My Thoughts on Ten Years of Blogging

Today, my blog turns 10 years old. I wrote my very first post on 15th September 2012. When I started I didn’t realise what a monster (said in the nicest possible terms!) I would be creating. All I was doing was starting a place online to recall memories of my daughter, Grace, who was 5 years old at the time, somewhere to share my thoughts and a place to share my poetry. I didn’t know that there was a world of PR opportunities, press samples and days out – all of which have rewarded me and my family with some amazing opportunities.

How do I sum up 10 years? It isn’t easy! But, here, in this post, I am going to share some of my most favourite and/or most vivid memories of the things I have done thanks to this, my little place on the big, wide internet!

Blog Awards

This blogging world was completely alien to me and I was completely unaware that either the BiBs (Brilliance in Blogging Awards) or the MADs (Mum and Dad Awards) existed! So, when within the first 6 months of starting this blog, I made the finals of both I was a very surprised and completely shocked! All of a sudden people within the blogging world knew who I was!

It meant that, the following year, at BritMums and then the MAD Blog Awards I put my best gear on and went to an awards ceremony. I didn’t win – and nor did I for all the following times I made the finals – but I did have a complete blast and I was very chuffed to have got there in amongst all the thousands of other blogs that there were out there.

Blogging Friends

I joined both BritMums and Tots100 when I first started. They were (and I am certain still are) such a great support to bloggers. It was a place where I met many of my online friends whom I am still in touch with today. Steph’s Two Girls, The Olivers Madhouse, Actually Mummy, Who’s the Mummy, Not Another Mummy Blog, Boo Roo and Tigger Too, Emmy’s Mummy and Harrys Too, Emma and 3, Over 40 and a Mum to One…I could be here all day. The list is endless.

At the time, blog conferences were still a ‘thing’ especially BritMums Live – which was a overwhelming but brilliant all at the same time. I was even a keynote speaker at one of the last ones.

My First Review

Thanks to BritMums, my first review was coincidentally a photo book called Blurb. I still have the book with all the photos to this day. I have to admit that I wasn’t really sure what I was doing – but it worked!

Since then, I have had the pleasure of numerous review products which have given my family things they normally wouldn’t have had. Don’t get me wrong, reviewing items is hard work (especially if you have a kid who doesn’t play ball – I am looking at Rex here!) but it really has provided with items that have been great (and others which aren’t so much!!).

My Favourite Trip (ever!)

We have been on a few press trips thanks to this blog. We stayed in Seaview Holiday Village in Polperro, stayed in a Lake House in France, been on a Forrest Holiday, been to Soar Mill Cove (twice!) and would love to go back. We have stayed at Crealy in a lodge – which fulfilled a dream for Grace as she saw them being built when she went there when she was small. I also won a blogging trip with Mark Warner holidays.

I think though, our most memorable trip, has to be when we went to Northern Ireland. There was something special about that place and, little did we know, when we all made the same wish on the Giant’s Causeway, it came true later that year in the form of a positive pregnancy after a second round of IVF Egg donor treatment.

A Dip into Politics

The first time I really mentioned politics was when Margaret Thatcher died, then there was Brexit and one of my friends used my blog to write her thoughts down about Donald Trump.

The biggest thing I got involved in though, was the Saatchi Bill or, to give it it’s proper name, The Medical Innovation Bill. Lord Maurice Saatchi put forward a bill and corralled support from a group of bloggers. As a result, we all paid a visit to the House of Commons to better understand what he was trying to achieve and get behind him.

It failed to progress in the end after the Liberal Democrats declined to support it.

Supporting Charity

There have been a number of charitable causes which bloggers got involved in but I think that the biggest one was Team Honk. This was run by Annie, Tanya and Penny. I dressed up a couple of times, ran round the streets of Somerset and played a part in helping to raise a lot of money.

Gift Guides Galore!

Each year now, for a number of years, I put gift guides together. I think Ross is starting to understand just how much work these are (!) but I would also say that we are able to look after our children and ourselves over Christmas with the opportunities I am presented with. I also supported our local community church by wrapping up a number of these items and giving them to families who aren’t as lucky as ours.

Linkies

If you have never come across the phrase ‘Linky’ before then I will try and explain! This is basically where a blogger hosts a linky party which sometimes has a specific subject. You write a blog post, then you link up and go and comment on others posts of the bloggers who have also joined in.

I ran a very successful one for a while called Post Comment Love (or #PoCoLo) and I used to get up early every Friday morning to tweet out a number of people to let them know that the link was open! I would often get over 100 bloggers linking up!

I handed it over to two bloggers; Steph at Life at 139a and Morgan at Morgans Milieu – and it is great to see that Steph is still hosting the link along with Suzanne at Chicken Ruby.

The other linky I had was Prose for Thought. One where people linked up original prose and poetry. I loved that linky and I tried to restart it on a couple of occasions – but I just didn’t find the time to give it the attention it deserved.

Our IVF Journey

One of the most difficult yet essential things I have covered on this blog is our secondary infertility followed by IVF treatment. In September 2015, I start a vlog series called The Conception Diaries which took us from the start of our decision to go for egg donor treatment all the way through to the announcement of our pregnancy, gender reveal and, eventually, introduction of Rex to the world!

Sometimes the videos weren’t easy. I didn’t feel like recording them but judging by the many people who have reached out since, it has all been worth it.

Our first round in Cyprus didn’t work. Then, Ross and I were runners up in a competition with Fertility Road Magazine which meant we had our treatment half price with IVF Spain and, well, it was down to them that we had the successful outcome.

Rex is boisterous, relentless in his talking and always on the go. Even though he is exhausting (especially given the fact that we are older parents), we wouldn’t have it any other way!

A New Career

It really is down to my blog that I am now a photographer. I say this because you need photography skills to put a blog post together. I have always had a keen interest in photography but this blog reawakened something that I put to one side many years before. Then, Ross gave me a DSLR one Christmas and my life changed forever!

I absolutely adore my job. I have now photographed countless weddings and families as well as expanded into brand photography. Next on the agenda is to have a studio constructed – which is on hold until we have the funds! But, I am about to offer Christmas Mini Shoots for the very first time.

I adore my job and have finally found my calling. It is so true when they say that if you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life.

Final Thoughts

And so, like everything in life, time has moved on, the blogging world has changed and I am less in touch with what is happening with all of my blogging friends – which doesn’t mean I don’t think of them very often. Facebook plays it’s part in the fact that I am able to keep in touch with many of them but, other than that, I am so fully immersed in my photography that I have little time to spend here in this space. That said, I am not giving it up anytime soon.

In my most recent personal post, I wrote about my memories of Queen Elizabeth II ahead of her funeral next Monday 19th September 2022. It is a moment in history so it had to be done.

We are about to enter a new era and, I am an extremely emotional person with wobbles whenever I have to deal with change, but there is one thing I know that we can’t stop. That is that time keeps coming, things keep changing and who knows where I will be in 10 years from now.

Thank you to all who have visited this space in the last 10 years. Your clicks are valued!