Allow me to reintroduce myself...

Stine Goya Nikki Dress with Topshop sandals

order disulfiram online canada Dress – Stine Goya (affiliate link)

http://thewoodlandretreat.com/?wordfence_lh=1 Bag – Next (Gift & affiliate link)

Sandals – Topshop (affiliate link)

Thanks to Cat and the team at Gatto Web, my little corner on the internet is finally here! Now, it’s no secret that my blog was extremely neglected in 2019. What I originally thought was just a short spell of writers block turned into a year-long hiatus from this space. In all honesty, I just fell out of love with my blog. I no longer enjoyed writing and blogging began to feel like a chore instead of a fun, creative release. Whenever I opened up WordPress and hit ‘Add new post’ I felt this immense pressure to write something that was thought-provoking, popular and #sorelatable. So naturally I ended up turning my efforts to where everyone else seemed to be, Instagram.

But after some much-needed time away, I’m back, the blog has had a fancy makeover and I have a whole new outlook on everything that will be going down here. So, as it’s been a while, lets start with a reintroduction shall we?

If you’re new around here, my name’s Karina and I’m a thirty-one year old Bristolian. I live with my husband Pete who I met in a former workplace where we bonded over our love for spiced rum, movies and Moss from the IT Crowd. Five years later, we now live together in our first home (which I hope to show you a lot more of this year) with our latest addition, Cooper the Cockapoo!

I’m half Jamaican, a quarter Nigerian and a quarter English. My Dad is a British-born, Jamaican and my Mum is half English/half Nigerian born in Hammersmith. I have one older brother who I’m really close with and come from a big family with dozens of cousins (some of who are actually my best friends). I feel like I have a much thicker skin because of them because let me tell you, the roasting is real.

I studied Broadcast Journalism at Staffordshire uni – which was probably the most miserable years of my life – I hated it there. Then I moved to London to pursue my dreams of working for a magazine. After sofa surfing for three years and working 7 days a week for peanuts, that dream was over. After struggling with very little money I moved back to Bristol and back in with my parents. This was a hard pill to swallow after a heinous break up with a boyfriend and no job can I add.

Since then I’ve had semi-decent jobs that simply paid my Jagerbomb-fueled weekend benders and I’ve had absolutely terrible jobs that have left me a shell of a human being. Finding a job I love and feel fulfilled in has been an ongoing ~~battle~~ journey for me. During a dead-end job I decided to create The Style Idealist and the rest my friend is history.

I not so secretly find ‘That’s what she said’ and pun jokes hilarious. I’ll never get bored of finding obscure hiding places at home so I can scare my husband. I’m extremely sensitive and have very little patience. I let people get away with treating me like crap for fear of starting any sort of confrontation. I struggle massively with confidence and have the tendency to shrink myself a lot of the time but I’m realising that being in this ‘invisible’ place is the ghetto. So, not in this decade – I rebuke it.

My love for Solange knows no bounds and strongly believe ‘A Seat at the Table’ shaped who I am. Beyonce is everything and if anyone says they don’t like her, I immediately don’t trust them. I’m a typical Aries – get bored very easily, passionate, impulsive and spontaneous. This life is for living and if you’re not living it the way you want then it’s time to bounce. I can’t really cook that well and I’m still figuring out how to respond to friends & family when they ask me why I don’t have kids yet. It’s like people want an exact date??!!

Anyway, welcome to my corner of the internet. Being in your thirties will have you feeling that there’s a ticking time bomb on a lot of milestones. But I’m still figuring a lot of things out… and that’s OK. I want to take this blog back to basics. Back to being my personal diary – filled with brain dumps, real life and more importantly, no fucking filter.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading and supporting me throughout 2019. What was initially just a hobby has turned into a part-time career and I’m so ready to see where 2020 will take me… I hope you’ll join me on this journey into the unknown. We’re all just trying to figure it out, so lets do it together.