Blogger Recognition Award

Accepting the Blogger Recognition Award

The excitement that I am overcome with, when nominated for these blogger awards is unexplainable. It is truly an amazing honor. I want to give a huge “Thank You!” to Amy from ‘Yukon Mama of Four‘ for nominating ‘Ettie and Me’ for the “Bloggers Recognition Award.”

What is the Blogger Recognition Award?

The Blogger Recognition Award is given to bloggers by bloggers to show appreciation for the hard work and dedication put into their blog. This is an amazing award to be presented with, because from my experience starting a new blog is, “No walk in the park.” It requires tons of energy, time, patience and a wide variety of skills–some of which you might have to learn. So, receiving this award is a great honour and each blogger who receives it should be proud of what they have accomplished, but should also remember this isn’t the finish line, just a milestone. There is always more growth and knowledge to obtain. Take this award wear it with pride and keep building your blog.

What Is ‘Yukon Mama of Four’ and who is Amy?

Amy as you may have guessed is Mom to four adorable children and married to the lovely Ben. Together they live in Yukon, northern Canada after having moved there from British Columbia eight years ago. Amy has a passion for helping others and finds that now she’s a Mom she can relate to and support other mothers using her experiences and making them feel less alone. Amy started her blog to encourage other Moms who are struggling with mom life, or is aimed at giving hope and love to other mums who are struggling with life as a mum, or just ‘wading through the chaos’ or even ‘fighting their way through a fitness journey’. Amy’s ethos is that

‘We’re all great parents and we all need some help, support or a good laugh every once and a while!‘

What is ‘Ettie and Me’ My Blog’s Story:

I started Ettie and Me because I love to write and wanted to give the creative side of my brain a little workout! I’ve always kept a diary, particularly when we’ve been travelling as I  love to record our adventures. Unfortunately my travel diaries tend to be on scrappy pieces of paper or water damaged notebooks that have fallen into the sea! I figured I was much less likely to lose or damage a blog (I hope!) so here we are!

Ettie and Me has the rather strange combined focus of home renovation and motherhood! I mean the two sit perfectly together right(??) I wasn’t sure which route to go down when starting my blog and the advice I read said to just ‘be yourself’! When I’m not parenting, I’m generally painting so I decided it might be interesting to combine the two. I’m sure there are others out there in the same boat as me!

On the motherhood side, EttieandMe is about our adventures together. We love a good day out, so I offer a lot of advice on places to go with a one year old – obviously this will change as she gets older!

On the home renovation side, we are currently in the process of renovating our second home, a 1930 Semi, so I talk a little about that, and intend to feature our room makeovers – once we finally get any finished!

Finally, I’m an avid supporter of small brands, particularly those created and developed by mothers. I include a small section on my site dedicated to Amazing Mamas and their beautiful insta shops. This is an area I’m hoping to expand more in the future.

My Advice to new Bloggers:

The three biggest pieces of advice are

1. Be yourself!  Its so easy to get distracted by other blogs that have amazing content and beautiful pictures. But sometimes looking at what others are doing can prevent you from getting creative and stepping outside of your comfort zone. My best advice would be to read other blogs and enjoy them but don’t compare yourself to them. If you want to blog, do it for your own enjoyment. Ignore the fact that anyone else will read it; just focus on your thoughts, ideas, opinions and figure out how to put them into words. That way, its more likely that your own personality will shine through and its personalities people relate to, rather than just pretty pictures! Each and every one of us is different in our own way and that’s why blogging is so diverse. My favourite blogging moto is: ‘Write like no-ones reading’

2. Write good content. That said, its no good writing any old thing and expecting your readers to stay interested. Whatever you publish, try to make it interesting and something you yourself would enjoy reading. Also make sure there are no simple spelling or gramaitcal errors, as those are just down right annoying! ; and finally

3. Don’t forget to promote your site. I  completely underestimated the level of time which goes into promotion and its something I’ve found hard getting to grips with, but the more I promote an article, the more I get used to it, so hopefully i’ll get to grips with it in the future. I write more about the lessons I learned during my first three months of blogging here.

Thanks again Amy for nominating me for this award.

My Nominations Are:

1. Sumra at Sweet Dreamer
2. Natalie at Crazy Little Thing Called Love
3. Tiffany at –Little Me London
4. Marylin at Soft Thistle
5. Nicoletta Chua at The Travellers Diari
6. Melissa at My Chirpi Life
7. Gráinne at The Perfect Life of Us
8. Rochelle at Rhubarb and Wren
9. Hannah at Little Snippets
10. Emma at Honestly Emma

RULES FOR ACCEPTING THIS AWARD:

• Take the time to thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link to their blog
• Write a post to show your award
• Give a brief story how your blog started
• Give pieces of advice to new bloggers
• Select 10-15 other bloggers you want to give this award to
• Comment on each blog and let them know you have nominated them, provide the link to the post you created

With Love