WINTER TREATS.

It’s dark, it’s cold and all you want to do is sit inside and keep warm but when cosy winter nights in just don’t cut it. Here are a few things I would recommend doing during the month of December.

London Grace.

A nail salon, café and bar all in one. Need I say more? The perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon catching . I kept cosy with a hot chocolate catching up with Lucie whilst being pampered in the prettiest salon.

I got the hunky dory in a dark burgundy, perfect for winter and it lasted a good 2weeks.

Matilda.

I’ve seen quite a few shows, Cats, War Horse, Billy Elliot etc. All have been really good… but Matilda, was EXCELLENT.

Everything you would want from a musical; fantastic set design, perfect sing-along-songs, amazing cast and laugh out loud funny, whilst being a slight tear jerker. 

If you get the opportunity – I couldn’t recommend this enough.

Egg Break

Comfort food is all you need the month of December and eggs are up there right?

Egg Break as the name suggests, every dish on the menu features eggs in some shape or form but don’t go expecting something simple like eggs on toast (fear not, it’s there too) Try Pork belly, organic fried egg and sriracha sauce in a bun or fried chicken bap with egg and added Avo, bacon and hash browns and finish with a Chocolate tart with marsh mallows to name a few. *drools*

HOW TO NAIL PINTEREST.

A few weeks back I headed to a wonderful workshop at the Hoxton Holborn called ‘How to Nail Pinterest’ … Eh yes please! The workshop was taken by the wonderful Zoe of Craft candy.
Before we begin, by no means am I a Pinterest expert (Check me out here), but it's definitely something I want to get better at. So I thought I would gather my takeaways from the talk and share them with you lot and you can let me know if this is something you'd like more of. 

“Pinterest is not social media but a discovery site.”

40% should be inspiration.
40% informative .
20% about your brand.

1. WHEN TO PIN
I’ve never had a schedule myself when it comes to pinning, I can go days without it and then hit it all at once. This is something I really want to get better at and although I don't think I would take this step just yet, Buffer lets you schedule pins - really helping to give you more of a schedule.
Zoe suggested understanding when your readers are online, age and location. This should help you define the best time for people to see your pins.
Pinning consistently throughout a day is going to reach more people than sporadically (like I do, oopsy) 



2. WHAT TO PIN

Inspirational words are huge on Pinterest and one of the biggest/most popular boards.

Most popular searches:
Food and drink
DIY and Craft
Home decor
Fitness
Top 10s / How to’s
Travel boards

Other ideas:
How to’s with all the images in one image the start to finish.
Info graphics
City guides.

2. IT'S ALL ABOUT THE BEST DESCRIPTIONS.
Correct descriptions > the more the better.

Something I didn't know was that Google searches your account description, board names and board descriptions. So time to tidy those up to make them more search friendly.

Keep board names simple and how people would search key phrases. Eg Alexa Chung style.
Board descriptions - word everything that may be searchable towards this, helping with SEO.
EG. Fashion, Alexa chungs wardrobe, dungarees, denim, peterpan collars etc etc

4. THE PINS
Why not covert your account to business - verify your account and this will allow you to look at your analytics. Curate your account. Your voice and branding. 

DONT delete a pin.

DO cross pin/pin the same thing more than once because one user doesn't follow all your boards.

Something I've never used but worth looking into Rich Pins. All the information sticks wherever the pin goes. Perfect for keeping up to date with with any changes when pinning from a store. Eg changes in price.

I would definitely recommend getting the Pin It button on your site, encouraging your readers to pin.

HAPPY PINNING!

COSMO BLOG AWARDS 2013

The cosmo blog awards finally arrived, I still couldn’t believe I was even attending but thanks to you guys I was nominated for 'Best New Fashion Blog’.  After a lovely day at Toni and Guy getting my hair cut and styled, it seems like I had a matter of minutes to pull on my dress and dash across the city to meet the lovely Olivia before the main event. We went for a quick bite to eat, took some outfit photos and generally just hyped each other up with nerves before going. Sorry Liv.

Even arriving at the door of the OXO tower my head was saying “gosh I’m probably not on the list’ ha

The room was filled more bloggers than you could ever Vlog about. I was very excited to have met some of my faves. Lauren, Suzie, Alix, Caroline and many more.

It’s amazing how quickly everyone settles right into chat like we have known each other for years, there was photo booth fun, many a cocktail and even beauty brands to pamper you through the night.

Then the awards got underway and I think I am still in shock to announce that I actually came away with something! I won best new fashion blog?! It was a total whirlwind going up on stage. Pretty positive you could probably see my heart beating right out of that Free People dress of mine. (outfit post to follow)

My category was so good this year I honestly didn’t think I had a hope.

I cant thank everyone enough who voted for my little blog and to cosmopolitan for such an fun night.

THANK YOU!!

Check out some of the Cosmo galleries here and here. They also made a cool video on the night. Of course all my antics are documented on instragram too.

One last BIG thanks, to Lucie who sent me some of these snaps.. so kind of you :)