Using AI to create images for blog posts - an update

A couple of years ago I wrote a blog post about using AI to generate images for blog posts. I had forgotten about it until recently, when I suddenly started getting lots of spam comments on it. It must have ended up being favoured by search engines for some reason!

Things have really moved on when it comes to AI and image generation since I wrote that post. You can now use ChatGPT to generate images, although there is a limit to the number that you can create in a day using a free account - I think it's officially three although I managed to make five in one session.

I was thinking about how much I'm looking forward to sitting in our newly landscaped garden with a book, so I decided to ask it to generate me an image which would be a suitable illustration for a blog post on that subject. And yes I know, being polite to ChatGPT makes it cost more...I just can't help myself!)

My prompts are in italics.

The blog post is about how I'm looking forward to reading in my new garden. I want a landscape image in a photographic style. No text in the image. The image should be of a lovely new garden with clean fencing, patio etc. There should be a comfortable chair which is suitable for using outdoors with lots of cushions, then a small table next to it with a pile of books, a blanket and a hot drink in a mug. No people in the picture.

I was really pleased with this result! The garden looks fairly realistic, the chair and table aren't bad (I think the table might be missing a leg but it's not too obvious) and the pile of books is pretty good without any attempt at text on the spines.

I decided to amend the image to portray a more realistic British summer:

That's perfect! Now can you create the same image but it's raining?

Again it's not bad! It's a little dark, but it's clearly raining. So I decided to cheer things up a bit. I was interested to see whether asking for changes would make them to my first image or to the amended image.

Thank you! Now can you make it a little more colourful, make the blanket striped and add some colourful cushions, make the mug blue 

It changed the second image which was what I was expecting. This image is probably my least favourite from the set because the colours are just too bright. But I wanted to see what it would look like on a nicer day.

Can you make it sunny again in the image?

This image is so colourful that I think it does look very fake. A leg is now visible on the table though, and it's interesting how the length of the blanket has changed. So I wanted something a little more subtle...

Thank you! Can you tone down the colours a little, make them pastel shades

Although I like the colour scheme for this image a lot more, I do feel that the further I went with amending the image the more fake it looks. This time it has randomly added some extras - I quite like the paints on the table and the open book but you don't typically find decorative globes in a garden, and certainly not two of them! And where did the suitcase come from?!

The quality of the images is definitely an improvement on the ones that I created two years ago. I would happily use the first image in a blog post, and I think that it could easily pass for a real image, especially when scrolling quickly. 

I'm starting to notice images like this more and more, both on social media and on business webpages, and I know that it won't be long at all before it's impossible to identify an artificially generated image. It's really important to be aware that you can't trust anything you see!

Sorting through my broken links

At the end of last year, Amazon Associates announced that it had decided to stop using the SiteStripe image feature which allowed Amazon Associates to link to products on Amazon using an image link. Although Amazon Associates isn't a huge source of income for me, I do get a small voucher from time to time which is always appreciated. I often include lists of craft supplies, as well as linking to books that I've enjoyed or products that I recommend.

Text links to Amazon still work, but I always used an image link because I think readers find it easier and more appealing to see a picture. So I had hundreds of image links on my blog. I'm afraid I rather buried my head in the sand and pretended it wasn't happening.

This week I realised that I'd not done a broken link check on my blog for a long time so I gave it a run and I was dismayed to see the number of broken links to Amazon. I use Broken Link Checker which is a great free tool, and I've spent hours finding the links and removing or replacing them. Sometimes I've changed the image links for text links, otherwise I just deleted them. I think I've got rid of most of them, but I'm sure that there are some that have slipped through the cracks.

I also discovered many other broken links. Links that have changed, attractions that have closed, products that are no longer available.

Among them I was sad to find many broken links to bloggers who no longer blog. I used to love the blogging community back when I started, I took part in lots of blog hops and link ups. Many of my early craft posts were inspired by groups of bloggers getting together to work on a craft together, like my Sky Blanket, or sharing crafts like Needlework Days. There was also the linky which I co-hosted - Crafting is my Therapy.

Re-visiting my old posts also made me feel really nostalgic. I used to love doing all the little themed crafts with the children and sharing them on the blog! It reminded me of lots of fun things that we've done. Now I feel a bit silly doing children's crafts on my own, although I think I'll still be playing with the Hama beads for a while yet!

Photo credit Mel Poole via Unsplash

It has made me think about how my blog has changed direction as the children have got older, and I'm not sure that I've really found a new focus for it. I really enjoy being a content creator and I definitely want to continue, but I need to have a think about my new direction!

Using ChatGPT as a blogger

I'm really interested in the development of AI and I've done lots of reading around the topic. I'm not really interested in how it works, I want to learn about the ethical considerations, and the ways that it might influence our lives both now and in the future.

I can see AI having a massive impact on the media landscape, especially when it comes to social media and online magazines and blogs. I was fascinated by a recent story about how fans of the computer game World of Warcraft laid a trap for an AI bot that was generating news stories based on their Reddit posts - Warcraft fans trick AI article bot with Glorbo hoax - and it did make me wonder how much online content has been created by Artificial Intelligence. It's going to have a huge impact on both online and print publishing. 

I think that we are entering a time when a huge amount of online content will be computer generated (if it's not already!), and because the software is then learning from that generated online content I do wonder about what that means for traditional writers, and for the people that are reading it. I just can't see it being the same in terms of quality and accuracy.

Image generated by Stable Diffusion AI

However I must confess that I have been using ChatGPT when it comes to brainstorming and writing blog posts. I'll say first that I've never used ChatGPT to write an entire blog post and I don't intend to!

 But here are some of the ways that I've used it for blogging:

- Asking for a list of ideas for blog posts around a particular theme. Often none of the titles are exactly what I'm looking for, but they've sparked an idea for something else.

- Asking for blog post outlines around a particular subject. It's a good way of coming up with new ideas even if I don't want to follow the suggested format.

- I needed to write a sponsored post about the benefits of installing a GPS tracker in your car and I could only think of a couple! But ChatGPT provided me with several that I hadn't considered, and I was able to expand on those to fill the article. 

- I used a different AI tool to generate some potential blog post images. You can read about how I got on here - Using AI to generate images for blog posts. There's still lots of work to be done in this area, but I can see it being very useful if you are looking for a very specific image to illustrate something.

- Coming up with craft ideas. I asked it to give me some ideas for crafts involving particular materials for certain occasions. The results weren't ground breaking and I could have just used Google, but again it did help to give me some inspiration.

I've found that for the best results you need to be very specific when it comes to writing your prompt. You can go into a lot of detail and write a whole paragraph about what you are after, and then you can use further prompts or ask it to rewrite for you in a different way. ChatGPT also saves all your queries so you can go back to them and follow up. 

ChatGPT will even come up with text that you can use to share your posts on social media. I had a lot of fun with this, especially if you ask it to make them click bait! I would never use them! But here are some tweets that it suggested for promoting this blog post, complete with emojis and hashtags:

Prompt: 

Please generate me some tweets for sharing my blog post titled "Using ChatGPT as a Blogger". Make them click bait!

Results:

"🚀 Unleash the POWER of ChatGPT! 🤖 Learn how I skyrocketed my blog with AI wizardry! 💥 Read it now: [Blog Post Link] #BloggerMagic #AIWriting"

"💡 Want to BOOST your blog game? Discover my SECRET weapon: ChatGPT! 📚🚀 Dive into the future of blogging here: [Blog Post Link] #ChatGPT #BloggingTips"

"📝 Bloggers, brace yourselves! ChatGPT is your new BEST friend! 😍 Unlock the potential of AI writing today: [Blog Post Link] #BloggersUnite #AIContent"

"🚀 REVOLUTIONIZE your blogging game with ChatGPT! 💥 Get the inside scoop on my blogging journey here: [Blog Post Link] #BloggerLife #AIWriting"

"🌟 BLOGGERS, this is a GAME-CHANGER! 💡 Explore how ChatGPT transformed my content creation! 🔥 Dive in now: [Blog Post Link] #ContentCreation #ChatGPT"

Of course there are drawbacks to using ChatGPT to write content. The biggest one is that it does just make things up. I asked for reading material around a particular subject and was given a list of plausible titles and authors. Some of the authors had written books on similar subjects and the titles sounded good. But the actual books didn't exist!

I also asked for links to blog posts and articles on the subject I was researching and again it listed fake articles. There was a disclaimer saying that the titles had been automatically generated, but a website that is automatically copying and pasting information won't take any notice of that.

Finally, after asking ChatGPT to generate a few blog post articles it's easy to see the format that is being used, and it becomes very repetitive. The articles are nicely written with a beginning, middle and an end and the style is correct but somehow it just sounds a bit off and formulaic. Maybe a blog could get away with the occasional AI generated article but I think readers would soon get bored, especially if reading several articles at once.

I don't intend to ever use ChatGPT to write my blog, it's something that I love doing too much! But I'm definitely going to be more wary of the content that I read online going forwards, and I really hope that we aren't starting to see the end of human generated content.

Journal prompts for bloggers

I love writing in my journal, and even though I don't write every day I find that it's a really good way of putting my thoughts in order. I like to write about what I've been doing, things that I've learned or researched, things that I want to do and just random thoughts about various aspects of my life.

I often find myself writing about things that have interested me or caught my attention that have later made it into a blog post. I thought I'd have a think about how keeping a journal has been helpful for me when it comes to writing my blog.

I've put together some journal prompts for bloggers, both for myself and to share. I think that they fall into two different categories - firstly journal prompts which are for your own private thoughts and secondly journal prompts that help you to explore ideas, spark creativity, and which may become useful when writing future posts.

Journal prompts for private reflection

Why did you start your blog? For me it was to share photographs and updates of the children with the wider family, but it quickly moved on from there.

Why did you continue blogging, what was your motivation? 

How has the look and feel of your blog changed over time?

What have you gained from blogging? Maybe online companionship or paid work.

What has blogging taught you? For example confidence in using social media, writing skills, how to edit HTML, photo taking and editing.

What challenges have you had while blogging?

What are your favourite topics to blog about and why do you enjoy writing about them?

What puts you into a blogging mood?

What gives you ideas for blog posts?

What are your blogging goals? Some ideas - to post more frequently, to update older posts, to improve photography, to improve sharing on social media.

Are you happy with your blog? What would you like to change?

Photo credit Jodie Cook via Unsplash

Journal prompts to inspire blogging

What have been your favourite blog posts to write and why? Are there any that could be updated or rewritten with a new perspective?

What subjects do you most enjoy writing about?

What have you never written about? What would you like to write about?

If you've been blogging for a long time, how has your life changed since you started? What new direction could you take the blog in based on new interests, surroundings or family situation?

What advice do you have for someone that is thinking of starting a blog? What blogging tips and tricks would you share?

What would you like to change about your blog?

How would you love your blog to look? Think about posting frequency, structure, images, design, colour scheme and so on.

If you are looking for inspiration when it comes to writing blog posts then you may find this post useful - an entire year of blog post ideas and inspiration.

Why I've mostly stopped using Instagram

I joined Instagram a long time ago, way back in 2012 and at that time it was very quiet. I followed other bloggers, they followed me back, and I posted pictures of things that reflected my blog. They weren't people that I knew personally so I didn't post many photographs of the family or identifiable locations, instead I shared craft projects, nice cakes, pretty views and so on. 

Now that more and more people have joined Instagram I have quite a few people that I know in real life following me, especially since it became more integrated with Facebook. This makes me feel a bit more self-conscious about what I'm posting, and although I follow back people that I know I don't actively seek them out. 

A few years ago I had a big cull and unfollowed a lot of accounts which worked really well and I had a beautifully curated feed. But lately I find the photographs less inspiring, it's more about the selfies and making life look perfect rather than the pretty little snippets of everyday life that I like to see. I also lament the loss of the original square photo format, and sometimes every other post seems to be an advert. 

Photo credit Souvik Banerjee via Unsplash

When the reels came along that was the beginning of the end for me. 

I really hate reels, along with other short form video content like YouTube shorts and TikTok. I like to scroll in silence so sudden loud music alarms me, and they are also very addictive - once the algorithm has got your measure it doesn't let you go. It's not a posting format that comes naturally to me, and I just can't compete with the creativity on offer. I also discovered that mindlessly watching one video led to a whole feed of similar videos, in my case it was gender reveals which I just couldn't get rid of!

I still pop into Instagram from time to time but I'm not sure I'll ever be a regular user again, it has just changed too much from what I want it to be!

Will AI mean the end of human created online content?

For a little while now I've been watching with interest as AI becomes more prominent in online life. For some time my Facebook newsfeed has been filled with adverts for companies that will write blog posts and create other online content using AI. I've often suspected that a sponsored post which I've been paid to publish has been heavily influenced by an AI blog post writing tool. 

Two years ago Harry wrote me a simple AI computer programme that would generate blog post titles based on my existing content - Using AI to generate blog post titles. Since then the technology has come on incredibly, especially with the release of ChatGPT meaning that anyone with internet access can easily access user friendly AI tools. I've used ChatGPT to play around with producing blog post ideas as well as writing blog posts, and have been really surprised by how good the results have been. I've not used AI to write a post yet, but I must admit that when I'm suffering from writer's block the thought is very tempting!

It's not just text that AI can produce. I wrote recently about how I'd been using using AI to generate images for blog posts, and although the technology in this area still has some way to go, I can see that it won't be long before AI generated pictures become much more common. They are quick to produce, copyright and royalty free, and you can easily create the exact illustration that you are looking for in an artistic style that suits your needs. 

AI generated images

Last week we started watching the new Marvel series Secret Invasion, and the day before I was interested to read that the Secret Invasion opening titles were created using AI. I definitely wouldn't have realised it if I hadn't known - although the sequence is cartoonish and dreamlike it fitted in with similar opening titles that I've seen. 

Although AI video will probably take a little longer to become more common, I did some research and there is software available that will create AI generated people to read out your scripts, as well as giving you the ability to create videos using your own photographs and video clips. You can easily use AI to edit your clips, and to reduce a longer video to make a short form video which is more shareable for social media.

I think that because of the speed at which people consume online content it will become very difficult to spot artificially generated content. When you scroll quickly through a social media feed like TikTok or Instagram you often barely pause to notice what you have just seen. I think that any of the four images above would easily slot into my Instagram feed without me spotting anything unusual.

Unfortunately I think that AI generated content is going to become prolific and more difficult to spot, and this is a bit of a problem for someone like me that enjoys creating online content! 

Obviously a blog post written by AI lacks the personal touch, but if you are looking to create generic content, for example a travel guide to a city, lifestyle articles about a particular hobby, or tips and advice for different situations, I think that an AI can probably write an article equal to that of many bloggers or online journalists. 

This has all sorts of problems associated with it, not least the accuracy of the information but also the potential for bias and discrimination in the writing. When paired with the social media algorithms which prioritise different content for particular users, AI content can easily encourage people to think in particular ways and to influence their views. Not to mention the fact that it takes away the work from many human creative workers. 

I think we are a few years away yet, but the technology is developing so rapidly that I don't think it will be long before the majority of online content that is being consumed is no longer produced by humans.

What do you think? I'd love to hear other (maybe less pessimistic!) opinions!

What I've been doing instead of blogging

I feel like I have neglected my blog a bit lately. I know that I'm still posting but usually I write and schedule lots of posts in advance as well as writing as I go along, and lately I've been scrabbling to get something published! I feel like I've been quite busy though, I've been working on my hobbies and trying out a few new things. So here's what I've been doing recently instead of blogging!

Going for walks - The weather here has been wonderful for weeks. Lovely and sunny but not too hot, the perfect temperature for a long walk. My husband and I try to get out after dinner most days and I often also go out at some point during the day, even if it's just around the block. 

Journalling - I've been really into my journalling lately, I love sitting down for ten minutes or so at a time and writing down my thoughts. It's a mixture of diary entries and just things that are on my mind, nothing too personal just what I'm thinking about, maybe something that I've read in the news. I have also started doing a few little illustrations, very badly, which leads on to my next interest...

Sketching - I've always fancied the idea of having an illustrated journal, especially a travel journal. I did study Art A-Level so I have a vague art qualification which maybe gives me a bit of a head start, but it was a long time ago and the first sketches in my journal didn't look at all how I wanted them to. I discovered Urban Sketching and some artists that work in a really loose way, so I've been following a few tutorials on YouTube and giving it a go!

Sorting out and reading my old diaries - I have a box of diaries dated from 1991 - 1998, throughout my teenage years. I keep them stashed at the top of the wardrobe and every now and then I get them out to decide if I still want to keep them. The early diaries are fun to read although pretty boring, it's mainly just what I did at school that day. The later ones are much more interesting, especially when boys came on the scene, but they are so embarrassing that I can't bear to read them and I would hate for anyone else to come across them! But they are also filled with memories, like my driving test mark sheets and entries from visiting the Orlando theme parks which I really enjoyed looking back on. So back they went into the wardrobe!

Organising my holiday leaflet and ephemera collection - I've always been a collector, especially of free things, and I have two boxes filled with mementoes from my travels over the years. It wasn't very well organised though, just everything piled in together, so I had fun going through it all. I've got theme park maps going back years and it was interesting to get them all in one place and compare them. It also made me realise that this kind of collection probably won't grow very much, now that everything is done electronically. When we visit an attraction we rarely have a physical ticket, and on our last couple of cruises they no longer give out the daily itineraries - it's all in the app. 

I'm not giving up on the blog though, I love writing it!

Using AI to generate images for blog posts

I've been doing a lot of reading around Artificial Intelligence recently, it's a subject which fascinates me. As well as the ethics of AI, as both an online content creator and consumer I'm concerned with how AI could be used to produce content which is indistinguishable from that produced by humans. I've played around with ChatGPT to both generate blog post titles and to see what posts it would write based on those titles, and I've been impressed and I must admit a little bit in awe.  

When I'm looking for an image to illustrate a blog post then I turn to Unsplash for good quality and copyright free photographs that work with my content. The other day I was struggling to find exactly what I wanted, and I remembered reading about the AI image generator Stable Diffusion. I gave it a go and was actually really impressed with the image of a packed suitcase that it generated (the post is to be published next week, the AI image will be clearly disclosed!) so I thought I'd have a go at generating some 'stock' photographs that I could use to illustrate the sorts of things that I often write about!

I started with some crafty requests - bullet journals, art journals and a crochet blanket - and I was pleasantly surprised with the results. The text in the journals is nonsense and the blanket is a little fuzzy, but as part of a quickly skimmed blog post I think that they could pass as real photographs.

I soon discovered that anything involving text or body parts like faces or hands doesn't work well at all, and I ended up with some very creepy images. I was impressed that the tool managed the word 'blog' on the laptop, but all the hands have gone very wrong!

I found that the AI image generator coped much better with images that involved a landscape or food. The images are a little too perfect, very smooth and shiny, but I think that some of them could certainly pass as genuine photos when scrolling through a platform like Instagram!

My favourite AI generated images were these two involving books. It took a few attempts because the tool can't manage text very well so I needed to try for images taken from a distance or a little out of focus. I think that either of these two images would make a great blog post photograph, as long as you don't look too closely!

Finally one of my favourite images was one that went completely wrong. I asked for a person sitting on a sun lounger at the beach reading a book and ended up with this disturbing image!

Clearly the technology has a way to go, but I can see that it won't be long before it will be easy to generate the exact image that you are looking for to illustrate something online, especially if you are just looking for generic images. I'll be looking very carefully at photographs now, because I've started to identify the characteristics that you can look for to identify an AI image. For example differences in the textures, wobbly edges, wonky text, over saturated colours and sometimes a rather grainy feel.

I found it fascinating to play with this tool, and if you have a spare few minutes I'd recommend giving it a go, you might be surprised with how well it works! 

All these images were generated using Stable Diffusion which is currently free to use. All images created using Stable Diffusion Online are fully open source, explicitly falling under the CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

Why I'm still writing my blog

I started writing this blog nearly twelve years ago. Mia was a tiny baby, Harry was a toddler, and my original intention was to use my blog to share photos and updates with friends and family. It wasn't long before I discovered the world of parent blogging and I began to write for a wider audience. As well as blogging about my family I started to share my craft projects and to write about places that we had visited and products that we used.

Since those early days I've been writing the blog pretty consistently. I slowed down a bit during the pandemic, when like most people I was feeling so overwhelmed with daily life that I couldn't concentrate on the blog at all. But overall I've been a regular blogger, and I usually publish at least three or four posts every week. 

Photo credit Lauren Mancke via Unsplash

I'm pretty chuffed that I've managed to keep up the blogging habit for so long! There are a few reasons why I've kept it going:

My blog is a real creative outlet for me. I love to write and I love to share my thoughts and tips. It keeps my mind busy as I plan and write posts, and if I'm writing about a topic that I've been thinking about it helps my brain to get everything written down and ordered. I'm always planning new posts and I love sitting down for a writing session and getting a batch of posts written and scheduled.

It's a small source of income. I'm lucky enough to be able to earn a small amount from my blog, from both advertising and collaborative posts with brands. I try not to publish too many sponsored posts, and I'm picky about the ones that I do, but it's always nice to be able to contribute a small amount to the family finances. I've also received lots of useful products to review over the years, as well as tickets to attractions that we wouldn't otherwise have enjoyed. 

It has provided me with some online company. I've never been particularly good at promoting my blog on social media, but it did introduce me to Twitter and Instagram, and although I'm not very active I have found some lovely people to follow which can really brighten up my day. There are some bloggers that I've been following since the early days, and I enjoy reading their updates and seeing them and their families grow and change.

I don't worry too much about having a big audience. In the early days I wanted as many readers as possible, mainly to help me secure the best review opportunities. But these days I'm much more relaxed and I'm writing more for myself than an audience. I know that I have readers, and some of my posts do well with the Google search algorithm, so that's enough for me. I'm not getting myself stressed over constantly logging my stats and worrying about how I can improve them.

I'm glad that I've recorded so many of our family memories. I'm so glad that I have so many blog posts about our young family to look back on - even review posts have photographs and details which I want to remember. So I want to keep posting, even though recently I'm a bit more wary about the information I share about my growing children.

How to re-use your old blog content

Having been blogging for nearly eleven years now, it's not always easy to come up with new content! I do write a lot about the things that I've been doing and places that I've been, but sometimes if I want to publish something and am really stuck for ideas I turn to the vast number of posts which I have published over the years.

I would never duplicate old content, or delete and republish, but there are lots of ways that old blog content can be repurposed into something new. You can also plan how to get the most out of the content that you are currently creating. 

Here are a few ideas:

Rewriting and publishing an old post

This is best for posts that are several years old, and any new post must be significantly different to the original content. Some examples of posts that you could look at rewriting:

* Posts from years back where your views have changed or you have more information that you can add to a subject. Maybe a parenting issue that you found a temporary solution for at the time but now you have more experience and can write about it in more detail.

* Craft or recipe posts where the photos aren't great, for example cluttered backgrounds or poor lighting. The aesthetics of blog posts weren't so important years ago but these days people are more likely to be drawn to a pretty image. See if there are any old posts that you could rewrite and add better photographs. 

* Come at an old tutorial, for example a craft post, with a new perspective. For example a craft or activity could be made more complex now that children are older. 

* Take an idea which you wrote about very briefly in the past and write a more expanded post on the same theme but with a different title or perspective. 

Photo credit Sincerely Media via Unsplash

Roundups

I love a good roundup post! Look back at old content and find something that you've written about many times. Maybe places to visit in your local area or in an area that you visit regularly, craft projects based around a certain theme, seasonal recipes. Put them all together in one themed post with a photo and a link back to the full tutorial.

Remember to link to your roundup post from all the original posts as well. 

Reviews

Write a review roundup if you have reviewed products with a similar theme, for example books, cooking utensils, garden equipment, toys and so on. Include a picture and brief summary along with a link back to the full review.

If you have an older review which is still doing well then you could write an update to see how you are still using an item and how your thoughts have changed over time. For example my post about our Stuva loft bed has always been very popular so I wrote an Updated review on the Ikea Stuva loft bed and linked to it from the original one and now it gets just as much traffic.

You can also write about any complementary products that you have gone on to buy that work well with a product that you have already reviewed. For example we bought a pizza oven a few years ago and have since purchased various accessories that I would like to share. You can then re-use photographs and some of the basic information from your original post.

Using content for more than one blog post

This is for blog content that you are currently working on. Instead of putting everything into one post, some content can be broken down across several posts.

For example if you are writing about a recent holiday you can break it down into sections which can each make a separate post - maybe a summary post about your trip, a more detailed review of the hotel or resort that you stayed in, a list of attractions in the local area, best places to eat, sharing some of your favourite photos, how you travelled around and so on.

If you have made a recipe, for example cookies, you could use the same base recipe with different variations at different times of year, like Mini Egg cookies for Easter and Chocolate Orange cookies for Christmas. 

If you have made a craft project, you might find that it lends itself to different crafts. For example I made Hama bead sugar skulls which I used in posts for Hama bead sugar skull bunting and A Halloween sugar skull picture. I also used my same designs but on a smaller scale to create some Mini Hama bead sugar skull earrings. 

Just make sure that each individual post has plenty of detail, and then link them all back to each other.

Using the same content across different social media

If you have taken several different photos for a blog post then they can also be shared on Instagram or Twitter. If they are seasonal then you could even save them for the following year e.g. a picture of your carved pumpkin or Christmas craft.

I hope that this has given you some ideas for making the most of the content that you create!

An update on my January and February habits

At the beginning of the year, motivated by reading Atomic Habits by James Clear, I set myself some habits that I wanted to add to my daily routines. Some simple things that I could do every day which would improve my health and wellbeing.

Here's how I've been getting on!

Photo credit Phrophsee Journals via Unsplash

I had four habits which I wanted to keep permanently - regular exercise, eating more fruit and veg, practising the piano daily and daily meditation.

Exercise - I've continued my existing exercise habits which I'm pleased with, especially when it came to dragging myself out for a run on the bitter January mornings. I have a regular exercise routine which suits me well, although I do wonder if I should mix it up a bit for the future.

Eat more fruit and veg - This one has gone really well. I now drink a glass of orange juice each morning with breakfast and I add more raisins to my cereal. For lunch I've been eating either a bowl of soup or some homemade bean salad, each of which I count as two portions. Most of my dinners have at least two servings of veg but if they don't then I'll add in a portion or broccoli or peas and I'll have an apple in the evening. I'm pretty confident that I've been getting at least my five a day on the vast majority of days.

Piano practice - This is also going really well. I've been playing every day apart from when we have been away and I'm really pleased that I can now memorise some pieces. I can play two pieces confidently from memory and I am almost there with a third.

Meditation - I downloaded a brilliant app called Smiling Mind which is free and has a huge range of meditations and mindfulness exercises. I've been doing one most days and it has also encouraged me to be more mindful throughout the day. I'm definitely getting better at focussing my mind and pushing away negative thoughts. 

In addition I chose two extra habits for January - to stop mindlessly checking the news and to write a blog post each day.

Stop checking the news - This was very successful in January. I didn't check the news once and it really had a positive impact on my mental health. I continued into February and was a little less sucessful as we went away on holiday for half term and my usual routines were disrupted. It also coincided with the news from Ukraine, and although I have really cut back on my news intake it has risen slightly recently. I need to keep on top of this one as it really did make a big difference.

Write a blog post every day - This habit was also incredibly successful. I wrote and published or scheduled a blog post every day and now I have lots of blog posts scheduled, with the option to publish sooner if I need to fill a spot. I started this again in February, but the transcription work that I do from home picked up a bit and so I had to prioritise that.

I didn't set new habits for February but I did set myself a daily challenge which was to spend a few minutes each day decluttering the garage. I sorted out a massive pile of cardboard for recycling, finally did the trip to the tip that we had been putting off for a couple of years, got rid of lots of odds and endsd that were cluttering the place up and had a bit of a clean up. Now it's much emptier, so in the summer when the weather is better I'm planning to clear it as much as I can and give it a really good clean. It definitely needs one, we have some enormous cobwebs! 

I find that daily habits really work for me and I love seeing the difference that they can make. I will continue with my four main habits in March although I've not set any new ones. Although I am intending to be making some healthier food choices as we head towards summer and beach holidays, I have a bit of winter padding that needs to go!

Photo credit Elijah M. Henderson via Unsplash

Writing a blog post every day in January

At the end of December, like most people, I made a list of a few habits that I wanted to work on for the New Year. You can read more about them in my book review of Atomic Habits. One of the things that I wanted to do in January was to write a blog post every day. Not to publish, just to write one and schedule it to publish at a later date.

I really did find it a challenge as some of my posts can take quite a bit of time to put together, but I managed it! And it was so successful that I'm planning on continuing for February. I love being able to plan my content properly rather than scrambling to post something, anything, at the last minute. It also gives me the flexibility to add in any collaborative or review posts when I have plenty of my own content ready to keep things balanced.

Photo credit Mel Poole

I did spend a bit of time in advance getting myself organised. Before Christmas I had already planned my editorial calendar for January, and although I hadn't yet written any posts I had a clear idea of what I wanted to write about. I went through my lists of blog post ideas and I was able to come up with a complete list of 31 posts to write. Then I planned roughly which ones I would be writing each week, sorting out which ones would be straightforward and which would need more work in terms of crafting and photographs. 

Because Christmas was still fresh in my mind I wrote a few Christmas themed posts which are now scheduled for this December. I also made a start on some Easter content and there are some general posts which aren't time specific. I now have a great deal of my February content written and some posts scheduled for March. 

Despite all the planning I kept it flexible, so I was able to move things around and add in any posts that I felt like writing on the day - for example writing about Mia's adopted gibbon and Harry's birthday. I also made a start on some longer posts in advance with photos, notes and any affiliate links ready in a draft post that just needed to be written up and checked over on the day. 

I'm really pleased with everything that I got done this month. I feel very organised and able to concentrate on some of my other projects, which in turn provides me with lots more things that I want to blog about!

Using AI to generate blog post titles

Recently Harry and I were watching some YouTube videos together and we came across this one which was a lot of fun to watch. The video is about using AI to come up with ideas for new video content, and surprisingly many of the ideas would actually work really well. (And Tom Scott is well worth a follow by the way, he's published some fascinating videos on a whole range of topics!)

Harry was fascinated by the whole idea, and he took it upon himself to generate some new blog post ideas for me using DeepAI. He entered in all my blog post titles since March 1st this year to see what the AI would come up with. I've picked out some of my favourites below!

Some blog post ideas which were complete nonsense

Swinging on ice and snow with my dogs

My Christmas gift for April - update

Review - Tinted Shapes

Releasing 3D for children

A few which came surprisingly close, with just slight mistakes

How New York City got me interested in cross stitch 

My birthday in March - update

I'm getting sick of writing and I can't stop 

How we can take our children off the leash and help them be a productive participant 

How I decided to be an adult this year for over a year 

How my work will improve my day 

The ones that would actually work pretty well as blog posts

The day-to-day routine of a family 

My plan to do a lot more activities this fall 

My new blog

We’re having a year break now

My training schedule and strategies 

Tin to flower pot 

And finally, the ones that inspired me to think about writing an actual post!

Our kids are now in school. This is amazing!

What does my daughter think of my blog posts?

What Roblox says about parents

My advice for kids - making the most of the holidays 

A look at my new "I did" journal 

We had a lot of fun looking through this list (there were many more that I've not included here!) and he's been using the tool to come up with all sorts of things. He had a lot of fun generating potential new book titles from his favourite authors, along with blurbs and reviews of these imaginary books. It's also fun to produce paragraphs of vaguely sensible text based on random complete and unfinished sentences that you type in. 

If you use it to make up some new blog or video titles I'd love to hear how you get on!

What happened when I deleted Facebook from my phone

For a while now I've been concerned about how much time I spend scrolling on my phone. It's something that was on my mind again recently after completing Scroll Free September. Although I could never be without my phone as I have many useful apps that I use regularly, I definitely waste a lot of my time in front of a screen. In particular it's Facebook, as I'm in lots of groups and am constantly hunting for something new to read.

So I decided to try an experiment and delete the Facebook app from my phone. For good measure I removed Twitter too, and when I discovered that I was turning to the BBC news app instead, that went as well. I wouldn't remove myself from Facebook entirely because I enjoy using it to keep up with family and friends and I do pick up useful information. But it's limited to when I'm on my desktop PC.

Here's what happened:

* I got out of bed quicker in the mornings without reaching for my phone and being pulled into all the new information on my screen.

* I found more productive ways to fill odd minutes of spare time, like having a quick tidy up or preparing something to help me later on, like getting things out ready to make dinner.

* I started going up to bed early to read, and the amount of reading that I've been doing has increased massively. I've also left a book in the car for when I'm waiting outside school.

* I've started new hobbies, like painting and watercolours, and picked up some of my neglected craft projects.

* I discovered that when I wasn't logging in to Facebook regularly the urge to check it faded immensely as I didn't know anything about what I might be missing.

* I also didn't feel the need to check Facebook when I was at my PC. Even though I'd not set any restrictions on myself I found it easy to avoid.

* I didn't miss out on anything important anyway.

* When I did log in, the algorithm began to show me more updates from family and friends, the things that I actually wanted to see.

* I started to see my phone more as a helpful tool rather than a guilty time suck.

* I got stuck in traffic. Well, it can't all be good. Because I hadn't checked in with our local village group over my lunch I didn't find out about a nearby road closure which added half an hour to my journey. Luckily I had allowed extra time!

Photo credit Thought Catalog via Unsplash

The experiment has been a massive success for me. I really feel like I've gained so much extra time in my day and I've been so much more productive. I've not missed it at all, and it's made me think about my other apps and whether I really need them too. I definitely won't be putting it back on!

How I decide what to blog about

I love blogging, and I love coming up with ideas for things to blog about. I like to blog regularly about lots of different things, and I hope that there are at least a few people out there reading what I write!

I realised that I get inspiration for the blog from lots of different places, so I thought that I'd share some of the ways that I come up with blog post ideas, and how I decide what I'm going to blog about.

* Most of my blog posts come from the long list of vague blog post ideas that I keep, both in a notebook and transferred over to my blogging Trello board. Some are sorted by season, for example when a craft that I'm working on over the summer sparks an idea for a Christmas variation. Or one craft idea will lend itself to other similar crafts that I can come back to at the same time next year. Every now and then I sort through my ideas and pick out the ones that I feel inspired to write up into full blog posts.

Related post - How I use Trello as a blogger

* If I'm really stuck for some seasonal content, I can often find some inspiration in lists of blog post ideas which have been created by other bloggers. I even refer back to the lists that I've written and shared myself, as I can often think of a new take on something!

Related post - An entire year of blog post ideas and inspiration

* Sometimes a post by another blogger will inspire me to write my own take on an idea (credited back of course, and shared with the original blogger if I feel brave enough). I like to keep up to date with reading other blogs, and follow them mainly via Feedly and on Twitter.

Photo credit - Jen Theodore via Unsplash

* Similarly a news story or current event might make me think about something that I want to share.

* Lots of my blog posts are inspired by conversations with friends, particularly those about issues that I'm facing with my parenting. Sometimes writing it all out helps me to think about and decide how to manage a situation.

* I'm always working on one craft project or another, and so I enjoy sharing my progress. It also helps me to keep track of what I've been working on and inspires me to keep at something!

* I like to round up ideas from previous blog posts. I've been blogging for over 8 years now and I've covered a lot of ground, so it's nice to dust off some of those older posts and bring them back out for a new audience as part of a round up.

* Looking back through old blog posts also often gives me ideas for writing an updated post, or re-writing an old post with a new take on the idea.

* I enjoy sharing holidays that we've been on and places that we've visited, and it also makes a nice memory for me to look back on, especially if we visit the same place more than once and you can compare the photos.

I find that once I begin making a list of blog post ideas the ideas keep flowing, and even if many of them never end up as full blog posts, the very act of brainstorming helps to unleash my creativity and makes me feel full of possibilities. Blogging is definitely a creative outlet for me!

Thoughts on scrolling for #ScrollFreeSeptember

With Scroll Free September 2019 now well under way, I thought I'd put down some of my thoughts about what scrolling is to me, and how I'm attempting to stop.

How do I define scrolling?

For me, scrolling isn't all time spent on social media. It's the time that comes after I've checked on what I need to, and yet I continue to scroll through the updates. It's when I find myself at a loose end around the house and I pick up the phone out of boredom or habit. It's when I'm doing something else, like watching a television show or reading a book, and catch sight of my phone and feel the urge pick it up to see if I'm missing out on anything.

What are my scrolling habits?

I find myself scrolling first thing in the morning and last thing at night. While I'm waiting in the car at school pick up time, while dinner is cooking or while I'm watching a swimming lesson. Also when I'm putting off something that I don't want to do, or I become distracted from something else that I'm doing. Most of this scrolling takes place on my phone, although some on my desktop PC as that's where I sit to do my work and it's so easy to just open another window.

Which apps do I scroll?

Most of my scrolling time is spent on Facebook. As well as the news feed, which is mainly filled with family and friends, I'm a member in lots of groups, some of them very active, so there is always something new to see. When I've exhausted Facebook I turn to Twitter with it's endless feed, and when that bores me I'll pop over to the BBC News app. I also use Instagram, although that tends to be on the desktop as I find it easier to leave comments with a keyboard, and I find it easier to limit my time as I'm more satisfied when sucked in by words than by images.

What do I gain by scrolling?

I feel that I do gain from spending time scrolling through social media. I enjoy reading through Facebook and seeing what other people have been up do - I like to see other people out and about doing interesting and exciting things. I get inspiration from Facebook craft groups, and I find out useful information about my other interests, like blogging, parenting and cruising.

On Twitter I find lots of links to blog posts that I want to read, as well as trending topics. I like to keep up to date with the news, and find that the BBC News app has a good selection of articles alongside longer reads on topics that interest me.

Photo credit Yura Fresh via Unsplash

What do I lose by scrolling?

Of course I lose time. It's very easy to get sucked in to reading just one more thing, and before you know it lots of time has gone by. I lose the time that I could spend in having a quick tidy up, working on a craft project, or spending time helping the children with something.

How do I feel afterwards?

Sometimes if I feel like I've spent too long scrolling in a day it's almost like a hangover. Especially if I've been on my phone late at night which sometimes happens when my husband is away. I inevitably feel a sense of wasted time that I don't get from reading a book or watching a television show.

What would happen if I stopped scrolling?

I always think that if I spend less time on Facebook then I'd start to lose touch with what is going on. But the truth is that if I do take a break from Facebook it's very easy to catch up with what I've missed. For example, you can read a whole group thread about a topic all at once rather than reading it over and over again as new comments are added.

What does scrolling replace?

I can't remember very well what I used to do before phones and social media became a thing, when I was a teenager or student for instance. I did use to spend longer talking on the phone and I was in the habit of carrying a book around with me, whether that was for a train journey or a waiting room. I did spend quite a bit of time as a teenager playing computer games like Civilisation or Tetris which perhaps satisfied the urge in my brain to do something mind numbing.

I remember when I first started living with my husband back in the early 00's he used to spend a significant portion of the evening scrolling aimlessly through the different television channels included in our cable subscription. I read somewhere that this was the modern equivalent of staring in to the campfire at the end of a long day out hunting and foraging and I think that there is something in this theory, with the television now being replaced by the smartphone.

What have I done to prevent scrolling which works?

Scrolling is a habit, and it's hard to break. I made a good effort during Scroll Free September last year, but of course the bad habits crept back. But here are some of the things that I'm trying to do to help:

* Out of sight, out of mind. I try to keep my phone in a separate room, or if it needs to be with me I turn it face down so I can't see the screen, or even better I place something else over it like a book so I can't see it. It sounds a bit silly but it does work!

* I don't post very much on social media, so I don't need to keep going back and checking for updates and replies to my comments or tweets.

* I attempt to keep my scrolling limited to particular times. For example having a quick catch up with Facebook while I eat my lunch or while I take a break, with a set time limit.

* I'm a big fan of timers. I find that timers are a brilliant way of helping with procrastination, and I don't use them nearly enough. If I have set myself a timer, even if just for 20 minutes, it's much easier to be accountable and actually do something productive during that time, whether it's writing a blog post or cleaning the kitchen. It really helps me to focus and to see how much I can achieve in a short space of time as well as getting me in the mood to continue the task once the timer has stopped.

* I like to have a hobby available with easy access that I can work on for a short period of time at once. Reading is ideal as I can read a few pages at a time, and so I always have a book or two on the go. I also like to have a jigsaw out that I can turn to for a few minutes.

* I also have a longer project on the go, like a long term craft project, that gives a goal to work towards and a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment when it's complete. Currently it's my Persian Tiles blanket, and I have a deadline in mind which I'm working towards.

I will readily admit that I'm not perfect and I don't stick to Scroll Free September absolutely, but I really do feel that I've made some changes this month which I hope to carry forward.

Scroll Free September 2019

Once again the RSPH has launched Scroll Free September - a chance to step back and take a break from personal social media accounts for the entire month, or at least for as long as you can. It's a very flexible challenge, with lots of different options to choose from to help you make the break. You can sign up to choose your plan and find some great Scroll Free September top tips here.

You can also read my wrap up post from last year to see how I got on - Scroll Free September 2018. 

I find approaching this challenge a little difficult as I have quite an overlap between using my social media channels socially and for my blog work. So I need to observe the distinction between logging in to Twitter to send a blog post related tweet, and wasting time scrolling aimlessly through the never ending list of irrelevant tweets. So I'm not banning myself from all social media entirely, but I'll be making a big effort to only log in on the desktop PC when I need to do something, and to keep away from my phone for the majority of the day.

Image created by Evelyn Basch

September is a great time for this challenge, as I have plenty to do this month once the children are safely back at school. I'm hoping to free up my time to get the house back together, to get back on track after holiday with my exercise and healthy eating, and to make some good progress on my Persian Tiles Blanket. We also have a big holiday coming up over October half-term, and I have lots to prepare and pack as well as getting back in to blogging and writing and scheduling blog posts for when we are away. With such a long to do list to work through I should never find myself at a loss without Facebook to scroll through.

I'm hoping that this challenge will make me think more about my scrolling habits, the reasons that I use social media, and what I gain and lose from my use of it.

Are you taking part in the challenge? It's never too late to start!

Journalling and writing prompts for bloggers

Recently I treated myself to a new journal, and although I was full of ideas when I purchased it, as soon as I found time to sit down and write my mind went blank! So I thought I'd come up with a list of journalling and blogging prompts that I can use as a way to both open up my creativity when it comes to creating new and interesting content, and come up with ideas that I can develop into blog posts.

I hope that these ideas might be useful for other bloggers too!

* Create a visual mind map or spider diagram for your blog. With your blog name in the centre, create bubbles for the topics that you already blog about as well as new topics that you would enjoy writing about. Under these main areas create sub-categories and sub-themes. You will see if there are any gaps in your content, and be reminded of topics that you've already covered and can link back to in new blog posts.

* Find a list of seasonal events and awareness days. There are plenty out there to choose from so choose your favourites, maybe one or two for each month, and think about a related blog post that you could write. Maybe it's an issue that you've been touched by, or a related recipe or craft that you could share. You could create a page for each one and add in related thoughts and ideas as they come to you so that when the day comes around you have something ready to write up and publish.

* Start a list of social media status updates and prompts that you can post to Facebook or Twitter to inspire a conversation or spark engagement. If you have enough you could share them in a blog post, maybe themed by season or blog niche.

* Come up with a list of photo challenges or blog post challenges that you could set for fellow bloggers. For example you could come up with a list of themes for each day of the month and encourage others to join in by posting a daily photo to Instagram or Twitter.

* Explore what blogging means to you. For example:

- Why I'm glad that I started this blog
- What I enjoy most about writing my blog
- Why I write a blog
- What I've learned from blogging
- What I've gained from blogging
- Advice for new bloggers
- What I'd do differently when it comes to my blog
- Where I want to take my blog

These don't need to be written up into a blog post, but they are a way of helping to think positively about your blog and what you've achieved, especially if you are becoming disheartened or feeling that you can't compare to others.

* Keep a record of your statistics over time - the number of posts written, number of followers on different platforms and so on.

* Lay out and track your blogging goals. Either specific goals such as reaching a certain number of followers, or a more general aim like creating a viral meme or setting up a social media scheduler. Think about what needs to be done to meet each goal by writing out a specific list of actionable tasks that you can tick off when they are complete.

* Brainstorm potential blog post ideas, trying to be as specific when it comes to the title as possible. There is lots of inspiration for blog post ideas online, for example my entire year of blog post ideas and inspiration. From time to time I like to challenge myself to quickly come up with five or ten different ideas for blog posts, and then I immediately schedule them in my editorial calendar to encourage me to get them written up.

I hope that these ideas give you some inspiration the next time you're staring at a blank page in your journal!

Photo credit Kyle Glenn via Unsplash

Main image credit Ana Tavares via Unsplash.