My Opinion On Approaching Brands

I've wanted to talk about my opinion on approaching brands for a while but I've never really known how to start and where I'm going to go with it but it's something that I've been thinking about for a long time, so I'm just gonna go for it!

I know this is something that some bloggers really frown up and think is a big no no, which I do get, but there are also others like me who actually think approaching brands is a pretty clever thing to do. I've seen quite a few tweets recently randomly about this topic and the fact that some people think it's basically just asking for freebies, and I totally get why some think like that, but I think saying that makes the people like me who do occassionally approach brands, look and feel a bit bad, when really a lot of us aren't doing it for the freebies at all! 

I'm not ashamed at all to say I've approached brands and got in touch first, but I've only ever done it with brands I'm genuinely interested in or have a love for their products, and I like to think I always do it in a way that isn't just like - send me products to review! because that isn't my aim. I have a generic email I send to any brands I'd like to work with one day, I introduce myself, include a link to blog, include a link to my review page featuring brands I've worked with before and give them some stats so average monthly blog views, social media followers etc, and then I just politely ask if I could maybe be added to a pr list or be considered for any future collaborations. Depending on the brands and the products I do then sometimes ask if they'd maybe be interested in being featured on my blog for the purpose of a review. I'm not asking that in the hope they'll send me stuff, I'm asking that so I can maybe have a working relationship with this brand one day, because I love what they do! If they choose to send me a few bits to review then FAB but if they don't, I haven't lost anything, and neither have they. When I send these emails they are under no obligation to reply or to work with me, and a lot them don't. Some I never hear back from and that's fine, some do reply wanting to work together straight away and others say they'll add me to a list. The way I see it is, if you don't ask, you don't get. With blogging a lot of PR's and brands will get in touch with you first and if they do that's brilliant but I get nowhere near the amount of emails bigger bloggers than me do, and I might never do, so if there is something I'm interested in and think they'd be a good fit for my blog, why not get in touch and just introduce myself?

I don't blog for freebies or for money, yeah it would be the dream to make this my job one day, like I'm sure it is for a lot of bloggers, but I do this because I love it. I love writing about so many different things and I am so so proud of my blog and how it's improved over the last few years. It's just a bonus if somebody wants to work with me! As I said earlier in this post I completely get why some people think it's bad to get in touch with brands and to some extent I agree spamming the #prrequest #bloggersrequired on twitter, looking for people to work with can be a bit annoying and come across wrong but that's a different thing I think. I think as long as you're polite, friendly and that isn't your main focus for blogging, then it's fine to approach people. I like to think that other bloggers can tell when someone is just in it for the free stuff, I certainly can, and I also like to think PRs and brands can too. Hopefully when people read my blog they see it isn't all about reviewing stuff, getting paid and working with anyone for the sake of it. I mention in every sponsored post or review for a brand that I only ever work with people that are relevant to me and my blog, and I stick by that. I have written about so many personal things on here, for no one elses sake but my own, I have written beauty reviews because I want to, I have posted recipes for me to try again in future, I really hope people see that I'm genuine and really do this because I love it, not for any other reason. 

I'm sorry if this is all just a bit random and doesn't make much sense but I've been wanting to get my opinion on it out for a while, I really hope it's come across how I've wanted it too. Anyway I would love to know what your opinion is on this! What do you think to bloggers getting in touch first? Have you ever done it or would you?

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TV Shows You Need To Watch #1

I watch a lot of TV, and I mean, a lot. I always have it on in the background while I'm blogging or getting something done in the flat, and I also like to get cosy each night with a really good TV show for a few hours. So, because of that I've found some brilliant TV shows and boxsets and I had so many that I wanted to blog about. I've managed to wittle it down to 5 that I think are all brilliant and ones that I had to recommend! 

The Office US - Where do I even start with this show? I think it's probably my all time favourite, even higher than friends and thats saying something. It's a documentary type program based on The Office UK, about a paper company in Scranton called Dunder Mifflin. A camera crew basically follow all the employees, day in, day out for 10 years and we see everything. It's one of those programs that is hard to explain but it's just a must see. I laugh at every single episode and theres been quite a few that have made me cry. There are 9 seasons and over that time I fell in love with every character, they all have something different and you become so invested in them and their relationships. The best character of all is Michael Scott, played by Steve Carrell. His character is just amazing, I couldn't recommend this enough.

The Affair - This is one I was wanting to watch for so long and a few months ago I finally did and got through all three series so quickly. It's about Noah who is married to Helen and Alison who is married to Cole. Alison and Noah meet when Noah is visiting family with his wife and kids, pretty quickly they get together and end up having a full on affair. It's not just all about that though, there is another story going on throughout it all which comes to a head in series 2, who killed Scotty? Coles brother. I'm not sure if I've explained that well at all but I've done my best and it's just one of those shows that will have you hooked after the first episode. It's all so tense and because of the way it's done, we see how different the storys are to Alison and Noah of their affair and how it started. They both have very different versions and I couldn't work out all the way through which version was the truth. Series 3 wasn't as good as the previous 2 but don't let that put you off, it's one you have to watch.

Santa Clarita Diet - This is a show that will probably make you feel a bit sick but one that you can't stop watching once you've started. It's about Sheila and Joel, married realtors in Santa Clarita, who have a pretty normal life. One day Sheila goes through a pretty weird and dramatic change, she starts throwing up everywhere and her husband finds her dead, within seconds though she comes back to life, just with no heartbeat but feeling and looking better than ever. It turns out she's 'undead' and is basically a zombie, can only eat raw meat and then eventually people. I know it sound so weird, it's such a strange concept but honestly it's worth watching and is actually really funny. It's all about how they can hide this secret and keep getting away with it as people start to become suspicious and some go 'missing'. It's just been renewed for a second season which I am so excited for. It's pretty new but has had really good reviews.

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Gossip Girl - This is just a classic. I first watched this when I was a teenager and then last year I started it from the beginning and within a few months I had got through it all, and there are a lot of episodes in each series! It follows the lives of priviliged teens living on the Upper East Side of New York and we see all the drama, relationships and events that unfold over a few years. Unfortunately for them 'Gossip Girl' is always watching and it's not til towards the end we find out who is actually behind that, and it's probably the person you'd least expect. This is one of those shows where you just get invested in the characters, I was rooting for Chuck and Blair all the way through! I was so sad when it came to an end as it's such a big show but it's a brilliant one to re-watch if you've already seen it.

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Luther - You might notice Ruth Wilson on this image, who actually plays Alison in the Affair. She's quite a big character in Luther too, and in both shows she's excellent. The star of Luther though is obviously Idris Elba who plays a detective in this crime drama. His main aim is tracking down murderers but he's always got his own stuff going on and he's a very dark character sometimes. Every episode is different and overall it's just such an interesting show. Each episode is tense and I promise you from the first one you will be addicted. Also who doesn't want to stare at Idris Elba episode after episode.

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Those are a few of my favourite tv shows, all amazing in their own way and I can't recommend each of them enough!

Have you seen any of these? If so, what's your favourite?

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The Story Behind The Photo #4

I'm really trying not to make all of these posts about London or just feature me and George because there are so many more pictures I want to share that aren't all focused on these things but this week I really wanted to share this one. It was took on the train to London in January and it was our first picture taken together in SO long and as we're actually in London now as this post goes up, I thought it was quite an apt time to share this one. I usually hate having my picture taken and I know one day I'll regret how little photos we have of us together so at that time when I looked in my phone and felt okay, I thought right we need to have a picture! I really love it and it's one I need to get framed soon. We had the most amazing trip to London in January and I know everytime I look at that photo I think back to just how good it all was and how happy I was there. 

Another reason I wanted to share this picture other than because we're going away again tomorrow is because I actually shared it on Instagram a few weeks ago just to thank George for everything he has done for me recently. I don't normally do posts like this because I think people will probably read it and want to be sick, but he has done loads for me and I had to mention it. The last few months have been quite tough but especially the last few weeks have been a bit of a nightmare. I really wasn't well and I think stress just completely took over my body, that had been building and building. It was a mixture of a few things I think but stress and anxiety were only making it worse and to be completely honest I spent most days in bed for about two weeks. I didn't want to cook, I didn't want to leave the house, I didn't want to do anything. Partly because I wasn't well or up to it, and also because I just lost all motivation. George has been so busy at work lately and I felt bad putting all of this on him but everyday he came home and cooked tea for us, kept on top of all the washing, did the cleaning, hoovering, shopping, everything! I know these are all pretty simple things but I love doing all of them and because I'm in a lot of the time it makes sense for them to sort of be my jobs but I just wasn't up to it and I'm so thankful he just took over and sorted everything. I don't know how he did it because I know how busy he was with work and I know I was being a complete nightmare but he never complained and was always there. Aswell as all of this he was also pretty good in knowing when I was having a particuarly bad down and therefore would bring home all the goods in form of chocolate and cookies! #bestmanever. I just don't know what I would have done without him, I didn't feel myself at all and genuinely think I'd have been even more of a mess if I'd been alone. I definitely don't thank him enough or show him how grateful I am for everything he does for me so this post is just a little thank you.

It's basically my Instagram post but in a little more detail and I don't know if anyone will find this particuarly interesting but I really wanted to do it and this is one of my favourite photos of us. 

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London Plans & Wishlist #2

So, this time tomorrow I'll just be arriving in London! I was debating for quite a long time whether to do this post or not just because I know I've said a few times that I don't know when we'll next be going back and then every time a few months later I've then come back and said that we're going! I didn't want people to read this and think this is getting boring now, as I only said all of that in January! I did say just a few months ago it was unlikely we'd be going again soon but I'm so grateful that we've been able to book a trip there this month and I just can't wait. I didn't want to not talk about this time just because I talk about London a lot, because how can I ignore the fact I'm going back to my favourite place?

In January I genuinely didn't think we'd be going back again just a few months later, I was fully prepared to not go at all again this year and even though I always hope we can get another trip in, whenever I'm there I'm always prepared that it might be the last time for a while. Luckily when George was told he was getting a bonus and a pay rise (not bragging honestly, I really don't want it to come across like that) we decided to see how much was left once we'd set enough aside for some of our other plans for this year. Luckily we had enough left for a 2 night trip to London and I couldn't be more excited. The last few months have been so, so hard so this break is more needed than ever. I need these few days away to just relax and focus my mind on something else. I know I've said it before but when I'm in London my worries just tend to go away and I always have the best time, so I'm counting down the hours now until I'm back there. 

We decided to go back for 2 nights this time as we've done quite a lot there now and we're not going to see a show so two full days is gonna be fine for us to see what we want to see. We have a sort of plan of places we definitely want to go and but I think we'll just decide when we're there how we're going to do it all as we keep changing our minds what we want to do each day! We know we want to go to Borough Market, there is no way we could go to London and miss it out. We also want to head to Covent Garden at some point as they have some really cute shops and it's just so lovely. We'll definitely get make a trip to Oxford Street at some point, gotta stock up on Lush bath bombs while I'm there and we can't not go to Whole Foods at Piccadilly for some incredible Crosstown Dougnuts! I also think we'll go to Hyde Park if the weathers good at some point and hopefully get some ice cream!

There isn't really loads I want to buy, there isn't most times we go to be honest, for me being there is always about taking in the sights and just going to all our favourite places. I didn't really allow myself to get excited until recently just because I was so anxious and so down about everything, I was convinced we wouldn't end up going and a few times when I was feeling really bad I told George to cancel it, luckily he never did because I know I'd have just regretted it, so now I'm really looking forward to it. I know it'll be over before I know it again and I'll be back home so I'm going to make the best of it and have the best time. 

Anyway, I know this is such a long post and well done if you've read through it all, I know I go on sometimes especially when it's about London. I'm planning on posting my usual 5 posts this week but if they're a bit later than usual during the end of the week then at least you know why, I'll definitely be doing a post on what we got up to and I'm sure they'll be a load of pictures so if you do like reading my London posts, they'll be one up next week!

Anyone else just as obsessed with London as me?

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