Blog Your Heart Out

I was nominated for this by Kerrie at Wife Mum Student Bum (don't you just love that name!).

From what I can tell this is one of those things were you give recognition to blogs you enjoy reading... so I'm a bit gutted Kerrie nominated me  as I can't then nominate her. And I do so love to read her blog.

Rules of nomination are that I answer a few questions and then I nominate 5 other blogs. I think this is a lovely idea because it might help you to find a blog you would enjoy and may otherwise not have found. Plus it's always nice to pat each other on the back from time to time isn't it!

I must confess, since the whole redundancy/self-employed thing I've not kept up with my blog reading at all. I've been completely hopeless at it, as I've been spending most of my spare reading time reading about my new work in the hope of gaining more clients.

Any way, here goes with the questions.

Who/what encouraged you to start blogging?
When S was first born I felt incredibly lonely and unsure of myself. I'd always had a blog before, back in the days of Live Journal when blogging was more of an exercise in angst competition, but I'd not thought of it since. Any way, I wrote something about being strong, just some thoughts that had come to me while I was thinking one day, and posted it as a note on Facebook. My friend Liv, who is @omniphonik on Twitter, commented asking if I'd thought about blogging before. I thought she was being ridiculous, but then decided I might give it a go. That was about 13 months ago, and I've found that actually, I love blogging. I've met so many amazing people (some even in person!), I've had great opportunities, and even been paid to write some posts. In fact, I'd say the blogging has now led to my becoming self employed which I am loving so far. so I probably owe Liv a fair bit.

How did you choose what topics to blog about?
At first, I just wrote about what was going on in my life, and the struggles I was facing. As my confidence has grown I've written about events in my past that have led me to this point: the abusive relationship I left when S was born, the breakdown, various other things. These days I tend to just come up with ideas all the time, about all sorts of different things. Which is nice.

Tell us something people don't know about you
Hmm. I usually use the nape piercings for this sort of thing, but since I posted a photo the other day I can't very well can
I!  Ok, I have a birth mark on the top of my left foot. It's right on the top, where the bone has a knobbly bit and goes down to your big toe. When I was little, I thought the red mark was caused by my shoes not fitting properly, and would tell my parents we needed to go to the shop to get new shoes. Looking back, I'm amazed they never told me to just shut up, and did take me to the shop to have my feet measured. They never told me I just had a birth mark on my foot, and I don't think I put two and two together until I was about 20 or something.

What three words describe your style?
conversational, irreverent, haphazard.

What do you like to do when you're not blogging?
I spend a lot of time on Facebook and Twitter - either working, or dicking about. Or dicking about and calling it work, which is my favourite. I bake a lot of brownies and spend a lot of time making a mess with my daughter.

My Nominations:

Laura from My Life as a Mummy - she has a little boy and another on the way. Pending cute baby/big brother photos alert!! 

Cas from Mummy Never Sleeps - she is quite funny, you know. Sometimes she doesn't mean to be, but mostly I think she does.

"T" from Mummy Barrow - I don't know her real name, but she hosts Ranty Friday which  is a fabulous idea for a linky.

Jane from Ethan's Escapades - because I love her blog, her little boy is cute enough to eat - and she looks a lot like my health visitor (who I love). Incidentally, Ethan is autistic, and I know I have a fair few readers with autistic children who might really enjoy this blog.

Katie at Hurrah for Gin - because who could fail to love a blog with that name? Also her Twitter blurb says "nothing you do is evil - unless you are evil" which I think is an important thing to remember in parenting.