Blissdom in Pictures and Snippets

Posted on March 1, 2012 by vanderbiltwife

I partied and laughed and roomed and cuddled and ate with my beautiful #sisterchicks. (Although we MADLY missed our Atlanta contingent.)

I cuddled with this adorable guy (idreamofclean‘s 10-week-old) A LOT! As in “Gimme your baby and go have fun!” Isn’t he crazy cute?

I brainstormed. I talked about writing.

I roomed with Mary again, and also with Dawn Camp and QuatroMama.

I got to hear phenomenal speakers: Simple Mom, Michael Hyatt, Jon Acuff, Jeff Goins.

I was looking for a mini-vacation, and got that and more. I feel like my writing had been invigorated, my mind is renewed, I want to be a better parent and wife, and I am going to work on that life plan Michael Hyatt talked about.

Thanks, Blissdom!

Pictures were taken by: Dawn Camp, Domestic Chicky, Giving Up on Perfect, Heather Durdil, and Nancy Doud. Click on the individual pictures for sources.

Third Time’s a Charm

Posted on February 20, 2012 by vanderbiltwife

There have been five Blissdom conferences, and this will be the third one I’ll be attending. (Four, if you count visiting last year’s with my eensy-weensy baby boy, but I didn’t actually go for more than a few hours!) This year’s 800 attendee hoopla with Rascal Flatts and Joe Jonas is a far cry from Blissom ’09, where I spent most of my time nursing a baby Libbie in the hallway and actually meeting a lot of bloggers who could qualify as famous nowadays.

I’m not really much of a conference girl, honestly. I doubt you’ll ever see me at BlogHer unless someone approaches me desperate to pay my way. I’m more about writing and less about building my blog; I have a freelance career and that is where I make money, not here.

But Blissdom has always been about relationship, and I couldn’t pass up a chance to see Mary, Jill, Tricia, Christine, Jen, Laura, and many others when the conference is a mere two-hour drive for me. I’m mostly considering it a well-earned vacation from mommyhood where I can sleep in a hotel room without being woken up four times a night, take a shower in peace, and feed myself without having to get up to take care of little people every 30 seconds.

I’m not saying I don’t love and appreciate being a stay-at-home mom, but we all need a vacation very once in a while, don’t we? Whatever our job is?

I can’t think of a much better place to relax and learn than the gorgeous Opryland Hotel with 799 of my closest friends.

Here's a picture so you can find me.

If you’re going to Blissdom, I really want to meet you! Please leave me a comment so I can be sure to find you this weekend.

Not Worth the Stress

Posted on January 23, 2012 by vanderbiltwife

After 4? 5? days of trying to get my blog to migrate to Typepad, I think I’ve given up. I really only kept going because I was so grateful for winning the free year of Typepad from Hollywood Housewife – I am really hoping they will refund the credit to Laura and let someone else win. My blog is just too ding-dang big to go to Typepad without major complications.

All of this does have me thinking, and I may be attempting a move to WordPress in the near future! I have ALWAYS wanted their commenting capabilities so I can interact more with my readers. All of the incredible WordPress plug-ins would make it well worth a move, I think. And my sweet Mr. V, who was a computer science major and STILL couldn’t figure out how to make it work simply, told me I should do whatever will make me cry the least.

Thankfully, due to some Blogger miracle, I was able to restore most of my design. That’s what was causing me tons of stress! I hated thinking of people visiting my site and not seeing all of it!

So that’s the update on life at Vanderbilt Wife. I am seriously hoping for a CALM and NORMAL week. We’ve had a little too much sickness and turmoil the past two weeks for me. I’m reading One Bite at a Time by SimpleMom, and it’s doing me a world of good. So I think for now I’ll turn off the computer, drink a cup of tea, and try to relax and go to bed early. How about you?

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Um, Yeah.

Posted on January 18, 2012 by vanderbiltwife

If you visit my blog instead of subscribing, you might notice that right now it looks … well, weird. Boring.

I am in the process of going to Typepad and I managed to screw up my design in the process. So I may be out of pocket here for a few days. Don’t worry, I’ll let you know when we’re back up and moving! Thanks for hanging in there with me. You might want to subscribe below (even if just temporarily) so you know when we’re back in business.

Jessie

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Top Ten Recipes of 2011

Posted on January 17, 2012 by vanderbiltwife

It’s still January, right? So it’s completely valid for me to share my Top Ten Most-Visited Recipes of 2011. Need something for dinner tonight? Look no further!

1. Five Minute Spinach Salad with Cherry Vinaigrette (OK, the vinaigrette doesn’t have vinegar, so let’s just call it a “juicy salad dressing.” – Super customizable, tasty, easy. A trifecta of yummyness!

2. Chocolate Coconut Oat Bars – A great recipe for cooking with kids, this was my first month in the Secret Recipe Club. And it just might give you a hint of what’s coming for my February Secret Recipe Club post …

3. Mexican Corn Dip / Oreo Truffles – The fact that I don’t have any pictures of these hasn’t stopped the traffic to these delicious recipes. They’re both on the same post, “Party Food.” Just a few ingredients and you’ll be the talk of the party with my “Magically Delicious Corn Dip.”

4. Summer Bow-Tie Pasta – Mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, and basil are summer staples. This warm pasta salad is enough for a main dish and bring your normal caprese salad to a new level with homemade balsamic vinaigrette.

5. Mom’s Enchiladas – Thanks to a lot of traffic from Once a Month Mom, this remains one of my biggest posts ever. Thanks, Tricia!

6. Pumpkin Spice Latte Cookies – Totally worth upsetting my husband over changing his mama’s pumpkin cookie recipe. These tasty treats are an incredible combination of coffee and pumpkin and reminiscent of the Starbucks fall drink.

7. Scalloped Corn – One of my family’s holiday go-to recipes.

8. Chocolate Avocado Cake with Blackberry Cream Cheese Frosting – Divinely moist without the addition of eggs or milk, this chocolate cake is perfect for allergy-sufferers. I’m sorry the frosting isn’t vegan … but it is amazing, too.

9. Broccoli and Cheese Soup – This Cooking Light favorite is one of my oldest recipes and still just as good.

10. Tilapia with Honey-Tangerine Sauce – Beautiful and tasty. Pretty enough for a dinner party and fast enough for a worknight meal.

Risking a little bit of egotism … do you have a favorite recipe from my site? (OK, or any blog?)

Added to Top Ten Tuesday at OhAmanda.
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Blogging Recap: 2011

Posted on January 6, 2012 by vanderbiltwife

Madame Joseph-Michel Blogs, after van Gogh

source: Mike Licht

2011 was like making a fresh blogging start for me. In July, I celebrated five years of blogging with little fanfare. Is it a great accomplishment? I’m glad to have stuck by something for such a long time, but it’s certainly not earth-shattering. Just me, in my little corner or desk chair, click-clacking away about my life, my kids. Just words.

Somewhere in the collection of months that made up the year, however, I made a decision to stop caring about numbers. I rarely look at my traffic, stats, subscribers. I like to see what posts do well, but I try not to focus on that.

While I pursued some private advertising in the Spring, I decided to let it go. I was worrying a lot about making $15 here and there, feeling that somehow I needed money to defend my space of the universe here on this domain.

Yes, I still use affiliate links and have up Google ads. As a blogger, I think it would be stupid NOT to use these readily available moneymakers. But I’ve stopped worrying when it comes to blogging. I don’t worry about making money; I make enough freelancing. I don’t worry about stats. I don’t worry about writing with SEO or what will bring new readers or what I can link up to certain carnivals.

source: Mike Licht

I write what I want. I write what’s burning on my heart, for the most part. And personally, it’s created some of my favorite posts ever this year: heart-revealing thoughts. My comments are down. My traffic is down. But I am happy.

I hope by baring my soul a little, I will show other women that we don’t have to pretend to have it all together. We’re all struggling in one way or another, whether we want to talk about it or not. And if we are going to grow at Christians, as women, as friends … we need to let others see the dirty, deep-down places we want to ignore.

I hope you’ll travel with me into 2012 if you enjoy my writing and feel encouraged. I’d love to know about you, my reader, if you might take the time to leave me a little comment with your name and blog link, if you have one.

All of that said, here are some of my favorite posts from 2011.
A Good Measure
Appearance of Love
Be Wise, Be Innocent
The Pieces That Make Me
For Libby
Rainy September
Cloudy October
Love Loss Hope Repeat.

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Why I Took a Blogging Break … And What I Learned

Posted on July 8, 2011 by vanderbiltwife

Gratuitous Adorable Baby Picture

I was sure that my house would be cleaner if I stopped writing my blog. I was wrong.

A while ago, I had reached a point where I was dreading coming up with something to write here. For me, that is when I know I need a break. I look back at times when my writing flowed so freely and am jealous – of myself!

I am such an internal processor, and I think that is what makes me a writer. It takes me time to work out my thoughts and balance emotions with sane thought. Often I am just writing my heart here, figuring out things for myself and hoping to send across the message that Christian women don’t have to be perfect. We’re not. None of us. Some just hide it better than others.

It seems I am alternately overflowing with words and dry as a desert. Sometimes I look at prompts or carnivals and try to get inspired. But my number one rule is not to force myself to write. I don’t believe force creates authentic, good prose.

My break was good and bad. It was good to not feel like I needed to be on the computer nonstop. It was good to spend more time at night with my husband.

I quickly discovered, however, that the blog is not my main time suck. It’s a combination of obsessive e-mail checking, Facebook, and Twitter. Of walking by the computer and thinking I’ll just check my e-mail and instead spending time clicking through various things and spending 20 minutes online while my children run amuck.

Toward the end of June, the blog break combined with a vacation started to result in less time on Twitter, Skype, and other various sites. I enjoyed the feeling of freedom. I am still living there.

But did not blogging make me a better wife, mother, or housekeeper? Not really. So I have to face the fact it’s other distractions that keep me from excelling in those roles. It’s something I don’t like to face, but I certainly need to.

For now, I’m glad to be back. I have a lot to write about, including a series on doing Disney with a toddler and baby, how I ran a 5k, and hopefully about successful and quick potty training (we’re in day 2 of potty boot camp!). Hope you’ll stick around here with me as we live life imperfectly.

________

Want to join in the “Why I” fun? Add your link here. The only rules are that your post title must start with “Why I” and you must link back to Vanderbilt Wife by link or by the button.

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Gimme a Break, Gimme a Break …

Posted on May 31, 2011 by vanderbiltwife

It’s been three and a half years since I went more than a week or so without posting on Vanderbilt Wife.

Wow.

I love writing; usually, keeping up here is not work. The problem is, some days I prefer it to my “real life”: freelance writing, housekeeping, being a wife, and parenting two precious children God has entrusted to me.

I need a few weeks to detox from the blogging world. I’d like to not feel the pull every time I pass by the computer to check email, Tweet, check Facebook, etc. I’d like to pay more attention to my kids and my house. I need to find some balance.

So I am going to take the month of June off from blogging. I will probably still Tweet some, although I’m not making any promises and I am not going to keep Tweetdeck up all the time like I have been. If you subscribe by email, you’ll know when I’m back; you can always unsubscribe later.

I still remember reading this post from Stephanie at Keeper of the Home over a year ago. I don’t want my kids to just remember me staring at my computer screen or saying “just a minute.” I want them to remember us having fun, learning about Jesus and the Bible, going places, living life.

I hope you’ll still be here when I return. I know I’ll be itching to write.

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How to Find Free Blog Design

Posted on May 14, 2011 by vanderbiltwife

When I wrote about ten tips for beginning bloggers, one of the tips I meant to include was about blog design. But I get distracted (SQUIRREL!). I was so full of ideas for that post I may need to make a part two!

For now, I want to talk about some easy and free blog design.

What Is Blog Design?

Blog design is what your blog looks like when someone stops by to visit. As much as we want it to be all about the writing … honestly, if a blog looks bad, I’m probably not going to stick around.

I had a generic Blogger design when I started blogging in 2006–and for at least a year and half. I didn’t know any better, and I didn’t know that anyone was reading my blog anyway.

If you are just writing for family to keep up with your kids or a journal only you want to read, you can stop reading here. As with my tips for blogging, these tips are really for people who want to generate traffic to their blog.

That said, if you are interested in increasing your traffic and your blog looks like one of these:

… you may want to consider some design. (Any identifying information obviously blurred or distorted to protect the innocent.)

Blog Design Options

Your mind may go to paid blog design first thing. My current design I paid for, and I think it’s well worth the money! (Jo-Lynne from DCR Design created it for me.) For a year or more before that, however, I had a free but very unique design.

I can’t find it anymore, but it was based off this illustration:

For a blog subtitled Trying to Be the Housewife I’m Not, I think this was a GREAT find for a template. And I never saw another blog with the same design, even though it was free!

To recap, we have three choices in design: generic templates served by your blogging platform (Blogger or WordPress, likely) [free]; paid design from a skilled designer [not free]; or free design found online [free, but takes time].

Where to Find Free Blog Designs

My favorite way to find free blog design is simply to Google “free blogger template.” If your blog has a theme or niche, I would throw that term in there as well. Let’s say your blog is about fashion and is hosted by Blogger. (Honestly, I don’t know very much about WordPress, so I’m going to stick with what I know here.) So you would search (on Swagbucks, of course!) for “free blogger template fashion.” Let’s see what we find.

Pretty quickly, I found all of these free designs.

The third one I found by going to a site that had “fashion” templates. On the sidebar, it listed their different themes, and I clicked on “shopping,” since the two are pretty related in my mind.

I think all three of those are pretty cute and unique and would be way more interesting and relevant than any of those above.

Alternately, you can use backgrounds from a site like these, which may not be as unique but are at least a little different from every blog out there:

Cutest Blog on the Block
Hot Bliggity Blog
Blogaholic Designs

I will continue this next week with how to implement the design on your site!

I’m adding this post to Things I Love Thursday, because I love a blog that looks good! And don’t forget to prepare your posts for Why I Friday! Also, I hope you will take this as helpful, not critical. There was so much I didn’t know when I was starting out with blogging, and I want to share information.

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Ten Easy Blogging Tips for Beginner Bloggers; Or, What I Wished I Had Known in 2006

Posted on April 11, 2011 by vanderbiltwife

When I started blogging in 2006, I didn’t even really know what blogging was. It seemed like a normal progression from those livejournal entries of my high-school days and the written journals I kept before – and after – then. I stopped journaling about the time I started dating my husband, unfortunately.

Most people today know what a blog is; I presume many have read one or even read one or two on a regular basis. So I think people who begin blogging probably do so with a purpose. Is it to inform your friends and family of what’s going on in your life? Voice your opinions for the general masses? Try to make some money?

Edma Pontillon Blogging, after Berthe Morisot

If your purpose falls into those latter two categories, here is some quick advice that I wish I had received five years ago.

Ten Tips for Beginning Bloggers

1. Buy your domain.

I was shocked at Blissdom ’09 to find out that it only costs $10 a year to own your domain. Ten dollars! (Now it appears to be $12 if you want a .com and less if you could deal with a .us, .me, or .org.) It’s super easy to redirect your site to a domain. I am always flabbergasted at the amount of sites that still have “.blogspot” in their URL. “Vanderbiltwife.blogspot.com” just doesn’t have the same ring as VanderbiltWife.com.

If your domain is already taken, you might consider renaming your blog, inserting a number instead of a word, or something similar. Be creative!

2. And while we’re talking titles, choose something with zing. Be original. What makes you uniquely you? What exactly is your blog about?

3. Make yourself accessible.

Please, please make it easy to e-mail you from your blog’s homepage. See that little “e-mail me” button on the sidebar? I wish everyone had one. Because sometimes I just have a burning question about you or a post that is too long to post in a comment, or maybe too personal.

Using Twitter and starting a Facebook fan page are great, too, if you’re going to use them.

4. Set up a profile on Blogger (whether you use Blogger or not) so it’s easy to comment on Blogger blogs. MAKE YOUR EMAIL VISIBLE. (If you use gmail or other Google apps, you already have an account ready, I think.) Lots of blogs are Blogger-based (like this one), and it’s a pain for a blog author to compose a whole e-mail reply to someone who commented just to realize that their e-mail is not there.

I would respond to nearly all my comments if their e-mails were available! (I try to respond to many as long as that e-mail is visible. PLEASE MAKE IT VISIBLE.) Blogging is about conversation and we authors want to respond!

5. Blog hop. See what other people are doing. Leave comments. See if others want to guest post on your blog, or do a series together, or just chat on e-mail. Follow lots of people on Twitter, if you use it. Share links. Be generous. Be genuine.

6. For the love of Pete, unless you are Ann Voskamp (and that’s still iffy), do not have music auto-playing on your blog.

7. Install Google Analytics. At some point, you might want to see how people are getting to your blog, what they search for to find you, or how many pageviews you are getting. Go ahead and do it now! I wish I had!

8. Apply some simple SEO (Search Engine Optimization.) This is MUCH EASIER to do on the front end than after you have 900 posts. (Not that I would know. Cough, cough.) Tara has two excellent slideshows with easy tips.

9. Link to carnivals. You know Menu Plan Monday, Top Ten Tuesday, Wordless Wednesday? Those are carnivals. Linking will bring you a little traffic and checking out others’ links will expose you to blogs you might never have found otherwise.

10. Don’t underestimate your worth. You probably don’t have The Pioneer Woman‘s traffic, a book deal like MoneySavingMom, and the striking good looks of Jill. That doesn’t mean you should settle for a toothbrush as payment for a review, or bend over backwards for a company that does nothing in return. Determine your worth and stick with it. Only do what you really want to do. And don’t force yourself to write when you don’t want to … the content will never be as good.

If you’re a veteran blogger, what would you share? If you’re a newbie, are these tips helpful at all?

Added to Top Ten Tuesday at OhAmanda.
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Vanderbilt Wife

Trying to be the housewife I'm not

Tag Archives: blogging

Blissdom in Pictures and Snippets

Third Time’s a Charm

Not Worth the Stress

Um, Yeah.

Top Ten Recipes of 2011

Blogging Recap: 2011

Why I Took a Blogging Break … And What I Learned

Gimme a Break, Gimme a Break …

How to Find Free Blog Design

What Is Blog Design?

Blog Design Options

Where to Find Free Blog Designs

Ten Easy Blogging Tips for Beginner Bloggers; Or, What I Wished I Had Known in 2006

Ten Tips for Beginning Bloggers