My Best and Worst Habits as a Blogger

27th Sep 201928th Mar 2023 | Suzi Stamp

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As humans, we inherently have good and bad habits so it makes sense that as bloggers, we also have good and bad traits. Today I am sharing my best and worst habits as a blogger.

The Good

Organisation and scheduling. There is nothing that I love more than spending time creating my blog schedule and working out which posts should be written and go live on which days. I think I have created a schedule which works really well for me and fits in with the rest of my life and the things I want to achieve.
Trying new things. I really like to push myself with trying new things on the blog, it helps to keep things fun and fresh both for myself and my readers too!
Enthusiasm. I am super enthusiastic about all aspects of blogging, I eat, sleep, breathe and talk blogging most of the time! Lol!
Supporting other bloggers. I love to support other bloggers and help out where I can. I like to share other blogs via my Saturday Shout Out and am currently working on a few plans to help other bloggers too!
Blog post ideas. I have a fab niche which allows me to write about many different topics which means I have tons of ideas of things to write about. One year in and I still have not run out of ideas yet!

The Bad

Drinking too much coffee. So. Much. Coffee…Seriously, who would have thought that writing a blog post or doing another bit that is blog related would be fueled by so many cups of coffee?!
Procrastination. I am the Procrastination Princess, though I am not entirely sure that it is procrastination that I really have or that I can be really easily distracted at times?
Time management. This is something that is both good and bad, good that I have everything planned to the minute but bad that sometimes when things go wrong and end up taking longer I can get pretty frustrated. It can also mean that I end up working on something for a lot longer than I should!
Doing all the things (or wanting to). I can get pretty overwhelmed with things, partly due to my Aspergers, but there is part of me that always wants to try to get everything done or try out new ideas there and then which isn’t the best thing to do at times!
Overthinking. Sometimes, I can find it really hard to motivate myself to write something, especially if I have been thinking about it for a long time. I sort of feel like I have written it already (albeit in my head) and really need to motivate myself to get it typed out. I had this problem in Uni when I was supposed to be writing my dissertation.

I’d love to hear about your best and worst habits as a blogger, so leave me a comment and let me know!

Autumn Beauty Favourites

26th Sep 201925th Sep 2019 | Suzi Stamp

Autumn Beauty Favourites

With the weather turning colder, the need for central heating being switched on fast approaches, the nights getting darker and fashion moved towards a more cosy style a lot of women will be changing up their beauty routines and products so I thought I would share some of my favourite autumn beauty products.

Clockwise from bottom left – Eyebrow Razor, Dr Botanicals Pomegranite Superfood Regenerating Sleep Mask, Pixi Mesmerising Minerals Eyeshadow Palette in Mineral Contour, Lush Ultrabland Cleanser, Pixi Mesmerising Minerals Eyeshadow Palette in Desert Sunset, Revive Micro Needle Facial Roller, Facial Brush, Eyebrow Razor (folded). Centre – Lush Breath Of Fresh Air Toner.

These are my Autumn favourite beauty tools. The top item is my facial brush, which used with a cleanser, can help to brighten the skin by boosting circulation and removing dead skin cells. At this time of the year, my skin can suffer pretty badly from looking lacklustre and dull so using this can help it to look brighter.

Second down in the picture is my microneedle roller, this tool has lots of super fine needles covering the roller part. Using this once a fortnight can help to boost collagen which can help to reduce wrinkles, firm the skin and can help to reduce scars. Another benefit is that it can help products penetrate the skin more easily.

Bottom of the picture is eyebrow razors, which can also be used as dermaplaning blades. Dermaplaning can help to exfoliate the skin while also removing fine facial hair. I have found that dermaplaning can help with dry skin and spots as it removes any dead skin cells.

Lush Ultrabland is my favourite cleanser for the autumn and winter months. It is a cream that you melt in your hands before rubbing over your face, then using a toner, or damp flannel, to remove the excess. This cleanser is really oily and moisturising without being harsh or stripping any oils from the skin. It is also really gentle on the skin. This product is perfect for my skin which gets really dry when going from the cold outside into centrally heated environments.

Dr Botanicals Pomegranite Superfood Regenerating Sleep Mask is a trial version but I love it so much that once it is empty I will be purchasing the full-size version! After cleansing my skin before bed, I apply a thin layer of this to my face then go to bed. In the morning my skin feels soft, less irritated and dry, and looks glowing. It is definitely some kind of miracle worker in my opinion!

Lush Breath of Fresh Air Facial Toner comes in this handy pump spray bottle and means that just the right amount is dispensed so there is no waste. It contains rose absolute which is really calming for the skin and patchouli which is an astringent which helps to tackle spots and oil production. I use this once I have cleansed my skin, just spritz it onto my face and leave to dry. I have used this in the day when my skin needs a little pick-me-up too.

I picked both of these Pixi Mesmerising Mineral Eyeshadow Palettes from my local Tk Maxx as I was looking for an earthy, copper palette that could be used for autumn makeup looks. I couldn’t decide between the 2 palettes and in the end came home with both! The first palette, on the left, is the Mineral Contour palette, the darkest shade is a charcoal black matte finish powder while the rest of the shades all seem to have a slight shimmer to them. I was drawn to this one as it has a lovely range of brown colours which can all work on their own or in a combination to produce a fairly neutral coloured eye. The second palette, on the right, is the Desert Sunset palette which has 4 matte or semi-matte shades (the red at the bottom, orange, brick brown and the darker brown) there are 2 shimmer shades – the bronze and copper shades at the top. I was drawn to this palette as it was a bit brighter than the other, I really loved the shades of red, orange and copper and they were the shades I had been on the search for. Both palettes are in shades that I tend to go for in the autumn and I know they will get good use!

Do you have any Autumn Beauty Favourites? I’d love to hear about them in the comments!

Words on Wednesday

25th Sep 201924th Sep 2019 | Suzi Stamp

Wednesday (3)

In this day and age, there are so many pressures on kids to obtain good grades, get into college and university, find a career and make so many life choices but one thing that kids leaving education seem to be lacking in life skills.

Life skills are things like learning to pay bills, money management, how to cook for themselves, shop on a budget, mend clothing, carry out simple repair jobs, car maintenance, iron, use a washing machine, DIY, even things like time management. These skills are becoming less and less learned and more and more likely to be outsourced to other people to undertake for them.

I was one of the oldest when I was in uni and I watched the students who were younger than me (by around 15 years) struggle to cope with day to day life, from managing money, shopping on a budget to managing time when it came to juggling uni work, part-time jobs and a social life.

It was sad to see in a way. But is the education system to blame or is it the other adults in those kids lives that should be more hands-on in teaching these skills? I think it should be the responsibility of both parties. Parents are under a lot of financial strain and many need to work and may be too tired when they come home to teach these skills so the education system should have a part to play in teaching basics.

I used to have home economics in school (I believe it is now called food technology…) where I was taught how to make pizza, fruit salad and some sort of rice salad but we were never taught how to cost out these meals per portion or how to create a full meal to feed a family, it has taken me a lot of time and effort to get to where I am now. I was lucky though that my Grandma and Mum would spend time with us kids in the kitchen teaching us how to make lasagne, pasta sauces, roast dinner, and so many other meals. Other kids are not so lucky.

When I was growing up, my brother and I always had chores to do around the house, from dusting and hoovering to washing up, laundry, making the beds and all sorts of other jobs so we learned a lot that way. We also helped my Dad when things needed fixing and gained loads of knowledge that way too.

I hope that something changes for the kids of tomorrow as I think that they are being put into a vulnerable position by not having a skill set that includes a certain amount of life skills.

What do you think about the skills that kids today have? Would they benefit from some kind of life skills classes? What do you think they should learn? I’d love to hear about your thoughts in the comments.

A Day In My Life As A Blogger

24th Sep 201923rd Sep 2019 | Suzi Stamp

A Day In My Life As A Blogger

*I would like to preface this blog post by saying that this post is more like my ideal day as a blogger and not like every day that I spend blogging. This kind of day happens maybe once a fortnight at best!*

Most of my blogging takes place on the weekends when I have more time to spend with and on my blog when my mind is not full of the stresses and strains of weekday life.

I wake up from a restful night’s sleep, stretch and get up. I prepare a cafetiere of my favourite coffee (Hot Lava Java) and settle on the sofa with my cuppa, laptop and Roxy. I spend a few hours reading the blogs I follow while drinking my coffee.

After catching up on blog reading I check my notificatons and reply to comments before heading over to my email. I read through my emails, responding or flagging anything that needs attention.

Once my emails have been sorted I then open up my blog bullet journal and see what posts I have scheduled in to be written. I like to make notes on what I am going to write before making a start.

I head over to Canva and create some heading for my posts before uploading them to my blog. I open a new post and add the image header, write the post, re-read it, edit and spell check and then set it to be scheduled.

Once I have all my posts written and scheduled I head to my stats screen. I like to keep a track of my stats on an Excel spreadsheet, so open that up. I then add in each day’s stats, having a look for any patterns that I can see. I like to use these stats for lots of different things, from seeing which days are the most popular to what sort of posts people seem to be reading most or interacting with.

If it is coming up toward the end of a month I like to have a look at my blog calendar for the month ahead which is also on a spreadsheet. I may make some amendments and change the posts over to different days before adding the whole calendar to my bullet journal.

I then check my notifications again, respond to any comments and then go back to read any new posts that may have been added by the blogs I follow.

Sometimes I have a mind-mapping session and go through my blog categories, playing word association with each category which I find a really useful way to generate post ideas. I will also search the words using Instagram or google and see what sort of posts come up, noting down any other relevant hashtags that may have been used.

Usually, this can take me a full day, and it is the sort of lazy but productive day that I love!

What does a day look like for you as a blogger? I’d love to hear about your blog routines in the comments!

What is…Pitted Keratolysis?

23rd Sep 201922nd Sep 2019 | Suzi Stamp

What Is...

I have pitted keratolysis which can be pretty embarrassing at times and painful at others but I have found a few ways to manage this condition. Today I want to share with you what this condition is and how you can ease it.

So, what is pitted keratolysis?

Pitted keratolysis is a bacterial skin infection that can affect both the soles of the feet and the palms of the hands. However, it most often affects the feet because of the sweaty environment created by wearing shoes and socks for an extended period of time.

This condition is characterized by small depressions or pits in the top layer of skin and areas of white skin. It can be a cause of smelly feet and is much more common in men than women. – https://www.healthline.com/health/pitted-keratolysis

My pitted keratolysis is on my feet and causes them to become really stinky, overly sweaty to the extent that they feel slimy, causes my skin to peel and in turn become really sore.

For years I was treating this condition as athletes foot, which had been wrongly diagnosed. While the powders, sprays and lotions helped a little bit with the smell it caused my skin to dry out and crack which would lead to sore, weeping wounds, particularly between my toes.

I changed my socks 2 or 3 times a day which never really helped, cleaned my shoes with disinfectant and never wear the same pair 2 days running. But nothing seemed to help.

I eventually decided to purchase some Dricolor roll-on antiperspirant and try that. Dricolor contains aluminium chloride hexahydrate which is really effective at stopping sweat by blocking the sweat glands. Application is easy, after washing my feet I roll the antiperspirant onto the soles of my feet and wiggle my toes so the solution disperses between them and then I leave to dry. Sometimes this can take a while but I have found a hairdryer on a low heat setting can speed things up. I then put my socks on and get ready for the day.

This is the most effective for me, and the effects of the Dricolor last for ages, even with showering. I tend to apply this antiperspirant on a Saturday and a Wednesday each week.

Other things you can do to help with this condition are to go barefoot as often as possible and wash your feet often drying them well after.

This has been the most effective treatment for me and I am no longer embarrassed by my feet or how they smell (because they don’t any more!).

Do you have pitted keratolysis? What do you use to care for your feet? I’d be really interested in hearing your comments!

Weekly Roundup 15/09/19 – 21/09/19

22nd Sep 201921st Sep 2019 | Suzi Stamp

Copy of WEEKLY ROUND UP BLOG(8)

Reading

I feel like I have not made much progress this week with reading my book this week. I have been reading a lot though, but it has been articles on the internet. I have read a vast amount of articles covering so many different topics from art, design, skincare, fashion, computing, software, reviews, gardening and typography.

Watching

I started to watch I-Land with my friend this week, its a new series on Netflix and so far seems pretty good. 10 people wake up on an island with no idea of who they are, how they got there or any recollection of their past. They are all dressed in similar outfits and have an item found near where they wake which, so far is unexplained. I won’t spoil it by saying too much more, but as the series goes along we find out more about each person and their lives before which have led to them being on the island.

Listening to

More podcasts! I’ve been listening to more of the same podcasts as last week (LogoGeek and The Deeply Graphic Designcast). I have got a few new podcasts downloaded to listen to this week and am really looking forward to listening to Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place podcast as I have heard some brilliant things about it!

Eating

I haven’t really eaten anything interesting this week though I had been craving bananas and custard so treated myself to a bowl of custard with chopped bananas one evening! It was soo good! I’ve also been eating a lot of apples, they are so tasty and juicy right now!

Drinking

I don’t very often drink fizzy drinks but really fancied some Coke-Cola this week which I thoroughly enjoyed. It made a nice change from water and squash and the tea and coffee that I usually drink! I only bought a small bottle and it lasted me a whole day.

Doing

You may have noticed that my Saturday Shout Out didn’t happen yesterday, I had written it in the week and thought I had scheduled it but when I checked on Friday it was nowhere to be found. I planned on re-writing it on Friday evening but had a few other things that zapped my energy. I spent much of Friday afternoon and evening running between home and our local DIY store with the toilet cistern in pieces. I have had problems with it leaking water into the overflow and the pipe constantly leaking which I thought would be an easy fix, all I needed to do was adjust the ballcock float surely? Anyway, to cut a long story short, I needed to replace the whole cistern filler unit so I opted for a newer one that does away with the ballcock mechanism, instead, the float is built into the filler tube and moves up and down as the water is flushed/refills. I had to remove the flush part of the cistern and turn it 180 degrees as there was not enough space for the new mechanism to fit beside it. I needed to remove the whole cistern from the toilet, undo the washer that held the flush part in and turn it, then put the cistern back onto the toilet before re-connecting the water pipe and the overflow. There were a few problems…I didn’t have the right sized spanner, the huge nut that held the flush mechanism to the base of the cistern wouldn’t undo, then when I had got it all back together it was leaking. Fixed the leaks then the cistern wouldn’t fill enough to flush. Removed everything again to see what was going on. Then realised (if I had read the instructions which came with the new ballcock mechanism ting) that all I needed to do was adjust the height of the fill unit in order to adjust the amount of water in the cistern, not take it apart. Anyway, I managed, with the help of my friend who came to the rescue, to fix it and now I have a flushable, leak-free toilet! We didn’t finish sorting it until nearly 12pm on Friday night and by then I was absolutely shattered and couldn’t think of anything other than climbing into bed. Sometimes, as they say, “shit happens.”.

Feeling

I’ve been feeling ok this week, just tired still. Friday was a bit stressful as every time I needed to do something I found I couldn’t as I didn’t have the right tools (who knew you would need so many different sized spanners?) and I spent a lot of time driving back and fore to the DIY store, partly annoyed with myself for not looking to see what was needed and partly just annoyed in general, the youtube videos I had watched made it all look so easy! My shoulder is still playing up and I’m still taking painkillers for it, I think that is impacting on my sleep and making me tired.

How has your week been? What have you been up to? I’d love to hear in the comments!

Blog Goals for the Year Ahead

20th Sep 201920th Sep 2019 | Suzi Stamp

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As my blog nears its first Birthday I want to share some goals that I’d like to achieve in the year ahead. I have been amazed at what I have achieved so far and while I never really set out with any goals in mind I think that this coming year I should have some things set to aim for…

1000 followers. I hit 500 Followers a short while ago so this next figure should be attainable.
YouTube Chanel. I have a few ideas of things that I would like to try and doing so via video may be a better option.
Weekly Saturday Shout Outs. While I am already doing this, I would like to make the shout out a little more in-depth and about the writer behind the blog as well as focusing on the blog itself.
Take part in Blogtober, Blogmas and the April A-Z challenge. These challenges help keep me on my toes and share posts that may not get shared otherwise and are a fantastic way of introducing new content.
Daily blog posts. While I blog nearly every day I would like to have set themes for each day of the week as well as my normal posts too.
More tutorials. I love reading tutorials and have a few that I want to share in the future!

I just need to sit down and work out the hows, and whens! 🙂

What blog goals do you have? I’d love to hear about them so let me know in the comments!