Sleep is for the Weak

I am a big dreaming, big feeling, big thinking single mum and use my blog to tell the story of life with my son Kai. I use words and photography to express my feelings and ideas and to share a little of what it is to see the world through our own, rather unique eyes.

1.What’s your blog about?
Motherhood, writing and artistic expression all colliding in one glorious, emotional, chaotic mess.

2. When and why did you start writing your blog?
I started writing my blog in 2009 just before Kai’s 1st birthday. I was slowly emerging from the fog from very early new motherhood and wanted something to help flex my creative fingers again and give me a place to express myself. It quickly became a chronicle not only of Kai’s growing-up, but my own too.

3. How long do you spend blogging and what do you enjoy?
I write two or three posts a week, spending a couple of evenings and the odd nap time writing my posts. What I enjoy most is the time away from the computer that lead me to writing - the things that inspire me, that affect me , and then coming home to find a way to tell those stories on my blog.

4. What have been your blogging highs and low, triumphs or disasters?
Introducing the concept of the Writer’s Workshop early on in my blogging history, where I provide prompts for other bloggers to write about, has proved an enormous success and one I am proud to have maintained over the last 18 months. Blogging has lead me to some amazing people, stories and opportunities – it lead to me speaking at Cybermummy, the UK’s first parent blogging conference, and to being approached by Save the Children to blog as a political activist, taking me all the way to Bangladesh and then to meet the Deputy Prime Minister as I told the story of what I saw there to people back home via my blog. Low points have been the inevitable periods of ‘bloggers wobble’ – worrying about stats and struggling through writer’s block. This happens for less since I turned off my stat counters ;-)

5. Is blogging a job or a hobby? What would be the ideal outcome?
Blogging is very much a hobby for me, but it lead me to take up writing professionally and has helped to encourage me to develop as an artist so I see it as an extension of my job and a useful networking tool. I would love for it to continue to grow as I do, and continue to act both as a mouthpiece for mine and my son’s story, and as a showcase for my skills.

6. How easy is it to set up a blog – and have you any tips for newbies.
It’s very, very easy to get a basic blog up and running. Don’t be too adventurous in terms of design to start with – pick something with plenty of white space. Let yourself experiment and be bold. You don’t have to do what everyone else is doing. Find your own voice and your own angle.