A Return to Blogging?

Firstly… Happy New Year to you all! I know I’m a *bit* late with it, so apologies for that! How was everyone’s 2021? Mine was crazy and I have so much to share with you all in the next few weeks! And, yes, I said in the next few weeks which means I am planning blog content and returning to blogging after being gone for nearly a year!

what has bought about this change? Well, when the pandemic hit and we were going in and out of lockdowns, the rules changing all the time along with flexible working from home, as well as some personal stuff, blogging started to get a bit too much for me. In all honesty, I felt mentally drained a lot of the time. Everything is still changing and we don’t know what is happening from one day to the next regarding restrictions and rules but I’m getting used to it now and things seem to be easier to handle, my routine is more settled and I’m feeling less exhausted and seem to have a bit more time available to me. I’ve missed writing blogs and all the other bits that come along with it, especially interacting with you guys! I have been sneak reading your blogs too…keeping up with what you have been writing but I really miss the social side to blogging!

While I stepped away from the blog, I didn’t stop writing completely…. I have been writing articles for an online magazine called The Everyday Magazine (click the link and it should take you to the articles I have written!). I have also been writing a mental health blog for work (on our intranet site).

With all of this writing I have been doing away from the blog, it has made me realise just how much I love writing and blogging so this year I’m going to try and write more posts. I am not sure whether to return to the blogging format I have been so used to in the past or whether this blog will change and become something else in the future, for now though I am going to be sharing things that have happened in 2021, some posts about lifestyle, the house and some general ramblings about my life!

I hope you have all had a fab Christmas and New Year! Let me know how you spent the holidays and if you have any resolutions for this year in the comments! I’ve not made any (yet) but Id love to hear yours!

Happy New Year!!!!

Happy New Year to all of my readers!  I hope you all had a fab New Years’ Eve and seeing in 2020!  I spent the evening playing board games with my neighbor and having a few drinks, sharing a lot of laughs along the way!  It was a really lovely way to see in the New Year!

I have been thinking a lot, recently, about this blog and all of the things that I want to do with it, firstly a YouTube channel that I want to use as a place to chat about my week in place of sharing a weekly round-up here.  If you are already on YouTube feel free to head over to my channel and give me a follow (I have a video up that I recorded the other day which you can find by clicking here).

I am also going to be making a few changes to my content, I shall be dropping a few things from my regular content and hopefully, moving them over to e-mail once I have figured out how Mailchimp works.  Moving some of my content over to email will give me more space to create content on the blog and free up some time for new things that I want to add!

Talking of new things that I want to add to the blog, starting next week I shall be starting

• Motivation Monday which will be a motivational piece to help kick start your week
• Top Tip Tuesday where I shall be sharing a top tip that I have
• Words on Wednesday which will be the same as before, where I write about something that I think is important or that I have been thinking about
• Top 10 Thursday is still the same, a Top 10 of any topic or subject
• Fiction Friday will be about any book or audiobook that I have been listening to or reading, any recommendations and to be read lists.  I would also like this to be a place to discuss any books you have been enjoying
• Saturday Shout Outs will be restarting, I have a few that are ready to post but didn’t want to share them in December when generally stats are down
• Sunday Funday will be an anything-goes sort of post where I will be sharing all sorts of things across all of the topics that I cover.

I am really excited to start this new posting schedule and how I present my content and I am really interested to see how it all goes!

What are you changing for the New Year on your blogs?  I’d love to hear in the comments!!!!

Bloggers Meet-Up?

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about organising a bloggers meet-up.  The idea would be to meet up with other bloggers one weekend and chat all things blog, from how to create a content schedule to generating ideas and ways to engage with our readers.  I have a few ideas of things that I would like to chat about and, more than anything, this would be a weekend where we could make friends with our fellow bloggers and share advice, hints, tips and ask questions.  I was thinking of arranging something in the New Year (possibly March/April time)

So, here are a few questions for you regarding this…

1. Would you be interested in this kind of thing?
2. Would you be willing to travel to South Wales (UK) for this?
3. What sort of things would you like from a bloggers meet? (e,g types of topics covered, activities etc…)
4. Would you prefer a 1 or 2 day meet up?

Let me know in the comments, and any other thoughts you may have!

 

Birthday Giveaway! Only A Few Days Left to Enter!!!!

As it is my blog birthday today I wanted to do something to celebrate!  I decided to host a giveaway for you all!

I am giving you the chance to win a blog bullet journal that will be designed by me!  I managed to get my hands on a lovely dot grid journal which is the same as the one I will be using for my blog things next year…

It is silver holographic and has 192 pages of 80gsm paper.  The layouts inside will be for the full year, there will also be pages for relevant hashtags, goals, stats, pages or blog post ideas, schedule calendar and other useful pages!

To be in with a chance to win all you need to do is number off in the comments, please check the comment prior to yours and then comment with the next number up from that!

• The giveaway is open to everyone.
• The giveaway is open from 29th September to 16th October.
• There will be 1 winner (I will use a random number generator to draw the winner.)
• Winner will be announced on 17th October on the blog.
• One entry per person.
• I will post out the journal in November.

Good Luck everyone!!!!

This Month On The Blog

It feels like yesterday when I sat down to write about what was coming up on the blog for September, yet here we are, saying a fond farewell to that month and welcoming October with open arms.

This month, in the blogosphere, October is also known as Blogtober and I shall be partaking in this challenge.  There will be a blog post a day through the whole of October focusing on the challenge I have set myself.  I shall be sharing a post about what Blogtober is and what I will be doing on the blog to take part.

Aside from Blogtober, there will be the usual mix of posts from my Recipe of the Month, Monthly Goals, Words on Wednesday, Saturday Shout Out’s, Top 10 Thursdays and my Weekly Roundups.  I will also be sharing some mental health posts as the 10th October is World Mental Health Day.

I will be looking for more bloggers to take part in my Saturday Shout Out series, if you would like to be featured please check out this blog post for details!

What is happening on your blog this month?  I’d love to know so leave me a comment!

My Blog is 1!!!!

Today my blog turns 1!  As a celebration, I have a giveaway for you to enter to win a bullet journal which will be designed by me (please see this post for the giveaway rules and how to enter).

I have also created a group over on Facebook (yeah, I’m back on there and will be talking about my return to Facebook in my Words on Wednesday post).  I created the group Bloggers Brew as a way to help bloggers to network with others, share blog posts and ask any questions that they may need help with and to share any ideas.  I want this group to be an extension of blogging, a way to meet other bloggers and to share any advice and help.  Please feel free to pop over to Facebook and join the group, either use the search bar and look for Bloggers Brew or click the link here.  There are a few questions to answer upon requesting to join, this is just to help the group as a whole, reduce any spam that may enter the group and make sure that anyone who joins is genuine.  I hope that will not put you off from joining.

So, what are you waiting for?  Come and join the group now!!!!

My Best and Worst Habits as a Blogger

As humans, we inherently have good and bad habits so it makes sense that as bloggers, we also have good and bad traits.  Today I am sharing my best and worst habits as a blogger.

The Good

• Organisation and scheduling.  There is nothing that I love more than spending time creating my blog schedule and working out which posts should be written and go live on which days.  I think I have created a schedule which works really well for me and fits in with the rest of my life and the things I want to achieve.
• Trying new things.  I really like to push myself with trying new things on the blog, it helps to keep things fun and fresh both for myself and my readers too!
• Enthusiasm.  I am super enthusiastic about all aspects of blogging, I eat, sleep, breathe and talk blogging most of the time! Lol!
• Supporting other bloggers.  I love to support other bloggers and help out where I can.  I like to share other blogs via my Saturday Shout Out and am currently working on a few plans to help other bloggers too!
• Blog post ideas.  I have a fab niche which allows me to write about many different topics which means I have tons of ideas of things to write about.  One year in and I still have not run out of ideas yet!

The Bad

• Drinking too much coffee.  So. Much. Coffee…Seriously, who would have thought that writing a blog post or doing another bit that is blog related would be fueled by so many cups of coffee?!
• Procrastination.  I am the Procrastination Princess, though I am not entirely sure that it is procrastination that I really have or that I can be really easily distracted at times?
• Time management.  This is something that is both good and bad, good that I have everything planned to the minute but bad that sometimes when things go wrong and end up taking longer I can get pretty frustrated.  It can also mean that I end up working on something for a lot longer than I should!
• Doing all the things (or wanting to).  I can get pretty overwhelmed with things, partly due to my Aspergers, but there is part of me that always wants to try to get everything done or try out new ideas there and then which isn’t the best thing to do at times!
• Overthinking.  Sometimes, I can find it really hard to motivate myself to write something, especially if I have been thinking about it for a long time.  I sort of feel like I have written it already (albeit in my head) and really need to motivate myself to get it typed out.  I had this problem in Uni when I was supposed to be writing my dissertation.

I’d love to hear about your best and worst habits as a blogger, so leave me a comment and let me know!

Blog Goals for the Year Ahead

As my blog nears its first Birthday I want to share some goals that I’d like to achieve in the year ahead.  I have been amazed at what I have achieved so far and while I never really set out with any goals in mind I think that this coming year I should have some things set to aim for…

• 1000 followers.  I hit 500 Followers a short while ago so this next figure should be attainable.
• YouTube Chanel.  I have a few ideas of things that I would like to try and doing so via video may be a better option.
• Weekly Saturday Shout Outs.  While I am already doing this, I would like to make the shout out a little more in-depth and about the writer behind the blog as well as focusing on the blog itself.
• Take part in Blogtober, Blogmas and the April A-Z challenge.  These challenges help keep me on my toes and share posts that may not get shared otherwise and are a fantastic way of introducing new content.
• Daily blog posts.  While I blog nearly every day I would like to have set themes for each day of the week as well as my normal posts too.
• More tutorials.  I love reading tutorials and have a few that I want to share in the future!

I just need to sit down and work out the hows, and whens!  🙂

What blog goals do you have?  I’d love to hear about them so let me know in the comments!

How do You Feel About Re-Blogs?

I’ve been fairly lucky with the blog in the past year, I have not had any negative or hateful comments left for me and when the Tygpress blog skim thing happened I seemed to escape that where many other bloggers had work of theirs taken and shared on that site without their knowledge.  But today I am asking how you feel about re-blogs?

Re-blogging is a way for bloggers to share great content that they have read, written by another blogger, that is shared to the re-blogger’s audience.  Usually, there is a comment by the re-blogger about the post they are sharing and could be about how great the post was, or how it is relevant to something that has been raised on their own blog, or something about how the post resonated with them.  I have occasionally re-blogged others posts if I think it will help them (for example, I have shared a blog post where someone was looking for people to answer a Survey Monkey questionnaire to help with their dissertation), or because I really loved what they had written and thought other readers may like it and other work that the original writer had written.

I don’t usually mind my posts being re-blogged, I have always either been asked if I minded someone sharing my posts or they have re-blogged with a lovely comment about my writing.

Since Tygpress happened I have always checked out the blog that has re-shared my posts, and mostly it has been people that I follow, regular commenters or genuine blogs that I have then taken a look at and started to follow as they put out their own work which is brilliant.

Yesterday though, I had to disable my re-blog button.  I had a blog share a few posts of mine a short while ago but forgot to check out the blog to see what the blog my work was being shared to was like and the sort of content they were putting out.  I had 2 notifications in quick succession of each other yesterday to say that 2 of my posts had been shared by this blogger.  Having recognised the name of the blogger it jolted my memory and I set about checking this site out.

A couple of things have got me suspicious of the site that re-blogged my work.  Scrolling through their site it seems that all they have ever done is re-blog other peoples posts, never leave a comment why they were re-blogging it, all of the posts are different to each other that have been re-blogged – there is no overarching theme to any of them, the reblogged posts all seem to be on certain days and within minutes of each other, there is no “About” page for the author of the site just a generic contact form, there don’t seem to be any comments on the posts shared but a few likes here and there, and the comments that I left on my re-blogged content asking for my posts to be removed seem to have been deleted.

Something doesn’t feel right to me about this, so what should I do?  Any advice would be greaty appreciated.