Happy 2019 to you. It’s been a long time since I wrote on here. In fact, the last blog post I wrote was on the 20th November 2018 sharing about Christmas Earrings! So much for my 2018 resolution of being more consistent with this blog.

But seriously, Christmas has well and truly gone and we are now in a new year. A new year that can prompt us to change, explore new experiences and question why we do the things we do.

And this has led me to reflect on Styled by Bec. If I’m honest, there have been a number of reasons why I haven’t shared as often as I would have liked last year. I’ve even started to stop sharing my daily outfits on social media. The questions I’ve had in my head have been, what’s the point of another fashion blog when there are so many fashion blogs available to read online? PLUS their social media stats are huge. Who wants to read my advice when I’m so small in influence?

Oh my inner voice can be a bitch.

But seriously. I’ve always been a sensible gal and I do read the figures and if they don’t grow or they stagnate, what is the point? Am I just a broken record repeating what is already being typed in the blogosphere or social mediasphere?

What is the point of sharing what I know? Sharing what I love? Sharing new discoveries and sales that might help you if you’ve been looking for that missing piece too? Is there a point to sharing my opinion on whether it is worth spending the money on the more expensive item, or saving money buying it from your local department store? Is there a point to fashion?

After some self-reflection, I know I don’t share for the attention (because I’m clearly not getting it lol) and I’m not in it for the free clothes (I don’t get many).

I write this blog because I love the thrill of a solution and sharing it with you (if you want to read it!). Maybe it will help you, and maybe it won’t. But ultimately I share because I love sharing what I know.

And not everyone knows what I know.

For some people, putting together an outfit comes naturally. For others, it is difficult and they resort to wearing the same clothes time and time again or they look a bit disheveled and in need of help seeing formulas that can get them out of their fashion rut.

2018 was a year of slight self-loathing about Instagram. Actually it wasn’t slight. It was full on loathing. But it was also a year of realizing that social media is really another advertising outlet and it has now become a driver for more consumption and making you (and me) feel inadequate about the lives we live because we don’t look like this and we don’t have that.

But it is another avenue to share with others and reach people who may be looking for what you offer.

I also discovered when it came to social media sharing, not everything that is shared on there is truth. A lot of it is fabricated. A lot of ‘behind the scenes’ have sets, lights, makeup and filtering to get the right photo. Some images are reshared for the sake of entertaining or having something to post for followers.

For me, when it comes to Instagram, I select my outfit photo out of two or three images taken on my iPhone. Sometimes my husband, Jacob, gets the shot right the first go.

I have no time for props or looking in the distance with my hair to one side, acting as an extra on the Bold and the Beautiful.

I have three kids to drop off to school/daycare, and then articles to write or calls to answer with customers asking me how I can help them with their insurance. I have household demands that I need to attend to just like everyone. It’s not helpful to my state of mind comparing my household to the sexy housewife that does the dishes in her underwear portraying a lifestyle we don’t need to know about or compete with. I mean seriously.

So with those revelations about how I feel about social media, you could say I suffered from a severe case of comparisonitis. Except I love my life. So it was more inadequatitis. Feeling inadequate about the life I love and live, and the blog I write and the photos I share and enough already. With this revelation, it has made me all the more aware of what and how I share with you.

So 2019, where does that leave us? Well, I’m planning to be more consistent on this blog. Not for me, but for you. I want to start a new series on the blog called How to Shop Like a Personal Stylist.

Before you groan about your new years’ resolution of not spending money on clothes this year, don’t unfollow the blog. I will be using new clothes to show how you can make the best decisions when curating your wardrobe. But I’m hoping you may have them in your wardrobe already – or at least something similar. And if you don’t have them, well use the blog as a way to curate a shopping list for when you HAVE THE MONEY to buy those items missing from your wardrobe.

Buying new clothes should be a rarity and a thrill because it’s not something you do all the time. This is why I love shopping. Because I don’t get to do it as often as I like and nothing beats the feeling of finding something full price which you LOVE and having the money to buy because you’ve been mindful about your spending. I also love buying something on sale too, but this year, it’s not buying stuff for the sake of it being on trend, it’s buying it because we love it and know it’s going to work with other pieces within our wardrobe. Bonus if it is also on trend.

I’m going to admit, there may be a bit of Gormanesque type outfits on here in 2019 because I LOVE COLOUR. I love patterns. We should all be embracing colour in 2019. Colour injects personality and happiness. It doesn’t have to be bright, but a little colour can bring out the best in your mood.

If any of what I have typed here has pulled a cord at your own inadequacy and feeling like you ‘don’t measure up’, please believe me when I say Instagram is the worst measurement to use against your life. Every person’s life is a tapestry and lot of the time, to allow the full picture to unfold, there has to be a lot of sewing in one colour, before the pattern changes to complete the next part of the picture. When you see pictures on Instagram, you’re only seeing the change in the colour, not the mundaneness that has been lived before that change was reached.

Bring on 2019. Now I’ve got all that off my chest, I’m hoping this year will be our most stylish, yet abundantly freeing year, yet.