The year is coming to an end and as I look back I am really pleased with what I have achieved.
What I used from 2017
I ended 2017 by reflecting on what I had learnt in my first year of blogging.
When I look back at my Reflecting on 2017 post, I still use a lot of the tools and tricks I learnt in my first year of blogging.
Things I no longer do is embed Instagram pictures within my blog posts as they no longer seem to work. I also stopped using LoCal.
I am disappionted that I didn’t put what I learnt about creative writing into practice. Writing blog posts feels easier than writing a novel as I can dip in and out more easily, whereas when I write a novel I like to get into the chapter and write a chunk – nowadays, I struggle to find the time for that.
Progress towards 2018 Goals
I have acheieved 82% of the goals I set at the start of 2018. I’ve also achieved goals that I hadn’t anticipated such as article writing for an online magazine. I particpated in NaPoWriMo (poetry writing) which is outside my confort zone and really stretched and challenged me. I also hit my NaNoWriMo word count goal.
Personal life
I’ve also felt positive about my personal achievements this year. I completed my CIPD HR Diploma which is a professional qualification. I gave birth to my beautiful daughter Aria Rose.
I’ve also been making the most of my materntiy leave by being actively involved in activities at my son’s school such as parent phonic classes and parent maths classes (so I can better support him with his homework). I have also been making it to the Stay & Play sessions. I am out attending groups with my baby and making new mum friends for her and we are currently doing baby massage classes together.
I have really enjoyed including some blogs posts about my personal life and will continue to do so next year.
What is in store for 2019?
Well more personal posts for sure but I need to set some goals to get my focus back on my fiction writing as getting published is my lifelong ambition. Check back early January to see the goals I set to keep progressing.
This is a really quick post as I can’t believe my blog now has over 200+ followers! Wow!
Thank you. I couldn’t have done it without all you amazing people who click ‘follow’. It means so much to me. That’s why I follow back most people who follow me.
When I first started blogging, I was scared to click post. I had this fear people would judge my writing and laugh at my amature content. I was intimidated by the thought of coming up with subjects to write and thought I would run out of ideas or be boring.
At the time, I had no idea how much I would enjoy blogging. I have suprised myself with how I always have a generous stream of ideas for blog posts. The most challenging this has been finding the time to write and take pictures for posts. I’ve learnt to schedule my posts to space them out and this also keeps me organised.
This year is the first year I have been consistent throughout. I used to post immediatley and I’d end up with a batch together. Learning to schedule is one of the most useful tools I have discovered.
Blogging has been a big commitment and I once my daughter was born I had to reduce my schedule a little. But, I couldn’t stop bloggin now. I love it!
There will defiitley be more blogging next year. I am seriously considering paying for my blog as I use it every week and love interacting with others that share my interests.
To some people 200 might not seem a lot but for me it is. I am really proud of myself and I’m daring to set myself a goal to double my followers by the end of next year. Can you imagine that!
I hope you are loving your blogging journey too.
Please comment and let me know how long you have been blogging and what you blog about. Do you pay for your blog – do you recommend it?
I thought Aria would never go to sleep but, finally, she did. I am super keen to make sure that week 3 goes better than week 2. To stay on track for 25k I needed to write 955 words… I managed to write 973 word! *phew*
I did get a little distracted today looking up a name for my word cutter/huntsman character. Then, I didn’t even use it!
Friday, 16th November 2018
11:00 pm
Tonight, I have been blogging and researching content for my blog.
This week I have also been meeting with companies to discuss at home business opportunities as I am looking into ways to bring in a little income without compromising my commitment to my children. I’ve got some serious thinking to do and it has been quite distracting.
Saturday, 17th November 2018
11:00 pm
I didn’t feel motivated to write this evening as I feel stuck in my story and I’m still beating myself up about how poorly I did last week and that I didn’t write last night.
I’m so glad that I put my butt in the seat because I managed to write 1,352 words tonight and once I got into the chapter, I really enjoyed writing it. I wrote in third person tonight which isn’t my usual style (I’m a die hard first person POV write) but I was writing from another characters perspective and I think using a different style helped me get past the point I am stuck.
I’ve no idea where the story will take me tomorrow. I didn’t have much time to plan an outline for this one and I have no idea where the story is going just an idea of what I want it to achieve. The vagueness is now causing me problems. I used to be a pantser but with my limited writing time available, these days I really do need a plan.
My 25k goal is still doable but there is no chance I will achieve 50k. I’m glad I set a more realistic goal for myself.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BqTBFrQFY1d/
Sunday, 18th November 2018
10:30 pm
Do you ever feel like everything is working against you? I thought today might be tricky to write as it was also my son’s joint birthday party.
Unfortunately, my son woke up and was sick. As it was a joint party it still went ahead but without him. I ran around town making sure that my contribution (money, food, etc) was still made available to the other mums. The whole point of a joint party was to share the costs.
Once I got both little ones to bed I went to my PC, only to find that my cat had made herself comfortable on my chair. She had that look on her face that told me she would not be moving. After, coaxing her off the chair I logged onto the PC. By then, my husband and his friend were watching a new TV series on Netflix – it looked pretty good and kept distracting me.
However, I am pleased to say I did manage to write, even if it was only 607 words.
Monday, 19th November 2018
9:00 pm
Noah had to be kept off school due to the 48h rule to prevent him passing on his tummy bug, however, he has been absolutely fine all day which meant he wanted entertaining. There was no opportunity to sneak in a few extra words for my manuscript. I made him do homework every time he said “I’m hungry,” before giving him a snack. Which if you know any 4 year olds, that is a lot of homework.
Now, both the little ones are in bed it it my time. But, I am struggling to focus on my project when I can feel Christmas fast approaching and all the Black Friday sales have started early! I’m always looking for ways to save money so I’m finding it hard to resist temptation to shop.
10:30 pm
I managed to write 1,022 words before being called away mid sentence by a hungry baby. I just felt like I was getting back into it too. It is too late to go back downstairs and I’m tired, so, sweet dreams all. Tomorrow, I’m going to try and double my daily word count.
Tuesday, 20th November 2018
10:10 pm
Noah was well enough to go to school today. Today was Stay and Play at school so I was there for the afternoon.
Tonight, neither of the little ones wanted to go to sleep. The oldest one kept claiming to need the loo and needs reminding about hand washing. And, the little one seemed to know when I left the room, despite my expert ginger ninga skills and would start crying.
So, despite challenging conditions, I have managed to write 927 words. To get back on track, I currently need to be doing 1,029 words per day. I am behind target but I’m no quitter!
Wednesday, 21st November 2018
3:15pm
I’m so pleased that this afternoon I got to write. Noah is at school and Aria is asleep. But, now it’s time to go and pick him up so I’m going to end there with my 359 words and hope I get a chance to add some more this evening.
10:15pm
I’m glad I got to write earlier as Aria has been difficult to settle tonight. She is teething and experiencing her first cold, bless her, so really struggled to fall asleep – it could be a long night.
I am not going to write tonight, however, I did chat with a friend about my project which helped generate some fresh ideas to work on. I also drew a picture earlier today of one of the villains in the story.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BqdVerMFNvK/
Reflecting on week 3
Obviously, I hadn’t anticipated a sick boy or a restless baby but despite these challenges, I feel week 3 has gone better than week 2. But, I still want to do better!
Not writing an outline for my novel or doing any preparation is really taking its toll now. I’m struggling to know what direction to take the story in and every time a new character is introduced I have to come up with a name and think about what makes them who they are.
Plus, ‘Black Friday’ sales are cropping up everywhere and reminding me that it is Christmas next month and although we don’t go overboard… I haven’t done anything.
My motto for this week’s NaNoWriMo is “If you take time to plan, you save time in the long run.” Are you doing NaNoWriMo? How are you getting on?
If you follow my blog then you know that on Mondays, I like to share posts by other bloggers that I have enjoyed. Today, I am sharing with you an article by Stacey Jane McIntosh.
Tips for Surviving NaNoWriMo
Stacey is attempting NaNoWriMo and attempting the the full 50k words. This isn’t her first time and in her article she shares what she has learnt to help other writers. If you are doing NaNo, this is worth a read!
Stacey writes paranormal romances and Celtic fairy tales – she sounds like my type of girl and I should probably go check out her books. She blogs about what she is reading and writing so if that appeals to you, then give her a follow.
Would you like to be featured?
I am always looking for new bloggers to feature on my blog. If you are interested, please comment to help me find you blog. I often share articles on writing, blogging, parenting or organic beauty.
This is my first nomination and it came from Shabri – A Door To My Life, a blogger I recently connected with. Her blog is varied but always has an upbeat positive vibe and the first post I read was about going bare (no makeup) and how it has empowered her. Go check out her blog – she posts regularly.
MYSTERY BLOGGER AWARD:
“It’s an award for amazing bloggers with ingenious posts. Their blog not only captivates; it inspires and motivates. They are one of the best out there, and they deserve every recognition they get. This award is also for bloggers who find fun and inspiration in blogging, and they do it with so much love and passion.” Created by: Okoto Enigma
The Rules
Put the award logo/image on your blog and List the rules.
Thank whoever nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
Mention the creator of the award and provide a link as well
Tell your readers 3 things about yourself
You have to nominate 10 – 20 people
Notify your nominees by commenting on their blog
Ask your nominees any 5 questions of your choice; with one weird or funny question (specify)
Share a link to your best post(s).
Three things about me
I am pregnant – I’m planning a blog post soon with gender reveal. We’ve kept it off social media and only told a few select people.
I married my first love and best friend. This year will be our 7 year wedding anniversary but we’ve been together and in love for 18 years.
I was born in East London and although my parent’s moved out when I was very small, I still feel a connection and pride for my former London roots.
It’s my real name. I did have some unusual blog names. I started with ‘Ethereal Vanilla’ for my organic beauty blog and ‘Writer to Author’ was one of my writing blogs but when I merged it all together I just went with my name as I felt it would help people connect and identify me. Would you go a month without pizza or would you go a month without chocolate? why?
Ooo, this is a really tricky one as I love naughty food. I like savoury food and melted cheese so pizza is winning – as long as there isn’t a spicy topping. I love milk chocolate but a bit fussy with other types and I think you can have too much of a sweet thing. When did you start to love yourself more? how?
I spent a lot of my youth feeling like I didn’t fit in – mainly for my red hair. My husband helped me to see it was beautiful and then I did a little modelling and realised that being different is good. I still sometimes feel awkward and like a sore thumb and every so often I will get a rude comment about my hair but I am much better at brushing it off and picking myself back up and I hope to pass that on to my son. If you could have one superpower for a week what would it be except for reading people’s mind and being invisible and why?
Ha ha, my husband and I play this game all the time. My ultimate power is ‘luck’. If you can influence luck in your favour you are pretty invincible. Someone shoots a fireball at you, luckily it rains and puts it out or they trip and luckily it shoots up into the sky. You got to the bank and borrow money and luckily they are offering free money to the next customer to walk through to door which is luckily you. I think you get the gist. You also could use it to help friends and ruin enemies – mu ha ha ha.
Your favourite blog that you have posted and why is it your favourite also provide a link too
Oh my… I am still not very good at blowing my own trumpet. I looked at my statistics and identified the post with the most likes. It is Writers and YouTube Playlists and was a featured article from my writers blog (that has now merged with this one).
My nominations
I’d like to nominate Shabri because her blog really is awesome but she has already been nominated by someone else so here are some fresh nominees:
Hev with This Pug Can: If you love pugs and keeping fit, this blog tells it as it really is. You won’t see any of those fake glam shots here.
Nathaniel Tower with Juggling Writer: I recently discovered Nathaniel and featured one of his articles. His blog is a wealth of information for writers.
Andrew McDowell with An author of many parts: Andrew was the first blogger to welcome me to Word Press. I have featured a few of his articles and always find his posts engaging.
Theryanlanz with A Writer’s Path: I have featured quite a few articles from this site. The blog covers topics that are really useful for writers, especially for fiction writers.
Keithgarrettpoetry with Man of many thoughts: This guy is knocking out poems faster than you can read them – I don’t know how he does it.
Radiant Behavior: This was the first bloggers whose post I shared. It was on how to contour and how to highlight using Vapour Organic. She often reviews ethical beauty product and on how to use them.
Beccapbeauty:She writers beauty reviews and posts often. Whenever I have commented on her blog she always acknowledges me.
Rabia with Rabia Rambles: Rabia’s website has beauty product reviews and stationery that looks so beautiful that it makes me want to take up bullet journaling.
Ross Hunt with IsaBlog: Ross writes about being a father to Isabelle. There are lots of cute pictures of his daughter but mainly engaging articles about parenthood.
Slow Days, Small Feet: This mum shares tips and activity ideas to help out other parents. They are really simple that anyone can apply often using everyday items.
Questions for my nomminees
How long have you been blogging?
Why did you start your blog?
As a child, what did you dream of doing for a living and what do you currently do for a living?
Vampires, werewolves or witches – which dark creature would you prefer to be?
If you could time travel back in time, what advice would you give your teenage self?
I must confess I am in love with Canva and been using it for a few months. I started off using it on my laptop and then I discovered there is an app. Now I can use it anywhere.
Canva helps you create visually effective images for a wide host of reasons. I used it a lot to create my blog titles and images for tweets and Instagram. I also have used it to create a party invitation for my son’s birthday party. I discovered the site via Wattpad when looking for software to create a novel cover.
Here are some examples of what I have created:
What is Create with Canva?
This company is currently offering a free beginners course for people that want to get better at using Canva. They also have a resources page with useful information and recommendations for blog host sites and other courses you can pay for like how to earn from you blog with affiliate marketing.
Free Beginners Course
I found the course via Twitter and enrolled. There are five lessons and each lesson is delivered daily to your inbox. The lessons are bitesize YouTube videos and just 5 minutes long. You can join their Facebook page to have access to the course in full right away. Here is what I think:
Dashboard tour:
This is sent out with the ‘welcome’ email and is an introduction to Canva.
Lesson One: Working with templates, text and color
This covers the basis of using the templates on Canva. How to amend the template and colour theme. How to edit the text, add more text and resize. I thought I knew most of this simply from using the site but they did teach me a new trick – spacing! Everything in this class used the free features in Canva.
Lesson Two: Working with images in Canva and uploading your own images
This was about using the images in Canva and how to add your own. Again, I thought I had this sussed but they taught me some new tricks. I make use of the free images in Canva (there is a vast collection), however, I didn’t know that some of the free images are cropped and you can change the cropped area and use some of the hidden parts of the picture! There were other tricks they taught that I expect I’ll be making use of in the near future.
Lesson Three: Working with free photos, frames and grids
This lesson started by introducing collages – a feature I have never considered using (seriously missing out). They taught us how to use different photo layouts from scratch and for Instagram. Finished with how to use and edit backgrounds.
Lesson Four: Working with shapes, lines, illustrations and icons
This started off nice and simple with adding elements to your design. I haven’t really used this part of Canva and through watching the lesson I saw how useful they can be. Gillian also covered some useful time saving short cut keys and how to group objects.
Lesson Five: Getting organized in Canva, creating templates and batch producing designs
This was incredibly useful and I haven’t used any of the features covered. I learnt how to create a brand theme in Canva (rather than saving notes on my phone), how to sort my files in folders on Canva and how to make a batch of designs.
Would I recommend the course?
Yes. It starts of quite easy so it is suitable for absolute beginners. It also is likely to uncover a trick that you haven’t worked out on your own, enabling you to get even more out of Canva.
When I signed up, I was worried that it was going to be five lessons telling you why you need to buy the premium service but it didn’t. Every feature I was shown how to use was using the free features available to everyone.
I honestly don’t know how Canva do it. If you haven’t got an account on there you need to go create one.
Presenter – Gillian
The course is presented by a lady named Gillian who has a nice clear voice that is easy to understand and not irritating. You don’t see what she looks like as the video is showing what is happening on the screen.
