Finding Time

This week, I haven’t had the energy or enthusiasm for much blogging.  I haven’t had the energy or enthusiasm to do much at all really.  After my last post, the girls came down with colds and so since the weekend, I’ve been looking after two snotty little ones and trying to rest myself as I’ve been under the weather too.

In general though, finding time to be online lately has been more challenging.  For the past few years, my blogging session has always been when Grace napped.  The first half of my precious two hour or so block of ‘mama solitude’ is my ‘me time’ – time for recharging my batteries with a cup of tea, to put up my feet for a while and to write a blog post or read a few others.  Sure, allowing myself to have this online time rather than using it for chores means beds are occasionally left unmade and dust can be left sitting on shelves, but for me, I am able to do my job better as a Mum when I have a bit of down time each day and that takes priority over other tasks.  My girls are with me 24/7 and since I can literally count on my fingers the number of times I’ve had a few hours here or there to myself over the past year, I feel I can fairly justify me prioritizing my hobby over housework during nap time.  

However, it is now a rarity if Grace has an afternoon kip.  If I’m lucky, she’ll be exhausted mid-week and there’ll be one or two snoozes, but generally, she’s still full of energy come one thirty when Sophie is due to go down.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining.  I know I’m lucky she’s napped past the age of three and I honestly love her company.  It’s just that now, I feel I can’t dedicate as much of my usual time slot to blogging and online browsing the way I used to.   

At the moment, I encourage Grace to have some quiet play or a rest in her room with an activity that isn’t too loud or disturbing for Sophie next door (books, puzzles, dress-ups  etc.)  However, after a while of that and once I've had a cup of tea, it’s time to do something together and so we have our crafting sessions, play a game or spend time pottering in the garden... and hence my online time has become more restricted.   But for now, spending time with my big girl is my priority and what makes me happiest... it just means I have to be more creative sneaking in my blocks of ‘me time’.  Nowadays, in the evening, when the madness of the tea/bath/bed routine is over and I can finally put my feet up, I allow myself an hour of online time to catch up on my favourite blogs or to browse a bit on Pinterest.

I’m really interested to hear when you all find time to be online?  Do you get up early?  Are you a night owl?  Do you browse in your lunch break at work?  Do you browse on your phone or iPad while commuting to work?  I’d love to know what works for you… 

Can You All See My Posts?

Just a quick note before I do a proper post late on today... I'm wondering if you're all seeing my posts in your readers and so on?  I've been fiddling around all week with my blog layout and various bits and bobs in my sidebar and it's really been a learning curve for me as I'm not very technical at all... lots of Googling, trying things out and so on.  I am in the process of trying to make the RSS button in my sidebar link properly and tried so the other day with Feedburner and then messed things up and so I deleted it.  Looking at my low post visits from this week is making me wonder if I've deleted something I shouldn't have...

If you can see this post, can you please let me know with a quick comment...  
Also, does anyone know of a good tutorial on how I can make my RSS button work or explain to me simply what I need to do?

Book Prize Winner

Hello all!  Sorry I've not posted as regularly as usual.  We've been down south since Saturday on a long awaited family holiday in our favourite little town, Denmark, as Paul has this week off work. However, we're back home now (and with Internet access again) so once I attempt to make a dent in the mammoth pile of washing currently sitting on our laundry floor (the worst part about returning home after time away), I'll be back with a few photos of where we stayed and what we got up to.

In the meantime, I wanted to thank everyone who took the time to comment on my last post.  I appreciated your feedback SO much and found it helpful to hear what you liked, to read the suggestions you gave and to come away even more motivated to make a few small changes here. One of the things that pleased me the most was hearing that this space was very 'me' and that my sharing snippets of daily life around here doesn't bore you all too much.  It was also great to have some new faces introduce themselves as it's always nice to know who's reading my posts.

You'll have to bare with me as I slowly try to spruce things up and work on a new blog banner for this space.  Changes will have to be done bit by bit during my 'precious time' while Sophie naps so it may look a bit hotch potch here while I'm in the process of my bloggy makeover.

As for my book prize (which I've since realised was an appropriate prize to give away seeing as this week is Book Week here in Australia), I popped all the names of those who were kind enough to leave me some feedback into a bowl and gave Grace the honour of choosing the winner who was...

I'll be in touch with you soon Belinda to find out which book you'd like... Now it's time to stop procrastinating and to sort out some washing...

Can I Ask A Favour?

In a few months’ time, I will have been blogging for three years.  Over this time I’ve found the focus of my blog has shifted somewhat, I’ve lost followers and gained others (hello by the way to any newbies) and I’ve settled comfortably into my cosy little corner of blogland. 

I’ve been thinking a bit about this blog of mine lately, re-reading my notes from Holly’s blogging course that I took last year along with Tara Frey’s book ‘Blogging For Bliss’ and I’m planning a wee bit of a makeover for this space.  This will be a long-overdue spruce-up which I remember was initially on my to-do list in the final weeks before I had Sophie and which still has not eventuated. 

I’m wondering if you can possibly all do me a favour and give me a teensy bit of feedback on how things are here visually and the topics I post about.  I’d like to learn more about my followers, to fix any issues that may pose themselves and to keep things interesting here in the way of content.  

To keep it simple for myself and you, I’ve limited this 'favour' to three brief questions…

1.      Who are you?  If you’re not already a follower who I’m familiar with, if you’ve never commented before, I’d love for you to introduce yourself.  Where are you from?  How long have you been reading Homely One? 

2.      Which topics do you like reading about here?  Recipes?  Crafty projects?  Parenting/babies?  Random snippets of daily life?  Decorating/renovations?  Is there a topic you want to read more about?

3.      And finally how easy do you find it to navigate around my blog visually?  Am I missing something that would make it easier?

As a thank you, anyone who leaves a comment here to help me out (any time during the remainder of this week) will automatically go in the drawer to win their choice out of the following three books:

·         Simplicity Parenting - by Kim John Payne

·         Bake - by Tina Bester     

·         Blogging For Bliss – by Tara Frey

Thanks in advance to any of you lovely people who spare a moment of your time to give me some much appreciated feedback... 

Photography above by Jenna Trapasso via Style Me Pretty

Pinterest, Blogging and Copyright

Photo by Tim Young for House to Home

I’m a relative newcomer to the Pinterest bandwagon. A few weeks back, I finally took the plunge and have slowly been adding my thousands of images saved in inspiration folders here on my computer to my Homely One Pinterest boards.  I've found it so convenient to store all the great ideas I come across online for things I'd like to try as well as being a great source of inspiration.  My Pinterest boards are a bit like visual bookmarks for me.

I’ve always wondered about the copyright laws regarding images we use on our blogs and now, the images we ‘pin’ on our Pinterest boards. Back when I participated in Holly’s ‘Blogging My Way Course’ we touched on this subject and the term ‘fair use’. Since that time, I have preferred to ‘play it safe’ when using others’ images. If the blog from where I wish to use something doesn’t have a copyright statement, I try to email the blogger first to see if they mind whether or not I use their image in one of my blog posts, of course with a link back and a credit to them as the photographer. With images of products either found on Etsy or other online stores, I’ve always been of the mindset that posting photos of their products is ‘helping them’ by possibly driving more traffic towards their site and in a way providing free advertising. I figure if I’m sharing a product I’d like to buy with my readers and so long as I’m not writing anything negative, the shop owner wouldn’t mind. Occasionally however, I’ll stumble across a photo I just love and on the odd occasion, I’ll use it anyway.

However, when it comes to Pinterest, I hadn’t really considered the copyright regarding use of images. Until the other day when I read a post on My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia. Kristen raised this issue with her readers and referred to a post by The Knoed which I think is really worth reading if you own a Pinterest account. I’d love for you to read it and give me your opinion. Here are a few points taken from their post which made me think:

• Pinterest’s Pin Etiquette says to avoid self-promotion on the site, but its terms say we must be the sole owner (or have permission from the owner) to pin things. This is confusing. How does Pinterest suggest people use its site without getting in trouble?

• Is pinning something with a link back to the original source considered safe to pin? Or do I still need permission from the owner?

• How do I find out if something I want to pin is copyrighted or not?

• If I repin someone else’s pin, and it happens to infringe on a copyright or end up being sold, am I liable for repinning a pin? Who is responsible in this instance?

I realize this is all extremely unlikely and I’m not going to go cancelling my Pinterest account or anything like that. However in the meantime, I think as I am starting out pinning, I will just be a bit cautious about what and from where I pin at the moment until this issue is made a bit clearer. So long as I’m not passing off something that’s not mine as my own creation or painting something in a negative light, I don’t really see too much of an issue arising, but I am going to try and be more vigilant about paying credit to the original image sources of things I find. Hopefully, the way to go about things without infringing on copyright will be made clearer for all us ‘pinners’ as I really do think Pinterest is a wonderful resource and have come across many inspiring ideas, great products to buy and wonderful new sites through using it for only a few short weeks. The latest post on this issue here is also worth reading.

Draw from all this what you will. I’d love to know your opinion on this matter and how you view posting images which aren’t your own on your blogs…

In the meantime, here’s a few things I’ve pinned this week…

DIY washi tape magnet tutorial (image from Christine @ Just Bella)

A stunning bedroom on Elle Decor (Photographer: Grey Crawford  Designer: Michael S. Smith - image featured in: A Designer's World - May 2010

A great Easter activity with a free egg outline printable - photo by Bianca @ A Little Delightful 

Laptop Blogging

Up until now, my computer time was limited as whenever I wanted to blog or browse the Internet, I had to shut myself in the study to do so. This meant Grace could get up to no good while I wasn't watching her and I therefore only tended to use the computer while she napped. With a new baby on the way very soon, we decided that it would be a good idea to get a laptop, an inexpensive simple one that I could use mainly for writing emails or blogging which we could use around the house. That way, Grace could be playing happily and I could keep my eye on bub while still using the computer.

On the weekend, we made a purchase and I must say, I'm so glad we did. As I type this post, I am sitting outside at our patio table while Grace is next to me digging in her sandpit. Last night she came down with a cold (which I'm crossing my fingers I don't catch) and while she lay exhausted on the lounge this morning resting, I was able to sit next to her, and catch up on a few blog posts. I am loving the convenience and flexibility of a laptop.

On a side note, I had my 38 week appointment this morning and bub is still head down since the 'turning procedure' and looking very comfortable. I'm hoping that he or she stays put for the next two weeks now.

Also, sorry for the late giveaway draw but the winner of my fabric bunting which was drawn using a Random Number Generator (sorry I have no idea how to include the graphic in this post, you'll just have to trust that I'm an honest person) is... #2 Sonia of Raine and Sage... I'll be in touch Sonia to get your details.

Image above via weheartit

Encouragement

Photos by Chelsea Fuss of Frolic for Project Wedding

A little while back I read Jessica Watson’s book ‘True Spirit’ and in it I stumbled upon a quote by Irish poet and philosopher John O’Donohue which stood out to me and which I wanted to share with you all:


"One of the most beautiful gifts in the world is the gift of encouragement. When someone encourages you, that person helps you over a threshold you might otherwise never have crossed on your own."


I think this is very true of blogging and one of the reasons why being a part of a blogging community is such a wonderful thing. When I share something on a post and I read comments readers have left, it not only warms my heart that they have taken the time to leave a few words, I really appreciate their feedback and opinions and the encouragement they offer.

I think it’s important that we encourage each other – encourage others to share their knowledge and expertise, encourage others to try something new like a recipe for a new dish or a new craft project or encourage others to be the best we can be in our daily lives as wives/partners, mothers, friends and so on.

Thank you all for encouraging me so very much through your comments and through your own blogs which are constant sources of inspiration.

One Year Of Blogging

After years of reading blogs and gaining so much inspiration from them, one year ago today I finally pushed the ‘post’ button and started my little blog Homely One. Blogging for me started out as an outlet to be a bit creative, to give myself some ‘me’ time and to put my energy into something non-baby related. Over the past year, it has provided me with so much more. I have 'met' some of the loveliest, kind-hearted, like-minded individuals whose friendship and support I have come to appreciate so very much.

It has been so encouraging to see the numbers of those who follow my blog slowly increase and even today, seeing that one of my blogging friends has left me a comment and taken the time to read and share their thoughts on something I’ve posted, really makes my day. Thank you to all of you who follow my blog and to those of you who are more recent to Homely One, I’m really happy to see your new faces. If you are a reader who is yet to say, I'd love for you to introduce yourself.

Next week, I’ll be holding a little giveaway to celebrate my first year of blogging, so stay tuned for more details. Today though, I’d love for you to let me know what you’d like to see more of on Homely One. Which posts of mine do you enjoy the most? Do you have any suggestions on ways I could improve things? I’d really appreciate your thoughts as I’d like to freshen up my blog a bit over the coming weeks.


The pretty roses are above are the first blooms I've cut and brought indoors from our Double Delight roses and they smell SO lovely! Our rosebushes are covered in buds at the moment (thanks to my mother-in-law's pruning assistance!!)

Game and Upcoming Giveaway

Here in Perth, autumn has definitely arrived. This past noticeably cooler week has seen me drag out my good old ugg boots again, snuggle up under a throw on the couch at night and cook some more wintry meals.

Today, my lovely blogging friend Tina from Rubies Place has invited me to play a blogging game called Photo #6. I am meant to go back to the 6th photo I ever uploaded to my blog, re-post it to share with you all, and remember the moment. So here it is...

This picture is from not long after I started blogging. It is the moodboard I put together last October for the Pink Ribbon Morning Tea I held. I really enjoyed putting ideas together for this little party, making invites and preparing all the food. It’s funny that at this point in time I am once again in ‘party planning mode’ for Grace’s birthday.

I am to invite 6 of my lovely readers to participate in this game. As with any games or awards I pass on, there is absolutely no pressure whatsoever to participate. I would like to invite:

1. Catherine from Little Glowing Lights
2. Flick from Everyday Chick
3. Catherine from A Time To Create
4. Sarah from Molly’s Maison
5. Nicole from Bubby Makes Three
6. Melissa from undomestic/mumma

Thanks for inviting me to play Tina, it was fun to look back on some old posts!!

Also, stay tuned this week for my first ever giveaway in celebration of my upcoming 100th post…

Blogging Award

This week, I have been kindly given the 'Sunshine Award' by two lovely fellow bloggers - Nellie from McCarthy Designs and Louise from Illume Design. Thank you girls - you are both so sweet and I adore your two blogs.


The rules of the Sunshine Award are:

1.Put the logo on your blog or in a post
2.Pass the award on to 12 fellow bloggers
3.Link to the nominees within your post
4.Let them know they have received it by leaving a comment for them
5.Share the love and link to the person who gave you the award.

I've decided to pass this award on to the following lovely bloggers:

1. Catherine at Little Glowing Lights
2. Flick at Everyday Chick
3. Melissa at Undomestic/Mumma
4. Catherine at A Time To Create
5. Sarah at Sarah Elizabeth
6. Leah at Little Maison
7. Belinda at Nest Design Studio
8. Kerri at Driftwood Interiors
9. Karlyn at Rosa's Room
10. Abby at Two Little Dicky Birds
11. Lesley at Life At Number 10
12. Rachael at A Room For Everyone

Please don't feel obliged to play along, just know that I have passed this award onto you because I enjoy your blogs and want to share the 'sunshine'...

Hope you all have a wonderful end to the week...

Top image from here

My First Blog Award!

I woke this morning and turned on our computer to find the loveliest surprise awaiting me… thankyou to the gorgeous Anna from Lona de Anna who has passed on the above award to me. I am so very excited! I love Anna’s blog so it is a real compliment getting this award from her. The rules of this award are that I must list 10 things that make me happy and 10 bloggers who brighten my day…

1. Paul & Grace – my husband and daughter mean the absolute world to me.
2. Our house – I get immense satisfaction from renovating and decorating our humble home.
3. Cooking – I love trying out new recipes.
4. Blogging – have found some lovely fellow bloggers and it always brightens my day to see people have taken the time to comment on my blog posts.
5. Shopping for homewares - it's always exciting to find something new for our house.
6. Interior Magazines – I eagerly await each issue of Real Living and Ideal Home.
7. Cups of tea - English Breakfast tea gets me through each day :)
8. Sewing – I like the challenge and sense of achievement (even though each project usually involves copious amounts of unpicking and restitching!!)
9. Beautifully wrapped parcels – hence my love of Etsy :)
10. Flowers – fresh flowers in my house always make me happy

1. Catherine from Little Glowing Lights has long been one of my favourite blogs. She has been so encouraging since I have started Homely One and hers was one of the blogs that inspired me to start my own in the first place. Catherine takes amazing photos which are always perfectly styled and is very creative.
   
2. Simone from Beach Vintage has been very supportive of Homely One since I started out. I love the way she has decorated her own home and I always eagerly await her posts.
   
3. Belinda from The Happy Home has been a longtime favourite and is a constant source of inspiration for me. I love all of the clever ideas she comes up with for decorating and life with littlies. I’d love to be a kid in her house!
   
4. Erin from The House of Turquoise always sources the most amazing eye candy. I adore browsing through her blog (blue is definitely my favourite colour).
   
5. The Wifestyle Files has the loveliest sense of style. It's author (whose real name I've just realised I do not know!!) sources great products and images for all things stylish and I always look forward to her posts.
   
6. Angie and Kristin from Blonde Designs Blog write one of my more recent blog finds. As former art directors at Martha Stewart Living and Martha Stewart Weddings, they have some great ideas on their inspirational blog.
   
7. Candace from A Pretty Trip shares some lovely finds and writes some great posts on her blog. I always appreciate the comments she leaves for me.
   
8. Sarah from Molly’s Maison has been one of my favourite recent blog finds. I enjoy seeing her own homely projects and reading the lovely comments she leaves for me.
   
9. Nicole from Bubby Makes Three writes a lovely blog. She has great ideas for everything from decorating nurseries to first birthday parties.
   
10. Lesley from Life At Number 10 always leaves me lovely comments. I have really enjoyed seeing the renovation projects she herself has been undertaking.

There are three other blogs I must give a mention to also. The lovely ladies from The House that A-M Built, Ada and Darcy and Brabourne Farm have all been so incredibly supportive since I started Homely One and leave me the most encouraging comments. I remember being so excited when A-M wrote about one of the recipes I had posted about :) These lovelies all have such stunning blogs and are definitely on the top of my list of blogs to visit each morning. I would have passed this blogging award on to all of you, but seeing as Anna already has, I didn’t want to double up :)

And to the lovely Anna, I am so glad I discovered your blog. I truly do look forward to your posts – you source the loveliest images, leave me the most thoughtful comments and I adore your sense of style. Thanks again for making my day!