My Month In Photos - May 2016
Every month I swear to god I exclaim how quickly the days have gone and how on earth has another month finished? This one is no different.
I have been writing My Month In Photos review for ages now but when it came to writing this, it just felt a bit stale. I dunno, I was reading last month's and I thought it's just a bit samey. it's exactly like my Friday Favs, heck most of the images probably did appear in a FF at some point.
So I got thinking. I didn't want to end these posts but I did want to revamp it and make it a bit more chatty like having a goss and a natter with friends. And then I remembered Hannah from HannahEmilyLane has started doing a weekly roundup that is super informal and written in exactly the same tone as I was thinking.
Hannah is rounding up her week chatting about what blogs she's written, what her bullet journal looks like (my fav naturally), what she wore, what she read and what she's been up to and it's so friendly and chatty it's exactly what I wanted to turn this post into.
So here's to the new look 'My Month In Photos' and Hannah if you're reading this, soz and that for running with your idea, it's done out of lovely and admiration only I swear -insert whole row of heart emojis here-
What I Did:
So May was massively busy for me and I knew it would be. It was one of them months where you have loads planned and your diary is full and you just can't wait to get it all done. And then suddenly it's all done and you've moved onto the next month and you're a bit like oh wait I don't know if I appreciated that enough? At the beginning of the month it was my anniversary and me and my boyfriend celebrated 6 years together with a TGI Fridays and a well earned weekend off in front of some films. Middle of the month I embarked on a 9 hour round road trip to Wrexham to relive university for 24 hours and we went shopping and ate lots and had a cute evening in the hotel and got sunburnt in the country park. This weekend I went to Derby for 24 hours with my Dad, brother and his girlfriend (more coming on that in my Friday Favs this week) and then it was my niece's first birthday on Sunday which we had a party for (more on that too!) I spent my Bank Holiday Monday meeting up with a friend for coffee and relishing in the sunshine and making a tent for my niece to play in.
What I Watched:
Tv this month has been wonderful to say the least. New KUWTK, Celebrity Juice finished last week, Gogglebox has been back for a few weeks, Manchester United won the FA Cup final and it was Eurovision. Need I say more. Film wise, I watched The Wolf Of Wall Street twice because I hadn't seen it before and I LOVED it. Seriously if you haven't seen it, make time (it's nearly 3 hours long), I loved it. I also watched The Man From Uncle, Macbeth with Fassbender in it and then this weekend I went to the cinema to see Bad Neighbours 2 (will talk about in FF promise).
What I Worked On:
This month was super quiet for illustration work which is less than ideal when it's your full time job. However I have been investing a lot of time into my Etsy where am relaunching my products with new prices, new photography and even some new goodies which you can check out tomorrow! Father's Day is in June so I've been designing cards and also working on printables for bullet journals which have been really well received and which I loved doing so expect some more of them! I have also been working on my regular design job for Llantwit Major Horticultural Society whose website and social media pages I run and I made a cute poster covered in bugs which was fun!
What I Chatted About:
My bullet journal page of Twitter chats is the one people tweet me about the most and it's safe to say it is well used already! I have tried to take part in as many Twitter chats this month as possible and I spoke last week about how much I loved Late Night Bloggers. I am also loving IGChat every Sunday, it's hosted by lovely people, it's full of good chat and it's about Instagram so what's not to love? I haven't taken part in chats on a Monday for a few weeks now because it's ALWAYS the night I take my niece home but it's also the night of beechat, thegirlgang, smileitsmonday and BDIB so I am hoping to get the chance to join in again in June!
What I Blogged:
This will be my 28th post in 31 days which ain't bag going. I only took a break when I went to Wrexham, once middle of last week when I was insanely busy prepping for my Etsy launch and yesterday when I knew I'd be too knackered after my busy weekend. My most popular blog post of the month was my free bullet journal printables followed swiftly by my 'One Week Of Bullet Journaling' which really is no surprise. My favourite posts were probably the ones I wrote off the cuff as a reaction to something like 'Negativity in the Bloggersphere' and '55 Thoughts We Had On The Instagram Update.'
What I Loved:
I have a current Bloglovin feed of 109 bloggers that I follow and read regularly. Obviously some post more than others but my 'unread' list has known to go into the hundreds, especially when I follow someone new and catch up on all their old posts too. This month most of my favs have been ones I have saved that have taught me something. My absolute favourite was Hannah (as mentioned above) post on How To Create Pinterest Graphics which was 1. Massively helpful and easy to follow and 2. Super easy to do but makes such a difference to your blog. I also saved her Bloggers Guide To Pinterest for the same reason, she really is a queen. All hail. I also saved Jasmine's post on SEO tips for busy bloggers which is SO good for someone like me who doesn't 100% get SEO and doesn't have the time to research into it and make it count, seriously she makes it sound so easy and approachable. And finally I saved 5 Custom Google Analytic Reports for Bloggers by Sariah from PrettyNotIncluded because Google Analytics is fab and all but can be super confusing when you're trying to work out everything it can do. She also wrote a post on apps for bloggers which is in my unread list which I am looking forward to reading (oh and she's a babe on Twitter so that's always handy too!)
I hope you like the new look monthly roundup, I certainly enjoyed writing it more and it gives me the opportunity to give a little cheer to some bloggers I'm loving which always makes me happy!
Enjoy June, we'll see this little regular at the end of the month!
If you liked this you might also like 'Lost In A Book Tag.'