International Blog Swap Day

A few weeks ago, the lovely people over at TOTS100 invited some bloggers to join in with an international blog swap with Australian Parent Bloggers. 

I was teamed up with Kylie and here is her post to introduce herself and her blog to you!

Hi There! 

My name is Kylie, but you can call me Kylez. I blog at Kylie Purtell – A Study in Contradictions, which is something my Mother called me once. I figured it was a good name for a blog because that’s what I am, a total jumble of contradictions!

I’m an early 30s Mrs & Mum and I live in the north-west region of Sydney with my husband Dave and our two daughters, Punky & Zee (not their real names!). At the moment I’m currently on maternity leave from my job with a book importer & distributor.

I used to be the Marketing Manager before I left to have my first daughter Punky in November of 2011. After that I went back part-time and was a Jill-of-all-trades, so to speak, looking after anything that needed doing, as well a generous amount of graphic design work.

Since having my second daughter Zee in July of 2013, I have taken the opportunity to study Graphic Design part-time and indulge my passion for blogging. In between wrangling two spirited girls, that is!

I first started blogging in May of 2009, as a way to record my thoughts and to keep a record of cool stuff I found around the internet. As you can imagine, the blog has certainly evolved in the 5 years I’ve been doing it.

Now I blog about all different kinds of stuff, such as my journey to parenthood, books and reading, photography and blogging, not to mention the odd post or two where I like to get my Ranty McRanterson Designer Ranty Pants on!

You’ll find lots of pictures and fun stuff on the blog, as well as the odd swear word or two. I write like I talk which is fast and furious, with minimal filtering. I like to drink lots of coffee and I’ve never met a brownie or lemon meringue pie I didn’t like!

One thing I’m passionate about is supporting other bloggers. The friendship and support I have received from the blogging community since I first started has been invaluable. I’ve met people who I am so lucky to be able to call true friends, despite the fact we’ve never met in offline life.

I love to share the things I’ve learned on my blogging journey, and the tips and tricks I’ve used to improve my blogging and to find new friends. One of the things that a lot of bloggers find hard these days, with the ever changing algorithms, is being able to reach their readers on Facebook.

I’ve made it my personal mission to show support and encouragement to as many bloggers as I can by visiting and engaging with their Facebook pages. I’ve started a monthly Facebook love-in, called Share the love Sunday, where I encourage other bloggers to tag their Facebook page so that I can like, visit, comment and share. I encourage everyone who plays along to visit at least one other blogger and show them a little love by commenting, and maybe even sharing one of their posts. The next one will be on Sunday 18th May, at 2pm Sydney time (5 am London time) and you’re all more than welcome to join in. It’s open all Sunday, and I visit everyone who tags their page through the week.

So that’s me in a nutshell. I’m so looking forward to visiting all the fabulous UK bloggers that are participating in the Digital Parents/Tots 100 International Blog Swap Day. I love to find new blogs to read and I’m sure I’ll have heaps to add to my blog reader after today!