For Nat

Tomorrow marks the 10th anniversary of my friend Nat taking her life. I've written before about how much I miss her. Her's is a tragic story and I still carry the guilt that I couldn't do more for her every single day. 

I don't want the sadness and pain to be her memory so here I've selected some of my favourite photos of her, having fun with us all. Because at the end of the day she was a fun, loving person who enjoyed a good time (even if it involved necking snakebite on her way to therapy sessions!) and I think these pictures reflect just that.

This is probably one of my favorite photos, Nat hated having her photo taken but I caught her unawares here *mwahahahaha*

My 15th Birthday, a World Cup theme was evident .... (L-R Nat, Lydia, Me & Hilary)

Prom Dates

Pre-prom photos in Luke's garden

With a friend (We're both suckers for cuddly toys)

A sleepover we had for her 16th Birthday

Cuppa Tea? (L-R Nat, Alli, Kim & Luke)

Our last day at school, finally escaping hell!

So damn classy at my 16th

Nat was always very proud of being almost a year older than us and when she turned 18 she insisted that her drinks that evening were documented ..

Not pictured is the absolutely rank Bloody Mary that she insisted I try before she ordered one!

  

My 18th Birthday (Nat, Me, Mirela & Hilary)

One of the many times she very kindly allowed herself to be dragged to Airbourne

A trip to the cinema with Hilary & Lydia

All the fun of the fair! (Lydia, Hilary, Nat & Chris)

A trip to Brighton with Nat and Lydia

Chocolate Heaven at my 19th birthday (L-R Chris, Nat, Me, Mirela, Hilary & Lydia)

Nom, Nom Nom

Nat, Me & Lou at Via

With her beloved rabbits (Esme lives in the hutch that Nat owned)

NYE 2006 (Nat, Hilary & Tone)

Picnic time

Fancy Dress (She wanted to go as Avril Lavigne so I grunged her up to the best of my ability!)

As with her 18th Nat was also excited to be the first to turn 21!

Cake!

 

We had a couple of really fun trips to Thorpe Park -

Friends who pull odd faces together ....

Holly, Dan & Nat

Post-water slide

Milkshakes at Via (Me, Nat & Lou)

Ladies night (Hilary, Me, Lydia, Alicia & Nat)

The Gilly! (Alli, Nat & Luke)

Nat, Alli & Me

Me, Lydia, Alli & Nat

Lou, Kayleigh & Nat at Lydia & Hilary's 21st

Luke, Nat & Hilary

Us at Lydia & Hilary's 21st

I don't even want to guess what's being ingested here ...

Ready to go out

Wetherspoons (where else?)

Another Airbourne photo (2007 I think)

Post-Saturday shopping feast

Happy Halloween 2008! (Lydia, Nat & Alli)

Hugs

The last time I saw Nat was at her 22nd Birthday party, it was a fancy dress theme and she looked beautiful as always. Sadly she took her life just a few days later. I'm so glad that my final memories of her were us all celebrating her birthday and laughing together. 

Alli & Nat

A pirate & a goth walked into the party ....

Nat, Lydia, Me & Hilary

Opening pressies

Nat my darling I miss you so much and I know you're at peace and happy cuddling all those animals at the Rainbow Bridge (you may even have bumped into Kay!). Until I see you again I'll miss you so much but remember all the fun times we've had. 

I think I'll sign off with this picture - 

I love this photo

Love Jen

XxxX

At Last!

I'm really excited to write this blog and finally, finally announce that my room is finished!

As you readers know it's been a hard time and I've really struggled at times but I'm so happy with how it's turned out.

I originally posted a far too excited blog back in September and managed to get going pretty quickly by making a nice mess of my room.  Things really got going when Dad stripped out my room whilst Helen and I were on holiday in Stratford and Gem and I spent an intense 48 hours painting the stripes on my wall.

Dad was fantastic and got all my lovely new furniture in for Halloween which meant for the first time I was able to have a properly Halloween-ised room!

Pretty lights!

The Tim Burton theme continues!

The best thing is that everything finally seems to have a place, what used to be clutter that blended into the mess now has prides of places. 

The vinyl and record player now live together. The photo album on top contains all my favourite
photos that once plastered the walls.

The blinds go with my black, white and red Night Circus theme

The CD storage only holds about 1/5 of my collection 🤣🤣

DVDs and Pop Vinyls

My favourite feature has to be my cube shelves! 

They give me the space to devote entire cubes to my favourite things.

Plane Geeking cube

My witchy cube

My 30 Seconds To Mars cube

Moominland

Alice In Wonderland love

I also have a shelf to remember Kay

All that's left now to do is to pop some nails in the wall so that the photo frame collages that I've made can go on show, including my beautiful panoramic photo of Niagara Falls that I've had propped up gathering dust for years. It's going to go above the TV to always remind me of my favourite holiday ever. 

Thank you so much to everyone who's helped me with the decorating, or has listened to me whine and stress about it. It means the world.

Love Jen

XxxX