Behind The Blog featuring Icy Sedgwick from Wicked North…

Top O’ The Mornin Chums…

Isn’t it frightening that exactly three weeks today it’ll be Christmas Eve? *shrieks of excitement* Wow, how has this year has managed to roll in so fast?! Talking of which, if you’re an eager Beauty YouTuber you might want to check out yesterday’s post Calling All Beauty YouTubers… a huge thanks to all the ladies who’ve visited the channel, emailed and expressed their willing to get involved, I shall be gracing your email inboxes with a reply very soon to confirm 🙂

However enough chatter from me as I’m SUPER excited today to have this gorgeous gal join me on the virtual sofa this morning… tis none other than the stunning Icy Sedgwick from Wicked North. Icy has been a regular supporter of Confetti & Curves for quite some time so it’s quite a treat to have her feature today as I’m pretty sure you’ll adore getting to know her too!

As a light-hearted lover of make-up & talented writer by profession, you’re sure to find yourself procrastinating a little longer than usual during a visit to her online haven. It oozes her creativity & charm… not to mention some amazing make-up tutorials! Just check out her ‘How To’ section and you’ll see a selection of stunning eye shadow looks. So if you’re not already a follower get yourself over and check it out, she’s such a welcoming blogger & always enjoys a chatter!

You know the essential accessories by now gals: cuppa & comfy seat as we take a peek Behind The Blog…

In only 5 words describe what readers can expect from your blog:

Reviews, opinions, colour, fun and honesty! I don’t like to take make up too seriously but I will tell you what I think!

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What inspired you to start blogging?

I’ve actually been blogging since 2009 to support my fiction, and I’ve been writing my Icy Sedgwick’s Cabinet of Curiosities blog ever since. Lots of other writers said blogging was a good way to hone your writing and build your platform. I started a make up blog because I’d been posting photos of my make up on Instagram and people were asking me questions about what I used.

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Tell us about your blog name… what made you decide on it?

I live in the North of England and I love the Wicked Witch of the West, so I just slammed the two together. I was also looking for something that hadn’t already been registered! It’s also not that descriptive so it gives me some leeway to cover other topics in future.

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Do you ever suffer from Blogger’s Block & if so how do you overcome it?

I keep a list on Evernote so if I read a blog post and I want to leave a comment, then I know that’s something I can blog about myself. I also make notes if I see something on TV, or I buy a new product. Sometimes I just rifle through what I already own to see if it’s worth highlighting anything.

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What’s your favourite post to date? 

Welcome to my neighbourhood – https://wickednorth.wordpress.com/2015/07/29/welcome-to-my-neighbourhood/ It’s a photography post, and I think it gives a bit of a ‘behind the scenes’ look, rather than just always looking in my make up bag!

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Describe your everyday clothes style:

Black! Haha, I teach design in an FE college so I like to be comfortable, in clothes that don’t restrict movement. I usually wear cool T-shirts with flares, or skater dresses with leggings, and DMs. It’s like rock chick meets grown up punk.

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What are your current top 3 beauty items?

My Urban Decay Naked Smoky palette, my Real Techniques eye make up brushes, and my make up sponge – it was only £1.50 from Primark!

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How do you like to relax & unwind after a stressful day?

I usually just watch a film and get some knitting done. Sometimes you just need something mindless to occupy your brain.

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Describe your ideal Saturday night:

I used to love going out but I don’t have that wide a social circle any more so really, it would probably be watching some good films, maybe having some homemade cake, and not having to think about anything strenuous.

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What do you do to relax?

Read, knit, write, draw, colour – it’s usually something creative to keep my mind occupied so it doesn’t dwell on anything stressful.

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Everyone has their bad habits, what’s yours?

Correcting grammar. I know I shouldn’t do it but sometimes I do it before I’ve realised!

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What’s your most cherished childhood memory?

My entire holiday to Austria when I was eleven. It was the middle of a heatwave and we had epic thunderstorms every evening. It’s a beautiful country, Salzburg is a beautiful city, and I got to see the Castle Herrenchiemsee palace that often doubles in films as Versailles!

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What was your favourite school subject?

Art. Even though I wasn’t Monet I kept it up, right up to A Levels. I switched to History of Art for my degree as I didn’t think I was good enough to do Fine Art!

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What’s your dream job?

Author! I don’t think I’ll ever make a full time living from writing fiction so my main ‘career goal’ is to lecture in Film Studies.

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Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

I don’t like to think of what I want to be doing, or where I want to be doing it, because life can throw so many curve balls, so I just want to be content and creative. That would be enough for me.

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What top 5 things are on your bucket list?

Travelling the length of Route 66, seeing the northern lights, swimming with seals, publishing my YA ghost adventure novel, and seeing a performance at the Paris Opera House!

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What’s your biggest achievement to date?

Probably the publication of my first book, The Guns of Retribution. Receiving a box of paperback copies was the moment I thought “I’ve done it, I’ve put my name to something tangible”. I’d had short stories published before but it’s not the same as being the sole person responsible for a story.

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Who inspires you?

All of the women who blazed trails. Ada Lovelace, Charlotte Brontë, Marie Curie, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson – they’re amazing.

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Do you have a favourite inspirational quote?

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken” – Oscar Wilde.

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What top tips would you give to someone who is thinking of starting their own blog?

Work out before you start what it is that you want to talk about. Write a few posts ahead of time so you don’t have to stress about what to say. Get your blog looking the way you want it before you start promoting on social media!

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QUICK FIRE QUESTIONS:

Tea or Coffee = Coffee!

 

Coke or Pepsi = Neither, Lemon Fanta

 

Messy mayhem or Super Organised = Mayhem – there is order to my chaos

 

Cute kitten or Playful puppy = Puppy! Especially if it’s a Cockerpoo

 

Night In or Night Out = Night In, definitely.

 

Heels or Flats = Flats. Always flats.

 

Lip Stick or Lip Gloss = Lipstick! My hair always sticks to lip gloss.

 

Rock Chick or Pop Princess = Rock Chick / Goth.

 

Paperback or E-book = Both!

Contact Icy:

Blog – http://wickednorth.wordpress.com

Instagram – http://instagr.am/icysedgwick

Twitter – https://twitter.com/IcySedgwick

Snapchat – IcySedgwick

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Don’t forget: If you would like your blog featured on Behind The Blog then get in touch via the contact page by clicking *here*, I’d love to hear from you!

Thanks so much for reading & of course do say hi in the comments below… we adore a good chatter here on Confetti & Curves  🙂

Simple Design Layout Tips For Your Beauty Blog

Blog layout is super important. It’s the first thing your readers see when they make a visit to your virtual haven. Unfortunately though, you could be the best writer this side of town but if your shop front doesn’t match the contents then you could find your readers very quickly hitting the dreaded back button… something we all want to avoid happening! Having picked up a some tips along my own blogging journey here’s a few of the things that have helped me dress-up my online design skills…

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To some this may seem a bit obvious, but creating an eye catching blog banner is essential to immediately capturing the attention of your reader & portraying what your blog is all about. Can you imagine walking along the high street and none of the stores having signage above their doors? Well, in retrospect that can lead to the same calamity if you don’t get busy with your banner.

Boasting an eye catching blog banner really helps others to immediately suss out your style & personality. It doesn’t have to be perfectly smeared in colour, in fact some of the most successful bloggers have incredibly minimalistic designs but it still gives the audience an idea of what to expect and a basic branding theme that will hopefully correspond with the style throughout your posts.

“So how do I create one of my own?”

Super easy! Get yourself over to a free online editing tool (such as Pic Monkey) and simply hit the design option. Voila… you can start creating sassy looking blog banners & graphics until your heart’s content.

If you prefer, you can upgrade to the premium service for a small monthly fee which entitles you to lots of incredibly useful features with no annoying flashing ads whilst your in the depths of creativity. They have such a huge range of fonts, themes & design features on offer you’ll be spoilt for choice. If you use it half as much as I do it’s worth every penny!

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If you find yourself blogging about multiple topics then organising them neatly into their own individual categories is hugely beneficial; particularly for readers who like to quickly visit the area that peaks their interest. It’s also a great way to help keep you on top of your post organisation too. This is pretty much ideal for those who find themselves blogging about a variety of subjects such as beauty, lifestyle, fashion etc. All your posts will still appear on your blogs initial feed page but can be separated into more specific topics too.

Creating categories is something I get asked about incredibly regularly, so if you’re still working out how to master it don’t fret… we’ve all been left frantically trying to figure this quandary out at some stage or another. The most common misconception many WordPress users tend to make is assuming these are created as ‘new pages’ when in fact they’re actually ‘new categories’. For a comprehensive step-by-step guide on how to easily create your own categories *click here* for a handy link to the official WordPress tutorial guide which gives you easy to follow instructions on creating your very own category style pages!

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Okay bloggers, this is where it gets personal. Everyone has their own unique style, vision and concept when it comes to choosing a colour scheme for their blog. However keeping the colours complimentary to each other is super important otherwise your blog page can look like an explosion in a paint factory. I always find that keeping a neutral background on my posts really helps images stand out – if there’s too much going on then it’s just confusing for the reader and begins to look incredibly messy. If you keep your colours complimentary your blog will look super professional, clean and complimentary for the reader.

Just like you would for interior design, creating a mood board of colours you’d like to use for your blog is a great way of determining what colours you might like to stick too:

Pinterest is a huuuuuge source of inspiration when it comes to stuff like the one I found above! So pretty don’t you think? 🙂

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I don’t know about you guys, but I find a screen full of text utterly overwhelming & sometimes feels like a bit of hard work to get through, however there are ways to make larger posts more appealing. A great Image can speak a thousand words by using them wisely to break up huge chunks of texts so your readers won’t feel so swamped in literature. Bullet points also work a treat for keeping your layout reader friendly too as can eye catching titles!

Another great tip is to use your side space to showcase some of your favourite posts. Many bloggers seem to overlook the the fact that their sidebar doesn’t just have to be for social media widgets etc but if you design an eye catching little graphic (again, Pic Monkey is superb for this) and upload it as an image to your WordPress media library you can add it to your sidebar & hyperlink it to your favourite post. Yep, it’s really that easy! Whilst your readers are scrolling down through your blog you’ll soon catch their eye & lead them onto other exciting posts they may have missed out on = great content for your visitors to check out & more traffic for your blog! Win win in my humble opinion.

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People love personality & nothing says it better than a great profile pic to put a friendly face to the person behind the blog. When most people read a post they imagine it in the voice of the creator, of course it’s so much more easier when you can put a face to the words. It’s also a really nice addition to welcome new followers onto your little online haven. Of course this tip won’t be useful for those anonymous bloggers amongst us, however you too can still inject a little bit of personality without giving away your identity by adding a fun gravatar. Okay it’s not the real thing but if your illustration is loosely based on yourself at least it gives readers a more realistic expectation of what you may look like.

When choosing a profile picture try to make it as engaging as possible. Having worked with a number of glossy magazines in the wedding industry I picked up some valuable little tips that help to really make an impact with your images. Looking directly at the camera means that when the reader spots your picture your eyes will already be firmly on them (and hopefully smiling at that!) this is why all pretty much all the shelf filling magazines in your favourite bookstore will usually have their models looking directly into the camera. Eye contact catches attention.

Don’t forget, if you’re wanting to keep everything as professional & consistent as possible it’s worthwhile having the same profile picture in all your other social media sites too. That way you’re more easily identified and very quickly recognised!

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If you fancy procrastinating a little more and checking out some of my other on blogging then *click here* for a mini library of posts that just might help you make sense of all this virtual shenanigans.

Cheerio  Chums…

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