Category: Bloggy Business

Quick Check-In (with a POLL)

Happy Monday, everyone! (Is there such a thing?)

I wanted to do a quick check-in today before I start brainstorming blog posts for the fall. When I started blogging in 2009 I was writing quick updates on my Study Abroad experience in Morocco. When I got back from Morocco I posted little snippets about life at home, doing craft projects and cooking, then I moved to Kansas and used it as a way to show people back in California what my life was like as I put together my first “grown up” apartment with my roommate Lisa.

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Then, what I like to think of as the blogging boom started, with people like Sherry and John leading the wave of the thousands of other home and personal blogs that followed. I tried to keep up pace, posting more projects and inspiration boards. At my peak in 2012  I was posting almost every weekday.

Now blogging “the old way” is almost gone. People want quick top ten list, or “25 outrageous things” à la Buzzfeed. Or, big time bloggers with magazine-level budgets churning out a huge volume of excellent content… I’m no stranger to online window shopping and making product roundups, but I don’t have the budget to overhaul my whole condo in the name of blogging.  I’m feeling more “talky” these days as evidenced by my recent lengthy travel posts.

Dining Room Curtains

All this to say — people don’t comment on blogs the way they used to, so I don’t know how many people are reading and what is connecting with those who do. Won’t you please use the poll below to let me know what you like to read?

Have a wonderful week! 

Movers and Shakers

It seems like every time I load my bloglovin’ feed these days, somebody has purchased a new house! It makes me itchy about living in my shoebox (as we affectionately call it) and eager to purchase my own home. I guess it really lit a fire under me to start getting serious about putting every spare penny into a savings fund. With this renewed focus and inspiration, I’m more obsessed than ever with scouring real estate websites for affordable fixer-uppers with lots of potential. We are no strangers to living in less-than-perfect conditions and I feel like I have the ability to see inspiration in anything. We’ll see what happens! Don’t hold your breath though, because you’d probably be holding it for like a year.

Anyway, this is a fantastic time to share with you some inspirational and influential blogs I follow, that happen to have just moved or will be moving in the near future! I love all of these blogs dearly and very strongly recommend all of them.

  • It all started with Emily at Merrypad, who in April began sharing a several part series on their quest to find their new home. Spoiler alert: they bought one! I can’t wait to find out more about their new home as she and her hubby settle into life together with their elementary-aged daughter, oh and not to mention the one on the way. (Squee!!)
  • Not long after that, Sherry and John Young House Love shared a bombshell with us: They bought a house and would be moving in within a few weeks’ time. They’ve since re-floored the upstairs, moved over all their belongings, and started arranging the new home!
  • And of course there are Kim and Scott at Yellow Brick Home who closed on their new house last Friday, after a rollercoaster ride of finding what they thought was “the one,” then losing it (I can only imagine the heartbreak) and now finding “the real one!”

What?!??!! If there’s one way to ensure that I’m addicted to your home blog… it’s to start over with a blank slate and let me watch you work your magic again.*

And just yesterday (!!!) two more bloggers dropped bombshells on us… Little Green Notebook and Oh Happy Day!

This is a very exciting time to be a blogger… and a blog reader! So much hopefulness, excitement, adrenaline, and future-thinking is swirling around everywhere I look! I must admit, these blogs inspired me to finish rearranging my living and dining room and generally refresh my living space. And, of course, as the end of my lease approaches (September) I’m weighing the pros and cons of a new apartment… A new apartment (PRO!) and moving again (CON!) Maybe I should split the difference and sign a six-month lease? I guess it will all depend on the dolla billz.

*I am not implying that any of these bloggers moved simply for more followers, although I’m sure those rumors are swirling like mad. I’m simply along for the ride of their lives and enjoying every minute of it. 

My Favorite Nook

My Favorite Nook

Today I am so honored to be over on Brooklyn Limestone sharing some features of my favorite nook! It was fun to see the other contributors’ favorite nooks and to have the chance to show my own.

If you are visiting today via Brooklyn Limestone, a sincere thank you for stopping by to check out the blog! Yesterday’s post will give you a much more expansive look at my apartment, along with a little philosophizing about making the most of your own home!