Today’s a very special day for this blog, finally turning two years old!

I know in this kind of posts people go like “Whoa, where’s the time gone”, but although I do think this last year of blogging flew by, I guess in my mind it still feels like I’ve been updating this blog for a much longer time! I obviously have been all nostalgic and all and been browsing through all posts from this last year since a couple of hours now, and it’s making me realize how much I enjoy and have enjoyed blogging, and how precious this small space of internet can be, thanks to all the moments captured and framed somewhere tangible rather than only in our memories!

With this blog I’m being very happy about all the opportunities thrown at me, the lovely comments that allow me to get to know like-minded people, who so kindly read what I ramble about on here, a lot better, the tips and suggestions I get to share on here, whether it’s a product or a real life experience, and discovering my posts can actually help someone, but especially about the mind-blowing overwhelming support of readers and fellow bloggers!

So what’s next on Miel Café? I really hope I can keep posting as much as I do now and I can keep improving my photography and writing each day! I promise I’ll share more recipes and travel posts in the next months, but all in all, although I’m sure one can and should always try and get better at anything really, I’ve reached a happy balance with this blog recently and all I’d like to ask is that it keeps being this fun!

I want to say thank you, because I don’t very often. I’d like to reply to all your lovely comments and I would do it if my days had a couple more hours available to tick things off my to-do lists, but I thought a gift for you could sort it out! It does include pretty stationery… so am I pardoned? Actually, I’ve put together a little package of all my favourite little things to spoil one lucky reader!

So thank you for being this kind to me and sticking with me and Miel Café all this time! Hope you’ll stick around for next year’s adventures too!

What’s included…

Season Paper Jardin Notebook ; Oana Befort Deer Temporary Tattoo ; Iconic A6 Monthly Planner ;
Muji Gel Ink Light Blue Pen ; Yankee Candle A Child’s Wish Tart ; Tiger Animal Clips

Good Luck!

The giveaway is international and to enter you just need to follow the Rafflecopter form below! You’ll need to be a follower of my blog and leave a comment right below to unlock some other entries! The giveaway starts today and ends on Sunday 24th April, h. 12.00 AM GMT+1. The winner will be announced on Twitter and contacted by email!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

It has been a year since the last time I decided to start afresh with this blog and I haven’t regretted the decision ever since! Deciding to start writing about what I truly love on here has been so lovely and opened my way towards some great opportunities. If you have landed on this page in the last couple of days you might have noticed that things have been changing (I apologize if you have seen error pages way too many times!).

I’ve written a post about why I liked to have a Blogger blog almost a year ago and I still believe Blogger is a great place to start, though at a certain point I started wanting more. I am a coding lover, as you might have noticed, and Blogger just didn’t make the cut for me and my blog anymore. I’ve come to the point to realize I want to take my blog serious, that I want this space to be more than a hobby to me, as well as my passion for web design to be more than a passion. I needed to have certainty in it, and Blogger wasn’t the right place to keep this thing going anymore. It all started one year ago, and maybe I wasn’t completely ready to make the big step, but now things have changed and it was quite about time to make the switch!

I’d never seen a WordPress admin panel before a month ago, but I wanted to take the challenge and start everything from scratch with the design, hence why I was able to keep my “signature” interface for this blog, by putting the theme together from zero to what it is now. It’s far from being perfect and I have a lot to learn, but I’ll take it as a new exciting adventure: I can’t wait to learn more! I’ve almost cried a few times, have had way too many headaches and couldn’t seen an end to it for too many times, but maybe it is why now I feel so satisfied and happy with the result.

I was finally able to put together an archive page like I wanted it to be (it has probably been the main challenge, being new to all the WordPress coding rules), to add a few new features to the design, make it easier for readers to browse through it and redesign what I didn’t love anymore about it.

It’s not only that, I have a few other news in store as well, but I’ll keep you hanging a bit more about them. If you want to be the first to know, don’t forget to sign up to Miel Café’s newsletter by filling up the form under this post or here! I hope you all like the new website and enjoy the new features of the blog design! x

I’ve been blogging since a while now, and also am running a small business at the same time, but only recently I’ve found a great routine to plan, schedule, write, work, publish and create, all of this while also staying organized. Most of it is thanks to some great (and mostly free) online tools, websites and apps that help me schedule, promote and plan ahead, while also staying updated with my website’s analytics. Here I’ve written down a little list of favourite tools that are especially awesome for bloggers and small business owners!

Buffer – As much as I like to publish authentic content on social media too, sometimes scheduled tweets are the only way to go for me. I usually only schedule tweets to promote my blog posts, usually 4/5 times spread during the day. You’ll be able to pre-schedule standard hours for your tweets, so it’s great to look at when your followers are more active on Twitter and strategically plan ahead when to make your tweets go live.

Sunrise Calendar – I usually plan my blog posts a month or so ahead, so it’s great to have a nice calendar app where to plan ahead when those posts are going live on my blog. Sunrise Calendar has a lovely interface, and it allows me to use different colours for different typologies of posts (like food, beauty, style, etc.) to be able to never publish the same type of posts two days in a row.

LikeBtn – See that little hearts/likes counter in the footer of my posts?! I know there’re a tun of plugins to install it for free on WordPress, but it’s not that easy to find an aesthetically pleasing button that works fine on Blogger too, but LikeBtn is doing the trick for me. It’s not always free, but is very inexpensive and a great way to see what your readers actually like.

MailChimp – I’m new to newsletters, but I’m really into building a mailing list to stay connected with people that is really interested in my blog content and business and MailChimp is super easy to use (even without following a guide) and it’s great because there’re plugins for WordPress and Squarespace, and easy form codes to implement anywhere in your template.

Coffitivity – This is so great! If you’re one that likes to work in coffee shops but can’t really be in one everyday, Coffitivity recreates the sounds of a café to make you feel like you’re there whereas you’re actually in your boring office. It’s a boost for inspiration, plus you can pick the sound you most like!

Mapbox – Great for lifestyle and travel bloggers, Mapbox allows you to create maps of your favourite cities to place a mark where your favourite shops, bakeries, restaurants, ect. are located to suggest them to your followers. It’s a lovely idea to add to a page of your lifestyle/travel blog, as you can also add links to your own content in the description of the place to reindex your readers to your reviews or photos.

Twitter Cards – Did you know you can create cards on Twitter to make it super easy for your followers to visit your website or subscribe to your newsletter without even leaving Twitter? You can create lead, website, images or app cards for free, but to me these are extremely lovely for promoting and incrementing my mailing list!

Pinterest for Business – If you’re using Pinterest already, you’ll know its a great one for inspiration. If you’re looking into inspire your following, it must be the place where to promote your products or content. Sign up to Pinterest for Business to see the stats of your Pinterest account and see which pins are more popular and even how people pin from your website. Take a look at this amazing guide if you’re new to promoting your blog/small business on Pinterest.

Google Analytics – You’ll know Google Analytics better than me, but if you’ve not yet signed up, you really need to take the step. The tricky part is setting it up, but once done, you’ll see all the stats of your blog in one place, even the demographic of your readers, which is not only interesting to know, but also important to understand what kind of people is interested in your blog/small business.

Rich Pins – These add extra informations right under your pins, and make it super easy for your followers to see what your recipes, places, products pins are about!

What about your favourite online tools for creatives? Do you already use all of these? x

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