Waking Up With The Sunrise

 Another busy week, another blue Monday. This was what I was able to accomplish this week. -           I wrote a book review about Mr. Bliss by Tolkien, you can read all about it here . -           I’ve read some other books too. I’m seeing some progress with Dune. But it’s been a long time since I’ve read these type of big books. So I takes me a bit longer to get through it. But so far so good. -           I’ve created a blogpost about Instagram for blogging newbies you can read all about it here . Since the Covid-19 infections are rising a lot here in Belgium, I didn’t go out this weekend, as it probably isn’t so safe. The government made some restrictions for bars and restaurants for a month, but they were placed in action today, which probably meant lots of people went out to have a drink or party last weekend. So we probably wouldn’t have felt so safe anyway. I used last weekend to organize a bit and to read. I’m collecting all the info and photos from this challenge, to

This is the third part in these series. I’ve written before about Pinterest and Goodreads . But since I think Instagram can be a fun social media platform when you’re a blogger. It’s great to post some fun photos connected to your blog or just some fun pics that you like to share with your followers. Since I haven’t used Instagram before, I had to go through some tutorials and the data from the help center from Instagram to get to know this social media platform. Recently, I’ve placed my first photos on Instagram, so I’m making progress. Let’s see what I’ve learned so far. ^_^ 1.        Follow people in your niche Try to follow interesting people within your niche and interact with them, when they post something you like. If you're into books, follow lots of bookstagrammers or when you like fashion follow famous fashionistas. Try to follow reachable influencers too, as you’ll probably will get more reactions from other followers when you react to a post from someone with 5

 I haven’t read much from Tolkien yet. I saw the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies, which made want to read his books. I’ve read one book from him so far, which also wasn’t in the Middle Earth universe, and that was The Story of Kullervo. It wasn’t really for me unfortunately. I found it hard to read about Kullervo, as it was such a dark character. For me a bit too dark, but I’m probably a bit of a sensitive soul, when it comes to these things. 😇 However, I liked this book, Mr. Bliss. It’s a children’s story, so no surprise there. 😂 I read it to my son. He didn’t understand much of it yet, but at least he liked the drawings, as he kept pointing at them or kept trying to grab the pages. I got this book from the library. And I’m not sure if every edition is like this, but I really liked this one. At one side, when you pointed the book vertically, it was the edited story.   Which means it held the drawings and the text was typed and placed nicely besides the drawings. But wh

Sorry for the later post this week. My son’s teeth are coming through, most parents know what that means😋, so he asks for some extra care since he’s a bit more upset. This was what I was able to accomplish last week.: -           I wrote a review about The Tempest by Shakespeare. You can read all about it here . -          This weekend I’ve read lots of books, since I’ve been stuck in the sofa with my son. I could only soothe him by keeping him close to me, so adorable. Better enjoy this time while it still lasts, as he probably won’t want to hug me anymore in his teen years, lol.😂 One book was definitely worth writing a review about and that was Mr. Bliss by J.R.R. Tolkien. So I’m collecting my thoughts about it to give a review about it next week. -           I’ve collected some tips for you on how to use Goodreads for your blog. It’s a mini for dummies guide for newbies like me. ^_^ You can read it here .   Next week I’m going to post an article about Instagram in the sa

Goodreads is a fun social media website to track the books you’ve read and want to read. So a good tool for bloggers who track their reading and want to share it with their audience. These are 5 tips I’ve found that helped me or that definitely sounded interesting. 1.        Personalize Make your profile something to come back to. So add some information about yourself that you aren’t uncomfortable about to share with other people. You can add your blog and a picture if you want. A mini guide below to get to the settings on Goodreads.   2.        Widget Goodreads provides some fun widgets you can embed in your blog. There’s a couple of types that share your bookshelves, favorite quotes or your reading challenge. You can also find in your account settings, but another tab.(See Photo) You can copy the HTML into your homepage or wherever you want it placed on your website.   3.        Groups There are several groups on Goodreads. If you find groups in your niche it’s alway

I’m not going to lie, this was hard to understand. But I expected that, since it was written a couple of centuries ago.  A couple of years ago I bought a book with all the collected works of Shakespeare. A very beautiful hardcover edition. You must think, wow, ‘why would you hold that book so long in your bookcase without reading it?’ Well a lot has happened, mostly bad, that totally crushed my will to read. Me and my hubby moved and the renovations in our new appartment have been a lot harder than expected. Lots of bad luck with fishy constructors along the road there. So there already wasn’t lots of time to read. Not only that, we’ve lost our firstborn child at 32 weeks of pregnancy in April 2018. So for a long time I haven’t felt so great, reading was the last thing on my mind. The birth of my second son brought me joy again and now my will to read and learn is slowly returning. I’m hoping to read all the books on my bookshelves soon, to see which ones are worth to keep, sell or

This week was a less productive one, but I managed to do the following:   -           I read the classic The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. You can read all about it here . -           I did some research about Pinterest and how to use it for my blog. I placed the best tips I’ve found in this article here .   Next week I’m going to post about Goodreads, in the same series as in the Pinterest post this week. I’m going to collect my thoughts on the book I’ve read: The Tempest by Shakespeare. I’m not going to plan too far ahead yet, I’m going to see what I’ll be able to accomplish this week.

Yes! Another month, another classic. Reading classics has been more fun than expected. This month I’ve read a short read: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It’s a book published in 1925 and it’s also set in the 1920’s. It’s about a man, called Nick Carraway who moves to New York. He starts renting a house in West Egg, a district of Long Island. His neighbor is a mysterious man called Jay Gatsby who lives in a big mansion and parties a lot. Nick has dinner with his cousin, Daisy Buchanan and her husband, Tom. Nick gets introduced to Jordan Baker, a very cynical woman and begins a romantic relationship with her. Nick finally gets an invitation to a party from Gatsby. He discovers more about this Gatsby there, but I’m going to leave some things for you to read for yourself. I’m not sure I completely like this book, but I liked a lot of elements from it. There was lot of intrigue and for me too many wrong relationships.   I liked the mysterious tone of the book as it slo

Post your blog posts on Pinterest You can create a board with different subjects related to your blog posts. Keeping it organized helps possible readers to find posts interesting to them. Then pin articles from your website. You need a good image to be able to make a pin. Add a good title with keywords. For instance, for this blogpost I used the title: 'Pinterest: 5 Tips for blogging newbies.' I first placed the main subject and then I specify what it's about. Don’t make it too long. It might rank you higher in Google search in a short period, but it’ll hurt your blog in the long run. Choose quality over quantity. As reading ridiculously long and messy titles might not be so pleasant for your readers. A mini guide in pictures: Adding a board Adding a pin Then you'll get this image 2.         Create other related boards. Create a board with pins related to your blog, but with pins from other users and bloggers. Don’t just pin your own blog posts, but pinning