How do you get followers on your blog?

So today I am taking a break from creating cards. We went back to school today (after 20 days off due to Christmas break and snow days) and I feel like I was playing catch up all day. I teach computers and it seemed as though most students completely forgot how to work a computer after such a long break.

With that being said my attention tonight is on my blog. How do I get people who visit my blog to decide to become a follower of my blog? What is it about a blog that makes you decide to become a follower? I have recently been putting more effort into my blog and the traffic has really picked up since I joined the Ultimate Blog Challenge and have also joined several other card making challenges, however, my followers are still at a low number. So how do I change this?

I have to wonder if my blog is too "busy" with random thoughts, card making and other crafts. Is it better to focus on one thing or is it okay the way it is? What is it about a blog that makes you decide to become a follower? If you do a give away, does that bring more followers?  As a crafter, do I need to explore the world of YouTube and start linking videos back to my blog?

I would love your thoughts and suggestions as I want this to be successful.

Thank you for stopping by today and especially thank you to those that choose to leave a comment. And as always I would love for you to follow my blog!

Have a great week (we are out for three days...which is crazy after our 20 day vacation we just came back from today).

My Day Planner

So I have gotten on the kick of the day planner. Actually a lot of people use the product called FiloFax but for me I just cannot justify spending $180 on a planner. I actually have two planners that I work with, one is my day to day planner and then I have another one that I use for my blog.

This is a picture of my craft desk today. At the bottom of the page is a Smash Book that I laid out to work on because I went to Walgreens and printed 239 pictures that will be going into that book. On top of the book I have started an inventory list of all of my scrapbook/craft supplies such as my Stamps, Embossing Folders, Cricut cartridge, etc. Then there is my book (and yes I decorate each page because it is like a mini scrapbook of my life). I used the Ultimate Blog Challenge calendar and cut it up and glued down each date of task on my weekly calendar.
My weekly schedule has my UBC tasks plus I write down my titles for the blog I wrote that day and I also write down any blogs that I need to check on because I entered a card.
I would love to hear how others keep their blogs organized.

Thanks for stopping by and as always I would love for you to leave me a comment!
 (It is -17 degrees here today...what is your temp?)

Determination of a child

I sit here today and reflect, it was exactly 365 days ago that our oldest son came to us and suggested a bet. He wanted to challenge himself to walk away from soda pop for one year. He was 14 at the time and our youngest was 9 and quickly decided that he wanted to be apart of this adventure also. So we shook on it knowing how hard this was going to be, thinking that this will not last and that they would be drinking a soda the first time they got around a friend or that they would just lose interest.

The bet: No Soda (of any kind) for 365 days
The Wager: $1 a day for everyday they go without a soda
The Option: They could have a soda at anytime however, the bet would then start on that day so if on day 350 they chose to drink a soda they would forfeit $350 but they could still earn $15 if they made it to the end of the one year mark.

Why the crazy date? Well Mom messed up and didn't know that Sonic's Cherry Limeade drinks have Sprite in them and on January 2, 2013 I stopped and picked them each up one and they drank it also not knowing it contained soda. So to make the 365 days...their date was set for January 3, 2014!

The determination of these two boys has amazed my husband and I. They both found themselves in many situations were soda pop was the only thing to drink. Our oldest encountered this type of thing first when his 8th grade class brought in soda and nothing else to drink. He had loaned out his last dollar a few days before that and the friend had not paid him back yet so he could not go get something to drink from a vending machine, and the party was during school hours so the teacher really didn't want him to keep going out into the hall for drinks because the water fountain was really far away from his class.

Our now 10 year old encountered the same situation at his Holiday party. Here is 23 5th graders sitting around eating pizza and drinking soda and then there was my child who had nothing to drink. They have a water fountain in their room so he just kept getting up and getting drinks. What kid wants water with their pizza?

Now as a kid there is no way I would have been able to do this. I wouldn't have wanted to look different, I wouldn't have wanted to walk away from the fun social conversations that might have been going on just to go drink water.

I have to wonder how these two young men found it in themselves to not quit. At such a young age were they really motivated by the money? I am thinking not since they really don't bring it up a lot. They have an inner-determination that not many young people have and I think that they wanted to see what success felt like. Their sense of accomplishment must be a motivation for them.

I am proud of both of the boys and also in awe of their determination and will!

A new beginning...again!!!

I wonder how many times you can decide that your next task or adventure is really your new beginning...hmmm. Well let's just say we all get one more chance and tonight I am getting mine started! 

I just joined the FREE Ultimate Blog Challenge & got 7 Ways to Get Your Blog in Motionhttp://bit.ly/blogchall #blogboost

For the month of January it is my goal to participate in the blog challenge over at http://ultimateblogchallenge.com

In order to participate you must post something on your blog everyday in the month of January. You must also post a link to facebook and twitter which I have to say I am excited about but also very nervous because I tried to challenge myself to do this on my own in the month of December and looking back I missed several days. OOpps guess it is best to not look back but only forward! You also comment on two other blogs that are participating in the challenge. I am really hoping to get more followers to my blog. 

To help me keep track of my posts I have set up a separate FiloFax (yes I am one of those nerds that loves the paper planners thanks to my big sister who pushed me into trying it). I have even started jotting down ideas for posts that I haven't even begin to write. I am sometimes a procrastinator but more on that later! 

Looking forward to this new challenge and adventure!!!! 

I would love for you to become a follower on my blog!!!

Can't seem to get my room clean...

For some reason when I am working in my scrapbook room...everything comes flying off the shelfs and lands right next to me. Am I the only one who tends to work with piles and piles of stuff around them? It is like my stuff gets lonely and needs to come sit with me like we were old friends.

So disappointed in myself...

So I was doing so well with posting everyday (okay so it was only a few days in a row but that was progress). And then we get a snow day here and I completely forget about posting. But in all fairness, I spent that time with my boys playing in the snow, making hot chocolate, and laughing!

Tuesday Challenges that I have found!

Here is a small list of blog challenges that begin on Tuesdays:

www.twistedtuesdaychallenges.blogspot.com (They post a new challenge every other Tuesday)

www.clearitoutchallenge.blogspot.com (They post challenges on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of the month)

www.365cards.blogspot.com

Can't wait to head over to these sites and see what they have for us to play with!

The weather is going to be a little rough here (gotta love that Ozarks weather) so I am thinking that this weekend will be full of playing around on blog challenges! My DH and boys are planning on watching the big MIZZOU game on Saturday so that means I can hide in my scrapbooking room all day and PLAY!!!!

Thanks for stopping by and as always I would for you to become a follower to my little blog or at the very least leave a comment (those just make my day)!

Monday Challenges I have found

In my quest to start changing some things in my life, I have decided to start participating in some blog challenges. With that being said...there are a ton out there in the world wide web and it appears that there is something out there for everybody! Some challenges begin on Monday and end on Sunday, some are just once a month. Some blog challenges have tons of rules while are others have simple rules to follow. Some blogs just have the rule of "Just have fun" and allow you to create whatever project you feel like making such as cards, scrapbook pages, paper crafts, wood crafts...the possibilities are endless!
With that being said I have complied a small list of blog challenges that I would like to try in the month if December. Now I know that I will not be able to get to every single one this month but won't it be fun to try?

Monday Blog Challenges:

http://www.mojomonday.blogspot.com
www.craftypassionchallenge.blogspot.com
www.craftycardmakers.blogspot.com
www.365cards.blogspot.com
www.alwaysplayingwithpaper.com
www.thepinkelephantchallenge.blogspot.com

I would love to hear of different challenges that you have tried, just leave a comment below so that we can all join in and play!

Thanks for stopping by and as always I would love for you to follow my blog but the very least leave a comment below!

I dare you....no I double dare you!

I cannot believe it is already December 1st. We have been on Thanksgiving break for 5 days now with one more to go and I have to say that it has been so relaxing. 

My mom, sister, brother and myself have been trying to get together at least every other Sunday for craft day. This has taken place at my house so far because everyone seems to laugh because they call my scrapbook room "The Store". 

We have made a paper wreath and last weekend we made or at least attempted to make Christmas cards. The girls have started using FiloFax Day Planners (I do not own the name brand FiloFax but it works just fine without the label). We discuss our schedules and decorate our planners. The four of us have also decided that we will start our own book club so we have began reading 11/22/63 by Stephen King. Our goal is to get through parts 1 and 2 by December 8th and we will meet at a coffee shop and discuss the book. I have to say that I finish both parts and I am dying to get to the next section. This is normally not a book I would have picked up but now that I am into it...WOW!

So with all of that happening I have also decided that I want to get going on my blog. I have had this blog for a few years and if you look around you can see that I have not been really good at posting to it.  I found a challenge blog called The Ultimate Challenge blog at www.ultimateblogchallenge.com and they have quarterly challenges to help get traffic to your blog. The next one is set to start in January!!

So I have decided to challenge myself to see how many posts I can do in December. The Ultimate Challenge blog wants you to post one post a day in January, which for some or maybe most bloggers that won't be too difficult but for me I am hoping that I can get at least one or two posts made each week for the month of December. (I even wrote this in my Day Planner!)

I will start out by entering in a few blog challenges and hope that I can go from 9 followers to 18 followers in the month of December.

Fingers crossed!

Thanks for stopping by and reading my crazy thoughts!