Ideas for Bloggers

I love this reminder that grounding yourself in what you love will bring the right people into your life. I wonder what kind of possibility would you be welcoming in if you put a one or two more hours of energy into connecting with the larger community through sharing what you’re learning, no matter what you’re most interested in right now. Creativity comes in all shapes and sizes, and sharing yours could mean blogging your first video tutorial even though your voice sounds funny (it doesn’t!) and you don’t know what you’re doing (we’re all making it up!). It could mean teaching a free online workshop in a skill you have, volunteering in your neighborhood or even inviting friends over to make a craft you choose on Pinterest. It could be asking a grandparent, neighbour, or a friend over for a homemade meal without needing an occasion or fixating on making everything perfect. It could be mean publishing that scary blog post or registering for your first craft sale even if it gives you butterflies in your stomach and makes you want to hide under your bed a little. Sometimes it can feel hard to make friends or it can [...]

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This post is part of the “What I Wish I Knew” series being hosted by Ashley at Your Super Awesome Life- a new site dedicated to helping teen girls live a life that they love. Ashley has rounded up an inspiring ground of women is asking us what we wish we knew about all different parts of life when we were teenagers, and I’m excited to be sharing a post about passion. I remember people telling me to find my passion when I was a teenager, usually in a career searching sense, but when I was a teenager I had very little interest in what I’d be doing when I wasn’t in high school. I had important things to worry about, like how impossible it was to get a boyfriend while going to an all girls school. Eventually, with the help of some amazing teachers I discovered that my passions were in organizing people & projects, creative problem solving and design. In high school those things intersected in theatre, and I started working as a stage manager on every project that came my way. Now those things come together in my work at Freckled Nest Design, but even three years [...]

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Lately I’ve been coming across all kinds of tweets and blog posts from bloggers who are really burned out. I talked about my frustrations with blogging recently, and Chantilly, Elizabeth, Heather and San have all recently posted about their thoughts, experiences and frustrations with everything from finding their place online to struggling with community and connection. {The Typewriter Part 1 by The Photo Zoo} I’ve been working through my questions about blogging slowly, and I wanted to share some of the strategies that have been helpful for me in the past month along with concrete steps that might be able to help if you’re feeling frustrated, confused or like you’ve lost some of the love & magic that blogging used to hold for you.

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Unless you exclusively blog using your own photography, when a blogger chooses which images to post on their blog the decision can be… political. Lately I’ve been more and more interested in learning more about copyright for photographers, and how bloggers can help make life better for other creative types by being intentional about which images they circulate to their audience. The basic argument (as I understand it) is this: when you choose to post images that come in tact with their original sources, the chances go up that the artist who produced the image will benefit. When you choose to post images that aren’t associated with a source, you’re sending that image out to an exponential number of people who will have no chance of fall in love with the artist’s work and support them in creating more of it. There are more nuances than that, but at it’s core that’s the kind of math that I can get behind. The only problem is that while there’s lots written there about how to cite images properly, how to use an SOS image and why crediting sources is important there isn’t a lot out there about how everyday bloggers like you & I can [...]

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I think that one of the coolest things about being an adult is having so many choices that effect your daily life- especially in your experience at work. At the same time, I didn’t realize how much flexibility I had in how I managed my time and tasks until I’d left a traditional work environment. Once I had to invent my own system for doing things, I realized how useful they were and saw how much more fun they would have made my previous work life. No matter what kind of work you do I think there’s a creative, dynamic way to build it into your life- and sometimes something as simple as having a good system can be a big part of that. I wanted share a few applications and tools that I’m head over heels for – and that aren’t just for creative types and mac users - in case you fall in love with one of them like I have… These are smartphone friendly apps and tools you can take on the road. Scatterbrain This is the jot note app of my dreams! It lets you write quick notes, categorize them… and then schedule reminders for the future! I’ve been [...]

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Originally written for and posted at My Girl Thursday Starting a blog is a simple process- a few clicks and you’re published! But writing the blog that you want to put out into the world can be a frustrating experience. There never seems to be enough time, your photos don’t look quite right, and how will people even react to what you put out there? Self doubt is easy to get drawn into- so I thought it would be really fun to share some tips that I’ve picked up while trying to write a blog that reflects who I am and what I love for the past four years. Sometimes it feels like there are so many niche blogs that if you aren’t a raw food vegan marathon runner, fashionable Mormon mommy blogger, or an effortlessly creative small business owner there isn’t a place for you. The thing is, those really polished blogs are the result of years of work, sacrifice, and heart work that those bloggers have done to know who they are to their core. It’s in communicating who they are and what they love that attracts people to those bloggers and their online spaces. Even if you don’t [...]

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I’m a big WordPress geek, so when I re-designed my site I knew finding a new slate of plugins to mix in with my old favourites was going to be one of my favourite parts of the design! I get a lot of questions about the plugins that I use, and a few of the ways I’ve customized my site are things that I like to keep private as part of my individual style, but I thought it would be fun to share some of my favourites with you! I have two to share that are really fun, and two that are really functional and useful :) Instagram For WordPress What it Looks Like Why I Love It I’ve become a little bit of an Instagram addict, but I use my phone as a tool and since I don’t ride transit anymore I don’t spend time browsing apps. As much as I loved Instagram as it is, I really wanted it to connect to my world outside my phone- and this little widget does just that! What it Does It grabs the unique user ID from one of your Instagram photos, lets you choose a photo size that will fit your sidebar, and [...]

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One of the things about being a personal blogger is that every time you comment or tweet there’s that little picture that pops up next to what you’ve written. Oh avatars, you just can’t get away from them. I’ve never thought twice about having my face associated with my blog, the only problem for me is that I’m kind of wonderfully awkward about certain things. While in person I come across as very life like, in pictures I tend to freeze up. I’ve been working on it and while I’m still not super comfortable in front of the camera, I think you have to agree I have made a lot of progress over the past two years: Same girl, different set ups and very different results. Okay, I may have a little more confidence now too. But confidence aside, I thought I’d share some of the things I’ve learned while trying to look human in self portraits. There’s just nothing like having a picture that really conveys how you feel inside (ie- hawt) Pick your time carefully. When I choose a new paint colour I usually tape the swatches to the wall and then leave them there for a day to see [...]

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As bloggers we spend a lot of time on getting our message out there. We’re always thinking about our story, what we’re sharing and how. Where we tend to get tripped up is the technical. Writing is delightfully non-technical (especially when you use as many commas as I do) but blogging? Blogging is a little technical at times. Every now and then on twitter you see it happen, someone loses their content. All of it. Maybe they delete their files in their hosting by accident, maybe their hosting company’s servers are attacked by pterodactyls, but it happens and when it does it’s devastating. In the ‘early days’ before wordpress could automatically update its self, every few months I was met with the daunting task of updating my stupid wordpress installation. I know it’s not hard, but I didn’t have the experience I do now and I hated it. I was convinced that at some point for reasons beyond my control, it would blow up my blog and delete everything. I know, I’m nothing if not delightfully quirky. I became intent on being properly backed up, so that if something happened I had a current archive of my blog on hand. Backing up [...]

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