NorthHantsMum

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Looking back at 2014 on NHM

Posted by Louise NorthHantsMum on in NorthHantsMum

2014 has been an AWESOME year for NorthHantsMum.

I’ve been humbled, overwhelmed and amazed at how the blog has continued to expand.

It’s quite scary to think how many people read this blog (nearly 3000 subscribers!!) on a regular basis now!

Over 500 “new” readers have subscribed to NorthHantsMum during 2014.

I’d love to put together a summary of what’s happened on NHM over the past 2014 but there’s been so much I don’t know where to start!

Below are a few of the highlights that I can remember! lol.

2014 on NHM

March – The first secret Reviewers. Thank you very much to Jo, Vicky and Julie for your secret reviews in 2014. They were all brilliant and I know many readers found them very helpful!

April – First NHM Networking lunch and Spring NHM Meet Up. Am loving both the networking lunches and the Meet Up’s. So great to see readers and their children making new friends and enjoying themselves.

May – Reviews of Festival Place (Giraffe and Marwell Wildlife). Being invited to review Festival Place and Marwell was a massive high point of my year. This made me feel like maybe NHM was bigger than I realised!

June – Summer NHM Meet Up and Winning an Award at the Mums and Business Awards. Still Whooping about this and my award is still in pride of place. Thank you so much again to everyone who voted and for your lovely comments.  😀 😀 :-D.

July – First NHM Networking Evening. These are sooooo successful and are brilliant evenings that I REALLY look forward too! First NHM Summer Picnic. This was a really lovely lunch with lots of great conversation.

August – The 2014 NHM Survey. Thank you very much to everyone who responded.

September – Reviews of Festival Place (The Haymarket, Debenhams and Wagamama’s). Being invited to review Festival Place again was a huge honour. I’m also quite proud of the review posts that I wrote on these experiences as they took a lot of work! lol.

September – Autumn NHM Meet Up. It was lovely to meet some new people.

November – First NHM Christmas Expo – an AWESOME event. So much so, that when we went for dinner that evening to celebrate, one of the waitresses asked if Miss NHM had been at the event at Playdays as she still had her face painted. I could NOT stop smiling! lol.

November/December – Christmas Food Boxes appeal. I’m very proud of my involvement in publicising this very worthy collection.

December – Being invited to review Father Christmas’ Christmas List. Look out for the fab review that my friend Abi did for this, which is due to be published shortly.

Thank you!

I know you are probably all sick to death of me always thanking you.

But I just want everyone to know how very, very grateful I am for all of your support.

It makes my hard work on the blog totally worth it :-D.

Happy New Year and I hope you have an AMAZING 2015!!!!

Why I write NHM in 2014

Posted by Louise NorthHantsMum on in NorthHantsMum 0 Comment

Lots and lots of people have asked me recently why I write NHM and what I get out of it.

One word springs to mind: Ego.

NHM feeds my ego. 😀

(Wow, putting it down on paper, in black and white, makes me look so bad! Lol.)

Although, the more I think about it, it’s not just about my ego.

I love helping other people and trying to make their lives easier, I love sharing information and I’m learning that a life of service is very rewarding.

Volunteering

I like to think that NHM is a service. It meets a need, a gap in the market, by helping new and experienced parents (mainly Mums) who live in the area.

I’ve always tried to help other people. I’ve done a lot of voluntary work in my life. In fact I think I’ve done some sort of voluntary work continuously since I was 15 years old.

I believe that your life’s meaning is based on the number of other people that you “help” (whatever that might mean) during your lifetime.

I also believe that we are all connected and whatever you do to one, you do to everyone, including yourself.

I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life and done some truly spectacularly mean things to people, so I guess this is my tiny way of making up for it, making a positive difference.

I know that there are several competitors out there who provide a similar need but I like to think that I try to build a relationship with my NHM readers.

This is becoming more and more apparent based on the number of hugs I get from people I’ve never met before or people who I haven’t seen in a while (Hi Pam!!! When I saw you again at National Playdays your hug and enthusiasm over NHM made my day!! Thank you!!!)

Connection to the world

My life has changed considerably in just five years.

I used to travel a lot for work. For 10 years I traveled nearly every month for work. At one point I was away from home for three months straight, traveling across Asia, Europe and the US for a big project I was working on. It was awesome and I often miss that part of my life.

I miss the excitement of flying on an airplane. Someone driving me to the airport. Sitting in the first class lounge sipping champagne (yup, really). Eating as much ice cream as I wanted. Having 8 to 11 hours all to myself to watch films back to back with no interruptions and nothing else to do.

I nearly always met a huge diversity of people whilst traveling and nearly always got chatting to whomever was sat next to me on a flight. When I was back home in this country I was out most evenings, catching up with people and going to events and different classes.

I wouldn’t swap my old life for what I have now. Not for all the money in the world! That doesn’t mean I don’t miss bits of it though!

NHM helps me feel connected to the bigger picture

I get lonely sometimes. Mr NHM has worked shifts for the past two years, so I’ve spent a lot of time on my own with Miss NHM. It rocks as we get proper quality time together, but at the same time, I miss adult conversations and interactions and I miss Mr NHM a lot.

When your husband works shift, you essentially put your life on hold. Your married friends don’t want to catch up because it’s supposed to be a “family” get together and your single friends aren’t interested because you always have your child “in tow”.

I don’t interact with as many people as I used to for a number of reasons: I work from home most of the time, my friends have their own families and commitments and my extended family appears to be falling apart.

I also spend a lot of time at home now. I love working from home and I love that I don’t have to go into the office and talk to a bunch of people that I have absolutely nothing in common with. I love that I can take my lunch break with people that I actually like and want to spend time with.

However, I do sometimes miss the social interaction.

Up until 6 months ago I also rarely left the house of an evening. Mr NHM’s shift pattern changed all the time, so it was very difficult to schedule a regular evening activity. Lots of my friends have children, so it’s not very convenient to schedule an evening catch up.

I think that’s also partly why we started doing our part time business. It got me out of the house of an evening, it’s helping people by saving them money and it’s flexible enough that I can work on it when we are available.

I’ve also found the NHM Networking sessions to be very rewarding. It’s so great to come away from a meeting absolutely buzzing. They only happen once a month, but they get me out of the house and making meaningful connections with others.

It’s “easy” to write NHM

I can essentially work on NHM anywhere.

I don’t have to leave the house to do it, I can work on it any “spare” time that I have and can fit it in around my busy day without it impacting Miss NHM and Mr NHM directly.

Feedback

Getting messages and feedback on NHM gives my life a little bit more meaning. It makes me feel like I’m doing something important in the world. Ok, it’s a small world, based in North Hampshire, but it’s a start ;-).

If I’ve had even the slightest impact on you by suggesting a new place to visit, a top tip you hadn’t considered, shared a slow cooker recipe, helped you organise your life a bit better, helped publicise your business, even visit a new playgroup, then it’s all worthwhile.

This is why I write NHM

It keeps me connected to the wider world and I love that NHM is a little bit of help to my readers.

This is why I “give up” my time to write NHM. It’s my labour of love, my “other baby”, and if it’s helped you at any point, it’s been worth it :-D.

Happy 3rd birthday NHM!

Posted by Louise NorthHantsMum on in My Experience, NorthHantsMum 0 Comment

Yup, NHM is three years old today.

I could write a sappy post like I did for the last two years, here and here. 😀

Instead, I’m just going to say Thank you.

Thank you to you, my wonderful readers.

I am frequently overwhelmed by your lovely comments and generosity. They mean so much.

Yay to the next year on NHM !!! 😉

Milestones

  • Email Subscriptions for NHM on WordPress – 220 subscribers
  • NHM Friend on Facebook – 1,285 People
  • NHM Page on Facebook – 638 “Likers”
  • NHM on Twitter – 369 Followers
  • 776 posts published
  • 97 wordpress pages
    • 22 “Lists” set up on Facebook (under the NHM Friend), ranging from “Toddler Classes in Basingstoke” to “Local Mum Businesses”.
  • 58 Guest Post’s and several more lined up. (Thanks to all of the business people for your continued support!)

NHM Two Year Anniversary

Posted by Louise NorthHantsMum on in NorthHantsMum 0 Comment

So, NHM has been running for two years. I’m not sure what to say about it, as I’m pretty sure that the only person who cares about this is me! Lol.

Two years is a long time, when I think back to what was happening in my life two years ago. I was still on maternity leave and dreading going back to work. Now I love my job and can’t imagine not working. It feels like a lifetime ago, and feels like NHM has been running for much longer than two years.

There are now 469 posts on NHM. That’s quite a lot, even if it is just two years! Lol. If you are new to NHM, I recommend having a flick through the menu bar, as there is a lot there and most of it is still relevant to parents in the area.

My little one has changed so much in the past 12 months. She’s growing into a very independent and determined little miss. Can’t think where she gets it from ;-). It is a joy watching her grow up, and I just hope that my best is good enough.

I hated living in Basingstoke when I was growing up, and did everything I could to get away from it. Ironic that I’m now a walking encyclopaedia of information about the area and that my husband and I have chosen to bring up our daughter here. It’s only when you leave, that you realise how many wonderful opportunities there are in, and around, Basingstoke.

Changes coming

I’ve been so impressed at how Guest Post Wednesday has taken off. I started it in March last year, so it’s been running for over a year and I’ve only once not had a post to fill the slot.

However, during the summer months, the regular guest posts will be postponed and the Wednesday slot will be filled by a Guest Blogger. It’s all very exciting and when we’ve finalised the details, I shall let you know.

The regular Guest Post slot will return in September, so if you run a local business, group or class, please let me know at northhantsmum@gmail.com.

Thank you!!!

I know I want to thank you, my lovely readers, for your support, comments, “Like’s”, feedback and event notifications.

To everyone who has sent me a message thanking me for a post, over the past two years, your messages make it all worth while.

So, thank you. Here’s to the next year! Cheers!!!

Why I continue to write NorthHantsMum – May 2013

Posted by Louise NorthHantsMum on in NorthHantsMum 0 Comment

I write NorthHantsMum because, quite frankly, I LOVE doing it!

I want to give something back

I’ve always done voluntary work in one capacity or another (Volunteer for Oxfam, Volunteer Youth Worker, School Governor) and I knew that once my little one came along I wouldn’t be able to dedicate my time in the way that I used too. NorthHantsMum is also my way of giving something back. I know it’s not much, but its my little bit of sharing information with people and putting people in touch with each other. I get so much out of it as I’ve met some fabulous people via NHM and learnt so much about our local community.

I get a real kick out of people sending me emails saying how much they enjoy my posts. You can’t imagine the joy it gives me, to know that I’ve helped someone else out. I know that’s cheesy, but if I’ve helped only one person in the past two years, because of NHM, then it’s all worth it.

I love sharing information

I was given so much conflicting information when I was pregnant and when I was on maternity leave, that it’s difficult to know how to make a decision sometimes. But, if you don’t know about something in advance, you can’t make the decision! NHM is my way of sharing what I know and passing on the little pieces of knowledge that I’ve learnt along the way.

I’m also a nosy cow, and like to know what’s going on in the area! 😀

I am so proud to see how many connections have been made via NHM. Either for myself, meeting LOADS of fantastic Mum’s and Dad’s who are running amazing businesses, and/or doing fantastic volunteer work, and/or running their families with such love and affection.

I love to see the connections that have been made for other people because of NHM. There are at least four ladies who have met each other at the NHM Meet Up who are still in touch and meeting up regularly, and that kind of thing makes me puff out with pride!

The evenings are long

Before I met my husband and had a family, I was very lucky to be able to travel the world with work. I was out most nights when I was away and when I came home I was out a lot catching up with people. Things are very different now (and I wouldn’t change them!!!) but I am lucky if I go out two evenings a month. That means for the rest of the time I’m home for the evening. When my little one was tiny and before NHM, I was very restless. Now I have a focus. I have something to do, which I feel is worthwhile.

I also miss the life I had when I was on maternity leave and this is my way of connecting back to it. I get one day “off” from a normal working week to spend with my daughter, and it’s great, but it’s no where near enough. NHM is my way of connecting to all the other local parents out there, who are trying to find things to do in the area with their young children.

My Legacy

I started this blog nearly two years ago and it’s become so much more than I ever expected. I’ve learnt so much more because of it, I’ve made so many friends because of it and I’ve been to some great events because of it. I’m very proud of NHM. I’ve put a lot of effort into it over the past two years which shows, as there are now over 400 posts of content and nearly 1400 people see these posts!

I guess you could also say that NHM is a little bit of my legacy. I’ve spent a lot of evenings putting together the posts for NHM and it’s so good to see the time hasn’t been wasted.

So, I write NHM for myself, but I also write it for you. All my lovely, wonderful readers!

Thank you for your support, your feedback and your suggestions. They will always be much appreciated and help me to keep on writing!

How I write NorthHantsMum in 2013

Posted by Louise NorthHantsMum on in NorthHantsMum 0 Comment

People frequently ask me how I have the time to run NHM. I spent three months on my maternity leave setting up NHM on WordPress, and although I’ve learnt a lot since then, I only really dedicate about 2-3 hours a week to blogging.

I am organised To the hilt!

We don’t have a TV. Yup, that’s right, no TV. We do watch DVD’s as we have a computer in the living room which functions as our TV and we have Lovefilm membership, so watch a lot of series or borrow box sets from friends. So, when you would sit down to watch TV in an evening, I’m normally on my computer, catching up with people on Skype, working, organising things or doing NHM work. I am very strict and try not to let NHM impact my family life.

I’ve mentioned before that I work four days a week, so whilst my daughter is awake and not at nursery, I’m spending as much time with her as I possibly can. I do most of my NHM work on Sunday nights. However, my husband works shifts, so when he is working a night shift, I often spend the evening working on my PC.

I’ve mentioned on NHM before that there are two apps that are fundamental to my organisational skills. Evernote and Remember the Milk.

Evernote

I use Evernote to draft out each post. I have two specific folders for NHM. One which has post ideas organised by theme and one which has posts organised by month. In each month, I draft out one note which shows the schedule of which posts I plan to feature each day.

Evernote syncs to my iPad, my PC and my phone. So I can literally update a post when I get an idea and it syncs to all of my technology.

Remember the Milk

I also use Remember the Milk to organise my life. I use this for all of my “to do’s” as well as NHM. It’s a great reminder tool.

Google Calendar

I also use Google Calendar. I have several different calendars set up, including one for NHM, one for my husband and another one for my daughter. Each month I spend about 10 to 15 mins thinking about which posts I want to add into NHM for that month and add in a calendar notice for each day, showing this. Then, if I don’t get around to updating Evernote, it doesn’t matter as it’s in my calendar. This also syncs to my iPad, PC and phone.

Flipboard and Goggle Reader

I read a lot of blogs via Flipboard, an app you can download for the iPad and iPhone. It sets up blog posts in a newspaper format, which means I can flick through posts very quickly. I get a lot of inspiration from all of the blogs that I read and for those posts which I think might be useful at a later stage, I copy them across to Evernote.

I use Pro feeder to do this. I have an inspiration folder on Evernote which is where these posts go. Every so often I sort through them and move them to the relevant folder.

I’m absolutely gutted that Google Reader is being closed, so I’m trying to find a suitable replacement. I’ve just created a Bloglovin account, but from what I can see, it doesn’t work with Flipboard. I will be so upset if I can’t find a replacement for Google Reader on Flipboard. If you know of any other alternatives, please do let me know!!!

Facebook

I’ve “liked” a lot of Facebook pages. I’ve set things up so that I get notifications (not emails!) every time specific pages post something to Facebook. This helps me stay on top of what is happening in the area, and ensures that I can keep you informed.

I delegate and outsource everything that I can!

If there is something that someone else can do to save me time, then I’m all for it! We have had a cleaner for the past four years, but have recently decided to share the cleaning between us. This is because we are both home a lot, with my husband working shifts and me working from home most of the time. We’ve worked out that we can split the cleaning, he does downstairs and I do upstairs, and then split the money we would have spent on a cleaner. I think it’s working… so far!

I work at odd hours

I find that I’m better at writing posts first thing in the morning or last thing at night. I do all of my blog work in advance, and schedule them in on wordpress. So, I don’t actually get up at 8am every day to publish posts! 😉 I also use other tools, like Siri on my iPhone to take verbal notes when it’s not convenient to write something down. I also get my best inspiration when I’m distracted, away from my desk and thinking of something else.

Twitter

I created a Twitter account on Wednesday. I finally succumbed. You can find me here. I have no idea what I’m doing with it, but it seems to be pretty intuitive so hopefully I’ll have it sussed very soon! 😉

Anyway, not sure if you find any of that interesting, but I hope you do! I think it’s always nice to see how someone does something behind the scenes. Let me know your thoughts…

Why I started NorthHantsMum…

Posted by Louise NorthHantsMum on in NorthHantsMum 0 Comment

My little one was, and still is, a sleeper. Don’t get me wrong, I think this is great and I’d rather she was a sleeper than a non-sleeper. However, when I was on maternity leave I found being trapped at home for several hours a day very frustrating. I managed to get out and about a lot, but in the afternoons and evenings when my little one was sleeping, I needed something else to occupy my time.

I graduated from my MBA when I was six months pregnant and I had spent the previous 8 years studying for my MBA distance learning, in my “spare time”. Fifteen Hours a week, for 6 years (I took some time out in between each stage of the MBA) were dedicated to studying.

So when the initial shock of my little one’s arrival had passed, I found myself with huge chunks of free time. I wasn’t working or studying and we don’t have a TV at home so I really did have several hours in my day with not much to do apart from stare at my sleeping baby. (Which rocked for the first month! lol)

I’d been reading a lot of blogs for a while. I stumbled across the blogging world via Little Red Boat, still one of my favouritest blogs. So, I decided I might just try it. I did start a personal blog which chronicled the first few months of my little one’s life, but I found that NHM was where my heart lay.

Information was sporadic in the beginning

I also found, in those first few frantic months after my little one arrived, that I was given so much conflicting advice. It was also a huge struggle to find out any information about what was going on in the area. So, NHM is my attempt to pull it all together, for new parents and parents of young children in the area.

I often think that we, as parents, are under represented. There is so much information out there about our children, but very little directed at us as parents, other than to tell us what we should or shouldn’t be doing. There also doesn’t seem to be many ways for us to meet each other, as parents. Everything is directed at our children. The classes are for children, the playgroups are for children.

NHM is my attempt to help parents in the area and to share information with them that I’ve found useful. I hope you do find NHM useful! 😀

Next week I’m going to schedule a post about How I  write NHM. I hope you find it interesting, especially those of you who are thinking about starting a blog yourself.

Nearly back to “normal” on NHM… ;-)

Posted by Louise NorthHantsMum on in NorthHantsMum, Things to Do 0 Comment

It’s the last day of school today for two weeks! Yay! Or not for some Mum’s :-D.

I’m working on posting up a “Things to do for Easter holidays” for tomorrow morning, so hopefully that will be useful. It will have suggestions for posts to read for Activities at Home, Indoor Places to visit and Outdoor Places to visit. Just in case the weather for Easter turns nasty, as the lovely weathermen are predicting.

(I can’t wait for Spring to get here, and if it doesn’t arrive this year I’m maxing out the credit card and going somewhere hot in summer!)

This has been one of the most bizarre weeks of my life. Yes, cryptic, but will share more as, and when, I can.

NorthHantsMum’s 1st Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by Louise NorthHantsMum on in NorthHantsMum 0 Comment

A WHOLE YEAR!!!! NorthHantsMum has been running for a whole year! YAY! A couple of points to note at this momentous and poignant moment… (well it’s a momentous and poignant moment for me even though it isn’t for anyone else! lol)

Thoughts  (in no particular order)

How can it possibly be a whole year since I started NHM? How?

I have learnt so much in the last 12 months some of which are:

  • how to be a better parent
  • how to set up a successful blog
  • how to type single handedly
  • how wonderful it is to introduce other people to each other
  • and many, many other things.

I never, ever expected NHM to be as successful as it has. I couldn’t have done it without all of the support and encouragement from you all. Thank you.

Extra specially BIG thanks go out to my husband and daughter. Without them I never would have had the inspiration for NHM or started the blog. They are my world.

(Yes, I appreciate this is starting to sound like an Oscar speech but I will stop in a minute! lol)

Special thanks to all of my friends who have supported NHM, written posts and given feedback (whether they wanted to or not!): Sophie, Abigail, Claire, Jo, Su, Kate, Laura, Mel, Hilary, Martina and everyone else who has supported and encouraged me.

Milestones

  • Over 800 readers and still more every day.
  • 262 posts published
  • Three different interfaces that people connect to NHM via:
  • 22 “Lists” set up on Facebook (under the NHM Friend), ranging from “Toddler Classes in Basingstoke” to “Local Mum Businesses”.
  • 9 Guest Post’s and several more lined up. (Thanks to all of the business people for your continued support!)

So, here’s hoping to at least another year of NHM! Hopefully you will still stick around for whatever comes next!

(I am now going to go and sob quietly in a corner and drink a very small bottle of champagne to celebrate!! YAY! Normal service will resume on Monday.)

Happy Weekend to all you wonderful NHM Readers and thank you again for reading and contributing!