Hello! I can’t begin to tell you just how excited I am to be back on the blog! It’s been a while since there’s been new content around here, so instead of returning to the blog and delving straight in with a post on the drug-store mascara I can’t live without at the moment (don’t worry I’ll still be sharing that soon), I thought I’d have a little chat about life, why the blog has been so quiet, and why I’m so excited to be blogging again.
I know it’s been radio silent around these parts for months now, let’s be honest, we’re in full tumble weed territory having not shared anything new since November!!! I’m in shock that it’s March 2019 already and even I’m shocked that I last posted in November. If you’ve stuck around with my blog and social media in that time, I just want to say the biggest thank you! It means the world to me to know that people read and enjoy my blog and I’m sorry it’s been neglected of late. If you follow my stories on Instagram, you’ll have seen a couple of life updates from me. To fill you in, I’ve had serious tendon problems with my hands. It’s been an ongoing problem for a couple years now and at the beginning of January I had to have surgery for the second time as well as steroid treatments on my left hand. Not fun, but I know it could have been a lot worst. Looking back I don’t recommend having procedures on both hands at the same time, at one point I couldn’t dress myself and seriously contemplated drinking tea through a straw! I was fortunate though to have access to the medical treatment I needed and I am super grateful to the medical team who helped me and my friends and family who have supported me.
As well as the tendon injuries, I’d also developed really bad Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) in my left hand through excessive hours and days of typing at work. So that with everything else, meant something had to give and sadly it was too painful to blog. After my surgery I had to fully rest my hands and I wasn’t able to type while my hands recovered. In the end I was signed off work for 5 weeks, and boy did I really need that time to recharge. By the New Year, my anxiety had really reached a peak and the stress of work, working long long days and weekends and not resting my hands all took a toll on my anxiety and diabetes. It’s only when I had to stop because of the surgery that I really realised how I hadn’t been in a healthy space and self-care had gone out the window. Having that time off, let me catch up on rest and really focus on my mental health and my diabetes. I spent that time with friends and family and really enjoying the simple things like catching up with friends, giving those around me my undivided attention, curling up for hours with a book and exploring the amazing city I’m lucky to live in.
I have really missed my blog though, it’s something that I love to do. The creativity and the chance to engage with different people makes me so, so happy. Sometimes though, life forces us to stop and rest which is really important. Those of you who were worried that I’d given up on my blog, I promise you I haven’t. I just needed to have a bit of a rest and now I’m raring to go. Last weekend I spent most of Saturday meeting 40 plus incredible women at a blogging workshop run by the lovely Vix Meldrew defo check her out if you haven’t already. I’ll be honest, I was a little nervous to be heading to the workshop by myself and I had a bit of imposter syndrome going on, thinking why am I at a blogging workshop when I haven’t blogged in so long, but it was honestly incredible to hear from people about their experiences of blogging. I know some say blogging is dead, it’s all about micro-blogging on Instagram and Stories, and whilst I love Instagram, I also still love reading people’s blogs and having my own blog. At the event, there were quite a few women who were just starting up a blog which was really exciting to hear about. We talked about 2019 being the year of the blog and I just left feeling so positive and inspired to make my blog something my readers will really love. I have some blogging goals I’d love to achieve this year and one of them is to post more regularly. I’d love to share more of the things I love with you, such as the books I’ve been loving and also content which I hope is useful like tips on saving money especially if you live in a super expensive city and more travel guides, so watch this space!
Jx
Dress: JW Anderson for Uniqlo (old but similar here), Bag: Tea and Tequila, Boots: ASOS (old)
Photos by JKG Photography