Hi friends! Happy hump day!
I realized that I kind of stopped with the whole What About Me Wednesday thing. Mainly because I ran out of things to talk about! I'd love to bring these back though, if you are interested :) And if you are and have any questions or topics, please send them my way!
I am often asked the simple question of when I get my blogging done. I work a full time job in New York City (9+ hours/day plus 45 min each way for commuting time...I wince just thinking about that) and typically have a blog post up every weekday.
To be honest, I feel as though I am always blogging. I am always writing, always thinking about blogging, planning my blog posts, devising recipes, brainstorming ideas in my pink notebook, and snapping photos everywhere I go. Sometimes I think this is even to a fault, like when I'm not living my life as it should be - in the moment, not living to document it.
When it comes to writing my posts, I usually wake up before work at 6am to write my post and edit my photos. This takes about 1 hour (if all technology is behaving). I can be a chatterbox and I like for everything to be just so (I'm not a control freak, I swear), and therefore I think I spend more time than I'd like to on each post. But I always want to put out the best possible content for all of you who visit everyday and for new readers (and to be representative of myself) and so I'm committed to devoting that time for you and for me!
getting my cheese on in Spain
When it comes to cooking, baking, photographing and getting the recipes down on paper, I do this all the time. I make my meal plans on Sunday and try to get creative with at least one dinner per week that I'd want to share on the blog. In that case, I will cook and photograph as I make it that evening (leaving Shaun hungry and waiting patiently to eat). Admittedly, these are not my favorite photos because I'm not using natural light since it's typically dark out by this point.
pasta primavera
My ideal situation is to cook or bake on Saturdays or Sundays when I can use the natural light on my terrace to take photographs. I'm nothing of a photographer, but I try my best to get good pics for you guys so you can see just how delicious these dishes are! When I use natural light, my photos come out more like this:
Layered Oreo Cake Bars
Regardless of when I'm cooking and photographing, I try to write the recipes as I do them because I have a tendency to easily forget minor adjustments that I may have made when it comes time to write a post.
There are definitely days when I get a post up that I am not 100% happy with because I need to run out the door for work (sometimes I even forgo my shower, but don't tell anyone that :)).
Malted Chocolate Cupcakes, made for Mom's birthday brunch!
I always call this blog my labor of love. I love it so much. I love cooking and baking and recipe writing. I love telling you all about what's going on in my life here in Jersey City with Shaun.
Some days, I don't want to blog. Some days, I feel so uninspired to come up with anything interesting to share with you. Some days, I feel like no one is reading or 'speaking' to me by leaving comments. I get frustrated and wonder why I do this at all.
And then I realize that I do it for me because it makes me happy and gives me a sense of personal fulfillment. I do it for you who read and comment (or lurk and don't comment - I love you too!) and send me emails with questions or a quick note to tell me they made one of my recipes. Friends, this makes me happier than you could ever imagine.
So that's how I get 'er done when it comes to blogging! I hope you are still liking the What About Me Wednesday series! I will try to keep it up if you are interested :) If you have any questions, send 'em my way!
Questions of the Day:
If you are a blogger, when do you blog?
For everyone: how do you balance work and personal life?
psst...Christine is blogging about canning in the rain this weekend to raise money for kids with cancer. She had me tearing up! I hope you'll check it out...