Jacket: & Other Stories, Blouse: Zara, Jeans: Topshop, Boots: By Far, Beret: Depop, Basket bag: Ebay
Exactly one year ago today I wrote my first ever post on www.bubblyaquarius.com (see it here) and wow, what a year it's been!
First and foremost I need to mention the other half of this operation - behind the scenes, snapping all of the pics (even in the mornings when he's going to be late for work) - my boyfriend Elliott. As a non-social media enthusiast (he doesn't even have Instagram - I know, WHAT?!) in the beginning he didn't get it at all, but over the course of the last year he knows, he gets it, he doesn't cut off my feet, he knows the best angles, he will take 353737 shots until we get the right ones and ultimately he knows what a good picture looks like. Hey, he's even got his own camera now! Technicalities aside though, he's always there when I'm flapping about say, my Insta layout, my lack of time to write 35367 blog posts in a week, or the days when I just generally feel like shit. He's my number one fan and I literally can't thank him enough because I really couldn't do this without him (probs should just go into the other room and tell him like since the chances of him ever reading this are slim to none).
Since launching my blog back in November last year, I've been running it alongside my full time job as a Digital Merchandiser at Fenwick and I think that in order to do this, and creating as much content as I do, you have to absolutely love doing it. Blogging/ Insagramming is relentless. There's no two ways about it. It can be totally amazing at times don't get me wrong, and on the whole I really do love it, but it's definitely not all rainbows and flowers. I try to shoot/ write at least one, sometimes two or three blog posts every week and I post to Instagram twice a day, every single day, and that means creating a hell of a lot of content. I bloody love taking pictures though and luckily am never usually short of an outfit idea which is great, however don't get me wrong there will always be times i'm panicking I have nothing to post or feel like i'm lacking inspiration. I think i've gotten to a good point now though, having developed a system that works for me (which is key - I love nothing more than being organised), and usually create most of my content over the weekend for the following week, then pepper in additional bits that I snap throughout the week as and when. I have more 'here's one I made earlier's than Neil Buchannan...
Having two jobs can defo be difficult at times, however the positives well outweigh the negatives I've had along the way and in the last year I've met some amazing people, worked with some amazing brands and I feel like my content is at a place now where i'm pretty happy with it. As an absolute perfectionist-over-thinker-of-everything I will always be pushing myself that little bit more, over-analysing the tiniest of details and making sure everything is exactly how i planned it but overall, i'd say i'm pretty content with my content! I have my own unique style and I love putting my own spin on things. I remember initially I was so shy about my blog that I didn't used to tell anyone about it (haha that seems so ridiculous now) but I am so proud of what I have created and my little space on the internet now that I'm happy to tell anyone and everyone about it!
I think one of my favourite things about blogging is the community. When I first started out I was lucky enough to have one of my best friends already a pretty successful mega babe of a blogger (Sophia) so any questions I had (there were lots) she was always there to assist and advise having gone through it all herself! I have also met some absolutely lovely gals along the way - both IRL and digi-pals - and can genuinely now call some of them friends which is just dead nice. It's so funny when you finally meet someone IRL that you're basically already friends with because you've been following each others lives in a digital format for god knows how long! I wouldn't class myself as shy by any standard but when it comes to meeting new people and being outside of my comfort zone I'm an absolute scaredy cat, so putting myself in new situations, meeting new people, going to events etc etc has definitely been a good thing for me. The support given to one another within blogging and instagramming makes me so happy. It really is just nice to be nice. One of my favourite bloggers and just all round mega babe Alice writes a regular series called girls Support Girls, and that for me is what blogging is all about; support, togetherness and feeling like you're part of something. Well, that and really nice clothes, obvs.
I get asked a lot (as I'm sure most bloggers do) how did I get into blogging? I literally just did. I have basically always been an outfit sharer on the 'gram - if you scroll back a fair few years you'll see the blurry mirror selfies in my old tiny messy room where it all started (and probably realise i've basically been wearing 356778 variations of the same thing for the last six years). I just really like shopping and sharing, I guess that's how it all started. I had been threatening to re-launch Bubs (I originally started my blog whilst I was at uni years ago, however didn't put enough time and effort in and it just fizzled out) for months before I actually did, and one of my good friends Cat was constantly pushing me (thank you, thank you) to just do it already so one day I just took the plunge, bought my domain and decided I wanted to use Wix (which is super easy btw) and off I went. Cat actually took my first ever set of pics for this blog and in the early days was always there to do my before work snaps on the way out of the door, so thanks to her for helping me get off the ground! And to everyone else who has ever taken a snap for me tbh, you're all dead top pals. So if there is one piece of advice I could give to anyone wanting to get into blogging - just do it (thanks Nike). Honestly, my only regret is that I didn't do it sooner.
So thank you SO MUCH for reading and following along on my sartorial journey so far, I absolutely love styling outfits, creating content and writing blog posts and I hope you guys love browsing it just as much! I hope that I have helped and inspired some of you along the way and will continue to do so for as long as I can :)
Heres to the next year of doing what I love.
Rachael
x
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