Lets take a moment

I’ve been having a hard time blogging on a schedule since my wedding and my cross-country move. I’ve written a few different “I’m back!” posts since then but nothing’s seemed to stick. (here, here, and here.)  Adjusting to a new state and coast, working from home, being far away from family, and struggling a bit financially for the first time, are some of the culprits. All of those have led to poor mental health and worry. (Honestly, it’s amazing I’ve managed to keep up with making videos.) The reason I'm mentioning all of those things here is to remind myself that I can’t blame last week on my blog’s failure in the future. Last week was just the straw. That awful orange straw and I'm the donkey camel with the broken back. (Though it's anything but minor...more like the sledgehammer that floored the poor camel.)

Last week was devastating. There is no bright side, there is no selfish escaping to other countries, there is is just the overwhelming realization that we are facing what could be a very hard 4 to 8 years. The push and pull of politics is the reality of this country. However we don't have time for a 'push and pull' about the environment. Along with fearing for the immediate rights of people, I fear for future generations living on this planet. ""We can’t unmelt the Arctic or magically remove carbon emissions from the atmosphere. We make decisions today that future generations must live with."

I'm working up the spirit to get back to *business, but I can’t continue on this blog (or any other public place I exist online) without acknowledging what’s going on, yet I don’t want to rant on forever without taking action. I’ll read up, plan, act, and fight. I’ll go back to creating what I create. I just can’t let him take away one of the things that makes me happy, and I can’t feel guilty for being positive and happy about other things in my life. 

Take care of yourselves, really.

*This blog, YouTube, and other fun internet-related hobbies.

How To Use Adproval & a Giveaway!

I've been blogging for years, but I've been blogging on this blog for the past 5 years.  I've also been ad swapping (and even selling the occasional ad, whoo!) for that long. I started the way most blogs start by manually adding the codes and reminding myself to take them down after the agreed upon time. It was work, so I found a free service that would automate it and even provide a marketplace to help promote my blog. After a bit that place was no longer free, that's when I found Adproval. (I talked about my switch back in 2013, here.) Also, in case you missed it, I talked about Adproval yesterday in a video!

Blogging vs. Vlogging

I blog and I vlog. Sounds like the start of a poem. Vlogging started as essentially 'video blogging,' a trend from the early days of YouTube. You talk to a camera, about whatever. It's a style of video making that is still strong today and one I partake in. But the difference is that you can produce many other types of videos whereas on your blog you are always blogging. So it's more accurate to say that I blog and I make videos, some of them are vlogs.

What do you need help with right now?

Seriously, I want to know! In the form of a blog post/PDF/course/email/etc. what can I help you with right now? I've been very self-absorbed since my hard drive crash that I have not done anything for anyone else (besides my husband) in the past few weeks. What do you need? What kind of blog posts do you want to see? What can I provide in blog form?

Please comment on this post, send me a Tweet, Facebook comment, Email, or however else you'd like to tell me. I can't wait to read all of your responses and perhaps even help a few of you out. Thanks so much for reading!

How to Come Back from a Hard Drive Crash

This is going to be hard to write, but here we go. So, the unthinkable has happened, (for whatever reason) your hard drive has crashed. Everything is gone. You can try and get it restored, but that can get expensive or even impossible. For your own mental health, try not to entertain the idea. So your files are gone and with it, your will to continue to blog even after your computer is fixed. What do you do? (Well...? I'm waiting for an answer. I need help!)

The only thing that seems to be working for me is to create a list of the downsides and then find a stronger and more important upside for each. Everyone's list will be different but I want to share with you mine:

Downside: My files since May are gone.
Upside: ALL my files from before then are safe on external hard drives.

Downside: My personal photos are lost.
Upside: My professional wedding photos and video are safe with their creators.

Downside: I can't make videos until my computer gets fixed.
Upside: I can use my husband's computer every so often to update my blog.

Let yourself learn from this, don't let whatever happened, happen again. Spend some money to make sure your computer files are backed up online or on an external hard drive, and NEVER save things for the last minute again.

I hope this helped you emotionally start to heal, it's what I am attempting to do myself. If I am slow to reply to comments or emails it's because of this. I will be back to making videos as soon all of this gets sorted out. Then I'll be sure to re-read my post about how to get back into blogging after a break, I think I'll need it.

To cheer myself up (and hopefully you get a giggle out of it as well) I'm picturing Brad Pitt singing Let It Go. Here's a pinnable for you...if you happen to share my particular brand of humor. :P

First photo used with permission from FreeImages.com/len-k-a.

How To Get Back Into Blogging After a Break

(via. deathtothestockphoto)

It's been a pretty rough period of time for my blog. In the last few months I've made only a few non-video related posts. So now that I'm married, moved in, and finding myself self-employed for the first time in years, I have the time for my blog again. It's just...tough getting started again. Here are a few things that I'm going to try to get back into the game.

Read Your Favorite Blogs This is the first thing I did. Not having time to blog also meant I did not have time to read blogs either. There's a lot to catch up on. I also find that reading my favorites blogs always inspires me. It will help you come up with ideas, see if there's anything new in the blogosphere, and get your passion back. Before you know it, you'll have to start blogging again.

Establish a New Routine I don't know about you but if I don't have a set time and plan for blogging, it tends to happen at some pretty odd times. My new schedule is every Monday morning I'll plan out the next week of blogging. I don't blog every day but I try and blog between 5 to 3 times a week. I try and get all posts outlined and make sure to have Tuesday's written and ready to go. (I make sure that on Friday, Monday's is ready to go or at least outlined.) This is my plan, I'm in the process of putting it into practice, and that's what you have to do. Trial and error. See what works for you but a routine can help keep things moving.

Set Some Goals These can be anything. Viewership numbers, post count, a new weekly series, anything. The idea behind having goals is to help your blog progress in the way you want it to. One thing I try to avoid is obsessing over numbers. It's hard, since I work with analytics in my day job, but even if it's a slow climb small victories are still victories. Make sure that you don't compromise the realness of your blog to reach your goals, stay true to who you are and you'll find people who want to read about your passions.

Above all make sure you really do want to get back to blogging in the first place. If it's still hard to get back into it, maybe it's time for a different hobby. There's nothing wrong with that. But if you just need a little push, I hope I've helped. Happy blogging!

Blogger Blues (& Goals to Fix It)

Somethings been bothering me lately and that's the fact I've not really been blogging the past couple of months. Sure I've been posting, but I don't have that true blogging feeling. If you're a blogger you know what I mean, that productive confident feeling you have when you're in that good blogging groove. 

I know why this is. Time. Ever since my company was bought by Disney things have gotten extremely busy for me at work. I'm grateful for everything that's come from it (especially my Silver Pass to the parks and the various other perks that come with being a cast member) but it's also brought on a lot of extra projects and work. So much so, that when I get home in the evenings, I'm too tired to blog. That seems like a silly excuse but when you add that to my weekends being filled with wedding planning, keeping my Etsy shop alive, exercising at the pool when I can, keeping my YouTube channel active (and Disney trips, no real excuse for that one) my blog has made it's way to the bottom of my hobby list.

I'm not a full time blogger. If I was, I would be spending those 9 hours a day working it. I'm lucky if I have 10 minutes in the morning to prepare a photo post. (Which is why I'm spending my lunch break at work writing this.) I hate it, really, I miss working on this blog. So I have some blog post goals to complete before the new year. They are modest at best, but I need to keep things basic to be truly ready for the new year. I'm not giving up.

Posts to make before 2015

• The last 6 Japan posts.
• More wedding planning posts as they happen.
• Get up to date on all my makeup posts. (13 more CATS faces from the past + whatever I do from now and on)
• This Year I... (about my life)
• A Year in Review - 2014 (about the blog)