Welcome to LaurenGemmell.com!

During January I’ve updated my server and the look of this blog but something still didn’t feel quite right about coffeemuffins.com.

During my hiatus from blogging I diverged from CoffeeMuffins. Lauren Coffeemuffins was essentially about teaching myself the basics of cooking and baking, about branching out of my comfort zone and learning new techniques. I wanted to fit in with the in-crowd of foodie blogs. I put all my recipes on Pinterest, submitted my favourite photos to tastespotting and foodgawker (with a lot of rejections) and spent hours analyzing my Google Analytics stats. It was all part of a never-ending cycle to improve the popularity of my blog. I once described it as the equivalent of ‘grinding’ in World of Warcraft – I guess what I meant is there was a sense of accomplishment at the end but at the time it is largely repetitive busy work.

The Lauren of today is more about eating healthy, fresh and fast. I do a lot more exercise but I still want free time to have multiple interests and blog (if the fancy takes me) about all of them. The blog I want is a holding ground for all the ideas I have. I want to look back and remember the recipes I used to enjoy, or the thrill of completing my first 5km run in under 30 minutes.

I’ll admit there is still that dream that sponsors will send me free food, or expensive holidays to the Caribbean, and that one day I will be able to quit my day job – making just as much money putting photos on Instagram. But for now I just want a blog that matches my life and is as low stress as possible.

I hope you enjoy LaurenGemmell.com just as much as Coffeemuffins.com. Welcome!