Happy Birthday, Dear Blog| One Year Old

 

  

2888 friends and supporters, 1829 Comments, 365 days, 177 blog posts and 1 Blog Award final later my blog and I have arrived at our first ever birthday!

A year has passed since I started Outside Beauty Inside Health and I could not have foreseen how much it would change my life. This time last year I yearned for somewhere to express myself, so I sat and started typing on my first ever blog post, not knowing that it would soon become my full time hobby and passion. I was at first unsure about putting myself out there; there is something quite vulnerable about sharing your life on the internet, but deep down I knew I wanted to share my thoughts with the world. So thank god I had the courage to take the plunge, and a year ago I sat alone on a rainy November afternoon and wrote my first blog post.

I could not have imagined the incredible amount of support, love, community and readership it has gained! This year I have seen some of the kindest and most generous behaviour from a group of people who I have never met before, many who I now count as friends. I love to see how far my blog has grown and developed in the past year; I have been able to connect and collaborate with other talented bloggers and brands, been a finalist in the Cosmo blog Awards, and gained a job all because of the time, dedication and effort I put into my little corner of the internet.

However many opportunities I have gained, it will not replace the genuine love I now have for blogging. I enjoy every aspect of it; thinking of ideas and features, buying and trying new products, taking pictures and editing photos, tapping away at my keyboard and seeing my thoughts come together in a blog post, interacting with others on social media and reading others blogs.

Overall I love being able to inspire, entertain and encourage others with my ramblings. I can’t imagine my blogging life without all of you! You are all so wonderful and inspiring and I love interacting with you all. So thank you everyone for listening (well mostly reading) to my ramblings, thank you for your overwhelming support! I can’t wait for many more blogging years to come!

So to celebrate my one year blog birthday I wanted to share with you the favourite posts of both myself and my some of my loved ones.

You- Fitness Friday- A New Fitness Favourite- Many of you have commented how much you enjoy my Fitness Friday posts, and this post is the all time most popular on my blog. I love that these posts inspire you to try something new and hopefully to become more healthy!

Mum- Fitness Friday- Row Row Row Your Boat- Mum and I both had such a laugh trying this new fitness regime out. The pictures are pretty funny too! I’m looking forward to trying it again next spring.

Steve- Think Pink- Breast Cancer Awareness- This one is a favourite of many of my family members because of how important and personal it is to us all. I hope you took the time to read it!

Matt- Five Years- This is my boyfriend’s favourite post, probably because it is dedicated to him!

Mine- What A Week- Cosmo Blog Awards- This is my favourite post, short and sweet, but one of the highlights of my year. Every time I see it I remember how shocked and immensely happy I was to be a finalist in the Cosmopolitan Blog Awards. It’s when I finally accepted that my blog was more than a silly little hobby but something to be proud of and something to finally share with my family and friends, rather than keep a secret.

I would love to know what your favourite post of mine over the past year was? What is your favourite thing about blogging? How long have you been blogging for?

The Days Gone By| A Week In Pictures

A little update for you all. To be honest I have not been up to much recently, as I have been pretty much tied to Kendal as I am dog sitting for my mum while she is honeymooning in Hawaii… so jealous! So apart from the weekends when my boy comes down to visit, I have been keeping the company of two very lively and sometimes annoying dogs and working hard at work. However despite the lack of excitement in my life these past few weeks I have still taken plenty of pictures.. blogging problems.

• Walk with a view- Last Sunday I dragged my man on a nice long walk with the dogs, the view is the view from the top of the hill I run up, it over looks all of Kendal and across to Oxenholme. I am really enjoying the change in weather, yes the rain sucks, but it rains all year here in Lake District anyway. Its the crisp cold days I am loving.
• Clean brushes mean a clean face- I admit, I am not great with washing my makeup brushes, yes beauty blogger cardinal sin. However last weekend I bought some baby shampoo and spent a good hour washing all my brushes, and the difference in them is amazing! I must keep this up as my makeup looks so much better after applying it with clean brushes.
• Are you breast aware? My Breast Cancer post this past week has received some great feedback. I wasn’t sure on whether to publish it at first as I did not want to offend or lecture anyone, but as it is something close to my heart, and something that is affecting my family right this moment I wanted to talk about it and am glad I have after all your lovely comments. I hope I have helped some of you be more breast aware.
• Drinking green, eating clean- After over indulging both before and after my mums wedding, I haven't been feeling too great so decided to embark on a bit of a detox to kick start my healthy eating regime. You may have seen the post below that talks about it. I essentially have been eating and drinking homemade smoothies and soups and having a healthy dinner, very simple, but effective.
• Autumn television- Oh yes, oh yes oh yes! Gossip Girl is back! I am totally obsessed with this programme! I am so sad it is the last season, I won’t know what to do with myself.
• Puppy cuddles- Pretty self explanatory!
• Wednesday is treat day- This has to be one of the highlights of my week. I came home form work on Wednesday to this scone and note from my lovely neighbour who has been helping me look after the dogs while I am at work. She attends Weight-Watchers with my mum on a Wednesday morning, so after the meeting they always go for coffee and a treat, and this week she brought me a treat… how lovely!
• Cani-x- As I have restarted my healthy living regime again, I have been out on the fells running with my dogs again. It proves a bit more difficult to run down hills when its muddy, I find I slip a lot more and the dogs attached to me pulling like crazy really don’t help. It’s all still fun (until they pull me over).
• Luscious lashes- I had temporary lash inserts applied over two weeks ago, and they are still surviving! Yes there are some gaps but this picture was taken just before I went to bed, so you can see I can still get away without wearing any mascara. A blog post will be coming up.
• Domestic Goddess- Baking at the weekend is something I love to do, I just have to try and not eat all my batch at once. This week I made peanut butter and chocolate squares
• Christmas Presents- I am already buying Christmas presents! Firstly I want to be organised and spread the cost, but secondly it’s because I’m already excited! I am a little Christmas crazy!
• Christmas Chocolates- Again as I am Christmas crazy these were purchased and soon consumed by me and my man this weekend… whoops. Back to the smoothies tomorrow!

What has been the highlight of your week? Have you had a quiet one like me? Have you started Christmas shopping yet?

The days gone by| Instagram

 

Just a little update for you all. I have been quite busy recently, with work but also as my mother’s wedding is next weekend there has been a lot of preparation for that, so I actually feel like I don’t have a lot of free time; which is a lie, as I still get up to plenty. So I will run you through the above pictures, as I seem to be documenting my life through Instagram at the moment, but I suppose that’s an obsession all us bloggers have. As much as my family tire of me taking pictures of even the least significant parts of my day, they enjoy the finished product; the blog posts, so they can’t complain too much.

• Flowers For A Friend- My best friend is going through a messy divorce at the moment, but we celebrated her becoming a ‘Miss’ again the other day. It’s great for her to be back to the name that was of the girl that I befriended 20 years ago, the name of the independent, fun and flirty girl she used to, and will be again in time.
• Blogging Goodies- Monu contacted me a few weeks ago and offered me some goodies to try, I was completely over the moon with this opportunity, and am happily testing them at the moment, so a review will come in time.
• Glitter Galore- Being a desk working girl now, my obsession with nail art continues. This week was my first attempt at glitter dipper nails.
• Product Testing Central- This was me using the Soap and glory Detox mask for the first time, the review for which is below.
• Cake Pops- We have had a busy week in our house making 100 pop cakes. We are yet to ice and decorate them, but I can say that the inners are so yummy!
• Train Travels- I have been travelling around for the past few weeks, very often to Newcastle to see my boy, but other ‘exciting’ places including Carlisle and Lancaster, to visit friends and family.
• Newcastle City Games- I was lucky enough to be in Newcastle for the Great North Run weekend, which meant I got to watch the City Games on Quayside and saw legends like Mo Farrah and Greg Rutherford!
• The Great North Run- I spend an hour in the rain cheering on the 55,000 runners, in which were a few of my friends who all did fantastic! It has even inspired me, to perhaps enter next year… if I’m lucky enough to get a place.
• Pretty in Pink- Another Nail of the Day.
• Massive Milestone- I surpassed 400 followers on my blog this week! It really surprised me as I think I gained 15 followers in a day. But as always I want to thank you all; new and old for reading, commenting and sharing my blog. It is my passion and I enjoy it so much, but to know that others read and enjoy what I have to say makes it so much more fun.
• Fun with fruit- My boy gave me a choice of a sausage butty or a bowl of fruit for my breakfast last weekend, and low and behold I chose the fruit! I even shocked myself, I think my fitness kick is finally starting to change my attitude towards food, which is a great thing!
• Christmas comfies- Last night (and right now) I have been rocking my Christmas pyjama bottoms, because it is just so damn cold! What happened to out Indian summer!

What’s been going on in your life recently? Am I the only one rocking my Christmas Pyjamas far too early? Please say I’m not!