The first blog post I ever created was written on the 6th of January 2014.

A few lines, stating my New Years Resolution to start a food blog.

At that point I was hoping my blog would help me to keep track of recipes I’d written, and to act as a bit of a diary that I could look back on over the years.

In the back of my mind, I also hoped I might be able to turn it into a small business too. I was bored of my IT job in the corporate world, and fed up of having to juggle the kids with a full time job. We were sending them to after school clubs, breakfast clubs, racing home from work early on the one day a week we did pick them up, but still ending up late.

Look at those little faces!

The thought of working for myself, doing something I loved and setting my own hours seemed like an impossibility.

Three years have flown by, and Kitchen Sanctuary has now grown into my full time job. I’m doing something I love – whilst earning more than I did at my office job.

I’m not going to lie to you and tell you I work a few hours a day, then watch TV until the kids finish school.

I work hard!

More hours than I did at my office job. But I set the hours, I decide what I will and won’t do and I wouldn’t change it for the world.

Introducing Chris

Earlier this year (after lots of badgering from me!), Chris finally decided he was going to come and join the business!
We worked together for quite a few years in IT (in fact we met at the office) and he moved up the career ladder pretty quickly – which, financially speaking, is something that helped to make my decision to leave IT easier.
A couple of years ago, I thought that he’d stay in IT forever. He’s fantastic at his job, his team love him and his income ensures we have a roof (including a lovely new kitchen) over our heads.
However, as Kitchen Sanctuary grew, I needed more help with some of the technical aspects plus investigating new avenues such as video. Chris has been amazing, working evenings and weekends to help Kitchen Sanctuary to grow. During this process, he started to really enjoy himself – indulging his geeky side with researching technology, buying new equipment and spending hours (days even!!) watching video tutorials.

He came to the realization that working with his wife would be fun!

….and he left his career behind to see if we can make this family blogging thing work!

One of the things we talked about when making this decision was the possibility of starting a new blog on ‘how to blog’.

It’s something I’ve thought about for over a year, but never actually managed to get started. With Chris on board, we’re finally be in a position to do just that!

So whilst I’ll continue to do most of the activities around Kitchen Sanctuary (with Chris managing the video creation and technical side of things), the plan is for both of us to work on Living the Blog.

I’ll mostly be focusing on things I’ve learned over the past 3 years. Chris will be writing the ‘How To’s and technical tutorials.

What can you expect to see on Living The Blog?

Some of the things we plan to blog about include –

• Freelance writing
• A week in the life of a food blogger
• Food photography
• Kitchen Sanctuary case study – A look at blog and social media stats since day 1
• Setting up SSL – what we did and what happened
• Our video process

Eventually I’d love to see LTB grow in its own right with us –

• Offering courses (virtual and classroom)
• Creating ebooks
• Providing templates and checklists
• Providing 1:1 coaching and blog analysis services

So that’s the plan!

I really hope LTB will come to be a valuable resource for you. Please let us know if you have questions of if there’s anything you’d really like us to write about. We’re totally open to all suggestions!