Today Is My Blogiversary!

Tea sandwiches inspired by "shopping mum".

Can you believe it? I've been here for exactly one year today and I've met so many wonderful people! I've been inspired by hundreds and encouraged by many to continue going and I couldn't be happier. When I first started this blog I was really adamant on trying to blog at least once a week and I wrote down whatever came to me. When I first started, I used a cell phone camera for most of my pictures and it wasn't until a few months later that I realized how horrid they looked. I used a lot of high fat foods, all-purpose flour and other things that weren't the greatest for the body. Now I know better and know the wonders of whole wheat and eating a totally nutritionally balanced diet, later when I came upon the Adventures in Bento Making by Crystal Watanabe, I was amazed. Although she is far from being vegan or even vegetarian, she inspired me to do something for the vegans and vegetarians. I wanted to see everyone being able to use egg sheets, "kamaboko" and "eggs" to create great bentos for themselves and their family.

I later came upon Sherimiya from Happy Little Bento and that helped transform what I did a bit as well, making me look at my bentos to see if they are both nutritionally and color-wise balanced. When I really started to establish myself and my creativity, I came upon the blogs of Nami, Lia, Jenn, Sue, Susan Voisin and Natakiya and realized just how well I was doing from their comments. It was a big deal seeing anyone reply or comment on my blog, and to ever see repeat commenters and such friendly people such as Nami - I felt so happy and blessed. In the food community I felt so welcome and excited with trying new recipes, finding new blogs and seeing people who felt the same way about my blog.

The "bento community" was equally welcome and in a sense it kind of helped open me up to even more new things and helped me even learn with food styling (although I still have a long way to go with everyone. And the vegan community was also so very happy and warming and all of those that have seen my blog have made me feel the best I ever had over the internet. So with that said, I would like to thank Hannah Kaminsky of BitterSweet for inspiring me (and commenting every so often), Joanne for commenting and encouraging me, Jacqueline and Marina for encouraging me a while ago and giving me my first award.  I like to thank every single person who has ever commented or encouraged me, including my family and friends - you guys really helped me out when I started this and without you, this blog would have never existed as the way it is today. Finally, I would like to thank Teenuja for being one of my first "taste-testers" on my oat milk yogurt and showing a lot of people my blog, all of the guys from Kipper Digital for being awesome and showing off my bento, and Allfreecopycatrecipes for showing off my homemade cinnamon toast crunch! And with that said, I will be posting my most popular (and some embarrassing) posts so that we can remember all that happened within just one year.


My First Post:
First Time


My First Bento:
Its'a Bento!


When I made a bento for KipperDigital:
Paul and Percy Bento

My First Guestpost:
On Natakiya's Site (BentoAnarchy)


If you're new at starting a blog - don't be afraid to ask for help and always keep trying. Take a break when you need to and don't stress out too much. Just remember - you have to be you when you make a blog. Good luck!

Now a few questions for you - What do you think about my blog and what could I improve about it? When is your blog's anniversary coming up and what will you do to celebrate it? ^^ I hope you enjoyed all this time with me - and there will be much more to come!