A Few Little Blog Updates

Over the past month I've really got my blogging mojo back and I couldn't be happier about it. I genuinely really missed blogging during the wedding planning, I found it quite hard to find time to mentally relax enough to get the creative juices flowing. So, now that I have all my spare time freed up again I've thrown myself well and truly back into writing and planning! This also means I've finally done a few updates to my blog, so if you want to find out what happening around here, read on!

For a long time now I've wanted to buy a laptop. It sounds like a silly thing but I have a desktop computer and I really have to be in the mood to sit down and focus. It's good in some ways but other times I just want to chill on the sofa, watch some Netflix with a brew and bash at the keyboard until something decent comes out, ya'dig? I didn't splash out on anything remotely fancy, just a cheap refurbished laptop that I can run basic things on and it's probably the best thing I've invested in for my blog. I find it so handy to pick up my laptop when I get a wave of inspiration or if I want to read other peoples blogs and do general social media things that I was trying to do on my phone. I just don't enjoy reading blogs on my phone, I much prefer a bigger screen and commenting is just so much easier, which means I can interact with you guys more!

The next thing I wanted to update was my camera. I've been using my iPhone 6S and I do quite like the quality of it, but I just wanted something that took my blog to the next level. I really want to push myself and learning to use a DSLR has been high on the list of things I've wanted to do for a very long time. I managed to find a pretty cheap deal on a second hand Canon 500D with a 18-55mm lens. I've had it for a couple of weeks now and I've been really enjoying using it. I've been playing around with the settings and really trying not to just use it on auto! I'm kind of getting the hang of it, I really like the lens as it makes everything sharp and crisp in the foreground and nice and blurry in the background, I know, I'm soooo blogger right now. So if you've noticed the photography style changing around here let me know what you think, as I'm really enjoying the new challenge.

To accompany the camera, I bought a set of lights to help with my photography. Last year I really struggled to take good photo's during the dark winter months and it really left me feeling uninspired. I wasn't very good at getting bulk shots done at a weekend so I could use them whenever but if I was to recommend anything, I would recommend buying some lights. They've made life one million percent easier, no matter what the time of day you can take bright lovely photo's without any problem. The lights I ordered are huge though, I had no idea how big they were going to be when I ordered them! I've currently got them set up pointing at my dining table in the dining room because I just don't have anywhere else to put them! But with a big piece of white card and flick of the light switch, it's easy work putting together some lovely photo's.

This does mean I'm incredibly excited about buying lots of nice blogging props! I'm not going to go crazy, I'm just going to buy a few nice things to make the backgrounds less plain and with Christmas just around the corner, I'm super excited to get some festive props!

I can't wait to get stuck in with this new found enthusiasm, I have so many blog post ideas I need to get working on. I really want to branch out more into fashion and beauty posts, as much as I love lifestyle posts, I'd really like a new challenge. I'd also really like to do some collaborations with other bloggers too, as that's something I've been wanting to do for awhile now. I'm just really excited about growing my blog and seeing it through another year.... or four! And I can't express how happy I am that you are all along for the ride with me!

If there is anything you'd like to see more of here on my blog, please let me know in the comments, I'm open to talking about anything here on Sweet Allure!