Freelance writer, lifestyle blogger and new mum. Works best with tea.
A couple of weeks ago I was asked to go down to London for a meeting. This came just after I’d been lusting after Kew Gardens’ Instagram posts of its Thai Orchid Festival, which is only on for a few weeks, so naturally I jumped at the chance to tick off both boxes in one… Continue reading Our trip to London
The best piece of advice I have when it comes to self-promotion is to treat yourself as a client. I’m a freelance copywriter, PR and project manager and recently I’ve done a bit of an audit on my own PR output. For a while during my first year of freelancing I was inundated with project… Continue reading You are your own client – a freelancer’s guide for self-promotion
I follow a lot of bloggers on Twitter. It started with a couple of interesting people, then grew as a sort of attempt to dilute the larger world and its morbidity from my timeline. It might seem superficial to have more posts about photography and beauty products in my feed than world events, but I… Continue reading The thing about blogging
I’ve written before about the perks of freelancing and self-employment, and even included some serious points aside from working in pyjamas, but things have changed for me in the last year or so, and I felt like it was a good time to re-evaluate. I’m about to mark my third anniversary of being a freelance… Continue reading Why I love being a freelancer, and why that might end
“What discount can I get on that then?” “Nothing until you admit Hull is cool!” This was the embarrassing exchange my ears witnessed today. It followed a fairly lengthy debate between a sales assistant in a city centre jeweller and a guy from Denmark, who was fairly adamant in his opinion that the sight that… Continue reading Hull isn’t cool, and that’s OK
Nobody ever won any awards for playing, or did they? Chess players win tournaments, football teams win trophies, and World of Warcraft gamers win the respect of those around them. Strip away the rules and formality and what you’re left with is free, organic play. Fun. Nestled among the world’s greatest thinkers, are arguably the… Continue reading Review: State of Play, Humber St Gallery
Shamefully, it is already September in 2017, which means eight whole months have passed since Hull began its City of Culture status and I’d been to only a handful of exhibitions. Thanks to having a tiny person at home, making out of the house at night is near impossible, and making it out anywhere during… Continue reading A weekend of culture, finally
I’ve tried to become a bit more money-conscious lately. Thanks to some handy online banking tools I was able to see how much difference overpayments make to the length of a mortgage, and how much you can save if you up your monthly contributions (hint: lots!). Knowing we could be paying more than a year’s… Continue reading Free days out in Hull and East Yorkshire for babies and toddlers
Coming out of the baby change, tucked away in the back of Ferens Art Gallery last week, I noticed the nearest gallery door was blacked out and featured a warning of nudity. Having come to see Spencer Tunick’s Sea of Hull exhibition, I assumed I was in the right place and pushed it open. What… Continue reading Sea of Hull and Ron Mueck – a review
I've been running my little blog for ten years this year (TEN! I didn't realise it was that long when I began that sentence!) and have had periods of being really active and others, well, not. But I'm dedicating myself to blogging regularly again now and with that comes new readers, so I thought a… Continue reading A little about me
Laura Smith 