THIRD BLOG BIRTHDAY: WHY I BLOG

So in honour of the special occasion and the mammoth achievement (even if I do say so myself) of blogging every day for 1,096 days, and staying true to my new Saturday ‘blogging’ series, I thought I’d dedicate today’s post to telling you why I blog, what’s motivated me to keep blogging every day for three years and of course the journey I’ve been on.

I won’t dwell too much on way I started my blog, but to tell a short tale … it was really down to a love, obsession and fascination with clothes & shopping. My mum is a wedding dress maker & fabulous seamstress, my sister a fashion textiles student & I myself a sartorial obsessive. I think sartorialism and a love for clothing must be in my genes, but instead of a creative outlet in designing and developing them myself, mine fell slightly into the conspicuous side of things. Shopping! I’ve always loved a bit of dressing up, I was known as the ‘bag lady’ as a toddler and have not stopped obsessing with handbags since that ripe young age. When a friend suggested a blog as an outlet for my love for all things fashion, style & shopping related I really loved the idea. A way to write, an excuse to shop, and a place to download my guilt for all my naughty purchases. I fell in love from the day I started mediamarmalade.com, the community kept me motivated to produce content, and what started as a tiny, little hobby, has turned into a full time obsession and commitment, which three years later I’m probably even more in love with now than when I started.

That’s not to say there’s times when it’s not been all glory, the all nighters writing content, the arguments with Jase over taking outfit pictures & spending too long on my computer, and of course the extreme stress and exhaustion that comes with having a full time career as well as a daily blog. But if I think about it, there are probably five things that really have kept me motivated, passionate & determined to keep going. Some have developed over the years and others have been there since the beginning, but combined they’re the reason I love to blog & the reason I won’t miss a day ….

. WRITING .

As a teenager I used to spend every penny I earned on magazines (that and clothes & alcopops) and dreamed of creating my own magazine or being the editor of one of my favourites. My walls were covered in ripped out magazine pages, anything from fashion adverts to street style esque photos which inspired my style & love for clothes. I had an entire wall dedicated to these images, and even developed scrap books for inspiration. As a kid I’d write up storybooks and present them back to my family (usually in a funny accent). Since I was a child I’ve had an innate interest in writing, storytelling and mostly of course magazine style editorial.

When I chose my university pathway I wasn’t keen on studying English which would have been required to progress with the journalism side of things, so instead I opted for advertising and marketing thinking it would be closely related to the media that stole my heart. In reality it wasn’t, but I loved it nonetheless and in fact it was exactly what I wanted to study by the time I finished college, the best years of my life, and in fact the foundations for my career! But I don’t think I was ready to give up the magazine editor pipe dream, and I think that’s partly why my blog became such a passion of mine! The chance to write, to diarise, engage with people and almost create my own, online magazine! Of course it never started out with that ambition or plan, but in hindsight, it sort of was my outlet for this interest!

. PHOTOGRAPHY .

Ironically something I don’t think I was ever overly fascinated in prior to starting my blog. Of course I loved to use my digital compact to take holiday pics, and take polaroid’s with my friends & film short movies with my sisters. But I never saw the beauty in photography until I started my blog. My blog photography started off terrible, obviously, as I had no understanding or idea what I liked and what I wanted to create. But as I got more into my blog I really saw the difference between my photos and those taken with quality cameras, so I invested in my DSLR (Canon 550D) which I absolutely loved and started my obsession with photography! As I got further inspired by blogs I was reading & magazines I adored, I became even more focussed on my photography and invested in new lenses to get the images I wanted. But I was still craving more, I dedicated hours to learning how to use my camera, learning how to work a DSLR and weeks educating myself on the functionality (I shared some of my tips here & here recently). In the January of this year after using my DSLR daily for a couple of years, I decided to take the big leap and invest in my dream camera. By now I knew what I wanted and I wanted perfection. I invested in the Canon 5D Mark III and use this with my 50mm F1.4 lens and I’ve just added the 85mm F1.8 to my kit. It’s like my little baby!

I absolutely love photography, I spend hours looking at pictures on blogs, online, on photography sites, in books and of course in magazines. I have scrapbooks (on Pinterest too) of images I love and feel inspired by, and continually looking to learn more. Either by analysing other images (I do this a lot – feeding them into Photoshop to check out the kit used & look at the settings which helped create such perfect lighting etc) or reading tutorials, which I still do frequently.

My blog has stirred and brought to life a huge passion for photography, and now my camera comes everywhere with me! I’m always looking to improve my images & find them such an important part of my blog now – so much so I redesigned my blog to have an increased focus on imagery!

. MY OWN THING .

As with any career oriented and ambitious person, having your own business, projects, hobbies and interests is quite a big priority. Whilst my blog didn’t start out as anything other than a little hobby and whilst now it’s not a business, simply something I do on the side to work, I am OBSESSED with it. Genuinely. I am so passionate about running my blog, writing posts, getting images that look great, having content live daily, it’s like running my own business in some ways. And through my own pride and ambition I don’t want to ever let that slip, let myself down or not do a good job! I don’t know what success is with blogging (I debated the topic here), and given the nature of the beast my goals are forever moving (once I achieve one, it’s straight on to the next) but all I do know is that I want to keep going, I don’t want to miss a day, and I do want people to find, read and love my blog! Whether or not this turns into anything more than my hobby, I’m as dedicated to it as I am to anything else in my life (Christ, just ask Jase, it drives him mad)! I love having my own little www dot, my own project, it’s something to be proud of and something that’s brought great opportunities, experiences and fun into my life (not least of course the opportunity to work with some of my most favourite and loved brands which I would have never anticipated).

. COMMUNITY & COLLABORATION .

It’s a funny old thing, the blogging community, I believe is like no other, and whilst I can barely ever make the fabulous events or parties I’m invited to due to work, the ones I do attend are always filled with greeting old blog friends, like we’ve been friends forever and nothing’s ever changed. I’ve met some incredible people, been exposed to some amazing talent & had some fabulous fun times with fellow bloggers. And It has to be this community and sense of support which keeps me positive & eager to work on my blog and produce content day in day out. Case in point is you unbelievably amazing readers, who come back daily and leave me the most wonderful comments which do quite literally make my day and really spur me on to do more, be better and just keep swimming. Seeing people reference my blog as one to read, or brands featuring me within their campaigns or on their websites, and seeing a post become globally popular on bloglovin is such a humbling and amazing feeling, I wouldn’t ever want to lose it! Ahhh you guys!

And whilst it’s not something I ever started my blog because of, or even would have dreamed might happen because of my blog, the opportunities to collaborate with brands, work with my favourite designers and get to attend prestigious and fabulous events is of course an incredible honour and motivation! Being a blogger, but also working in the advertising industry has been incredible to see the blogging industry change from an insular, self contained little community, to hugely important to brands and advertisers and a massive commercial industry in it’s own right. I really love that i’ve got to experience this from both sides of the page!

. CLOTHES .

Go figure. It’s what 80% of my blog content is about. As I already mentioned, I just love clothes. Clothes, Shoes, bags, hats … anything. I love creating outfits, I love shopping and finding fabulous items which I just fall in love with. People joke about retail therapy, but no joke, it works. For me I find shopping so therapeutic. It’s an ongoing joke with my colleagues, friends and Jase that I shop to feel happy, or to celebrate, or even commiserate. It’s all emotional, I’m not going to deny it. I love to shop, spending my well-earned pennies on something I absolutely love makes me feel great, not to mention then the wearing of the clothes too! Yes my wardrobe might be bursting, and I might have already bought a house if I just reigned in my obsession on cigarette trousers and designer handbags, but YOLO, you only live once and I’m still young, so why not enjoy all the luxuries that no doubt as a more responsible adult / parent I will no longer get to indulge so frivolously in! My blog provides an outlet to talk about and share the things I love, the garments that are stealing my heart and the purchases which are breaking my bank. Call it SA (shopaholics anonymous) therapy or simply feeding the blogging content cycle … my blog is a great excuse and outlet to talk about my passion for clothes, style, and fashion!

Of course it goes to say that you guys mean the absolute world to me too, the comments, the daily visits, the likes and the support all mean more than you probably realise! I’m always very hard on myself & so seeing your support really does make all the difference and keep me motivated to keep blogging every day! An additional follower now means just as much as it did three years ago when I started this blog, and it still amazes me that people come along and read my blog! So thank you all, so much!

Another year down, another glass oz fizz to celebrate ….