Welcome back to another weekly round-up, peeps! I’ve had a bit of a frantic week, if I’m completely honest. After a summer of applying for jobs, going to interviews and wondering what I’m going to do day-to-day (you can read about this here), I finally found employment. It happened so fast – one day, a recruitment agency phoned me up to say they’d sent in my CV, and the next, I’d got the job and they wanted me to start the following week.
Trouble is, I’ve been living at ‘home-home’ in Staffordshire for the past couple of months after moving out of my university accommodation. This new job is back in Cheltenham. So, last weekend, I quickly booked an Airbnb, packed up my stuff, and moved back down. This week, I’m temporarily staying at my boyfriend’s shared house, while I find accommodation for myself. I can’t believe how quick the process was!
Despite all of this change, I’ve still kept note of everything I’ve been enjoying this week. So, let’s dive in.
Blogger
How pretty is Beth Rebecca’s blog? She writes about a mixture of everything, from lifestyle to beauty, university to fashion, and I love her tone of voice. Her latest post, ‘Does Makeup Destroy our Confidence?‘ made me really think about my own habits with makeup, and she wrote about some thought-provoking points: “Putting on makeup makes us feel more confident which I always thought was a good thing. But does that mean that makeup has actually destroyed our self-esteem since some people no longer feel as good when they’re not wearing it?”
Her helpful tips on how to save money at university, and her post about what it was like to intern at a London lifestyle and beauty magazine (wow!) are two more of my favourites. Her imagery is always on-point and I just love the overall ‘feel’ of her blog. You can check out her blog and give it a follow here.
Magazine
It’s my dream job to some day write for a magazine, so I’m always admiring different publications and wondering what it would be like to work there. My all-time favourite, though, has got to be Australian mag, Frankie. I love their fun, quirky tone of voice, and each issue is personalised in some way. They feature new artists, photographers, designers, singers, fashion labels, and print funny or heartfelt articles. They even include a cute poster in each issue!
This special ‘cosy’ edition included a ‘puzzle book’, so readers can stay away from the screen and snuggle up with a crossword. Of course, as this is an Australian publication, our summer is their winter, so right now it’s pretty chilly over there! The only thing I’d say is, Frankie is more expensive than your regular mag (but totally worth it for the great content) at £8.99 per copy (WHSmith). I hope one day I can get to a position where I can afford a subscription and own every edition (and, while I’m hoping for stuff, I might as well hope that one day I will be working for a magazine like Frankie).
App
I can’t believe I’ve only just learnt about Planoly. I feel like I’m late to the party, so I wanna recommend this to others who may not know of it! As some of you may know, I’m also a Content Writer and Social Media Manager for Susie Mackie, and O-M-G this app has changed my life. It’s a scheduling software for Instagram, where you can upload all of your pictures and set them to upload on a certain day, at a certain time. The features I love are how you can see what your grid will look like after your pictures have been posted, and analyse your past uploads in terms of engagement using their calendar.
I’ve used Buffer before for scheduling, but it just doesn’t live up to the efficiency and ease of Planoly. For me, I find it quite hard to visualise my posts on the grid, so this app has really solved a problem for me. Now, I’m finding that Susie’s Instagram looks much more professional and aesthetic.
E-Newsletter
I signed up to Vix Meldrew‘s ‘Exciting Emails’ a while ago, and they are so damn helpful. You can tell she puts in a lot of her time to create her weekly send-out, and each one contains so much helpful advice for bloggers. She’s even created some great downloadable resources, which don’t cost an arm and a leg, too! You can find out more and sign up here.
As I said earlier, I’m working with Susie Mackie on her female empowerment movement. We have a strong focus on body confidence and positivity, so I just love it when I see others contributing to this. I stumbled across Jessica Rose Lambregts, and really admire what she’s doing. In one of her posts, she writes, “She has loved, been loved and she has even enjoyed a cheese board at midnight in Paris. She has been with me through everything thick and thin (literally) and I shouldn’t hide her away or apologise for her anymore. This is my body.” Need I say more?
I want to feature more ‘small’ bloggers (like me!) on my weekly round-ups. Is this you? Comment below and let me know! Thanks for reading.
Amy Louise Writes 