I love me some Instagram. So, just in case you’re not following me on there, here’s a quick update, via the art of photography and shameless selfies, about what I got up to this week. Read on for pic descriptions:
Madonna called it years ago – we’re living in a material world. I’m not necessarily with her on the being a material girl thing, but she got that other bit right. Social media amplifies it, of course. See something you like online? Pin it to your Pinterest board. Bought something new? Take a pic of it and upload it to Instagram. Want some more stuff? Make a ‘wishlist’ on Amazon and hope people will get the hint. The more stuff we have, the more stuff we appear to want and with more ways for us to see more stuff, it seems the cycle is just never ending. We own all these things and our dedication to materialism of late makes me think that for a lot of people, their stuff has started to own them.
We all have things that hold us back. There are situations and emotions that we can get snagged on. Sometimes we find it genuinely hard to move past them, sometimes we barely even try to. They become excuses, convenient reasons we can give for why we haven’t moved on, why we won’t try things, why we firmly believe there are things we can’t do. But imagine what we could do if we did. Better still, don’t imagine – just get on with it. Take active steps to move past whatever it is that’s got you caught up. In a nutshell: get over it. Here’s my top 5 things everyone needs to get over:
I decided at the beginning of the year I need to reconnect a bit (well, kind of a lot) with real life. My whole life is online and while I love that to an extent and enjoy communicating through that medium, last year I just felt that something was missing. I really just felt an intense need for reconnection to the real, if that makes sense. So, to me that means getting tactile and exploring different avenues of inspiration and creativity. Having a pin board as a visual stimulus was one of the first logical steps for me to start experimenting with that.
Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to the Bangs Brand Consultancy. Whether you’re new online and floundering about trying to figure out how to get your word out, or you’re a seasoned internetter who wants to take things in a new direction, I’m here to help you do just that. Having been doing this behind the scenes for quite a while, I’ve decided to put it out there and make it one of the main parts of my business. So, if you need some help building your personal brand online and shaping your business identity by upping your social media game, get in touch!
I spend a lot of time talking to people about blogging or fitness. I’m often told that my own blogging journey or fitness journey has inspired others. I’ve coached people about their blogs, talked them through how to start one and keep it going. A common theme I encounter from people time and time again in both blogging and fitness is the ‘when’. When I’ve done this, this and this, then I can do that. When I’ve gotten through this really difficult time at work, then I can start getting fit. There are a whole lot of people who live for putting things off. Whether I’m advising people about their blogs or how to get started with fitness, my advice invariably starts out with: JUST DO IT!
File this under ‘Cool Stuff My Friends Do’ – my friend, the lovely Ellie Wood, recently launched her vintage fashion website Ellewood Vintage. Focusing on ’80s culture and the fashion that was prevalent at the time, each piece on the site was hand picked by Ellie. Ellie is one of my running friends and every time I see her out of Lycra, she looks amazing (she looks ridiculously hot in it too, to be fair) – her flair for picking vintage pieces is really something special. Ellewood Vintage began as a pop up vintage market stall that built up a loyal customer base.
‘Ellewood Vintage is all of it. Its the fashion, the music, the icons, the hair. It is the opulence, the grime, the political and social changes, the ethnic diversity, the culture. Ellewood Vintage is London, it is street style, it’s experimental, its youth. Ellewood Vintage is not just playing dress-up it is an attitude, a statement, a revolution, a challenge, a no rules way of life.’ says Ellie.
I know how hard she’s worked on putting this site together and launching her business. Massive congrats to Ellie for getting it going. If you’re a fan of vintage clothes and the ’80s or even if you’re not, head on over to the site and check it out.
It was my birthday over the weekend (I’ll wait while you do the obligatory singing, cake, candles, giving of gift cards etc….oh thank you! Done? OK). I’m never really one to go crazy on birthdays. I don’t do big celebrations or parties. I tend to keep it low key, treat myself to something I wouldn’t otherwise. Perhaps a little known Bangs fact that gets drowned out by my random love of hip hop and general badass attitude, is that I am a lover of musicals. Oh yes amigos, modern day ones make me cringe but give me some Singin’ in the Rain, West Side Story, Bugsy Malone and I’m in heaven. After dropping a fair few hints to my other half, he ‘surprised’ me with tickets to see A Chorus Line on my big day.
Last weekend, I was invited to St Martin’s Lane Hotel in Covent Garden for a little overnight staycation, followed by a personal training session at Gymbox. It’s not often I have an excuse to stay in a hotel five or six miles from my house, so I thought, what the heck, count me in! Living in London’s East End, I try to avoid the madness that is central London and as lovely as Covent Garden is, the tourist factor and sheer number of people can make it a stressful zone to go into. But my night at St Martin’s Lane made me want to take regular staycations there. And by ‘regular staycations’, I of course mean, ‘move in’.
In last week’s episode of Girls, there was a really disturbing scene. I’ve been trying to process it since. It made me feel all manner of uncomfortable things and anger and sadness and disappointment and disgust. A woman was sexually violated in a pretty awful way and when the scene ended, you were left thinking, what the hell just happened? Except it’s clear what just happened. Then you go online or talk to friends and hear debates about it and realise that not everyone shares the same view of what should be pretty cut and dried. Except it isn’t. Because rape is still one big grey area. And with each new debate, we realise just how much more conversation needs to happen. We need to talk about rape.
