Happy Birthday to The Blog!

Today is the 1st birthday of the blog.

 

Pic courtesy of Dr Lulittle

You’ve been reading my rants/advice/putting up with me for a whole 365 days.

Doesn’t time fly when you’re stressing about what to post….anyway: a few things I’ve learned….and a few Thank You’s

Things I’ve learned:

  • there is such a thing as too much information – not everyone needs to know you found a grey hair – down THERE – although it may lead to one of your most-read posts.
  • if you have lost your blogging mojo – don’t worry – people will wait for you – and if you read THIS blog you’ll be sitting there thinking ain’t THAT the truth.
  • Twitter is not the place to vent to SOME people – that’s best done in a bar – and if necessary with your bat…I’M KIDDING. Jeez. Kinda.
  • You can have too many body lotions.
  • People actually use Google Follow because it makes life easier for them – I need to get over my ‘I’m not doing it for the numbers’ attitude – you’ll notice its back – over there on the right…
  • Bloggers are in general – great, funny, lovely, interesting people – I have made friends for life.
  • Something good can come from ranting about skincare – Give and Makeup was spawned out of an idea for a blog post…

Which brings me to…

The Thank You’s: (It’s Highly Unlikely I’ll ever win an Oscar so just let me have my moment please thanks)

Louise from Get Lippie
The person who muttered the immortal words on twitter: ‘Just blog it bitch.’
Partial to a chicken wing and the odd glass of red. And don’t get her started on lipstick. Reads me almost as well as my Mother – in fact thinks she IS my Mother occasionally. The Hilda to my Evadne. My first port of call with my ‘What do you think of THIS?’ questions – whether it relates to the blog – or a certain wine.

The beyond fab Grace from London Makeup Girl
London Makeup Girl has directed more traffic to my site than anyone else – I don’t know what I did to deserve that but I am eternally grateful *curtsies*

Yinka from Vex in The City
The only person who hasn’t known me since I was a teenager to call me Caz and not only get away with it – but I like it. Guaranteed to make me laugh just by giving me the *sideeye*.

Kate Shapland and Grace Timothy
Loveliness personified – the pair of them.People who can string quite a lot of words together in an intelligent manner and also – added bonus – know how to spell.

The girls from Just Nice Things
Especially Helen – a fellow metalhead with fabulous taste in long haired tattooed men.

Big Fashionista and Bangs and a Bun
The other two thirds of my Bananarama Bat Gang. The first to step up to the plate if needed.

All the PR’s that have helped me throughout the year – its a big transition going from dealing with long leads to dealing with bloggers – and 99% of you get it right every time although some like to focus on the 1% that don’t. Thank you.

And to all the Brands I have worked with – thank you for trusting me and knowing that I blog because I enjoy it – not because I can break your embargo. And thank you for not flinching when I turn up to meetings in adidas trainers. You rock. All of you.

And a couple of thank you’s for their help with Give and Makeup

Charlotte from Lipglossiping for the visual used on the site and
Priya from Beauty Wowza for all her help with the graphics. Ailsa and the team from Beauty Bay for going above and beyond.

And thank YOU lovely people for reading – thank you for the comments, the abuse, the laughs, the questions, the product swaps and the advice.

As a thank you I have used my wiles, sales skills, general powers of persuasion and to be honest, good old-fashioned blackmail to bring you a gathering of my favourite products from the year as giveaways – the likes of which you may never have laid your pretty eyes on.  So here’s what I suggest – get following the blog (in for a penny…) and hold on to your hats – we have giveaways coming up from: Elemis, Murad, Nars, Emma Hardie, Alpha-H, Dr Perricone, Jergens, MAC and Daniel Sandler to name a few.

You’ve put up with me for this long – it’s the least I can do.

THANK YOU!