Generally I am the kind of person who keeps to myself. I know that might sound really strange coming from a blogger who puts her whole life on the internet but I can count my friends on 1 hand and it’s very rare that I ever post to my personal Facebook page. I write about our lives, parenting issues we may be having, things we might have done and products we have been using. Something I don’t write a lot about though is self-employment, blogging and what it means to be a full time blogger. Today I wanted to talk about some of the pressures that come with blogging (for me anyway) and how easy it is to compare yourself to others.
Style? What style?
This year I have vowed to make myself be more present both on the blog and on all social media channels. I find it so hard to have photos taken of myself for many reasons but one being that I hate how I dress. Most of the time you’ll find me in a pair of jeans that I wear until the thighs have worn down and some form of navy t-shirt or jumper. I have nicer clothes and a whole rack of dresses but I just don’t wear them. As much as I love them, because I did when I bought them, they just don’t seem to be practical for day to day life.
As a blogger I frequently feel the pressure to dress better and to look nicer. Wearing jeans and a t-shirt on a daily basis makes me feel like a teenager and not an adult with an actual sense of style. Being a plus size woman, I think I tend to wear things I know are super comfortable but actually, I don’t think they really suit me and I don’t think they make me look good at all.
The problem is, clothes cost money and right now I don’t have a lot of that! The photo below is one of the few nice ones I have of me and it was taken for a collaboration with Simply Be.
The perfect day out
I absolutely love watching people’s Instagram stories and seeing where they spend their weekends or what they do on a weekday. I love seeing different parts of the country, great locations and fun things to do as a family or with young children. We don’t really do days out very much and I definitely feel the pressure and that we should be doing more. Not only more days out but more varied activities and locations.
One of the problems for us here, aside from money, is that we don’t drive. We can’t just decide to pop out somewhere for a few hours and jump in the car for an adventure. We live in a small town in North Norfolk where we rely on the terrible buses and trains that run hourly. Some places are hard, or impossible to get to without a car and some places could take hours to get to due to changes of transport. I would love to get to more National Trust properties or just got a walk in some woods somewhere but unfortunately these aren’t really an option for us.
I guess sometimes I think my Instagram stories content, as well as posts on the blog, can be a bit lacking because we don’t really do much. Our lives aren’t exciting and we don’t have loads of time and money to spend on doing things together.
Insta-homes are not for us
We live in a run down Victorian semi. It was run down and needed a lot of work when we bought it nearly 5 years ago and it’s still in nearly the same state now. Actually, some of it might be worse than it was when we moved in. Jackson (the dog we had) actually ate part of our kitchen and the back door which has now resulted in bigger issues because of the weather. The previous owners painted over things like tiles, plug sockets and light switches in white emulsion. Absolutely nothing in this house is straight, smooth or perfectly clean.
I see so many other bloggers with beautiful houses, kitchens that are perfect for photography and living rooms to die for. This is one of the areas where I feel most pressure I think. I have to work with the tools I have and I take a lot of photos of Erin at home. It’s so hard to get a nice photo sometimes because of either the awful background, crappy carpet or bad lighting. Sometimes I feel like because my house isn’t nice, let alone beautiful, I won’t have photos as nice as some other bloggers.
I would love for our home to be nicer and I know that it’s a work in progress but it doesn’t stop me from getting home envy!
None of this pressure actually comes from other bloggers. It’s all in my head. The blogging community is generally super encouraging and supportive but it’s easy to get caught up in things you don’t have, things you want to do but can’t and places you want to go.