My Blogging Work Space

I have been writing this blog now for over 5 years but it was only this month that I got my own work space.  Our old house didn't have space for an extra desk (Ed works from home too) and so I would balance my laptop on the edge of the sofa with paperwork and review items scattered around the house.  I wasn't as productive as I should have been and when we found our current house, creating my own little work space was a priority.

I only have a laptop and I didn't need a big desk.  I was sent this one from Kit out my office and it fits the bill perfectly.  It is simple, easy to use and it has a pop of colour with the yellow drawer.  It was ridiculously easy to put together (thank goodness as we are so fed up with flatpack furniture now!) and I love the little space I have created around it.

The white theme with pops of colour seemed perfect for me, but I fell in love with the brightest chair that Ikea sold and I just had to have it.  It is so comfy, the pattern will hopefully hide dirt well and it makes my space stand out in the room.  I went for all white accessories for on the desk and then used two photoframes that were up above our sofa in the old house to go on the wall.

I painted the glass on one with blackboard paint so that I can write daily to do lists for myself, and I bought a print from Freddie and Co for the other one.  My new work space is clear, inspiring, colourful and perfect for this blogger.

The desk is from Kit out my Office

The chair and photo frames are from Ikea

The print is from Freddie and Co

The white accessories are from Amazon

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Best Pregnancy Blog

When I started blogging over three and a half years ago, I had no idea what would come of it.  I needed to use my brain after five months talking to a baby and my love of writing meant a blog seemed the obvious thing to do.  I was a first time mum looking to have my say.

I had no idea at the time that blogs could become commercial, I didn't knowing that rankings and awards existed and I wrote in my own little bubble for the first few months.  I joined twitter, set up a facebook page and started discovered other mums like me.  I felt a connection to people across the country who were sharing my sleepless nights, weaning messes and love of prams.

It has been nearly four years since I wrote those first words and I have never looked back.  Blogging has become such an important part of my life, I have made many new friends, had amazing opportunities and found a hobby that I have finally stuck at!

It seemed only natural to share my pregnancy with Finn and I loved coming up with a unique way to share our happy news.  I recorded a fortnightly diary about my growing bump and baby and shared our gender reveal.  At 39 weeks my little Pretzel became my baby Finn and I wrote my birth story and about our struggled in SCBU.  I was over the moon to be nominated in the MAD blog awards for my pregnancy writings and amazed to find myself one of six finalists amongst some of my favourite blogs.

On Friday night I attended the MAD blog awards ceremony at the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington and I am finally starting to get over the shock of winning my category!  I picked up the award for Best Pregnancy Blog 2015!

I want to say a huge Thank You to everyone that reads my blog, that follows me on social media and that voted for me - I couldn't have done it without you. 

Now I need to work out where to put my award that my little monkeys can't reach!

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The Mummy Adventure

I do my best thinking when I am walking.  It seems so cruel that I feel at my most creative when I don't have an opportunity to record it and I often compose whole blog posts in my head that I cannot recreate at all when I finally put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard.  This is one of those.

After two years and three months of recording our lives, I thought I would explain why I called my little space on the internet 'The Mummy Adventure'.  I have touched on it in the past, but I wanted to try and put into words the thought behind the name.

I don't think being a mother is a job.  I don't see it as a role or an occupation.  I see motherhood as a journey, an adventure.  It doesn't matter if your child was planned and longed for or a careless accident after a few too many tequilas on a Friday night.  It doesn't matter if it took 10 years of trying, hormone treatments and IVF or those two blue lines appeared completely unexpectedly.  It doesn't matter if your child has your genetics or not.  That first time that you touch those tiny little fingers, the first time you see those ten precious toes, the first time you hear those little lungs announcing his arrival, that is the very first day.

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Legoland Day Out

I was over the moon to find out that I was a finalist in the 'best pregnancy blog' category for the 2013 MAD blog awards earlier this year, and when they announced a trip to Legoland for all the shortlisted bloggers and their families, the little kid inside me was jumping around in delight.  

The day finally arrived and well rested after staying in a hotel the night before, we made it to the Legoland hotel for 8am.  We had an exclusive screeing of the new Chima 4d movie before the park even opened and then we were let loose with the most amazing wrist bands ever.  Not only could we use the Q-bot entrances all day, if the ride didn't have one, we simply show up at the exit, flash our gold bands and got straight on the rides! This was priceless with a toddler who has no concept of patience.

Taken by the lovely K from My Two Mums

We went on rides, got soaked to the skin, enjoyed delicious pizza and made the most of synchronised napping by getting on the big rides.  We spent the day with

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My Pregnancy Adventure

I started blogging just over a year ago as a mother of one gorgeous baby boy.  I recorded my life with Dylan, our milestones, our days and our moments.  I love making memories with him and I love having a permanent reminder of our little adventures.

In the middle of last year I found out that Dylan was going to be a big brother and so this blog became a way of recording my pregnancy with Squish whilst all the while keeping an energetic toddler entertained.  I announced our news just after Dylan's first birthday and kept a bump diary from 12 weeks until the little man arrived, just days before his due date.

I absolutely love pregnancy and I am so happy to have a reminder of my growing bump, the way I felt and the excitement.  I also love the fact that other people have followed my pregnancy adventure and enjoyed it enough to nominate me in the MAD blog awards.

I am excited to say I am now a finalist in Best Pregnancy Blog alongside 4 brilliant bloggers whose journeys I have enjoyed reading about over the last few months.  I have no expectations of winning the award but I am over the moon to have got this far and am looking forward to the big awards ceremony and party in September!  

If you have read my pregnancy posts and enjoyed them, then please do feel free to send a vote my way.  Virtual cakes will be winging their way to you!  You can vote for The Mummy Adventure by clicking on the badge below : 

  

There are some amazing blogs in this year's finals including some of my favourites and I am not looking forward to having to choose between them! 

Good Luck to all the finalists. 

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12 months of Blogging - 12 things I have Learnt

I have now been officially blogging for an entire year!  I have recorded Dylan's and my life for twelve whole months and looking back at where I started, I feel I have come a long way!  I have learnt a lot, had some wonderful experiences and made some great friends.


I thought I would sum it up with twelve things I have learnt about blogging in the last twelve months:

1)  The community is huge and I mean HUGE! There are 5,000 parent blogs listed on the Tots 100 and there must be so many more out there that are not.  Turns out there are lots of parents who also think their children are adorable and worth shouting about.  Luckily there are so many different stories and different styles of writing that I feel I still have my place amongst them all.

2)  Bloggers can form amazing friendships without ever meeting.  They can come together to support each other and really make a difference when they want to.  

3) There are a million ways to promote your blog and if you did all of them it really would be a full time job!  From Twitter and Facebook to stumble upon and reddit everyone has a favourite.  My theory is to stick to the ones I enjoy using - after all blogging should be fun.

4) It is impossible to go an entire day without taking a photo.  When Dylan was a newborn I took hundreds every day to capture each and every moment.  Once I started blogging I had this passion back again and my phone memory card is bulging with pictures of my gorgeous boy.  I love the fact that I am not missing a thing about him growing up.

5)  The parenting world is a lucrative market and there are some amazing opportunities to work with both big and small brands.  I have been lucky enough to discover some amazing companies and products and love being able to share my finds.

6)  When bloggers do get together there is usually copious amounts of alcohol drunk and some level of devastation left behind.  I met up with 20 other blogggers at the wonderful Choccywoccydoodahs this week, and would be very impressed if they let us back in ;)

7) Blogging can encourage you to make the most of your time as a parent.  Sometimes it seems like a great idea to get out and do something new as I know it would make a great post, but it also means that my son gets some amazing experiences that I may not have gotten round to if I hadn't started blogging.

Our first attempt at puddle splashing

8) That you will never be satisfied.  There will ALWAYS be a bigger blog, one with higher rankings, better traffic and more followers and that can be a driving force as well as a deterrent   I am happy with my blog and where I have come in the last twelve months but I certainly have goals for the next twelve!

9)TV is such a small part of my life since discovering the online community.  It is often on in the background but I very rarely just sit and watch something, and I don't miss it at all! I used to watch programmes for the sake of it rather than because I really enjoyed them and it is nice to focus on something else every now and again.

10) How to get across London with a baby - We love attending events and they are very often in London so I have quickly learnt which underground stations are pushchair friendly and how to hail a black cab in a hurry!

11) I have learnt that in some situations there is a lot of respect for parent bloggers, and our influence and importance is known, whereas in others we are belittled.  We can be misunderstood, tarred with a bad brush and mocked, but the community continues to grow, and parents continue to find their voice online.  The fact that more and more people are reading blogs seems to be evidence enough for me that there is a bright future for the online blogger.

12) Blogging is fun.  I love sharing photos and stories from our lives.  I love sitting down at the end of a long day and remembering every magical thing that has happened - little and big.  I love recording our lives so in a few years Dylan and I can look back and remember how things were and the fun we got up to.  I love the communication with the rest of the world and the interactions that occur through blogging.  I love meeting other bloggers and learning about other ways of life and other people's stories.

Never too young to start!

So there we have it, 12 months of blogging summed up in 12 lessons.  My second year of blogging will see a second child join our adventure and I can't wait to look back on another year in January 2014!

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The Mad Blog Awards

II may not have been there as a finalist but getting to mingle with fantastic bloggers and dress up was not an opportunity to be missed so I was delighted to win a ticket.  The Mads took place in a swanky hotel in central London and there were people on call to do our hair and make up before the big event.  I was very impressed that the girls from Regis managed to curl my hair, and that they stayed in! This is a first and I am hoping that with the samples they gave me I can recreate the look at home

The awards were preceded by a delicious three course meal where I got to catch up with one of my favourite bloggers, Kate from Makeshift Mummy.  There were some fantastic winners including the brilliant Mamasaurus, and the wonderful Coombe Mill but all the finalists have such fantastic blogs that my google reader is now very full! 

Tiffany Rose, a company selling gorgeous maternity dresses provided me with an outfit to wear and I felt so elegant, despite having a rather large bump.  The dress was stunning and beautifully made, perfectly flattering for pregnancy and I had a lot of compliments.  Now I could really do with some more invitations to glamorous events before February so I get to wear it again!  

The Liberty gown is a gorgeous two layer deep blackberry coloured dress, floor length even with 5 inch heels on (and I am 5 foot 9)!  There is a removable sash that helps show off the bump and the cowl neckline hangs beautifully.  I absolutely loved wearing it and felt very glamorous! 

Before I had to run off to catch the last train home (next time I am definitely booking a hotel!), there was just enough time to climb aboard a giant red stag in the hotel lobby with fellow pregnant blogger Katie from Mummy Daddy Me.  Surrounded by cushions it was far too inviting and I know for sure we were not the only ones making the most of the photo opportunity!  

 Congratulations to all the nominees, finalists and winners of this year's event, and thanks to the wonderful orgnaisers!  I would love to go back again next year!

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My Britmums Live Diary

After months of planning and excitement Britmums Live weekend finally arrived.  Armed with my phone, my notebook and my galaxy tab, I set about to record my experience of the parenting blogging community in all their glory


Friday 11.30am
 I am sat on the train wondering whether this was really a good idea.  Only twenty minutes into the journey and I am already missing the little dude, his geeky smile and those four little teeth.  I wish I could explain to him that I will be back soon and that I love him and miss him.  Guilt about leaving him has taken over the excitement and nerves.  The man sitting opposite started eagerly chatting but as soon as I mentioned that I was going to a conference for parent bloggers he went very quiet!


Friday 12.40
 The nerves have arrived in full force.  It isn't like I have not been to events before but I usually have Dylan alongside me to hide behind -an icebreaker.  Suddenly I am all on my own!

Checked into the hotel and it is very basic but completely adequate as somewhere to rest my head after a long day. They do have some strange ideas about what people like to put in their coffee though as the tray came complete with a tin of petit pois! Waiting for laura aka thelifeandtimesoftheworkingmum to arrive so we can be nervous together




Friday 3.10pm

We are here!  Mummyadventure is in the building and the nerves have become adrenaline.

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Reasons to be Cheerful

It has been a couple of weeks since I last took part in Reasons to be Cheerful, but after writing a soppy post the other day, I thought why not make it a happy week.  Here goes. . .

1)   Dylan appears to have mastered the act of sleeping so well, that he is getting up about half past 8 every day.  This is a luxury I never dreamt of in the early days, and I am enjoying every minute in bed past the seven o'clock that I expected.

Gemma, Laura and I at London Zoo

2)   I had a wonderful day out with Trunki at London Zoo (post to follow) and met some of my blogging buddies, Thelifeandtimesoftheworkingmum and Alwaysamummy.  I spend so much time chatting online to them, it is lovely to put a face to the name.  

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Real Nappy Week 2012

I would like to introduce. . . . . The Bloke, doing a guest post on the blog  about Cloth nappies for Real Nappy Week 2012. 

As it is Real Nappy Week, I have a few things to say.

Real nappies work much better than imaginary nappies.  We have tried imaginary nappies once or twice.  They smell better than real nappies but they leak quite a lot.  Definitely not the best option to use overnight.

As with many (but not all) dads, nappies have been forced in to my life.  My relationship with nappies is a bit love/hate.  I do hate nappies.  But I couldn't live without them.  Since having a baby, The Mrs has decided to swap her girly obsession of buying new handbags and shoes, and replaced it with an insatiable addiction to cloth nappies.

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Listography- April Goals

As it is the beginning of a shiny new month, Kate Takes 5 has started a Listography of April goals.  Here are mine in no particular order;

1) I am not known for having a spotless house, in fact it is quite the opposite.  I find it very hard to get anything done when the baby is awake, and when he is asleep I have the blog to write, facebook to keep up with and a lunch to eat without fear of it being snatched away.  My first April goal is therefore to clear my bedroom floor. I said it.  Now I guess I have to do it.  But as I need 5, I shall put it off for just a little longer.

NOT my actual bedroom

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