Off to Britmums - without the baby bump this year!

At last year’s Britmums I was about 37 weeks pregnant and not exactly light on my feet. It was fun but I am terrible at striking up conversations but I did put some names and faces together. Hoping to be better at that this year! Also Owls and Pears is coming with me and she has been known to make me do all kinds of bold things. Oh wait, maybe that’s the other way around….

Pictured with the former bump, Sproggett who won’t be coming. Bring on the wine.

Name: Gail

Blog: -> Bake Make Rake <- and also One Million Gold Stars. Both have been a little neglected since I went off so much food during pregnancy so food blogging went way down the priority list, and since then have been running to keep up with the little man and lurking on social media as much as posting.

Twitter ID: @gaildoggett

Height: 5ft 6ish

Hair: Shoulder length dark brown, usually swept back at the sides

Eyes: browny-green

Is this your first blogging conference? My third I think. I could be seen rolling around as a Massive Fat Pregnant at both Cybher and Britmums last year.

Are you attending both days? Yes! As long as my babysitter doesn’t let me down.

What are you most looking forward to at BritMums Live 2013? Focussing on blogging and writing and giving it some headspace, along with meeting people.

What are you wearing? Hopefully not maternity wear, or baby food but depends on how the diet goes in the meantime and whether I remember to leave putting on my ‘Outside clothes’ until just before I leave the house. Man, kids can reach really far with grabby grubby little hands.

What do you hope to gain from BritMums Live 2013? Inspiration to keep blogging, even if it’s at my slow snail pace. Photography tips always good too. I’m kind of wavering between keeping both blogs going or just one, maybe I will have decided by then or I’ll manage to make a decision that weekend!

Tell us one thing about you that not everyone knows I make awesome Star Wars cookies. Oh and not immediately obvious from online stuff, but I’m Irish.

A slow blog

All the chat about slow blogging has intrigued me. When I started blogging in 2006 (late bloomer as usual) it was mainly an online diary about such fascinating things as which knitting pattern I was currently screwing up. It just about whatever I was up to - somewhat mundane but I enjoyed it, and it turned out people read it. Probably not in huge numbers but I didn’t really understand or think about things like stats back then. There were some difficult times to get through - and the blog helped - and when I escaped all that it seemed very natural to let that blog end too.

I started One Million Gold Stars with a mind to having another “here’s my life” blog but somehow it ended up being all about food. Which isn’t a bad thing. Just like with my first blog where I met amazing people, OMG introduced me to so many fabulous friends including, indirectly, the lovely Mr D.

Then in my flibbertygibbet way I jumped to here. I wanted to write about things that didn’t really fit in the remit of OMG. A bit later I realised I should forget things about remits and written whatever I bloody well wanted. That’s my work head and my day job interfering. I thoroughly admire people who blog as a profession, whose sites are essentially online magazines with huge readerships (I’ve had the pleasure to write for some of them Me, I just want to blather about turning heels. I reckon the point of blogging it to write what makes you happy, and write for yourself.

About cakes gone wrong, sometimes. And the lovely playgroup we found. And the eight tooth. And trying to grow courgettes.

I like blogging because I like writing. It’s a way for me to remember things, for a start, with my alarmingly appalling memory. I probably don’t want to share everything about our family life as I’m still working out how I feel about the privacy implications for Sproggett when he gets older. Blogging does motivate me to actually finish projects so I can post about them which is only a good thing.

Ironically it was a post from the fab Tots100 that inspired me to write this down, when I have decided that I won’t be displaying any badges (or indeed any badgers as I just Freudianly typed) as this isn’t about writing to a schedule, or “creating content”. I will leave that to those more invested than me and save my scant writing times for personal rants that really mean something to me and the stories I want to keep. Though if you do visit - and if you’ve read this far - then yes, please do comment. If this blog eventually turns up a few pure gold friends, like the ones I’ve found in the past through writing, then I’ll be thrilled.

I had a meltdown this morning. A poonami related one (courtesy of my son). After he peed on me too, I just burst into tears - I know, we’ve all been there, right?

That’ll teach me to get up and put on clothes that I want to be able to go out in by lunchtime, rather than a last minute change for me before we go. Part of the frustration comes from the fact that none of my pre-pregnancy clothes fit well, and losing the baby weight has been more than hard. So what can I do?

I need to have some clothes that fit me, that I like. I haven’t got the disposable income to buy really beautiful things in fabulous fabrics and in my head that would kind of ‘allow’ me to stay this size. So although the poor husband will roll his eyes, the Great British Sewing Bee makes me want to dressmake.

I’ve dug out a few stashed patterns that I’ve wanted to make for a while. I didn’t realise the Built by Wendy patterns had been discontinued. I’m put off her books because everyone says the included patterns come up really small. I’m going to experiment with them — I think the Built by Wendy shirt will need bust alterations - and use non precious stash fabric. At least that will help with decluttering right? I definitely honestly won’t go to the market and buy any more, no sir no way.

Then the other sewing project is to finally finish the boy’s quilt. All it needs it to be bound. He’s quite enamoured of our bedsize version.