Tin Box Traveller Diaries: March 2016

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Woah, March passed by in such a flash that I’m a bit late with my monthly round up. The final week in particular we spent a lot more time doing things than having time to reflect on them. Anyway, here’s a quick catch up with what’s been happening in the Tin Box Traveller world during the past month.

At home

• We went looking for new cars as we’ve got to that stage in every family’s lifeline where we just need more space. Gone are the days when we went for the prettiest car, now it’s all about the boot space. A new car will be joining us in April.
• Mr Tin Box was hanging out in Wales with the Royal Navy a lot but thankfully had a lot of time off at the end of the month.
• We started off the month being ill. If it was going around, we had it. I found it quite stressful trying to keep on top of work, the housework and this blog with both girls home at various times when they would usually have been in nursery.
• We got a cleaner. I hate house work – it’s always at the bottom of my to do list. The crunch came when I realised I hadn’t cleaned our bathroom in three weeks. That’s when I remembered something I heard at a blogging conference last year – outsource the jobs you don’t like. It’s been a big relief.

Travel

• Mid-way through the month we took our caravan out for it’s first trip of the year to North Devon. It was a great weekend, despite Tin Box Baby not being very well. I love the picture I got of Mr Tin Box and Tin Box Tot at Hartland Quay.
• At Easter we booked a last minute break at the Looe Caravan Club site in Cornwall. The weather was typically British but we still had some lovely days out and visited the beaches at Looe and Seaton, the Eden Project and Lanhydrock House and Gardens.

Adventures

• On Mothers Day we went to our local beach, Blackpool Sands, for a dog-friendly event and walk. It was a bitterly cold but fun way to spend the day.
• Mr Tin Box took park in the Delicious Dart Trail as part of his marathon training. It’s a fun event where runners get to sample locally produced food and drink over 15 miles. Most people do it in fancy dress – it’s not really a serious thing but Mr Tin Box wanted to test himself. He still dressed up as a scuba diver and stopped at each food station!
• We were invited to visit The Wild Place Project by Trunki to help them promote its Giraffe House Appeal and the launch of the new Gerald the Giraffe Trunki design.
• We took the girls to the Eden Project in Cornwall over the Easter weekend. It’s somewhere I’ve been twice before and it was great to see how it had become more established over the years.
• We also went on an Easter egg hunt at Lanhydrock House and Gardens in Bodmin during our Easter weekend. This was such a fun day out and toddler tantrum-free – the dream!

Blogging

• Mentioned earlier, we were invited to a blogger event at Wild Place Project near Bristol. I had such a fab day with the Tin Box girls and met the lovely Lisa from Travel Loving Family who I’ll be meeting up with again in April for the Traverse travel blogger conference in Cardiff.
• I was a bit shocked and very relieved when my Tots100 and Trips100 rankings went up in March. I had expected a fall after I switched my blog from Blogger to WordPress as my blog went down a couple of times and links had to be repaired. Phew!
• A blogger who was a great help to me in March was Aby from You Baby Me Mummy. She’s started a new blog advice feature called #BlogFixFriday. She answered a couple of questions I had about nofollow links and running giveaways.
• I ran two giveaways on my blog in March and had a great response.
• I’ve started using Buffer to schedule my social media as I was getting frustrated with Hootsuite. I really like using it for Twitter and Pinterest but still prefer scheduling Facebook posts direct through my page.
• Speaking of Pinterest I took part in a Google hangout with Tots100 and Pinterest in March. It was a massive help and has given me lots of inspiration for upping my pinning game. If you’d like to take a look at my revamped boards you’ll find them here.
• Something totally new for Tin Box Traveller is our YouTube channel which I started uploading videos to in March. There’s already videos of our recent trips to Wales and North Devon.
• On my Travel Timehop feature I had guest posts from Louise from Little Hearts Big Love, Mim at MamaMim (now Love from Mim), Cathy at MummyTravels and Panda Kennedy from The Panda Travels.
• Finally, I blogged about applying for a baby passport for Emma’s Diary.

April is already in full swing – in the first few days we’ve managed to fit in a three day break in Exeter and Jersey. More to come on these adventures and others soon. Thanks, as ever, for reading!

Read what we got up to in February 2016 or skip ahead to April 2016.

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