Category Archives: Life

What I’ve Been Up To [7]: Happy Changes

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What I've Been Up To

It’s been a while since I last did one of these “what I’ve been up to” posts and it’s also been relatively quiet around here, so I figured I’d catch you all up on my life and everything that’s been going on!

First of all, as I mentioned in this post, I started a YouTube channel a few months ago and I’ve been kind of busy with that. At the moment, that channel’s called Books Baking and Vlogging, which I thought was a nice variation on my blog name. However, I think I’ll be changing the name soon because it turns out that I don’t really like making baking videos.

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I’m a YouTuber Now! (but also still a blogger)

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That’s right, I have joined the land of YouTube! I contemplated starting a YouTube channel for a really long time and on Tuesday I finally filmed my very first video after planning on doing so for a few weeks but each time chickening out for various reasons. It was quite exciting and a little bit scary. I talk all about it in the video, so I won’t just rehash all of that right here.

Just to clarify: me starting a YouTube channel doesn’t mean I’m going to abandon my blog: I plan on doing both because I still love blogging a lot too. It just felt like I needed a new challenge – I’ve been doing this blogging thing for over five years already, after all. YouTube seems like a fun way to try something new and develop some new skills, so I’m giving it a try! As for content, it’s going to be mainly books and hopefully some baking at some point too.

I don’t know yet whether I’m going to post all of my videos on here as well, so if you’d like to see more of them, I’d love it if you subscribed to my channel! I’m excited for you guys to see the video and I’d love to know what you think, so please leave a comment, if you like!

Anyway, enough intro: here’s my very first YouTube video!

What’s Happening in 2019?

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what's happening 2019

Happy New Year, everyone! It’s January 2019 and what better time to reflect on how things are going and what I want to change or keep doing in the new year than now, right?

At the start of 2018, I wrote a post about how I most of all wanted to have fun. Reading, baking, and blogging are my hobbies, so I didn’t want them to become a chore or something I felt like I had to do. I’m pleased to say that worked out quite well! I didn’t pressure myself into reading a certain number of books throughout the year – instead, I just read what and when I wanted and that resulted in me reading 50 books, which is 15 more than last year. Quite a good outcome!

The whole “keeping it fun” thing did mean that I didn’t post on the blog very regularly. I often didn’t have the energy to write new posts after a day of work and sometimes I just didn’t feel like it in the weekends or on my day off. There were times when I felt bad about that, but mostly I just let it go. I really enjoyed the posts I did write, and that was much more rewarding than putting up half-hearted posts just for the sake of it.

Which brings me to what’s going to happen in 2019.

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What I’ve Been Up To [6]: Guinea Pigs!

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I love guinea pigs. Anyone who knows me well knows this about me. I used to have guinea pigs as pets as a child, but the last one passed away about a year before I moved out of my parents’ home and since then I’ve been guinea pig-less. Having a guinea pig cage in student housing isn’t the best idea, so for the past couple of years, I’ve had to make do with following a ton of guinea pig accounts on Instagram. Which is fun, too!

But a few months ago my boyfriend and I moved in together into an actual apartment with actual rooms and stuff. It’s been quite exciting. This also meant that I could finally get guinea pigs again, though, and after careful consideration of the responsibility it would take as well as spending some time convincing my boyfriend, we decided to go for it! Last weekend, we visited a guinea pig shelter and brought home my two new best friends: Arthur and Ziggy.

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Five Year Blogiversary + Giveaway

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5 YEAR BLOGIVERSARY

It’s time to celebrate because today marks Books Baking and Blogging’s fifth anniversary! That’s right, I’ve been keeping this thing going for five whole years now. I’m as surprised as you are. A lot has happened in those five years since I posted my very first post, but this blog has been a constant throughout it all and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

So, let’s look back over the years, shall we? Keep reading until the end to find out how to enter the giveaway!

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What I’ve Been Up To [5]

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huisch1

Since it’s been a little quiet around here and I’ve had quite a lot going on in my life, I figured it was high time for another “What I’ve Been Up To” post! This will also be my sign-up post for Bout of Books 23, a readathon that’s happening next week. If you’re interested in that, keep reading until the end of the post.

Over the past couple of months, I’ve basically been living towards one event that happened two weeks ago: I moved house! And not just that; my boyfriend and I moved in together. It has basically taken up most of my free time over the past month as well as most of my brain since, like, May.

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My Reading and Blogging Resolutions for 2018

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We’re a week into the new year already! How time flies. I was planning on writing and posting this blog post a lot earlier this week, but I’ve been feeling pretty lousy lately, so I haven’t done much of anything. It’s been all about taking it easy, since it seems I overexerted myself (and mostly my brain) a little during the holidays. Today’s been good, though, so here I am typing this at last!

I’m excited about 2018! When 2017 started, I had no idea what it would bring. I was going to graduate and then I would need to start looking for a job, which is always a tricky thing. But now, at the start of 2018, I’ve got a job I really like and life is pretty good. I’m excited about reading and blogging and figured I’d put together a little list of resolutions to go with that excitement.

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Festive Fortnight [14]: Merry Christmas!

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merry christmas

Tomorrow is Christmas day, which means today is the very last day of the Festive Fortnight ! I can’t believe how quickly it’s gone by! Of course, two weeks isn’t a very long time in the first place, but still. I started preparing all of the past thirteen posts in November, and now they’re all up. Time does fly when you’re having fun!

And I did have a lot of fun! I won’t lie, it was a bit stressful at times, but I’m really happy with all of my posts. The idea for the Festive Fortnight was born out of the fact that I wanted to post more Christmas recipes and bake more Christmas-themed stuff. Well, that definitely worked out great!

Considering the fact that I did have to think of thirteen posts for the past two weeks, my imagination has run dry right about now, which is why today will be a simple round up of everything that’s happened this Festive Fortnight. The links to all of the posts (except the first one, which was the announcement) are below the pictures!

Before we get to that, though, I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

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[Announcement] A Festive Fortnight of Blogging

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Only two weeks until Christmas! Who’s excited?!

Since I started this blog, an inadvertent annual tradition has made its way into my Decembers; it consists of me kicking myself for not starting work on Christmas recipes earlier in the season. I love Christmas, and I love Christmas recipes, but I mostly end up not posting them, or posting them after Christmas, like last year’s gingerbread cookies.

That’s why this year I started planning my Christmas posts at the start of November. In fact, here’s a little secret: I’m typing this on the 14th of November (while rocking out to Mariah Carey and Wham!, of course). That’s because I’ve been planning quite an ambitious project…

For the coming two weeks, I’ll be posting every single day as part of my Festive Fortnight of Blogging!

There’ll be plenty of Christmassy recipes (6 in total!), and there’ll also be bookish posts and other festive fun things. I’ve got it all planned out (for a change)! This marks the first post, and the last one will be a round-up on the 24th.

So, get ready for two weeks of holiday cheer and festive fun leading up to Christmas!

What I’ve Been Up To [4]: NaNo Edition

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It’s been over a year since I’ve done one of these posts and my life has changed quite a bit since then, so I figured I’d catch you guys up on what I’ve been up to lately!

So… Where to start. I don’t really feel like going over the entire year, so let’s do a quick recap of what’s happened: I graduated in February, worked at a book shop from May until September, and started work at my first actual “proper” job just over a month ago. I’m a web editor, meaning I mostly write/translate blog posts and run said blog and it’s accompanying Facebook page. It’s a lot of fun and my colleagues are great, so I’m feeling very good about the whole work situation! Working at the book store was lovely, but it wasn’t a very steady job since I worked irregular hours. The staff discount was fun, though. But I’m so glad to finally have a routine again. I like my life to be at least a little structured. So, that’s good. I’m actually adulting. It’s weird, but also kind of fun!

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