November Recap ~ Your Favourite Posts

Today I decided to look through my stats though they are not as impressive as other bloggers they are very impressive ones for me. I wanted to see what has been your favourite posts in the month of November, I will share the top 5 and there snippets to go with them.

5. Claiming Carlos - It's not secret how much I love Rachelle's writing so I was not surprised to find this as a Top 5 most visited and read post. You can get your own copy of claiming Carlos on Amazon.

This book from the get go had me hooked, I read it in one sitting and could not put it down so much that I was very saddened when it end but at least I enjoyed the ending as much as I did the beginning. Claiming Carlos is a wonderfully written book, a romantic book at that as always a prerequisite for me loving the book. The love tension between Choco and Carlos was quite evident early on in the book but obviously not so obvious to the lead characters (well Choco at least), when third party is introduced brought so much change that I actually hated the 'Johnny' character and honestly didn't even when the book ended. I loved that each character had a role to play in the lives Choco and Carlos and how everything fit together, the situations felt real and related (not all but some). 

4  .Terry Tree Top saved the Dolphin - this made me chuckle a bit but then again most of my readers and women and some are mummies so this is again no surprise and I am actually happy with this outcome because apart from Romance novels I do enjoy me a good children's book here and there and I am not ashamed to admit it.

As mentioned this book has good grammar, author has made it easy to understand and fun but what captivated me the most was how the author via story telling teachers the children about what to do if you were at a pool and noticed 'someone' or 'something' needed help, I like that the author talked about the lifeguard and explained his role. As always Terry treetop enjoyed another adventure. The book is less than 5 minutes to read, very colour and fun. I recommend this book to parents who looking to try new ways of teaching their children/child.

3. Lessons learned - once bitten twice shy.  In this post I shared with you all the lessons have learned as a blogger and what mistakes I will not be making again. I am happy that most of you found this post useful and I got a lot of constructive feedback so I am very happy.

When I started blogging I had so many ideas of what I wanted to call my blog, as months went on found myself in need of a new name because I did not feel the name I had for my blog fit who I was (am) at the time and/or what I wanted to portray. My main blog AJD was originally called ‘Myrabev’s world’ this quickly changed to ‘Myrabev against the world’ then changed to ‘purely-by-accident’ (I am sure I have skipped a couple of names in there). I stayed with PBA for almost 9 months before I decided to change it to AJD. Now what I did not do before changing my blog name and URL was research, I think if I had researched this thoroughly I would not have experienced the heartache of every new blogger ‘losing comments’ and ‘losing followers’ – I know people say if they were true followers they would have found you and moved with you but it’s kinda hard when the URL does not work and due to too many name changes people do not know what to search for. Anyway here are some of‘do not do’ tips for new bloggers (even the oldies who might not know).

2. Don't go with the crowd - I am very happy that this post made it to the top 5 because I honestly believe we are all so unique that we should not fall for going with the crowd and be proud of being our very own individuals so thank you.

When I started blogging I had no idea what direction I wanted to take, I thought maybe I should do fashion because people compliment my dress sense which if I am honest and seeing the many posts on the blogsphere I am not that great but its unique to me. I thought maybe I could do makeup and beauty products, well the make-up part failed miserable because though I do wear it now and again I am not really that into it but I do love beauty products and am sure you have seen my many posts on my main blog A July Dreamer. I was very confused when I started, I wanted my little piece of heaven to fit in somewhere. I have never been like that before in real life so I do not know why I wanted to be this on the blogsphere. Almost all the bloggy advice I read always talked about 'finding your blog niche' define it by plonking it in a category, some bloggers have even gone as far as said 'Lifestyle blog' is not really a category its for the undecided. I struggled with this for a while because I did not want to limit my blog to just say 'make-up' or 'out-fit' posts and there is nothing wrong with that I believe each to their own. When I chose to create my blogs I wanted to share me and the 4 corners of my world not just my love of nail polish or my addiction to jewellery or lipstick. I wanted to share my love of 'food', 'books' and share some motivational posts and personal confessions that might help someone somewhere, my advice to new and oddie bloggers is 'don't go with the crowd, follow your own path'. If you want a fashion blog only, do that if you want mummy blog only do that do not follow the crowd follow yourself. I love my blogs because both are LIFESTYLE and PERSONAL and I intend to keep them like that. I want to share all my loves, pevs and wants, I know it wont always be everyone's cup of tea but that's ok 'each to their own'.

1.  Travels thus far - You have no idea how much I enjoyed writing this post, I sat back to reflect on how many opportunities I was afforded this year and how I am so blessed that I was able to travel as many times and I did and not including the little travels I make regularly so very blessed. And cheers to you all. 

Thank you so much to all my readers that have helped this blog move from strength to strength, I am very happy you visit this personal space and are always positive. Thanks, now I have a quick question for you:

What posts would you like to see more of on this blog?

Book Reviews, Personal Confessions , Relationship Advice, Recipes?