Category: interview

Sometimes you can borrow faith…The Amelia story

2 Comments

Today’s No Fear Just Faith guest post comes from Amelia who blogs over at Suddenly A Mom. I met Amelia as a freelance writer when I was in charge of organising writers for ad features back in the day. I really liked her and used my power as her link to work to force her to be my friend, whahahahaha. But seriously there was something seriously cool about her and after reading her post I’m sure you will understand 🙂

I’ve never been a particularly fearful person. I’m not scared of lonely streets, bikers with tattoos, dogs with big teeth, or cars that drive fast. But, 2014 certainly taught me what being afraid was really about. If ever I had doubts…2014 cleared them up for me!

At the risk of making this a depressing journal of disaster, I’ll give a quick breakdown of what happened last year.
February – got divorced from my husband of nearly 10 years after he told me he was having an affair with a girl from work.
Also February – my stepmom (with whom I’m really close) nearly lost her life and spent weeks in hospital, followed by rehabilitation.
April – found a lump in my neck.
May – spent days and days in public hospitals (thanks to no medical aid), and spent almost all of my savings on medical tests.
June – first op to remove half my thyroid and 5 lymph nodes, all found to be cancerous and malignant.
July – second op to remove the rest of my thyroid.
August and September – in and out of hospital for tests, scans and appointments.
October – received radiation treatment.
November – called off a rushed engagement that seemed to be a good idea during all the drama, but was really quite a bad one.
In a timeline, it looks quite manageable. In real life, it wasn’t as easy. I was scared. But, there were so many rays of sunshine amidst it all, and these were where the real lessons came from.
Suddenly, the friends I’d shared with my now-ex-husband rallied together and cared for me in ways that I can’t imagine, proving their love and loyalty beyond description. I was literally taken into their homes, fed, hugged and distracted 24 hours a day. I wailed in their showers, had panic attacks on their kitchen floors, threw up in their toilets…all while they stood by patiently and told me that I was going to crawl out of this black hole and smile again one day. 

And how right there were! I met the most amazing man with the most amazing daughter. They’d had their fair share (unfair, really) of sadness and tragedy. But, together, we have found such happiness and calm. I’m now a wife to a glorious person and, without a doubt, my very best friend. And I’m mom to a 6-year old who makes me laugh every day. I’m healthy (hold thumbs for check up!), happy and so grateful. I must admit that my faith in happy endings waned at times. But, maybe it was the faith that my amazing, special friends had that counted. 
Faithful friends

Do you know Jonelle of Tyranny of Pink

Leave a comment

You know the group I am part of SaMomBlogs well they are undergoing a awesome new makeover including inviting blog readers to join the FACEBOOK GROUP where they can follow all us mommy bloggers in one place, handy hey…

We are also reviving the whole featuring each other thing, which I LOVED! My match up for the month is Jonelle of Tyranny of Pink  she is an awesome soon to be mom who is extremely real, check out her blog! you get such a great sense of a multifaceted person who is really nice, we need more nice people says me 🙂 she also does the cutest picture/word graphics  🙂

-Tell us a little about yourself and your family…


I’m originally from Swaziland but moved to Cape Town in 2003 to attend University and ended up falling so in love with the city that going home just wasn’t an option anymore.  I’m now married and fully settled in with two dogs, two cats and a baby arriving September 2015. It doesn’t get more domestic than that!


-What do you do when not blogging?


I’m really new at this whole blogging thing and it just doesn’t seem like there is a time when I’m “not blogging.” Usually I’m checking stats, replying to comments, editing images and planning for my next post while watching series with my husband. We do have a “bit of” an addiction when it comes to series. Otherwise I love eating out or visiting wine farms (which was admittedly much more fun before I got pregnant) but otherwise I’m quite a homebody and just like being at home. My absolute favourite thing to do is host family lunch on Sundays where I spend most of the day telling the dogs to stop begging.


-What made you decide to blog and how long have you been at it?


I just found myself feeling really unfulfilled in my job towards the end of 2014. I’ve never really been someone who likes working for others and always had plans to do my own thing “one day.” Eventaully last year, we starting planning on starting our family and I wanted to be at home with my children when that happens and I thought that was the perfect time to just take the plunge. I started my blog in Janurary to document that journey.  


-What was your concept behind your blog?


I’ve always had so much to say and very strong opinions. The idea was to post about taking the leap from full time employee to following my heart and becoming a diversity management consultant (I have a degree in Diversity Studies) but my blog seems to have taken on a life of its own and immediately moved more in the direction of making lemonade out of the lemons that life throws at you. I refuse to apologise for the way I live my life  and I try to put a positive spin on the tough situations we find ourselves in. I think my readers enjoy seeing that it’s possible to be happy and see the silver lining even when things aren’t going perfectly as planned.


-Did you find yourself nervous at prospect of letting people into your life in this way?


Yes absolutely. I’m often hesitant before I hit the publish button (especially on some of my more controversial topics like divorce, grief and death) but then I remember why I’m doing this and the kind of life I want to live and I just think that I am who I am, some people will like me and others won’t but I can’t and won’t apologise for being myself.


-I know you announced your pregnancy recently do you ever worry that your kids will be like “mom why are you exposing my life?” 

Believe it or not, I’m quite a private person in real life so it was an interesting decision to be so honest about my thoughts in such a public way. I’ve always been very careful of the things I post on social media but with my blog it just seems okay to put myself out there. I hope that one day my children will see this as an act of bravery and respect why I do what I do but I don’t think my blog would ever be too intimately about my family.


-Does your family read your blog?


My mother reads it every morning which is wonderful because I usually wake up to her pointing out any grammatical or editorial errors and it’s like having my own personal editor. I love it. My husband also reads it every day and is incredibly supportive of my blogging journey. As for the rest of my family, I think they read a couple of posts here and there.


-What do you hope to achieve through the blog?


I’m happy knowing that some of the posts I write have an impact on people. I love hearing the stories about how people can relate and something I get told a lot is that I write what people feel but don’t have the words to say and that’s enough for me. Knowing that something I’ve written has had a tiny influence on even one person makes me happy. I just want people to know that they aren’t alone in the crappy things that happen but that it doesn’t mean they should give up.


-What do you think about the blogging culture in South Africa?
Honestly I’m so new to blogging that I don’t have too much experience with this. I’ve heard that it can be very competitive but everyone has been really lovely to me so far and I think it’s great that blogging is becoming a more recognisable career. I think it’s important that we as bloggers support each other if we want to see growth in the field. We need to stand together and show a united front – especially when it comes to monetising our services so that bloggers aren’t taken advantage of by brands and businesses.


-What do you think makes for a “good blog”


I think the best kinds of blogs are the one’s that stay true to the blogger. The only type of blog I really can’t stand are the ones where there is clearly a strong focus on advertising and making money instead of on the content. I can’t read a blog with ten affiliate links and content geared only towards making you click on those links.


I love blogs about personal experiences that I can relate to where the blogger just takes me into their experiences. One of my favourite bloggers is Lotte Lane (lottelane.com), an English blogger who blogs about everything from a very frank and genuine place and I just love getting lost in her stories.


-How do you personally measure success in the blogging world?

Success for me is knowing that I’m staying true to who I am and that my words have had an impact in some way. I like knowing that people are reading my blog posts but if no one ever did that would be okay too. I really just enjoy writing so if someone tells me that they really related to a post then that’s an added bonus. I think what’s important is to remember why you started blogging in the first place because otherwise you can find yourself lost in a world where there will always be a bigger  and better blog than yours. If you’re happy with it, that is all that should matter.


Learn more about her HERE:


When white picket fences fall …Ruth’s story

1 Comment

Today’s feature is on an amazing young woman,Ruth Abercrombie (we went from polite greetings on the train to crafting soulmates and cyber buddies,hehe) She blogs over HERE and recently shared about going from being a young mom and wife to a single woman fending for herself and daughter after her husband decided marriage was not for him… (note I didn’t say single mom, I don’t think her close knit family let’s anything be single when it comes to her gorgeous little girl)
“On the day I turned 25 years of age, I found myself back under my parents roof, (technically ontop, I live in a flat upstairs) I just started a new job a month earlier, at an Accounting firm where I knew nobody and my husband, whom I’v been with for 9 years, left me 4 months prior, in search of a better life, fame and riches. (I suppose, I still don’t know the real reason). So does this mean that I’m at a disadvantage? I don’t think so!”
This really spoke to me and I asked here to write about finding the strength to move on and up…

No Fear – Just Faith
To Fear or to have Faith is a choice. We choose daily, sometimes not even being aware that we have. We choose to feed our fears or our faith, and what you feed is what will grow.
I love animals and nature and feel there is much to learn from them. I recently watched something very interesting on Animal Planet, where wildlife experts did a study on the Power of a Lion’s Roar, how far the sound travels, the effects of the mighty roar on other animals etc.
Sometimes the lion just stalks its prey and attack when it’s close enough, other times he uses the power of fear. Allow me to explain… it is said when the lion roars, it paralyzes his prey, bringing about confusion. The lion could still be far away, enough for the poor thing to get away, run or hide, but the prey is too bewildered, uncertain and hesitant to make a move.
The Lion knows the physical effects that fear has on his prey, and uses it to his advantage. The human body also reacts negatively to fear it’s not just an emotional or spiritual thing.
1 Peter 5:8-9 “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, stand firm in the faith…”
When we are overcome by fear, we too, just as the lion’s prey, are bewildered and not self-controlled.  We are not alert and cannot make rational decisions or think realistically, we are controlled by our circumstances. Recently the Loud  Roar of me and my husband’s separation  had me bewildered, it happened  privately but too me it felt LOUD, my world was shaken, I was overcome by the fear of being a single mom, the fear of opinions, the fear of uncertainty and fear for the future, it totally paralyzed me.
I found comfort in Mark 5: 34 where Jesus said to the woman “Daughter, your Faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering”.  
Fear brings about suffering, It makes you sick… physically. Faith heals you and sets you free!
Faith is seeing light with your heart, when all your eyes see, is darkness. Faith is knowing that this (whatever you are dealing with) too, shall pass.
So feed your Faith and your fears will starve.
With love from a once fearful but now strong and very courageous young woman.

Ruth Abercrombie



Come and meet the Kennys

1 Comment
Allow me to introduce you to Christine from the Kenny family blog. She is an awesome resource for product reviews and her twinsikles are just too cute!!! Her blog is awesome you HAVE to check it out



-Tell us a little about your family…
I have two beautiful 17 month old twin boys that have recently started walking and are now running in all directions. I’m wife to my high-school sweetheart – the man of my dreams and also a full-time software/web developer in the financial industry. We also have two kitties, a very naughty Jack Russell and a home that is fast becoming too small.
-What do you do when not blogging?
           
My average day involves getting everyone ready for the day, giving lots of kisses goodbye, dashing off to work for 8 hours, and then rushing home to spend some quality time with my husband and my two little boys. Other than that I enjoy reading, lazy afternoons in the back yard and spending time with family.
-What made you decide to blog?    
Having the twins, either during pregnancy or once they were born, always felt a little lonely to me. I never quite fit in with the other mommies. Looking for advice on how to raise my two little babies only got me so far and couldn’t help me with the time constraint of handling both babies, so I had to spend a lot time just figuring things out on my own. I started writing down some of my experiences in the hope that either I or someone else would one day find them useful again.
-What was your concept behind the blog?
I guess I wanted to share my story with other mommies out there, yet at the same time do something special that I might one day print and give to my children. So my blog is a little bit of both. It contains some useful advice, some not so useful advice, a lot of personal opinion and a type of album/log of my daily life with my family.
-Did you find yourself nervous at prospect of letting people into your life in this way?
           
I do sometimes when I realize all the personal information that I put out there could be used in bad ways. But then reading other mommy’s stories bring me so much inspiration and motivation, I can only hope to inspire another mommy out there with my story.
-Do you ever worry that your child will be like “mom why are you exposing my life?” (I worry sometimes)?
At the moment they are way too small, but I do sometimes worry what effect my blog will have on them when they are older. I plan on rebranding my site and using alias names once the kids start school.
-Does your family read your blog?
           
Not as much as I would like them to. J
-What do you hope to achieve through the blog?
I hope to be an inspiration to other mommies out there, whether it is by using my tips and tricks for twins or simply drawing a little happiness or motivation from our day-to-day lives.
I also want my blog to be a type of journal where I can keep a memory in both words and pictures of my experience with the twins and in the growth of our little family.
-What do you think about the blogging culture in South Africa?
           
Though very young and inexperienced, I think South Africa’s blogging culture is booming to life. Each genre’ has its special little groups and it would be nice to find some place where we could all connect. I love the support I’m getting from other bloggers and I truly hope its something we can keep instead of it becoming a competition.
-What do you think makes for a “good blog”
I think a good blog is all about being genuine. It doesn’t matter what you blog about as long as your message is pure, honest and genuinely you.
-How do you personally measure success in the blogging world
I guess I measure it by how many people I reach through my blog whether it be by subscribers or social media followers.
Social Media:
Blog name: The Kenny Family
Blog address: http://www.thekennyfamily.co.za
Twitter profile @ChrissyK07
Instagram Account: chrissyk07

A step into Chev’s life

2 Comments
It’s that time of the week again, when I step back, become a little less self involved and chat to people who inspire me 🙂

Today I feature blogger Chevone Petersen, who has my mother’s maiden name and lives in Cape Town where my mom grew up, but is not related to me (I don’t think-that curly hair is suspect though, hehe) 
The first time I read her blog Chevs Life I decided it wasn’t for me, she was making me feel to bad, I mean she’s a single working mom to a hearing impaired child and founded Decibles of love, a project reaching out to parents raising hearing impaired children oh AND she surfs. I’m not about having myself feel inadequate, hehe. BUT she is so relate-able and funny and knowledgeable that you can’t help but get drawn in…here is what she has to say




-Tell us a little about your family…
My family constantly challenge my sanity! Think it may be because we are such a small family! I’m a single parent of a 7 year old, I have one brother and both my parents live with us.

-What do you do when not blogging?

I don’t blog often. I work full time and try to learn to surf in between work. I spend a lot of time with my son and do some volunteer work in between.

I tend to write most of my post on my phone’s notepad on a Saturday morning or while waiting for a train/sitting on the beach.

-What made you decide to blog?

I enjoy writing. After creating a web page last year a dear friend of mine encouraged me to blog and, well like they say, the rest is history!

-What was your concept behind the blog?

It’s my space, my thoughts, my experiences. I don’t get to spend much time with friends and blogging is my way of communicating with the world and putting my thoughts out there.

Some of my blogs are about experiences and feelings that I don’t ever want to forget, especially the ones about my son.

– Where does blog name come from?

Uhm, me, ChevsLife – me sharing bits and pieces of who I am and what my life is about. Pretty boring at times lol!

-Did you find yourself nervous at prospect of letting people into your life in this way?

Nope, I’m in control of what I want to share.

-Do you ever worry that your child will be like “mom why are you exposing my life?” 
I read all my blog posts to my son, anything that he’s not okay with I don’t publish/delete. The only posts that I’ve not read to him is Mid-Week Meltdown, Hearing Loss Rollercoaster and Parenting is a Breeze, Right. I’ll read these to him when he is a bit older, before he can access it on his own.  He knows why I blog and sometimes he gets bored with listening to me reading blog posts to him, other times he ask questions. It is a wonderful way to expose him to language, life and some of my thoughts.

-Does your family read your blog?
My parents have read some of my blog posts, but they not really online people. Sometimes I’ll read a blog to them, especially if it is about them and usually before I publish. My brother’s read some of my blogs, but again, not an online person. He read the Ugly Face of Drug Addiction before I published it as well.

-What do you hope to achieve through the blog?

A platform where I hope others can relate and say “I’m not alone”, “anything is possible”, a blog that allows people to look beyond what they see…


-What do you think makes for a “good blog”

Authenticity and the ability to convey a story that draws the reader back for more.

-How do you personally measure success in the blogging world

I don’t. I blog because I love to write and need to share some of what is going on in my head before it explodes 😀 (AGREED)

Oh So Pretty things for Christmas

1 Comment
So I have this friend, Lana who I interviewed HERE she is awesome and we get along swimmingly even if we only see each other every time the moon collides with Jupiter and three wolves howl in unison (that often) She has started a business called Oh So Pretty, which features the cutest stationary and décor items and I thought her products would be perfect for my local Christmas gift series 🙂
 
Here is what she does followed by what she says:
 
 

 
 
 
 
Tell us a little about yourself?
I am a graphic designer in real life. The rest of the time I like to make things – often randomly experimenting with things I always wondered if they really can / would work.

Where does your business name come from?I am not sure, really. A friend listened me through a bunch of options until it finally popped. I always liked the word pretty. (Pronounced: pruh-dee)

How did it come about?
Actually I major in event stationery 🙂 I have a passion for theme parties and weddings! I recently got the opportunity to exhibit at the Pop Shoppe in PE, which kind of forced me to step out of my comfort zone. Although I have always loved traditional art mediums, I honestly enjoy making things other than just a flat surfaced painting or drawing. I also enjoy taking a break away from my computer, since I spend 3/4 of the time I am awake in front of it.
How do you decide on products?It is difficult to – for the first time in a very long time – make something you feel like making. I am used to listening to people who explains what they need and want and adapting that. So right now I just do whatever pops up in my mind.
Do you design yourself?Yes. A couple of the things at the Christmas in the Home expo are from my sisters though.
Where do you draw inspiration from?My sisters are a major source of inspiration. I also like browsing Pinterest taking tiny elements of, say five pictures, and mush them all together…and people. I am fascinated by different personality types.
 
How long does it take to finish one?If it is a set of something, the first one always take the longest. But as soon as you decide what works (and you master the art of tying a bow so the printed side shows the right way) it goes quicker. The designing of printed things take up quite a bit of time, but then it becomes someone else’s job to print and cut it, so it evens it out quite well.
What to you is a job well done?If it does not sell and I would not mind to keep it in my own house.
 
What are your dreams for your business?I would love to do only event stationery one day and have an online shop for all the things I make in between.

 

 

Where can people get hold of you?

I am quite big on social media (https://www.facebook.com/OhSoPrettyStationery) and have a website (which is still in progress) www.oh-so-pretty.co.za
I am also exhibiting at the Pop Shoppe in Main Road,Walmer.