Worth Casing Blog Spotlight | Calm to Conniption

After a lot of false starts to my year, blogging and otherwise, I’m as pleased as punch to introduce you to our first worth casing blogger for 2016…

Karin from Calm to Conniption is a FIFO wife, mum of two little ones and is trying not to lose herself in a pile of dirty nappies and Duplo in-between. With lashings of sarcasm and humor, Karin tackles big world problems like candle maintenance, sandwich cutting and urine projection in boys.

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

I have always been a fan of blogs and have been reading along with the likes of BabyMac and Mrs Woog for many years. I had created a few little online spaces but nothing I committed to until I begun Calm to Conniption in September 2013. I just had to check out that date, time flies!

I started blogging as a bit of a creative outlet, something for me when the kids go to bed and the Mr goes away to work. It is more than that for me now. It is a piece of me; my heart, my voice, and possibly my third child, but one I have no qualms hiding away in the cupboard when required.

Tell us a bit about your blog and what we can expect to see in the next 12 months?

Calm to Conniption is a laid back chat with a girlfriend while the kids upend toy boxes in the next room. It’s sometimes contemplative, very often tongue-in-cheek and always smacked with sarcasm.

On the weekend it is also a link up for all bloggers to come together and share their weekly posts in The Ultimate Rabbit Hole. Our (I co-host with Sam from The Annoyed Thyroid and Shannon from My 2 Morrows) little community grew well in 2015.

In 2016 Calm to Conniption will start a new chapter, hmm, maybe folder is a better word. On Thursdays, I have introduced the Mummy Soul Sessions, where I have begun sharing practices I do to keep it together and not lose myself in motherhood!

The Mummy Soul Sessions come from a conversation with a friend, in which I realised I was doing all these different things to keep my head above water and maybe they could be helping someone else too. I hope the sessions create a community for all to share their efforts and practices in grounding themselves. I want others to embrace a kick ass life, even when you are organizing a small tribe, hurdling your heart out or just have other people’s snot all over your t-shirt.

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

When we moved into our house I claimed the media room as my office. I mean, how many rooms to watch TVs are really required? Seriously! Recently I have allowed a few of my husband’s gym equipment bits to come in. It is like a wart in my she-shed!

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

Co-schedule is super handy as a major time hack. I am a big fan! I am also a lover of the old pen and paper. The wall in my office has my monthly stats on it and another sheet with my goals for the year. I am a very visual person so I like to see everything when I sit down at my desk.

I have just embraced the to do app, Asana as well which I like but still don’t love. If you have a to do list app that you LOVE please share! I haven’t found the perfect fit yet.

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

Yes for sure. I now just let the block be and I try not to force anything as I am never happy with the result. When I started blogging I felt a lot of pressure to always produce but now I realise if I can’t get the ideas down that are floating around in my head, there are always ideas up there, I will spend way too long putting together a post I am not super happy with.

Getting past blocks, I like to read books and magazines, get outside or just closing down my computer and walking away. I now try not to fuss over it.

I actually wrote about 20 ways I like to stay motivated and what not to do when you can’t come up with your next blog post on Calm to Conniption this year.

What have been your blogging highlights and biggest challenges?

Highlights have definitely been attending my first ProBlogger event last year and meeting all the fine peeps I am chatting to sometimes daily. ProBlogger was always a goal of mine, even before I started Calm to Conniption.

I also love featuring on other blogs. My biggest wee-my-pants moment being when I pitched a post to Mrs Woog and she posted it that day! Actually, it was literally a wee-my-pants post too.

Challenges happen in my own head. “Comparison is the thief of joy” – Theodore Roosevelt. He was onto something! I try to live by the old create before you consume mantra these days.

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

Oh gosh, there are new bloggers (well new to me) that are popping up all the time that I think are pretty rad.

Of course, you have the witty words of Woogsworld, and the creative goodness that is Fat Mum Slim and I love peering through the super clean windows at BabyMac’s place. I also love getting a brainy perspective from Sasha at From The Left Field, a warm hug from The Annoyed Thyroid and My 2 Morrows and a dose of cool from Land Of Zonkt and TOMFO. Hugzilla makes me snort, as does Peachy Keen Mama and Toilets Arent For Turtles and Handbag Mafia has me fist bumping my screen.

There are so many more, I haven’t even mentioned all the food bloggers that inspire my belly rumbles. You should see my bloglovin’ feed!

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

Take “the rules” like a grain of salt. They are meant to be broken blah, blah, blah…

Ok, so some things need to be done. I was once told, “start how you want to progress” meaning don’t chose a platform for the mean time, don’t just throw things up and hope they stick.

Have images, reasonable word counts and plugins BUT don’t do all these things and then try to be like all the other voices out there. Ultimately be you! No one has said what you want to say and how you want to say it before. That’s what people love and if you aren’t you, things will be found out quicker than you can say “The Whole Pantry”…

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

Getting super twitchy. I’m really not sure. This is where I am and I don’t need to be anywhere else.

I stepped back from my career in the tourism industry to start a family and now that my husband is flying out for work two weeks at a time, the thought of going back to a regularly scheduled work day makes me cringe. Thankfully I have created the luxury of working from home. Actually, maybe that isn’t a luxury! I do miss the tourism industry when I think about it but it has been quite a few years now since I left.

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