Did you have the most amazing long weekend?  I hope that you did.

We looked after our friends 3 kids for the weekend and it was awesome!  Everyone thought that we were nuts, but the difference between 3 and 6 is not actually that much.  Plus they keep each other busy so it worked out well.  Now I’m contemplating having more kids 😉

This morning we’re jumping into the home of Olerato!  Join me as we get to know her…

INSIDE THE HOME OF…  OLERATO

 

1. So, who the heck are you?

My name is Olerato. I am a Mother to one Crazy energetic 3 year old toddler girl, a Big Sister to 2 little brothers and an only Daughter to my parents. During the weekdays I work as a Process Engineer and when that is done, I start my work as a Mom, Partner and a Blogger/Vlogger/Youtuber. Over the weekends I am pretty much anything my Daughter wants me to be which most of the time happens to be a Tinker. She really brings out that not so creative girl in me and I love it.

2. Give us the low down on your blog. We want to hear it all.  (What’s your niche, what kinds of posts do you do, that kind of thing)

 

 

My Blog is called Mommy and Baby Approved. To be honest I haven’t really figured out my niche just yet but I am having a whole lot of fun blogging. I kind of prefer it this way actually. I get to explore a lot of things and since I have a vast interest in a lot of things, trying to narrow it down to focus on my niche would honestly feel like trying to choose between Ice Cream and Chocolate.

Currently I write posts about Parenting, Lifestyle/Travel, Beauty, Fashion, some product reviews. These are mostly based on my experience as a parent and of course all the adventures that we get up to with my family. Every once in a while I like to throw in recipe posts – both baking and simple dinner meals. I also enjoy giving tips and tricks on how to avoid sticky situations that I’ve got myself into :).

3. Share all your social channels so we can stalk you…

4. What does a regular day in ‘the life of you’ involve?

 

 

Waking up at 5:30am, doing a quick workout at home then taking a bath and getting ready for work.  Around 7am I wake up my little one and get her breakfast ready. While she’s eating breakfast and watching some TV, I make her bed and pick her clothes for school. Around 7:20am little one brushes her teeth (she insists) then at around 7:25am I start dressing her up and getting her ready.

We always aim to leave the house at 7:45am but this never happens. We literally do summer salts when we out the house at 8am. When little one is all dressed and hair brushed with bow on, then I drop her off at school and I make my way to work.

I normally get to work anytime between 8:30am and 9:00am. Then I spend about 8 hours at work mostly stuck in meetings and giving presentations. But when the 8 hours are over, I head home, pick up little one from school. We play a little bit when we get home and have a mini snack.

Around 6pm, I start preparing dinner. We eat at around 7:30pm and daddy gives little one a bath and we all just prepare for bedtime. While bathtime is in progress, I quickly edit a video for my Youtube Channel and quickly wash the dishes. By 8:30pm, little one is in bed and we (myself and my partner) are in bed by 10pm latest :).

5. When do you fit in time to blog?

I have started the tradition of writing blog posts over lunch at work. It has made my life a whole lot easier. A little less pressure off my shoulders and I get to actually focus and put the energy into the blog post I write. Then I just keep them as drafts and I edit and proof read them as and when the time to publish comes.

I do things completely different though for my Youtube channel. I film some videos over the weekend at home. These are mostly sit-down videos where I talk about parenting things and products reviews. Some videos I even film with my Daughter which 6 out of 10 times are chaotic but so cute. I edit the videos the day before the upload day but when I’m really good, I film and edit over the weekend and then I just schedule the videos for upload.

6. Please can you share your top 5 tips relative to you blog niche…

Not necessarily related to my niche but this is what came to mind 🙂 . Maybe I’m a cook at heart. 🙂

5 Recipe Tips

• It’s okay to substitute ingredients
• Looks shouldn’t determine the taste (you might get something completely different from what you had/saw but it might taste like MAGIC)
• Never be afraid to explore. (Sometimes the best meals are actually made accidentally)
• Don’t judge yourself too much
• Keep an open mind

7. Give us a brief tour of your home and garden – tell us about renovations you’ve done – before and afters, parts you love, parts you want to change, go crazy…

 

Since we are renting where we are staying, there really isn’t much we can change around. But I would really love to change the paint inside the house. It’s currently light yellow and I’d love for it to be just white.

I really love our little dinning area though. It’s very intimate and simple. I feel the big mirror next to the table adds a little class and the family tree above the dinner table adds some sentiments as well. It’s so much fun when we all 3 sit together to eat our meals there. I swear if one of us isn’t home, it just doesn’t feel right eating at the dinner table.

8. What’s your favourite room/area in your home and why?

Without a doubt, my favourite is my Daughter’s Playroom. Compared to the other rooms, it has a ton of space but I love it because it’s the one room where we can lock ourselves up and play for endless hours. I like the bright colourful colours her toys add to the room. They make it look so fun and alive. Most importantly though I like how my daughter is able to just go into her playroom, grab a book and get lost in it for a good chunk of time. I may be wrong but I think she also loves her playroom way more than she loves her bedroom 🙂

9. If you had endless money and you could change anything in your home, what would you do?

 

First I would move out. Find a place that has huge windows and loads of natural light coming inside the house. One with preferably white walls. And I would definitely make sure that this house has a big backyard for little one to play and us to chill.

10. Where’s your dumping ground – you know that place that you dump all your clothes and frantically have to clean before you have guests over…

Luckily I don’t have this. I always FORCE myself to fold up the laundry the very same day after I wash it. Our house is pretty small so we can’t really afford to have laundry just lying around. But when I take the clothes down from the line, I put them on our bed and fold them. It’s not very fun but I’d explode if I were to see a pile of clothes occupying space that we are already running so low on.

 

11. Do you have a book collection? Let’s see it. Which one is your fav?  (photo please)

Yes I do. Though I don’t have time to read them now. My favourite is far has been Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.

 

 

Thank you for sharing your home with us Olerato!!  It’s so hard making a space your own when you’re renting, but I think you have done a wonderful job!

If you like this series, I’d love for you to join me in the next instalment!  Either leave your email address in the comments, mail me on cindyalfino@gmail.com or um, like send me a smoke signal or something.  I’d love to have you.