On 16 January 2015, I began a new chapter in my life. On that day, I wouldn't have believed that I would still be on this journey nearly three years later, never mind imagine the experiences and opportunities that I was given along the way. However, after a very, very long period of reflection and decision making, I have finally come to the conclusion that it is time to close this chapter, but I didn't want to stop clarabellasecrets without any form of explanation, as I imagine that there are a fair few of you loyal readers who are disappointed with my decision.

Last month, I wrote a post called 'A New Direction' where I revealed that I was becoming bored of the content that I was publishing on my blog and decided to change it into a complete lifestyle branded site, rather than the 'fashion, beauty and lifestyle' niche that I had used ever since 2015. I thought that this was the reason for my lack of passion. Although I had an initial spark and was full of ideas at the prospect of 'a new direction', I quickly lost my motivation to write again. 

Since starting university in September 2016, my lifestyle has completely changed. I have matured, become more independent, and overall, I am continuously changing as a person. For my loyal readers who have read my blog since the beginning, this should make more sense to you as you have seen my growth for two years. Although I once had a passion for writing my blog, I knew it wasn't going to last forever as its not secret that people do change. An example of this is that I started my course with the aspiration to do fashion journalism, but now have a passion for PR and marketing. Maybe in a years time, months time, or even weeks time, I might want to do something else. Who knows? But isn't that what keeps life so exciting? Starting new chapters, changing directions and not knowing where you are going to end up.

Any blogger who works or studies full time will also agree with me that it is very difficult to balance a blog on top of daily commitments. It astounds me when I find people who work so hard to be able to do it all. It's no joke that bloggers are very underrated hard workers who should definitely be given more credit for what they do as a lot of unseen work goes on behind the pretty posts and pictures. I personally found it very difficult to keep on top alongside my university work, which is why you will notice a drop in the amount of posts since I started my course. I make sure that all of my effort goes into ensuring that I come out of university with the degree that I worked so hard to be able to do. However, without my blog, I doubt I would have chosen this course and be on the path that I have created for myself, so I am very much grateful for that. I always say 'everything happens for a reason'.

I should also mention that although I am closing this chapter, I am not closing down the site and my blog will still be live on the internet for all to see as I hope that my posts will still be valuable for those who stumble across it in the future. However, the domain name will change and go back to the one that blogspot provides as I see no use in continuing to pay for my own. It's also a nice reminder of the memories and experiences that I have shared with my readers over these past two years that I can always look back on and reminisce over. I will also look back on clarabellasecrets as a great achievement. Without bursting my own bubble, I am very proud of the time, effort and hard work that I put into something that I was very passionate about. I am very proud of clarabellasecrets and I am very proud of myself, so of course, I still want the world to see what I created.

This post is a little longer than I expected it to be, so before I babble on anymore, I want to end by thanking all my readers for the time that you have given to read my blog over the two years, as well as the support that I have received which allowed clarabellasecrets to grow and reach out to the amount of followers that it did. My aim for clarabellasecrets was to help as many people as I could in some way or another, and I truly believe that I achieved that.

Thank you x

It is true that as a student, a good night's sleep almost becomes a fantasy. The amount of evenings I have spent in the library until god knows what hour is absolutely shocking. I don't think I have had an early night since I was in secondary school, and I am now in my second year of university.

I was pleasantly surprised when I received an email from Best Mattress Reviews, which is a website devoted to all things sleep, informing me that they had just created a graphic explaining what really happens to our skin when we sleep. Believe me, I was astonished, which is why I was more than eager to share this to my readers. I definitely recommend giving it a little read through and even perhaps sharing it yourself.

Last year I spent bonfire night in Huddersfield and boy did I miss my family and our annual firework display in my nana and grandad's garden. I was absolutely gutted that I wasn't spending this holiday with them, which is why, I made sure that I got the next train home as soon as the weekend started. The entire weekend has been full of festivities with us also celebrating my grandad's birthday and wedding anniversary to my nana on Saturday. There was no better way to celebrate than a feast in Pizza Hut and of course, chocolate birthday cake.

Tonight ensured that this fantastic weekend spent with my family went out with a bang (literally). I am absolutely gutted that it is over. Even more so because I have to be back at university on Tuesday and also have deadlines creeping up. 

The night was filled with dazzling lights, delicious food and lots of smiles and laughter. Once we had gotten through all of our fireworks, we then went back inside for a cup of tea and even more food as my nana had baked us some quiche, carrot cake and lemon drizzle cake. It was very much needed after all the excitement (and from being stood outside in the freezing cold), but the night wasn't quite over as myself, my little sister, my brother and his friend headed into town to watch their annual fireworks display. I went a couple of years ago with some friends from school, but definitely enjoyed this time around more as I was surrounded with my family, which is definitely when I am most happiest.

The display was absolutely magical. I couldn't take my eyes off it for more than a few seconds. I don't know what it is about fireworks but they have a way of filling my heart with so much joy. It's hard to capture how dazzling the lights actually were and how they made me feel when I watched them, but I'm sure you can all relate to some extent. However, I must admit, I am very grateful to be snuggled up in the warmth of my house now. I am definitely not ready for this cold weather that is started to emerge.

Here it is! The (unexpectedly) long awaited second part to my Whitby post, which documented my day out to my favourite little seaside town at the start of September. If you would like to give that one a read through, then you can find it here. Although this was on the same day, I wanted to do a separate post regarding the church and abbey because there is just so much to talk about. I've been up the famous 199 steps countless of times, but never actually went inside the church and abbey grounds, so it was a truly spectacular day for me. I did take a few snaps inside the church, but let me tell you, that lighting was not good. Not good at all. However, I did get nice shot of my grandad walking towards it before we went inside.

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For all you night owls, like myself, you will realise that I am posting this very early in the morning. You will also be aware that it is now the end of the weekend and the mourning will have probably started. Sigh. If not, then the realisation will soon hit once you need to be up in a few hours for work or school. The alarm clock will go off and you will resent yourself for staying up all night, wasting valuable sleeping time. Sleep will feel so sacred to you, so you start planning how you're going to quickly get through the day and then go straight back to bed. However, that never happens and you do the exact same thing as you did the previous night.

Anyways, the purpose of this post was to share a little thought that I have been having about my blog lately. I have come to realise that my content has started to steer towards the 'lifestyle' topic niche rather than beauty and fashion, which are the other two topics that I have always centred my blog around. Don't get me wrong, I'm still very much interested and active within the fashion and beauty industries. Of course, this is expected, considering I am studying Fashion Communication and Promotion at university, but when it comes to my blog, I'm not as enthusiastic to share this interest as I once was when I first launched my blog.

In previous posts, I have mentioned that since starting university, my daily routine has become a lot busier, in which I haven't had as much time to focus on my blog as I used to, hence the lack of posts compared to a couple of years ago. However, I do believe that this may also be due to the fact that I wasn't passionate about the content I was creating anymore. The only exception to this was my lifestyle related posts. Maybe it is perhaps because I now spend every single day studying fashion and I want my blog to be somewhere that can take me away from this industry that I am becoming more and more digested into.

I'm not entirely sure what the stimuli is for this lack of enthusiasm, but what I am sure about is the fact that creating a new direction for clarabellasecrets is the right thing to do. This isn't to say that clarabellasecrets will become a brand new blog with completely different content. I'm still going to be writing about the same things that I write about. There's just going to be less beauty and fashion. My blog was starting to look like the customer review section of Amazon. Although, that's not to say that I am going to completely steer away from the fashion and beauty categories, as I still very much enjoy being a part of these 'worlds', shall we say. If I find the inspiration, then I will still write about a new trend that I am digging or a new eyeshadow palette that I am using, for example. I'm just not going to write a review about evert single makeup product I buy.

I have so many exciting ideas and even just brainstorming them is starting to bring my buzz back. I feel like the passion I have for blogging has awoken, after a minor nap, and it's ready to create better quality content than ever before. I want to touch on absolutely everything that shapes me into the person that I am today, as I am more than just 'fashion, beauty and lifestyle'. Yes, I do understand that this is a risk that I am taking now that I'm not necessarily subjecting myself to blogging 'topics', but taking risks is what makes life so exciting.

Anyways, its now 3:29 am and I think its time to stop wasting valuable sleeping time or I will resent myself even more in the morning. Night, night!

On Sunday, I went to my first ever Food and Drink Festival and boy, was I impressed. The festival was in Holmfirth, which is a small town quite close to Huddersfield so it was a quick bus ride there and back. The town was lovely and sort of made me feel like I was in an episode of Heartbeat. I love little country towns, so I guess its no surprise why I chose to live in Huddersfield for three years. Everything available was locally sourced from farmers and businesses, and the festival itself was actually organised by volunteers. The unification of the locals was unmissable and it was absolutely delightful to feel so welcomed in a community where theres a good chance that most people know each other. The amount of food on offer was endless and to name a few, there were meats, breads, cheeses, fresh veg, cakes, ice cream, and even dishes from other continents. The paella looked and smelt absolutely phenomenal. 

The festival was on all weekend and as well as enjoying the delicious food and drink, everyone was celebrating its 12th year running. I thought that was absolutely incredible! Although I'll tell you what wasn't very incredible; the crowds. There were people flying everywhere, going from one stall to the other, filling up the streets and roads, but what did I expect? It was an absolutely incredible festival and I read that over 40, 000 people attended across the weekend. Plus, I guess it did all add to the excitement of it all. There was so much on offer to eat and drink, as well as live music and entertainment. No wonder everyone was excited!