SA Bloggers - Inspired Living SA

In today’s Confessions of a Blogger we meet gorgeous mommy blogger Cindy, behind the blog 3 Kids, 2 Dogs and 1 Old House.

Cindy is the name that most people know me by, but for the last (almost) 5 years I have been better known as Mom – by my 3 kids anyway. I’ve been married to my “high school sweetheart” (Seth) for the last 7 years and we have 3 lovely kids together – Kyla (4), Riya-Ray (3) and Knox (18 months). We entered into the parenting game early (I am only 27) but we absolutely love it – most of the time anyway. We live in the most beautiful city in the World – Cape Town, South Africa and make sure that we make the most of all that it has to offer.

When did you start your journey as a blogger and why? I had to look this up – we started blogging in August 2010, just after Riya was born. I knew that when I had kids I wanted to keep some kind of awesome record for them to look back on, a scrapbook of our escapades of sorts, and because we live in an era where technology is constantly at our finger tips I thought that blogging would be the easiest way to do it. Plus connecting with others via social media helped me so much when I had Kyla (none of my friends had kids) and so sharing via SM helped me so much. I guess I was hoping that besides recording our memories, maybe I could be a support to others in a similar situation.

If you are not blogging where will we find you? When I am not blogging I am either running my kids around from school to playdates or in my office – I’m the co-owner of an Insurance Brokerage in town (run away – I’M the middle man!)
Tell us a little about your space on the interweb and what you blog about? Our blog is called 3 Kids, 2 Dogs and 1 Old House – if you had to box us into a category we would be “parenting” but there is so much more to life and parenting than just that, so I think we may fit into “lifestyle” too. This is our little corner of the web where we record our adventures in and around Cape Town (we are fortunate enough to visit new places quite often), the challenges of parenting and anything else that interests us – this includes DIY, home décor, tattoos, taking my own photos, gluten/dairy free eating, kids crafts, lots of chocolate and more.

What do you think makes a blog successful? To me a successful blog is where the author is always honest and actually shares snippets of their lives. I personally don’t follow any blogs that only review/promote stuff because I have enough advertising pushed on me in other spaces. Not that advertising is wrong, I would just prefer if it’s made interesting/personal to how it affects you and your family specifically and not just a punt of “information”.
Being a blogger is not always easy – what motivates you and keeps you going? Sherbit, that is quite an understatement. Blogging is definitely not easy, but I look back at old posts and that in itself makes it worth it for me. Also, I have this ridiculous fear that I may die early and leave my kids without anything to remember me and how much I love them – I could possibly be slightly neurotic. But if they ever stumble onto this blog they will be assured of my deep love for them through the good and bad times that we have had together.
What have your biggest blogging challenges been? Finding the time to sit undisturbed in front of my laptop and thinking of interesting content (and not just trying to fill up space) while still being present as a Mom can be difficult. Throw in owning a business and having to study in my spare time and it can be really hard. So I limit myself to an hour a night (after the kids have gone to sleep) to blog before hitting the books or the couch for a snuggle with Seth. One other thing that I constantly struggle with is priorities. It’s so tempting to lose focus on the real reason that you blog and start to strive to be like other bloggers/driven to try and make cash. When this happens I give myself a slap across the face and start again.

What do you love most about being a blogger? Having a space to go back and reflect on our time together, but also the connections that I have made with other Moms and non Moms out there. Reading comments on the blog where they mention how my words have touched them/helped them is amazing, not to mention how much their comments of support/tips when I am struggling through something has helped me.
What has your journey as a blogger taught you {about yourself or in general}? Has it changed your life in any way? I have learnt a lot about myself and others. I can be super disciplined and overly critical of myself. Sometimes it is helpful, other times slightly annoying. I have also learnt that they are loads of bloggers out there, some of them are in it for the money and the fame and will not be happy or supportive of your success/growth – but forget about those people because they are even more lovely people out there who are above that – find those people and be that person.
What are your top 5 SA blogs? This was fairly hard for me to narrow it down as I follow a very wide range of SA Blogs, but obviously parenting blogs resonate with me the most, so here are 5 that were first on my blog reader – if you want to see the rest check out my Bloglovin feed: Nikki and Nicholas, The Blessed Barrenness, Harrassed Mom, Reluctahttp://alfinos.wordpress.com/nt Mom, Living Lionheart.
If you had to give a newbie blogger any advice, what words of wisdom would you impart? If you blog do it for YOU. Not money or “fame” – just you. Know that if you want to have a successful blog you need to be consistent, present and friendly. Once you have figured that out just go out there and do it!

Thanks Cindy for sharing a bit more about your life and blogging journey with us! You can find out more about Cindy and connect with her here:

Blog link: http://alfinos.wordpress.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/3Kids-2Dogs-1Old-House/179553362107367

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CindyAlfino

Instagram: http://instagram.com/cindyalfino

If you would like to be featured on Confessions of a Blogger or would like to see a blogger featured here, then please email Fiona or leave a comment below.

Image Source: Cindy Alfino

Funny thing really but I find it amazing how many people ask me why I blog – well I can tell you straight off, it is certainly not for fame or fortune! After having this question posed to me so often lately, I decided to bare all in my Confessions of a Blogger!

First a bit of histrionics – I started off blogging over 4 years ago, with very little intention of it ever being more than a personal journal. Little did I know where it would end up! When I started blogging my motivation was to write about my experiences as a mom and share this with, well I guess in the beginning, only my friends and family. My children were much younger when I started out and I was still very much in the “mommy” phase of my life. Don’t get me wrong, I am still very much a mother, but both my family’s needs and my own, have changed.

Along with the changes in my personal life, my blog needed to change and evolve as well, which is what motivated me to eventually change the name last year. There have been quite a few times over the past year, for other more personal reasons, that I have come close to giving up blogging altogether but I here I am still doing it!

I guess the natural question is what makes me keep doing it? I have always enjoyed the creative side of life, whether it be drawing, cooking, putting an outfit together or painting my nails – it all comes down to being creative. I have always loved fashion and beauty – especially as a teenager, I loved pouring over copies of my mom’s Fairlady magazines, swooning over the gorgeous models and all the stunning fashion! Before leaving school I even considered a career in print media but life had other plans! I think this is one of the reasons I am so drawn to blogging and why I keep coming back to it! Blogging has become my creative outlet, a platform to explore and share the things I love.

As I mentioned before I do not blog to earn money {much to my hubby’s disappointment as he would love to retire} but I do it because I really enjoy it! There are definite perks to blogging and I won’t lie, I love receiving lovely free goodies, being invited to amazing events and meeting new and interesting people. Blogging has opened many doors for me and forged new friendships, across the globe but my favourite part of blogging is still creating the post. It does not matter whether it is writing a review or an interest piece, it is the creative process that I love. One of the most enjoyable aspects for me is the photography – I am by no means a professional photographer but I love styling and photographing – well just about anything! I guess in essence it is being able to sit back and say “hey look at what I have created” and feeling proud of it.

With the fun creative part, comes the slightly more tricky part of balancing everything. One of my greatest blogging challenges, at the moment, is the lack of time to do everything I would like to do or the inevitable FOMO – lets face it nobody likes to miss out! The balancing act of being a wife and a mother sometimes does not lend itself to being as free and independent as I would like to be but my family comes first!

So in a nutshell I blog because I like it and it makes me happy! 🙂

The greatest lessons I have learned from blogging are not to take myself too seriously, to do what I love, that I can do anything I put my mind to and not be too concerned by what those around me are doing or saying, especially if it is negative.

I will leave you with one of my favourite quotes…

If you are a blogger and would like to be featured in my new blog series “Confessions of a Blogger” please email me for more details.

Confessions of a Blogger featuring Cindy Alfino

Confessions of a Blogger – Why I Blog