And just like that, Christmas is here! Our tree is And just like that, Christmas is here! Our tree is up, the Santa hats are out and the first doors on our advent calendars are open.

I love this time of year. It is my favourite. And it’s one of the few times still full of magic even as an adult. I’m going to be soaking up every minute of joy the next few weeks bring and I hope December is full of moments of joy for you too.

Happy December! 🎄
AD | Christmas has arrived at @thelexiconbracknell AD | Christmas has arrived at @thelexiconbracknell and there’s so much to entertain the whole family whilst you do your Christmas shopping! 

Visit The Lexicon Glow Room for a magical light experience that will dazzle you with 20,000 LEDs. It feels like the room goes on forever! Then, take a dip in the Light Pool, a magical ball pool with golden balls to be found and prizes to be won!

If that wasn’t all, have a photo in the giant Christmas bauble ‘sparkling selfie station’ and follow the Twinkle Trail, spotting baubles in shop windows to collect the clues and enter to win fabulous prizes this Christmas. Plus, share your sparkling selfie station pictures, tagging #thelexiconbracknell or email them to marketing@thelexiconbracknell.com and you will automatically be entered in a competition for the chance to win a restaurant gift card too. 

There are also special performances from local choirs, bands and singers and even the chance to meet Bluey, Hey Duggee and Chase from Paw Patrol! You can be sure that a trip to The Lexicon will have something for everyone over the festive season this year. We loved our visit to The Lexicon last weekend and know we’ll be back again before Christmas!

Find out more on @thelexiconbracknell website.

#TheLexiconBracknell #Merry&Bright
AD - Press Trip | What a lovely evening that was! AD - Press Trip | What a lovely evening that was! We had our first Glow Marwell experience tonight - and we loved it. It may even be the best light trail we have been to.

We spent well over two hours at @marwellzoo, enjoying the light installations, indulging in the food stalls and cafe, toasting marshmallows and even meeting Father Christmas! 

Glow Marwell was such a nice way to kick off the festive season - and it’s on all the way through December! If you’re looking for a really nice festive activity the whole family can enjoy, this could definitely be it!
AD | Are you looking for gifts for the grandparent AD | Are you looking for gifts for the grandparents this year? @famileo_uk is a wonderful gift, giving the recipient a personalised gazette of family news regularly throughout the year - and it costs from just £5.99 a month. 

Multiple family members can use the same subscription, all posting messages to be added to one gazette - and sharing the cost of the subscription too! It’s great for parents, siblings and children to all share their news with grandparents each week, fortnight or month. 

We’ve been sending my dad Family gazettes for a while now and he absolutely loves them. It means we tell him all the little things that are happening and not just the big news you remember to mention in phone calls. The children get to upload their own messages to their grandad and it’s definitely made them feel closer, building a stronger relationship despite living far apart.

Find out more about Family over on the blog - link in bio - and buy a subscription for your nearest and dearest this Christmas. It’s a gift they will definitely love to receive.
Two weeks of Fred & George! I won’t be doing the Two weeks of Fred & George! I won’t be doing these updates every week but I like having somewhere to put all these photos!

They’re now three months old, super loving and happy, making biscuits and purring constantly.

They stay in ‘their’ room overnight but explore the house during the day, getting more confident as time passes. They even got to the point of relaxing on the sofa with us last night.

Fred & George are now very much part of our family and I can’t imagine them not being there now - even at 7am when they’re miaowing at the door for breakfast!
AD | Stuck for screen-free entertainment that your AD | Stuck for screen-free entertainment that your kids will love? Claim your FREE Banjo Robinson activity pack today!
 
Reading for pleasure is a key indicator of a child’s future success, but if your child doesn’t love to read, what can you do? We know it’s not always easy keeping kids entertained and away from screens, so we’ve partnered with the award-winning @banjorobinson to gift you a FREE activity pack, worth £9.99.

Here’s a little look at the Banjo Robinson subscription - Troy loves it! Travelling to world with Banjo is so much fun! You can read our full review over on the blog and claim your free activity pack too - link in profile.
A whole week of Fred & George. We weren’t meant A whole week of Fred & George.

We weren’t meant to get more cats just yet but sometimes the universe sends you things when you don’t expect them.

These little guys needed a home and a family to love them. And we had a home and a lot of love to give. We still miss Leia but this pair are definitely helping make me feel whole again.

They are both used to us now, and love us. They’re less nervous, give us cuddles and let us pick them up. They’re still living in our spare room but starting to explore the rest of the house under supervision. 

They play fight constant. Love toys, especially a crinkly feather thing on a string attached to a stick, and love being up high. They are an awesome pair and we are so glad to have them.

Thank you @millbrook_rspca @rspca_official for trusting us with ‘Lonestar and Starfish’. We could not love them more. 

#catsofinstagram #catstagram #catsofig #catsofinsta #catlovers #adoptdontshop #rspcarescuecat #kittensofinstagram #kittens_of_instagram
[AD - Press Trip] I’ve just finished writing abo [AD - Press Trip] I’ve just finished writing about our half term break at @pottersresort and it’s over on the blog if you want to go have a read.

I wanted to put some of my favourite photos on the grid too as the kids did so many fun activities - they had THE best time. 

Giant swing, segways, climbing, archery, laser clays… there was so much to do that we couldn’t fit it all in - we need another trip!
And there ends our October half term - well, apart And there ends our October half term - well, apart from Troy who has a bonus week off!

This half term has been pretty lovely. Troy had his school residential the first weekend and then we had a really lovely few days in Norfolk before heading home and picking up two new members of our family - Fred and George. 11 week old rescue kittens who have pretty much stolen our hearts.

It’s been so nice to have a chunk of quality time with this pair and now I’m looking forward to the Christmas holidays. These two are the best company and I really do live for the school holidays. 

How has your half term been?
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Work · August 11, 2017

Carving a Career for Yourself

Every so often I sit at my desk at home, reading other people’s blogs, seeing their videos in my social media feeds and it hits me. How amazing it is to not only work from home but be one of so many people carving out a career for themselves from literally nothing.

I didn’t get an education past my GCSEs, I don’t have a degree and I didn’t work in marketing or PR. Blogging was something that I literally stumbled upon and I built this blog up from nothing to what it is today. I didn’t do it with an expensive education or a big investment – I did it with hard work and an urge to succeed.

Carving a Career for Yourself

But I am not the only person to make a career like this. Each day in my blog life I am surrounded by incredible, inspirational people who earn a living through their own skills, ones they have often learnt as they have gone along. There are so many amazing bloggers, ones that do video too and ones who have branched out even more than just blogs and vlogs.

I know bloggers who have written books – novels or books about blogging. I know bloggers who have appeared in national advertising campaigns both online and off – bloggers who have been on billboards, in images on the back of buses and on posters in shopping centres across the country. There are bloggers who are paid to speak about blogging, the things they excel at or the experiences they have been through. There are bloggers who write for magazines, newspapers and huge online spaces. There are bloggers doing literally everything – and I can’t help but be amazed by it.

Yes, some bloggers have backgrounds in this sort of thing. They have a degree in marketing or used to be an editor of a broadsheet newspaper. But the majority don’t have formal qualifications, are self taught and have created a life for themselves both online and off just by starting a blog and going for it.

I look back at my childhood and whenever someone asked me what I wanted to be I would say a vet, a wildlife photographer or a criminal psychologist. When I couldn’t continue my education and was working in retail, earning minimum wage and just about getting by I thought that was it. I didn’t think I had the skills or qualifications to do anything else. I just about ticked enough boxes to get a job at a bank – and the rest was history. I thought I would be there forever, and after 14 years it really had felt like I had been there forever.

But, then blogging became my career. Someone with no formal qualifications who, on paper, should really still be working in my old job, but instead has carved this career for themselves and made a huge jump into a world that not only suited me so well but fits around the children and pays enough for us to get by without worrying too much.

But I’m not the only one. There are so many people like me – or people who have blogging, and other associated income streams, as a second job, subsidising their income and giving them ‘pocket money’ but keeping the security of a day job to make sure their bills are paid each month.

There’s a whole new wave of entrepreneurial people who start their own business and form a new career at any point in their life. People start Instagram accounts that turn into the next big thing, they start chatting in daily YouTube videos and suddenly they’re a hit with teenagers everywhere or they start drawing pictures and posting them on Facebook and suddenly they have book deals and their brand is a household name.

I am so proud of this community that I am part of and I cannot help but be inspired by the amazing men and women who I walk this same path with. We are all individual, doing our own thing with our own social media and our own blogs but we are a collective too. We learn from each other, support each other and lay a path for others to follow.

So many new blogs are starting every day and I love how there is space for everyone in this new world of digital influencers. More and more people are taking their careers online and it really is the future. It just goes to show that anyone really can carve a career for themselves now, regardless of their background, upbringing or education – and I love watching them do it.

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Comments

  1. Nyomi says

    August 11, 2017 at 8:35 am

    ??? You are an inspiration and I hope one day this can be a career for me too!

    Reply
  2. Rachel Bustin says

    August 11, 2017 at 12:38 pm

    What a lovely post. I’m very much similar. I left school and went to college got my Alevels then a job in a supermarket and I’m still here. Blogging has given me a vision in that there is something else out there for me. I might not be the strongest writer, but I’m eager to learn about this whole blogging world. On day I can hopefully turn my blog into my only job and give up cutting cheese and cooking chickens! ?

    Reply
  3. Emma T says

    August 11, 2017 at 4:03 pm

    A-men to this. It’s great the opportunity is there for people to take hold and grow

    Reply
  4. Plutonium Sox says

    August 12, 2017 at 10:07 am

    Love this post Donna. You have helped so many of those bloggers who have forged out a career at it, including me. It is a great thing to be able to do, working flexibly around the needs of the family.
    Nat.x

    Reply
  5. Laura - Dear Bear and Beany says

    August 12, 2017 at 9:24 pm

    Love this! You are an inspiration lovely and I’m so pleased you get to call this a job now. It truly is amazing what could be around the corner for each and every one of us x

    Reply
  6. Becky | Spirited Puddle Jumper says

    August 12, 2017 at 11:52 pm

    Love this post Donna. I definitely agree with making your own luck and working hard to carve out the life and career you want. So many people think things fall into your lap when it comes to blogging but that couldn’t be further from the truth x

    Reply
  7. natalie says

    August 14, 2017 at 8:43 am

    Great post – you should be so proud of yourself lovely.

    Reply

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Hi everyone! I'm Donna. Mummy. Blogger. Social Media Manager. Traveller. Lover of stars, rainbows and gin. Firm believer that tea and cake can fix most things.

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