#s 1-5: Blog Category

Now that it's practically February (who am I kidding, this will be posted in February, even though I'm writing it before then), I really need to get my butt in gear on recapping my 20 in 14 list.  I think it will evolve into a couple of posts that lump some items together by category - because, let's face it, I can't write an entire post about how often I posted last year.  Still, I fear these posts will prove mostly boring, so I hope to spread them out a little, with some fun stuff thrown in the mix.

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I'm definitely a sequential person, so of course I'll be starting with the first category on the list: Blog.

For those who are new here, here's a snapshot of the Blog category.

Blog
1. Write an average of 1x/week (or more!).
2. Practice telling my story in fewer words.
3. Use a real camera (not my phone) more often.
4. Increase readership.
5. Learn more about the bigger picture of blogging.

So, how did I do?  Not too terribly...I don't think anyway.

1. Write an average of 1x/week (or more!).  I actually thought accomplishing this goal would be much more of a stretch than it turned out to be.  Realistically, I thought I would end up with somewhere around 40 posts for the year, but somehow I managed to publish 56 posts.  To be quite honest, I'm pretty proud of myself for that one; in the end, I published more posts in 2014 than any previous year, including my inaugural year (2008).  I think that's pretty great!

2. Practice telling my story in fewer words.  Well, I didn't necessarily ace this one, but I do think I improved in this department.  Throwing more pictures (see #3) into the mix, helped to make things a little more visually appealing, but I probably should have reigned in the word count every once in a while.  Honestly, using lots of words is just who I am.  I'm a girl, girls talk a lot...it's just how life works.  So I'm still a work in progress here.

3. Use a real camera (not my phone) more often.  As it turned out, I ended up having to spend three months using the dumbest phone on the planet, which means my access to a camera phone greatly diminished for a significant period of time.  One would have thought this would do wonders for tackling Goal #3, butttttttt it didn't.  Instead of taking better pictures, I ended up with no pictures (or photos taken on my husband's phone and then sent to myself, lol).   The fact of the matter is that camera phones are just so much faster and more efficient...and taking photos with "real" cameras in public can really draw quite a bit of nerd-like attention to yourself.  I always feel awkward and tourist-y pulling out the digital camera.  In other words, I didn't do so hot on this one.

4. Increase readership.  I don't know how much extra foot traffic I'm getting around here (sometimes more than others, anyway), but I do feel more connected to the blogging community than I ever have before.  I've been reading quite a few more blogs, and reaching out to others more often.  I will say that I have really enjoyed "meeting" others, especially you, Amy and Ace! ;)  If you're new here, leave a comment sometime so I know you've stopped by.  I'd love to meet you!

5.  Learn more about the bigger picture of blogging.  I wrote this goal after receiving a blogging book for Christmas; the book was quite interesting, but I didn't really end up focusing a whole lot of time on actively building my own blog like I thought I would.  It was nice to better understand the inter-workings of it all, but ultimately I want to do this for me, and blogging for "the man" really wouldn't be very fun or authentic.  I still find "bigger picture" to be quite interesting, but I think I'll be staying true to myself rather than making an effort to be someone or something I'm not.

Bonus:  While on the subject, I should also note that the blog underwent a major facelift in 2014.  We went from "Breaking the Mold" to "Here We Geaux," and the entire design/color scheme changed, as well.  (And in case, you were lost in the shuffle, Follow my blog with Bloglovin.)  The changes made things a little fresher around here, and better reflect who I am and what this project has become.  :)

So of course I should be eating words here, per #2, but it is what it is!  Stay tuned, more updates will be coming your way...eventually.  ;)

-Lauren