Hey friends! You may have noticed that I haven't been around for a while. Well, I didn't fall
off the face of the earth, I've just been very busy working on other projects such as
CourseCraft, painting my house, choir and my new job at an
accountant's office for tax season. Even though I've been swamped, I haven't forgot about
this little blog. Inspiration hasn't been coming easily to me for the past few months and
I love this blog so much that I didn't want to keep posting stuff I felt blah about, so
I decided this is a perfect time for a blog vacation. The blog will be back in full swing
May 1st, and I think it will be better than ever. Feeling like I don't have to post something
has already filled my head with so many ideas. I want to go back to the kind of posts
that got me excited, ie: gluing stuff to other stuff and telling you about it! So get
pumped for May 1st people!!
Here is a tiny list of just some of the blogs I love. It should keep you busy in the mean time!
Hey guys, I've been so busy working on CourseCraft that I almost forgot about my first love
Mr. Handsomeface. Here's a quick little CourseCraft update for those of you following along.
Speaking of following...you should totally be following
CourseCraft on Twitter! Then you'll be up on all the
latest news.
The first little bit of news is that we started buying ads on some blogs to get our name out
there. We're starting slow at first, but if you have a blog and you think your followers
would be interested in us please let me know, we're always looking for new blogs to sponsor.
Also, it would really help if you were using
Passionfruit for your ad management. I mean,
they're totally awesome people and they make selling ads on your blog stupid easy. Nice people,
easy ads. What more can I say?
In other advertising news, we put together like 4 million (more like 100) of these cute little
paint brushes with a Moo card attached. Who knows where they might pop
up! Keep an eye out for the glittery ribbon. ;)
Ok, last little tidbit is that I've put together an example course. Not only will you be able
to see what a finished course looks like, you can learn all you need to know about creating
your own course. We had tons of people asking for this, so I really hope you find it useful.
The course is free and open to anyone so you don't even need a CourseCraft account to check it
out. That's all for now, have a great Monday everyone.
I thought it would be fun to count down my top 5 most popular posts from 2012. This past
year was really my first offical year of blogging and I learned alot about the kinds of posts
I like to write. The kinds of posts people like to read... well that's still a bit of a
mystery to me. What I tried to do was write things that felt right and genuine to me.
Some of them didn't work out, but a few did. And here they are!
DIY Wall Art: Bubbles
This was my first blog post that really took off and I give it credit for getting me excited
about blogging. These little bubbly canvases are the kind of thing I'm always working on and
I usually just throw them in the closet or give them away. Publishing this and having it take
off made me think "Hey, people actually want to see the little projects I'm working on. This
could be fun!"
Hand Embroidered Cards
I actually had made these cards a couple years before I wrote this post and tried to
sell them in my failed Etsy shop. I assumed people hated them because there was very little
interest, so when I wrote this post it was totally on a whim. It was meant to be a bit of a
filler post because I had nothing else to say. What I thought was just filler has turned out
to the bread and butter of my blog posts. It's been pinned thousands of times, I've seen
the post all over the internet and translated into several languages. So if you have any draft
posts growing mold somewhere, maybe you should clean them up and hit publish because you just
never know.
DIY Wall Art: Dreamy Letters
After the success of my Bubbles Art post, I decided to try my hand at DIY art again.
I had a lot of fun dreaming this one up and believe it or not, took weeks to get it right.
This post ended up being published on the
Ruche blog and I became a proud
member of the Ruche Blogger Family.
How Not to Paint Ikea Furniture
To this day, this post is by far my most commented on. People love to point out my obvious
mistakes and laugh at me. I didn't really want to publish this one at first because it's
so dorky, but I'm glad I did. I was planning on just destroying the evidence and never
speaking of it again, but I decided to share the story hoping nobody else would make my
mistakes. Maybe you'll even have a little chuckle at my expense.
Fall Freebie
This post was the first in what I hope to be a continuing trend on my blog- giving away
free digital bits. I figured an iPhone background is something a lot of people could use,
and I've since expanded these posts to include a desktop background too. I'm really
glad these freebie posts turned out to be so popular because I really enjoy making them!
Don't worry, the January background is coming very soon!!
Read 8 books -- This might not seem like a huge reading goal, but I figured since I've
got a lot planned for 2013 I'll set some attainable. There have been years when I've read
closer to 30 books but I have a feeling I won't have a lot of time for reading this year. I'm
really hoping to exceed 8 books, but we'll see.
Fill a sketchbook page per week -- This one is actually going to be my new 52 week project.
I really want to draw more and I think one page per week is more than do-able. And I'll
make sure and post a picture each week so you can see it too!
Knit a sweater -- I just learned to knit over the holidays (barely) and I would really
like to knit myself a sweater this year. Knitting came pretty naturally to me, so I think with
a little practice I could cross this one off in the next couple months.
Have CourseCraft break even -- As you probably know, my
husband and I started a little business in December. CourseCraft is a simple way to create
and sell e-courses. We both have high hopes and big plans for it and I would loooove to see
it pay for itself by the end of the year.
Try 2 new recipes per month -- I've been cooking the same things every week for a while now
and it's getting a little boring. Between Post Punk Kitchen and
Chef Chloe, this should be a fun and delicious goal!
Grow a nice garden out front -- Never having gardened a day in my life, this might be a
tough one. When we first moved into our house in August I got the urge to rip everything
(and I mean everything) out of the front garden and plant 2 sad looking shrubs and about 50
bulbs. After that, the neighbourhood squirrels had a giant feast on all my newly planted
bulbs so I have a feeling I'm working with a clean slate this spring.
Take more walks and bike rides -- This was something I started doing last fall and I
really loved it. I borrowed a bike from my mother in law and took off on a fairly regular
basis. I would really love to get my own bike this year. After living in Toronto for 4
years with only my 2 feet to get me places, I'm basically a professional walker. Now that we
have a car I want to make sure I don't get too lazy.
Sing and play a song on my guitar -- You guys, I got a guitar for christmas!! I can play
3 chords now, so I'm pretty much ready to start my own band. :P I would be so happy if by the end
of the year I could play a whole song somewhat competently and sing along too. Did I mention
I also joined a choir? I'm so excited about it and it should help me with the singing part of
this goal.
There you have it, my 2013 goals. Nothing too sappy like "Be a better human being" or vague
like "Get creative". Just simple, straight forward, measurable goals I can start working on
right away. What are your goals for the new year? Anyone else doing a 52 week or a 365 project?
I would love to hear about it! Happy new year everyone.
