I am Natalie, I am in my 30′s, I live in Yorkshire with my husband, young son and a menagerie of fluffy animals.
This is a blog about family, food and having fun. It is dedicated to those that I love and those those who regularly keep my head above water, you know who you are.
I have been writing a blog for about three years now. My first was dedicated to gardening and the renovation of our shabby patch. After that I moved on to food and created What We Ate Today which is the platform on which Little Muddy Boots now stands. All of my past posts have been carefully archived (there has been too much love and attention given to them over the years to get rid of them) and can be found under “archives” or via the “search” button.
If you have something that you would like to share – a great place you have visited with the kids, a local eatery that doesn’t object to the distribution of food across the table and floor or even a local group that you think others deserve to know about – then let me know via the community page or, if you are feeling creative, you could always write your own post about it. Guest contributions can add so much to a blog. I have had a number of guest contributors in the past who have shared amazing stories and recipes. Your post need not be of epic proportion. Just a few lines of original content and a picture. That’s all you need.
So, get your boots on and have a great day!
Natalie
Hi Natalie,
I am an Assistant Producer at ITV Productions and we are currently searching for potential contestants for Britain’s Best Dish. In case you haven’t seen the show before Britain’s Best Dish is an annual competition hosted by ITV for amateur cooks. In it we look for Britain’s best starter, main course and dessert. The winner of the competition receives the accolade of Britain’s Best Dish and takes home a £10,000 cash prize. We’re starting another series in the coming weeks and will be holding our regional auditions in May.
As you are clearly a keen foodie and self taught cook you are just the sort of person we are looking for so if you are at all interested in taking part or know anyone who may be interested and haven’t already featured in the Best Dish studio finals, please email ASAP with your name, contact number, and where you’re from to bestdish@itv.com and we’ll be in touch soon.
Thanks,
Jo
Hi Natalie
You have been so quiet – missing seeing new posts from you.
Hope all is well.
Mandy
Hi Mandy,
I have been a bit busy. Made a load of cupcakes for a charity event on Saturday amongst other things, but (when I get around to it) I have lots of recipes to share including my very first Julie Child one! Hope all is well with you.
Thanks for the speedy reply.
You are really becoming the cupcake queen. Good for you.
I am looking forward to your recipes.
All things are back on track my side with my book finally going to print. All so very exciting. I should have it in my grubby little paws in 6 to 8 weeks time.
Mandy
That’s fantastic what an achievement. I keep meaning to have a closer look at your site to find out a bit more about what you do. How long have you been doing your blog for? I keep hoping that I might get a bit more traffic to mine.
I have been blogging just short of 4 months now and find it equally as difficult to get followers. I find apathy is a biggy with most people – sad but true! I have gone so far as to send emails to all my family and friends asking them to have a look at my blog and to leave comments – but alas! The day I sent the email I had a spike in views but that was it!
I am still “new” to the whole blogging game so hopefully I will learn better ways of drawing in traffic – the main objective and the most difficult is to get known out there in cyber space! I have read countless stories of it all being a matter of time (minimum 6 months to 1 year), before getting decent traffic flow, and that quality “personalised” posts, dedication and consistency are all key contributors to getting this right. All of which I hope I have, except for one thing – photos – everybody wants to see pictures, so I am gearing myself to hopefully start posting pics soon.
If there is something remarkable that comes my way, I will be sure to let you know.
As far as I can see, you have been blogging more or less the same period of time as me – April 2010 to date?
Mandy
Yes, April was when I started. What prompted the book for you? I am thinking about putting together a self published book for family members for Christmas along with a food hamper of goodies.
Wow, what a fabulous idea of yours – that is exactly what originally got me going (about the book, not the hamper). I have included the first two paragraphs from my preface page for you:
“For the longest time, I have wanted to compile a Recipe Book with my special recipes and those of family and friends. Then as with most things in life, change happened and my vision was temporarily shelved until now.
Originally I was going to write a “local” recipe book for Sundays River (our home in South Africa) but subsequently with Pete and I temporarily relocating to Mauritius it has grown into a juicier book including recipes from the diverse cultures of the island.”
I had loads of fun writing it and I have already got a few things set aside for a second book.
Good luck with your venture and you never know, it may just be the start of something bigger as well
Thanks Mandy, it must be lovely writing and cooking from such an exotic location!
Hmm, “exotic location”. Mauritius is far from abundant and more often than not, I battle to find good quality fresh ingredients. We are so limited to what we can get here! I just said to my husband on Saturday again that it is so depressing to see the lack of fresh produce and the shocking quality of what is available. It’s not all bad though, I promise!
I have to say my knowledge of Mauritius is not great but I always imagine places like that to be full of coloured foods and lots of fish. I think that we are spoiled here in the UK now the choice and quality are so good.
Hi Natalie,
Rob Elliott here (@RobAspenHouse). I picked up your tweet about guest writers, and I could be interested, but you need to see if you are interested in me! So have a look at http://www.foodandlife.co.uk and let me know what you think . . .
Hi Rob, I have messages you via your blog site – hope you pick it up. Would be delighted to have you contribute.