Blog Move

Photo by Jess Watters on Unsplash, edited with Canva

Hello!

I mentioned on a previous post that I was thinking of changing up my blog...and even though literally no one thought it was a good idea, I did it anyway.

Sorry guys. I have very few vices in life, and apparently this is one of them. 

Anyway, here is my new site. It looks almost exactly the same, because I tried to see if just redesigning P&P would be enough. But it wasn't. And here I am.

Thankfully I was able to really easily transfer over all my content, including comments, so that's pretty awesome. Sticking with Blogger, mainly because it's free. Oh well.

AlwaysBrittany.com

Oddly enough the domain name was free but not the user name...or any variation of it. I'm currently @alwaysbrittanyx on Instagram & Twitter, because an underscore at the end of a username drives me crazy. The only reason I'm really annoyed is because all the accounts with that name variation are inactive...so they aren't available but they aren't in use either. Oh well, the first of first world problems.

Hope to see you there! 

My Blogging Habits: Pines & Palmettos

I feel like I've been blogging pretty consistently lately, and thought I would share some of the tools and habits that have contributed to that consistency.

I shared this in one of my Bullet Journal posts, but I have a calendar with my blogging schedule on it.

In case you haven't noticed, I post on Tuesdays & Thursdays. Twice a week is consistent but not overwhelming, and works better for me.  I once tried to keep up with this through the Google calendar, but I'm an analog girl. I gotta see it all together on paper. This allows me to see if any given Tu/Th has a post scheduled, what that post is about, and with the notation I use also if it has been started, finished, or a topic chosen but the post not started.

It's also helpful because I can keep up with the link-ups and reoccurring topics. This way I can space those between random topics so it's not a bunch of repetitive things bunched together (ie I don't do a Current Thoughts post the last week of one month and the first week of the following month, two weeks consecutively).

Speaking of reoccurring topics, they have been great for keeping me going. 

• Obviously I love the Show Us Your Books link-up, so that's one Tuesday every month that's an easy post I love to do. 
• Current Thoughts was created as a way to talk about what's going on in my life without having to make full-length posts about anything specific.
• I was considering doing something that listed random things I loved, which I basically do with the Add It To My List link-up at the end of the month.
• Words of the Month actually started when I wanted to talk about a specific Bible verse but didn't want to do a random Christianity post (I want to eventually get back into doing my Salvation Sunday series again, where I discuss my faith and Christianity in general, but not quite up to it yet); WotM was a way to ease into that. 
• Three Things...I'm still not sold on it, but I had some random lists and things I wanted to share so I'm giving it a try. 

Together all these things add up to about half my blog posts per month, which takes a lot of pressure off. Blogging is something I enjoy doing, but I can get overwhelmed and these reoccurring topics provide a starting point.

The other thing I keep in my BuJo, besides the blogging calendar, is a list of blogging ideas. 

This comes in super handy when I am having writer's block, because I get ideas at the most random times. I just write down the basic idea and then when I need a topic, I pick one from the list and expand on it.

I do like having images in my posts...but I hate feeling like I have to take pictures out in my real life to perfectly match a post. I've done that and I didn't enjoy it. So I looooove Unsplash because I can guilt-free grab a photo to use and edit without worrying that I will get a lawsuit later.



Once I find an image, I use Canva to edit it. Used to be all about PicMonkey, but they started charging more and one of the updates kept crashing on me and now it's all about Canva. It's super easy to add text and images so I can do it quickly.

Three Things: Blogger Annoyances

Here are three things that drive me absolutely CRAZY when visiting other blogs:

1. Pop-up ads: It is 2018 people! WHY DO YOU STILL DO THIS?!?! Does anyone actually follow you on Pinterest or sign up for an email with that stupid pop-up?! Have a button, sure! But get rid of that freakin' pop-up for the love of all that is holy. 
2. Not replying to comments: I definitely stop following blogs that do not return comments (unless it is like a huge blogger that gets thousands of comments). A FB friend has started blogging and she writes beautifully, but she only talks about her blog on Facebook and does not acknowledge anything that actually HAPPENS ON THE BLOG. Sorry, not wasting my time writing into the void.
3. Linking with a link-up with a post that has NOTHING TO DO with the topic of the link-up. This is a lazy and selfish way to get more clicks, and it's bullshit. 

What are your top blogging annoyances?

Slack Blogger Lately

Hello everyone...in case you haven't noticed, I haven't been blogging that much lately.

The crazy thing is...I have a blog plan! I have ideas. Stuff that I'm actually kind of interested in talking about.

But I'm not doing it. Maybe I'm still not back on schedule from the holidays and crazy weather. Maybe I just don't have quite as much time with my new class (which is fine, but a complete and total shift from the way last semester's class was structured). 

I am not sure. And really I'm not sure why I'm writing this.  It feels like writing about the fact that I'm not writing is...stupid.

But I still exist. Life is going pretty well. Just lost my blogging mojo a bit.

Writing & Stuff

It's been almost 2 weeks since I have written a blog post. I can't blame any one thing, really...I just haven't blogged at all. I have ideas, drafts sitting in Blogger...

Maybe it's because of the presidential election and the racial tension that has finally erupted in my beloved home state- when this much is going on, anything I put here would be either inadequate or just ignoring these major life developments.

Sometimes all I can do is ignore it. That's terrible. It's not fixing the problem. But I don't know what to do. My heart bleeds for so many, for the ridiculous terrible state of our nation. And I can only bleed so much and stay whole. So sometimes I have to be in my personal, day-to-day bubble.

Maybe it's because there has been some schedule changes in my household and it's been hard to carve out time for myself.

Maybe it's because we were actually somewhat social lately so I've been living outside the internet (I know, shocking).

Maybe it's pure laziness. Who knows.

Anyway. I will try to do more stuff around here soon. Hope things are going well and the news isn't making you loose your mind too much.

Going on Maternity Leave

Hello, everyone.

I've had blogs scheduled pretty regularly for several weeks now, since I have been on maternity leave. But honestly I've had practically no comments, so it feels like no one is reading.

I can't be entirely upset- my readership was never super high, and I haven't been promoting this blog or interacting with other bloggers too much.


My maternity leave is flying by faster than I ever thought possible. How cliche, right? But seriously, I am loosing track of time and it really is zooming by.

So I am going to enjoy the last of my leave, and the beginning of summer, and take a break from this blog.

I expect I will pick back up once I return to work- maybe not right away, but once I get caught up. Although I have no idea how long that will be.

Hope you all have a fantastic summer!

Why Am I Not a Writer?

In my little online world, there are several people who are writing books. I blame a lot of this on NaNoWriMo, where people attempt to write a book (or maybe just so many words) within a month. Seeing as how I am a 20something millenial, most of the online friends I have also fall into this camp and have attempted NaNoWriMo.

The premise sounds crazy to me. Almost like a goal immediately doomed to fail from the beginning.

And from what I understand, many do.

That's okay. I think the point of NaNoWriMo is to kickstart something, not necessarily complete it (even though people do, and those people are awesome). Anyone who has even attempted NaNoWriMo is awesome, and certainly a better writer than me because they are trying and actually writing.

I used to love to write.

In elementary school I made up stories all the time- I've found them decades later and been embarrased of the simplistic style and short-sighted views. But still, I was writing. I even wrote poetry when I was in junior high school. Terrible stuff, but I did it.

I had words that had to come out.

In college I turned to blogging. But that has mostly been me-centric. It's about the events that are going on in my life, or the pop culture I'm taking in. Sometimes it has stretched out to be about current events, but overall...it's not stories.

It's still a release. It's still something that, no matter how hard I have to push myself to get started, I breath a sigh of relief and think "Man, I feel so much better" after I do.

There are still words that need to come out.

I think somewhere along the line, I became scared to put myself out there. Not necessarily because someone might think I am a bad writer- that's certainly going to happen.

But because I would fail. Writing seems hard. Writing seems gut-wrenching. And I have a marriage and a family and IRL friends who already think I'm crazy for reading books, much less wanting to write one.

And writing during college? If it wasn't a term paper, I wouldn't have had time.


In a lot of ways, I feel like this is something that I should be attempting. 

I have a lot of the same characteristics as most writers I've heard from- read a lot, wrote as a child, blogger (which is a type of writing, if not the same as writing a novel). The idea sounds like something I would do.

Lately I've almost wanted to attempt it. 

But I don't think I would be serious enough to be worth it. It would take my time away from blogging, and probably from my marriage, and now my baby.

The saddest realization, though, is the knowledge that at some point, I became scared of my imagination.

I couldn't write my life story. That would be entirely too vulnerable.

So if I wrote, it would be something that probably had the same starting point as my life but went in a completely different direction. Something so made up that it couldn't be me- but people usually think it is.

I wouldn't want to have to defend things, or not explore an idea fully because of what so-and-so might think.

At the end of the day, that's why I'm not a writer. Too scared. Too complacent in putting my effort into other things. 

Do you ever look at something and go, why not me?

I'm so...Happy for you [Guest Post]

Megan, or Teh Megan as she is known online, writes at canIdecideanotherday.com.  She thinks that the idea of a good time is eating dessert, riding motorcycles with her boyfriend, and running, sometimes.  She is a mom to 2 fur-babies, which means she always has an excuse to sit on the couch rather than go out.  She spends most of her time worrying about the future and trying to go to Disney World/Land.  Her favorite color is all of them except browns.  She hails from North Carolina, but was displaced by the Navy and ended up in Charleston, SC were she rants about bad drivers and how hot/humid it is.  She's been reading my blog for several years and has said that we should definitely meet in person, if the opportunity ever arises.

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Do you remember in school (any level, we're not picky here) when one of your friends would start dating someone and then disappear off the face of the planet or completely change and you were sad because you missed that person after they left you behind?

Yeah that's been one of my paranoia's for my entire life. Ok, that was a little extreme, but hear me out.

I'm 30. I've never been married (thankfully, because those guys before were duds compared to Teh German). I've never had kids, been pregnant. I never really partied hard.

Some might even call me... boring. and I'm ok with that.  It did make my background investigation way easier.

Here's why: It took me a while to get to really know and love myself, but I knew no matter what, I never wanted to have regrets.  I wanted to learn things from my mistakes, rather than wish I could change things that were unchangeable.

But here's the real problem with all of those lack-of-experience things: I haven't experienced a lot of what many other people experienced so sometimes what other people are experiencing makes me uncomfortable.

I went through a phase where I was jealous of people who were engaged/married/had kids.  Like, super jealous.  Embarrassingly jealous.  I think maybe it's a right of passage for most 20-something females, but the wedding fever?  I had it, I had bad.

Why is any of this relevant to you? Because when I am told a friend is getting married or having a baby, I worry that the person that is my friend will disappear.  Selfish?  You betcha.  Applicable to you?  Yep, because you're here reading this blog.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy for that person, but I'm hesitant-happy.  "What does this mean for me?  What does this mean for our relationship?  Does this mean we are going to be talking about wedding dresses for the foreseeable future?  Oh Lord, what if Friend is going to be a hippy parent with no chemicals and cloth diapers...  What if I can't handle that level of intensity?  Oh God, what if I am one of those parents?!"

See, things can escalate quickly around here. So when Brit announced she was pregnant, I was worried her blog would become a Mommy Blog.  You know them if you've seen one.  Everything about children/babies, best parenting practices, links to websites with diaper and formula ads.  Nothing about anything other than kids.  It's as if this person may not have ever been anything but a parent.

But, everyone needs an outlet.  If Brit had went full time to Mommy Blogging, I may have strayed, I won't lie.  But she didn't.  She continued on with post-to-post operations as almost-normal.  Yes, there were some references to being pregnant, but when your entire being is changing (literally), it is completely reasonable for that person to talk about it.

Why should I sit back and think about me when my friend's life is actually changing?  Of course the person they were is going to change, they are experiencing a life changing event!  Why would I walk away just because they are experiencing something unfamiliar to me?  I wouldn't do that to a face-to-face friend, so why would I desert my online friend?

So here I am.  Admitting my faults and saying that when Brit announced the pregnancy, I was considering tapping out.  Which is way more selfish that just worrying about if my friend is going to change and leave me behind.  It's my job as a friend to keep up.  My life wasn't changing drastically.  I wasn't creating a spawn or committing my life to a single person for the rest of my entire life...

Online friends, real life friends.. no matter.

A relationship is a two way street and sometimes you will have to put in more effort than the other person because that's life.  Maybe one day you'll be the person pulling less weight because your life is changing and the other person takes on your weight until things eventually equal out again.

A real relationship is when you weather the storm together, even if sometimes the storm drastically alters one person's life and leaves the other life relatively unchanged. I can't say I'm a perfect friend.  One might even say I have room for improvement.  But realizing my fault are the first step to becoming a better friend and also, I'm really looking forward to cute baby photos, if Brit decides to post them.

Congrats Brit and Tank on Baby!!
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Aw, Teh Megan! I can 100% relate to this- I've had those exact same fears about friends...and about myself! It can be tough to adapt when relationships change- but thank you for sticking by :)  

And honestly, I'm glad about that hesitation and concern.

 I've spent most of my 20s figuring out who I am and who I want to be...while "Mom" is part of that, I don't want it to overtake my entire personality. So having people in my life (both parents and non-parents)- who remind me that it's not only acceptable but good to retain MY own personality while incorporationg this new one of Mommy is needed and appreciated.  

So yes, Megan, while I plan to cloth diaper...I will try really hard not to be THAT mom ;)

And those last two paragraphs?  

TRUTH. Solid gold truth.

Do Rereads Count?

Since pushing my blog towards a more bookish focus, I've been paying more interest to other book bloggers or BookTubers. And one thing I've noticed in a lot of Wrap-Up videos (where people list the books they've read in the past month/week/etc) is that many people count rereads in their count.

I have never counted rereads when counting how many books I've read in a certain amount of time. What I typically do is finish a book, hopefully remember to add it to Goodreads, and then leave it lying around the house. Before I was preggo, I would reread books lots of time in the bathtub. My husband thinks this is super weird, but it was my relaxing time.

And I didn't like to do it with a new book or library book, because then I'd risk getting water spots on it. I know, a good bibliophile wouldn't treat any books like this...but I do.

Anyway.

My point is that I do have a lot of rereads, but I don't typically count them in a wrap-up after the first time. It feels like cheating. 

But...I think I am about to do it for the first time this month. Mainly because I reread Allegiant and that book is over 500 pages, so it did take some time even though it's a relatively easy book. Although I did feel guilty when I thought about doing that, so I managed to read 2 more books based on embarrassment and also the desire to meet my monthly goal (2.5 books a month to meet a yearly goal of 30).

So my question is- do rereads count? 

Am I just being weird and too strict here? Or do you see my point that once a book is read, it isn't new anymore? Still good, still worth rereading, but not adding to a goal.

Maybe it's the goal aspect of my reading that affects this. Maybe others just read without having that definitive idea of "new" (new to me, of course, old books are sometimes the best books).

Help me out here. 

What do you think?

Domain & Blogging Woes

Y'all, my blogging situation is a hot mess right now. Um, it basically all sucks.

Last year I decided to go to Wordpress.com and host through Bluehost. This year I decided to come back to Blogger (because I thought it would be free and simpler). I decided to just re-purchase my domain name through Bluehost so I didn't have to totally change everything again.

I don't think I can do that...even though I was told I could. Half of my Bluehost account doesn't show up when I try to click into it, their customer service is NOT helpful and basically told me I'm screwed (but they won't refund my money and take back the damn domain either).

So I've paid for a domain that I can't use, even though I called them and told the guy what I wanted (during the refund period) and he supposedly told me how to fix it. Did what he said, then like 2 weeks later (AFTER the refund period) my blog just dissapeared so if you go to www.pinesandpalmettos.com you see a Bluehost message.

I am thinking I will just have to buy a new domain...not sure if I will try to keep it similar to P&P or go with something totally different. But I figured the best plan now would be to buy through Blogger...only when I click "buy domain" nothing happens.

*facepalm*

via GIPHY

I don't know what to do y'all. It's tough to blog when I really don't even feel like hitting publish does anything because people are probably not even seeing my post. So, I will try to do something about all this...but who knows. 2016 is not looking like the year of blogging so far. But hey, it's only January.

Hello Again Blogger

After a lovely year of blogging on a Wordpress.com blog, I am transitioning back to Blogger. I know, that is a ridiculous statement! No one in the blogging world ever does that. But I'm going to.

I loved Wordpress. I really really did. This decision has much more to do with where I am in my life and my relationship with the practice of  blogging, rather than my relationship with Wordpress.com.

I have actually considered giving up blogging all together. I was thinking about just not doing it in 2016. This is partly due to the fact that I just haven't felt like doing it as much lately. Also I can't do it the right way...you know, the kind with the keywords and shares and just...so much crap. I have loved it, at times, but I have been avoiding it more and more lately.

You are probably tired of hearing me talk about how I feel about blogging. And that's okay. I am almost relieved at the idea that no one would read this tiny little part of the blogging world. It's been a hot/cold relationship for the past six years (I think that's how long it's been...). I tried to give it a go with Wordpress and liked it...but it's just too much. It's a cost I can't justify in my life right now, especially when I am not loving it. Last year I was hopeful and interested in blogging and this year...I'm not. I'm glad I tried it, but I want to be generous with myself and allow myself the opportunity to fail.

If I pay the money for Wordpress, I will feel obligated to stick with it. And that can't be what this is about, not anymore. I have a lot of hope for 2016, and I don't want to go into it saddled with this burden of guilt and responsibility attached to blogging.

So hello again, Blogger. It's good to see you old friend.