Oh hey, remember me? I've had a little bit of a time out recently - from the blog, social media, work, the world outside my living room... all thanks to a little operation with a disproportionate amount of recovery time. It would be easy to pin the blog silence on this alone, but in all honesty I just haven't had very much to say, and I'm struggling to find words for things I do want to say.

In times like this, I turn to books.

I'm trying to keep a record of my reading this year - an unofficial resolution, if you will - so for posterity's sake, here's what has been keeping me going since the year turned.

Trigger Warning & Fragile Things & How The Marquis Got His Coat Back - Neil Gaiman
The Fire Sermon - Francesca Haig
The Lake of Dead Languages & The Drowning Tree - Carol Goodman
The Invisible Library & The Masked City - Genevieve Cogman
Outlander - Diana Gabaldon
Pretty Honest - Sali Hughes
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix & Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling

Some of these are re-reads - for example, I began reading the Harry Potter series for the umpteenth time whilst at home over Christmas, and stopped at Half Blood Prince in January, around the same time Alan Rickman passed (bless his soul). I haven't been able to bring myself to read Deathly Hallows since I stumbled home the day he died, put the film version on and sobbed, great wracking sobs, at his interpretation of the Prince's Tale. Pretty Honest is a book I keep on my coffee table as I love dipping in and out as the mood strikes, and Outlander was selected purely because it is enormous and would keep me going while waiting for my operation to take place.

In my teenage years I was utterly obsessed with Carol Goodman's novels - a chilling mix of drama, secrets and classic literary references. I bought two of my old favourites from Amazon marketplace and am happy to report I still feel the same way as I did ten years ago! The Lake of Dead Languages is my favourite for its school setting and Gothic feel.

I finally picked up Neil Gaiman's Trigger Warning, another anthology of his short stories. Gaiman is the master of short stories, in my opinion - I very quickly re-read Fragile Things as soon as I had finished. There's just something about his writing that makes me feel as though I've awakened from a long, dreamless sleep - it coaxes any creative thoughts of mine out of hiding, and I find myself far more prone to daydreams. I also zipped through the novella How The Marquis Got His Coat Back - a perfect little continuation of the Neverwhere story (which has now been adapted for radio by the BBC, for those interested!).

Genevieve Cogman's Library series was entirely unknown to me until Jon brought the first book home, but I was absolutely enthralled after the first chapter. A little bit magical, supernatural and mysterious, with some heavy Sherlock influences and a kickass heroine - I can't wait to read the next installment.

Finally, The Fire Sermon was on my wishlist for quite some time - I'm a big fan of dystopian fiction and I think Francesca Haig has done quite a believable job here. The premise is a bit different to anything I've read before - civilisation has been halted thanks to an apocalyptic event, people are born in sets of twins, with one being an Alpha and the other an Omega, and naturally conflict follows... I'm pretty sure there's going to be a sequel so I look forward to it being released!

I normally have a list as long as my arm of books to read but I'm drawing blanks at the moment for my March reading list - is there anything you've read recently that people absolutely have to know about? Please let me know in the comments!

Love Dani
xoxo

Hello lovelies,

Long time no speak! I'm really having trouble committing my thoughts to paper (or website, as it were) at the moment, so I decided to revisit a topic that has been on my mind for a little while...

I started reading blogs way back in 2009 and have been a happy part of the community ever since. It feels as though being part of the online blogging world is something I take for granted, that only really becomes apparent when speaking to people who don't blog themselves or read any online. Chatting to other bloggers always gets me thinking though - I actually started jotting down thoughts for this post after our blogger day out at the Web We Want festival way back in May last year - just shows how long it takes me to put my thoughts together! Listening to the panelists there made me consider exactly what I've gained in knowledge from my blogging and blog-reading (equally important of course!). I felt it was quite insightful, so thought I would share the main things I've learned from my time in the blogosphere (remember when this word was bandied about all the time?!)

Confidence
If someone had told a 20-year-old me that I would posting close ups of my face for all the world to see, I would have laughed scornfully. Or shuffled away awkwardly, to be more exact... Now I post regular pictures of myself, including my make up free face, without batting an eyelid! I feel like this change in confidence may have happened organically with the advent of the selfie, but taking pictures for my blog has definitely improved my image of myself. Okay, I still have days where I want to crawl behind my hair and hide... but doesn't everyone?

Photography
Before I started blogging, my forays into the world of photography consisted of some half-hearted "arty" snaps for my Livejournal icon, in which I draped coloured fairylights on my crappy Ikea wardrobe, and all the ubiquitous drunken-night-out pics whilst at university... Now whilst I'm not suggesting I am in any way, shape or form a decent photographer now, I actually really enjoy getting to grips with the technicalities involved, and I love taking photos! I would never have considered buying an entry-level DSLR, had I not read many blogger reviews and realised that "proper" cameras aren't as scary as I had always believed. My camera now accompanies me on all my travels and nothing pleases me more than taking a snap I can be proud of. I've even done some photography work for our catalogue launches in the office! There's still heaps for me to learn but I'm really having fun doing it, and I know that documenting our lives in this way will help cement some great memories for the future. It's also changed the way I view the world around me - I find myself observing little details, or the way the light falls just so on the pavement, and it makes me happy because it feels as though I'm really taking the time to enjoy the little moments!

Life goals 
Motherhood and having children is one of those things that is beginning to become relevant to my life with Jon. Nothing imminent, of course, but with our recent wedding and thirtieth birthdays looming in the not-so-far-away future (when did that happen?) I suppose it's inevitable that people are going to start asking us about our plans for procreation.

I used to be very anti-children. Having babies never featured in my life plan, and even when I met Jon and realised he was set on being a father, it was a struggle to change my mindset. I wasn't sure why my dislike had developed - I did (and still do) mother my younger siblings so I thought for a long time that I felt like I'd already played the role of a mum to some extent, hence my reluctance to do so myself. Then I thought it was a general fear of growing up and taking responsibility for another person (which still is terrifying, don't get me wrong!).

After a long few years of introspection and self-analysis, I realised I just didn't want my world to revolve around children. I didn't want motherhood to change me, my relationship with Jon, my relationship with the rest of the world, my relationship with myself

How does blogging come into this?

Quite simply, it opened up my eyes to different types of mothers. Working mothers. Stay at home mothers. The lovely Franky, who epitomises #mummygoals for me, blogged about her experiences of doing an MA whilst raising two young children. It revolutionised my way of thinking. It sounds ridiculous, but it made me realise I could still be myself and be a mum one day. I too want to fit in a part-time MA around motherhood - I still haven't quite got over the disappointment of starting full-time work instead of doing a masters straight after university, and I'm determined to achieve it one day. I guess it also helps that some of my friends have children now too, but I think I'd still have been very nervous about children had I not been able to follow different bloggers and their approaches to having kids.

This is just one, very specific example, but reading blogs, interacting with other bloggers, meeting them even, has really widened my view on the possibilities out there, not just in terms of balancing children with work, but also on making the best of your circumstances. There's nothing more inspiring than reading about someone else's journey, someone who started off where you did and achieved happiness through determination.

Communication & friendship
This is such an obvious benefit, it seems superfluous to mention it! But for an introvert like myself, blogging has not only put me in contact with so many lovely ladies, but through attending events I've become more confident and am more likely to start conversations with people now! I used to tremble at the idea of speaking to strangers, but now I suppress the fear and just start chatting. Social media makes it so simple to keep in touch, the only thing I'd like to keep working on is leaving blog comments - because I read blogs on the Bloglovin' phone app, it's difficult to comment sometimes. So every now and then I try to comment on as many blogs as possible to let the blogger know I appreciate their work! There's a small group of people I've been chatting to since the early days, such as Michelle, Jennie, Franky and Laura, and it's really lovely having the ability to build bonds with people over blogging. Nothing pleases me more than having a good old natter about blogging with my fellow office blogger Becky, and I've met so many great people at events (such as Charlotte and Emma), so I'd definitely recommend starting your own blog just for meeting more lovely likeminded people!

What have you learned from blogging, or from reading blogs? Anything similar to my experiences? Please let me know, I love hearing from other people!

Love Dani
xoxo