Galentine’s Day (the day before Valentine’s Day where you celebrate with your best gal friends) is fast approaching, and there’s nothing better than getting a lil’ something to remind them how important they are to you! To make it even more special, why not purchase a Galentine’s gift from a small business? Not only will you be giving something more personal, but you’re also supporting an individual (and, speaking from experience, it really does make their day). These ideas would be perfect for your gyaru friend or just those interested in the wonderful world of Japanese fashion.
Okay, I admit it – I will put my hands up and say that I don’t talk a lot about gyaruo on this blog, and that’s because I don’t really know much about them. I’ve only met a handful of gyaruo/gyaruo (the male equivalent of gyaru) and, sadly, we only have one in the U.K. (my gal Amber who occasionally does it from time-to-time). So I had a lil’ chat with my friend, Wes, about his life as a gyaruo! I’m going to call this as part of my “Interview with a Gyaru(o) series!” (Catchy, right?) Let’s begin…
Instagram makes the world go around – and I’m obsessed! I don’t know how many hours I spend on the app but it’s enough to know that I might have a problem… My favourite place has to be instagram stories, as I can shamelessly share my bare-faced selfies and videos of my cat.
It’s also the place where I love filling out templates and tagging my friends to do the same so that I could get to know them a little bit more. So I’ve created some gyaru instagram stories templates for you all to use at your heart’s desire. Just save the picture and upload it to your stories (and maybe give me a lil’ tag so that I could check it out!). I also have them available on instagram over at hellolizziebee.
Okay, I fucked up, again. I allowed myself to get down in the dumps because my lil’ blog over here wasn’t get enough attention as I wanted it to. It got so bad that I was stressing myself out and just piling lots of things onto my to-do list, and my searches were filled with stuff like ‘how to grow your blog’ and ‘how to get more pageviews’. It was triggered when someone posted in a group “can you please help me grow my blog because I only get 200-300 pageviews a day?”.
Only.
People are right – comparison is the thief of joy and it stole all of my happiness right then. Gosh, I was so far away from that! What is wrong with my blog? Is it worth even blogging any more? I know I shouldn’t be moaning because people have different measurements of success, but it really got to me. I was lost focus of what I wanted to do because I was feeling so upset that I wasn’t good enough. Again.
That’s until I read ‘The One Thing’ by Gary Keller. I’m not really one for self-help books, but after finding it harder and harder to be multi-passionate, I decided to give this book a go. My mind was blown. My goals were back in focus and my dream future was becoming clearer.
After this I realised that I wasn’t ever going to become a full-time blogger. There were so many signs that I dismissed earlier that suddenly became crystal clear. Firstly, I never really had the time for blog events and attending blogger meet-ups weren’t really my thing unless I knew someone there. Secondly, I was secretly thankful that my inbox wasn’t flooded with sponsored emails. I just couldn’t write a sponsored/gifted post with the same enthusiasm as I would have if it was just a normal outfit post unless I truly believed in them. And thirdly, I couldn’t be bothered to learn about SEO. At the end of the day, I write posts because I wanted to, not to boost my rating or whatever.
What I do know, however, is that I do love blogging but only because it provides me a creative outlook to write down my thoughts. The more I tried to pressure myself to promote my blog and get it in front of people, the more stressed out I was. And that reflected badly on my writing. I even had to take a break from this blog (and this is my first post after said break) because I found myself crying to sleep as I lost sense of purpose. But I don’t really need a reasoning for blogging – doing it because I love it is a good enough reason.
I’m going to take it easy so that I can focus more my ‘One Thing’, which I know to be my art. It’s something that I’ve done my whole life and it’s been in the dark for too long. I want it to grow. I want to be known as a hand-letterer and be damn good at it.
So, I’m happy with just being a hobbyist blogger.
Love,
Lizzie xx
P.S. Are you a hobbyist blogger or do you do it full-time? Or are you somewhat in-between?
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