Goodbye, 2014

I know this is a little late, but Christmas and New Years kind of swept me up and I just seemed to run out of time to do, well, anything. I wanted to blog all about Christmas and how wonderful it was (and how I received a Canon Selphy for scrapbooking, a scanner for scanning my original art and a sewing machine so I can try making plushies - a very crafty Christmas!) but I just seemed to run out of time and it seems weird posting about Christmas now!

2014 was an odd year. It wasn't necessarily the best year in a lot of ways - Moose had to move home from Plymouth, and my conventions weren't nearly as successful as previous years. The year started full of promise and expectation and kind of fell flat because of those two things. I'm kind of going into 2015 anxiously and slowly, no conventions yet booked and no solid career plans right now. I'm hoping 2015 will be a big year of change for Moose and I, but nothing's set in stone and I absolutely hate the uncertainty of it all.

Anyway, that's not to say 2014 wasn't full of fun and great times, too!

In January...
I took part in Dryathon for Cancer Research, where I went sober for the whole month! I started reading Game of Thrones, and Moose treated me like a princess for our anniversary and surprised me with a candle lit, fully home cooked dinner. <3

In February...
I was down in Plymouth again celebrating Valentines by way of bowling, video games and gorgeous Italian food. I also sold at Animanga Pop! and Mum and I went to Bath Vintage Fashion Show to scoop up some lovely vintage clothing!

In March...
Dad went away for his annual golf trip so Mum and I had a couple of girlie nights in watching Call the Midwife (complete with Babycham!) - we also saw Happy Days at the Bristol Hippodrome (which was... okay). Laura, Luke and I went to see Urinetown, a musical I've wanted to see live since I discovered it years ago, and it was amazing!

In April...
I was doing a whole lot of con prep for May Expo around the corner! We also went up to London for a day out as a sort of pre-birthday thing for Sarah, where we went to the Natural History Museum and fought the crowds to see dinosaurs (we didn't see any dinosaurs).

In May...
I sold at MCM Expo, of course! And Bristol Comic Con (which was hugely disappointing, sadly). May is usually my busy busy month! MCM was amazing because we went to an after hours Wildstar party which provided free food and drinks for everyone while also nerding out about Wildstar! It was probably my favourite MCM in terms of just plain having fun. I cosplayed as an Aurin from Wildstar and was recognised by nobody! haha

In June...
We celebrated DC's birthday with a lovely BBQ, as usual, where we played games, watched movies and, well, played more games. I also went up to Leicester with Laura to meet up with Archer and scope out the newest Ponycon venue.

In July...
My birthday! Shot down to Cornwall the day after my birthday for a week-long holiday with my best friends! We spent the week exploring the county, drinking cider, going down tin mines and playing video games, board games and roleplay games! Lots of gaming, lots of exploring. My wonderful friends also prepared a luau for me, complete with a spit roast pig (er, in cake form!), inflatable palm trees and corny luau music. It was so wonderful. Later in July I went up to Manchester with Luke and Moose, and stayed with friends while I sold at MCM Manchester for the first time ever! It was great! And I really need to get back to Manc more often because our friends up there rock and we hardly ever get to see them :(

In August...
I surprised Moose by booking tickets to go see 'Digital Revolution' for his birthday, which was a small exhibit on the history of video games. It was really fun and I'm so glad I found it in time to do something a little different for his birthday! We did our usual 'meet up and hang out' around Chinatown and ended the day playing card games in the pub with his old school friends. Later in the Month, I was up in Manchester again for BUCK, the UK Brony con, where I had an amazing time selling lots of pony things and nerding out with old pony friends! We also went to the Great Dorset Steam Fair but it was so muddy and rainy we didn't stick around long :P

In September...
Sarah, Luke and I went to Bridport Hat Festival, which was kind of disappointing, but it was fun hanging out doing something a little different for the day. The month ended with a weekend trip in London for Eurogamer and another viewing of Urinetown, hah!

In October...
I sold at Animanga Pop!, attended UK PonyCon and dorked out about plastic ponies. Our gaming buddy Anthony came over from Sweden to visit so I went up to London to hang out with him and his dad, and again I sold at MCM Expo in London - it was a nice busy month!

In November...
We went to the Gloucester Quays for the big Christmas fair/market/event they hold there. It was a lovely day out, but I can't wait to go back in 2015 because a few personal issues kind of took the shine off it for me and I spent most of the day distracted. Still, things bucked up and the following weekend I went to Bath Christmas Market with my besties, and did our usual jaunt up the Abbey at night. Truly beautiful.

In December...
My parents and I went to New York! You can read about it in the entries on this blog before this one! We also went to see Danny Elfman perform at the Royal Albert Hall again and I somehow didn't cry all the way through this time! I went to Hyde Park Winter Wonderland with Laura, and Moose came to visit for a few days around Christmas. I went up to London and had dinner with his parents after Christmas, and then Luke, Moose and I headed down to Plymouth to see in the new year with his old housemates.

And that was 2014! Phew! <3