101 in 1001 Coming Soon

I started a 101 in 1001 list a few years ago. And after a while I kind of just lost track. I think it might have been listed on an old blog that I don't write on anymore. I really want this blog to be the home of all the things that I don't blog about on my photography blog. While I do share bits of personal aspects of my life over there, I needed an outlet that would allow me complete freedom to write whatever I want.

With my twenties starting to come to a close (it's true I can no longer say "mid-twenties"), I thought it would be a perfect time to start a new 101 list. Stay tuned. I plan to keep to it. I think I'm also going to see if I can find my old 101 in 1001 list. Hmmm. I wonder where it is.

On blogging

I was thinking about it today and I've been a blogger for almost eight years, although, not a very consistent one. I've been looking at all the blogs I've started and then quit and I must have at least six. All of them have been hosted on Blogger, so it's not like I've lost out on hosting, but still. I realize, that's kind of sad.

I think I've figured out how to make myself a more successful blogger. For me, success at blogging is consistency, creating a community of friends, and gaining fulfillment through writing. It doesn't mean that I need to leverage having a million views or thousands of comments. Instead, I just want to build community with other bloggers, to learn and encourage each other.

In order for me to do this, I need to create a writing a calendar. I think that with this blog, I'll write at least twice a week to begin. I think I'll be spending most of this week figuring out what I want the focus of this blog to be. It'll definitely be about adventures in cooking, maybe some things I've learned since getting married, and eventually home projects. There's this headboard that I've been DYING to make. Have you ever been to Ana White's website? AMAZING.

I've been inspired by other food and home bloggers out there. I absolutely LOVE reading Young House Love. They are so real and write in a style that's fun. If I lived in Richmond, Virginia, I'm pretty sure I'd want to be their friends. Actually, I think I'd want them to want me to be their friend. (In the non-creepy, stalker sort of way!) For some reason I've been having a lot of baby thoughts on the brain (but trust me the hubs and I are totally not ready yet!) and I was reading about the Petersik's adventures in cloth diapering. They made it look so easy! And after looking at the cost of diapers over the lifetime of a child.... I think I'm sold. And we're not even trying to have a kid yet! Although, I'm thinking that this blog could also chronicle that...when we get there.

There are several food blogs that I totally drool over, and there are probably too many to list. Seriously, my Google Reader is bursting! So I'm going to take this one step at a time. Baby steps, so to speak...no pun intended.

Time flies when you're living...

You know, when I set out to create this blog, I promised myself that I wouldn't neglect it. And while it's only been left alone for about two weeks, I suddenly have this immense feeling of guilt. Because I had set out to write here. Consistently. And it's easy to make excuses for not writing. And it's easy to make excuses of having better more productive things to do. But no. I'm not going to fall into that trap.

Here we are about two weeks before we close on our first home. I'm so excited about it and have even already been to Home Depot to peruse paint chips. I'm already strategizing the colors. Seriously, though, I never thought that we'd be able to buy a home so soon. Now just to keep on chugging with our humble incomes and keep everything in check.

Speaking of finances. Personal finance is a beast. It's sometimes scary and overwhelming, but definitely necessary to tackle on a regular basis. Like it's often said, how can you know where you're going if you don't know where you are. I'm getting better at reviewing my finances and whole-heartedly recommend the online program Mint.com - it's free and easy to set up and secure! It was just purchased by Intuit, the creators of QuickBooks and Quicken, so it's sure to have the back up of a great company now. I'm so thankful that my husband is religious about checking our finances. With a freelance contract position and a budding small business, my income is less than regular and steady.

So in attempts to make this little blog less random and a bit more structured, I'm going to dedicate certains days to certain types of posts. That should help. Lord help me.