A Few Moments With: The Kind Side // Interview #6

A blogger I am slowly growing to love is Zauni over at The Kind Side. Reading through her blog posts was like a breath of fresh air (I've always found that saying slightly odd haha!) and found her posts thought provoking, to say the least. Her blog is now a place I know I can visit if I'm ever in the need for a burst of positive energy or just a chance to reflect on certain things about ourselves that we can sometimes neglect in the business of every day. I decided to interview Zauni for this interview series in order to share her blog with you guys and find out more about her passions on blogging and life!

Hello! Could you tell us a bit about yourself?

Hey there! My name is Zauni, I’m a positive lifestyle blogger over at The Kind Side. My blog is focused on helping those discover their ‘kind’ side and enhance their inner peace in hope of making the world a more peaceful place. I believe in the concepts of love, unity, and peace - and I believe in them strongly. My mantra is: spread love, practice peace, advocate unity. That is how I try to live my life. I’m not always successful, and I have some set backs, but for the most part I just try to live a good life and help as many people as I can along the way. When I’m not being a humanitarian-blogging activist, I’m a semi-normal college student who is obsessed with Harry Potter, alfredo sauce, iced coffee, vanilla lattes, fruit infused water, and squidward from Spongebob. 

How and why did you first get into blogging?

I wanted to start a blog for a while, but I didn’t know what ‘type’ of blog I would have. I kept putting it off, or talking myself out of it. One day my mom just said, “You know stop talking about it and just do it.” Some of the best advice I've ever had.

What has been your highlight about blogging so far?

Helping others help themselves. When people comment or email me saying they have learned something about themselves, or they have been inspired it makes me feel as if I’m doing something right. 

I get a lot of inspiration from your blog and positive outlook on life! Where do you draw inspiration from?

Aww thank you! I get a lot of inspiration from my mum, she is amazing. She’s taught me so much about life, love, God, and how to be a good person. She’s got the most incredible, beautiful spirit I’ve ever known and every time I talk to her I get inspired.

You recently took part in a sense of self week on your blog, could you explain what that was and what you learnt from it? 

Sense of Self Week was a blog series focused on defining what it means to have a ‘sense of self’ and getting to know yourself presently, in order to move forward. It was the first series I ever did on my blog, and it helped me discover a little more about myself, and dig deeper into who I truly am and how who I am is the cause of the choices I make and the things I like.

Experience Sense of Self Week for yourself here: Defining the term | Finding Sense of Self | Finding Gratitude | Dealing with Feeling Lost | When we Change

What is the best advice you've been given?

Face your fears. Simple, a bit cliche - but it’s gotten me through some tough moments. Sometimes the fear itself is the worse part. When I’m able to move away from that fear, it makes difficult things easier.

What are you goals for your blog and where do you see it heading in the future?

I’m a huge believe in the power of hope, love, and faith and it is those ideals that helped me formulate a plan of action for my future and the future of my blog. I want to make the world a better place, and ultimately I would love world peace. It sounds like a such a Miss America answer, but I believe it’s a true possibility with the right movements and mindsets. So I’m taking steps forward to make those dreams a reality. Currently I’m working with a team of people on a couple of projects that I’ll be revealing soon! If you’re interested in working on something that will help others - head over to my group project tab to learn more! 

Who are some of your favourite bloggers?

My favorite blogger has to be Karla Deras over at Karla’s Closet, hands down. She was the first blog I ever read, a couple of years ago and I fell in love with her fashion, her confidence, and just her overall hustle. 

Thank you! Where else can we find you?

Blog - www.thekindside.com

Twitter - @TheKindSide

I’ve got a really awesome contact page where you can reach me!

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I hope you liked this interview! Let me know your thoughts and suggestions on ways to improve the blogger interview series below :)

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Manchester times!

Last week I handed in my Coursework and broke up from uni for Christmas break so I planned to spend the weekend in Manchester visiting my friend Bim who had just moved there for work. I've been to Manchester before but only briefly so it was nice to spend a whole weekend there and take a stroll through the Christmas markets and Art Gallery.  It was also my Birthday last week so it was nice to get away after all the uni stress!

I also met up with fellow blogger Halima over at Fashionicide for dinner while I was there which was nice as it's always lovely to meet bloggers in person! We decided on a Wagamama's and had a lovely evening discussing blogging, parents and er, politics haha!

The next day I dragged Bim over to the Manchester Art Gallery in town. We went on a Sunday near closing time so it was nice and quite and we just had a look round. I love going to Art Galleries whenever I'm in a City that I don't know that well. I don't know a thing about art though - I just like having a look round; I feel like I'm walking through someone's home and having a nosey at their pictures ha!

This was my favourite painting, I wish I could remember what it was called but it shows Egyptian women collecting water from the Nile.

Hope you're all having a lovely Christmas break and enjoying the festivities/holidays/time of work

Check out my latest YouTube video on making decisions HERE 

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Clap your hands if you feel like happiness is the truth // OOTD

Denim Jacket; Vintage || Jumper; H&M || Shirt; M&S || Rings; H&M || Riding pants; H&M || Boots; Matalan

A massive thank you to Gavina for taking these photos for me! Check out her Fashion & Beauty blog HERE and photography blog HERE

Oh hey guys hey guess what Christmas break is heeeerreeee, oh yeaaaaah. Time to chill. Kind of anyway, I still have some work left to do and need to think about my dissertation title buuuut like the typical student I'm putting it off for a while ha! Anyway, I bought this denim jacket a while back and haven't really worn it until now but I'm a lover of layering so its come in quite handy recently! Also I guess it'll be a good piece to wear in the Summer too over a dress or something as an alternative to a leather jacket.  The shirt underneath my jumper is, again, stolen form my mum but it has such a lovely print over it!

Currently, I am loving:

Pharrell - Happy (AKA the best feel good song ever)

P-Square - No one like you (AKA my wedding song)

P-Square - Chop my money

Find me on: YouTube | Bloglovin | Twitter | Intagram: @thatgirlsaadiya

You are a story. Do not become a word // OOTD

'You are a story. 
Do not become a word because you want to be loved. 
Love does not ask you to be nothing for something' 

Nayyirah Waheed

Jumper; H&M // Skirt; Topshop

Oh hey there. So this is just a quick outfit post for today, I feel like I've been wearing this skirt waaaay too often but it's such a good item that I can't help but wear it again... and again... and again. I'll probably get bored of it one day though.

I'm currently swimming in a sea of coursework research and political essays which is getting quite stressful! Although I'm nearly done so that's not too bad I guess! I have to say, I think this course is making me more skeptical about the world and I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing... interesting stuff though!

Music wise, I am loving:

Jason Mraz - In your hands 

Find me on: YouTube | Bloglovin | Twitter | Instagram: @thatgirlsaadiya

A Few Moments With: Not Your Average // Interview #5

I can remember signing up to blogger a good four years ago now with a sudden burst of inspiration after catching up with some of my favourite fashion bloggers. If I'm honest, I never really took it that seriously as it was just an extra way for me to procrastinate. Now, however, after coming across the online community that blogging has to offer it's become a pastime I very much enjoy. From weekly blog chats, press events to blogger meet-ups I think it's easier to get involved in as much or as little as you want in this online community. Blogger meet-ups, especially, give you the opportunity to meet and connect with other bloggers in your local area, bringing the online community into reality and possibly uncovering new friendships. I recently attended the #EastMidsMeetUp held by the lovely Emma from Not Your Average and had a lovely, chilled and fun filled day meeting local bloggers and chatting about all things blogging related. As the host, I decided to ask Emma a few questions on blogging, organising/attending a blogger meet-up and blogging with a baby!

Hello! Could you tell us a bit about yourself?

Hey! I'm Emma, 23 (nearly 24) years old and live in a small town near Burton on Trent, Derbyshire. I have a 6 month old girl called Millie and live with my boyfriend of 2 years. I'm currently also studying Childhood part time with the open university and plan (or hope) to be a Primary Teacher or Teaching Assistant! 

How and why did you start blogging?

I started blogging when I was in university to start with but I used a blog.com platform that never really got many hits so when I left (due to being pregnant) I set up a new blog with Blogger in January of this year and everything went from there. It was mainly to fill up my spare time as I was only working casually and part time because of being pregnant and then when January came, nowhere would take me on as I was 5 months pregnant and they probably knew I'd be leaving pretty soon! 

The blogging community offers so many great opportunities, one of my favourites being meet-ups which is something you have recently organised. What inspired you to hold the #EastMidsMeetUp?

The main reason was because you hear so much of events happening down in London that people in the Midlands find hard to get to and then when there is other meet-ups that are held in the Midlands, you get Londoners and Northerners travelling and they take up spaces that could have been for more local girls. It's why I was so picky when it came to spaces for this one, you had to live in a 30 mile radius of Derby so that it was strictly local bloggers! 

For anyone thinking of organising and holding their own blogging meet-up or event, what advice would you give them?

DON'T! Haha, just kidding. But it does take a lot of work and can get stressful, especially if you want to make it big and provide goodie bags. Contacting companies or emailing companies back takes up a lot of time and you have to be super organised as you have so many things coming in and out. Set up spreadsheets for attendees, companies and people you need to get back to and update it on a daily basis. This way you keep on top of everything! 

Attending a meet-up can be quite nerve-wracking! For anyone attending a meet-up for the first time, what advice would you give them?

I don't really get nervous when meeting new people so it's hard for me to advise but I guess that you know you're going to have at least one thing in common with everyone there - blogging! Don't be shy, just come straight out and ask the person standing next to you "What's your name? What's your blog?" and you'll find they will probably have been thinking the same thing but you beat them to it! :) 

Your blog ranges from posts on Fashion, Beauty and being a recent Mother! How exciting has it been being a part of the #pbloggers community too? 

It's really nice to know that people are going through, or have been through the phases I go through with Millie. Such as sleeping, or lack of, feeding problems etc. There is always someone that can give you advice or re-assure you that everything will be okay. The #pbloggers chats are kind of a luxury when it comes to parenting though, everyone has their different parenting ways but it's good because we can all learn something new from each other! 

What has been your most recent beauty purchase?

Up until now, I have been re-purchasing some of my holy grail high street products such as Seventeen's Phwoarr Paint, Barry M Lash Vegas, No7 Beautifully Matte Foundation and Collection Eye Liner. All AMAZING but cheap products. 

What are your top three beauty products at the moment? 

At the moment it has got to be... 

1) MAC Up the Amp Lipstick

2) Sleek Vintage Romance Palette

3) Seventeen Phwoarr Paint

Thank you Emma! Where else can we find you?

Thank you! I have Twitter, Youtube, Facebook and Instagram - emmalou_b

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I hope you guys liked this interview! Let me know what you think below and if you have any suggestions :)

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#EastMidsMeetUp // Blogger Event

Myself and Rosalie                                                                   Myself and Gavina

Thank you to Gavina for the photos (as my camera was rubbish on the night haha!)

Last Saturday I went to the #EastMidsMeetUp which was hosted by the lovely Emma and had such a great time! It was so nice to meet up with other local bloggers and take the blogging community offline and into real life for the day. We had been using the #EastMidsMeetUp hashtag on twitter for quite a while too so it was nice to meet people in person and figure out who was who from their twitter/blog pictures (que lots of 'ohhh so yoooouuu'reeee so & so, nice to meet you' comments!) We started off by doing some shopping in Westfields in Derby (which is mega crazy huuuuge) as this gave us an opportunity to mingle and get our Secret Santa presents. I had picked out Charlie and so decided to get her a bath bomb from Lush. We then made our way over to The Fat Cat Cafe for the whole group to meet up and get a chance to mingle with others and talk some more. After stuffing our faces, Emma handed out all the goody bags that she had spent months organising and preparing for us and there was so much stuff to go through! We also swapped our Secret Santa presents which was exciting and I got the Snow Fairy shower gel from Lush bought by Emily from What Em Loves which smells like sweets and bubblegum and candyfloss and summer so thank you to Emily for that!

All in all it was a lovely day/evening and was nice to see how many local bloggers there are! A massive thank you to Emma for organising and hosting - I can imagine it was stressful but was a definite success! Hopefully I'll have a couple of reviews up about some of the samples soon!

Have you guys been to an event recently?

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Is it too much to ask for something Great? // OOTD

Top; Matalan || Riding pants; H&M || Cardi; stolen from my mum

Erm guys... I'm wearing all black wowowowow. Is this a boring outfit? I feel like it's a boring outfit cos there's no colour haha! I say that however, I actually like this all black look - it's simple and a lot more 'grown up' looking, if that makes sense! I stole my cardi from my mum when I started uni ages ago and, to be honest, I've practically lived in it ever since - it's so warm and great for layering.

I went to the #EastMidsMeetUp yesterday by the way! It was organised/hosted by Emma and was so lovely to meet/connect with local bloggers! A blog post talking about the day in more detail will be up later as well as a blogger interview with Emma too so look out for that :) Speaking of the interviews... thank you guys for your comments and feedback on the last ones so far! I'm glad you're enjoying them and if you have any more feedback/suggestions/ways to improve then feel free to let me know! If you want to catch up on the latest ones you can do so here.

I hope you enjoy your Sunday, I'm off to read up on world politics for uni... yaaay (no sarcasm intended, it's actually interesting... ok maybe a liiiiitle bit of sarcasm...) (wouldn't it be so cool if you could go to uni/take classes because you genuinely enjoy the course content but not have to be graded on it? Yeah that would be cool)

Music wise I am loving:

Ellie Goulding - How long will I love you?

(How amazing is this song??)

 Find me on: YouTube | Bloglovin | Twitter | Instagram: @thatgirlsaadiya