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!