Blogging has brought many great people and opportunities into my life, it’s hard to imagine now what my life would be with it.
I’ve found it really hard to pick just 5 things I love about Blogging, but I’ll give it a go.
1. Meeting new people has been my number one, super dooper, favourite thing about blogging. I have met some amazing new friends and wonderfully inspiring people. This has made such a positive difference to my life and I will be eternally grateful for how tapping away at my little laptop has changed my life and friendship groups in such a profound way.
2. Through blogging I have been invited to some rather fabulous events. Theatre trips, holidays, product launches and swanky dinners to name a few. I didn’t get into blogging for the freebies and perks, but they do soften the blow of the late nights and early mornings I have put in to make my blog the success it is.
I’m always up for trying a new hobby (if you try enough one will stick, right?) so when growingupmilkinfo.com invited me to an afternoon of craft and cake at Sew Over It in Clapham there was only ever going to be one answer.
Hell Yes!!!
Sew Over It, Clapham
This quirky craft cafe, set up by Lisa to help get London sewing again, is a girly paradise. I wanted to move in and surround myself with buttons forever more. Plus there is cake. Lots and lots of cake. Seriously…Best. Place. Ever. Read More →
Have you seen all the amazing work Team Honk are doing for Sport Relief 2014?
To celebrate the first ever Sainsbury’s Sport Relief Games taking place from Friday 21st to Sunday 23rd March 2014 (where the public can run, swim or cycle their way to raising cash at over a thousand venues around the country, including the landmark events at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park) Team Honk have organised an amazingly exciting Blogger Relay.
The Team Honk Blogger Relay started in Lands End on the 12th January 2014 and will finish in John O Groats on the March 23rd.
Not one to miss out on a chance to celebrate this milestone, company director Lisa decided to host one very special Bump PR Turns 4 bash at the Bethnal Green museum of Childhood last weekend.
If you haven’t come across them before, Bump PR are THE baby and child PR specialist. Better than that though they are just a team of lovely ladies, the type you would like to have a glass of wine if you could.
Needless to say I was very excited to be invited!
We had such a wonderful day eating cake and playing party games. It was awesome as ever to see my blogging besties Katy and Ruth, but equally lovely to have a catch up with Katie, Lucy and Lauren as well. I even managed to finally meet Ghost Writer Mummy and help her convince her husband that they should go to New York!
After cake and games came the raffle – I almost didn’t even take a ticket as I am one of those unlucky people who never win anything. Well it would appear times are changing. I won something, and not just any old thing, A SMART TRIKE. Lucky me!
I would just like to say a HUGE thank you to Bump PR for having me and an ever bigger HAPPY BIRTHDAY for your amazing milestone. Heres to many more happy and successful years.
On January 1st I published a piece on How To Make New Years Resolutions (and stick to them). Little did I know this was soon to land me a slot on a BBC radio mid-morning show, offering advice to my fellow Essex dwellers on how best to make permanent changes this new year.
Apparently yesterday, Jan 14th, is the day that most New Years resolutions are broken. A mix of poor weather and lack of will-power combine to give us all the enthusiasm of snails and the biscuit tin gets re-opened. Read More →
There are exciting times ahead for An Essex Wife & Friends in 2014. We have already launched our #NYNYStyleProject to help you get out of your fashion funk, which is huge! Alongside this you will be seeing many new weekly features such as Monday Motivation, a whole host of great quotes to get you ready for the week ahead, and a weekly set of quiz questions for you to get stuck into with the children, helping to conjure up some lovely family time.
Each month we will bring to you the best of Read More →
One of the top tips was to write your resolutions down to help keep you on track. So without further ado here are the New Years Resolutions for 2014 from An Essex Wife. Read More →
December 1st, the day Twitter put up their Christmas trees. On my way over to Westfield London my social media streams were filled with twinkling lights and elves on shelves (oh and the occasional bah humbugs), Christmas had arrived.
Festive Fun With Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard had invited us to join them at their pop-up shop in Westfield London for a festive day of printing fun. Now I’m not the most creative when it come to ‘cutting and sticking’, I’m much more of a go outside and get muddy kind of mum, but with the coldest winter in years heading our way I rapidly need to make friends with the Pritt-stick and find some indoor activities to keep my little ladies amused.
As we arrived, to what could only be described modern crafting at its best, I could visibly see Scarlett shaking with excitement. Paper-chain making, the staple for any Christmas crafting table, was accompanied by a station for us to design and print our own recipe cards and the chance to create an interactive holiday card with HP Live Photo.
HP Live photo is, in layman’s terms, magical wizardry that makes a photo come to life. Read More →
After my evening at the Hearst Editors Talk, I have changed a few things. The advice given by Sarah Bailey, Editor at Red Magazine, of ‘Take the meeting’ has led to some interesting situations for me and www.anessexwife.com.
Through saying yes, not hesitating around the whens and whys, I have landed in the middle of a pile of real paid work, sat on an AVG discussion panel surrounding child safety online and networked with the best of them at some very swanky events. Real paid work, people wanting to hear my views and being treating as a voice in the industry worth listening to. All because I said yes to the meeting. It was advice worth taking.
It got me thinking, what is the best piece of advice you have ever been given?
The best piece of advice ever given to me, aside from Sarah saying ‘take the meeting’, were the wise insightful words of my boss when I first started out in my teaching career.
It won’t always be this way
The words washed over me at first. He was addressing my annoyance of working so hard but others getting all the credit. I was the new girl, and in the male-dominated world of sport this was just the way it had to be. ‘Be strong, stand your ground, and in time your will get the recognition you deserve’ he would say. He was right, it worked and I flourished.
Those few words though, have come back into my thoughts many time over the years.
Be grateful for what you have when things are good, they could change in a heartbeat.
When things are tough, if you keep going, keep fighting, keep believing they can only get better.
After all, It won’t always be this way.
What a wise man he was.
It’s not just me that finds simple advice the most profound. Haydn, from the wonderful squibbvicious.com, says that the best piece of advice ever given to her was from her Father, and it wasn’t something she really ‘got’ straight way either
‘Make the most out of your education’ he would tell me when I’d moan about school or homework. I never took it too seriously, thinking school wasn’t too much fun and wouldn’t really affect my future! I’d always wanted to go to College and Uni, and I think was partly due to Dad hounding on about my eduction. He left school at a very age, and wanted me to excel in my career and not take after him! After attending Uni I finally see that Dad was right, if I hadn’t made the most out of my education I wouldn’t have the great job that I do today! Thanks Papa Squibb!
So maybe despite all the wide words out there, all the great novels and all the insightful thinkers, sometimes it can be the little things that mean that most. Those can be the words that live with us for a lifetime and really change the way we see the world.
All I know is that no matter where my life takes me, what success I may have or difficulties I may face, those words will always be there willing me on.
Making me grateful, making me determined, and making me, me.
Life has been a whirlwind recently. Last minute change of plans regarding University, the blog suddenly becoming a job in itself, and my quest to become a freelance writer really starting to take shape.
Much talk lately from me has been around how empowered I feel when surrounded by like-minded ladies. Blogging is currently my career. While I don’t have an office, and the banter that comes with it, what I do have is Twitter and some amazing fellow bloggers to share ideas (and a glass of wine or two) with. That’s just what I did this week with fellow blogging friends Alison, Kate, Katie and Laura at the Hearst Editor’s Talk in Mayfair.
Hearst Editor’s Talk
What is it about a room full of people who share your interests and goals that can fill you with such strength and desire? I have attended my fair share of blogging events now and, while I’m no expert, I’ve started to tire of the same sessions and questions each time. I headed to the Hearst Editor’s Talk looking for something new. A fresh angle on all things social and blogging.
Pre talk, over a glass or two of Champagne, I remembered why I loved the company of fellow bloggers so much. Sharing stories of our latest adventures, tales of ‘interesting’ emails we’ve received and our hopes for what we will learn from the next few hours ahead of us, you really could feel the buzz of drive and determination in the room. A collective desire to succeed.
I wish I could bottle that feeling for a rainy Tuesday when enthusiasm is waning and all you’re craving is coffee and cake. I’d make a fortune.
The Hearst Editor’s Talk itself was a mix of stories from the panel (Victoria White – Company, Louise Court – Cosmo, David Moynihen – Digital Spy, Mandie Gower – Zest and Sarah Bailey – Red) and questions from the floor and twitter. Some things were common sense, others insightful slices of information. I did feel at times their answers were a little general, but completely understand they had to pitch their responses to a very diverse audience.
I’m currently obsessed with learning how to pitch ideas and articles. What to say, how to introduce myself, examples of work to include. The panel talked about who to pitch to, but not so much as what to include.
Is there a perfect pitch format? That’s what I wanted to ask the panel. That is what I still want to ask the panel. I need to learn to speak up.
The evening was all too soon over and we found ourselves looking for somewhere to sit, drink and talk through our plans.
Later that evening, at the Dean Street Townhouse bar, sharing ideas, hints, tip and contacts, I realised something; us bloggers may each have a tiny part of the internet we call our own, but if we work together, our influence, employability and reputation can only increase.
A whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
On our own we may be great, but together we are unbeatable.
Photo Credit: Alison Perry
I would really recommend attending a Red Network Event. The Hearst Editors Talk was a professionally executed evening with real information being shared. The goody bag was a hit with us all too!
I’m already booked up for their December event – Be A Power Part Timer In 2014 – hope to see you there.
