One Hundred. ONE HUNDRED.
It’s a big number. A century. Ten decades.
Ciarán was thrilled when he could count that far and was surprised that there were numbers after one hundred.
Cathal has yet to get past 10, but he’s trying very hard.
This is my one hundredth blogpost. It sounds like a lot so I thought I’d celebrate this little milestone by sharing a few numbers, with a little giveaway at the end of the post to keep you reading.
I’m more of a words than numbers person myself, but here goes.
I’ve done 100 posts in 574 days. That’s an average of one post every 5.74 days. (easy sum)
I’ve blogged 53 recipes and reported on 16 days out. This surprises me, I thought a bigger proportion of my posts were recipes, they certainly were starting out, but things moved on and the blog evolved and changed. Hopefully for the better.
One number I’m not going to divulge is the number of hours that I have spent on the blog, but suffice to say it’s a lot fewer than I spend commuting but more than I spend eating out.
Some weeks have been busy here on Bumbles of Rice as I find my writing flows easily and other times the tumbleweed has appeared as real life was busy too, and that’s my first priority. That’s what happens around here, I make up the rules as I go along. If I do disappear feel free to find me on twitter or faceboook (links above) as I rarely go totally offline.
I’m always fascinated by why people read the blog, or what posts have appeal. Obviously search engine friendly terms bring readers, as do mentions in national press. I’ve compiled (OK I’ve copied from WordPress with zero effort) my top ten posts. Feel free to have a root around to find others though, these aren’t necessarily MY top ten, but yours.
BUMBLES OF RICE TOP TEN POSTS OF ALL TIME
*fanfare*
- Very Easy Chicken and Broccoli Bake – I think the “very easy” in the title helps!
- Malteser Traybake – what’s not to love?
- Mint Aero Slices – see 2 above
- Breastfeeding in the Middle Ground – I wrote this post as part of the Irish Parenting Bloggers blogmarch for National Breastfeeding Week and it seemed to resonate with a lot of people. A version of this post also appeared in the Irish Times.
- About Bumbles of Rice – It’s only fair that you should know what you’re reading I suppose
- Toblerone Cheesecake – which reminds me, I must make this again soon
- A Mumble on Happiness with Book Review of “The Happiness Project” – I was surprised how well received this post was, I got a lot from the book and am currently in the early chapters of the sequel so expect more soon
- Christmas Gift Ideas for Baby’s First Christmas – people get stuck 🙂
- Flapjacks – this really is the best flapjack recipe, from Rachel Allen.
- Pirate Ship Birthday Cake for my 5 year old Pirate – I was very proud of this cake so it’s great to see that it’s a popular post too.
And now for the bit you’ve been waiting for- THE GIVEAWAY
Babytalk is a new festival which will take place in UCD’s O’Reilly Hall on 22nd and 23rd February. The organisers, Rachel and Marie are doing things differently to your everyday run of the mill baby show- their whole theme is “information is power” and their aim is to provide unbiased information to parents and parents to be, believing that information is power.
Unbiased advice is something that is close to my heart, and in the five and a half years that I’ve been a parent I’ve been so frustrated by propaganda masquerading as advice, propaganda which gets in the way of people helping themselves and finding their own problems. I had particular issues with the breastfeeding information available and the lack of unbiased advice.
Babytalk will have talks on topics from cloth nappies to fertility, a magic show, comedy show and a panel discussion from some of my Irish Parenting Blogger buddies.
The festival is planned to be family friendly with car and buggy parking in ample supply, entertaining with music and comedy acts, and ethical, which frankly is unusual for an event of this type. I’m looking forward to checking it out.
Babytalk Festival have given me two tickets for a lucky reader, just fill in the rafflecopter form below, using as many entries as you like. Good luck!
Click here to enter:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
photo credit: Mykl Roventine via photopin cc
