LouLouLand Is 17! - Wishing My Little Place On The Internet A Belated Happy Birthday

I know it's pretty obvious but over the last year or so but I've really struggled with blogging - As well as life and health getting in the way, I've struggled with engagement, and I've struggled with finding a place in this new era of quick and snappy content, but over the last month or so I've started to feel a little bit more positive about the whole thing.

Whilst I'm trying to engage more with short form platforms, I'm actually enjoying writing again, swatching products, and planning out posts, and that's what it should be about, not agonising over statistics, or constantly monitoring earnings and click throughs. That isn't to say that engagement and interaction doesn't matter, but it's not something that I'm going to stress about - you see so many influencers and content creators bragging about all the campaigns there getting but so many of us are just muddling along, keeping going not just for the 'freebies' and the £ but because we're doing something that we enjoy or even love!

17 Years ago yesterday I posted my first ever blog post, and to be honest I had no idea where it would lead me. I've worked with some amazing brands, gone to some fab events, and met some lovely people irl but above all it's given me and outlet and a purpose. Spending so much time cooped up indoors it's allowed me to escape from the everyday - it's given me something to focus on and to stop my brain turning to mush, and it's allowed me to feel part of something.

That's been even more apparent over the last couple of days by all of the lovely comments and messages I've received from people all over the world, lots of whom I've never met in person and would never have came into contact with without my blog or social media.

I guess what I'm trying to say as per usual is how grateful I am to every single person who has ever followed or subscribed to my blog or any of my social media channels, read a post, commented, or interacted in any way. I'm not saying that I wouldn't keep blogging without you but it certainly wouldn't be the same.

So thank you all for sticking with me and fingers crossed you all stick with me for another year, and if you're new welcome to my blog and I hope you'll like what you see and you'll subscribe for lots of beauty, fashion, lifestyle and 'real life' content x Thanks for being here and here's to another 17 years ;)

Sweet Sixteen - Happy Birthday LouLouLand, And Life Lately

It wouldn't be a birthday in the UK without a caterpillar cake, and whilst it's not my birthday, my baby aka my blog celebrates it's 16th birthday today eeek. When I clicked publish on that first post, I never thought that I would outlast so many of my favourite blogs, and still be churning out posts (all be it sporadically!) 16 years later, and what a 16 years it's been!

So much has changed in that time, not only in my own life but also in the worlds of fashion, beauty and of course social media. Blogging to be honest now is a bit passe, people, advertisers and brands, now seem to want faster, simpler content like Instagram and Tik Tok which I can completely understand, but whilst I do dabble in other mediums (check out the links in my sidebar), blogging is the place where I feel really at home, using all be it rambling words to express my feelings, views and frustrations, as I muddle through life. 

I'm not going to lie the last few years have been rough not only personally but also blogging wise. Although I am partially to blame, lack of engagement and lack of progression has all made me wonder if it's all worth while, but I still love writing and creating content, and blogging gives me an outlet and a place I can escape to when life gets a little bit too much. Not only that but my stats show that there are still some of you out there that continue to read my blog even when I haven't posted for an age, which is still pretty amazing to me and I really can't thank you enough.

So I guess the gist of this is that I'm not going away anytime soon, I'm trying not to look too far into the future (one of my very bad habits!) instead focusing more on the here and now, and despite several blips at the start of this year, LouLouLand will continue into 2023 and hopefully beyond that.

This year has had a slightly delayed start because, and yes this is the main reason, my mam ordered me a new bed as part of my Christmas present. My old one as you can see was well past it's best, and it was starting to interfere with my sleep, and my pain levels, so I asked for something practical from Santa. We managed to get a really good price on one in the after Christmas sales but we couldn't get it delivered till the end of January - annoying but on reflection it was the best thing that could have happened. My room had to basically be gutted, to get the old bed out and the new one in, and believe me it was hard work, especially for two people with chronic illness but the room was cleared, the bed base was removed and yes I ended up sleeping on a pretty wrecked mattress on the floor for about a week which did nothing for my back.

Eventually we got both the mattress and the bed frame outside for council collection, the new one arrived, and thankfully the fabulous delivery guys took it upstairs for us so it just needed minimal assembly, and voila, new Orla Kiely bedding, and a new duvet, and already my sleep had improved at least 90%, and my back feels less achey when I wake up - result!

Getting the bed back in was the main thing, but we're still unpacking boxes and try to find homes for all the shoe boxes that were under my bed, the furniture is all back in now but since I've decided to go through my belongings with a charity bag in hand as I'm bringing things back in, I've still got quite a way to go before every is back in and in it's correct place - arghhhhh! why is nothing in my world ever simple?

There is no question that I've been doing too much physical stuff so I'm seriously lacking in spoons at the moment hence I haven't really had the energy to do much of anything else, including blogging. That been said I do actually have a couple of posts that are just about ready to go up, so you'll hopefully see both of those next week and I can actually start 2023 properly.

I have no idea in all honesty what direction the blog is really going to go in this year but I'm going to try and live a bit more in the moment and post about what I want, when I want. I have lots of ideas flying around in my head about things that I want to do but as per usual it's about putting them into practise x So Happy Sweet Sixteen LouLouLand, it's been a journey and thanks to your support, and my own bloody mindedness, it's not over yet x 

Happy 10th Birthday LouLouLand! - Reflecting On 10 Years Of Blogging

You can't celebrate a birthday without cake, but unfortunately for me or should I say unfortunately for my stomach, all I could get my hands was these yummy and super sweet Tesco cupcakes.

It isn't my birthday of course, but it's the 10th birthday of something that's slowly become to define me, and become a part of me, my blog! It's hard to believe that 10 years ago today I made the decision to sign up to blogspot and I decided to start sharing my life and my loves online.

Since I started celebrating my blogging birthday I've posted quite a few of these Happy Birthday posts now and they all say something pretty similar - I usually talk about how much blogging has changed over the years, and how grateful I am for all of the opportunities that have came my way, and to be honest today, my feelings are exactly the same. I've been very lucky over the years, I've worked with some amazing brands and I've met some lovely people ,all through farting about on the Internet as one of my relatives describes it!

As I've said before though, blogging really has become my lifeline, it's given me something to focus on and something to do when various aspects of my life on turmoil, it's helped me meet new people, it's helped me learn lots of new skills, and I'm now lucky enough to class as a part time job.

The last few years have been hard for me personally in a lot of ways, and unfortunately I feel as though my blog has suffered, I haven't spent as much time and effort on it as I would have liked, and as I've said previously my posting and my content has suffered, but you're still here and you're still with me. So I want to say a huge, huge thank you to every single person out there that's read or followed my blog over, and I'd also like to say a huge thank you to the brands and companies that I've worked with, and I'd also liked to thank all of my follow blogging friends both new and old, if it hadn't been for all of your support and encouragement there is no way I would still be prattling on 10 years after that first not very exciting post x

After a couple of frustrating months I'm just about ready to get back to where I want to be - I have lots and lots of plans and ideas for the future and I'm looking forward to my blogging future with both optimism and enthusiasm. As I say I can't thank you all enough for your support so as a way of expressing my gratitude I will be hosting another high end beauty giveaway on the blog which should be live in the next few days x So Merci Beaucoup again and I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend xx

Happy New Year - Reflections, Looking Ahead And My Goals For 2015

Happy New Year Everyone x  I hope you all had a fabulous New Years Eve what ever you did x Mine was quiet, me and Mummy Lou spent the evening eating, drinking and reflecting on the year gone by.

2014 was a tough year in a lot of ways, my health issues continued and in some ways worsened, my godmother had an accident and broke several bones, and both my mum and my godfather are set for surgery and hospital stays in the New Year, but we're all still here and we're still battling on.

My health issues have affected my blog a lot more than I would have liked over the last 12 months and as a result my blog hasn't moved on as much in 2014 as I would have liked. I didn't post as much as regularly as I could have done and I wasn't happy with the quality or variety of some of my posts, at time it all felt a bit samey.

It wasn't all negative when it came to the blog though - last week I hit 700,000 all time blog views,  Thank You so much it's an amazing feat which I'm unbelievably proud of, and it really shows how far that I've come. I also attended quite a few blogger events last year which I really enjoyed - I'm still quite a shy person and if you'd asked me a few years ago if I could walk into a room full of people I barely knew and feel pretty comfortable I would never have believed you. Blogging has made such a difference in helping me get some form of independence back. It's given me something to focus on other than my illness, and it's helped me to meet so many new people.

Unlike some people who've hidden their blogs from their friends and family I've always been open with mine. My friends and family might not always understand some of the things that I do or I talk about but they've always been 100% supportive. For Christmas my lovely mum treat me to two things that are hopefully going to make blogging and social media a little bit easier for me in 2015 -  a shiny new laptop and quite fabulously a video camera.

My aim in 2014 was to expand both my blog and my You Tube channel, but as you've probably already gathered that didn't really happen. Hopefully my new camera and some new lighting will enable me to make more and better quality videos, and hopefully a speedier laptop will make all of those blogging tasks such as photo editing and drafting much easier.

So what can you expect from my blog and You Tube in 2015? Well  I want my blog  and my You Tube channel to grow and to improve. I've listened to and read your comments over the last few months and the majority of you want to see more beauty reviews. Your wish is my command and whilst my blog is still about a bit of everything, beauty will definitely dominate in 2015. I'm also going to try and do a few more outfit and fashion posts, and a few more home related, food and lifestyle posts to mix it up a bit. I'm also hoping to post more regularly too, and of course there will be some more giveaways. I've already asked this question in my recent giveaway post but there is any specific post that you would like to read please let me know x

You Tube wise, monthly favourites will resume, and I will eventually get round to doing my much requested room tour post. I'm also planning on doing a few tags, an updated what's in my bag and maybe an updated perfume collection video. Again if there are any videos that you would like to see than please leave me a comment and I'll do my best once I get to grips with my camera x

Away from blogging and You Tube I'm not big and resolutions but I do have a few personal goals that I'm going to try and focus on that I'm going to share with you.

Goals For 2015

1. Stop comparing myself to others! Why do we do this? Someone will always be better than you at something, prettier than you, cleverer than you. It only depresses you - I need to concentrate on me and my positives rather than bothering about other people so much

2. Use and wear what I buy  - Looking back at last years haul posts I bought so much stuff. Do I really need another nude eyeshadow palette, another blue nail polish, and yet another black or white vest - quite frankly no. Trimming My Stash is going to continue and I'm going to make a huge effort to cut down on my spending and buying so much of the same stuff.

3. Be more organised - I make this resolution / set this goal every year but this needs to be the year that I actually do it. I need to be tidier, and I need to clear out my clutter. I dread to think just how much time I've wasted looking for things I've mislaid and how much stress its caused me.

4. Food - I did so well on my healthy eating plan at the beginning of last year that it goes without saying that in 2015 I'll be trying to do more of the same. My aims are 3 meals a day, healthier snacks and to try and do a bit more exercises and physical activity.

5. Sleep - My illness plays havoc with my sleeping patterns but at times I don't think I help myself. My aim for 2015 is to make it into bed before midnight, to cut down on social media late at night, to cut out the afternoon naps and to try and get up at a sensible time no matter how useless I feel or how badly I've slept.

6. Switch off the laptop, the iPad and my iPhone for one day a week - This is a pretty big one but like most of us communication and social media plays such a huge role in my life that sometime I neglect other things. On those days I'm planning to spend time doing other things that I enjoy, reading, watching films or craft and spending  more time with my family.

Like any year I'm expecting 2015 to have it's ups and downs, life's like that and nothing ever goes to plan, but in the majority of cases we are in charge of out own destiny, and I'm going to do my level best to make 2015 my best and most successful year ever x Happy New Year and here's hoping it's a good one for all of us x

Thank You And A Giveaway Heads Up x

Today is a good day x Okay in parts it hasn't been, but today I hit 400 Bloglovin followers. It might not seem a lot to some people but for me it's a bit of a milestone.

Way back when, when I started blogging the only way to follow a blog was to bookmark it or save it in your favourites. How times have changed, I'm still quite loyal to GFC (Google Friend Connect for you newbies out there) and as a result it took me a while to actually claim my blog and get myself a bloglovin account. It hasn't been without it's problems a lot of people still seem to have followed my actual personal account rather than my blog. It doesn't matter to me how people follow - I love you anyway :) but this is the digital age and stats matter so if you do follow please can you make sure that you follow my blog here and not my personal account which you can find here x

This year I've been a bit meh when it comes to my blog, my health hasn't been the best and as it should do, my blogs taken a back seat. I guess that's why I'm so pleased that so many of you still seem to have faith in me and my blog and you've stuck with me regardless, it makes me want to kick my stupid body in to touch and blog my weary little heart out.

I'm being a bit gushy and sentimental here but what I'm trying to say is thank you for being there x I have a few issues with the term blogging community at times but without it I wouldn't be the person I am today. I've met so many lovely people both online and in the flesh, and I've had the most amazing experiences and opportunities all because of blogging.

So how to say thank you -well I'd love to give you all a huge hug and a cupcake but that's not really very practical so I guess a giveaway is the only way. I know a lot of people say that giveaways don't necessarily reward long term followers and whilst I agree with that it's the only thing that I can think of. I'm aiming to have my giveaway live next weekend as I'm still waiting for some of my prizes to arrive. So over the next week I'm going to give you a few sneaky peaks of what you can win. Everyday on my Facebook, twitter and instagram I'm going to show you one item from the prize package - so make sure your following x

Thank you so much for your support x and I can assure you that normal less gushy posting will resume tomorrow with a yummy recipe, followed by a product rave and a review over the weekend xx Thanks for reading x

Thank You

Just a quick post to say thank you to you all for the kind words regarding yesterdays post - it really meant a lot to me and my mum when I told her and helped me through a not so good day - Thank You x
While were on the subject of thank yous - a huge thank you to all my new followers - that really means a lot to me too xx
More posts later xx