9 year Blogging Anniversary - Flash Sale

Can you believe it! 

Nope, nor can I! A whole 9 years and I'm still going strong! Not bad for someone who can't keep a diary for more than 4 days on the trot.

So I decided this year to have a flash sale to celebrate, big discounts all involving the number 9 (of course) BUT it is only up for 24 hours for the whole day on the 9th of May (JST). So CLICK HERE to grab yourself a bargain!

These are never to be repeated deals at my lowest prices ever!

Happy Bloggy Birthday To Me...

Wow, I really can't believe that I've been at this bloggy business for 9 years NINE YEARS!

That is a lot of writing and a lot of photos! And I have enjoyed the journey immensely, I've met some amazing people, formed some fantastic friendships and gotten to know a huge assortment of people from all four corners of the world.

Although the blog has changed direction several times over the years, the core is still the same. My passions have waxed and wained, my business has gone from being a hobby to a proper grown ups biz and Ebi-kun has gone from being a cheeky little toddler, to a cheeky little tween!

There have been some great moments, like getting featured in Ikea, being asked to be a Sew Hip Contributor and Little One Yard Wonders and the not so great things such a relatives passing away and of course the Great Tohoku Earthquake

To celebrate this year I'm going to have a flash sale (and because you are a regular, I'm giving you the heads up!) It will take place on Monday the 9th - I needed some time to set up! So pop back on the 9th or if you are on my newsletter, keep an eye out for the link.



And finally a BIG THANK YOU for supporting me on this journey, I appreciate it so much and knowing that you pop by, makes my day :)

Big soppy hugs and kisses to you all xxx

Time To Celebrate...

Wow, can you believe it?

8 years I have had this little ole blog. Doesn't time fly?

Of course it's a perfect excuse for cake, a yummy chocolaty mousse, nom, nom. Don't worry, I had some for you too :)

I have to thank you for hanging around, it would be pretty dull if I was writing for just myself! Knowing that you are reading and that I can help you out makes all the difference.

Make sure you drop by tomorrow because I have a ridiculously crazy offer, yes, I may have totally lost the plot, but what the hell, it's not everyday you have an 8 year bloggaversary!

Then it was back home for cake…

The last night at camp it rained, a lot! It was a good job I didn't need to get up in the night to pee, some clever improvisation would have been going on. Of course after the rainy night we woke to a beautiful day, now why couldn't we have had this weather the day before? 

And yes, that is snow on those mountains, we even saw snow up close in the various places we stopped at over the weekend, that tells me that we need warmer sleeping bags!

After breakfast we broke camp quite quickly and headed off home…

It was a loooong drive but we managed to miss any major traffic jams thanks to google maps. We stopped off at the supermarket and I picked up cake, if was my 7 year blogaversary after all! I was quite surprised to see a novelty cake here, which is odd, you would have thought the Japanese would go nuts for them!

So, that was that, Golden Week wrapped up for another year, our next camping date will be July! No need for winter sleeping bags then!

Time To Celebrate!

Who'd have thought, that when I started this journey 7 years ago I would still be here? Not me, that's for sure, the girl who couldn't keep a diary longer than a week!

So put the kettle on and help yourself to a cupcake as we take a wee trip down memory lane…

One of my first posts was of Ebi-kun sorting colours, or baby-ebi as he was known back then. I had no idea that years later this picture would end up in a book!

2008 the blog started to get a following, I installed a widget that showed my visitors had come from and I would get ridiculously excited when a new country was added to the list! I organised my first swaps that year, these were amazing not only for making new friends but supplied us with a great amount of resources for our Montessori education…

2008 saw the opening of my Etsy store and the release of my first ever pattern! And this was the start of my online entrepreneurial business, the pattern is still for sale along with all the others but now I only sell in digital format. Click here to check out the shop.

2009 and we took a trip to the UK and Barcelona! It was also the first year we went camping and Ebi-kuns first encounter with rock stars, we had back stage passes to Summer Sonic thanks to The Enemy.

2010 was another first - this time a broken arm! And the start of yochien, I was thrown in head first to this new way of life. I also landed my first magazine feature in Sew Hip and then went on to be a regular contributor.

2011, March 11th at 2.46pm everything changed. It was the day of the Tohoku Earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster and nothing was quite the same afterwards. My bloggy friends that I had grown to love over the years were AMAZING and pulled out all the stops. I put together an auction to raise money and so many kind people donated goods, from all four corners of the world. I could have never pulled it off without you.

Ebi-kun designed this bracelet for a raffle winner and it was made by the lovely Rita from Surfing Silver

2012 saw the launch of My Organized Chaos, after the events of 2011, I believed I needed a location independent biz and so I moved all my patterns over to digital and started thinking about setting up an online course. I signed up for Marie Forleo's B-school and suddenly my whole world grew tenfold.

It was also the year Ebi-kun started school! Really, it happened so fast!

2013 was another big year with the launch of my second program, Clear The Clutter and the launch of my first proper book Montessori Inspired activities For Pre-Schoolers which went straight to number one in the Amazon ranking, much to my amazement and delight. The end of the year we celebrated with a trip to Laos and Cambodia which was just fantastic.

Which brings us to 2014 and who knows what the future holds, but you can bet your bottom dollar I will be sharing all the gossip on here :)

Thank you so much for your support of the years, for sticking with me through the ups and downs, I doubt I would have stuck at it for so long if no-one was ready ! xxx

6 years and still going strong....

Whoooo-hooooo!

Six years years of blogging!

Funny, that I started this blog as a way to share with family and friends back home, what we were up to. Ebi-kun was getting to that stage where he was starting to do stuff, we were in the throws of designing and building the house and we were just really getting into our Montessori journey.

I had no idea how the blog would grow and change over the course of time. I was also pretty clueless at what I was doing and we have certainly had our ups and downs along the way.

This year there has been a shift, now Ebi-kun is in school we don't have as much time for crafts and projects, we are still figuring out the balance of it all. Plus my business has chanced and so before, when I was concentrating on the Etsy store I had more crafty stuff going on. Of course, I am a crafty addict so I still do some, just not as much.

But from starting the blog, it has taken me on the journey to where I am now, I am sure My Organized Chaos would never have come about if I hadn't been blogging and I know I wouldn't have met so many amazing people too - most of them virtually but many in person too. 

I don't blog for the money - not that I make much from the blog anyway, I do it because I love it. It is my version of journaling or keeping a diary. I also pretty much do it for myself (blogging gurus take a deep gasp of horror!), I know, I know, you are supposed to write with your readers in mind and of course, I think of you as I am doing it and craft specific posts for my readers but if I am going to be perfectly honest, I do it for me. There I said it. The word is out!

*Shock*  *Horror*

And here are some fun stats for you...

Pageviews of all time....1,351,000

The most visited posts are... Halloween finger food, 100+ fat Quarter projects, Salt painting 

Most popular search keywords are.... fat quarter projects, jojoebi and quilling(?)

The site with the most referrals is....Pinterest

Top 10 countries where visitors come from...USA, Japan, UK, Canada, Germany, Australia, Spain, France, India, Russia.

And so, I want to say a big THANK YOU for accompanying me on this journey and I hope you will be with me for years to come and although I do this for me, because I love it, I really do appreciate you stopping by, leaving comments and being part of the community. Without the audience I might not have continued for so long. 

I would like you to raise a glass or cup of whatever you fancy and drink to blogging, may it always be with us ! 

PS - next post I answer your questions!