Garbage In, Garbage Out

Well hello there! Long time no blog. I hope you've all been keeping well, and having lots of lovely adventures?

I have a feeling this could be a long post, so if you're here for nails, there'll be some of those coming soon, as I have more pretties to show you. 

My blog has been quiet for a couple of reasons. Let's start with the easiest. 

When I first started, nail art was not the massive beast it is now. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't in its infancy or anything, but it was still pretty experimental, and perfectly possible to come up with something not seen before. There were a few big faces, but they were quite new to their fame and usually all had time for a quick chat in their comments.

As time went gone on, things changed, as they have a habit of doing. Big business saw an opportunity to make some money, and filtered its way in. This was inevitable of course, and not entirely a bad thing. More people found the fun of nail art, and of course, the big faces got *really* big. Nail art blogging became a paying business for some, which is great.

However, with that came a down side. Suddenly there were "rules" introduced about things like sponsored posts, (where companies send you items for review) and you had to put certain wording on your blog to make sure you didn't get sued (?). Who actually devised these rules, and who on earth would police them never really seemed clear to me.

Alongside that, because so many people were enjoying doing their nails, the outpouring of creativity meant that no matter what you did on your nails, someone had usually done it before. Which is fine if everyone can accept that two people might have the same idea, but all too often I would see people getting comments on their blog accusing them of stealing other peoples designs, and I became nervous about that happening to me. 

So I got to the point where I was sticking to polish reviews, or checking Google every time I wanted to post a design I was pleased with, and usually something similar had already been done so I ended up not blogging about it. 

All these things kind of sucked the fun out of blogging for me. At the time I couldn't work out why I wasn't enjoying it any more, and I even wrote a post about it (probably to try and understand it myself) but it's only now with hindsight that I can see the bigger picture.

So that's part of the reason. I will try to write this next part without massively oversharing, which will be a challenge for me. About a year ago, i had a health scare with my breathing which resulted in lots of testing at hospital over a period of months. Everything they tested for was negative (thank God) but once they'd run out of tests to do, the doctors just shrugged their shoulders and left me to my own devices. Meanwhile I was still ill, and pretty worried. My hair and nails had turned pretty awful (another reason for not blogging), I was putting on weight relentlessly, everything ached, and I got pretty down. I put it all down to stress and just tried to get on with things the best I could.

Out of luck with the doctors, I turned to the internet for advice. I posted my problem on a respiratory health forum, and as with most of my experiences with people on the internet, everyone who replied was lovely. A couple of the replies suggested that I get my thyroid function tested, so after having read a bit about it (of course), I went to the doctor, who sent me for a blood test. Lo and behold, my thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) level came back as abnormal. The doctor then ordered some more tests to see if he could see why my level was so high. However the two tests he ran came back as "within limits". My doctors words were "I see you're sick but I don't know why".  Once again I was sent away with a shrug of the shoulders. This whole thing so far had taken eight months. 

At least now I had an idea what was wrong with me I could try to work towards putting it right. My blood tests also showed I was deficient in certain vitamins and minerals (I'm convinced this is all related), so I've been taking several supplements since the beginning of the year to try to balance all these levels out. I am feeling better in myself, and the weight has stopped piling on, so something must be happening. I will book myself in for some more blood tests (if they'll do them) in the summer to check that I'm not doing myself more harm than good. 

So this brings us to the current day. I'm not cured by any stretch of the imagination, but I am feeling better than I was. Thyroid problems can make you lethargic and can suck out your motivation, so coupled with the other blogging issues, the whole thing came to a stop. I did manage to mess up all the posting dates on my past posts though, clever me, doh!

My new found interest in my health has led me to start paying attention in what I'm actually eating. Hence the title of this post. As I work full time, when I get home all I really want to do is feed myself as quickly as possible with the minimum of time and effort taken. Therefore I'm very much a convenience food cooker. If it doesn't come in a jar or a packet, I don't give it much of a second look, apart from potatoes. My Irish roots will not allow me to disrespect the spuds haha.

But although the convenience foods are quick and easy, they don't taste wonderful. They're not disgusting either, they're just "there", doing a job without being particularly inspiring. I also suspect that most of them are not that healthy, despite some claiming otherwise. 

So I have been experimenting with flavours. The picture in this post is my bacon and egg salad, which is okay, but was much improved with the addition of cherry tomatoes. Plus the leaves were a bit dry and could have used some kind of dressing, but I have no idea what type of dressing. Cheese maybe? More experimenting to do there.

I think all of this relates to my blog, as Making A Silk Purse Out Of A Sows Ear relates to improving yourself not only through beauty products, but also making yourself a more rounded person by improving skills and feeding your interests. And now I've got a bit more fire in my belly I intend to give it a good old go. I do have some beauty stuff I've been meaning to review for ages, so will get on to that soon too. 

If you're still reading, thanks for ploughing through my ramble! I have to say the Blogger mobile app is a hundred times improved since I last used it, the ease of being able to quickly write a post on my phone may also inspire me to do more. Anyway, I had better go before this post gets completely out of hand!

Until next time...

~Wendy~

MASPOOASE x x x

Blogging - Where's My Mojo?

This was originally part of another blog post, but it got so long and rambly, I think it distracted away from the beauty review it was in, so I've given it a little home of its own.

I must say that my blog mojo's been on a low ebb recently. Luckily I've got lots of lovely blogging friends, some who are going through a similar thing, and I've been able to talk it through with them.  Thank you all :-)

It's been going through my mind, "What's unique about my blog?  Nothing.  So many beauty blogs out there, all talking about similar things, many are much more popular than mine, so they're obviously doing it better." and it's kind of put me off. I don't want to think that I'm just another voice in the "buy this" choir. That's partly the reason that I spin off in my blog sometimes onto other things, like books, or recent events, or even just random ramblings.  It makes my blog more 'mine'.

And personally, I prefer blog posts about peoples lives, and their trials, tribulations, and thoughts, much more than I want to see *another* Rimmel Apocalips review.  Obviously I'm not in the majority here, because those kind of posts seem to be super-popular and their authors have mega page views, and that's great.  Everyone has their place, and mine's obviously not up there with the blogging elite.  I saw a blog post the other day that was just 10 photographs in a row and no words at all.  I was like, what?  That's a blog post? 

Maybe I should sack the beauty reviews and just become a lifestyle blogger?  I don't know, just thinking aloud.  I like reviewing things though...  and obviously I like nail art too, I spend enough time doing it...  but weirdly I don't post all the designs that I do, because I think, that's been done before, people might think I'm copying, or, my cuticles are bad... or, I've chipped it before I've taken photos.... and so on and so on...

Somehow these things don't seem to bother other people.  I've seen some awful manis on really popular blogs, and there have been such lovely comments.  There's obviously something about this blogging malarkey that's out of my comprehension.  Some people could probably just post photos of a turd from different angles, and get great comments about their diet.

Aaaandd that makes me sound bitter.  And I'm genuinely not.  If people can make a living out of their blog, or even just have a super successful one, I'm happy for them.  To get there they will have put alot of hard work in.  Hard work that I don't have either the time or inclination to feed into my own blog.  They are there, looking for every way to reach out to new people, members of all the networks, taking the time to comment in all the popular forums, getting their name known.  Not for me.  I. Just. C. B. A.

So, I can't complain.  And I'm not.  Just venting I guess.  And talking through my mojo loss with you.  Every time I've thought of getting my laptop out to blog, these things have all been going though my head, and I've ended up going off to do other things.  If it hadn't been for Artsy Wednesday, and not wanting to let the other girls down, my blog would have hit the rocks lately I think.

What am I doing back here then?  Well, when I'm not blogging, I'm thinking about blogging.  It's not that I don't like blogging any more, because I do.  I have a beauty review almost ready to go, and I'll probably post that today too, while I'm feeling the vibe.  It's just that life gets in the way.  I've had alot on my plate lately, and although alot of it's still there, I'm feeling alot stronger than I was.  If you can win the battles in your head, you're much more likely to win them out there in the world.  Well, that's what I think anyway.

As long as I can manage to stay true to my original idea for my blog, which was to share my thoughts on things with all of you, then I'll class it as a success no matter how many followers, or pageviews, or lack of, I have.

And so far, I've managed it.  I have been swayed when I've read a popular blog, to mimic its style, or be inspired by its posts, but at the end of the day, then it wouldn't be my blog anymore.  And for me, that's the best thing about my blog, that it's mine.  It reflects me and my life.  And even though my life may be similar to some peoples, it will never be the same, because mine has me in it.

So as I sit out here in the garden, cursing next door for strimming while I'm trying to think, what are my plans for my blog?  Hard to say really.  I have so many interests.  Like, SO MANY, it's hard to just stick with the nails and beauty.  I don't want to have two or three different blogs for different things, but that seems to be the done thing.  I find it hard enough to keep up with this one. 

It's tough finding time to actually do the things when you're working full time, never mind writing about them too.  That's another reason I take my hat off to the bloggers who manage to work or study full time, or juggle a blog with a family, and still manage to post every day.  Granted, some of their posts aren't very long, and I'd feel like I was short changing people if I put out posts like that, but they they are the normal ones, but I'm the exception rather than the rule, with my ramblings.

So if you're not really feeling your blog right now, take heart in the fact that you're not alone in feeling like that.  I personally feel that it's better to put your blog on a 'go-slow' post wise, rather than just churn out any old tat.  I've only been posting once a week, sometimes not even that, and I haven't seen a massive reduction in my pageviews (no, I don't understand it either).  According to Blogger I get roughly 150 pageviews a day, although I have no idea how many of those are real pageviews, and probably wouldn't want to know either haha.

I think it's just a muddy patch of blogging ground that we all have to trudge through from time to time, in order to get to where we want our blog to be.  Having talked this through here with you, I think I've come to realise that I want my blog to be a vibrant, fun, and creative place where like minded people (that's you) come to be inspired, and hopefully have a fun read.  This might mean mixing it up with a few other topics...

But don't worry, there'll still be loads of nails :-)

Until next time...

MASPOOASE  x x x
~Wendy~

Getting Started - new to blogging!

Hi there!

Well, I turned 40 this year and I realised that quite a few things I've been meaning to do with my life haven't happened. 

Nothing like a mid-life crisis, I mean, I don't feel in crisis, but just a practical realisation that if I don't actually get on and do things, I'm going to end up having done none of the things I meant to do!  I've never been an 'I wish...' type of person, and I don't intend to start that now!  So to cut quite a long story a teeny bit shorter, I've been saying for a while, d'you know, I should make a blog.... and not doing it - so here we are!

I intend to make it about the things I'm interested in, and hopefully there are other people out there who have the same interests as me (by the law of averages, there should be a few), being not much of a blog reader myself, am not an expert in them, and am thinking of this as a blessing because I don't have any preconceptions or 'house rules' to stick to, I am planning to update every weekend, as I go to work all week and by the time I get in, make tea, have a shower and watch a bit of tv, am tired out and ready for bed, and prob any blogs in that frame of mind would be a bit dull - something I'm trying to avoid!

So, how have I found setting up a blog?  Well actually the sign up bit wasn't too bad, I believe 'Blogger' that I picked (which is free) is part of Google.  I didn't realise this when I started, and it ended up attached to the hotmail account thats attached to my Google.  I didnt want to do that, as I made a new hotmail and twitter just for this to keep the whole thing separate... but hey ho you live and learn - well I do anyway.... the good thing was that it looks like the mobile site automatically links so you don't have to do anything extra, but I don't know how it will look, the preview didn't look too promising and I can't see anywhere to change the layout of it.

I'm finding the layout part a bit more complicated, have managed to make some kind of header, and put a ready made background in, but I can't work out how to centre the header, and theres all sorts of bits and boxes that I don't know what they do, but I'll suss it out eventually.

So, a bit about me then, you already know how old I am, I live in the lovely Lake District in the UK in a very small cottage with my Fiance, no date set for the wedding though, just an ongoing engagement, no children, no pets, although I would love to have a cat, dear other half doesn't want one so I have to make do with petting the cat from down the road, it's started sitting on our windowsill, cats are so fickle!

Anyway, enough of my ramblings, I was worried I wouldn't find anything to blog about, I should have known better!  I hope you enjoy my blog, please feel free to comment, you don't have to log in but they do go to me for approval first

- MASPOOASE x x x