My Geek Box

This month I have the pleasure of receiving an awesome package through my door, filled with geeky trinkets and collections to thrill big dorks like myself. It was from My Geek Box* and this months box was filled with special 'Afterlife' themed items. YAY for all the Halloween themed things!

Friday Five 13

Happy Friday! And bonus points to you if any of you guys noticed that I didn't do a FF post last week, eep! I was so busy and caught up with design work that I just genuinely couldn't fit it into my schedule. Hopefully you're all glad it's swiftly come back this week... just in time for a spooky Halloween edition! Sort of. 
Anyway, yay! Here's this weeks five things...

Five Fave Halloween Movies;
1. The 'Halloween' series; Michael Myers is the BEST. Jamie is the Scream Queen. 2. The Addams Family - My fave creepy family. 3. Scream - I do love these movies so much! Neve Campbell kicking ass YES. 4. Hocus Pocus - I PUT A SPELL ON YOUUUU. 5. Casper

What I Want To Be When I Grow Up

These days my life revolves around drawing, painting, writing and taking photographs. Every single day- God I'm lucky. It was always what I wanted growing up, and I always had trouble defining it. You're constantly asked what you would like to be when you grow up, rather than what you would like to do. Personally, I had a lot of trouble answering this question throughout my childhood, and right through my teens. I can remember giving a multitude of answers; 'writer' was always a frequent one, because I loved creating stories. Artist, graphic designer, photographer, fashion designer, teacher - these were just some of many answers throughout the years. I never quite knew which title fit me best, which box I should mould myself into.
I chose my college course on a spontaneous whim; I was initially going to study English Literature, Psychology and Art - each as a part time one lesson a week sort of deal. It still seems really appealing to me; combining creativity with knowledge and further factual learning. However on the day I went to enrol at college (a little hungover) I was told that if I studied Art part time, it would only be a few hours a week, and only Fine Art. So no digital design, no photography, no 3D design, no contextual studies and no textiles. Hmm. This didn't sit well with me. I took all of three seconds to decide my fate, and I guess ultimately shape the next few years of my life. I scrapped English Lit and Psychology, and told them to sign me up for full time Art and Design A Level. 

Cute Photo Bunting & Giveaway

If there's something I can never get enough of, it's photographs. Especially if they're cute, and come with their own lovely DIY bunting kit! I'm obsessed with Instagram (as many of you already know) and so when Cheerz* got in touch with me and offered me the chance to try their products; I was thrilled at the idea. You see you can either upload your photos of choice from your computer or Instagram, and I knew I'd want to get some great prints of all the colourful photos I always pop on my Instagram.

Getting To Know Other Bloggers

Some days I like to enjoy total blogging indulgence. By that I mean I catch up with the latest posts in my Bloglovin feed, I check out what all my favourite are up to, and I scour the land for new blogs to add to my already huge list. There's nothing quite like visiting a new blog, and falling a little bit in love with it the first time you're there. Whether it's someone who writes with a passion that inspires you, someone who is chatty and friendly like a friend, or someone who is a huge source of beauty/fashion envy (you know, those bloggers that may you *sigh* because they're so perf?); either way it's lovely when we find them.

Halloween Things I Want All Year Round

It's no secret that Halloween is my favourite time of year. A time when the weather is a little darker, greyer and rainier, there's pumpkins everywhere, and it's more than okay to play dress up. I like to keep this feeling going all year round as much as possible (could explain why I have a bat tattoo on my back? Kidding, it's even geekier. It's a homage to Batman!).
Anyway, I've found some special 'Halloween' themed things I've fallen in love with lately and wanted to share them with you guys.

New Look Spooky Ghost Jumper - £17.99
How adorable is this?! I'd totally wear this all year long. However I can't see it staying in the shops for long, so I might have to snap it up soon!

Using Twitter Analytics

Did you know I'm obsessed with Twitter? No? Don't be silly, of course you did. I practically live on that platform, and you can usually find me on there day or night tweeting away about something or other. It's my little online home (apart from this blog of course).

A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to win the Best Social Media award at the Bloggers Blog Awards in Leeds, for my Twitter account. Now, I still insist that I won this because I'm simply online all the time; rather than put out great social content. I wish the latter were true, but I do feel the vote went to me by default for simply being active. There were other people shortlisted who (in my opinion) deserved it way more, had a lot more followers than me, and put out amazing/amusing/unique content. But I'm still feeling utterly grateful anyway that people voted for me, and I still can't quite believe it. 

Blogging: How Do I Fit In This Game?

Blogging for me can basically be summed up like this; ideas written on scraps of paper, lists everywhere, lists for my lists, chatting to friends, three or four notebooks, getting lost in someone's blog, spreadsheets, meeting deadlines, pressure, comparison, plenty of coffee, late nights, feeling ugly, feeling poor, feeling fantastic, being inspired, moving furniture around to take photos, emails, using Photoshop every single day and trying to promote without being annoying.
Phew. It's a whole mish mash of good and bad. Mostly good, or I wouldn't be doing it. It's no secret by now though, that this week for me has been unequivocally bad. It's just a really, really, bad week.

Blogger Beauty Box

This week I had the immense pleasure of receiving my very first beauty box, and seeing what this subscription malarky is all about. The best part? This one; The Blogger Beauty Box is for bloggers (obviously) and all brought to you from a blogger. How awesome is that?
The lovely Vicky put this whole business together, and I love nothing more than seeing a fellow blogger do well. This month's box was a fabulous one for me to be introducing the subscription.

Hey :)

Bonjour guys, hope this midweek post finds you all doing well. Admittedly, I'm having a really shitty day. But trying to carry on as normal helps, so here's today's post. I wanted to catch up with you guys in my usual chatty way, and let you know everything I've been up to, any changes, happy and bad!

Tips For A Great Night's Sleep

As you guys will probably be aware, this weekend the clocks go back for us in the UK; which means there's a whole extra hour there to make the most of. I'm not gonna lie to you, my first thought was SLEEP, all of the sleep! But that's probably due to me being totally exhausted right now. Still... it's not wasted time. Sleep deprivation can lead to major health problems in the long term, so it's a fab excuse to tuck yourself into bed for an extra hour or two.

Stationery Delivered To My Door? Yes Please!

My name is Jemma and I'm a total and utter stationery whore. Yep, I said it; I'm addicted. Whether it's browsing Korean websites for adorable Kawaii goodies, or finding one off little gems on Etsy; I'm constantly on the lookout for more. Stationery is my thing. So when I got the opportunity to receive oe of Yoohoo Mail's* subscription boxes, I practically jumped at the chance.

Life This Week

Happy Saturday guys! (and happy birthday Eminem! Yes I'm a huge fan...) I hope you've had a brilliant week, and the weekend has been treating you fabulously so far. I thought I'd keep up my promise of frequent chatty posts, and update you on all that's been going on this week in the world of Jemma.
I think probably the most exciting thing for me is the fact that I finally gave in and ordered the Olympus Pen camera I've been lusting over for ages, yay! I know, it's such a typical blogger choice right now; but for good reason. I've seen these babies in use and can confirm they are amazing; so I'm very happy to be getting one myself. Now if only the delivery would hurry up! I have big plans for this camera, not just using it for better Instagram pics either! I am actually planning to dive into the world of video... watch this space.

Friday Five 12#

Five things I want to do for Halloween;
1. Watch all the Halloween movies (as in the Michael Myers ones).
2. Get a bit sloshed.
3. Record a Halloween podcast (maybe with number 2).
4. At least do dramatic and crazy makeup if I'm not dressing up.
5. Try to dress up the cat without her ripping my face off (doubtful).

Autumn Manicure Box

Three Places In Liverpool I Love

I was born and raised here in Liverpool, and apart from a brief and absolutely awful stint in Bolton (sorry Boltonians) I have lived here all my life. I may not think it's the best place in the world, but I do think it's damn worth a visit. Liverpool has some of the best attractions, bars, entertainment and people. So if you've ever fancied popping to Scouse land for a trip, let me tell you about my personal favourite spots to stop by.

Bills- If you want a restaurant to visit while you're here, my ultimate fave has got to be Bills! Whether it's breakfast, lunch or dinner you're after; they serve absolutely beautiful food served within a very Instagram kind of setting that you guys are bound to love! I also recommend you definitely try the cocktails - Raspberry & Rosehip Collins is amazing.
Albert Dock- I don't live too far from here and I can honestly say it's one of the most beautiful places in all of Liverpool. Whether you come in the day and visit all the cute and quirky shops all around the dock, explore the museum or art gallery; there'll be something for everyone. Me though? I love it at night time. The bars around here are almost always better, the restaurants are devine, and the whole scene is just so twinkly and pretty by the water that you can't help but take photographs (see above!).
Krazyhouse- Okay, anyone from Liverpool reading this might giggle at this one. The Krazyhouse was basically the place where we went as teens (of drinking age of course!) who loved emo, metal, screamo, indie music, and wanted to go somewhere that served alcohol too. The Krazyhouse has three floors, and on each floor plays a different genre of music. I cannot tell you how many drunk nights I've spent here, listening to my favourite music of all time, drinking shots like it was going out of fashion, and losing my friends within the place (queue texts of 'What floor are you on?!?!'). The thing is though, I still love it there. I love the music, I love how dingy it is, I love the range of drinks, I love the questionable characters, I love how they go all out for Halloween, I love pretending Im 19 and emo again. So yeah, just go there if you can relate to this at all.

So there we have it; my restaurant, attraction and bar of choice in Liverpool. I was challenged by Travelodge*, who think Liverpool is pretty awesome too; and they wanted to know my top 3 recommendations. I think they're pretty awesome choices to be honest. Let me know if you agree!
Have you ever visited Liverpool? And if you do, will you be trying these recommendations? If you're buying the shots, Im in... ;)



*Post in collaboration with Travelodge


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Is Self Employment Saving My Hair?

Having green hair ain't easy guys. It's all high maintenance, dead/dry ends and plenty of damage being done unfortunately. Of course there are a whole range of products out there that are aimed at tackling these problems, and I do have some favourites (I'll get to that), but I'm starting to think the greatest friend to my locks is self employment! Allow me to explain...
At the start if this year I did share some of my hair care/dying tips for colourful hair; and these still stand true if you'd like to check this out. However the greatest problem I always had was heat. Now we all know to avoid heat like the plague if you want your hair to stay healthy; but it was so hard for me! I have thick, wavy hair (sounds lovely doesn't it? It's not) which takes ages to dry. So when I used to work full time, I had to come home and shower, and blow dry my hair - no allowing it to dry on its own; I'd be there for days. I'd use the cooler settings, but it's still heat and not great for already damaged hair of course. To top things off, 99% of the time my hair looks like crap if left in its natural state. It's frizzy, big, puffy and not at all sleek or even bouncy. The best and easiest way to fix this has always been straighteners. I adore my GHD's and will never ever give them up; you'll have to pry them out of my cold dead hands I swear. But I felt I had to straighten my hair every single day for work, to look half decent at least, and this amount of heat was unbearable. I'm already attacking my hair with bleach/green dye each month, so this on top was practically a crime.
Things are SO different now though, it's hilarious. Working from home means I'm not leaving the house every single morning, and I don't have to worry about my hair to be honest. I'm not saying I always look a mess (okay maybe sometimes though), but it's certainly much less pressure to look all made up. These days it's much rarer that I blow dry my hair, and if I do it's on the coolest setting possible, and I only half dry it; allowing the rest to finish naturally. I wear hats almost everyday now with the excuse of colder weather, and straightening my hair might happen once a week at most.  I cannot tell you the improvements I've been seeing already in the past six weeks; I'm so happy! I've felt I've been so much kinder to my poor green hair, and it's thanking me for it. 
Now for my favourite products, as promised. I won't make a list as long as my arm; I simply have two recommendations for you guys. In fact, I've photographed them both at the top of this post. We have Lee Stafford Hair Growth Conditioner and Milkshake Incredible Milk Leave In Conditioner. Both of these products are now my favourite thing EVER, and will continue to be added to my basket on a regular basis. The whole Lee Stafford range is amazing, but I especially love the conditioner. Aimed at encouraging hair growth (yay!), it leaves my hair feeling super soft and healthy after each use I'm happy to say. Then there's the Milkshake leave in conditioner - DEVINE. Buy this now, just go, NOW. Let me start by saying it smells like heaven in a bottle, I simply cannot stop sniffing this stuff when I apply it. But best of all, a few sprays of this on my locks, and I'm left with hair that feels stronger and shinier than I've ever seen it before. I honestly can't rave about this product enough!

So there we have it; work from home, avoid heat, buy those two products and your hair will love you! Let's just hope mine grows much faster now that I'm being really nice to it eh?



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Born Pretty

Born Pretty is one of those stores I'd heard of before, but not ever really browsed or considered it when buying beauty products before. I absolutely adore trying out new makeup/beauty products though (who doesn't??) and it's strange for me that I hadn't given them a little peep to be honest. So when they got in touch with me and asked if I wanted to try a few sample, I saw it as a chance to discover another new brand I might love (yay!).

How I'm Gaining 100+ Followers On Instagram Each Week

Let me start by saying this; I will not be telling you to promote your Instagram on other social media, or telling you how important it is to be active. These things are very true and necessary to increase followers, but overdone and completely obvious aren't they? I hope to tell you some of the smaller, less obvious ways in which I've made Instagram one of my favourite social media platforms and hugely increased my followers. Followers are not the most important thing in the world, and it shouldn't be all about numbers, but again; this is obvious. But I know as bloggers (which 99% of you reading are) it can be frustrating if you really want to improve on a certain social platform and you're having no luck.

Rekindling My True Blogging Self

Yesterday, I posted what I'd call a 'chattier' post on here and it was probably the best feeling I've had when hitting publish in a long time. I know of course, writing about my recent blog awards was absolutely amazing; but that was more the experience that was so fantastic. It was so damn great to recount everything that happened, and the amazing memories of the day; but it's not a 'normal' day to day blog post by any means. I realised recently that's what I've missed; normal, chatty, 'life lately' blog posts.
I love absolutely everything this blog is, the whole combination of themes, and the various things I like to post about. I'm not saying I've been bored at all, I've been very inspired for a long time actually. The problem is I was putting all my inspiration into my Etsy store, or designs for people. I wasn't saving any for myself and this blog the way I should have been. I didn't even realise to be honest. I started this blog because I love to write, and one of my favourite things in the whole world is just pouring my heart and soul out without planning what I'll write.
Picture me sitting on my bed, cushions all around me, in the dark, fairy lights on, around 2am listening to The Pixies, Bon Iver, Taking Back Sunday or whatever other emo/indie playlist I have playing. Picture me sitting in the dark with the moonlight shining in; typing away on this laptop. That's my heaven. That's it. Whether it was in a diary at age 11, or here at my laptop age 27; quietly writing and emptying my mind is where I need to be. It's the greatest joy I get out of blogging, and I've been forgetting to invest into that time lately.
I can actually name a bunch of blog posts I've written at times like this; where I have no worries or distractions. When it's in the dead of night, and I'm at my most inspired. These blog posts are probably my most treasured, whether they've been popular or not. Some of my favourite have been; 'Quiet Moments', 'Looking Back', 'How Blogging Changed Everything', 'Learning To Time Travel', 'Three Things' and 'The Farewell Tour'. 
These are the posts I blog for. These are the reason Dorkface exists. These are the written words I will savour years later, and want to hold and protect and keep forever. These are the ones that matter most.
So yes; I just wanted to say I'm reminding myself to just simply write more often, without a plan. You guys can probably expect me to be chattier, talking about day to day life, whatever I'm up to or whatever may be on my mind. I hope you wont see this as random, but rather a huge, important part of what Dorkface is. 
My true blogging self is coming back.



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New Creative Ventures...

I seem to have gotten into the habit of being so organised, that I prepare all my blog posts in advance, - which I love, to be clear - but it ends up leaving me without many posts where I simply 'check in' with you guys. The beauty and passion that drives me doing this whole blogging thing; was always just chatting away to you guys and writing about my life, however boring it may be. So here's to more posts just chatting. If that isn't your thing, that's cool! See you tomorrow? :)

Friday Five #11

It's Friday :] You guys know what that means by now, right?

*Handmade card available here.

Five happy things from the past week;
1. Winning two awards! (Obviously that was top of the list!) 2. Getting quite a few Etsy orders, meaning I was able to pay extra off some bills (Boring, but so helpful). 3. Meeting people I've admired online for so long. 4. Buying the first Christmas decorations for this year.. hehe. 5. Baking cupcakes - I'm a terrible baker but they turned out great!

The Prettiest Prize

As you may have read from my recent post, I was lucky enough to win two awards at the Bloggers Blog Awards; one of them being Best Social Media Account (for my Twitter). Why you ask? Well, I can't tell you to be honest. I talk a load of old waffle, sometimes swear, chat away like there's no tomorrow and generally be annoying. So I've no idea, I can't help you with that one.

Blackpool Bloggerlodge

If you follow me on social media you may have seen that last week Gary and I upped and left for Blackpool for the night. After making my mum promise she would look after Luna and give her lots of snuggles, we popped on the train to enjoy a lovely day and night together.
We hardly ever get 'just us' time actually, even though I work from home now. There's constantly work I have to get done and things I need to do, so it's hard to take a day off from it. So when Travelodge* offered to let us stay in one of their Blackpool hotels, we jumped at the chance to have some quality time together exploring.

I Won Two Awards & Cried Like A Baby.

October 3rd shall now be remembered as the day people kept making me cry, but in the best possible way. I'm sure 98% of people who read this blog will have already seen all the shenanigans on Twitter/Instagram/Periscope from the Bloggers Blog Awards, but I needed to do a full post to really express how magical this day was for me personally. Also, I'm sorry but I only have crappy phone pics! I don't regret this though, carrying my 'proper camera' would have been annoying.

Friday Five #10

I already know today's is going to be a chattier than usual Friday post, I hope that's okay with you guys. Actually it's going to be the last post until Monday (what?! No post this weekend?) - yep, that's right. Today I'm working like crazy on designs and Etsy orders that I have to get out as soon as possible, and then I'm prepping for the Bloggers Blog awards tomorrow in Leeds (nerve racking). Saturday I'll be at the awards all day, then drinking with bloggers afterwards before a very late coach home to Liverpool. And Sunday? I'm guessing I'll be recovering. So yep, you won't see me on this blog again until Monday, but I'm sure you understand. Please wish me luck for this weekend, let's hope I don't embarrass myself!
Anyway, onto this week's Friday Five!...(Also, do you like my ghost cup? I've bought a bunch of Halloween cups and I'm loving them!)...

Hello October!

It's here, my favourite month of all. I can't tell you how much I long for this time of year up until the day it's here, and then it's over before I know it. I'm hoping I can enjoy this month in all it's glory, before November rolls in and everything is all about Christmas. I'm looking forward to Christmas, don't get me wrong. But this month is all about Autumn, Halloween and enjoying this little chunk of time, before we all go crazy buying gifts, wrapping paper, tags and sending Christmas cards to relatives we never see.
Last month I did my goals for this month, and it really helped me stay motivated and focused.  So this month I have a few little aims I hope to tick off again...
- Make the most of Autumn decor. Pumpkins, bronze/rose gold tones, and plenty of Halloween trinkets. Oh, and not to forget candles. Always candles.
- Get a great scary movie collection in for Halloween.
- Get ahead of my design schedule.
- Prepare Christmas stock for my Etsy.
- Enjoy more date nights with Gary.

Let's hope it all goes to plan, but I'm sure it'll be a great month either way! How about you guys, any plans?

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