Ellie Love is SIX.

Six years ago, I joined this little online space and started pouring my heart out, and now we celebrate six years of blogging. I had actually been blogging for two years before that but had stopped and started a few times. I started blogging in 2010 when we got married and then gave it break whilst we traveled, had fun and got pregnant. But just after SJ was born in 2012, this beautiful space of mine was born again.

I thought it would be fun to answer a few blogging questions that I have recently been asked:

Why do you blog? I blog for me. I started blogging as my own little online space, my online journal. A space to record all the memories in our lives – first for me, then us and now our family. I blog when and how I want to blog – and that’s what I love most about blogging. It isn’t about the number of likes and the number of followers. But I also blog because of the amazing people I get to engage with, interact with and even meet from all over the world. Blogging has brought the most amazing mentors, mothers, creatives and special friends into my life – and it’s because of this networking that I love to blog.

How did you name your blog? Most people assume I named my blog for EN – but my blog was “born” before she was. When I first started blogging, the very talented Nadia Jonker helped me launch and she sat with me, working through my favorite words and visuals and we established the name: Ellie Love. I love so much and have a thing for the word love, and love the elephant animal and a little tough to Africa too.

Do you make money from you blog? I don’t. As I have always said, my blog is for me – it is not my business and it is not a space that I want to generate money and potentially be dictated by brands for. But I have also met and interacted with some incredible brands over the years, brands that I am loyal to, that I support and will happily “punt” online for. I have also been very lucky to receive some amazing products to review and enjoy – again, these are products that I would happily use and purchase myself. 

Which are your favorite blogs to read? I have so many favorites but these are a few the most inspirational ladies that I read every week: Emily Ley, Lara Casey, Rhiannon Bosse, Carolina Charm, A Thoughtful Place, Keep Calm And Carry On, Hello Happiness, Life With Emily and a few my favorite local bloggers: For The Beauty Of It, The Mom Diaries, Making Mountains, Shan Fourie and Ask Ashe.

Pros and cons to blogging. There are so many pros – being creative by writing, taking photographs and creating fun content, recording special moments and memories to be able to read for years to come, meeting and engaging with so many other bloggers and readers – people that touch your lives, inspire you and help you through the happiest and darkest seasons in life, networking with new friends and brands across the globe, being a support and a voice for so many readers who experience the same hard times and good times in life. There are very few cons – probably just trolls who can be very nasty and being very careful with your personal information in an online space for the world to see.

What would you tell someone who wanted to start a blog? Do it. Get started now and have so much fun. Be creative in your own little space, record your moments, speak your mind. Reach out to other bloggers and enjoy making new friends. You won’t regret it.

Thank you. Thank you to all the wonderful people I have met on this journey. Thank you to the brands that I love and get to have fun with. Thank you to the gorgeous ladies who made my space so beautiful: Nicola Tweed for designing and hosting my website, and Andrea Barras for my gorgeous logo and artwork. Here’s to another year together.

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