To be honest, I do not know how to start this. I thought I would never reach at least 3 months, actually. I thought I would only post a couple blog posts, and then quit. I never thought that I was going to make a book club. I thought it will be like using Blogger again. Post once, take the time to post again, get lazy, and then abandon it.

Of course me from the past was wrong. I am still here, and my blog is now a year old. I don’t think  I will be stopping soon (besides those school-related hiatuses because I need to, haha), and this fangirl is here to stay. I will work hard enough to trademark the name I chose to represent myself in this bookish community, and I plan to stay that way.

… That came out strong. I am cuddly, I promise.

I guess you can say that as I take blogging seriously everyday, I also think about how I could make my blog aesthetically pleasing at the same time. I am quite inconsistent with my blog posts, because I wanted it to look better than my first ones. Another reason is that I am never pleased with just one design. I know I could always improve. I want to think that as my blog progresses, my blog gets more prettier. I’m still hoping that that would be the case. As much as I want my blog to be static with one signature look, I don’t even know how it would be possible because of the changing trends. I wanted to be original, so I’m showing my blog’s progress with my headers. Think of it as a Pokemon. It evolves to become better. And I am not kidding when I say that 3 of those were used in one year.

This is what I started with. Very bland in general, plus I don’t really know why I chose that font. I still use it on my blog posts, but it was not meant to be with my blog header. At first, I was glad with it. But I know that I could do better than that.

This is my second artsy attempt at a blog header. I still wanted to stick with the same font, but I wanted to add in my blog’s purpose. I can now see that this is only pleasing to the eyes if it’s a blog button or a moving gif. I really like the pink and blue motif, though.

My third attempt at a blog header went pretty well. But uhh… not really. I wanted to vector each book, but it was so time consuming. So I settled with this one. I actually loved the font, but there was something off with this header that did not ring right. Probably the violet background and the misplaced blue flower.

Onto the fourth attempt: I loved this one. Despite the less time and effort that it took to create this one, it describes the diversity of my blog completely. But there is still something off with the stroked text. It’s not that readable, and you have to squint your eyes to see it properly.

We come down to the blog header that I am using today. I finally settled down with this design because of the font, and now my sub header is readable. It’s the proper contrast of fonts. And it’s still diverse, describing my blog perfectly just by looking at the header.

I might change it again in the future, because I am the master of inconsistencies and insecurities. But who knows… maybe this one will stand the test of time.

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How far have I come? I have done so many shenanigans that I did as firsts just for this blog of mine. I never really thought that I will do this and that, but the inner person in me wanted to show her freak flag and fly. I won’t list it down because I am saving it for a rainy day. Yet in all circumstances, my blog would have never been like this if I did not branch out and communicate with other people who shared the same passion. So please allow me to be a little bit sappy for one moment. I want to say thank you.

Thank you to my readers, first or a recent, for showing your enthusiasm to this blog. It would not have flourished that much if not for the support I get. Book blogger or not, you just happened to drop by, or you’re kind enough to leave a comment… I want you to know that I owe all this to you. ❤

Thank you to Maan at The Pigeon Reads, Trisha at The Bookgasm Blog, and Nicka at Read by Nicka who served as my co-hosts in the Fanboy Book Club. My baby would not have lasted long if they did not show the enthusiasm they had to handle it with me. Also to Maan and Trisha for being my book reading buddies, despite the fact that I did not finish reading mine. (Sorry Grisha trilogy.)

To MC at Blame It On The Books for being my mama bear (she said it so herself, haha) and also my co-handler at the Fanboy Book Club. You’re a true friend to have in this community. I cannot thank you enough really.

To Wesaun at Oreos and Books, who was one the first bloggers that I have interacted with. Thank you for always leaving comments on my blog when I was just starting out. It gave me the encouragement I needed to whip up something new everyday. And also being a friend who came in when I needed some help the most.

To Ms. Carla de Guzman for sharing many firsts with me: first blog tour and first author interview, first successful beta read. I hope to read more of your works in the future, and please do know that I will always fangirl over it, haha.

To Hazel at Stay Bookish for inspiring me to blog in the first place. Your love for books inspires me, and I really hope to meet you one day. I have young adult books to thank for helping me find your blog in the first place. It was your blog that convinced me that the written word is a way to express what you feel about a book. 🙂

To the members of the Fanboy Book Club, thank you for being there. Joining in made me happy enough. I promise to load our book club with fun activities and amazing tours.

To my Filipino blogger senpais who I still have to meet IRL. Thank you for inspiring me to blog and interacting with me over the web. Hopefully, we’ll meet soon enough (maybe next week, lol).

Where am I headed? My blog’s direction is on a stable path, and that is to share my love for books and my other fandoms. I am still in the process of figuring things out, but I want to…

• Host more blog tours for the Fanboy Book Club.
• Branch out to other genres, and finally cure my somehow ridiculous feud with fantasy books.
• Earn enough money to self-host. I had a great time using the pre-made themes WordPress offers, but it is irritating not to touch the codes. I’m a technology student, for crying out loud.
• Interact with more authors and book bloggers.
• Post more about my other fandoms
• Attend more book signings
• Shove more male leads into your faces.

As much as I wanted to share something, I am still a noob and a poor sap. But I do love the Filipino bookish community, and I love male leads so…

It’s my blogiversary this Sunday so giveaway time! RT + follow moi and win two books in the photo. [PH only] pic.twitter.com/FsBCKgUIjK

— Bianca (@UltmtFangirl) June 30, 2016

Now this giveaway is only open for PH readers (sorry guys), in which I shall select one winner who can choose two books each from my favorite books with amazing male leads.

To the lucky winner who would win my giveaway must choose wisely. (Actually you could just pick anything from the stack really. I have read most of them and I ridicule you not, none of those books are rated less than 4 on my Goodreads.)

The giveaway ends at August 1, so there’s plenty of time to retweet the photo. I will contact the winner through their twitter and they will have 48 hours to respond.

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After a year, I still don’t know how to end things properly. Oh dear. Haha. It’s a fangirl thing, I guess. Fandoms come and go, but we really don’t end things. We just enter new ones.

I am still in awe that I have reached the one year mark. I feel like this is the one thing that bloggers have kept in secret all this time… getting the feeling that the long anniversary post makes the next posts really hard to draft because of you have to step your game up.

Oh well. There’s always a first time for everything. 🙂

Till the next blog post (which is tomorrow),