Post Comment Love & Blogger Showcase 10-12 August

Hello there and welcome to this week's #PoCoLo - if you're new here this week, hello and welcome along.  If you were here last week, it was great to see you and I'm sure this week you'll find some more great posts to read.  Once again I'm joined by Suzanne from Chicken Ruby as co-host while Morgan is having fun Disney style - thanks Suzanne.

It's a short one from me today, but let me tell you about the photo.  It just about sums up last weekend.  Something to read, a cook book and a magazine, some crafting - sewing in the ends of my spring crochet and of course some tech.  With MOH away, what else could a girl need?

Blogger Showcase: Chloe from Beautiful Bundle of Chaos

1. Who are you?

Hey! I’m Chloe, married, mother of one and 23 years old from Leicestershire. My daughter Lola is a bubbly, crazy child that keeps me on my feet every single day, and is also my inspiration behind most of my blogs.

2. How did you discover blogs/blogging?

I actually have no idea how I discovered blogs! I didn’t tend to read many blogs and I really didn’t know much about them either. One day I decided to set up a new Instagram account, basically because I thought my friends and family were sick of seeing Lola’s outfit choices for the day – and it went from there. Once I started that page I started to discover more and more blogs and I loved the pieces of writing I read and it reminded me of being a child again and the hours I would spend writing at my grandma's house.

3. Why did you start blogging?

I started blogging because I loved the sense of freedom it gave me when I wrote my first post on Instagram about my feelings. I opened up to people I had never met or spoke to before in my life, something that I would strangely never dream of doing in front of my friends and family. Truth is, I can’t talk about my feelings out loud, the words just don’t come out. I started blogging and I was having conversations with people about my worries/guilt that I'd never been able to talk about before. I started blogging as a kind of therapy.

4. What do you find most challenging?

My biggest challenge has been confidence, there are amazing bloggers out there that stand fierce in their photoshoots, they travel for days on their own to events and that is something that I majorly need to work on.

5. What is your favourite topic to write about?

I love to talk about my daughter and the mischief she gets up to, and it feels so good when I get parent responses explaining how they are going through the exact same thing. They are always happy to hear I’m experiencing the worst of the terrible twos haha! I also love fashion, I forever get the latest trends for Lola and share them with my readers.

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

I have big goals for my blog, as a first time parent that works a 9-5 job I’m envious of people living the self employed dream. I miss my daughter and feel guilty I can't spend as much time with her as I want to. Not only that, I want to create something where people want to come and read my blog when they're feeling down, or when they want a giggle or even want to know what the latest beauty products I'm using are. I want to build a community.

7.  What is your favourite thing about blogging?

My favourite thing about blogging is not only the writing but being able to be creative with my pictures, I like to tell a story or make people laugh with my pictures. Again, I also love that blog posts can be so relevant to issues going on in peoples lives, but they are able to read and know that they are not alone and that we are going through the same issues – especially new mums, times are hard with a new baby and it's nice to have a community around you.

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

I have never attended a blogging conference but I would love to one day.

9. What are your 3 best posts?

I think my 3 best posts are…

• Working mum guilt

• You know you’re a mum when

• Why I'm scared to have baby no 2

10. Describe yourself in three words!

Myself in three words

• Imaginative

• Sensitive

• Slight control freak

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

Tea and biscuits all the way!!! Only because I’m not a massive fan of cake.

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

My perfect night out is being with friends or family, grabbing ourselves a few 2 for 1 cocktails and some food, maybe a little dancing and there 100% HAS to be a kebab on the way home.

13. Your perfect night in?

My perfect night in is good food, good tv and bottle of wine to share with my other half and of course in an ideal world my daughter to actually be in bed on time.

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

My best friends would say I'm completely crazy, my other half and daughter would saying I’m very loving – hopefully!

Thanks Chloe, it's great to learn more about you and your blog.  Before you link up do pop over to Chloe's social channels:  Instagram  -  Twitter.

An InLinkz Link-up

Views of Yorkshire

One of the things that struck me about Yorkshire on our recent trip was the amazing views, and how it was a place that like Norfolk benefitted from large skies.  It was our first time holidaying in Yokshire, but I don’t think it’ll be our last, especially as our journey from London was relatively pain free. 

The Yorkshire Dales National Park was stunning, so much so that at one point I stopped the car, got out and enjoyed it firsthand, without the windscreen in front of me.  The undulating scenery, the traditional dry stone walls and really fresh, unadulterated (and un-pollute) air. 

While it’s large-skied like Norfolk, it’s very different.  There’s proper hills for one thing, and not just in the National Parks. The next two photos are ones MOH took as he paused during his daily bike ride.

But with hills come great views.  And the patchwork effect of fields.

Our trip wasn’t all about reconnecting with nature, although there were many garden visits, there were trips to the nearest town of Ripon too. Our cottage - or rather converted barn - was outside the village of Kirkby Malzeard and though it was a well stocked village, complete with local shops, pubs and a fish and chip shop, the barn and the farm it was on were remote enough to be cut off in bad weather, although I’m sure that doesn’t deter the Yorkshire folk, but to a townie like me, well yes… <shudder>

We’d chosen the area around Ripon quite at random, and because it was a good base to explore our -or rather my - must see places of RHS Harlow Carr and Castle Howard, but Ripon itself shouldn’t be overlooked. It has some interesting architecture. 

The stone arches on the building above immediately caught my eye, and then I noticed the detail of the arches above the windows on the upper floors.  That’s some fancy building, hey?

It wasn’t all about looking up though, as we wandered around I spotted these elaborate tiles in a shop doorway, which I can only presume are originals. The motif at the top reminds me of the pattern on a fireplace in my previous house.  

It was easy to imagine the market square transforming itself into a bustling hub on market day, even on the Sunday when these photos were taken there was plenty of activity, and it’s certainly an attractive town centre isn’t it?

I’ve much more to share from our Yorkshire Break, including a peak around the barn we stayed in as well as some fine Yorkshire products, and of course some garden visits. 

As I said earlier in this post, it’s a place that I’m sure we’ll return to in the future. I’d be keen to see more of Harrogate, but where would you recommend, and why? 

Boxing hares

I've a bit of a thing for hares, what with our concrete versions in the garden and photos of this tambourine beating hare at Chatsworth, so when I spotted these Boxing Hares by Sue Lamb at RHS Hyde Hall in Essex on my recent visit, it was clear I was going to snap these.

These are bronze resin and cost a little bit more than our concrete ones, but wouldn't they be great, and wouldn't they give the foxes a bit of a shock.