Moving from 2012 to 2013 – Happy New Year!

A quick review of 2012…

2012 was an exciting year for me, both for my blog and on a personal front.

My Blog – Au Naturel Essence

On my blog, I set out to boost the number of views I got each day.  I got two major increases in readership throughout the year.  In the first quarter, I saw a big improvement and about half way through the year, my numbers went up again.  It was so exciting to know that others were keeping track of my blog.  To all of you – thank you!

I also set out to post at least once a week.  I’m quite proud to say that I exceeded that goal.  In total, I had over 90 posts in 2012!

Unexpectedly, I was nominated for several blog awards throughout the year.  You can learn all kinds of odd tidbits about me and my blog in the following posts:

Super Sweet Blogger Award

Sunshine Award

Beautiful Blogger Award

Inspiring Blog Award

Blog of the Year Award

I love the concept of blog awards.  They are a great way to learn about other blogs and to recognize other blogs that you follow.

On a Personal Front

The highlight of this year was the birth of my little boy.  I was so excited when I found out I was pregnant around Easter time.  The next few months went so quickly and yet so slowly!  Our little bundle of joy was born just a few weeks ago and he’s been keeping me very busy ever since.

Looking forward to 2013…

Looking forward, I would love to keep up with my blog at the same pace as I had in 2012.  However, I want to be realistic. Having a new baby on hand has slowed me down a little bit!  As I soon as I learn how to blog with a baby in one arm, I’ll be right on track!

Gentle Goat’s Milk Soap for Baby

When I have the time, I’m looking forward to making more baby products.  In particular, I’d love to experiment with my own homemade shampoo.

Thank you for all of your support throughout the year.  I look forward to sharing more ideas and projects with you in 2013.  Happy New Year!

A Sixth Star!

Thank you to Luisa and Victoria at Scanteia  for my sixth nomination.  That gives me six shiny stars for the Blog of the Year award.

Blog of the Year Award

Please be sure to check out their blog and give them some love!

Five Stars for Blog of the Year

Thank you to all of you who nominated me for the Blog of the Year Award.  They are:

Sweet Jelly Bean

Blowing Off Steam…and More

Blackbox Cosmetics

Modest is the Hottest

Storybook Apothecary

Please click on the links to check out their awesome blogs!

Blog of the Year Award 5 star

In the end, I got five stars and I am so grateful.  Given the new addition to our family last month, I’ve been a bit absent from my blog.  Despite being away, you still nominated me five times!  Truly, I appreciate all of your support.

Happy New Year!

Blog of the Year 2012 Award

Blog Awards

Blog Awards are a great way of paying it forward.  As D. at Sweet Jelly Bean put it so well, it’s a great way to let someone know how much you appreciate their blog, love to see what they write, and how much you look forward to their posts.  This year, I’ve been nominated for a few blog awards.  Each one of them has warmed my heart.  It’s just great to know that people are paying attention to my blog!  Of course, it also gave me a great opportunity to recognize all the blogs that I have started following in the past months.  In short, when it comes to blog awards, I’m a fan.

Blog of the Year 2012 Award

D. at Sweet Jelly Bean  and Rynnie at Modest is the Hottest both nominated my blog, among a host of many other fabulous blogs, for the Blog of the Year 2012 Award.  Thank you to you both!  This is a unique award that allows a blog to be nominated several times.  Each time your blog is nominated, you earn yourself a star, which you can proudly display on your blog.  Sounds like fun, right?

Blog of the Year Award

The Rules for this award are simple:

1 Select the blog(s) you think deserve the ‘Blog of the Year 2012’ Award

2 Write a blog post and tell us about the blog(s) you have chosen – there’s no minimum or maximum number of blogs required – and ‘present’ them with their award.

3 Please include a link back to this page ‘Blog of the Year 2012’ Award –    and include these ‘rules’ in your post (please don’t alter the rules or the badges!)

4 Let the blog(s) you have chosen know that you have given them this award and share the ‘rules’ with them

5 You can now also join our Facebook group — click ‘like’ on this page ‘Blog of the Year 2012’ Award Facebook group and then you can share your blog with an even wider audience

6 As a winner of the award — please add a link back to the blog that presented you with the award — and then proudly display the award on your blog and sidebar … and start collecting stars…

‘Blog of the Year 2012’ Award – thumbnails

Here are the 6 awards in thumbnail size for your sidebar – feel free to Right Click and save any of the images on this page:

My Nominations for Blog of Year Award – 2012

Now that the rules of the game are set out, let’s get down to business.  There are so many blogs that I have been lucky enough to discover this year.  I’ve enjoyed all of them and learned a lot.  It’s also been a pleasant surprise to share stories and common experiences with so many great bloggers.  Each of these bloggers regularly shares their own bits of wisdom from their everyday lives.    I’ve nominated my favorite ones here:

Sweet Jelly Bean

Homemade Wellbeing

Story Book Apothecary

Lightly Crunchy

Blowing Off Steam

Blackbox Cosmetics

Natural New Age Mum

Robyn Peoples

Bronze Goddess

Modest is the Hottest

 

Pay it Forward!

Congratulations to all of these wonderful bloggers for being nominated.  I love following your blogs and look forward to more of your great posts in the new year! And now, it’s your turn to pay it forward and nominate your favorite blogs!