Karen Lovegrove of Mumpty Style
No. of Kids: We have one ten-year-old daughter, who is the light of our lives!
Current City: We’re lucky enough to live on a beautiful lifestyle block in Hamilton. It’s really special to me that we are able to give our daughter pretty much the same happy and exciting childhood I had.
What’s your blog all about? MumptyStyle is a pretty eclectic mix of all the things I love; writing, the pinup aesthetic, burlesque, fashion, makeup – all those girly things. I also like to tackle the controversial subjects every now and then and to dabble in a bit of fiction as well! Something I really love to do on my blog is to interview women I find inspirational – I’ve cyber-met some incredible women by doing this.
MumptyStyle is also about helping Mums find their “style” (let’s face it, we often lose our sense of self after we have children) – it’s about what suits you and your lifestyle, and more importantly, what you love and what makes you feel good. Then continually refining that and having fun with it.
Why did you start blogging? I started blogging because I had been thinking about blogging for such a long time, and I decided it was time to stop thinking about it, and to get doing it! Around that time too, I got the opportunity to do a bit of writing for the Makeup Obsessives blog, and that gave me the extra kick I needed to get things started – and I’m SO pleased I did!
What is your favourite part about blogging? Having a creative outlet for sure – now I can write whatever I want and I love that. And, as I said above – I also LOVE the fact that I’ve met some incredible people through my blog – I’ve been blown away by some of the women who have consented to be featured on my blog – I’m pretty lucky!
How do you manage juggling family life with blogging? I’m still trying to find that balance – I do spend a lot of time on my blog, but I try to remember that it’s absolutely not as important as my family, so if it’s family time, it’s family time and my blog can wait.
Any advice to new/other bloggers? I know this has been said a thousand times before, but you need to write about what you know and what you love – that way you can just write from the heart and it will never become just another job you have to get done in your already-too-busy day. And … proof read! If that’s not your strong point, get your partner or someone else to do it – there’s nothing more annoying than a blog post full of grammatical errors and spelling mistakes!
And lastly, don’t be afraid to feature other people on your blog – it’s great to share the love (I figure there’s plenty of room out there for everyone to be successful) and it also exposes you and your blog to another group of readers, and let’s face it, that’s never a bad thing!
Top 3 favourite posts from your blog?
1) Are apps and Photoshop ruining your self-esteem without you even knowing it?
This was a post I’d had in the back of my mind for a while and although controversial, I decided to go ahead with it. It has been one of my most popular posts yet! I feel this is an important subject – particularly for those of us with daughters growing up in an environment where “perfection” is easily achieved via digital means and I am making it a real priority to ensure my daughter understands and can recognise what is real and what is “manufactured” when it comes to beauty and appearance.
2) Pinup December
Pinup December was a series of daily posts in December last year – each day featuring a NZ pinup or burlesque performer. I asked them what they were most proud of in 2014 and to nominate a charity. This was a highly successful series that I LOVED running – there were some incredible achievements identified. At the end of the series, I donated $50 to Westpac Helicopter Rescue and another $50 to the SPCA. Here is the link to the overview page – from there you can click through to all of the individual posts for these glorious women!
3) Why I TiLT and why you should too! If you don’t know, a TiLT is an acronym for “Things I Love Thursday” – essentially a weekly gratitude roundup; the concept of which was devised by Kiwi-blogger-in-New-York, Gala Darling.
I have done a weekly TiLT since 2008 and I really do credit it for my (mostly!) happy life and positive attitude.
Top 3 favourite blogs
This changes on a pretty regular basis as new blogs come onto my radar! These are three of my long-term favourites though.
1) Zotheysay.com – by the hilarious and fabulous Zoe Foster, who used to be a pretty famous beauty editor and is now a relatively new mum (she still does very glam stuff though, like being a travel writer!) She has such an engaging writing style, she’s very funny and she has some very good ideas – plus she has launched a skincare line called GoTo – which, I suspect, is wonderful.
2) Galadarling.com – I know Gala has been mentioned before, but she really is that good. I’ve been following her blog for six years now and she still manages to pull some thought-provoking and interesting posts out of the hat on a regular basis!
3) One-twenty-five – Liz is a Canadian girl and I LOVE the way she writes – I’ve followed her for quite a few years now and have enjoyed reading as she blogged her way through LOTS of international travel, tempestuous relationships, marathons, her ongoing struggle with her weight and her self-esteem – all sorts. She is a fabulous writer and although she posts less frequently now her wanderlust has been satisfied, she still has some interesting things to say.
