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First off, thank you for your lovely encouraging comments on my last post, they were v.much appreciated :)

I cannot tell you how much of a relief it was to start working again. As is probably blindingly obvious, if you've been following at any point during the last four months, I didn't get on too well with unemployment, it was all rather depressing and I hated going to the job centre (although, the CV and practice interview appointments with the careers people were v.helpful). But now, I'm one week in at the new job and so far so good! I'm still getting to grips with everything and there seems to be a lot to learn but that's cool, it's great to actually face completely new to me scenarios and experience a challenge again. Also, I have met so many new people! Always a plus point in my books. I'm v.much looking forward to being independent again - not having to rely on Mitch or my parents or bloody job seekers to bail me out (although I must say that I am hugely grateful they did otherwise I would have been in serious shit) - as well as getting back on track with our plans to save for our deposit and look for our own home. For the first time this year I can hit that start button.

Four months of unemployment taught me some v.valuable lessons, not least that it's always a good idea to have an emergency fund and that, even if you are super confident and write pretty good cover letters, be prepared that finding a job you want will probably take longer than you think! For anyone out there currently unemployed and job searching I wrote a list of motivational ideas which might be helpful. It is shit some days, rejection emails, or just deafening silence, is the worst, but chin-up, you ARE an excellent candidate and, although people say it all the time and you're thinking "please shut up", it's true: do not lose heart, you WILL get that job soon.

In other news, during my final week of unemployment, I made this little fella ^^. I had some fabric scraps, lavender and stuffing leftover from these a few years ago and a lot of free time; a dinosaur lavender bag was inevitable :)

We had an amazingly lazy day yesterday - reading, chatting, sewing, catching up on game of thrones - which was perfect, nothing like a first week in a new job to leave you absolutely knackered! Today will be much the same :) Hope you're all having excellent weekends too.