Blogging Love Survey

(Taken from faithhopeandcharityshopping.blogspot.com on this pin)

I’ve seen this tag over the blogging world and thought I’d join in with my blogging love! I’ve been blogging on and off since 2009-ish, and I’ve had this blog in one shape or form since the end of 2011. Before Stripes and Snapshots my blog was called La Mia Vita Sana, before that it was Coming Up Easy and before that I can’t remember it’s name! Anyway, enough of my rambling…

5 reasons I love blogging

1 – I love being nosey. I love knowing what other people get up to, what interests them, what they’re eating, what they’re wearing, what they’re doing with the hair and what they think of certain things.

2 – It inspires me. Blogging got me into running, into hot yoga, different recipes,trying different make up and so much more. When I’m not feeling motivated to get my sweat on, or if I’m feeling a little bored with what I’m wearing I turn to blogs and get out there and change things up.

3 – It gives me a creative outlet. When I was younger I always wanted to be an author and I used to write short stories for my family to read. Blogging lets me relive my love for writing, and I could jabber on all day to you all about the thoughts going on in my head!

4 – I get to have an online record of my memories. Very often I used to take hundreds of photos from days out, I’d upload them and stick a few on Facebook and that would be the end of it. With my blog now I can share my photos with you all and write some of my memories of that time, and then in time hopefully I can look over them and the photos will have a bit more meaning.

5 – I feel like I belong. I have posted before about how a year ago I moved to a new town for a new job without knowing anyone. A year later and my friendship circle is still very small, and so blogging and reading blogs lets me feel like I’m part of a community of friends who I can chat to about mutual interests. All my friends have different interests, and that’s what makes them great, but it’s great to feel like you belong to a group of like-minded people when you’re so far from your other friends.

My blogging aims

1 – Get a design layout I’m really happy with. I don’t know if you can tell but my header was made using Paint – haha! I’d love to learn a bit more about web design to get my blog looking a bit smarter and more professional.

2 – Try to get to know more of the lovely blogging ladies out there. I read blogs everyday but it’s not all that often I find myself commenting on people’s blogs or joining in with the twitter chats people have. This is something I want to work on, and show people I enjoy what they’ve written.

3 – Continue to have variety within my posts. When I first started blogging I kind of thought all your posts had to lie within the parameters of one set theme or topic, which honestly I found a bit stifling. Now I’ve come to release that it’s my blog, and I can post about whatever I like! Bloggers who post about all sorts of different things are my favourite to read, so that’s what I hope to continue.

My top blogging tip

Blog because you enjoy it and you’d read it. So often on twitter I see people who say I’m only ‘xxx’ amount of followers away from xxx. Tome it shouldn’t be about followers. You shouldn’t blog because you want to get freebies or make money from it. Yes, those are all great perks and I’d love to know a lot of people enjoy my ramblings. But, I only blog about things that I’d enjoy reading on someone else’s blog and if I’m not feeling it I simply won’t post that day.

A blogger who has inspired me along the way

This is easy. Without a shadow of a doubt one of the main bloggers who has inspired me and continues to do so is Laura from Keeping Healthy Getting Stylish. I first got into US Healthy Living Blogs and then through comments and twitter and online snooping I eventually found Laura’s blog. Her outlook on life is so refreshing and honest. Laura admits when things arn’t going quite as she liked, what she has learnt about herself and shares some amazing food and ideas. I love her posts about her life in general and I’m super excited to follow the journey she is starting with her own business. Oh, and Lauraloves stripes too!

If you’ve filled out this tag pop a link below, I’d love to read about why you love blogging!