blog tips how it started....

it's been awhile. maybe cause i literally just don't know what i'm doing so it's hard to pass on advice.

nah--that's not it. cause usually (even when crafting) don't know what i'm doing and i still post tutorials all week long!

(you can go HERE to read my blog tips thus far)

anyways. i wanted to share the way i blog. i've been getting a ton of questions of how i started, and how i do it. 

 let's go back to the beginning. (go get yourself a snack. i'm long winded)
HOW IT ALL BEGAN:
I had an old hand me down computer that was so slow it was like paint your fingernails while you waited for the page to download. and my little sister showed me how to set up a blog.
and i got hot and heavy on my family blog (that is now poorly overlooked) and then i got OBSESSED with make it and love it....shortly after ucreate.  and i thought, heck yes, i craft. i'm going to start a craft blog. and i hemmed and hawed over what to call it (by far the hardest part) my husband helped..but his were all tooo formal (like craft creations by kim) i wanted something a little more fun..so i had it narrowed down to a girl and a glue gun and my husbands idea "my husband thinks this is dumb" (honest...it was a very close second) but agaagg was the final choise. mhttid just aren't good initials.

and i started. it's hard at first. you feel like you are talking to yourself. (and i'm sure at the beginning you are) and i put in jokes that i'm sure no one gets (that's while i always drop tremayne a line when i know the movie she is quoting) and it's time consuming...but you know..my husband was commuting and was gone for two weeks and home for one..so it really worked out. i would put my kids to bed and have something to fill my time! i always wonder if he wasn't commuting and home if i would have gave up (I mean it's easy to keep going NOW cause of my awesome readers/followers --but when you are putting in alot of work making something, taking pictures and editing them and turning it all into a post..just so your sisters and mom tell you good job..it could be easy to loose interest! and I know if the husband was home i wouldn't have had the time to hook up at linky parties to help grow my blog)

and then he came home (for good...) and i actually had to have the house clean and make dinner...and i started feeling the demands of it all. and i was trying to find a happy medium. then becky wrote her blog story and mentioned that she basically treats her blog as a business and has a set time to blog where her kids are gone to daycare.

and i said YES! i don't want to do anything else! i don't want to get a "real" job. if i can get paid to blog it would literally be the best job ever.

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the husbands plan is once our kids are all in school i will get a job. So I sit the husband down all formal like and i'm sure he's thinking he's in trouble for something that i haven't found out yet and i say..."give me an amount i have to make each month on my blog so i don't have to get a job welcoming strangers at walmart." and he tells me an amount. and we shake hands. and then make out. (but the making out has no relevance here..just thought i should mention it.)

 So my youngest goes to school in the fall of 2013--which means i have a year and a half to get my act together!

now, I don't want you to think that the only reason i blog is to make moola...cause i don't. i truly just love it. but i can guarantee if i was working even a part time job...on top of the cleaning cooking and caring for the ciddos (  i know that kiddos is spelled with k i was just going for alliteration) there would be no way for me to keep my blog up. at all. SO if i an make money doing it..i get to keep doing it!  win win and win.

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alrighty...so i don't take my kids to daycare..but i do try to follow becki's advice and treat it like a real job (and that helps with not making me feel guilty) i thought i would share my schedule with you...

(when school is in session)
every morning i ship my kids off to school. (my son goes every other day and my 3 year old is always home) and after i eat breakfast i turn the computer. i check my email. go to my blog, publish whatever post i have prepared. i tweet it. i facebook it. i pin it. then i go to my bloglovin and catch up with my favorite blogs. (and i literally mean FAVORITE..i realized that i had too many blogs to read..it would take me over an hour! so i skimmed down to my truly favorites!)  (the kids  are not morning people...they are still just waking up and watching cartoons at this time!)

Then i get my post ready for the next day. I'm constantly working on multiple posts (I have about 90 drafts)

when i check my bloglovin..if there is something I especially love i link it on my shout out sunday draft (i always have an ongoing one! ) I edit pictures and put them in posts and try to get as much blogging stuff done.

then the clock hits the magic number 10:00. and the computer is closed. you see...the thing with the computer is that you can spend your whole day on it! you have got to give yourself a time limit!!!!

and then i clean my house. (i know i always act like i'm lazy and a bad housecleaner...but i'm actually super anal and my house gets cleaned every day.) I shower and get ready (somedays) and get my kids ready and laundry gets done and i pull out what needs to defrosted for dinner. then we eat some lunch.

after lunch is downtime. it's read, play quietly, or take a nap.(ha!)

 i don't care what you do....as long as there isn't a mess and it's quiet. and this is the time i craft or finish up a post if i haven't yet. i also check my email...the thing with the email...is to be organized!!!

I have a touch once rule with my emails. i either delete it, answer it, put it one of my folders...

i have loads of folders...i make new ones as needed...like i had a so you think you're crafty where the schedule goes and any emails and the contract so it's all in one convenient place. my coupons are mostly joann emails! i have receipts one for anytime i buy something online..then after i receive it i go in and delete the email.

it just makes my life so much easier! i hate have so many emails that you can't find anything! i get my comments delivered to my email also..so i like to check my email a couple times a day to keep on top of it!

then my daughter comes home from school (2:13..isnt' that seem ridiculous early to anyone else?)
and we do the mom thing. we make a treat, i look through back packs. we do homework..we play candyland. we make a diarama of a firehouse. we draw pictures, we do crafts (I mean not all in the same day) but this is the time we "hang".   I make dinner, we eat, the kids that stink get a shower, we usually have ANOTHER treat, the kids to get play a little, we say prayers. and it's lights out.

then i come and sit on the couch and yell every 5 min that "they better be quiet or i'm going to come up there". now i either finish up a craft, computer time, hang with the  husband or eat ice cream. sometimes i try to do all 4. doesn't work well. some nights my husband goes to the gym or has basketball games..some nights i go to zumba...some nights i don't have energy to do anything but lift the remote. (design star is back yippee!!!)

and that is basically my day..

( i mean i brush my teeth and make out some more with husband and go to bed)

but that goes without saying.

AND THEN: one day a week..i have a heavy computer day. it's where i go through all my folders in my email and delete what needs to be deleted..i tweak my blog or make new headers..i try to get caught up on posts......i deal with advertsing stuff....all that stuff that takes time. this is also a day that i don't shower and when someone rings the doorbell i tell everyone to be real quiet until they go away...

and yes..this isn't most days. i grocery shop and go to the gym on wednesday and i usually squeeze in a few joanns trips...but this is my set schedule. and it works.

if i try to blog or craft when the kids are home i end up getting so frustrated cause they are trying to talk to me or they are fighting and i'm trying to DO SOMETHING SO LEAVE ME ALONE and it ends up with everyone yelling.

On sunday i relax and only turn on the computer to pinterest....pinterest is a reward. i get to do it only when my chores are done.

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now that it's summer time it's a little harder for me to get on a real schedule. that's is why this blog is lameo when it's hot. i would much rather spend my time running through the sprinkler than blogging. i usually save all my guest posts for the summer so when i find myself without something to post-- i can fall back on that! (Um..like yesterday)

also in other blog tip news...i followed THIS awesome tutorial that puts a pin it button on every post

it's a video (aka idiot proof)

and it was super easy.

and ever since i added it my numbers have gone up!!!  i know my sister in law is a pinteresting fool on her ipad...and we can not add a pin it button to the favorite bar (?) so she can only repin uNLESS you have a pin it button on your blog!!!

you can only see the pin it if you are on a direct link (not the home page)

which is great cause you want to link directly to the tutorials.

(don't you HATE when you have to scroll through the whole blog to find that one thing!?)

anyways..if you have a blog...do it! pinterest is my biggest referraler...

someday , when i get the itch to sit down for an extended period of time i will write my how i blog...
oh..nail biter...