6 Months Blogoversary (Part 2)

If you read my previous post, you know that I made it to 6 months of blogging, so, here is what I have learned in this past months:


1. Starting a blog is not so hard, the writing at least. At the beginning I found the formatting harder than the writing, and often I still do, so my advice is go for simplicity! There are a lot of things design-wise that I'd like to change about the way my blog looks, but, being a technophobe, I still have to get around to do it. I will soon, I promise *coughs*


2. Signing up for NaBloPoMo (one post a day for a month) will suck a lot of life out of you, even if you think it will be easy. When you decide to give it a go after a mere 10 days of being a blogger, you are possibly insane. Yes, I really was! But I survived it and it gave my new blog a lot of posts for the archive very quickly I guess. It is also a bit easier to find your style if you posts often to begin with, I think. 


3. Bloggers are mostly very nice and amazing people. I have met a few through Twitter and I have been amazed at how welcoming and nice most of them are. I am looking at you Jenny Paulin from Mummy Mishaps. You can raise two boys under 3, run a house, bake cake, write a great blog, but still find the time to comment on a lot of posts and be so sweet and lovely. Wonderwoman, watch out! Jenny is after you! 

The great thing about these 'virtual' friends is that they can be far away, yet feel so present, thanks to a tweet, a comment or just a read through their posts. Beside Jenny, there are 3 fellow bloggers who have fast become great friends:
The French and crafty Sparkle and Co. She used to be a nurse, but she is now a SAHM raising her little boy between Paris and London. Her blog is a knitting and crafty fest. I'm useless at both so I look at her skills with admiration. Her tweets cheer me up as she is so sweet and funny and so French at times. *waves Salut* 
The amazing Mette from Odd Parent. She is a Danish mum to two children who got diagnosed with MS whilst 4 months pregnant with her second. Her post about it brought tears to my eyes, go check it out here. Mette is one of the most amazing women I've come across and she is soon to marry her soulmate. Her blog is fresh and interesting, go and check it out, you won't regret it.
From Paris, via Denmark and all the way to Lagos, Nigeria, where Dia from Diary of a Lagos Mum is bringing up her cute son. Her posts are often funny, but also really interesting for me. She used to be a school teacher and is now a SAHM bringing up her son in Africa. It really is an interesting read at every turn. I especially enjoy her posts about the locals and her expat life. 
Who would have thought that being a blogger would give me friends from around the world, but there they are, these amazing fellow bloggers, always very supportive and kind. An amazing side effect of blogging that I never expected.


4. As a blogger, you soon get quite addicted to Twitter and I realised that it is more genius than I ever thought it was. No, really, it is. There is always a funny tweet, interesting news, a fellow blogger promoting interesting posts. There is often precious advice. I'm looking at you Fi, from Childcare is Fun, and at you Mummy Barrow and Lucy Heath from Capture by Lucy. I needed help with Little Miss G's crazy anxiety and Fi was there with tips and solutions, the best virtual nanny ever. Her kindness and interest are heartwarming! It was only a couple of weeks ago that I was planning our holiday to Barbados and Mummy Barrow and Lucy were nearly as good and knowledgable as Rihanna, the most famous lady to come out of Barbados! They gave me all the advice I needed and saved me hours of internet searches! Thank you ladies! 


5. Twitter is also evil. It sucks you in and it is addictive. You think you are spending an evening with your other half watching TV, but then the hilarious MotherVenting is bantering with SAHDandproud and you can't resist reading their tweets and have a laugh. A proper belly laugh! They are two genius comedians! Truly! Their blogs are great too, so you pop over to check the latest post and all of a sudden you've missed half of the movie! Just when you think you will switch Twitter off Ministry of Mum pops in and her tweets are nearly as funny as her blog and that's it. Twitter has done it again. I've missed the movie, but I have had plenty of laughs. If you are not following these 3 bloggers, you are truly missing out, I swear!


6. Bloggers are real people and some of them are actually up for meeting 'in real life'. I have had the pleasure of meeting a few in the past months, just for dinner, like that, for no reason. And I loved it! I had the best time, almost if I was out with old friends! I am looking at you fitness freak and stunning mum of 3 under 5 years old, Kaisa Larkas! How you do it all is a mystery to me, but good luck in your new fashion venture! It sounds amazing! I am also smiling at you Latte Mama, so young, so talented and with such a cute little boy to bring up on your own. I can't imagine how you do it, but your website and business are truly amazing and deserve to be so successful! Go check it out if you want to kit your kids out in organic, beautiful clothes! I have also had the pleasure to meet the funny and sweet Helen from Actually Mummy, Emma from A Mummy Too and Steph from (Just) Above Average Mum amongst others. I can tell you that if you, like me, think that their blogs are amazing, they surely don't disappoint in person! They are indeed amazing women and mums! Very different types of people, going through different life stages and kids' ages, but all inspirational mums to me.


7. Wherever you live, there are bound to be bloggers 'around' you. Living in London I am spoilt for choice! There is the wonderful Postcards from Pramstead who lives up the road from me and who has a great blog as well as the cutest little boy! Little Miss G truly enjoyed his company and I truly enjoyed hers and her blog. Another great mummy blogger living not far from me is Not a Notting Hill Mum, she actually is a Notting Hill mum, but she is not found sipping skinny lattes going from lunch to shopping sprees like many mums in her area. Her blog is both funny and enlightening and in real life she is just like that. You know the North versus South London divide? Well, it exists, sort of, but that has not stopped me from meeting up with Richmond Mummy. She is as sweet in real life as she is in her blog, Like me she has a little girl, a passion for fashion and, to top it all up, she is half Italian! Her posts always talk to me in so many ways and I truly love her blog.

There are two other London mums whose blogs I really like and whom I hope to meet at some point soon: the bookish and fabulous Mayfair Mum and the funny and honest Dulwich Mum.


8. If you sign up for a Project 366, which is a photo a day for a year (leap year this year), you need someone to motivate and keep you going as it can become a bit of a 'task' to snap away every day and post about it. I have found that leader in the mummy blogger behind The Boy and Me. She is fabulous, caring, knows a lot about blogging, photography and life in general and she is lovely too. She posts about 2 or 3 posts a day and I honestly don't know how she manages to live in between all the writing. I often call her captain and that is how I think of her! *salutes*


9. Last but not least, there are bloggers out there that do this to make a difference and not just for kicks. Many have a charity cause and use their blogs to raise awareness. Amongst others, I'm thinking of you Michelle at Mummy from the Heart raising awareness for Thrive. Please read all about it here. However, in my eyes there is someone totally and utterly special in this category, her blog name is Mammasaurus and she is just the most amazing person I have met through blogging. Her real name is Annie, she is a mum to 8, yes, 8 children, she is as funny as she is deep. She has talked frankly about mental issues such as postnatal depression, she is involved in a project for CLIC Sargent (a charity for children suffering with cancer) and she is about to embark in a 10 days trip around the UK to raise money and awareness for Save the Children. If this was not enough, she has also set up Love All Blogs, an altruistic website simply designed to showcase blogs and let bloggers connect with each other! All for altruistic purpose! This amazing maverick of a woman has been blogging for a year and knows no limits! Go and introduce yourself to her, I don't know how she does it and, believe it or not, she does not actually see how amazing she is!

And this is it, folks! There are many other blogs I love, many others indeed, but the ones above and their writers are the ones that have kept me interested, amused, stimulated and genuinely happy to be a blogger. And so I continue to write my ramblings here, but before say goodbye for now, please do go back to Part One of my Blogoversary post as you could win a very interesting book, just by leaving a comment on the post. That easy!