The Interior DIYer
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The year ahead

My first blog post of 2015 is about what I hope for the year ahead. I know. GROUNDBREAKING STUFF.

I’ve noticed people are choosing a power word to define their upcoming year this year. Creativity. Growth. Opportunity. Success. Those are all lovely words. I’m however going to choose a number of words this year. My words this year are going to be GETTING MY SHIT TOGETHER [thanks for that one, Julie!].

This year I’m going to get my shit together and make things happen. I have a little notebook in my desk FULL of projects. Projects and ideas I’d like to work on with companies, other bloggers [here in Ireland and abroad], and people I look up to. Some of the ideas in my notebook have been there for over 2 years. Not a single one has been acted on.

I’m the kind of person who doesn’t like asking people things because I don’t want to disrupt their schedule / cause them to dedicate time to me / have to change their plans / cause them to feel obliged etc. I get a whole spectrum of uncomfortable. It’s just easier for me, and let’s face it other people, if I just don’t ask them.

However, only over the past couple of weeks I’ve started to pick up some of Cowardly Lion’s courage. Just a little bit. I’m going to start to do things for me this year. I’m going to start crossing things off my notebook, and I’m going to be cringing behind my computer screen every single moment along the way. 

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2014 in review!

Hands up who hasn’t done a thing since Christmas? Yep. The past 7 days have been a complete blur for me, but a much needed blur. I really can’t believe another year has passed as I sit down today to review the blog-worthy stuff that’s gone down the past 12 months. If I’m honest, I’m a little disappointed I didn’t go out and initiate more opportunities for myself, but my confidence has really only started to pick up within the past few weeks, so I’m trying to be less hard on myself. 

2014 was the year I got pumped about getting my shit together and organised …

In March I summarized my top 5 spring decluttering tips in a blog post that I still use to this day. I then got to nerd out about organisation with Sarah in print in Image Interiors & Living‘s August / September issue, then I shared my ten minute morning tidy here on the blog in August. Something I do this day religiously every morning.

Then in May of this year I met up with a long time cyber friend Maria [aka, Dinki Dots!] and we attended the first Blogtacular 2014 in London town. It was an exciting and equally exhausting day and a half and I’m so glad Maria didn’t turn out to be a serial killer. I’m so very glad we decided to meet up as we got along even better in ‘real life’, sitting up way past our bedtime talking all sorts of nonsense. I can say I made a real friend with Maria. 

In June I was asked by Lily to help take her and her husband Alan’s online Mexican food shop and design their newly purchased shop. It was an absolute honour to be asked by such an awesome power couple to make Picado Mexican what it is today … 

… My heart still swells with pride [lame alert] when I think of Picado. I think of where we started, what we managed to achieve and not only how quickly we were able to give life to Picado, but we didn’t want to strangle each other by the end of it all. That’s how awesome Lily and Alan are. I couldn’t have asked to work with a more awesome and inspiring couple. 

The day after Picado opened, husband and I jetted off to Stockholm to chillax on our Baltic Cruise …

… What I wouldn’t give to be in either Sweden, Finland, Russia, Estonia or Latvia right now in the winter time. Insert heart-eye emoji here.
In August I was asked by my co-worker Avril to design a website for her to showcase her incredibly unique artwork ahead of her television debut …

… What we came up with was a tailored and streamline site that highlighted Avril’s mind boggling artwork, Avril Hutch Acrylic Artwork. You’ve seriously got to check out her artwork >> www.avrilhutch.com << Girl got mad skills.

This year I made a few DIYs and tutorials across a wide variety of skill levels and mediums … 

Some of my favourite DIYs this year were …

– the Death Star globe I made for husband’s birthday
– a tutorial on how to repair very worn [and haggard] rugs
– how to get bolder shelves on a budget
– my simple lamp shade upgrade
– the up/recycled cat scratching post I made from our old scratching post
– the DIY rescue kit for the unexpected guest, perfect for your spare bedroom
– this years edible ornaments that I made not once, but twice [because we’re pigs]

I was also featured in some pretty damn exciting articles both online and in print this year … 

… First up, not necessarily me per se, but our fur babies Juniper and Toshi were featured in AO’s favourite interior bloggers pets [thanks again Kimberly xx], I wrote for Image Interiors & Living, made my first appearance in a book, and most recently featured in the Sunday Times.
And the biggest change for me online this year was I finally bit the bullet and changed the name of my website from ‘Hydrangea Girl’ to ‘The Interior DIYer‘ in November. I know it shouldn’t make that much of a difference, but I already feel like I can take myself a bit more seriously. Just a bit. 

Happy New Years Eve, homies! I hope you’ve had a great 2014 and already have your mind set on new goals or milestones for next year. I know I do as I didn’t step out of my comfort zone as much as I’d like to have in 2014. But that’s what new years resolutions are for, right? Guilt tripping yourself. 

xx A

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Hydrangea Girl has changed to The Interior DIYer!

I shared on Facebook over the weekend that I’ve wanted to change the name of my blog, Hydrangea Girl, for some time. It all began back when the lovely Maria and I attended Blogtacular earlier this year and one of the speakers asked, “does the name of your blog describe what you do?” and crap. No, it doesn’t. Like, at all. Maria and I both turned to each other and nearly cried. 

Over 4 years ago when I first created my blog under the name ‘Hydrangea Girl’, it wasn’t anything other than a ridiculous blog I wrote that my mom occasionally read maybe twice a month. I didn’t expect anything to actually happen here. 

In more recent months, I’ve been doing a lot of reading and taking e-courses about how to make more out of your blog; in a bid to make what I do a bit more legit. So for me, the most obvious and first step was to rebrand / upcycle my blog. And here is my thought process, in case you’re curious … 
– Hydrangea Girl has absolutely nothing to do with interior design or DIY. No arguing there. 
– The amount of people arriving at my site looking for gardening tips was worrying.
– On the rare occasion that anyone would ask me in person what my blog was called, I was too embarrassed to say Hydrangea Girl.
– I’m almost 30, so I can’t really get away with Girl anymore. As much as I’d like it to, Photoshop does not work in real life. 
– I couldn’t get a consistent handle on all my social media sites. It was messy. For example, on Twitter I was @HydrangeaGirI – ending in a capital ‘i’, because the original was already taken. On Instagram I was alex_hydrangeagirl. And for someone who likes order and for things to match, this was chaos. I was one step away from foaming at the mouth. 
And most importantly of all … 

– If I’m to take myself seriously and approach companies and people for work, how are they going to take me seriously under the name Hydrangea Girl, when I can’t even say it out loud. 

And that’s when I got serious and eventually brain-stormed The Interior DIYer. It marries the two things I’m most passionate about, is pretty self explanatory, might boost my SEO, and [to me] it’s a bit of a play on the words ‘interior designer’. 
There was a tough 5 hours yesterday when husband and I were working on changing the URL and I was close to tears and we nearly lost everything. But don’t worry, it was nothing a couple of G&T’s couldn’t fix. I’m still working on some final tweaking, so please excuse my site over the next while if it looks a bit hairy. 

Thank you guys for all your support, and I hope you like the new name. It’s still me 🙂 xx A