Apples to Ziti | underthebrella

Day 22: Introduce us to 5 blogs you read on the regular, and tell us why!

When is Nap Time?- I frequently check out this blog to see what my good friend and her kiddos are up to. My good friend Amber and I have been learning about blogging together. She says I was her inspiration but I think we both are inspiring each other. I hope one day that I am as good of a mother as she is to her two sweet boys. I am so excited and proud of the work that she is doing and publishing on her blog. If you have young kids check out her blog she is starting a Kids Craft Friday posting.
Apples to Ziti– Growing up I had a great friend named Jenna. She then went off to college out of state and got married to the love of her life. She and her husband then started a family and they are now up to three kids. They have such a beautiful family. Jenna decided to start her bolg to cook her way through the alphabet starting with the letter “A” and cooking all the way through letter “z.” Jenna also shares about her loves and what the latest update is on her littles. If you are looking for some great recipes be sure to check out her blog!
Diary of an Addict- I check this blog out at least every other day so excited to see what she will post. I stumbled across this blog before I started up my blog. She has such a sweet family and lives in California. I am so excited and honored to say that I receive mentoring sessions with this amazing lady. I have talked with her twice and have loved my time with her. She is such a sweet and caring woman. I hope one day I will get to meet her at a blogging conference. If you love to cook, know about fitness and family. You will love her blog! Go check it out!
Sew Caroline– Sew Caroline is another blog that I stumbled upon randomly. I have been following Sew Caroline’s journey for the past year as she has sewn many awesome garments, made her own line of fabric and has published patterns. I love to sew and in reading how she came about learning to sew I have hope and faith that even though I am not the best at sewing that I can make great garments. Be sure to be on the look out for my kimono that I made using Sew Caroline’s awesome pattern. I hope one day I get to meet her at a blogging/crafting conference.
Gussy Sews-Last but certainly not least Gussy Sews. I LOVE her blog. I feel so inspired after reading her blog. I connected with her instantly through her writing. She is a Midwest girl who got a sewing machine for Christmas and learned to sew through the Internet and self-discovery. She then traveled to Africa (bucket list task for me) with her husband. Once home they found out they were expecting their first along with moving to the west coast. She is now getting ready to have her second baby and is still blogging and maintaining her small sewing business on the side. She is quite the inspiration for me and I would LOVE to meet her in person one day. Be sure to check out her AWESOME blog!

Love and Peace!

I am joining Brave Love to blog every day in September! I will be linking the post with her daily link up! I challenge you to participate in the blog-tember challenge.

Day 11: How do you stay inspired? Who inspires you the most?

This Blog-tember post I feel like is very open ended. I feel as though I could answer this question in several different ways. I will try to answer it to the best of my ability.

So. How do I stay inspired? I feel like I always have SOMETHING I could be writing about. It comes down to planning the post and making sure that I do the craft or cook the meal ahead of time. When working on a blog you don’t realize how much work and how many steps go into completing a post. For the purpose of blogging everyday in September I am truly blogging everyday. I have learned TONS by blogging everyday. I have learned a lot about myself and the world of blogging. I try to keep my eyes and ears open to new and different ideas so when I do need to complete a blog post that I have content that is fun to write and interesting to my readers. Even if it is not completely my own idea I will then start with the idea going one way then run with it a completely different way. (If that makes any sense!)

Second question, Who inspires me the most? I could take this one of two ways and list the bloggers in which I follow and inspire me the most or friends and family around me that inspire me the most. I guess I will do both. To start off my immediate family inspire me. The events that happen in my daily life make we want to share what has happened and tell/show the world and my readers. My day to day life inspires me. Be it my job, my dogs, my busy life, or my students. Sometimes it is just a drive into school listening to the radio and I will hear something that will then spark a thought which will then lead to a blog post. In terms of my good friends and the blogging world I have a friend that I have grown closer with through learning about blogging and our weekly bible study. Check out her mom blog at When is Nap Time? I have another friend in which I have know since I was a young girl that started blogging a bit after I did she is an awesome writer and started her blog to become an awesome cook. Her recipes are AMAZING and her kids are even cuter. Be sure to check out her blog at Apples to Ziti. One of my good friends that has become a health coach has also started writing a blog to document the articles that she finds and also the allergen friendly recipes she cooks. You can read her blog at Road to Living Whole.

Here are a list of bloggers I follow and read their posts on a regular basis:

Allisa Circle @ Diary of an Addict

Lindsey Cheney @ The Pleated Poppy

Corilynn@ Corilynn: Small World Big Style

Maggie @ Gussy Sews

Mandy @ Biblical Homemaking

Delia @ Delia Creates

Caroline @ Sew Caroline

I hope you will take the time to check out some of these AMAZING blogs if you don’t already follow them. I regularly am checking these blogs to see if they have new posts up.

Love and Peace