Happy Blogoversary TKW

It’s incredible that it’s been two years since I started blogging!  On this very day in 2010 I posted my first recipe with step by step instructions.   I had a good camera, but I was a lousy photographer and didn’t realize I had floating margins so my giant 17” screen photos were to big for anyone with a smaller screen.  I didn’t know much about blogging then…boy have times changed!

This was my very first post: Creamy Chicken Noodle.  I didn’t even put soup at the end of my title.  Can you see the baby boy in the background?  The steam looks nice but the soup looks like it’s a flying saucer ready to take off.  The recipe…fabulous~!  If you haven’t made it yet you should.  I didn’t have much to say in that first post but here is what I did have to say:

Wow, that’s it, my first foodie post.  Obviously I was very excited to have a new camera.  Not only was I excited, so was my baby.  We took so many photos that it took me forever, okay, not forever, but seemingly forever to post.  Do not look forward to as many photos in the future, it will not happen, I have a life, I must work ridiculous hours, I will not have time to play bloggie…unless I’m super successful and can retire and blog full time.  And the chance of fantasies coming true?  Same as winning the lottery when you don’t buy tickets!

It’s funny that paragraph…I did stop taking step by step photos, it just wasn’t my style (read: lazy). One year later, on my 1st blogoversary I did a post for Pulled Pork Sandwiches.  Another great recipe (although I have adjusted and refined it, till it is my own and not hardly anything of the original).  I didn’t make a single mention of my 1 year anniversary.  The truth is, I felt underwhelmed by my accomplishments.  Blogging was still a hobby for me, I enjoyed it but it was mostly a place to record recipes…not my life.

My life changed dramatically in June of 2011. I came back from our African Safari, which you can read about here, here and here.  On my first day back, I was fired from my job.  It was a life changing moment.  I’ve never been fired, ever, ever, ever.  My self esteem took a huge blow.  Even though I knew it was a “business decision”, I had a hard time getting over it.

This is when I started to focus on my blog…what the hell else was I going to do after I cleaned my house from top to bottom?  My two three primary focuses: learn Photoshop,  improve my photography, and get more social.  I signed up for some Creative Live courses and learned enough about Photoshop to edit my photos, I started reading food photography related blogs…and wow, I now have many photos accepted by Foodgawker, and I got social.   One of the best things I’ve done is join Secret Recipe Club which I found out about through Feast on the Cheap (a favorite blog of mine).  It opened a whole new social world for me (thanks Amanda and Angie)!

Where am I now?  My blog has improved and I’ve had some self discovery.  I found that I’m a writer…Okay, more of a rambler (see how long my posts are now).  My unexpected change in career has lead me to some writing jobs, you know the kind I get paid for, and I love it!  I’m now trying to pursue some more writing jobs,  I now write for The Best of Great Falls magazine and for Pig of the Month; I’m hoping to do more…maybe even a book?

In all the time that I’ve blogged I’ve never hosted a give-away.  To celebrate my two year blogoversary and to make up for never having done a give-away, every week in the month of February I’m doing a give-away.

The collage is a hint of what I’ll be giving away each week.  The give-away’s will run Monday thru Friday and I’ll announce the winners on Monday.  The give-away is open to the U.S. and Canadians only (sorry my international friends can’t afford the freight).

To close my post, I’d like to take an Academy Award moment and recognize a few people that I didn’t mention before.  First, my daughter Leah from Leftovers for Lunch, she was the one that actually inspired me to start blogging.  She had a blog that I really enjoyed (still do) and got me to thinking I’d like to do that, plus she has coached me along the way.  I’d also like to thank Eliot’s Eats, my relationship with her started through Secret Recipe Club when she got my blog as an assignment.  She said so many nice things about me (which I hardly believe myself), and since then she has left a comment on each and every post!  I love her blog and make it a top priority to always read it and leave comments back, I can’t express how great I think she is.  Also, Karen from Karen Cooks, one of my Montana soul sister’s who never fails to make a comment or make me laugh with her comments on Facebook.  Lastly I’d like to thank Amy Girsak of Backyard Bounty blog and a freelance writer…my mentor (even though she doesn’t like that terminology) for helping me with my pursuance of writing…you are an inspiration.

I hope you all will join me through out the month of February as I host my give-away’s and celebrate doing one of the things I enjoy most…blogging.