June in Review - Issue 13 Louise Pentland #BlogosphereCoverReveal, #Blogtacular and #BlogosphereBlogAwards

June was a very busy month and one of my favourites since moving to London.

May ended by sending issue 13 of Blogosphere magazine, staring the lovely Louise Pentland, off to press. This was by far one of my favourite issues to work on and I'm super proud of how it turned out. There's SO MUCH content in this one! It features an interview with Louise Pentland, Caroline Hirons, Laura Jane Williams, Chanel Ambrose, Downs Side Up and Grey Fox Blog as well plenty of other features and an 'in conversation with' featuring Liv Purvis and Joe Galvin. SO MUCH CONTENT!! I also discuss the Instagram shadowban saga and how to get around it if your account has been affected... controversial!

#BlogosphereCoverReveal

A week later, on June 8th, we invited magazine contributors and platinum subscribers to join us for the #BlogosphereCoverReveal in the Belgravia room at The Lanesborough (@TheLanesborough) to celebrate the launch of the latest issue. I still can't get over how beautiful the room was with big windows overlooking Hyde Park, sparkling chandeliers and a fabulous hand-painted ceiling!

The Benefit ladies getting hand massages from Burts Bees

Benefit and Burts Bees joined us at the event. Benefit offered makeup touchups and brow services (the brow products are so good!) while Burts Bees provided our guests with relaxing hand massages.

Halfway through the evening, Alice Audley (Editor-in-Chief) welcomed our guests and spoke about issue 13. The cover star, Louise Pentland, said a few words too. It was then time for the moment that everybody was waiting for! We were finally able to reveal the Louise Pentland cover after months of hard work, hand out issue 13 and start sharing it online. Of course, lots of people snapped photos standing in front of the massive cover we had just revealed!

Alice Audley, Sophie Fletcher (Sophie Kathleen), Elaine Malone (XOmisse) and Albertine Brandon (DippyWrites)

Albertine Brandon (DippyWrites), Sophie Fletcher (Sophie Kathleen) and Elaine Malone (XOmisse)

Guests were then given a goody bag which was packed full of products from Burts Bees (@BurtsBeesUK), Benefit (@BenefitUK), Blistex (@BlistexUK), Neutrogena (@Neutrogena), Next (@nextofficial), Shea Moisture (@sheamoistureuk), White Rabbit Skincare (@WhiteRabbitSC) and a copy of issue 13!

I had so much fun at the event and loved getting to have chat with everyone there. The evening went by way too quick and I'm already looking forward to the next one. I really enjoyed scrolling through social media the next day seeing the magazine arrive with subscribers and reading what everybody thinks. That's one of my favourite parts of my Blogosphere job!

#Blogtacular

On Saturday, June 10th, I attended the Blogtacular conference. This was my third year and I'm so delighted that I got invited back to be on the Creative Genius Bar giving one-on-one advice about blogging, blog design, SEO and WordPress. I'll have a full post about the day over on my main blog, XOmisse, but as always it was an inspiring day that left me feeling very creative, motivated and buzzing to put some plans into action.

#BlogosphereBlogAwards

On Thursday, June 22nd, we held our inaugural #BlogosphereBlogAwards ceremony in IRIS Studios, Kensington. We opened the nominations at the beginning of March with 12 categories and over 6,000 nominations altogether. We narrowed that down to 5 shortlisted bloggers per category which was then put to a public and panel vote. The public vote made up 40% and panel made up the remaining 60% of the vote.



It was an amazing night celebrating! There was a red carpet with flambeaux, a beautiful flower wall, canapes from Social Pantry and a bar serving Willem Barentsz gin, Fentimans soft drinks and Stassen Cider. We had a Blogger lounge which showcased the sponsors of the night including Miss Sporty, Tangle Teezer, Philips, London Tea, Next, Desenio, So...? Fragrance, Splat Oral Care, Ice Lolly Holiday, Moskito Guard and Willem Barentsz gin.
 

Alice started the ceremony, welcoming guests and one by one announced the first six winners. We took a short break to enjoy music by Andrea Di Giovanni (@andreadigiovanni) who was incredible and top up our drinks before announcing the final six winners. The last being the Blogosphere Blogger Of The Year who will be our next cover star - so exciting! The winners were:

• Fashion Blogger of the Year: Sophie Milner - Fashion Slave
• Beauty Blogger of the Year: The Sunday Girl
• Lifestyle Blogger of the Year: Hannah Rainey - Little Thoughts Blog
• Fitness Blogger of the Year: Cat Meffan - Imperfect Matter
• Arts and Crafts Blogger of the Year: Geneva - A Pair and a Spare DIY
• Book Bloggerof the Year: Rhianne - Little Novelist
• Photographer Blogger of the Year: Kyle Galvin
• Food Blogger of the Year: Holly - Little Blog of Vegan
• Travel Blogger of the Year: Claire and Laura - Twins that Travel
• Community Blogger of the Year: Nadiene - Just Nadiene
• Blogosphere Blogger Of The Year 2017 and Issue 14 Cover Star: Hannah Gale

Despite it being a lot of work for the team, I'm already looking forward to next year. The evening went by way too quick, I've been re-living it through blog posts, vlogs, tweets and Instagrams. I want to say a huge congratulations to all the winners above and everyone who was nominated. An incredible amount of talent and creativity in this industry and it was amazing to celebrate that!

To end this hectic month I'm flying home from London to Dublin for a quick visit and I'm so excited about it. I didn't think I'd get home again until at least September so this is a nice little surprise. A couple of friends are planning to visit in September too so that will be something to look forward to. I'm hoping the nice weather continues!

How to get issue 13 with Louise Pentland

This is such a frequently asked question so thought I'd pop the information in here for you. If you're not already subscribed, you can purchase a subscription here - there are four packages to choose from starting at £25/year with free UK shipping. The benefit of being a subscriber? You'll be one of the first to get the latest issue (they are sent straight after the #BlogosphereCoverReveal) and each issue will be delivered straight to your door before it's even hit the shelves in stores!

Issue 13 is also available to purchase for £6 in UK newsagents, they usually go into stores 1-2 weeks after the #BlogosphereCoverReveal and after subscribers get their copy. You can see a list of the current stockists here.

This issue is definitely one of my favourites, I'm honestly so proud of it so I really hope you enjoy. If you do pick up a copy remember to tag us (@Blogosphere_Magazine) in your photos of the magazine on Instagram, we'll be featuring them in issue 14. Happy reading!

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Celebrating the launch of Issue 9 at the Blogosphere Cover Reveal

As some of you may know from my previous post, I recently moved to London to join the Blogosphere team and this week we launched our latest issue. This is such a special issue for me! Although I've been writing for the magazine since the beginning and became even more involved when I redesigned the website in November, this was the very first issue that I was as an official member of the Blogosphere team. I wanted to share some photos from the night and chat a little bit about the magazine as I've really only mentioned it before over on my design blog, XOMISSE.

About Blogosphere Magazine

Blogosphere Magazine is an internationally distributed publication that launched in Autumn 2013 and covers a whole range of interesting topics for the blogging and social media community. Each issue is split into eight main sections: beauty, fashion, food, travel, lifestyle, photography, parenting and arts & crafts. A blogger is chosen for each section and they recommend five of their favorite bloggers to feature. So you get all the best bits from the blogosphere! There's also exclusive features and interviews as well as a social media section, an agony aunt section answering all of your blogging questions and other blogging tips.

About Issue 9

Issue 9 is just packed full of amazing content so I won't go into detail here but I wanted to share some of the articles I most enjoyed reading. There's something so calming and empowering about cover star Ella Grace Denton and her interview was truly inspiring. I got to speak to her at the event and she's just lovely. There's also an interview with Emma Gannon and Q&A with Hannah Gale - two amazing women who are killing it online! I found the article on Journalists vs Bloggers really interesting and Jess from CopperGarden's fashion section made me want to go shopping! I also really enjoyed what Aftab wrote about life as a student blogger, I related to a lot of it and his motivation really inspired me. And finally I have to mention my own section - I share some SEO tips and talk about using Periscope as a blogger to grow and connect with your readers.

In addition to the 164 pages of great content there's also a brand new events supplement reviewing meet-ups, classes and other events from around the UK. It's a fabulous guide to blogger events, Albertine did such a good job with it.

#BlogopshereCoverReveal

On Wednesday we hosted a party at 15 Bateman Street in Soho to reveal who our cover star was. Magazine editors, contributers and platinum subscribers were invited along to celebrate the latest issue with us.

It was an absolutely crazy day but six o'clock quickly arrived and we were all ready to start the evening. Hannah Trigwell performed on the night as people started to arrive. She is so talented! At around 7.30pm Alice, Editor-in-Chief, thanked everyone for coming and announced the cover star who was in the room. Then it was time to enjoy the evening - chat to everyone, check out the showcase stalls and try some Premier Estates Prosecco and Fentimans Rose Lemonade!

My favourite part of the Cover Reveal party was being able to meet everyone in person. Since being in London I've helped design and proof each page of Issue 9 so getting to actually put a face and voice to each blogger was amazing! I also got to meet some lovely bloggers who told me that they have read XOMISSE for years, which made me extremely happy. And when people like Jess, owner of the F.B.L Bloggers community, tells you that your blog is their "blog bible"... well that's a pretty amazing and humbling feeling.

Albertine did such a great job organising the night. I had an amazing time, and I hope that everyone who attended did too! If you've got your hands on an Issue 9 let me know what you think. We've already started planning Issue 10...exciting!

Where to buy Blogosphere Magazine?

For those of you interested in getting your hands on a copy of the magazine, it's available in a number of WHSmith and independent stores around the UK (see stockist list here). It's also available online before it hits the shelves - we ship internationally. Although if you want to gaurantee your issue then check out the subscription packages to get the latest issue sent straight to your door as soon as it launches (subscriptions also come with lots of amazing perks).

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PS. There's a giveaway over on our Twitter and Facebook page to win a goody bag, go quick!!

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Share Sunday 083 - Dublin Trip, The Jungle Book + First London Tour

Happy Sunday! These weeks are flying by, I can't believe it's almost May already! I'm trying to stay on top of these Share Sunday posts as much as possible, I know they are more for myself and I should probably move them to a private blog but I like having them here all in one place.

Week Three in London

Week three started really well, Adam arrived in London!! We also moved in to the new Blogosphere HQ which was very exciting! Since April is birthday month (dad, mam, brother and my own), I flew home to Dublin on Thursday. It wasn't exactly the weekend we had planned thanks to stomach bugs and unexpected work calls, but it was so lovely to be home for a few days and spend time with friends and family after a crazy couple of weeks running around London. After some quiet birthday celebrations (it included pizza so I was happy) I flew back to London on the Sunday. We decided to go see The Jungle Book on Sunday night, it was my FAVOURITE film as a child so I was very excited. To be honest, it was a little disappointing - fantastic film but much prefer the original. If you've seen it, let me know your thoughts? I hear there's another much darker version coming out this year too.

Week Four in London

After work on Wednesday, the Blogosphere team and I headed to the #IRLpanel. It is a live panel and networking event hosted by Emma Gannon and Laura Jane Williams where they pick a topic, discuss it, and then everybody chats and drinks. Simple but effective! This was the second event, the topic was Friendship, and also included Lucy Sheridan, Nadin Hadi and Jade Coles on the panel. It was a really interesting and enjoyable evening, I'm already looking forward to the next one!

Thursday was the first day that Adam and I both had off so after a few phonecalls we decided the make use of the day and go exploring. Adam's never been to London before, so we made a huge long list of places we wanted to visit. We managed to check off a couple of places - Sherlock Holmes Museum, Regent's Park, Buckingham Palace, London Bridge and the HMS Belfast. Since Adam was in work for the weekend, I caught up on XOmisse work. It's been stressful trying to balance everything, but I loved having time to myself over the weekend to work on XOmisse client work and write some tutorials. Starting to feel a little more settled and a little less stressed as the weeks go on, looking forward to exploring London more!

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The Birthday Wishlist

Once I knew I was moving to London I put myself on a spending ban, the tempation to shop was strong but the idea of having even more to pack kept me away from the shops. Now that I've settled in a bit more and with birthday discounts appearing in my inbox, I'm eyeing up some pretty things.

With having just moved my main interest is decor and storage, I've been browsing through IKEA wanting all the things, but telling myself to wait until we're settled in more before making any big purchases. I'm a bit late to the sneaker trend, but with the amount of walking I've been doing lately I've been wanting a pair of Nike Roshe runners. The black seem to be hugely popular, especially amoung fashion bloggers but I'm quite drawn to the grey pair. Grey seems to be this months favourite colour! I've spotted them in a local designer outlet on discount so they may just be my birthday gift to myself!

I've picked up a lot of army green items lately too, and loved seeing how people have been styling the khaki bomber jackets, think it's a must have this spring! I also seem to be drawn to blush coloured items which isn't like me at all, but how gorgeous is this sleeveless jacket and this duster coat, very Olivia Pope!

I am obsessed with River Island bags, it's a weakness and while I usually go for slouchy bags like this gorgeous grey one I've also been drawn to more structured bags - both in grey, obviously.

My favourite foundation brush by Sigma completly fell apart this weekend, it doesn't travel well it seems. I also need a new phone case as mine has started cracking, I love the marble-esque ones from RockSteadyCases, they have a gorgeous selection!

What have you had your eye on this month? Anything I'm missing out on?

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Share Sunday 082 - Living In London & #BlogosphereTeaParty

Happy Sunday!! As I shared last year, April is always my favourite month of the year. It full of good times and good people, with each family member birthday being in April and the thoughts of nice weather starting to appear it's always such a busy month too. This year is no exception! I can't believe it's already been two weeks since my last post, actually I can't believe I've been in London almost two weeks! It's been pretty hectic, and so much has happened that in a way it kind of feels like it must be longer.

Week One in London

Tuesday was such a crazy day, running around making sure I had everything packed, organised and ready. Friends popped in throughout the day to wish me luck. The evening was spent enjoying a huge pizza with family, boyfriends and girlfriends included. Despite finishing my to-do list at 3pm, I still managed to stay up until 3am!! You always seem to have more to pack don't you? After two short hours of sleep, I headed to the airport to start my very busy day.

After landing in London, we went straight to the east to meet an agent who was very helpful, but in the end we decided that it made more sense for me to live on the North-West side of London. So Thursday was spent there, walking up and down streets, ringing people and searching for somewhere to stay. I wasn't expecting to find anywhere within a couple of days, but with no options at all I was really starting to worry. We spotted a little estate agents down a side street and our day started to turn around. The owners were Irish, and they knew an Irish couple who had just renovated a house into 4 flats, with an Irish couple in one of them - "The Luck of the Irish" hey! It was in the perfect location for us, well within our budget and a lovely little place with everything we wanted/needed. I checked out of the hotel of Saturday, bought some groceries, kitchen stuff, and other little bits and pieces and moved everything into my new place! Ahh! How exciting!!

I can't believe I managed to arrive in London, find a perfect place and be moved in in just 4 days. We did over 70,000 steps in 3 days, I swear I ran purely on adrenaline this week!



A Sunday Well Spent...
On Sunday I attended the #BlogosphereTeaParty event in an adorable French restaurant called Aubaine on Moxon Street. It was decorated with candles, wooden crates, pretty flowers and delicious food. It was honestly such a great way to spend my first Sunday in London, and a great way to meet a whole load of people all at once. A little surreal too meeting people in real life, who you've known off or spoke to online for many years!

Some of the lovely ladies I met at the #BlogosphereTeaParty and had the pleasure of chatting to

• Maddie of Maddie J Hamilton.
• Rebecca from Bec Boop.
• Jess at Look What I Got, and founder of FBL Bloggers. 
• Rae, Lily and Dani of Beauty At Brunch.
• Becky from Becky Bedbug.
• Sara at Sara Steele.

• Besma from Curiously Conscious.
• Kerry at Skinner Skyline.
• Scarlett at By Scarlett.
• Elizabeth at Rosalilium.
• Kirsty of Kristy Harper.
• Sally of Say Sally May.
• Jodie of Alajode.

The restaurant itself was so perfect for afternoon tea, Albertine did such a fantastic job organising it and I really can't wait to see what else she has in store (well actually, I know some of the things she's planning and it going to be amazing! Get excited!). I also got to meet Alice, the Editor-in-Chief and founder of Blogosphere Magazine, for the first time after regularly communicating over email for three years. She's just as lovely in person and made me feel very welcome!

Week Two in London

I started at Blogosphere HQ on Monday, where I'll be three days a week. This week went great, and I left Wednesday evening looking forward to Monday! Imagine, being excited to go to work on a Monday morning haha. I spent pretty much all day on Friday sorting out a bank account, but so happy to have another task checked off the list. Still have a couple of things left to sort out, but feeling much less stressed now. The rest of the weekend was spent catching up on XOmisse work, since broadband arrived this week! Very much looking forward to the rest of this month!

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