The Winner of the North East Blogger of the Year category sponsored by intu Metrocentre Cheryl Lumley of All Round Creative Junkie blog.
The North East’s top bloggers were crowned at The North East Blogger Awards last week on Tuesday November 10 held at Bonbar, Newcastle.
Categories in the awards included beauty, business, food and drink, lifestyle, parenting, student, travel with new categories for 2015 including best Instablogger, best looking blog, best music blog and homes and interiors.
Once again, the competition culminated in the North East Blogger of the Year, sponsored by Intu Metrocentre, which saw Cheryl Lumley from Gateshead with All Round Creative Junkie scoop the top award.
“I’m still in shock that I won the North East Blogger of the Year award”, said Cheryl. “The talent in the North East is amazing so I feel very honoured and humbled to have won.”
The 41-year-old started her blog, All Round Creative Junkie, just over a year ago: “It was a way to get across my creative ramblings. I’ve always loved interiors and I’ve been revamping and reusing things in interiors since I bought my first home 17 years ago, long before the word ‘up-cycling’ became fashionable. It seemed the natural subject for me to blog about.”
Originally from Spennymoor, Cheryl describes her blog as, “Creative Up-cycled Ramblings” and it is filled with fun posts on up-cycling, home trends, easy ways to update your home, tips and how-tos.
“I want to inspire people with ideas on adding individuality to their homes”, Cheryl goes on to say. “Painting furniture, revamping pieces, making and creating. I honestly believe everyone can be creative, we just sometimes need to know where to start.”
When she’s not blogging, Cheryl runs a Graphic Design agency, Copper Blue Creative, with her husband and spends her spare time painting and creating: “I’m currently working on the interiors for a new community cafe called The Nest in Low Fell. The space is all about reusing and saving money so there are a lot of Gumtree, Preloved, Freegle and skip finds going in.
“I’ve turned electrical cable reels into play tables, revamped old school chairs and we’ve even used all the leftover wood on the service counter. I also run up-cycling workshops to give people the skills and the confidence to do things themselves.”
After winning the Blogger of The Year, it looks like 2016 is going to be a busy year for Cheryl.
“I’m planning on building my blog up to see where that takes me”, she enthuses. “I am working with RustOleum on a series of ‘How To’ videos with lots more to come in 2016 so that’s quite exciting! I’ve also got more workshops planned, as I want to run some workshops for children to show them how to get crafty and thrifty for their own spaces. My mission is to find everyone’s creative inner beast!”
Cheryl’s Top Blogging Tips:
1. My main piece of advice would be write about something you’re completely passionate about. Research other blogs with a similar theme, see how they do it and think of a way to make your blog stand out.
2. A memorable name that will translate across onto Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. is also really important.
3. Start with something like WordPress, build up your blog with a few posts ready to publish so that when you decided to go live with it, you’re armed and ready!
4. Finally, be honest and write in a style that suits your personality, people read blogs as they’re written by real people.
FOLLOW: Cheryl on Twitter and Instagram
Don’t forget to check out her website, here.
