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Tag: blogging
On Being A “Bad” Blogger
LEIA: You Are What You Write
I feel like this week in particular there have been a number of problematic posts and comments flying around that present a lot of backwards, harmful and upsetting views. Everytime this gets pointed out there is an inevitable backlash from the author, normally along the lines of “Why are you getting so crazy at me?”, “I meant it as a joke, everyone knows that” or “lol you need to chill out”. This is wrong, damaging and irresponsible. Failing to acknowledge the problem is avoiding accountability for your words.
Slogmas: A Review
Good morning! Before I chat about Slogmas I’d really quickly like to ask you if you could take a few minutes to fill in my reader survey – it would mean the world to me! I’ve never asked you guys to fill in anything like this before and it would really help me to know what is and isn’t working on this blog. Thank you!
Ok, so back on the 30th November, I was house-sitting in Oxford and seeing a lot of people posting about the start of Blogmas. “Hey, why not”, I thought to myself. “I could use a challenge.” I decided to post a piece of content everyday: somedays a song, but most days a blog. I had planned to do a video but NO WAY I GOT TIME FOR THAT. I’m sure blogging seems like a very low level activity to a lot of you and you’re probably wondering why a daily post should seem like a slog. I don’t know much about the blog-writing habits of others, but for me, most posts take a few hours minimum.
So to embark on an entire month of daily posts with nothing scheduled or planned in advance, during a month where I was also undertaking a number of big personal and work projects, was pretty foolish. I like the idea of Blogmas (or Slogmas), as being a way to thank your readers. It gives me so much joy to know somebody out there reads the little ideas I throw out into the world.
Day 1: Slogmas
Day 2: Christmas Wishes
Day 3: Sailor Moon
Day 4: Rose’s Song
Day 5: Quizmas
Day 7: Highbury
Day 8: Under The Mistletoe
Day 9: Christmas Cleaning
Day 10: Oxford University Museum
Day 11: Christmas In Oxford
Day 12: Pitt-Rivers
Day 13: Oxford Mini Guide
Day 14: Blue Blue World
Day 15: Christmas In Kingston
Day 16: How To Have A Cheap Christmas
Day 17: A Christmas Song For Somebody
Day 18: Happy Birthday Dad
Day 19:
Day 20: Christmas In Covent Garden
Day 21: Leadenhall Market
Day 22:
Day 23: Boyfriends
Day 24: Driving Home For Christmas
Day 25: Christmas In London
Post-Slogmas:
Day 27: This Christmas
Day 30: Walking In A Winter Wonderland
Day 31: 2K15
Well, it certainly was a slog. There were a few days in the middle where I thought “this is ridiculous”, and yet I kept on; childishly, stubbornly. There are two BRILLIANT reasons for missing Day 19 and Day 22; the best date of my life and one of the most important dinners I’ve had this year, so I hope you won’t resent me too much for missing those days.
I think the post I spent the longest time on was either Day 3, which I poured my heart into, or Day 31 simply due to scrolling through the archives and choosing which photos to use. I think either Day 3, Day 24 or Day 27 were my most honest, and Day 17 was by far the most personal. I don’t think I’ve ever hesitated pressing “Publish” before so that was a first for this blog!
Thank you so much for enduring, and hopefully enjoying Slogmas along with me! If you read along or had a favourite post then let me know. :)
200 Posts!
Welcome to my 200th post! I’m so surprised to have reached 200 posts, it feels like 100 posts was just yesterday but in reality it was over a year ago. Who knew I had so much to say? I always struggle when people ask what my blog is about. I mostly write about what’s on my mind and where I have visited, and I try and be very open. Thank you so much for reading my musings!
I thought to celebrate 200 posts I’d tell you about some of the posts I am most proud of, as I self-indulgently thought it would be nice to reflect. I was initially thinking of maybe doing some kind of question and answer post- (does anybody actually have any questions??) so anything you’d like to ask please do so. And I’d also just like to thank you so much for reading and your support of the blog, every time you share a post or RT a link you make my whole day awesome! If you’re feeling particularly supportive it would mean the world to me if you’d follow my blog on Bloglovin – thank you so, so much. 
So let’s look at some of my favourite posts..!
On Continuing: for me this post was a turning point on my blog and it’s kind of a mission statement for what I write now. I was fed up with trying to fit into the blog world with fashion-related content that didn’t feel true to me. I thought if I just wrote what I wanted to then I would feel more authentic and maybe generate more of an audience. That didn’t quite happen, but I’m happier with my output and that’s all that matters. (Although I still don’t think this blog accurately represents me, as it barely showcases my “animated” facial expressions at all, which are basically my number one defining feature irl…)
Tokyo DisneySea: aka my essay on Japanese culture, creating art and the importance of commitment in creativity. I am SO PROUD of this post and want to publish it. It’s probably my favourite ever post. One of native Japanese friends told me that in this post I articulated something about his culture that he understood immediately, but could never have expressed. Which is the highest praise ever!
Friends and Magic: these posts are similar in that I was trying to write about how grateful I was in the midst of very personal situations that were occurring at the time.
Amy and John Keats: I find it takes a lot of time to write about my heroes in a worthwhile way. I’ve only managed it twice so far and it was in these two posts. I’d like to try and write about more!
What It’s Like Not Being White: by far the most popular post as it went viral. I already discussed this in a response post here but I couldn’t really not mention it. I’m so, so grateful for the feedback I received on this.
Pete: my next most-read posts (after ‘Not Being White’) are all my thoughts on Pete. I feel like I’ve poured my heart out in a number of posts that aren’t about Pete, so I’m always surprised that they get more attention as there’s a lot of raw emotion on this blog. I think maybe people just have some kind of morbid, car-crash fascination with that particular subject, or possibly it’s people who knew Pete clicking through?
On Not Feeling Part Of The Sisterhood: this is the only post I’ve ever written that I thought might receive more attention than normal which goes to show my terrible knowledge of my own audience (hey guys!).
Sharm El Sheikh: I loved this post because I managed to sum everything up in one single post. No mean feat as I normally waffle on for 5 or 6 blog posts at a time whenever I go anywhere. I spent a long while trying to distill my magical time in Egypt to something that wouldn’t take hours to read. Here’s to efficiency!
I hope you enjoyed this blog version of Audio Commentary on a DVD. You can read all of my longer posts here or pick something else from the archives or categories if you’d like to delve more into the other 199 posts! Thank you again for reading, it means such a lot to me. Please do let me know if you have any favourite posts out of the last couple hundred and what you would like to see more of! Whether you’ve read the last 2 or the last 200 (if that’s the case, please get in touch for your trophy) I’m so grateful to you. :) 
Holloway Road
Hey look, it’s Bel and Jess! Hanging out with these two is practically becoming a series on this blog. Nearly all of my friends are boys so it’s always fun to hang out with these two and chat about clothes or whatever, Jess is super-sweet and Bel always makes me laugh and the two of them are full of ideas and opinions on blogging, not to mention their incredible outfits. We met on the rainiest day of the year and basically just legged it between coffee shops all day, nattering and snapping brief shots when we could!
There’s no pictures of me as I forgot to charge my camera and the battery ran out (rookie blogger!). To be honest it was nothing new – I own one scarf, one pair of gloves, one rucksack and two pairs of boots so I tend to look pretty similar most of the time. I doubt you lovely readers are particularly interested in seeing me re-work the same 9 items repeatedly…
You can read about our previous exploits here:
Us Lot in South Kensington
Partying in Camden
Partying in Central
Meeting Bel
These Streets Are Made For Blogging
I met up with fellow blog people Bel and Jess all the way back in October, so these have been sitting around for about 6 weeks now! I quite often feel like the old woman of the hills when we all hang out as I’m so old (Bel is actually the same year group as the first class I taught through to A-Level… which is bizarre) but whatever, we have fun!
I’m not actually sure what we were doing in South Kensington as it’s one of my least favourite areas of London; apart from the obvious draw of MUSEUMS it’s mostly just overpriced aesthetics. I have a feeling this is the day my boy was lecturing at the V&A and we were contemplating going… but got too busy drinking hot chocolates…? Or maybe we went solely for the pretty streets…?! I don’t know, it was so long ago! I’ve never blogged about something so far in the past!
I do know we went for tapas and then wandered around the residential area (or “pretty blog streets” as Jess described them) with about 20 minutes of sunlight left; talk about forward-planning. I’m wearing an ensemble from my “maybe keep, maybe chuck” pile, (does anybody else have one of these?) so a lot less put-together than the others!
After taking photos we went and sat in a cafe for about 2 hours and talked about appearance, the media and confidence issues (or lack of) whilst drafting out future blog posts. I’ve got about two female friends outside of blogging and never read any “female” media apart from a few blogs, so this sort of girl chat is very novel for me! I’ve now got a whole series of posts planned out (thrillingly titled “longer life-ish posts and stuff”) which is entirely based on suggestions from Bel and Jess. Thanks guys!
It’s so great having new blog friends! Please go and check out their blogs, they are both far more consistent and stylish then I’ll ever be. And if you have any suggestions for posts to toss into the mix then let me know!
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Brunch and Silver
A couple weeks ago I had the pleasure of meeting up with the lovely Ellie and Bas. We met in Camden Passage (I was horribly late, there was cat sick involved) and had french toast and chats about what everybody has been up to. I’ve read Bas’s blog for ages but had no idea she was a musician! I feel like I know people quite well through reading their blog but obviously there’s parts you never see and don’t know about!
Bas walked with me to my Kings Cross office after and took the outfit photos. Thanks lady! This is classic Laila work outfit territory. This skirt was a gift. I love shiny things & I’ve gotten very into tight skirts recently (more like struggled into…). Needing to look smart all the time has really influenced my outfit choices over the last 6 months; I’ve basically given up with t-shirts and little girly dresses, probably good as I’m in my mid-twenties.
I got to hang out with Bas once more whilst she was over, she’s such a warm and funny person and a brilliant storyteller. I’m so glad we got to meet. Ellie is such a sweetheart; her blog is a new one to me but I’ve really been enjoying catching up! I’ve got a mental list of bloggers I’d like to hang with. Are there any bloggers you’d like to meet?
Skirt – River Island, £30. Top – charity shop, £1. Coat – Greece, ¢15. Bloglovin / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / Website
TAPE PARADE 