Success

It's hard to define success when it comes to a blog. Is there such a thing? There are those blogs out there that are ad free and proud of it, blogging only to share their worlds with the rest of us. Then there are those with sponsors, product giveways, affiliate coupons, google adsense ads, and amazon associates store pages. I read both. For me, it's more about the content than the commercial, but I do enjoy a nice giveaway or links to products. I always try to tell myself that I blog for myself. But I can't seem to get over the fact that I'm not outright-amazing-quit-my-job successful with this whole blogging thing. I pour through my reader and find all these blogs with a thousand+ followers, sponsors, and freelance opportunities and wonder what magic formula I'm missing. My super computer brother Eric once said that if I could blog for a year, I would start to see some growth. Well it's been about a year and I have seen some. My radius has expanded outside of my family members and now includes some email subscribers and some who subscribe to the RSS feed. But, I still find myself checking my monetize tab daily in hopes of seeing a small jump in page impressions. Last Sunday, I hopped on to work on a post and found a nice new tab in my dashboard titled "stats" I combed through it excited to see that I had visits from all around the world and a whopping 800 page impressions a month. Energized, I decided to contact some friends with small businesses and ask if they would be interested in some free advertising as "sponsors" on my blog, excitedly sharing my magic number. So the next day I check my blog per my usual routine and the stats tab is gone. It felt like I dreamed the whole thing, like some delusions of grandeur. I hurriedly scoured the blogger help topics and nothing seemed to explain the appearance of this optimistic tab or it's subsequent disappearance. I did find a sentence somewhere stating the words "blogger stats" and "google analytics", so I signed up pasted the code and waited, eager to see the encouraging stats. I'm still waiting...

To me, my blog is similar in content to many of the blogs I follow. It may not be topic specific but it is narrowed down to a smattering of topics that appeal to myself and I imagine, other women. I played around with different designs and fonts but I kept coming back to the basic blogger "minima" with a few (painstaking) tweaks such as a three column layout. I want it to be classic and simple, how I've always seen myself. I tweet my posts on Twitter, I post them in my facebook status, I use all the feedburner tools I can find, and still, mediocre success. For someone who has had relatively immediate success throughout life with good grades, award winning sports teams and success in the workforce, this is hard.

Much harder than I thought.

Crochet Flower

I finished my first crochet project, a cute little flower to wear on Olive's chic black leather collar. While it may not be as lovely as my inspiration flower, I still think it turned it pretty well.

I'm also interested in becoming a blanketeer for Project Linus a nonprofit organization that provides "new, handmade, washable blankets to be given as gifts to seriously ill and traumatized children to provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort"

I'd love to give something like this a try. Beautiful, but hopefully not overly ambitious.

image via curlsofsunshine

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Memorial Day / Last Hurrah

My cousin Ross and his wife Mandy own this wonderful little place just over the border from Chicago in Berrien Springs, MI. It's a place we affectionately call the "River Garage" (there was meant to be a house, but since things don't always work it, there is a massive 7 car garage with 10 beds in the attic). Well, the time has come to bid farewell to the river garage. We've spent many long weekends here like this time and are sad to see it go, so the family got together for one last hurrah.

As usual Olive was in tow and she busied herself getting angry with the charcoal heater thing. There were 5 dogs this particular weekend; not uncommon.

My cousin's wife Mandy making some awesome hamburgers. Seriously though, this chick can cook. One year she whipped up some fried calamari and the next individual Cornish game hens (mind you, although there is a sink and stove, this is still a garage we're cooking in)

Mike spent a good hour+ making this bad boy. It blazed all night while we sat around, drank, ate s'mores and listened to the Blackhawks on the radio.

The next day, not too hungover, Ross got the brilliant idea to put this rope swing together. There was no way I would even climb the ladder, but Ross rocked it out. I'm sure there are pictures and videos on miscellaneous facebook pages.

While Ross busied himself with his rope swing, the rest of us got together and did this. With some sweet tubes with ties attached and a cinder block attached to a rope we managed to stay like this blissfully for a few hours.

Olive learned to swim this weekend, and Mike and I were very much the excited parents. But, after having to keep track of her on shore while we lazed away in the water, this seemed like an easier alternative.

That's all.

Don't be shy readers! (Mom) Post a comment or link below about your Memorial Day or upcoming summer vacation. Just click the word "comments", write your comment, choose if you want to post with a Google account, just your name or anonymously, and click publish.

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Amazing Bleu Cheese Dressing

Found this great recipe for Guiltless Blue Cheese Dressing over at Honest Fare ...

You need:

• 1/4 cup blue cheese finely chopped or in crumbles
• 1/2 cup non-fat Greek yogurt
• Juice of 1/2 a lemon
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Cracked black pepper to taste 1/6 teaspoon cinnamon
• Sprinkle garlic powder
• Sprinkle onion powder
• Drizzle of honey or agave

Directions

1. Finely chop and then break apart blue cheese into small crumbles. Combine blue cheese, Greek yogurt, lemon juice and vinegar in a bowl or jar and mix well. Add all seasonings and a drizzle of agave or honey and stir well.
   
2. The thickness of the dressing will vary depending on the brand of Greek yogurt you use. Some are really think so If necessary, add water (one tablespoon at a time) and stir until dressing reaches desired consistency.

image and recipe via Honest Fare

And, after my mom brought over a bunch of just-picked-that-day asparagus from her farmers' market, I just had to dip it in this dressing and it eat raw. It was delicious. Seriously, you should try it.

image via

Summer Must Haves

Mike and I, along with my brother and his wife are heading to our family cabin on the west coast of Michigan for a week of wine tasting, farmers markets, antiquing, fruit picking and beach going. I was trying to put together a little list of some of the "stuff" we need to make our trip easier and more fun. Here's what I came up with so far:

California Baby SPF 30 Natural Sunscreen

Not just for little ones, this natural sunscreen seemed like one of the better natural products on the market.

Burt's Bees Herbal Insect Repellent

I've always loved Burt's Bees, and I'm hoping this product will do better than the usual bug spray (which failed miserably over Memorial day weekend as I have so many bites it looks like I have chicken pox on my legs)

Flea the Scene Pet Insect Repellent with Sunscreen

It might seem silly to get your dog sunscreen but Olive is white skin/fur on her face that's prone to sunburn. Also to supplement her frontline, this product helps with mosquitoes in the short term.

Eugenia Kim for Target Straw Fedora

I just don't wear enough hats, and having a sweet designer brand for Target is the way to go.

Red Retro One-Piece

Since I'm not feeling too awesome in a two piece these days, I think this is just the ticket.

Coleman Road Trip Beach Cabana

Perfect for this with vampire white skin like myself, as well as dogs that could overheat on the beach.

Volcano Ice Pop Molds

These are great for fresh fruit ice pops or maybe a frozen mojito (will that even work?)