Temples

Tags

Beau Tapli, body is a temple, body positivity, quote

“Listen to me, your body is not a temple.

Temples can be destroyed and desecrated.

Your body is a forest – thick canopies of

maple trees and sweet scented wildflowers

sprouting in the underwood.

You will grow back, over and over, no matter

how badly you are devastated”

– Beau Tapli

 

How beautiful was that?

Image found on oneeyeoneheart.tumblr.com

The Real Deal (post contains nudity)

Tags

body confidence, body positivity, feminism, jew baker, Liora K Photography, real women, the militant baker, You're body ain't wrong girlfriend

Tell me something… When was the last time you opened up your browser and saw a beautiful image of a body shape that looked just like yours?

I stumbled across this article the other day and it made me smile and made me think.

The awesome and internationally known blogger/author/feminist/self-love enthusiast/trouble maker (her words not mine) Jes Baker teamed up with feminist fine art photographer Liora K to bring you 67 untouched nude photos of women.

The project; ‘Your body ain’t wrong girlfriend’ had a simple mission… to spread the word and highlight that all bodies are different, and that’s ok.

Isn’t it true, that when you flick through a magazine, or watch the TV you are bombarded with images of women that a very small percentage can relate to. I know my girlfriends come in a variety of shapes and sizes, with bits they love and bits they don’t (I should point out regardless of their shape and size they are all mega babes) but few, if any would fall into the category/pigeon hole of media worthy body types… and if that’s true for me and my circle of girls, chances are the same matter appeals to hundreds of thousands of women across the world.

It’s a fact that the images we are shown through the media represent a very small proportion of the true size of women’s bodies so it figures that by comparing ourselves we are limiting ourselves and creating a culture of low confidence and low self-esteem.

We are also teaching our male counterparts that if we don’t like they do in the magazines, then we are wrong. As important as it is to help raise women’s confidence, I think it’s equally important to educate men on what real women’s bodies look like.

It’s not rocket science is it?!!? Only last night when I was teaching my fashion school (we were doing editorial photo shoots) did one of my class confide to me that she was using meal replacement shakes…. this girl is stunning, and only 14…how sad that she is having to worry about issues like this already, comparing herself to a unrealistic and unattainable body goal. I tried to explain to her about confidence being what is important and that you can have body confidence regardless of your size, hell, I’m hardly a size 12 and that what really mattered was being happy and being healthy (and that has no direct link to your size)

I hope my words helped a little, but that’s one young girl amongst millions and to really change the issue we as a culture need to start thinking differently…

Jes, who masterminded the photography project explains why she did it…

“When was the last time you saw an image of skin markings that looked just like yours? When was the last time you saw an image of breasts that looked just like yours? An ass that looked just like yours? Scars that looked just like yours? A belly that looked just like yours?
Unless you’re a celebrity look alike and have real time Photoshop (like, a program that follows and moves with you) I’m going to guess that for the majority of us…it’s been a while.

It’s been a while since we’ve (or maybe we’ve never) seen our body positively represented with that overwhelming flood of images that fills our social media feeds, televisions, and magazines. I think it’s time to change that…

So much of the female body that we see is pushed up. Pinned down. Sucked in, tucked in, and airbrushed. Its only presentable state is when it’s altered, and so when we look at ourselves in the mirror (naked, untucked, and vulnerable) we say ‘My body must be wrong’…Your body ain’t wrong, girlfriend.”

On seeing the completed project Jes said, “I was in awe when Liora showed me the final images…each and every body is so gorgeous to me. I’ve flipped through these images time and time again, every click deserving its own breath. I see it. I see the beauty. I see the diversity. I see the vulnerability. I see the power.”

It’s a dream that in the future everyone can feel that they feel themselves represented in the media regardless of shape, size, religion, skin colour, gender, disability etc.

We are all different. That’s a fact… it’s what makes us unique and special and those qualities need sharing.

Jes wishes to repeat this campaign again and again until the unrealistic perceptions of beauty become a “blur”, let’s hope this ‘real’ movement continues to grow until we can all feel proud of the awesome body that we get to call our own.

You can find the original post here and Jes’ website here and Liora’s photography website here.

 

International Women’s Day

Tags

feminism, Feminist, International Women's Day, IWD, Women's Day

(image by the awesome Nina Cosford)

Anyone who’s ventured online today, or listened to the radio, or even turned on the tv should be aware that today is International Women’s Day. Every year on the 8th March we are encouraged to spend a day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievement of women.

I know I’m a bit late to the table with a post but women’s rights are something I’m quietly passionate about and I couldn’t go to sleep without writing down some thoughts on the subject. I’m not one to preach or force my views on others but sit down and talk to me and there’s no doubt about it. I consider myself to be a feminist and I’m proud of that.

Whilst I believe we have a lot to celebrate and be proud of when you compare the lives we lead, and our daughters will live, compared to what our grandmothers and great grandmothers had to deal with, we still live in a world that is not always equal and for that reason alone IWD is worth celebrating and fighting for.

I have seen so many wonderful, strong, supportive posts shared today empowering women and it makes me smile and be proud to be a woman.

I saw a quote today from Dale Spender, “Feminism has fought no wars. It has killed no opponents. It has set up no concentration camps, starved no enemies, practiced no cruelties. Its battles have been for education, for the vote, for better working conditions… for safety on the streets… for child care, for social welfare… for rape crisis centres, women’s refuges, reforms in the law. If someone says ‘Oh, I’m not a feminist,” I ask Why? What’s your problem?”

Isn’t that brilliant? the word feminist has and still does invoke images of male hating, bra burning angry women but that’s not true is it? Anyone who believes that every girl has the right to an education, that no female should feel unsafe walking home, that all women have final say when it comes to their bodies; what they want to do with it, who they want to share it with and what they feel about, it is a feminist in my eyes. I will raise my boys to be respectful of females, to appreciate them and treat them as equals… I will raise my girls to never think they can’t do something because of the sex they were born. Want to be a footballer, or a mechanic or pilot… why the hell not. Girls can do whatever they want to do and any daughters I may be lucky to raise will be encouraged and supported and I hope they never doubt themselves or ever think some doors are shut to them “just because they’re a girl”.

I am positive about the future and have felt a real change within my friends and social circles recently. Wether it’s an age thing or just a feminist movement but I feel women are sticking up for each other more. There has been a recent wave of empowerment around self worth and body positivity recently and that can only be a good thing. When we stop valuing a girls worth by her appearance and start praising her strength or hard work we start making those girls understand that they are worth so much more then their outer appearance.

When women stop comparing themselves to others, when the media stops dictating to us what we ‘should’ look like and aspire to be, when we’re not put into boxes and when we can just be…

I could go on and on but with only a few minutes left of IWD I’m going to lay back, have another biscuit (with no guilt) and continue to listen to a ’50 all time awesome women’s playlist’… But I’ll leave you with this to consider and ponder over… Written 40 years ago it’s a bit scary how much of this is still true of today, and is a reason to continue fighting for women’s rights regardless of if you’re male or female!

Finally here’s to all the women I am lucky to know, the strong, beautiful, powerful, talented, clever, brave and wonderful women in my life. You are all amazing and you make me oh so proud of my gender today.

 

Liebster Awards

Tags

about me, Awards, Blog Awards, Blog community, Blog Life, Blogger, blogging, Liebster, Liebster Awards, New Blog, New Followers, Small following, starting out, Uk Blogger

Now I know I’m still really new to this blogging game so it was a lovely, out of the blue surprise when the equally lovely Joski Byrne sent me a message via my new Lotales Facebook Page and said she wanted to nominate me for the Liebster Awards.

Now I’ve never heard of the Liebster Awards, so chances are, you probably haven’t either, but worry not, all is forgiven…

I thought I’d do a little detective work to find out more about The Liebster Awards but honestly, there’s not a lot out there about it, no official website of sorts (only this blog which is all a bit foreign). I did find something useful though… Big kudos to workingwell.com…. she answered a lot of my questions, you can read her post about the Liebster Awards here. (I’ve shared her advice at the bottom of the post!)

Basically the Liebster Awards are a way for bloggers to get to know one another and support new bloggers that are just starting out.

It kinda reminds me of those chain letter things you get when you’re at school…there are ‘rules’ and if you choose to accept you must follow the rules, and keep the award going. There is no prize as such but it’s a way of raising awareness of your blog and other new blogs, and as we’re all trying to get our voice heard (it’s why we blog isn’t it?!?!) I cant see the harm in taking part… it’s a nice thing so do, so consider me accepted and awarded!!

First up thank you to Joski, a beautiful feminist writer, lover of animals and an all round soppy mare (her word’s not mine) for the nomination! You can follow Joski’s blog here, I’ve only recently discovered it (proof that the award does work) and I really enjoy it so check it out too!

When you receive a nomination, if you choose to accept, this is what you need to do… Reveal 11 interesting facts about yourself, Answer the questions designated by the blogger who nominated you, Nominate other new bloggers for the Liebster Award and give your nominees a list of questions they have to answer…

Simples! So here goes!

11 Facts about Moi

1. I still suck my thumb, and always will (sorry Ma)
2. I like the satisfying sensation of standing on empty acorn shells
3. I don’t drink Tea or Coffee or many hot drinks for that matter
4. (on recommendation from Maxwell) I have been known to sulk
5. I have 3 beautiful god daughters
6. I am a list maker
7. My blog name derives from the nickname Lo given to me by my dear friend Chloe
8. I’m a middle child with 1 big and 1 little bro
9. I get great pleasure out of doing nice things for other people
10. I have an irrational fear of mens hairy toes
11. I have big dreams

11 Questions from Joski

1. Why did you start blogging? Because I take lots of photos and think lots of things and thought a designated space to share these thoughts and photos might be nice
2. What is your favourite thing about yourself? That I think I’m a good person, a happy person and an optimist
3. What is your least favourite thing about yourself? That I can be harsh on myself, don’t always think the nicest thoughts about myself and feel guilt about doing nothing.
4. Where in the world would you most want to travel if money was no object? Where wouldn’t I want to go…. Bali, Indonesia, Morocco, India, All of Italy, Greece, Thailand, Mexico, Jamaica, Nashville….. I want to see the world!
5. Who is your idol, living or dead, and why? I’m going to choose an artist idol – Audrey Kawasaki, I adore her work and when I got an instagram like from here a while ago I had a proper fan girl moment! I admire her so very much, if you don’t know her art you must check it out, talented, doesn’t quite do it justice!
6. If you could choose one talent what would it be? I’d like to be able to sing, well.
7. What is the last book you read and what did you think? Code Red, you can read about it here.
8. What is your favourite meal? Tapas I think… Though it changes all the time… I enjoy the social side of eating so this is why tapas is a good thing
9. Who is your favourite blogger? Bleubird, James’ was the first blog I ever followed and she’s probably the reason I got into blogging and documenting my life
10. Where is your happy place? Laying in the sun somewhere with my head in the nook of my love.
11. Where do you hope to see your blog in a year? I’d love to get to a stage where people are genuinely interested in my life and what I have to say… I look up to so many blogs and admire and respect the women I follow, it would be a huge honour of anyone ever considered my blog in the same way.

Nominations 

1. The Magpie Mother
2. Ruby Red Heart
3. Georgina Giles

Questions for my nominations

1. Why do you blog?
2. What’s your favourite type of blog post?
3. Which blogs do you LOVE?
4. Tell me about a time when you felt really proud of yourself?
5. What’s your best attribute?
6. If I gave you £100 what would you spend it on?
7. Describe yourself in 3 words!
8. What’s your biggest dream?
9. Instagram or Facebook?
10. What did you want to be when you were little?
11. Tell me a secret!

 

The Liebster Award – General Info and Rules written by Lorraine Reguly of Wording Well.

• It has German origins – the word “liebster” has several definitions: dearest, sweetest, kindest, nicest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, welcome, sweetheart and boyfriend (really?)
• It follows similar principles as a chain letter, in the sense that it should be passed forward to a certain number of people.
• It can be misconstrued, depending upon your personal views, as either something wonderful (who doesn’t like awards?) or as an annoyance (a chain letter that involves work).
• The choice lies within each of us to ACCEPT it, and continue PAYING IT FORWARD or to refuse to accept it, thereby STOPPING or INTERRUPTING the chain. However, if you stop the chain, you are only hurting yourself (keep reading for benefits you will have)!
• Personal views play an important part in our choice to participate. Some people have refused to accept it and have made attempts to “break the chain”. There have been many people who have been nominated, yet refused to accept it, and now their blogs have been abandoned.
• Variations have been made over time to the “rules”.
• Marketing plays a role in accepting this award, as other bloggers are promoted. (This is not a bad thing, however, since people should help others!)

It is said that the Liebster award was created to recognize and/or discover new bloggers and welcome them to the blogosphere. In the digital world of the internet, this seems like a nice gesture, in my opinion!

The Official Rules Of The Liebster Award 

1. Thank the person who nominated you, and post a link to their blog.

2. Display the picture/award on your blog.

3. Answer 11 questions about yourself, which will be provided to you by the person who nominated you.

4. Provide 11 random facts about yourself.

5. Nominate up to 11 blogs that you feel deserve the award, who have a small following.

6. Create a new list of questions for the blogger to answer.

7. List these rules in your post

Once you have written and published it, you then have to:

8. Inform the people/blogs that you nominated that they have been nominated for the Liebster award and provide a link for them to your post so that they can learn about it (they might not have ever heard of it!)

 

 

A weekend with my lover…

Tags

Anniversary, beach days, blog, blogging, boyfriend, Camping, couple, east wittering, Get away, girlfriend, Lotales, love, love story, mini holiday, relationships, stubcroft farm

As you may know I recently celebrated 3 years with the love of my life.

We decided to mark the occasion by disappearing for a couple of days… With fingers crossed we packed a tent, our bikes, a few essentials and headed down the coast a little to the Witterings.

We have a little campsite we love over there called Stubcroft Farm, and luckily they managed to squeeze us in…. After a horribly wet Friday at the America’s Cup we revelled in the sunshine at the beach, I’m even proud to say we both went in for a little swim, though I’d be lying if I said it was warm!

As the tide came in and the sun started to set we packed up our bikes and headed to the campsite via a local pub!

We pitched the tent and lit the BBQ… Our first evening was spent lounging in the setting sun, baking spuds and playing games…

Sunday, well that was a different story completely…. It rained…… ALOT! after a lazy morning and some alfresco breakfast cooking we escaped the tent and headed to the nearest town for some lunch, a milkshake and an afternoon cinema date!

Luckily when we left the rain had stopped so back to the tent we headed for a chilled evening, a few games, a few gins and a good old macaroni cheese supper!

Monday was our anniversary so after cooking my lover some breakfast and having a lazy morning we packed up the tent and spent the day browsing charity shops and taking naps on the beach….

Heading back to reality we headed home mid afternoon before having ourselves a little date night at Southsea favourite Rosie’s.

I dunno about you but it was a pretty perfect way to celebrate 3 years of being his miss! ❤

 

3 years a Miss…

Tags

Anniversary, boyfriend, Lotales, love, love story, milestone, relationships

Today, today’s a special day. Today marks 3 years of being his ‘Miss’. Three years ago I remember sitting on the roof of his boat and him asking me to be his girl officially. It was without a doubt the best thing I ever said yes to.

I adore this kind man more then I can say. He makes me so very happy and I cannot wait to spend the rest of my life being his girl. It’s hard to think of all the little things that make what we have so special, but maybe it’s the little things that matter the most.

The fact I can be myself with him and I know he loves me, that my insecuritues and habits add to his love rather then hinder it. I love how we talk of the future and have joint dreams and abitions.

It makes me so very happy that I know my friends and family adore him too, he’s a quiet soul, a thinker, a player of Lego and the cutest of lightweights. 

This man of mine makes things with his hands, likes to fill our home with old trinkets, has a thing for waistcoats and on special occasions asks me to do his hair. 

We giggle a lot, he still makes my heart swoon, we are silly and kind and cute with each other…. There is occasional bickering, and teasing and sulking, but it makes us who we are, two hotheaded star sighs (an Aires and a Scorpio) that actually balance each other out and never fight. 

So on this special day, whilst we’re off doing something fun, I will thank this beautiful bearded gentleman that I get to call my own and thank the lucky stars that fate crossed our two paths. 

He’s to another 365 days of being his ‘Miss Ami’ 

X always 

Being Social…

Tags

blog, Blogger, blogging, blogging community, Social Media

I’ve recently been trying to make a real effort with my social medial linking to the blog, so here goes the shameless plugging!

Facebook – I’ve literally just launched a Facebook page so I’d really appreciate it if you all gave me a ‘like’.

Pinterest – Pinterest is probably my biggest time waster… I’m not entirely keen with the changes they’d made to the timeline recently, but I still love it. I get all pedantic about my boards and categorising them! I’ve also just reached the 1K followers mark so I’m all proud like!

Instagram – This is probably my second biggest time-waster, I follow all my favourite blogs through instagram, if you do too, and fancy keeping up to date with my adventures, follow me there too!

Twitter – Im gonna be honest, I’m a bit rubbish at Twitter, but I’m trying to post more, so you can check me out there too!!

So there you go…… If you like my rambling words and the shenanigans I share… now you can do so on many platforms!!

Bloglovin

Tags

blog, Blogger, blogging, blogging community, bloglovin

I’ve just signed up to Bloglovin to make it super easy to find and follow Lotales! Use this link to Follow my blog with Bloglovin! Ami x

Jet setter

Tags

Blogger, hen do, holiday, Italy holiday, jetsetter, travel blog, travel bug, traveller, travelling, weddings

It’s been a bit quiet over here, but I have a good excuse I promise!

I’ve had a week to recover now, but basically in the last few weeks I have visited about 10 different cities in 4 different countries, 2 separate weddings, a hen do and an exhibition thrown in too for good measure!

It exhausted me to just write that sentence so you can only imagine how I’m feeling right now/why it’s taken me a week to compose this post!

My love and I aren’t huge travellers, through no other reason then we’re normally just a bit too skint to indulge in abroad vacations. However this year, and the month of May in particular, has been the most travelled month of my life… we saved our pennies, packed multiple cases and crammed a lot in those 2 weeks….

Our itinerary went a little like this….

Between 14/5 – 19/5 We travelled from Southampton, to Amsterdam, to Rotterdam, back to Amsterdam for a day trip then returned to Southampton via Amsterdam again…

After a 6hour Uk stopover, our next holiday took place between 20/5 – 26/5. We left Southampton in the early hours, headed to London Stanstead, flew to Brindisi (Italy) drove to Spongano (our home for the 5 days holiday), explored all over Southern Italy, drove up the southern eastern coast to Bari and returned to Stanstead…

I then had a 2 days, 1 of work, 1 to wash & repack then, after a daytrip to London to see the Savage Beauty exhibition on the 29/5 it was back home, then back to Stanstead again, a quick flight to Santander for a weekend, back to Stanstead and finally returning home.

Home sweet home.

It was so much fun… many laughs were had and memories made… we even came back with euros to spare which was a huge bonus!

I thought rather then cramming the whole month of May into one mammoth post, I’d split it up into separate posts, maybe a country a post?!

All I can say is its good to be home….

NB: Photo taken at Bari Airport after a busy 10 days.

 

300

Tags

blog progression, Blogger, blogging, life, milestone, thirties

    Wow…. It appears I’ve reached another blog milestone… This will be my 300th blog post (how’d that happen?!?) and I feel I should do something to mark the occasion.

It feels almost symbolic that that 300th post should come at a time when I’m settling into life in my thirties.

I’m not sure my blog ever really reflected my more carefree twenties (that was saved for album upon album of Fb photos) but I like the way it’s heading as I begin my thirties… I look at blogs I admire and follow and they all seem so much more content worthy; weddings, motherhood, businesses etc… but I guess I’ve got all that to come…? and that excites me.

I’m not sure how often my ‘followers’ check in, It still makes me chuckle that there are people across the world who are intrigued enough to read my often mis-spelt, grammatically incorrect ramblings but it’s nice, so thank you for those who like posts and follow my adventures.

I hope this blog continues to grow and thrive and provides me a continued method of sharing my life, if nothing else, it’ll be here to look back in years to come, and for what ever is yet to happen and be blogged about… I’m ready and waiting for you…. lets do this together….