I’m a little bit honored to have such a prestigious blogger on #MeetTheMembers today. Meet Claire from Life, love and dirty dishes. She’s a proper funny writer, so much so that she’s chief of all things funny for Britmums no less. Now that is some serious blog achievement! She also runs a funny-post-linky ‘Friday frolics’, which I totally need to join in with. What makes someone like Claire so spesh, is that she is entirely humble of her own status, which shone through in this guest post. She’s basically wonderful.

x MMT

N.B. This is the last guest post in the pipe line so if you would like to be featured on Meet the Members, drop me an e mail. Don’t be shy, you’re a blogger remember. And yes, you ARE cool enough. 

Meet The Members: Life, Love and Dirty Dishes

Why is it I can write blog posts all day long, but when it comes to writing about myself and my blog I find it really difficult?!

A few facts about me…

Hi, I’m Claire, I’m in my mid thirties (37 still counts as mid, right?).  My claim to fame is that I once spoke to Phillip Schoefield on a Going Live phone in.  I know, awesome.

I live with three boys; The Husband, The Big One (6) who never ever stops talking, and The Little One (2) who never ever stands still. 

We live in a Lego house.  We don’t really, but we have so much off the stuff I could probably build one.

I love Gerard Butler, handbags, chocolate and Rose wine.  My guilty pleasure is James Corden.  Mushrooms make me cringe and I can’t stand bad manners.  I am crap at crafts.  Really really crap.

I’ve been with my husband since I was 14.  We’ve been married for 10 years.  He’s my best friend, my biggest fan, and my rock.  He rocks.  We are total opposites in pretty much every way but somehow we work!

I have a degree in Advertising & Marketing and worked in print marketing for several years.  I became a stay at home mum after having the big one.  

The birth of a blog…

I’ve always enjoyed writing, but I never really found an outlet for it.  Unless you count some long forgotten poems riddled with teenage angst, that I wrote many moons ago in my bedroom, surrounded by pictures of River Phoneix and listening to REM.

I’ve always been a bit of a bookworm, but after having children found I never really had the time to read books, so I started reading blogs.   Then one Sunday the husband took the big one out to the park, the little one was having his nap, and I was desperately putting off cleaning the kitchen, so I created a wordpress account.  With absolutely no clue what I was doing I published my first blog post.

There was no planning, no big launch, and certainly no idea what a linky party or SEO meant.

It kind of grew…

For a few months I did nothing to promote what I was doing.  I’m quite relieved now, because when I look back those first posts were awful.  But I developed my writing style, and the more I wrote the more ideas I had.

Then I went public.  I set up social media accounts and started promoting my posts.  I was blog of the day for Mumsnet and was literally walking on cloud 9.  I still get the same buzz today when one of my posts is picked up by the likes of Huffpost and Netmums.

I got addicted…

I got addicted to everything;  The writing, the networking, the fabulous blogging community, learning more about blogging, learning more about running a website, the stats.  Oh my god the stats!

Then I started to earn money.  Not huge amounts.  But brands started to approach me and I got a media kit together.  It started to feel like I might actually be able to achieve what I never thought was possible.  A flexible job that I could work around the kids, and it was something that I loved.

Right now…

Right now I blog when the little one naps and in the evenings.  I’m working really hard to make this a successful business for myself.  I’ve done a few freelance jobs, and hopefully my dream might actually come true.   

I’m the LOL round-up editor for BritMums and I host a linky called Friday Frolics for funny posts.  I also run a guest blogger series called Rookie Mistakes.

The future…

I’m just going to keep dreaming big and working hard and seeing where it takes me.

Come and say hi…

You can find me on Facebook and twitter.  If you really want to make a blogger happy subscribe here! ☺

Claire

Lifeloveanddirtydishes.com