Something Crunchy Mummy

Sunday, 11 October 2015

Saturday, 10 October 2015

I'm back!! Thank you to everyone that linked up last week and for taking the time to leave some lovely comments on other fantastic blogs linking up.

I have said it before but I love the variety of blog posts that are being linked up, keeps my blog reading fresh.

I have the best week last week at Disneyland Paris with the boys and my hubby celebrating Finley turning 4. It really was a magical week and we made so many amazing memories for us all to cherish.

Onto this weeks linky.

Meet your hosts

HOST - Beth | Life-As-Mum | @lifeasmumblog

C-HOST - Kirsty | SomethingCrunchyMummy | @crunchy_mummy

Rules

- No more than 2 posts a week

- Comment on at least 2 other posts

- Giveaways, reviews and sponsored posts allowed

- Link up a blog post not just your homepage

- Grab the badge below so everyone knows where to find us

We would really appreciate it if you could grab the badge below and pop onto your post or blog, or even just a link somewhere on your blog would be great!

Feel free to tweet your post along with the hashtag #justanotherlinky and tweet your hosts @lifeasmumblog and @crunchy_mummy and we will retweet you.

By linking up to this linky you are giving Beth & Kirsty the right to copy one of your photos if you are chosen for Featured Post of the week.

Linky is open every Saturday from 12am until Wednesday 11:55pm.

Featured Post

This weeks featured post for me is by Confessions Of A Crummy Mummy with Asking Bloggers To Write For Free And How To Say No Politely.

------------

** GRAB THE BADGE **

An InLinkz Link-up

Friday, 9 October 2015

Be The Blogger Who You Want To Be

Now I'm not claiming to know everything about blogging, as lets me honest I am still a newbie after only writing for 6 months but there is one piece of advice I would give anyone in blogging, be the blogger who you want to be.

What I mean by this is write about what you want to write about and don't try to morph into something or someone you think people what you to be. Write about the topics you want to write about as in my (little) experience, I believe these are the posts that get the most engagement and are the most popular, as you are being you. And people can relate.

I am guilty of writing posts, which I haven't published as since reading them I realise they weren't me, that I think people what to read. It has no topic related to me but I thought maybe people would read it but it was a post I couldn't engage with so how could anyone else. I have read other peoples blogs, very popular blogs, and thought if I write like that I can be as successful in the blogging world as them but that wouldn't be true. They are popular and successful because they write about topic that relate to them and they write about their lives.

For example if your a mummy blogger to two small children like me, you wouldn't write a post about how to settle your children into secondary school as you wouldn't know anything about this subject.

Also when you are approached by a branch don't take every offer just because you have been asked, and feel privileged to have been asked, think about whether the brand relates to you and your readers. You will find out about your readers by the comments you receive and engaging with them on twitter.

You could also put this advice into real life, as in be you and not the person you think people want you to be. Don't conform into a person you believe people want to see as this will not be you.

Blog about what you love and what your good at, I think this will make you successful in your own right.

Wednesday, 7 October 2015

Wicked Wednesdays #35

Two words: Chocolate custard

Monday, 5 October 2015

The Boys Dream Home - Made Out Of Cardboard

I was contacted recently to see if me and the boys would be interested in taking part in a competition with Ocean Finance to design their dream home. There was no specifications on what the house has to look like, all I needed to do was to let the boys imagination run wild and see what kind of house they would design.

They kindly sent us a white Kid-Eco cardboard playhouse to let the boys imagination run wild.

Time seems to have flown by and today is the last day of the competition so I set the boys to work this morning. I am not going to sugar coat it but I hate messy play! I can deal with colouring in with pens, pencils and chalk but when it comes to paint, it brings me out in hot sweats. But the only way to let the boys design this house was to give them all the options to decorate it and they obviously had to chose paint.

So at 8am this morning while all still in our pyjamas I set out the paints and set them to work. Now at 2 & 4 I don't think they have much of a concept of a dream home but their imagination is incredible.

I don't think they had any set design in mind, they just wanted to paint and make as much mess as possible, but they had the most fun doing it. I am pretty impressed with the finished product of the first two sides of the house, it is bright and eye catching and if I was 2 or 4 this would be the house I would chose, not too sure how much it would get valued at though!

We then left the paint to dry while we ate our breakfast then visited a friends house and when we arrived home the paint was dry. Now it was onto the other two sides. They had asked to colour these two in which I was a lot happier about. I didn't have much input into the painting sides but this time I thought I would give them a helping hand (take one side for myself).

There is grass, a rose bush growing up the side of the house and some birds (they are blue). As you can tell I didn't do well at art in school and I certainly didn't take it at GCSE or A-level but I don't think I did too bad lol.

Now the boys side is a lot funkier and it has a wide selection of things they have decorated it with, I'll take you through and describe them all.

Again a little help was had by me but it was all their input and I just drew what they wanted me to.

First off the house needed a number and Finley decided that he wanted it to be number 25.

Half the side is multi coloured bricks, bright and eye catching with some added scribbles on top.

We have sweeties on the roof because all 4 year olds want the roof of their house to have sweets all over, and some dinosaur stickers.

The final section is dinosaur sticks and lots of drawing and colouring from my 2 year old!

Now here is the finished product in all its glory:

This house is now a home for all the toys in our house - oh the joys of have toddlers!!

Wish us luck!

Sunday, 4 October 2015

Where Am I Going?

I'm not too sure if it's the week I have had off from blogging which has given me time to think but I am starting to question what I want from this blog. Don't get me wrong I love blogging and I love the whole blogging community but I think before we went away I got a little lost in this world.

I was writing posts for the sake of it so that I had a post going live everyday and this isn't why I started my blog. I have just written a post which is sat in my drafts about our week in Disneyland but I really am undecided if I want to press publish.

I am not sure why but I have a funny feeling sitting in the pit of my stomach about it. Am I publishing too much personal stuff about our family life? I think it may be the photos but the whole Disney experience was an incredible one but feels very personal to us. I am happy to show the odd photo here and there but I am uneasy about sharing our whole experience as it was special to just us 4. There isn't many times we get to do something just us 4 and this was such a precious time celebrating Finley turning 4 that I'm feeling I want to keep it to ourselves. This may sound completely ridiculous as I write a blog which surly that's what we do, so what has made me feel like this?

The answer to that is I really don't know.

I feel like I was spending far to much time blogging before we went away, I was tweeting, writing posts and sharing posts from my linky every day. I was feeling pressure to keep my presence known and I think I was becoming impersonal and this is not what I want.

I have posts scheduled and I may still publish these but where do I go from here? Another question where the answer is unknown.

I have lost my want to share our little adventures with the world and I hate it as I love writing about them and I love reading all the comments I receive and the engagements that I get.

Maybe its the holiday blues that have taken over for a while and I hope I will be back soon but I think I need to take a break as I'm not enjoying writing what I want to write. I am feeling pressure to write and I don't like this at all.

Has anyone else felt like this? Unsure on where they are going with their blog? If what they are writing is what they want to write?

I'm feeling a little lost in myself as well so maybe I need to take a step back and concentrate on getting whatever is making me feel like this right.

I will be back - I promise.

My Sunday Photo 04/10/15

Saturday, 3 October 2015

Just Another Linky #23

Thank you to everyone that linked up and commented on posts last week. I have been away but looking forward to reading them when I get home.

Now onto the linky.