Celebrating Our 1st Blogging Anniversary Today !

Today Sophia’s Choice celebrates its first blogging anniversary! Wow, where has that year gone?

It was a year ago to the day that I jumped into the blogging world feet first and took the plunge to set up my very first blog and wrote this blog post. The concept for Sophia’s Choice had been whirling around my head for years and my husband finally commented that if I didn't do it now I never would. And he was right.

We’d lost my mother 13 months beforehand to lung cancer and it was the day after what would have been her 70th birthday that I finally realised it really was now or never. As the saying goes, “time and tide wait for no man” and if I really wanted to write and share what I had whirring around in my head which was taking up much needed storage space, then I just had to jump straight in and give it a go.

What I didn’t anticipate was gaining a loyal following of readers, and finding a circle of like-minded individuals and fellow bloggers to share with, some of whom I now call my friends. I have had an immense amount of fun and have learnt so much too.

When you first begin your blogging journey you really aren’t aware of the vast Bloggersphere that awaits you. It’s only when you start connecting with people and realise that many of them are indeed reading your posts (and sometimes even commenting!) that you understand that this blogging malarkey actually carries a level of responsibility with it too. What you put out there matters and I’ve come to respect a great many of my fellow bloggers particularly in the area of Green Beauty and parenting.

I’d like to do a little shout out to those bloggers who have helped me in my first year of blogging for Sophia’s Choice and whose blogs I have come to enjoy reading, respect and learn from. The first person is Sarah from Sugarpuffish. I love Sarah’s no nonsense approach to what she writes and tweets. I also love the fact that Sarah’s specialist subject relates to free-from skincare for those like herself who suffer with eczema. If is a fabulous resource, and Sarah also writes a few posts on free-from food too. She has been involved with the Skins Matter Free-from Awards as a stage 2 judge last year and it was then that I found out she knew Alex Gazzola, one of my tutors on my Writers Bureau course which still lies unfinished ! What a small world it is.

Then I met the lovely Ana Green who writes the beauty and lifestyle blog, Ana Goes Green. Again this has been a great source of information for me but more than that I have forged a great friendship with Ana and would class her now as a friend more than an acquaintance. She is a prolific blogger and I wonder how she finds the time to write so many blog posts. I’m lucky if I get one written for you every 2 weeks so I take my hat off to this Mum who is able to blog at that intensity.

After some months of blogging I then met the gorgeous Danny Stokes from Holistic Green Beauty and the beautiful Galina Achkasova-Portianoi, who writes the fabulous Lifestyle blog, A Curious Russian in London. A wealth of information is imparted from these lovely people; Danny was recently referred to as an encyclopedia on natural skincare and beauty and he truly is a wealth of trusted information who also happens to write a great blog too.

And Galina, who like me, is slightly more diverse in the subjects she writes about but who also covers natural, free-from skincare and beauty. This is one lady I definitely now call a friend. I love reading her diverse blog which covers everything from culture and fashion to travel and women’s issues. You really must take a look at this lady’s musings.

All the above bloggers have been a fabulous sounding board for me particularly with regards to Sophia’s Choice becoming an online retail shop. I never imagined that just one year on I’d be launching a business on the back of this blog and I feel I have acquired some great friends in the process. How blessed am I?

I would also like to mention the brands that I connected with almost a year ago, who even from the beginning trusted in me enough to link a competition giveaway to my musings about them and their products, not really knowing who this Charlie from Sophia’s Choice was at first; Green People, Shea Mooti, John Crane Toys, BecoThings, BabyCalm, Calming Colic, Sotto e Sopra, Orico London, EllaPure London. It means a lot that you took a chance on me and gave me the opportunity to try out and review your great products.

There have been many other brands and PRs (Tracey from Vert PR and Louise from Babushka Communications) who have given me opportunities to try out products for review that I may not have found otherwise. I would like to thank you all for getting in touch. Aside from what we as a family buy ourselves, without other relevant opportunities coming my way this blog would be far less diverse than it is.

And lastly I’d like to thank my Mum. Without her belief in me and what I felt I had to share, this blog would probably never have materialised. It was her and my husband who championed my idea and it is her that I dedicate this post to today. It would have been her 71^st birthday yesterday, so Mum, Thank you and Happy Birthday. I hope I’ve made you proud xx

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I truly hope you have enjoyed reading my musings so far and fingers crossed you will stay with me for another year. I think I worked out that I have enough bits on my blog list to write a post once or twice a week for the next year ! I think I better get myself organised if I’m going to get them all on the blog. Have a lovely weekend my lovelies. Until next time x