On Thursday I had my first social event since my corrective double jaw surgery and I have to say this event both met and went beyond my expectations! What was this event you might ask well it was the 2015 Blog Awards Ireland hosted by Ashville Media Group. I have been apart of the blog awards since 2011 when it was formally know as the Irish Blog Awards and since then my blog has been a finalist each year with me attend 4 of the last 5 awards. Now over the past five years there has been changes to the organisers and each year the awards have grown and improved and this year was no exception. I was a bit hesitant when I found out that the awards were being hosted by a company worried that the personal touch might be lost and indeed part of the personal aspect was lost in my opinion with the winners not being given as much time as before to accept the awards but besides that everything else met my expectations. When I heard the food was "street style" was was confused about how that would work during the event but it work extremely well, with a little market type thing with food vendors outside the main building although there was no soup on offer- I should have brought my own! This whole liquid diet thing is harder to deal with than expected! Also when I heard the theme was burlesque I wasn't too impressed as burlesque/cabaret had been done previously but I was blown away but now only the performers but the lengths Ashville Media Group went to to ensure if truly felt like it was the 1920's, it was fantastic! But what I liked most was the division within the categories with an award going to personal bloggers as well as company bloggers as well as the age for the Best Youth Blog being up to the age of 24 keeping with the fact that in Ireland a young person is described as anybody up to the age of 24.
The night ran pretty smoothly, the entertainment was fantastic, the crow was amazing and the hosts did a good job at keeping us laughing! There were some pretty great blogs in the finals, some I knew from previously years while others were new to be this year, now I have a lot more blogs to get reading! I actually wasn't due to attend until very last minute when I received news from one of the hosts informing me that I had been out on the guest list. So now having found out I was on the guest list it was time to find something to wear, now I'm usually someone who enjoys my comfort, tracksuit bottoms all the way but for this I went jeans and a shirt and within five minutes of arriving at the awards I learned I was very, very underdressed! I went along with my brother and sister-in-law as Amy was also a finalist in the Best Lifestyle category, check out her blog
Make-up and Beauty by Amy, sure even just seeing Shane and Amy I knew I was underdressed! (Thank you Amy for the photos)
 |
| Shane and Amy dressed to impress! |
 |
| Amy and myself, very underdressed I am! |
Soon the awards began with performances, introductions and a very interesting presentation from the hosts, Darragh and Claire and before I knew it, it was time for the Best Youth Blog to be presented. Now I have to say I wasn't expecting to come home with an award but a phone call a couple of days earlier from someone at the blog awards HQ telling me to have a representative there if I was not attending did make me somewhat suspicious. Anyway the two runner ups were announced, me not being one of them I wasn't too disappointed, at the beginning of these awards I felt my chances were slim as my blog over the past year or so has be lacking in content and I haven't been updating as often as I should. So as you can imagine when the name of my blog was called out I was shocked but also delighted, knowing that my blog is good enough to be recognised nationally, that is a feeling I cannot describe and never in my wildest reams did I ever imagine my blog being worthy of awards when I began it five years ago as a little transition year project. I really can't thank people enough for reading my blog and helping me get to the final of this blog awards once again! It means a lot to me that people read my blog but my blog also means a lot to me, its a space where I can be me, be honest and be real!
