One year ago, I hit PUBLISH and one of my biggest dreams came true – I finally found a way to make food apart of my day to day life and subsequently – my career path. This week I am celebrating 1 Year of Le Famished Cat 🧁… and I am feeling, well, a bit proud!
The Growth Curve
I cannot believe how much I have learned in the last year – I know it sounds cheesy – but it is so true.
When I started blogging last year March, I had no idea what I was doing – except that I knew that I wanted to have a place to store recipes.
You see, I had always wanted to be a chef, but the universe had other plans for me and I ended up in Public Relations.
PR (and the kick-ass women I have got to work with) has taught me so many life lessons over the past few years, and so many practical skills too, including how to write, be creative and how to get a brands message across in clever ways.
PR taught me how to prioritise work and how to be a multi-tasking master. And while I left my full-time job, I still freelance and write because I don’t want to ever lose that skill set and it has definitely helped me to grow my blog.
Why a Blog?
I wanted to start a food blog because I had always been passionate about cooking. The kitchen was and still is my happy place.
But I didn’t want to post just any old recipes, I wanted to cater to people that wanted to eat healthier, eat more plants and for people who were battling with IBS specifically.
In the begining, I didn’t have time to prioritize the blog, so I used to take pictures at night, I never ever wrote down recipes and had pretty much no content plan for the month. Le Famished Cat didn’t really have a ‘style’.
While I am in no way where I want to be in terms of creativity, I have to take time to acknowledge that I have grown.
They say a picture says a thousand words and I want to show you a visual representation of what growth actually looks like:
Before and After




Adventures of Le Famished Cat
Food wasn’t the only focus for the blog, last year we visited Zanzibar, Cape Town, and Kruger National Park and I started to get more passionate about travel writing.
I wrote a four-part article on Zanzibar – looking at the Zanzibar Spice Farms, Snorkelling at Mnemba Atoll and Safari Blue, visiting Stone Town and Prison Island, and a general guide to plan a trip to Zanzibar.
Two of my most popular travel articles written over the past year were “How not to be a Butthead in the Kruger” and {Travel} How To Go To The Kruger – A first timer’s guide
Success
Defining success in blogging changes day to day for me.
Some days, success is recipe developing, food photography and then actually hitting publish on a blog post.
Other days, success is not deleting my blog and some days it is getting to work with a well known and respected brand.
Most recently it was winning the SA Blog Award for Best Food Blog. 😍
However, success for me is constantly changing… and that has been the greatest learning since I began my blog one year ago.
The Biggest Learnings One Year On
- Comparing myself to my fellow bloggers (some of whom have now become friends) has been a struggle. But what I have learned is that we are all on our own journey. We all have different goals, different passions, and different dreams. Each one of us is fighting for success and there is enough space for us all
- I have also learned the importance of having a tribe – some of my biggest supporters are my fellow bloggers. 💙
- You will never stop learning. Having a blog is like having a diary. Because you document everything, you can physically see the changes and growth you have been through. You learn what works and what doesn’t and you keep on creating content that speaks to your brand
- Staying in my lane and being true to myself – remaining authentic and real. So many people get into blogging for the wrong reasons. Coming from a PR background, It was important to me to establish my blog as a happy space filled with good food, creativity and inspiration – and not as a glorified press office portal. While it is important to find ways to monetise my blog, I have turned down brands (and money) that I don’t think will work with Le Famished Cat.

- Never take pictures at night. Just don’t. The fluorescent lightening isn’t doing you any favours

- Always choose WordPress (sorry Wix and thank you Shan) and make sure that your SEO is optimised and that you have a content plan for the month (or at least the week 😉)
- Finally, take time to take stock of what you have achieved. Happy Birthday to my Little Blog and space on the internet!
And thank you to YOU – most importantly for reading my blog. For tagging me in the recipes you recreate. For commenting on my posts and sharing my blog with your friends and family.
To say thank you, I am hosting 7 days of giveaways on Instagram with 7 awesome brands who have agreed to work with me.
Thanks for reading and for coming along for the journey! 😉

One Comment
2summers
Congrats! I absolutely love your food photography and always tell people to follow you. (I think I got you a couple of new IG followers yesterday at a foodie event I went to, haha.) And I agree with all your points about blogging 🙂