Monday 30 January 2017

How To Create The Perfect Blog Photo

How To Create The Perfect Blog Photo photography UK lifestyle makeup beauty blogger blogging tips and and advice

Recently I feel like I've really upped my blog photography game. Taken it to the next level concerning editing, props and the general quality of the photos. This has not been an overnight process. As you would have seen if you have been following my blog for a while, that the improvement in my photos has been a gradual process. 

Back in 2014, when I started blogging, I used a mini handheld camera. I didn't use any props, I didn't edit the photos, and I definitely didn't make them look ascetically pleasing. Skip forward to summer 2015 I got my first DSLR. The quality of the photos started to improve and so did the editing, but we are still not talking anything special. Jump to the start of 2016, and I've discovered the manual settings. I'm using a tripod, and I'm taking into consideration blog props and better framing.

Come summer 2016, I've jumped on the bandwagon of flat lays. Some more successful than others, I must say. Hop forward a couple of months to the end of 2016 and start of 2017 where now I'm using more advanced lenses, adjusting settings and using professional editing software. It's taken around two and half years for me to get photos like this. That's a long time.

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Friday 27 January 2017

How To Support Someone With OCD



When talking about mental health or mental illness, we tend to focus on the sufferer and rightly so, dealing with any mental illness from anxiety to bipolar, is a daily battle, some days are better than others, some days are worse. There are a countless amount of blog posts, articles and YouTube videos about what it is like to suffer from a wide range of mental illnesses. But what about, the people who live or spend a lot of time with someone who is suffering from mental illness? What happens to them?

I think close friends and family, are some of the key people, that can make the recovery process a lot more manageable. Having a good support network around you, when you are going through the darkness times are so valuable. They can help you get the professional support you need, they can reassure you, in the gloomiest of times when you can't see any light at all. They can be your shoulder to cry on, a person to talk to about all your concerns and can make me smile, when all you feel like doing is bursting into tears.

But what about the people, who go through their battle with mental illness alone? The people who don't have a close support network of friends and family around them, to help them get through the worst times. A significant amount of people suffering from a mental illness goes through it alone, without the support of friends and family. Many choose to go through it alone, because of the stigma that surrounds mental illness, they don't want to appear weak or be rejected. So they don't tell anyone. Others, try to tell those closest to them but they get no support whatsoever. They stay silent too.

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Monday 23 January 2017

Why Hoarding Is An Illness And Not a Joke

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I've never spoken about this before on my blog. Not in any of my mental health posts, not on Twitter, nothing. I've never talked about it because I'm afraid of the response I'm going to get. Although there is a considerable stigma and discrimination around mental illness, when you mention the word hoarding or hoarder, people don't even realise it's a mental illness or falls into the same spectrum of mental health. 

For this post, I've done a lot of background research into hoarding and the psychology of being a hoarder. Although, I'm a hoarder ( I bet it didn't take you long to figure that one out) my hoarding is different from the stereotypical view of what you may think a hoarder to be like. Like many mental illnesses, there's a lot of negative stereotypes and stereotypical images that surround them, being a hoarder, is no exception. 

I want to set the bar straight. I want people to see hoarding as a mental illness or an element of a mental illness, just as much as people see heart disease and cancer as physical illness. We've all seen those ' hoarders behind closed doors' programmes which let's be frank are on repeat most weeks on channel 5. I personally don't think they portray hoarding as an illness to be taken seriously. I want to change that by educating you today- on what it really means to be a hoarder. 

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Friday 20 January 2017

50 Facts About Me And My Mental Health

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I wasn't planning on writing this post. The idea kind of just came to me. So I wrote it. I personally think that's the best kind of blog post. The spontaneous, I have no idea where this is going blog post. A bit like my life actually... although that's no problem to me! 

Anyway, I've gone completely off track. I was going to do an updated 50 facts about me post. But then I was like Nah, there a bit odd school now, they don't really fit with the vibes I'm going for. Ya know what I mean, like? So in a pure gold, lightbulb style moment, I thought I would do a mental health version. 

In a nutshell, this is basically 50 facts about my mental health. An odd concept, I know. But I think it works, kind of? Does it? Who knows? Don't know if you guys will actually find this interesting at all but it was kind of therapeutic for me, writing everything down. Maybe in the future instead of having to explain my mental health story each time to different people I can direct them to this post! 

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Monday 16 January 2017

My Favourite Mental Health Bloggers

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I love reading blogs (when I get the chance that is), but if there's one thing I love reading more than blogs, it's reading mental health blogs. For sure, I love myself fashion, lifestyle and beauty blogs but there's something about mental health blogs that I find incredibly reassuring, comforting and helpful. They help me feel less alone, at times where I feel like I'm the only one who is suffering from mental illness in the entire universe.

I absolutely love the mental health blogger community on Twitter. Everyone is so incredibly brave and strong but also loving and supportive to everyone else. A day doesn't go by when I don't see someone spreading the love or offering a virtual hug. It makes me feel so warm and fuzzy inside. And I've just realised how incredibly cheesy that sounds.

For this post, I've picked five of my fave mental health bloggers, but I'm definitely going to have to make this into a series. There are so many wonderful bloggers out there who do an incredible job of reducing the stigma and raising awareness of mental health issues. I honestly admire every single one of you. I'm going to definitely make this into a little series to spread the love as much as possible. 

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Friday 13 January 2017

6 Easy Ways To Support Other Bloggers

6 Easy Ways To Support Other Bloggers advice tips makeup beauty blogging UK fashion lifestyle mental health

The number one, hands down best thing about blogging is the community. Without it, I wouldn't have been able to of formed the friendships that I have today or had the privilege of talking to some of the amazing and talented bloggers that I speak to every day. 

The best thing I love about the b
logging community is how supportive everyone is. I would be hard pushed to scroll down my Twitter feed for more than a couple of seconds without seeing a blogger supporting another blogger. No matter how busy I am that day, I always try and fit in some time to support other bloggers. 

I absolutely love this community and wouldn't change it for the world! However, if you are new to the blogging community or are just looking for some new ways to support fellow bloggers- I hope this post helps you out! ( Eeek!! I just want to give you all a big squeeze and a hug- I love you all too much)

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Monday 9 January 2017

10 Ways To Spread Happiness


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I am a big believer in spreading happiness and positivity. I may not always be the most positive person and let me tell you- I have a lot of bad days, just like the rest of the human race but I do try my hardest! If I can't be happy myself, the least I can do is try to make others happy! 

I think it can be easy for us to say we want to spread happiness and joy but how many of us actually do it? When was the last time we actively went out of our way to make someone else happy? I am a strong believer in that happiness does not have a quantitative value. Sometimes simply smiling at someone, holding the door open for them or offering to help when they are struggling means a lot more than any expensive gift.

Today I thought I would share with you 10 simple and effective ways to spread happiness. These simple little things take only minutes out of your day but could make someone's week. I would love to know if you manage to do any of these, after reading this post! I know I will be trying a lot harder to continue to spread happiness.

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Friday 6 January 2017

How I Defrazzle

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Defrazzle. Defrazzle. Deeee....frazzzzllleeee! Okay, I'm going to stop now, but isn't it just such a cool word? I like words and when I come across a new word that I really like I become a bit obsessed and start chucking it in every sentence. Sometimes when it's not even needed! I know, such a rebel! When I was contacted and asked if I would be interested it reading and potentially reviewing, Ruby Wax's newest book 'The mindfulness guide for the frazzled' of course I said yes! I mean, A. it has the word frazzled in the title and B. it's written by the one and only Ruby Wax. I would be an idiot to turn down the offer.

To celebrate the release of the 'The mindfulness guide for the frazzled' coming out in paperback, Penguin sent a few little goodies with the book, like a mini spa 'defrazzle' package to help me relax and you know what I am going to say...DEFRAZZLE in the new year. Inspired by Ruby's new book, which, spoiler alert is excellent. I thought I would share with you what makes me incredibly stressed and quite frankly gets my knickers in a twist, which I can ensure you is not a pretty sight! As well, how I #DEFRAZZLE and how I actually pull myself back down to earth and be a productive human being.

With the help of The mindfulness guide for the frazzled, I've actually picked up some new techniques which I'm dead excited to put to the test and see if they help me out (I'll keep you posted on this) I also have my own, more unconventional ways of reducing stress, which I'm going to share today and maybe, just maybe...you might find them helpful too! Probs not, but ya know? It's worth a try!

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Monday 2 January 2017

In a World Full Of 'Depressed People' Why Do I Have Depression?

In a World Full Of 'Depressed People' Why Do I Have Depression? help support depressed mental health illness bloggers

Something I've observed quite a lot recently while being at college full of mostly uneducated people to the world of mental illness is that people don't understand what depression really is. Most people don't understand mental illness full stop. But today I want to focus on depression specifically. 

From my personal experience, people don't really throw around the terms 'OCD' 'bipolar' and 'schizo' as much as they do depression. They definitely don't understand these terms, especially at certain times of year with OCD being turned into obsessive Christmas disorder, which gets me unbelievably angry. Sure, these terms aren't always used correctly, and people definitely don't understand them, but there's something about depression. I don't know if it's the turn in weather or the fact that people want to appear 'cool' to their friends. 

I mean, I really don't understand what's cool about taking the mic out of a mental illness, but hey, that's stigma and discrimination for you. I don't know why, but people seem to enjoy throwing the term depressed or depression about willy nilly, without actually thinking twice about who they are talking to. 

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