A Little Life Update (and 2018 Travel Plans)

A Little Life Update (and 2018 Travel Plans)

December 6, 2017

As a travel blogger I don’t often do little life updates, but there has been so much going on lately that I thought it was time that I sat down, grabbed a hot drink (read: hot chocolate) and just talked about my life for a bit.

MY BIG NEWS

So, the main purpose of this post is to share my exciting/scary news, which if you follow me on Twitter you may have seen a few weeks back. Earlier this month I took the plunge, handed my notice in and decided to go full-time blogger/digital freelancer. My last day of work is going to be the 22nd December, so my first day of working for self is going to be the 23rd December.

The timing couldn’t be more perfect for me as the 23rd December is my 25th birthday, meaning I will be ticking a huge thing off my bucket list – being self employed before the age of 25.

As well as blogging full time I am also going to be working with clients on their digital marketing under the new name of Kirsty Leanne Digital. I cover social media management, content writing and blogger outreach as this is where the majority of my experience is, it made sense for me to go into it now.

I will be launching my new digital site over the next few weeks and I can’t wait to see what everyone thinks. In the mean time you can follow my Kirsty Leanne Digital Twitter here, my Instagram here and like my Facebook Page here. I’ll be sharing blogger opportunities, so if you’re into that kind of thing it might be worth a cheeky like.

Am I scared? Of course. Am I ready? As ready as I can be. Am I going to smash it? HELL TO THE YEAH.

Watch this space. I have a feeling 2018 will be my year.

P.s. if you know anyone at all looking for an experienced, enthusiastic and passionate freelancer in the services I mentioned above, please do send them my way, so I can have a chat about how I may be able to help them. My email is [email protected].

Youtube

You may have seen occasionally on my Facebook and Twitter that I post links to vlogs, something very very new to me and my pretty much non-existent Youtube channel. Although they are few and far between, I have had so much fun creating Travel vlogs for all of my adventures and it is definitely something I am going to be continuing to do as I travel more.

I’m also going to start doing ‘main channel’ style videos like what’s in my case, reviews of travel products and much more. I’m going to try and keep it down the travel route as it’s my main niche, but every now and again I may just fancy a chat.

Youtube is definitely entering into the unknown for me and I’d love if anyone has any advice/support they could give me as this is really something I’d love to grow over the next few years. If you’d like to give me a cheeky follow you can find my YouTube by searching ‘Kirsty Leanne’ I’m not far off being able to change my channel name.

Shooting With Kaye Ford

At the weekend I went to London to visit Winter Wonderland and do my first ever shoot with Kaye Ford (Fordtography). The journey down was courtesy of London Midland and to be honest, the only thing I can comment on at this moment in time is the fact a two and a bit hour journey took us almost five hours. I know delays can’t be helped, but seemed disorganised to say the least.

I had an hour shoot with Kaye and to be honest, as we were in the hardest shoot location ever, it was all we needed. Winter Wonderland was absolutely packed as it was lunchtime and the first Saturday of December, but Kaye took it as a bit of a challenge. In fact, half the time I forgot where we were and that there were hundreds of people about, as she made me feel so comfortable in front of the camera.

The whole shoot was incredibly fun and I’ve never known anyone with such a good eye for portrait photography. I’m not the most confident and often feel self conscious when having my photograph taken as I don’t really know what to do with myself, but Kaye gave me suggestions on where to look and what to do and honestly, I think it worked great! No more awkward poses…

I’d 1000000% recommend Kaye to anyone that feels shy in front of the camera, or for anyone that wants some killer shots. All of the images in this post were shot by Kaye and I am sure I have a lot more to come soon!

Travel

I’m currently in the middle of a THREE MONTH travel break and although it makes me sad to think I don’t have anything coming up soon, the break is doing me good as I have a lot of work to do between now and leaving my job.

My next trip is to Leeds in the middle of January, where I’ll be going to the Ice Lolly Holiday event with – you guessed it – Ashton Jade. The next day we will be spending the whole day exploring a city that is completely new to me (barring that time I sat outside in the freezing cold until 2am waiting for Ashton’s train to arrive, because they wouldn’t let me sit in the station as it was closed).

The week after Leeds I’m heading to Hull to visit – surprise surprise – Ashton! She recently moved into her new house and as I’ve never visited Hull I thought it would be the perfect chance to explore the city with two of my favourite people, Ashton and Tamzin.

The week after Hull I’m off to Wroclaw for the third time in the space of a year, this time courtesy of Wizz Air. They’re kindly sending me and my Dad over for the weekend and I can’t wait to show him all my favourite places, as well as discover some new ones too.

Then, not long after I’m back from Poland, I’ll be off to Cologne in Germany to see Picture This with the girls. We’re only there for a few days and although it’s not a new country, it’s a completely different side to Germany for me to see. Dusseldorf definitely didn’t leave any lasting impressions on me, so I would love to see if Cologne is any different.

After Germany I don’t have any plans until May (subject to change), where I’m off to Rotterdam for Traverse. Having seen how incredible the London one looked last year I booked my tickets for this as soon as they were released, so I’ve had this penciled in for a while. I’m SO excited, however I have absolutely zero plans for while I’m there at the moment. So, if anyone is going and they want to share an Airbnb or hotel of ANYTHING, please let me know so I’m not on my todd.

Something else I’d really love to squeeze in next year is a cottage break with some of my favourite bloggers. I’m thinking a cosy little cottage, lots of good food, some and lots of bouncing ideas off of each other. I think it would be the PERFECT creative space with so much inspiration surrounding us that it will motivate us to create better, bigger content. I’ve been looking at Cottages in Northumberland and they’re so beautiful I want to go right now. I can dream, right? I

The space between May and July might end up being a quiet one as I’ll be saving as money as I can for my big 2018 adventure to AMERICA. I’m off to the States on a 16-day Trek America trip across country, as well as spending some time in New York before my trip and San Francisco and LA afterwards. I currently don’t know how long I’ll be in LA following my trip as I’ll be staying with friends, but I’m hoping I can stay out there for a reasonable amount of time catching up with my roommates from when I lived there.

Phew, that’s a lot of plans isn’t it?

I’m pretty certain that I’ll be adding in a couple more trips here and there, but the majority of next year will be spent saving for my trip to America.

Woohoo! Welcome to the self-employed club! You’ll love it 🙂 I’ve been self-employed since September and although it has its ups and downs, I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I’ve just subscribed to you on Youtube as well so looking forward to seeing any future content you share! I do weekly vlogs about my freelancing journey if you fancy following along.

The photos from your shoot are STUNNING. I always feel SO awkward posing so it’s really nice to hear that Kaye put you at ease…what a superstar!

Thank you Cat, I am very very happy to be part of the club! I watch your vlogs already, I love them!

And thank you, Kaye is absolutely genius <3

I'M KIRSTY LEANNE

My mission is simple. I want to help change the way travel looks, showing both brands and society that plus size people really do travel too. In a community where plus size travellers are made to feel unwelcome, I want to inspire and advise people like me on how they can make the most out of their own incredible travel experiences.Join me as I share my own personal experiences, my best tips and tricks and all of the challenges I face along the way. It won’t always be an easy ride, but it sure as hell will be a fun one.