Hi kittens, wow – I can’t believe how fast March and April have sped past us! The time has gone so fast that I didn’t even get chance to do my Mach 2014 Round-Up blog post before doing April, so I guess this one will have to be a collective look at both. It’s gonna be a big’un, so let’s get started, with obligatory Instagram pictures included…

March was a very different month for me. Instead of working full time, I took some time off to concentrate solely on my blog and test out being a ‘full time’ blogger. Well, as easy as it might seem to be a blogger full time, it definitely isn’t, although it is pretty fun. As I usually work full time – and love it, by the way – I often have to miss out on trips to London and daytime events. So, I made the most of March by attending daytime events – such as #TweetSeatAccess March at the Manchester Arndale – and made a special trip to London for the Nica press day and MLPR press day at the Westbury hotel, where I even got to meet head designer, Nica herself!

Other events I attended in March included the Soap and Glory #Orangegasm launch at Proper Tea, one of my favourite new locations with tons of scrummy afternoon tea snacks and delicious smelling new Soap and Glory products to match. For beauty, I also got a sneak peek at new products from Khiel’s, Clarisonic and Urban Decay – watch this space for reviews – and the launch of new Wilmslow beauty salon, Beauty FX!

Fashion-wise, I also enjoyed the Lilylulu charity event at BarCa in Castlefield, OMG Fashion at the exclusive Milton Club (with some celeb offerings also attending!) and a couple of Harvey Nichols events, including their Spring Summer 2014 Fashion Show. This was definitely a highlight of March for me – they always put out an amazing, high end fashion show and this year’s was no exception!

Throughout March, I also worked closely with new successfully online fashion brand, OMG Fashion, as a stylist for them. This included published two Youtube videos on their channel – check them out here – including a weekly dress competition and fashion haul, both of which were super fun to do! Make sure you also subscribe to my Youtube Channel (@LilyKitten1) to keep up to date with all my latest vlogs as I don’t always publish them on here.

On to April – another month of full time blogger status! On the third April I was invited to the F&F Clothing Fashion Show at Somerset House. I put in plans to attend but unfortunately as there was a Manchester Fashion Week bloggers event happening on the same night, I had to return from my trip to London early to make sure I showed support to my local lovers. However, after the event it turned out that one of my idols, Peaches Geldof had attended and I immediately regretted not going. Having been in the same place as her at the same time for events before, I was desperate to meet her. Sadly, this will never happen as she passed away a few days later. I cannot express how shocked and saddened I am by the tragic news – as a girl only a year or two older than me and with similar journalistic aspirations and a fierce fashion sense, I had always looked up to her and respected her for being herself. My heart goes out to her and her beautiful family.

Back to the blog – lots more events happened in April, the best of which including the majorly anticipated Manchester Fashion Week 2014! As an Official Voice of #MCRFW14 I was lucky enough to attend each of the days across Easter Bank Holiday weekend and couldn’t be more impressed. You can see my coverage from the series of events here, but I was so pleased that the event had finally happened and Manchester could finally fulfil their own fashion week, something which was way overdue.

Last week, the UK Blog Awards 2014 ceremony was held In London. I personally didn’t attend, but I was shortlisted as the Top 10 blogs in the category of Best Fashion & Retail Individual; an achievement I am proud of considering they are a nationally renowned awards scheme.

Over all, March and April were very different months to my usual schedule and ones I took full advantage of! It was refreshing to be able to put my blog and my own projects first, but I enjoy working too much to not juggle both working and blogging in my life. Heck, blogging and vlogging full time would be too easy! However, it did give me a good amount of time to schedule in some weekly features for the next few weeks and catch up on some articles and events that I had yet to write up. I hope the effort is showing – I’m working hard and can only thank you for sticking with me, kittens.