I've been nominated FOUR times for the Sunshine blogger Award!
Firstly wow. When Kacie nominated me for the Sunshine Blogger Award 2018 back in May I was blown away. I read her blog - A brave star a lot and it’s been an inspiration to me. And for her to think my writing is amazing and to nominate me?! Well that’s so humbling and a great honour- so THANKS a lot Kacie. I’m so new to all of this so being nominated is astounding. She has also been nominated and quite rightly so!!.
I was subsequently nominated again by the awesome Jazz from Small Talk Blog - thank you so much I love following your posts and appreciate all your support. Most recently Lee from Belle Inspired nominated me, she's been incredibly supportive of my blog and I can't thank her enough, please do check out her blog. And finally my four nomination came from Jay at Bearded Igor . I really love the tone of his writing and can't thank him enough for all his kind words and support, take a look at his blog and nomination here.
So, what are the Sunshine Blogger Awards? Kacie’s nomination was the first time I’d heard about the award, but after a little google I discovered that it’s an award that acts as a way to recognize and support bloggers who inspire positivity and creativity in the blogging community. A nice way of saying your blog is awesome and I think everyone should read it.
Here are my answers to Kacie's questions...
1. What is your blog about?
Elle Goes Global is a real mix of the things I’m passionate writing about; food, travel and lifestyle elements. So my blog ranges from weekend and holiday posts to baking ideas and foodie inspirations and of course gin! All with a little bit of wit and some fairly good photos.
2. Do you prefer dogs or cats?
Tough one! I’ve had cats my whole life so I really love them. I admire their independence and intelligence in fact if I was an animal I’d like to be a cat just so I could chill out more (I do tend to get a little stressed).
But I do also love dogs they are extremely loyal and affectionate, a cuddle from my crazy dog always cheers me up. So I’m going to have to go with both - cop out I know!
3.What is your favourite book of all time?
I used to be such a book nerd when I was studying English Lit at A level so gosh now this is a toss up between Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
I was haunted by Rebecca and the narration is superb so much so that I decided to do an essay on it for my A level about isolated figures. Its such a easy story to identify with purely because the writing and tone of voice is so impressive.
But I do love Gatsby as well, the allure of the roaring twenties and the mystery around him is so enticing.It’s impossible not to feel sympathy for a character who just wanted love. Overall though I’m going to go with Rebecca.
4. If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?
Number one at the moment for me is Canada, I’d love to take the rocky mountaineer and admire the beautiful scenery and spot bears at a safe distance! Soak up the laid back culture and I think it would be awesome to cycle there. Plus I have relatives over there that it would be great to visit.
5. What is your favourite Social Media Channel to use for your blog?
Twitter is a great one for having conversations, supporting each other and promoting posts but I love Instagram too it’s so great to visually see other bloggers posts and engage directly with them. Im going to say Instagram because I love photos they instantly transport me to a destination.
6. What is one random thing that most people don’t know about you?
Oh, this is a tough one, but I can stretch my legs over the top of my head. I started up exercises and yoga again so im pretty flexible. 7. If you could give advice to your younger self, what would you say?
Mainly I’d say don’t feel like you need to have everything figured out, I’ve spend a lot of my teen years and early twenties worrying about this and what other people think. Don’t compare and never compete and really let loose and make the most of every moment. I wrote a blog post on this recently called Adulting- A guide. 8. List everything that you carry around with you on a daily basis
My phone, my purse, diary and notepad for blog ideas. And my car keys – wouldn’t get anywhere without them! 9. What is your favourite song of the moment and why?
My favourite song at the moment is the Tide by Pale Waves. I go through phrases of different favourite songs on a weekly basis but we listened to Pale Waves a lot on our recent road trip to Gothenburg and the melody is awesome and its super catchy!!
10. If you could switch places with someone for a day (can be a real person or fictional character) who would it be and why?
If I could switch places with anyone, I’d go for a real-life person as opposed to a fictional character. And I’d say Sir Richard Branson, I think hes a great business man who has achieved amazing things for the travel and aviation industries. I’d visit Necker Island and the Kasbah in Morocco and take time to learn as much business accruement as I could from being in his shoes for the day. 11. If you could change one thing about your blog, what would you change and why?
If I could change anything it would be having sponsored posts or collaborations with other bloggers. First one because its great working with your favourite brands and this increases people’s awareness of your site. Secondly, I love supporting other bloggers and reading other peoples work, combining an article together would be a great way to develop my blog further.
Here are my answers to Jazz's questions...
1. What inspired you to start your blog?
My inspiration came from a real mix of things really, I used to blog in my second year of Uni and then after I graduated under another blogging site. But my inspirational to stay motivated and keep delivering great content for Elle Goes Global came from my parents, my brother and my boyfriend Chris - so many times they told me I was a great writer and I should share my writing with the world. In fact my boyfriend is so passionate about his freelance and day job that I realised I needed a outlet to express my creativity and bring passion and excitement back into my daily life. This was the inspiration I needed.
2. In the future, where do you hope your blog will take you?
I hope that my blog in the future delivers the opportunity to work with other bloggers and create sponsored collaborations with brands and companies. I'd love to have a strong and large following so eventually I can get some paid posts to help fund my travels.
3. If you were to pick one sense... what would it be? Sight/smell/touch/hearing/taste
I'd say taste as much as I love seeing and experiencing things, I am a total sucker for food and a self confessed foodie so I'd have to say taste. If I couldn't enjoy the flavours and textures of my food and drink I'd be lost.
4. Do you prefer coffee or tea?
Without a shadow of a doubt its tea and herbal mainly. I can't drink too much caffeine or my stomach gets annoyed with me. There are so many varieties of herbal teas as well but my favourite will always be mint - its so refreshing. I'd recommend loose tea leaves over bags though as they are more flavoursome.
5. Who takes your images for your blog posts?
Mainly my images are from my iphone 7 or my go pro. But I do also include photos taken by my boyfriend and a few stock images. The aim is to get my canon back up and running again so I can utilise photography better in my blog.
6. How much time do you spend blogging?
Not as much as I would like to! But as much as I can as soon as I wake up I catch up on any engagement pods I'm on and see if there's any notifications that I can reply to. Then during my lunch breaks from work I spend an hour updating posts, engaging with others and contacting companies. When I get home I limit myself to an hour to again catch up with engagement posts and sit down and schedule any upcoming blogs, social media posts and read other blogs.
7. What would you advise anyone who is starting out blogging?
Plan, like have a bank of ideas at your disposal. When you first start out you need to be posting content on at least a weekly basis just to keep your engagement levels up and join as many engagement pods, facebook, whatsapp and twitter groups as you can. Make the most out of this wonderful blogging community.
8. What do you think of sponsored posts?
I'd love to do a sponsored post, I think they work great for brands and bloggers and help readers to learn more about specific products.
9. Sweet or savoury?
Sweet 100% I have such a sweet tooth - brownies are my weakness.
10. How do you increase your blog traffic?
Mainly through twitter, I post three tweets a day to different posts but I also use engagement group on Facebook to increase views on specific posts I wan't to focus on driving traffic to.
11. What would be your favourite destination to visit and why?
Canada - I've fallen in love with images of this country I just want to visit it to enjoy the pace of life, the culture and take in some awe-inspiring views. I'd love to do some outdoor activity there like cycling or kayaking.
Here are my answers to Lee's questions....
1. What did you want to be when you were little?
Good one! When I was little there were so many different things I wanted to be. At the age of 4 I blew out my candles and made a wish that one day I'd be a princess and live in a big pink castle, by 5 I wanted to grow wings and be a fairy. But by 9 I had my heart set on being a vet - I loved animals so I figured that was a pretty good way to go. Then as I moved into my teen years, my passion for writing took over and I wanted to do something that would use that skill.
2. How does that match up with what you are now?
So I didn't marry a prince or move into a big castle - Meghan got there first! And still no fairy wings (shocker) my love for animals remains but my hatred of blood meant I'd never quite cut it as a vet. Luckily my more realistic goal of being a writer is pretty close to what I do now as I'm a marketing executive who writes web content and editorials alongside blogging!
3. What do you want to be now? No limits.
Tough one, I'm pretty happy with where I am at the moment but would love my blog to take off more so I could have more spare cash!
4. What is the most fun thing you've done recently and why?
Me and C (my boyfriend) recently went on a road trip from Oslo to Gothenburg in one day. Yes it was mental but it was a hell of a lot of fun and one of the best adventures we've been on of date.
5. What brings you soul-satisfying joy?
Making other people happy.
6. Fears - what are yours? Have you conquered any of them? If so, how?
I use to have real fears like snakes, rats etc but frankly I think as I get older, I'm learning to be more brave.
7. What is your definition of personal strength?
Picking yourself up and carrying on even when your whole world feels like it's fallen apart.
8. What are you most proud of in your life?
Without any Children to speak of until I'm older. Currently it's my degree, I worked super hard and graduated with a decent grade from a wonderful university.
9. Would you move to the moon or Mars?
I'd go with moon - then I could wave at people on earth. Plus its made of cheese right? Oh yeah that's just a joke
10. Name the top 5 places you want to visit
Canada
Japan
Elephant Hills in Thailand
Australia
New Zealand
Here’s my answers to Jay’s questions
1. How did you decide in what topic, you wanted you blog to be about? It started off purely as a travel blog, writing about tips about destinations and my experiences. But it then developed to encompass the food and lifestyle elements. I like having the three topics because it helps keep me inspired and appeal to a wider audience.
2. What is your favourite song at the moment? So this changed since I last answered as above, my favourite song does change on a fairly frequent basis. Raindrops by the Amazons is currently my favourite. I love the tone of the lead singers voice and the lyrics really resonate with me at the moment. 3. Do you have to juggle blogging with any other commitments? If so, how difficult is this for you? I work 9-5 Monday to Friday as marketing executive, so I have to balance blogging with my full-time job plus socialising. It can get busy sometimes to say the least. 4. Aside from twitter, what other form of social media do you use to promote your blog? So Twitter is my favourite and most successful social media platform. I do also use Instagram and have recently set up Facebook and pinterest pages to drive more traffic.
5. What is the best TV show of all time? Wow I don’t even know where to start with this one, there are so many options I’m going with Faulty Towers though its timeless and always makes me laugh.
6. What sort of reaction do you get from people when you tell them that you are a blogger? So this is a mixed one in the majority people have been supportive, but I have had a few friends who either don’t bother to read anything or they say to me ‘why are you wasting your time doing that’
7. Is there a blogger who inspires you? There are so many!!! Honestly erm this is a real tough one, I’m going to go with Elle Lou though she inspired me at the start of my blogging journey and she keeps inspiring me to do better, to reach out to brands and to bring awesome content. I really love how supportive she is and her writing style is great.
8. If you could collaborate with any brand, who would it be? Please scroll up for my answer to this one above.
9. What would make you hit the follow button on someone’s blog? Great photography, great writing and importantly a call to action that makes me want to learn more.
10. When did you decide to start blogging? I started blogging back in 2014 then stopped and started again after I graduated Uni but it hasn’t been until much more recently that I’ve found my mojo and my place in the bloggersphere. 11. What do you love the most about blogging? Two things, first of all the freedom and ability to work with other bloggers and brands. Secondly the blogging community I’ve never met a group of people so friendly, supportive and welcoming.
And I nominate the following bloggers:
Off to the world
Elle Lou Travels
Sheintheknow Travels with Thomosaurus Lolitabonita directionsplz MucksMovements SeekingSammy Aubsleeann FromZimbabweTo HiKatieScarlett
Here are my 11 questions for you:
1. What attracted you to blogging?
2. If you could be one type of animal for a day what would you be and why?
3. How would you sum yourself up in three words?
4. If you could live in another country which one and why?
5. What are your essential travel packing items?
6. If you could pick five people dead or alive to invite to a dinner party who would you choose and why?
7. What has been the best lesson you’ve learnt since you started blogging?
8.Which TV, film or book character would you say is most like your personality and why?
9. What piece of advice would you give to someone who has just started blogging? 10. If you could travel back in history or forward into the future which would you prefer and why? 11. What motivates and inspires you most?
The rules are:
1. Thank blogger(s) who nominated you in a blog post and link back to their blog. 2. Answer the 11 questions the blogger asked you. 3. Nominate up to 11 new blogs to receive the award and write them 11 new questions. 4. List the rules and display the Sunshine Blogger Award logo in your post and/or on your blog.
