I think the last time I did a proper monthly wrap up post was about 4 years ago, when I was still a book blogger and would do a monthly wrap up of all the books I’d read that month. I never do these sorts of posts because quite honestly, I don’t think I’d have enough to fill them with every single month of the year. Naturally some months are as quiet as a graveyard and others are busy and hectic and thankfully, I’ve had a lot happen in March to actually warrant a monthly wrap up style post.

The original post scheduled for today was supposed to be about my second weekend away to the Severn Valley Railway in Shropshire but in the end, I decided to leave my camera at home because it’s big and I couldn’t be bothered carrying it around and I’ve also blogged about it before here, so I figured I didn’t want to be writing an almost identical post again this year as well.

So, here we are! Here’s what I’ve been getting up to in March and some of my top books, TV and beauty picks as well!

Books, TV and film

I’ll get books out of the way first because I don’t read fast any more and don’t tend to get through too many in a month. But I did finish The Colour of Bee Larkham’s Murder by Sarah J. Harris, which I gave 5 stars to on Goodreads as it’s a truly original whodunnit. And I finally started reading Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak.

Stand out series for me this month was The Umbrella Academy, which I absolutely ADORED. Robert Sheehan needs protecting at all costs. After Life, which caused a bit of controversy but I absolutely loved it it. I laughed and cried in equal measures. And finally, the series all us Formula 1 fans was waiting for, Drive to Survive. I was seriously impressed with this series and it’s a great option for those who are perhaps just getting into the world of Motorsport. We also watched The Order, which was pretty good. Very teen but a decent watch if you like witches, werewolves and magic!

I don’t watch an awful lot of films anymore but we bought Bohemian Rhapsody which was a joy to watch again. One of the films of the decade for me. We also watched Murder by Numbers, which stars Sandra Bullock which I really enjoyed and we binge-watched The Lord of the Rings Trilogy when we were on holiday which although I’ve seen hundreds of times before, bloody loved watching!

Products

I’ve really let myself go in terms of skincare over the last half a year, so I actually invested in some new products this month, thanks to the wonderful review from Lady Writes! Who said bloggers have no influence? I purchased a handful of products from the new My Clarins range, designed especially for Millennials and so far, so good! I love the packaging and they’re all Vegan AND CF, what’s not to love?

Holidays

We were lucky enough to go on two breaks this month, the first one being to Pod Hollow, a Hobbit inspired pod in Suffolk. I did a full blog post about that trip here because I was very kindly offered one night free in exchange for a review. It was an outstanding place to stay and I’d highly, highly recommend it!

Our second trip was like I said earlier, to the Severn Valley Railway in Shropshire. We do this once or twice a year, in Spring and Autumn when they run their steam galas. I don’t have much interest in trains to be honest. The engines are pretty impressive to look at but I just think it’s a really nice, relaxing weekend, away from my phone and my laptop and taking everything at a slower pace. Which is something I rarely do!

Blogging

It’s been quite a busy blog month too, some of my own favorite posts this month have been:

• Are friends and family obligated to support us?
• Money saving tips: Saving money as a blogger in 2019
• 10 year challenge: Things I’ve achieved in 10 years
• 10 years on: Why has the Jade Goody effect wore off?

I was also sent a big box of products from Popcorn Shed, which I thoroughly enjoyed trying and testing (who wouldn’t?) and was lucky enough to work with lots of amazing brands in my Mother’s Day Gift Guide!

I’ve been working on my second eBook a lot this month, with one of my goals for March being to finish writing it up. I have my Beginners Guide to Blogging but my new one focuses mainly on growing a authentic and engaged blog following. It’s been a blast to write so I’m hoping that’ll be on sale soon! Speaking of goals, I also managed to hit my goal of 8,300 blog followers and 11,800 Twitter followers!

I also re-made my media kit and I’m so happy with it and pitched to a few brands. I haven’t actually heard from any of them yet but there’s no harm in putting yourself out there, right?

And one last thing for the blogging section before we move on, I’ve had a bit of a re-vamp of my Facebook bloggers group, Starlight Bloggers and welcomed Karalee from Tales of Belle and Victoria from Victoria Austin as new admins to help me out! If you want to join (all niches welcome!) you can do so here!

Personal

And finally, in my person life, the biggest thing that happened was my Dad finally had his heart bypass surgery. For those that don’t follow me on Twitter, you won’t know that he had a mild/moderate heart attack just before New Year. The surgery was scheduled at the beginning of March but unfortunately got cancelled last minute due to a huge emergency. So it was re-scheduled for the middle of March and was successful this time. He’s been back home now for around 2 weeks and is slowly getting back to normal.

I suppose I should mention how excited I’ve been that the Formula 1 season has started again! You probably know I’m a huge Formula 1 fan and the Winter break feels so long! So I’m absolutely buzzing that my favourite sport is back on our telly. I’ve even started putting small bets on this year (which is something I’ve never done before!) and finding that really fun, too.

And there we go! There’s my March! I really enjoyed doing a monthly wrap up and might consider introducing these posts into my blog again. But enough about me, how was your month?! Let me know!