An Eventful Weekend

I don't talk an awful lot about my job on here. You might get the occasional bit of moo-ing about how busy I am (I should really stop doing that: I'm always busy and it never changes!) but mostly I love it. Never boring, always different and the people I work with are an amazing bunch.  What more could you want?

The past few weeks have been somewhat stressful though. Due to some staff changes and shortages, I somehow got landed organising one of our biggest and most complex events of the year.  Am I a natural event organiser? Hmmm, the jury is still out on that one. I don't think I'm relentlessly positive enough and I do have a shameful tendency to start crying when people are vile to me at the end of a very long and knackering weekend.  Proper event organisers probably don't do that.  Ah well, at least I waited till I was alone in the car.

I cope alright(ish) with the long hours though!


8am


9.30pm

But y'know what? I reckon if you can survive through a day when it's absolutely bucketing it down with rain and you're on your second waterproof coat of the day by 9am (it still hadn't dried out by 7pm that night) and you're dying a little bit inside because the event you're running is outdoors with very little in the way of wet weather provision and you don't think anyone is going to turn up, you're doing alright.

If I could have waved a magic wand on Saturday morning and put a giant bubble over the whole event field, I would have done. As I attempted to stop the gazebo roof from turning into a water butt and only managed to give myself an impromptu cold shower to the face instead, I was positively dreaming of a lovely, easy to run, indoor vintage event. If only money were no object and I could have magicked up that bubble, hired in stacks of beautiful event supplies and funky retro chairs and tables, made everything utterly perfect and had a busy, busy day with loads of visitors, I would have done. But I work for a charity and we've never got any money so there you go.  Also we're British. Suck it up people: it rains here!


As luck would have it, summer returned with a vengeance on the Sunday: it was gloriously hot and sunny and we had thousands of visitors. Hurrah!  I do still mildly hanker after that "perfect" vintage event but I think we kinda do things in our own style and it suits us.

Anyway, it was totally worth it just for the fact that I finally got to meet one of my longest-standing blogging pals, the truly amazing Vix! We've been talking online since before I even started blogging, back in the MSE forum days, and we'd never managed to be in the same place at the same time in all those years. She's fab.



Pic borrowed from Vix.


Up next: my vintage treasures purchased at the event!

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Time & Tech

I'm always a little intimidated when I see tweets saying "just scheduled blog posts for the next 3 months. Yay!!"

My initial reaction is always "woah, REALLY??", accompanied by a mixture of being massively impressed yet slightly sickened by their organisation. Mostly I'm gobsmacked these super-efficient bloggers have the time to write that many posts at once. Do they write super fast? Write really short posts? Already have a massive stock of beautifully edited photos?

Not that I've ever sat down and timed myself but I reckon a blog post can take me anywhere from 30 minutes to 4+ hours, depending on interruptions/how helpful or awkward technology is being/how many photos need editing etc. I'm better and faster when I get into the swing of things. Like with any creative project, I find that as soon as I've started on one thing it sparks off all sorts of ideas. This is where a good notebook is essential, or all those fantastic ideas swiftly disappear into the mist. Where I tend to fall down is finding the time to get things written up and having the equipment available to do it on.

My problem at the moment is that my blogging is restricted by available technology. I'm the happy owner of an iPad and much as I love that for internet browsing, social media and games, it's not ideally set up for blogging.

Neither is my netbook which is getting a bit old and knackered now. It's so hard to edit photos properly on such a small screen, plus it really needs a serious sort out as it's painfully slow at the moment. I mostly use my work pc to blog on (again not the speediest machine in the world but at least it's a proper size) and that means blogging time is restricted to my lunch breaks, or after work. There's only so much you can squeeze into that time period!

This is me when Blogger and PicMonkey both decide not to play ball. It happens often.

I'm plugging along nicely at the moment and have forced myself to be a bit more productive and get things written up and scheduled. It's definitely helped. That feeling that blogging is a chore and that I'm way behind on things hasn't hit me for a while. Weekends start to get quieter for me at this time of year and it seems a shame not to curl on the sofa and get some blogging done. It's going to require a new machine though! I've been looking at Acer laptops and Acer tablets as they seem reliable and reasonably priced (a winning combo, especially so close to Christmas!) but then an ex-colleague popped into work the other day and she had a fab Microsoft Surface tablet with a keyboard/cover thingy and it was so nifty I want one of those too! Decisions, decisions...

How much technology does one girl need?

Bloggers & Brands

You know what I don't like? Being sent a generic email asking me to give over an entire blogpost so that I can enter a competition and be in with a tiny chance of winning something. That's not working with bloggers, that's asking a huge bunch of them for a load of free advertising space but couching it in "Yay, competition!" terms.  I'm sure it makes perfect business sense and if other people want to take part, great, but those emails really rub me up the wrong way.  I'd so much rather companies were honest about it. Either pay for sponsored posts or send out products for review or do something else innovative but don't sneak around pretending that this is an awesome opportunity you've laid on specially for us when all you want is free advertising.

You know what I do like? Brands that get social media and use their Twitter account for things other than retweeting how awesome they are. Brands that want to work with bloggers and realise the benefits of it. Brands that understand building a community and a following are important. Get us on board: we like to shop and spend money, we like to write, we like to take pretty, arty photos of products. We have lots of readers. We can be useful to you and we'll be loyal if we like you. It's a no-brainer really, isn't it?

Here are two brands that I've been in touch with recently. Both of them rock. They're happy to work with bloggers, talk to us rather than at us and yes, offer us some free products as a way of promoting them and spreading the word. Nowt wrong with that!

I've never fallen into the blogger trend of owning a satchel. I basically don't like them. I love a good leather bag but they have to be something a bit special to win me over, so I was quite happy to stick with the massive handbags I already own. Then I went to a BBQ with Char a few weeks ago and on the way home I shared a car seat with her Brit Stitch Half Pint bag. It was so ridiculously cute I nearly stole it. Far too small for my needs, but then I discovered that they did a size called the Milkman and, well, come to Alex, my preciousssssss.....

You can fit a book in it! It's not a useful bag unless it passes this test.

It may not be quite as ridiculously cute as the Half Pint but it's even more beautiful. Such a gorgeous shape and colour. If I had room to store them I'd get one in every colour.

Check out Brit Stitch on Twitter and Facebook and say hello. Jen runs their social media stuff and she's doing a kick-ass job at it.

Brand number two: Sunglasses Shop, and their sister site Glasses Direct. Both are super happy to work with bloggers. I'm an awkward customer and need prescription sunglasses, which unfortunately Sunglasses Shop aren't able to send out for review (damn my wonky eyes!), but they very kindly sent me this cute Scout Marilyn pair of specs from Glasses Direct instead.

I showed them to the Mothership and she pulled That Face. You know the one. "I think they look bloody awful on you but I'm too polite to come out and say it so I'll just try (and fail) at keeping my face non-commital and go 'Mmmmhmmmm, very nice' instead". That Face.

Meh. Yes, they're probably a bit big for my face and no, I'm not the sort of pretty young thing that can wear massive specs and look cute and ironic. I just look like a dick who picked some glasses that are too big for her face but WHATEVER. I don't really care. I like them.

And I like Glasses Direct because they have awesomely low prices and their customer service is good. I've tested out the returns policy and I can assure you that a) they actually reply to emails, b) they're polite and helpful and c) they sort things out quickly. So I bought these Audrey glasses with a sunglasses tint as a treat for myself. Woop. First pair of prescription sunglasses I've ever owned. That's quite bad isn't it? My poor eyes.

(the rule about glasses being too big for your face doesn't apply with sunglasses. The bigger the better.)

Just for the sake of clarity, the bag and the specs are c/o Brit Stitch and Glasses Direct respectively. I bought the sunglasses myself. They're all great.

A New Look

Look! A shiny new and exciting blog design has hit Odd Socks and Pretty Frocks.  Isn't it swanky?

I won the prize of a blog redesign from the lovely Gillian at ElevatorMusik in TBBCAR towards the end of last year and I was super excited! Well, I wasn't disappointed with the results. She's worked wonders with my rather vague description of what I wanted and I am SO pleased.

Green and books and frocks, oh my!

The Business of Blogging

Sponsored posts.  Paid-for links.  Advertising banners.  Accepting products for review.  Working with brands.  Attending events.

When you start off blogging, you see all these things on other blogs.  Bigger, more established blogs with more followers than you have.  99.9% of us started blogging for the love of it, because we wanted our own little corner of the internet to talk about clothes/makeup/crafts/food/books with people who loved them as much as we did.  If you blog as a hobby rather than as a business, you don't start off expecting these opportunities to come your way and it can be a bit scary when they do.  You're essentially selling you - your opinions, your sense of style, your photography skills, your writing voice.  How on earth do you put a price on that?  What are the rules?

I don't pretend to know any definitive answers - I don't think there are any hard and fast rules.  Equally I wouldn't want anyone to read this and think "who the hell does she think she is?"  I'm never keen when people set themselves up as some sort of expert and that's not what this is meant to be.  It's just my thoughts on a topic that often seems quite mysterious.  Most of what I've learned has happened via trial and error.

I'm under no illusion.  This is not intended to come across as Alex pretending she's a super successful blogger who knows it all.  I'm not the stereotypical tall, skinny, teenage fashion blogger who raves about all the latest trends and adores catwalk stuff and fashion magazines.  I don't live in London.  I don't get invited to loads of press events, and even if I did, it's unlikely I'd be able to take the time off work to trek 200 miles to attend them.  I'm just me.  I have a small to medium sized blog that isn't a particular standout in any genre and I was as surprised as anyone else when companies started to contact me.  I have lots of amazing readers who leave chatty comments, I like to think the blog is vaguely amusing and I hope that my writing is halfway decent so perhaps that's it?  I struggle to get my head around Alexa rankings and the complexities of Google Analytics and stuff that supposedly tells you what a successful blog is.  I just like what I do and I hope that that shows and is appealing to someone.

So here's what I'd suggest if it's something you're considering doing or are curious about.  I hope it's helpful. 

- Don't expect anything.  Companies don't approach you because you think you're great, they approach you because the style of your blog matches what they're trying to sell.  They make that decision.  You don't.  If you've started blogging for free stuff or money rather than for the love of it then that lack of passion is likely to show.  I quite happily blogged for ages without ever getting a sniff of a product review or a sponsored post and I'd quite happily continue if they dried up.

- Work out what approach is right for you.  I took a fairly hardcore no-sponsored-posts, no-direct advertising stance for a long time and no-one ever shouted at me for turning down opportunities.  Equally, when I did start doing sponsored posts, no-one told me how disappointed they were at me for selling out.  I still don't put advertising banners on my blog and that's meant having to refuse one or two things, but that's fine by me.  If you're happy to feature lots of different types of advertising opportunities, smashing.

- Try and maintain your blog ethos.  God, doesn't that sound pretentious?  All I mean is that it's not a great idea to accept products or sponsorship opportunities for things that you wouldn't dream of writing about otherwise.  We've all seen those posts, we've all moaned about them.  A blogger shoves up a copied and pasted press release raving about a product or brand that you're 99% certain they wouldn't give a crap about if money wasn't involved.  It doesn't engage readers and it's far more likely to leave you thinking negatively of the blogger than positively of the brand.

- Work out what your rates are.  This might happen completely by accident.  If you're offered a figure during an email exchange and you're happy with that (based on some of the stuff I mention later on), then go for it.  That's what I did.  Try not to stare at your computer going "Holy shit, you want to give me money?"  If you're struggling on this or you want to check that what's being asked/offered is reasonable, then:

- Talk to other bloggers.  Revealing rates for sponsored posts and links within posts is one of those things that just doesn't seem quite done.  Ditto page views per month and other related stats.  Often the only thing you'll be able to judge is how many GFC followers a blog has.  But every blogger I've ever met in person has been happy to talk about these.  Seriously.  Maybe we're all bashful of writing down numbers in a public space but we have no problem talking about it in person or via email or DM on Twitter.  Don't be afraid to ask.

- Check out how other people do it.  There are many, many different approaches and I'm sure people have different ideas of what constitutes a good and bad sponsored post or product review.  As a basic rule, if I don't notice any difference from the blogger's normal tone of voice then they've done a good job with it.  For example, I like the way that both Sarah and Helen make their posts personal to them and include the sponsored content in a very natural fashion.  I like how Claire does product reviews and actually talks about the clothes rather than just whacking a link in the outfit details.  I don't think I've ever seen a bad post from Jen or A Thrifty Mrs - you can learn a hell of a lot about good blogging from those two.

- Be polite.  If someone emails you, even if it's something to which your immediate reaction is "hell no!" or "WTF does that have to do with my blog?", it takes all of thirty seconds to send them a quick reply back declining their offer.  They may well contact you again with something that's perfect for you.

- On a related note, be professional.  I can't say I've really suffered with it myself but you do hear exasperated bloggers sharing stories about rude PRs who either can't understand what they're being told in an email or take a massively patronising tone.  I try and apply the same standards to blog emails as I do to work emails (although using a chattier tone) - you wouldn't tell a customer or client to eff off, so it's not a great idea to do it to a PR, even if they are getting on your last nerve.

- Don't be afraid to say no.  Despite the above mention of rudeness, you're unlikely to get shouted at.  If it's, for example, a clothing brand which sells nothing that you'd like to wear, what's the point in saying yes just for the sake of free stuff?  It's always nice to suggest another blogger who might be appropriate for an opportunity if it's not right for you for whatever reason.

- Put the effort in.  I probably spend longer and work harder on my sponsored posts than on normal posts as I want them to be really good.  Partly because I'm representing a brand, partly because I want to look professional and partly because I don't want my readers to roll their eyes when reading it and think "God, she's crowbarred that reference in, hasn't she?"  Hopefully I succeed and people read and reply to them the same way that they do with a normal post.

- Value your time.  This bit is hard.  Easier for freelancers who have an hourly rate, I imagine.  It was a comment from one of them on a different blog that really brought this home to me.  Yes, blogging is a hobby for most people, but that doesn't mean your time isn't precious.  If someone asks you to write a post for them and you spend, say, two hours writing the post and an hour taking photos, sorting through them and editing them, then what do you think is a reasonable amount to be paid for it?  £75? £50? £25?  Is nothing a reasonable amount?  Is the chance to enter a competition to potentially win an item a reasonable amount?  Make your own mind up on this one.

-  And value your blog space as well.  If you do sponsored posts or product reviews then the general wisdom is to try and schedule them evenly through the month and intersperse them with normal posts*.  If you've only got one or two spaces per month and accept a sponsored post that pays a piddling amount, you're blocking off the potential to accept something more lucrative down the line.

- Be flexible if the opportunity is interesting enough.  Your rates aren't set in stone and neither is the approach you take.  I know that some bloggers (mainly the few who can earn a living just from blogging) get very cross at "hobby bloggers" doing things for free.  I can see their point to a certain extent - giving brands coverage on your blog is essentially giving them free advertising space, and they're less likely to pay if loads of people are happy to give it to them for free.  But the vast majority of us blog for fun and any chance to work with brands is really flattering, so I'm not morally opposed to doing things for free sometimes.  You don't know what opportunities it might lead to.  And not every mention has to be paid for.  Plenty of us are happy to feature small brands that we really love, just because we love them. 

- Finally, and very importantly, be upfront.  Shove a disclaimer page on your blog and explain how you label sponsored posts/paid-for links/product reviews etc.  Label your posts accordingly.  Unlike the US, there are no laws in the UK about this but I think it's just decent blogging behaviour.  Not labelling an obviously sponsored post is enough to make some people stop following you.

So, those are my thoughts.  Have I missed anything important?  Speak now or forever hold your peace. 

* I must admit that I'm about to bend my rules on this one.  It's November, a few different opportunities have arrived in my inbox and I'm not really in a position to say no to them right now.  So you may see a few sponsored posts in a row but please don't let that put you off.  As I've mentioned above, I wouldn't accept them if I didn't think they fitted the tone of the blog, and I've worked hard on writing them!  Roll on December and the blog will be filled with great big glorious giveaways for you lovely lot.

Suggestions Please

I have the plague.


Ok, perhaps this is a slightly more accurate description.

I am currently feeling really rather horrible and haven't got out of bed for two days.  I have no energy for anything except sleeping and reading.  The only slight problem with the latter is that all the books in my to-read pile are large and fairly serious and not really ideal sickbed material.  Blogs are better - shorter, more fun and don't need as much brainpower as a 400 page novel. I'm about to embark on a well overdue blog commenting session but your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to link me up to a good blog that I need to read.  I'm sure I'm missing out on loads of them!  Which do you currently love, and why?


ps - If you're on Twitter and around on Thursday night between 7 and 8pm, come and join in the Twitter party on #wwfashion for lots of fun chat about fashion, styling and dressing for your shape, whatever that may be, plus a chance to win lots of lovely Debenhams vouchers! I could so have done with this when I was in the middle of losing weight, so I'll definitely be there sharing some of my hints and tips.

Self-Editing

For my last outfit post I took ... *counts* .... 92 photos.  Partly cos the multishot setting on my camera makes life easy, partly because I like lots of choice.  Whilst this was a rarity in one sense because I actually liked most of the photos, it was pretty typical of the number of photos I take per post.  Editing them into the "hmm, possible" and "hideous, delete, DELETE" piles doesn't take that long and is a natural part of the process as far as I'm concerned.  Most of you are probably the same.  After all, no-one likes to post pictures where they look like a complete horror.  So that's understandable, but where do you draw the line on self-editing?

I can't warm to blogs where everything is portrayed as so cool and impersonal and so achingly stylish and entirely lacking in humour or warmth that you just want to slap the people concerned.  I can't be the only one that looks at some fashion blogs and thinks "Do you really dress like that day in, day out?  How the hell do you afford it? Don't you ever get bored and want to slob round in pj's?".  Please tell me it's not just me that scrolls through lifestyle and interior decoration blogs and mentally screams "Feck off with your endless cupcakes and quirky retro stylings.  Why is your house so tidy? Where is the MESS? And how do you enjoy life surrounded by so many perfectly plumped cushions??!"

Maybe they do.  Maybe some people really are that cool and perfect.  Maybe they like it that way.  More likely, it's filtered through their blog via a certain level of self editing.  Beauty bloggers don't show the photos where they've got the angles wrong and you can see RIGHT up their nose.  Craft bloggers don't usually show the ones where they've monumentally arsed up and sewn their latest project to their trouser leg by accident.  Home bloggers don't take arty shots of cat sick or the dust on their shelves.  Fashion bloggers don't tend to show the photos where they've fallen over trying to achieve a cool pose and are flashing their knickers. Well this one does...kinda...

No actual knicker flashing but behold the look of sheer WTF-ery on my face as I prepare to wobble off my wedges and plummet to my right

I've discussed the concept of "blogworthy" outfits before. I don't inflict my jeans and work fleece outfits on you as I don't expect anyone would be interested.  But I don't dress up just to take blog photos and then go and put something else on for my day to day life either.  In plain photo terms, my self editing has a simple purpose - to try and pick the outfit photos where the clothes look best and I don't look hideous.  It's a constant surprise to me that an angle or two of difference in the way you face the camera can make you look two sizes bigger or instantly give you a massive double chin.

Looking beyond that to words and content, I don't try to paint my life as something it's not. I'm not interested in coming across as Little Miss Perfect Fashion Blogger, complete with artfully styled shoots and lashings of kooky clothing and accessories, because that's not who I am as a person.  It's my blog, done my way, and I'm just a normal person with a normal job (albeit in quite an unusual location) who likes frocks and shoes and books and so on. 

I may post more about the fun outfits and the fun things, but that's just because they're more interesting and no-one really wants to hear me beef on about feeling knackered or doing the ironing.  Ha, who am I trying to kid?  I don't DO the ironing.  That blog post is never gonna happen.  But do you get to know the real me from what I write?  I'd certainly hope so.  Not everything - I like to retain some mystique after all - but I'd like to think that if you met me in real life you wouldn't be totally surprised.

  My self editing is mostly done in terms of interest levels.  There aren't any topics that are really off limits, other than the specifics of my job and even that's not because it's dull, but because I don't want to go into huge detail online about it.  Now I know "interest levels" is a self-imposed set of criteria - after all, I don't know exactly what each and every one of my readers want to see on here.  But at a basic level, if it doesn't interest me, it won't appear on this blog.  This is one of my hobbies and I don't have the spare time to waste writing about stuff that I find dull.  If I know it doesn't massively interest most of you then I ration those posts out a bit.  For example, the comments and page views go right down for my horsey posts, so I won't do more than a couple of those a year.  Enough to satisfy me cos it's something I want to write about and photograph, not enough to bore the pants off you lot.  

Generally I aim to make this little part of the internet somewhere fun and colourful and a slice of my life.  That's just me though.  Do you work on a similar principle?  Are there any topics that are off limits for you?  Is blog you the real you?

It's a Birthday Kind of Day

My blog is two years old today!

Happy birthday blog. I remember those early days when I disgraced you by posting outfit photos that were tiny and too dark to even see the clothes. It all got better when I discovered the brick wall, didn't it? I hereby promise that at some point soon I will spruce you up and make you look pretty. You should at least have a proper header, shouldn't you? You deserve it: I'm rather fond of you.

And I'm rather fond of *you*. Yes, you. Each and every one of you lot who like my little corner of the interweb and come along to comment and say such wonderful things. You really do cheer me up, nudge me into trying things, make me giggle, increase my knowledge and generally bring a smile to my face. You never tell me I have too many shoes or books and for that reason alone, I love you all. If you lived closer I'd invite you all round for tea and cake. I feel bad that I have been truly dreadful at commenting back recently *hangdog expression*

I also feel a little bad that I decided to start the blog in February. It makes it inconvenient when it comes to giveaways because I am poor as a churchmouse this month. I always forget that it's expensive to go to weddings, even if you already have the outfit. I have no money left already and it's only 6th. Oh dear. Anyway, I can't afford anything very much but I have raided the present cupboard and found a few goodies.



- A rather beautiful silk scarf
- Lovely Things To Make for Girls of Slender Means by Eithne Farry
- A pretty clutch containing a Poppy King lip gloss (Flirty Red) and lipstick (Fabulous Red)
- And a pink starry necklace

Sorry international readers but it's going to have to be for UK followers only because the book will make it extortionately expensive to post otherwise. I'll try and pick lighter things next time!

But let's keep it simple otherwise:

To enter, be a follower and comment below. Please leave me some way of contacting you.

I'll pick a winner at 8pm on Monday 13th February. Good luck!