At the Moment

This post is going to be a little different then my last few "At the Moment" posts.
Today I just wanted to share my thoughts and views on blogging currently.
It's been a few weeks since I was visiting my family and friends in Ohio. I have to say it was a bittersweet experience. You never feel like any amount of time you spend with your loved ones is enough. The above photo is of my dad. He doesn't even know that I took it. The picture was taken while my dad and I were shopping at one of my favorite thrift stores. It was really nice to spend the time with him. Moments like that are worth the 1,200 mile drive. The only things we bought were some old books and a vintage purse that my dad put on Ebay to sell.

Something shifted in me when I was in Ohio. Actually, it started before my trip do to a falling out with a friend. However, when I have something bad happen to me I try to immediately find good in the situation, learn from it and move on. That's exactly what I did. I realized a few months ago that I have such amazing friends back in Ohio. I learned to appreciate them more and hold on to them tight. Let them know that I am thinking of them often. Make a better effort to keep in touch. My trip to Ohio made me realize that I'm not alone. Even though I feel that way often living in a city that I hate, my friends and family are still there, just miles away.

Needless to say the goodbye is always so hard when the visit is over. The distance is really hard on my parents and I miss them a lot already. I'm tearing up just writing this. You might wonder what the heck does any of this have to do with blogging or why am I sharing this with you? Well my trip caused me to get behind on my posts and my reading of other blogs. The feeling was overwhelming. It hasn't left yet either. Some days I feel like a slave to my computer and my blog. I have started to ask myself, "Why am I doing this?" I know we all go threw this at some point. You don't even have to be a blogger to feel this way. It can just be the amount of time you spend on the internet.

There are so many things that I want to do. Learn to knit, exercise daily, clean my house, get organized, draw, talk to my friends, hang out with Cody, ride my bike, go to the park with my dogs, plant flowers, decorate, remodel my house and the list goes on. My schedule and typical daily routine does not allow time for most of these things. I find myself stuck in a rut. (Sorry for the cheesy rhyme.) I am on the blog too much. Designing and editing photos which takes hours sometimes. Even though I love it and it's fun, it's too often. Time and life is so valuable! Why am I devoting so much of it to my blog?

So that leaves me craving change in my life. I laid awake the other night thinking about how much simpler my life would be if I didn't blog. How much time I would have for new hobbies and just life in general. This is NOT me saying goodbye or that I am quitting my blog. This is me just stating what a lot of us go throw and feel from time to time. I have met some amazing people threw my blog and I hope I meet some of you someday in real life. It's really cool to be able to connect with people from all over the world and build friendships with my readers.

I put way too much pressure on myself to get 5 posts up weekly. I do however LOVE all my posts and that's why I do them. I write out all my post ideas ahead of time and always feel excited about all of them. My pictures aren't always perfect, my topics might not always be for everyone, my grammar is horrible and I'm not a great writer, but they are ME. I have been blogging for 6 years and I am always changing the direction of my blog. With that said I am going to attempt to force myself to blog less. It may only be one less post a week, I'm not really sure yet. I will still blog often of course, I'm not disappearing.

I started to realize that all my favorite blogs that I read don't usually post daily. Do I judge them for this? NO! (Good for them.) Will I still always follow them and read their blog? YES! I even talked about this in my last VLOG. I talked about how we all need to stop putting pressure on ourselves. So I am taking some of my own advise and making more time for real life. Because we all know that time passes us by way too fast not to! As I think about why I blog, I want to remember it's always going to be for me. A way for me to look back on my life and old posts. I do like to inspire others with my blog, but it's just not a popularity contest for me. It's become so hard to stand out in a world flooded with blogger's. I'm just going to be me and hope that some of you like me enough to stick around. :)

I never knew that a trip to Ohio would awaken so much emotion in me.
Change is good and so is "feeling".
Thank you always for stopping by, leaving comments and your on going support!

More Information about No Reply Bloggers

After my Vlog yesterday and Aubrey's comment back to me about "no reply bloggers", I realized I was wrong and I didn't quite have my information correct. Today I found myself frustrated over this and I think I may have come up with MORE information that we can all use. As of yesterday I was believing that since I fixed the "no reply blogger" problem with my own personal email address and my own blog, that people were getting the replies that I left them on my blog straight to their email/inbox! Wrong.

I thought that if my readers had corrected the "no reply problem" on their own blogs that they then would not have to come back to my blog to see if I had replied back to them. I thought emails were being sent to them personally whenever I replied back on my blog to their comment. After realizing this was not happening I became upset and frustrated with blogger! Why doesn't blogger offer an option for my readers to subscribe only to the reply left on their comment. They will however let you subscribe to ALL COMMENTS on the entire post! Who wants that many emails in their inbox????

After racking my brain for awhile, I figured out how other bloggers are doing it. How I am getting "reply" emails from bloggers after I have left a comment on their blog. It starts with some changes I had to make with my own blog first. I took some screen shots so I can explain to you what I did to fix this problem for myself and hopefully it will help you as well! Here is the change that I have made: Start by going to your Blogger Dashboard/Overview screen.


On the left side column, click on SETTINGS.
When you click on SETTINGS some new selections will pop up, click on Mobile and email.
(Pictured below)

In the picture above you can see COMMENT NOTIFICATION EMAIL circled. In the box next to it you can type in your personal email address. If you do this all the comments left on your blog with be emailed to you at that email address. By doing this you will be able to email that person who commented on your blog right back, unless they are a "no reply blogger". This saves the commenter from having to go back to your blog to see if you left them a reply back because now you can just reply right back to them via email instead. Since I didn't know this, all this time I thought that most of you were getting replies from me via email! People like Aubrey, were coming back to my blog to see if I had responded back to the comments she had left me. Which I had, but that's way too time consuming for my readers to do. (So very sorry friends! I didn't know!)

Now here is the other thing, if you are a "no reply blogger", it's not going to let me directly email you a reply back. I can understand that some of you are NOT going to want all your comments from your own blog filling up your inbox. For those who get tons of comments that would be horribly stressful I would think! For me though, I want my readers to know that I read their comment and I want to either thank them personally or keep the conversation going! So once you fix the "no reply blogger" problem on your own blog and I will be given your email address to respond back to you right away.

So is your head spinning? Mine is. In a nutshell by fixing your "no reply blogger" problem on your blog, then people like me will be able to email you a reply back personally. I honestly hope to reply through email and on my blog still, time permitting of course. At least if I email you I know YOU saw it. What happens if you are still a "no reply blogger"? When I attempt to email you back from the comment that you left, it will say your email address is @noreplyblogger! :( That's not you! Emails are being sent to this @nonreplyblogger address all the time. Wasted messages! Once you fix the "no reply blogger" problem on your profile settings (link below shows you how) I will be able to reply back to your actually email address from my email inbox! YAY! Better way to thank you for following me and thank you for your lovely comments!!!

Gosh I hope this clears things up!
Here is a simple tutorial on how to fix the no reply blogger issue, LINK.
This tutorial is good for people who want to use Google +, HERE.
Then you can decide if you want all the comments left on your own blog emailed to you
by doing what I showed you above. :)
If I confused you at all, please just ask me questions below and I'll do my best to explain!

Time for a VLOG

I decided to get up enough courage to do another VLOG. My topics for this Vlog are: No Reply Bloggers, Google Friend Connect, BlogLovin, Blogging Topics and General Blogging Advise from me. I ramble a lot, so my Vlog is 13 minutes long! I almost didn't share it because of it's length but I do cover a lot of topics! I hope you enjoy it! I love the funny face that I seem to be making...

You can see my first Vlog HERE.
Link to a No Reply Blogger post HERE.
If you are having trouble seeing my video you can also watch it HERE.
Update: Apparently I was confused about some of the details of a "no reply blogger".
I typed this post to try to explain it MORE. Thanks! :)

My First VLOG: Jessie in Real Life

I hope you guys enjoy my first VLOG, because honestly I find it embarrassing, awkward, weird and I was so nervous even doing it. I haven't heard my own voice in a very long time and it's so strange really. HA! I don't want to type too much because I say a lot in the VLOG. The VLOG is basically about why I blog, why I read others blog and general advise about blogging. I say "um", "so" and "overwhelming" a lot. May try less coffee next time before doing a VLOG. Also I think I come across very serious, but I think it's just the topics I was discussing. Next time I will try to be more relaxed.
Enjoy my dorkyness :)

Let me know what you guys think!
Also, if you didn't get enough of me after that long VLOG, I did a guest post about Being Vegan over on Pony Chops!
Check that out HERE.

Organized Blogging

I have a love hate relationship with my blog.  I enjoy blogging because it gives me a chance to be creative.   I love having a place where I feel I can be me and do what I want.  Blogging does take a lot of planning and time. (That's where the hate part comes in!)  I love to take pictures and share them with my readers.  I edit everything in Photo Shop, which takes more time.  I put my logo on my images, which is such a pain in the butt!  I do it because I had my posts stolen before, you can read about that HERE.  When I got back from my Ohio trip I felt refreshed and had to find a better way to blog...

I decided starting a new month in May, I would force myself to plan ahead!  I bought a .99 cent notebook and just started writing it all down.  It's not a pretty planner, but maybe I could get to that point.  I try to have certain days reserved for recurring posts.  I love the TODAY'S COLOR posts because it's colorful and fun to search the web for images and helps me to keep on track planning the same post weekly.  I have complained and ranted about trying to be a blogger who is predictable week after week and it just isn't me.  I am all over the place, that's just how my mind works.  So to compromise, I just leave some "slots" on my notebook open for days where I want to ramble on about whatever!  If I feel like posting a cute picture of a bunny in my yard, it's happening! :)

If you are using blogger as your blog format, you know all about the "new" changes they have made.  Something else I am taking advantage of is "scheduling" my posts in advance!  This could of been a feature all along and I just now noticed it, but it's like a saver to me right now.   I can spend one or two days during the week just doing blog posts and have them all scheduled ahead of time.  It makes blogging fun for me and not stressful!  I feel organized and ahead!  So having a list, a plan & scheduling ahead is keeping me on track.  I don't wake up in the morning anymore thinking,"What the heck am I going to blog about today?"

It's so nice being organized and having a plan.  I have been able to blog daily, redesign my blog, decorate my house and design for others!  I feel like my time is better managed now! 

How do you blog?  

Would you consider planning your posts in advance?

Go check out Kaylah's organized blogging post!  She posted this right when I decided to also get organized!  Her way is much "prettier" then mine.  :)