All photographs above taken by me, and can be found on my Instagram.
After seemingly endless months of slogging away, stressing to within an inch of my life to try and balance my internship, running two blogs and my Uni degree, this past week for me has felt like the first rays of sunshine that push through the clouds after the storm.
I'd even got to the point where I'd made a wall chart of two halves, one side where I could write what was stressing me out, and the other where I'd force to myself to see a solution to my woes and could pop it in there.
A breakthrough could not have come any sooner!
Most of the good news that has surfaced this week has been about new and exciting opportunities that have made themselves apparent.
The first exciting thing to happen, was after I applied to the VICE Blogging Network. I've loved VICE Magazine for years, it has such a cool and badass attitude and it just doesn't hold back. I was kind of a pointless application on my behalf - they only take on the most established and most sought after bloggers. But for some reason they must've decided to take a chance on me and I got accepted!
And that was not all, a few minutes later I got an email from a girl at the VBN saying she'd had a look around Scarphelia, and had stumbled across the Cosmopolitan Cupcakes Idea and the website I had made to bag myself a job.
...She then asked if I would be interested in interning with them in their marketing and PR department, whilst helping to co-ordinate the blogging network too!
I gladly accepted, and in Summer 2014 I will be have the absolute privilege of working for one of the coolest magazines out there, VICE.
This week also marked the first time I have ever been paid for a journalistic article I've written.
The piece was a fashion feature on the equal importance of comfort and design in footwear - I'll tweet the link when it goes live. I have never freelanced before, I have always written articles and submitted them voluntarily to various publications. To be honest, I hadn't even considered the possibility of getting paid for doing what I love. Well, not until after uni anyway.
This internship had been draining my funds to a dangerously low capacity, and the money from this article had never been more needed!
Now this exciting new venture came as somewhat of a surprise, and has the potential to change my life forever.
A few weeks ago I was approached by a musician after he spotted my music on YouTube, who asked if I would be interested in the idea of becoming the lead singer of their band.
When I was younger, all I wanted to do was be a singer (who doesn't though?!) but I let that dream die after a few reality checks. With the birth of Scarphelia I decided to resurrect this little idea, however, and start up a YouTube channel where I played acoustic covers on my ukulele and posted some of my original songs too.
I never expected this to ever go anywhere, it was more of a fun creative outlet. So it's safe to say I was pretty dumbstruck when I was asked to be a frontwoman.
We had our first jam session as a band on Wednesday, and I was absolutely blown away.
This was not just a couple of guys who were bored one day and decided to tinker around with a guitar. These guys were passionate and determined, having spending endless time and money perfecting almost 100 tracks and making some serious connections in the music industry.
They are called 'Faux' and their sound is so unique and beautifully crafted - if I had to liken them to anyone, I'd say they probably sound like a cross between M83 and London Grammar. They have everything so perfected, and I could instantly tell that they were going to be BIG.
The last piece of their puzzle was a singer, and they want me.
I know that if I do this, my life is going to change dramatically. At first, the thought daunted me and I was terrified at the commitment and idea of it all. But I also know that I would never be able to live with myself if I ever turned it down.
So I am now Katie Oldham, creator of Scarphelia, lead singer of Faux.
The first super fun bloggy news is that I am now the proud owner of a Cannon 600D!
For over a year I have been lusting and half-heartedly saving for this beautiful piece of machinery - the camera that every successful blogger seems to have.
I popped into good old Jesspos in St Albans to pore over it as I often to, only to discover that for three days only it was on SUPER MEGA OFFER.
I frantically rang my parents, who'd agreed to contribute some money toward me getting it for Christmas, and after some pretty damned effective persuading, an hour later and the beautiful baby was in my possession!
I am so, so excited to start turning out some beautiful pictures, and with a tripod I can't start doing Outfit Of The Day posts on Scarphelia ETC and start vlogging too.
The second super fun bloggy news is that I have made a new very lovely blogger friend. Her name is Charli, and she blogs at 'With Love Charlotte Lenia', and comes from my hometown. We've known each other vaguely for a while but recently started having lengthy chats about bloggers, blogging, and have made a pact to take the world by storm as a super blogging duo!
There's nothing I love than stumbling across genuinely lovely bloggers.
Now this might be the one I'm most excited about out of everything!
Completely out of the blue I received an invite from a girl named India at a London-based PR Company, who was emailing on behalf of Monsoon Accesorize.
She said they'd seen Scarphelia circling the web and enjoyed the way I write, and wanted to extend an invitation to their Monsoon Accesorize Spring/Summer 2014 press day! Ahhhhhhh.
This is the first time I've ever been invited to anything as a blogger and I genuinely squealed with excitement. I also decided to be a little cheeky and asked if I could bring my new blogger friend Charli along with me and she agreed!
So on the 28th, we two bloggers with our two Cannon 600D's will be heading over to Covent Garden to our first ever press event!
I definitely think this marks the start of something big.
This week has been one of the most sublime of my entire life, and I cannot believe that all this has happened so out of the blue, and it's only Thursday! I'm not sure if it's even possible to stretch this luck to Sunday, but I'm definitely going to give it a shot.
I have been slaving away for so long, and this is the first sign that hard work does pay off, you just have to get your head down and keep at it - you will get to the sunshine in the end!
The future has become very, very exciting, and I can't wait to share it with you all.
