The Monthly Round Up #2

BLOG

This month has been a really fun month blogging-wise. I got to work with a brand for the first time which I think is an exciting milestone for all bloggers! If you haven't already, definitely check out my The Staycation & The Dress post, a mix of summer plans and the £10/€15 dress from George@Asda you can wear pretty much everywhere. I was a little apprehensive of doing the post at first, because I would say I'm far from a fashion blogger, but I really enjoyed doing it (though it took me quite a few takes!), and the reception the post received was so much better than anything I'd hope for! 

It got me to thinking about mixing in more fashion-orientated pieces into my blog, because fashion is a part of life - we wear clothes no matter what we're doing, and it'd be fun to share with you all my love of lounge wear and pyjamas! But first, I think it's about time that I got a new camera, as I've been really frustrated with the qualities of my pictures of late. Once exams are over, the hunt for a new camera (hopefully my first DSLR! ) will begin. 

I also started setting aside time every day to spend at least half an hour commenting on blogs on my 'Bloglovin feed - and I'm really glad I did. Reading other blogs is a great source of inspiration (and a sure way to make your wishlists longer than they already are!) but I also feel like I'm getting much more out of the blogging experience by slowly becoming more involved in the community. I've also been spending a little more time on Twitter, and make an effort to schedule my tweets. I think once exams are over, I can really find a way to get into the whole social media thing. 

If you have a favourite Twitter chat you love to participate in, let me know! I'd love to join in. 

LIFE

If you hadn't guessed by this post, and this post, and this post...aaaaand this post, I've been busy revising this month as my exam session begins on the 1st June. In the spirit of doing things differently than I've done before, I made sure not to centre my entire life around revision: I'm aiming for my best this time around, not perfection (which, f.i.y. is not an attainable goal).

Other than making time for blogging and leaving the house for regular bouts of fresh air, last weekend I also attended The Cover Festival, Seneffe a local cover festival that is a pretty big deal to us locals. It's a two day festival, and the first day I was just your average attendee. Mister Cover confirmed that I do not like U2 (like, at all), Majestic Mojo & The Old Bananas taught me that swing covers are awesome and the double bass is sexier than the guitar, and Cookies & Cream made me realise that I love David Guetta and all things pop and there is nothing to be ashamed of. On the second day, I was a volunteer and I spent the day working at the entrance: I was in charge of VIP tickets and it was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. VIP attendees can be quite cheeky, especially after they've already drunk someone else's drink tokens and come to claim they never got theirs! Overall it was a good two days, and I'm already planning on coming back next year and maybe volunteering at bigger festivals. Or attending them. Or both. 

I've been keeping up with exercise and I love Joanna Soh's workout videos to the point where they've actually become a reward for studying. Nothing like good intense interval cardio to make you feel alive. I also finished the Forza Multivitamins "for dieters". I wasn't impressed - but that's for another post. 

TV, MUSIC, ETC. 

I've not really been sitting down to watch television shows - I plan to binge on everything post-exams. I finish my exams on the 15th but I've been telling everyone the 17th because I don't plan on doing anything but hibernating, eating copious amounts of junk food and catching up on my favourites during those two days. (I'm not even watching Game of Thrones - can you believe it??) 

I did, however, get a Spotify Premium subscription in place of my Netflix one so I could have music to study along to and have been loving their playlists especially 'Have A Great Day' which gets me out of bed with songs and belting out 'Respect' by Aretha Franklin even if I'm half asleep or feeling cheerful about my perpetual singledom with The Supremes 'You Can't Hurry Love'. Similarly 'The Ultimate Throwback Party' has been great for in-shower listening with classics such as J-Kwon's 'Tipsy' and Shaggy's 'It Wasn't Me'. You might have noticed in my Staycation post that the 90s are having a revival in Ornella Land. 

READING

I've not really been reading anything other than my textbooks and blog posts this month. Susan Jeffers 'Feel The Fear...And Do It Anyway' has been relegated to toilet book status (before we scrolled on Twitter during that time, there were books) but it does mean that I have been getting daily doses of encouragement, however short they are. I doubt I'd have taken the opportunity to work with George or gone to the Cover Festival if I wasn't in the frame of mind to move past my fears and do them because I wanted to.

Here are the blog posts I really enjoyed this month:

Autumn Leaves | Find Your Voice 

Alzgalz | Lush Shampoo Bars 

From Roses | My Blogging Essentials  - Creative Things I Want To Learn - The Typical British Summer Outfits 

Avec Danielle | Current Favorite Blogs 

Chelsea Loves | Lush Ultrabland Cleansers
Wonderforest | How To Create Outfits From Clothes You Already Have

Ana Celine Labod | The Best of French Pharmacy

In The Frow | Never Give Up What You Love

Beautylymin | About Me, M.E., Lyme and Invisible Illnesses

What about you? What have you been up to this month? 

Also, I'd love any recommendations for first time DSLRs or on which are the best Twitter chats to join!

The Monthly Round Up #1

I never realised how much I like April until recently when I fully took in the fact that the sun was now rising at time I deem acceptable and providing us with longer days full of sunnier, warmer weather that does wonders for my overall mood. I recently realised how much I love reading about what bloggers have been up to over the month (as well as their beauty favourites) when I was reading Dana Fox's from The Wonderforest Bi-Weekly Review and thought I'd try my hand at a monthly one.

BLOG

After my little hiatus, I've been getting back into the swing of blogging, which I've been really enjoying, if it is a little challenging time-wise. You don't realise just how much productivity and time-management is important until you're trying to figure out where to fit in blog planning, blog writing, social media scheduling, commenting, product research and all that lovely jazz into your day whilst also attending the last of your lectures and revising for your upcoming final exams. So far, my only solution has been to wake up earlier (a lot earlier) to give myself a few extra hours.

I also participated in my first blogger chat, which was quite a milestone for me. I'd always been nervous that I wouldn't have anything to say, my social anxiety transferring from my real-life to my online social interactions, but when Rebecca-Louise from Autumn Leaves was hosting her first Twitter chat, I just had to participate. The experience was fun, informative and a great way to connect with other bloggers, as it's not always easy to keep up with your Twitter feed. I'll definitely be looking for a way to regularly participate in Twitter blog chats.

LIFE

In the final stretch of my law degree, my life is currently fifty shades of revision. As someone who has always been a chronic 'do everything at the last minute'-er, I wanted a change from the routine panic a week before exams when I realise I underestimated the complexity of my course syllabus, and cramming weeks worth of studying into a couple of caffeine-filled hours. After all, one definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting the different results. So I've been trying to make sure I get a couple of hours of revision in every day instead, taking it at an easy, steady pace. With my exams starting on the 1st June though, I'm going to stepping up the pace in May, but hopefully avoid any and all panic and frenzy.

This month I've also been making a conscious to add exercise to my daily routine, mainly for the endorphins. I really enjoy doing Yoga With Adrienne when I feel like I need to wind down at the end of the day as well as give my body a lovely, deep stretch, but my wrists unfortunately don't agree with daily downward dogs. I recently discovered Joanna Soh's Youtube videos, and I have fallen in love - so much that they make up the bulk of my work out routine. If you're looking for fun, effective cardio interval-based workouts, then I would highly recommend Joanna.

To supplement this increase in activity, as well as my dairy-free, low-carb diet, I've also been taking the Forza Multivitamins for Dieters I got from this month's Lookfantastic Beauty Box. However much the name irks me, multivitamins are multivitamins. 

TV, MUSIC, ETC.

Netflix is a very dangerous for a student needing to focus. With the Easter break meaning I wasn't travelling to uni, so didn't have as much need for Spotify, so I swapped it for a Netflix subscription instead. The series which would win Most Binge-Watched Award would have to be Pretty Little Liars. I wasn't expecting to get into it as much as I did, but apparently there's something very intriguing about watching four young women from a small-town being terrorised by the mysterious 'A', who is never, ever who you suspect they'll be. I think the series finale of this show will rank up there with Friends and How I Met Your Mother. 

I am also a big fan of the Netflix Originals. House of Cards is a gritty political drama that had me gripped during the first two seasons, but the last season got a little too gritty for me. Daredevil also surprised me. I had no intention of watching it, but after hearing so many people raving about it, I checked it out and the next thing I knew it was three in the morning. There are perhaps a few too many action scenes for my liking, but it's one of those shows where there's a little something for everyone. 

Oh, and Game of Thrones is back, so that's self-explanatory ;)

READING

It annoys me that when my revision increases my time for reading decreases. I've been re-reading Feel The Fear...And Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers, which is a great book if you find yourself being held back in life by your fears. I really like it as an overall personal development book, but as I start thinking of what I want to do after university, it's helping me to see past my worries of failure and realise that I hold the tools for success.

I've also been trying to be a lot better with keeping up with my blog reading, though Bloglovin' likes to mockingly inform me there are a thousand odd posts I still haven't read. This month I liked these posts: 

A Little Boat Sailing | An Ode To Soap and Glory

A Little Opulent | The Creative CV

That Grace Girl | Best for Brows Prep & Care

A Beautiful Mess  | Elsie's Home Tour 

Autumn Leaves | Blog News & Top Content Creation Tools

Dizzybrunette | The Product That Stops Your Make Up Going Cakey

Being Erica | Update on dating

Emilade DIY | No Crease Hair Ties

What about you? What have you been up to this month? 

6 things I've learned in 6 months of blogging

euhnella has been on the blogosphere for 6 months today! Yay! To think that six months ago today, was the day I finally gathered up enough courage to finally launch myself into something I'd been thinking about doing for at least six years. As someone who had a lot of false starts, I'm glad I've stuck to my word of the year and stuck with it, even when I have days where I think 'what the hell am I doing?'. Here are six things I've learned so far on my blogging journey:

I. To thine own self be true. Like seriously. This is a piece of advice that appears everywhere and will continue to appear everywhere in blogging advice until the end of Internet time, because it's important, and it's true, and you should always bear it in mind. So, of course, my natural inclination is to ignore it. When you first start a blog, it's usually because you've been inspired by others who have done amazing things with their online space and you want to do something similar. In all the uncertainty of finding yourself, it can be easy to compare yourself and want to be like the bloggers you admire and forget that what needs to be developed is your own voice. I do this all the time, and it leads me to feeling like my writing isn't my own, like my blog isn't my own, and doubt what I'm doing, and I'm sure I'm not the only baby blogger out there who feels like that. 

II. The niche thing is actually pretty important. When I first started out blogging and was reading the 'how to set up a successful blog' articles we know we're all drawn to, the word niche kept coming up. I understood what they meant by niche - finding your one area of 'expertise' that you're known for, narrowing down what you blog about specifically within a bigger domain - but I didn't get why it was so important when I just wanted to blog about beauty and lifestyle. How do you niche that? It's taking me 6 months to realise that what they really mean is: know exactly what you're blogging about, and narrow it down to a few precise categories that you can eventually be known for, and also make your life a whole lot easier because your blog has focus. That's what the niche thing is about: focus. And focus is pretty important in the grand scheme of things, and it also helps your posts, and you, not feel so all over the place. 

III. Not having a lot of readers in the beginning is a good thing. I go through phases where I worry about my readership size and my follower count, but at the six month mark, it worries me less and less. The more I read and discover about blogging, the more I want to adjust things, and so I'm forever changing up my content, sprucing up my layout or trying out different blogging styles and features, and whilst doing that my blog is all over the place. I'm trying to figure out what my niche/focus is going to be, and that seems to require a lot of trial-and-error. And it feels a lot better to trial-and-error knowing that at most about 50 people a month are seeing those errors. It's less pressure, and I think pressure and perfectionism are some of the things that kill potentially great blogs. Which leads me to:

IV. Blogging is a great way to beat the perfectionist bug. I am a perfectionist by nature, and sometimes the worst kind, because I rarely jump into an endeavour where I feel I won't get to be a perfectionist. There is no such thing as a perfect blogger. Aiming for high follower count won't necessarily mean that your content and reader interaction is at that same level; churning out daily high-quality content won't guarantee that people are reading it; being great at social media won't promise that you're also good at understanding what makes up a great blog. Being a good blogger means being a good all-rounder, and working at things that don't necessarily come naturally come to you but are needed in your blog, so you have to say goodbye to perfectionist inclinations. It's just not going to happen. I've come to see that it's just one of those things where you have to give it your best for that day, and wake up the next day and try and do better, rather than trying to be perfect. This mentality has definitely spread to other areas of my life, which I'm grateful for.

V. It requires self-discipline. I've come to realise that if you want to eventually have a successful blog, no matter what your definition of success is, it requires regular hard work. Even if you only blog once a week, you need to have that blog post up every week so that at the end of the year you can say 'look at these 52 posts I put that I'm proud of', and for those 52 posts to go up, you need to write them. And sitting down to write can sometimes prove to be the hardest thing, especially since most of us are also studying, working and/or trying to have a life alongside blogging, so dragging yourself in front of the laptop, and doing all the work that goes behind a blog post when all you want to do is curl up with a good book or your favourite show on Netflix, requires a lot of self-discipline.

VI. Community is a big part of it. I know this may seem obvious, but in the transition from only being a blog reader to being a blogger, I seemed to forget that you don't stop being one because you're the other. It's true that the time you spent reading blogs is suddenly for writing blog posts, but no blogger is an island. I think it's really easy to forget when you start blogging, since I do it all the time, that to really be part of the blogging community, you have to be active. I love it when bloggers share their favourite bloggers or give a round up of their favourite articles that week, or seeing how bloggers interact with each other on Twitter, and it's definitely one of the things I want to improve on as I think it'd not only improve my blog, but the blogging experience as a whole.

Now to actually listen to my own advice for once, and put these things into practise so that I can continue to grow euhnella in the blog I've always dreamed of. 

What's one thing you've learned about blogging?