Update.

Hello blogging world!

It's been a little while hasn't it?!




I haven't published a post since the 8th March, which was quite some time ago. This post is a long 'un, but stick with me, there's a puppy picture at the end. Uni work has been getting a little hectic therefore blogging had to take a backseat for a little while. I also lost interest in blogging for a little while. I became a bit uninspired, started comparing my blogs to other blogs, thinking I wasn't doing enough, worrying my posts/picture quality weren't up to scratch, worrying about page views and just generally losing interest. My life also got a little crazy too. I went back home for Easter and went back to work, working crazy long shifts to get some money behind me for summer whilst doing numerous essays for uni (#studentproblems). To say I was a little stressed would be an understatement. One of my close friends passed away during that time too, which in all honestly was bloody horrible. He battled with depression his whole life, and sadly died from an overdose. We don't yet know whether it was on purpose or by accident, but we believe it to be an accident as he was genuinely getting better. Either way it's still heartbreaking.  It was completely out of the blue and it still hasn't really sunk in yet. It doesn't really feel very real at all.

Blogging was the last thing on my mind for quite a while but slowly I began to miss it. During that time, I've been quite active on Twitter (I'm over at @whtlrblggdnxt if you want to come say hi!) and have been joining in with blogging chats, making lots of new blogging friends and beginning to feel like a part of the blogging community again. Speaking to so many lovely people on Twitter has made me really miss blogging, and made me realise it's not just about the quality of your photos, or whether your posts are always on time, it's about making new friends and writing about something you feel passionate about! My last exam at uni is tomorrow afternoon so once that is done, I'm going to get writing again. I'm really looking forward to getting back into it, and getting inspired once again. I'm not going to put pressure on myself by trying to do loads of posts per week, just going to take it nice and slow and do as many as I feel like doing. After all, I'm not a professional blogger, this is just something that I love doing.

I've also had a few good things happen during my break. I mentioned in a previous post once that my Grandma was in a mental hospital being treated for depression. She's been in there for nearly a year now and they've started a new type of treatment which seems to be working wonders! She's slowly making progress and getting better and they hope she'll be back home in a few months, yay! We also got a new puppy! In another previous post I mentioned that my dog of 13 years passed away in January. My other dog (Tia) was starting to get really lonely so we felt getting a new little friend for her was the best thing to do. So, at the end of April we picked up our new Collie puppy, who is absolutely beautiful. We've named her Maisie. It took a while for Tia to come round to the idea of a new friend, but a few weeks later and they are best of buds, playing all the time! Maisie is your typical 10 week old puppy, into biting and eating everything but she's so so cute. I'll pop a picture of her in here for you all to 'awwwww' at.

Well, that was a bit of a lengthy post! Big well done if you made it to the end! Thank you to everyone that has been reading my blog during my break, surprisingly my pageviews have been increasing whilst I've been on my break, which gave me even more of a reason to come back. To know that people are still reading, even when I'm not posting, gave me the confidence I needed to start again. So thank you so much! Also a huge thank you to all of my lovely new Twitter blogging friends, you may not know who you are, but you've given me the boost I needed to get back into it. I can't wait to get started again!

I'm also looking to give my blog layout a bit of a re-vamp. If you have any tips/suggestions for doing so, or know any good websites or people that can help, please let me know! Any help would be greatly appreciated as I'm completely clueless at blog design!

Thankyou all for everything,

Laura xx