bloggers Archives - Food, Booze, & Baggage

May Lovely Letters

June 18, 2015 by Mariah 8 Comments

This past month, I decided to participate in Local Adventure’s Lovely Letters. Lovely Letters is link-up hosted by Esther and Jordan, to encourage you to better get to know your fellow bloggers by sending them a little snail mail. Each month has a theme. May’s theme was favorite’s which I was a bit confused by; my favorites or who I was matched with? Anyway, I did a little mix of both.

I got paired with Jenn from Near and Far Montana, and I was so happy about it. I have been following Jenn for a while, but loved to get the chance to know her better. Jenn writes about living in Montana and her life as a journalist. I love reading about how her and her boyfriend are building their own homestead with adventures in raising chickens and gardening. You need to go check her blog out!!

This is the package I sent Jenn.

As I said, I did a little of both my favorites and tried to find things that Jenn enjoyed too. I stalked her blog to try to find clues! To be honest, I struggled with the $7 limit, it so hard! I also struggled with thinking of little small items. She mentioned in one of her posts, that she was getting into drinking more tea, and in particular peppermint. Which was super lucky since I was just placing an order that week for The Art of Tea, which has been my current go-to tea source. The Art of Tea is based out of LA, so a sort of local find. The Art of Tea happened to have a sample that included mint, jackpot 🙂 I have been getting into coloring lately so I included, a few color yourself postcards from this little book I bought. It’s the Secret Garden, and I thought that was a good match with Jenn’s gardening. The Noble Syrup was something we tried and liked on a recent trip, so I thought that was somewhat fitting. The notebook is from a local shop here, and who can’t use an extra notebook. A bookmark since I know Jenn’s a reader. SO there is a pen in the picture, and I’m so sorry to say, that did not make it into the package. Sorry Jenn!!! I just forgot it when I was packing it all up. I was in a bit of a rush to make it to the post office before they closed. I swear running around town always takes longer than expected. Well, that is it for my package, I hope Jenn enjoyed it!

This is the package that Jenn sent me.

OMG I loved it and she sent me so much!! I think one of my favorite items was the magnet, which is made from a cover of a book. Isn’t it so cute, and it happens to have my initials on it or the abbreviation for Montana 🙂 I don’t think I had ever tried anything Huckleberry flavor before. Both the candy and tea was tasty, sort of like a tart blueberry flavor, but not sour. I love the pineapple ornament and have it on a bottle on our bar, it was made in NC, which is so cool. She really did do a wonderful job with the box. I even got earrings, which is wonderful, since I’m constantly losing them. And the honey, I have to mention the honey, so yummy. I was impressed with the whole box! THANK YOU JENN!!

It was a fun link-up and you should give it a try! Again thank you to Jenn for being such an awesome partner!

What is a favorite of yours that you would send to someone? Also, do you have a tea brand that is your go to? While I like the Art of Tea, I’m always looking for a new ones to try.

4th Qtr Report (2013-2014)

November 10, 2014 by Mariah 8 Comments

It has been a year (last week) since I started this space!?! I really can’t believe it, it certainly doesn’t feel that long. I still feel like a beginner. I haven’t been very focused on the blog in the last several months, but I’m definitely picking it back up and trying to put more energy into it. To see my progress in the other quarters:

Technology

Did move to Genesis! Yay! I’m using the Beautiful Theme.
I learned a little about coding and I figured out the header and a few other tweaks using code!
Coding classes taken:

I highly recommend the Jenn Lukas’ courses to anyone who has a blog, regardless of if you plan on doing any design of your page yourself. It gave me a good understanding of how the pieces work together.

Future Goals

Install better commenting system
Invest time in learning more about the DSLR camera and photo editing (this has been on here forever!)
Install custom pin-it button
Learn more about coding
Learn more about SEO and Genesis

Social

Link-ups participated in: Travel Tuesday, Local Adventurer, Weekly Wishes and Humpday Confessions (no longer active)
Placed zero ads, with the move and my distraction from the blog it wasn’t a good time
Nominated for Tour of Blogland by Allison of The Ponytail Dairies

Future Goals

Continue to search out new link-up opportunities
Continue to grow social media
Continue to work on connecting and promoting other bloggers
Look for other sponsorship opportunities
Share new boards on Pinterest

Blogging

This quarter was not good for blogging, much of my energy was packing and planning for our move. I did do two posts about it though: Tips for Moving Cross-Country & The Cross-Country Drive: NC to CA
You will see my lack of posting reflected in my numbers as well. The lesson is, posts do equal increased page views 🙂

Future Goals

Work more on writing and developing voice
Look into joining a blogging network
Work towards banking posts
Do more with childfree topic/connection
Look into monetization
Re-do About Page

Design

Finished my logo and social media buttons!
Made a blog badge (it’s at the bottom of the page) and Childfree badge
Completed theseSkillshare courses (I’ve completed all of the sessions but not all the projects):
- Fundamentals of Adobe Illustrator for Web Design: Getting Started with the Basics (I)
- Design for Print: Stand Out with Specialty Printing Techniques by Ross Moody

All of the above classes are membership classes; you can take them if you sign up for the membership without having to pay per class. *All of the links for Skillshare are referral links meaning if you sign up I get a free month and you can too, I do not have any affiliation with Skillshare, this is an offer to all users.

Future Goals

Have a few pictures taken of me for blogging/promotion purposes
Finish blog re-design
Continue working on Skillshare courses! I want to go back and finish some of the projects.

Numbers

The new numbers are August 7th-November 5th. I’ve included the 1st, 2nd, & 3rd quarter figures for comparison. I’ve also included totals. I do not look at these numbers on a daily basis, honestly I should probably look at them a bit more. The numbers are the numbers good, bad, whatever…it is progress.

At the end of a year, I’m happy I started this space. I didn’t quite make the progress I had hoped, but at the same time I feel I’ve come a long way too! I’m looking forward to see how I grow this next year!

Thank you all for your continued support and for being here!!

Tour Of Blogland

November 5, 2014 by Mariah 9 Comments

Allison from The Ponytail Diaries nominated me for the Tour of Blogland. It kind of came at the perfect time, as I’m marking one-year of blogging. I’ll share a bit more about my one-year of blogging next Monday in my 4th Quarterly Report (I know you are at the edge of your seats for that to come out). 🙂 Anniversaries always make me reflective, I think it is good to take stock every once in a while. I love to see what motivates people and how people view the world, which is what is so great about blogging. I like the fact that you get a peek behind the scenes, so to speak, with these kinds of prompts. The Tour of Blogland asks:

What am I working on?
Settling into San Diego and eating and drinking 😉 Kidding, sort of. I’m trying to get back into blogging, as the summer and the move sidetracked it for a while. I’m working on redesigning my site and making it feel a little more me. I have a lot of blog to-do items. I want to be more consistent with my posting and just re-focus my blogging effort.

How does my work differ from others in its genre?
My blog is just me – my life and what P and I are doing. I like to think that brings uniqueness to the table. I’m all over the board in terms of topics, I view my blog as a lifestyle blog meaning it’s whatever I’m doing, learning, thinking, feeling, eating and drinking. 🙂

Why do I write/create what I do?
I wrote the post Why Another Blog about why I started the blog and it still holds true. I wanted to challenge myself, I wanted to document our life and adventures, and I wanted to put the childfree perspective out into Blogland. I felt like there was a gap in blogs for those of us that are childfree.

How does my writing/creating process work?
This question just makes me laugh. I wish I had a process. Basically, since I started the blog, it has felt like a roller-coaster. Some weeks I feel like I’m in control of it and organized and then the next week, I’m behind and scrabbling. Ideally, I would like to have posts completed at least a week in advance, that way I have plenty of time to edit and polish them. I’m the kind of person that needs to take a big step back and “forget” about it to edit my own writing. This rarely happens and then two months later I look back at a post and realize I wrote desert not dessert. 🙂 I’m trying to get a better process together. Most of my posts branch from things I’m doing in life, so they develop organically.

Now for the fabulous bloggers I’m nominating:

Make sure to visits Allison too! I particularly like her Sunday fiction feature.

Life Lessons from Blogging

July 6, 2014 by Mariah 18 Comments

This past week has been a bit of a blur, my thoughts have been going in a million different directions since Tuesday. I’m sure there were plenty of life lessons I could have plucked from this week but it was the lessons I learned from this space that really stuck out.

Blogging gives you support and community.

I am overwhelmed by all the kind comments to Wednesday’s post and all the offers of contacts and help. When I started blogging, the socializing side of the experience caused me the most anxiety. I’ve never been that active in socializing online, it was just not something I really did, even on Facebook my interactions were/are somewhat limited. I felt so awkward reaching out to people I didn’t know, writing comments and interacting on social media did not come naturally to me. I agonized over what to say or if I should like this or retweet that…do I come off weird, do I seem like a stalker, are people like who the hell is this…these were just some of my thoughts in the beginning. The more I interacted the easier it got. Wednesday’s post made me really reflect on how far I’ve come with this aspect of blogging. The other thing that smacked me in the face is that the blogging community is that, a community and that the people here are kind, thoughtful, and are there supporting you and cheering you on. When I started this blog a little over 6 months ago, I would have never thought I would feel this level of friendship, or be making plans to meet other bloggers in person. Blogging has expanded how I think about friendship/socializing.

Blogging gives you connections you didn’t even know you needed.

It’s funny how life works and what people are put in your path. Shannon from Brass Honey, was the first blogger I connected with, she became my first blogging friend, and she has supported and encouraged me with blogging. I hoped one day P and I would make it out to San Diego and I would get to meet her for a drink. I never thought I would be chatting with her on the phone, and planning on moving to her city. I think it is incredibly serendipitous that my first connection made through blogging, happens to be living in the city we are now starting our new adventure. P and I were hoping for a move somewhere this year, we wanted a new adventure, in a new city. When we started talking about it, we didn’t really think San Diego would be a strong possibility for his position with the company. A month ago we were thinking it might be Philadelphia. A meeting with his CFO, changed that direction, and after a month of anxious waiting, we are planning a move!! It makes the move that much less daunting to be able to talk to Shannon and get advice from someone who has made the move from the East coast to the West coast. I can’t wait to get to hang-out in person and now she will be the first blogger I meet in real life!!

Blogging changes your perspective.

Blogging helps to get things out of your head and gives you an added purpose to everyday activities. I mentioned Wednesday, that I’m worried about the cross-country drive (and I am) but I’m also excited, even more so because I realized, hey, it will provide me some great blogging material! Even the logistics of making and planning the move will provide me with at least a post or two 🙂 While the next few months will bring challenges and stress, as we work it all out, I love that the blog gives me a place to document this journey. I promise, not every post will be moving related…don’t unfollow! 🙂 Blogging helps provide added purpose to tasks that I find daunting, and gives me a place to vent and to ask for advice.

I’m really grateful I started my journey in blogging, I’m grateful for all of you who take time to read/comment, for the friendships/support/connections made here, and to have this space to provide me focus and help me in times of transition.

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What has blogging taught you recently? If you have a post on that or any other life lessons, link it up below!!