Post Comment Love and Blogger Showcase 19-21 May 2017

Hello and welcome to another Friday and this week's Post Comment Love. If you were here last week, thank you, it was good to see you, and I'll be over soon, I'm not sure where the time has gone this week. If you're new here this week, welcome, it's great to have you along and you'll find us a friendly community and Morgan and I can guarantee you a whole host of interesting posts to read.

As I've mentioned already it's felt like a week where time has disappeared, although I'm not sure where. We spent most of the weekend outside completing more of our landscaping project and then trying to reclaim our allotment from the poppies, not weeds, for a change. There's been an evening of sowing seeds and a couple of nights out as well. And then there's been the rain, hasn't there?

My photo this week is a nod to the weather, but only a small nod, because let's face it a picture of the amount of rain we've had in the past couple of days wouldn't be pretty at all.

The BritMums Brilliance in Blogging awards opened this week in the blogging world, and if you'd consider my blog then I'd be very pleased and flattered. I don't expect to win, but a nomination is always welcome. Here's the categories, if you're stuck for which category I'd suggest Photo or perhaps Readers' Choice, but who knows you might have different thoughts, and that's entirely fine.

Blogger Showcase: Samantha from A Thousand Yellow Daisies

1. Who are you? 

I am a freelance creative blogger and designer. I write articles for my own blog and guest pieces across a range of topics in the creative industry from fashion & creative space to creative start up and product/service pricing. I am also currently writing a series of small creative business features and a piece about art therapy.

As a designer I run the company A Thousand Yellow Daisies, we offer some corporate graphic design services but our main focus is pattern design, illustration and hand lettering which are produced onto a range of homewares, stationery and fabric etc. with a new range of wedding stationary due to be launched soon. 

2. How did you discover blogs/blogging?

I have been blogging for myself for years, I always enjoyed blogging and found that a more interesting way of showcasing my design work than a standard online portfolio. 

3. Why did you start blogging?

I took a break from blogging as I reached the final stages of my degree as it was too much to manage at once. I lost touch with blogging for a while at this point and picked it back up a little as a way of promoting my new company. I remembered how much I love blogging and creative writing so started hunting for opportunities to blog more. I found a position as guest blogger with a fabric print company, I had such a positive experience and great feedback with the owner suggesting I should start taking up more paid blogging roles. 

4. What do you find most challenging?

Currently my biggest challenge is finding enough paid roles. Most of the roles in my area of expertise are unpaid guest roles. I love writing and rarely turn any of these opportunities down, but it does make it difficult to find enough work as I am aiming to be able to become a full-time freelance blogger and designer. 

5. What is your favourite topic to write about?

I love writing about anything within the creative industry. I have such a passion for creativity and find that even topics that are outside my personal experience and expertise such as fashion are fascinating to research and so interesting to write about.

6. Are you blogging for fun or do you have goals?

I would love to be able to blog as part of my career. I plan to always keep designing, but the two fit so well together while being different enough to give a lovely variety of work. I aim to get to the point where I can be designing and blogging full time.

7. What is your favourite thing about blogging?

I love the writing, having to consider your thoughts and find a way of getting your thoughts, opinions and knowledge onto paper (or screen!) in a way that is relatable while informative and understandable to an audience. I have also always loved to learn, for my entire life I have loved academia.

Blogging gives me the opportunity to do that again. I research my topic for pretty much every article, no matter how well I think I know the subject, you can always know more. With every article I write I get to learn something new, and I realise how much I knew about the topic without having even realised, which is always very fun!

8. Have you ever attended a blogging conference and if so, what did you think?

No I haven't. I do think that would be an amazing experience though.

9. What are your 3 best posts?

I am immensely proud of my first guest blog as I got amazing feedback, reached a much larger audience than they usually do and felt I covered the topic well despite knowing nothing about fashion when I took the project on! It's also the piece that made me take blogging seriously and want to get into it as a career. 

The second and third pieces I am most proud of are a three part article for Print and Press about how to price for product, service and freelance. I am also writing a series of feature pieces on my own blog.  I've used their stories to find a theme to each feature and am very excited to start releasing these. 

10. Describe yourself in three words!

Creative, passionate, motivated.

11. Are you a tea and biscuits or coffee and cake person?

Coffee and cake everytime!

12. What's your idea of a perfect night out?

A couple of my closest friends in a bustling (but not loud and cramped) cocktail bar, chatting and people watching over a couple of drinks...with maybe a little dancing! 

13. Your perfect night in?

A home cooked dinner over music and candle light then snuggled up warm with a good book or tv show for the night.

14. What would your best friend/OH/mum or kids say is your best quality?

I asked my boyfriend and the response I got was my willingness to make others happy!

Thanks Samantha - what a great blog name, thanks for sharing more about yourself, please do grab your "I was featured" badge. If you're reading and wondering about taking part, then please do, we'd love to feature you in a future edition.

Connect with Samantha here:

Facebook  -  Instagram  -  Etsy

An InLinkz Link-up

Showing my yucca some love

Remember back in February when Storm Doris arrived and blew her way across the country? Well, my yucca had been feeling the ill effects of her visit every since. I'd looked in various garden centres for the right kind of stake, or the stake I had in mind, but couldn't find what I was after. I'm sure it exists, but maybe not.

I'd persuaded MOH he could make something that would hold up the yucca, but while he agreed he seemed less sure. And then when we got to put slate down in front of the yucca it made sense to sort it out before that.

Looking around the garden I found a stake that was long enough, which used to be part of our leaf bin, before our neighbour's bonfire got a bit out of control a few years back. So out of control that the Fire Brigade came and put it out, quite a scary time and we were lucky just to have a singed leaf bin and fence.

While MOH was banging this in my job was to hold the sharp, pointy and quite vicious leaves out of the way. Then to climb into the bed to strap one of the limbs to the stake. I get all the best jobs...

It was clear that this alone wouldn't work and the front branch would need further support.  I was back to looking around the garden and spied some logs from the lilac tree, which we'd cut last summer and were saving for the planned firepit. A couple though were put to use straightaway supporting the yucca.

So with some ingenuity and a couple of things I already had, we managed to prop the yucca up. And straight away it looked better.

YES, THAT'S BETTER...

And just a week later it was clear how much difference it had made. I joked on Facebook that some flowers would be appreciated. It last flowered in 2013, and I was hopeful it would be time for more flowers again soon.  I wasn't sure though, as Doris had given it a bit of a bashing and we'd taken a while to resolve that.

So imagine how shocked - and pleased - I was when I saw this as I wandered up the garden to water the greenhouse.

Yes! A flower!  And I've feeling that there's at least another one on the way from the front branch that's propped up by that lilac log. I can't believe how quickly it's appeared, but I'm really glad it has.  And then this weekend there was further evidence that it's happy with it's new lot. The second log that was propping up the main stem, and was wedged against the brick edging was now defunct, it was no longer holding anything up, the yucca it seems has remembered about growing upwards towards the light, which is great.

Now it's just a matter of waiting for the flower to do its thing... 

But I'm so glad it's happy again, this was one of the few plants that I brought with me when we moved here back in 2002, and it's got quite some history.

Circles and slate

Yes, another post on my grass circles, but there's good news as we're reaching the end of this project. All, but the final piece of edging is down and our grass is looking less like we've put one of those expandable cake tins around it.  And if you're wondering why we haven't put the last piece of edging down, it's not because we have some weird kind of topping out ceremony planned, but all to do with the fact that the edge was covered with one of those huge tonne bags and full of slate.

So with as much edging down as we could manage, it was time to tackle the membrane and redistributing the aforementioned slate. But where to start?

We decided to tackle one of the larger areas at the back of our garden first so we could practice our techniques and so we didn't botch the most visible part of our garden, the bit that is right in front of the patio.

Looking at what was outside the edging more closely we were once again reminded that our house was built on an old gravel pit, to say we have stony soil is an understatement, I mean just look.

We could have picked out the stones, and in fact could quite easily go into business selling them for a good while, but instead out came the big hammer and some serious arm work got underway - the results are pretty impressive aren't they?

So out came the rolls of membrane. It was much thinner than I'd expected, but it was just like rolling out material and kind of weird. We quickly learnt that the longer the piece of membrane the more effective it's likely to be, and that it's best to secure it first and then cut the shape, leaving plenty of overhang.

Pleased with our progress and learning quickly we shifted our attention to the patio area.

And the results were pretty impressive, and quick - which is definitely my kind of project!

It was clear though that despite having one very large bag delivered (which we'd split into two when we decanted it through the house back in 2013 - how time flies hey?!) it wasn't going to be enough to do the whole garden. When we ordered it we weren't sure, but as the circles were only a glimmer in our eye at that time, we weren't too fussed. We ordered it along with the new patio and therefore saved on delivery fees, I don't think though that either of us thought it would sit in our garden for the next four years!

So tactical decision made, we decided to lay the slate by the patio and then all the way up the left-hand side of the garden up to the greenhouse, and then to complete the area in front of the shed, which I'll show you in a moment. 

But first, I'm enjoying a couple of more arty-farty slate pictures.

And look, the yucca is no longer lolling over the grass, it's staked up - but more on that tomorrow.

And so in one afternoon and evening session we'd laid slate right up to the greenhouse, it makes such a difference, don't you think?

And then we had to tackle the area outside the shed. This has been one of the problem areas in our garden, along with the area in front of the lilac (on the right of the picture). It's not obvious from the photo but there's a distinct change in level from the grass to the paving, and just where our pile of leaf composting black sacks are, there's quite a dip.

So in an attempt to avoid the rest of our free time picking up slate from the path and putting it back where it should be, we installed a piece of the edging as a retaining boundary. Then the membrane, and finally the slate.

And fingers-crossed this will sort one of our problem areas once and for all. I've got a post coming up soon on how we plan to fix the problem area by the lilac too, it's more work (obviously) but I'm quite excited about our plans and how they've come about.

So we need to buy some more slate, I think we can easily use the same amount again, especially as I think we'll need a fair bit by the stone circle and pizza oven area, and I'm resigned to many more trips carrying slate through the house, but at least this time we'll be able to decant them to their final position (she says hopefully!)  - although I suspect this job won't reach the top of our list for a month or two.

So circles and slate - we're almost there - and it was well worth the bravery it took to make those cuts in our lawn last summer.  What do you think?