Worth Casing Blog Spotlight | Dancing Through Sunday

Hi! I am Rebecca (Bec if you wish). I am a mid 20yo girl living in Melbourne who spends her time between working in a Bank, and blogging. Opposite world, right? I spent a few years working in and finance and banking industry and had no creative outlet whatsoever and felt like there was a part of my life and personality that wasn’t being fulfilled.

Unsure exactly what that was, or how to unlock that my partner and I packed up our house into storage and took off for 5 months traveling around Europe. That is where I fell in love with life and had a clear idea of what I needed to do to use all my creative energy.

I’m obsessed with breakfast foods. I love to cook, eat or spend a whole day ‘brunching’. I love photography, movies, yoga and dogs. I have a business mind but creative heart. Dancing Through Sunday is my attempt at combining all those things into one.

How long have you been blogging and why did you start?

I have been blogging since 31/12/2013 so almost a year. I started a blog because I needed a creative outlet to express everything I feel that I have to offer. My time traveling really cleared my head and gave me nothing but love for life, positivity and some wild cooking skills. I came back with a very strong vision of creating a blog to keep me sane whilst working in banking and sharing my love and passions with others.  

I also had a lot of debt from traveling so eating well on a budget was something I had learnt and my blog is a place for me to help other people learn that skill. Since I have started my blog I have helped numerous friends and people around Australia and the world to change the way they shop, cook and eat.

Tell us a bit about your blog and what we can expect to see in the next twelve months?

Dancing through Sunday started as a lifestyle blog originally however its main strength has shone through and that is food, food, food which is now it’s main focus. Dancing through Sunday is a place where you can come to learn recipes that are not only cheap but healthy, fresh real food. I believe that healthy eating is a major key to a happy life as that food that nourishes the body also nourishes the mind. 

If you learn how to cook delicious healthy food at home, you will be able to enjoy the other things like a Sunday Brunch. 

In the next twelve months DTS will be the only place you need to visit for meal inspiration, ideas and healthy recipes for the week. There will be meal plans available, cooking tips and even a few vlogs on how to cook to entertain guests to impress. You’ll also see DTS with a few partnerships with brands and doing special food series.

Do you have a favourite place or dedicated space for blogging?

I never used to and I pined for my own desk and little area for bloggy inspiration so off to Ikea I went. 

This is my little blogging space and I just love it. Ideally I would have a whole other area for food styling and photographs but baby steps. I also love blogging in cafes. There is something about the hustle bustle of the coffee machine and being surrounded by creative people that gets my juices flowing. 

What are your must have tools and resources when it comes to blogging?

My must have tools are: 

Laptop

Camera

iPhone

A pretty notepad for strikes of inspiration

A visual calendar for scheduling and important dates

Online tools: 

Canva.com.au for all my pretty graphic needs

Instagram/pinterest for inspiration

Gmail and google docs

Have you ever experienced blogger’s block and what are your top tips for when it strikes?

Unfortunately, yes. When I feel the dreaded blogger’s block strike I walk away. I have sat in that very chair (pictured above) and fluffed around for hours trying to get my writing mojo back. I’ll tell you a secret? I just end up on facebook. I have written terrible stuff because I was trying to fight through it. GET UP. WALK AWAY. Go outside, to a cafe, read a book, do your taxes, walk the dog, spend some time making a delicious lunch. You can walk away for a day and it will still be there.

You need to re-inspire yourself all the time because you’re using up so much creativity, brain power and inspiration by creating content constantly. 

I take 1-2 hours every Monday morning to purely inspire myself for the week. If that means blog lurking, pinterest pinning, podcast listening and reading a lovely magazine like Frankie, so be it. I tell my partner its ‘part of the job’ hehe.

What have been your blogging highlights and biggest challenges?

Some of my blogging highlights are having my recipes, posts and food featured in other publications or other forms of media. I always high five the air or another human if they are around me. Another highlight is seeing other people cook my food. I love when people cook (and like) my recipes and even better when they send me a photo. I have a whole folder of my meals that other people have cooked and love and THAT is why I do it at the end of the day. 

A huge challenge for me is time management. I have all these plans, dreams and tasks to complete and I feel like I never have enough time. I have become better with day planning, goal setting task prioritisation and other time management tactics however it’s something I still struggle with.

Who inspires you and what’s on your Worth Casing list when it comes to other bloggers?

I am inspired by so many bloggers, I could go on forever.

Alana Bread – Alana has written and published her own cook book – props! 

Cle-ann – Cle-ann does incredible food styling

A Melbournite – Katie does lots of stuff I love to do 

Bluebird – James is an amazing photographer and lifestyle blogger

Lorraine from Not Quite Nigella

What Katie Ate – Just perfect!

What advice would you give to anyone that is thinking about starting a blog of their own?

I would personally advise anyone who was wanting to start a blog to plan a little bit more than I did. I basically had a live blog, with one post and a dodgy layout go live after one mornings work. I had planned the idea and concept for a while but I just sort of launched it straight up and it maybe hadn’t had the ‘wow’ impression I was after. 

Also, it’s quite time consuming. I am lucky that I am able to work part time and devote two days a week to blogging (however I blog for at least 1-2 hours every single day) but if you want to make it more than just a hobby blog, it’s time consuming to say the least! You have to have the passion behind it.

Can you list your top five blog posts? 

The five top posts, as voted by my readers and stats are:

Sweet Potato Rosti w/ a fried egg and greens 

Tips on Traveling Cheaply (Yet Deliciously) 

Pumpkin Coconut Curry Soup

Oven Baked Potato fries w/ herbed sea salt

Baked eggs w/ Mozzarella, Sourdough Soldiers and Pesto 

If you weren’t in the business of blogging what would you be doing?

o0o0o.. Good question. I would still love to be doing something creative with a splash of business/number crunching/problem solving in there so I would say maybe marketing or advertising so I could still flex those creative muscles. 

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