November began on a mad note. In the first week I finished work on Thursday evening, got a train from Dublin to Wexford, hung out with my parents (who are living there at the moment), went back to our GP in Wicklow on Friday, briefly stopped off at the family home in Kildare, headed to the train station and arrived in Galway after 9. By the time I had gotten to my hotel, checked in, bathed and prepared for the next day, I fell into bed. Then I had a crazy day on the Galway Fashion Trail, running around the city, catching up with the ITWBN gang and making new friends. After dashing around the shops, eating dinner and grabbing drinks, Saibh walked me to the train station and I headed back to Dublin - I saw a hell of a lot of the country in one week! Sunday was hectic too, even if I was in one place. I did a bunch of chores and got stuck into my articles for Magpie, who I've since finally announced took me on as their Fashion Editor!
In fact, November continued on a crazy note, largely because of Magpie. It was great and I was happy to be doing it but fitting in three articles outside of a day job and generally busy life was not easy. On the following Tuesday I interviewed the lovely Jenny Drea about her modelling and fashion design careers. The next morning I had the launch of Courtney Smith's collection for Shoe Lab and got to catch up with her awesome mam, the blogger behind the fantastic (and fantastically named) Over The Hilda, who I'd met that weekend in Galway. Following that I had a Crabtree & Evelyn event in the Merrion Hotel, attended welcome home drinks for one of my besties who'd been away for a year, a hangout and dinner with the extended gang and, finally, a quiet weekend.
The third weekend of November saw me attend my first event for Magpie, the launch of Poco by Pippa, produce a write-up the next day, have breakfast and an interview with Sonya Lennon for the next issue of the magazine, go to the COS SS17 preview, have a cinema date with my other bestie, finally, finally donate the clothes to a charity shop that have been sitting in my living room for two years (!) and get my first ever headshots taken by a pal.
Week four began lunching with friends and continued with the Primark SS17 press day, Christmas shopping, the Platinum Christmas party, a trip home and lots of work on deadlines and blog posts.
After a brief moment of quiet, where I kind of caught my breath, November transitioned to December with work on getting my Five Golden Gifts posts ready, a Lennon Courtney show, the Toy Show, drinks with a friend we don't get to see often enough and a hungover drawing class that made me realise how much I really miss putting pen to paper for more than words.
December saw a big rush of excitement for the blog and lots of engagement with the incredibly successful Five Golden Gifts posts. I was truly blown away by it. Then, I ended the first week of the month at the & Other Stories store opening, going down to Wexford again for our annual family trip in the run up to Christmas, where we had an incredible dinner in Cistin Eile, and a fun dinner and karaoke session with the people from my Korean class.
As we reached the middle of the month, I was having the same kind of fun and pleasant adventures - tea with Sarah, dinner with my brother, exciting new music - when, suddenly, my computer started acting all screwy. I live and work through my computer and this was a serious pain in the ass. Amid the stress of being without it, posting out my prizes and Christmas cards and doing the last bits of shopping, I hung out with a contingent of friends who now live in France, had a nice festive day of markets and movies with Sarah and finally had time to get my shit together around the house.
In the last ten days of the month, I had catch-ups with various friends to exchange gifts and Christmas wishes, my annual Christmas party and went home to bake, eat too much, be with my family, go on hikes, skateboard, visit the cinema, play with a puppy and recharge for the new year - the perfect way to end a crazy, busy, fun and (largely) great year.
2016, in many ways, was a difficult year for most of us. But I was lucky. Personally, 2016 was a year in which I grew, did new things, challenged myself, had adventures and achieved life-long goals. I only hope that 2017 sees more hard work pay off and that I continue to be surrounded by the people that always get me through the less good moments. That we all remain healthy and mostly happy. What more could anyone ask for?
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