12 years blogging!

Happy birthday to my blog! Just over 12 years ago, (I forgot about the anniversary of me starting to blog) on the 16th of November 2012 I published my first blog post! They shouldn't have bring and buy sales so close to Christmas! All about how Becky was doing a nice thing buying her sister a present from the school bring and buy sale. The same ruddy present we had bought Ellie for Christmas. lol I jumped straight in, there was no introduction post or why I decided to blog, there was no messing about. hehehe

You would think after all this time of blogging I would have ran out of things to write about but no, I'm still here and still have plenty more things to say! I have had a strange year of blogging, it's had it's ups and downs. There was a point this year where I was all set to give up just because I felt like I had enough because of various things going on in my life then something happened over the summer and I took almost a weeks break from blogging and it motivated me again. That break was the best thing to happen and I fell back in love with blogging again.

I was looking back at my blog, the posts in the early days and it has changed so much. Can you remember when my blog was Northumberland Mam? That was such a good name for a blog until we moved house and we were no longer in Northumberland. lol I went on the Wayback Machine website and I cringe when I see how my blog used to look. It might not look the best now but it does look better than it did!

I started the year joining in with a new linky to me, Friday Favourites, sharing my favourites from the week. For the first few weeks/couple of months I felt like a bit of an outcast as it was mainly American bloggers but as the year has gone on I have felt more welcomed. I'd love to mention all the fab ladies, I went from just reading their Friday posts to now reading most of their blog posts that they publish. 

In January I got quite a few messages asking if I was doing blogger outreach and offering guest/sponsored posts. It turns out someone with the same name as me was emailing people. I wrote a blog post about how it wasn't me. I spent a day in tears panicking that someone was pretending to be me. It really freaked me out as my name is not a common one. I spoke to the wise people in a Facebook bloggers group and they said people like that use a name that people trust. It carried on throughout the year. It got to a point when people messaged me saying they had a strange question, I knew what was coming. I am glad they messaged me though.

Bloggers are amazing people! One of my best bloggy friends is Jayne from Sticky Mud and Belly Laughs. She has been a great help to me over the past year. She has given me advice about my blog, always hosts the fab Monday Morning Blog Club linky, has been there when I needed a chat and she does make me laugh out loud. Ruth from Play, Work, Eat, Repeat is such a kind hearted person and even though she's at the other side of the world she dropped me an email just when I needed it, she cares and there's Suzanne from Chicken Ruby is the person you need in a crisis, she is so practical and gave me advice about things that I had not even thought about when I was going through a rough time!

I have got a blog post tomorrow sharing my favourite blog posts from the last year, not those with the most views or comments but those that I loved writing and sharing.

Thank you for reading whether you are a new reader or have been reading for years! Thank you as well to anyone who leaves a comment or shares on social media. I appreciate you all! I am not ready to stop blogging yet, I am here to stay!