Tag: blogging

Yelly Writes

So many posts…

Yelly

I’ve had quite the active weekend and I’ve got about a gazillion blog post ideas as a result (mostly food related, but hey!)!!!

I need to make time to write these posts!  I need to make time…or find time…or something!  Can someone find me a real-life working time turner?  Like the one that Hermione Granger in Prisoner of Azkaban had pretty please?

While I can always download the app for WordPress my experience with it hasn’t been very positive.  When I used it, the posts don’t necessarily come out with the same margin settings and I seem to have these horribly LOOOOOOOOONG settings that stretch on forever — making me look like I don’t know how to make paragraphs!  I’m sure there’s a simple explanation and there are probably basic app-related settings which I may have missed, but I’m not necessarily encouraged to use it again!

Here’s to hoping that I can somehow find a magic spell to allow me to “make” time!

Fingers and toesies crossed!

Yelly Writes

One month anniversary…

Yelly

…of not being able to blog!

It frustrates me that I haven’t been able to devote any time at all to blogging of late.  I seem to always be apologising to everyone and no one for not being able to write anything.  But sometimes I wonder, are you listening out there…anyone?

I am sitting in my front room guiltily typing out words while I am off sick from work.  I’ve had what seems to be a throat infection for a few days now.  My throat still hurts like heck, even after a 3-day course of antibiotics.  I have had tonsillitis since moving to the UK but not quite this bad.  I’ve had to take one day off but that was mostly to make sure I rested.  I took most of Thursday and all of Friday off sick and yet I still find myself without energy.  I’m hoping to get another doctor’s appointment so that I can be checked to see if this isn’t anything more than a throat infection (I am listening to the doctors’ surgery hold music as I type!).

But to go back to my blogging issue, as with everything in my life, I think I need to just sit down and be devoted to it.  I used to be.  When I started blogging I used to be vigilant, I used to blog nearly everyday.  And not too long ago, I managed to post one entry a day!  The excuse that work is more involved does not fly because I used to blog even when I was terribly busy!  I guess the difference is that, now, I can’t blog at work.

I really need to devote myself to this.  I am going to embark in another blog revamp and I think that’s what’s the most daunting for me.  I want to make sure my blog entries are more focused and that my blog is a bit more of what I want it to look like!  I’m seriously considering getting my own domain and seriously committing myself to writing more and writing better blog entries!

What say you dear reader?  I would love to hear your thoughts!

Yelly Writes

Struggling

Yelly

I am struggling to blog these days.

While I would love nothing more than to blog about food, the books I’ve read (I’ve managed to finish reading Jojo Moyes’ Me Before You!  Hurray me!), the places Alan and I have been to eat, the musicals I’ve seen, it feels a bit self-indulgent.  My father is still very ill and I feel that any enjoyment I feel about my life here is not allowed.  He would say otherwise of course, because he has always said that I should live my life, that I should live the life I dreamed.  But I cannot help but feel selfish.

I will write properly because to write about them would be honouring my father’s wishes.  But right now I will allow myself to worry about him.  Tomorrow is Sunday and Skype day.  I will be able to chat with them and see all of them.

There are days when my grip on my faith is loosed by doubt.  Why is my Abba still ill?  Why is God letting him go through all this pain?  But then I am reminded that these are questions that I mustn’t really ask.  Because the God I believe in does not want His children to suffer.  The God I believe in will turn a bad situation into a good one.  The God I believe in is the God that heals.  The God I believe in is a God who will take His children in His arms and comfort them.  I know that I cannot understand my God’s wisdom because that is beyond my understanding.  I must trust in His plan.

In His perfect time and according to His perfect plan.

That is what I must hold on to.

Yelly Writes

Breaking the silence…again!

Yelly

This is becoming a blog-a-month kind of thing.  I’m not happy about that though.  I seem to have lost my writing mojo.  I love writing but life seems to have overtaken my writing aspirations.  What to do?  What does one do?  How does one conquer writing block?!?  How does one climb over the writing wall?!?

Sometimes I look at the social wasteland that is my social life and I wonder what in the world has happened?!?  I used to go out for coffee with friends, go window shopping, blog loads and be interesting!  Now I only have thoughts that never get written down, that never get expressed.  I have become a jumble of insecurities and unrealised dreams.  I am completely homesick and I feel like I haven’t achieved anything at all!

I’ve tried everything:  post-a-day, post-a-week, post-a-photo, post about food, post about cooking, post-a-whinge, post-a-peeve, deadlines for posts (this particular attempt at encouraging more blogs reminds me of a quote from one of my favourite movies of all time, Julie and Julia,Julie Powell’s husband Eric said about deadlines — “I love deadlines, I love the sound they make as they go whooshing past!”).  These tools don’t seem to encourage the blogging juices!

Frustrated am I!

Whinge over.

Yelly Writes

Breaking the silence!

Yelly

My excuse:  I’ve been busy.

Life has a way of interrupting writing.  Which I find really annoying!  I must find time to write because when I don’t vent, I become grouchy and grumpy and ornery!

I tell myself it’s all the writing muses’ faults.  They have abandoned me again.  But that’s not entirely true.  If I really want to write about things (ANYTHING!), I should make time to write down my thoughts.  Even my exercise in journal writing has ground to a halt because I don’t make time.

I have been busy in the kitchen though.  I’ve been making bread completely by hand!  I’ve discovered that kneading the dough helps my carpal tunnel syndrome.  I’ve made pan de sal several times now and now I know that the perfect cooking time is 11.5 minutes!   At least in my oven, it’s 11.5 minutes.  I’ve also found the perfect blondies recipe.  I’ve made it about 4 times now and each time it’s been a success…and have managed to add a few tweaks to the recipe enough that I can now call the recipe my own.

I’ve set myself a challenge for the next few weekends.  I am going to

  • make profiteroles
  • make puff pastry
  • make a roulade

I also need to start using my Goldilocks Cakebook.  Goldilocks is an iconic chain of bakeries in the Philippines and I want to try the recipes so I can bring a little bit of the Philippines to my little corner of England.

I’ve got most of everything under a semblance of control.  Now all I have to do is discipline myself to write regularly!  Big ask, you say?  Not really.  I just need to push myself to write.  Because the excuse that I can’t find the words isn’t quite true.  I talk enough for 2 people, so all I just have to do is to close my mouth and let my fingers do the talking for a little bit!

Here’s to hoping the next entry isn’t too far away!

Yelly Writes

The Wall

Yelly

I have hit the proverbial writing wall.

I’ve got so many things I want to write about, I’ve take so many pictures that I want to post and I’ve started writing the blog entries, but I can’t seem to finish anything!  In my head I know exactly what I want to write about, I know exactly what elements are part of the entry but as I sit in front of my PC and look at that blinking cursor, I freeze.  The words just won’t come!

I think the writing muses have gone away somewhere.  I’m thinking they’ve gone to somewhere warm and sunny.  I feel a bit put out that they didn’t invite me on their spring break!  I really wish they would come back.  I really want to start writing again.

Yelly Writes

Thank you!

Yelly

I must say that I am quite pleased whenever someone comes to visit the blog.

I know it’ll sound cheesy when I say this: but I am always challenged to write better when people come to visit.  It’s all about the quality of the posts, really.  It’s all about content.  And every time someone likes a post, or starts following the blog, it reminds me that I have a responsibility to the people who follow the blog: to write better, to post better photos and to share something relevant.

I started the blog because I wanted to embrace the fact that I am all about the food.  But I’m beginning to realise that whilst food might be the centre of my writing universe, it’s not the be-all-and-end-all of my writing world.  I started with a tag line on the blog that said “There is no love more sincerer than the love of food.”  I took my food posts from a previous blog and brought them over to this blog.  But I soon realised that concentrating on food did not allow me to express all my thoughts.  Sure, it’s good to have a niche blog, but  I have opinions and I have thoughts that I most certainly love sharing–mostly, selfishly, so that I can validation; that I can say that I’m not the only one with these thoughts.  It’s good to get validation and it’s even better when someone you don’t know in some other part of the world says, “Yeah, I think that too!”

If you’ve dropped by the blog, if you’ve liked a post, if you’ve clicked that button to follow the blog, let me just say “Thank you!” for without y’all to spur me on, I don’t think I’d put my thoughts out there!

This is my second thank you post, but I feel the need to say it over and over again.  You all make my heart sing (insert Dido’s Thank You song here)! 🙂

Thank you!

Yelly Writes

Customizing Bueno: Mi Piace Kate

Yelly

This gave me ideas about cleaning up the blog and making it look less cluttered. Changing my blog background was a great start. Reblogging this because I know it’ll help others who use the Bueno blog theme…and even if you don’t use the Bueno theme, the ideas are too good not to share!

Yelly Writes

Writing Pit Stop

Yelly

I think the one solution to my writing woes is to write when inspiration strikes me.  I’ve got so many entries floating around in my head that I think the only way to stop these writing ideas from floating away is to just stop for a moment and type out my thoughts.

This is going to have to be quick because I need to really start working on a handover document!

NR11 came to visit my blog and I found this link to Hugo and Adele’s website.  In a nutshell, Hugo and Adele sell party supplies but I was drawn to how adorable their cupcake baking cups were.  I’m all about the cute stuff as, after all, I am a girly girl!  If you like lovely pastel coloured party supplies, I think you may just have to wander around their site.   Thank you NR11 for sharing this wonderful bit of information!

Here’s a teaser of some of the lovelies that they have.  This is isn’t an advertising scheme mind!  I just thought sharing this would be helpful to someone else too!

Yelly Writes

It’s a struggle, isn’t it?

Yelly

I remember when I was part of  Post A Day 2011.  How did I manage that?!

The goal (then) was to blog about something (and in my case, post a picture) every single day.  I did struggle most days but I managed to put together a few sentences that may have made sense to some people.  I managed.  There were days when I even managed to post more than one entry a day.  I tend to chatter, so I probably allowed myself to chatter online.

But these days, I find that I struggle.  Not with ideas for blog entries (I have a few hundred of those, I love food and can wax lyrical about it, I think!).  I struggle to find the time to sit down, gather my thoughts and write them down.  The eternal excuse is that it’s all my day job’s fault (I manage scientific conferences and scientific organisations for a living) and there are days (like today) that I can be too tired to sit and tap on my laptop about my favourite subject in the world.

Now, I constantly tell myself off when I allow myself to use this as an excuse for my non-blogging.  If I love food, if I love writing about food, I shouldn’t be limited by this piddly little thing called my day job.  When one is absolutely passionate about something one should pull out all the stops, right?

I need to find out if there are any blogging apps that will let me blog on WordPress on the go.  My experience with the WordPress app wasn’t very good (I had another blog, you see) and posting via the app messed up my margins and things.  Does anyone know any good blogging apps that will allow you to connect to your WordPress blog?

All suggestions are absolutely welcome.  I’m determined to blog more.  I’m sure technology has a way of helping me out!  Help!  Anyone?  Everyone?