A glance at 2012

It's January 18th. It seems like now is an appropriate time to review some posts from 2012. Shall we?

+ In 2012, I posted 83 times. Not as much as 2011, but that's okay. I accomplished almost all of my goals for 2012, which I am pretty proud of.

+ I experimented a bit in the kitchen, when I made chicken with leeks, homemade bread, and peanut butter chocolate cheesecake. There were also some classics like apple crisp pie, strawberry bread, crescent roll breakfast casserole, grasshopper pie, and turkey meatloaf.

+ I shared some ways to save money at some of my favorite places, like Starbucks and Target.

+ DIY ventures were not really on high priority this year. But I did do some little projects, like a hidden cabinet cork board, handmade valentines, our annual photo album, and laundry detergent. (Technically the bathroom wallpaper project was a 2012 endeavor, but I didn't blog it until 2013 so she gets the point. Sorry, 2012.)

+ I posted some things about life, like learning to serve my husband, some random facts about me, and being intentional.

+ We moved across town (still renting), and I've shown you a few rooms in our new place: kitchen, living room, & bedroom. I probably should show you more in 2013!

+ We traveled a lot in 2012. Our cruise was the big one! We also went to the beach in Carolina and Florida, Blacksburg, Beaufort, SC, and apple picking in Charlottesville.

I think I sort of took on a different blogging style this past year. I definitely shared more life stuff & day-to-day activities than I did in my first year of blogging. Less homey things, more me. I'm curious to see if this blog will grow in the next year and how it will change. I don't really have a set plan in my mind, so we'll see what happens.

And of course, thank you for following along with me, readers! I have loved getting to know you all in this little world of blogging. It truly has been so fun and I don't think I would still be blogging if it weren't for you! I love following along with your blogs, the comments you leave me, and the friendships we've started.

Here's to another year in the blogosphere!

A turning point

This post is strange to write, because I'm not even really sure what exactly I want to say. I've truly enjoyed blogging here. I feel like I've learned so much through other bloggers I've come to know, and I've also learned a lot about myself. I want to keep blogging - I really do. I'm just trying to figure out what that will look like.

This blog has evolved a lot over time. It has been an update-the-family blog, a DIY blog, a home decor blog, a recipe blog, a lifestyle blog, and there's probably more. Lately I'm finding that I'm desiring to write blog posts (reading them, too) that have a little more substance to them and for some reason, I just don't feel the freedom to do that on this blog. I see "Real Home Living" and I think of it as the DIY/home decor blog that I once wanted it to be, and I'm not exactly sure that I want it to be that anymore. Maybe partly, but not totally. I used to want to be a popular blog that has a ton of followers where I would showcase awesome tutorials on how to make our homes more homey. Now I'm really just wanting this to be a place of self-discovery more than anything else. I feel limited in what I'm "allowed" to write. Stupid, right? This is my blog and technically I can do whatever I want with it. But I can't get over the title. It just feels weird to me.

So right now I'm debating a few options. Do I start over with a new blog? Or do I morph this blog into what I want it to be, keeping all the history, posts, and comments from Real Home Living, and simply change the title? Or do I just take down this blog and take a little blogging hiatus for a while? I hate giving up on things and I love holding onto remnants of the past, so bear with me as I'm trying to figure this out. I will for sure keep you posted before I make any permanent decisions.

Blogging lessons

source

Over the past year and half that I've been blogging, I've learned so many things. I thought I'd share with you a few that I wish I had known right off the bat:

1. Be yourself. As cheesy as it sounds, it is so easy to fall into the trap of comparing your blog to others' blogs. Because you are a unique individual, your blog is going to be like no one else's. And that's okay - just go with it! One of my favorite things about blogging is following people who are so different from me, people who I might not have met otherwise. I see other ways to do things and different insights on life, and I get to peek into their lives and even get to know their cities. I wouldn't want to follow 50 blogs exactly like mine because that would be so boring! I love that there is so much uniqueness and creativity out there.

2. Blog about what you love, not what you hate. Unless you're going for a sarcastic, snarky blog theme or you're doing a product review, don't constantly rant about things you dislike. It's negative energy and honestly it's not that enjoyable to read about (at least for me). I love hearing about others' interests, not their ranting about things they hate. Same goes for commenting. I have seen way too many mean comments on blog posts and it's just rude! Don't say something in a comment that you would never say to someone's face. Everyone has a right to share what they want in the blogosphere, and if someone's blog bothers you, don't follow it. In the words of the little rabbit from Bambi (which was also a house rule for my family growing up), "if you can't say somethin' nice, don't say nothin' at all."

3. Blogging is a community. I truly did not know this going into it, but blogging is all about community! All those blogs you see out there are owned by people, and people crave to be in community with each other. I have started to make "blog friends" with people whose blogs I follow, and vice versa. It sounds crazy, but it's true! If you want to join the community, get out there and comment on what you read. I wish I had started doing this sooner. I have followed a number of blogs for over a year now and didn't really start commenting until this past winter, mainly because I didn't know to. It's crazy what people want to talk about and what they'll share with you! Same goes for those who comment on your blog - respond somehow, some way. Either respond to their comments through email, hit reply on your blog post, or head over to their blogs to comment on their posts. You will most certainly miss out if you don't communicate in this blogging world!

That's all I've got for now. I'm sure I'm leaving out a slew of other things, as I am but a mere blogging amateur, but that's what was on my mind right now. What other blogging tips do you have for me now, readers?

New look!

Last night I did some tweaking and now the blog has a whole new look! So far I'm loving the color scheme and the whole thing feels so much brighter. I'm still updating some things, so let me know what you think.

Happy Wednesday!

Local blogger meet up

For the first time, I met up with some local bloggers this past Sunday via an invite from Kate from The Small Things Blog (you may recognize the back of her head from all her hair tutorials on Pinterest!).

Lauren, Kate, and Carrie

We met at a local waffle cafe called Benelux (delish!) and about 30 of us showed up! I'll admit I was a little intimidated. I mean that's a lot of girls to try to get to know in an hour and a half! It was really neat to meet some other bloggers in the area and get connected, even if I was only able to talk to just a few. Look at all these great girls!

via Carrie at Chasing Big Dreams



Thank you Kate, Lauren, and Carrie for organizing this get together! Looking forward to getting to know some of you ladies more through your blogs!

Lovely things

I've run across a few things today that have just plain warmed my heart. There is a lot of junk on the internet that is not worth our time, nor is it good for our minds. But there is also a lot of wonderful-ness - genuine people with beautiful stories. Here a few of my recent faves:

a soldier's precious welcome home

Some inspiration on loving our husbands. I just met Nicole today on her blog The Neesby Lookbook, and she is just so cute and encouraging! I can't wait to get to know her more as I follow along with her blog. She has a blogger button that she created as a way to commit to loving our husbands and building them up whenever we can. How convicting! I know I do not do this enough so from now on I've decided to join in on some Hubs Lovin'! I am mainly going to work in this in real life (encouraging him and speaking highly of him to my friends), but don't be weirded out if I brag about my hubby on this blog. I'm his wife and I shouldn't be afraid to tell everyone how much I love him! I've also added the button to my blog's sidebar.

Joy the Baker and her adorable, heart-warming personality. I've heard some buzz about her but never checked out her blog until this week, and I'm so glad I did! If you haven't yet, watch her video to get to know her and follow along to see all the wonderful things she bakes! She also recently published her own cookbook and I'm just dying to have it. Too bad my birthday just passed... I like random presents too! hint hint...

Running across the recipe for a beautiful Strawberry Brown Butter Banana Bread. Doesn't it just look delectable? I can't wait to try this.

There you have it! A collection of this week's findings that have warmed my heart and just gotten me excited about life. I feel encouraged and ready for the weekend. I certainly hope you do too. Happy Friday!

P.S. I just added a "pin it" button button to my blog. It's right at the bottom of the post and if you click it, you can "pin" to Pinterest whatever you want from the blog post you are reading. So if you see a recipe or a craft on here that you like, pin it and share the idea! I thought I would also share the link that showed me how to do it so you can add it to your blog too! :)

My Blog is 1!

Happy Birthday to the blog! Today is exactly 1 year since my first post on this blog. It's gone through a heck of a lot of changes along the way - title, objective, audience - and I don't anticipate that it will stay completely the same throughout this next year either. Changes are so fun and exciting. I have especially loved the changes that have morphed this blog into what I truly want it to be. I honestly knew nothing about blogging when I first started writing. I knew how to create a post and publish it, but that was pretty much it. Embarrassing... I know. I had no idea all the cool things the blogging world has to offer! Let's recap all that I've learned this year:

how to change colors, backgrounds, and fonts

how to edit HTML code so that links open in a new window (before they added the checkmark in the link box)

what Feedburner is

what an RSS feed is

how to create tabs and different pages/sections of my blog

how to label posts to make it easier for viewers to see related posts

how to join up with a link party on another blog

how to view all the blogs I follow in Google Reader, instead of on my dashboard

how to edit pictures to make them look better for posts (I use Picasa - not Photoshop but it really helps, especially since it's free!)

follow other blogs that I like and learn from them

That last one is probably the key to me learning so much. I have found so many blogs to follow that I truly love! (Check out those over on the right margin.) Looking at others' blogs has helped me figure out what I want my blog to be, and what I don't want it to be. Bear with me as I'm still figuring that out...

The cool thing is that in the past year I think I've really gotten direction on where I want this blog to go. It's great to look back and see how it's changed, and I feel like I have so much more direction since I have a history of posts. This sounds silly, but the key to blogging is simply posting! If you aren't sure about posting something, post it. If you don't think it'll be interesting to anyone, post it. If you don't know what to post about, pick something random and just post. The more you post, the more you'll think of what to post, and the more you'll have an idea of your favorite topics and more importantly you'll get writing experience.

Anyway, enough of my rambling! Check out some of my top viewed posts this past year:

the master bedroom post

the living room post

the retro post

the college post

the baby nursery inspiration post

the office project posts

and appropriately, last year's Christmas post

Have you been learning how to blog recently? What are some blogging tips you could give me? What are some ways I could improve my blog? Seriously, this is your opportuntity to criticize my blog - I'd love to hear your opinions!