As it’s approaching the last few hours of 2017 I’d like to share the best bits of my year with you my lovely readers! It’s also one month since we’ve been in our new flat, our own flat, which has really made the last piece of the year feel so special. 2017 has been a great one and 2018 is looking super too, with a trip to see my in-laws in Pakistan coming up and I’m planning to focus on being more creative and upskilling myself for my career and personal life. I hope everyone reading has had a great year, and if not, that 2018 will be better. My main accomplishment of this year is that we bought our own flat in London – something that I never thought would be possible (but it is and can be for other young Londoners too!) Planning to write up about buying a flat in London in a few days with a mini breakdown of the process/Help To Buy and tips.. if you want me to cover anything else please leave a comment below!

So without futher ado here’s the best moments by month (starting in March as I don’t really remember much of January or February)…

March

I flew to meet my husband in Myanmar and had a dreamy ten days there. I fell in love with the country and planned to write more than I did about our time there. You can read my intro to Myanmar or see my Photo Diary

April

One of my oldest friends announced her second pregnancy and went on to give birth to her healthy and gorgeous second daughter. Congrats Amanda you inspire us all so much!

May

I went to Llujliana with my sister to celebrate her early birthday. Solvenia is such a beautiful country and if you love nature, outdoors and cafe culture then I recommend a weekend visit!

June

My cousin got married and it was a beautiful day that I got to spend with family who I don’t see often.

Also in June was Eid, and our first celebrating with other Muslims and friends who’s family aren’t here to celebrate with them. It was a lovely day and it was good to share it with friends.

July

We started looking for a flat in London and after about five or six definite no’s we stumbled upon our dream flat. (more info to come!)

August

I celebrated my first work anniversary at my current company and August is also when everything became real with our flat. We put down the deposit and were given until Halloween to complete on the purchase. We then had many appointments with the sales team to decide exactly how we wanted the inside of our flat to look and lots of samples to chose between!

We also took a summer holiday to Italy for the first time, where I turned 26

September

We finally got our mortage offer – this was a huge relief as I was having a mental breakdown for most of September about it not going through and delays etc etc

October

My big sister turned 30, we got to see inside our flat for the first time and everything felt more real after this point

November

The flat was ready, we got to see it again a couple of times.. and then it was delayed by four weeks by the builders (a blessing in disguise). We eventually moved in at the end of November

December

We spent some money on the flat instead of a big Christmas this year, we bought new mattresses, a sofa, custom made/fitted curtains, two IKEA visits and we also bought our first little car for H to drive to work and to runaround on weekends – we now that live further outside of London and the countryside is on our doorstep.

We had our first Christmas just my husband and I – we then both got sick and did nothing but sit on our sofa and drink hot drinks for one week and now it’s New Years Eve were suiting up and going out no matter what. We’re going to go for food in our local town and then go to the London New Years Eve Fireworks display and maybe to a friend’s houseparty after. I’m hoping that it doesn’t rain again tonight and more importantly wishing everyone a very healthy and happy 2018!

Take care,
K