Happy 2018!

I thought it appropriate to sit down and reminisce about 2017, which officially was my second year blogging.  It has been a rollercoaster, a rollercoaster but yet I’ve learnt so much along the way. As mentioned I’m a full time nurse, my shifts entail day and night shifts. Between my full time career, I try to write product reviews, create content and have regular posts for my social media accounts.

 

Reflecting

As we move into 2018, I can honestly say I am not ready for the year ahead but simply EXHAUSTED! Throughout 2017 I tried to be everywhere I tried to attend every event under the sun on my days off, I attended events in between night shifts. I tried to see friends and family in Kilkenny as much as possible and work ridiculous hours as well as maintaining a long distance relationship, yep it was CRAZY! In the last two months I noticed I found it harder to do everything, I found I lost mojo slightly and felt ‘stuck in a rut’. Having worked so many night shifts my mood wasn’t great and I felt it harder to get on top of things, outside of work.  I took a lot more breaks from Snapchat and literally felt drained, there were times I thought about forgetting Snapchat and Facebook and just running an Instagram account. I knew this was both mentally coming to the end of the year and just a lot of everything catching up on me.

Reflecting on this I can see it was a mix of pure exhaustion and needing time out. I now know I didn’t take enought ‘me time’ or social medias breaks. The biggest change going forward is taking that ‘me time’ and putting less pressure on myself to be constantly active on social media.

2017 Highlights

Now I don’t intend on being totally negative in this blog post I literally had the most amazing second year blogging! There were plenty of great moments in 2017 and it’s only now as I look back I see it was an incredible year. My two sold out workshops being my proudest moments.

I made the top 10 best dressed at the Galway Races.

I ticked Paris, Barcelona, Venice, Lake Garda & Milan off my bucket list and got to see these beautiful places with my best friend!

I worked with gorgeous brands including Carraig Donn, Littlewoods & iClothing.

 

I made some genuine new life-long friends from blogging. I was honoured to be a model for the grogeous Tara O’ Farrell for one of her master classes.

 

I saw Coldplay live in Dublin thanks to Littlewoods and I completed a personal styling course.

Seeing my face in pharmacies stocking Blush makeup whom I am more than grateful to be working with was another pinch me moment!

I was asked to speak at a Network Ireland Kilkenny meeting and share my story of blogging.

I opened up and share my story of being bullied in secondary school, and had a response I could never have imagined.

To top off an incredible year I got to style a gorgeous soul, Angela whom I feel blessed to have met.

Learning

I will continue to learn when it comes to blogging, in so many aspects. Be it creating good content, time management and trying to not be too hard on myself. I do believe in the power of positive thinking. At the beginining of last year I visualised workshops I visalised how it would run, and it happened.  I plan on doing MORE of this and LESS of the comparing. I still do and always will find blogging events intimidating. I still get nervous and find it so amusing that there are so many clicks within a small Irish blogging industry. Are we not all in this together? Where’s the girl power?

Online negativity

Thankfully it’s something which I don’t come across too much. Yes I get the odd smart comment, however I’ve definetly learnt to take it on the chin a bit better. I am all for constructive criticism, but sometimes people forget there is a person behind it all reading those comments. Something which never ceases to amaze me is how people want to ensure they get their thoughts on you, directly to you. They don’t unfollow they want to ensure you know their feelings on you. It just baffles me.

2018

I feel strange aboout this one, I’m at that age where my some of my pals are getting married, buying homes and ‘settling’ down. On a personal level I turn 28 this year, and honestly I am PANICKING. I don’t really know why, again it’s me putting that pressure on myself to have things done straight away. That I should be in a ‘certain place’ by now.

Now I’ve started to look at the bigger picture in life. Saving for bigger things and the thoughts of having my own place. Oddly I have no goals this year, the first time in a long time and I’m not making goals on purpose. In actual fact I want to live MORE in the moment. I want to continue to focus on my passion of styling and creating looks. I want to see MORE of Ireland. I want to save for a house I can call my own home some day. I want to spend more time with family and friends. I plan on eating better, resting, excercising and taking better care of myself.

Lastly I want to appreciate the small things in life a little more. Maybe it’s simply that I am getting a little older, my priorites have changed. I look forward to a coffee in bed and a lie on, as opposed to rushing to do 101 things on my days off.

To help kick start this new outlook I’ve created my first visual board. It’s literally a board with some cut outs of what I hope to work on, as opposed to achieve. It also includes a picture of a sunset, to remind me to bring it back to basics every so often and enjoy the little things in life.

 

 

Here’s to another new year!

Sinéad x