Learning To Be More Independent

“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will” - Charlotte Brontë

Independence. Something we crave more and more as we grow older, but something little of us know how to actually achieve. I don't consider myself totally independent, but I do believe that I have the ability provide and look after myself. I wouldn't say that I felt independent until I started university in 2014. Up until that point I completely relied on my mum. Living in a rural village with no transport links, I relied on her to take me everywhere. And I mean everywhere. Moving to a university just outside of the bustling city centre, I suddenly had the ability to go anywhere I wanted - at any time. So here I am offering my advice on how to become a little more independent. 

Learn to drive // This ones a bit of a biggie, although I realise it isn't for everyone. Learning to drive has played a massive role in my quest to become more independent. I passed my driving test (first time woo) when I was 17, and it took me ages to save up and be in the position to afford my own car. I was able to purchase my little car around a week before my 19th birthday and I honestly don't know how I survived without one. I now have the ability to go anywhere I want when I want, and it has made my life so much easier - even if I'm always the designated driver. 

Master transportation // If driving isn't for you, I would advise mastering some form of public transportation - either buses or trains. I hate buses with a passion and I am terrible when it comes to getting on them. Knowing which bus to get on, how to buy a ticket, and where to get off - I just struggle with it completely. But trains. I am the master of trains. I know Leeds train station like the back of my hand and I know what trains come in at what time, what time they leave. I know which trains are the busiest, the length of each journey, and pretty much everything there is to know about commuting via train. 

Get a job // I don't have a job at the moment (plz someone hire me), but I do my fair amount of volunteer work. I have volunteered in a high school for a year, and it is amazing how much independence it brings you. A job gives you valuable work experience, and a steady income allowing you to save up for the bigger things in life. Driving lessons? A car? A flat? All of which give you independence! 

Manage your money // This one links in with the point above, as it means you will be able to develop a sense of financial independence. Can you really afford that ASOS haul?, is that perfume going to push you into your overdraft? Set a budget and stick to it! Put any spare money into a savings account and save towards something special! My savings account is currently dedicated towards saving up for a house/flat deposit - I know I have nowhere near enough at the moment, but every penny helps!

Learn to cook // Do you really think successful business people eat takeaways and ready meals every day? No. Learning to cook puts you in control of what goes into your body. Buy a recipe book and try whipping up a few meals. You might enjoy yourself, and you will almost certainly enjoy the food you make!

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Making The Most Of Your Phone Camera

I take, and have always taken all of my blog photos on a DSLR camera. But unlike me, there are many bloggers and even non-bloggers out there who don't have the privilege of owning a camera. Few people will probably agree with me here, but it isn't necessary to have a fancy camera or a DSLR to take good quality photographs. Nowadays the majority of people own some sort of smartphone, and most of them come equipped with a decent built in camera. Some of you may argue that photos taken on a phone aren't exactly high quality, but at second glance you can achieve some cracking images! So with this post I hope to show you how to get best use out of the different functions, to create some incredible photos. 

Tap to focus // This one is possible the best and most useful thing to remember when using your phone's camera. It may seem a bit obvious to most of you, but there are some people that don't even know how to use the basic camera settings - heck some people don't even know how to open the camera app! No matter how still you think you can hold your phone, you are always shakier than you think - otherwise we would all be experts at applying winged liner. Simply tap the screen once and everything will come into focus, or tap and hold on a specific area/subject to bring that into focus. 

HDR // HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. This setting takes three different photos at three different exposures, and then merges them together to create a more vibrant image. It is a function that doesn't necessarily work for closeups and portraits, but is great for things like landscapes. 

Timer // Apple have fairly recently brought in a timer function on the iPhone camera. The timer can be extremely helpful when taking images of yourself, or of a subject that requires less camera shake. It is really simple to use, and you can see in the above picture that the third icon in from the left depicts a little clock - this is how you use the timer function. 

Remote // There are many ways of taking images 'hand free' if you will. With the recent selfie stick craze fizzling out, I thought it a good idea to mention an alternative method using the same principles. If you plug in a pair of earphones into an iPhone (it may work with other phones too but I'm not sure) and then open up the camera app, you can use the volume controls to release the camera shutter. 

Exposure // By tapping the screen on an iPhone, it brings up a yellow box with a little sun at the side. By sliding your finger up and down the screen you can adjust the exposure. By sliding your finger up the photo becomes brighter and in some cases, overexposed. By sliding your finger downwards, it darkens the image and underexposes it. 

Editing // Even if your photo isn't exactly how you want it to look, there are various apps on the app store that will enable you to enhance your images. I prefer to use VSCO, even though the recent update has caused uproar amongst the blogging community, I like it because it has the effects that I like the most. 

Have you got any tips?

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Twenty on Twenty

Today marks my twentieth birthday, and now that I am no longer a teenager (cries) I feel like I'm in a good position to look back on my twenty years to see what I've learnt.

• If you don't want or enjoy the same things as your friends that is ok. 
• Balance is always key. Always. 
• As tempting as it is, don't spend all your money on clothes and other inessentials. There are always other things that will bring you more happiness. 
• Your age does not define your abilities. 
• Live in the now, not the future or the past. 
• Always be humble and kind. 
• Comparison really is the thief of joy. Comparing yourself to someone else really will make you miserable. 
• A good night's sleep can solve almost anything. 
• Regular exercise is important and will make you feel incredible. So force yourself to do it even if you don't want to.
• You really do get to a point where you don't care what other people think. 
• It is important to make a bit of time for yourself on an everyday basis. Even if it is just a quick soak in the bath. 
• The more effort you put into something, the more you get out of it. 
• It is really easy to keep plants alive, no matter what people say. Just remember to water them. 
• Friendships come and go, it's not the worst thing in the world. 
• If you want something, ask for it. 
• Ditch the makeup wipes. A good skincare routine is essential. 
• Everyone feels scared about growing up at some point, no matter how much they might hide it. 
• Having a driving license changes everything.
• It is incredibly difficult to eat Ben and Jerry's off a plate. #firstworldproblems
• Nothing will ever be as hard as life as a teenager. Nothing.

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How To Get Your Blog Noticed

I have yet another post for all you newbie bloggers and those who are simply looking to up their game and get their blog out there! With new blogs popping up left right and centre, it can be difficult to make sure your's is one of the ones that gets noticed. Every blogger will at some point feel like their blog deserves to get more attention (including me!), but there are certain ways in which you can help yourself by making your blog somewhere that people want to go and visit! So here is my advice for getting your blog noticed!

Photos

This is personally the thing that I feel is most important when it comes to running a blog. Make sure that your photos are as good as they can be. Compose them in interesting ways, edit them to make colours stand out yet look realistic. Photos are key in getting your blog noticed as many people like to simply look at the pictures and if you have dark, grainy photos they are less likely to revisit your blog. If people like your photos, chances are they may even read the content that goes alongside it. If you are new to blogging and are looking at improving your photos - I have written a bunch of tips, even sharing how I take and how I edit my blog post photos.

Content

Create content that you yourself would want to read. Make it interesting, do your research on products and topics, and think of what could be appealing to likeminded people. If you use the Blogger platform, you can even use Google Analytics to see what your readers are interested in so you can tailor your posts to suit your audience. And remember - personality gets you everywhere! So crack jokes, use italics, bold and underlines to convey your tone of voice. It seriously helps your readers connect with you and your blog. 

Check, Check and Check Again!

Always, and I mean always make sure you proof-read your posts before publishing them. There is nothing more embarrassing than finding a mistake after people have read the post and it is too late. Alongside your blog posts, check all the links work in your side bar (or wherever you have them). It is so annoying when you go to click an Instagram/Facebook/Twitter link to get the 'this page does not exist' message.

Get Your Name Out There
Comment on other people's posts, and I don't mean something along the lines of "check out my blog" or "follow for follow"! Leave feedback engaging with their content, constructive criticism, and make sure you leave a link at the end of your comment and people in the comments may pop over and visit your blog! Talk to people on social media, just be yourself and people will start to take notice of you.

Design

If your serious about getting into blogging, it can be worth investing in a template from places like Etsy. Since I took the plunge and purchased one from PipDig in January, my blog has had so many more visitors and I think this was the reason why! The look of your blog is extremely important. It needs to be well laid out with a clear blog title, social media links and a brief description of yourself. You should create pages so its easy for readers to navigate around your site. And most importantly, your blog posts should be easy to see and read - with a comments section so you readers can get in touch and leave nice messages!

Got any tips of your own? Leave them below and share the love!

Thanks for reading!

Love Charlotte x

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My Favourite Candles (And How I Care For Them)

I am well and truly a candle fanatic. Enter my room and you probably can't even count the candles on your fingers - and they are just the ones I use on a day to day basis. All my friends and family know how much I love candles so I am regularly gifted them on birthdays and at Christmas. At the moment some of my main favourites include the Yankee Candles in Red Apple Wreath (Christmas Limited Edition), Soft Cotton (SMELLS SO SO GOOD!!), Pink Grapefruit, and Midnight Jasmine. I've also been enjoying the Strawberry and Cream, and Apricot Blossom scented candles from Next. Getting on to the main reason you clicked a link or decided to read this post as you may be thinking huh? How do you take care of a candle? Well, if you had said this to me a couple of years ago then I would have been thinking the exact same thing. Turns out it's not as easy as just lighting them and letting them fill the room with their sweet aroma. Oh no. They take a little more looking after than one might think. Here are a few tips to get the most of your candles:

Trim the wick to a short length with every single use, don't go too short, though otherwise you will struggle to light it next time. Whenever you buy a candle, there is usually a sticker on the bottom that tells you to keep the wick length at around 0.5cm. This is so there are no dangerously large flames that become a bit of a fire hazard if left un-noticed. When trimming the wick, make sure you do it whilst it's still warm otherwise it may crack and split. And you don't want that as you won't get the most out of your candle otherwise.

Allow to burn till the top layer of wax has completely melted. Granted this can often take for ever, but who doesn't like to spend the entire evening basking in the dim glow of candlelight? It can take a good couple of hours for candles to burn level, but just note that there are some cheaper candles that never seem to burn evenly - however long you burn them. 

Don't burn for short amounts of time, this will cause the candle to only burn down the centre and tunnel. Not only does this mean that they give off less light, it can also make them difficult to light when they have burnt down a little. 

Recenter the wick so it doesn't leave a black mark all around the edge when burning. It looks ugly and can sometimes be quite hard to rub off (depending on the type of candle holder). Plus it also helps the candle burn more evenly!

Always put the candle on something that can handle the heat so you don't damage any surfaces. Why not buy some fancy coasters, a special candle tray to give your candles a home. If you really can't afford to buy something, just use an old hardback book. 

What is your favourite candle?

Thanks for reading!

Love Charlotte x

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How To Take Good Photos In Bad Lighting

With the days getting shorter and the weather getting more and more gloomy with easy passing day, it is becoming increasingly harder to get some decent looking shots to go alongside your blog posts. Whilst I was at work this week, I was showing students how to use studio equipment to properly light their subjects - and besides wishing I had my own studio, I found myself thinking how I could achieve similar effects with what little natural light I have at home. A couple of months ago, I shared a post telling you all how I take my blog photos, and at the time we had loads of sunlight. But now I feel as though I should update it slightly to fall in line with the current time of year. I do have to be completely honest and say that you shouldn't expect miracles from the advice I have to offer, but I do hope that my tips help you in some small way.

 The Obvious Stuff 

First things first, you will need to make sure your camera is charged. I know this sounds so stupid an obvious, but there are so many occasions over the last couple of weeks where I have thought "omg the lighting is ok, I can actually get some blog photos taken" - only to set everything up to find that my camera battery is flat.  Besides being completely frustrating, it can mean that you miss your opportunity to take some well lit photos!  When your camera is charged up and you finally get to the point of taking your photos - make sure that you find the area with the best source of light, whether it's near a window or outside if needs be (as long as it's not raining or snowing obvs). 

Camera Settings

When your environment is darker, you WILL need to alter your camera settings. As I've said before, one of the main camera settings that will affect how bright your photos are, is ISO. Basically, ISO is how sensitive the camera's sensor is to light. The higher the ISO, the more sensitive the sensor is - making your images brighter (but also grainer at the same time). Generally as a rule, I like to use an ISO of 100 or 200 hundred at a push depending on what I'm shooting. Over the last few weeks I've started using an ISO of 400 as my camera doesn't have a setting for 300 (or I'd use that), and then slightly increasing the aperture accordingly. With a higher ISO, I have also been using a slower shutter speed. As I have previously mentioned, I usually use a shutter speed of 1/125 - but recently I have been going as slow as 1/60. The slower your shutter speed, the more light gets into the shutter - but if you do too slow, your images tend to be blurry if you don't use a tripod. 

Other Techy Stuff

HAHAHA how vague can I be with the term 'techy stuff'?! But like I said in my other post, it is really important to take your files in a RAW+JPEG file format. This may sound majorly technical and professional, but is honestly so easy to do - but I can't explain how as it's different for every camera. But this particular camera setting allows you to essentially 're-take' your photo in Photoshop (and some other editing softwares/programs). You can alter your iso/aperture meaning you can completely change how your image came out! 

If All Else Fails - Photoshop

I know it is technically cheating as you aren't actually taking good photos straight off, but I always end up editing my pictures as they never turn out bright enough for my liking. If you are new to Photoshop or you are just looking for a simpler way to make your photos brighter, I have a really simple way that literally takes me like 30 seconds to edit my photos! It is super easy and (not being biased) I think I've explained it pretty well! 

How are you getting on with your blog photos this season?

Thanks for reading!

Love Charlotte x

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Simple Ways To Improve Your Blog

Hello folks! If you couldn't tell, I've been really loving sharing my tips with you lately. So here I am with yet another post, but this time I'm sharing some incredibly simple ways to improve the quality of your blog! I'll try not to ramble too much - I promise! 

Learn how to use your camera properly. A good photo can honestly say a billion words! You could write one of the best blog posts in the world, but without some quality photos to go alongside, you won't engage people visually! I have done quite a few posts (here, here and here at least!) about blog photography, and I have a couple more in the works for the next few months - so stay tuned for more tips! 

Use social media. Use Twitter and other social media to promote your posts and get you blog out there. Pinterest can be a really good website for bloggers. It is not only a great place to share and promote your posts and drive traffic to your blog, but is also a great place to look for inspiration! I think of so many ideas for blog posts when I'm browsing through Pinterest at 3am! I've recently changed over to a business Pinterest account which is recommended for bloggers. 

Filter your posts by category (and have a search bar). Attach labels when writing your posts to help future readers locate specific posts. If someone is wanting to find a review for a moisturiser that you wrote a couple months ago, make sure your posts are tagged with things like 'moisturiser' and 'skincare' so posts are easily located from your archives. 

Display a list of your popular posts. They are your most popular for a reason. Display them somewhere on the main page of your blog, alongside photos so new readers can see things that might be of interest to them. Maybe display them down one side of your blog under your sidebar? If you use the Blogger platform, there is a widget you can install in the 'Layout' section.

Invest in some business cards. If you a dead serious about blogging, why not invest in some business cards? I know, I know - the first time someone told me I needed some I laughed questioning why I would need some as I am by no means a 'professional blogger'. But then I was asked for one whilst out and not having any, I knew I needed to get myself some! If you are going to buy some though, do make sure they have a similar design to your blog as it showcases your brand.

Post regularly and try and stick to a schedule. If you stick to a schedule, readers will know when you have new content going up so they can pop back! It increases your return readership and is such a simple thing to do yourself. Pick a day (or multiple) and stick to it - I post every Wednesday and Sunday and I have it mentioned on my blog.

Get rid of the navbar. If using the Blogger platform, get rid of the nasty navbar that comes built in at the top of the screen. It looks soooo unprofessional and tacky. I did this almost a year ago and I am so glad I did! I was a little hesitant at first, I thought I'd hate it but it made my blog look so much more sleek. Plus if you really don't like it, it is really easy to get it back.

Are any of you planning on making any improvements to your blog? Let me know what you plan to do - it's always interesting seeing other peoples plans! 

Thanks for reading!

Love Charlotte x

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How I Take My Blog Photos

A while ago I shared with you how I edit my blog post photos, and since then I've had a couple of requests to share how I take my photos in the first place! Logically it would have made sense to write them the other way round, but it's good to be different - right? First of all, I use the Nikon D3100 with a standard 18-50mm lens. It's a fairly cheap camera and there are certainly better ones out there (at a much higher cost), but this has served me well and I'm extremely familiar with all the settings and features. I could probably take a photo with my eyes shut! Just so you know, it doesn't really matter which camera body you get as long as you get one with a standard size lens mount so you can get lots of different lenses to build up your camera kit. 

Timing. I tend to take my photos mid-morning or in the afternoon after the midday sun has started to lower in the sky. As I only use natural light for my photos, I've found that these are the best times to get well lit photos with minimal shadows. I never use flash and I urge you never to do so either. It creates glare and can ruin your photos! When taking my photos, I place whatever objects I'm taking in a well lit location onto of a self made backdrop (large sheets of thick paper) to keep my images looking bright and crisp. 

I shoot on manual. I always shoot on manual. I've shot like this for a while, as a professional photographer once advised me to do so and I've never looked back since! Shooting on manual allows you to adjust all of the settings on your camera to suit the lighting conditions at a time! I usually set my ISO to 100 and if the lighting isn't so great I go up to 200 - but never higher than that! If you shoot using high ISOs, you come out with a super grainy photo, so unless you're a concert photographer or are aiming for that effect - stick to a low setting! Shutter speed and aperture are probably the most important settings when it comes to taking any photo. You want to aim to have a shutter speed of around 1/125 to keep your photos completely in focus. This means that the shutter opened and closes pretty quickly, leaving you with lovely crisp images. Adjusting the aperture on your camera, adjusts how sensitive the sensor is to light. A low aperture, lets lots of light into the camera and a high aperture leaves out the light and gives you dark images. It helps to think about it as a 24 hour clock. At 9.00 (e.g low aperture of f/6.3), it is light and bright and at 21:00 (e.g hight aperture of f/22) it is pitch black dark! 

I take my images in a JPEG+Raw file format. Saving a 'Raw' file helps in that if you completely mess up with your camera settings, but have taken a well composed image - you can go into Photoshop (and some other editing programs) and change your camera settings HOW AWESOME IS THAT?! You can essentially go back in time and alter how you shot your photos! MAGIC! 

Manual focus. As well as shooting on a manual setting, it is also important to focus your DSLR manually. Although it takes more time and effort - the results can often be so much better! You can play around with the focus to add depth to your photos, it always looks nice to have some bits out of focus on purpose. 

I hope this post has helped some of you! If there's anything that you feel I haven't covered - please let me know and I'll get back to you or if there's a lot of topics to cover I'll include them in another blog post! Oh and if you have any tips of your own, feel free to share them in the comments to help each other out!

Thanks for reading!

Love Charlotte x

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