It’s safe to say that 2018 hasn’t really been my year and it’s been a pretty shocking one on the blog front too. The lack of posts and social media updates has left people asking me whether i’ve decided to call it a day on The Rose Beauty Files and I’m pleased to say that that is not the case. I was looking through my Instagram stories the other day for things to use in my 2018 highlights and I gave up. Don’t get me wrong there’s been some great things happen this year but sadly they’ve been overshadowed by a hell of a lot of sadness.

Lets start on a high shall we, on 4th May 2018 Tom and I officially got the keys to our first ever house. After 6 years together and tireless amounts of saving, we did it. We embarked on weeks of renovation and decorating on a two bed Victorian house in our ideal location. We learnt a lot along the way and in early July, long overdue our parents may say, we moved out. I have loved spending time in our own house and the pride I feel saying that we managed to do that at 23 and 24 is huge. Don’t get me wrong, discovering how much effort it takes to actually run a household has been a pretty steep learning curve and one that I am planning to make into a blog post for the sole purpose of making my mum and dad cry with laughter. I’m sure they’ve got a bunch of ‘I told you so’s’ lying in wait for me when they read that!

But the high was sadly not to last for long. June 2nd 2018 was one of the worst days of my life. It was the day that I found out my friend, partner in crime and Grandad has passed away. Having just turned 80 he was larger than life and his death was both sudden and a complete shock to us all. It has left a hole that we have been unable to fill and the last seven months have been more difficult than I can put into words. Over the months I have struggled to think of how to and more importantly, whether to, address his death here on my blog but I came to the conclusion that you cannot look back on a year without addressing the parts that have impacted you the most. In my 23 years with him, he played a huge part in making me who I am today and had more confidence and belief in me than I do myself. It’s safe to say that losing him will impact me forever.

There is not a day that goes by where I do not think about him and wish that he was still here and all the emotions have meant that I have really lost my blogging mojo under the depth of sadness his death has left us in. He was however, my biggest blog supporter, despite not really knowing what a blog was, and I felt that it would be an injustice to him to let all the hard work i’ve put in over the last almost 4 years slip away.

So Daddad, this ones for you and I’m going to make sure that The Rose Beauty Files is back with a bang in 2019 with new content that I’m sure will make you proud, but also, will make me proud of myself.

Happy New Year and thank you for sticking with me through the last 12 months!

Much Love

xoxo