I am constantly on the lookout for super-unique-adorable-quirky-classy-functional workday lunch box items. Maybe not quirky as in carrying a Charlie Brown lunch box yet more on the classy-functional side. There is something quite refreshing when we are able to slow down and savor the moment.
Please don’t tell me that you are popping through a drive through and scarfing down your meal as fast as possible, on a hurry to who knows where.
Or worse.
lease don’t tell me that you skip lunch or eat at your desk.
I believe it is important to take lunchtime seriously. Think of it as a pedicure for your mind and a manicure for your digestive tract. Taking time to rest our minds during our lunch break and partake in a healthy meal is one piece of the balance puzzle. Yes, it does take planning and practice.
You are worth it.
I have a column on my blog called “Five Foodie Finds for Friday” and with these posts I share interesting finds related to food sources and gadgets. Today I thought I would share five finds for packing your work lunch for a bit of inspiration.
1. Zojirushi stainless steel lunch jars. This Japanese brand of insulated lunch jars and containers will instantly improve your lunch options by 100000%. I use an oversized stainless Zojirushi jar to keep chicken tortilla soup hot for those days when Dennis and I meet up for lunch. The soup goes in at 7am and it is SCALDING hot at lunchtime. Surprise, surprise, it is still hot around 5pm.
2. Vivien insulated cooler. Forget a brown paper bag. That is so yesterday. This cooler is classy. Just like you.
3. Black + Blum Thermo-pot. Was the Zojirushi too large for you? No worries, this on-to-go soup container may be just your size and will still keep food hot for six hours.
4. The New Norm multi basket. This brilliantly designed find has part basket/part tray. It comes with a sealed lid to keep food in, two bamboo lidded containers than can double as cutting boards or food storage, and it also has two cooling pads you can keep in the freezer until you are ready to use to keep food fresh.
5. Ambatalia utensil wrap. Always be prepared with an utensil wrap rolled up and tucked away in your purse. Four slots keep a knife, fork, spoon, and chopsticks ready to go when you are.
Happy lunching.
Eat well, my friends. Eat well.
Lyndi
Lyndi, nwafoodie, writes about living and eating well from her life in beautiful Northwest Arkansas. Much of her blogging inspiration comes from this gem of a place which she refers to as the proverbial land of milk-and-honey.
Traveling to a new destination is almost always fun. It’s exciting to see new scenery, check out new attractions, and find great new places to dine.
But all that newness can also be a little stressful. When you’re traveling somewhere you’ve never been before, deciding where to stay can be tricky. Is that hotel you’re considering in a safe neighborhood? Does it have the amenities you need? Is it the best value, or is there a better hotel you’ve never heard of just a block away?
My family and I have stayed at, worked at, and even lived in all types of hotels all over the world. Despite that, I still get a little nervous when it comes to choosing a hotel in an unfamiliar territory. So how do I make a decision? By following these tips, I almost never go wrong.
First, figure out what type of hotel you need. Is this just a stop-over on a road trip? Then location matters most, and you’ll probably want something by the interstate. Staying a few nights for the trip of a lifetime? You’ll likely appreciate the comfort and service of a luxury property. Quick business trip? You probably don’t need a bellman, but that free breakfast might be very important. Also, think about whether you’d prefer a chain or independent hotel. Chain properties offer consistency and brand standards, but little excitement. Independent or boutique hotels are typically more interesting and special, but you don’t always know what you’re getting. So before you start looking, narrow down your search parameters. Figure out which amenities you need, and which you can do without. That will make your search much less overwhelming.
Ask for recommendations. Even if I’m going to some random, far-flung destination, I always ask my social networks for advice. Ask around, and you’ll be surprised at how many friends (and friends of friends) know of a perfect hotel that’s just what you’re looking for.
Check out the review websites, but be a savvy shopper. My favorite go-to review site is Trip Advisor. I like how it gives me a hotel’s ranking in its area.
This feature allows you to compare unknown properties very easily. When you know nothing about all the different hotels in an area, this shows you quickly and easily how a prospective hotel stands up to its competitors.
But there are two things to remember when perusing these review sites. First, ignore the stars. Star rankings are subjective and inconsistent. What one site considers a five-star property would only garner three stars on another. This makes them practically meaningless.
Second, toss out the most glowing and most horrible reviews. Some people think everything about every hotel is absolutely wonderful! And some people have an axe to grind. The truth always lies somewhere in between.
Check out a map. Before I book a room, I always find the hotel on a map. Let’s face it — hotels embellish the truth in their marketing materials. What they consider “walking distance” may be, in reality, a mile away over a busy highway. And “quiet neighborhood” may mean “completely isolated from all the attractions.” Plus, there’s a safety factor involved. When you’re unfamiliar with your destination, you have no idea which parts of town are safe and which are sketchy. A quick glance at Street View can alert you to any abandoned buildings, iron bars on windows, or dirty, unkempt vacant lots in the vicinity of your hotel. These are all signs of a less-than-desirable location.
Call the hotel directly. The best way to get a feel for a place is by calling it! Trust me — you can get a good idea of what kind of service a hotel provides by a quick chat with a reservations or front desk agent. (Hint: Don’t call a chain’s 800 number. Call the direct local number for the hotel.) Ask questions about the property or the area. Whoever you speak with should be willing and able to answer your inquiries with patience and care. This goes for inexpensive chain hotels and grand luxury hotels alike. You’ll know you’ve chosen the right hotel when your pre-booking and pre-arrival experiences make you happy and comfortable.
Travel should always be an adventure, but this doesn’t mean you have to take chances when it comes to finding the right place to lay your head. Take my advice, and chances are, you’ll find the perfect property for you and your needs.
Amy Bradley-Hole is a freelance writer and speaker who covers tech, travel, business and parenting. She’s a true Southern girl, but she’s lived and traveled all over the world. She blogs at Freaky Perfect about the freakiness of her not-so-perfect life. When she’s not goofing around on the internet, she dreams up new ways to drive her husband and two young boys crazy. Follow her on Twitter at @amybhole.
I’m a wife and mom. I’m a microbiologist. I’m a mountain biker, hiker, backpacker, sometime runner, and workout enthusiast all while being addicted to good food. I write about it at http://freneticfitness.wordpress.com. I also write for Arkansas Outside, a site dedicated to people who love to play outside in Arkansas. I’m fueled by pizza, red meat and goat cheese risotto. And sometimes I sleep.
On behalf of Great Day Farms, Keynote Speaker Sponsor of #AWBU 2014, I would like to announce that this years keynote speaker is Alli Worthington.
Alli is a digital strategist, business coach, author and speaker. She is the founder of Blissfully Domestic online magazine, and the co-founder of Blissdom Conference. She’s a wife, a mom to five sons, and a stepmom to an awesome daughter. Some of her interests: social good, startups, photography, transmedia, tech, photography, gardening, and ice cream. You can learn more about her on her website, Alli Worthington. Also, follow her fabulousness on Twitter at @alli.
#AWBU 2014 will be held at Embassy Suites NWA (479-254-8400) (47 in Rogers September 5 – 7. There is a conference room rate of $89/night via this special Arkansas Women Bloggers booking link for registered attendees only or you may call the hotel and reference group code BL2. There are two queen beds and a pull out couch in each suite so you can fit three blogger gals comfortably in each room (just do not bring too many shoes). We HIGHLY recommend booking early as we only have a certain number of rooms booked (it is a Razorback home game weekend) and you will not want to miss out! Also, for you gals that live in Northwest Arkansas, do not miss out by trying to travel home each evening (you will get caught up doing laundry and miss out on all the fun, oh, and again, it is a Razorback game weekend, the traffic will be horrendous). So many of the connections and camaraderie happens when not in the sessions! Did I mention that Embassy Suites has an amazing spa?
We will again hold the ever popular Foodie Friday add-on starting at Noon on Friday, September 5. Debbie is planning another information packed agenda.
Early Bird Registration opens RIGHT NOW and ends May 1! Do not put it off, you will not want to miss out on another AMAZING #AWBU conference. Register on Eventbrite and then make your hotel reservation today!
This post is the fourth in a series about my journey as a blogger. I just want to stop for a minute to thank you so much for coming along with me, for letting me tell the story of my blog and for your comments and encouragements!
A Blogger’s Journey: Definition and Purpose
Somewhere in the Show Me The Money phase of blogging, our family moved to Scotland. I immediately signed up to attend a travel blogging conference in order to learn where I could start getting Pounds Sterling for blogging instead of the dollars I was currently swimming in (sarcasm).
In order to get ready to go to this conference, I invested my blog savings of $150 and some money I earned from catering on a session with a blogger who is very open and honest about how she makes money on the internet. She details it all out and if you want to learn how to make money from blogging, you should read Sarah Von Bargen regularly and then do what she says. For me, the best thing I got out of doing the session with her was that she made me write down my dreams and plans for my blog. I had to answer lots of hard questions in order to sit down with her about where I was going.
Like, I had to actually say where I wanted to go.
I know that sounds simple, but I still cannot answer some of Sarah’s questions definitively. Let’s pretend I am a creative maker of jewelry and I would really love to sell it online. Then the purpose of my blog would be easy: Promote/Sell Jewelry. Then you add in all the other things around that purpose. Cute Outfit Of The Day posts that feature jewelery. Hello-I-am-a Real-Person-but-I-Like-To-Make-Jewelry posts.
I actually considered finding something to sell in order to have more “purpose” for my blog. (Note: I think this is a great way to make money as a blogger, but unfortunately, I did not want to sell anything.)
In my session with Sarah, she told me that she thought I should emphasize the details about my blog (and myself) that made me different. She recommended I push the Outdoorsy Mama, because there are lots of family blogs and lots of outdoor blogs but not necessarily that many people who are combining the two. She also gave me some suggestions for identifying myself in this way. (Release a Camping Menus eBook.) And she told me how to increase my presence on social media. (Be consistent. Be generous.)
photo by Whitney Loibner
So off to the travel conference I went as:
Stage 6: Outdoor Adventure + Family Travel Mama
Y’all, I even had cards printed.
One of the reasons I chose this particular conference was that a writer whose blog I really enjoy was speaking at two different sessions.
Somewhere in the middle of one of his talks, he confessed that he was not really making a living from blogging. In fact, he was barely scraping by with freelance jobs that were completely separate from his blog.
Let’s just revel in the irony of this for a minute, shall we?
I went to a conference to learn how to make money from blogging and to hear someone speak who was not making money blogging.
I still loved the conference. I enjoyed meeting people in the travel blogging industry. I love to travel and so did everyone I met. So that was fun. Also, I got to go on a free trip to the Northwest of Ireland as part of the conference. (Mesmerized By Free Stuff Stage 4: Resurrected!) I had the opportunity to pitch a room full of people in the travel industry who sponsor travel bloggers in which I learned that I never want to do that again. I attended talks on writing and pitching and storytelling and social media. I crammed my brain full and came back to Scotland completely overwhelmed.
I had lists of goals and plans. I made schedules and actually (kinda sorta) stuck to them. I started following all the rules I had learned from Sarah Von Bargen and from conferences.
I was blogging consistently (3-5 times per week) and promoting my blog on all the social media channels (Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram). I was looking for guest posting opportunities to increase my Internet Presence.
Our family really does love hiking and the outdoors, so I was able to generate lots of content organically from how we spend our time.
I consistently posted pictures of our hiking and exploring in Scotland. Because we are living A Dreamy Life In Scotland and the world should want to know all about that, right? I no longer needed to chase the money. Soon I would be famous Outdoorsy Mama, and the money would chase me.
The funny thing about all the different clichés I bought (am currently buying) in to about blogging and success is that there are threads of truth in each of them. When I started trying to get free stuff for blogging, I really did get some free stuff. When I started trying to make some money blogging, I got a little money. When I started trying to increase my followers on social media, I was able to slowly but surely get those numbers to go up.
But threads of truth eventually unravel when you tug on them.
If you hear me say nothing else about blogging success, hear this:
Now I will tell you everything I know about how to be a HuffPo Blogger. I will tell you that in order to blog for the Huffington Post, all you have to do is email Arianna Huffington. She is the only big name in the blogging world that I have encountered who actually answers Every Single Email She Receives. Which I think is very kind, by the way. She is bestowing mad amounts of dignity upon those of us who are sending eleventy million emails into the universe. Thank you, Arianna!
If she likes your blog, she will send you off to one of her reps depending on the topic you would like to blog about and they will set you up with a log in and Voila! You are now a Huffington Post Blogger. You can write something and submit it. And if it is not total crap (grammatical errors and such) and you have followed their clear guidelines (size of pictures and such), it will be published on their site. And maybe some people will read it. But mostly do you know who will read it? The people that you send there when you put the link on your Facebook page.
I’ll pause while you take back your amazement.
But still, I am doing some very fun things for free this spring because in an email I said, I am a Huffington Post Blogger.
Almost everything in blogging is like this in that in some way, things are not exactly as they seem.
Y’all I try to be a really honest blogger. I want to be authentic. I really do.
But in blogging, as in life, we are telling a story (whether we define it or not) and for the past year or so, my story has been Outdoorsy Mama who is living A Dreamy Life in Scotland. If this is the story I am wrapping my blog around, I am not going to tell you that last week after four days of rain, I could not get out of bed. Or that I stayed awake all night from anxiety about something that was going on with one of my children.
Instead, I am going to keep on telling the (photo heavy) story of A Dreamy Life in Scotland.
photo by Whitney Loibner
And if that is the purpose of my blog, as defined by myself in previous planning sessions, then I am not being untrue to myself by continuing to tell that part of the story.
Because I am Outdoorsy. And lots of things about life in Scotland are pretty dang amazing.
However in November, I began to notice that my blog readership and (more importantly) blog engagement (commenting + sharing) was going down instead of up.
More importantly, I started to feel like maybe I was bored with it.
I was very excited about defining myself as Outdoorsy Mama who Moves To Scotland, and it was helpful for pitching my story to others to have given my blog a general theme. Or niche.
But I think maybe I concentrated on fitting this niche so much that I lost the story.
So next week I am going to tell you how I found a new stage of blogging that I am really excited about: Storytelling.
Do you have questions about any of the stages of blogging I’ve mentioned as I’ve shared my journey of blogging? I would LOVE to hear them and I’ll do my very best to answer!
If you’re feeling super brave, I would love to hear your experience of how something about your blogging is “not exactly as it seems?”
There’s always that moment, usually sometime in mid-February, that I throw my hands in the air and give up. “Spring will never officially arrive” I exclaim to anyone who might be listening. It doesn’t matter that I’ve seen it’s arrival and departure 30 times now. It doesn’t matter that the days are getting longer. And it doesn’t matter that, generally speaking, the worst is behind us. I generally just give up and start believing I will have to start living the life of that notorious groundhog; if you were forced to live without the benefit of sunshine you’d most likely be the bearer of bad news as well!
It’s only after I bother to flip through my calendar that I realize there’s only a few weeks until our annual trip to the horse races.
Host Springs Image Credit: Boston Public Library via Flickr
And I feel my eyes grow large with the realization.
And the butterflies in my stomach migrate back from wherever is was that they were hiding since before the holiday season.
And for the first time in several dark weeks, I realize that Spring really may come.
I remind my husband and he reminds our mutual friends. We force ourself to be nonchalant about it. We make the same reservation in the same room of the same bed and breakfast and the same reservations that we made last year and the year before. We whisper about the weather forecast, knowing that if we dare to speak in normal tones we will jinx our chances of enjoying our first chance of pink skin this early in the year.
And it’s in those mid weeks when the world is gradually growing lighter and warmer and even occasionally dusted by the occasional snow that we realize that our repeated actions from years past that have grown into the sweet traditions that quite literally add sunshine and warmth to our lives.
I highly recommend adding an element of tradition to your travels whenever you can.
What are some ways that you have added tradition to your travel?
Paige is a creative, a blogger, and a believer in the power of community and red lipstick. Check her out at http://www.approachingjoy.com/ or on social media @approaching_joy.
I have been blessed to spend a lot of time in Italy’s Tuscany region. I’m also lucky in that many of my friends over there are either professional chefs or amazing home cooks. From them, I learned much about Tuscan cuisine, the importance of using local ingredients, how the most simple dishes are often the best, and Italian regional cooking in general.
One of these simple-yet flavorful recipes that is a staple in my home is Tuscan garlic sauce. It uses only five ingredients, yet when those ingredients are high quality, the taste is magical. The recipe calls for canned tomatoes, but I use San Marzano tomatoes imported from Italy. It calls for lots of olive oil, but I use the finest Tuscan olive oil, not an Italian/Greek/Tunisian/Egyptian blend, like what you find in most “Italian” olive oil sold in the grocery stores. Use the best ingredients you can find when making this sauce.
And like the best Italian dishes, this sauce is quite easy to make. Don’t overthink it. Just combine the ingredients, let it simmer, and it will turn our great! Make large batches and you can easily can or freeze it for later use.
Speaking of use – you can do so much with this versatile sauce. Serve it simply with pasta. Spoon it over crostini for a take on bruschetta. Use it as a base for your favorite pizza. Even use it as a starter for a flavorful vegetable soup. My kids love it when I simmer meatballs in in. Use it as you would any other tomato-based sauce. There are many possibilities.
To make Tuscan Garlic Sauce, you will need:
one head of garlic (yes, the whole thing)
6 ounces of olive oil
1/2 Tablespoon crushed red chili pepper flakes
3 ounces tomato paste
28-ounce can of crushed tomatoes
1/2 Tablespoon salt
Peel the garlic, then chop or mince it. I actually put mine in the food processor. It’s much easier than chopping it all, and I prefer the smoother blend.
Heat the olive oil over medium heat. Once it’s heated, turn the temperature down to low and add the garlic and pepper flakes. Stir well and simmer until the garlic begins to turn brown.
Add the tomato paste. Again, stir it in well and simmer until the paste breaks up.
Add the can of crushed tomatoes. Stir well to incorporate all the ingredients. Simmer for about 15 minutes, then add the salt and stir. Let it continue to simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally, until it’s at least heated through. The longer it simmers, the better it tastes, in my opinion. The finished product will look like this:
Again, I encourage you to experiment with uses for this sauce. If you’re like me, you’ll probably soon become addicted it it, and you’ll want to find a way to serve it a few times a week.
Amy Bradley-Hole is a freelance writer and speaker who covers tech, travel, business and parenting. She’s a true Southern girl, but she’s lived and traveled all over the world. She blogs at Freaky Perfect about the freakiness of her not-so-perfect life. When she’s not goofing around on the internet, she dreams up new ways to drive her husband and two young boys crazy. Follow her on Twitter at @amybhole.
I love to travel. L-O-V-E, love it. So when the opportunity to travel to Kenya this summer on a mission trip was presented, I jumped in with both feet. I went there in 2010 and vowed to return again. To get to Kenya, you have to fly through a major European city – London, Paris or Amsterdam usually – so I convinced my husband that we should fly a week early and finally take the honeymoon that we’ve postponed for almost a year now. He lovingly agreed. (He’s a smart man.) The major tourist sights are a must, but I also try to go beyond the obvious to the more interesting and off-the-beaten path experiences. And if food or drink is involved, then BONUS for me!
Days 1-3: London and Cambridge, England
Luckily, we have a free place to stay in England – my brother-in-law and his wife live in Mildenhall about 30 minutes from Cambridge. Besides spending time with them, here is my wish list of things to do in Cambridge and London:
• Take a guided bus tour of the London sites in an open-top bus
• Eat fish and chips and have a pint of ale in an English pub
• Go punting in Cambridge – it’s the English version of a gondola ride
• Visit King’s College Chapel in Cambridge for the Sunday afternoon service – the choir is supposed to be fantastic
• Watch a Footlights comedy performance
Days 3-5: Bruges, Belgium
We will travel on the Eurostar train from London to Bruges for about $55 each. I am so excited about staying in Bruges! This historic city center has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and we’re staying at B&B Guesthouse Abiente, a renovated 17th century house right in the heart of town. My agenda for Bruges is less structured, more beer and chocolate:
• Wander along the Dijver canal which snakes through town
• Visit Markt square and the 13th century belfry
• Go chocolate tasting at The Chocolate Line and BbyB
• Buy a bag of mini-boterwafels (sweet butter waffles)
• Shop for some Flemish fashion at the boutique L’Heroine
• Eat Belgium fries from a street vendor (Side note: I spent a semester of college in Amsterdam, and these fries are a-maze-ing, but eat them often and you won’t fit in your skinny jeans anymore.)
• Drink a beer or two at Brugs Beertje (100’s of choices on the beer menu!)
• Compose a symphony of church bells at Sound Factory in the city’s concert hall museum
• Rent bicycles and ride along the wide canal that circles the city
• Pray at Begijnhof, a quiet courtyard where Benedictine nuns live
Days 5-7: Paris, France
We’ll take the Thayls train from Bruges to Paris for about $60 each. It leaves early (6:25 a.m.), but that gets us into Paris at 9 a.m. so we’ll have two full days to enjoy this magnificent city. We’re going to stay at a B&B called A Room in Paris which is just blocks from our train station and just a mile or so to the Eiffel Tower and other sights. Here is my Paris “to do” list:
• Do some window shopping on the Rue Saint-Honore
• Stroll the Rue des Martyrs, the foodie haven of Paris
• Take a night-time walk from St. Germain to Notre Dame and sample delights from the chocolate shops along the way
• Eat at a sidewalk café in the Place des Vosges, the oldest and most beautiful square in Paris, in the Marais neighborhood
• Splurge on a boat tour on the Seine River
• And of course, we’ll take selfies in front of the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe
Day 7: Fly to Nairobi, Kenya
We’ll meet up with the rest of the mission team in Nairobi on Friday night, then travel most of the day on Saturday by car to Migori where the orphanage is located. We’ll spend about five days there leading a vacation Bible school for the kids and doing whatever else is needed (preaching, construction, etc.). The culmination of our trip is a safari in the Masai Mara where we’ll stay at the tranquil Mara Serena Safari Lodge – heaven on earth.
I’ve started a Pinterest board to add additional ideas as I come across them. If you have any recommendations for additional places we should go or places to eat, please comment below. Asante! (Thank you in Swahili.)
My name is Stacey Valley. I’m a wife, mother, and public health professional with a horrible sweet tooth. My life is quite beautifully ordinary and at the same time more than I could have ever imagined. I blog to express my feelings, share photos and recipes, and occasionally rant about health issues or the craziness of juggling motherhood, marriage, and making a living. My life’s motto is “Live big. Love deep.”
Jeanetta is a crocheter & coffee addict, chicken keeper & goat wrangler, a farmer girl & maker of drunk jellies. You can find her online: Blog: The Splendid Things Twitter Pinterest
So last week I talked all about how I was Mesmerized By Free Stuff in Stage 4 of Blogging, but then I started thinking that maybe in addition to candles, people should give me Cold Hard Cash.
Stage 5: Show Me The Money
And y’all, let me just be honest: here’s where it gets ugly.
I hear you asking, By ugly, do you mean all those ads that were on the sides of your blog?
Well, yes, because those can be ugly, but actually no, because what happened inside of me was far uglier than Adsense.
Because here’s the thing.
Somehow, when I was just blogging for Free Stuff, I actually liked what I was blogging about. I really did LOVE Moss Mountain Farm. I would go there again tomorrow if Mimi would just fly me over from Scotland.
But when I started chasing the money in blogging, I was haphazard and ridiculous, and the lack of financial success in blogging caused me to have a lot of self-loathing.
At first I joined lots of affiliate programs (like this one) where you put company ads on your sidebar and if people buy stuff by clicking on them you get like ten cents. Well, as you can imagine, that did not make me very much money. In fact, I could be totally wrong about this, but I finally decided that the main purpose these ads serve is to make others think that your blog is professional.
Oh, I saw you had ads on your blog now!
You must be big time!
Yes, thank you very much. I made two dollars this month and only because when I saw my mother was ordering something from Amazon anyway, I asked her to please click through from my website first.
Next, I found some other sites that are dedicated to helping you make money as a blogger. The first one was Collective Bias. Opportunities would pop up on the home page of the program (or you could have them emailed directly to you) where you could apply to be a blogger for a product. In the space of about six months, I probably applied for about fifty of these opportunities and I was accepted for two of them. In both cases, I was sent to buy a product, which I blogged about and then I was reimbursed for the cost of the product and paid a fee for having blogged about it. I think I made $50 for blogging about Colgate and $100 for blogging about a camera. Plus of course I got the toothpaste (long gone) and the camera (collecting dust). Let’s not dwell on all the time I spent putting together those posts + applying to the other 48 opportunities that I did not get, because we will probably discover that $150 comes out to about forty cents an hour. Yikes.
I know this is a hideously tedious amount of detail, but it is this kind of information that I was searching for from others in my Show Me The Money blogging phase. And honestly, it just was not out there.
I combed other blogs (including many of yours) looking for how people were making money in blogging. And people do not really say. In fact, if you visit my blog today, you might come away thinking that I am trying to give the impression of a blog that is making money but I just need to tell you that it is not really making money. I think I have still bought in to the idea that having a blog that looks like it is making money is the key to having one that actually does make money. I call it Fake It ‘Til You Make It. But friends, come back in six months and I may not have all that jazz on there anymore.
I might be in a different stage by then.
The good news is that even though I would still very much appreciate making money from blogging, and I can still be very haphazard, I have, for the most part, left behind the self-loathing.
But again, I am getting ahead of myself. Come back next week and I will tell you all about learning To Define Myself As A Blogger.
Do you have questions or helpful info about making money from blogging? Please share in the comments!
Photos this week are from photo shoots with one of my fav Arkansas Bloggers, Whitney Loibner. The top one is an old What I Wore Wednesday photo featuring Country Outfitter Boots and the second pictures is my mama and me enjoying some Petit Jean Hot Dogs! LOVE!
Lyndi, nwafoodie, writes about living and eating well from her life in beautiful Northwest Arkansas. Much of her blogging inspiration comes from this gem of a place which she refers to as the proverbial land of milk-and-honey.
Amy Bradley-Hole is a freelance writer and speaker who covers tech, travel, business and parenting. She’s a true Southern girl, but she’s lived and traveled all over the world. She blogs at 
I’m a wife and mom. I’m a microbiologist. I’m a mountain biker, hiker, backpacker, sometime runner, and workout enthusiast all while being addicted to good food. I write about it at http://freneticfitness.wordpress.com. I also write for 
My name is 
Jeanetta is a crocheter & coffee addict, chicken keeper & goat wrangler, a farmer girl & maker of drunk jellies.
