Grow your blog challenge 2013

On reading Africanaussie blog she had an interesting post about a "Grow your blog" party, started by Vicky at 2 Bags full blog.

This is a campaign to get more people to read a wider variety of blogs, variety is the spice of life, as the saying goes...

We could all do with a few more friends, bloggers or readers, a few more followers, a few more commentators...So I joined in, hoping to earn a few more readers and hoping to find some new blogs to follow.

For my new readers I will start by introducing myself:

Hi, my name is Sami, I live in Perth, Australia.
I was born in Mozambique, then moved to South Africa when I was 14 years old. Shortly after I got married I accompanied my husband to Germany, where he was going to work on a project.
From the originally planned 1 year we stayed almost 6, and both our children were born there. We moved back to South Africa for a short while, then another move to Portugal, and then 6 years ago, yet again another move to Australia!
I hope we are done with moving for many many years!!

I work part-time as a Practice Manager in a Medical clinic with 3 doctors and 5 other receptionists, and I love my job, although it can be quite intense and stressful at times!

Perth city, seen from Kings Park Botanic gardens

I started my blog in June 2011, as a way to record my travels, crafts, recipes...and also to link with other likewise bloggers.

Although I blog in English, I am also thinking of starting to write all my posts in duplicate with a Portuguese version as well, at the suggestion of some of my Portuguese followers... I just need more hours in the day if that is possible!!

Slowly I realized I had to follow other bloggers and through some of my first followers I started clicking on some of the blogs they followed, and from there I started following a few more blogs that were to my liking.

I have noticed most of the blogs I follow are actually related to either travel or expat bloggers.
So this will be an opportunity to make an effort and visit different types of blogs.
You can learn so much too by visiting other blogs, you see how they structure their blog, how they "beautify" it. You also learn about how other people live in other parts of the world, you learn little tips about gardening, sewing, cooking...

I have been gluten intolerant for about 2 years and I'm always on the lookout for new recipes that don't take too long to cook. I enjoy cooking as long as it's nothing too complicated or takes hours...

I am on a quest to be more aware of the environment, use less chemicals on my body and also save money, and now make my own washing liquid for the washing machine, and use vinegar, baking soda and lemon for cleaning around the house, as well as making my own lovely soap. 
Try these recipes, they are easy, don't take long and you will feel so proud of yourself .


I enjoy crafts although I must say I am a bit of a procrastinator and haven't done much in way of crafting or painting for a while. Maybe I should follow a couple of crafting blogs so I get inspired and start painting again.

One of my paintings

I love decorating and renovations - we have renovated almost our whole house and garden by ourselves (me, hubby and son). I love to watch lifestyle shows, renovating shows, etc., which drives my husband crazy!!  
60 Minute makeovers?? No wonder I then get cranky when the bathroom renovation takes 3 months!! I have threatened to call in some of these "quick renovators" or to enroll in some of these shows, but my husband would not hear of it!!

I started an A-Z challenge a few months ago with other bloggers around the world and I am almost at the end of it, having started with an A is for for Australia and the last post in the series was T is for The Three Sisters.
You can read all my posts under the A-Z by clicking under the Australian flag button at the right.
If you would like to find other bloggers doing this challenge follow this link.

Oh, and I have 5 cats, only 2 of them are friendly and love to keep me company, the others are bit wild and scared of visitors. But I still love them to bits.

My husband and I and our 5 cats - Mommy, Baby, Twiggy, Fluffy (the orange male) and Shelley

At the moment I have 36 followers, some lovely virtual and not so virtual friends spread around the world, but it would be nice to increase my regular readers.

I have actually met a few of my followers and/or bloggers that I follow, such as the lovely Carole from Piglet in Portugal, who was one of my first followers outside my family and who helped boost my readership too.
Then there is Monica who also lives in Perth and blogs in Portuguese about her Perth experiences, Celeste, is a self published author, who also writes in Portuguese, posting poetry, articles about herbs and their benefits to your health, and she is an enthusiastic writer with over 500 posts in about 2 years.

One thing I find, is that although I have many people that read my posts every day, very few people apart from the regular 5 or 6 commentators leave comments. I don't know if the procedure is difficult or if people just can't be bothered. 
I miss that people comment and I always try to leave a comment if I visit a new blog, there is always a post that is interesting, has nice photos, is funny....
So make an effort and leave some kindness.

So hop along to 2Bagsfull - http://vicki-2bagsfull.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/my-grow-your-blog-party-all-bloggers.html . With over 420 bloggers having registered you will for sure find one or two to your liking.
I know I have already found a couple that I will start to follow from now on.
And of course I hope you "follow me" too and enjoy reading my blog.