The 10 Year Challenge: Getting Older & Growing into Myself

If you're on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram you've probably seen the 10 Year Challenge popping up a lot in your feed lately, with people posting photos of themselves from 2009 vs 2019.

It's really interesting seeing how much (and how little) people have changed. All those sweet fresh faces! Old friends looking just how they looked when you first met, and new friends looking sort of not yet fully formed, a sort of pre-them from before you knew them and they grew into their wonderful current selves! So many lovely faces! Such fun!

I love looking back at old photos - if you've been reading my blog for a while you might remember that I've been assembling self-portraits to represent each year for a while now - so I thought I'd join in the fun with this challenge. But: could I find a photo of myself from 2009? I absolutely could not. I don't have a lot of photos of myself from around that time anyway and I think that might have been the year my computer died a sudden death when I hadn't backed up my files for months. (Oops). (Always back up your files, you guys!!).

Sooo... here's me in 2008 (modelling a headband I'd made for my shop)...

... and me in 2018 (modelling the denim jacket I customised for Sticker You).

Ten years of taking crafty selfies and sticking them on the internet! Woohoo!

This pair of photos is kind of cheating because the light in the hallway where I took that most recent photo is VERY FLATTERING but apart from my glasses getting bigger I'm not sure how I look has changed that much?

I mean, obviously, I can see time making its mark on me when I look in the mirror in the morning. I've got a lot more wrinkles and crinkles than I had back in 2008, I'm developing a pretty strong frown line right in the middle of my forehead, and my first grey hairs showed up last year (I'm not sure exactly when as I'd not noticed them until my youngest sister helpfully pointed them out to me this summer!). And on mornings when I've not had enough sleep? Oh my goodness. A bad night's sleep ages me about a decade these days.

Mostly though what I see when I look at these photos, and which may not be visible to anyone else but me, is how much happier with myself I am these days. Happier with who I am and how I look, and generally just so much more confident and content to be myself. I'm lucky to be healthier and fitter than I've ever been, too (one of the excellent and unexpected side-effects of falling in love with walking).

People talk (slightly creepily) about girls "blossoming" into young women, but here in my late 30s, with 40 on the rapidly approaching horizon, I feel like I'm in full bloom inside and out.

When we turn 30 (if not even earlier) we start getting hit with so many messages from our youth-focused culture that we, as women, should be freaked out about "losing" our looks as those dreaded "signs of aging" start appearing. We've got over the angst and body confidence issues of our teens, gone through our messy "what am I doing with my life??" twenties, and just as we're starting to relax into ourselves and, I think, beginning to really grow into our power... all of a sudden the world says "woah, settle down there ladies, have you considered that there's all these new ways to hate yourself?"

Well, I refuse. I refuse to hate the gradual way my face and body is changing as I'm aging and I absolutely refuse to hate myself even a tiny bit because of it. I am going to continue to bloom and I hope you guys will, too xxx

Weston-super-Mare in Pictures: April, May & June 2018

I love living by the seaside, and spend as much time as possible going for walks along the beach and around the town. I'm really enjoying exploring my new home town and seeing how it changes with the seasons!

I have an Instagram account where I share photos from my walks, and I'm also putting together a quarterly round up of my favourite pictures here on my blog. I was on a blogging break back in July (when I'd originally planned to post this) but now it's finally time to look back at my fave pics from April, May and June. With autumn rapidly creeping in, I really enjoyed looking back through my photos to put together this post and I hope you'll enjoy them too...

April started off a little grey, but at least it had stopped snowing... and the grey didn't last long! We've had so much sunshine this summer that my camera roll has been absolutely bursting with blue skies.

I have to admit though that I rather adore a long walk on a misty grey day. There's something weirdly appealing about how bleak and empty the beach can be during the off-season, and it makes for a wonderfully quiet walk. I've missed it a little during the hot and busy tourist season!

I made the most of spring while it lasted, with lots of visits to see the bluebells at Uphill...

... walks along the beach...

... and regular strolls up the cowslip-and-orchid-covered hill (later the buttercup-covered hill!) to the old church.

Then in June I got slightly sunburned going on lots of longer-than-expected walks around town, photographing the local architecture and other bits and bobs that caught my eye. I really need to remember to always take extra suncream on walks like this, as there's always another tempting street to go down and another new path to follow.

 

 

There's no shortage of charming houses and interesting architectural details here in Weston: I have a crush on so many of the local buildings but this one is definitely in my top ten:

Taking nice photos and sharing them online is fun, of course, but I particularly like how the act of taking photos is making me really look at the place that I live. The shapes and the colours and all the little details it would be so easy to overlook.

 

It's been a fun challenge photographing some of Weston's summer events, too. I loved the classic car show at Grove Park...

... and the hot air balloons on the beach were an absolute joy. The balloon launch was a wonderful little taster of a new event coming to Weston's seafront this autumn - I'm really looking forward to it!

Fancy some more seaside snaps? Follow me on Instagram for regular (ish) updates from Weston-super-Mare.

You can also explore my travel archive for lots more pics from around the UK.

Weston-super-Mare in Pictures: January-March 2018

I live by the seaside, I go for a lot of walks... and I take a lot of photos!

I share a lot of my seaside snaps over on Instagram; I love having a space to share the lovely views and interesting details that catch my eye. This year I'm also doing a quarterly round-up of my fave photos here on my blog - I hope you'll enjoy following along as the seasons change.

It's been so cold and wet and grey this winter, I've not been for nearly as many walks as I'd have liked. The walks I have been on have been rather wonderful, though.

This grey winter day was beautiful, but so incredibly cold. I kept having to stop walking to jump up and down a bit and wiggle my fingers and toes to keep them from getting too chilly!

The light when it was sunny, though? Oh my goodness. So bright and clear and gorgeous.

The winter sunsets can be pretty magical, too.

This sunny day followed several days of heavy rain, the paths were little muddy rivers and I narrowly escaped slipping and falling several times. It was totally worth it for these views.

I get why people don't think to visit the seaside in the winter, but look what you're missing out on!

In March the weather went a bit weird, and the beach was covered in heavy snow thanks to the Beast from the East. I was particularly smitten by the combination of the snow and my favourite seaside shelters.

Later in the month, it snowed again: not as heavily as before, but with a similarly transformative magic. (I blogged about this walk - click here to see all the pics!).

Finally, at the end of March I walked a slightly different route through town and discovered a new-to-me bakery (yum) and what is now my new favourite door (you can't beat a good door).

Follow me on Instagram for regular (ish) updates from Weston-super-Mare.

Catch up with my faves shared in February to August last year, and in September to December.

Weston-super-Mare in Pictures: September-December 2017

Since moving to the seaside a year and a half ago I've been on a lot of walks, and taken a lot of photos of my new hometown! I started an Instagram account to share the photos, but I thought it would be nice to do occasional round-ups of my faves here on my blog as well.

I blogged last year about my fave photos I'd shared between February and August, and I'd planned on doing another "six months of seaside snaps" blog post... but then when I came to actually choose the photos I realised I had far too many faves to fit in just one blog post! What can I say - I love it here and I take a lot of pictures!

So, this year I'm going to try doing roughly quarterly round-ups and see how that goes. Today I'm catching up by sharing my faves from the end of last year, then next week I'll share my faves from January to March this year. I hope you'll enjoy the photos, I really enjoyed looking back through my snaps to choose my favourites.

An end-of-summer-holidays sandcastle:

Rocks on the beach near Uphill:

Rock meets concrete - I love these pretty pink rocks at the North end of the beach!

A very angry wall:

Pink twine:

Autumn light:

One of my favourite houses in Weston!

More excellent houses in the autumn sunshine:

Deliciously textured tracks on the beach, during preparations for the Beach Race:

A tiny silver shoe on an overgrown wall - I walked past this wall last week and the shoe is still there, like a tiny bit of public sculpture.

Just one of many gorgeously moody sunsets:

A gate being swallowed by sand:

Reflections on a calm, clear day - it's almost always breezy here, so it's a real treat seeing the water in the Marine Lake this still.

More reflections, because how could I just pick one photo from that beautiful day?

Boats on the river:

This is essentially just a photo of some bins but I love it:

And finally, bright boats on a gloriously sunny winter's day:

More seaside snaps coming soon!

Follow along on Instagram for more frequent (albeit slightly irregular) updates. Check out my travel archive for blog posts about my walks and trips around the UK.