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:
