Huge Overhaul

Hey! I've been having a super deep think about my blog, it's direction, what I post about, and most of all if it's actually what I set out to do in the first place.

I've found that the more I look at other lifestyle blogs I keep thinking "why isn't my blog like that?" full of cool events and cute little cafes, reviews, hauls, marble backgrounds in the pictures, insanely gorgeous Instagram feeds, interesting and conversation starting tweets...And I've kind of come to a conclusion on that.

• My blog isn't full of events, because I don't go to any other than Barn Dances, Vegetable Festivals, and farm festivals /celebrations. 
• I don't do reviews and hauls in particular, because my monthly budget doesn't stretch that far to be able to try out new things that I'm not sure about.
• I don't have any marble backgrounds in my instagram -or any - photos, because my house is an old semi-detached house in the middle of the fields on a farm and hasn't been majorly redecorated for years, and I don't feel like spending money on my blog just yet. 
• I don't really get into huge conversations with people - even though I really want to - because when I do get into a conversation, after a few tweets I feel like I'm annoying that person.

My main goals of this blog were to help others and to document my life to look back on in years to come. Telling people about how this lifestyle changes you as a person, makes you appreciate the little things and the hard work that goes into it all. Giving my experiences / opinions on things that have happened to me and my family, hopefully to help others going through the same thing. 

This doesn't mean I'll only be posting about veg, ducks, chickens, and farming in general. I'm going to be writing about other things like family, cleaning, cooking, etc. much like I have been until now. I just feel the focus of my blog has shifted through nobody's fault and I've lost sight of why I started and where I am.

Having said all this, I'm sure you've gathered that The Life of a Farmer's Wife will be changing. For starters the name has changed too.

The Homesteading Life

This is what me and B do. We're not full time homesteaders, we don't spend our days in the veg garden and making home-made lavender soap - however much I want to! - but these factors are definitely big things in our life. 

As this is a lifestyle blog, it doesn't make sense to write it without including our major lifestyle choices and circumstances. I was at first embarrassed or worried about posting about vegetables and livestock, mainly because I've got one foot in the Homesteading community and one foot in the lifestyle blogging community.

I have also decided to move over to Wordpress. This gives me more opportunity to control the look and appearance of my blog, although I've had to read a few tutorials on it all. 

You can find the new blog here

I realize I will lose following, I will lose readers and I'll lose any ranking my blog had made up until now, however small or big that may be. I'm not too concerned with ranking and google searching, it's just numbers to me at the moment.

I do care about my followers, my readers, but I also don't want to build up a reputation while doing something I'm not entirely happy with. I can't write the best posts, or give the best advice if I'm not happy doing it. I'm sure many others can understand that.

I've been blogging for around three months now, and to be honest I think this is around the time most bloggers start to find what makes them happy, what makes them want to blog more and more, what their readers like & don't like... It's like the first three months of blogging you get swept away into the magic of the blogging community and meet all these wonderful people, and then you start to settle into a routine, start to know what you want to blog about for definite, find the right way to portray yourself as close to reality as possible.

I suppose this is the time for me to do that too. It's starting to sound a bit like I'm saying I'm leaving but I'm not. I'm changing for the better and making this stay something I enjoy doing instead of viewing it as a job.

If you stick around and come with me on my adventure, I would really like that. I do understand that homesteading and farming isn't what everyone wants to read about, so I know some won't want to continue reading if this becomes a main feature, but as it's the main feature in my life it's going to be a main feature on my lifestyle blog.

Thank you for reading, and I'd love it if you went over and had a look at the Introductory Post on The Homesteading Life.

Bella x

30 blog post ideas a week

How to come up with 30 blog post ideas each week

For the last few weeks - probably months now - I have been coming up with 30 blog post ideas each week and adding them to a schedule. I've got blog posts all the way up to December planned, and then some waiting in the wings ready to be put on the calendar. 

My point is, thanks to this I don't panic about what to write or sit about for hours trying to come up with something fun, interesting or relevant for the next day, week or event. I have it all planned and most probably written up the week before. 

Today I'm going to be explaining how I do it, why I do it, and I'm going to also explain how I plan everything out too. 

This Years Goals

If you follow me on twitter you'll know that a few days ago I was sorting out some goals for this blog. I'd set goals before, but they were more like wishes. I wanted to achieve these goals, but I never set out a plan, did anything to work towards it, or even set myself a time to "check-in" or have the goal acomplished by. I'd spend my days wishing them to happen, or dreaming of the day they did, but never getting any closer.

I've been doing some digging and research – if you could call it that – and found a few ways to break my goals done into do-able steps. I won't go into that much detail in this post – I'd be here for quite a while – instead I will be giving a short explanation to each goal.

The Liebster Award (2)

Hey! So yesterday I posted The Liebster Award post after being nominated by Jade, but shortly after I was nominated again by Shannon!

I'm not entirely sure what to do in the case of being nominated more than once, so I've decided I won't be nominating more people (it could go on forever!) and I will just answer the questions from my second nomination here.

I urge that you read my original post on the award, as I give 10 facts about me and answer some pretty good questions given to me by Jade!

So, here are my questions from Shannon!

Questions

The Liebster Award

I never thought me or my blog would ever be nominated for anything, yet I'm here writing this - with a HUGE smile on my face - thanks to the wonderful Jade from It's My Mental Health! 

I have to be honest, I'd only ever heard of this award floating around cyberspace, and had never actually found out any more than it's an award for bloggers by bloggers. After reading Jade's post, I think I'm well informed enough to know what I've been nominated for!

That feels so weird to even think I've been nominated! I can't believe it!

Online Dating

I've just drunk two Red-bulls, so if this makes absolutely no sense, forgive me. It's raining, The Beast is out – The Beast has become B's new name on Twitter – I have the music on, and I'm eager to get some posts written and scheduled for next week as I have quite a busy week including a super duper cool sleep-over with my mum (insert emoji with the sunglasses).

You might already know – or not – that I met B online. Probably the most awkward, weird and the best online relationship known to human kind. Okay that's an exaggeration, but it's how I feel about it.

But before meeting B, I had my fair share of weirdos and awkward encounters online. It's pretty much a given that you'll get these type of people on there, and that you'll have the pleasure of meeting them. Oh the stories I could tell!

Places I Would Like to Visit

It's Friday! Yay! The week is over and people get a couple days off from work.... brilliant :).

So, as I have no possibility of actually going anywhere this year and will have to wait until next year, I have been pondering where I would have chosen to go if I could have gone on holiday this year.

There's a few places that I really want to go, but it's more to do with the Seven wonders of the world. I haven't included them in this, as I consider that type of holiday - sight seeing, being touristy, not spending much time at the pool or beach - to be travelling, and that's a whole new kettle of fish!

The Autumn Tag

Today I'm doing a tag post. I feel like my last few posts have been a bit serious, especially yesterday's post, so I thought doing a tag or questionnaire type post would lighten things up a bit this week. 

It's autumn. That mean's colder weather - or any kind of weather, according to the British weather - Halloween is coming up, the leaves are changing, soon we won't be able to move without crunching leaves under our feet, and Harvest is finishing up if it hasn't already. What better post to do than The Autumn Tag? With a little twist of course: from a farmer's point of view.

By the way, I found the questions to this tag on makeupsavvy.co.uk by Fee. 

What's New?

Hey everyone! So I've decided to write a little bit of an update post. I've been gone for a month, and before that I was posting quite sparingly. I'm eager to get back into the swing of posting regularly and consistently, so here I am!

I've gone with writing an update post instead of just a post that falls under one of my categories as I feel like a lot has gone on recently and it's been affecting my mood and motivation to blog. I won't be concentrating on that though, because I've taken a new look on life to only focus on the positive. I've also changed a few things on the blog - like the categories and header, for example - so I'm here to tell you all about it.

What's new with The Life of a Farmer's Wife?

Well, quite a lot as it turns out! I've come up with a new way to schedule posts and plan what I will be posting and when, which I think I will make into a post of it's own as I'm pretty happy with how it's working out. I'm going to be posting from Monday to Friday, hoping life doesn't get in the way! I can guarantee there will be at least 2 or 3 posts a week though, as I'm going to be scheduling into the future as far as I can to prevent abandoning the blog again.

The categories have changed too. Before I didn't really know how to categorize my posts, or even if it fitted in with my blog at all. I've surfed the web, spent hours on Pinterest and found some helpful posts that led me to some awesome blogs. Honestly, I think the best way to update and better your blog - if that's what you are looking to do - is to look at your favorite blogs. Inspire yourself - don't copy! - with whatever it is about their blog that makes you love it so much. Is it the color scheme? Maybe their way of being completely and totally themselves? Go pick out a few blogs and find what it is that you love so much about them, and that's exactly what I have done to help myself find what I want my blog to be.

10 Things About Me

Hey everyone! As this blog and myself are fairly new to the blogging scene, I thought it might be a good idea to introduce myself a little more and tell you all about myself.

So here it goes, 10 things about me!

*Updated* First Post

I've decided to change over to Blogger. Some wordpress users will hate me for it, but I just had so many problems with Wordpress I can't be asked anymore haha! I've been trying to schedule posts for a while now, but tey just never seem to actually post when I want them to, or at all. So here I am! :)

First Post - What can you expect to find here? What do I blog about? Why do I blog about it? 

Here you can expect to find anything and everything related to being a farmer's wife. That means the keeping up with house work, the kids, and the animals and land too.

Some upcoming blog posts include "What is it actually like having a single chick or duckling?", "How do I keep up with the housework?" , and "Do I get any alone time in this life?".