little white truths

I want to do a few posts to mark my blog's third anniversary, because I usually do that but also because I feel a bit bad that I completely forgot about the blogversary until a few days ago! My blog's birthday is 20 June, so I'm not too far off but I'll try to remember it next time.

Anyhoo. I was thinking about whether I should do a repeat of last year's blogversary posts and I came across one about my 2016 blogging resolutions. To be honest I don't really have a fresh set of resolutions for this year (they're all the same) so I thought it might be more interesting to actually look at how I've done this past year in terms of meeting them.

This resolution was one of those annoying ones that did actually happen but didn't go anywhere. We bought some budget lighting on ebay (it had good reviews) and spent something like $50 AUD on it, and it showed up and no matter how I play around with it, I can't get it to do what it needs to. Argh.

My best option for decent lighting remains the windowed area in the living room, although of course I'm tied to what kind of weather is happening outside - and it tends to change colour on me for no obvious reason so there's no guarantee that one shot will look exactly the same as the next one (eg some of them look a bit yellow, purple or blue and I've no idea why). I'd love to do a crash course in photography, if I ever have time.

The other problem with the window shots is that my set-up isn't high enough and I'm tall so it's taxing on my back to bend over and take reams of photos. My second best option is the range-hood light in the kitchen (I balance my set-up on the stove) and I do use that when my back's in all-sorts or the weather's rubbish.

One day I'll buy decent lighting, but that won't be any time soon. Two young kids and a tight budget plus a mortgage (not to mention the beauty addiction), you know the drill.

Tweak the template

Last year I mentioned upgrading the free template I was using for the one that costs $7.95. I did that, and that hasn't helped things as much as I would like: I still can't remove those damn headings at the top and I would like to change the template again because I'm not happy with my service.

This will require lots of research and (potentially) more money, plus it will mean messing around with all my ads and various bits of code etc, and I just don't have the head for that these days. I'm not good with technology at the best of times and I'm definitely not good with it when I'm up most nights feeding my son. Detailed work is not for the sleep-deprived, that's for sure.

I think I've done this. I've gotten a lot more involved with the online beauty community over the past year (and I partly have Beauty News to thank for that because it's kept me engaged, both on Facebook and on YouTube), so I think I've done reasonably well on this resolution too.

I love the beauty community, I must say. I particularly love the panning community because I'm yet to encounter bitchiness there: it's a very welcoming and encouraging group and I'm thankful for it.

Keep up the momentum

So I was concerned about how much I'd be able to post last year, given that I was due to pop out number two only a few months after. I think I've done pretty well in terms of momentum. I probably don't post quite as much as I used to, but I'm still averaging at least one post a day so I think that's good.

In sum

That's all from me! I'm sorry I don't have any fresh resolutions for you - I'm rather uninspired at the moment, but I'd say that's because I'm so sleep-deprived and have been for so long that it's hard to rustle up much creativity. But I'm glad that I've kept my 2016 resolutions in mind over the past year and have done at least something towards all of them.

Do let me know if you have any blogging resolutions for the year. I love to hear what goals people have and how they've gone about achieving them.

Hope all's well with you, and speak soon x