Best moments of 2015

2015 really did fly by, faster than any other year so far I think, and it was actually quite a 'big' year with some big changes. As any year does, it had its ups and downs, but all in all I can happily say 2015 holds a lot of happy memories.

The start of the year was fairly quiet, so one of my first favourite memories is N's belated birthday celebrations in April. This year he celebrated his 20th birthday, and I had a day of celebrations all planned out. We started the day in Blackbird Tea Rooms on Ship Street in Brighton, where we enjoyed a lovely late breakfast. Breakfast is actually half price before 11am, so if you ever pay a visit yourself I'd recommend popping in early to take advantage of the offer!

We spent the rest of the day wondering around Brighton, taking a stroll down by the beach and enjoying the Spring weather, and in the last afternoon we had an early dinner Carluccio's before the part of the day I had been most excited to reveal to N; a wine tasting at Ten Green Bottles. We both enjoy a glass of wine but really don't know that much about the different varieties, so I thought an evening of wine tasting would be the perfect way to learn a little and perhaps find a new favourite. We spent a good couple of hours there, sampling different wines (my favourite was a sparking white, while N's was a deep red), munching on olives and overall feeling very sophisticated. The evening was a real treat for both of us, and it's still one of my favourite memories of the year.

In July I finally got to meet my friend Jess and her lovely friend Catherine. I met Jess through Instagram good three or four years ago, but due to distance and both of us being busy with school or work we'd never had the chance to meet, so naturally I was thrilled when she told me she would be spending a few days in Brighton in the summer! After the initial "You're a real person!" moments, we grabbed some lunch and sat in the Pavilion gardens talking about university, future plans, and just having a general natter. Although this was the first time we'd met face-to-face things felt totally natural, and we chatted the whole afternoon away! It was so lovely to finally meet, and I hope we have plenty of chances to meet again in 2016.

At the start of September I went down to London to see my friend Albertine. We did an awful lot of walking (my list of places to go was rather long) and visited all of the food places, with my personal favourites being Good Life Eatery (on the right) and 26 Grains (a breakfast lover's dream). It was so lovely to catch up on all that had happened in the year since we had last seen each other and have some girl-time watching films and eating homemade falafel in the evenings.

We also whipped up these delicious pancakes following a recipe from A Modern Way To Eat, which was the perfect fuel for a day of shopping and tube-hopping.

A few days later N and I drove down to Wiltshire to visit my Dad, and we spent the days visiting nearby towns and exploring their cobbled streets and crooked buildings, fantasising about one day maybe living in one of the many beautiful houses we saw.

September was perhaps the biggest month in 2015, as at the end of the month I packed up a car full of things and flew the nest, moving into a pretty little house in Brighton with N and two of his friends from university. Leaving home has been an amazing experience, and although I like to think I was already quite independent, living away from home has taken that one step further and taught me how to deal with things like rent and bills (although I still find it odd to think that I rent an actual house and pay bills and buy groceries every week!).

Moving in with N was also a big step in itself, but it has been a truly wonderful experience and has only made me more excited for the future.

I also started university in September, and it's been really nice to get back into studying again after a year out. I've definitely felt the jump up from A-Levels, but I've been really enjoying the challenge so far.

In early October my friend Kate came to visit, and we both ticked something off our bucket-list by doing the Colour Run! We spent the rest of the days she was here wandering around Brighton and nipping in and out of shops, enjoying coffee and vegan cake at VBites, and talking about our futures. Kate is one of the most intelligent and interesting people I know, and I always come away from our catch-ups feeling really inspired.

In November N and I celebrated our two-year anniversary and spent the day in London, ogling the amazing food at Borough Market, browsing the beautiful stalls at Renegade Craft Fair, and walking many many steps around the British Museum. We then booked ourselves a table at Chilli Pickle for the following night, where I ended up having the best curry I've ever eaten (I've yet to recreate it at home, but if I ever master it I'll be sure to share it with you!).

I was feeling particularly festive this year, so the Christmas celebrations started nice and early at the end of November, with Michael Bublé and my Christmas playlist on Spotify serving as the soundtrack to my study sessions. N and I also spent a couple of evenings in early December snuggled up in bed watching Christmas films, drinking mulled wine and munching on mince pies. I spent Christmas day at home with my mum and we made a wonderful veggie roast, followed by Christmas pudding and amaretto coffees, and we even extended Christmas into boxing day to really get the most out of it.

A few days later I popped down to Wiltshere again to spend a few days with my Dad, step-mum and step-sister, which was also really lovely as I don't tend to see them all that often. We spent most of the time at home playing games or watching films, although we did take a trip into Bristol one afternoon to do some sale shopping and go for lunch at Zerodegrees.

I spent New Year's Eve back in Norfolk with N and his family, and I think this was my best New Year's yet; we all got dressed up and sat at the table together for a lovely dinner, then spent the hours from then until midnight playing Cranium (which only gets better the more G&Ts you drink). When it came close to midnight we moved into the front room and watched the countdown on TV, popped a bottle of champagne and wished each other a happy new year, then called our loved ones to do the same. At around 2am N and I were more than ready for bed, so off we went for the last time in 2015.

As well as all of these amazing moments, I've also gotten back in touch with my creativity over the last few months which has been a really refreshing break from my uni work, and it's something I plan to see through into 2016.

And of course, I couldn't not mention this blog! I re-launched my old blog, Namaste, Rowan, earlier in the year, and although things started really well, after a few months I really started to fall out of love with it, and once I started preparing to move to Brighton I found that I had stopped posting altogether. It took me a while to find my feet again, but eventually I developed a clear idea of what I wanted my blog to be, and why I had started to feel so disconnected from NR. And now here we are! Created By Rowan is going to be much more personal and creative, and I plan to document a lot more of my life here, not only because those are the types of posts I enjoy reading, but also because I want to be able to look back in years to come and have all the best moments of each year documented in one place.

I think 2016 is going to be a big year; there are potentially some big changes in store, and I really want to make this my happiest, most positive and most productive year yet.

I'm also in the process of putting together a little list of my goals for this year, so you can expect to see that on here very soon. In the mean time, I hope 2015 was a great year for you, and I wish you a very happy 2016.

R x