Strength Has No Gender™: Women Can DIY Too

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One of the reasons I started my blog was to inspire women to tackle DIY projects and home renovations. My goal is to show that girls can be fashionable and girly, while getting your hands dirty and building things! I was inspired by many of the other female DIY bloggers that I had followed for a while. When the time came for us to remodel our basement, I had confidence that I could learn to do it!

Not all heroes are a “he.” It's time to recognize courageous, strong, and resilient women and hear their stories. This Women's History Month, tell us the story of your SHEro with #StrengthHasNoGender and encourage a friend to do the same.

2017 Reader's Favorite Posts and 2018 Goals

Happy New Year! Can you believe it is already 2018? This year really flew by for me. It is always fun to reflect and see what all I accomplished over the last year. I am going to recap some of my personal life changes and accomplishments and share my Top 5 Blog posts from 2017, picked by YOU!

Last January, I embarked on a new career path, when I left my corporate job of 16 years and took a job as the Part-Time Office Manager at my church, which meant I also had more time to focus on blogging as well. It has been one of the best decisions I have ever made and the Lord has provided for the lack of income with my blog and other sources of income through side projects. If you want to read more about my decision, I shared about it in THIS POST. Also, on the personal front, my son turned 16 and got his driver's licence, which is the reason for a few more gray hairs. Oh, and we finished a MAJOR basement reno, which we have been working on for over 2 years!

Blogging With Intention - Year End Goal Assessment

I have been sharing my goals with you over the past year and thought it would be good to take a look back and see where I am after twelve months.

Let's Recap!

Letting My Faith Be Bigger Than My Fear - Part 2

You may remember a few months ago I wrote about how I was struggling with what God's plan was for my life.  Well, I wanted to give you an update on what has been going on, along with a couple of big announcements.

Blogging With Intention - Getting Back on Track and Taking Risks

I have been joining with friends over at Sweet Tea, LLC for a monthly link-up where we share our blogging goals, which keeps us accountable to each other. You may noticed I have not been sharing my goals the last few months and it is because I was so busy this summer and did not focus on my blog.  This month I will be catching you up on the things I did accomplish over the last three months and set a plan for what I want to accomplish during the month of September.

Haven 2016 - My First Blogger Conference

I am officially a Haven Maven!  If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen a few of the things I was up to in Atlanta.  So what is Haven, you may ask?  It is a DIY and Design conference for bloggers where you can network, meet with brands, and choose from a plethora (yes, that's a word!) of blogger education sessions.  I probably will not be able to adequately put in to words the amazing time I had, but here goes...

Blogging With Intention - Goal Assessment

I have been joining with friends over at Sweet Tea, LLC for a monthly link-up where we share our blogging goals, which keeps us accountable to each other. This month I will be sharing how things went for  April and set a plan for what I want to accomplish during the month of May. 

The Blogger Tag - Get To Know Me

I usually only post on Monday and Thursday, but I could not resist this fun tag!  I was tagged by my friend Ashley at The Mixed Bag to get a bit more personal, so I am joining the Blogger Tag to share a little more about myself.  I am tagging my friend Jill from Doused in Pink to play long if she would like!

Blogging With Intention - Staying Focused on Your Goals

I have been joining with friends over at Sweet Tea, LLC for a monthly link-up where we share our blogging goals, which keeps us accountable to each other. This month I will be sharing how things went for  March and set a plan for what I want to accomplish during the month of April. 

Blogging With Intention - Goal Check Up

I have been joining some friends over at Sweet Tea, LLC for a monthly link-up where we share our blogging goals, which keeps us accountable to each other.  If you missed my other posts, you can read them HERE and HERE.  This month I will be sharing how things went for  February and set a plan for what I want to accomplish during the month of March. 

Blogging With Intention - Making Progress

Last month, I joined my friend, Kirsten, from Sweet Tea, LLC and some other lovely ladies to share our goals for this year, so we can hold each other accountable.  The first Monday of each month, we will be sharing posts about our successes and failures, so we can encourage each other to accomplish our goals for 2016.  If you missed my first post, you can read it HERE.  This month I will be sharing how things went for January and set a plan for what I want to accomplish during the month of February. 

My Blog Makeover by ALB Designs

You might notice my blog looks a little different these days, thanks to my friend Amanda at ALB Designs!  I connected with Amanda several months ago when I stumbled across her blog, diary of a (semi) health nut, and we instantly became email friends!  Amanda has been a great support and resource to me as I started my blogging journey.  When she recently started her design business, I jumped at the chance to work with her to give my blog a make over.

I had started out using one of the basic themes on Blogger, but I never thought it looked as professional as some of the other blogs I follow.  There were not many font choices by default, so I would use different ones each time, as I tried to find one I liked, so the look of my posts were not consistent.  I also had the generic social media buttons in my side bar, and had been wanting to find custom ones that all matched.

Before and After

Amanda offered to help me create a header and style sheet for my blog to give it a cohesive look, as well as, set my email list up on Mailchimp.  After filling out a short questionnaire on her website, Amanda emailed me a color scheme and some sample headers and fonts to choose from.  I picked turquoise  and yellow because those are two of my favorite colors that I choose frequently in my outfits and for my home.  After selecting one of the styles, she then gave me some additional options for my header, based on the style and font.  Once I decided on a header that I liked, Amanda updated the theme of my blog.

My color scheme

Amanda also updated my social media buttons to match and moved around some of my widgets to make the page flow better.  She also suggested adding page breaks to my posts so more posts would display on a page, which makes the pages look a lot cleaner.  I am so happy with the way my blog looks now!  It is a true reflection of my personality and something I can be proud of.

Head on over to Amanda's page to read more about my blog make over and see how she can help you!  What do you think of my new look?

Blogging With Intention - Setting Goals

A new year always comes with New Year's resolutions and a list of goals to achieve in the upcoming year.  I am joining my blogger friend, Kirsten, from Sweet Tea, LLC in her monthly goal-setting and accountability link up.  Being a new blogger, I struggle with many things, including coming up with quality posts, finding time to write posts, and promoting my blog, just to start.  I feel that setting small monthly goals for myself will help me focus on one area at a time, so I will not feel so overwhelmed.