How to Succeed at Blogging...or How to Not Abandon This Again!

I'm married!!

I guess that was a given considering my last post talked about how I was 3 days away from my wedding day! Now that I've been married for about a month and a half and have begun settling into wifey lifey, I wanted to try reviving this blog and making it even better!

Gratuitous wedding shot c/o Paper Owl Photography!

I think there are three main reasons that I've been having trouble maintaining this blog and not feeling inspired by it:

1. I didn't have a plan for it. As the adage goes- fail to plan, plan to fail. I didn't have any ideas of when to post (I was trying to post every single weekday, even when I was off work!), how far behind I would be, when I would upload pictures, etc. I also think I over complicated things sometimes, but that's another issue I'll work on as I get back into this. 
2. I had a bad location and technique for taking pictures. I took them inside of my office during my lunch break or at my former home (I lived with my parents prior to the wedding) and either used the self timer or tried to do mirror shots. I didn't want anyone to know that I did this, so I would try to sneak taking my pictures, which made them look rushed and kind of terrible, which brings me to number 3...
3. I never edited my pictures and had trouble finding a place to host them. I know that the vast majority of blogs aren't done by professionals who blog full time, but many of them I read have pictures that have been spruced up a bit. There are so many great, free photo editors out there, so I'm going to start experimenting with a little editing to see if that improves the quality of my posts. I'm also going to bite the bullet and either make a public Flickr account to integrate with Blogspot or pay a little bit to host my pictures somewhere.

My husband does know about the blog (in fact, I used his living room, now our living room, as a picture location on at least one occasion), so I may enlist his help in the whole picture taking thing. I may also (gasp) venture outside and take advantage of some natural light from time to time. 

Another way I'm going to be more involved is to participate in a link up next week! Literate & Stylish and The Modern Austen. The challenge starts on Monday, April 29, and it involves incorporating a Pantone-inspired color each day next week in an accessory, item of clothing, or shoes. I'm excited to plan my outfits this weekend!

If you're interested in participating, here's the schedule with the colors:



Let me know if you're participating!