Pockets Of Inspiration Back To School Edition

Well, what can I say, Sylvia is back to school and it’s already the weekend. The school holidays flew past and with our trips to Blackpool keeping us super busy we were back at school before we knew it.

Sylvia has settled well into year six. In fact I am surprised how many kids are in her class this year. Over 36, she told me.

The first week of school went well. My daughter brought her reading book home and read with enthusiasm. She also had some maths and knew exactly what she was doing. This was a huge difference to last year when we would have tears and frustration before the book had even been opened.

Back To School

Sylvia has signed up for after school clubs, gymnastics, street dance and young voices. I’m hoping she at least get’s to do one of the clubs and if not then we might sign her up to dance somewhere else. Either way she has plans for the coming term and it’s quite exciting.

Saving For The School Trip

My daughter is going on a school trip in November. It’s not cheap but a valuable and exciting few days away to do outdoor activities and recreation and so this week I set a goal to raise the funds to pay for her trip.

I sold an old toy and then did some freelance work for an American blog and by the end of the week I had the trip covered. Phew!

Yoda And Casper The Bichon Dogs

Yoda and Casper have been good this week. No stealing food and no cheeky business. In fact they came with us last week to Yorkshire when my grandfather passed away and this week the dogs have been tired and just chilling. I think they are settling down after going away for a long time.

I love both our dogs but Casper is so sweet and loyal and we have had lots of cuddles this week.

Pinterest Success

I have spent the past two years working hard to improve my pinterest reach, following and traffic. It’s not been easy and has taken a lot of time and effort but this month I hit an all time high social reach of 6.3 Million, which is great. I had two weeks off from any Pinterest work and am back to scheduling and planning content for the 4th quarter of 2018.

I’ve learnt a lot and want to try to maintain the views I get from pinterest now and turn my focus to something else. In fact I have been thinking of Instagram. They say don’t put all your eggs in one basket and this year I really have focussed more on search engine page views and DA rather than other social media and I need to improve my engagement rates in the coming months.

You can Follow me on Pinterest Here!   Pinterest – The Inspiration Edit 

Plans for Instagram

I genuinely feel that my instagram feed is not quite as I want it. I’m not sure what it is but my photos are not appealing enough or maybe it’s the fact I’ve been using my phone when I used to use a camera.

Either way my views have dropped and I have not made much effort or tried to grow my instagram following since 2017.

With this said, things need to change. I really need to learn and find out what I need to do to improve my following and engagement and work harder in this area. I ‘d love to reach 10K of followers so I can use the swipe up feature that encourages people to visit my blog.

Follow Me On Instagram

So that’s my goal to seriously improve in this are of social media in the coming months. I’m stuck at 7K of followers so shall see what happens with new efforts.

Review Goals

As a blogger I enjoy reviewing toys and home products. However in the next six months I would love to review a sofa for the home and at some point go on a family holiday. We did not go on holiday this year but hope to do so in 2019.

That would be great. Other items I’ve added to my review list are:

• A Steam Mop
• An Iron/ Clothes Steamer
• Sofa
• Keyboard/Piano for Sylvia
• Photo frames/canvas for the home
• Kids Toys – we love toys
• Hair products for Sylvia
• Coats. We could all do with winter coats.

I also have a little list in mind and aim to do at least 50% so we shall see what happens.

Rock Stone Painting

I enjoy painting rock stones and to be honest I’m super excited because I am going to become an Author on a popular rock painting website/blog and share my rocks on that site.

I have been working on a squirrel and two halloween stones and they will go on the site in the coming month. That’s exciting news and will help me to build some good links to my blog and maybe drive a little traffic.

So that’s the week, my thoughts and ur update. I hope you enjoy reading this edition of Pockets of Inspiration. How was your week and what are your mini goals for the coming weeks?

Angela