Catch the Sunset

I never realised how close freedom was until I asked the Lord for it. I had forgotten what true peace was until He granted me it. I remembered what joy felt like when I entered into His presence.

A few days ago Viki, Maddie and I decided to dress up in florals and watch the sunset. 

I'm such a sucker for a sunset I immediately agreed. We found the Southsea Rock Gardens in Portsmouth and explored around there before we went to the beach. As we climbed the bank up onto a space that overlooked our city we knew that we had to capture this moment. After running, tumbling, falling over, jumping and laughing until our faces hurt it made me really come to a place of appreciating the moment. Appreciating the fact that we're able to be spontaneous and joyful in moments where we're on the edge of breakthrough. On this day, I had gone from experiencing complete unrest, confusion and frustration to ending the day with joy. It made me think how, not only must I live in the moment but I must live in the moment that the Lord has given me and live freely in Him. 

I mustn't forget how He is moulding me even in my moments of despair. 

Choosing to step out of my door, into a taxi (don't judge), onto the seafront, in a place where my flesh just wanted to sit in a corner and sleep was a choice I made because I held onto the hope that this is not all that there is for me. And if I just appreciate His creation, His magnificent creation and be present and in the moment - it is there where I can physically experience the beauty He has enabled us to witness at the hands of His marvellous mastery.

"Those who live at the ends of the earth stand in awe of your wonders . From where the sun rises to where it sets, you inspire shouts of joy." Psalm 65:8 (NLT)

FIRST YEAR OF UNI: A Reflection

Here's a short blog post that I wrote a couple of weeks ago before I left my university halls room. It has been lying in my drafts for a while and I thought I might as well share it instead of it just lying there and festering!


I write this blog post sitting on a wheely chair without any actual wheels, in a very bare university halls room snuggled in a fluffy blanket. I also write it with my first year of university behind me, my exams, my coursework and presentations all complete with nothing but the summer to look forward to.

This year has brought joy, laughter, loneliness, tears, patience and a genuine love and thankfulness for the life that the Lord has given me. This year has taught me a lot about myself and who I am becoming and has strengthened my identity in Jesus. Each day I am learning just what it is to walk with Him in trials and in joyful times. I have learnt to lean on Him when I find myself in despair and to go deeper into an intimate relationship with Him. He has blessed me with wonderful friends that I have met at university and that I will keep for years to come. He has strengthened me to literally be that independent woman that don't need no other man but Jesus (and a strong independant man if He blesses me with one in the future). I have learnt how each day that He blesses me with is a choice for who I stand for. Some days I may not get it right, in fact some days I may get it very very dreadfully wrong but each day, I know that He's with me all along.

This year I've been pushed out of my comfort zone. Time and time again. Things that I never thought I would be able to do before, I did in His strength.
This year has taught me patience and the power of waiting on the Lord and trusting His perfect timing.
This year has made me experience miracles and intimate times with the Lord, talking to Him and telling Him everything, laying it out before Him and giving Him praise in the rain.
This year has given me new revelation of His power and His might and His will for my life.
This year has taught me the power of prayer and how eager He is to show His glory through His people.
It has also taught me to "speak even if your voice shakes".

This year has also taught me what not to do:

It's taught me not to worry.
It's taught me not to be anxious.
It's taught me not to shy away from opportunities.
It's taught me not to judge but to love.
It's taught me not to compare my journey to others.
It's taught me not to buy a cheap frying pan that spends more time burning things then it does cooking things. I must invest in a good frying pan next year.
It's taught me not to accumulate so much stuff. My dad told me that I had collected more things in just under a year than he has his whole life. *cough* HOARDER *cough*
It's taught me not to buy so much food in a weekly shop because I'm guaranteed to not eat it all by the time their best before date rolls around.
Buy small loaves of bread.
Don't leave your broken shower broken. Tell the maintenance people to fix it. A.S.A.P Showering in the dark is not ideal.
Try not go into your overdraft unless you can't help it. I know it feels like free money but you will be stuck in it for the whole year like I was and it will be a bummer trying to earn back money that you don't even have with that summer job.
Lastly, it's taught me to never doubt myself. I'm quickly learning that I underestimate myself way too much and that if I even had a quarter of belief in myself it would get me further in life than the latter. And if you ever doubt whether or not you are able to handle going to university keep your focus on what an amazing addition you can be to that place and that your intelligence isn't reliant on a grade, put your passion first and work on your weaknesses, sometimes you can really surprise yourself.

All my love,
God bless,
Rozzie
xoxo

DAILY LIFE: Coffee, Cake and conversation with Maddie

Hey beautifuls, 

Here is the beginning of a new series that I'm going to be starting called DAILY LIFE. It was previously called Personal but I feel like that word is exactly what it is, personal and I want to share my day with you guys, so I felt like Daily Life was a tad more inviting. 

I am starting to fall even more in love with the city I'm living in, every week or so I find an amazing cafe or cute shop that I find adorable and I love that about this city. There are so many more places to explore and I'm having an incredible time discovering them. This week I went for a day out with my good friend Maddie and we had a little explore in a part of the city that I hadn't yet visited. We came across a gorgeous bakery that I will have pictured below, countless charity shops and stores. It was such a bonus having everywhere decked out in Christmas decorations. 

We were actually on our way to find Maddie a new Bible from a Christian bookstore that she had found before called Acorn & Vine, which I have now visited a whole 3 times but have only been  inside twice, the second time it was at 3:57pm but it was closed! (It shuts around 4pm, we were so close). Anyway this was a delightful Christian bookstore filled to the brim with Bibles, Devotionals and bookcases of encouraging writings. I honestly could spend the rest of my life in there just reading everything. 

On our way back from the bookstore we had a peek into Knight & Lee which I believe is a partner of John Lewis which I actually don't have back at home so it was lovely to explore what they had to offer. It was also Christmas in Knight & Lee and I was so tempted to spend all of my money on just everything, their stationary, their giant gingerbread men, their jelly-bellys, their candles, their mugs - just all of it. BUT you will be pleased to know that I didn't and I haven't...as of yet.

Lastly we wanted somewhere to just chill out and unwind a bit and.. basically we needed coffee sowe remembered that on our way there we had found a cafe that looked gorgeous from the outside and there were so many beautiful cakes in the window that we vowed to end our little shopping trip there. So we did, Maddie and I ordered a coffee each and chose a Peanut Butter Cake which was absolutely divine, better believe it was such a hard choice and it and the waiter didn't help saying that every cake was good! I would definitely recommend sharing though because even though we were sharing we didn't even finish it, it was so lovely if a tad dry but not too dry, the peanut butter cream icing in the middle layer and on the top surpassed the dryness and gave it that moist texture, all in all it balanced out wonderfully. I would definitely return. After I've recovered.

Here is a mini photojournal of our day:

I hope you enjoyed this Daily Life post, comment on the wonderful places you've been to recently!

God bless,

All my love, 

LIFE: Day Out with Viki and CAKE!

Hey beautifuls, 

In order to really get going on taking this blog more seriously what better way then to update you on a few things that I have been up to while being here at University!

I have been incredibly blessed with meeting incredible people at University, God has enabled me to cross paths with not only genuinely wonderful and kind people but friends and family for life. I must admit, it was ashamedly a fear that I had before getting here, I prayed and asked for prayer on the friendships that I would make here and that they would be ones that inspire me everyday and help me on my journey with God. Not only has he blessed me with wonderful friends but he has also planted me into a Church that I love surrounded by people I love. I am now more excited to see how the rest of this year pans out in light of the awesome times that I have already been able to share with friends. 

So, rambling aside I wanted to share a few pictures that I took when me and my good friend Viki went out to explore by the seaside. The weather was lovely by the way if I could just add that in right there, I mean I am British anyway and we are accustomed to talk about the weather since birth. 

I love the sea. It reminds me of home. 

Now, living in the city I find the air a little too thick, too polluted and too smoggy. But by the sea, the air gets thinner, the winds hit your face in a liberating manner and the pressure of pollution falls away.

We found a bandstand! There is irony in this photo although it remains unseen until I tell you why. We were talking about bandstands holding potential for getting married under before we reached it, Viki said it would be a lovely place to get married one day if one was by a Church and I totally agreed! The bandstand was beautiful if not a little rusty it would be perfect to hold a wedding under. 

We also found a castle, it had an awesome bridge but, whether it used to hold water or not I feel like the vibrant green grass would be better replaced with water to create a moat around the castle because moats are cool.

The imprisoned look we were going for is part annoyed with the fact that the castle was closed on Mondays and part-snapchat potential.

Can we just take a moment to bask in the delicious amazingness that this cake has to offer? Yah, it's even more amazing than it looks. In fact it looked so amazing sitting there in front of me that I couldn't wait until I had taken a photo of it (notice the slither of missing cake).

This cheesecake had the perfect balance of biscuit base so that you got that satisfying crunch as well as the smooth yet thick consistency of the Cream cheese. The cherry, or more appropriately, the fruit on top of this wonderful concoction was the mixture of berries and wonderful sauce that inhabited the top of it. I still can't get over how big those blackberries were...

The decor of this little cafe was gorgeous, pastel and floral crockery galore. My favourite parts are the floral touch and the beautiful quotes they have lying around the shop (as well as the cake). This cafe is known for its cake and it does not disappoint!

The wonderful Viki everyone, she ordered a Victoria Sponge which looked amazing :)

In conclusion to this blog post I leave you with an A.A Milne quote that was hanging up in the cafe and was something that took me and Viki a while to understand in which, after saying the quote with different voices and emphasis on different words she then replied "yeah, I still don't get it" and I'm not too sure if I do either...

God bless,

All my love,