Celebrating my first 100 posts (or I love this bloggy caper)

Hello, my sweet PB friends, all 192 of you. I’m back after a tiny break to catch my breath after that crazy weekend. Thanks again for all your thoughtful and caring comments over the past mad week. Now guess what – this is post number 100! Woo hoo!



Do you like my little purchases from Lovely Tape?

Thanks to all of you for hopping aboard this crazy planet and following our life here. I’m feeling a little less like the helpless newbie I was when I started blogging back in July. I’m starting to find the rhythm which best suits our little family (now that I’m on bloggy rehab. Oh, and on that topic, can anyone tell me when I finish rehab? Or am I on it indefinitely?!). It now feels like time for a little bloggy stocktake of where I’m at and where I’d like to go. Hands up who wants to get involved with this? A few of you? Okay, here goes.

Am I enjoying myself?

Oh, yes, immensely! Discovering Blogland with all its eclectic characters and intriguing intricacies feels like a well-kept secret known to only a select few. Blogging allows me to feel less remote on my little island at the bottom of the world. With a mouse click, I can be sitting by the fire with expat Sydneysider Miss Melissa in snowbound England, drinking wine, sharing secrets and admiring her kiddos’ hand-made Christmas present tags for their teachers.  

Doesn't Melissa have the best ideas?

Or sitting on sweet Emma’s garden swing under glorious lilac-hued Sydney jacarandas as her two little pirates play chasings while we chat. 



Don't you want to hop on this swing, right now?!

Or go haggling with my witty Dutch friend, Maureen, at her favourite flea market in Lille – she has such a fabulous eye for a bargain and what a little TLC will remedy. Mmm, this makes my typographical-loving heart sing!



Hmm, what not to take home!

Or discussing my passions for cricket, words and the delights of blogging with sweet Felicity in sunny Noosa. She finds such delightful photos for her posts like this one.

These are but a handful of you. You all add to my life in some way, for which I thank you. Deeply.

How has blogging changed my life?

Being a stay-at-home mum with 3 children under 5 was proving a little lonely after our return to Hobart from Sydney. And then on 23 July 2010, I wrote this and my life changed. Quite swiftly. Far quicker than I could ever have dreamed of, as well. I now feel connected with the outside world in spite of the ‘disconnect’ caused by my PND.

I am astounded, daily, to find more people signing up to follow our life here on this busy planet. It is such a delight to welcome you into my life and share its joys, frustrations and complexities. You inspire me, comfort me, challenge me, delight me, support me and humour me. Thank you, each and every one of you, for lifting my spirits when I feel alone ‘in the trenches’ of motherhood.

Is there anything I’d like to change on my blog?

Appearance

I plan to get some help to freshen it up a little, adding a few customised buttons, using different fonts for post titles, that kind of thing. I’ve done everything myself so far and feel I’ve just about reached my limitations!

Content

I’ve discovered blogs are innately fluid creations, ebbing and flowing with life’s events. However, I’ve been trying to from a framework upon which it can hang, to give you some ‘back story’. I *think* I have most of the furniture in place!

As for the future, I have so many ideas bubbling away, I’m struggling to organise them coherently to make my blog easy to follow and enjoyable to read. I have hundreds of draft post titles, bookmarked articles, posts and photos and thousands of my photos. I am not joking. Clearly, I won’t, and can’t, use all of this information. Working out what to use is my big *challenge* - any tips?! How do you sort, store and process all the thousands of bits of information and images you see in Blogland every day? All tips are most welcome – let’s share our secrets so we can make our blogging more fun and less stressful.

Community

I have really enjoyed fostering a sense of community and connectedness in this little space. I value your comments and enjoy the discussions amongst us, both by comment and email. I love seeing fellow followers befriend each other and feel like they’re sharing an experience on PB. I hope you see PB as somewhere to honestly and openly share the joys and challenges of parenting (or not! You don’t need to be a parent to follow here ☺.) whilst at the same time delighting in our shared interests and passions.

I’d like to build that sense of community a little more. I’d like you to help me out, if you don’t mind. Until now I’ve called you all ‘my PB friends’. That feels a little clunky and bland. I’d like to find another word to describe you lovely followers of Planet Baby - something a bit catchier, with a ‘ring’ to it and connoting a ‘team’ feel. So far, I’ve come up with ‘Planetarians’ but maybe there’s a better suggestion out there. What do you think? I really welcome your input – all suggestions will be gratefully considered.

I also plan on adding a ‘Welcome to Planet Baby’ tab up the top with links to some key posts so new followers can get a quick ‘snapshot’ of our life here. A ‘Planet Baby 101’, if you will. Do you think that would be helpful? Or unnecessary? Please leap in with your comments. The pixies quite like the idea of having this as PB’s flag…

Is there anything you’d like me to change on my blog?

Okay. Enough about me! This is when I turn to you, my lovely PB friends, and ask for your constructive thoughts. Is there something I’ve touched on which deserves another post? What questions about life on Planet Baby would you like me to answer? And do you have any suggestions for future posts? I’d love to hear from you. Oh, and watch this space - I feel a little giveaway might *just* be coming up!