8 Things I Love About Blogging

 

Today we’re taking a teensy tiny break from baking. (If your Easter resembled the ones of my childhood where I consumed an entire week’s worth of sugar in a single day, it’s probably a good thing!) But don’t worry, we’ll get right back to it in my next post with an incredible dessert. I know how much you love your clean-eating cookies!  

Instead, I’m sharing a little sneak peek of what life is like behind the scenes of a food blog, why I love my full-time job, and why I’m so grateful to call this my life. Because it still feels like a dream sometimes!

 

 

1) You!

You, the readers, are my most favorite aspect of blogging and the #1 reason I jump out of bed every morning. Your interest, passion, and support fuels this blog. I smile at your sweet comments on my blog posts, Facebook, and Instagram, and those words motivate me to dive back into recipe testing and create more treats for you to try. So thank you for inviting me into your lives and sharing my love for baking!

 

 

2) Self-bossing and working from home.

This book influenced how I viewed working solo from the comfort of my home office. Instead of “self-employed,” the author calls it self-bossing, and that one word changed my approach. I started looking forward to calling the shots, setting my own schedule, and drawing up my daily, weekly, and monthly calendars. Instead of running on someone else’s clock, I decided what hours I worked, exercised, relaxed, and vacationed!

As an introvert, I really love working from home. It’s easier to focus with fewer interruptions and coworkers under the same roof, and my daily commute (from the desk to the kitchen) requires a lot less time than it used to! I can turn on music or baseball games on the radio without anybody complaining, and I’m able work when I feel the most productive, instead of 9 to 5. How liberating—and fun!

 

 

3) The dress code.

This goes along with #2… I love wearing whatever I want! PJs in the winter, shorts in the summer, workout clothes, yoga pants, sundresses, tank tops—the sky is the limit and there’s nobody (well, except my pup) to judge. And slippers. Thank goodness for slippers. I could never survive wearing heels every day!

(But for the record, I do throw on jeans to drive to the grocery store. Or go out in public. And I dress up for nice events.)

 

 

4) Meeting my “coworkers.”

Dorothy was the first one to refer to bloggers as “coworkers,” and that term stuck with me. Coworkers are people who do similar things to earn an income, can relate to the tasks you’re working on, and encourage you to perform your best. Even thought we aren’t under the same roof, that definitely defines bloggers!

And meeting fellow bloggers has been life changing. Whether at a restaurant across town or at a conference across the country, it’s refreshing and inspiring to meet the talented people behind the blogs and computer screens. Not everyone understands our crazy lives and schedules, so it feels like home to talk with people in real life who get it. Even though we live miles and time zones apart, some of these bloggers have turned into my closest friends!

 

 

4) The creativity.

Throughout high school and college, I mainly focused on math and science. I took a few years of photography, but I rarely dabbled in the fine arts. It nearly drove my grandma nuts, and she always exclaimed, “Take a literature course! Or an art class! Visit a museum, learn to paint, start dancing!” whenever I saw her. Since my dad went straight into science as well and never looked back, she teased that I was her last hope. Grandma was so proud when I left my job to blog full-time!

I love how baking involves both science in testing recipes, as well as creativity in dreaming up those recipe ideas and photographing the outcomes. It stimulates both halves of me and keeps me balanced. (A lot more than my old chemistry job!) When your job involves playing with sprinkles and piping pretty frosting swirls, why would you want to do anything else?

 

 

6) Going outside of my comfort zone.

Creating my own recipes from scratch has pushed me outside of my comfort zone and really helped me grow. I used to be intimidated by scones, cheesecake, and piping frosting. I would avoid them like the plague! By practicing (and failing) and practicing again and conquering those fears, I have gained new skills and been really proud of the results. I love that feeling of achievement, and it pushes me take more steps outside of that comfort zone.

 

 

7) Learning.

As a follow up to #6, I love learning new things. From the chemistry of cookies and the perfect frosting swirl to the art of moody photography and the coding language of HTML… The diversity of the skills I’ve managed to acquire and cobble together and turn into my full-time job makes blogging really worthwhile. I doubt I would’ve learned all of these tidbits in another line of work, and there’s still so much more to learn!

 

 

8) Sharing.

I love sharing, and blogging enables me to do that two ways. First, I get to share virtually with you! Although I can’t quite hand you a plate of cookies through the internet (and I really wish I could!), I can at least give you a recipe and hope you enjoy the act of baking as much as I do. The best part is when you share the results with me, through your comments and pictures on Instagram. I love, love, love seeing how the recipes turn out for you—it’s my favorite part of this job!

And secondly, I get to share treats in person with family, friends, and neighbors. It’s easier to make friends by knocking on doors with plates of cookies and brownies than just about any other way I can think of, and baking is always more fun when I don’t have to eat everything alone!

 

Now it’s your turn! What do you love the most about YOUR job?