Follow Friday – Realistic Optimism, Foodie Alert, and Ciao Italia

I discovered all of this week’s #FollowFriday blogs while reading and commenting over at the Daily Post’s Three Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers, which contains some great tips both in the post and in the comments section.

Realistic Optimism

Fill Your Own Glass

Karen Pearce, a reformed pessimist, writes with “A realistic approach to an optimistic life” over at Fill Your Own Glass.

Baby Girl…You Look Fine, the first post I read on her site, is powerful and courageous. She discusses fat shaming and not being comfortable in her own skin. Her words resonate with so many women as she speaks honestly about a struggle most women deal with in some shape or form at some point in their lives. You rejoice in her epiphany when she states, “I will allow myself to be enough.” The lesson of Baby Girl…You Look Fine is one we should pass on to our sisters and daughters.

In a more light hearted piece, Life Should Be a Musical (With Jazz Hands) she writes of “Musiclandia”, a utopian world where words are replaced with music and dance.

Visit Fill Your Own Glass when you have a chance; I’m sure you will not be disappointed with her unique blend of realism and optimism.

Foodie Alert!

Zest and Herbs

I was delighted to find Zest and Herbs, a culinary blog written by Simon Davis while reading comments on the Daily Post’s entry Three Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers, Simon’s post Book Review: Rick Stein’s India not only left me craving Indian food but also reminiscing about and salivating for all the fish and chips I ate the year I lived in West Sussex.

He uses the theme Suburbia and the layout is splendid for a food blog and easy to navigate. All foodies should definitely check out Zest and Herbs here on WordPress or on twitter at @zestandherbs.

Ciao Italia!

dreamdiscoveritalia

Lizzie over at dreamdiscoveritalia is an expat living in Venice who writes about her experiences throughout Italy. Entertaining were her recent first-hand accounts of Venice leading up to George Clooney’s wedding to Amal Alamuddin complete with photos of celebrity sightings and a turn of the camera onto the paparazzi.

In addition to travel pieces, dreamdiscoveritalia runs an Italian language feature called Italian 101. These posts are informative and delightfully written; check out How to say hello in Italian. Italophiles be sure to head over to dreamdiscoveritalia to enjoy all things Italian.

ciao ciao

Until next Friday.