the catch up #5: life lately.

Hey guys...

Yes I'm talking to you!

Remember me? C'mon its Lavinya...y'kno the girl who dropped a blogspot on the last day of the January, made all sorts of blogging promises and then ghosted for another month and a half.

Ok well, I'm not even going to feed you an excuse, just know that I have missed y'all, for real for real and before we start I just want to say a massive thank you to all those who have messaged me, called me out on twitter lol and in my instagram comments, asking when I'm going to start blogging again. You have no idea how much that meant. I was surprised that people even cared but genuinely happy and touched that you do! 

Thank you, thank you, thank you. :)


Soooooo last time we spoke... 


I was trying to land my dream job or at least an entry level fashion position. Yup, well, still working on that. These things take time, so I'm told, and the month of February followed in the same footsteps of January. Bleak. I dont even want to talk about it. But I will say that it ended on the high I needed, that I deserved. 

I met the "Internet's Big Sister" herself, the beautiful Gracie Francesca at her event in collaboration with Lush Life: "Me, Myself and I: Self Care, Self Love". 
The actual day of the event, having booked two tickets, I had no one to go with and was prepared to spend another night, in front of my laptop. By 6pm I was making my way over Waterloo bridge, power walking it to Soho. FOMO would not get me today. Nope. Even if it meant feeling absolutely petrified on my own in an unfamiliar place, I was not missing out again. And I am happy I did because that night was everything I never knew I needed. The panel discussion taught me a great deal about how self care is self defined and not always bubble baths and manicures. I also met soooo many nice people, including Lala, Naomi, Nicole and Ghenet. All that fear of the unknown only to be met with a room of welcoming people, some of which came on their own too! It was a much needed boost to my own energy, that was running real low. 


I'm still not sleeping better. Correction I'm sleeping just fine, once my head hits the pillow its lights out for me, but the time in which I decide to finally switch off my laptop is getting later and later. Around the start of the year I was averaging a bed time of 1:30-2am, well for the past 2 weeks its been mostly 2-4am. Like wtf! And I am stuck in this repetitive dumb cycle of regretting it in the morning, promising myself I will be in bed by 10pm (and we all know what I'm like with promises) and making it under my covers well beyond a normal time. Guys at my big age theres just no excuse, especially as I know that part of my self care is decent amount of sleep. I'm doing this to myself and I am trying hard to break the cycle. But then I tell myself "oooooooh let me just apply for this one job, then I'll call it a night" an hour later and I'm still trying to answer "why do you want to work for us?" at 2 freaking am because the bloody thing wont allow me to save it for another day. I told you this job searching is draining.


I spend most of my time on Instagram. The app we love to hate is where you will find me. Being so time poor has made Instagram the ideal place for me to "blog". I know, it was only a few months ago that I was complaining about algorithms and being stuck on 1700 followers. Fast forward and I'm now on 2000+. But its not just about numbers, the genuine engagement in my comments and DM's are so encouraging, I feel like I've built a lovely community with my followers. Not only am I making much better content, more outfit posts and creative IG stories, but doing so is really quick. IG only requires 1-2 pictures, compared to taking 4-5 for a blogpost and in some ways I can convey my thoughts/what I'm going through just as well in a caption, than sit down and write long posts. Its also been a place that I receive new opportunities from. I know the app can be fickle at times but at the moment, I cant knock it.

Speaking of opportunities from Instagram, I was a model for a day. I was contacted by the lovely Lizzie Loves, blogger/vlogger/entrepreneur and all round sweetheart, to take part in a photoshoot for her amazing jewellery brand, My Beautiful One. 

One of my wishes for the new year was to try new things and say "yes" more. Even though I was super apprehensive on the day (guys I dont even know where this "fear" to do things has come from) I went. I slaayed, (IMO). I enjoyed and I'm really glad I said yes. It was an awesome experience! I managed to sneak a few photo's away from the shoot and I posted alot of BTS on my IG stories, but hopefully when they officially re-launch, I will share more shots with you.

Phew! That was fun. 

So tell me what have YOU been up to! Share your news, I'd love to know! 

In the mean time I'm off to upload my new post on Instagram. Join me @thisislavinya and dont forget to subscribe here!