Blogiversary // Four Years of Roses & Rolltops

September 01, 2018


Four whole years. This blog celebrates her fourth anniversary this week! You can see my musings on one year of blogging here, and two years here {looks like I skipped last year's!}. So I thought I'd put together a little round up and some thoughts on blogging of late;


Four years on and I still love calling this little corner of the internet home. Having a place to share our travels, my favourite recipes, our home renovations, days out, some of the millions of photos I take throughout the seasons & my love of flowers, our garden/allotment, personal thoughts and adventures through life. I always started this as a place for me to look back upon, an online diary, so I never expected having you guys follow along for the ride too but it's made it even more rewarding, having you relate to posts or message/tag me saying that you made that cake or took inspiration for a holiday etc. Social media gets a lot of bad press, some of it rightly so, but I do think there is a lot of good that comes from Instagram in particular and this real community when like minded people are brought together to support one another and share inspiration.

There's been a lot of talk over the past couple of years that with the growth of Instagram and Instagram stories, people don't have the attention span {or time} to read blogs anymore and as a result, a lot of blogs are dying out or changing their format onto social media. Whilst it might be true for some, I personally still love to read blogs and write this one. I guess the majority of my time is spent on Instagram but I actually prefer getting into a blog more for more focus or like a magazine, Instagram is just a lot of scrolling and it feels a lot less permanent, it's transient and don't even get me started on the algorithms not showing my favourite accounts half the time? I'm so grateful for you guys, my readers for still checking in on here and following along. I know that it's hard to comment on a blog, and so I also value the community of messages and comments on Instagram. For me, a blog has always been an extension of my Instagram, a place to document in a longer format with more photos and detail that you can easily find again when relevant. Instagram stories are fun and great but they disappear after 24 hours! As a result, I have no plans to change the format of this blog anytime soon and value this space for being able to put an extended edit of Instagram onto here when I have the time. I try & update instagram daily and then anything that feels worth adding to the blog will then go on at a slightly later date. As always, I appreciate any feedback you might have or requests for new posts or topics. I'd love to maybe redesign this website a little to make it easier to navigate & find older posts, I'll have a think but again do let me know your thoughts!

Over this past year I've made the decision to step away from So You're Getting Married as honeymoon editor this summer after four years of being part of the SYGM team. I'd gradually dropped my role over the past couple of years with no time to cover events anymore like I was first assigned to. I was feeling overwhelmed and stretched too thinly trying to keep up with my rapidly growing Instagram/this blog as new longer term projects and opportunities came along so it just made financial sense to focus upon this solely instead. I'll still be travel writing on here a lot documenting our travels, it's my very favourite thing & we don't have any plans to stop travelling, but I guess you can only honeymoon for so long. I'm going to write travelogues rather than honeymoon 'reviews' as such now.

I'm so amazed, and sometimes suffer a little imposter syndrome, at the exciting work projects that have come my way this past year. I should be able to share more soon on what's to come this Autumn. It was Instagram that encouraged me to start a blog back in 2014, when people would message and ask if I had somewhere to share our scaffold board tables or shelves as we renovated our house and my husband who told me to take the plunge yet I never expected this would become my job! Getting to work with my favourite brands is still such a dream and a true privilege. Every day is so varied, there have been a lot of fun shoots going on recently and things are busy! I'd never say that my job is hard compared to all the hugely meaningful careers out there, I'm in awe of teachers and doctors to name a few but it can be hard to properly switch off and working for myself {whilst incredible in a lot of ways} definitely has challenges. Maybe my life with social media should be a whole new post?

As a September tradition, we're going away this weekend! For an exciting adventure around Italy for a couple of weeks, we're starting in Puglia and finishing on the Amalfi Coast. So the blog will be a little quiet for a while {no doubt I'll be sharing photos on Instagram in the meantime though}. I thought I'd leave you with some of the most popular posts from this past year, that you might have missed, before I go if you're in a blog reading mood before coming back with some new content for the autumn.

Interiors, you can find the whole section here including;
Where's it all from and what colour are my walls?
How to choose paint colours
How to lay a herringbone floor
The Before & After of our Snug Room
How to make a Christmas wreath
Creating panelled walls
Our new master bedroom
Tips for buying on eBay
Creating an en-suite bathroom in the attic
Our utility & boot room
All things house plants

Travel, you can find the whole section here including;
A London city guide
A travel FAQ with my travel hacks
That time we went to Palm Springs
A New York city guide
Byron Bay, such a special place
Safari in Sri Lanka
Beautiful Mallorca away from the tourists
Cycling around the heavenly Ile de Re
Our favourite spots in Norfolk
Florida beyond the theme parks
Days out around the UK

Food, you can find the whole section here with recipes & restaurants including;
The cake baking secret you need to know
My thoughts on keeping healthy
Our favourite overnight oats recipe

Personal posts, you can find them all here including;
Sharing my fears & talking anxiety
Falling in love with an older guy, the story of how we met.
My fitness routine
How to store and back up photos
Talking about friendships
Celebrating four years of marriage

Garden & allotment talk, the whole series is here;
Landscaping our patio and building a greenhouse
How to grow pumpkins & squashes
My top tips for growing hydrangeas
Autumn bulb planting tips
Spring planting
Using our greenhouse
Photos of our garden before the hottest, driest summer in over 40 years hit!

and for a real mix, lots of blog posts under this musings tab or you can click through the archives month by month.

Thank you, as ever, for reading! I know some of you have been here since the very beginning or the 'rvk123' instagram days.

Back soon!

R <3 xx

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2 comments

  1. Dear Rebecca I discovered you by accident, looking for pictures of log burners and I have been an addict ever since!
    I find your blog very relaxing to read after hard day in a classroom! I especially like your garden and allotment posts.I also adore the foodie pics. Well done for making this your job and glad you're keeping going. Maybe you and Ben could do a renovation together that would be fun. X

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  2. Happy four years! I love following your blog and insta and although I don't have as much time for blog reading lately, like you said it's always there to come back to and find later.
    We move house next summer and I will be revisiting your diy/interior/gardening posts for sure!
    Can't wait to read about your future projects,
    Tracey x
    girlabouthome.com

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