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2016 New (Blogging) Beginnings

January 1, 2016 /

Firstly, HAPPY NEW YEAR! From my family to yours. I wish you health, wealth and happiness for the next 366 days.

I’m deviating away from my usual New Year post (although it may come tomorrow) to talk about blog stuff. Today Cocktails in Teacups is being RELAUNCHED! From now on the main focus of this blog will be be on Disney, Life, Travel and Parenting.. with a few other subjects thrown in for good measure. As much as I desperately wanted to focus on fashion and beauty, I just know neither of them are a strong subject for me. The blog has always been lifestyle based, but for the first three years I posted a lot of product reviews and outfit posts, however over 2015 I became disillusioned with my blogs direction and I feel it’s time to write about subjects important in my life. So what can you expect from the new Cocktails in Teacups?

Cocktails in Teacups Disney Life Travel Parenting Blog New Blogging Beginnings Diary
I’m finally going to let you all into my life with Little Miss, and although my parent posts won’t focus on “dos and don’ts” I will be writing more about her, including her outfits, her likes and dislikes and our adventures as she grows up. It’s taken a long time to feel comfortable with openly writing about her on here, but I always said when I started over three years ago that they day may come when I would. I have an instagram account Livvybirdadventures that documents our day to day life as well as posting memories from our Disney trips. It’s been so well received and in less than 9 months has gathered over 6000 followers. LM is way more photogenic than I am so it makes sense really haha.

Over the past year and a half I’ve visited Disney four times, twice to Walt Disney World and twice to Disneyland Paris.. and it looks like 2016 is going to be the same, including 4 weeks in Florida in March. Over that time I have taken a lot of photos and I’ve learned a lot. I’ve been during peak season and off peak season and I’ve stayed at some hotels. Not only that but I have managed to have a sneaky look into the life of an APH who have helped me realise how to make the absolute best out of your trip. I have done it on a budget and by next October I’ll have done a full Disney package staying at a Deluxe Villa with dining plan. I’m going to do a mixture of posts about both parks, and maybe over time I can add others as one day I’m hoping to have visited all the parks.

I’m not just going to talk about Disney parks though, I’m just going to talk about our general love of Disney and how it impacts on our life. Disney blogging seems to be on the rise and those blogs are fast becoming my favourites. We have Disney integrated into almost every part of our life, from cosplaying at conventions, to the name of our cat, Elsa.

Travel in general both in the UK and out and including travelling with a small child. Two summers ago now I travelled around NE USA on my own and I feel like I learned a lot yet never really talked about it. I didn’t review the hotels or areas I stayed in and I feel like it was a bit wasted. Aside from Disney, planning and talking about travelling is a huge passion of mine.

Finally, food! I’m making no promises about this but some of my most well received posts on Cocktails in Teacups were food related, from restaurant reviews to things I’ve cooked. I will be trying out a new healthy lifestyle along with 80% of the country now that it’s new year which means cooking more but whether I remember to document what I make or not is another thing. But fingers crossed, but food is a huge passion of mine, when I can be bothered to eat something other than microwavable noodles.

Yes, there will still be sponsored posts thrown in there which will clearly be marked as content and with an * since I now work self employed and although I do accept writing projects on the side, a portion of my income does come from this blog. These posts will occasionally feature beauty or maybe fashion as these are topics I do enjoy but I don’t have a great knowledge of, but for the most part they will be parenting and travel related.

That’s not all, I have a few blogging resolutions I’m going to try and stick to, to help my blog grow.

  • Promote posts – In the last year I really sucked at this. I’m going to try and join link ups, promote on groups as well as on my own Twitter, and maybe Facebook.
  • Improve blogger engagement on Twitter – I used to be on Twitter engaging with ther bloggers all the time, but when my anxiety really got the best of me last year I stopped. I really want to work on this again by taking part in chats and just generally being a twitter presence.
  • Attend blog events – I got to the point last year where I felt so anxious that everyone in the North East hated me that I stopped going, but I’ve decided to hold my head high and go anyway. New experiences are good for the soul after all.
  • Work on my photography & editing skills – Not a great one for the winter since it’s so dark, but I really am going to try and practice more with my camera to improve my photography which will ultimately make my blog much prettier.

I think four is quite enough since I have a lot of personal goals that I will be sharing over the next couple of days. But hopefully these four alone will help me work towards having a blog that I found.

FINALLY! In honour of this relaunch I have a giveaway. It’s not huge, but I hope it’ll appeal to my readers. It’s a Disney giveaway! I’m giving away a lovely selection of Disney bits and pieces to one lucky follower and there is one SURPRISE gift that I will be picking up in February from Disneyland Paris that they will also receive.

 

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197 Comments

Thank you so much for taking time to read my blog. I appreciate all comments & will check out any links to blogs. It's my readers that often make my day! - Amy x