Little Blushing Birdie Has a YouTube Channel!

Hey friends! I hope you all are thoroughly enjoying your weekends. So far mine has had a pretty nice balance of work and play. I've been doing a lot of filming and editing, with plenty of relaxation and lazy goodness thrown into the mix. Today looks like it'll be much of the same, with a couple of blog posts to work on and movie night with my friends to look forward to. And as I was sitting here, drinking my coffee and working on my January Birchbox post (which I'm terribly late at getting up), I had a bit of a realization. I know I've mentioned here and there in my posts that I've revived my YouTube channel, but I never made a formal announcement about it. So there is a good possibility that some of you may not even know that I've been posting other content elsewhere on the interwebs.

*dramatic gasp!*

I know what you're thinking. "Why have you been holding out on us, Lauren!?" Quite frankly, I have no idea. I certainly don't want you guys to miss out on any of the other reviews and tutorials I've been posting. So, before too many months go on without my officially saying so, I wanted to announce to you all,

I HAVE A YOUTUBE CHANNEL!

Beauty Blogger Burnout

So you guys may have notice that I've been mysteriously absent in the past couple of weeks. I've been feeling crazy guilty about it, which in and of itself has also been bothering me. Every so often I think I go through a bout of beauty blogger burnout. I think we all go through phases where we need to escape or change up our routine, but perhaps on different intervals. Maybe it takes a year, or six months, or maybe you're on extra crazy mode and have been feeling out of sorts every couple of weeks. Ultimately my point is that we're all human, and we all get overwhelmed. For me I think it just took one week of getting out of the groove, and I've been having a really hard time getting back into it. 

Little Blushing Birdie Turns Two!

There's cause to celebrate today, and I am well prepared with this delicious looking chocolate cupcake. Two years ago I sat down at my computer and created Little Blushing Birdie. 214 posts and 24 months in I am SO glad that I took that plunge. Starting a blog was a bit of an overwhelming undertaking, but its also been one of the most rewarding things I've ever done.

Spring Cleaning

If you haven't already noticed, Little Blushing Birdie has been undergoing a refresh just in time for spring. With much thanks to this handy article from Ashley over at Nose Graze, I was recently introduced to The Hungry Jpeg and am now happily in possession of some amazing digital artwork to play around with. I'm still a bit of a newb when it comes to Photoshop, but I love to learn through experimentation. I can barely contain my excitement at the thought of being able to create my own custom images, buttons, and the like, especially with artwork that so perfectly reflects my own personal style.

Truly, the entire process of blogging has been such an incredibly fun creative and intellectual endeavor. I've always been a huge do-it-yourself-er, and I take a lot of pride in being able to teach myself the necessary skills to be able to create and perfect whatever project I'm currently working on. I've dabbled in HTML and CSS, learned how to get comfortable behind the lens of my DSLR, taught myself a thing or two about photo editing, and started to demystify web analytics. Sure, Little Blushing Birdie is a continual work in progress, and there are always things I can make a little prettier or organize a little more efficiently. But when I look back at my first few posts I feel pretty proud of how far I've come.

So thank you all for reading and supporting my adventures in the beauty world! I hope you're as big a fan of the way things are headed as I am. As always, I love to hear feedback from my readers, so if there's a particular type of post you enjoyed, or type of product you'd like to hear more about, or a tutorial that I could create, shoot me a comment or an email or a tweet and let me know. Hearing from you seriously brightens my day in a way that I can't fully express.

Lots and lots of love,
Lauren

Playing Catch-up

You know that feeling you get when you realize you've neglected to respond to a text, and it's been just long enough that saying something now feels incredibly awkward?

This is what I feel like when I come back from a blogging hiatus.

As my co-worker Gigi has reprimanded me (lovingly, of course), "Lauren, you're slacking!"

It's true. I've been pretty absent for a while now.

There are a good 6 or 7 posts-in-progress crying for my attention. And I've got what feels like a billion other things to write about. But I've been pretty distracted with the happenings of life outside the blogosphere. Between the gentle (or sometimes not so gentle) words of encouragement of my friends and readers, as well as some excellent news that's come my way, I've decided I was way overdue to say hello.

I'm Alive! - A post blogger-break update

Hello there beautiful readers!

In case you haven't noticed, I've been a bit MIA for the past few months. It certainly wasn't my intention to neglect my much loved blog, but...you know...life.

It happens.

But, after a good night's sleep, waking up early and perusing bloglovin' for the first time in ages, I had a moment of serious longing and decided to post an update.

I've been thinking a lot about the focus of Little Blushing Birdie during my hiatus. Obviously I'm a pretty huge beauty fanatic, and of course I plan on continuing to post reviews and tutorials of my favorite discoveries. But, I also have a lot of other hobbies that I was thinking may be fun to write about and share with you all.

In particular, I love to cook. When I was first thinking about starting a blog I was very much conflicted as to whether or not I should write a food themed blog, or a beauty blog, as enjoy both topics immensely. Ultimately, though, I knew I was much too lazy and sporadic with my food-related activities to blog reliably about them, and thus, a beauty blogger I became! And blogging about beauty related topics has been awesome. I've learned a ton, tried what feels like a million new products, and met some really cool new people who share my passion for nail polish and body scrubs.

Still, I had a moment of enlightenment recently. Who says I can't be a beauty blogger and ALSO blog about my latest recipe finds or interesting craft projects or other fun things I've come across in life? And so, my hope for this new year is to transform Little Blushing Birdie into a place that is a more honest reflection of who I am as a person, and all of the little things that I'd love to share with the world.

So stay tuned lovelies for new posts, new content, and all kinds of fun things to come your way. If there's anything in particular you'd love to read more about, write me a comment!  Feedback is the best.

Until soon!
Lauren

Little Blushing Birdie Does LA!

Much to my dismay I have finally made my way back to the chilly East Coast. California was beautiful (and warm), and my trip there went by all to quickly. I knew I had palm trees in store for me, but I don't think that it fully registered until I woke up in Pasadena that there would also be mountains. And desert.

I don't want to bore you too much with the details of my travels, but I thought it would be fun to share a few pictures of the places I visited. I'd love to hear if you've seen any of them in person as well.

Quick Update

Hi lovelies.

A very quick update.

As life would have it, I've been having some carpal tunnel-esque issues with my hands/wrists/elbows/etc. which have been making it very difficult for me to use my computer or phone. I have SO much to share, but if I'm MIA for a little while, that would be why.

I did join twitter and instagram this week, so feel free to follow me if you'd like to hear my daily ramblings. With my previously mentioned issues I haven't been utilizing either of them too much, but hopefully that will change!

I hope to post again soon, but until then, stay gorgeous!
Lauren

A little birdie told me...

Hi there!  I want to welcome you all to my new (and sort of first official) beauty blog! I am a lifetime lover of all things bath, body, and beauty related and can't wait to share my musings and discoveries with the world. By day I am a typical 8-5 office worker type. By night I am perusing beauty forums, playing with my embarassingly large makeup collection, reading about the latest and greatest tips, techniques, and products, writing reviews, and generally doing anything and everything I can to further my beauty education. I'm really hoping that with this blog (and my new camera!) I'll be able to put my own stamp on the beauty world, while hopefully inspiring others to explore and experiment right along with me.

So, by way of introductions, here are a few fun random facts about me. I'm sure that over time I will elaborate on them, but also feel free to post in the comments if you want to know more!