3 years ago today I published the first post on the blog Imelda Green’s. Of course not under this domain and not in the same form as these days, but I am still very proud to say that I’ve been posting more or less consistently ever since.

I had originally intended this blog to motivate me to create art regularly – just like some challenge. During those first months of planning however, I had no idea that I would meet blogger buddies who would later become friends or that I’d learn so much about social media marketing, but I knew from the first moment on that maintaining a quality blog beside a day-job would mean lot of extra work.

I attended a blogger event in Budapest this October, where one of the guests asked: how is it actually possible to create high-end material while doing a day-job, if it takes so much effort (as it was enphasized how much work it takes to create good quality content).

So today I’m celebrating my blog’s 3rd birthday by giving you a little insight into how a week looks like in the life of a blogger (& illustrator). October was a rather busy month round here, so I chose to describe the last week of that month, as it gives you a fairly good idea of how these busy periods look like. You’ll see that I’m the type of blogger who likes to plan everything at least a month in advance (preferably more), so no unexpected event can interfere with my posting schedule.

Monday – my office sends me abroad

In my day-job I’m working for a multinational company, which sometimes involves visiting our colleagues abroad, so Monday starts early on the train to Vienna. It takes about 2,5 hours to travel there from Budapest, which gives me enough time to publish my weeky blog post, share it on Facebook and some Facebook groups for promition, schedule 2 extra Facebook posts, and start writing a new draft.

I spend the day at my company’s Vienna office, which means I can’t even think of my business until the evening. After a bit of recreation I continue working at 7.30 PM: I stay at a hotel room with a tiny desk, but that’s enough to grab my watercolour supplies and start painting – yes, I took my supplies with me, crazy as it sounds – and I work  until 11 PM. If I wear my headphones and listen to my favourite audiobooks it’s almost like being at home.

Tuesday – office work and a journey home

I start the day in the office again, but luckily the second half of the afternoon is mine. I travel back to Budapest, so another 2,5 hours is there for me to finish the draft I started writing the day before, plus translate it into English (oh, the beauties of running a bilingual blog…). Since I was communicating nearly only in English the past 2 days, translating seems no trouble – and yet, I get off the train feeling like a zombie… I only have energy to publish a post on Instagram (and enable sharing via Twitter and Tumblr as well).

Wednesday – a day for design and illustration

Wednesdays are not particularly blog-friendly days as I spend my afternoons in an art school, studying graphic design, but today is different – not that I skip my course or something, but because my partner comes home late. I’m so sweet, I wait up for him to arrive, and in the mean time I finish some client work: illustration-mode starts at 9PM (after some 3,5 hours of graphic design course) and lasts till 11.30 or so. By that time my SO comes home and I’m so tired that the brush just falls out of my hand.

Thursday – switching back to blogger-mode

I can scan the illustrations I finished the previous day in the office, but I have to leave digital editing for later, I remove the little mistakes from the illustrations in the afternoon. I have a bit of energy left at this point, so I grab an old blog post from wordpress’ drafts section that’s missing the images and create the graphics. I’m in luck today: I’m writing a review of illustrators so I don’t have to take photos. However, putting collages together and linking the right sources still involves a lot of clicks. I have one more hour left before I need to finish, so I quickly put together a downloadable calendar template for 2018 – as you liked the 2017 version so much, why not make one for 2018? Thursday is Insta-day, so before going to bed I quickly post something there (choosing from the carefully prepared photo collection).

Friday – admin-day

Luckily Friday is a short day at the office, I finish working at 2PM, so I have more time for my business. It is the end of the month, so I need to put together the November newsletter, and than translate that to English as well. I became rather bored of sharing the month’s posts in my newsletter, so I think about something new:  I choose a topic and collect a few old posts relating to the subject. The focus of this newsletter is ‘the anatomy of creating art’.

I also have the 2nd graphic design class of the week on Fridays, but before that I still have time to translate a blog post for November.

Saturday – hiding behind the camera

A blogger is a hard-working species, but she’s not a robot, she deserves some rest like all of us. Saturday morning passes without being productive. Later I regret this as natural light disappears so quickly around this time of year, and I can only take good photos in natural light. I hardly clicked my camera at all the past 2 months, so it’s high time to make a grand photo session for both Instagram and my new blog posts. Until 4PM I shoot nearly 200 pictures – most of them rubbish of course, but a lot of raw material is created for my blog posts.

When it gets dark I start working at my desk. Next week I have deadline for an entire package of wedding stationery, including an invitation, a table number, a name card and a menu. The base of all this is a watercolour painting with hortensias and roses, which I want to finish painting before going to bed. Finding references, sketching, and painting takes a bit longer time than expected, so I’m quite impatient to finish by the end of the day.

Sunday – full business mode

After a long and rather lazy morning I manage to scan the painting I finished the previous day. Post-production will not be a small bite, I need to edit out the little mistakes in Photoshop, then do the digital part of the process. I’m quite happy with the work, as the result is spectacular.

In the afternoon I have a meeting, but before that I still have time to work on the photos I shot the day before. It turns out that most of the images are good, they only need a litte light/contrast correction but some need more manipulation (oops.. the corner of that image is missing. Let’s cut it in from another photo! Digital photo editing is a miracle…).

It’s stormy outside, but I still need to leave the comfort of home. I have a meeting in a nearby café, where it turns out that I’m going to illustrate an entire yoga series by January for Ági, blogger of Csillagsarok. I’m so enthusiastic about that project that I’d much rather start working on that right away instead of contuinuing to edit photos, but that work is more urgent.

The week ends with a last Instagram post, where I click on publish via Twitter and Tumblr, as usual. Led by some female instict I decide to check on my Tumblr, where I notice that my Instagram posts have not been published at all since July. Excellent… Really, great… I re-link my Tumblr account on Instagram and hope for the best.

So this is how the last week of October looked like. And when do I have time for family and friends? Well, they are the best and most patient people in this world, so instead of whining they just pet me on the shoulder, bring me a cup of tea at my desk and wait until this busy period ends. They are the ones without whom the blog Imelda Green’s could not have been running the past 3 yeas and without whom it would not be possible for my business to grow. I am constantly grateful for their understanding and patience.

How does it work for you guys? Do you post randomly or do you like working in advance like I do?