Happy Birthday Blog

Hello beautiful people! Happy birthday to my blog! Can you believe its been a full year since my baby was launched. I say baby because it really feels like my baby – one needs to constantly feed it (with ideas and posts, duh) in order for it to grow. I nurture it and make sure that it gets the attention that it requires. Obviously, that’s not all a baby needs but you get where I’m going with this, right?

The Past Year:

Let me tell you a bit about the year I’ve had with the blog and how it started out. Initially, I had a horrible looking blog that I created with a free “make-it-yourself-for-free” host. It was a plain black background with a striking fuchsia font stating “MS PAULA BEE” across the header. The blog had super random photos of me that were a tad over-edited, if I may be completely honest with you, as well as social media buttons that any new followers may have to urge to click. It was tacky but it was mine. My brand new blog that I had created all on my own!

It was a few days after I had created it when Mr Lakay decided to text me and give me some tips. We started chatting and to make an extremely long story some what short, he ended up letting me know that my blog needed some work and he’d love to be of assistance. What a blessing this lovely man is. We decided to work together on a completely new look for the blog – fresh, white, uncontroversial, but still true to who I am (hence the girly header – love me some curly font here and there). Lorenzo and I worked on the blog for about three months, until we both felt it was finally ready. 14 February is when I would release my first post. The month of love! Do you remember the first post I had? I absolutely adored that shoot and until today, it is still one of my ultimate favourite shoots!

Learning:

Since then, the year has been hectic and overwhelming. I’ve had many scary and doubtful moments where I would log into my WordPress account and read through a few posts and absolutely hate it. Often I would cry and tell Lorenzo that I don’t want to do this anymore. I’ve felt discouraged; disheartened when looking at others’ blogs who always seemed more glamorous than my blog; and worried that no one would want to read my posts. I mean, it is an online platform showcasing what I wear, think, and do here and there. I share parts of my life on this online journal and that causes me to be open to vulnerability. Who wouldn’t feel the way I have? So yes, I feel the negative things. But I prefer to see the positive in the past year! I have met amazing people, worked with great people in companies, attend awesome events where I get to relax and soak up the goodness that is “being in media” and become friends with fellow bloggers. I have grown so much over the past year and I feel that I can only grow and learn from here on out. Every single day doing this “blogging” thing is a learning curve for me, which is why I love this so much. They always say that if you do what you love, you’ll never have to work a day in your life. I like that saying.

Speaking of learning curves, I just had a huge one yesterday. I made quite the mistake when I launched my competition for the blog’s birthday which wasn’t supposed to happen like that (my bad ya’ll!). My competition will be launched next week, so please do keep an eye out for that! Also, my apologies for anyone who was confused by yesterday’s competition mix up. I’ll be dead honest with you – It’s my first competition and these things are bound to have an error soon. In maths, I was taught about “trial and error”, that’s basically the same principle right? Everyone makes mistakes and I am no exception.

Thank you so much for all the support over the past year. I look forward to spending many more years with you!

Top | Mr Price / Skirt | Mishah / Shoes | TopShop / Necklace | Mr Price

Photographer: Lorenzo Lakay