My Weekly Newsletter

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You can subscribe at www.sarahstewart.co.uk

For those that are long time followers, you will recall that I started my online presence with this very blog, Glasgow Mummy, that I began on the 16th June 2011. Gosh - that seems like a lifetime ago now. To the outside world, I was happily married with two young children, living in our beautiful home in Glasgow (hence the blog name!). However, on the inside, I was struggling. The blog became my therapy and I (over) shared my life for a number of years. I separated from my husband that same year, on the 29th December 2011. The divorce was difficult, and prolonged; and I think on some levels I'm still recovering from this. 

I moved from Glasgow Mummy to Ethel Explores... this was in response to my ex-husband who felt that my son would be bullied for being a 'mummy's boy' if I continued with my original branding. However, it was hard to establish myself under this new name (I gave it a couple of years!), and a lot of my followers didn't make that transition with me. Eventually I reverted back, although the blog faded with time. I felt that I wasn't being authentic and sharing my true self. In the back of my mind, I was always worried about what my ex would think, say or do. I was missing the creativity of having a blog; my own space to share and store memories.  

 

Fast forward a few years and I threw myself into a new creative outlet... painting. Following (another) break-up, this time with my boyfriend of 2 years (Rick), I joined a local acrylic painting night class. Every Tuesday night, the 2 hours flew in as I immersed myself in colour mixing and putting brush to canvas. I loved it. 

 

The children have now grown into my soon-to-be 13 year old son, and my 11 year old daughter. I am so proud of them, and despite everything we've been through they are (mostly) a delight to be around. (They have their moments, like any kids!)

 

Before Covid-19, I was very occupied with work (by day I work in the pharmaceutical industry in program management) and the children... rushing from the office to the school to their extra-curricular classes. I was always on the go, and painting took a back seat. I didn't prioritise myself as a person; I was 'just' a mum.

 

The pandemic has been a wake-up call. I am truly devastated for the loss of life, and the suffering that it has caused. However, for me, I've seen some positives. I was in the shielding category, as I take immunosuppressants for Crohn's Disease, and so I was forced to stay at home for a number of months. I got my paintbrushes back out, and set up a make-shift studio at my dining table. I've been revelling in the slower pace. I have been doing lots of inner work, and have taken time out for myself. I'm in a place now where I feel confident to share my work, and have been selling it too.

If you'd like to have a look at my artwork, you'll find it on my website here. I love sharing my story through this medium.

I just checked the dates, and it was two years ago (the time has flown in!!) I started writing email newsletters for my subscribers list. I feel more comfortable sharing more personally via email now than I do on these pages... so my weekly newsletter is definitely the place to be! 

I'm also continuing to write on both my blogs; here on Glasgow Mummy and also on my personal website Sarah Stewart where I blog about time management, productivity, home organisation and small business know-how.

Let me know in the comments if there's anything in particular you'd like me to write about.

Sarah x

{Fabulous Finds: Blogging Resources}

I thought I would share with you some of the fabulous websites I've found for blogging resources. I love Photoshop, Illustrator (still a beginner) and all things digital design. I'm hoping to spend a bit more time styling my blog posts as it's one of the things I really enjoy about having my own blog - making it all look pretty and nice.

First up is Shabby Blogs. This is where I found the banner that I use for my blog - all I had to do was add my own photos. Shabby Blogs also have cute buttons, backgrounds and other free blogging resources and have some tutorials also on how to use them. (The notepad above is from 'post pretties' over at Shabby Blogs - I added some text using Photoshop).

I've been signed up for Pugly Pixel emails for a while now and there is always great inspiration and freebies. I like these free PSD blog photo templates and plan to start using them for my posts.

Free blog photo templates from Pugly Pixel

Another site I've come across is hot biggity blog. I'm very pleased with the free pink flocked background that I found here... they have loads to choose from! I'm not great with html but I somehow managed to get it to work! It doesn't look great on my mobile though so I'll need to see if I can tweak it a bit.

vol. 25 has some amazing bits and pieces. I've bought one of their card templates for my Christmas cards this year and I personally think it looks fantastic. Again, there are a few freebies. Non-blog related are the Christmas gift tags below. Love brown wrapping paper!

Styling ideas for using free holiday tags by Volume Twenty Five 

Makin' cute Blogs also have some great tutorials and freebies. The Background Fairy has some fab free stuff for your blog too.

Blog Header from The Background Fairy

Pixels & IceCream have some fab freebies too, like these brushes for PS. There are also tonnes of patterns, papers, overlays etc.

Free Photoshop brushes from Pixels & IceCream 

My first stop for free fonts has always been dafont and they have a massive selection of all sorts of fonts... fancy, script, techno.... I have a few favourites... sweetie pie is one of them! How cute!!

I'm also liking 'home & hearth' by Heather T.

I could play about all day with clip art and fonts if I had the time!

I just want to add at this point for those of you that are, like me, new to blogging, I'd recommend the free e-courses provided by @littlemummy_com and @scottish_mum. Both provide tips & tricks and info on blogging basics via e-mail.

As always, please let me know what you think :-)

{I do it on my desk...!!!}

Blog that is!

Bibsey has started a meme asking people to share where they blog, and I have been tagged by the lovely A Working Mum to join in.

If you want to join in, the more the merrier... You just have to:

• Take a photo of your blogplatz just as it is right now (or tart it up if that sounds like fun)
• Post a picture (with or without words) and link back to Bibsey's original post
• Tag some other bloggers whose personal blogging habits are a source of great fascination to you, so that we may all know about them.

My hubby does a lot of work from home, so we're fortunate to have a home office in our house. I don't have a laptop so I do my blogging from our main home computer which you can see below. This was a gift from hubby - I'm a very lucky lady.

Our little office is rather boring... lots of Ikea shelves full of folders & books, the iron and ironing board are a permanent fixture (& only get used by the hubby to iron his work shirts... I don't iron anything - it just all gets folded and put away in the hope that it flattens itself out in the drawers!). The walls are currently bare apart from one small framed print of George Square, Glasgow.

So there you go... now I've shown you mine, it's time to show me yours... I've picked a few of the other #groovingmums, but no pressure to participate...

Mummy Plum

OurPeaGreenPod

The Rambling Pages