How to train your insta/blog-husband to take photos how you like them

The Insta-Husband.
The man behind the camera.
The guy tirelessly shooting images, usually that look almost entirely the same, but you know, from an ever-so-slightly different angle.
The bloke who helps you bring your grid to life.

Your trainee.

Let's be honest, 90% of us did not marry, or date, or whatever you call it, a photographer.
Dann is not a photographer. In fact before I met him, I'm not sure he ever took photos outside of drunken nights in the pub. However, nowadays, you'll find him with a camera in hand almost as often as it's in mine. And sometimes more!

Why I blog and share our life on social media

Often when I'm having a bit of writer's block, or a lack of inspiration for new content, or just generally feeling uninspired, I like to sit back and think about why I blog.

What's the reason for wanting to write about my life, share our stories, for the whole (well maybe not the whole) internet to see. Why do I spend a good percentage of my free time working on new content, taking photos, scheduling social media?

I do it all because I want to keep a little diary of our lives. 

My favourite posts to write and put together are always our family adventure posts. Posts, where the photographs come easily, and tell a story all on their own, and the words just flow into a tale of our latest discovery. A new place that we love, or a revisit with a new pair of eyes.

Why I switched camera lens & how I use it

If you've been reading this blog for some time, you'll know that I love nothing more than LOADS and loads of photos! Two of my absolute favourite blogs, that I go back to time and time again, both because I adore their content, but also for mega amounts of inspiration, are Love Taza and Barefoot Blonde, and both are HUGE lovers of over-the-top amounts of photos, which fortunately are all utterly amazing too!

Now back in 2015 I invested in a new 50mm lens for my camera in the hopes of upping my photography game! And well in all honesty, I used it a handful of times, and then reverted back to my trusty kit lens.
Fast forward to 2017 and I decided that I'm going to try again and see if I can master this lens and what it's capable of producing! And I'm pleased to say, I'm actually doing it and the results are fab!

Basically this lens is fabulous for people photos, and as that is kind of 90% of my photography, it's a match made in heaven.

The Bloggers Blog Awards 2016

The 2016 Bloggers Blog Awards. They were literally all over twitter the last couple of months, and rightly so because anything that celebrates the hard work and dedication of bloggers should always be a viral cause in my opinion.

This year I was lucky enough to get a ticket to go up to the awards ceremony in Leeds, and a number of my blogging friends were also nominated so we decided to meet up there and give each other some support.

Here's a few photos from our afternoon at the Canal Mills.

Freakshakes all around

Southampton has some pretty cool places to visit, and a pretty great food and drink scene. The city is undergoing some huge development at the moment and is fast becoming a great competitor for cool city in the South. 

One example of the new cool is the introduction of the brand new Freakshakes to Orange Rooms in the Bedford Place area of the city centre.

Orange Rooms is a bar/nightclub by night, but is a little hidden gem of a daytime location if I'm honest. 

Not only is it the perfect backdrop for chatting - each room is decorated differently and it's pretty amazing - they also serve great food and drinks. 

As part of the Sotonbloggers, I was asked along with the girls to try out their Freakshakes,which honestly I was really excited about. 

Freakshakes, for those not in the know, and basically super sized,extra naughty milkshakes.They're a huge trend this year and aren't showing any signs of going anywhere - you've probably seen them on Instagram!

BLOGGING: #sotonmeetup - meeting the Southampton Bloggers

^^photo from Hairfinity UK^^

On Saturday I attended my very first event as a blogger - the #sotonmeetup, for Southampton Bloggers - add I've definitely caught the blogging bug and made some amazing new friends!

If you'd ask me when I started blogging, or even a year ago if I thought I would be this happy with blogging, I don't think I could have said yes. But I am, because some of the opportunities coming my way, and the overwhelming feedback, just makes me over the moon happy. And this event really did secure my fate of blogging for the foreseeable future, and that the new direction of my blog was the best thing I've done for myself!

BLOGGING: Illustrated Teacup is changing direction

I've recently had a little break from blogging so posts have been a little sparse at the beginning of June - I was on holiday too but I kind of lost my mojo a little.
Anyway, whilst on my blogging break I had a little think about the direction of this blog.

I love writing about tattoos, and judging from my top ranking posts, you love reading about them too, but I also want to share other parts of my life. I guess it comes down to the future.
My home and dream is to start a family soon, and I want to be able to blog about our adventures, so I've decided to start that transition now.

I will still blog about tattoos as they are a huge part of my life, including new tattoos, interviews and conventions, but I will be posting a lot more lifestyle, fashion and beauty posts, and eventually some family orientated posts too. Think Love Taza, with a tattoo twist (I'm kind of in love with this family)!

LIFESTYLE: Take Back What's Yours After Miscarriage.

A couple of weeks back I was nominated by Katy at The Lilac Scrapbook to take part in this little campaign. 

As the start of a new year everyone is about making personal change.
Now I realise we are almost a month in to 2015 but I was all scheduled up for January (check me out getting blog organised), but I still think this is pertinent. 

The 'Take Back What's Yours' campaign is about motivating people; you, me, bloggers, writers, everyone, to take back an aspect of their life that they've  lost. It can be happiness, confidence, positivity, anything that you've lost that you want back about yourself.

For me, I want to take back my drive for success and my love for life after my miscarriage in 2014.