lauramerritt96

Skinnydip London has been one of my favourite companies to buy from for years! So many years that it was when they used to only sell phone cases!

They’ve always been my go to to find a good iPhone case because especially when there weren’t as many models it was so hard to find a nice fun design.

Since then I’ve bought endless phone cases, bags and accessories! When I saw they were bringing out another Disney collection i was so excited to add more pieces to my ever growing Skinnydip collection.

This by far is my favourite Disney collaboration they’ve done! Lady and the Tramp is one of my all time favourites and it’s often very underrated so can be hard to find merchandise for. So obviously I bought it all.

09.07.2005 – the best day ?

You were meant to be my dog ✨

Happy 15th Birthday Millie, miss you more everyday, love you forever ?❤️

A few weeks ago I did a post all about completing the Couch to 5K challenge which I had been running with my mam. We wanted to keep up our running and so far so good! We then fancied a new challenge after a week after we decided to give a Great Run Solo challenge a go!

I hadn’t heard of the Great Run Solo Challenge until I came across it on social media. My mam has completed 2 Great North Runs over the years (my dad has also ran it several times) and when I was younger I ran the Junior Great North Run a few times. Obviously being from Newcastle the Great North Run is always a huge event every year! I do eventually want to do the Great North Run myself but it’s really close to my birthday, sometimes even on it, so it’s hard to commit depending on birthday celebrations!

So I was really pleased to be able to take part in a virtual one! You can choose whether to take part in a week or monthly challenge with a range of distances from 7K to 280K. There are also junior events. To enter your ‘entry fee’ is a minimum £10 donation (you can choose to up it) which all goes to the NHS Charities Together COVID-19 Urgent Appeal.

I’m always on the look out for new and cute Disney clothes to wear next time I’m in the park and because let’s face it you can never have too many Disney clothes!

I’ve see people wearing the ‘pocket T-shirt’ designs but never knew where there were getting them from and now I do! Magical Day Apparel is the shop name and they have so many designs to choose from.

They recently did a collection with YouTubers L&R Dreaming, who I’ve been watching for a few years and am really big fan of their videos. They do great videos of Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Aline, Disneyland Paris and they’ve been to Disneyland Resort, Tokyo Disneyland and Shanghai Disneyland. So whatever Disney content you’re looking for, they’ve pretty much got it converted!

A big announcement from Disney last week confirmed that the classic Splash Mountain attraction in Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World is to be reimagined with a Princess and the Frog theme.

The announcement comes after the ride was questioned during the recent rise of the Black Lives Matter movement as the theming of the ride comes from the controversial Disney film ‘Song of the South.’ It is possible this has been in Disney’s plan for longer as they often update themes to fit with more recent or popular releases.

I love Splash Mountain it’s one of my favourite rides, it’s so nostalgic as a theme park attraction and the song ‘Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah‘ is a classic Disney song I have always loved. While I love the ride it’s also really positive to see Disney moving forward by adapting the ride with the film featuring their only black princess, Tiana.

Gradually in England over the past weeks lockdown restrictions have been eased, with being allowed to meet more people outside as long as you are 2m apart and opening of non essential shops. The next stage of relaxing the rules comes on July 4th, with more places opening including restaurants and seeing people indoors again as long as you social distance to minimum 1m where 2m isn’t possible.

I feel like we are starting to see the ‘new normal’ that we have been talking about for months.

Last Monday, June 15th was one year without my Millie.

I honestly still can’t believe it marked a whole year without my Millie? the hardest time of my life, she was the best. She was and still is absolutely everything to me and I miss her so much everyday. Time goes so quick and seems like yesterday all at once. Love you forever Millie ❤️?✨

Earlier this week I shared the first official blog post I wrote back in 2016. It was titled ‘#WHERESTHELOVE’ and was all about the Black Eyed Peas re-releasing their classic single Where Is The Love due to events happening around the world.

I’m aware this is quite trivial but anyone who knows me knows how much I love eating out. I would normally eat out at least once a week and usually have a McDonalds a week too, I’m very thankful for good metabolism haha. So that was one major change for me during lockdown!

I was so glad when restaurants decided to start to open up again for click and collect/takeaways! We got Five Guys at the beginning of last month, then a few weeks later a Nando’s and went to our local McDonalds on the first day it opened back up … and again the next day haha!

We’ve had such great experiences with the restaurant services in terms of, ordering, pick up and social distancing/cleaning methods used to ensure you can get your food safely.

While taking the meal and eating at home isn’t quite the same it was just as good and something to look forward to!

It’s also been great to see how going forward dining experiences will work and gives some sense of normality with lockdown beginning to ease!

Next up on the list .. TGI Fridays haha. I’m so glad my restaurant dining habits are beginning to get back to normal because if you couldn’t tell I love food and am a bit obsessed with eating out haha. I can’t wait for more of my favourites to open!

I know I’ll never understand and I can’t even imagine how scary it must be to live in fear like this purely because of the colour of your skin. It’s also mind blowing to me that in the year 2020 when the world is so advanced in many ways the simple thing of treating people equally still isn’t done! It’s so important to educate ourselves and try and make a positive difference/change! Shocked and saddened that this is still happening, it’s not right!

I participated in #blackouttuesday of showing support by posting a black square on social media and using the time to learn and focus on the issues going on.

This is an issue people of colour face all the time and it’s unbelievable that the suffering happens so often and for so long! I saw a statistic saying right now is the biggest civil rights movement in history as all 50 American states and 18 countries worldwide have been protesting. This is hope that change is happening and that the world is becoming a better place!

As personal posts from everyday life resume it is important to express that these things do not distract from what is going on. Offline I will still be learning, reading, listening and doing what I can to help towards making a change I will also still show support online as well. To find out ways in which you can help go to: https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co

I’m posting this as it’s important to keep the issue relevant while posting other pieces. It’s not a trend of posting a black square and moving on, it’s an issue that needs addressed and change has to come! It’s everyone against racists!