I’m reliably informed the MAD Blog Awards (or The MADs as they’re more affectionately known) are the equivalent to the BAFTA’s for family-life bloggers. I was blogging when the 2012 awards were in full swing, but completely missed the hype not having a twitter account. Now I can’t move for hearing about them - it seems everyone is voting, discussing their nominations, appealing for votes, or agonising over them.

I thought I’d share some of my nom’s with you so you can discover some of the most innovative, charming and witty blogs penned by other mummy bloggers. Unfortunately we could only vote for one blog per category and there are so many others that deserve a mention but here are a few of my personal favourites:

Best Blog Writer: Mammy Woo

This is one blog that doesn’t need updating everyday, because every post that is made, is comedy gold. It’s also incredibly heart-warming and endearing - Lexy is frank about her PND and various other emotions, and writes about them in a way that is so explicitly raw and personal that you can’t help but be moved. Sometimes hilarious, sometimes sad, she has a style all of her own.

The blog is all about her life with her “2-year-old boxer and screamer extraordinaire” Addison. There’s no doubting that she loves her little man - but she’s often making us giggle with her accounts of being beaten up and ridiculed by him, or injuring herself on his playthings (or walking into a glass door) - it’s the perfect portrait of a long-suffering mammy who is loving every second of it. I won’t be the only person to nominate her and I’ve got my fingers crossed she wins this one.

Best Pregnancy Blog - Mummy Adventure

I’m a massive fan of Bex’s weekly On the Inside, On the Outside posts about her pregnancy, her pregnancy-style posts, and her musings on welcoming baby 2 (Squish) into her mini family. I first stumbled across her blog when she announced her second pregnancy to her son Dylan with a cardboard box filled with blue balloons and just fell in love with it.

It takes a master blogger to come across as approachable, calm and friendly through the medium of writing. It sometimes prickles me when I detect a hint of self-importance in bloggers and there simply is none here. There’s no denying she has a pregnant-body-to-die-for yet somehow I’m not jealous at all… (ask me that again when I’m expecting number 2 and swollen with fluid retention and my butt warrants a wide load sign…).

Most Innovative Blog - The Ramblings of a Formerly Rock’n'Roll Mum

Miss Cisco is always making me giggle. Not having the foresight to check with her how long she’s been at it, I didn’t nominate her for Best New Blog (and am kicking myself about it). That’s why she finds herself getting the weird nomination for Innovativeness. But for me, that is kinda what her blog is all about; It’s a real mash-up of funny laugh-out-loud, and mad little observations that scream eccentricity.

You get the feeling she’s all about having fun - a pint rather than a wine drinker. I’m tempted to stalk her at a blogger event just to satisfy my curiosity. Sleep with one eye open Miss Cisco…

(Coincidentally - if you like what you see over there - you’ll probably like Random Ranting of a Tattooed Mummy too - she’s hosting the Alternative Blog Awards which is well worth checking out)

Most Entertaining Blog - Single Slummy Mummy

It’s no secret that I love Jo. Hers is blog packed with observational comedy. She’ll read a ridiculous local newstory or spot a ridiculous shop name and an epic blog post is born. It’s the blog I feel compelled to comment on the most and one you can dive in and out of when your OH is watching the football and the laptop is your only friend.

Stand-out posts for me this year have been The one where I lose Belle in a wood (every mother’s nightmare) and her thoughts on Amsterdam’s Red Light District.

Best Photography - Capture By Lucy

I love Lucy. There I said it - and I’m not alone. This is the most visually beautiful blog I’ve ever seen. Her posts on charity shop hauls, craft ideas, and vintage fairs are full of stunning photographs that make you feel as if you’re there. You feel cooler somehow every time you visit her site.

I can’t even put my finger on what makes this blog so special. It just appeals to so many people - the vintage-lover, the geeks, and the style-unconscious (erm that would be me) and she’s also incredibly sweet and down-to-earth. She blogs for the beauty of it, and the result is a wonderful scrap-book un-polluted by sponsored posts and reviews (not that I’m criticising this - hers is just a different kind of blog - one to aspire to maybe).

So there you have it - of course I voted for some others and will write about them some other time as I can hear a little guy upstairs awaking from his nap.

Now I’ve only just tamed my beast-blog and I think it’s true to say that most of us relative newbies can take a few months (in my case 18 months) to figure out what the hell we’re doing. I think I’ve finally shaken the off the new baby hangover, and am beginning to find my feet. Other than Best Baby blog (which I can’t possibly lay claim to) none of the other categories apply to me so my lonely little Facebook plea will be my only one. Looking through all the blogs in my google reader - there are so many more worthy.

These happen every year and it’s well worth getting involved. You don’t need to be a blogger yourself - simply human-shaped with an email address. Neither do you have to vote in every category - if there’s just one post you’ve read this year that intrigued you, made you smile, or you felt an affinity to - let that blogger know about it and vote (you never know, he or she might get a nice night out, a glass of something fizzy, and a shiny new award because of you).