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Back in 2013, I was a college student and loving life. I had made new friends in college and was happy to explore their hobbies more. Apart from taking up becoming an amateur filmmaker, I also discovered the world of blogging. My best friend at the time Char was talking about how she had these online friends, Charlotte and Hayley and I knew from reading their blogs it was something I wanted to be a part of. I set up my own blog in a matter of days and took to Twitter to talk share the news of my freshly born blog, Dungarees & Donuts and began writing my first post, all about creating Barbie cupcakes from a packet mix, I took 3 really bad quality photos, threw some words together and put it up and I was as happy as Larry.
Back then it was all about the tags, the Christmas crafts and gift guides and the ‘awards’ and of course, Sunday night was the night you needed to be around for the best chats, #lbloggers followed by #bbloggers. You’d get to know other bloggers, you’d read their blogs and leave comments, it was cute! Photos were small compared to the writing aspect and a lot of us were at that beginner’s level which included taking photos on our phones, never did I dream that blogging would become what it is today and especially not for me. Everything seemed to be fresh back then, and ideas were easy to come by, and now we are in 2018 it seems like most things have been done, your photography skills need to immense to even get a look in and for the most part it feels like it’s about who you know, rather than what you know.
During the last two years, I have found myself in an on-off relationship with blogging to the point where I’ve considered packing it in altogether, and it can be hard to get out of that mind frame, you see your friends getting all of these AMAZING opportunities, their posts keep getting better and their social followings are hardcore. I was obsessed with comparing myself to other bloggers and what they were doing, rather than what I was doing. In hindsight, I’ve done pretty well for myself and keep doing well, I’ve worked with brands I used to love when I was younger and could never have imagined one day I’d be working with them as an influencer. Through blogging, I have met some of my best friends, including Liz who actually lives near me(!!) and back in 2015 I created a blogger chat on WhatsApp which has gained and lost many members over the years but it’s still going strong and I couldn’t imagine not having my girls on hand (Sarah, Kim, Elena, Aoife, Jess and Fii) to name a few, along with my more recent blogger pals!
It’s taken me 5 years to finally be happy with the content I am creating, including the photos and taking the pressure off has really helped me along the way. It used to be all about the scheduled posts (making sure I had at least 20 posts ready to go) to work to my own schedule whether that is one post a week or one hundred (slight overreaction), I am creating better content that I am happier to share with people and couldn’t imagine being without my blog! My goals for the next 5 years are to keep creating awesome and relatable content, build up my Instagram even more and keep loving what I create!
