Favorite Finds Friday

  

It's time to gather some of the great posts, ideas, inspiration and crafty goodies I have come across lately.  I am going to be writing up a few of these "Favorite Finds Friday's" ahead of time so even if I fall sick my posts can be scheduled to go live without interruption.  I think I have said that before LOL (BTW I did check and I said it in December).  I know…even I can't believe I spent time checking that out either. 

I have a WIP  (this abbreviation means Work In Progress in case you were wondering) that I am going to share with you next week, but it included making some cards.  I came across this card on Pinterest.  I followed it to the original article and loved it so much I thought I would share it with you. 

This card was made by Jayla from Megastampinstudio.com .  This site still has all its content but has moved to a new domain in 2011 and can now be found Here @ Two Paper Divas  I absolutely love this idea and cannot wait to create a few myself for some of my loved ones.  Jayla gives you a quick few tips on how she made this card. 

Surfing around or in my email, I found this awesome recycling idea that has tons of inspiration bursting from it.  I am hoping that I can make something similar for our back yard this year.

Yesterday while catching up on my blog reading I came across this adorably cute ground-hog stuffy to make from Mollie over at Wild Olive.  It's a simple tutorial and has minimal supplies needed.  Your little ones will adore the cute eyes/expression and it’s a good way to tell the story of ground-hog day.  This cutie is even nice enough to put out for décor in a corner somewhere.  At least I think so.  I love unique conversation starter props.

Myra over at MyBlessedLife posted this amazing looking cookie recipe, and I am making some of these this weekend.  G is skeptical as he is unsure how salt and peanut butter together will taste like.

Me personally?  I don’t really care what it's made out of as long as I like it lol.  Don't get me wrong, I am a pretty picky person.  But I am not often very experimental when it comes to new food.

I think I would like to challenge this about myself this year.  Perhaps I should make one new food a month and try it .. I might just find another family favorite and I will have gently come out of my 'box' to improve Me.  That can't be a bad thing lol

Thank you for stopping by today and I hope you enjoy a couple of my finds this week.  If you find something you like, please let me know in the comments.  I also would love it if you sent me some posts you found fascinating this week.  You just might get a mention and link back to your site or blog or page. 

Keeping it real and another I'm back post

I been gone, been gone so long…

Wow this month sure did throw me for a loop. 

Please note:  There are parts of this post about my health and recovery, please feel free to pass reading that and go to the sixth paragraph down that is bolded and red.

As I mentioned in an (earlier post-put in link), I had surgery in the middle of the month.  After I posted my last post on Friday Jan 3, I got even sicker.  I ended up with at least 3 hernia's that needed to be repaired.  I ended up on bed rest for a bit.  My surgery was actually scheduled for the 15th and not the 18th that I said before.  Everything went well.  He fixed the hernias, and some issues I was having with my bowel.  I did well recovering and didn't have to stay in hospital long.

It was nice to be home and recuperating.  On the following Wednesday, one week after the operation, I went to see my surgeon to have my stitch removed.  When my doctor does any type of abdominal surgery he tends to close it with one running stitch.  It was removed no problem and no pain so that is always a plus in my book! LOL

Went home and took it easy.  I was sitting straight up in bed, just watching tv, when without moving or leaning over I felt something funny at the bottom of my incision.  Well it split a bit so I was now on my bed other than to go potty, or eat, and we thought it would still be able to heal and close without having to take a trip to the emergency.  Slept ok that night but the next day around noon, I felt a bit funny again and realized that I was bleeding quite a bit so I called G and he was still in Toronto and would take 1.5 hours to get home.  So unfortunately I had to call 911 to come and get me.  They were all super nice, nice to see those hunk fire-fighters and EMT in my home.  Some were truly drool worthy LOL

They used a contraption called a "stair chair" and strapped me into it to get me down the front steps and to the stretcher in my driveway.  Note that we had a huge storm and the snow banks were high.  As they got to the driveway my female EMT behind me slipped and fell onto the ground and I flew backwards and fell on her leg on the driveway.  I felt so bad for the EMT I didn't realize that I had actually just split my incision even more, including muscles. 

It didn't take long to figure out that this was a big oops, as I was being quickly prepped for emergency surgery.  It was a new experience for me to be rushed to OR.  Mine are usually planned LOL.  I spent the night in hospital and begged Dr to send me home and I was home by 11 the day after my surgery.

I am still recovering and taking things slow but am well enough to spend a few hours online so I have been working on blog post ideas and still trying to get the new domain all fancied up before I bring you all over there.  I hope your year started off marginally  (I used the wrong word here), exceptionally different than mine did.  Talk about a month lost.  I got nothing on my to do list accomplished yet.  Except in the spirit of keeping it real… I showed you the small dust collection I amass every few days around here.  My house is so far from being the sparkling showcase houses we all drool over in magazines and decorating shows. 

Please subscribe to the blog so you can go along for the ride on my 'real' and not so pretty adventure to make this house a home… my home, including all the dust bunnies.  :)

Kylara's Favorite Finds Friday Feature - Week 1

As I scour around the internet, I always find interesting articles, pictures, products, ideas and so much more.  There are so many amazing things to find online that you could lose many hours a day just looking around.

So I decided to share my favorite finds of the week on Fridays.  Some of the things I find may be new to you, others older, but hopefully each of you will find some of your own favorite finds, and inspiration for you own homes.

I found this post over on Funkytime and really enjoy the concept. She made a Mood Calendar for 2014 , which she offers free for download.  I am trying to figure out a way to personalize this so it would be most effective for my daily life.  I think it would be super interesting to document the mood of the day, and I think it will also be inspiring to be more positive day to day.  The only way one can learn from this type of activity is to be completely honest.  Have you ever done anything like this?  Does it appeal to you?  Are you going to document your moods this year?

Another blog find is The Ultimate Dress Shapes Guide from Enerie.  I found this infographic discussed first on True Blue Me & You blog.  I am not a fashionable person personally.  I would love to dress differently but I usually have hand me downs, and spend a lot of time in pajamas.  I also wear track pants often so that the waistband does not affect my ostomy.  I also was never taught about fashion, rules, and what looks good on me.  I would love to be taught but who really teaches these things and do they cost a gargantuan sum of dough? (wow that word was hard to spell, I am not sure if I have ever used that adjective before LOL  So back to the graphic… I learned a lot from this and hopefully those of you unfashionable ladies will too!

Over on Pinterest I found a great post on 30 best chick flicks of all time on HerCampus.  Not sure if I agree with a couple of them, but for the majority I do agree.  I might have to start a Girls Night, so I have an excuse to do chick flick marathons lol. 

Lately there has been a lot of talk of jealousy and comparison.  Your blog is unique to you, and try not to compare your vision with someone else.  Here is a good article that explains more , Blogging Jealousy at ErinEFlynn's blog.

I hope that you found something here that will teach you, grow you, inspire you in your own endeavours.  Thank you for joining us today for another Favorite Finds Friday.

My Goals for 2014

I have been working on this post for most of the day.  I know that I have thought of a few goals the last few days, but once I sat down and did a bit of research on setting blog goals, it became evident that this was not going to be one of those posts that take an hour to prepare.

Some of my goals are time sensitive, and others are an accumulation of things throughout the year to make up a bigger goal.  I have also added a few of my more personal goals to this list as well.

One of the things I am really struggling with as I prepare my list is if that goal is truly attainable.  Especially with my health always changing.  I am trying so hard to be realistic while still giving myself a push to attain new levels for myself.  I suppose this is a dilemma with a lot of people that write out a set of goals to attain.  Where do you draw the line, what is too much?

Another thing I have noticed while doing my research is that a lot of blog goals are based around the numbers game.  Goals such as 1000 followers a day, 1500 pins of one of your pins etc.  While I would love to be a number goal kinda blog, I just have not been consistent with it and cannot even fathom what type of number goals I should attain.  I think that this year will be the true test.  Where I frequently post quality content.  Then I can give the numbers game a try.  By all means, I am not saying anything against those with number goals, I just am unable to calculate effectively what are reasonable goals as it is like I have completely restarted my blog and am back to square one with some extra traffic being brought in by my 31 day series from 2012.

I am also going to keep my goal list evolving this year if I feel there is another goal I want to meet, or one I want to amend.  I think that as the year progresses I will have other goals that may be important to include.  Okay, I think I have rambled on enough.  Here is a vague sample of my goals for 2014.

Long Term Goals:

• Decorate my bedroom/craft area
• Begin decorating my living room
• Go out at least 2 times a month to a local area to take pictures and learn my camera and more about photography
• Read at least 25 books this year.
• Quit smoking (I quit last year for 3 months with Chantix/Champix)
• Get a blog sponsor
• Complete 10 projects and/or tutorials and post on blog
• Learn more about managing and using social media like twitter, google + and Pinterest to maximize my blog exposure

Short Term Goals:

• End of January
• Have Facebook and business twitter accounts set up
• Look into newsletters
• Learn more about customizing my WordPress template
• Move blog to new domain
• Organize pantry
• End of March
• Completed template customization
• Create a media kit
• Learning about ads and sponsorships
• Write up a newsletter and create a template
• End of June
• Test placement of mail list forms to find out which brings in the most subscribers and keep that one up indefinitely
• Create 1 free e-product
• Learn more about SEO techniques
• Review a product on the blog
• Sell something I have created
• End of Year One
• Create 2 downloadable products

Below I have listed some of the blog goal posts that I used to help me create this list.  Hopefully you can gain some more inspiration for the year ahead like I did.

Five Key Areas To Set Goals For Your Blog - Tribe Bloggers

Blogging - Dreams and Goals for 2013 - The Thinking Closet

Setting Blog Goals & A Free Printable - Snap Creativity

Set Mom Blogging Goals - For Dummies

Evaluate Your Blog Goals For 2013 - Business2Blogger

Blogging Goals (And Why We Need Them) - Essentially Eclectic

Do you keep track of your goals for the year?   Do you write them down and place them somewhere you can see them often?  How do you decide what goals you want to work on?  Please let me know more in the comments below.  I would love to see what you all have planned for 2014.