Posts Tagged "Cafe Bebe"

Cafe Bebe Resolutions

Posted by cafebebemama on Dec 15, 2011 in Blogger Love, Blogging, BritMums Blogging Prompt | 4 comments

Tis the season to make resolutions, right? Well, I suppose so. I’m never overly keen on resolutions because I think, often, you are setting yourself up for failure from the get-go. For example: “I resolve to get fit this year!” and then by January 5th, when you look outside and see the wind blowing and rain pelting, you decide that fitness isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and end up weighing more by year end than when you began the year. Those are the resolutions I tend to specialise in.

Perhaps the key is lowering your expectations? Perhaps the key is TARGETED, SMART resolutions or goals? Perhaps the key is not being so hard on yourself? Maybe it’s down to setting only ONE goal for yourself for the first half of the year and seeing how you’re getting on by June or July? I’m not sure what the key is but I am going to try to set a few blogging related goals for myself as I’ve come to a bit of an epiphany in the last few weeks.

4 weeks ago I went into hospital with a slight bleed and was due to spend 2 weeks in hospital before Sam was scheduled to be delivered. Sam had other ideas, thank God! However, during my 4 days in hospital before Sam was delivered, Twitter and my blog were my lifeline. They kept me going, boosted my spirits, gave me hope and encouragement and showed me love. I suddenly had people following me that I never knew; wishing me well and tuning in for the “latest news”. Bizarrely, my blog stats went through the roof and the posts that I wrote in hospital were/are some of the most read that I have ever written. How lovely!

And then we came home from hospital. I continued to blog daily (part of NaBloPoMo for the month of November) but my stats started to dwindle a bit. I wondered if people were sick of seeing gooey blog posts and pics of Sam. I also spent considerably less time on the blog and on Twitter, reasonably so. I was enjoying my family, enjoying my son, resting, getting to know my couch very well and there just wasn’t time to tweet. Mind you, I do social media for a freelance job but Twitter just didn’t hold the same importance for me. That’s when I realised that as soon as you take your presence away from Twitter and social media, they are very quick to lose interest in you. I began to realise that perhaps it didn’t matter if my online presence was as strong if I wasn’t missed much anyway?

I’m not saying all of this in a “oh woe is me” sort of way, mind you. I’m saying this in a blogging epiphany sort of way. I adore my blog and the way it allows me to connect with others. Particularly friends and family who actually WANT to know what goes on in our day to day lives. This blog is a nearly-daily record of the last 2 1/2 years of our lives. That is precious and not to be dismissed. I will continue to blog and share and over-share and rant but what I will NOT do is LIVE for my blog. I’ll continue to use Twitter and enjoy the online relationships and friendships that I have built through Twitter but I will not spend my day thinking about what to Tweet next. If people aren’t interested, they can unfollow or unsubscribe. I can’t be worried about my stats and numbers and rankings any more. My Sam is too precious, my Ella is too special and my life is more important than numbers and tweets.

So, fair readers, for the year 2012, the Cafe Bebe Resolutions are as follows:

• Live for my family. Blog about what I like, when I like, how I like. If good things come of it, great. If not, no worries.
• Tweet when it works for us. Spend more time OFF Twitter living the life I am so grateful for.
• Make lists to follow on Twitter and don’t get bogged down in blogging blowouts.
• Enjoy blogging and all that comes with it. Don’t compare Cafe Bebe to anyone else and worry not about what others are up to or what their motivation is. To each their own…live and let live and all that jazz.
• Attend BritMums Live! in June

That’s it. I’ve been blogging for 2 1/2 years now and have loved (almost) every moment of it. I have benefited from blogging and enjoyed a lot of perks along the way. It’s time to step back, let the new blood in and enjoy the turning wheels of time. I sincerely hope that anyone who reads this blog on a regular basis enjoys what I have to share. I hope you’ll continue to pop by and have a peek into our lives and I will continue to freelance and maintain a social media presence in all freelance areas but it’s time to take a bit of a break, personally, and enjoy the precious life we’ve built in our corner of the East Midlands.

Thank you to everyone who has tuned in this year, given support and shared their thoughts through their comments. I look forward to the new year and seeing how much things change over the coming 12 months. In the meantime I’m going to enjoy my family and get a bit of perspective. I wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I’ll still be blogging the rest of the year but I want to be sure to get my holiday wishes out to everyone.

Are you making any BLOGGING resolutions? Feel free to share them…

Cafe Bebe’s New Theme Song

Posted by cafebebemama on Jul 23, 2011 in Blogging, Motherhood | 2 comments

I was driving home yesterday when this song came on the radio. Yes, Radio 2, I listen to it…so sue me. I’ve heard this song quite a bit, in fact, we have the CD. But for some reason I LISTENED to the lyrics and found a lot of bearing on what this week has been like on Cafe Bebe. It’s now my new theme song…

I get tired, and upset

And i’m trying to care a little less

And on Google I only get sad and depressed

I was taught to hide those issues, I was told:

Don’t worry, there’s no doubt

There’s always something to cry about

When you’re stuck in an angry crowd

They don’t think what they say before they open their mouth, you gotta

Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag

And bury them beneath the sea

I don’t care what the people may say

What the people may say bout me.

Pack up your troubles get your old grin back

Don’t worry about the cavalry

I don’t care what the whisperers say

‘Cause they whisper too loud for me

Hot topic,

Maybe I should drop it,

It’s a touchy subject,

And I like to tiptoe ’round the s**t going down,

You got penny, no pound

So if your business is running out

It’s not my business to talk about

They don’t think what they say before they open their mouth, you gotta

Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag

And bury them beneath the sea

I don’t care what the people may say

What the people may say bout me

Pack up your troubles get Your old Grin back

Don’t worry about the cavalry

I don’t care what the whisperers say

‘Cause they whisper too loud for me

Maybe this song should be every blogger’s theme song. Maybe I need a thicker skin. Maybe I need to not put myself “out there”.

But then I wouldn’t be me…so on second though…nah… Can’t get rid of me that fast!

Flashback Friday: Why I started Cafe Bebe

Posted by cafebebemama on Jul 22, 2011 in Blogger Love, Blogging, Flashback Friday, Motherhood | 9 comments

Once upon a time, 3 years ago or so, there was a teeny baby who decided to bless a very special Mummy and Daddy by coming into the world. She struggled to get into the world but when she arrived, she was a joy to everyone who met her. Especially her Mummy and Daddy.

This baby’s Mummy and Daddy (and Grandpa Dave) made a wonderful room to welcome their precious baby home. They couldn’t wait to meet her.

This little Doodle is why I started Cafe Bebe. I wanted to share her life with family and friends. I wanted to share our life with family and friends. But as Ella got older and life became less about poopy nappies and more about growing up and change, Cafe Bebe became more of an outlet for me and an opportunity to share my voice. I have one. I have an opportunity on Cafe Bebe to share my opinions and my experiences, for better or for worse. I don’t expect everyone to agree with me and I welcome a difference of opinion.

I realise that with this voice and opinion come responsibilities. If I have offended my readers with anything I have said or experienced, I apologise. I most definitely never set out to offend in blogging or in life but I know that my opinions can sometimes be strong ones and I can dig myself a hole without fully appreciating it. I’m just sharing my experiences and some of them, unfortunately, have not been good ones. And through comments from others, I know I’m not alone which is comforting.

I started Cafe Bebe with one goal at the time. To share our life and maybe make a little something from it. I wasn’t expecting a book deal or an income. I don’t have a book deal or an income but I have been able to open doors that were never available to me and create a little something for myself and my family. My goal now is to continue to share our life. We have a very special new life growing inside me and I will share as much as I can about that process and our life as a family of four. That is why I started Cafe Bebe and why I will continue to write it until no one comes by for a read any longer.

This has been my Flashback Friday. Looking back at the reasons why I started Cafe Bebe…my husband and my daughter (and new Bebe) are those reasons. What are yours? Feel free to share your Flashback Friday memories, blog related or otherwise, and link up below to share with the blogosphere. Thanks for joining in and have a great weekend!

Flashback Friday- Cafe Bebe Beginnings

Posted by cafebebemama on Apr 22, 2011 in Blogger Love, Blogging, Flashback Friday, Little Miss Adventures, Motherhood | 10 comments

I’ve been having a bit of a nostalgic look back at Cafe Bebe’s Beginnings this week. This post is my 500th!! 500 posts written in just under 2 years time. Not half bad. I went back to my first version of Cafe Bebe to discover which picture I used as the FIRST one of Little Miss on the blog. I was somewhat surprised to see that I didn’t use a picture of Little Miss until 9 June, 2009 in a post about our first review products. I must have been a bit conflicted about using pictures of Little Miss at first. Things have changed!

The first two products we ever reviewed were the Silver Cross Doodle high chair and Silver Cross Halo pushchair. The Halo was the first in a LONG line of pushchairs that I would test and review over the next year. We still have the Halo and I have to say that it really is a lovely pushchair.

Part of why I wanted to review the Silver Cross Doodle was because Little Miss’ nickname is Doodles! How convenient. I really loved this high chair, as did Little Miss. It converts into a table and chair and really allows your child to sit up properly when eating which is crucial, particularly if you’re doing Baby Led Weaning. We only recently loaned the Doodle to our good friend, Mummy Matters, to use with her 7 month old son and he LOVES it! As you can see, Little Miss was quite fond of it as well. We had many a good meal in the Doodle. Little Miss was a few days over 1 year old in these pictures.

This is Little Miss and me with the Silver Cross Halo at Burghley House gardens in June 2009. We got so many comments on the Halo and I felt quite cool pushing it around. Yes, I know, I’m a dork. What can I say?

So these were the first pictures of Little Miss which appeared on Cafe Bebe back in June of 2009 when I was on post number 5 and 6 as opposed to 500! Little Miss has become a proper Little Miss, Cafe Bebe has become a rather decent blog and I’ve become much more than just a Mummy. What a happy development!

So today is Flashback Friday! We celebrate the past and share it with the blogosphere. Take a photo, any photo from your past, tell us the story that accompanies it and pop back to link it up. Or not! Linkys are drawing some STICK these days. I’ve never forced anyone to link up to Flashback Friday but I’ve had a nicely loyal group of about 20 bloggers who’ve wanted to take part in Flashback Friday. If you’re one of those bloggers, link on up and enjoy other Flashbacks. If not, that’s ok too. To each their own in this lovely world of blogging!

My Cafe Bebe Blog

Posted by cafebebemama on Apr 20, 2011 in American Mum Me, Blogging, Gallery, Little Miss Adventures, Motherhood | 22 comments

I began writing Cafe Bebe on 13 May, 2009. My goodness that seems like an ETERNITY ago! I happened to be sitting at the dining room table, surfing the blogosphere, trawling through “mommy blogs” in America and thought, “What the Hell…let’s start another blog”. You see, I had started blogging about 4 times over with various and sundry themes before this. So, I went to good old Blogger, picked a name (Cafe Bebe if you must know) and started the ball rolling. This was the header that I created…

Gah! Nice header! I do believe I have come a long way. If you’d like to have a look at that first version of Cafe Bebe, you can still see it HERE. I was only there for a short time as I get bored quickly. I moved to another webhost where I began to improve my blogging a bit. It’s amazing to look back on those first posts and see how horrific they are. And how FEW or NO comments there were! How did I keep going? No clue…delusions of grandeur I guess. Or daft…one or the other!

I got a lot of help from kind bloggers along the way who advised me on how to write my posts and paragraph them; how to use keywords and SEO; how to learn from others. I heard about bloggers getting 300 visits a day! I was amazed with 20. Gosh blogging is a hard slog when you fist start out!

Cafe Bebe morphed again, when I began my self-hosting phase in August of 2009. See, I told you I don’t hang about! I decided Cafe Bebe was going to be a resource for mummies everwhere. Again, delusions of grandeur. I highlighted “mumpreneurs”, did product reviews, ran competitions and managed to blog about our life at the same time. God, was I busy! I did get to know a lot more bloggers and wonderful mumpreneurs, got to trial and review a lot of cool products and began to aquire my mammoth pushchair collection. At one point there were 9 pushchairs in my garage and over the course of a year I tested and reviewed over 20! I am the pushchair queen…well, I was.

Finally, I decided to focus Cafe Bebe a bit more. I split the blog into a personal one and a reviews blog. But you know what? Very few comments were generated by the reviews and I started to feel that maybe I should just limit myself to ONE blog and include reviews as and when. It was about this time that Cafe Bebe finally managed to gain a bit of a reputation, started to climb this index and that and generally was on the up. Coincidence?

Cafe Bebe became us. Adventures as a first-time, stay-at-home-mum. And I think this is where Cafe Bebe is meant to be. I’ve created a plethora of headers, changed themes, changed colours, added widgets, learned how to use html, given myself a load of things to do and have enjoyed virtually every moment of it. 13 May, 2011 is Cafe Bebe’s 2nd Blogoversary. I’m nearly at 500 posts published and have managed to create a paying job through blogging. Not bad for two years “part-time” work. But ultimately, my blog is still, at it’s core, about my Little Miss (my photo muse), my husband Mark, our life together and the challenges that come with it. And hopefully you’ve enjoyed most of it along the way. Thank you for being patient with my ever changing blog, for following me from one host to the other and for encouraging me through your comments and engagement. Here’s to a few more amazing years of Cafe Bebe. You never know what surprises are around the corner!

This post was inspired by Tara Cain’s Gallery…My Blog.