#KeepTheBan | Save the hunting act

Hello everyone, so today I just wanted to share a quick post today on a petition I have signed by change.org regarding the #KeepTheBan hashtag. As I'm sure those of you in Britain are all aware we are facing an animal welfare crisis in the UK at the moment with members of parliament attempting to abolish the Hunting Act therefore legalising fox hunting. As I'm writing this today you have until tomorrow to express your support, ring your local MP, sign the online petition here or demonstrate your support by helping the #KeepTheBan hastag trending. You have until tomorrow (Wednesday the 15th of July) to sign this petition, please do if you think fox hunting is a barbaric and outdated activity that really ought to be a public issue.

Blogging | How to deal with writers block

It's a feeling I'm sure most bloggers, writers and journalists can relate to. You're up and rearing to go, you sit down, whether it be at your laptop, with your pen and paper or iPad you open your documents and.... nothing. Inspiration fails to strike and you're left feeling like a failure... in fact it is the premature ejaculatory experience most writers will face at one point in their career and you're left genuinely feeling as if you have completely lost your writing ability in the night! The fear sets in, what if I never write again? What if my career is over? What if the inspiration never comes? Well today I am here to share my very own tips on how I get over writers block and some coping mechanisms for when I feel I may never write again. 

Step away from the pen/screen;

Although it can be difficult, particularly if you have a deadline to meet but it is honestly the greatest remedy for writers block. Inspiration can strike at any time, any where so get outside, get away from the screens or maybe even just make yourself a cup of tea (and cake) come back in a few hours and I guarantee you'll be rearing to go once again.

Spider diagrams;

These aren't just for school kids and exam revision you know. Write down all of your likes, dislikes, your hobbies thoughts and literally anything that comes in to your head. Take a step back and piece together some post ideas, you may find your most creative ideas come from just pouring out all of your thoughts, and yes I'm even talking about the negative ones.

Draw inspiration from your peers;

For a lot of writers this is a bit of a grey area, but as long as you are careful, do not steal bodies of texts and your ideas are outrightly and obviously your own then you should be home free. What I mean by drawing inspiration is to look at various blogger tags and take part or perhaps try out another bloggers recipe or idea and report back on your blog how you found it (always credit your fellow blogger)

Spend time with people in the great outdoors;

No I'm not talking about going for a hike or on a great adventure (but it would make a great post if you decided to!) Get outside and spend time with your family and friends, catch up with people you haven't seen for a while. People are the greatest sources of inspiration and you never know when it may strike when you loosen your grip!

Take a blogging break;

Forcing writing, as I have said before, can be obvious once re-read, not just for yourself but for your readers. If you feel your writing is being forced then you aren't truly enjoying what you're doing and you'll find you have pretty much lost sight of why you began blogging in the first place (unless of course you're in it for the money / free products of course)

I hope this has given all of you writers currently facing a mental block a sense of calm and ease, we all face it at some point or other - seriously my job just wouldn't be as interesting if I didn't face the occasional road block and the same comes with a good piece of writing. As always I would love to hear your thoughts, how do you deal with writers block or what do you do when you hit a wall and can't seem to get over it? Be sure to let me know in the comments below, come share your thoughts with me on Twitter or of course if you'd like to keep up with my latests you can find me on Bloglovin.

Until next time folks, breaking mental barriers.

H.Elizabeth

Health and Fitness | Gymmin' Solo

'We should totally go to the gym together, it'd be great for motivation,' in this modern, health conscious world this statement appears to be the equivalent of insisting upon someone becoming your husband or wife, which is always met with one of two responses, the positive, 'Yes that would be fantastic, lets do it!' or the slightly more stand offish, 'Um, you know what give me a text I might not be able to make the times you're able to go,' and well ladies and gentlemen, I, Hannah Adams, am proud member of the latter and today I am going to tell you why buddying up at the gym can be counterproductive.

I suppose you don't need a trained psychologist to figure out one of the main reasons I prefer solitude at the gym, being an only child I'm quite used to going out and getting things done myself, it is something I have always took great pride in and even though I am now partnered up and happily married I still strive to assert my independence in day to day life, and the gym is no exception. In the past I have tried going to the gym with a few people, friends, colleagues etc. so I know that it can have its benefits, you know don't knock it until you try it and believe me I have tried!

From my own experiences, and of course people watching those buddies at the actual gym I have noticed a few cons to the gym buddy system for example the first thing that I noticed was the fact that there sometimes isn't enough equipment for you to train side by side. For example using a stepper in the gym can be a battle, in my gym there are only 6 and the majority of the time they are full, so if you're lucky enough to get one, you are just that, lucky and the odds of having 2 side by side empty is a rareity. Basically you're not going to get to use the equipment that you would like to use.

Something I have personally found is that one of you is always going to outlast, outdo or outrun the other, one of you is going to run out of steam first. Personally I have experiences both sides of that coin, the first when I ran out of steam way way before my partner and felt the guilt of asking to leave first and secondly when we literally stayed in the gym for 20 minutes before my partner was tuckered out and I was left feeling as if the gym was  waste of time.

The final point I am going to make in favour of gymming solo is that how many of you can say you and your gym buddy have the same exercise tastes? I certainly can't. For example when I first arrive I love to blast about 30 minutes on a stepper or treadmill, whereas my gym buddy may want to dive straight for the weights, which is something that would render me useless half an hour in and have me crawling back to the changing rooms. Some things you just are not meant to compromise on you know?!

So the next time somebody asks you to partner up or be their gym buddy don't be afraid to just say no, especially if you feel they're going to hinder your progress. This of course is just me, but I'm a lone wolf (bit of a scrooge sometimes if I'm honest) so you may love having a gym buddy, let me know your thoughts in the comments below, do you have any top gym and fitness productivity tips? Catch me on Twitter and share your thoughts or of course if you'd like to keep up with the latest Granite City goings on and musings be sure to follow me on Bloglovin.

Until next time folks, lone wolfin' it at the gym.
 

H.Elizabeth x

Blogging | Buying Your Own Domain

Today I'm going to be doing my first in a segment of tips, tricks and things I have learned during this last year as a blogger. Now before I get into my first 'Blog Tips' post I in no way am an expert and I'm not claiming this is the fountain of youth or holy grail equivalent to blogging nuggets, but this is just my opinions and little things that I have found to work for me, and I'm going to start of with buying your own blogging domain.

As you guys may have noticed recently I have purchased and upgraded to my own domain, www.granitecitygirlblog.co.uk as opposed of course to www.granitecitygirlblog.blogspot.co.uk for me it was a decision a good few months in the making. In fact last year I made a deal with myself that if I kept up my writing and still found myself as passionate about blogging in a years time then I would buy my own domain and work from there, which as you can all see I have.

Before buying my domain I decided it would be best to find out a few of the ins and outs, perks and pitfalls if you will, that come hand in hand with buying your own domain, which is something I am hoping this post can help all of you with any questions or queries you might have revolving around domain purchase. I have to be honest in that my main reason for purchasing my domain name was really to drop 'blogspot' from my URL, that can pretty much sum up how little I understood or knew about the benefits that come with owning your personal domain name, but upon a little research (admittedly after I bought the name) I found domain purchases can bring a whole host of benefits to you the blogger.

Blog Ownership

Owning your domain takes the who out of the question of ownership. Funnily enough on researching domains a bit further you'll find that this content you may have worked very hard for, perhaps for years can all disappear at the click of a report button never to be seen again. With your own domain you are in control and have ownership of the platform in addition to the content (but I still suggest you back up your work somewhere more concrete you know... in case of apocalypse)

Increased Traffic

Since buying my own domain name I have noticed an increase in traffic being referred to blog, and as much as I would of course like to believe it is due to a step up in content we can actually trace this back to my new domain. When your address contains blogspot.com Google and other search engines will tend to index these whereas when people search for your unique domain address you will usually come out on top of the search engines.

Credibility

At risk of sounding incredibly vague, it just sounds and looks much better to drop your host. By creating your domain name you are creating your blogging brand and at the end of the day who do you want to be promoting? Blogspot? Or you? Brands will want to work with you a little bit more and you'll get that little sense of pride from typing your new domain name that is genuinely just yours.

One thing I will say however is that setting up your domain name is relatively easy, I personally purchased mine through GoDaddy who, to give them credit, did try to set up my domain but I think a few wires were crossed and all the did was make the domain a forwarding to my blog - which of course is not what I wanted. But by reading the instructions on Bloggers and GoDaddy's websites carefully enough I was able to set it up myself (and if I can do it, believe me you can too!)

Hopefully some of you have found this interesting, helpful or somewhere in between, I really just want to share a few things I have learned and found as a blogger this last year and I hope to share more knowledge I may accumulate in the months going forward. If you have any questions on how I set up my domain, what I have found the differences to be or if you just want to ask me a question in general be sure to leave a comment below, come share it with me on Twitter or if you just want to keep up with my latests posts be sure to follow me on Bloglovin.

Until next time folks, I'm off getting tecchy.

H.Elizabeth xx