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Life Update: 3 Years of Blogging & Life Changes

1/9/2016

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Hello Everyone!
You might be wondering why I'm posting today as opposed to Sunday but that is because today is this blog's 3rd birthday and I feel that today is the appropriate day to announce some life changes as well as some blog changes.  
This is going to be a huge, lengthy explanation blog post so brace yourself for a lot of my brain mush.
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Blog's 3rd Birthday

Today marks the third year that this blog has existed; it started as 'Happiness Is A Wonderful  Thing' *MEGA  cringe* , then became 'Nail Art Nut' to tie in with my nail art instagram and now it is 'AbiJBailey' as that is my name *obvs*.

I've been (really, REALLY) slowly working on a new blog on Blogger and as I was transferring over my old blog posts (I mean literally copying and pasting everything manually)  I realised I used to enjoy blogging so much more and have totally lost my way with it recently. I used to blog because I enjoyed it and that was it - I wasn't worried about the perfect lighting or the marble background or whether the content was good enough, or current enough.

Lately it's been stressing me out and I haven't been enjoying it; I'm struggling to think of content  and trying to find time to take photos and actually write the post and then all the social media promo when the post goes live is just taking a toll on me.  I've lost my confidence and motivation  with it.

That's why I haven't posted in the last couple of weeks and also why I've decided to take a break from blogging for a little while, just until my life settles down a bit. I have a lot of changes happening at the moment, and while they are all positive changes, it's taking up a lot of my mind. I don't cope with change very well and I have  3 big changes happening all on top of each other - I feel like I'm constantly on the edge of having a panic attack.


Life Change: Driving Lessons

Recently I've started learning to drive  as I've been meaning to for about a year now and now that I'm coming up to turning 21 I thought it was about time. As I work in the daytime and my driving instructor doesn't do weekends, it means that my lessons happen after work and the lessons themselves last for two hours. They're only once a week but they are quite intense and it's a lot to take in! I've had 3 sessions so far which is 6 hours of lessons.  
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Life Change:  Leaving my Old Job and Starting a New Job

After a year of searching and applying  and hearing nothing back, I have finally been able to accept a new job.
Some of you may know that I work in Debenhams and have  been very unhappy there for quite a while now - I'm not going to go into all of the details as to why  but if you've ever worked in retail you'll  probably understand!  I was sick of working nearly every  weekend and working  evenings, bank holidays, Christmas ETC- just everything about it was getting me down.
So much has changed since I started there in September 2014 and I'd just had enough really, to the point where I was going to hand my notice in anyway - new job or not.  Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with the company and the staff are absolutely wonderful - the best people I have ever met - it was just time for me to move on.

Then out of the blue I received a phone call about a job I had applied for a while back (I'd applied to  hundreds of jobs by this point so I couldn't remember which one it was!)  saying what the job was, that I was exactly what they were looking for  and could I come for an interview the next week? Obviously I said yes as this was the first time I'd actually heard anything back and the job sounded too good to be true.

​So I went to the interview on the Tuesday which was just an 'informal chat' with the recruiter (who  was the person I spoke to on the phone and was SUPER lovely) and his colleague and they couldn't have been more complimentary or encouraging. Apparently they had met with five other candidates that morning and they were only putting me and one other forward.

I was put through to the next stage to meet with the girl I would be working with (who is going to be my boss)  and it would be down to her to make a decision between the candidates. I met with her on the Friday in the morning, just one to one, and she was also super lovely.
It all went a bit pear shaped from there as I was told I would find out  that evening but I didn't get a call until Monday from the recruiter to say lots of lovely things about me and that I 'basically had the job' but would get confirmation later that day. Of course that never happened either, and I was basically losing my mind by this point as I had spent all weekend talking myself out of wanting the job and then talking myself back into desperately wanting the job - it was exhausting!

I emailed the recruiter  Tuesday morning saying I just needed to know either way and he replied saying he'd chase it up for me. I had my first driving lesson that afternoon and when I got home I received an email from him  asking me to call him ASAP  with loads of smiley face emojis, of course I rang him and then was told that I'd 'blown everyone out of the water', the girl loved me and that they wanted me for the job! I was over the moon and it was such a relief to finally have an answer and to know that I could hand my notice in and start a new job.

My last day at Debenhams is next Wednesday and it is going to kill me to leave my wonderful Menswear Crew behind *sobs*. I start my new job as a Junior Office Administrator the Wednesday after that. That means no more working weekends, evenings, public holidays etc! The money is so much better and is just generally put me in a much better place.

So that's why I haven't had much time for blogging and why I think it'll do me good to take a break from it, continue to work on my new blog and come back to blogging once I've got settled into a new routine.

Thanks for reading and I'm so sorry if I just bored you rigid with that lengthy blog post!
If you have any questions please leave me a comment, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

I'll still be tweeting and instgramming so make sure to follow me on those (links below)

I think that's all I wanted to cover, in short: Blog turns 3 today, blog hiatus, driving lessons and new job.

A huge thank you to everyone who follows me and supports me, you're all  incredible !

Speak to you when I'm back from hiatus 

Abi xxx

P.S you can follow me on  Twitter   |  Instagram   |  Bloglovin'  ​​​  | Pinterest

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MAC "Diva-Ish" & "All Fired Up"

18/10/2015

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Hello Everyone,
Happy Sunday!

On the 3rd of October I turned 20. I had a really lovely birthday and was very lucky to receive  such thoughtful gifts and spend time with wonderful people. I felt very loved and special!

I went out for a meal with some friends from work on the night of my birthday (it was just a work outing but it happened to fall on my birthday!) and was thrilled to receive a card and a few goodies. I was very spoilt and felt very  privileged to work with such great people. I thought next week's post will be  a quick OOTN with some photos from the day too (I realise how late I'm posting that and is probably more for my benefit than yours, haha)
Anyway onto today's post!
MAC Diva-Ish and All Fired Up

​I asked for two MAC lipsticks  for my birthday, which were "Diva-ish" which is a bright pink, with a creamy, shiny finish and "All Fired Up" which is a dark fuchsia colour, with a very matte finish.

Just a short post today- here are my photos and a tiny review- enjoy!
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MAC Diva-Ish and All Fired Up
MAC Diva-Ish and All Fired Up
MAC Diva-Ish and All Fired Up
MAC Diva-Ish and All Fired Up
Both are really lovely colours, very pigmented and have good staying power.
'All Fired Up' is VERY matte, to the point where it is quite difficult to apply. I think a thin layer of lip balm might help it glide on easier. It does feel quite drying though, as some matte lipsticks can be.  'Diva-Ish' applies much easier as it has a creamier finish. It gives a really smooth and even coverage.

Love them both and I'm happy that I've started to build up my MAC lipstick collection!
Do you have either of these colours? What do you think of them?
Are there any colours I'm missing out on?
Leave me a comment!

Thanks for reading! I'm sorry I've been inconsistent with posting recently, I'm hoping to get back on track soon.

Speak soon!

​Abi xxx
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Blog's 2nd Birthday

1/9/2015

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Hello everyone!
Sorry I haven't blogged in a while, I've not really been in the right frame of mind. 
Today marks the 2nd birthday (anniversary?) of my blog, though, so I just had to post about it!

If you want to read the blog post I wrote about my blog's first birthday last year, you can do so here.
Blog's 2nd birthday
Comparing last year's stats to this year's stats, I've seen a massive improvement which is so lovely and reassuring. 
This is last year's: 
Blog's 2nd birthday
Blog's 2nd birthday
In my first year of blogging, I accumulated roughly 3.3 thousand unique visitors and roughly 3.6 thousand page views.
Compared to this year's stats: 
Blog's 2nd birthday
Blog's 2nd birthday
As of the 1st of September last year, and the 1st of September this year; I've accumulated 4.9 thousand unique visitors and a whopping 17.8 thousand page views! 
A lot of those visitors and page views are from people stumbling onto my blog for about two milliseconds and then hopping off again, but I still think that's an improvement, especially with the page views. 

As of this moment I have 17 Bloglovin followers and if you'd like to follow me (and I think you should- who'd want to miss out on the possibility of more thrilling statistics?) you can do so by clicking here.

This year I have written 66 blog posts (67 if you include this one) which I think is quite an achievement, considering I haven't been feeling my best these last few months. 

Goals for next year of blogging: 
- update the look/design of my blog
- improve the quality of my photos 
- create a logo/identity for my blog/Nail Art Instagram
- change blogging platforms? (Suggestions would be wonderful- blogger, Wordpress etc)
- write more blog posts to improve my state of mind. Blogging makes me happy. 
- continue to improve, with page views and followers and content. 
 
I love that I have a place to talk about beauty and lifestyle and express my passion. I like being able to contribute to the beauty community, too. 

Is there anything you'd like to see me post about? 
I'd love to do a q & a but I don't think I have the following for that, haha!


Thank you for reading and making this blog what it is. The lovely comments you guys post mean so much to me and they make me so happy. 


Speak soon, 
Abi xxx
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Nail Art Nut's 2nd Birthday!

13/5/2015

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Hello everyone!
Today marks the second anniversary of my nail art Instagram!

I created a second Instagram because I had become so obsessed with nail art, I was posting them to my regular Instagram about twice a week! So it made sense to have a dedicated nail art Instagram. 
This is what my nail art Instagram looked like the day I created it and how it looks today!

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I've also put together a collage of all the nail art designs I have created over the past two years, that's 144 photos! 
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You can view them all individually over on my nail art Instagram which is linked at the top of my blog and the top of this post. 


Nail Art Nut led to a huge hobby of mine and led to the creation of this blog!
I like to think I've improved a lot over the past two years, the top left box holds the first nail art designs I posted and the bottom right holds the most recent designs I've created. 
I think the most important thing I've learnt is not to filter the photos, haha!

Thank you to everyone who follows me and to everyone who supports me. It means the world ❤️
Here's to another year of Nail Art Nut!

Speak to you again on Friday!

Abi xxx


P.s. sorry about all the exclamation marks, I'm excited. 
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Birthday Make Up

9/11/2014

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Hello everyone!
I've finally got round to showing you the make up I recieved for my birthday. My birthday was a month ago. (Oops) 
I got lots of lovely beauty bits for my birthday so I might break this post up. Today I'm going to chat about the higher end make up I received, namely the Urban Decay Naked Palette and a Limited Edition Rihanna Mac Lipstick. Aren't I a lucky girl? 
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It came with a little packet of testers for the four different primers which was really nice. I haven't got round to using them yet though as I want to use them when I'm going out somewhere rather than just popping out into town or something. I'm sure they're ace though as everyone raves about the Primer Potions!
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I didn't want to swatch them because they're not exactly new on the scene and lots of bloggers have swatched them before. They are new to me though and I wanted to keep the palette nice and pristine for when I went to use the shadows. Now that I've used them I can see why everyone raves about them! They are fabulous quality, the colour pay off is amazing and they blend beautifully. Definitely get your money's worth. 
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I didn't know I was getting this, I had mentioned to my mum a couple of months before that I wanted a Mac lipstick, but it was only a passing comment. It was a really nice surprise! I still haven't had chance to use it though so I'm desperate to try it out. It's limited edition from the Rihanna Collection and is a beautiful shimmery red colour. 


I might do another post about the high street/drug store make up I received depending on whether anyone is interested? Let me know!


Thanks for reading and I shall speak to you soon,
Abi xxx
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Blog's First Birthday!

1/9/2014

 
Hello everyone!
Can you believe that it's the first of September already? 
Or more importantly, that I've been writing on this blog for a whole year?!
Where has that year gone? 
Brace yourselves, I think this is going to be a long one...
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I started this blog because (as I've explained a bit on my About Me page) 2013 had been a really crumby year. It was just one sucky thing after the other and it really got me down. I was a shell of myself and I didn't like it. So, on the first of September 2013, I decided to make a change. I already had my Nail Art Instagram that I was enjoying, but with feeling rubbish, it was getting a bit neglected, so I wanted to put more effort into that. That wasn't a big enough thing to pull me out of the rut I had been in though, so I thought I'd do something completely new to me and out of my comfort zone, but was something for me to just enjoy and not worry about all the crappiness that had gone on.
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Over the past year, I've had 3.3 thousand unique visitors (ie, individual people) view my blog!
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And 3.6 thousand page views! That's crazy!
It was a fresh start.
 'Happiness Is A Wonderful Thing' was born (yes, I cringe about the name now). It was somewhere I could put up photos and write about the things I had been enjoying like gigs I had been to, or days out I had enjoyed, or just talking about things that cheered me up and I wanted to remember. 
As cringey as it sounds, happiness is a wonderful thing, no one should waste time feeling sad and being down when, for the majority of the time, you can do something to change that.
Life should not be spent sad. Spend as much of it as you can enjoying it.

I never thought I'd enjoy writing this blog as much as I do! Not only that, it's really boosted my confidence. When I first started, I didn't know a thing about blogging, (still don't to be honest!) it took me a while to get into the swing of things and to be really comfortable with my blog's look/design and my blogging style. It's now called Nail Art Nut (and has been for a while) so that a) it ties in with my Nail Art Instagram and b) it needed a better name! I know I was rubbish at the putting up posts to start with but I've got a lot better and hopefully will only continue to improve. At some point I want to organise the categories on my blog to make them more concise. When I first started I thought they were like tags, so if you searched for say 'glow in the dark' the blog post would be more likely to pop up on google or something. I was wrong! So that will be a HUGE job, but it's making me crazy.

I like that this blog is significant to me; it's just a space where I can ramble on about make up and nail art and fun adventures. I really look forward to writing it each week. It's definitely made my love for make up and all things beauty related, bloom - I'm even more obsessed than I was a year ago! 

I don't know if anyone actually reads what I ramble on about, on purpose, or if you've just stumbled onto my blog by accident, for all I know, no one could be reading it! But if you do, thank you so much, this blog has become very important to me and helped me grow into my own person and break out of that shell of myself I was in last year. 

If you're still reading, here's to another year of Nail Art Nut and all things beauty/fashion/fun related.
Let's see where this next year takes us! 

Thanks for reading and as always,
Speak soon,
Abi xxx
    Abi Bailey
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    Hello Everyone!
    Thank you for visiting my blog; I post about beauty and lifestyle. Have a read and let me know what you think.
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    Abi xxx
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