#LDNBB Meet

On Monday I headed into London for the #LDNBB meet, a London based bloggers meet up that I'm sure you've all already heard about. The event was arranged by Sophia, Lisa and Sophie. I've been hearing all about the event for months so I was so excited when the day rolled around. I couldn't wait to meet Lisa and Bex again, as well as meeting new bloggers.

I almost didn't make it after catching the flu from my parents over the weekend! I woke up feeling horrible on Monday much to my dismay, but after sleeping it off for a few hours I awoke to find myself still feeling stuffy and bunged up, but thankfully with no pounding headache and not as weak. So I stocked up on paracetamol and headed into London, determined to see Lisa and Bex and attend the event. I'm so glad I did because I had a fab time!

I met everyone outside of Selfridges where I had a chat with some other lovely blogging ladies. It was all so weird seeing people you kind of sort of knew via Twitter, but you weren't 100% sure if it was them or not. Still, it was fun! The little mooch around Selfridges was kind of lost on me because I was far too skint to afford anything in there, but we all had a laugh anyway.

Then 30 of us headed onto the evening event which was being held at the She Said Beauty offices/HQ. After a slight mishap with the taxi's, we all arrived safe and sound and were ussured in to a massive room with lots going on. The first thing I noticed was the giant ping pong table! I swore I'd have a go at some point through the night. The lovely team at She Said Beauty had some yummy cupcakes and crisps out for us to munch on and also offered unlimted top ups of champagne (possibly one of my favourite parts of the night!). Also at the event were lots of fab beauty teams to pamper us!

HD Brows station

They were all very lovely and made us feel extremely pampared. I absolutely loved my Filthy Gorgeous nails and had a lovely chat with one of the ladies about how a lot of their inspiration comes from music, as do my outfits sometimes! HD Brows made my normally fair eyebrows look amazing and much more defined, and the lady told me all about how to use their kits to create this effect regularly. The Millie Mackintosh eyelashes were hands down gorgeous - there are eight different types to choose from, each named after differerent places in London which I love. I picked Portobello for an everyday look, but definitely had my eye on Shoreditch or Soho for something to wear in the evening. Finally, Illamasqua were offering us all makeovers but their amazing speckled effect eyeliner seemed to be a massive hit for the night which I just had to get done!

All in all it was a really great day. It was a lot more laid back then the blogging meet up I went to last year, as that one was more about networking and learning how to improve your blog. This meet was just an excuse for loads of lovely ladies to meet up, have a chat and a giggle and be pampered a lot! It was definitely something I'd consider as the highlights of blogging as I got to meet so many lovely people and of course the pampering and freebies were a great perk too. A massive thanks to Sophia, Lisa and Sophie for arranging such a fab and fun day - I've no doubt it was very stressful to arrange but the effort put in really showed. Also a big thank you to She Said Beauty for letting us desend havoc upon their offices/HQ for the evening, and all the awesome brands that made us look and feel very pretty.

Argh my fringe haha! Lisa, Bex and myself. Photo credit to She Said Beauty

Lisa, Bex, Charli, myself and Tanya having a bit of a pose! Photo credit goes to Tanya!

Facebook | Twitter | Bloglovin | She Said Beauty | Instagram 

Stella & Dot and Bare Minerals Event

Last Thursday, me and Bex attended a collaborative event between Stella & Dot and Bare Minerals at their boutique in St Albans. The event consisted of the ladies at Bare Minerals offering free makeunders, whilst Stella & Dot showcased some of their beautiful jewellery. Both businesses are quite similar in that they largely sell things online rather than in store.

I was really excited to attend as I'd already recently heard about Stella & Dot after spotting one of their stalls at the Soho Flea market in London last month. Stella & Dot are a company that are already heavily known in America and have recently expanded over to the UK, already becoming a fast success. I'd previously had a nice chat with some of the ladies at their stall at the Soho Flea market and fell in love with their jewellery immediately, instantly regretting not purchasing a bracelet I had my eye on that day.

I didn't know much about Bare Minerals as a brand previously, but on the day I soon learnt that they were a brand that used high quality products that not only work as make up should, but that also work to improve your skin when being used, rather than just covering up the problem.

Not the best quality, as this is a picture taken of a polaroid but still lovely!

We were offered champagne or a soft drink upon arrival, and the girls soon began on our makeunders. I really, really loved mine - the girl doing mine was really nice and friendly, explaining what she was doing and what each product does. She also showed me how to recreate the look and as she was applying makeup, she gave me opportunities to do it myself as well to double check I was doing it right. I thought this was a lovely idea! She used only a few products but they made such a difference - not only did my skin feel much softer and smoother but overall I had a much more even skin coverage and many ladies in the store came up to compliment me!

I will say, it's often forgotten that there are two different ways of applying make up - there's putting make up on and there's applying makeup. I will admit, I'm guilty of just getting up and shoving my cover up on my face - I've never properly learnt how to contour and blend different shades properly because I always felt it took to long and that it wouldn't make much difference. However, the lady showed me that simply by using two different shades of cover up and applying them properly, it highlighted my face much differently and really made a difference.

I will admit I did look a tad too bronzed once I got outside but I usually find that to be a problem when you apply makeup under harsh lighting inside shops & such and as I'm so naturally pale anyway, it can be tough to not make me look too orange! 

I found that the products she used were a little out of my price range but well worth it for the difference they made - I could also see that the products were long lasting too with you getting a lot for what you pay for. Had I not of purchased my bracelet, I most definitely would have purchased either the amazing cover up she used on me or the beautiful lipstick that earned me tons of compliments! She wrote down the products she used though so I will be going back to purchase them when I can afford it.

I also purchased my beautiful bracelet but as they were only showcasing their jewellery, I had to wait for it to be delivered and it arrived yesterday. It is pure perfection! Again, with Stella & Dot, I felt it was a little bit out of my price range personally, but I did feel the excellent quality reflected the price and the products are so beautiful. They are perfect for gifts.

Finally, I'd like to note that all the ladies I met at the event - from both Stella & Dot and Bare Minerals - were really, really friendly and chatty. It made such a difference and I even said that to them - to me, if you can speak to someone from a company like they are a friend and have a bit of a natter then that company becomes so much better in my eyes. Everyone loved hearing about my blog and my future plans for it and likewise they agreed that it makes all the difference being so friendly and easy to talk to as a business.

I really loved attending the event Thursday. It was lovely meeting new people and having a nice chat, I learnt quite a bit about how to 'properly' apply make up and as a bonus I finally got my bracelet! 

www.stelladot.co.uk/yasadam

www.bareminerals.co.uk

The Only Way Is Blogging

On Saturday I attended my first ever The Only Way Is Blogging event, which is basically an event put together for all bloggers to meet, attend workshops on helpful subjects like how to improve your blog or how to make a career out of blogging and to just generally meet like minded people. It’s been going on for a couple of years now with hundreds of bloggers repeatedly attending.

I’d been planning to meet Bex and Lisa for a few months now, so when I found the details of the next TOWIB event, I decided to go and so did they. Tickets were only £5 and the event was being held in central London, so not only was it cheap and affordable, it was also easily accessible. The three of us arranged to go together and all our journeys were pretty much the same, we got the train into London and Lisa got on at the stop before me, whereas Bex got on a couple of stops after me.

Bex also got talking to Kirstie who was coming all the way from Leeds! As she was travelling alone, we invited her to come along with us and met her once we arrived in London. We arrived at the venue pretty early so decided to get a bit of breakfast in Pret A Manger. Within half an hour we were all having a laugh and it felt like we’d known each other for years.

The event was being held at Tiger Tiger, which was a weird place to hold a blogging event, but it was big and spacious and there were a lot of us! It was really nice and glam inside too. Once we got in we had a chat with some other bloggers and signed in, before grabbing a table.

Up first was a talk from Dr Linda Papadopoulos all about body confidence and the way women are perceived as so flawless in the media. I loved her talk, it was really inspiring and I thought it was quite refreshing to hear someone talk to passionately about those particular issues and trying to make a difference to change then.

She also told us a great story about a workshop she held once. On the first day, she blindfolded a group of people and told them herself and some other make up artists would be attaching realistic facial disfigurements to their faces, and then asked them to head outside and hand out leaflets, so she could see if it made any difference to the public. The group of people returned and noted that they’d found the experience horrible – the public had ignored them, not looked them into their eyes, walked in the opposite direction etc. The next day Dr Linda asked them to do the same thing, but this time she let them go out as they were – aka not attaching anything to their faces. Upon returning, the group’s attitude had completely changed. They’d claimed the public had been friendly and inviting, chatting to them and generally being the complete opposite than how they were the previous day.

It was then that Dr Linda revealed that on the first day, she hadn’t actually attached anything to their faces. The group had gone outside, looking as they always did and as they looked on the second day – only with the BELIEF that they had facial disfigurements. The group had let this thought affect the way they acted towards others – they’d acted shy and quiet and let what was on their face define them.

The story behind that experiment was generally the same message behind Dr Linda’s talk – by acting unconfident you are letting your issues define you, when in actual fact you don’t need to act like that. She explains that confidence comes from within and that we should accept ourselves as we are and learn to love what we are, instead of striving to become something we’re not. It was really interesting and inspiring, and the story she told us was fascinating.

After Dr Linda’s talk we had a couple of workshops – the first with Scott Cornwall which was about colouring your hair, and the second with amazing photographer Jai'me who gave us some tips about how to take good photos for your blog and how to take photographs a bit more professionally.

We then had a nice lunch with a few cheeky cocktails, before returning for another talk and then a couple of workshops. The talk was a Q&A session with some top bloggers and ladies that had gone on to create careers out of their blogs – again, this was quite inspiring and taught us how to start looking at our blogs more professionally rather then just as a hobby. Then we had a workshop with a lovely lady from KMI Brands who explained a bit more about advertising and the way it works. We got chatting and ended up actually staying there for the full hour, talking about the relationship between bloggers and companies and all sorts of blogging/media related things.

Image taken from Bex's blog 

Finally, to end the day we had a more general Q&A session with some other ladies that had arranged the event, and generally this was just a humorous chat about blogging and social media.

I found the day extremely helpful – in all honestly I took different snippets and tips from the day and the workshops altogether, but I found the day to be more helpful to me in that I met other bloggers and managed to network a bit too. I found it more beneficial when I sat down in a small group and had an informal chat with one of the ladies, rather then the big Q&A sessions (although these were inspiring and helpful too). Altogether I thought it was just nice to meet like minded people because sometimes I do definitely feel like blogging is like a big online community – people can be so friendly and over time you do tend to think of some other regular bloggers as friends.

Afterwards we realized we were only around the corner from M&M world so had a little mooch in there – it was my idea even though I hate M&Ms. This was a bit of a laugh too, especially with the over enthusiastic worker who insisted on getting loads of photos with us!

I was exhausted by the time I got home! I’d got a few nice freebies, bought some gorgeous jewelry and ended up with LOADS of business cards. By the end of the day I felt so much more confident about blogging as a whole – it was kind of like by attending the event I’d established that I’ve been doing everything right and to just keep doing it really. It was very helpful and I’ll definitely be attending the next event. I’ve been thinking about my blog as more than just a blog for a while now and I’m definitely leaning more in the direction of blogging more professionally than as a hobby. Attending TOWIB gave me tips to do this and helped me confirm that I was on the right track, as well as introducing me to some lovely ladies and getting my blog a bit more known.

The Only Way Is Blogging

I was just wondering if any other fellow bloggers were planning to go to this event? If you don't know what it is, The Only Way Is Blogging is a meet up/workshop/event held every three months as a way to bring bloggers closer together and help them learn about new skills and new ways in which they can improve their blogs. It was set up by London Beauty Queen and has since become such a popular event that even Company magazine recently featured the event.

The next TOWIB event will be taking place on Saturday 16th June in central London, with tickets costing only £5.00. This will guarantee you access to the event which will see talks and demonstrations by top media savvy professionals, a session with Dr Linda all about body confidence (I LOVE this idea, so inspiring), and different workshops. Alongside this it's also the perfect way to meet your favourite bloggers, make some new friends, discover new blogs and finally just have a chat about other like minded people.

I've known about the event for a while but this year I am definitely thinking of going, especially with London only being a short train ride away from me. I was wondering if anyone else was planning to attend?

You can find out more at www.towib.blogspot.co.uk! 

Don't forget, myself and Bex from I Always Believed in Futures are also planning a bloggers meet up in June for bloggers in and around the South East (however anyone is welcome of course!), so keep an eye out for that as well!

Blog Planning

I don't know about you, but I often find myself struggling when it comes to planning blog posts. Usually when I get an idea I've forgotten about it by the time I'm home or I'll just tell myself I'll blog about it 'soon'. However, then I found the idea of blog planning! I was mooching around on some craft blogs and found that people had printed out blog plans, made them into a notebook and written in their plans. I printed one out and immediately spotted the difference, instead of typing a note somewhere on my laptop, I had a space for all my notes and plans and to see it written down in front of me meant it was far better planned already and that I wouldn't forget to blog any time soon.

I know a lot of my readers are fellow bloggers so here are some great print outs I found from other sites which may help you in planning your blog posts!

Taken from Perideau Designs

www.perideaudesigns.com

This A4 page spread has three different 'entries' where you can fill and plan your blog topic/post. It's very simple and straight to the point, displaying sections where you can note down key words, other websites for inspiration and a small promotion check list! I adore it and the fact that you can plan up to three posts on this single sheet of paper makes it excellent for when you are doing posts that link up or may be posted around about the same time. An ideal thing to do would be to print out a bunch of these pages and keep them in a notebook or a binder, especially if you are thinking of your blog in a more professional sense as this is also a way to keep a tracked archive of all your posts. For more information on this idea, please click here which will take you to the blog post displaying this free printable. Make sure you visit and subscribe to this blog if you do use this planner.

To download this free blog planner click here.

Taken from Wild Olive

www.wildolive.blogspot.com

and

Sew Tara

www.sewtara.com

This other excellent blog planning technique is useful for planning a set of blog posts per week rather then each post individually. This was a collaboration between Wild Olive and Sew Tara, Saw Tara had the idea and Wild Olive designed it. Sew Tara went on to make it into a blog specific notebook and designed her own front cover for the notebook. This also doubles up as a general planner and is more complete-task-and-tick-off specific, whereas the first planner incorporated most details of blog posts very specifically. Again its very straight forward with general sections to fill in for contacts, photos and research etc. Click here for the post where I found this free downloadable printable, where you can also find some more information and tips on filling it in.

You can download it here.

Finally, I attempted to make my own!

It's not very good! I am practicing and playing around with something (which you will all be eager to hear about!) and thought I'd use it to make my own. I took ideas from both blog plans mentioned above, most specifically the promotion list which I added a bit more too. I also tried to use some nice pastel colours! My printer is a bit dodgy at the moment so I have no idea if this would print out nice or not but there you go anyway! Just click on the picture to be directed to a page where you can download it.

Up until recently discovering these blog planners it had never occurred to me to use something entirely made for planning my blog. Normally I would simply jot down notes here and there and leave it at that - forgetting about them. It's no surprise that by properly planning things in advance would work out much better. So therefore I hope that if any of you avid bloggers choose to use any of the planners mentioned above, I hope it benefits you!

Finally I mentioned a few paragraphs up that you will be eager to hear about something. I have a giveaway coming up based around crafting and a very lovely lady from a very lovely company approached me about it (this is the first time a company has contacted me regarding a giveaway on my blog so I'm chuffed!!) and I've got to say you will love it. It also coincides with the fact that I've been planning to do more craft related posts for a while now so it's really perfect timing. This giveaway will coincide with the beginning of this new feature and I plan to let you all know more about the giveaway this weekend so keep your eyes peeled!