Today we are welcoming Helen from All at Sea, she has a really distinctive blogging style and voice and it is my pleasure to have her here as part of New Bloggers Fortnight.
Helen Braid is 36 years old and lives on the Scottish West Coast with her husband, their children and an over-active imagination. She is a graphic designer who started blogging and has been unable to stop. Helen has grand designs on a stone built cottage by the sea. Watch this space...
For almost 6 months I’ve been writing a blog. I began the morning my little boy started school. Whilst my baby daughter slept I wrote about the emotions of the day, how unfamiliar - and important - it all felt.
A story to match the photograph. To remind me - once I have long forgotten - how it was to be a mother sending her grown-up baby boy to the classroom and the world.
And so I became hooked. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t started blogging sooner. How odd I didn’t realise years before how much I love to write. To weave our day into little stories which become capsules in time. An interactive diary - enjoyable to create, and a wonderful resource for future days.
Perfect then, to be given the chance to write a post for New Bloggers Fortnight. When I enjoy blogging so much, there must be a hundred suggestions or pointers I can put your way.
Yet ironically this post has been the most challenging thing I’ve written to date.
What on earth to say?
I cannot tell you how to blog. I know not your story or your approach. Or most importantly - what inspires you to write.
The best I can do is tell you mine.
Quite simply - love.
Everyday love. The little stuff - domestic affairs of the kitchen sink. In a busy world, full of busy lives - people and relationships remain our most important drive.
They are my focus. Those I love become that of which I write. And in vastly different circumstance we can all relate to matters of the heart.
I do not plan my blog. No routine in place to post every day or twice a week. If something happens to strike a chord - I write about how it felt to me.
How liberating then - when I have never been one to talk of love. To assume instead, that family and friends know that I care. That they understand - without saying - the gaping hole they should leave if they suddenly weren’t there.
My blog has taught me to write it down. My comfort zone to getting it out.
So my message simply is -
This year write of love. In whatever its form. Find inspiration in the places and the people to whom you belong. Tell us of all that stops you in your tracks and lights up your day.
In routine life extraordinary beauty is often found - write it down. The best part of reading a blog for me, is not the when or where we’ve been. But who we were, what we said and how we felt.
We all search for that to which we can relate. Write honestly and from the heart. I guarantee you - that now or then, and here or there - we’ll all have felt the same... x
Thanks so much Helen, such great advice to remember to record all those little moments and to take joy in those we love.
Tomorrow as part of New Bloggers Fortnight we will welcome Suzanne from 3 Children and It, she will be talking about immersing yourself into the blogging community.
Thanks so much Helen, such great advice to remember to record all those little moments and to take joy in those we love.
Tomorrow as part of New Bloggers Fortnight we will welcome Suzanne from 3 Children and It, she will be talking about immersing yourself into the blogging community.