When I think about who I am online, I think I'm a little bit all over the place. I started my blogging journey way back in 2009, and I actually made something of myself; I got to sit front row at fashion week, work with some incredible brands, and visit some amazing locations. Aged 18 and totally overwhelmed, I just couldn't quite fit my shy self into this buzzing world of interviews and photoshoots and money. I'd never been to London before my first fashion week trip. It was bloody scary, and I was completely out of my comfort zone. I was too young.

But my love for writing never left - and a couple of years later, longing for a creative outlet, I re-launched my blog under the Shoestring name, however by this point, I was just a little fish in a big blogging pond, and I'm sad that I let that dishearten me from writing.

Because blogging has become an 'industry' in its own right, there are so many people fighting to make their way to the top and becoming blindsided by why it became an industry in the first place. Consumers turned to blogs because magazines became over-saturated and unrelatable - I suppose there's an irony in there somewhere. But the wonderful thing about the Internet, is that you can really shape your space to be whatever you like.

Recently, my Mum told me she missed reading my blogs. And so here I am once more, re-shaping this space to fit 27-year-old me; I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to catch up with readers old and new, and reintroduce myself to you all.

So hey! My name is Olivia, I'm 27 and I live in beautiful Derbyshire. I think as teenagers we're somewhat conditioned to hate the town we came from, but I don't think there's anything that quite beats the view of the rolling Derbyshire countryside and it's something I grew to love in my twenties. By day, I work as a marketing manager for a wedding company and by night, I live for a pub garden, nice seafood and Rick Stein cooking shows.

I studied Media and Communications at university, and whilst I don't remember much about my course, I remember finding my independence, making some incredible memories and meeting my husband-to-be after the first semester. After renting for a couple of years, Rob and I decided to buy a narrowboat to live on; it was only ever really meant as a temporary stop-gap between getting on the property ladder, but it feels like home. I guess living mortgage-free by the water just appeals to us more than owing the banks money until we're in our 60s... but who knows, maybe we'll switch to bricks and mortar one day.

Getting our priorities in order, the first thing we did when we got our floating home was to start a family; and our little boy Sid is the most gorgeous, handsome Golden Retriever you will ever meet and I am genuinely worried I will never love my children as much as I love this dog. He is the absolute light of my life, and if you follow me on Instagram you will often be graced with his presence.

I grew up with my Mum and Dad who loved each other and bickered in equal measure, along with my two sisters who were 9 and 11 years older than myself, and did a great job of teaching me all of the dance routines to Take That songs. A vivid memory from my childhood was reenacting the opening scene from The Lion King; my Dad holding me up in the air like Simba, whilst my sisters pretended to be zebras at the side... I suppose that was quite the iconic representation of our family life. Mad as a brush, really.

As a teenager, I spent many a summer up on the skatepark, and honestly those were some of the absolute best times. Falling in love with floppy-haired boys and discovering the 'alternative' style, and having girlfriends who are so close you form an unbreakable sisterhood, that will inevitably break once you go your separate ways for university.


Throughout all of those years, I was a writer. I wrote a short story for my year 6 SATs that, apparently, still gets shown to pupils as a good example piece of work. I used the MySpace bulletin section to pour my heart out about boys and life and my favourite emo lyrics. And then there came the blog, which I initially viewed as good work experience. I thought the journos would love it; of course Vogue would lap me up - no thanks to Carrie Bradshaw and her '$4-a-word' for instilling THAT false hope in me.

So that brings us to now. I don't quite know what this space on the internet will be for me yet; over the last few years I've been desperate to find somewhere to talk about the things I want to talk about - fashion, beauty, life, travel, food, sex, and dare I say, even politics. I don't think I ever realised that those things could co-exist in the same place, and so now I'm taking a much more relaxed approach to talk about whatever the heck I fancy. And I hope you'll forgive me for being the girl that will one day talk about ways to help the environment but the next, forget her Bag for Life at the supermarket. I'll rave about how incredible the wine is in Europe, and then drink Co-Op Sauvignon Blanc on a Friday night. I want to look like a Victoria's Secret model but would also happily live on a diet of street food and craft beer. Basically I'm a walking contradiction and hopefully that makes me relatable.