Blogger Recognition Award!

This is very exciting! I am ecstatic at having been nominated for the Blogger recognition award for the very first time, by two of my fellow bloggers.

• Meena of Tingle-ur-tastebuds (https://tingleurtastebuds.com/)
• Abha of Abha’s recipes (https://abhajhablog.wordpress.com/)

Both of them are fantastic food bloggers with beautiful, enticing recipe posts. Make sure you visit their space. I am relatively a new blogger and I am loving the sense of community amongst all the people I am getting to interact with, on this forum. It’s very heart-warming to get appreciation, encouragement and feedback from seasoned bloggers and readers here. Thank you Meena and Abha! I am delighted by this gesture.

• Rules for Blogger Recognition Award :
  • Thank the blogger who nominated you and provide links to their blog.
  • Write a post to show your award.
  • Attach the award to your post.
  • Write a brief story of how your blog started.
  • Give a piece of advice to new bloggers.
  • Select the 15 other blogs you want to give the award to.
  • Comment on each blog and let them know you have nominated them.

My Blogging Journey-

Umm…let’s see. So, this is actually my second blog. Apart from cooking, writing has always been my first and foremost passion. I started my travel blog- ‘anoldsole’ around an year back. Hubby and I are both avid travel enthusiasts and I love penning down a summary of our experience after each trip, to help out the fellow travelers. I also write occasional posts about the local sight-seeing we do in Dublin. Apart from travel writing, I began a series- ‘Diary of a 21st century housewife’ where I write on various social and cultural issues. It’s a space where I can put across my personal opinions lightly and sarcastically, on pretty heavy matters. Here’s the link if you want to check it out- https://anoldsole.org/

Coming back to my food blog, it was actually my husband’s idea to start one. Being a housewife in Dublin, I had a lot of time on my hands. I get a chance to write about our travel escapades only when we take a vacation once or twice a year and as for the 21st century housewife series, I only publish one article every fortnight. So, knowing my love for cooking, hubby urged me to start a food blog to get more busy. I also had a huge advantage in the fact that he himself is an amazing photographer. Hubby is professionally an IT architect but photography is his one true love! After me 😉

So, I started ‘A foodie housewife’ somewhere around October 2016 and instantly it became my first priority. I began having a blast planning all our meals in accordance to blogging, taking pictures & videos, writing down recipes and thinking of different ways to style my dishes. I now struggle to juggle both my blogs together and must admit that anoldsole is getting a bit neglected *sigh*

Every bit of this journey till now has been wonderful and incredibly illuminating. Blogging for me, has proved to be an outlet for my thoughts, creativity and interests. It has been a source of stimulation for my former dormant and bored brain and has also been a super-duper confidence booster. I am so proud of both my blogs! They have made me visible to this forever bustling world around me.

Advice to new bloggers-

The only thing that comes to my mind is- Don’t get discouraged when the things are slow at first. Your blog will take time to catch momentum and it can be both frustrating and discouraging, when you are not getting as many followers and likes on your recipes as the other bloggers on Instagram and Youtube. We have all been there in the beginning and remember, these famous & glamorous blogs too must have started small. We will get there one day!

Also, reach out to your fellow bloggers and interact with them. Being a shy person, I did not do that initially and was stagnant for the longest time. When I had a good sense to come out of my shell and make friends, trust me, it made a huge difference.

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Now, I know I am supposed to nominate 15 other blogs but most of my blogger friends have already been nominated ample of times for this award (Kudos!) So, I am guessing that I can’t nominate you guys again. Therefore, I am nominating less than fifteen and two of them are my friends outside of the blogging world! Here they are….

• Surabhi -http://surabhiscookingtherapy.blogspot.ie/
• Len Ignacio–  http://www.scoopandsnap.com/
• ItsAngie–  https://ablovesfood.wordpress.com/
• Pia–  https://spoonfulospice.wordpress.com/
• Hirut–  https://myspicypasta.wordpress.com/
• Dimple–  https://shivaaydelights.wordpress.com/
• Divya–  https://chefdivya.wordpress.com/

Do check out their lovely blogs!

For those of you who accept this nomination…

1. Create a blog thanking the blogger who nominated you and listing their site.
2. Nominate few bloggers you follow and notify them.
3. Share an experience that got you started blogging.
4. Share a word of advice for fellow bloggers.