Journeys Are My Diary

Life, Adventures, Entertainment and more - A little bit of everything blog!

Just a Quickie!

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Gosh I am so behind on everything right now but the great news is… I’m off work for almost 3 weeks now!!

I have so much I want to get done over the next couple of days and I assure you that a whole bunch of posts are on their way! I’m super late with my weekly round-up, I also want to update you on my beauty education, plus a whole lot more! However for now its going to have to wait, at least one more day!

In the meantime, if you’d like to check out mine and Nat’s new parenting and lifestyle blog, that would be great! You can find it at TwiceTheMum.com and right now our first official post is live and kicking! Join us on our weight loss journey and see if you’d like to participate too! (promise I won’t plug and cross too much but just trying to get it started)

I haven’t heard from a single person who offered to Guest Blog for me while I’m away in a couple of weeks either, so if anyone is interested please let me know (although I will chase up the original people too!)

Otherwise, I look forward to posting loads more soon and I hope all of you are doing great!

Bel

#BEDN – Blog Chat

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Yesterday I deliberately skipped BEDN because the topic was “Day in the Life”. I had a pretty rubbish day at work on Thursday and although Friday wasn’t as bad, I really just wasn’t in the mood to write about my day. I know that’s not really the point of BEDN but I also felt there was no point in posting for the sake of it.

To be honest today’s prompt of “Blog Chat” is almost as off putting, since blogging is still something I’m very new to and certainly the promotion of my blog is something I don’t really do at all, however I’ll give it a try.

Source

 I’ve had one blog before this, but to be honest it was more like a journal or diary – like LiveJournal posts used to be. I think I only had 3 followers and they were all just friends I knew in person. I started this blog in January of this year and while I’d love to have millions of followers I can also appreciate that it isn’t the most exciting blog to read. I’m certainly not a fashion blogger so I don’t do Outfit of the Day posts, or blog about cosmetics and toiletries. I’m definitely more of a Lifestyle blogger but even then I have a very simple lifestyle with nothing much to tell others about. That said I do enjoy blogging and I’m very pleased to have the followers that I do have.

I read plenty of blogs and in all honesty most of my ideas for blog posts probably come from them. I think blogging is really a lot of give and take, that you can’t just be a blogger without actually reading other people’s blogs too. I’m terrible for commenting though as I often don’t really know what to say and don’t want to appear false either. Also due to the nature of blogger (and not getting notifications when people reply), I don’t tend to reply to the people who leave comments on my own blog. Its not that I don’t want to, but I never know if its worth it because the people might never check back to see if you reply anyway.

One day I would love to dedicate a lot more time to my blog than I do. I would like to find time to blog every day without needing the prompts and motivation that have come from BEDM and BEDN. However life is fairly hectic at the moment and I just don’t see that happening. That said whenever I’ve been sponsored or gifted something to blog about, I always make sure I find time. Those to me are important because people have put their trust in you to blog like you said you would.

In a couple of months time my blog will be 1 year old. I hope to have at least hit the 50 follower mark by then. I know its a lot less than some of the people who have one year old blogs, but at the same time I’m not good at getting onto Twitter and chatting to promote my blog, or even remembering to cross post to Twitter. I’ve also only just jointed one specific Facebook group to post my blog links, and I don’t feel like its worth getting my own FB page for my own blog. That said its all something I would like to aim for in the future. I have no plans to give up or ditch my blog as I think its a great creative outlet. I love to write and for now this is the only motivation I have.

Liebster Blog Award – No. 1 and No. 2

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In the last 24 hours, I have been nominated for the Liebster Blog Award twice! This is both amazing and awesome, as I’ve only been blogging for about a week. As there is quite a lot involved, I’m going to put both nominations in the same post, though I have two lots of 11 questions to answer. I will only be posting one lot of 9 nominations for other blogs, as I barely even follow any at this time to recommend. Scrap this, just made some recommendations, not nominations, see below.

Firstly a massive thank you to Amy over at Cocktails in Teacups, who nominated me for my first award last night. Amy is someone I technically met via the internet, approx 8 years ago, but is now one of my real life best friends. Her blog is awesome so you should check it out. Secondly thanks goes to Rhiannon over at The Sparkly Panda, who was the third person I chose to follow, after starting my blog last week!

These are the rules for the Liebster Blog Award (as per Amy and Rhiannon’s nomination post)

– List 11 random facts about yourself
– Answer the 11 questions which are given to you by your nominator
– Ask 11 new questions for all the bloggers that you nominate to with the award
– Nominate 9 bloggers with less than 200 followers to win the award
– Go to each of the blogger’s pages to let them know about their nomination

11 Random Facts
1.  I am a huge Harry Potter fan. I have one tattoo only and its of the Deathly Hallows. I ran (and still run) a Harry Potter RPG called Deckleswood for over 10 years. I prefer the books to the movies, but have all of both. I visited the Harry Potter Studios in Watford for my birthday last year, I have a ticket to Leaky Con this year, and I would love to visit Florida so I could go to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

2. I am a single mum of two beautiful little girls. I have been married (and divorced/separated) twice but currently live with my boyfriend after being single for two and a half years. I genuinely didn’t expect to ever be in a relationship again after my last marriage ended.

3. I know a ridiculous amount of Chris’. My younger brother is called Chris, as is my Uncle. My ex was a Chris, my current partner is a Chris and one of my closest friends is called Chris. I even know several Christine’s which makes a few more Chris’. One of my best friends’ ex was a Chris, my eldest daughter’s best friend has a dad called Chris… and so on and so on.

4. I love, love, LOVE Disney! I have over a shelf and a half of Disney DVDs, my Chamilia bracelet is full of only Disney charms and I collect the Disney Traditions Ornaments. I think Hercules is completely underated just because it isn’t technically a Princess movie.

5. I have a huge crush on Wil Wheaton. It only began in the last year after starting to watch The Guild. After that I discovered Tabletop and since then he has become my Number One crush. During a Games Night this weekend, I insisted on taking pictures of us play, just so I can post to As Seen On Tabletop. I would absolutely love this plush.

6. I have an addiction to buying unique t-shirts, especially those found on Qwertee and Tee Fury. I have two whole drawers of t-shirts in my dresser, one of which is completely dedicated to the t-shirts I have bought from these sites. It’s full.

7. I am ashamed to admit that I love playing facebook’s Farmville 2. Though I have also played facebook games like Sims, Sim City, Chefville, Cityville and several others, Farmville 2 is the only one I’ve stuck with. I try to go on first thing in the morning, midday and again before bed. It verges on unhealthy…

8. My dad died at almost exactly the same time as I fell pregnant with my first daughter. I’m not completely sure I believe in that whole “as one dies, another is born” type of thing, but its sort of comforting to know I might have lost my dad, but I gained one of the most precious things in my life. While its been almost 9 years since my dad died, I sometimes still get a little teary when I think about him, especially connected to my two girls. I know he would have made an awesome grandad and I just wish my daughters had had the chance to see what a funny/amazing/[enter other great words here] guy he was.

9. I absolutely hate shopping, specifically clothes shopping and especially shoe shopping. I don’t really know why, though these days some of it is probably to do with my size and weight. However I’ve never especially enjoyed it, even when I was younger and thinner. I prefer to shop and browse when I don’t need anything, rather than when I have to find something inparticular.

10. I know more Moshi Monster and Moshling names, than I do countries (thats only a guesstimate but I’m pretty sure its true). My two daughters are MAD about Moshi Monsters and have been for almost a year now. We have well over 100 moshlings and god only knows how many other toys, books, magazines and so on. Sadly I can name pretty much each and every one.

11. I can only count up to 10! Haha, not really but my brain is mush, realised I’d taken 2 hours to make this post and only done up to 10 facts! I can’t possibly think of an 11th fact right now, so just go with ‘I fail at counting to 11’.

11 Questions from Amy

1. What new years resolutions did you make? (if any, if not, why?)
To lose weight. I started last year but let it slide towards Christmas. I want to get back on track. It wasn’t really a new years resolution so much as a personal goal.

2. If you won the lottery what would be the first thing you’d buy?
Because I hardly ever have a huge amount of money in my bank account, and lottery winnings take a while to come through, I guess I would buy something within my bank balance budget to begin with. I always joked that it would be the £100 gift box from Lush.

3. If someone asked for a book recommendation, what would you give them?
Hunger Games. This is by far the best read I had in 2012. That said I would also add Harry Potter to the list, all seven books. A few obscure finds would also include: Afterwards – Rosamund Lupton & Before I Go To Sleep – S. J. Watson.

4. What is the one place you really HAVE to visit before you die?
Paris. It sounds like a fairly simple want but despite planing a trip there at least 3 times, I’ve never managed an actual holiday there. I have been to Disneyland Paris (and will be going again in February) but I would love a romantic weekend away (no kids) in Paris itself.

5. If you had one piece of advice for your 16 year old self, what would it be?
Take life less seriously and enjoy it more. Things only get harder.

6. What TV show that no longer airs do you miss most?
Tru Calling. To be honest I miss pretty much every good show that got cancelled midway, but Tru Calling was so good and didn’t even make it past 3 episodes into the second series. Such a shame.

7. What one hobby do you wish you’d pursued?
Acting. I know I still could technically, but its much harder with children. I feel sure both my daughters have the ability to be amazing actresses and I’m not sure if I’d be pleased for them or incredibly jealous!

8. If you could time travel to what age, what one would you go to and why?
Something in the future I think, something unknown and not discovered yet. It would be much more exciting than traveling back I think. Failing that I’d like to find myself a Doctor Who and see it all.

9. What is the thing you most find attractive about the opposite sex? (or same, I’m pro equal rights)
Sense of humour. While looks grab your attention sometimes, its not the be all and end all. Someone who can make you laugh and genuinely happy is the biggest attraction for me.

10. Who/what is your blogger inspiration?
At the moment, me. I’m still just finding my feet and figuring out what I want to blog about. That said the blog I’ve been reading the longest is that of Amy.

11. And finally… coffee or tea?
Tea, definitely tea. In the last 3 days we’ve managed to make it through SO many teabags, and only 2 out of 4 people in this house were drinking it (the other two on coffee). Unlike some people I don’t have tea at sometimes and coffee at others, I nearly ALWAYS have tea. That said, if I go to “meet someone for coffee”, I do purchase coffee. One of my favourite things about Christmas is also when the Starbucks red cups arrive and then I can’t live without Gingerbread Latte.

11 Questions from Rhiannon

1. If you are stuck on a desert island what 3 things would you want with you?
A part of me wants to say my children, but at the same time I’d hate for them to be stuck on a desert island (and I think we might possibly kill each other if we spent too much time alone, just the three of us). Therefore I’ll go with my Kindle (fully stocked with heaps to read), a nice comfy pillow and… wait for the soppy part, my partner.

2. Do you have a hidden talent?
I can open beer bottles with my teeth, if that’s a hidden talent?

3. Dress/Skirt or trousers to wear for the rest of your life?
Trousers, 100% – specifically jeans. I live day in, day out, in jeans and a t-shirt.

4. What’s your favourite flavour of cupcake?
Really boring and really simple, just something chocolate (but not white chocolate). I’m not a massive fan of cupcakes mind you.

5. What are you biggest blog inspirations?
I suppose to build up some followers who are genuinely interested in what I have to say. Right now I’m just enjoying it for my own sake and hoping that it will kick me into writing other (maybe more useful) things.

6. 10 years from now, where do you want to be?
I would love to be a famous author. Not famous for the fame exactly, just famous in the sense of known, appreciated and anticipated. I’d like to be able to write for a living.

7. What is the one food you could live on forever?
Pizza. Definitely Pizza. In fact, for two years of my life, myself, my brother and our mutual friend, pretty much did. We were broke post of the time and they both worked at Frankie and Benny’s.

8. What is your favourite day of the year?
Probably Christmas. Not for my own gifts, but for my kids. I love how excited they get, how pleased they are. I love the family feeling that Christmas Day gives, how everyone tries to get along, not argue, make the day special etc. While its expensive and a huge build up for just one day, I always think its so worth it, just for the happiness that can come from the kids.

9. Morning or night person?
Night. I’m a terrible morning person. While I can get straight up and out of bed (you get used to it with children) I’d much rather lay in bed, never get out until I wanted to. At night I always just feel like there aren’t enough hours or free time without children, before being practical and getting some sleep.

10. How do you spend your free time?
Recently my life has been going through a lot of changes, so its hard to say overall. I guess right now I spend it catching up on a bit of TV (love Sky +), playing Farmville 2 and writing my blog.

11. Why did you start blogging?
Its something I’ve tried a couple of times before but never really stuck to. I’ve always had a lot of other stuff going on that required a lot of writing and I think my creativeness got all used up. Now I’m looking for an outlet for my writing and blogging seems to be it.

My Blog Nominations

This is supposed to be a nomination of 9 people, however I only currently follow 8 blogs (I only started a week ago). Of those 8 blogs, only 4 qualify for this award (under 200 followers) and 2 of those are the people who nominated me. Of the remaining two people who qualify, one is Kate at Just Pirouette and Carry On, but she has been nominated by both the people I was and I’ve found two more than enough to handle, without giving her a third. Finally that leaves Lindsey at The Mouse Linguist – a friend I knew outside the blogging world, just uprooted her life and living in Korea. I have no idea if she’s really looking for followers or not but you should check out her blog and see what you think.

As such I’m not going to nominate anyone at this time. However having looked through both The Sparkly Panda‘s nominations and Cocktails in Teacup‘s nominations, here are a few more blogs I have added today.

What Laura Did
Indigo Buttons
Future Freaks Me
XOXO Sam
Cat’s Chronology

Customisation

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I’ve started to spend a little time customising my blog today. Though I’ve only had my blog a few days anyway, this is also the first opportunity I’ve had for a few hours in the house by myself, for exactly two weeks! Owing to either my partner’s days off, or my eldest child and then my youngest child being off school ill, I’ve not had any completely free time since 11th January.

So having laid in bed till 10am, had tea with my mum till 11am, I then decided to catch up on all the blog posts that I was too tired to read last night (and of course not forgetting my morning dose of Farmville 2 – please don’t judge me lol). After I was done with all that, I set about customising my layout a little, partly because of some things I seen or read, but also because its something I’ve been meaning to do.

As you will see, I now have a pretty new title banner at the top of my blog. I also have a button (thanks to The Closet Intellectual) and have added buttons to the four people I currently follow. I’m interested in
doing some more customisation too, but I think that will have to wait until I have more time to browse and fiddle (I’ve only just had breakfast and I’m still not dressed yet, my partner will be home from work in an hour, I have to take a car for a test drive, then finally pick the kids up in just over two hours time). Of course if anyone can help point me in the direction to either a blog that helps you fiddle, or even just tell me yourselves, that would be great. I’m interested in a nice layout though nothing on blogger grabs me – but more specifically how to set my own background wallpaper I guess. I’d also be interested to know how you can get this button at the end of each post (I’m wanting the multiple share options that the orange button provides!).

I think those are the main things for now, though I imagine the more I fiddle, the more I’ll want to fiddle. Anyway I better shift my ass and go do something useful or else today is going to fly by so fast. I have dinner to cook and a Games Night to host this evening, so its unlikely I’ll have any more spare time today.

Three out of three!

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Well this is day three of my new blogging life and actually my third post too. So far, so good I guess!

I don’t really have something specific that I want to blog about today, so instead I’m hoping inspiration will hit me as I type. I do have a few things I want to cover in blog posts, but unfortunately I always seem to leave my blogging till so late (its 10.30pm again!) and then I know it will take too long to fully cover the topic I want to write about.

I got my first follower today – so yay! Her name is Kate and she can be found at: justpirouetteandcarryon

I have to be honest, I’m not really sure how to go about getting followers. Is there somewhere to advertise yourself? Or do you just add people and hope they add you back? I’ve been considering placing the link for my blog on Facebook but I’m not completely sure I want all my friends following this. I also wondered about tumblr but that seems a little like throwing a pebble out into the ocean. I have already posted to twitter a few times, but I also know there aren’t that many people on twitter who follow me. Anyway, just a random musing I suppose.

With a similar thought in mind, where is the best place to find good blogs to read? I’ve stumbled across plenty of “fashion blogs” but to be honest they’re not really my thing. I don’t mind the odd post or two about fashion, but I’m so fashion-backwards, that most of the time that stuff just bores me. I suppose it would help if I could decide what kind of thing I’d like to read about and then maybe I could at least narrow down my blog genre searches.

Anyway, tomorrow I fear might be the first day that I don’t manage to make a post. I’m going to try super hard but its my partner’s day off and I also don’t have the kids tomorrow night, so I have a feeling we might be “date night”ing. I know we have a list of sensible things to get done in the daytime, but evening has been discussed as dinner and a movie perhaps (though the former won’t help my diet I imagine). That said, I’m sure a dinner and movie review could pad out a blog post, so all clouds have a silver lining as they say? This weekend we’re also have two “games nights”, so those too could make for blog posts of the future.

However for tonight I’m going to end it there. I feel a little like I’m forcing my brain to come up with words that make sense, and that really I just want to go to bed. So that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Goodnight!

Day Two – bloglagging…

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Day Two and I’m already struggling to find time to blog! Not a good start. I suppose it doesn’t help that I haven’t told my other half I’m writing a blog and therefore when he says “let’s sit and watch a movie”, I can’t exactly say “but I have my blog to update!” I mean, its not a secret, but I just haven’t mentioned it. Maybe its because I don’t want him reading it? Or perhaps cos I don’t know how long I’ll stick at it? Or even just that he might not get why I’m bothering? Anyway he’s settled down for an hour or so on his Xbox and so I figured the first thing I would do is update my blog.

So I’ve had several things go through my head about what I want to write about. I should probably write them down before I forget to be honest, but I’m going to start with making this blog, its name and a fun little generator I found while trying to come up with a name.

The address of my blog is “journeys are my diary” (journeysaremydiary.blogspot.com). This is actually the first name I came up with, via a little help from a tumblr name generator. Though I’d wanted to start a blog for a few days, names always seem to be the hard part as far as I’m concerned. I go through phases of usernames and when life moves on a little, you sometimes look back and think “that just isn’t really suitable any more”. That’s how I felt about my last wave of usernames (which was dontletmefade for anyone interested) and so a new blog called for a change. I googled “how to come up with a good name for a blog” and similar searches, and on only the second or third link I clicked, came across a name generator for tumblr usernames (I think via yahoo answers actually).

The url for the generator is this – http://www.mookychick.co.uk/games/tumblr-name-generator.php
You don’t need to enter any information, it just provides you with random names. Its actually pretty fun, clearly tumblr orientated (you’ll see what I mean if you use it) but actually sort of perfect for blog names too. “journeysaremydiary” was actually the first thing it threw up and for some reason I just liked it. I opened up a notepad file and copied the name down, beginning searching again – this time at 50 names a pop. I came across a few amusing ones and even a few other options. Two more I liked were “notsosecretcircus” (sort of feels like my life and house are a circus sometimes) and “dreamthinklive” (which seems like good words to live by). All of them were available on blogger, but I think the original one stuck with me the most and so I went for that.

‘Journeys are my diary’ seems to me like a good name for something that spans your whole life. By that I don’t necessarily mean all the years of my life, but more the whole spectrum that is my life. They say that Life is a Journey and not a Destination – the title I gave to my blog. However when I did a little googling I also found things like “Life is a journey and only you hold the map” or “Life is a journey, not a guided tour”. Not matter what the exact quote is though, the concept is the same. And therefore every journey (that makes up the life journey) are in essence, my diary entries. Ultimately this is the reason that I came up with and went with, my blog name.

I’m going to end it there as I have a few other things I should be doing. However as with today, tomorrow I will make an effort again, to at least make one blog entry. If you’re actually reading this, then thanks. I’m not sure how or why you’ve stumbled across it, but I’m flattered that you at least got this far.

New blog… new blogger?

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I’ve always fancied being a blogger, but never really known what to blog about. I’m also incredibly faddy and so when I start something new, I rarely stick with it. However fingers crossed I’m going to give this blogging thing a real go this time and see how I get on.

So at the point of writing this, I have zero followers. I’m not totally sure I’m blogging for that reason, though I guess ultimately it should be one of several goals – to get some people to follow or at least read occasionally. Its 10pm at night and I’m actually going to crash into bed shortly, but I at least wanted to make a start here, having just created the blog.

My name is Bel, its short for Belinda but I very rarely use my full name. I’m 33 years old, a single mum and I have two children (Megan and Lily) who are 8 and 4 years old. I’m currently self employed, or possibly unemployed, and trying to figure out what to do with my life. I’m 3 months into a new relationship (exactly 3 today in fact), its the beginning of 2013 and I thought perhaps now was a good time to blog about my life.

For now that’s all I’m going to say, but I’ll make time to blog again tomorrow.

Goodnight!