5 Years Of LouiseRoseRailton.com

Yay! December marks 5 years since I first wrote a blog post on LouiseRoseRailton.com. What began as a fashion blog, rapidly expanded into covering a variety of topics including food, beauty, travel, lifestyle and so much more. That’s why I now just label myself as a lifestyle blogger, because I cover so many topics and don’t have a specific niche as such. It’s been an exciting 5 years! I want to celebrate the past 5 years of my blogging journey, but reflecting on some of my highlights from over the past 5 years.

Five years of louiseroserailton.com – a reflection

When I started this blog, I had no idea what direction it would go in or what was going to happen. I was just happy to be writing about subjects which interested me in December 2014 until mid 2015. Securing my first press trip was a huge highlight for me in my first year of blogging – A Luxury Stay at Ox Pasture Hall Hotel in Scarborough. I took my mum as my guest on this trip as I thought it would be a nice treat for her. We had such a relaxing time and we were very impressed with the dining experience. After this, I also started to be invited to do food reviews and my first ever food review was one of my favourites, which was at The Forum – Sheffield – Winter Menu.

A year into blogging, I began to monetise and I turned my blog into a little self employed business. I’d started to work with brands on gifted and sponsored posts. A memorable one for me was in 2016 when McDonalds in Leeds had refurbished their store and invited me along to their event where I got to make my own Big Mac. It was something different to the food events I was used to. You can read the blog post, which is sponsored by McDonalds here: Creating My Own Big Mac – McDonalds Leeds Event. Another unique local event was Review: #TasteOfInnTravel Malton Blogger Event, where we learned how to cook five dishes at Malton Cookery School.

In 2016, I also left Sheffield and moved back to York. My Sheffield Blogger friends got me through a really tough time. Together we organised our own blogger event in Sheffield, in which guests were given huge goodie bags and we raised money via a raffle for RSPCA Sheffield. Read more about our Sheffield Bloggers event here: Sheffield Bloggers Event – #SteelCityBlogMeet. A small group of us also went on our own little trip to Amsterdam, which was lovely.

 

In the lead up to Christmas 2016, there were some awesome events, mainly in Leeds, including Bonprix Leeds Blogger Event #BonprixOnTheRocksand I met my wonderful blogger friend Laura at this event. This also included Go #WildAboutLeeds With The Body Shop Briggate which was such a brilliant event, I really like The Body Shop as a brand and the goodie bag was incredible also. I was also invited on another very memorable press trip to stay at Grassington House – Luxury Escape To The Yorkshire Dales. It was another highlight of 2016 for me and I took my mum as my guest again.

 

2017 was another busy year, which included being invited to the launch of Carluccio’s in St Helens Square, York. It was also Antonio Carluccio’s 80th birthday (RIP). Read about the grand opening here: Review: Carluccios York – St Helens Square – Grand Opening. A definite 2017 event highlight for me was the Food and Flowers with Dine – The Mansion Leeds event. The food was incredible and I loved every detail put into the whole event.

2018 was a good year for brand collaborations for me. This included Get Festive Season Ready With River Island, in which I was sent some beautiful dresses of my choice to wear and review over the festive season in 2017 and into the new year. 2018 was also the cocktail masterclass at Jalou York which is when I really got to know some of the local York bloggers: Jalou York – A Cocktail Masterclass with York Bloggers.

In 2019 I attended some wonderful events, including the Indigo Rosee Beauty Launch at Jalou York, At The Moxy York – Hotel Launch Event and Review: Fall In Love With Rush York This Valentine’s Day. Another collaboration I was excited about was with Hotels.com, which was a sponsored day out in Manchester: An Alternative Day Out In The Northern Quarter Manchester. I also had the opportunity to do some exciting food reviews including Review – Afternoon Tea by Hudsons at The Grand Hotel York and I recently worked on a sponsored collaboration with Bookatable and reviewed the Festive Menu at Browns Brasserie & Bar Leeds. We had such a festive afternoon, the food was delicious and we left feeling so full.

There are so many more blog posts I could have included, but these are just some of my favourites. Who knows what the future holds, but in 2020 onwards you can expect more fashion collaborations, more reviews (particularly food reviews, as this is something I really want to focus on) and hopefully (fingers crossed) more blogger event write-ups. I’m so proud of everything I’ve achieved over the past 5 years of LouiseRoseRailton.com! Thank you SO much for following me on this journey.