Best of the Web: inspirational and optimistic bloggers

With such lovely, heartfelt content scattered across the net, I felt inspired to write up a post about some of my favourite inspirational bloggers.

Mummy from the Heart features a post on her site every Thursday called Reasons to be Cheerful 1, 2, 3 (guaranteed to give you an Ian Dury and The Blockheads earworm). Every week I look forward to reading her uplifting and optimistic outlook on life and parenthood. If you're ever feeling gloomy then I one hundred percent recommend her chipper blog to brighten up your day.

Another glass-half-full blogger is Perfectly Happy Mummy, who shares her hopeful, honest and warm thoughts on life as a mum. She recently posted a piece titled 4 Years Ago I Became a Mum which is a powerful and brave post that reflects her experience as a parent so far.

Ian Newbold, a Ready for Ten contributor, writes a cheerful blog called Single Parent Dad which is guaranteed to make you laugh. He writes about his life with his best mate – his son Max. Ian lost his wife when Max was just a baby and now shares his experiences along the single parent road. I always enjoy his heartwarming and witty approach to bringing up his boy on his own.

Rachel Papers won the 2010 MAD award for most inspiring blog – it's called Strange and Beautiful and is about her experience of parenting twin girls, one of whom lives with autism. The blog is a treasured resource for parents who have autistic children and is wonderfully honest.

My Best of the Web posts frequently feature Pippa, aka A Mother’s Ramblings, because her blog always makes me smile. She has been nominated for the 2011 MAD award for most inspiring blog, and if you have a read, you’ll be able to see why. Her humour and cheery attitude always shine through which makes her blog an absolute pleasure to read.

A mum who is always an inspiration for her creativity is Deb, aka Carrots and Kids. Every week Deb contributes marvellous recipes and beautiful crafts to Ready for Ten. She’s forever surprising us all with her ability to make something absolutely stunning out of bits and bobs from around the house, or nature finds along a walk.

And last but not least, Ready for Ten’s editor, Linda, who is an outspoken and courageous mummy blogger. Constantly genuine and always lovely – she has written (and continues to write) about subjects close to her heart and about experiences in her life that aren’t always easy to talk about.