What's in a name? - Slightly Smaller Footprints

I started this series originally to satisfy my own curiosity and have been pleasantly surprised how many of you out there responded so positively! Thank you for some lovely comments so I thought I'd share a little more with you before I go on to my next 'guest'.  


 Jacquie  said ..

Great idea ...love this strand :0)
Did you manage to fit the woodburner yourselves ?
Jacquie x

We did thanks Jacquie, but like all our escapades it was like a comedy of errors! At one point I was so worried about Himself being on our roof manhandling 10 meters (approx 30 foot) of extremely heavy fire proof flue lining that I begged our neighbour to watch over him. I must admit to noticing but ignoring an extreme look of alarm on said neighbour's face but he agreed and carefully climbed up our ladder. Bless him, he stayed and watched over and helped Himself all that day and the next as they fought and wrestled to lower the flue lining down the chimney. The men then fixed it to the top of the chimney and again to the woodburning stove in our lounge.

It was only afterwards that I discovered that our neighbour has a terror of heights and being asked to climb up onto a slippery 30 foot high slate roof was almost a step too far! 

Anyway enough of us, 

I'm delighted to 

present to you 

my next 'guest'...................

Julia from Slightly Smaller Footprints

·  Please introduce yourself.

Hello!  I’m Julia (ju24).  I live on Teesside with my husband, daughter, son, dog and tortoise.  After recently downsizing on the job front, I’m now a part-time teaching assistant.

·  Your blog's name - why and how did you choose your blog title?

My blog is called Slightly Smaller Footprints.  Normally, I would agonise for days over choosing a name for something like this, but this time it just came to me in a flash.   I’d been toying with the idea of starting a blog, and knew I wanted it to be a record of our family’s efforts to live a greener lifestyle.  One day, I was tentatively exploring the Blogger website when I found myself impulsively setting up an account.  Of course, I needed a name there and then, and SSF popped into my head, with the smaller footprint part obviously referring to our ecological/carbon footprint.

My favourite bit, though, is that the name is a bit of private joke (or maybe not so private now, I guess!)  We are a family of tall people – I’m the only one under 6’ – with correspondingly large feet.  Small footprints?  I don’t think so!

·   Did you ever blog about your choice of title? 

No, I didn’t.  It didn’t occur to me to do so as I thought people would realise where the title had come from once they read my profile.  I hoped close family might enjoy the irony.

·  Have you ever changed your blog's title name? And, if so, how often and why? And fancy revealing any of it's previous names ?

It’s always been SSF, and I’ll probably keep it as long as it’s appropriate to what I blog about.

· How long have you been blogging?

I started writing in December 2010, so about 5 months.  At that point, I’d been reading blogs for a couple of years, ever since I tripped over Colour it Green’s during some Internet research (can’t remember what on – wool, or sheep most likely.) 

·  Can you remember how you felt when you received your first comment or how you felt when you noticed your first follower?

I can remember my first comment – you wrote it, and it was very supportive!!  I was thrilled and scared in equal measure.  Thrilled because someone was interested in what I had written, but scared in case other posts didn’t come up to scratch.  My reaction was probably due to the way I was feeling about a lot of things at the time.

·  Did you initially keep your blog to yourself before sharing with friends and family?

Actually, it’s still only been shared with limited people, and most of them only know about it because my OH sent them a link!  Funnily enough, I was reading back over some of my posts the other night and came to the conclusion I was ready to share it with more people.

·  What was the original intention for starting your blog? Has it remained true to its primary reason or has it blossomed, altered or taken a completely different direction?

I gave up my previous job last December, which meant we had the time to do our little bit towards living more sustainably.  It seemed the perfect time to share what we do, plus it was an opportunity for me to pick up some new computer skills.

I think the blog is still true to my primary intent, although the sustainability angle is often less explicit than I originally thought it would be, and tends to be wrapped up in our day to day comings and goings.  Oh, and crochet gets mentioned far more than I ever expected, but probably not as much as I would like!

·  What or who inspires you?

Oh, well, I think of inspiration and creativity as being linked, and I’m not creative in the true sense of the word.  I’m a copier – I take other people’s ideas and then make or do the same thing.  So, I reckon I am influenced rather than inspired……….. but by whom?

Ben Law springs to mind, as my interest in being green all started when I watched him build his house on Grand Designs.  Then there’s Geoff Hamilton, who was a bit before his time when it came to sustainable gardening, and because of his Cottage Garden series, which I adored.  Fellow bloggers are always influential, of course, each for different reasons.  Oh, and Trevor Hawes, an education expert who delivered a seminar many years ago, and whose ideas on effective learning really resonated with me – I still apply them on a day to day basis.   Finally, I must acknowledge my mum and dad, who taught me the basics of all the making and doing I love to do every day.

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Thank you so much  Julia, that was lovely - it's funny that we both hold Colouritgreen 'responsible' for our fall into blogging, for me it was she and Thursday's Child  who have a lot to answer for! 

And as for my all time hero - Geoff Hamilton - sigh, so glad to see he gets a mention here!

That, my dears is this week's 'What's in a name?' slot, hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. I will be posting holiday waffle some time soon, but the next two weeks I will be at work far more than usual so - don't think I am neglecting you!