Happy Anniversary Mum & Dad

Just a quick soppy little post to say a big happy anniversary to my mum and dad who have been happily married 21 years today, if Nick and I are half as happy as you in 20 years time we'll count ourselves lucky, Ross and Rachel ain't got nothing on these two let me tell you! Unfortunately as they are quite camera shy (unlike me!) and I couldn't snap a picture of the two before this blessed day despite my best efforts. But hey just you wait until next year!

Continue to enjoy your 'happily ever after' and live long and prosper.

Love Hannah, Nick and Marble x

Granite City Girl's First Blogiversary!

Hello everyone! So as some of you may know today marks the Granite City Girl blog's first birthday or blogiversary as some like to call it. I really wracked my brains for something spectacular to do to commemorate this special occasion, I thought of doing my first ever giveaway, I thought of sharing my own birthday pictures from the past 21 years for something a little different and I even thought of video logging the day - unfortunately this is something I am not quite ready for but stay tuned, you never know! Being the understated lady that I so truly am I thought I would instead strip it all back and just share with you today what I feel this blog and you readers have given me in the past year since that fateful evening that I sat on my bed and began drafting my first ever blog post!

First of all I just have to say how much I love blogging (if that wasn't already obvious I think something may be wrong) throughout the  last year it has been such a fun and creative outlet for me and has been such a great way to cope with the stresses of university and every day life and throughout has kept my passion for the written word, fashion, beauty and lifestyle alive.

I must just clarify, that as I have been attempting to get a bit healthier and eat a bit better I do not keep cakes and biscuits in the house, and any sweets we have belong to my partner and I am under strict instructions (from myself and will power) not to touch and therefore I treated myself to a celebratory lemon, as you can see (well lemon water) maybe next year we can have cake!

Blogging has given me a new perspective
Since I began blogging I have adopted a new perspective on life. I think the only way in which I can describe it is that I have become more perceptive and a bit more considerate of what I say, type and do in day to day life. It may not show on my blog but I think about things in much greater depth than I did previously (I wonder what this says about educational standards in the UK given that a blog has taught me more than I thought possible) This is in part thanks to the amazing blogging community who have opened my eyes to the wider world, to more opinions, perspectives and of course a whole plethora of new products for which I thank you all... my bank balance on the other hand damns you all!

Blogging has also given me an outlet for my passion

Writing has always been and continues to be my passion in life, if I did not have this blog to practice, proceed and progress with writing my all then I may burst! For me being able to sit in my home with a cup of tea and really get down to writing is one of the most therapeutic practices I have taken part in. Of course one day I do hope to weave this into my career one day, but isn't that every writers dream?

Blogging has allowed me to express my truest self
You'll notice a bit of a change in my posts over the last couple of months and if I'm completely honest I've gotten far more confident in my posts over the last little while. When I first started blogging I felt an intense pressure to keep up with the latest and greatest in the beauty industry and spend quite a lot of money on products I really didn't need and all and it was really just to keep up with other bloggers, and if I'm truly honest I wasn't happy with my writing then at all. Since then however I really feel like I have found my voice, and that doesn't mean blogging about the next beauty trend or up coming health fad, it just means writing about my own life, experiences and things I feel strongly about, and this is something I aim to continue with moving forward especially aiming to be less scared when it comes to expressing my opinions!

Finally Blogging has give me some damn organisation 
Before blogging my spare time was a mess, I'm talking endless amounts of TV, doughnuts and internet based procrastination (a part from the times I was studying or planning a wedding of course) but today my life has compartmentalized so well and I'm really enjoying the order, sad as that may sound to some! 

I just want to finish off by saying thank you very much to everyone who tunes in every week and comments on these little posts, I really didn't expect as much as I receive from blogging and here's to the next year and beyond on Granite City Girl.

Until next time folks, I'll still be here!

H.Elizabeth xx

Valentines Day - A Granite City Romance

Happy Valentines Day everyone, today I thought I'd do something a little bit different to the traditional 'valentines day look' blog post and instead tell you a bit more about my own love life in the form of documenting my relationship milestones in photographs thus far. 

Going Courting: Year 1

First things first, Nick and I met a fairly generic way in a bar in Summer...while he was clad in lycra and dressed as one of the greatest cult superheroes of all time, Spider-man. Indeed I love the eccentric and meeting a man in dressed lycra, on a Summers night, for no particular reason...well naturally this was a pairing that was meant to be (plus the comical link of Spider-man and redhead Mary Jane)

Going Steady: Year 2

This year Nick and I came a long way in our relationship, as a very talented watch maker I received the most thought out and personal gift, a custom watch as you can see above (he's a difficult gift giver to top!) For our first anniversary we hired bikes and embarrassingly Nick taught me how to ride one... (when I say I'm a city girl I mean it in the most literal sense) And on another milestone, we took our first couples holiday to Rome. City of romance and rejection I'm afraid (My attire wasn't appropriate enough for his highness the pope..oops) But lovely none the less the Trevi Fountain is on my list of top favourite romantic places.

Going Down the Aisle: Year 3

Last year marked one of the best years of my life as you can probably guess. On taking a trip to London for our anniversary Nick proposed in the only way I would have expected, while we were eating pizza and he was dressed as Spider-man. Best holiday ever! (to end on a high I'll tell you the top right pic is us at the Rocky Horror Picture Show)

And here are some of the other bits in between

I hope everyone else is having as fab a Valentines day as I am, I look forward to the next 3 years worth of milestones Nick and beginning the rest of my life with him as from August this year.

How have you guys been spending your Valentines Day, drop me a comment below, send me a Tweet or if you want to keep up with my posts follow me on Bloglovin

H.Elizabeth