The Winter Bloggers Snail Mail - Sign Ups Now Open!

Welcome to the Winter round of The Bloggers Snail Mail! Way back at the beginning of March I launched the first ‘The Bloggers Snail Mail’ and this is now going to be the fourth round!! Ive had so much fun organising this project and chatting to lots of new lovely bloggers, I really hope you get as much out of it as I do.

 

So here is how it works:

A quarterly gift exchange where you can meet other bloggers from around the world and spread a bit of positivity! People get paired up in March, June, September and December. During the sign up period, every participant will be paired with one other new participant and you’ll spend a few weeks becoming BFFs (i.e. reading each other’s blogs, sending happy e-mails, you name it!). After that, you’ll send your partner a gift from your country that you think they may like from the info you now know about them. There’s a £5 limit on the gifts to make this project as affordable as possible. Be as creative as you can and make it meaningful! Motivate them, tell them all the beautiful things you learned about them, and make them feel special! We could all use a little encouragement, especially from our new friends. Also, each package should include a postcard (or a letter if you can’t find one!) with some motivating love or positive words of wisdom written all over it.

So to sign up for the ‘The Bloggers Snail Mail’ you just need to send an email to whatsinyourmakeupbag@gmail.com, title it ‘The Bloggers Snail Mail’ and include in it your name, where you are from, and you blog! Sign ups will be open until the Friday 28^th November. I will then randomly match you all up aiming to make sure you are with someone from another country or at least in another area from you! I will then let you know by Monday 1st December  who your partner is and you then have 4 weeks to get to know them! So the week of the 29th December, you can then send your new buddy their Snail Mail!

Once you receive your gifts, write a blog post about your experience, sharing what you gave, received, and learnt through this being part of this and meeting your new pal.

If you want to tweet about this project, use the hashtag #TheBloggersSnailMail, You can also tag me @GemmaMarieJames and ill retweet your post, so everyone can share your experience!

Please only sign up if you definitely are willing to take part and if you want to be matched with someone from the same country as you to save on postage then please let me know!!

The Realities of Blogging Every Day...

I actually completed #Blogtober14! I actually blogged every day throughout October! Go me!

I am excited and shocked by this fact as I genuinely didn’t think I would actually pull it off! I’ve always blogged 3 or 4 times a week, which has suited my life and I had fallen into a comfy routine with it. I guess looking back I was getting a bit bored of the routine and of blogging in general so doing #Blogtober14 has actually been a pretty fun way of shaking things up!

I know a lot of bloggers do blog every day and doing this has really raised my respect for them! I juggle two jobs, I am a carer for my mum, I have a pretty good social life and I also run a small online jewellery shop. My life is hectic at the best of times and blogging has always been my ‘me’ time. So trying to fit in a blog post on the days when I’m doing all of the above has been a little testing! Scheduling posts has been a lifesaver! I usually do my blogging on a Sunday afternoon and a couple of evenings in the week depending on what else is going on. So I knew from the start the only way I was going to complete this challenge was by scheduling posts and being a little creative with my time! I wouldn’t say it’s been easy but I quite like to be busy and I find I am at my most productive then!

I tend to do things in blocks, like taking a ton of photographs for reviews all in one go. Anyone else finding as we head into winter, getting decent lighting is turning into a bit of a nightmare! I then sit and do the writing all in one go too. It makes things a lot easier, however I also love the spontaneity of writing when the moment takes me and just posting it there and then. This was harder to do when you are posting each and every day and it was something I really missed doing.

Blogging everyday has really got my creativity flowing and resparked my love of blogging. ‘Lipsticks and Lashes’ is my baby and I think I may have been neglecting it for a little while before this challenge. I was a little worried I might run of ideas for posts but if anything my current list of post ideas has tripled and I could probably continue blogging each and every day for the next few months without running out of ideas!

When I told some fellow bloggers I was going to blog every day, the response was ‘aren’t you worried the quality of your posts will suffer?’ I was already half way through the month and not really thought about it. I work hard on my blog and I don’t think my posts became poor quality I think I just didn’t have time to give each post some love after they had been posted. Normally I post then promote them via twitter etc which I didn’t do much of during October. This something I really missed doing but due to being busy I just didn’t get the time to do it. I thought this would have affected traffic to my blog as I wouldn’t say I was getting each post out there as much as I usually would but in terms of traffic, my figures almost doubled! This really surprised me I wasn’t really expecting that, I had a more consistent flow of traffic through Lipsticks and Lashes which was great.

Looking at the pros and cons of blogging every day, although there are benefits I think what’s more important for me is getting that healthy life/blog balance. Blogging is one of my favorite hobbies, if it could become more than a hobby then that would be a dream come true but for right now I’m not convinced blogging every day is something I want to do. I’d rather focus on great quality posts then churn out post after post without really embracing them fully. I look at some of my favorite big time bloggers and some of them only post a couple of times a week, I think they key here is to embrace your blog, post what excites you and you can’t fail. I think we all sometimes need a reminder of why we started blogging sometimes and for me it was somewhere to use as an outlet for my love of writing and a place to whittle on!

Love your blog and post when it suits you, no one else!

Motivational Monday #35

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How many of us are terrible guilty of taking for granted the little details in life? I sure am! We live in such a fast paced world where we are continuously running from one thing to the next completely ignorant to the small details. So from today I am going to slow myself down, I’m going to appreciate the cool crisp autumn air, the cosy winter nights.... I am going to focus on being more appreciative and happy.

 

The Body Shop Seaweed Ionic Clay Face Mask

 

Do you ever go through beauty obsessions? Recently for me it’s been primers, I think I’ve tried so many over the past few months! Now it’s pretty much all face cleansing products as my skin has been a bit of a mare lately! I keep having huge breakouts along my jaw line and chin. It’s hideous and makes me feel like I’m 15 again! My beautician reckons getting spots there is due to hormones, so not sure how to resolve that one?!

Any way back to my obsession, I have been hoarding cleansers and face masks in attempt to improve my skin and the latest purchase is this face mask. This being The Body Shops Seaweed Ionic Clay Mask!

I love applying face masks when I have nice hot relaxing bath so it was no difference when I used this! I smeared a layer of this over my face and just soaked in the bubbles whilst it did its magic.

 

It’s not the most pleasant smell, and is quite pungent but after a little while you kind of get used to it. However looking at reviews others seem to like the smell this may be just my personal taste! The instructions recommend leaving it on for 10 minutes, which I did and it dried easily within this time. Unlike some other masks, it washes off really easily.

After use my face felt really fresh and smooth, it instantly removes all the excess oil and leave skin feeling lovely and soft. My skin felt really refreshed afterwards.

At £13.00 it seemed a little extortionate to me so I hesitated a while before buying it. I was recommended it by numerous people though and decided I would give it a try. You don’t need much of the product to get good coverage on your face so it will probably last you quite a while. It may seem a bit pricey but it really is one of the most powerful masks I’ve tried lately and will be my go to mask from now on.

Nails // Rimmel London Space Dust in Total Eclipse

 

This has to be my favourite polish at the moment, it’s vampy and perfect for Autumn! I am in LUST! What is it I hear you ask? Well it’s Rimmel London’s Space Dust in Total Eclipse. It’s a textured polish and looks a dark black but in certain lights can shimmer a dark purple or green.

I love this polish so much, I am a fan of textured polishes I think they add a bit of edge. It’s also so easy to apply, I only needed two coats to get the look I wanted and it dries pretty quickly too. This is definitely going to be a regular on my nails over the next few months!

Have you used a textured polish?

Motivational Monday #34

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And ain't this the truth! Life comes with all kinds of swerve balls but at the end of the day all I strive to be is really fucking happy. I want to be that kind of happy where your insides hurt from laughing so hard and you are grinning like a complete prat. Being happy is a simple concept but things can knock this out of the ball park (I’ve no idea where all the board game references are coming from today?!), life can be complicated, so sometimes we just need to stop, take a deep breath, remind ourselves of the good and put on a massive smile!

So I now challenge you all to go and be really, really, really fucking happy this week!



 



Links I Love #3

Bride-to-be whose fiancé died just days before their wedding has a heartbreaking photo shoot in her dress 'to say goodbye'. So beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time.

 

Cats in fancy dress. You’re welcome.

 

 

 

These beautiful photographs have been taken at night, they are local landmarks to me and are just WOW!

 

 

Homeless People Were Asked To Write Down A Fact About Themselves. I LOVE this. I have worked with homeless people and some of their stories are fascinating. Bad times can hit anyone at anytime and its so important to remember that. Everyone has a story.

One Couple's Brave Decision To Live Small Results In A Brilliantly Designed Home. I love the rage for small homes, this is one of the best ones ive seen!

10 Smart Moves Every Twenty something Should Make. I think everyone in their twenties should read this! Its so spot on! I am fully behind the travelling point!

5 regrets of the dying. Something i think everyone should read, gets you thinking.

This gentleman has Cerebral Palsy and uses a type writer to create art, so incredible!