#lovetober Instagram Challenge!

Throughout the month of October, I took part in Gala Darling's #lovetober instagram challenge! I had so much fun with this - usually I'm rubbish and end up missing a day, but I completed the challenge (with only one belated post, and I did it first thing the next day - I was in Manchester, which threw me off!!), and I'll definitely be getting involved with more challenges like this in the future. I think having a topic every day really helped keep it fun but focused, and I loved looking through the hashtag to see what other people were posting!

Anyway, I thought I'd post my photos in a few wee collages on here to have a look through my #lovetober snaps all in one handy place, not mixed up with my other instagram photos! I love the mix of personal photos, inspiring quotes and pretty images this challenge produced :)

Top L-R: The Challenge, Flower Power (Bird of Paradise)

Bottom L-R: Nostalgia (Grad Ball 2011), Photobooth Friday (with Emma, 2012)

Top L-R: Made Me Laugh (Dumble-door), Daily Mantra (Be kind)

Bottom L-R: Your Bookshelf (Some favourites!), Thankfulness (family and friends)

Top L-R: Street Art (Melbourne), Favourite Colour (All of them!)

Bottom L-R: Your Inspiration (Malala Yousafzai), Jump! (Bit of a cheat - flying!)

Top L-R: Perfect Weekend (Night Out, Night In, XFactor!), I'm Obsessed! (Once Upon a Time)

Bottom: A Beautiful Place (Aviemore), Pay it Forward (Inspire)

Top L-R: Big Dream (PhD), Favourite Artist (KlairedeLys)

Bottom L-R: In the Morning (cup of tea), Your Bucket List (NYC!!)

Top L-R: Favourite City (Glasgow), Your babes (as many as I could fit!)

Bottom L-R: Seasonal Love (jumpers, leaves, hot chocolate, lights!), Throwback Thursday (laughs with pals)

Top L-R: Spirituality (connectedness), Before and After (photo filters)

Bottom L-R: Self-Care Routine (Tea and The Office), Wonder (the universe)

Top L-R: Biggest Challenge (being brave enough for Australia), Beside your bed (book and lipbalm!)

Bottom L-R: Advice (gratitude), Halloween (happy halloween!)

Did you take part in #lovetober? If so, leave me your instagram name in the comments - I'd love to check it out!! I'm @lynseymac1 over there too!

Thanks for reading!

100 Happy Days!

Hello all!

I'm still in the midst of exam/essay madness, so apologies for the lack of posts - I'm going to get back to my Wednesday/Sunday schedule next week, I promise!

However, I just wanted to do a wee post to mention that I'm taking part in the 100 Happy Days challenge - I'm currently on day 6! January is typically the most depressing month of the year. The festive season has left us yearning for cosy nights in eating too much and spending time with family, and enjoying guilt free nights out with friends with no work or uni the following day - subsequently leaving many of us penniless. Therefore, any little opportunity to lift our spirits has to be a good thing!

Obviously, I'm not naïve enough to think that posting a photo of a cup of tea means that life is perfect, or that that day has been full of joy - that's completely unrealistic! But what's nice about this challenge is that even on the most seemingly rubbish of days, you find some little part of it that you enjoy and focus (even just for the time it takes to instagram of photo of it) on that, rather than what has been bad about the day.

Here are my photos so far... there's definitely a bit of a theme to my images, isn't there (food and drink making up 2/5, as per usual)... the last one looks bizarre, but is actually a screenshot of the results of a quiz Emma and I decided to try last night - it was to discover which Sherlock character you are, and I, apparently, am most like Molly. It was an evening of equally balanced deep and meaningful talk, and laughing at absolute nonsense, which is generally how a night in goes for us. So that was a clear winner for yesterday's image!

If you're taking part in the #100HappyDays challenge let me know - I'd love to see what you've been posting. I know you can use lots of different platforms to share your images, but for me it's instagram! I'm @lynseymac1 over there (as well as on twitter).

Hope you've all had a great start to 2014, and be sure to leave me a link in the comments to your twitter or instagram (or wherever!) if you're taking part.

Thanks for reading :)