Looking back at all my previous published posts I realise that I haven't been particularly consistent in celebrating my blogging milestones - for some reason I posted about my second and third anniversaries and not first and fourth - but as of today it's been a whole five years since I created this blog and published my first ever post! I think five is a pretty special number (it's half a decade after all) and of all the years to commemorate it's an important one, so I'm going to share with you five things I love about blogging which have kept me coming back to it over the years.

1. Having total creative freedom

I love that I can literally post about whatever I want, from advice to hauls to just life updates, I think I've covered a good range of posts in my time and I really like being able to change it up as and when I feel like it.

2. The friendships I've made

Back in the early days of my blog I was still active in the Stardoll community and quite a few people from there used to follow me here and leave lovely comments - if you remember those days you're an OG! Even since then there have been a few people who I've become internet friends with purely through blogging, and I even met up with someone once (hi Rhona, I doubt you still read my blog but how's it going?).

When I get into a blogging groove I love to plan out my posts for the foreseeable future and make extravagant lists of everything I want to write up and publish. If you know me you'll know I love organising so I suppose this is my way to extend that into my little corner of the internet. Of course, things get in the way and my ideas don't always come to fruition, but I still get a kick out of list-making and imagining what my blog could be like if I really invested my time and effort into it non-stop!

Although I'm not as dedicated to the blogging world as I was a few years ago, I still love coming across new and interesting blogs and spending an hour or so delving in and out, trying to get a sense of what the author is like as a person and their interests and general vibe. There are some I still peruse religiously to this day, like 'Ice cream' whispers Clara, Mermaidens and Moon of Paula.

When I've spent a couple of hours writing a blog post, finding photos, uploading them, checking the preview and finally putting the finishing touches, it's SO satisfying to be able to click 'publish' and see my efforts being released to the big wide world!

I've been feeling fairly uninspired with blogging lately (hence the lack of posts) so I thought it was time for a change. It's something I've been meaning to do for a while but I just couldn't think of a name I liked enough until I eventually decided on 'geosophy' - I like that it's quite vague and doesn't make you think of anything specific (cos lets be real this blog is a complete mishmash and I rarely post about books anymore so 'bibliophilia' didn't really fit), but at the same time it has a subtle nod to my degree and interests and also to my actual name. I googled it cos I thought it sounded like a real word, and turns out it means 'the study of geographical knowledge from any or all points of view' which I suppose is fine even though I'm not planning to post about geography. Anyway. Unfortunately I've had to hyphenate it in the url because the non-hyphenated version was taken, but it annoys me a lot less than the '0' in 'bibli0philia' ever did.

The second big change is obviously the theme. I wanted something quite minimalist and clean and I was messing around with the built-in simple blogger theme for ages but I just couldn't get the effect I wanted, so I looked into themes you can download and found this one. I'm really not that tech-y so it took me a while to figure out how to get it onto my blog but I think I've done a decent job, even though there are a few little details that my perfectionist mind isn't quite happy with yet. But I think the overall effect is worth it and hopefully I can tweak those little things!

I hope you like the new look and name - here's to a new era of my little space on the internet!

Exactly two years ago today on a sunny day at the beginning of summer, I decided to take the plunge and start a blog. It wasn't such a great leap as I'd been a contributor for a couple of Stardoll-related blogs before (oh the young innocent days of my youth), but this was going to be the first time I was completely in control of a blog, and would be able to choose the appearance and content. I'd been thinking about it for a while and was waiting til the beginning of the holidays before I committed to anything, but I think the thing that really pushed me to create this blog was having quite a few photos I'd taken during my two weeks of work experience that I wanted to share. You can see them here and here.

I'm really proud of what I've achieved with this blog since then, despite a few pretty significant breaks that I took due to schoolwork. I've met a lot of lovely people who have been so supportive of my efforts, and discovered a heap of really great blogs too. I've also learnt a lot, such as how to stay active on the internet and how to take decent photos. Since Christmas I've been a lot more regular with my posts and I joined Bloglovin, which has helped me amass another handful of followers. I never intended my blog to be about collecting vast numbers of views and followers, and I like that today it's still exactly what it was two years ago: a place for me to share my thoughts, opinions and favourite things.

Here's to another year of blogging!

x

First I'd just like to quickly say that this is my 100th post on this blog! Since I started it in July 2013 my posts have been on and off, but I feel like I've reached a pretty major milestone in the blogging world and I like to think there will be many more similar milestones to come. I don't have any major plans for my blog in terms of content in the near future, as I just enjoy what I'm doing and I plan to keep on doing it, by which I mean posting hauls, internet things and occasionally actually talking about books (like I planned to a year and a half ago!).

Anyway. Recently I came across the British singer-songwriter Polly Scattergood, and I've been completely obsessed with her music these past couple of weeks. I tend to get very attached to artists for a short space of time, download ALL their music and then move on (with the exceptions of Lana, Marina and Lorde, of course), but I've stuck with Polly Scattergood a good while already so I though she merited a post.


As with most things, I found out about her through Tumblr and was immediately hooked by her song I Hate the Way - I then downloaded most of her self-titled album Polly Scattergood, as well as her second album, Arrows. I have to say I much prefer her debut album as the songs are just so quirky and intense, but also somehow ethereal and eerie. What I also love is the way a lot of them start out very minimalist and and poignant, and then gradually build up to the more punchy finale with each verse/chorus - kind of perfect for listening to at 7:45 am on the way to school when you're trying to mentally prepare yourself for the day. I've seen a few comments on Youtube about how her lyrics are 'dark' and 'twisted' but to be honest I didn't see it that way - if anything the whole ensemble reminds me of confessional poetry (especially Sylvia Plath's) in that it has a slight edge to it that makes it kind of uncomfortable to listen to at times, but it's also cathartic in a way.

Here are a few of my favourite songs of hers:

Bunny Club

Enjoy, and please let me know if you have heard of/like Polly Scattergood!

x

I've decided that every Sunday I'm going to do a 'spotlight' post, where I present one of my favourite YouTubers or bloggers, and explain my thoughts about them.

First up is Nadia Esra, a blogger from the Netherlands. I discovered her blog They Call Me Redhead through Polyvore quite a while ago, and I fell in love with her gorgeous style and her famous red hair.