Hannah Elizabeth

Following on from last week's mental health story share, I wanted to share my continued journey. I first reached out to my GP in December 2022, as I was already struggling a little. She was happy to await for counselling, before commencing on medication but let me know that if I ever changed my mind, she was happy to prescribe it.  I ended up self-referring to the NHS counselling service, which as of April has been further divided into county areas, therefore I now come under Nottinghamshire. Apparently the GP can refer you, but my GP wouldn't or couldn't and therefore I self-referred through the link and information they shared with me.  The service is called Talking Therapies and involves confidential treatments delivered by fully trained and accredited NHS practitioners, usually supporting common mental health struggles like stress, anxiety and depression. The service is available in person, by video, over the phone or as an online course.  In January, I had my initial

This is an exciting post to make and not for just one reason. I’ve decided this month to do Blogtober once again. It’s been a while since I did this challenge, which for those that don’t know, involves a blog post every single day for the month of October. Over the last few years, I’ve learnt to take breaks both in my personal and public life, including “annual leave” from the blog. It has been refreshing to not feel obliged to post and the intermissions in posting has given me some much needed respite when needed. This time last year started the start of my downward spiral and I didn’t think it could get worse but it definitely did. Epically. Gladly, I can finally say that I’m in a good place once again. Life is life, so it isn’t always easy, it has ups and downs as with every other person on the planet, but I am glad I fought to the surface and managed to find a way out of my black hole. As such, I’m taking full advantage of this happy zone I’m in and so I thought now is as good as t

I am so happy with how my shutters have turned out and after a long process of deciding, ordering, preparing and fitting, I am so excited that they are now done! I was pleasantly surprised to hear that they were scheduled to be delivered on Tuesday 5th September and even happier to be able to arrange for fitting the following Friday.  They are just what I wanted in terms of the colour and design. They had a range of colours to decide from and I wanted the whitest white to match the fireplace and the window frames. I got 5 panels so that the three middle panels are the same width as either side. It looks the exact same, but the panes do fold asymmetrically, so the two left panels go to the left and the one right panel, goes to the right. They fold absolutely flush to the ends. The two connect via magnets to keep them together and for a safety feature.  I can't wait to be able to finish sanding and painting the edges, but it is such an improvement to the room and it also makes the ro

Another month, another home haul subscription box! Pretty Little Home is a company I have loved for just under a year but I only recently started getting their monthly subscription box. This month's promises more Halloween and Autumn items, with a little colour thrown in.  The first item is this lovely vase . I love how pretty this is. It's something that is completely timeless and period unknowing, with a beautiful and simple ripple design. It's a great size and perfect for what I have use for as it's a great size between a normal large vase and my little stem holders.  I also got a pack of four coasters . These are a lovely wood finish and very sturdy with a beaded border. I love the size of these and the design idea, however, the finish on mine isn't great so I've taken some pictures and sent an email. I am waiting to hear back at the moment.  This trio of little pumpkins were an unusual addition to the box. All the previous reveals that I have seen have no

It's been a few months since I last shared an update on my mental health and I thought it was about time, I shared the progress I've made, starting with my story. For those that haven't followed my journey for the last year and a half, a long story short is that I went through a breakup in June 2022.  I was the one who did the breaking up, hoping my now ex-boyfriend would flight for me and for us, and he didn't. He begged us to get back together for the first month and then he quickly moved on, whilst I realised I wanted nothing else than for him to be in my life.  I tried to do some dating in September to October, and found a guy I actually really liked but we were both having our own struggles so ultimately that ended before it really started, and that forced me to realise the reality that I wasn't over the love of my life in the slightest. Things went downhill quite quickly and on Boxing Day 2022, I self-harmed for the first time.  From there I became suicidal. I

A busy couple of weeks around the house and at work, but lots of progress and some truly lovely families to look after.  Click here to watch the vlog or see below.  I started the vlog with 5 night shifts in a row. I had a singular night shift, and then a sleep day before 3 further night shifts, so decided to just do one as an extra as I would be awake anyway. They were all great, very smooth sailing, until the last shift, apart from when I burnt my thumb microwaving a ready meal.  I had a lady, pregnant with her fourth baby who came in, in early labour but too scared to go home due to previous precipitate labours. Ultimately, she convinced us to break her waters in the hopes of quickly having a baby but instead she went from 2cm, to 3cm, to 4cm and then just before handover, fainted and needed transferring from our low risk midwifery led unit, to the obstetric side. I really thought I had broken her and was crying whilst documenting up. I went in to quickly say goodbye, and just before

After a surprising message saying that my shutters were going to be delivered and fitted within the space of a week, I very quickly had to be able to take my blinds down in the lounge. I am not really a DIY type girl, despite what I make it sound like on this blog. Not only am I not very good at it, I also hate doing it. Sadly, although I tried my absolute hardest to try and get someone over to help me take down my blinds, it was to absolutely no avail and I was at a loss.  I'd asked my dad, my cousin, my cousin-in-law, my neighbour, tried to hire a handyman and even reach out to someone that I absolutely shouldn't have. I didn't have a clue where to start and I had 2 days to get them down and sort out the mess underneath. I sent some pictures to my last resort and whilst he wasn't free to attend, he very kindly sent me some very detailed instructions via a graphic that saved my life.  After taking down the blinds, it caused a lot more damage than I anticipated. The pai

I feel like I'm like a month behind on posting this because I actually got these flowers the first week in September as a bonus bouquet. I ended up being a little disappointed with my last bouquet because the blooms only lasted a few days before completely withering away and dying. I reached out through customer services to inform them and they were very kind and apologetic. They ended up sending me a lovely free bouquet and a box of chocolate to say sorry.  I ended up choosing The Suki as I loved the idea of having sunflowers in my house and thought it completed the ochre and navy colour scheme downstairs perfectly. Unlike my previous bouquets, this one wasn't actually a letterbox bouquet, but I didn't realise that at the time. Instead, it came in quite a large box, as a pre-arranged bouquet. The stems were taped together in a bag of gel like medium that I can only assume was to keep them hydrated. Whether on purpose or not, this gel was also on the sunflowers flower whi

Before starting my postgraduate studies, I knew the second year of the part time course was almost research. What I hadn't realised is that it would be split into multiple modules as I thought it was all just one assessment of a dissertation. During the summer holidays, I got sent an email by the module lead of the next course, and it turns out that it's actually split into multiple modules, with the first being "Research Methodology".  The module is described as an opportunity to learn of the key methodological concepts, discuss and explant knowledge of research and gain essay writing tips. Like the other modules, it's taught as a distant learning course, with the majority online and then webinars as a complementary addition every other week, on Wednesday afternoons.  It's taught with both postgraduate master's students and diploma students therefore there are two different levels of assessment. For those studying at level 7, we are expected to provide a

Here's a little bonus video this week, despite my annual leave. I recorded a holiday toiletry haul but it ended up being super long so I decided to upload it as an extra! Click here to watch the vlog or see below.  

Since I very first moved into my house, my dream was to have shutters in the bay window in my lounge. I absolutely love the look of shutters and both my older sisters have them throughout the house, so I know exactly how they work and function. When the previous owners, left their current blinds up, I thought I would leave them because they function fine, and it saved money.  Over the last year, I have dreaded the blinds constantly. Each time I come to clean them, it takes forever, dusting each individual ring and then they move and hit the wall, scraping off the paint over and over again.  More so, they're also a little damaged. For the first 6 months, the cover on the larger, middle pane kept falling down part way. I would stick it back up daily and went through so many command strips to no avail. Eventually I decided to just take it down and leave it down. The strings to move the blinds were also broken. A couple had unravelled so were really long and touched the floor, one had

Recognised is a company very close to my heart and I have shared them multiple times over the last few years. My first introduction to the company was when I finally finished my Midwifery undergraduate degree and it was the perfect graduation present !  Recognised donates 100% of their profits to different causes, with each Statement Popon (pendant) uniquely designed for different purposes and supports the charities for that cause. Ethically handcrafted with care, every Popon helps to raise awareness, spark conversation and encourage acceptance. For graduation and then Christmas in 2020 I got a Rose Gold Necklace with two pendants celebrating Motherhood and Solidarity. For my birthday I decided to buy a lot of the collection with my birthday present money and have been since wearing them constantly.  The products come in gorgeous jewellery box layers, with each component perfectly separated and gift wrapped to perfection. I already have a lot of silver jewellery that I love, but  recen