In today’s Confessions of a Blogger we meet the gorgeous Roxy Hutton, from the inspiring blog City Girl Searching.I was recently featured on CGS, in Roxy’s series Life After the Dress, a fun interview series exploring life after marriage 🙂

Hello. My name is Roxy Hutton and I am 25 years old. I currently live in South Korea with my Farmboy hubby where we both teach English to cute Korean kiddies. We have been here for just under a year and plan to be here for the next couple of years traveling and seeing as much of the world as we can before we start a family.

• When did you start your journey as a blogger and why? I started blogging in 2010 when I came over here to Korea the first time. Blogging was a way for me to keep family and friends updated with my life. My first blog was terrible (I guess it wasn’t that bad) but it was nothing like CityGirlSearching is today. It was called FarmboyandCityGirl. When we returned to South Africa after a year I realized I couldn’t really continue to write about Korea, and so CityGirlSearching was born. I was searching for something that would keep me out of mischief and my blog became that for me. But it has grown into so much more in the last 3 years.

• Do you blog fulltime or do you have a 9-5 as well? I wish I blogged full time, but I still feel like it’s only me, my mom and my husband who actually read what I write. I work as an English Teacher here in Korea. But blogging part time is a lot less stressful than going full time. Everyone wishes they could make a living off their blog, and very few of us will ever be able to do that. But I think that might be a blessing in disguise. There is a lot of pressure to blog, and sometimes I feel like throwing in the towel when I don’t receive a single comment on a blog post that takes hours of time to put together. It’s in those moments that I try and remember why I started blogging in the first place; I like to create pretty things and make other people feel inspired. If you pop on over to my blog and feel happy because of my photographs or graphics, even for one moment, then my job has been accomplished.

• Tell us a little about your space on the interweb and what you blog about? CityGirlSearching is a lifestyle blog. I used to struggle with the idea of boxing myself into a particular category, and I get distracted so easily I don’t think I could ever just blog about one thing. Making it ‘lifestyle’ means I have room to post whatever I like, beauty tips, photographs, recipes, DIY and fashion. I hope that every time you visit my blog you see something new that either inspires you, or makes you smile (or possibly makes you hungry enough to go and try it in the kitchen!)

• Being a blogger is not always easy – what motivates you and keeps you going? Like I said above, most of us blog because it’s a passion, not because we are getting any kind of financial gain from it. Bloggers live off comments (we would prefer the positive kind but sometimes the nasty kind inspires us to change and grow in different ways). When you like one of my pictures on Facebook, it makes me happy. It makes me feel appreciated, like you took time out of my day to say “Hey, that’s nice. I like that” and that makes me happy. When you share my work with your friends I get an even bigger kick, and I really feel special. So now you know a little bit more about how you can show your favourite bloggers some love. The love we get (whether in comment or like form) is a way of making us feel that all the work and effort and time (and often money) that we put into our blog is being appreciated by someone other than our husbands and family.
• What have your biggest blogging challenges been? My biggest challenge has been the feelings of inadequacy I get when I start comparing my blog to others. When I compare the number of comments, the number of likes, the number of followers, then my little space on the interweb starts to feel rather insignificant.

• What do you love most about being a blogger? I love the people I’ve met, from bloggers half way across the world to photographers to new service providers to friends I’ve made. I love that I feel like I am adding to the pretty-ness that this world has to offer, and that people might use my blog as a way to escape from a bad day and leave feeling refreshed and ready to take on the world! 🙂
• Do you have any blog related or social media pet peeves? {things that other bloggers or social media peeps do, that really annoy you} Not really. A part of me wants to say that people with fake personas are terrible annoying, but then I think maybe they have a horrible life and use their blog as a way of escaping. I think perhaps the one thing that does upset is nasty comment’s I really believe that if you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all. All your nasty comment is doing is making someone feel bad about themselves. So please, only nice (or constructive) comments!

• What has your journey as a blogger taught you {about yourself or in general}? Has it changed your life in any way? Absolutely! You might not believe me when I say this but I consider myself the most uncreative person out there. ALL my ideas for my blog (even the name and the majority of my first blog posts) came from my incredibly creative husband. But, what this does show you is you can learn to be creative. If I see something that inspires me, I try and recreate it, and then that gets the ball rolling for my own ideas. I often feel stumped and like my head is a big blank space when I sit in front of my computer to write, so I try to find inspiration from the word around me; from other bloggers (always crediting them if I have used any of their ideas) or from nature itself.  And as you probably know, Pinterest is a treasure trove! Blogging has also shown me talents I never would have thought I possessed. I never thought I would be able to take a picture that would ever be considered ‘nice’, and now photography is one of my biggest passions. People actually want to pay me money for it. I still pinch myself when people enquire about photo-shoots. Blogging has led me in a million new directions, and opened up so many more opportunities for me to dip my toe in.
• If you had to give a newbie blogger any advice, what words of wisdom would you impart? Never compare yourself to anyone. I love this saying that ‘Comparison is the thief of Joy”. You might never be as good as that person at what they do, but you can be the best at what you do. Let your blog be a true reflection of who you are. I know not everyone likes pink and fluffy and glitter and pretty like I do, but all of those things make me happy and that’s what I want to do with my blog, let it be a place where I feel happy. Also, the best advice I can give you is to start today. Don’t think about it too much, there will always be a million different reasons why it won’t work, but you’ll never now unless you actually put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard) and start.
• In three words tell me what blogging means to you: Inspiration, friendship, joy

Thanks Roxy for sharing a bit more about your life and blogging journey with us! You can find out more about Roxy and connect with her here:

Blog link: http://citygirlsearching.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CityGirlSearching

Twitter: https://twitter.com/roxyhutton

Instagram: http://instagram.com/roxyhutton

If you would like to be featured on Confessions of a Blogger, then please email Fiona or leave a comment below.

Image Source: Roxy from City Girl Searching