A DAY IN MY BLOGGING LIFE: PEEK INSIDE MY DAY TO DAY!

Today, I am so excited to be joining a fabulous group of bloggers, as we all share a look into our daily lives, along with tips on managing and running our blog businesses. Blogging is serious business, and I’d like to extend a huge thank you to Amy and Christy of 11 Magnolia Lane, who invited me to take part in this fun tour this year. I couldn’t be happier to share a peek into a day in my blogging life, and how I balance this career, while raising my family and running our household. My days are not always the same, and depending on my current projects and time of year, my day to day to-do list can vary…but this is a pretty good look into what my schedule entails. You can hop over to visit everyone else on the tour as well – I can’t wait to read everyone else’s routines myself! If you’ve been reading with me for a while, you may remember my post from a couple of years ago, which was somewhat similar, where I shared my daily tips to keep life organized – you can check it out here, there’s a lot of great daily tips that you’ll find very helpful! Grab your coffee, while I walk you through my blogging life today, and please don’t mind the iPhone pics – much of what I’m sharing today is the real life stuff! *Affiliate links are provided throughout, or at the bottom of this post for your shopping convenience – see my full disclosure policy here.

When friends and acquaintances ask me what I do for a living, especially those I haven’t seen for a long time, and I tell them I’m a full-time blogger and social media influencer, they kind of give me one of those looks…They politely smile, nod, and say, ‘That sounds really interesting and like a lot of fun, you must really love decorating your house all the time!’. It’s definitely a great way to start a conversation, since most people I speak to don’t fully understand what it is that I do. My parents can’t quite figure it out yet either, after multiple explanations of how I actually make my living, but that’s ok, it really doesn’t bother me. Even when an acquaintance at school pickup last year said to me, ‘Yeah, but that’s not really work, it must be pretty easy and fun just taking pictures all the time’. Easy, well, ummm….no, not really! Fun? Sure, sometimes, there’s a lot of ‘fluffy’ stuff that comes along with it I suppose, like researching ideas, sourcing and shopping, but there’s also a plethora of backend, technical items that most people don’t see or understand. In a nutshell, these are the basic steps I’ll go through every time I write a blog post (there’s much more to it than this, though!) : develop my idea, do my research, source products, shop for products (or sometimes items are sent to me when I work with a brand), setup and style my space for shooting, photograph (anywhere from 100-500 shots, no joke!), edit shots, retouch my photography, write, edit and proof read my blog post, ensure all backend/technical requirements are there, publish it, send out my newsletter, market the post on my social channels (Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram) and continue to market it for maximum traffic to my website. This industry is still so new, so I understand why it’s hard for people to truly know what it all entails, and I’m still learning every day, I’ve only been at this for a few years now. It really is work, a lot of it, and lucky for me, it happens to be work on my own terms, which fits my daily schedule.

Our weekdays start very early around here, and this year, we have some changes to our everyday schedule that I’m still getting used to, but so far, I’m loving it. Neil, my husband, is already awake and my alarm goes off at 5:45, which I’m not loving at all. I snooze for as long as I can, but generally I’m up by 6. It’s not new though, since our son started high school a couple of years ago, we’ve been getting up at this time each day. Now that our daughter has also started high school, we’re all up by 6:00 a.m, and everyone is out by 7 the latest. Here in Quebec, grades 7 through 11 are high school years, then college for 2 or 3 years, then university. It’s a little different than everywhere else in Canada and the US!I roll out of bed, and get whoever else is still in bed, out of bed. Some days, I’ll grab a quick shower as soon as I’m up, then head to the kitchen for my coffee. I feed our bunny, Oscar, who’s patiently waiting for his breakfast. He’s so cute (you’ll see him further down!). If I’m lucky, I get a few minutes to look through a magazine quickly, but I’m usually on my computer or phone, answering emails, blog comments, checking blog stats and traffic, affiliate and ad revenue, answering Instagram comments, pinning to Pinterest, or any other social media work I need to catch up on. Neil is a huge help in the mornings, he makes my coffee for me (he’s such a great hubby!) and gets breakfast going for the kids. The two of us follow the ketogenic diet, and a huge part of this lifestyle is our morning coffee – it’s called ‘Bulletproof Coffee’ – which is literally like a full breakfast, and very heavy on the fats, which keep you full all morning and are great for your brain health. It has MCT oil (medium chain triglycerides), organic butter and 35% cream. It’s amazing and so filling. I talk a little bit more about our diet in my daily tips post.

I’ll finish packing up lunches for the kids, which is usually leftovers from dinner and when we’re cleaning up each night after supper, that’s when it all gets packed up. I cut up veggies for the week on Sundays, so they’re faster to pack up, and getting it done it after dinner each night saves us a ton of time in the morning. If something needs heating up, we just pop it in the microwave for a few minutes before they head out the door.

Our kids have very busy schedules – our son Liam studies in a sports-study program at school for hockey, and finishes classes every day by noon, then he’ll train every afternoon, or play a game. Getting the hockey bags to and from school each week takes a ton of coordination, and lucky for us, we have a lot of parents we can car pool with. So depending on the day, if the boys have equipment or not, if they’re taking the train in, or if they get driven to school, Liam is out the door any time between 6:30 and 7am. Sydney takes the bus at 7 am, and either Neil will drop her at the stop if he’s not on carpool duty that day, or I will – it’s a little too far for her to walk, and I’m trying to get the stop changed, but for now, one of us has to drop her and pick her up to save her time. If I haven’t showered yet, I’ll grab one now, before I drop her off, and throw anything on since no one will see me, thank goodness! I never leave the house without makeup and no one sees me that way, except my family, of course ;) After I get back, I’ll clean up the kitchen – unload the dishwasher, put all the dirty dishes away, and wipe the table and counters. I need a clean kitchen and a clean house to keep my sanity. Besides, this is where I work every day and it has to be neat! Today I have towels to wash, so I’ll throw a load in. I usually wash towels every other day and sheets on Fridays or Saturdays. Laundry also gets done throughout the week, and the kids do their own laundry on weekends, which is a huge help for me.I keep our kitchen pretty spotless everyday – this shot below is from this past summer, where we had recently added new brass hardware. You can visit that post here and see the before and after.

I’ll finish getting myself ready and dressed, and I always make sure to clean up the bathroom – no makeup on the counter, hair dryer put away, dirty clothes in the hamper, and I make our bed. I have to make the bed every day – there is nothing like getting into a clean, crisp bed every night! I know what you’re thinking, but having a little OCD will do this to you. I need my house clean and orderly to stay sane and minimize any anxiety. No joke. Messiness and clutter gives me anxiety. Today is an exception though, I have to run errands early, so I can get back home early enough to shoot our bedroom for my upcoming blog post, so I’ll make the bed when I get home. I’ll also check the kid’s bedrooms and tidy their beds if I need to – our home is small and their rooms are visible so I like them neat. Did I mention I have a little bit of OCD? The kids are getting a little bit better as they get older, but they’re still kids and they can still be messy. During the week, I also like to wipe the bathrooms down quickly, to keep them from getting too dirty – toilets, sinks and garbage cans all get a quick cleaning. It only takes about fifteen minutes and is such a timesaver for when it’s time for a full cleaning and the bathrooms are already that much cleaner. You can see more of our master bathroom here.

Now that I’m dressed and the house is picked up, I’m running out to pick up some flowers for my bedroom shoot, and mums for our front porch. Today, I’m also looking for new pillows for our living room, for my upcoming fall content as well. We have new white sofas on the way – which is a huge deal for me –  and I can’t wait for them to arrive! They’ll be here any day. I also have some new pillows shipping from Etsy that are en route, but I want to possibly add some others to the mix, so I’m running to HomeSense to see what I can score. If you want a peek at our new sofas, you can read my fall inspiration post here – they are so fabulous and will completely transform our living room. Can’t wait to share them with you for real! Here’s what our living room looked like this summer, and still basically looks the same. You can see more of our summer living room here.

Now I’m back home after about an hour and a half, and I have flowers from the grocery store and some new pillows I want to try out. I also stopped quickly to pick up a few last minute school supplies the kids needed.

I love these white mums together with my ferns on our porch – I just posted this shot on Instagram on Saturday, asking for feedback on my mums and ferns together – it seems to be a very popular mix, so this will be my fall porch this year. I wanted to keep it simple for a couple reasons. I’m feeling tired and a little lazy lately, and don’t have a whole lot of energy to swap out my pots – gardening is not my favorite thing – and my ferns are doing so well, I want to keep them going for the season. You can see my fall porch from last year here, which had a little bit of a different look, but is still one of my favorites.

I’ve got my flowers in the sink, and a bunch pf pillows I picked up all together on the floor to see how they mix – I’m liking it, and think some may work with my new ones that are coming, but I’m still not convinced just yet. Most of these will go back to the store, but until the others arrive, I won’t know which ones will stay. Here are the ones on their way, just click on the image to see them: 

Now that I’m home, the towels will go in the dryer, and I’ll take some chicken out of the freezer for dinner. I’ll check my email and Instagram again, to see if I need to catch up and answer comments or messages. Instagram is a huge part of my business, as it is for most bloggers, so being regularly active is very important. My daily Instagram posting times vary, and so do my story posting times (which are 15 second little videos that last 24 hours), so I may post either of them at any time during the day. I arrange my flowers, make the bed, and iron the bedding for my shoot so it’s not too wrinkled in my shots – normally I’d wash it all before shooting, but today I didn’t have time (and the sheets usually get washed on Fridays – everything you’re reading in this post, was my day last Thursday!Time to whip this room into shape for my shoot!I desperately need a steamer…this takes way too long…Ironing is done, I get my shots finished, which went really quickly today, and I’ll sit at the kitchen island where I work every day. I’ll edit my shots down and start to retouch some right away. It’s about 11:30 by now, and I’ll grab a small handful of nuts if I’m hungry. I’ll work on my shots for the next couple of hours and grab a quick lunch, which is often tomatoes, cheese, more nuts (I’m a nut junky!) and probably some leftover chicken or pork if there’s any, or some turkey slices or an egg or avocado. Today it’s just a small plate of tomatoes, nuts, and sharp cheddar, but still very filling. I’ll snack on more nuts again later, and probably some cheese and veggies, which I usually munch on every day. I’ll have many small, snack-size potions throughout the day until dinner time.

This is my office, which can be very tiring to sit at, after a full day, and really hard on my back. When I’m not shooting for a post, I sit here and work at my computer all day long. I’m really looking forward to the day when I have a real office space and desk to sit at!

Soon I’m picking up Sydney from the bus at 2:50. We pick up the mail and when we get back home, I always sort it right away so there’s no pile! Junk mail goes in the recycling, and the bills get filed and noted in my agenda. I’m telling you – if you get into the habit of doing this every day, your mail will not overwhelm you! Plus, I really cannot stand clutter, so out of sight it all goes! Sydney will usually get her homework done after school, and then relax in her room (she is almost a teenager after all). She has a pretty rigorous dance schedule, and this year, it’s great, since all of her classes are scheduled from Wednesday to Saturday. Wednesdays she will have to be there from 3:00 to 9:30, so I’ll have to have dinner made early and packed for her, and I’ll pick her up from school to get her to the studio on time (Neil does the late pickups, thankfully, poor guy!). Thursdays and Fridays she’ll be there only in the evenings this year, so it’s a little less hectic getting her there, and we’ll eat dinner a little early on those days.Oscar usually gets a crunchy green snack around 3:00 every day, and trust me, he is always ready and waiting. He knows his schedule! He is actually out and about the house all day, he sleeps in a few various spots, and then he goes back in his cage at night. He’s a lion head bunny and as messy as bunnies can be, they are so much fun! You wouldn’t believe how big their personalities are! He’s super fluffy and his hair needs a lot of brushing! Oh, and in case you’re wondering, he’s fully potty trained and hops in and goes in his cage when he needs to. They actually train themselves, they’re such smart little creatures!He loves to get those ears massaged too :)

By 4:45 Liam is home, I either pick him and his friends up from the train, or anther parent will, depending on the day and their game schedule. He’ll get his homework and studying done in his room. His bedroom is in transition right now, and pretty messy….teenagers, remember? The headboard is new, so the artwork needs to be shifted up. We’re also thinking of moving him down to the basement so I can have an office space of my own. It may take a while before we get there! Since his training and games are all in the afternoons, there’s no evening or weekend hockey for him, except for the leagues he plays in for fun. His week is pretty packed between hockey and school, but he loves it.

I’ll finish working on my bedroom shots for a while and also get supper started. I shared this shot on Instagram as a sneak peek of our fall bedroom decor. I haven’t written my blog post yet though, but stay tuned, it’s coming soon! You can see all of our different bedroom looks and shop them here on my SHOP page.

 Time to get supper going and I’m cooking a little earlier than usual, tonight is curriculum night at both of the kids’ schools, so Neil and I have to divide and conquer… By the way, when the kids get home every day, they have to unpack their lunch boxes and put everything away in the dishwasher. I’m usually working on and off while I’m getting supper finished and Neil is typically home between 5 and 5:30. I usually make very quick meals, often consisting of meat and veggies. I have a fabulous Cream of Broccoli Soup recipe that I shared a couple of weeks ago, that you’ve to try when you’re short on time, like I often am (you can click here for the recipe). We all sit down to eat together if Sydney is not at dance, and afterwards everyone helps to cleanup the kitchen, and make lunches for the next day. Tonight we won’t be home until 9 pm but usually after dinner, it’s more homework/study for the kids if they need to, or they just hang and do their thing. I work, Neil snoozes and snores haha. Don’t be mad at me, babe, but it’s true :) Sydney likes to steal my spot on the sofa (up there on the left), but I usually sit and work with my feet up. Time to get out of my spot, Syd! I am beat by this time of the day… We relax and watch TV while I work, I get ready to post on Instagram around 8 or 9 usually, and I’m also either editing photos, retouching or writing a blog post. Ok, sometimes I doze off too, but I try to finish up as much work as I can!

The kids get ready for bed, Sydney is usually in bed by 9:30, unless she’s at dance, Liam always likes to grab something to eat – usually a nice big spread and makes a nice big mess again in the kitchen. As long as he cleans up after… When Sydney comes home from dance it’s also snack time for her too. More to clean… Liam heads to bed around 10 or 10:30 and now, I’m about ready myself. I’ll cllean up what’s left in the kitchen because the kids still leave a few things around, and it’s also snack time for Oscar, too, which is how we get him back in his cage every night. He always falls for it, he’s the cutest. It’s ok, he loves his cage, it’s his little home, and without fail every night, he comes looking for his snack. I always take a shower before bed, it helps me relax and unwind, and I sleep so much better. Do you guys shower in the morning or night? I do both…OCD, maybe? Not sure, but it helps me start and end my day. I’ll get into bed, play solitaire or a word game, answer Instagram comments and as soon as I start to doze off, any time between 11 or 12 (which I can’t do so much anymore!) I’ll put my meditation music on, my earbuds in, and drift to sleep. It’s been a really long day and 5:45 wakeup is brutal. Neil usually comes to bed around the time I’m dozing off, after his workout. He is one disciplined guy, and works out every single night. I’m currently in one of my ‘non-workout’ phases haha. I plan to try and get back into a workout phase very soon.Or maybe later. First I need to get some rest, so I can get up and do this all over again tomorrow. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I consider myself very fortunate to be able to run this business from my home, on my own schedule, while raising my family and running our household. I hope you’ve all enjoyed looking into my daily schedule and getting a peek into my blogging life! It is one busy life, and weekends are no different, I often work even longer days on weekends, since Neil is home, and I’m doing a little less of the day to day household stuff. Although, I do clean on weekends too, so I guess it’s all the same.. My blogging life is 24/7/365! Thanks for taking the time in your day to read about mine! xo