea's please feel free to help others as long as you are kind feel free to comment whatever you wish. 

• Call Someone. I can't say this enough times because it's so under rated but it's so so beneficial and important . " You Are Not in this Alone"  I have this written on my bedroom wall next to my bed for whenever I'm sad because as humans we tend to convince ourselves that we are alone when we're upset but you are not more alone than you were ten minutes before are you, really ? Call someone, anyone . You have people who love you and care about you . You don't even have to talk to them just call them and cry down the phone for a bit . Whether it's your family, your best friend or childline ( 0800 1111) you can call them . You are never alone . 
• Punch a pillow . This is a good way of releasing tension if you are angry or worked up . Just make sure what you're hitting is soft so that you wont damage yourself . Hitting a rolled up newspaper on a door frame does a similar thing . 
• Scream ! Seriously darlin, just get it all out of your system and if people are in the house try screaming into a pillow . 

List the good the good things about yourself. Don't even tell me there isn't any because there are . It's not a bad thing to think about the good things in yourself . Nowadays girls seem to think it's not okay to actually say " Do you know what ? I'm me . I'm okay with that . I am beautiful " ergh society makes me so angry . I might do a blog post about that at some point. But seriously just look at the small things like well your eyes are a really nice shade for starters <3 

• Have some "me" time. Go run yourself a bath and cuddle up in bed having a Inbetweener's marathon ( or anything you like , but something that might make you smile would be good ) . 
• Paint your nails. This keeps your hands busy and that can be extremely useful . 
• Knitting .. you should make a scarf for the winter I know you're still going to be here for <3 
• Cross stitch , how about you make a cute little cross stitch for the friend who's always there ? Or even just for you because I guarantee you are worth it :)  
•  Baking, being organised and weighing out the measurements and doing something productive is a good way to start to feel a little more in control .
• Painting
• Drawing
• Playing an instrument, if you can sing or if you can't , go and sing your little heart out until the hurt has gone away . 
• Writing, you could take all that emotion and turn it into a best selling novel ! Wow it's going to be amazing I can just see it now ;) <3 
• Clean you're room or organise something . It can help if you feel out of control this can distract you, give you a sense of achievement when you're done as well as  please your carer ;) 
• Play games ... go kill someone on GTA or Rock out on guitar hero, whatever  takes your fancy aha .
• Squeezing an Ice cube 
• Sucking on a Lemon ... For the shock factor . I don't know how well this would work but anything's worth a shot and I guess it makes sense aha ;) 
• Give every person in all your magazines a moustache 
• EXERCISE! Exercising is key to calming down and de-stressing and whilst it's de-stressing you you're releasing feel-good endorphins that but you on a natural high making you feel happy :) Now doesn't that sound like a nicer alternative ? <3 
• Run you're hands under freezing cold water 
• Counting ceiling lights or tiles to distract you and write them down as you count to keep your hands busy ... and if your hands still need to be busy after that make a graph to show lights in all the different rooms of the house :) Sounds boring but if your hands are busy then it's fantastic :) Just like you <3
• Write out the lyrics to your favourite song <3 There's a line I like in Pierce The Veil's " Hold On Till May " that says : " If I were you I'd put that away, See you're just wasted thinking bout the past again. Darlin' you'll be okay . " They're right you're going to be okay. Maybe not right now but if you give up now then you're never going to know <3 It's difficult and I understand that but you need to hold out a lil bit longer honey . 
• Learn to swear in another language because that's clearly a talent you need to have far more than that mark which you don't <3 Trust me . 
• Memorise a poem with meaning .
• Feel your pulse to remind yourself that you're alive and that's pretty damn awesome (( <3 ))
• Make a notebook of your favourite quotes that help you ... PINTEREST TIME ! :D 
• Make yourself a safe place whether its some beanbags with blankets in your room or you've added nine pillows and every cuddly toy you own to your bed just make it cosy and lovely and put a book or your laptop next to it whichever you like . Now go take a freezing cold shower ... I know I'm sorry if it's a bit chilly but try . Once your out the shower pop your nicest fresh PyJama's on and climb in to your cosy place and notice how warm and safe it feels in comparison then watch YouTube, Read all of the Harry Potter books or Catch up on every episode of The Great British Bake Of ( WOO ) whatever makes you feel all snugly inside and do it all night . Just have sometime for you to be calm ... and add a Milky way , that's what I give myself when I having some calm time ;) <3
• Bake ! I'm sure it will be yummy :) Maybe you'll be in the next series of bake off.. wow that would be so cool, yeah you should definitely bake :) 
• Listen to music ! This is the most common method , please comment songs that help you <3 
• Get a Wreck This Journal ... and wreck it ;) 
• Brose Amazon and Ebay .. Kit out your whole future house with your imaginary unlimited budget :) 
• Write a letter to brighten someone else's day ... maybe even a stranger and you could just leave it in a cafe ? <3 

These are just a few alternatives ! There are loads and you can do all of them . I Know you can . I want you to know that even if it feels unbearable .. it isn't  . You can hold out and get through this and there doesn't need to be a mark on yourself to show you felt like that . If you need help ( which you do if you feel the need to hurt yourself ) please, please ask for it . It's out there and available to you and yes it might be scary to ask but you need to honey and it's always better than suffering alone . You just need to stay strong because you are a fighter and don't you dare under estimate yourself because if you think that you can't do it , 1) You're going to trick yourself into believing that . and 2 ) If someone else told you that you we're too weak to do something would you listen to them or prove them wrong ? Self belief is important and you should believe in yourself .. because I believe in you and I don't just believe in anyone , You're special .  If you do mess up , try again . When you were a kid you didn't just magically stand up and be able to walk perfectly did you ? But when you fell down you got up and look at you now . A beautiful , wonderful strong example of a human being ... wow :o <3 You're amazing . 

Here are a few useful websites I found for you <3 :) 

Kooth.com - On-line councillors , you don't even need to leave your room to get help just click the link, you can do that <3
Childline - This link will take you to a list of Self Harm distractions on the childline website
Selfharm.co.uk - Lots of information and facts 
Harmless - Coping strategies
Self Injury Support -  Some self help stuff :) 
Mind - All kinds of support 

If you know any helpful sites please leave the links in the comments <3 

Stay Strong <3 Stay Smiley :) 

Keep Going like the absolutely wonderful person you are <3 

Much Love , Love Much-ly 
DontBurstMyBubbleXx

Feeling sad ? 10 steps Happy :D

Feeling Sad ? Please don't be ... You're so awesome <3 :) 

Sometimes we wake up and find our selves sometimes with a reason or sometimes without , feeling sad . I want to let you know that that's okay but when you have been sad a while it might be time to pick yourself up and make the decision to be happy because I love you and your happiness means the world to me and so many others <3 So here's some ways that I like to use to get from sad to smiley :) because being sad's no fun and if your insisting on waiting for someone else to make you happy then you could be waiting a long, long time. Its your life and your happiness so you should take control of it and I know you are strong enough to do that :) I love the saying :

" You must first be happy with yourself before you can be happy with someone else " 

It's so important to remember , you are absolutely amazing and to be happy you need one thing : 

                                     YOU <3 ( and possibly chocolate ;) ) 

You are the best thing you will ever own and I wish I could make you see what an awesome thing that is. To be happy you don't need someone else to pick you up, spin you around and tell you that every part of you is beautiful everyday ... I mean that would be nice and is one way to be happy . However for happiness all you really need is your consent and participation :) I'm not talking long term happiness ... I mean it could be I guess it depends how much you embrace your wonderful self and the happiness I know your worth, but this could definitely get you get you back on your happy little feet so you get a head start on yourself:) So now I've finished rambling; What to do when you're sad : 

1) Give yourself some time to be sad 

If you don't let yourself be sad for a while then it's just going to build up and will all come crashing down ... and we wouldn't want you getting squished under the weight of your own problems, do we ? So make yourself a hot chocolate with marshmallows and as much squirty cream as you can eat ( calories don't count when you're sad ;) ) Drag your duvet and pillows to the sofa and watch chick flicks all day or a comedy and just give yourself some time <3


2) What's making you sad ? and what are you going to do about it ? 

Whenever I'm down I some times get so mixed up in the emotions that I get a bit confused as to why I'm actually sad. It might be a mix of little things or it might by one big thing that's weighing you down. I like to make a mind map everything ( even the tiny-est things ) that are making me sad or are in anyway affecting me in a negative light and then branching off from each sad thing, and idea of what I'm going to do about it so either an action plan to fix it, a way to move forward from it or a way to prevent it happening again :) I always feel better once I have a plan so this is especially good when you can't sleep because something's stressing you out even if its something small like I an't manage the amount of homework I'm getting and it's upsetting me you could plan to go and see your teacher the next day to see if they'd help you make a timetable or plan to help you plan out your work load :) There's always a solution or a way forward .. there has to be because that's how life continues even if it seems hopeless you just have to keep going exploring all the options, if you can't find a solution or any more options then ask someone else because it's there, I promise <3 

3) Don't do anything you'll regret <3

 Under no circumstance allow it to get to the point where you want to hurt yourself . Nothing is ever worth self harm I promise you that you don't need to do that to yourself. EVER . I know it's hard but you are stronger than that <3 If you ever get to this point then you need distractions , lots of distractions. I love you, don't do it , please. For me <3 If you would like to see a blog post on self-harm and distractions from it then comment and let me know . 

<3 Kellin Quinn

4) Ready to get up yet ? 

No.7 Duck Egg blue nails
Polish always makes me
Feel positive :) 

When you're sick of being sad and you've found ways to fix things .. I think it's time to get up honey :) There's no point in staying sad forever <3 So how about you get up and get in the shower, use your favourite shower gel and just pamper yourself so you feel a bit better about yourself just to help your body remember that it is worth it ... because it is :) Maybe switch the shower to cold for a few seconds before you get out just to wake you up from being sad, I don't really understand it but having a cold shower always makes me feel like a fresh start and I LOVE fresh starts :D 



5) Get dressed up :)

Regardless of whether you're a boy or a girl , get dressed up :) Do your hair nice, paint your nails , do your make up nice ( if that's what your in to ) and put on your favourite clothes ( you should probably do that regardless of whether your into it or not... just to avoid getting arrested aha ;) )  that make you feel good about yourself , if you don't feel good about yourself in anything then your in the wrong clothes or the wrong mindset because let me tell you right now . You're Beautiful . Try going shopping and trying on different clothes in different styles until you feel good about yourself , even if you don't have money to buy new clothes its still fun to do and can show yourself you the you that I see and trust me it's a lovely sight :) <3 

6) Music up Loud <3

Positive music has a massive impact on your mindset :) Make a play list of your favourite songs, you know the ones that have a good beat that makes you want to get up and go save the world ... or at least get up aha :) Turn it up as loud as you can and bounce around doing everything you need to do with it on in the background, maybe even while your doing your make up or getting dressed. I made a list of my top ten positive songs to work to in a post you'll find here :) 

7) LEAVE THE HOUSE !!! ;) 

When your feeling rubbish it can make you feel like you do want to go out and just can't be bothered to go out with your friends ... go out anyway . This feeling isn't going anywhere unless you do <3 Going out with your friends will probably make you feel better because if your sad well surrounding yourself with people who make you feel good about yourself ( if they don't then they're not your friends... go find some new ones because you're worth more I promise <3 ) and you have a laugh with is pretty clearly going to make you feel at least a lil bit better :) Although this will only work if you let it , if you go out with your friends and you're moody and spend the whole time being miserable and refusing to even try being happy ... well there not really going to want to be around that so try and embrace the positivity for the first half hour of being there and then they should do the rest :) 

8) Laughter is the best medicine XD 

I've talked so many times about how laughter has the ability to make anything feel better in just an instant. Watch a comedy, YouTube videos ( Emma Blackery always makes me laugh ), call a friend and share embarrassing stories, or even just type 'funny stories' into Google images that's always a good way to give yourself the giggles :) 

9) It's nice to be nice :) 

My pastoral teacher at school always says this and once when she said it in assembly I must of leant on my phone because Siri went straight after she said it " I'm sorry I didn't quite get that " I didn't know whether to laugh or cry aha and when the teacher found out it was me she went " oh it was only you, I thought it was the boys behind " and that my friend is why you do your English homework in your early years of school aha :) Anyways .. rambling again my bad, I am a great lover of random acts of kindness. I'm frequently telling you about days where I've spent my whole school covering towns in Hopeful Notes ( Nice messages to brighten strangers days ) it always make you feel better too :) When I'm having a bad day, I like to find someone who's also having a bad day and send them a paragraph saying all the good things about them to wake up too, it only takes ten minutes and is so so worth doing <3 

10) SMILE :D 

Yes YOU ! Smile that gorgeous little thing as much as you can because 1) It will make you feel better I'm always saying fake it till you make it because if you smile then other people will smile and act happy around you which will automatically put you in a good mood <3 2) Well your smiles just so wonderful ... it brightens my day so I don't really see how it could help brightening your own :) 

I hope this helps pull you out into the happy sunshine, the bad things may be happening but you're strong enough to get through them <3 Try finding positive quotes to keep with you on your phone or something to look at whenever you're down just to give yourself an extra lift ... you deserve that :) I leave positive quotes on both my twitter and my pinterest so feel free to follow, I'll leave the links below : 

Pinterest: Little Hopeful  
Twitter : @MyHappyBubbleXx

Please comment to tell me what you do to cheer yourself up when you're sad ... together we can be happy woooooooo :D
Stay Strong <3 Stay Smiley :) 
“When I get sad, I stop being sad and be awesome instead.”
― Barney Stinson
Much love, Love Much-ly 
DontBurstMyBubbleXx

P.s. Fun Fact : If you yelled for 8 years 7 months and 6 days you would have made enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee!

#100happydays: day 28 ( Festival Fun 2 )

Festival Fun Day 2

Friday night , I went to bed at one am . Saturday morning , why am I up at 5 am ? I wish there was an explanation but no . For some reason everyone got up at stupid o'clock for no apparent reason when breakfast wasn't until 9 ... wow .

So Firstly I'd like to ask you a question .  Have you ever tried to put super tight skinny jeans on in two man tent ? If not then lucky you ;) I literally spent ten minutes lying on the floor in the painfully slow process of wiggling into these jeans and then doing a kind of weird dance like struggle on the floor whilst trying to pull them up ... to much information ? sorry aha ;) When I was finally got dressed I went for breakfast and then went exploring :) I think I'm going to do this with small sentences and a picture but as we all know I'm not very good at short explanations due to my having a disorder I like to call obsessive rambling syndrome ;)

Sooo where to start to start ? I might try the beginning :) Right then , After breakfast I when for a proper look at our part of camp-site in day light because It was ten at night when I got there on Friday :) The tent's were all in a circle around a little gazebo where we could all sit together and chat .. until the ground got soaked :) The gazebo also had our mascot a painted gnome which for some unknown reason had a green face tied to the inside :) haha

Then Me and my friends went for a look around in the woods :) We found the lake where they did kayaking it  smelt like the sea and I spent hours wondering why until I worked out that Southhampton is actually not that far from the sea ... How did I get a B in GCSE geography ? I'll never know aha :) 

Not long after that , I found a bit of the lake that had bits of wood sticking out of it and I don't know if it's just me but I couldn't help thinking it looked a bit like a ship wreck... probably just me aha but regardless of my Disney inspired interpretations of the layout of the universe it made me think about my favourite Disney princess ... Ariel :) 

Fun fact : Ariel is a Hebrew name that means lion of god :) Rawrrrr

After continuing our little adventure for a good hour we found a little forest which looked like the rainforest no joke :) I found a pretty little stream there and took a lot of wrong turns on my way to no where but it was so awesome :) The other day I spoke about noticing the hidden little things and it was actually one of my favourite blogs to write , I'll link to it here . I've definitely noticed that I'm doing this more especially the other day , I saw a log just a average none exciting log fallen from a tree but i didn't see that bit. No , I saw this tiny little leaf that was the most beautiful shade of green that was sprouting from it and I thought wow we really do miss so much when we arn't looking for the right things ... I guess sadness has a way of blinding us but I refuse not to see the world in it's full beauty when there is so much to look at life's not long enough for that <3

Dancing in the rain...forest ;) 

why would you let yourself miss the little things when they make the big things ... If you don't look you might never know what you missed . I know its small but everything matters you just forget that sometimes :) <3


Finally after a few hours exploring we went back towards camp and heard someone shouting something about free cupcakes ! So obviously we ran all the way to this big tent in which they were decorating cupcakes ! For FREE! woooo :D I love cupcakes so I chose a chocolate one and used yellow icing because I'm hufflepuff and proud ;) Then I piled on as many sweets as I could because I love sweets even more than cupcakes haha :)

I then met some new people and with them and my other friend we went and found a park where we sat on the swing set for ages and talked ... I love swings there like flying and being free but staying exactly where you are sooo shout out to whoever invented swings I guess :) Just before we had to leave; a boy with ginger hair ( I love ginger hair) Came over to me and started talking to me about stuff and i found out he was from south Wales which just tops it off because I love the welsh accent ... So he was lovely , I did ask him to come home with me to read to me because I love the accent so much ... yeah I think I scared him ;) I love meeting new people who are friendly and smiley it literally makes my day :) After that we walked back to the main camp-site where an amazing live band were playing so me and my boyfriend stood and watched for ages it was so perfect <3 You know those moments when your so happy you could burst so you just stand there hugging someone with the music playing and you realise that everything is finally okay ? okay. Well it was one of those ( sorry I couldn't resist a TFIOS ) reference in there :)

I feel like I'm missing so much like I spent ages writing a whole pad of heart shaped hopeful notes and I saw a rainbow that made me really happy because well it's pretty colours magically appearing in the sky symbolising the sun is coming back and that the rain is nearly over... I think Rainbows should be a symbol of hope :)

Finally when it got dark there was a massive fireworks display which was absolutely breath taking :) I did'nt get any pictures of that because some things I guess you just has to be there to understand <3 But I did take a picture of the fair ground rides because the lit up like a Christmas tree ( sorry yet another TFIOS refernce ;) ) and it actually looked pretty awesome

Following that I went to a disco that had millions of glow sticks literally everywhere and then went back to the camp to chat with my boyfriend and a girl who is also a hopeful who met ( seriously the best thing that happened to me that weekend ) I'd never met another hopeful before so my #100happydays was definitely meeting her but for the picture it was watching that band with my fantastic boyfriend when I realised how lucky I am to have someone as amazing as him in my life <3 

“The timeless in you is aware of life's timelessness. And knows that yesterday is but today's memory and tomorrow is today's dream.” 
― Khalil Gibran, The Prophet

Stay Strong <3 Stay Smiley :) 
Remember that life is always worth living because although there will always be bad days, there will also be days like today that make everything seem worth it <3 Things do get better .. I pinkie promise you that <3 
Much Love, Love Much-ly
DontBurstMyBubble xxx

#100happydays: day 25 ( Sheepish Socks and Lemony Lemons... Recipe time ;) )

Hellooooo :) 

My new socks being modelled by me and
my best friends feet :) Aren't they just simply
fabulous ;) 

I hope your all feeling good :) Following the events of yesterday ( you can read about that here ) I'm still in a very good mood :)  I can feel this blog post is destined to be a bit on the long side so I better get started if that's all good with you ? Well I hope it is because I'm going to start anyway because you are in the future in accordance to when I'm writing this which is in my present therefore you couldn't of given me an answer in the time space I had ... Actually in the time I just spent waffling I probably could've composed a reasonable introduction aha :) Anyway's firstly, I just want to get the important thing out of the way so I can move on to what I actually planned to do this blog about :) My awesome dad bought me some sheep socks as a kind of well done present for getting to be a prefect at school ! I love socks so much :D So today my #100happydays photo is a picture of my new socks :) When I got home I found my new socks had sparked a thought in my brain .. That life long, burning question that I was certain no one knew the answer to; where did socks come from ? So being me I decided science coursework could wait, I was determined to find out  the answer so that I could make all your lives better because that's what you wanted to know when you clicked on this blog right ? ... right ? guys come on admit it ;) no ? oh okay then ... I'm going to tell you anyway because it made me smile so it might make you smile and as I always say ; Smiling's good :)  I found the answer to our prayers when I came across a website dedicated to socks where you can read the entire history of socks .. You probably don't want to which is fair enough because well it's about socks and you probably have a social life or something but for the rest of us ( so probably just me aha ) you can find the website called Lonely Sock here :) 

Right now on to what I wanted to talk about :) The other day after some very unfortunate events my best friends nan was feeling very rightly sad so I decided that I wanted to give her at least a small smile so I've bought her a bouquet of flowers and made her a Lemon Drizzle cake :) Mmm lemon drizzle cake is probably my favourite just the sweet sugar and the sour lemony goodness colliding into one gorgeous taste sensation in your mouth and .. seriously how that cake is still whole I actually don't know aha ;) So especially for you, I present without no further a do ... Lemon drizzle a la bubble ;) 

Recipe : Lemon Drizzle a la bubble 

Ingredient's 

• 2 eggs  
• 4oz (110g) of caster sugar
• 4oz (110g) of margarine 
• 4oz (110g) of self raising flour
• 1 table spoon of milk 
• 2-3 un-waxed lemons
• a lil bit of extra sugar for sprinkling :)
• and now some more sugar for stuff .. about 2 table spoons probably aha 

Equitment

• Mixing bowl 
• Two mugs 
• A Spoon ( I don't really know if that counts as equitment .. but you need it aha :) )
• A loaf tin 
• A loaf tin liner ( if you don't have one don't worry just rub some margarine around the tin to grease it up )
• A Whisk
• A fork 
• Zester/ cheese grater 

This should make one Lemon Drizzle Loaf cake :) I actually got confused when writing down the ingredient's because I made two earlier and apparently dividing by two at midnight is very difficult for someone like me aha ;) 

Before you start you should probably set your oven to preheat to 180 degrees because your smart so probably would like to do that bit before you actually start transferring the mixture into tins and realise baking requires an oven .. its been a long day okay aha ;)

1. Cream your sugar and margarine until the mixture has a white sheen to it :) If you want to make it extra fluffy then spend an extra few minutes after you get the white sheen hand whisking the mixture ... I always do this because it gives me more time to eat the mixture aha ;)
2. Carefully break both your eggs into a mug so that if you do accidentally get some shell in it then you've not ruined your mixture :) I find this helpful when not trying to poison my family because I'm actually quite fond of them .. sometimes ;) Then whisk the eggs with a fork until they're light and fluffy ( that's what my mum always used to tell me ... I don't really see how an egg can be light and fluffy but she's a wise woman so I'll take her word for it ) 
3. Add your egg a lil bit at a time to your mixture and whisk thoroughly to insure the mixture doesn't curdle :) 
4. Sift in the self raising flour and stir it into the mixture then whisk until it's fully combined and smooth ( it tastes really good at this point ;) ) 
5. Use your cheese graters zesting side to take the zest off 2 lemons and then add it two the cake mixture and stir :)
6. Line or grease your loaf tin and add in the cake mixture then put your loaf tin filled with cake mixture into the oven ... smells so good :)
7. Lick the bowl out ( this is the best part ... probably the only reason I make cakes ;) )
8. Whilst the cake is cooking juice the lemons with a fork or a citrus juicer if you have more common sense that me :) sift the lemon juice to remove pips and pour into a microwavable mug ... you can do this in a pan over the hob but I find this is just quicker and easier :) add around 1 and a half to 2 table spoons of caster sugar to the lemon juice and microwave so that the sugar dissolves making a warm sweet-ish but still slightly sour lemon mixture :) If you think it's to sour just add more sugar because that's what I do :) If I'm honest I actually have no idea how much I used aha :)
9. Take the cakes out of the oven when they are golden brown and springy to the touch. To see if they're cooked poke a clean knife through the middle if it comes out clean then the cakes cooked .. if not give it five more minutes and check again. 
10. When your cake is cooked and out of the oven poke lots of holes in your cake with a fork whilst it's still warm and then pour your hot lemon-sugar mixture over the cake . To finish it off sprinkle with a lil bit of sugar so it looks like a fairy's but magic dust on it and leave to cool. 

ENJOY! :D

I served a slice of my cake ( I made a second cake for my mum as well as the one for my friends nan) with a glass of cloudy lemonade which I decorated with a slice of lemon and a yellow straw to in keep with the theme of lovely lemons and all there lemony goodness :)

                                  

So I hope you enjoy this recipe and let me know if you try it and how it goes :) because I was feeling lemony I thought I'd just finish this blog off with five facts about lemon's so that you can leave this pointless blog as entirely confuzzeld as you were when you clicked on it and found me talking about socks aha :) 

•  During the European Renaissance, fashionable ladies used lemon juice as a way to redden their lips.
• The average lemon holds about three tablespoons of juice.
•  Now I've got a surprise for you because it shocked me : lemons are technically berries (as are oranges, watermelons and tomatoes).
• The average lemon has about eight seeds
• There is a lemon festival in Mentone which is in France, that takes place in the spring. It’s been celebrating the yellow citrus fruit, so commonly found in the French Riviera, for close to a century.

Thank you for sticking around and reading about sheepish socks and lemony lemon recipe's I hope I made you smile once or twice and keeping In with today's theme we might as well have a lemon themed quote as well :) 

" If Life gives you lemons, make grape juice and surprise the world " 

I best be off then because it's nearly 1 am and neither of us have learnt anything significant .. apart from some random acts of kindness mean you get to eat cake mixture .. that's actually a pretty good incentive to do random acts of kindness aha :) But seriously if you see someone who's life isn't going particularly great right now , surprise them with a random act of kindness to lend them a smile just to keep them going ... It doesn't have to be big even just leave a nice note for them :) They will definitely appreciate kindness when they are in dark times <3 

Stay Strong <3 Stay Smiley :) 

You're going to do great if you ever get a pop quiz on lemons ;)

Much love, Love much-ly 

DontBurstMyBubble xxx

P.s. told you it was going to be a long one ;) thank's for sticking around , I appreciate it <3

#100happydays: day 24 ( TFIOS Film - Warning minor spoilers )

Good evening :) 

I still haven't caught up on my sleep due to staying up to write two blogs yesterday , so this one will once again be short .. and hopefully sweet :) 

Today was a good-ish day that got better ... and better .. and then even better and now ? well I am in a very good mood :) You know those moods when you just feel warm and cosy and kinda fuzzy inside and just want to cuddle up in your favourite pyjamas in bed and continue to think lovely thoughts until you drift off into dreams of them ? yeah well I'm in one of those moods :) So how did you get into such a mood that sounds so perfectly marvellous ? I hear you ask ... well you probably didn't and probably aren't particularly interested aha which is fair enough but I think I'm going to tell you anyway because I'm sure I can fit some form of minor life lesson in there ... and if it gets really boring you can just skip to the quote at the end ;) 

So lets start at the beginning or a day that gets progressively better :) Firstly when I got on the bus that I nearly missed ( because it's me and I'm un-organised ... I think I can assume you have already picked that up from my late posting times aha ) I sat down and got a precious 30 minutes to read my book which is Sweet Honey by Cathy Cassidy it's the last in a series called the Chocolate Box Girls . I really enjoy her writing however this series is not my favourite of her books ... actually I don't think I could even pick one maybe Scarlett ... or Gingersnaps... or maybe Driftwood aha :) I might do a top ten books list in another blog post at some point ... that should be urmm interesting as I can't even decide on my favourite book by only one author haha :)

Then My friend got on the bus who hasn't really been feeling great for days however after an assembly about the possibility of going on a four week exhibition around Ecuador in 2016 with chances to learn to scuba-dive, Help out building in the community and meet and help school children who live in such different circumstances to us . The prospect of a new eye-opening experience in a one of the most bio-diverse places in the world , to indulge in a new and amazing culture and through ourselves into exciting opportunities all whilst travelling across a new country for such a long period of time just gave us both a massive burst of enthusiasm :) Soon we were talking about how amazing it would be if we could go and possible fundraising ideas if we do and even though we know it's pretty likely that we might not get to go, she cheered up very quickly :) I think that if your feeling down or you know someone that is, then you need to find something to be enthusiastic about or to work towards . This will automatically give you a new sense or focus that people can't take away from you and the prospect of something new and exciting can make you feel way more enthusiastic than sitting in your bedroom, eating chocolate and allowing yourself to wallow in self pity all day :) For example . say you didn't get then grade you want be it in a music examination or a school test whatever it was , pick yourself up, dust yourself off and say right now they think I can't do it so i'm going to work hard so that I can prove them wrong . Be honest with yourself .. come on everyone likes proving people wrong ;) Or even if it's just about doing something that you want to do and have wanted to do for a while, just go for it ! What's the worst that can happen as long as your pursuing your idea's safely and not causing anyone any harm then a new hobbie is a fantastic thing to pull yourself out of a time when your feeling really down :) If you want to read more of my stuff on passions I wrote a blog about it which you can find here :)  I know you can do anything you put your mind to :) So for once I think I'm going to put today's quote here in the middle instead of at the end because I like to live dangerously like that sometimes ;) So here have a quote from the most amazing man who was behind my childhood .. I seriously couldn't thank him enough :) 

" All our dreams can come true, If we have the courage to pursue them . " 
Walt Disney 

When I got home from school I did my make up and straightened my hair :) I really enjoy the actual process or getting ready to go out, just how you do your make up a bit different and feel abit more special :) It's important to do things that remind you you're special sometimes because I can promise you that you really are <3 You might just forget it sometimes .. which is okay because everyone forgets things ( seriously the amount of trouble I get into weekly for forgetting my PE kit is unbelievable aha  ) but it's important you let the people around you who you tryst know that your not feeling great because then they can remind you .. like my friends remind me about my PE kit ;) Anyway's so the reason I was straightening my hair ect was because me and my boyfriend were going to the cinema to go and see The Fault In Our Stars and Oh my gosh it was amazing <3 I loved the actors for both their obvious talent and well in some cases simply gorgeous looks *cough* Augustus Waters*cough* I thought It was a good adaptation of the book , it got me pretty emotional .. I'm not going to  lie, I cried but then again so did literally every other person in the cinema . I was vaguely amused by how the cinema was full of just groups of teenage girls fan-girling with mascara running down their faces and the occasional girl with a boyfriend who had been dragged along ... all of which looked sceptical at the beginning but were definitely also crying at the end even if they wouldn't admit it ;) However the film missed out many crucial parts of the book and this did rather annoy me ( and probably my boyfriend as I interrupted the film every 5 minutes moaning about it aha ) But seriously these were such important things to me in the book I was actually completely shocked by how they were just missed out . Things such as Augustus doesnt say he loves Hazel Grace on the plane, they miss out the part in the eulogy about seeing through girls tops, they don't even sell the swing set it's just gone at the end , Hazel constantly calls Augustus  "Gus" so the part at the end where she actually calls him Gus ( you know that really significant bit ) well that doesn't happen  , they miss out like half of the ending, your barely even see see Augustus when he's deteriorating from the illness , and lots of other little things that really annoyed me .. Now I think I've made the film sound bad , that's not what I wanted though . The Fault in Our Stars is a really good film that I thoroughly enjoyed and I would definitely recommend it to anyone :) But please don't watch the film and think you don't need to read the book the book because you've seen it because in my opinion The Fault In Our Stars is a utterly amazing novel which would make grown men cry and everybody laugh and I feel to fully appreciate the story of Hazel Grace and Augustus that the novel is a necessity :) 

My evening then got further better when it was topped off with a long hug and a really cute goodnight text from my boyfriend that left me feeling all fuzzy and smiley :) I hope someone's made you smile today if not then try making someone else smile because that will coincidently make you happy and I want so very much for you to be happy <3 :) Feel free to comment what people have done that made you smile today or even what you have done for someone else .. I mean you don't have to but it would be nice to see that there are nice people and positivity in the world :) 

So now I'm going to sleep to hopefully dream dreams as lovely as my currant thoughts
Stay Strong <3 Stay Smiley :) 
I hope your all doing marvellously ;) 
Much Love, Love Much-ly 
DontBurstMyBubble xxx

P.s. I'm aware the short and sweet thing didn't really work out aha ;)