When I started my blog a few years ago I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into. Fast forward to the end of 2014 and I’ve had the privilege to meet and become friends with a number of ladies in this fabulous blogging community.
A few months ago I was nominated by Elle from A Bird in the Hand Travel for the Blog Hop and I was super excited to get involved. Elle is my all time favourite travel blogger as her posts are beautifully written and she often travels to destinations that are on my very long travel wish list. I blame Elle totally for my recent trip to Porto, her blog posts made me book a British Airways flight and for me that is a sign of a fabulous travel blogger – Elle sold me the destination. This is the lovely Elle!
Even though it’s taken me months to write this post there was a reason for the delay. I’ve decided to change my blog slightly and take on more of a lifestyle / travel focus rather than just travel and thought this would be the perfect place to announce the changes. I’m still going to share my travels but will also include more gluten free and spa posts on the blog (I need to relax more – this is my 2015 New Years Resolution). My biggest change to the blog is that I’m going to try to blog 5 times a week (I need to focus on something rather than stuffing my face with copious amounts of gluten free scones!).
What am I working on/writing?
I’m currently trying to schedule a few posts in for 2015 as January is my super duper busy month at work – I work in Finance so it’s Year End and then it’s time to face the auditors, I like to call this time – I’m an Accountant, Get Me Out of Here!
So as I’ve touched on earlier I’ve decided to change my blog, my gluten free posts are extremely popular on my blog but I’m going to change it up slightly and move away from the afternoon tea posts and start finding some lovely fine dining gluten free options in London and around the world – I’m sick of eating fruit and ice cream as my gluten free dessert alternative.
To make my mum happy, I’m going to have more photos of me on the blog, you guys are so lucky! And just to stop all the confusion on what I look like as a lot of readers think I’m Lisa, below should clear things up for you. (Lisa and I enjoying our Mocktails at the Sheraton in Krakow)
How does my writing or work differ from others of its genre?
While there are thousands of travel / lifestyle blogs out there, I’ve managed to find a little niche with my blog due to mixing up the gluten free and luxury travel elements. Gluten free is becoming a very popular topic on the web as more people are becoming health conscience and doctors are diagnosing more gluten related diseases. (My Gluten Free Afternoon Tea at the Old Cataract Hotel in Aswan, Egypt – the most famous luxury hotel in Egypt)
Lately I’m getting lots of folks contacting me via email about where to stay and where to eat as they love my very honest reviews and for me writing a blog reviewing things you need to be 100% honest regardless of how good or bad the experience was. I’m not a fan of reading reviews on blogs where every review is absolutely glowing as not every meal / hotel stay is going to be peachy but I do totally understand that everyone has a different experience also.
Why do I write what I do?
I love to travel and I love to eat. I should point out I’m no foodie, I have to eat to survive like everyone else in the world but I take photos and write about the experience.
I started my blog a few years ago as I was getting sick of all the nonsense that was in my Facebook stream however I didn’t take the blog seriously in the beginning. In 2013 things changed as someone close to me suffered from depression and the blog became a way for me to escape a very dark 18 months. Having a blog also made me get out and do things rather than just think about them as I felt life was passing me by – the little blog got me out of a rut for which I’m forever grateful.
But if I’m going to be brutually honest, my mind is like Dory from Finding Nemo so my blog is becoming my online diary. I just did my round up of places I visited in 2014 and later on I realised I hadn’t included Marseille (and I only visited in November!); I haven’t blogged about it as yet hence when I was doing my recap it wasn’t on my blog so I didn’t include it, oops.
My writing style is free an easy and I write as I talk but without the bad language! I swear like a sailor in real life; the joys of working in the transport industry for years.
How does my writing process work?
I’m pretty bad as a blogger, I just enjoy my trip away or my afternoon tea date and forget to write notes as I’m normally in the zone and just enjoying the experience. But I do have a little notebook with me that I normally forget to use.
My writing process starts with me editing all my photos and once they look pretty I can start writing from there but I need to visualise things again to write about them. I’m so full of contradictions as with my day job I need to see large groups of numbers rather than fancy coloured graphs to write commentary.
It makes me giggle to see bloggers “writing space” as it’s normally sparse, has the obligatory “Parisian” souvenir and very very white walls – mine is completely different as I’m not a sheep. I blog from bed normally on a Sunday morning while eating and yes it’s normally left over scones or cakes from afternoon tea. I totally have no shame whatsoever.
So I get to nominate three lovely bloggers, drum roll please…
I love Angie’s blog and am constantly drooling over her food photos and don’t get me started about her honeymoon posts – when it comes to luxury travel this girl knows how to travel in style and I’m pretty sure Angie has more shoes than me! I’m curious to find out how many shoes Angie packs for her travels.
I’ve only recently come across Jean’s travel blog but was instantly hooked. Jean’s very honest reviews of luxury hotels are a must read and she writes the best airline reviews that you could wish for with such detail that put other bloggers airline reviews to shame. When it comes to Luxury Travel Adventure this girl is number one!
Anna from Penelope and Parker’s Travels
Next month I’m finally going to meet Anna and I can’t say how excited I am at the prospect. I love reading Anna’s reviews and she’s got a lot of knowledge of beautiful hotels around the world so I love scrolling through her posts getting travel inspiration. It’s because of Anna that I have Washington DC on my radar now!
I can’t wait to read about these ladies writing process and see what exciting projects they have coming up in the future.
xx
If you liked this post on the Blog Hop – My Writing Process and My 2015 Blog Plans then why not come and join me on Twitter, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest and Bloglovin’ – I won’t bite!
