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Top 10 Ways to Spend Time

| Suzi Stamp

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I love having a bit of spare time in my week and try to schedule in a few hours here and there where I have nothing planned.  Today’s Top 10 Thursday post is a list of ways I like to spend that spare time.

  • Reading –  whether it is a book, blog posts or a magazine, there is nothing better than losing yourself in words for an hour or so.
  • Blogging – I can spend so much time on my blog, from writing and scheduling posts to developing ideas and networking, it is one of my favourite hobbies.
  • Learning – I love to learn new skills, whether it is something crafty, a new recipe, something tech-related or building on skills that I already have, this is something that is really useful as well as being a good way to spend free time.
  • Gaming – I am not a huge gamer but I do have a few apps on my phone which I like to play every now and again.  I also have an original Playstation that I dust off once in a while.
  • Designing – I love to sit with my laptop and play around with ideas and designs for logos and graphics.
  • Watch a film – I don’t watch a lot of tv, when it is on it is usually for background noise rather than to actively watch it.  I do like to watch a film though, my phone goes into silent mode and I can spend a few undistracted hours lost in the film plot.
  • Sleeping – I don’t always get a good night sleep, partly because I have bouts of awful insomnia and partly, most recently, because of damaging my rotator cuff muscles, so sleep is a perfect way to spend time at the moment.
  • Gardening – I love pottering about in the garden when the weather allows it and there is always something to do out there.  I love how being out in the open, working away, can make you feel more positive and rejuvenated.
  • DIY – There is always some small, niggly job that needs doing, and with the help of YouTube and other sites giving advice, help and how-to’s much DIY can be carried out by yourself.  I love spending time fixing things and other DIY activities as I fell pretty proud of myself once I have completed them!  Plus I get to learn something new along the way!
  • Mindfulness – I always try to factor in at least half an hour each day for mindfulness practice but having more time means that I can spend longer on this.  There are so many positive outcomes of practising mindfulness that I find it the most beneficial use of my time.

How do you like to spend your time?  Let me know the comments!

My Blog is 1!!!!

| Suzi Stamp

Today my blog turns 1!  As a celebration, I have a giveaway for you to enter to win a bullet journal which will be designed by me (please see this post for the giveaway rules and how to enter).

I have also created a group over on Facebook (yeah, I’m back on there and will be talking about my return to Facebook in my Words on Wednesday post).  I created the group Bloggers Brew as a way to help bloggers to network with others, share blog posts and ask any questions that they may need help with and to share any ideas.  I want this group to be an extension of blogging, a way to meet other bloggers and to share any advice and help.  Please feel free to pop over to Facebook and join the group, either use the search bar and look for Bloggers Brew or click the link here.  There are a few questions to answer upon requesting to join, this is just to help the group as a whole, reduce any spam that may enter the group and make sure that anyone who joins is genuine.  I hope that will not put you off from joining.

So, what are you waiting for?  Come and join the group now!!!!

My Best and Worst Habits as a Blogger

| Suzi Stamp

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As humans, we inherently have good and bad habits so it makes sense that as bloggers, we also have good and bad traits.  Today I am sharing my best and worst habits as a blogger.

The Good

  • Organisation and scheduling.  There is nothing that I love more than spending time creating my blog schedule and working out which posts should be written and go live on which days.  I think I have created a schedule which works really well for me and fits in with the rest of my life and the things I want to achieve.
  • Trying new things.  I really like to push myself with trying new things on the blog, it helps to keep things fun and fresh both for myself and my readers too!
  • Enthusiasm.  I am super enthusiastic about all aspects of blogging, I eat, sleep, breathe and talk blogging most of the time! Lol!
  • Supporting other bloggers.  I love to support other bloggers and help out where I can.  I like to share other blogs via my Saturday Shout Out and am currently working on a few plans to help other bloggers too!
  • Blog post ideas.  I have a fab niche which allows me to write about many different topics which means I have tons of ideas of things to write about.  One year in and I still have not run out of ideas yet!

The Bad

  • Drinking too much coffee.  So. Much. Coffee…Seriously, who would have thought that writing a blog post or doing another bit that is blog related would be fueled by so many cups of coffee?!
  • Procrastination.  I am the Procrastination Princess, though I am not entirely sure that it is procrastination that I really have or that I can be really easily distracted at times?
  • Time management.  This is something that is both good and bad, good that I have everything planned to the minute but bad that sometimes when things go wrong and end up taking longer I can get pretty frustrated.  It can also mean that I end up working on something for a lot longer than I should!
  • Doing all the things (or wanting to).  I can get pretty overwhelmed with things, partly due to my Aspergers, but there is part of me that always wants to try to get everything done or try out new ideas there and then which isn’t the best thing to do at times!
  • Overthinking.  Sometimes, I can find it really hard to motivate myself to write something, especially if I have been thinking about it for a long time.  I sort of feel like I have written it already (albeit in my head) and really need to motivate myself to get it typed out.  I had this problem in Uni when I was supposed to be writing my dissertation.

I’d love to hear about your best and worst habits as a blogger, so leave me a comment and let me know!

A Day In My Life As A Blogger

| Suzi Stamp

A Day In My Life As A Blogger

*I would like to preface this blog post by saying that this post is more like my ideal day as a blogger and not like every day that I spend blogging.  This kind of day happens maybe once a fortnight at best!*

Most of my blogging takes place on the weekends when I have more time to spend with and on my blog when my mind is not full of the stresses and strains of weekday life.

I wake up from a restful night’s sleep, stretch and get up.  I prepare a cafetiere of my favourite coffee (Hot Lava Java) and settle on the sofa with my cuppa, laptop and Roxy.  I spend a few hours reading the blogs I follow while drinking my coffee.

After catching up on blog reading I check my notificatons and reply to comments before heading over to my email.  I read through my emails, responding or flagging anything that needs attention.

Once my emails have been sorted I then open up my blog bullet journal and see what posts I have scheduled in to be written.  I like to make notes on what I am going to write before making a start.

I head over to Canva and create some heading for my posts before uploading them to my blog.  I open a new post and add the image header, write the post, re-read it, edit and spell check and then set it to be scheduled.

Once I have all my posts written and scheduled I head to my stats screen.  I like to keep a track of my stats on an Excel spreadsheet, so open that up.  I then add in each day’s stats, having a look for any patterns that I can see.  I like to use these stats for lots of different things, from seeing which days are the most popular to what sort of posts people seem to be reading most or interacting with.

If it is coming up toward the end of a month I like to have a look at my blog calendar for the month ahead which is also on a spreadsheet.  I may make some amendments and change the posts over to different days before adding the whole calendar to my bullet journal.

I then check my notifications again, respond to any comments and then go back to read any new posts that may have been added by the blogs I follow.

Sometimes I have a mind-mapping session and go through my blog categories, playing word association with each category which I find a really useful way to generate post ideas.  I will also search the words using Instagram or google and see what sort of posts come up, noting down any other relevant hashtags that may have been used.

Usually, this can take me a full day, and it is the sort of lazy but productive day that I love!

What does a day look like for you as a blogger?  I’d love to hear about your blog routines in the comments!

David Nash – Exhibition

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I have been a huge fan of David Nash for such a long time, so when I found out that there was to be an exhibition of his work in my city museum I couldn’t turn down the chance to go and see his work in real life.

My friend and I booked the day off from work, I drove us to a park and ride where we caught a bus into the city centre and we made our way to the museum.  The exhibition was free to enter and we had a lovely time looking at the sculptures that David Nash had created.

David Nash works with natural materials, mainly wood, and creates some really lovely pieces which are thoughtful, sympathetic to the materials he works with and are aesthetically pleasing.  Sometimes the wood is cut and left to dry out which creates work that is not controlled in any way other than by the elements, other times the wood is cut into shapes and made into shapes, other times the wood is burned to a blackened, charcoal which is wonderfully textured.

My favourite has to be the sphere, pyramid and cube that have been charcoaled, the drawings behind them are the 2d forms of the sculptures.  Time and again this piece has made an appearance in my school, college and university work.  There is something honest and familiar about the shapes, maybe because they are the shapes that have been taught to us at an early age, but seeing them in real life was amazing.

Once we had seen the exhibition we went to the museum cafe and had coffees and ice cream before walking around Cardiff and exploring the shopping arcades, even visiting my favourite shop Pen and Paper before heading home.

Have you been to any exhibitions recently?  Which artist’s work have you seen?  I’d love to hear where you have been in the comments!

One Day Left!!!

| Suzi Stamp

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Not Long Now!!!

| Suzi Stamp

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