I'm going to point out straightaway that this is going to be a long, rambly post - so if that's not what you're here for, then you might want to move along! I don't know where I'm going to go with this, to be honest.

A few weeks ago, I started to think more about my blog. I've been blogging for two years now, and I was thinking about where it's heading, and what I've achieved with it so far, and whether as a whole, I was happy with it. This prompted me to create a blog survey, which to be honest, has not had as many responses as I would have liked. However, the responses that I have had have been quite interesting. I was mainly looking for feedback about my photography, and I'm pleased to see that in general, people seem to like them. But, as time has gone on, what worried me so much became less worrisome, and I decided to just calm down a little about the photos. I'm very much a perfectionist when it comes to my images, and if something isn't right, I'll either work at it until it is or I'll just pack it in altogether. More recently, I've been trying to care less about the finer details and appreciate the bigger picture (Haha, get it? Sorry...). My thoughts have moved on; now, I'm thinking about the content of my blog, and what people enjoy, and whether I enjoy creating that content - is it worthwhile for me?

As much as I love beauty, it's becoming a very saturated world. There are literally thousands of beauty bloggers out there, who love beauty as much as I do and all have something worthwhile to say. It's becoming more and more difficult to make yourself stand out from the crowd, and there have been times where I've felt a bit disheartened and overwhelmed by it all. It's easy to get caught up in the whirlwind, and wonder why this blogger got sent a product to review and why that one didn't - what makes that one more worthy than the other? Number of followers, quality of content, engagement on social media, what? It's hard to pinpoint, but the average beauty blogger on the street now has to work incredibly hard to keep the blog fresh and exciting - more so perhaps than some of the very popular ones now did back when they started their blogs. That isn't to say that the "big" bloggers don't work very hard on their blogs, quite the opposite - but it's easy to see how "small" bloggers get lost among the massive sea of content.

I've been thinking about this a lot recently, and what it means for me. Sure, there are some days where I struggle to break double figures for pageviews on a post, and yes, there have been times where that's made me feel really down. Especially when I've worked really hard on that content. When it gets me down, it's easy to forget that there are still people out there looking at my content - whether that's 8 or 800, they are still real, human people (I hope) and that is quite important. On some days, I don't care about how many followers I have, and on other days it's the most important thing in the world. It's a fickle game. I started to think about why that is, and what it was about my blog that was making me feel the way I did. The more I looked at my blog, when I was feeling down about it, the more I realised what the problem was. My content didn't excite me. If it didn't excite me, then why should anyone else take an interest?

I was stuck in a rut with blogging for a while, and there had been many a night where I'd written a blog post just because I felt like I had to. Everyone gets that feeling once in a while, and there might be occasions where that feeling is justified (Writing about a product that's been sent for review, for example). However, I was starting to feel like that with every post, and the lack of pageviews and interaction I was getting was living proof of that. However, one weekend I was due to go out for the day with Martin and his family, and I decided to take my camera along for the ride, and put up the photos on my blog. That post was actually The Hepworth and Wakefield Festival of Food, Drink & Rhubarb, and I had more fun writing that post than I had done in a very long time. Not only that, but it exceeded my expectations in terms of pageviews and I sensed that something was about to change. After that, I started to incorporate more lifestyle posts into my blog, and much like the first, they were well received and I thoroughly enjoyed writing them. I had found my passion for blogging again.

Writing about everything in my life, from restaurants that I've visited, to days out, to music and films I enjoy and everything in between, is what I want my blog to be about. That still includes beauty; because as I said earlier, I still love beauty and everything that goes with it. But, I want to focus more on what makes my life enjoyable, and not just worrying about the next random beauty product that I'm going to review from my stash of photos. Over the last few months, I've been exploring my local city, Leeds, and finding out more about what it has to offer. I've lived there for pretty much all of my life (I was born in Somerset but moved up here when I was a baby), and I've never really taken the time to explore my home city properly. Sometimes, this extends to the very broad area of West Yorkshire, and I hope that in the future - when I have a car and am able to drive myself around - that I continue to explore into West Yorkshire and beyond, and I want to take you guys with me. But, for now, I am happy to find places in and around Leeds and aim to show you guys what is great - and what isn't so great.

With these new changes, I feel that I need to rebrand myself and my blog. When I started out two years ago, I wanted a name that didn't tie me down to beauty blogging, and allowed me to create whatever I wanted. After a lot of deliberation I went with "Misellyre", which is an anagram of my name (Now you know!). The problem that I didn't foresee, that when actually meeting people face-to-face, the name is impossible to pronounce. I know what it should sound like to me - mees-ell-ee-riar - but I appreciate now that it's damn near impossible for anyone else. I sometimes get called Miss Ellyre in emails too, which annoys me no end! So, I now have the task of deciding upon a new name and with that, probably a new layout, domain name and even possibly a move to a different platform too. It's quite a lot to think about, and one that I can't do all in one go, so when you will see these changes happen is anyone's guess. But, be assured, that over the next few weeks and months, you will start to see some changes.

I feel like that I've written a whole load of confusing nonsense, and that it doesn't make any sense at all, so I shall summarise. This blog will no longer be a beauty blog in the primary instance, and instead will focus more on what you could call "lifestyle" posts, based around Leeds and extending into West Yorkshire - and also any travelling I do as well. I will still blog about beauty fairly often, including reviews, monthly favourites, hauls and products that generally I feel deserve a mention or a post of their own. I will also still be posting things like hauls of any description, Wednesday Wishlists and anything fashion related, such as OOTDs, as I very much enjoy writing those. Just be aware that from now on, you will start to see less beauty related posts than you're perhaps used to, and more lifestyle posts instead. The changes will be gradual, and chances are not many of you will notice enough to care, but I feel obliged to tell you guys about it - as without you, I wouldn't have a blog to start with!

I appreciate that what I'm setting out to do is not everyone's cup of tea - and if you wish to unfollow/unsubscribe from my posts, then that is completely up to you and I promise that I won't hold a grudge! If you decide to stick with me, and see where this takes me, then I hope that you enjoy what you see. I really care about my blog, probably far more than I should do considering it's just a hobby, but it's my baby and I want to see it grow. It's going to be a bit of a learning curve for me, and to be completely honest I don't really know where or when to start - but it will be fun trying (I think)!